AtTheCinema

MIFF Reveals Its 2013 Next Gen Program

Julian Buckeridge — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:38:57 +0000

The Melbourne International Film Festival has revealed the lineup for this year’s Next Gen program – featuring entertaining and challenging cinema aimed at a younger audience. Highlights include I Declare War, the Audience Award recipient at Fantastic Fest; Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet’s Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang; Sundance Film Festival-selected Valentine Road; Sydney Film Festival picks Approved for Adoption, Touch of the Light, and What Richard Did, as well as other animated features The Day of the Crows and Moon Man, and the Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, Blackbird.

This is another excellent Next Gen lineup, with a wealth of options available to schools, families and community groups. The Melbourne International Film Festival takes place between the 25th of July and the 11th of August, and you can read the full Next Gen program below!

What do you think of the Next Gen lineup?

Sunday Classics: ‘Gattaca’

Sarah Ward — Sun, 12 May 2013 06:45:42 +0000

Procreation is a popular cinematic subject, informing all manner of inane comedies about the desire for and perils of parenthood. Spanning a variety of efforts perhaps best characterised as the good (Knocked Up), the bad (What to Expect When You’re Expecting), and the ugly (Motherhood) of the genre, there seems to be no end to the attempted cultivation of laughs at the expense of all elements of reproduction.

Yet hidden behind the sex jokes and nappy gags lurks a serious side to the propagation of the human species, less often explored by the filmmaking fraternity. Delving beyond the humour to explore the reality of unwanted offspring, Andrew Niccol’s 1997 film Gattaca examines the foundation of family in an atypically dystopian fashion.

Set in the not too distant future, Gattaca tells of a world in which procreation has been reduced to a science. Rather than take their chances with the genetic lottery that comes with traditional methods of conception, prudent couples instead consult medical professionals to create offspring composed of the very best parts. As a result of the prolific use of such unnatural selection, discrimination runs rampant. Preferential treatment based on genetics has replaced racism and sexism as the primary forms of exclusion, favouring the vitros / valids / made men against the uteros / invalids / faith births.

For those unlucky enough to have been created through the intimate act of love rather than the clinical test tube technique, society is far less kind. Destined to become cleaners rather than astronauts, suspected of being murderers rather than bystanders, and declared worthless beyond a pre-determined (at birth) use-by date rather than given a lifetime to reach their possible potential, they form the new underclass in a global community ruled by blood.

Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke, Before Sunrise) is one of the many citizens classed as “invalid”, with an unacceptable likelihood of heart failure touted as the reason for his inferiority. Daring to dream beyond the confines of his allocated station, he subverts societal norms to become a navigator at the prestigious Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. Assuming the existence of the “valid” but wheelchair-bound Jerome Morrow (Jude Law, Wilde) with the utmost dedication, Vincent excels as only he believed he could. Selected to lead the next manned mission to Titan, his dream of leaving the injustice of earth behind appears in his grasp until the director meets an untimely end.

With police investigators (Grosse Point Blank‘s Alan Arkin and Enemy of the State‘s Loren Dean) scouring the Gattaca compound for any trace of one unworthy of its status, only the DNA in stray skin cells or rogue hairs could betray his real identity. As he forms a romantic alliance with co-worker Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman, The Truth About Cats and Dogs) – Gattaca’s liaison with law enforcement – Vincent’s manufactured reality stands on the precipice of exposure courtesy of limits of his genetic disguise.

In his debut film as both a writer and director, Niccol’s bleak vision of the future of procreation provides a cautionary tale for an age increasingly obsessed with advancements in biotechnology. Bearing greater resonance after multiple viewings and increased significance in a more modern context, the intelligent sci-fi effort combines the fears and facts of eugenics as it unravels the components of a complex moral problem.

Poetic and lyrical yet provocative and insightful, Gattaca makes a measured statement on the impact of labels and the deception of appearances whilst pondering nature versus design and control versus fate, demonstrating each with apt shades of beauty and sadness. Boasting understated performances (with Hawke at his finest, Law perfectly petulant and Thurman suitably subtle), restrained direction (unable to be matched by the helmer in subsequent films S1m0ne, Lord Of War, In Time and The Host) and a majestic score (composed by The Piano‘s Michael Nyman), the fluidly futuristic, aesthetically intricate, symmetrically stylised and darkly comic fable succeeds as an evocative and engaging thriller as well as a tragic and timely social commentary.

