MIFF Blogathon: Day 1 (Kings of Comedy, Depressed Planets and 1950s Melbourne)

This blogathon is an initiative of MIFF for their 60th anniversary year. I am one of six bloggers given the mission of seeing 60 films in 17 days and writing, reporting, reviewing and wrangling my way through the tiredness and hunger to bring the festival experience to your computer.

The King of Comedy
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Running Time: 109mins

Amidst the 250+ feature films at MIFF is a series of retrospective titles from throughout the 60 year history of the festival. It was, perhaps, fitting to start my festival with one I had already seen and loved since it's always great to get a festival off to a good start. Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy may seem like a curious title to screen, but watching it again and it makes perfect sense. This brutal satire on celebrity is as pertinent today as it surely was in 1983 when originally released and remains one of Scorsese's finest works. In fact, I rank it just below Taxi Driver as his best film, so you know I liked it a lot!

That screenplay by Paul Zimmerman - a BAFTA winner for Best Original Screenplay, one of only a few award season wins, further cementing its reputation as a under-cherished gem - is truly a thing of beauty, filled with so many barbs, awkwardness and genius exchanges. It's shocking to realise that Zimmerman would only go on to write one other screenplay (the 1988 Giles Foster comedy Consuming Passions).


Of course, a large part of this film's success rests with the cast. While Jerry Lewis and Diahnne Abbott are wonderful, for me it's all about Robert DeNiro and Sandra Bernhard. DeNiro's Rupert Pupkin is such an uncomfortably character to be around, and yet his goofy innocence remains charming. Even once he's well and truly fallen off the deep end I can't help but still be entertained by him. It's this tricky skill that makes this one of DeNiro's very best performances. Who can't laugh at the whingeing exchanges between Pupkin and his off screen mother? And Sandra Bernhard... Sandra Bernhard! Her borderline insane performance as stalker Masha is one of my all time favourite performances. It's my understanding that a lot of her part was improvised, with her brand of comedy did not endearing Bernhard to co-star Jerry Lewis, but it's exactly this tension that makes those final scenes as well as they do. Such a rich and rewarding film. Isn't it about time this film was finally raised to classic status like Taxi Driver or Raging Bull? A

Melbourne Shorts (Program 1)
Dir. Various
Running Time: 69mins

This collection of six short films were introduced to the sold out crowd as being a way of exploring Melbourne's past on this 60th anniversary of the festival. What we got was a bit of a mixed bag. Beginning with Darrel Wardle's's weird is-it-a-pisstake-or-not The American (10mins) from 1959, which proposed to look at the ways America's superior manufacturing and invention has changed other cities across the world. It was followed by Douglas White's 1966 dialogue free Life in Australia: Melbourne (19mins), which followed the casual comings and goings of Melburnians as they do everything from go to work, purchase TV Week and go see William Castle's The Busy Body.

By far the corniest of the lot was Melbourne Wedding Belle (10mins), a curiously wannabe technicolour short about various members of a bridal party making there way to the wedding. Colin Dean's short had most of the dialogue narrated and written in a rhyming fashion as if they're lyrics. It was good for a few laughs at how completely silly the whole thing was, especially the strand about the old lady who just needed a new pillbox hat. The final short was David Greig's Sunday in Melbourne (19mins), an incredibly tedious exploration of - you guessed it - Sunday in Melbourne. It's by far too long and generally quite pointless, using the advantages of a short film structure to no effective use whatsoever. Although it does work as a compare and contrast piece if you look at the differences between a Sunday in Melbourne in 1958 and 2011. Perhaps knowing its shortcomings full well, the pompous narrator tells the audience at film's end that most people find Sunday remarkably boring.


The two best shorts, however, were Malcolm Wallhead's The Cleaners (16mins) from 1969 and The Melbourne Concert Hall (19mins) from 1982. The former was a rather gorgeously photographed look at one of the dirtiest of professions. The latter - the most recent of the shorts in both programs - was a rather simple documentary short on the building of The Melbourne Concert Hall in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Much of the information given by the talking heads was rather fascinating and anybody with a love of architecture should try and seek this short film out. I liked the factoid about the building being designed to last for 150 years! Pertinent now since they're remodelling it right now for a 2012 unveiling. My favourite part, however, was the way they mixed construction footage with musical pieces, to provide a rather lovely contrast. Reminded of Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi, actually.

Hopefully program 2 towards the end of the festival yields better rewards.

