The Vancouver International Film Festival is well under way and, according to one source, doing better than last year, financially. I’ve seen it myself. I’ve been in several packed or even sold-out houses.
One of the films playing today, Leap 4 Your Life, has been voted the most anticipated BC title by over 10,000 voters in an online contest. I don’t know how that’s possible since it hasn’t been seen yet.
The vote is part a new BC Spotlight feature at VIFF. A title I suggest for tomorrow, Lawrence & Holloman came 2nd and a Wednesday recommendation, Salmon Confidential came 3rd.
I’ll again group my picks in two categories:
Dramas:
Matterhorn, Burning Bush, A Gun In Each Hand and Lawrence & Holloman
Documentaries:
The Spirit of 45, Desert Runners, My Prairie Home, La Maison de la Radio
MATTERHORN: I can’t imagine humor any dryer than this. Consider also the generous doses of absurdity in this film within an overriding humanity and you’re in for a treat. People at a Dutch festival thought so; they gave it the audience award at Rotterdam. Perhaps they responded to the naïve playfulness or the gentle humor, a bit like a cartoon. Whatever, this is easy-going and entertaining.
Diederik Ebbinge, a well-known comedian, wrote and directed this story of a stiff bureaucrat type completely tied into routine. He won’t even start saying grace at his meal until the second hand hits the top of the clock at exactly six. One day he sees a drifter asking for money of a neighbor, intercedes because the man had asked him the day before, invites him in for a lecture and tries to communicate with him. “Yeah,” is all the guy ever says. He’s clearly not right in the head. The local church folks are suspicious; a kid shouts “homo” but, in a prime example of absurd, the two are hired to entertain at a birthday party for kids. There’s also a sad backstory that comes out but the film ends with a rousing support for tolerance. (Monday evening)
BURNING BUSH: A tense, tightly wound film that Agnieszka Holland made for HBO in Europe has a new life at festivals and as the official Czech submission to the Academy Awards. Holland, who is Polish and now teaches in New York, made this in Prague as a three-part series to mark the sacrifice of one student who opposed the Communists.
In 1969, he set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the so-called “normalization” that followed the invasion by Warsaw Pact troops. That put an end to Alexander Dubček’s liberalization but the film, showing in three 80-minute sections with intermissions between, demonstrates how the student re-ignited the freedom movement. Protesters are pitted against secret police while the main story threat leads to a libel trial. A politician attacked the student’s motives; his family started a legal action and a future justice minister, Dagmar Burešová, played by Tatiana Pauhofová, argued the case for them. There’s an emotional climax to a finely-detailed film. (Today and Sun. Oct 6)
A GUN IN EACH HAND: Not a real one though. Metaphorical only. A woman tells a man coming on to her that’s she’s not desperate and adds this zinger: “You men go around with a gun in each hand.” It’s of such dialogue that this Spanish film is constructed. It explores the situation of men today through five stories that ultimately, and cleverly, are shown to be linked.
Some of Spain’s best actors, including Javier Cámara, Eduardo Noriega, Candela Peña and Jordi Mollà, and the great Ricardo Darín from Argentina, talk us through these stories. Two men who were friends 10 years ago, compare their lives. A man asks his ex to take him back. An office woman resists with a cruel trick when a boss hits on her. Most memorably, Ricardo Darin meets a friend in the park while he’s watching his apartment because he doesn’t trust his wife. The entire film is dialogue but since it’s bright, snappy, critical, ironic, regretful and funny at various times, it’s a delight. (Tues., Thurs. and Oct 11)
LAWRENCE & HOLLOMAN: This one, set in Vancouver, is not subtle at all. And its humor is often overdone and abrasive. But it also has plenty of stretches where it settles down and gives us a faceoff between two classic personality types. And coming as it does from a play by Morris Panych, although much opened up with new characters and settings, you know there’s an off-the-wall ending.
Daniel Arnold, who also helped adapt the script, plays Hollomon, one of those office nebbishes. Ben Cotton, as Lawrence, is that overbearing type who struts and boasts that he’s salesman of the month, two times in a row. He claims to have “acumen” and decides to coach Hollomon “to take more risks ... get on the train.” Some of it is clever, like the scene where he orders him to never again mention that his favorite color is periwinkle. Some of it is broad and clunky. There’s a lot of black humor as the bombastic Lawrence suffers payback. Mixed but mostly a hoot. (Tues. and Oct. 9)
The documentaries …
THE SPIRIT OF 45: I had always wondered why the English, after revering Churchill so much in wartime, elected him out right after. In this documentary, Ken Loach has the answer. As one man says, they were afraid England would return to the way it was before the war: “run by rich people, for rich people.” So, they elected Clement Atlee’s Labor government, and were well-rewarded.
Labour nationalized the mines, the railroads, electricity and created the National Health system, the U.K.’s version of medicare. As Loach itemizes these and other accomplishments, I thought first of Obama’s grueling fight for health care and then of the looming spectre of Margaret Thatcher. Sure enough, there she comes in the 1970s and undoes pretty well everything Labour had done, except for National Health. Loach details all this history with stories by people who were there, with a great collection of film clips and a steadfast devotion to the spirit of 45. He ends off with a vigorous call to get back to it. This is a lively and passionate film. (Tues. and Oct. 8)
DESERT RUNNERS: An intense study in obsession. Or maybe just testing yourself by giving everything you’ve got. This documentary follows an attempt by a group of runners to do the hardest series of marathon runs on earth: across four deserts –the Gobi, Sahara, Chile’s Atacama and Antarctica – all in the same year. One is doing it to honor his wife who died of cancer. One will fail, initially, but come back succeed anyway. All will push themselves to ridiculous limits, running up to 100 kilometers in a single day in temperatures up to 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Some have to deal with blisters, dehydration, inability to keep food down. Excellent camera work takes us right along to see—and feel—it all. (Tues. and Thurs.)
MY PRAIRIE HOME: Chelsea McMullan’s is strangely affecting partly because the central character is eerie and a bit strange. Rae Spoon is an Alberta singer/songwriter who is also transgendered.
We first encounter her in a prairie café. She suddenly stands up with her guitar and sings an entire song in a plaintiff almost-wail. She’ll do that several times more in other locations and you’ll remember the plaintive tone of her voice and music long after. She also tells us her strict religious parents, how they and her friends rejected her, her sexual awakening and even her career. Her songs are deftly placed among her musings and the whole film make excellent use of various typical prairie backgrounds. (Tues.)
LA MAISON DE LA RADIO: I worked in radio for years and I recognize everything in this documentary. It’s an absolutely accurate picture of what goes on. This version is in France’s national public radio service, which in every aspect seems an exact match for the CBC. As it was. CBC doesn’t do some of this. The French station still has a man whose head pokes up from behind a stack of CDs. “We’re still here with classical music,” he says. He hasn’t gone digital yet. There’s still a radio orchestra being recorded.
The film covers an entire 24-hour period. A producer coaches a reader to punch up his delivery. A story editor asks for “more bounce” in a report. News writers ponder sardines versus anchovies, wonder what to do with a Justin Bieber story and laugh over lines like “The man cut in two was killed by a bullet”. There’s more. A whole day’s worth and a very comprehensive look at what goes on in a place like that. (Mon. and Thurs.)