Sydney Film Festival 2013: The Entire Program

Julian Buckeridge — Wed, 08 May 2013 03:50:47 +0000

It’s finally upon us! The Sydney Film Festival has launched its 2013 program and it is packed with some terrific gems! From the 5th to the 16th of June, audiences can look forward to new films from Nicolas Winding Refn, Asghar Farhadi, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Michael Winterbottom, and many others. There is also plenty of Australian talent on offer, including Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road, which opens the festival, and Kim Mordaunt’s The Rocket, which is taking part in the Official Competition. As well as this, SFF is offering a British Noir retrospective, as well as a focus on Austrian film.

To celebrate the launch, we have the entire festival programme listed below. We have provided the directors and country for every feature film at the festival and also list out the short film programs. While the list may seem overwhelming at the moment, we will be trickling out previews of each section – including our picks – before the festival to help you out.

OPENING NIGHT FILM
Mystery Road | dir. Ivan Sen | AUS

CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Twenty Feet from Stardom | dir. Morgan Neville | USA

THE BOX SET
Burning Bush (Hořící keř) | dir. Agnieszka Holland | CZE/POL
Penance (Shokuzai) | dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa | JPN

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY SPECIAL SCREENING
Monsters University | dir. Dan Scanlon | USA

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Thoughts?

Sunday Classics: ‘The Singing Detective’

Sarah Ward — Sun, 05 May 2013 04:59:11 +0000

Before Robert Downey Jr. became everyone’s favourite fast-talking superhero (as seen in Iron Man, its sequels, The Avengers and affiliated franchise efforts), or the similarly wise-cracking big-screen incarnation of the most famous literary sleuth (in Sherlock Holmes and A Game of Shadows), he made his slow climb back from the ashes of a ruined career via more eclectic works. 2005’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang may be the role forever recognised as the spark that reignited Hollywood’s appreciation of the troubled actor, however his first big splash in his second stab at stardom came two years earlier, in the not dissimilar but often overlooked The Singing Detective.

With its deeply dark noir style wrapped in a cavalcade of 1950’s bubblegum pop tunes, Keith Gordon’s (Waking the Dead) reincarnation of The Singing Detective provided Downey Jr. with a true showcase part, affording the thespian the opportunity to display the extent of his delightful and dexterous talents. In a diverse yet engaging journey through factual and fictional worlds, the accomplished star offers grace, style and the requisite impertinent attitude in the complex leading role, enlivening a unique and original tale based on writer Dennis Potter’s (Gorky Park) own experiences with psoriasis, as originally filmed by Jon Amiel (Sommersby) in 1986 as a television mini-series.

An author of pulpy crime stories about “a gumshoe who warbles”, Dan Dark (Downey Jr., Wonder Boys) is plagued by an inexplicably painful and unsightly skin condition, confined to bed rest and plied with medication to counter the symptoms. In his many prone hours, he reclines into the recesses of his overactive mind as a means of escape; a place where noir meets musical, and fears, insecurities and troubled memories swell and swirl, all unfolding amongst the deeply-embedded fictional world of his detective novels.

Alas, the colourful dreams begin to manifest in Dan’s waking life, to the point where he is unable to tell fact from fiction or reality from delusion. Though supported by his estranged wife Nicola (Robin Wright, White Oleander), analysed by psychotherapist Dr Gibbon (Mel Gibson, Signs), and tended to by young Nurse Mills (Katie Holmes, Phone Booth), Dan’s condition turns him against everything in the outside world. Only his interior fantasies – of femme fatales (Wright again, and Spy Kids’ Carla Gugino), mysterious strangers (Cypher’s Jeremy Northam, in three roles), and two-bit gangsters (The Pianist’s Adrien Brody and The Man Who Wasn’t There’s Jon Polito), all embroiled in dazzling musical numbers – provides any solace from his physical agony.

The Singing Detective impressionistically charts Dan’s experiences, as he traverses the void between his conflicting mindsets, struggling to overcome his disease and retain his sanity. A creative, imaginative and inventive film results from such an intriguing concept and content, even as it remains familiar from the original mini-series. Though the idea of combining film noir with musical fantasy sequences varies in effectiveness, it offers a useful device to visually convey the inner workings of Dan’s mind. A clever contrast exists between the hybrid of genres, with the juxtaposition amply mined.

Production values remain uniformly excellent, as does the standard of stand-out performances; however it is within the clever, tragi-comic script that the feature and its star truly shines. As masterfully adapted for the screen by Potter, the story drips with sharp, witty dialogue even in its briefer form, teeming with the type of black comedy that not only emboldens the off-beat premise, but best suits Downey Jr.’s inimitable ways with smart, fast and playfully self-referential lines.

