MIFF: A mid-festival update
Our staff bring us an update from the Melbourne International Film Festival – what they’ve seen so far and what’s still to come!
Suzanne Steinbruckner absolutely adored the newest Dardenne brothers film.
I’ve enjoyed a trimmed down MIFF this year, picking films to fit my schedule rather than trying to play tetris with that mammoth MIFF program grid – which is full workout in itself!
My favourite has been the documentary The Salt of the Earth which looks at the life of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado and is a reminder of the power of the image. Salgado has spent much of his life documenting the beauty and horror of humankind, finally turning to nature to relieve his soul. I shed tears and smiled in equal measure. I also absolutely adored the newest Dardenne brothers film, Two Days, One Night. This film has me watching Sandra who, due to return to work after illness, learns her job has been lost in favour of a bonus for her colleagues. She has the unenviable task of convincing them to forgo their bonus and take her back over the weekend before a new vote on Monday. One film that had me laughing a lot was Force Majeure. An avalanche complicates a family holiday in the Alps and how each person reacts, and continues to do so, makes for some interesting and very entertaining viewing.
There’s more, but I have to run off off to see National Gallery. In this documentary, the team that brought us La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet take a look at London’s National Gallery. I can’t wait!
Emily Harms says The Possibilities are Endless is remarkable.
Kicking off MIFF was Predestination, loosely based on Robert A. Heinlein’s sci-fi short All You Zombies. While a film starring Ethan Hawke as the time-travelling agent on the trail of a terrorist seems like an odd choice for the opening film, at least he was accompanied by Australian Noah Taylor as his enigmatic boss. Despite it having all the signs of an American block-buster, Predestination was actually shot on location in and around Melbourne and directed by the Australian Spierig twins (Undead, MIFF 2003 and Daybreakers).
I had the glorious experience of watching The Possibilities are Endless in the comforts of the Kino cinema on a freezing Saturday night with a nice glass of pinot. This dream-like documentary plunges you underwater into the headspace of Edwyn Collins (the lead singer of UK’s Scottish alternative rock band of the 90’s Orange Juice) during his post-stroke recovery. In 2005, Collins suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and as a result, he lost his memory and speech, and was hospitalised. Following years of love and care from his loving wife Grace Maxwell, The Possibilities intimately traces Collins’ ever-so-slow road to recovery and – other than a brief blast of the bands’ chart-topping ‘Girl like you’ – his band and music remain very much in the background.
Directors Hall and Lovelace interviewed Collins and Maxwell six years after the stroke, at a time when he was still recovering his ability to speak. Where some might have struggled with the lack of clarity, the directors instead use this as a hook to pull us into Collins’ world. Avoiding the obvious temptation to make a conventional documentary – even though that kind of film would have served Collins’s story perfectly well – they instead immerse us in the experience, as confusing and frightening as it is. They shoot in and around the quaint Scottish coastal village of Helmsdale, an area much-loved by the singer, and cut the footage with his thoughts about his state of mind: ‘Start again’; ‘Striving to think’; ‘It’s not clear enough yet’. Collins repeatedly spoke of the phrase that immediately hit him post-stroke: ‘The possibilities are endless’.
Hall and Lovelace’s take on accident and recovery is romantic and terrifying, lush but insular. They dig beauty out of tragedy without being too neat about it and The Possibilities is a remarkable film.
Luckily I was also in a slow kind of mood on Saturday as I sat back and enjoyed the somewhat excruciatingly slow-paced, yet bravely unique in its concept and cinematography, The Distance at ACMI. It is about three telepathic dwarfs hired to steal the most precious of commodities - ’The Space’. Set around a disused power station we are hypnotized by the barren landscape deep within Russia and the magic that prevails. Hmmm do I need to say anything more?
I’m really pumped to see The Chair’s Screening – The Case Against 8 tomorrow night. This documentary follows the historic case to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage; a journey that took five years of setbacks and victories, ending up at the Supreme Court in Washington.
Tara Kaye Judah is finding much joy in the animation program.
