Murmur of the Hearts (Grade: A+): A fable given over to exposition tempered by forays into the realm of magical realism, elegiac, a film that adopts time not just as an elastic concept but with a spiritual sense previously unexplored in the cinematic realm, gifted with gorgeously lustrous and moodily hypnotic cinematography, utterly sublime and original, epic and tour-de-force filmmaking of the first order, quietly introspective, subtle, moving, whimsical, enchanting, resonant, ethereal, wildly and sensuously ambitious, poignant, mesmerizing, rapturous, poetic and surprisingly affecting, the memories of the film’s four protagonists woven into the most lyrically beautiful film you’ll see this or any other year. The 34th Vancouver International Film Festival’s one must, must, must-see. Two upcoming must-see VIFF screenings: on Sunday, October 4th, at 8:30pm at Cineplex International Village, in Cinema 9; and on Wednesday, October 7th at 4:15pm, at Cineplex International Village, in Cinema 10.
Brooklyn | Dir. John Crowley | Saoirse Ronan | 105 min. | Mon., Oct. 5, 12:30pm, The Centre
Brooklyn (Grade: A): Everything you’ve heard about Brooklyn is true: Saoirse Ronan will emerge as Best Actress at the 88th Academy Awards ceremony on February 28th, 2016, Brooklyn will win the Best Picture Oscar (and a well-deserved win it will be, too), and when you take in the final VIFF screening of Brooklyn this coming week, you’ll be glad you did, you’ll cry your eyes out from beginning to end (not to worry, there are humorous bits, as well), and you’ll leave Cineplex’s Tinseltown Cinema 10 knowing that you’ve just seen the most powerful film to reach our shores in 2015. Final VIFF 2015 screening: Monday, October 5th, at 12:30pm, in The Centre.
Note should be made that there is immense positive buzz from VIFF passholders and patrons about the following must-see films …
- Sparrows. Tonight, at 9:15pm, Cineplex International Village, Cinema 10; and Thursday, October 8th, at 2:30pm in the Vancity Theatre;
- Accused. On Friday, October 9th at 6pm, at The Cinematheque;
- Magallanes. On Tuesday, October 6th, at 3:30pm, Cineplex Cinema 9;
- Marshland. On Monday, October 5th at 6pm, in the Rio Theatre; and
- James White. On Friday, October 9th, 1:30pm, at SFU Woodwards
Not to mention, this upcoming week there are three must-see screenings of VanRamblings’ favourite documentary, Albert Maysles’ final film, In Transit, and the incredibly wonderful Quebeçois film, Ville-Marie, and the deeply affecting and entirely wondrous Iranian documentary, No Land’s Song, all of which we wrote about last Sunday; and then there’s VIFF Director of Programming Alan Franey’s favourites, which we wrote about earlier (scroll down the page — it’s a pretty skookum list of can’t miss VIFF films).
