Sleeping Beauty Dir. Julia Leigh Year: 2011 Aus Rating: MA15+ Running Time: 105mins
There comes a moment about two thirds of the way through author-turned-director Julia Leigh’s debut Sleeping Beauty where a character breaks the fourth wall and recites a lengthy monologue directly to camera. It’s a particularly intriguing and brave moment, in a film that is filled with intriguing and brave moments, that solidifies Leigh’s intention to completely ignore the fundamentals of cinema. She all but states with this scene late in Beauty’s proceedings that there will be no neat and tidy bows tied to this story of high class high creep prostitution. She’s been confounding the audience up until this point and there’s no way she’s about to stop just so we mere mortal filmgoers can walk out the cinema feeling as if we know what we just witnessed.
The Tree of Life Dir. Terrence Malick Year: 2011 Aus Rating: M15+ Running Time: 140mins
The Tree of Life begins with a dance, as ribbons of colour and light flirt amidst the empty nothingness of space. This is the dawn of time as seen through the eyes of writer/director Terrence Malick in his sprawling 140-minute look at the meaning of existence. In between the dancing space clouds and dinosaurs (yes, there are glorious dinosaurs) is a story of the trauma inflicted by a father onto his sons and the painful emotional scarring that continues to root deep into the psyche long into adulthood. It’s an ambitious film and an important one; but Malick’s soliloquy to the long-gone period of American life that he grew up in, occasionally gets lost amidst its formless structure and picturesque images.
For sure, The Tree of Life is a difficult film to discuss in only < 450 words, but I think I managed to get my main points across. Also: I would've liked more dinosaurs. Then again, every movie could use more dinosaurs.
Following on from last year's case of "my what a fabulous book cover you are, but how is this a film poster?" that we had with Never Let Me Go comes the poster for Lars Von Trier's latest, Melancholia. I get that it looks like a wedding invitation (since the film seems to be predominantly set during a wedding), but it's like they decided on the idea and then never really developed it enough. Still, it just looks like a book cover to me. Hmmm.
I unreservedly love the poster for Albert Nobbs. The illusion of flipped gender roles without the obvious imagery of, say, a hair man's leg in a stiletto or something equally stupid. And as if trying to market itself to the tune of Kim Carnes, this poster has Glenn Close eyes. Love it.
Meanwhile, I've left the best of this new batch of arthouse posters for last. It's the poster for recently Cannes-minted Aussie erotic drama Sleeping Beauty. Or is it Jane Campion Presents Sleeping Beauty. Either way, this piece of design is just gorgeous and flawless. Emily Browning looking stunning, surrounded by satin and delicate embroidery. It's a design of pure baiting eroticism that we rarely see and I love the guts it has to just put itself out there. There's no hiding the fact that this film is about sex now, is there? This isn't Disney's Sleeping Beauty by a long shot.
An Australian presence at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival hasn't exactly been loud and proud for many years now, although the occasional Samson & Delilah (un certain regard) and Bright Star (in competition) do surface to make local media take notice ever so briefly. So it's great news this year with four Australian productions screening at the festival, including in competition for the Palme d'Or!
Julia Leigh's "erotic fairy tale" Sleeping Beauty takes pole position amongst the Australian contingent having been given a competition slot despite being Leigh's first film as director. The screenplay, also by Leigh, is apparently a masterwork and was featured on the famed "Black List" in 2008 (alongsideEasy A, Bad Teacher, Going the Distance, The Beaver and I'm with Cancer) so we could have a potential screenplay winner here? We'll certainly see, but the trailer (below) is a mixed bag. The idea of Jane Campion jumping on the "presented by" bandwagon that Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth have been on for years is certainly exciting, but this sort of incredibly arch-looking arthouse to the extreme film can be hard to swallow. It reminds me a lot of Corroboree, which is not something I care to do very often. Sleeping Beauty stars Rachael Blake doing a knockout Charlotte Rampling impersonation, and Emily Browning. Surely it can already be considered more of a success than Sucker Punch, yes?
Featuring in Un Certain Regard - the same platform that won Samson & Delilah the Camera d'Or for Warwick Thornton - will be Ivan Sen's Toomelah. I remember hearing this film announced at last year's MIFF screening of Sen's experimental Dreamland, but didn't expect it to arrive to quickly. Especially since Sen and his producing partner David Jowsey are still tinkering away at an official cut of Dreamland to be released in 2012. Toomelah is about a young Aboriginal boy who wants to be a gangster, and it stars all non-actors from the director's community. No trailer yet, but we'll bring it to you when it arrives!
