about the films I watched

Shattered

2012-02-04T16:21:00.000+08:00

by Xu Tong
China, 2011

from IFFR site:
Xu Tong continues his enervating, sometimes controversial reporting on the morals of the Chinese underclass. In the lead role, an 80-year-old, retired railway worker Tang Xixin, who is visited by his daughter Caifeng (the brothel owner from Fortune Teller, IFFR 2010). They are straight-talking people.

Tang Xixin is a retired railway official who has lost little of his outspoken character at the age of 80. He does not like to receive his adult children in his ramshackle home, but he makes an exception for his daughter Caifeng (who was a guest in Rotterdam last year). She runs a brothel and is involved in equally illegal mining practices. In other words, a woman of the world who tries energetically to keep out of the hands of the law.
Xu Tong films the family the way it is. The old Tang, with his flood of words, is an ideal witness to the 20th century; his daughter is a colourful symbol of the new China. Even though in the views of the state she is undoubtedly far from being a role model. Xu Tong’s intimate, occasionally raw style of filming fits in well with that. He does not make any moral judgement and that makes him controversial in China. The result is nevertheless sincere and authentic.

my thoughts:
A father (Old man Tang) and his daughter (Caifeng) in Heilongjiang province (northeast China).

Very interesting in this film is the mirror between history and modern China. With photos but moreover with stories. I love it how this eighty year old man keeps talking. You can see he loves to talk but he teaches us a lot about how things were years ago. And even talks about his membership with The Party (which he canceled) and what happened when Mao died.

And then his daughter... what a couple they form. Both strong persons. Arguing most of the time. And most of the time about nothing and anything. Sometimes hilarious. At other times annoying.
But she also takes care of him so I suppose they have a warm relationship after all.
She was in prison (illegal brothel) and tells about that. She's still in the underground business but no longer in brothels but in mining.

Generational conflicts. Family arguments also with other family members. Sexual habits. All very much out in the open. This film offers a very intimate and inside view on family life.

Also the house is something worth watching, so iconic. I have been in houses like this with walls full of posters and craziness. They are like little Chinese museums.

Oh and again some slaughtering in this film... this time a pig. What is it with Chinese filmmakers that they want us to go through that whole procedure again and again lol.

Also this film is not an easy watch and it wasn't an enjoyable watch for the whole film and sometimes even an uncomfortable watch, but nonetheless at the finish line I did have the feeling of having watched an interesting film. I haven't watched other films by Xu Tong but will be on the lookout for them.

Whose eyes

2012-02-04T16:07:00.000+08:00

by Tan Tan
China, 2011

from IFFR site:
Daily life as seen by surveillance cameras. Well actually, as seen by leading experimental filmmaker Tan Tan.

Four ‘fake surveillance videos’, mixed with violent outbursts that are recorded on real security cameras and apparently random shots from everyday Chinese reality: the image of Whose Eyes. Which reality is the most real, and who sees what?

my thoughts:
Sometimes also a short film can move you so much. This mixture of surveillance shots taken from trams, a shop, at an ATM, an outdoor fitness area, etc. show much more than you would think at first sight.

It reveals one of the biggest problems in Chinese society... that it seems nobody is willing to help or care for the other (outside of their inner circle). The problem is huge. It was one of my fears when living in China that I would get into a traffic accident and that I would be lying there helplessly without anybody helping me. Because that's what happens. They don't take action or initiative. Not when an accident happens, a fight takes place, a child is hurt or wounded or whatever. Out of fear to be hold responsible, out of fear not knowing what to do.
Partly it's historical luggage: One of Mao's quotes: To let things drift if they do not affect one personally. But also governmental authorities are to blame. Apparently people are so terrified of being charged themselves instead of the one who caused the accident or whatever (easier way out for the authorities).

A few months ago this was tragically shown in the news world wide when a toddler was run over by a van several times and nobody reacted, until a migrant woman rescued her. The toddler died within a week afterwards. The Chinese began to wonder whether they had become a 'world without morals'.

I experienced it also works the other way: Chinese people always looked extremely surprised (almost annoyed) if I would reach out to them to help them.

I found the sound of the film a bit disturbing at times, I don't know if it was meant to be this loud, maybe he wanted to wake his viewers up with his message.

But other than that I found this film very interesting!

In the credits we read: God and all the eyes....

L'estate di Giacomo

2012-02-03T23:50:00.000+08:00

The summer of Giacomo
by Alessandro Comodin
Italy / France / Belgium, 2011

from IFFR site:
A summer day in Italy. The camera follows the deaf-mute Giacomo and a childhood girlfriend Stefi closely - in the woods, by the river - without wanting to disrupt the mystery of their relationship, between restrained sensuality and childhood games. Many regard this lyrical and modest docu-fiction as the best Italian debut in years.

After a long opening scene in which 19-year-old Giacomo plays a stormy drum solo while the camera focuses on his hearing aid, the hard-of-hearing boy sets off on a languid summer afternoon with his childhood girlfriend Stefi through the woods to a remote river. There the two swim and sunbathe, enjoy picnic sandwiches, chatter away mindlessly, listen to music and throw clay at each other in the water.
During large parts of the minimalist, delicate, occasionally sultry Summer of Giacomo, the camera moves not a millimetre off Giacomo and Stefi - the viewer can almost count the spots on his back and the soft tears in her neck. The wonderful, nonprofessional actors Giacomo Zulian and Stefania Comodin apparently have no trouble holding the viewer's attention and slowly the relationship between the two of them becomes clearer. At last year's Locarno Festival, novice director Alessandro Comodin won an award in the category ‘Cineasti del Presenti’ (Filmmakers of the Present).

my thoughts:
What a sweet coming of age film. Makes you think of dreamy summers, of childhood years, being a teenager and teenager loves and it brings back memories of those years where life was more carefree.

Set in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region this documentary/fiction film follows Giacomo, who is deaf, and his childhood girlfriend Stefi. Loved the interaction between the two friends, loved the settings, loved the music.
Not much happens. But when thinking back of my own teenage summers I have the same hazy lazy feeling about it (apart from my summer jobs that is ;). Even getting bored because of that haziness and longing for some action. With this film I did get the feeling that there was that kind of under layer as well. So for me it did portray those teenage years very well.

The film doesn't give any clue about what and how, not even after the surprising turn of events in the end of the film. I guess it had to tell me something about eventually growing up, out of that teenager stage and being more serious now. Less innocent. I think the film doesn't have the carefree feel anymore in the end what it does have in the beginning, so that was my conclusion of the film. But that's all for you to interpret yourselves...

I loved it!

Sentimental animal

2012-02-03T23:35:00.000+08:00

by Wu Quan
China, 2011

from IFFR site:
Mysterious, oppressive and occasionally shocking film in stylised black-and-white (shot by a colleague director Zhang Yuedong) about the latter days of a potentate: Wu Ye was a respected soldier, but his clan is now preparing a Last Supper for the Spring Festival.

The fact that there are now signs of growing diversity in style, theme and approach in Chinese independent fiction film is clear from the first film by the versatile Wu Quan. In contrasty, very sharp black-and-white (shot by cameraman Zhang Yuedong, who directed the minimalist-absurdist Mid-Afternoon Barks), Sentimental Animal is a meticulously styled, occasionally sensitive and sometimes shocking allegory that will not easily be forgotten.
Wu has made a film about the latter days of a Chinese patriarch. This former soldier and owner of the fish farm where the events take place became physically handicapped after a heroic deed. Although he can no longer speak and needs help from his nurse for virtually all his actions, he is still the respected leader of his clan. But now he is approaching his end and takes on his last, difficult task.

my thoughts:
The film starts off with a man lying on a bed with a tear rolling down his cheek. We don't know yet what is happening. It was an intriguing shot though, as are many others to follow.

The filmmaker didn't use a real script, they had one but eventually decided not to use it after all. They decided to follow the flow.

Warning: Not for sentimental animal lovers, the film starts off with killing a donkey. All the way. But that happens in a lot of Chinese films.
It turns out that the donkey is meant for the new year's meal they will have together. A pre-new year's party because they will all go to their hometowns for Chinese New Year's.
It is a new year's party as well as birthday party for Wu Ye, a former soldier still admired by his people. He's seriously ill and this could be the last meal together. He does have more power in himself than everyone thinks though.

I liked the setting of this film: the fish farm looks like a green/glass house and they all live inside. At night it gives a great shot.
The film definitely is oppressive but I didn't think it was too shocking. I found it remarkable that in this film there were two men with disabilities. For a longer time they were considered 'useless' in Chinese society, in this film you will see a great form of respect towards both.

I have been watching quite some films in black and white in this film festival for some reason (and sometimes I didn't even notice, I guess that tells you something about the film, right). For this film there wasn't any other than a budget reason to choose for black and white. It does suit the film. It even makes it a bit more mysterious.

The title has no specific meaning but does refer to the donkeys of the start of the film, the fish from the fish farm and people as they can be the worst of animals...

Interesting film quote:
"This is my heart on a plate" (plate = empty)

Apuda

2012-02-03T23:00:00.000+08:00

by He Yuan
China, 2010

from IFFR site:
With a painter’s eye, the filmmaker portrays a poor, simple man caring for his sick father. Bitter beauty. An exquisite impression of two men who live the way many millions of Chinese do. Not everyone gets to share the new wealth.

In a sensitive and balanced way, He Yuan portrays two men who live in bitter poverty. Apuda is a simple man, who almost thinks like a child - a good child, because he dedicates himself to caring for his sick old father. Even though the film focuses on these two men specifically, it also provides a picture of a China in which millions of people still live in deprived circumstances.
Like other Chinese independent filmmakers, He Yuan has an ethnographic and anthropological background and also a fascination with the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens outside the modern urban centres. But he does not observe in the way a social scientist would. He prefers to compare himself with painters from olden times who went out into nature to capture reality as it revealed itself to them.
While Apuda worries about the health of his father and lovingly nurses him, the filmmaker observes the inevitable end no less lovingly.

my thoughts:
Apuda lives together with his father in a small and simple farm house (no water/electricity) and takes care of him, his father is in his last days of life. They live in Wusuwan village, which is near Lijiang in Yunnan province, China. They are Naxi people (minority group in China).

The filmmaker is Naxi as well, the film is made from that perspective. He doesn't know the Naxi dialect and is living in a city himself, he said. He stayed in the village a couple of times to do fieldwork before filming. He left the camera rolling in their house most of the time. He compared it with going out in nature to paint, just the way things are.

Apuda and his father spend most of the time of the film in the shared bedroom. Sleeping, eating, smoking (I loved how the pipe was in their pouch), thinking out loud. Not much happens besides of that. But then again it gives a very clear picture of their life... it just isn't that eventful.

The dad says at one point, when someone brings a gift in the form of eggs: "I sure must be in a bad state to bring me eggs." His body was giving up on him more and more.

The son - while walking through his orchard - is questioning himself and his life: "The will think I am a clown, they will laugh at me" (loosing face) and "All the women (harvesting the apples for him) do is the apple selling business, they are so annoying.... No one will cry at my grave..."
He calculated that one ton of apples would make 800 yuan but stated that he doesn't even produce one ton. In other words, it doesn't bring much for daily living.
It all sounded so sad, hopeless and lonely. No one will do for him what he now is doing for his father.

The film tells about awareness of life, of getting older, dying, about living the hard way. In our western eyes it for sure doesn't look easy, not clean, poor...

Eventually the father dies and we are lead through the different stages after his death. I think it was very well captured. Especially the song (song for the death I guess) is lovely.

Our cinema wasn't too full to begin with but during screening many people walked away. I must admit I did have a moment or two that I dozed off as well. The film is absolutely not an easy watch, it takes quite something to sit through. You literally have to work through it. But I still think it's worth that, it shows so well how many people still live in China. It's not a picture the government wants to show because it's not a sign of the first economy of the world they want to be, but it still *is* reality in China.

One old man

2012-02-03T22:50:00.000+08:00

by Hai Bo
China, 2011

from IFFR site:
The filmmaker is also a photographer and needs no words to show that poverty and beauty are not mutually exclusive, using a farmer who is too old to work anymore.

A portrait, without words, of an old man in the countryside. The man was undoubtedly a farmer, but now he is only an old man, a poor and useless man. He shuffles round and watches others at work. A man like so many others in the great China.

my thoughts:
Beautiful old man, beautiful scenery. When I see old people in China I always wonder what they have been through. What is their luggage. Especially in a country like China. Like with this man, their faces often tell it was an awful lot they had to go through.