Accordingly, in its marriage of mania and melodrama, The Singing Detective does not underestimate its audience, instead asking viewers to take a leap of faith with its innovative style. Those accepting will find much to enjoy, as the film embraces its difference whole-heartedly. Though many of the musical scenes exist primarily for the sake of a spectacle, everything is justified through the feature’s central narrative device.

As a result, as driven by Downey Jr.’s true comeback performance, The Singing Detective simultaneously offers mystery and intrigue, song and dance, and insightful character exploration, entertaining as it takes an erratic but affecting journey through the thoughts, fears, and reality of a paranoid mind.

Our Picks for Major Australian Film Festivals in 2013: Part 3

Julian Buckeridge — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:33:06 +0000

The Sydney Film Festival is only a few days away from unveiling its entire festival line-up after revealing 27 titles last month. We here at AtTheCinema have compiled a new list of completed films we believe are likely to play at a major Australian film festival this year. We’ve left out the certainties, such as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, and Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, instead looking at some less obvious titles.

Following on from Part One and Part Two in April, we are happy to present Part Three of our picks:

Breathe In | dir. Drake Doremus
After taking out the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival with Like Crazy, Doremus returned to the festival this year with Breathe In, featuring an impressive cast that includes Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan, and Kyle MacLachlan(!). While some were let down by contrivances in the script about a discontent man struggling to live in the present, many have praised both Pearce and Ryan for their outstanding performances. This looks to be another solid effort from Doremus, and one to look out for.

Downloaded | dir. Alex Winter
Australian festivals love a good music documentary, and this one has been on the radar for some time. Exploring the downloading revolution within the context of Napster and how it impacted the world at large, this VH1 Rock Docs production from Bill and Ted’s Bill focuses on a fascinating concept and is winning plaudits for its timeliness. This is an almost definite choice to play at the major Australian festivals.

Greetings From Tim Buckley | dir. Daniel Algrant
It’s probably not going to be the best Jeff Buckley biopic in the next few years, and many will find Penn Badgley an odd choice to play the singer, but this seems a certainty to screen in Australia after selections at Toronto and Tribeca. Tracking both father and son prior to the 1991 tribute concert, the film is a simplistic but honest look at two men who died too young.

Grigris | dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Grigris follows a 25 year old who dreams of becoming a dancer but must put it on hold to help his critically ill uncle. Despite a paralyzed leg, Grigris takes up work for petrol traffickers. It might seem early to predict this, but a Cannes 2013 selection from Chad is just what Australian festivals would want up their sleeve.

The Attack (L’attentat) | dir. Ziad Doueiri
A gripping co-production set around a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, The Attack ponders what it’s like to discover that someone you thought you knew inside-and-out is a completely different person. A sensitive film without political agenda, the film depicts a society filled with a flurry of motivations, and looks to be an engrossing tale.

Monsoon Shootout | dir. Amit Kumar
A midnight screening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the film employs a three-scenario narrative – ala Run Lola Run and Blind Chance – that launches from a rookie Indian police officer cornering a suspected gangster in a dead-end and debating whether or not to shoot. An intriguing feature from the Indian subcontinent.

Pluto (Myungwangsung) | dir. Shin Suwon
An insider’s look at an elite Korean prep school, this chilling feature generated plenty of interest at the 2012 Busan International Film Festival, and looks a worthy selection for Australian festivals – particularly after last year’s King of Pigs.

Thanks for Sharing | dir. Stuart Blumberg
After writing the scripts for Keeping the Faith, The Girl Next Door, and The Kids Are All Right, Blumberg finally steps into the director’s chair for the dramatic comedy Thanks for Sharing, which follows a trio of sex addicts undergoing a twelve-step program. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Josh Gad and Tim Robbins, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Pink, viewers have called the film charming and sweet, and have praised Blumberg’s smart script. This could be an audience favourite.

Touch of the Light (Ni guang fei xiang) | dir. Rong-ji Chang
Selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, Touch of the Light was created by Wong Kar-wai’s production company and took home Busan’s Audience Award, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize at the Golden Horse Film Festival. Following the experiences of a blind piano prodigy (Huang Yu-Siang playing himself), this looks to be a touching film just right for festival audiences.