Less exciting, however, is the inclusion of Justin Kurzel's Snowtown amongst the Director's Fortnight selections. Having seen it a couple of weeks back, I can't say I particularly enjoyed the experience. I'll surely have more to say closer to the release date, but I think it's one of the best made bad movies I've seen in quite a while. Wait, does that make sense? Yes. Yes it does.
Australian filmmakers have a strong history with short film success and this year Nash Edgerton will feature amongst Cannes' official short selections with Bear. The film, in which he stars, is Edgerton's followup to award-winning short Spider and his debut feature The Square. According to the press release Bear was co-written by Edgerton and David Michôd, who you will all know as the director of Animal Kingdom. Perhaps the rising profile of Blue Tongue Films, the production company behind Kingdom, The Square and more, gave it a leg up, but it's exciting nonetheless.
Stay tuned to the blog during the Cannes Film Festival to see how these films are being received by the press from France and around the world.
It's always interesting to see how Australian films fare on the international festival circuit. Of the four biggies - Toronto, Berlin, Cannes and Venice - it is only the first two that seem to ever have a decent representation. Cannes occasionally welcomes a local film in one of their prestige sidebars (I went back ten years and Jane Campion's Bright Star was the only Palme d'Or nominee) while, if I remember correctly, the Venice Film Festival is stingy towards out product year in year out.
The Toronto International Film Festival just released its full roster and while the Aussie contingent can't reach last year's tally, six titles are going to be showing, which is good news for all. Last year TIFF audiences were let in on The Loved Ones and rewarded it with the Midnight Madness top honours. It has yet to be released here in Australia (it recently received a new Halloween-inspired release date that, sadly, it is no longer eligible for this year's AFI awards), one film that did get a release was Mao's Last Dancer, which became one of the highest grossing Australian films of all time. Let's see what TIFF 2010 has in store.
Blame is another film that recently changed release dates and, thus, is no longer competing in the AFI Awards. Nevertheless, this Perth-filmed thriller tells of a group of teens/twenty-somethings who decide to commit the perfect murder, but are brought undone by messy mistakes. It stars Kestie Morassi, Sophie Lowe, Simon Stone, Damian de Montemas and Mark Leonard Winter and is directed by Michael Henry. I didn't hear much out of it's MIFF premiere, unfortunately.
Controversial teen high school drama Wasted on the Young will be screening at TIFF. It sorta sounds like 2:37 mated with Gasper Noe and several people who saw it at the Sydney Film Festival were not to pleased while others were suitably impressed. It's local release is set for early 2011 and I wonder how an international audience will respond to it. Completely different is Louise Alston's Jucy, the director's follow up to the charming romantic comedy All My Friends are Leaving Brisbane. I really enjoyed that one, but the trailer for Jucy looks just abominable (watch the trailer below). Naturally, I am now intrigued to see what it was that got it accepted into TIFF.
Two documentaries will screen, one of which is Mark Hartley's Machete Maidens Unleashed, which recently had its world premiere at MIFF and which I reviewed. It's probably got a subject matter that would be of interest to a more global lot of viewers, but the movie isn't as good as Hartley's first doco Not Quite Hollywood. The second documentary screening is Mother of Rock: Lillian Roxon, which I had never even heard about. Filmink describes it as "a fascinating insight into the life of the acclaimed rock journalist and an overview of the 1960s record industry." Okay then.
The biggest title, however, that most of us Aussie cinephiles are looking for at Toronto will be Griff the Invisible. As far as I can recall, Griff will be the first locally made superhero movie since The Return of Captain Invincible in 1983 (starring Alan Arkin, no less). This new film from first time director Leon Ford stars Ryan Kwanten (sure to get some True Blood fans in the audience for this one) and Maeve Dermody. We recently marvelled at some images from the film and I'm loving the festival poster that was designed by, of course, Jeremy Saunders.
We'll see how they all go once they've screened, but here's hoping they're all good and the Canadians like them.
"Melbourne in winter is something that you can’t truly imagine until you have experienced it for yourself. It’s a time when the sun sets early and people battle the elements with their runaway scarves and umbrellas turning themselves inside out. A Melbourne winter also means it’s time for the Melbourne International Film Festival when the cinephiles come out in rain, hail or even occasionally shine and wait in a line that runs around the block for the latest films from world-renowned cinematic auteurs like Francis Ford Coppola (Tetro), Todd Solondz (Life During Wartime) and Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) right on through to 3D animation blockbusters (Despicable Me) and even films about senior citizens with a fondness for garbage (Trash Humpers)."