During the film we follow this man while walking, I guess on his (or his son's?) land or in a village, it isn't very clear. It would be so interesting to learn more about his story...

He was a giant with brown eyes

2012-02-02T22:40:00.000+08:00

C'était un géant aux yeux bruns
by Eileen Hofer
Azerbaijan / Switzerland, 2012

from IFFR site:
After her parents’ divorce, Sabina reluctantly followed her mother to Switzerland. Five years later Sabina, now 17, finally returns to her homeland of Azerbaijan. The film enters a family’s intimacy to tell a universal story that deals with adolescence, separation and self-discovery.

Eileen Hofer’s personal, independently-made feature debut has no professional actors, one or two takes for each scene and a budget of 20,000 Euros. Hofer could not and would not choose between fiction and documentary, so did not get funding via the traditional channels.
Born and bred in Switzerland with Turkish roots, the director tells a gripping coming-of-age story about life between two cultures. She follows her stepsister Sabina (17), who came with her mother from Azerbaijan to Switzerland. Her older sister Narmina stayed behind with their father in Bacu.
Five years later, Sabina returns to Bacu for a summer holiday. She secretly intends to stay with her beloved relatives. However, her father has marriage plans, again, while Narmina's boyfriend has been called up for military service. And has Sabina in the meantime not become too alienated from her roots? The title refers to a dream of every child: that his or her father is a hero. Sabina has to learn to deflate that myth.

my thoughts:
What a great film!
The filmmaker Eileen Hofer lives in Switzerland and her dad is married to Sabina's mother. That's how she met Sabina and that's how the idea of the film came to life. The filmmaker joined Sabina/her stepsister to Azerbaijan for a visit and stayed with them while being there. A lovely coming-of-age story with a little extra when learning about these backgrounds.

The film is a mixture of fiction and documentary so it's not sure what is real and what is made up but actually it doesn't matter very much.
It's a lovely inside view into daily life of an Azeri family and I think because of her bond with Sabina and the opportunity to stay with the family in house, it was possible to show this intimate picture. Sabina and her mother moved to Switzerland five years ago and is now back for a visit in her hometown where her father, sister and other relatives still live. It's so interesting to get a glimpse of her life which in a way is between the Western world and Muslim and Russian traditions.

The film festival is always a way for me to 'travel' to countries where I wouldn't come otherwise. I guess Azerbaijan is one of those countries. We get to see Baku and some mountain villages in Azerbaijan and learn about the culture. Sometimes in between the lines but also because even Sabina doesn't know about certain customs anymore.

Before and after screening we got to meet the filmmaker who is a journalist in daily life. Her own family fled Lebanon in the mid 1970s. Her father is Swiss, her mother half Turkish-half Lebanese. She states she feels multicultural because of that. She told a bit more about the trip to Azerbaijan. It was such an inspiring Q&A. I'm looking forward and very interested to her next films!

Lovely film quote:
"We all waste time on looking for our identity, but the beauty of life is in the simple things" (father)

The search

2012-02-02T22:30:00.000+08:00

Gerayîs
by Resit Baskin
Turkey, 2012

from IFFR site:
Sensitive portrait of a man and his horse in the mountains. About animals’ emotional importance to humans, with a beautiful dream scene.
Halil (55) lives in a remote mountainous region and hasn’t heard from his son for a long time. He has a powerful bond with his horse, but he also loses that. A beautiful, intimate portrait of the relationship between a man and an animal. The first short film by the Kurdish Zaza (Iranian) Baskin.

my thoughts:
Loved the setting, the scenery is absolutely beautiful and dreamy. I didn't really get this film apart from that but it was a lovely zen moment in the festival. Just admiring what nature has to offer and the bond between a man and his horse.

The Interceptor from my hometown

2012-02-02T22:12:00.002+08:00

You Yi Zhong Jing Jiao Zhuang Yan
by Zhang Zanbo
China, 2011

from IFFR site:
One of the filmmaker’s classmates reveals his secret: he 'intercepts' people seeking their rights. That’s how the system works. The filmmaker follows the interceptor around Peking from dawn till dusk and doesn't interrupt his story. The result is unique and amazing.

The versatile and productive documentary maker Zhang Zanbo is just as much at ease making a well-constructed and beautifully composed film like Falling from the Sky (2010) as a 'spontaneous' film, when the opportunity arises. He is a filmmaker with his camera always at the ready.
At the end of 2010, Zhang received a phone call from an old classmate. The two, who had not seen each other for twelve years, turned out to have taken very different paths in life. He is the critical, independent filmmaker while his classmate had made a career for himself within the Communist Party - he was about to become mayor of their home town.
The classmate turns out to be very talkative and tells revealing stories about his activities for the government. He explains what an 'interceptor' is: a civil servant who has to do everything he can to prevent citizens from seeking justice. The classmate is just such a man. A unique document.

my thoughts:
"Petitioning (also known as letters and calls, correspondence and reception, xinfang or shangfang) is the administrative system for hearing complaints and grievances from individuals in China" (Wikipedia).

Intercepting is sending home. Local governments in China spend a lot of money on stopping petitioners from going to Beijing. The filmmaker's classmate says the only way to stop them is to give them money. At the same time they need to bribe authorities to cancel the records. They buy safety with money.
In a way everyone bribes everyone. Which we kind of knew already.

Petitioning is a civil right, but too many people make use of so it is limited to five, otherwise it is illegal. Because petitioning brings instability to the country. If petitioners get to Beijing, they are sent back to their hometowns within 24 hours.

The interceptor in this film says he feels like a tiny ant shaking a big tree. It's impossible to change anything. He's just a moth.

Apart from about petitioning and intercepting we learn a bit more about Chinese culture in this film. On his trip to Beijing the classmate is talking a lot about his life, about everything he feels like talking about. He loves to talk.

We meet him in a spa where he gets massages (very common in China), we meet him while eating and drinking (very popular as well) and he talks about his marriage (seven year's itch) and his mistress. He compares interceptors to prostitutes: We are selling our dignity, they only their body.

Anyway... I found this a very interesting film through which once again I learned a lot about Chinese culture and regulations.

On a side note: What I noticed in this (and in many other Chinese films) is that the subtitles in English follow one and other so fast. Chinese lines are shorter (grammar wise) so I understand the why, but sometimes I have to read really really fast to follow it all.

Damsels in distress

2012-02-01T23:50:00.001+08:00

by Whit Stillman
USA, 2011

from IFFR site:
Four female students want to cause a revolution at their University and end up in drily comic situations when they start getting involved with men, their musical aspirations and their support group for depressed students. Stillman’s film offers sharp dialogues and a cast filled with TV stars.

With Metropolitan (Oscar nomination), Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco,director/scriptwriter/producer Whit Stillman had three of the most important American independent films of the 1990s to his name. After an absence of 13 years, he returns with this comedy. Again the succinct dialogues are most striking in his always rather bizarre characters.
Stillman lets us take a look into the soul of rich American adolescents. Three attractive young female students, led by the dominant Violet, take the newcomer Lily under their wing. They teach her how to behave, who to date and, strikingly, how to prevent suicide on campus. But then men turn up on the scene.
This summary hardly does justice to a plot filled with strange turns. Stillman adds another tragicomic chapter to the subgenre of girlfriend clique films that took off with Clueless, helped by a cast with TV stars Analeigh Tipton, Adam Brody and Megalyn Echikunwoke.

my thoughts:
A very funny film! I have been smiling an awful lot during the screening and left theater with a big smile on my face. Such a feel good film.
When reading the blurb above before entering theater I wasn't sure what to expect but we were in for a great watch!

As I'm always more or less focussed on language one of the things I like most in this film are the lines (I so want to watch it again to hear those again).
And the characters all have some quirkiness. Especially Violet is kind of weird. She wants to invent some dance craze and come famous because of it. Just because dancing makes happy. And she runs a suicide prevention center where depressed people (and depressed people only!) will get a donut when they tell their story. And they get tap dance lessons to get happy again. Hilarious.
Together with Heather and Rose (who talks British but is American and has some very cliche opinions about certain men) she is on the lookout where to find the next freshman to guide them through student life. Advice such as: date guys who are less attractive than you because that's much easier than someone cooler, because you will always feel inferior to them.
The new student for this year is Lily who is the opposite of Violet and shows it.
In this film you'll get to know these four and of course all the available and not available male students.
Oh and there's a great dance scene at the end of the film (Fred Astaire-Joan Fontaine: A Damsel in Distress - 1937): lovely!

The filmmaker told us that the last time he was at the festival in Rotterdam twelve years ago he broke his finger. He had the habit of sitting on his hands (I kind of recognize that ;). More and more people were leaving the cinema during the screening and out of shame he was sliding down in his chair and so broke his finger. This time his fingers were alright, but that was more because he didn't stay in cinema during screening, he said.

No need to be ashamed at all though, I *loved* this film, so many lines that made me laugh out loud and many crazy quirky scenes. Wonderful film!

The sound of light

2012-02-01T23:50:00.000+08:00

Hikari no oto
by Yamasaki Juichiro
Japan, 2011

from IFFR site:
The filmmaker is a filmmaker, but the filmmaker is also a farmer. The film is about farmers and their problems pursuing a traditional life in this era. Filmed on a farm with real farmers. One son became a musician in town, but comes back when his father gets weaker. Beautifully real.

Yusuke returns from Tokyo to the rural village in Okayama where his parents have a dairy farm. The enterprise has been in the family for generations. While Yusuke would most love to be a musician, he feels the family duty pressing on him; his father has had an accident and as eldest son he has to help out.
The Kariya family farm is hemmed in between motorways and it turns out to be difficult to run a small-scale farm in an era of mass production and globalisation.
In this very realistic, honest drama, we follow Yusuke in the uncertain period as he wrestles with his dreams for the future and his relationship with Yoko, who has a child with a man who was once going to be a dairy farmer - if he hadn’t had a fatal accident.
In the run-up to the annual family tradition, standing together to watch the first sunrise in the New Year, the modest young man tries to make a decision about the rest of his life.

Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
This is an exotic film, even for the Japanese. It was shot far away from Tokyo in Okayama Prefecture. It is even in the local dialect and the actors are amateurs from the area. The film depicts real life on a farm and it’s not very idyllic. Nowadays, every small company is part of the global economy and that doesn’t care about family-owned businesses and tradition.
At the family farm in the film, the age-old problem of succession is an issue, but not as you might expect it to be. In fact no pressure is put on the son to take over. He has left to study music in the city, but has voluntarily returned to help his father. His father seems to think his son should go back to the city and music, but things aren’t that cut and dried for the latter. Perhaps there is more than his sense of duty at work here; maybe music isn’t entirely his calling.
A film featuring real life and real problems.

my thoughts:
The filmmaker is a tomato farmer/horticulturist. He brought a tomato with him to the theater, he had bought it in Rotterdam to compare. He made me smile with that.
His film had been touring through his own prefecture Okayama first and after that in a larger circle. He's been a tomato farmer for six years and his motto is what you produce locally you should provide locally. I found this an interesting perspective. He also told us he was very curious to the Q&A after the screening because he already knew he would have to tell his 90 year old grandma about it.

The film tells about a dairy farm. Son Yusuke is struggling with what he wants in life. I think it's very common to feel like that when you are part of a family business.
His dad says: You can't run a dairy farm when your mind is some place else. Farming is tough. And is getting tougher and tougher these days. He worries that his son's heart is more with music than with farming. Most of all he wants his son to be happy.
He does have a point because Yusuke feels stuck in between music and his grandfather's farm and feels like he's not doing either of those well. And he feels guilty.

Yoko is a woman living nearby above the bar where she serves his drinks. She lives there together with her son. Her husband died after an accident. At one of the anniversaries of his death when visiting the cemetary Yoko's mother-in-law tells Yoko that they can move in with her now. Ryota, Yoko's son is the only grandchild she has and moreover the only *man* the mother-in-law has left in her life. The family tree is very important in traditional Japan.
This would also be a problem when Yusuke and Yoko would start a life together. Her son is part of the family tree of her late husband and therefore belongs to her husband's family.

I liked how they have a new years tradition to climb a mountain and to give thanks to the sun and look at the sunrise to welcome the new year. The shots high up in the mountain with the rising sun are awesome, I love the light!

I loved this intimate look into the life of this farmers family! I loved the colors in the film, the shots at the farm and family life. Beautifully filmed and a very interesting watch!

