Raining outside. Again. First up on the film schedule tonight was …
The Counterfeiters (Grade: A): Truly one of the strongest films at the 2007 VIFF. Telling the true story of a disparate group of imprisoned artists, financiers and master forger / counterfeiters secretly assembled in a Nazi concentration camp to forge millions of pound and dollar notes to support the German war effort, Stefan Ruzowitzky’s tense, award-winning WWII story of survival and martyrdom offers testament, once again, to the strength of German filmmaking on the world scene, and serves to remind us too of the inhumanity of the German nation state in the 1930s and early 1940s. The Counterfeiters plays again Tuesday, October 9th at 2 p.m. at the Granville 7, and Wednesday, October 10th at 7 p.m. at The Ridge.
And for the second part of Monday night’s double bill …
London to Brighton (Grade: A-): Ordinarily VanRamblings’ memory is pretty good, but somehow we walked into this film thinking it was a gritty, British caper crime drama, sorta like Layer Cake. And we were wrong, way wrong. Instead what London to Brighton offers is a terrifyingly accomplished cinematic roller-coaster ride in which the lives of an abandoned 11-year-old street kid (played with devastating force by newcomer Georgia Groome, in a frighteningly tragic début performance) and Kelly (Lorraine Stanley), a tough Cockney hooker with a swollen left eye, are in peril and on the line.
A big hit in Great Britain, but with no distributor in North America, either you set about to catch the next screening of London to Brighton on Wednesday, October 3rd, 4 p.m. at the Granville 7, or at 7 o’ clock next Monday, October 8th at The Ridge or you’ll miss it, and won’t even be afforded an opportunity to watch it on DVD. Which even if you don’t realize it now, would represent a loss of relatively significant proportion for you. Almost needless to say, this is yet another must-see at the 2007 VIFF.

The rains continued to pour down throughout the day, the only respite a few stolen hours inside a darkened movie theatre watching independent, foreign and documentary film that, in all likelihood, will never find its way back to our sodden west coast shores. And, it was ever thus. The talk in the early part of the day was of Telefilm Canada, the idealist versus the pragmatic argument: can't Canada produce better films, says one, while the other replies: Telefilm Canada exists to provide an opportunity for novices in the filmmaking industry to gain experience. Still, the question remains: Can't Canada make better films, films which reflect who we are and present Canadians to the world in a way that expresses our distinct culture?

The first film of the day, on a soggy Sunday morning, was …

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Grade: A): Downbeat, harrowing at times, with an unforgiving strain of melancholy throughout, director Cristian Mungiu sets his Romanian tale of an unwanted pregnancy in 1987 Bucharest, employing a handheld dogme filmic style to track Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and her friend, Găbiţa (Laura Vasiliu) through the arrangements the two make for a black market abortion. Minimalist filmmaking, with extended tracking shots that serve to explore the discomfort of the protagonists, however difficult 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days may be to watch, there is no question that this is tour-de-force filmmaking. Screening again Monday, October 8th at 7 p.m., and Thursday, October 11th at 4 p.m., once again this is must-see 2007 VIFF film fare.

Taking a midday break and a journey home, VanRamblings returned to the Festival wars at 3:30 p.m. for a screening of …

For the Bible Tells Me So (Grade: B+): A conventional documentary that has something of importance to say, that presents its arguments against intolerance in a reasonable and sincere manner, without seeming to hector you, or lecture you … just good old-fashioned advocacy filmmaking. As Justin Chang writes in his Variety review, "Filmmaker Daniel Karslake lobs a grenade into the culture wars with his heartfelt, provocative and unabashedly polemical For the Bible Tells Me So, which examines the intersection of homosexuality and religion …" Another 2007 VIFF must-see.

Bookending the day was the Cannes winner for Best Actress …

Secret Sunshine (Grade: B): The story of a distraught mother who, first, loses her husband, and then her son, there was something unsettling and threateningly magical realist about this story of loss and salvation gone wrong. Intriguing and compelling to watch, yet somehow distant and dramatically unsatisfying, there's no question Jeon Do-yeon gives a startlingly vivid performance as a woman coming to terms with unfathomable family tragedy, and for that alone this film is worth catching.

VanRamblings will slow posting throughout the week (actual "being at the office" work beckons), yet we'll attempt to post sporadically. For the next couple of days, this is what is on our film schedule radar …

On Monday …

The Counterfeiters, and the raucous London to Brighton.

And, on Tuesday …

Iska's Journey, which Variety reviews here. And, in the late evening …

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which is reviewed by Variety here.