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear | dir. Denis Côté
Denis Côté’s newest feature is a strange and offbeat effort generating a lot of different reactions. The film premiered at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival where it took out the Alfred Bauer Award, and the Canadian drama following lesbian lovers and former convicts struggling to deal with domestic life is a highly original follow-up to last year’s Bestiaire.

The Way, Way Back | dir. Jim Rash, Nat Faxon
We love Dean Pelton on Community, so it’s nice to see Jim Rash directing an independent drama-comedy alongside his Descendants co-writer, Nat Faxon. Starring Steve Carell, AnnaSophia Robb, Toni Collette, Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell, the film debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is the perfect coming-of-age dramedy that Australian festivals look for. Pop pop?

That is our third lot of picks. Have we missed anything across our three pieces? What would you want if you had free reign?

Sunday Classics: ‘The Red Shoes’

Julian Buckeridge — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 05:08:03 +0000

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger – also known as The Archers – were ambitious filmmakers amid the gloom of late-to-post-war Britain. Each film they made together tackled new artistic challenges, all dealing with aspects of the British character.

They refused to be complacent and their films were consistently groundbreaking in imagination and technical mastery: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp revealed a new Technicolor palette while satirising the British Establishment; A Matter of Life and Death brought innovation to narrative with its manipulation of time and experimentation with colour, and Black Narcissus demonstrated the synthesis of film where the feature’s impact is driven by its sensory excess. Looking for a new challenge in post-war England, the two turned to an idea Pressburger had written in the 1930s about the backstage life of a ballerina.

Alexander Korda, a Hungarian filmmaker, set out to use Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes” as a plot pretext for an undecided narrative that would launch the career of his future wife Merle Oberon. Pressburger was brought in to draft a screenplay and immersed himself in the world of the Ballets Russes.

When World War II came, however, Korda and Oberon definitively ended progress on the untitled project. Yet Pressburger could still see the idea’s potential and bought everything that had been developed for the project from Korda. After Black Narcissus, The Archers decided to develop the idea into a bold statement of art over life.

The Red Shoes combines Andersen’s fable with elements of Sergei Diaghilev’s relationships with his protégés to tell the story of young ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) and talented conductor Julian Craster (Marius Goring), who both are given an opportunity by the successful Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) to work in his ballet company. Lermontov promises that he will guide his dancers to their full potential but only if they utterly devote themselves to the art and pledge complete loyalty to him.

Vicky quickly shines and soon becomes the lead dancer of the company. Lermontov begins production on a ballet version of “The Red Shoes” to showcase her talents and employs Craster to compose the score. Despite the success of the ballet, Victoria and Craster earn Lermontov’s scorn for becoming a couple. Despite leaving the company to be with Craster, Vicky finds herself torn between the art she devoted herself to and the demands of her heart.

What is immediately noticeable about The Red Shoes is the respect Powell and Pressburger had for the crew and the uniting of their contributions to the whole. Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, production designer Hein Heckroth and composer Brian Easdale participate in harmony with the actors and directors throughout the film – one never dominates over another.

This is reflected in the story itself. Despite focusing on an impresario, a young dancer and a temperamental composer, the film concerns an entire ballet company and the many people involved. The preparation and effort before the actual performance is shown in full – Powell and Pressburger keen to punctuate the demands of the magical process.

This is given authenticity by the casting of Diaghilev’s own stars: Léonide Massine as Grischa Ljubov; Ludmilla Tchérina as Irina, and Robert Helpmann as both the choreographer and the character of Ivan. Yet the film is also a study of the purpose of art. As Powell would say much later in his life, “For ten years we had all been told to go out and die for freedom and democracy; but now the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art.”

At the centre of this idea is Boris Lermontov: a perfectionist and a passionate believer in the power of art. Lermontov lives through his company and is determined to bring out the best in his “family.” However, he demands equal dedication from his protégés. Relationships and domesticity are transitory: art is life. To him, if someone has a gift, it is their sacred duty to express it.

Through this position, most of the company see Lermontov as autocratic and ruthless. Irina claims that he has no heart but we see throughout the film that this is not the case; Walbrook makes his character sympathetic, not by softening him but by instead accentuating his steadfast passion for art. He may be unsentimental but he wants his creations to reach their potential talent.

Here, his attention is driven towards Victoria Page, played by dancer Moira Shearer, who had performed with the Sadler’s Well ballet company. A natural in the leading role, there is no question that she is a dancer – even when she’s not performing. Shearer expertly conveys a young woman who knows what she wants for a career.