I liked the following quotes in the film:
"Just living is a hard thing to do, so take your time"
"I take what life throws at me"
"Be yourself and be honest with yourself"

About the pink sky

2012-01-31T23:21:00.000+08:00

Momoiro sora o
by Kobayashi Keiichi
Japan, 2011

from IFFR site:
Cheeky, untouchable girls can make a film immortal. Think of Jean Seberg in À bout de souffle. From now on you can also dream of the bold Ai Ikeda. In immortal black-and-white. The girl finds a purse with a large sum of money. Enough to get the story moving.

Izumi is a teenage girl who one day finds a wallet with 300,000 yen in it. She lends some of the money to someone in financial need but, urged on by her two girlfriends Hasumi and Kaoru (encounters and conversations between the three of them form a significant part of the film) she decides to give the lost property back to its owner Koki Sato, the son of a rich, corrupt politician.
He decides however that he doesn’t want the money back, but in exchange, the three girls have to make a newspaper which is only filled with good news - for a sick friend. During the production process, we look mainly through the surprised eyes of the cheerful and original-minded Izumi - a kind of Japanese Juno - at the world around her and we also see her growing up.
This subtle comedy, which also touches on difficult questions such as homosexuality, death and economic crisis, is stylishly shot in black-and-white. Virtually all the roles are played by novice or non-professional actors.

Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
This film opens with a quote from the lead Izumi dated 2035. Twenty years into the future. The film has little in common with science fiction and is about a memory from the future. The people and the surroundings look like the here and now in 2011 and the black-and-white images remind us of the 1960s.
Izumi - in her school uniform - finds what proves to be the story’s driving force, right at the start: a wallet stuffed with cash. Perhaps school uniforms in 2035 will still be the same as they are now because they also look just like they did in the 1950s. It’s less probable that cash will still exist in 2035 so that may feel anachronistic.
The given of finding a wallet, moreover with money in it that belongs to someone you know, is reminiscent of Robert Bresson’s L'argent. The money works as a catalyst for one moral conundrum after another. Kobayashi's film is playful and light, and cannot - in that sense - be compared to Bresson’s, but beneath the nonchalance lurk comparable ethical dilemmas.
This explains why Izumi is still thinking about it all twenty years later. It’s amusing to think that she would have been better off just keeping the money.

my thoughts:
I sooo loved this film. Such a lovely coming off age story. When reading the blurb I thought: might be an ok story, and as I wanted to add a bit more Japanese to my film festival schedule I thought it would be a nice idea.

My schedule for the day was kind of tight and I almost entered the cinema running to an available seat and being out of breathe.

Before screening a spokes lady told us the film maker regretted it not to be present at the IFFR. He can't live from making films yet and he just had to go to his regular job. Yes, this too is the film festival. I guess it's impossible to travel the world and go to all film festivals.

But immediately I fell in love with Izumi, the main character in this film. I love teenage stories because they often still seem so innocent, even behind their cool chick face like this girl. We did get to meet her warm heart as well though. She's a typical teenager. She's loud and very present. Immature. Has her own ideas about things. Rates newspaper articles. Lending out money from a wallet found in the streets to someone she barely knows, because it's 'dirty' money anyway. Has tantrum like actions. And much more. But I loved it.

Must admit that at first I was a bit annoyed by the teenage quarrels between the three girls. But I guess that only shows how well it was done. The girls acted very naturally and were such typical teenagers. Sometimes I do get annoyed by teenager in real life too (oh I'm sounding so old now ;).

The owner of the wallet looks like a tough guy but after a while it turns out that he has a whole deeper story of his own.

And it turned out to be such a moving story. I loved to watch the world see from her perspective for a while. And the ending of the film is so beautiful and so well done. Very filmic and touching.

It's a lovely film which handles topics as fairness, homosexuality, life and death, care for each other in a subtile way and all filmed in an almost photographic way. Beautiful!

Goodbye

2012-01-31T22:33:00.000+08:00

by Mohammad Rasoulof
Iran, 2011

from IFFR site:
Without her husband and without her lawyer’s licence, which has been withdrawn, Noora is left pregnant and alone in her apartment. Her attempt to leave Iran turns into a fight with male chauvinism. A personal, nerve-wracking and infuriating film by Rasoulof, who was himself convicted for his films in Iran.

Together with Jafar Panahi, director Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced on 20 December 2010 to six years in jail for alleging having endangered the security of the state of Iran. In October 2011, Rasoulof’s sentence was reduced to one year, while Panahi’s was kept at six.
Goodbye is a sober, frightening portrait of a society that is stooping under the continual control and threats of its religious regime. Noora, a young, pregnant lawyer in Tehran whose husband has been sent to work in the desert because of his critical journalistic activities, continually faces opposition from the regime and decides to leave the country. That turns out to be very difficult.
Because Rasoulof was already banned from making films, Goodbye was shot partly in secret in the winter of 2010/2011. The result is a disquieting film that makes impotence and the desire for freedom painfully tangible in all its simplicity. At Cannes it won the Un Certain Regard award for best director.

my thoughts:
An oppressive film. Noora is married but is left on her own. Her husband worked in journalism and was arrested because of that. He was sent to the desert to work so he couldn't do any more harm. She stayed behind, pregnant. She wants to leave the country. For me that would mean that I would grab my passport and just take the train south or east or west. Not for women in Iran.

For every step she takes she needs the signature of her husband. To get an appointment in hospital - signature. To cancel the lease of the apartment - signature. To book a hotel room because the lease of her apartment is over - signature. For everything. And bribery. Giving money under the table is a common way to get things done as well.

She's very emotional. Is pregnant but doesn't know whether she wants the child or not. And she doesn't want to reveal her secret but at the same time does want to talk about it so that must feel like a pressure cooker inside of herself as well.

One of her lines, which I loved: "When you feel like being a foreigner in your own country, it might be better to leave it and feel like being a foreigner in a foreign country."

It felt warm how women are prepared to help each other though, to try a little harder for you. You can't survive on your own in a culture like this.

It wasn't the first film I watched about Iran and I have read a couple of books about it as well. But still, every time again I get goosebumps when learning more about the regime there. It's oppressive, heavy, no freedom of speech, it makes me angry that women are not worth much. It's another culture I know, but it's always nerve-wracking to see what women around the world are going through in their daily lives.

The film maker said the following about his country:
"Iran is like an alcoholic father. You can’t change your father, but I can see him hurting himself, myself and others. But I still love him."

Punk in Africa

2012-01-31T21:30:00.000+08:00

by Keith Jones and Deon Maas
South Africa, 2011

from IFFR site:
The striking story of a hidden, underground, even secret and banned movement. Bands with both black and white musicians broke the law. In the apartheid era, punk rock was comparable to worshipping the devil. Rediscover the real punk. Anarchy in SA.

While young people in the West started to free themselves from traditional authoritarian power relations in the early 1960s and to make the acquaintance of rock ‘n’ roll and later long hair and punk, in South Africa the institutionalised racism of Apartheid still existed. With the advent of punk music in the mid-1970s, for the first time there was a home-grown youth culture and an opportunity to resist oppressive regimes.
Punk in Africa tells the story of punk in South Africa and how it spread to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Kenya and played a role there in the political struggle. We get to see the most important bands and the legendary venues where they played, but also the evolution of punk music and the influence it had on modern South African bands. In the wings of the many tumultuous concerts, the documentary tells an alternative history of South Africa in the last 40 years, a story unknown to many.

Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
A special film that does not immediately look special. At first sight (but not at first hearing) you could think it is a skilled but ordinary music documentary. It provides a summary of a specific period (the 1970s in South Africa), lets people speak who played a role back then and shows clips of performances. A television documentary, you could say.
There are however several elements that make the film special. To start with - the music. If you are now fifty and were living in a town in South Africa thirty years ago, then you have never heard the music before and never seen the fragments before. The fragments of music are all unique and have been specially tracked down - not the stock material that so often represents this genre - and themselves provide enough reason to see the film.
You could conclude that the film is not primarily a music film. It is a committed political document. A belated pamphlet maybe. The anarchistic music in the film and the multiracial bands that play the music, were in fact banned under the apartheid regime. It was literally underground music.
Anyway, what really makes a film special is not how special the subject is (even though punk in apartheid South Africa was pretty special), but the passion of the filmmaker for his subject. And only then can you conclude: Punk in Africa rocks!

my thoughts:
Punk in Africa rocks indeed! Wow, what a great film.
The cinema wasn't fully booked for this film. It's always a surprise, some films are completely sold out, others not so much. Maybe people thought that this wasn't going to be that special. Well, they couldn't be more wrong.
I listened to great fragments of music but most of all I was moved by the passion of the musicians and their background stories. It was all so interesting!

Of course politics in songs was not a journey without consequences, not in that time, in those countries. Musicians were threatened and told "You're on a list." The musicians could get disappeared or locked up. Or tricks could be played to arrest you for some other dirty reason. So everything was very underground, very secretive. You didn't talk about it. And you couldn't carry your knowledge over to the next generation. What I found interesting was that the musicians of the early days through the film got aware of their place in the greater history. I guess that shows how tough things were.

Their songs had a message. Anti racial. To be concerned about others, regardless the color of skin. About life during wartime. Beat Apartheid.

Some dared to send their music cassettes to other parts of the world and questions arose about the how and why. What's happening in your country.

What I also found interesting was that they had strong relations with eastern Europe. I can imagine that because of the regimes they were going through as well. One of the film makers said that it's easy to protest with a full tummy. Hence why they felt more connection with countries that were going through a lot of misery themselves.

Life was tough in those days. The situation was very intense and hectic. Looking for a job in South Africa already meant politics.

After 1994 there was a fresh start but this still meant a lot of confusion. And the struggle continues. It's still not easy.

Punk was a small scene and completely existed underground, you couldn't go to a record store and simply buy it. And for the film the music had to be tracked down from everywhere around the world.

These days there are plenty mixed bands and although many radio stations focus on a certain group of listeners, there are urban radio stations that have a mix of multiracial music.

In the end of the film they concluded:
It's not a mission accomplished but work in progress. Punk will always be there when it is needed.

I loved the film not only for the message and to learn a bit more about that part of the world, but also for the music in itself, a mixture of punk and ska and reggae and jazz with African elements. I loved listening to it.

Sur la planche

2012-01-30T22:44:00.000+08:00

by Leila Kilani
Morocco / France, 2011

from IFFR site:
Badia and Imane work in Tangier peeling shrimps and at night they earn money robbing men. The determined Badia hates peeling shrimps and sees two new girlfriends, who are slightly better off, as a springboard. A dynamic film in which Badia’s energy explodes off the screen.

After making a documentary about immigrants who risk the crossing from Tangier to Europe, the breathtaking feature debut of Leïla Kilani is also about the bitter-sweet dream of globalisation. The 'plank' of the title is a springboard, diving board and pirate plank all at once; a springboard to a richer, more materialistic system - but one that is accompanied by great danger to life.
Badia and Imane are girlfriends who peel prawns during the day in the factory and at night rob men under false pretences. In the streets, they get to know Asma and Nadal, who have jobs in the Free Zone, the European- oriented part of the city. It is primarily Badia, spiritedly played by Soufia Issami, who sees that as an opportunity to gain more wealth. She will have to raise her criminal activities to a riskier level.
Kilani provides a raw and authentic glimpse of the attempts of poor workers/petty thieves to get a better life. As moody as dynamic film noir, in which the shots of Tangier by night contrast with the broad panoramas by daylight.

my thoughts:
A raw film about tough life. Girls who are workers in a shrimp factory but longing for a better life. They would like to get into the textile industry in 'the free zone', a European zone where you need a permit to enter the zone. At the same time they try to improve their level of life by going underground at night and rob men when sleeping with them or going out. With all the risks involved. A life on the edge.

I must admit I had mixed feelings about this film. I loved the raw and elusive character of the film, I think the film maker did a great job capturing the urban underground atmosphere. It was interesting to see the toughness of the girls being in crime and the way they achieved it. Females being the bad girls.

A lot of migrants come from the interior of Morocco to Tanger for work, on their own without their families or safety nets, all searching for a better life. A lot also dream of going to Europe.
So I think it's an interesting story but somehow it didn't deliver for me all the way. The film couldn't grab me for some reason. And I couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

The actresses are non-professional and they did an incredible job.
I think one of my problems was that I didn't feel a real click with the main character Badia and I think that's why I remained 'at distance' from the film. I liked her language, her way of talking and her obsessive habits (the scenes of her washing herself in a tub). She had a great edginess, but we didn't become friends.

