It amazes me to this very day to read movie websites and blogs that still harp on about Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan to Best Picture honours. Even though people don't seem to realise that Saving Private Ryan would have made for perhaps the most cliched Oscar-winner in the history of the Academy (Spielberg! Hanks! WWII! Vin Diesel!) In that debate I remain firmly in the camp of Shakespeare, but if given the option between that or The Thin Red Line... well, the call would be close.
Meanwhile over in the Best Actress category people still think Cate Blanchett was robbed for her performance in Elizabeth, who was beaten to the golden statue by Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love. At the time I was all about Blanchett and in my very young life as an Oscar watcher (the first ceremony I remember sitting down and watching the entirety of was one year earlier when Titanic swept the board) I couldn't quite fathom how she lost. Since then I am all about Paltrow in the battle of Best Actress '98.
However, I imagine that all those people who cry foul over Blanchett's loss have never seen Lisa Cholodenko's High Art, for if they had they would have a far bigger snub complaint in the form of Ally Sheedy's performance as "Lucy Berliner". I had never seen it either and had only heard mythical whispering from the likes of Nathaniel Rogers and... umm... er, anyone else? Now that I have seen it, on the eve of Cholodenko's next lesbian love tangle The Kids Are All Right (released 5 September), I can wholehearted agree that Ally Sheedy should have an Academy Award on her mantel right now.
As Nathaniel mentions in the piece I linked to, "How could any of (the five nominated) performances not have been nominated", since there was Meryl Streep with cancer, the next big thing making Royalty Porn, Hollywood's daughter reciting Shakespeare, an aging international stay bonding with a small child and the star of a biopic of a tortured musical genius. Still, one watch of High Art and you've got to wonder the Academy let Sheedy's performance pass through their fingers. Is it because a) the film's confronting homosexuality (something I am unaware of them embracing at that stage), b) High Art came at the tail end of the '90s indie movement at a time when all the big names were breaking out and taking their culturally hip audiences with them along with their multi-million dollar budgets or c) they couldn't resign themselves to the fact that an actress who made a name for herself in 1980s teen dramas was actually capable of giving a performance richer than one by Meryl Streep and the traditionalists couldn't handle it.
Hmmm.
Yes, "hmmm" indeed!
Nevertheless, Sheedy deserved that Oscar. It's interesting to wonder what may have happened if she had even been nominated. What would her career be like today? Since High Art in 1998 Sheedy's most high-profile work has come on TV series such as CSI, Oz and Once and Again. Her recent cameo in Todd Solondz' Life During Wartime should hopefully kick start something, maybe another auteur will notice her, remember how great she is capable of being and cast her in a great role.
It's interesting to look at the 1998 Best Actress race and wonder what happened to some of the also rans. Christina Ricci, so very good and Golden Globe-nominated in The Opposite of Sex, has slid so far down the chain of great actresses since that role that it's nigh on depressing (Black Snake Moan and Monster notwithstanding although even those have their detractors). Jane Horrocks' Golden Globe-nominated performance in Little Voice lead to this and it's arguable that Meg Ryan (also Globe-nominated) has effectively been a complete non-entity since You've Got Mail. Ally Sheedy's in good company then.
As I type this the final sessions of MIFF 2010 are about to be unveiled, including the Australian premiere of Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, which I am seeing tomorrow. I could have waiting until then and included it in here, but that would mean I'd have to wait and I really couldn't be bothered!
MIFF is exhausting enough doing 23 films, so I can't imagine how some of my fellow Melburnian film fanatics - Lee Zachariah, Thomas Caldwell and Richard Watts included - who see upwards of 70 feel. I plan to write more reviews of some of the other films I have seen at the fest, although some of them might come around when they receive a theatrical release (Red Hill for instance). One film you won't see me review is Clara Law's Like a Dream because it was my sole walk out of the festival. It wasn't exactly good in any way, but I was just so tired and when you're not enjoying a movie sometimes you just have to just throw in the towel.
I have ranked all 22 films and I'm glad that I was able to see so many good movies. Only at around #17 do the films truly start getting a bit iffy. And, of course, titles like Certified Copy could very easily rise even higher as the process of time works its magic.