Victoria claims early in the film that dancing is as important as life itself and the relationship between her and Boris Lermontov quickly ignites. And yet when Victoria falls for Julian Craster, the resulting conflict between Lermontov and the conductor is not trivialised as sexual rivalry. Lermontov is in love with Victoria but not in a romantic way. For him, she is the brightest star he has ever witnessed.

The conflict arises between the two men because Julian is self-indulgent. While Vicky is an inspiration for his own fulfilment as a composer, he ignores her desire to dance – to continue with her own artistic fulfilment. Lermontov’s fury comes from the burying of talent and his awareness of Julian’s career taking precedence over Vicky’s. The shot of Victoria and Julian in separate beds is a revealing insight into their relationship and her struggle to feel fulfilled by domesticity.

The most significant segment, however, is the climactic ballet sequence plotted in the middle of the feature, running twenty minutes in length. It is one of the most beautiful pieces in cinema history. While the narrative preceding this sequence charts the process of production, the audience doesn’t learn dance steps or musical composition – it is the magical spirit behind the ballet which leads to its impact.

Fantasy and reality intermingle to not only tell the story of “The Red Shoes” but also the conflict between Vicky, Lermontov, and Craster. Suddenly, the culmination of craft in harmony comes to the fore. Sound, cinematography and production design come together to create a lush, textured dreamland. The imagination of this sequence was unprecedented and it is yet to be beaten.

Powell and Pressburger always seemed interested in preordained fate and humanity’s determination to avoid it. As soon as Lermontov announces the production of the ballet to Vicky and Craster, The Red Shoes follows the struggle between Romanticism and romance; Vicky and Craster will not only work together but fall in love, and love would be their undoing.

The feature follows Andersen’s story but combines it with Russian overtones. Vicky, much like the character in “The Red Shoes,” cannot stop dancing once she puts those red shoes on. The film ends in poetic tragedy where a talent is wasted and the dancing must continue. The Red Shoes is a timeless masterpiece of art as life and, once seen, can never be forgotten.

Film 101: The Nature of Film Festivals

Sophie Legg — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:45:34 +0000

Film 101 will feature both academic and feature pieces meant to educate the reader by discussing everything from production elements to genres to film movements to theoretical ideas to lessons from specific movies.

Film festivals can be seen as organized events where extended presentation of films are shown in one or more cinemas or screening venues, typically in a single locality. The films shown may be of recent date and, depending upon the focus of the individual festival, can include international releases as well as locally or nationally produced films.

Sometimes there is a specific theme or focus, for example different film types (such as short films, etc), genres (documentaries, horror films, animation, etc), social/political/human-interest issues (feminism, gay rights, racism, revolution, war, etc), or simply retrospectives of films from certain notable filmmakers.

Nevertheless, film festivals are much more than merely places where films are screened to patrons: they are highly organized and complex events – like a machine, they involve many interconnecting parts to work together to be successful. Lynden Barber summarises it nicely by noting that:

“film festivals are never just about showing films. They’re about the collective experience, appealing to our instinctive need for gregariousness and sense of community”.¹

The diversity of festivals is remarkable. Some are generalist and others are specialist. Some are huge international festivals which screen hundreds of films of all genres over weeks and others are smaller and may only last a couple of days. Some are overtly commercialised where the major drawcard is world premiers and new releases and others are more independent and ‘art-house’, including lesser known films and filmmakers.

Some festivals, such as the ‘A Grade’ festivals (i.e. Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Oberhausen, and San Sebastian) are recognised by industry peers and promoted as being prestige, and are major drawcards in the festival calendar; other, smaller festivals do not hold the same reputation. Some festivals, such as London Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival etc, are “best of fest”, which pride themselves on getting the top performers from some of the world’s major festivals (such as Cannes and Berlin).

Some festivals emphasise the creative aspects of filmmaking while others focus on the commercial side of the industry – film festivals are big business. The reality is that festivals are rarely just one thing or another, for as Harbord notes:

“film festivals are mixed spaces crossed by commercial interest, specialised film knowledge and tourist trajectories”.²

Thomas Elsasser likens film festivals to “networks with nodes, flows and exchanges”, and goes as far as using a biological model of “auto-poesis”, with a tendency to stabilise itself from within and protect itself from the surrounding environment. Elsasser (2005) also notes that the scale of analysis of film festivals can either be the network as a whole, or its component parts: individual festivals or regional circuits.³

Elsasser incorporates a variety of other metaphors to describe film festivals; carnivals, events, ceremonies, rituals, gatherings, stock exchanges, markets, bazaars, cultural showcases, competitive venues, etc.