All in all I didn't enjoy this film as much as I thought I would. But... I must say it did make me thirsty for more. More Morocco.

So... mixed feelings and that means I won't forget it. Which is a good thing, right!

Egg and stone

2012-01-30T17:27:00.000+08:00

Jidan he shitou
by Huang Ji
China, 2012

from IFFR site:
Meticulous in every way: the non-professional actors with incredible skills, the beautiful camerawork, the timing and dosing of the tragic storyline about a fourteen-year-old Chinese girl from the countryside. A grown-up feature film debut by a major talent.

In the village where she was born in the province of Hunan, Huang Ji filmed this quietly disturbing, sober drama about 14-year-old Honggui, who is forced to live with her uncle and aunt in the countryside. The girl is not wanted. Nor was she wanted by her parents, who apparently intended to farm her out to family for two years so they could work in the city. In the meantime, seven years have passed. When she tries to make contact, her real mother is too busy to take her call.
The tragedy of Honggui's personal story gradually unfolds. At the same time, in her feature debut, Huang (b. 1984) shows us how other Chinese women are also often afflicted. Not only by the widespread poverty, combined with the policy to restrict births that ensures that parents primarily want boys. A story read out loud in the film illustrates just how deeply-anchored oppressive thoughts about women are in Chinese culture. The blood of women pollutes the water for virtuous men, they say, and women can only cleanse themselves by praying. It’s the fault of woman, just as in the Old Testament.
But the men in Egg and Stone are not that virtuous. The visual motif of Honggui's spread and closed legs, which the filmmaker uses repeatedly with suitable reserve, is a painful and gripping reminder of the tyrannical power that men can take - a power justified by the creative interpretation of principles apparently granted by God.

my thoughts:
This is one of the most moving films I have ever watched. It is based on the filmmaker's own experiences in her hometown, Furong village in Hunan province, China. In her childhood she lived with her relatives in the hometown which is very common in China. Parents do not always have a choice in this, it often is a consequence of governmental regulations. Another sad thing common in that field is that often kids get abused by their grandparents or other relatives. As she was eight years old the film maker was abused by one of her uncles. She didn't even tell the world nor her boyfriend about it before making the film. She carried it all in her heart but it weighed heavily. And that's when she decided to make the film.

The film doesn't give you a loud and clear message. You kind of have to figure it out all for yourself by small details and a glimpse here and there. And by following all these signs you will get the story.
In the Q&A afterwards the filmmaker told us she doesn't like Hollywood films where everything is told and explained, so she wanted the audience to think for themselves. And because she worked with non-professional actors she didn't want to over ask them. Besides that, she says, life doesn't tell you everything either anyway.

She said that it wasn't an easy film to make, a lot of emotions were awakened also because of working with relatives as actors. And the actress in the film who played the main character was being raised by her grandfather as well.

In the film the language spoken is the Hunan dialect. From most Chinese films in the festival I do understand more and more (which gives me the feeling I'm on the right way learning the language), from this film I didn't have a clue what they were saying, not even a word.
They also show a custom that is common in Hunan: the blood pool sutra, I thought it very interesting to learn more about that.

I found the story heartbreaking. I so felt for the girl! And I so wanted to give her what she wanted and needed. Her peace and quiet. You can see from her eyes how badly she needed it.

The title of the film refers to the eggs and stones being shown in the film, but it also contains a figuratively message: people can go through tough paths of life, some people get hard as stone by their luggage of life and experiences, others soft as the inside of an egg.

The film maker is working on two other film projects and I'm very much looking forward to these. She focusses on the inner world of Chinese women on the countryside and I'm longing to learn more.

Romance Joe

2012-01-29T23:00:00.000+08:00

Romaenseu Jo
by Lee Kwang-Kuk
South Korea, 2011

from IFFR site:
A filmmaker with writer's block is given stories by a fun-loving waitress in exchange for night-time overtime. Full of the pleasure of telling stories and causing confusion. Debut film from Hong Sang-Soo's assistant is bound to be lauded for its unique sense of humour.

Where to start? With the filmmaker who was cruelly dumped in a rural town and told to seek fresh inspiration there? With the energetic waitress who is willing to give him more than coffee in return for payment and has a talent for telling stories? For instance about Romance Joe, whom she had interrupted a little earlier as he tried to commit suicide in his hotel room, and who also wanted to make films?
It may even start with Romance Joe's squabbling parents. In all these intertwined stories, we keep seeing a different narrator. For instance, Romance Joe himself remembers a childhood love that he never dared to pursue. Then there’s the little boy who is looking for his mother who ran away...
Lee Kwang-Kuk plays a game with stories with unmistakable pleasure in this elegantly filmed feature debut. Its structure and the references to making films betray the influence of his mentor Hong Sang-Soo, to whom he was assistant director and who won a Tiger Award in 1997 for The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well. But Lee touches on Alice in Wonderland, and he also has his very own sense of humour.
In Romance Joe, someone can allege you don’t exist at all. Should you start doubting everything, just remember it’s only a film. And yet, despite all the irony and perspective, the characters are real enough to be moving. Winner of an audience award in Busan.

my thoughts:
Besides by his Korean mentor Hang Sang-Soo the filmmaker is inspired by Woody Allen and M.C. Escher. And that is obvious. This film felt like an ongoing puzzle. All the time while watching the film in the back of my mind I was making up a possible plot. What was happening here?

It was so interesting though... I loved the puzzle and we discussed the film non-stop afterwards, which always is so much fun. We so wanted to unravel it all. A great great film!

The film is a story about stories. And can be interpreted the way you want. It was fascinating to start puzzling and thinking you had figured it all out but eventually have to decide: No it's not like that. In that way it totally is like Escher's art. It seems connected to each other and yet not at all. Very interesting.

On a different note I was impressed by Shin Dong Mi, her facial expressions were brilliant, I hadn't see her before but she's such a great actress.

A great film!

So Sorry

2012-01-28T14:22:00.000+08:00

by Ai Weiwei
China, 2012

from iffr site:
Corrupt builders and officials were to blame for the high number of dead schoolchildren after the Sichuan earthquake. This secret would have been buried beneath the rubble if not for courageous investigators like Ai Weiwei. The film also shows how Ai almost paid with his life.

As a sequel to Ai Weiwei’s film Disturbing the Peace, the film So Sorry (named after the artist’s 2009 exhibition in Munich, Germany) shows the beginnings of the tension between Ai Weiwei and the Chinese government. In Disturbing the Peace, Ai Weiwei travels to Chengdu, China to attend the trial of the civil rights advocate Tan Zuoren, as a witness. In So Sorry, we see the investigation led by Ai Weiwei's studio to identify the students who died during the Sichuan earthquake as a result of corruption and poor building construction, leading to a confrontation between Ai Weiwei and the Chengdu police. After being beaten by the police, Ai Weiwei traveled to Munich, Germany to prepare his exhibition at the Haus der Kunst museum. The result of his beating led to intense headaches caused by a brain hemorrhage, which was treated by emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai Weiwei’s struggle and surveillance by state police (Ai Weiwei Studio).

Programmer Note door Gertjan Zuilhof:
‘That luck won’t last’ is what comes to mind watching Ai Weiwei confronting the undercover police who watch his every move. It is almost a ritual and it plays out as follows. Ai Weiwei or one of his entourage spots a suspect car with someone in it observing them. Any other Chinese person would ignore the situation, but Ai Weiwei resolutely marches over to the car, orders the occupant to roll down the window and then demands they identify themselves. The astounded plain-clothes policeman then stammers something and drives off, but not always. Sometimes Ai Weiwei personally frogmarches the spy to the nearest police station.
This doesn’t always end well. Breaking the Peace (or rather: hearing, because it was at night) showed a more violent confrontation and this is repeated here, as the consequences of those blows only became apparent later on. Whilst setting up an exhibition in Munich (So Sorry) Ai Weiwei suffers a stroke and has to undergo emergency surgery. His team fear the worst.
The hospital scenes are very emotional and show the rebel artist in all his greatness. Immediately before surgery he makes a calm, analytical call to China, jokes about the food in Germany and later on makes a series of photographs of his bandaged head for his blog. The battle continues (immediately).

my thoughts:
The Sichuan earthquake happened before we lived in China but it often was in the back of my head as an example for the power of the local authorities. I know - and I emphasize that - this is not a problem for China only, in many countries including my own, governmental authorities often consider themselves to be above the 'normal people'. In this case in Sichuan it had very sad consequences. So many innocent children died and therefore so many innocent parents had to suffer from bureaucracy. Why... didn't the governmental buildings collapse in Sichuan as did the school buildings. I can imagine the parents to be livid. So they *knew* how to build for earthquake resistance and did build safely for the governmental buildings but went the cheap way for the schools ("It was like tofu"). It's so horrible!!

This film of Ai shows us how it's impossible to say something political in China in public, impossible to make the people in China aware of things that aren't right. I know these days things are getting better (and internet *is* helping despite of the censorship) but still... your normal Chinese friend most of the time isn't even interested in politics. It can't be changed anyway, we don't have any control so why bother, they say. True.
And so they live life without politics. But if you do bother. If you do have an opinion and want to talk about that in public, write a book or make a film. Well... it's not without consequences. And that's what this film actually is about.
Ai Weiwei doesn't shy away for a confrontation with the authorities. At one point in the film when being followed again he gets out of his car and starts peeing right next to the officers in the car who followed him.
Ai Weiwei could have been at the film festival to talk about his film. But the Chinese government just doesn't let him.
There's hope though... I do think things are changing. Slowly but steadily. It just takes time. Two steps forward, one step back...

I loved the film. Ai Weiwei does have a great sense of humor and he made me smile often while watching this film. A film with a smile and a sigh... it's complicated!

Ordos 100

2012-01-28T14:10:00.000+08:00

by Ai Weiwei
China, 2012

from iffr site:
Ai Weiwei has become renowned for his political activities and famous as the inventor of the Bird’s Nest stadium in Peking. Working with those same Swiss architects, he devised a major construction project in Inner Mongolia.

Ordos 100 is a construction project curated by Herzog and de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to participate and each design a 1000-square-meter villa to be built in a new community in Inner Mongolia. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei.
On January 25, 2008, the 100 architects gathered in Ordos for a first visit to the site. The film Ordos 100 documents a total of three site visits, during which time the master plan and design of each villa was completed. As of this date, the Ordos 100 project remains unrealized (Ai Weiwei Studio).

Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
Ordos 100 provides a picture of an Ai Weiwei at the pinnacle of his artistic fame, but not yet in the political hot water that was to give him a different kind of notoriety.
It’s about a grand architecture project in Ordos, a place that still has to be built in Inner Mongolia. Ai Weiwei again works here with the Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron, the team with whom he created the famous Bird's Nest stadium for the Olympic Games.
The film has another protagonist and that is Cai Jiang. He’s the head of the private water company of Inner Mongolia (that has lots of desert) and the project developer on this plan that verges on megalomania. Because not only do hundreds of different international architects each make a different house, the houses, which measure thousands of square metres, are also pretty large. Several of the participating architects interviewed make it clear that they are surprised about this aspect of what is a very special project.
But Ai Weiwei never thinks small and it’s funny to see how some famous architects seek handhold within the grand vision of Ai Weiwei with his familiar nonchalant look and working clothes. However we don’t see much of him in the film.
In the end, the grand project doesn’t get realised. The idea may have been just a little too grand.

my thoughts:
I was very curious to this film. Actually most of all to Ai Weiwei. And I was wondering whether I could get to know him a bit better by watching the films from and about him at the film festival. I admire him for his architectural projects and of course he has been in the news quite a lot in the past years. I must admit I do have respect for him.

Ordos 100 is a very interesting project. I found it fascinating that he had invited one hundred different architects all from different countries to participate in this project. They all had to design a house of 1000m2 without context, all houses would be part of one compound in the middle of desert. I liked how they came up with different ideas for their house. And how they tried to look for cohesion at the same time. And how some of them - who normally were used to work on assignments on behalf of their customers - were feeling a little uncertain now that they had total freedom in designing something, they said it was confusing but the chaos was just as much exciting. It was also interesting to listen to the different conversations they had when meeting up in Ordos (Inner Mongolia). One of the architects was telling about the many food and binge drink sessions they had ;). I was smiling when staff of the organizing company were complicating matters with paying partly in USD and RMB "You can spend it in Beijing".
And there was such a cool shot when one of the architects was getting a haircut by Ai.