Beyond the many provocative and challenging titles that are the bread and butter for film festivals, there is much joy to be found. Adapted from 10th century Japanese folklore, the story known as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter or Princess Kaguya sees a miniature spirited princess appear from out of nowhere, inside a strange and glowing bamboo shoot. The spirit is as surprising as she is mysterious: transforming into a human baby and continuing to grow at an erratic and alarming rate, she is raised by a kindly and unassuming bamboo cutter and his wife. But, as the smiling child soon discovers, coming-of-age when you are a princess involves discipline and reserve: stature and wealth are not without their trappings. A sweeping tale and a sweet story, this latest gem from Studio Ghibli is delivered from the hands of the less celebrated but equally talented master filmmaker, Isao Takahata. Familiar themes crop up surrounding the relationship between humans and the natural landscape as well as the difficulties involved in breaking with Japanese and gendered traditions. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is quite simply a delight: its story as heart achingly bittersweet as the skilled hand drawn animation that will steal your breath away.
Anina Yasay Salas is picked on at school because her name is a palindrome. Worse than that – it’s three palindromes. Even though her father raised her to believe that a palindrome is lucky, Anina can’t see past lunchtime ridicule. Accidentally initiating a playground fight with her classmate Yisel, Anina faces a punishment that consumes her with guilt, fear and remorse. As she learns to imagine life from another person’s perspective, and as she understands punishment as a process rather than an act of cruelty, a new world of compassion is unlocked. Gorgeously crafted animation and a voice cast that evoke good humour and earnestness in equal measure, Anina is the film incarnation of a warm, reassuring hug from your mum after a tough day at school.
Nina Kenwood was treated to a lovely surprise at the screening of Happy Christmas.
Last week I saw Joe Swanberg’s Happy Christmas. It was a lovely surprise to find that Swanberg himself was in attendance (he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the film), which added a touch of intimacy to the night. Happy Christmas is a quiet little indie film, a ‘slice of life’ story with a lot of natural, improvised dialogue. It was sweet, funny and completely endearing. I particularly loved the hilarious scenes where a group of women were debating how to write an erotic novel.
On Sunday I saw The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him. The companion films both tell the story of a couple who separate after a tragedy, from two different perspectives (his and hers, obviously.) I really loved both films (although seeing them back-to-back, it’s hard to think of them as two separate films – more like one, long experience.) Jessica Chastain is breathtaking throughout, and James McAvoy hit exactly the right tone, never overplaying his scenes. I was completely swept up in the world of this couple. When Her finished, I couldn’t wait for Him to begin.
A shortened, combined version of the films called The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them will be getting a wider release outside of film festivals. I can’t help but feel the magic of these films might be lost a little in the combined version. There’s something really special about the way the companion films work. They each follow their own story, but there are crossover scenes that appear in both. These scenes have differing details, depending on who is telling the story – the dialogue, tone, actions or camera angles might change. It’s a fascinating technique and one that worked extremely well.
So far, I highly recommend all three films I have seen and I can’t wait to see the rest on my schedule, including The Skeleton Twins, Boyhood and Obvious Child. I just love MIFF. It is, without a doubt, my favourite Melbourne festival.
Bronte Coates is looking forward to seeing Jason Schwartzman play a self-obsessed artist.
So far, my stand-out favourite has been At Berkeley – an immersive, utterly engaging look at the world of this particular American university. As you would expect from Frederick Wiseman, there are no interviews and rather, the documentary unfolds in a series of vignettes of life from across the campus. We sit in on lectures about everything from poetry to cancer research, as well as meetings about everything from administrative processes and to racial discrimination, all amid long sweeping shots of the grounds and corridors – sometimes empty and sometimes not. The most dramatic section of the film follows a student demonstration which ultimately fails and put me in mind of recent politics here in Australia (and the devastating effects that could result from proposed policy changes to universities here). One reviewer called At Berkeley, ‘a strangely refreshing exploration of middle-class angst’, which I find very apt.
My schedule this week is also happily packed thanks to MIFF. I’m excited to see science-thriller-documentary Dinosaur 13 and Jason Schwartzman as a self-obsessed artist in Listen Up Philip. I’m also really looking forward to a film that was recommended to me over the weekend: Our Sunhi is a Korean comedy of manners in which a student asks her professor for a letter of recommendation to study in the USA, but then takes issue with its contents.