There are many film festivals held all over the world. Barber observes that film festivals are seemingly appearing not in just in major cosmopolitan cities, but in rural cinema houses, and on street corners in every two-bit town.⁴ Currently there are more than 5000 globally (or maybe more depending on how you define a film festival).

Broadly speaking, ‘European-style’ film festivals (loosely defined as everything outside Hollywood) were developed as an alternative marketplace for films outside of the Hollywood system; although a range of more ‘independent’ film festivals have developed within the USA, e.g. Tribeca and Sundance. Festivals are very important marketplaces for filmmakers who produce smaller, independent films to showcase their work to audiences with minimal cost.

From their origins in the 1920s, through to about the 1970s, film festivals generally had a national focus and nationalistic purpose (including recognition of local filmmakers and the promotion of tourism), but increasingly have become global in their reach. Apart from the furore over overt nationalism in the middle of the 20th century, film festivals became increasingly politicised from the late 1960s.

This came in part from the radicalisation of French cinema in 1968 and especially from 1972, when the rise of the festival director as having the critical choice of film selection became more prominent. From about the 1970s, there was growing demand for more specialised and politicised content to be introduced at film festivals from special interest groups within the public. This politicisation included moral, political or human interest issues. However, with limited time and competing interests, it was often difficult to cater to these demands and shift the festival’s agenda. As a result, more specialist festivals were created to cater for many niche categories.

“One of the biggest achievements of the festival network has been to prove that there are plenty of people interested in niche films and that it is possible to create a sustainable circuit around the exhibition of films with artistic value and/or social relevance”.⁵

Most film festivals have internal competition with recognition including publicity and prizes. Competition raises standards, and adds value to the films presented. Often awards are presented for ‘Best Films’ in a festival. These awards can either be chosen by the public who attend the film festival, or by an expert jury, with experience in the film industry (or it’s sometimes a combination of both).

“Competition invites comparison, with the result that festivals resemble each other more and more in their integral organisation, while seeking to differentiate themselves in their external self-presentation and the premium they place on their (themed) programming”.⁶

Film festivals are becoming more popular, more diverse and larger spectacles. Previously, a festival may have simply involved the task of screening films, but increasingly other special events/activities are run as well. These may include celebrity guest appearances, community forums and workshops, question and answer sessions, panel discussions, and press conferences with cast and crew, opening and closing night parties, award ceremonies, etc. These other activities have almost become the norm, and add value to film festivals by enriching the experience for festival-goers – whether they are true cinephiles, or just the general public.

But, while the audience is important, other stakeholders also find value in festivals – film-makers, film critics, sponsors, film buyers, and distributors are critical components of contemporary film festivals. As Pickard explains:

“To get a film into a festival is only the beginning of the work. The real objective is to put bums on seats and to have the right bums on those seats. It’s about courting the media, the buyers, the distributors, and then, the public”.⁷

It is very important when establishing a film festival (regardless of the scale) to choose the right location. Urban culture is an important factor when setting up a film festival in a large, industrialised city. Macdonald claims that many of the factors needed to “mount a festival already exist in abundance in the city, from potential audiences, sponsors and staff, to the theatres, hotels and other infrastructural requirements needed to host a viable film event”.⁸

These location considerations are particularly important when organising festivals for special interest groups. The MQFF is a clear example of how large cosmopolitan cities (like Melbourne and Sydney) have a competitive edge with large art-loving and film-going communities, residents with higher disposable incomes, a thriving social and entertainment atmosphere, and a large queer community.

Arguably, horror film festivals, such as ANOHF could be seen as having a more ‘mainstream’ theme, and thus appealing to broader audience. This festival could be located in any of a number of different locations (including smaller, provincial centres), but the ‘anything goes’, Bohemian café society and ‘urban culture’ of Newtown, (on the outskirts of Sydney’s center) coupled with the size of the Sydney market guarantees a minimum commercially viable audience.