I think it was a brilliant project, a lovely mixture in cultures and it's a pity it hasn't been realized until now. It must have been a great project to work in, so many influences from around the world and working together towards one goal. We traveled in Inner Mongolia and it does have some desolate emptiness around it so I guess it's very challenging for huge projects like this.

Interesting film!

The road toward Jokhang

2012-01-28T13:56:00.000+08:00

by Zhao Yantao
China, 2012

from iffr site:
Ostensibly merely a brief, amusing portrayal of the culture clash between Tibetan pilgrims and Chinese tourists, but in China even just the word Tibet is suspect.

The young filmmaker Zhao Yantao is surprised about how Tibetan pilgrims exhaust themselves while making their strange journey to the great temples of their country. He is similarly surprised by his fellow countrymen who go to Tibet as tourists but know hardly anything about Tibetan culture.

my thoughts:
A film in the category shorts but nonetheless so impressive! Before screening Zhao Yantao told us this was his first time being invited to a film festival *and* his first time abroad. Scary!

From the first moment into this film I was hooked! It showed us a Tibetan monastery and in a flash I was back in Zhongdian. I could almost smell it! I was moved!

What we didn't see in Zhongdian though was the exhausting journey of the pilgrims. On the road they do some kind of religious rituals when they kneel with their whole body on the road and get up again and so on, all the way uphill. Even little kids like the one in the photo was completely involved in these rituals. Now I have seen many many people getting up on stairs towards a temple on their knees (which seems extremely hurtful to me as well) so I knew about rituals like this but these people actually do these rituals on the road. And trucks, cars and buses will drive on that same road. And China isn't the safest country, traffic wise.

And so we get to see bus loads of tourists staring at the pilgrims, especially the kids of course, wanting to be in a picture with the kid, giving food, money and presents to the kid, etc. Whiling living in China as foreigners we have been stared at and been photographed hundreds of times so I know it's a custom. But the interesting thing is indeed, what the filmmaker was surprised about as well... this is the same country, the same people. No foreigners. But apparently the Chinese tourists aren't used to pilgrims in the way they met the pilgrims in Tibet. And they weren't prepared for their trip to Tibet at all... they didn't have a clue and didn't show any respect for the pilgrims. Which in a way didn't surprise me really, but still...

I was smiling when seeing the little kid while participating in the rituals was cleaning his nose at the same time.

Anyway. The film is beautiful. It's captured in a great way (for a first timer on a film festival Zhao Yantao did an amazing job!), the setting was overwhelmingly beautiful and he was telling an impressive story with his film ! I loved it!

When the bough breaks

2012-01-27T23:50:00.000+08:00

by Ji Dan
China, 2011

from iffr site:
Experienced documentary filmmaker becomes involved in the lives of the children of a family trying to survive in their jury rigged shanty stuck in between the advancing construction sites in Beijing. Which choices do these teens have?

‘When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all.’ Ji Dan, one of the most important female filmmakers in China, borrowed the title for her at times startling new film from the cautionary lullaby Rock-a-bye Baby. In 2004, at a school for migrant children in Beijing, she met four children from one family. The children, aged between 10 and 19, lived with their parents in a ramshackle slum while the tuition fees were paid by the school.
By 2009, when she started filming, the situation had changed: there were now three children and amidst all the economic bustle, they were confronted with the limited choices that life has to offer. In turn, the filmmaker was confronted with the gap between herself and the lowest class: ‘Never before have I become so involved in the story of my subjects and never before have I felt as unsettled or overwhelmed.’

my thoughts:
The family live in their makeshift hut on a construction site in Daxing, a southern suburb of Beijing. In our eyes it's a hopeless situation. Especially for the children involved.

The idea behind this film is good, the story an important one to tell the world. I totally agree this is a message which has to be told. It's a common problem in China, you will find situations like this around every corner. Also in the area where we lived - which was quite a modern and wealthy area - there were many ramshackle slums around us.

And it is so sad that girls like the ones in this film - who were very bright kids - didn't get a chance to go to school. When you don't have a hukou (permit and household registration system) in China things are very difficult. Especially when you hardly have an income. And four children. Things will go wrong. You can see it happen. And it's so sad.

So the story is one to tell. The film could have been told in less time though. It was dragging which was a real pity.

But I so felt for the girls... I so wanted to have them a better life. It's a thought I had many times in China. Chinese people often told us actually we - Dutch - are having a much more social system then they have in China. They seemed so surprised about that.

The Chinese strongly have a believe in fate. These girls tried to fight it though. My heart broke when hearing them say that they had to be scholars/students and grownups at the same time as their parents didn't have a clue.

Even if I found the film too long, it was very moving and I will think about these girls for a while longer...

Skoonheid

2012-01-27T23:45:00.000+08:00

by Oliver Hermanus
South Africa/France, 2011

from iffr site:
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. So does obsession. Beauty is set in a South Africa we seldom see: white suburbia, where people speak Afrikaans and there are few blacks. A confrontational portrait of a conservative subculture in which discussing homosexuality is taboo.

François van Heerden has everything under control. The forty-something runs a successful timber store in Bloemfontein. He has a beautiful house, a sweet wife, successful children - in other words he has all the status a conservative Afrikaner could want. Occasionally he drives to a remote farm and stays away for the night, but no one needs to know what really goes on there.
When he meets 23-year-old Christian at his daughter’s wedding, the foundations under his respectable life turn out to be less than stable. The attractive apparition he sees in Christian won’t let François go.
With Beauty, the young South African director Oliver Hermanus proves that his powerful debut Shirley Adams (2009) was not a one-hit wonder. His balanced, nerve-wracking second feature is about suppressed desires, ingrained thoughts and the strange leaps people make when their convictions are set adrift. Beauty was the first film spoken in Afrikaans to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
Skoonheid initially seems to be of an entirely different calibre than Oliver Hermanus' first film, Shirley Adams, of which primarily the motion has been retained; constantly following the lead with a hand-held camera. As far as that is concerned, Skoonheid is a more classic film. The images are contemplative and carefully framed. Well, that was its exterior. Its first impression.
Shirley Adams centred on the eponymous lead. A role astoundingly played by Denise Newman. Because she was filmed from behind a lot whilst she ran around, you’d be inclined to forget that the film is primarily told from her perspective. That we saw her world, from her point of view. With that in mind, Skoonheid could also have been entitled 'François van Heerden' after the lead; convincingly portrayed by Deon Lotz. It is his perspective that determines the story and once again it is the actor who makes the film what it is.
At a substantive level, the kinship between the two films is even stronger. You would be forgiven for thinking that Hermanus is creating a trilogy about the barely contained aggression in the new South Africa’s white population.

my thoughts:
Wow! This is heavy stuff. Totally overwhelming. And yet... I could place it. I did understand. I see where it comes from. And I'm also happy I was born where I was born.

When homosexuality is covered up in taboo atmosphere, when it's not something you talk about, not something you accept as being normal, when people don't understand that it is possible people can think differently. When they are afraid of people being different. Their son of daughter not fitting in the picture perfect. Yes... it's then when things go wrong. This is when people - as a society - create a living explosive. A walking time bomb. Because one day it will happen. And things could go horribly wrong.

Because homosexuality is normal and it does exist. No way to deny it. We have to accept we are not all the same. We can think differently. Feel differently. Be differently. But we are all human. And we deserve to be who we are. How we are. Don't hurt each other that badly. Don't judge them so much. It could be your daughter, your son, your father, your mother, your uncle, your aunt and your friend.

It's a great great film which left me speechless for a while. It's nerve-wracking indeed and got totally under my skin. So much to process. But so worth to watch it! Very recommendable!

Bachelor mountain

2012-01-27T23:40:00.000+08:00

Guanggun
by Yu Guangyi
China, 2011

from iffr site:
In his third film on life and work in the (once) heavily wooded north of China, Yu Guangyi (Survival Song) follows the lonely San Liangzi (46), who for the past ten years has been in love with a woman who doesn’t like men much. Intimate and revealing, but never rude.

A moving and human portrait of a group of unemployed and above all lonely men who stayed behind when their wives moved to the city looking for work. They worked in the timber industry in the province of Heilongjiang, but deforestation has taken its toll. For instance, we see 46-year-old San Liangzi. Twelve years ago, he divorced his wife and became unemployed. For 10 years, he has had an eye on Wang Meizi, the only unmarried woman in the area. But the love is not mutual.
Director and autodidact Yu Guangyi started recording life in Heilongjiang, the area he came from, a few years ago without too much practical knowledge of filmmaking. He turned out to be an enormous talent. After Timber Gang, about the barren winter lumberjack season, and Survival Song, about an unemployed forest ranger, Bachelor Mountain is the third film he has made about this region in the far north of China.

my thoughts:
For this film the setting is Heilongjiang province in the very north of China and we follow San Liangzi at work in forestry and when helping out at Wang Meizi's inn on whom he has had a crush for years and years already. I must admit I had a soft spot for this man. I didn't even know why.

In this part of China jobs have disappeared, women left to go to the cities which leaves only a few people doing the odd jobs still available. And some Korean women for sale for the poor bachelors.

We get to know San who's a hard working guy, honest and terribly lonely. Being a workaholic helps him to avoid feeling completely miserable I guess. A man can't help how he feels.

On the other hand we get to know Wang Meizi and her parents a bit as well. Her parents felt embarrassed that she didn't have a boyfriend yet (they felt like loosing face). Competition between mothers does exist in every culture but a little more in Chinese culture. The daughter reacts with "Each to his/her own". She's right, though you can see it's not easy on the parents. I was smiling when the dad said that as head of the family he would have some say in it. She needed to have a boyfriend/husband!

I love the edge of this film, it's all so raw and pure, the beautiful nature in snow as well as the daily life of San. I think Yu Guangyi has done an excellent job of portraying how harsh life in these remote areas still is. China might be a growing modern world economy in many eyes' but there's also another reality in this country.

11 Flowers

2012-01-27T23:36:00.000+08:00

Wǒ 11
by Wang Xiaoshuai
China, France 2011

from IFFR site:
Wang Xiaoshuai was one of the first independent Chinese filmmakers to come to Rotterdam. His 11 Flowers is an enchanting paradox. Wang’s most autobiographical film - a lively portrait of China during the Cultural Revolution - is also his most classically styled.

Wang Han is 11 years old and is growing up during the Cultural Revolution in the countryside of China. His calm, everyday life in which adults work in the factory and children go to school is disrupted. While he is playing, Wang’s new shirt, which has been made with great difficulty, is stolen. The culprit is a man suspected of murder who has escaped and asks the boy to help him.
Apart from the story of Wang Han and his ward, 11 Flowers sketches a portrait of a society under a harsh regime. The consequences of the Cultural Revolution are noticeable for everyone in everyday life. There is poverty and violence: Wang Han's father, an intellectual, is forced to do manual labour and has a harsh confrontation with the Red Army. The film has many autobiographical elements: for instance, Wang Xiaoshuai was born in the same year and the same region as the protagonist.

my thoughts:
The world seen through a boy's eyes during Cultural Revolution. I'm reading a book seen from this perspective as well and I like how this deepens both experiences.
The setting of the film is a village in Guizhou province in south west China around 1975 and the film is autobiographic for a greater part. I recognized the scenery from my trip to Guizhou last year.
The Chinese title literally means Me, 11. The English title is more poetic.

The encounter with the murderer is beautifully captured. At first the boy doesn't have a clue but more and more you see he is getting aware of what is happening to him. I felt sorry for him for not being able to talk about it and that from one moment to the other he lost his innocence.

In this film I so loved all the small details in which you get to learn more about the Cultural Revolution and the boy and his family. I also loved the relationship between father and son. The love for art the father is trying to pass to his son. Riding a bike in the mornings. It's beautiful! We got to see the mother struggling with daily life as she can't always give her kids what she wants to.

The filmmaker said that 11 Flowers is not purely autobiographic but that he used a lot of elements from his own childhood. The way the parents and the four friends are portrayed, also he and his parents had to move to the countryside in those years, people living together in one village but coming from all over China.

The Cultural Revolution is something people who lived through it can't talk about, it's still too much, too emotional. When they have to think back of it, they immediately think about what it did with their life on the whole and with their children. So sad.

I love it how every Chinese film I watch and every Chinese book I read teaches me something new about Chinese culture. It's a culture that is so complicated that I guess as a westerner I'm never done learning more about it ;)

International Film Festival Rotterdam

2012-01-06T01:20:00.001+08:00

Can't wait!!

