VanRamblings is concerned about the fragility of our emotional state.
Since taking in an early Saturday morning screening of Álex de la Iglesia’s treatise, As Luck Would Have It, we have felt emotionally wrung out, fragile, and have in the days since wondered if we will make it through til Festival’s end, on Friday. That As Luck Would Have It addresses a core belief we have long held respecting the dynamic of women’s impact on the lives of men, and that VanRamblings had never seen this core philosophy expressed on screen before was for us, overwhelming & profound, the truest expression, and capturing, of love that VanRamblings has ever seen on film.
On Monday afternoon, still recovering from As Luck Would Have It, not to mention Monday morning’s screening of certain Best Picture Oscar nominee, The Angels’ Share in Theatre 7, as we were thanking her for her kindness to us throughout the Festival, we broke down and cried. Too many films, too many tears over too many days, too little sleep?
Whatever the circumstance, we will carry on, while remaining grateful for the support of Festival staff, volunteers and patrons — our Festival family.
As Luck Would Have It (Grade: A+): There is no movie we have found more deeply affecting than Álex de la Iglesia’s at all times wondrous new film. A very dark comedy that simply teems with life, the most well-conceived and executed picture that has played the Festival, the single most heart-wrenching family drama that has played the Festival year, as I wrote to my friend Michael Klassen after Saturday morning’s screening …
This morning, I saw Álex de la Iglesia’s new film, As Luck Would Have It, starring Salma Hayek in a role that provides her with the opportunity to turn in the best performance of her career. A story about economic dislocation, and the love that the husband and wife in the film have for one another and how that love defines their lives and informs all decisions that are made for their family, had me on the floor. Although I’ve seen some very affecting films at VIFF, on Saturday morning at the screening of As Luck Would Have It, about two-thirds of the way through the film, during a conversation Salma Hayek was having with José Mota, who plays her husband, I completely lost it … I sobbed uncontrollably, I had a hard time catching my breath, I thought I was going to have to run from the theatre and collapse in some dark corner … I heaved heavy sobs for 15-minutes before pulling myself together enough to make it through the remainder of the film. That a film can speak to someone, as As Luck Would Have It has resonated with me, simply reinforces for me the power of the image to transform.
Of the more than 80 films VanRamblings has seen to date at VIFF2012, As Luck Would Have It has emerged as our very favourite film.
And more from the same e-mail to Michael, on the VIFF animated film, Ernest and Célestine (Grade: A): …
I also caught a screening of the French animated film, Ernest et Célestine, which also proved both powerful and affecting. You would like this film because of your love for Sophie. In many films at VIFF this year, relations between children and their parents have resonated deeply with me … Ernest et Célestine is very much a father-daughter story, I believe. I love the way Célestine treats Ernest, just like Megan used to, and still does, as she helps to keep me on the right path … our daughters, just like our wives, always have our best interests at heart, their honesty and their love in their relations with us, as well as their insistence that we always be our best selves, becomes for us in our lives a defining and abiding characteristic of both the love we hold in our hearts for our children and our spouses, and they for us.
We have had a wrenching few days at VIFF, finding the following two films, moving, deeply affecting and humane …
- Revolution (Grade: A): A recently released United Nations report states that should world powers fail to address the issue of the acidification of our oceans, seas, lakes and other water bodies, by the year 2048, the lack of government action on the matter will result in the extinction of all sea life, vanishing from the earth forever. Employing the most moving, non-didactic, wildly entertaining and humane means possible, filmmaker Rob Stewart has turned in a mighty doc, one that should be seen by everyone. There’s one more screening tomorrow, Wednesday, October 10th at 1:30pm at the Vancity Theatre. Revolution is, quite simply, a must-see documentary.
- Rose (Grade: B+): Wojtek Smarzowski’s new film offers a searing indictment of rape as a victor’s reparation of war, and an indictment of post WWII Russian soldiers as a monstrous force of evil. Set in Masuria, a lake region bordering East Prussia and Poland that after WWII was turned over to the Soviet Union, Rose offers a story of place, time, people and history in an epic tale of an historic tragedy. Another must-see. Screens for a final time, Wed., Oct. 10, 7pm, Gr7.
Tuesday’s must-see VIFF films include: First thing in the morning, there’s Beyond the Hills, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s follow-up to his award-winning “race-against-the-calendar abortion thriller 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days; next, Hemel offers a twisted story about love, lust and erotic fixation, Sacha Polak’s weirdly beautiful, graphic and tender début feature both compulsive and transgressive. Hemel was one of the buzz films coming into VIFF2012. Screens for the first time today, Oct 9, 2pm, Gr2, and again on Thursday, 11am, at the Vancity Theatre, on Seymour.
The other must-see VIFF films on this Tuesday are: VanRamblings favourite romance, the at all times wonderful When The Night, a film we love and about which we have heard only praise from those who’ve attended screenings of When The Night, earlier in the Festival. And, finally, on Tuesday, Bay of All Saints, by far our very favourite documentary film at VIFF2012, screens for a final time today, at 3:30pm, Gr6.
As we wrote yesterday, based on buzz and the insistence by VIFF patrons that VanRamblings must attend, tonight we’ll be taking in a screening of what has become Week 2’s buzziest film, Come As You Are.