With so many cities vying for the attention of festival-goers, critics, film-makers and buyers, competition is now keen to seize the most appealing date in a long-ago full calendar. As Pickard notes:

“like democracies, film festivals are far from perfect, but they are still the best systems we have for giving movies an opportunity to be seen when commercial concerns are not the first priority…the festival circuit is an alternative distribution network. In fact, for many movies, a festival screening will be its only opportunity to be appreciated on a large screen”.⁹

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Sunday Classics: ‘King Kong’

Sarah Ward — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 04:04:13 +0000

On screen, King Kong commences with two legends: of a filmmaker known to go to any lengths for the perfect shot, and of the mammalian beast that represents his latest subject. The former, director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong, The Most Dangerous Game), assembles a crew to sail to an undisclosed location; the latter, a creature so fearsome and frightful that only an enormous wall can contain it, lurks within the dense jungles of their unmapped Pacific Ocean island destination. Blonde beauty Ann Darrow (Fay Wray, The Bowery) is literally plucked from the streets to become the conduit between the two, anointed the instigator of the furthering of their resounding reputations. Yet the journey that heightens the fame of the man and his captive monster does more than enhance their infamy; it typifies the enduring struggle between civilisation and nature, control and freedom, and humanity’s restrained and baser urges.

Off screen, the giant gorilla started as the unassuming creation of co-director Merian C. Cooper (The Four Feathers), but quickly evolved to legend status. In the eighty years since the character first ambled across screens in all its gigantic glory, the hulking colossus has become a bastion of cinema, motivating a spate of sequels, remakes, reappropriations and imitators. Six films followed the original, extending (1933’s The Son of Kong and 1986’s King Kong Lives), remixing (1962’s King Kong vs Godzilla and 1967’s King Kong Escapes) and reinterpreting (1976’s and 2005’s updatings of the same name) the tale; popular culture references continue to abound in related, obscure, serious and satirical products. King Kong is now an unquestionable icon, with its imposing stature matching the creature’s physical largesse. The true impact of the film, however, resides beneath the easy allusions and endless stream of cheap copies; King Kong sparked a genre and started a technological revolution.

Monster movies existed prior to 1933, albeit in horror and science fiction guises relying upon gothic sensibilities (Nosferatu, Dracula and Frankenstein) or adventurous flights of fantasy (The Lost World). King Kong drew upon both, shaping the mysterious and magical into an effort equally enthralling and arresting, intriguing more than scaring, and fascinating whilst inspiring awe. The premise – invented by Cooper and Edgar Wallace (the 1932 adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles), given screenplay form by James Ashmore Creelman (The Last Days of Pompeii) and Ruth Rose (Blind Adventure), contributed to by Leon Gordon (Tarzan and His Mate), and translated to the screen by Cooper and co-helmer Ernest B. Schoedsack (The Monkey’s Paw) – proved a perfect vehicle for kick-starting the creature feature craze, trading upon the simplicity of an adversarial relationship between man and other. Every similar effort that followed would endeavour to replicate the formula, from the heightened chaos of Godzilla to the box office success of Jurassic Park to the forthcoming mechanised monsters of Pacific Rim.

The dynamics of King Kong’s narrative are as clever as they are compelling, and also as efficient in their straightforward but allegorical nature. The tussle between Denham and Kong provides the obvious battle between man and beast; Darrow links them – empathetically and emotionally – as a shared object of diverging desires. Yet in a story that offers its leading lady a cynical, disapproving protector in the form of the ship’s first mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot, Fury), fuels its mythology-heavy mystique with the tentative tribal locals of Kong’s home of Skull Island, skewers the media frenzy for all things new and different upon the gorilla’s presentation to the masses, and dares to eschew a happy ending to further its tragic, untraditional affection, there’s more at play than two stubborn forces fighting to get what they want. A hero becomes the purveyor of pain, a villain is sympathised by its human leanings, and the brutality of society is revealed – a blueprint for much of the monster movie genre.

Whilst time – with its swift normalisation of advancing technology, to the just-as-speedy detriment and dismissal of what has come before – may not cast the special effects that allowed King Kong to come to fruition in a flattering light, the use of models and stop-motion animation in enlivening the beastly antagonist was nothing short of innovative. Long before the advancements that now ensure anything can be quickly conjured on screen with the aid of computer generated imagery, multiple assemblages of materials (spanning the expected: rubber, foam, latex, aluminium, cloth, wood, sponge and steel; and the unexpected: rabbit and bearskin) were manipulated to comprise the gargantuan beast and his dinosaur foes. Without such ground-breaking, painstaking efforts that wowed audiences of the time, bringing to life an unnatural enemy in a way never seen before, the current slate of monster movies may never have happened.