Circus school

2011-10-19T17:48:00.000+08:00

by Guo Jing/Ke Dingding
documentary
2006, China

On my first flight when moving to Shanghai two years ago I watched a documentary about Circus School in China. I'm not 100% sure that it was the same as I watched today but I think it was because it seemed quite alike. As frightening... not because of the circus acts... but because of the way things go in China. After two years and knowing a lot more about the culture, this documentary still freaks me out.

I know a lot about discipline myself but it's incredible what these kids go through. I so felt for them watching the pain and struggles they go through. Especially the verbal suffering. Of course it's top sport and also in my own country the kids go through a lot to get to the top and our ballet teacher also was complaining as we ate too much, but these kids are still so young! This film gets under my skin... so much!

The difference between these kids in top sport and kids here in the Netherlands is that they have to work very hard to survive. With so many citizens in a country and so many students coming from university each year it's incredibly hard to earn a decent living. So they kind of have to use their talents in order to stick out. To earn a living for them and for their families. So it's more of an an obligation to continue, even if it's tough.

Anyway... it's a very interesting documentary and in my opinion it does give another great insight in Chinese life.

ps. I have tried the flying trapeze myself and it's sooooo scary ;)

For those of you who want to watch it, it's on youtube:

Up the Yangtze

2011-10-05T17:41:00.000+08:00

by Yung Chang
documentary
2007, Canada

Confucius: By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.

In the beginning of the film the guide tells a joke about what's going on in China:
An American leader and a Chinese leader sit in the backseat of their limousine and they are driving on the road of life. Then there comes a crossroad. On the left it says " socialism". On the right it says "capitalism". The American leader says "Oh let's go right"
The Chinese leader says "Ok, let's also turn right, but let's turn on the left indicator". That's what's going on in China. But people don't really care. As one famous Chinese leader said: It doesn't matter what is the color of the cat, whether it's black or white, as long as it will catch mice or rats it's a good cat.
These sayings (of whom there are many in China) were not really new to me but still it does give a good indication of what is happening in China.

This film, even when shot already in 2007, felt very familiar to me. It's what I have seen on the Chinese countryside myself. And although it might seem that China is climbing higher and higher on the world ranks... there's still a huge population on the country side which is poor and struggles in daily life. Life is so tough for the ordinary man. They want their children to do better, but they just don't have the means for that. And so they just have to send their children - instead of going to school - off to go for a job and bring back home money for the family.

Such an interesting film! And it all felt so familiar. It really showed today's China.
As often with huge projects from Chinese government (in this case the Three Gorges Dam) the ordinary man has to suffer. I don't think we can imagine what it must really be like to be in their shoes. Their daily reality is so much different than our western one.

China has changed so much over the past years. I sometimes have the feeling that what Europe has changed since WWII China wants to realize in just a few years. Of course not without damage here and there...

This gripping film shows a great insight in the China of today and there are so many layers to show the topic from the many sides, I love it. Films like this are so necessary to show what China is really like.

La prima cosa bella

2011-10-04T21:20:00.000+08:00

by Paolo Virzì
comedy/drama
2010, Italy

This film moved me so much. It wasn't even so much in the sad theme of the film (a family looking back on life at the moment the mother is dying) but the whole atmosphere that was created makes it an impressive film for me that I won't easily forget.

The actors - often just with non verbal communication - make the emotions come across so real. Even with the many actors for different times (the film will take you back to childhood in flashbacks and then moves forward again in the here and now) it kept me glued to the screen. Apart from the sad moments the film took me through a lot of happy and funny moments as well. I was smiling an awful lot. The Italian combination of melodrama and comedy. Love that combi.

I loved the character of the mother Anna, in the past (Micaela Ramazzotti, her subtileness!) and in the present (Stefania Sandrelli). She's so full of life and passion, whether through happiness or sadness, pain or joy. She sparkles!
The son (Valerio Mastandrea) obviously was having problems dealing with his past, always blaming his mum for his unhappiness and I think the actors did a great job creating this role. The inner conflict was there, almost in every scene. Even the kid's roles are very convincing. It never is overdone and because of that the more impressive.
One of the most special scenes is when he in her last moments of life asks her - while she doesn't even hear it anymore - why he is this unhappy...

All in all this felt like real life. A nostalgic melodramatic roller coaster of life but a real one, full of love. When watching the trailer I am moved all over again. For me it was a beautiful watch!

Midnight in Paris

2011-10-03T23:14:00.001+08:00

by Woody Allen
comedy/fantasy/romance
2011, Spain/USA

I admire Allen for his skills of creating an atmosphere. In a wink I actually was walking through the Paris of the 1920s. So cool! I think he has done such a great job with this film. It almost felt like magic to me!

After Vicky Cristina Barcelone this was absolutely another wonderful Allen film for me.

The different era's in which the sparkling city of Paris is shown are all so lively, recognizable, warm and full of character and the music completely in sync. Of course it's a little cheesy here and there but that is one of the many sides of Paris and I would so have loved to walk in the different times pictured.

He made a great choice with Owen Wilson. The only film I had seen with Wilson before was Marley and me. He portrayed a writer in that film as well but by no means as wonderful as this time. He comes across as very genuine and honest, almost as a child admiring the world around him. I loved it!

Marion Cotillard is another one who impressed me in this film. Of course she's beautiful (and wears some gorgeous dresses ;) but she delivers in an amazing way! I totally bought her character of a girl from the 1920s.

I loved the message seeping through that even if we aren't completely satisfied with life as it is for us now and while longing for something else we should make the best of it.... whatever that is. So we should chase our dreams - not our illusions - and live in the here and now.

When the closing credits appeared I thought of the many friends who would love this film.... the Paris lovers, people who told me they actually should have been born in another era, people who love literature, who love to write, Woody Allen lovers, ... etc.

Anyway for me it was a perfect ending to a summerish weekend in September...

Guan yin shan

2011-07-31T00:04:00.000+08:00

Buddha Mountain
by Yu Li
coming of age/romance/arthouse
2011, China

So loved watching this film. I must say watching films set in China feels familiar now that I have been traveling through the country a lot more.

The film is about three friends in Chengdu (two guys, one girl) in their twenties, who didn't want to go to uni and are a bit of outsiders. They end up renting a room with an older lady with many ridiculous rules in her house (but actually lost her son and is still grieving over that). At first they don't get along and annoy each other but slowly they get to know each other better and bond.

I really enjoyed to see these developments in character. It's not overdone nor cheezy; on the contrary it's a bit raw here and there and very moving. They learn from each other on the way.

I loved the character of Nan Feng (Fan Bingbing), it came across as being so authentic, on the verge of being an adult but still a child and yet no fear for anything or anybody. Good job!

Also the role of the landlady (Silvia Chang) is an interesting one, struggling with her grief and at the same time being the landlady in control.

All in all it's a wonderful story about growing up, friendship, understanding and life. Loved it!

Baciamo encora

2011-07-30T18:44:00.003+08:00

kiss me again
by Gabriele Muccino
drama/romance
2010, Italia

The good thing about traveling on long haul flights is that you get to choose films and of course I often end up watching films from the 'world section' because there's always something interesting to find. This time I choose for a Chinese and an Italian film.

Apparently Baciamo encora was the sequel to L'ultimo bacio (2001), which I hadn't seen at that time, but it didn't really matter. It was an easy watch and I liked the fast pace of it. At some points I had difficulties keeping up with it as I wanted to listen to the Italian language as much as reading the subtitles in English and all was going so fast, but I had a good time anyway. Lovely emotional music to complete it.

The film is about a group of friends who were in their (end) twenties at the time of L'ultimo bacio. Baciamo encora tells about the same group of people, but then ten years later, about their ups and downs in love life, fighting midlife crisis and the question of life: is this it?

It's not really a story that goes to extreme depth (but I wasn't really looking for that in the middle of the night anyway ;) and it was a bit far from reality at times. One group of friends and having all these experiences all in one group was a bit much and it therefore sometimes felt like an American soap opera so much as was happening.

But I must admit I loved watching this explosion of emotions at the same time. I loved the extremes and the melancholic and passionate feel in this film.

Avatar

2011-07-26T20:59:00.000+08:00

by James Cameron
action/adventure/fantasy
2009, USA/UK

Absolutely not my favourite genre of film, but many of my friends had convinced me to watch it since the release already.
Besides that I was in Tianzishan, Hunan province (China) during one of my trips in June of which the Chinese declared that it inspired Avatar. Everything to attract more tourists of course ;)

Ah well... I just needed to watch it and have my own opinion some day, whether I would like the film or not.

I must admit, the scenery did look like Tianzishan. It really felt like walking there again in between all those rocks and stones and green leaves ;)

Anyway... what did I think of the film. Ok... it still is not my cup of tea. So I'm probably not the one to judge this film. And I found it a bit boring. Ok the visual part is great and Cameron did create a pretty world to watch. But for me apart from that there's not much in it.

What I love about watching films is that they take me into another world. The world in this film is absolutely different.
But what I missed is real characters. I had absolutely nothing to relate to in this film. I didn't care for the characters, too one dimensional, they didn't do anything for me. I just didn't buy it because it was all artificial.

I guess... my conclusion is: it's not for me. No offense. Just not for me.

Potiche

2011-07-24T23:25:00.000+08:00

by Francois Ozon

comedy/arthouse
2010, France

Potiche is French for vase but also for trophy wife. The film is about the wife Suzanne (Deneuve) of a tyrannical manager Robert (Luchini) of an umbrella factory in the 70s (which was her father’s ;). After a strike in the factory (of course… it’s France!) and his following heart attack it’s up to her to run the factory with help of a politician and old flame (Depardieu), which means a lot of positive changes for the factory.
The film competed at the Venice International Film Festival.

It’s a film adaption from a famous play and is a bit over the top, but I like it.
I watched the film in French without subtitles but didn’t find it too difficult to follow. The 70s setting is awesome (telephone en pluche, the walls, the VW emergency van, etc). Although I normally prefer modern films I must say I was hooked immediately. And it all was sooo French.

Deneuve is so great in this film. She portrayed feminism pur sang. It was so cool to see her character growing from the first scene (jogging outside with curlers in her hair, greeting the birds and squirrels) to the strong and happy lady in the end.

For years I had a soft spot for Depardieu but didn’t really follow him any longer in the past ten years. It was interesting to see him in this film again though. A great scene was the dance scene between Depardieu and Deneuve, it caused a big smile on my face ☺

It’s a film which has such a lovely charm and leaves such a good feeling… at the same time it shows a lot about relationships, French society and the 70s more in general and… that maybe things didn’t change so much after all. Loved it!

Please give

2011-07-23T23:25:00.012+08:00

by Nicole Holofcener
dark comedy/drama/arthouse
2010, USA

An American Indie movie about New York and its people… it’s a slow moving but still very interesting film. It kind of reminds me of many films I watched at film festivals through the years, they absolutely have their charm and I enjoyed myself.

It’s about a couple Alex (Platt) and Kate (Keener) who bought the apartment next to theirs with the intention to make one bigger apartment of the two. But there still is the old lady Andra (Guilbert) who will have to die first. She’s renting it. We also get to know the two granddaughters of the lady (Peet as Mary and Hall as Rebecca) who take care of the old lady.

The casting is great. And the characters are built up so well, I really was caring for them. Especially for Rebecca who seems so lonely and vulnerable. My favourite scene was the trip to the autumn leaves, where she finally decides to enjoy herself instead of being there for others.
And I could so feel the guilt of Kate… it almost felt like vicarious shame even only watching her ;). Loved her character.
I found especially the female roles all wonderful and very realistic.

All in all a very honest film which left a great impression with me. It felt like getting to know new friends. In the end I actually found it sad that I couldn’t go on their journey of life for a bit longer.

Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove

2011-07-20T20:51:00.062+08:00

by Will Geiger
family
2010, USA

Ok... let's be honest. I bought this dvd because I loved watching Steve Irwin's documentaries. Visited his zoo in Queensland, Oz. Was devastated when he died. And so impressed by his daughter Bindi at the memorial service. And I was really interested to see his daughter play in this film, to see how she had grown up. So that's how come. And I didn't even get disappointed.

She actually did do quite a good job and was really convincing. I loved watching her! I liked how she gave the character an attitude and acted so natural. And I liked how her Ozzie accent now and then came through ;). And she did even sing. But most of all I liked watching her because she absolutely has her dad's passion and I loved seeing it in her eyes!

I liked how the two characters, granddaughter Kirra (Irwin) and grandfather Gus (Bridges) bonded eventually. And I liked her with her friend "no not boyfriend" (Ramba) as well.