Melancholia
Dir. Lars von Trier
Running Time: 130mins

Lars von Trier announced that there would be "no more happy endings" and, when you think about it, there was really nowhere else for the notorious Danish troublemaker to go than Melancholia. It's a film that takes the debilitating cruelty of depression to it's next logical step. There's little doubt that von Trier's metaphors here are obvious, but it's what he does with them that allows him to remain one of the most fascinating, important and down right excellent filmmakers in the business. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Lars von Trier is the greatest working director in the world right now. Just my own subjective opinion, but if I can't share wildly expressive opinions on my own blog then I might as well just give up.

Opening with a 10 minute prologue that begins with a close-up of Kirsten Dunst's pillowed face that then proceeds into a spectacular visual effects reel that I'm sure Terrence Malick would appreciate, Melancholia then splits into to halves: Justine (Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Justine suffers from depression, this is plainly obvious once she wipes away the cute smile that audiences will recognise from Bring It On. Claire suffers from caring too much and her anxiety towards Justine, the rapidly spiralling wedding she helped organise (with a deliciously ridiculous Udo Kier!) and the lingering mysterious presence in the sky above.

The performances are universally excellent, with Dunst especially proving that von Trier's faith in her was well deserved (something that her lingering fans like myself knew was never a worry). Gainsbourg, the first of von Trier's leading women to return to the Dane's backlot of fun, is also wonderful as this nervous, tightly-wound woman. Manuel Alberto Claro's beautiful cinematography does wonders with shadow and light, using the idea of this foreign light-emanating source to create painterly pictures. The sound work and visual effects are also worth praising to the heavens.


No matter how much I was liking Melancholia, however, no matter how much it had impressed me, nothing prepared me for the gut punch that is the final scene. As von Trier's vision of a truly apocalyptic portrayal of the burden of depression comes to its natural, yet poetic, conclusion, there was something so deeply effecting that I found myself unable to breath. The final shot is certainly one for the all time lists in its brave, devastating imagery. Much like the rest of the film it will be something that lingers with me for quite some time and that is why I cherish Lars von Trier so much. A-

The Tree of Marketing

I think it's time to stop equating love to a "force of nature", okay? It's done.




Meanwhile, all you Brits out there? Go see Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree. It's fantastic and my favourite of the two recent movies with "tree" in the title. Now that's a contentious film geek opinion, isn't it?

Michelle, Anne, Almodovar and Charlotte Sitting in The Tree

Okay, not quite.

Lets wipe the stink of artistic failure from our collective memories and take a peek at three amazing works of poster artwork. Click all images to enlarge.

The poster for Lone Scherfig's One Day starring Anne Hathaway may look 1993 ad for a perfume named "Sunday Morning Suede", but I actually really dig it. A lot. I like the way the colours appear washed out like an old photograph, and yet they still pop out. I like the continued use of numbers throughout and I even like the slash between Hathaway and Jim Sturgess' names. Weird, I know. I guess I'm also just thankful that they've shown these two stars in an embrace and not some lame-brained, posey posey mess. Since they've branded the poster with their logo, I don't really need to tell you where it came from, do I? *grumblegrumble*

Via Cinematical comes this poster for Kelly Reichartd's Meek's Cutoff. A while ago I spoke of how the poster for Never Let Me Go looked too much like a book cover to properly sell the film, the same can be said for this and yet I actually think it works much better. Love the pencil-drawn image at the core, and while it is completely unrepresentative of the film the distributor has gotta sell those tickets somehow! Conjuring up memories of True Grit is probably not a bad way to go. I like the colour, which is so rarely used, I like the way the cast is laid out and the typeface has me drooling (I have a bizarre fondness for words fitting into other words like puzzle pieces.

From The Playlist comes... well, this. It sure is something, isn't it? The first poster for Pedro Almodovar's The Skin That I Inhabit is a blunted peek at the film's nastiness. A weird merging of "pretty" and "sickening", which sounds fitting for an Almodovar film with echoes of Eyes Without a Face. You certainly won't be able to blame the movie for people going and being turned off by all the scalpel action if they keep marketing the movie this way. It puts its cards on the table quite willingly, which is to be admired.

And what of Charlotte? Well, she doesn't get a poster, but there is some happy news! One of my absolute favourite films from last year was Julie Bertuccelli's France/Australia coproduction, The Tree and I was glad to read today that an American release date is on the cards through Zeitgeist. Indiewire reports that the film, a sublime rumination on life after death (Clint Eastwood should take note), will be released in New York and Los Angeles before a national roll-out. I hope my American readers will get the chance to experience The Tree for themselves.

18 Thoughts About the AFI Nominations

In honour of the record breaking nomination haul by David Michôd's Animal Kingdom at today's Australian Film Institute Award nominations, here are 18 thoughts/musings/reflections/etc. The entire list of contenders can be found at the AFI website, so please head over there and save me the effort of copying and pasting like a lazy git typing them all out.