The entirety of the film’s iconic scenes – Kong wrestling with relics from another age, cradling Darrow in his oversized hand, thrashing against the chains that secure him for a New York audience, scaling the heights of the Empire State Building, and batting down aeroplanes from high above the city skyline – are reliant upon the intricate mastery of the feature’s effects crew; their endurance, and the creativity inspired in others that followed, all stems from the magnificent spectacle that drives the movie. King Kong is not just a monster movie, or the monster movie that started them all, but the epitome of the genre. In telling a tender and terrific tale that emerges from the realm of the unbelievable, taking emotional and aesthetic form to manifest in the hearts and minds of the audience, the film became exactly what its protagonist desired for the titular primate: a wonder of the world.

Podcast: A Look at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Lineup

Julian Buckeridge — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:02:39 +0000

Julian Buckeridge returns to talk about and analyse the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Official Selection, sharing his thoughts on the minute number of female directors in the Competition category, why he’s extremely excited about a Mexican film playing at the festival, and how the two Filipino films selected could be hidden gems.

Hosts:
Julian Buckeridge (@perspicuousness)

Segment Times:
MIFF’s First 2013 Film Announcement: 0:37
The 2013 Cannes Film Festival: 2:10
Picks from Cannes’ Official Competition Category: 3:13
A Look at the Un Certain Regard Category: 7:37
J.C. Chandor’s All is Lost: 8:56

Music:
Lowtide – “Underneath Tonight”
Duckett – “Wired But Disconnected”

This podcast was recorded on the 19th of April, 2013.

2013 Cannes Film Festival Announces Official Selection

Julian Buckeridge — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:09:45 +0000

The 66th Cannes Film Festival is less than a month away from kicking off on May 15, and today the festival announced its Official Selection. 19 films will play in the Competition category, 14 films have been selected in the Un Certain Regard section, while there are also two Midnight Screenings and five Special Screenings.

This is a very strong line-up, featuring new efforts from Steven Soderbergh, the Coen Brothers, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Alexander Payne, Nicolas Winding Refn, Asghar Farhadi, Takashi Miike, Roman Polanski, J.C. Chandor, Sofia Coppola, and Claire Denis, as well as two films from the Philippines.

The selection gives Australian audiences plenty to look forward to, with a bounty of Cannes titles likely to play at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. Read the full list below, alongside the director’s name!

OPENING NIGHT FILM
The Great Gatsby – Baz Luhrmann

COMPETITION (19 FILMS)
Behind the Candelabra – Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Borgman – Dir. Alex van Warmerdam
The Great Beauty – Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
Grigris – Dir. Mahamet Saleh-Haroun
Heli – Dir. Amat Escalante
The Immigrant – Dir. James Gray
Inside Llewyn Davis – Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen
Jeune et jolie – Dir. Francois Ozon
Jimmy P. – Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
La Vie d’Adele – Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
Like Father, Like Son – Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
Michael Kohlhaas – Dir. Arnaud des Pallieres
Nebraska – Dir. Alexander Payne
Only God Forgives – Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
The Past – Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Straw Shield – Dir. Takashi Miike
A Touch of Sin – Dir. Jia Zhangke
Un chateau en Italie – Dir. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Venus in Fur – Dir. Roman Polanski

CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Zulu – Dir. Jerome Salle

UN CERTAIN REGARD (14 FILMS)
The Bling Ring – Dir. Sofia Coppola
Anonymous – Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
The Bastards – Dir. Claire Denis
Bends – Dir. Flora Lau
Death March – Dir. Adolfo Alix Jr.
Fruitvale Station – Dir. Ryan Coogler
Grand Central – Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
La Jaula de Oro – Dir. Diego Quemada-Diez
L’image manquante – Dir. Rithy Panh
L’inconnu du lac – Dir. Alain Guiraudie
Miele – Dir. Valeria Golino
Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan – Dir. Lav Diaz
Omar – Dir. Hany Abu-Assad
Sarah prefere la course – Dir. Chloe Robichaud

OUT OF COMPETITION (2 FILMS)
All Is Lost – Dir. J.C. Chandor
Blood Ties – Dir. Guillaume Canet

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS (2 FILMS)
Blind Detective – Dir. Johnnie To
Monsoon Shootout – Dir. Amit Kumar

JERRY LEWIS TRIBUTE
Max Rose – Dir. Daniel Noah

SPECIAL SCREENINGS (5 FILMS)
Bite the Dust – Dir. Taisia Igumentseva
Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight – Dir. Stephen Frears
Seduced and Abandoned – Dir. James Toback
Stop the Pounding Heart – Dir. Roberto Minervini
Week End of a Champion – Dir. Roman Polanski

GALA SCREENING, TRIBUTE TO INDIA
Bombay Talkies – Dir. Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Karan Johar

Thoughts?