After watching Free Willy, I never watched any of the sequels but you don't really miss it I think. It's a film that can stand on its own... It is a real family film though - so not for everyone, but not too sweet to watch it as an adult.

It's a heartwarming film, even though it's a bit fake at times (but living in China I'm used to a huge amount of fakeness these days ;). But the message still is a wonderful one and I think it will be a lovely film for families to watch.

Whatever Lola wants

2011-06-26T22:13:00.002+08:00

by Nabil Ayouch
drama
2007, Canada/France

The film blurb said: A New York postal worker travels to Egypt to take belly dancing lessons from a legendary instructor.

It’s about Lola (Ramsey), a girl who lives in New York, falls in love with an Egyptian who is only interested in her for the three nights in NY and no more than that, but she decides to go after him in Egypt.
Apart from that she wants to find Ismahan, a famous dancer to learn belly dancing from her.

Hmm. At first it was a bit too much “the naïve American girls goes Arabic and doesn’t know what she’s getting into”. I really felt embarrassed at first with this character. She didn’t even know the very basics. Didn’t she prepare at all?
About the same feeling I had with the last Sex and the City film.

But I must admit the further the film progressed, the more the character developed and it actually was a charming film. Especially the dancing together with Ismahan, but also the relationships between the different characters were built up nicely.

All in all the film really left a warm feeling.

Dirty Dancing: Havana nights

2011-06-19T14:52:00.001+08:00

by Guy Ferland

2004, USA

I was such a teenager as Dirty Dancing was released and totally into dancing (fanatically) so this was very much my film.

Many many years later we traveled to Cuba and it was absolutely one of my most impressive trips ever.

So I was interested what this combination would do.

Aparently the film is based on an original screenplay about the real life experience of producer JoAnne Jansen, who lived in Cuba as a 15 year old girl in 1958-59 and was to be a serious political romance story, about the real Cuba of that time (sooo interesting) but the script was waiting to be sold for a while. This Dirty Dancing film eventually was very loosely adapted from this first script (such a pity!).

The film was set in Cuba, but shot in Puerto Rico. It looks like Cuba and there were shots of Cuba, but most importantly it ‘beamed’ Cuba. A romantic version that is, because it’s not like the Cuba we met during our travels.

I liked the chemistry between character Katey (Garai) and Javier (Luna), they danced in a great way. And it’s also cool to see Swayze back again, it’s weird to think he’s been gone for nearly two years already.

I did love the film for its dancing though, it’s great to get totally absorbed into the world of dancing, the moves, the music. It’s wonderful. I guess we should see this film just like that and not more than that. And then it’s a great film.

Zephyr

2011-02-02T17:20:00.024+08:00

by Belma Bas
Bright Future/Coming of age
Turkey, 2010

from IFFR site:
Teenage girl Zephyr spends her youth in the house of her grandparents, in the stunningly beautiful countryside. Every day she awaits the return of her mother. A deep look into the psyche of the girl and her discoveries about love, life and nature.

This minimalistic, beautifully photographed debut tries to fathom the actions of the 11-year-old Turkish girl Zephyr. Her globe-trotting mother has been away for years and this has deeply damaged Zephyr emotionally. She lives with her grandparents in a beautiful hilly area, where she is especially interested in the dead animals that she respectfully buries.
The fact that her mother keeps leaving has made her suspicious. She does not bond, because this only leads to saying farewell. Her grandparents lead a simple, self-sufficient life, with mushrooms and berries they pick themselves and fresh milk. Snails and spiders surround them and it looks as if Zephyr feels more at home with the animals than in the world of adult people. The soundtrack meanwhile heralds the approaching disaster.
Together with Bas' short-film debut Poyraz, the film Zephyr, made with an almost entirely non-professional cast, forms the start of the film series The Heroine's Journey Beyond Winds.

Somehow I didn't have much time and energy for the Filmfestival in my hometown this year. And so I ended up by watching only one film during the festival: Zephyr. But it was totally worth the watch. It's a beauty!

The scenery of the Turkish countryside is wonderful and the grandparents live the kind of ideal simple life. It gives a somewhat romantic touch too it, especially with the fogginess from time to time.

The story was so captivating and worked out in a minimalist and maybe because of that even more impressive way. It was all captured in the small things in life. And I so felt for the girl who just needed her mother who was never there for her, even if she was around. It's a tragic film in all its scenes and one I won't forget easily!

The Romantics

2011-02-01T20:44:00.002+08:00

by Galt Niederhoffer
comedy/drama/romance
2010, USA

Katie Holmes is one of those actresses which I have been following for a long time. Back in the years I loved Dawsons Creek, could watch it over and over. I never understood why she fell for Tom Cruise but I always kept an eye on her career path. Surprisingly I didn't hear much about this film. Fortunately my local dvd dealer does have a huge collection and I suddenly stumbled on The Romantics.

I got hooked on this film from the first shot on. Somehow it managed to catch my attention and it did for the whole film. Which does not happen too often anymore.
The Romantics is not the usual romcom. Nothing complicates friendship like love. Love is so much more complicated than happily ever after and all about trying to understand your own feelings. It's a long and complicated journey full of raw emotions and lessons in life. And that's what I really loved in this film. It felt so true and genuine.

Holmes really did an excellent job in this film. I might be biased but I think she has grown so much since the days of DC. There was so much depth in this role, so many restrained feelings and tension. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. One of my favourite scenes was the one where she (Laura) talks to the groom (Josh Duhamel as Tom). She so owns that part of the film. I even started the dvd again to see it all again.

I think also Duhamel and Anna Paquin did a good job and the combination of the cast worked very well. I hadn't seen Dianna Agron before (I'm not a Glee fan) but I fell in love with her during the part where she has a one on one siblings scene with Paquin on the night before the wedding.

The scenery near the ocean is a beautiful one and also the music is very well chosen. Both do give an extra dimension to the film.

All in all this was a great watch and considering that I hadn't even heard about this film I guess it's an quite underrated film. Which is a pity. To me it's a keeper. Holmes did really stand out and I am looking forward to see more of her newer work!

Nine

2010-03-18T19:04:00.000+08:00

by Rob Marshall

drama/musical/romance

2009, USA/Italy

There’s something in this film that made me watch it twice. Somehow it was intriguing but I did miss something and thought I had just *missed* it (hence the second time lol).

The cast is great… so many interesting females put together! Penelope Cruz being one of my favourites but also Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Fergie, Kate Hudson…

And not to forget Daniel Day Lewis of course.

So I don't think that was the problem!

To really review the film I should divide it in two

a) the performance

b) the story

a) Is great. The cast, the music, the stages, the singing, the ambiance, the lighting… I could go on and on about it.

But…

b) The story didn’t grap me at all. Even after two times watching it I didn’t feel connected at all. And I guess this film (this is not your standard musical) does need the story as well.

So… I did not completely fall for the film, although I did expect a lot from it. It all looks great from the outside, but it’s just a shallow skin and when you peel it off there’s nothing. I guess, it just didn’t deliver. I missed the passion… especially for an Italian film!

When you care for the ambiance of an Italian film and more for the picture than for the story, just go for it! But otherwise... leave it, there are more interesting films!

Did you hear about the Morgans?

2010-03-15T13:22:00.002+08:00

by Marc Lawrence

comedy/drama/romance

2009, USA

Not the best film I have ever seen but it is a nice one for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I have a soft spot for Hugh Grant, I somehow like his clumsiness. I fall for it, one way or the other. And I liked Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex in the City, but that’s all I have seen from her.

The film is a bit shallow and I guess the writer could have done better. Some more depth would have been nice I guess. SJP’s role Meryl is a bit naive; I guess for a big city girl she could have been a bit tougher, more with an edge. Now she stays a bit bland. Grant’s role Paul is just like he always is, but that’s how we like him I guess ;).

I wouldn’t pick Grant and SJP as a couple in the first place but I think they made their relationship quite a believable one after all. I liked the supporting roles of Mary Steenburgen and Sam Eliott (the Wheelers).

The scenery is beautiful; you get the big city lights and the big emptiness of the countryside set next to one another. I also liked the village life of Ray.

I liked how the Morgan’s changed their opinion towards Ray, Wyoming, some place in the middle of nowhere. Hating it at first (because New York this and New York that) but starting to adjust and even admire (the starry nights) later on. I so know that it’s not all about big cities in life… I liked the jokes about it though.

I felt like staying in Ray for a while myself. I wondered whether the Morgans would eventually end up there permanently.

It’s a light-hearted film and no more than that, but you can absolutely have a good laugh and an entertainable afternoon/night with it :)

Up in the air

2010-03-14T16:36:00.002+08:00

by Jason Reitman

drama/romance

2009, USA

Loved this film!! Love George Clooney of course, but there’s more to it.

Somehow this film awakened feelings I already had as a child. My dad is a traveler for his work (and so is my husband… I guess there’s some truth in you look for the man like your father…. Although I didn’t know my husband would be traveling later on lol) and was a traveler for work already in my childhood. One day we went to the airport to welcome my dad coming from his business trip in Spain. Turned out he had a delay, a huge delay. We had to stay at the airport and spent many hours there (the delay was almost 12 hours)…and I loved it. I’m sure my love for traveling was born at that day. I still love to see planes and I still love to travel, I always feel butterflies in my belly and am thrilled ;).

So I guess this film awakened that. Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a coorporate downsizing expert and needs to fly for this job from one town to another within the USA. I so felt like flying with him lol.

I loved Clooney in this role. He seems so genuine, lonely and almost vulnerable under his tough skin. And his timing is impeccable in this film. Several times I was touched by it.

But also the role of Natalie (Kendrick) of a young, ambitious and naif fresh from uni kind of girl is great to watch. And Alex (Farmiga) made me laugh as she so plays Clooney's role “but with a vagina”.

Apparently the people who Ryan needed to fire in the film were not all actors but people who had really been fired. Wow! Such an interesting dimension to this film. Very emotional for them though.

The film is full of humor and yet so serious as well. It’s a keeper and one I felt so sorry about that it ended. I will definitely watch it again :).

The blind side

2010-03-08T11:01:00.003+08:00

by John Lee Hancock
biography/drama/sports
2009, USA

Wow… this really is a beauty of a film! I so loved watching it!! It moved me so much and I felt totally softened. Maybe it was because we expected to see a different kind of film with lots of football and more like a comedy that it made such a huge impressions but it absolutely moved me.

This film is so well done. The story is great (I didn’t know anything about the football player the film is about) and the cast did such a wonderful job. They made the pictures of this family (whose pictures you will see at the end of the film) coming alive.

The good thing about Sandra Bullock is that whatever role she plays, she no longer is Sandra Bullock but totally slips into the person she is supposed to be in that moment. Not for one single moment I was watching Sandra Bullock. She did so well.

But I became an instant fan of Quinton Aaron as well who played the football player Michael Oher. I was totally blown away by this guy. Great performance without even saying so much. Loved his non-verbal way of acthing though!

The story – whether it’s all true or not – does make you believe there are still good people in the world caring for each other… it is a feel good film… but one about a family that actually did all these things. I can imagine this experience did change their lives for good!

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

2010-03-07T22:49:00.002+08:00

by Phil Lord/Chris Miller

animation/comedy/family

USA, 2009

Normally I’m not really into animation films but a friend recommended this film to me since she so enjoyed it. I haven’t read the book so I couldn’t compare the one to the other.

I must say it is a funny film and it even is sweet at times in family relationships and love and therefore absolutely has a certain charm in it. I liked watching it a lot…. the first part at least.

Because at a certain moment it gets all over the top and just too much for me and the film has such a speed that it lost some of its fun in the centre part.

I had the feeling that since this film is rushing so much it gets a bit blury from time to time and I felt a bit lost now and then.

I guess I’m still not your typical animation lover but I am glad I gave it a try with this one ;). I think kids would have a fun time watching this film, for adults it could get across as ridiculous and can get a tad annoying at times.

Julie & Julia

2010-03-04T21:46:00.002+08:00

by Nora Ephron
biography/comedy/drama/romance
2009, USA

A couple of years ago one of my penpals (unfortunately we lost touch soon after that) suggested me to read the book Julie & Julia ‘cause she had so enjoyed it herself. I tried to find it and started off reading. And mann how I loved the book!

So I was very curious to the film of course. I couldn’t wait till I could get it on dvd.

The film is based on two storylines:
a) the life of Julia Child moving to France as an expat wife trying to find a meaning for her life in a new country (I guess I recognized something there ;) and we follow her in her journey to write the now famous book Mastering the Art of French cooking.