And so begins my MIFF preview at Trespass Mag. Click on through if wish. Each subsequent year that I have attended MIFF I have seen more films than the one before and this year is no different with 21 movies with tickets purchased. I have no idea how I'm going to cope with all of these, writing this blog, work and various other social normalities to attend to, but there are some people seeing over 70 titles so at least I'm not them.
Below is my itinerary for MIFF and I encourage any Melbourne readers out there to seek out the festival. It's surely the only way you'll ever be able to see several of the titles on offer. There were many that I so wanted to see, but due to various circumstances (having to work, not having several clones, the usual stuff) I cannot. I missed Lee-Chang Dong's Secret Sunshine in 2008 and didn't want to piss Poetry this year, but I must. I was totally psyched about Joe Dante's rare one-print-only The Movie Orgy, but that's another I had to cross off, just like Waking Sleeping Beauty, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with live orchestra, Gareth Edwards' Monsters, a big screen presentation of For Y'ur Height Only starring the immortal (well...) Weng Weng, Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers, Shane Meadow's Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, Oren Moverman's The Messenger (a 2-time Oscar nominee that's still without an Australian release) and - worst of all - the French horror comedy Rubber from director Quentin Dupieux about a murderous car tyre with psychic powers. I'm so disappointed I will be missing that one, but I have tickets to Florence and the Machine that night so I think I'll manage. There's dozens I'd love to see, but do not have the time or the funds to get to, so the following this is what I had to scrounge out of a longlist of about 60 titles.
I will be doing several small review packages for Trespass over the 17 days of the festival, but I aim to write up full length reviews of as many films as possible.
Monday 23 19.00 Dreamland (ACMI) 21.15 Red Hill (Forum)
Ivan Sen hasn't been heard of much since Beneath Clouds in 2002 so the chance to see his new experimental black and white sci-fi film is not to be missed, same goes for Red Hill, which has been garnering big buzz ever since the teaser got released and everyone got all hot and bothered about how incredible it could be.
Saturday 24 12.15 Myth of the American Sleepover (Forum) 19.00 Machete Maidens Unleashed! (ACMI) I have never heard of David Robert Mitchell's film before flipping through the MIFF guide, but it's title and description sound exciting so we'll see how it goes. Machete Maidens, on the other hand, is the latest documentary by Mark Hartley who made Not Quite Hollywood and this time has taken his focus to Filipino action movies of the 1970s and '80s. Weng Weng features prominently, I'm sure.
Sunday 25 No movies today, but this is true - in my MIFF schedule planner I actually made sure I didn't schedule any movies because tonight is the finale episode of MasterChef Australia and Twitter followers will be aware that I cannot possible miss that!
1981, a Canadian "coming of age" film, sounds like it should be right up my alley. As for Beeswax? Well, certainly people are demanding I see it, so I shall.
Wednesday 28 No MIFF movies today, but I do get to see The Loved Ones today, which is just as exciting as Weng Weng.
Thursday 29 21.30 The City of Life and Death (Forum)
This is one of the real big titles of the festival for me. China has provided me with the best film I've ever seen at MIFF - that would be Zhang ke-jia's Still Life - and I'm hoping they strike again with this black and white film that has everybody raving.
Friday 30 12.15 Piggies (Forum) 19.00 I Love You, Phillip Morris
Robert Glinski's Piggies sounds so confronting - child prostitution and all that that entails - that I'm kinda glad I'm seeing I Love You, Phillip Morris later on in the day. We've been looking forward to that "Ace Ventura goes Gay" movie for a while now and this may be the only chance to ever see it on the big screen unless Village Roadshow decide there's an audience for this. Considering they planned for The Hurt Locker, which I thankfully say at last year's MIFF some 7 months early, to go direct-to-DVD, I can't see that happening any time soon.
Saturday 31 12.15 The Illusionist (Forum) 14.30 Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radian Child (GU6) 19.00 Blank City (GU3) 21.15 The Silent House (GU3)
I start today's epic four-day MIFF experience with Sylvain Chomet's latest animated delight from a screenplay by Jacques Tati and end it with a Uruguayan real time horror movie. Lovely. In between those two I have two documentaries that take a look at New York City subcultures, which is something I can rarely ever resist. Last year's Little Joe was far better than A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory the year for that so, just maybe, these two will be even better!
