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-

Battered and Bruised: 10 Recommendations for Lars von Trier

To celebrate my imminent viewing of Lars von Trier's latest movie, Melancholia, at the Melbourne International Film Festival (my most anticipated of the fest!), I thought it'd be fun to look at the actresses that I'd personally love to see work with the famed Dane. With Kirsten Dunst, an actress many had written off in only her mid-20s, winning Best Actress at Cannes his knack for unique and unexpected casting is yet again in the spotlight. No matter who it is that he casts - a debutant Emily Watson, A-lister Nicole Kidman or musician-turned-actor Bjork - he is bound to get an electric, almost always career best performance out of them.

Angela Bassett
Where in the world is Angela Bassett you ask? Well, unfortunately my geography skills are not what they used to be when hunting down Carmen Sandiego because I fear I'd get lost in seconds trying to figure out where she got off to. Here's hoping she's stalking the Zentropa studios in Denmark, because other than that I just don't wanna know. The way that von Trier put such wordy dialogue into the mouths of his Dogville cast (especially Kidman and Caan in that big climax) makes me salivate for Bassett's e-nun-cee-at-ion and what she could take his highfalutin words.

Viola Davis
An actress as criminally underused as Viola Davis needs a director like Lars von Trier to collectively wake the world up to her immense gifts. She was a punch to the gut in brief cameos in Antoine Fisher and Doubt, so I'd like to imagine she could carry that on through to an entire film. I'd be scared of what von Trier would come up for her - and, perhaps, after the experience of dealing with race in Manderlay he may not want to go back there - but whatever it was I have no doubt Davis could carry it.

Laura Dern
As proven by her work with David Lynch (Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, INLAND EMPIRE) as well as provocative and daring films by Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth), Dern has proven that she is at her finest when stretched a director in command of his craft, but who also knows how to play with expectations of story and idea as well as the prettiness of an actor. Her flexible face would be perfect at expressing the range of emotions that von Trier always asks of his leading ladies, while her natural good looks would be like clay in von Trier's hands to bruise and batter at his whim.

Cameron Diaz
I must apologise to Ms Diaz, for you see I recently joked that the Golden Globes' musical/comedy categories were going to be so weak that they might have to nominate Cameron here for her performance in Bad Teacher. I apologise because she would actually deserve it. She hasn't been that committed to a role since - if I am remember correctly - the underrated In Her Shoes. I can only imagine what von Trier would do with this bright-eyed surfer chick, but I would hope he would tap into that talent that sparked in Being John Malkovich and Vanilla Sky. People would most definitely scoff, but there was a time when Diaz looked to be becoming a force. Much like Kirsten Dunst, I am sure she'd surprise us all.

Dakota Fanning
Gosh she was good in The Runaways, wasn't she? Now that Dakota Fanning is grown up it won't actually be gross, weird and just downright icky to see her be put through the physical wringer like many say she was in that Hounddog movie from years back. I'd gladly take Elle Fanning, too, since she is proving herself time and time again lately.

Holly Hunter
The day Lars von Trier announces he is working with Holly Hunter - an actress sadly lost to television and below radar indie projects - is pretty much the day I stop breathing and die. I must, however, be resurrected because there'd be no way in hell I would miss this combination. Just remembering Hunter's performances throughout the 1980s and '90s (even her most recent Oscar-nominated work in 2003, thirteen) and I get chills. Actual chills. I can easily see von Trier sliding Hunter into a role as deep and destructive as Breaking the Waves and I can only hope that Hunter would still have the motivation to dig deep for a role if she was asked.

Lisa Kudrow
This former "Friend" has proven to be one of the most brittle and effecting comediennes in her work with Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Happy Ending and, unseen by me, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits), which have been deeply funny and yet emotionally scarred. The Comeback proved that she can indeed be excellent without Roos of her fellow friends to have her back, so just think for a second what sort of warped tragi-comic nightmare von Trier could come up with (people forget he can be a dark humourist) for Lisa Kudrow? Just imagine it, I dare you! Lisa Kudrow in The Idiots. Wow.

Mila Kunis
Much like Kirsten Dunst, Kunis has a background that could make working with a director on von Trier's standing seem quite odd. Star of That '70s Show as well as mainstream properties like Friends with Benefits, its her performance in last year's Black Swan that hinted - but didn't quite fully achieve - at the well of emotions just waiting to be pumped out of her (okay, that sounds gross!) Von Trier could quite easily play with the flirtatious, sexy Mila Kunis just as much as the dark and tortured Mila Kunis and she has briefly flirted with unleashing.

Kristen Stewart
Gosh she was good in The Runaways, wasn't she? Not only would I like to see this because she's proven herself before and after Twilight, but I think I'd also get a bit of a thrill out of Stewart appearing in a film by a filmmaker like von Trier and confusing the hell out of her fans. It's be a riot and she would probably rise to the task, too.

And lastly...

Madonna
Oh you know you wanna see what these two control freaks come up with on his Danish backlot! Don't even try to deny it.

Book of Melancholia, Hat of Albert Nobbs, Body of Sleeping Beauty

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.

Bring It On? Take a Big Whiff!

I have gone in to bat for Peyton Reed's Bring It On before. I even called it the greatest sports film of all time, a point I stand by. Needless to say I have a fondness for it, so when it came to choosing my favourite individual shot from the movie for The Film Experience's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series I had trouble.

It took a lot of willpower to not just choose a moment from my favourite scene, Missy's audition in the gymnasium, due to my love of Eliza Dushku and the range of facial expressions and emotions she has during this scene. Smug superiority, fake cheeriness and intense satisfaction. Same for the scene in which she slowly registers the fact that the cheerleading team she has just joined has ripped off the cheers from another school. Or how about the scene where Missy's cheer persona is revealed and she, dare we suggest, likes it! My favourite shots of these moments are below, but they're not my number one.






Of course there's also basically any shot of Jesse Bradford because, well, he's Jesse Bradford. It's quite interesting to note that all three leads from Bring It On seemed like they could have success and stardom handed to them on a silver platter and yet it never quite worked out.




I also love the way the Kirsten Dunst makes her character of Torrence so easy to read. The way she looks like a deer in the headlights during her TV interview or by the way he face drops when she can't keep up the perky "spirit fingers" face anymore.



I nearly went with this shot below because I feel it says so much about the film's willingness to be different about homosexuality in the way it's represented so casually. After Les speaks to a fellow male cheerleader he has this look of relief that is so adorable and says so much about the character.


In the end I had to go with a shot of Missy, but one that I think perfectly encapsulates Bring It On. The shot below is not only from a really well-edited montage (gawd, how much do I love a montage?) but I think it shows off the film's exuberance with colour and composition, as well as expressing Peyton Reed's obvious love of cinema. A Bob Fosse movie is not something you ever expect from a teen movie, but there it is, Sweet Charity! I love how purely obsessed with cinema Bring It On is, everything about the movie screams devotion and never more so than when it references one of the medium's greatest artists.