1. 18 Nominations for Animal Kingdom?
As if its status as one of the most acclaimed and important films in Australian history, today it had to go out of its way and nab itself 18 nominations! That's a record as far as I can tell (nobody seems to have corrected me yet). Of course, it helps to get three out of four Best Supporting Actor nominations (Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Sullivan Stapleton) and two Best Lead Actor nominations (Ben Mendelsohn and James Frencheville). Throw in some (shall we say) curious technical nominations like Cappi Ireland's for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design for Jo Ford and that means Animal Kingdom received a nomination in every single category that it was eligible for!

2. The Waiting City is this year's Disgrace
Eyebrows were certainly raised last year when Steve Jacobs' critically acclaimed Disgrace, starring a career best John Malkovich, failed to receive a single nomination and it looks like that honour has been bestowed upon Claire McCarthy's The Waiting City in 2010. Oh sure, Denson Baker received a well-deserved Best Cinematography nomination, but that's it. I didn't expect it to get nominations across the board, but the exemplary work by Joel Edgerton and Radha Mitchell (giving perhaps their best ever performances in my eyes) seems like good solid Best Lead Actor and Actress nominees. Not the case. I wasn't as anti-James Frencheville as some, but his nomination over Edgerton (or Peter Marshall in The Horseman for that matter) is baffling.

3. Bright Star was remembered.
I am so happy that not only was Bright Star remembered in the Best Film category, but Jane Campion and Abbie Cornish, too, in their respective fields. Campion's stunning film about poet John Keats was released late last year (along with The Boys are Back, which also had a solid nomination tally) and could have easily been passed over for more recent fare. Note, Campion is nominated for Best Original Screenplay, not Adapted like the Academy tried to make out that Bright Star was (pish posh, obviously!)

4. Women make up half the Best Direction category
It's true. And it's interesting that they went with Julie Bertuccelli, a foreigner.

5. Don't feel sorry for Kodi Smit-McPhee
Sure, he's the lone representative for any movie that is not Animal Kingdom in the Best Supporting Actor category, but since he is nominated for a film that was a flop and an awards day dud (that'd be Matching Jack), not to mention his second nomination for The Road in the International category, let's not get too sad for the kid. He's already won an AFI and another nomination in his brief time plus he's making critically acclaimed films overseas, so he's going all right!


6. Speaking of those International Awards...
You have to just accept Sam Worthington being nominated for Avatar, but Mia Wasikowska for Alice in Wonderland? When she gave a great performance in The Kids are All Right? That's crazy talk! Meanwhile, Naomi Watts received what will probably be her only nomination for Mother & Child and she should probably win the category, unless voters are feeling partial to Toni Collette in The United States of Tara for a second year in a row.

7. Favouritism
Yeah, Jacki Weaver was great and all and seeing her nominated (and surely win) was great (although I'm more excited about her Oscar prospects right now), the top nomination of the day for me was that left field, but oh so rockin' nomination for Daybreakers in Best Original Screenplay. You can't say that isn't an interesting citation. I'd say a deserved one, too.

8. Tomorrow when Ashleigh Cummings is a star
I was happy to see Ashleigh Cummings got a nomination in the Best Young Actor category for her work as "Robyn" in Tomorrow When the War Began. As I get further away from seeing that film, a good one and one that got several major nominations including Best Film, it is without a doubt she and Deniz Akdeniz that linger as the standouts. That shot of Cummings walking towards the camera as she fires her rifle is one of the finest individual moments from any of the AFI contenders.

9. No The Horseman
I know it was a very longshot, but it would have been great to see Steven Kastrissios' intense revenge horror film The Horseman get something. Peter Marshall's performance is the best male performance of the year, too.


10. Ben Mendelsohn will finally win a Lead statue
He's like Meryl Streep. He won way back 1987 for Best Supporting Actor in The Year My Voice Broke, but despite six nominations in the Lead categories (one was for Lead Actor in a TV Drama for Love My Way) it appears he will finally get that Lead Actor AFI award. I thought he deserved it last year for Beautiful Kate over the eventual winner, Anthony LaPaglia for Balibo, but who can deny him this year? James Frencheville is the Queen Latifah to Mendelsohn's Catherine Zeta-Jones, if you know what I mean.

11. Doubling up
This doesn't happen to often. Not only are two actors from the same film represented together in Best Lead Actor (the aforementioned Mendelsohn and Frencheville from Animal Kingdom), but the Best Lead Actress category, too, as French actor Charlotte Gainsbourg joins her young The Tree co-star Morgana Davis. I was hoping for one, but didn't expect both!