I'm not looking forward to spending three movies in Greater Union, however, which is a horrible cinema by even the flimsiest of standards.
Sunday 1 18.45 Like a Dream (ACMI)
A really fascinating-sounding film from Australian/Hong Kong director Clara Law (The Goddess of 1967).
Monday 2 12.15 She, A Chinese (Forum)
Xiaolu Guo's film is another that appealed to the same part of me as Still Life and Up the Yangtze. If it's even half as good as either of those films then it will be a worthwhile ticket purchase!
Tuesday 3 16.45 Brotherhood (Forum)
This is a Danish film about two neo-Nazis who fall in love. This is pure, unadulterated film festival goodness. I'm not sure if this played at the recent Melbourne Queer Film Festival, but I imagine they were too busy screening Another Gay Movie 7: Butt's Fight Back to consider it.
Wednesday 4 21.15 Certified Copy (Forum)
Juliette Binoche won her Cannes Best Actress prize for this film earlier in the year and I am so excited to see it. Not only for Binoche, but - ta da - this will be my very first Abbas Kiarostami movie. I wonder what I'm getting myself in for.
Thursday 5 16.45 Life During Wartime (ACMI)
Todd Solondz. That's pretty much all you need to know behind my reasoning for wanting to see this. Really. This is probably my most anticipated of the festival. "Can I give you some advice?" "Yes please" "...No, actually, I have no advice for you." Gah! Solondz! You mad fucker!
Friday 6 19.00 Women Without Men (GU3)
I don't know much about this from from Middle Eastern artist Shirin Neshat, but I've heard great things about it so why not, yeah?
Saturday 7 13.00 Cane Toads: The Conquest (Hoyts) 19.00 The Actresses (Forum)
My last day of the festival starts with a 3D doco-drama about cane toads in Australia's northern states. Yes, this is actually a movie. Cane toads jumping out in 3D sure sounds like an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon, don't you think? An even better way to spend a Saturday night? In the company of The Actresses from Je-yong Lee, a mockumentary that charts a Vogue Korea fashion shoot featuring six satirically D-I-V-A celebrities (all playing themselves, including Ok-bin Kim from Thirst). It sounds like a highly enjoyable film and a wonderful way to end the festival.
I had expected MIFF to program Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cannes Palme d'Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, but didn't see it in the guide. It was, however, just announced as one of the closing night films. I might have given it a change, despite not caring for the only other Weerasethakul film I have seen (that'd be Syndromes and a Century), but I work all day on Sunday and his films are sleep-inducing at the best of times, so I have decided to skip it. Being a Palme d'Or winner I am sure it will become available in some format at some stage over the next couple of years (it took Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon a year to reach Australian shores outside of film festivals, which says a lot I think.)
Any local readers out there want to say what they're seeing? Did you take a punt on something obscure and little known, or did you go with the likes of The Kids are All Right or Enter the Void?
Following Cédric Succivalli on Twitter pays dividends. Not only do you get up-to-date and breaking news on the Cannes Film Festival, but also links to things such as this poster for Olivier Assayas' Carlos from D*Hollywood.
Now, Carlos is actually a TV miniseries, but will be screening at Cannes in its entire 5.5hr version. I had no idea what Carlos was about - Assayas is a filmmaker that drifts in and out of my orbit, I imagine if more of his films were available on DVD then he might enter it permanently - but after looking at this poster I figured "something to do with terrorism." Turns out I was right. Good job, poster!
It's a corker, isn't it?
If you want to be cruel you could say it apes the poster for Terminator Salvation (although I'm sure that was ripping off something else that I can't recall), but I appreciate that a film such as Carlos can do it (and better).
There comes a moment about two thirds of the way through author-turned-director Julia Leigh’s debut Sleeping Beauty where a character breaks the fourth wall and recites a lengthy monologue directly to camera. It’s a particularly intriguing and brave moment, in a film that is filled with intriguing and brave moments, that solidifies Leigh’s intention to completely ignore the fundamentals of cinema. She all but states with this scene late in Beauty’s proceedings that there will be no neat and tidy bows tied to this story of high class high creep prostitution. She’s been confounding the audience up until this point and there’s no way she’s about to stop just so we mere mortal filmgoers can walk out the cinema feeling as if we know what we just witnessed.