As the weather office had been promising all week, on Saturday the rains finally came, the sort of chill, damp mid-November autumn day that arrives much too early this year.
Given that Sunday will mean an early morning for the 10 a.m. screening of the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, VanRamblings took the early morning hours on Saturday to spend an extra few minutes in bed, planning the day’s film activities. Bundled up in the appropriate rain gear, VanRamblings headed downtown shortly after 2 p.m. to line up for tickets for the 3:30 screening of the Sundance Jury documentary winner …
Manda Bala (Grade: B+): Director Jason Kohn’s vivid portrait of corruption, crime, fear and anomie in modern-day Brazil, where the very act of getting up in the morning is fraught with the prospect of one’s imminent death, Manda Bala is gruesome at times (VanRamblings turned our eyes away during the ear reconstruction scenes), yet ultimately hopeful in tone and possessed of an insight into a Brazil that few of us in the northern hemisphere are even remotely aware of. Another must-see at the 2007 VIFF, Manda Bala screens again next Friday, October 5th at 4:15 p.m.
Although VanRamblings would have preferred to stay to listen to the post-screening questions the audience would place to Jason Kohn, who was in attendance at the screening, that darn pass line-up line outside the Granville 7 beckoned — either passholders get in line by 5 p.m. to pick up their evening tickets, or chances are they won’t see the films on their schedule. VanRamblings waited on damp, dreary rain-slicked Granville Street til 5:30 p.m., when we picked up our evening passes for …
You, The Living (Grade: C-): Although director Roy Andersson picked up the Jury Prize at Cannes, in 2002, for Songs From The Second Floor, his latest — Sweden’s entry in the 2007 Oscar derby — is utterly pointless film fare. Surprisingly, Jason Anderson in Eye Weekly gave You, The Living five stars when it played at the Toronto Film Festival, calling it “austere, ingenious, hilarious, romantic, hopeful and dyspeptic”. One is left only to wonder what drugs Mr. Anderson took the day he screened You, The Living, because for VanRamblings this film was an unwatchable, pretentious, uninvolving waste of 92 minutes (witness the numerous walk-outs).
The find of the day, though, the real Saturday stand-out was …
Beaufort (Grade: A-): Sparse but powerful, Beaufort recounts Israel’s evacuation of the Southern Lebanese mountaintop fortress of the title, in 2000. Telling the personal stories of a group of young soldiers held hostage in a vast labyrinth of concrete tunnels and bunkers while attempting to defend Israel’s interests, stationed within an inhospitable Lebanon and under constant attack by the deadly forces of the Hezbollah, director Joseph Cedar’s bleak, emotional film may not break any new ground when it comes to filming the drama of war, but that doesn’t make Beaufort any less compelling. Another must-see at the 2007 Vancouver Film Festival.

Nine films screened by VanRamblings in the first two days of the 2007 VIFF, and six of those films proved to be outstanding. At this juncture it must be said: this is a fucking great Festival, one of the strongest in years.
The first film on Friday was one of the most hotly anticipated documentaries of the year, and a certain Oscar contender come years’ end:

My Kid Could Paint That (Grade: A-): With 4-year-old Marla Olmstead an absolutely engaging presence at the centre of, but oblivious to, the maelstrom of activity involving questions as to the veracity of her talent for painting vibrant, ethereal abstracts, during the compact 81-minute running time of producer-director Amir Bar-Lev’s thought-provoking film, the viewer is taken on a roller coaster ride the likes of which you’re unlikely to experience in the cinema anywhere outside a screening of this film, this year. Marla’s embattled dental assistant mother, Laura, comes across as the single most sympathetic, articulate, bright, strong and caring person you’re likely to see on film this year. Rotten Tomatoes scores this film at 100%, and deservedly so. Screening again next Friday, October 4th at 6:20 p.m. at the Granville 7, and at 4 p.m. the following Thursday, October 11th at 3 p.m. this is one film you don’t want to miss. Another must-see at the 2007 VIFF.
Next up on the day’s film journey …
7 Years (Grade B-): The second sub-par film in the Spotlight on France film series, 7 ans is a kitchen sink drama which relates the somewhat perverse story of a young woman who, in the course of visiting her husband in jail, comes to have an affair with one of her husband’s keepers. Gritty and real, yet dramatically unsatisfying, 7 years offers low-budget, hardscrabble cable fare which manages only to be sporadically involving.
Taking a break in the afternoon to enjoy unseasonably warm and sunny weather, it was back to the Granville 7 at 6:20 p.m. for a screening of …

Caramel (Grade: A-): Along with Shotgun Stories, this Lebanese film may very well be VanRamblings’ favourite film thus far at the 2007 VIFF. Early Almodóvar in style and presentation, Caramel will likely emerge as the most accomplished film to screen at the this year’s fest. Written, directed and starring the stunningly beautiful and talented Nadine Labaki, the film emerged as a big hit at Cannes this year. In the early going Caramel would have to be considered the odds-on favourite for a 2007 Best Foreign Film Oscar. Sun-drenched and absolutely lovely in its evocation of modern-day Lebanon (a revelation all on its own), Caramel harkens back to the country when it was considered to be the Paris of the Middle East. Every frame of this picture is painterly, and every line of dialogue and every performance is little short of revelatory. And, yet, this is “only” a picture about five women who operate a beauty salon in Beirut. Obviously, it is about so much more, and so much so that you’ll want to make sure that you skip work on Monday afternoon, October 1st at 2 p.m. to catch the final screening of this absolutely wonderful film.
As the final film for the 2nd day of the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival, Mr. Shayne, music aficionado that he is, insisted on …
Control (Grade: A-): Joy Division were the link between the Beatles and Nirvana, a Manchester-based band that pioneered the post-punk sound of the late 70s. In this revelatory adaptation of Debbie Curtis’ chronicling of the era and first-hand account of the life and death of her husband / lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis — adapted from her recently-published in-depth biographical account, titled Touching From a Distance — director / chronicler of the era, Anton Corbijn’s stunning high-contrast monochrome movie played to appreciative, jam-packed Friday night houses in both the Granville 3 and 4, where the audience was kept in rapt attention by a film that was all at once somber, sad and compelling. Another 2007 must-see.