I keep a running "ballot" document for each year as it goes by and I have Davies and Gainsbourg listed together under Best Actress purely because they feel so intertwined in that film that it feels impossible to separate them. No one is going to deny Jacki Weaver in that category at the AFIs, but I reckon Morgana Davies would've won this in a walk if Weaver had have been submitted in the Best Supporting Actress category, but that's not how the AFI Awards work.

12. International names on the list
We've already mentioned Julie Bertuccelli (Best Direction) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (Best Lead Actress), but Clive Owen too snuck in on goodwill for The Boys are Back, a likable if unremarkable film that still wormed its way to nominations.

13. Ernie Dingo?
Did this well known actor's recent string of bad publicity and alleged criminal activity cause him to be snubbed for Bran Nue Dae. I don't know anyone who doesn't say he gives the best performance of that indigenous road trip musical, a Best Film contender, and yet he was absent from the ballot. Was surprised to see Geoffrey Rush not nominated, either, in the Supporting Actor category since he is so revered.

14. John Edwards, but not the psychic one
Is John Edwards the most respected man in Aussie television right now? The AFI TV categories are filled with projects he is involved with. In fact, of the four Best Television Drama series nominees, only one (ONE!) does not list John Edwards as one of the producer nominees. Rush (Network Ten), Spirited (W) and Tangled (Showcase) have all been shepherded by the man, which is a remarkable achievement. That his three shows are all quite good is another matter entirely. How about Claudia Karvan and Jacquelin Perske, too? They have a new show? Nominate it!


15. Network Ten, for better or worse
Whether you like Network Ten's programming - and I wholeheartedly agree with piece by Clem Bastow at The Vine re James Packer's recent purchase of the channel - it's hard to deny, as I look over the TV nominations that without them the list would be... barren, for lack of a better word. Hell, the Best Telefeature/Mini-Series category wouldn't even exist! And I think we can all be thankful that Rush is there to save us from an embarrassing Packed to the Rafters/Rescue Special Ops situation.

16. Five outta six ain't bad!
Back to the films, I wasn't a fan of Beneath Hill 60, but the nominations are all pretty impressive. Sure, the Animal Kingdom love went a little bit overboard like Goldie Hawn, and The Waiting City's egregious snubbing is more than a little sad, but one bad movie out of a bunch (and, yes, I am admittedly in the minority in regards to my feelings about Jeremy Sims' WWI movie) is a good stat.

17. Struck out
Films to receive no nominations at all are Accidents Happen, The Horseman, I Love You Too, Lou, Mother Fish and Subdivision. Nothing too upsetting about those apart from The Horseman, which I've already spoken about.

18. Next year?
We've already seen several contenders in the form of The Loved Ones, which should be nominations across the board, but I'll be specifically cheering on nominations for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Robin McLeavy for Best Lead Actress, giving a performance that can instantly be regarded as one of the greatest horror performances of all time. Yes, I am being serious. We've also got Red Hill, which should do well in the technical categories, and - depending on eligibility issues - The King's Speech. That Oscar contender is an official UK/Australia co-production, but is it enough of one to qualify? Well, that's too far away to think about, so let's just stay with 2010, okay?

Review: The Tree

The Tree
Dir. Julie Bertuccelli
Year: 2010
Aus Rating: M
Running Time: 97mins

Julie Bertuccelli’s The Tree is a rare breed, indeed. Based on an acclaimed novel titled Our Father Who Art in The Tree by Brisbane-born, UK-based novelist Judy Pascoe, adapted and directed by a Frenchwoman and made in Australia with a cast of local and French talent. It is a deeply moving affair that will slowly work its way into the hearts of viewers thanks to the bare emotions on display and the heart-breaking work of its cast. The Tree is something special and something to be treasured.

Read the rest Onya Magazine


I'm going out on a limb here (pun not intended) with my grade for The Tree. I know many who were either underwhelmed or merely whelmed, but I really responded to the film so I'm giving it a rare A. I can only explain it as I do in the review.

I do it find it interesting though that the two A films from 2010 involve foreigners moving to the strange land of their family. First Tilda Swinton's Russian goes to Italy to become the matriarch of a dynasty and now Charlotte Gainsbourg travels to Australia to be with her Australian husband and raise their children. I'm not sure if that's saying something to me or if it's nothing but an interesting coincidence, but it's an interesting parallel nonetheless.

I can't wait to see The Tree again and I have at all convinced you to see the film then I have some double passes to give away! To win one just email glenndunks (at) gmail (dot) com with answer to this question: What type of tree is the titular tree in The Tree.

Whoa, that's a lot of "tree"!