Note that some of the "Review" links below send you to Trespass Mag where I did a few MIFF pieces. Enjoy.
The Silent House (dir. Gustavo Hernández - Review)
Those final two are the only ones that I would consider truly terrible cinema, so all in all it was a very successful festival!
The Men: Two performances stand out from the pack: Ewan McGregor in I Love You Phillip Morris and David Denkic from Brotherhood. McGregor hasn't been this alive on screen in years and is his best performance in over a decade (I'd have to go back to before Moulin Rouge!, even, to find a better performance from him). He's so knowing about his surroundings and balances the fine mix of flamboyance and sweetness. Denkic on the other hand is all bubbling rage, sexual longing and sadness and during Brotherhood's best scenes he is the focal point.
Other male performances that registered were Steve Bisley in Red Hill, Ciarán Hinds in Life During Wartime, John Hawkes in Winter's Bone and while William Shimell is obviously playing second fiddle to Juliette Binoche in Certified Copy he has some fine, delicate work there, too. Lastly a big - BIG - shoutout to the terrible ensemble of Four Lions, my favourite of which was probably Kayvan Novak (he's sexy too!).
The Women: You don't win Best Actress at Cannes for just being pretty, so it's no surprise that Juliette Binoche shone brightly in Certified Copy. So many expressions go by on that woman's face over the running time of Kiarostami's movie, you'd think she was going to pull a muscle! Jennifer Lawrence was low-key in Winter's Bone, but still fine, however I much preferred her support in the form of Dale Dickey. Allison Janney and Ally Sheedy, the latter in a bizarre but hilarious cameo, were tops in Life During Wartime and, yet another ensemble, the women of The Actresses were all fantastic but my favourite was definitely Yoon Yeo-Jung.
Experiences: There were individual moments that I will remember for a very long time. How about the meditative and 2001-inspired ending of Dreamland or the beautiful, stunning end to Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist. I won't ruin it for anybody out there, but the card on the table? It will tear your heart open! Juliette Binoche putting her earrings on in Certified Copy, the discovery of so many long-forgetting films in Machete Maidens Unleashed! (CLEOPATRA WONG is at the very top of my must-see list), the anger I felt at the end of The Silent House, the lush 3D of Cane Toads: The Conquest or that stunning confrontation scene between Ciaran Hinds and Chris Marquette in Life During Wartime. All amazing, all unforgettable.
Sound: I'm not sure what it was with MIFF this year, but I could fill out the Academy's Best Sound Design/Editing categories just from the movies I saw at this festival alone! The soundscapes of Dreamworld were second-to-none, the shot-blasts of Red Hill were teeth-shattering, the gunfire of City of Life and Death rattled... even the way Binoche's feet clapped against the Tuscan stone paths in Certified Copy felt blissful to me.
Music, too, played a major role in several of the films. Come February 2010 I really hope to see Sylvain Chomet's name listed as a nominee for the Oscar for Best Original Score. His music to The Illusionist was divine. Probably the best score I've heard since Alexandre Desplat's work on Birth. And if you know me that is high praise, indeed.
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And so that about wraps it up. You'll no doubt be hearing about several of these titles throughout the rest of the year and next and I've had a ball. It will be good to be able to back to having a diet free of shoving KFC down by gob and being able to just relax at home in the evening instead of having to rush about hoping to get a good spot in line. And, just quietly, I will be able to get back to such things as Scream to Scream, Scene by Scene, which I'm sure you're excited about (as am I!)
"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?
However, I imagine that all those people who cry foul over Blanchett's loss have never seen Lisa Cholodenko's High Art, for if they had they would have a far bigger snub complaint in the form of Ally Sheedy's performance as "Lucy Berliner". I had never seen it either and had only heard mythical whispering from the likes of Nathaniel Rogers and... umm... er, anyone else? Now that I have seen it, on the eve of Cholodenko's next lesbian love tangle The Kids Are All Right (released 5 September), I can wholehearted agree that Ally Sheedy should have an Academy Award on her mantel right now.
Yes, "hmmm" indeed!