And b) the life of Julia Powel who loves cooking but is bored in her present life (I guess she is searching for some same goal in life ;) and starts cooking every recipe of Julia’s book while blogging about it for one year.

Julia Child was not so famous in the Netherlands as in the USA so I guess my starting point was a little different. And as I read the book Julie & Julia by Julia Powel, but not yet the book My life in France by Julia Child (it’s on top of my TBR list but I will just need to find it somewhere around here) I had the feeling I knew more about Julie than about Julia before watching the film.

It was very interesting to see both storylines waved into one film. I liked watching both women. As both were coming from a totally different world and background it was interesting to see how they both took up a journey. A different journey, but both special ones (and yummie, I have so many great dishes lol). I liked how the film switched in between both lives.

I really loved the film. It's very enjoyable to watch and I really never had a dull moment. The film beams with warmth and leaves that special thing which feel good films do.

I found the voice of Julia is a bit disturbing at times. I don’t know why she used another (higher) voice for this role but as I have never seen Julia Child in her tv shows it might just be the imitation of her voice?

And I think it's a pity they didn't deepen out Julie's role just a little more. Through the book I had become fond of her as a person but through the film one would think she would be less important than Julia.

The setting of the film in Paris is great... it's the Paris we all love to see I guess. I so felt like going to Paris! I guess the city was even more charming in those days!

All in all this is a film with a great ambiance, full of life and joy! I loved watching it and to me it will be a keeper in the collection of dvd's :)

Couples retreat

2010-03-01T22:35:00.000+08:00

by Peter Billingsley

comedy

2009, USA

Not a film that left a great impression on me. A greater part of it was quite boring to be honest.

I guess they got the idea through all these Paradise Island reality shows we have had in the past but the story line was so weak. Of course it’s lovely to see the scenery of Bora Bora on a dreary Sunday afternoon but I did expect to see a bit more than this.

No lack of good cast and you would expect something worthwhile would be the result of that, but even they didn’t bring anything exciting to watch.

I so got the feeling the filmmaker didn't know what he wanted with the film. One moment he tried to be funny, the next he wanted to touch serious drama. Normally it's interesting to have a mix of things but this time I just felt he didn't succeed in either category!

So, I don’t have that much more to tell you about it because there just isn’t anything more to tell ;). This film just wasn't my cup of tea!

It's complicated

2010-02-26T18:42:00.000+08:00

comedy/romance

by Nancy Meyers

USA, 2009

I loved it!! Such a warm film!

This film does have some great cast of course in Meryl Streep (Jane), Alec Baldwin (Jake) and Steve Martin (Adam). But also John Krasinski in his role of the son in law is amazing (he was so great in this film). And I just loved the whole bunch of kids.

It is complicated when Jane meets her ex-husband Jake again in the hotel bar at the night before their son’s graduation. He remarried a much younger woman years ago but left his new wife at home this night because of their sick child. And so the exes end up together in the bar and... in bed. Jane is devastated and really doesn’t want to start an affair with a married man, after all that’s what this same man did to her years ago.

Normally one could feel a bit biased when watching adultery in a film. I must say I didn't feel that this time though, I loved it. I guess they still belonged together. And they had such great chemistry together.

But then comes Adam (Martin), the architect who designs the new addition to her house (which is gorgeous btw), who is also attracted to her. It is getting more complicated!

The setting of the film is great, so many wonderful locations (the house, the bakery, the party). It's a little dreamy but what's wrong with that to watch in a film!

The film is hilarious at times and I have been laughing quite a lot, but most of all the film is warm and sparkling in so many ways. I so enjoyed watching this family!

Love happens

2010-02-25T20:33:00.003+08:00

by Brandon Camp
drama/romance
USA, 2009

The film starts off with a very predictable self-help guru speaking to his public. At first one would think that this was going to be very boring. I guess we all know these words of change and have already heard them too often.

But I must say I got hooked after a while. It’s not a film with romance all over, but does offer some real depth. In the end of the film the tears rolled over my cheeks so I guess it did touch me a lot after all.

I like it when films do that to you, when they turn out to be much more interesting than you would originally think. It really surprised me.

The film is about dealing with loss and grief, dealing with sad things that happened in the past. The film is about love too, about love that happens at those moments in life when you are not completely ready for it.

Aaron Eckhart is very believable in his role as the guru, I noticed this in how annoying he appeared to me (I’m not one for seminars and books like that anymore ;), but later in the film he also seems very real in the guru that needs to help himself first.

I loved Jennifer in her role as Eloise, the florist, how her character played with words and how she cared for Burke, tried to convince him to help himself.

Other interesting roles were played by Martin Sheen (the father in law, I loved him) and by John Carroll Lynch (Walter, one of the people that came to the guru’s seminar).

I really loved this film. It seems a shallow one but there’s a lot of depth, even in between the lines which makes it very worthwhile to watch.

The storm

2010-02-21T19:12:00.001+08:00

De Storm
By Ben Sombogaart
Netherlands, 2009

The country of the Netherlands is situated below sea level. In 1953 the southwest part of the country was flooded in a disastrous way. The water rose meters high, most houses were destroyed and many people died.

Since then water management became a hot item and the delta plan was created. These days dams, dikes and storm flood barriers protect most parts of the southwest.

We moved to the southwest part of the Netherlands as I was ten years old and although I wasn’t even alive yet as the disaster happened it felt like something real in my childhood. We did have life vests in the attic (just in case), many parents of my friends worked on the delta plan, we often went to one of the works, I knew so many people who had lost relatives and friends due to the disaster and people did have the most scary stories to tell.

So I really did want to watch this film! Although the film did have some flaws (e.g. the local dialect was replaced by Flemish Belgian which is very different) I must say the ambiance of the film did move me immediately. The fear for the water coming up way too fast, the loosing of family members right in front of your eyes, the religion that plays such an important role in life in the area, the taboos of those years (getting pregnant without being married), etc.

Of course one should be aware that the film isn’t a documentary but fiction based on a couple of facts, so not everything needs to be perfect. And sometimes the film is more about the story of the main character than about that storm in 1953 but I didn’t feel that this was a problem. For me there was so much in this film and I think the filmmaker did capture the fear and disaster very well!

The hell of '63

2010-02-21T18:12:00.001+08:00

De hel van ‘63
Netherlands, 2009

Such an interesting film! Especially at this time of the year with all the snow and cold weather outside in Europe (but a lot of people don’t want to see any more snow there I guess lol). I thought I would miss out on Dutch films since we live in China and there’s not much of a chance to get those here (sometimes we do, but not often). But in the plane back home to Shanghai I had the opportunity to watch two Dutch beauties!

For us Dutch people the Eleven Cities Tour (Elfstedentocht) is something we can get excited about. Every winter when temperatures drop below zero for a while the rumors start it might be possible to skate on natural ice again. And when the cold continues the people up north in the country start to make preparations for a possible Elfstedentocht, a tour on ice of nearly 200km from town to town. Not that we had any tours like that in the near past, the last one dates of 1997. Most winters haven't been cold enough or the cold didn't continue for long enough. This winter many people hoped for one as it has been cold since mid December already, but due to snow the quality of ice just wasn't good enough.

Back to the film. It tells about the Elfstedentocht of 1963 which was extremely hard in conditions. It was cold, there was an icy eastern wind, dusting snow, temperature was -18*C, the ice had many cracks through which people fell etc. Only 69 out of 9.000 people did finish it at that time. The film does show very well how tough it was, you really get the feeling. I loved to see the landscapes (although not everything was shot in the Netherlands because it wasn’t cold enough at the time of filming ;), the film absolutely is very cinematic.

I loved the story of the film. Four main characters: one man who had just lost his job and his pregnant woman had left him because of that; one farmer’s son who wanted to show he was capable to finish the tour so that his uncles would lend him the money to continue the farm of his dad; one military guy who walked away from his duty for the day to skate the tour and one girl who had lost her boyfriend a couple of years ago as he skated into a hole in the ice and disappeared and she wanted to fulfill his dream to skate the tour and earn the Elfstedenkruisje (= medal for the tour). The cast is playing so well, I really cared for all of them and so wished they would make the tour till the end!

What I found very interesting is that the film mostly was in spoken Frisian (Fries, the language in the northern part of the country) and subtitled in English. So I tried to understand it in Frisian and only if I didn’t manage to understand it I would look at the subtitles. And I could understand almost everything. I’m not sure whether the Frisian spoken by the cast was well pronounced though ;), I guess the real Frisian could fill me in on that one ;)

Anyway… it’s one of the greatest Dutch films I have ever seen.

Deja passer

2010-02-04T21:01:00.003+08:00

About Taiwanese people, the things that pass by... It's all a memory before you know it.
This programm contained three short films, all about Taiwain.

Letting off
by Chang Heng-Ju
Taiwan, 2010

From the IFFR site:
A young man works at a convenience store and gets caught up in the lies he tells to avoid losing face. A realistic, yet hopeful tale.
An invitation to a wedding causes a lot of stress in Xiaoguo's rather humdrum life, which consists of working night shifts at a convenience store. The lies he tells to avoid losing face hold up only briefly. A realistic, yet hopeful tale.

My thoughts: a short film about losing face, a very important and intriguing part of Chinese culture. I really wanted to watch this (short) film because it’s something that makes me wonder every day again in my present life. Of course we all are afraid of losing face in some way, but the Chinese are real champions in it.
I think the filmmaker did make a good job showing this to us viewers.

Remembrance

By Lee Kang-sheng
Taiwan, 2009

From the IFFR site:
A film with the nostalgic scent of good coffee. Farewell to a female dancer and a coffee shop. Tsai Ming-liang plays the man saying goodbye.  About remembrance, of course, but also about the aromas that remain after farewell. A woman says farewell to her coffee shop after 20 years. A regular client is the only person to share this special moment with her. On the radio, farewell to a beloved dancer. With Tsai Ming-liang as the regular client.

My thoughts: what a lovely piece of film. Very cinematic and so full of emotion without showing it in a dramatic way. I loved the combination of the last cup of coffee with the remaining coffee beans and the remembrance of the famous female dancer who had died. It made the emotions rawer. The most interesting shot was the one of the actual closing of the shop.

Madame Butterfly

By Tsai Ming-Liang
Taiwan/France, 2009

From the IFFR site:
Master filmmaker follows a woman at a bus station. These are all the ingredients for a captivating film. Tribute to Puccini, whom we neither see nor hear.  A minor tour de force and only a true master can make it look simple: we follow a woman at the hectic Puduraya bus station in Kuala Lumpur; Puccini composed Madame Butterfly. The relationship between that opera and Tsai's film seems a mystery, but is not unfathomable. 

My thoughts: I really didn’t understand this film. I hardly could wait till it finished and had the feeling that it didn’t lead us anywhere. Fortunately it was one in the category short films ;). It didn’t bring me anything at all. The woman seemed totally uninteresting and the film did even give me a bad taste at times. Not my idea of a great film anyway.

Once upon a time proletarian

2010-02-04T20:54:00.003+08:00

Women ceng jing de wuchanzhe
By Guo Xiaolu
UK/Germany, 2009

From IFFR site:
Portrait of post-Maoist China in twelve commentaries by inhabitants of the country. Writer/film maker Guo Xialolu sketches a varied picture of a China that is still developing very rapidly, but which still doesn't seem to have much room for individual needs. Those who can't keep up can do little else but complain.  
Each chapter starts with black-and-white shots of a small group of children reading anecdotes out loud one by one from a magazine. Together with the grander stories by, for instance, a peasant complaining about the current system, fish merchants, millionaires talking about Russian prostitutes and exchange rates, a park manager and hotel staff complaining about their hopeless lives, these texts sketch a varied picture of a China that is still developing very rapidly but in which there is not much room for individual needs. Anyone who isn't merciless and selfish is left behind and has little else to do than complain and wallow in self-pity. The documentary is augmented with propaganda songs praising the former leaders Feng Lei and Mao, from a time when everything was better, or at least clearer - even according to some of the protagonists. Guo Xiaolu is a Chinese writer and film maker. She made Once Upon a Time Proletarian in the same year as the feature She, A Chinese.

My thoughts: the film is a combination of portraits of twelve different people and shots of children who read pieces from a magazine. Must say this combination gave great insight in daily life in China. Of course this is a country changing in a fast rhythm but not everyone does follow that same rhythm.
There are people who are extremely rich but a greater part won’t even ever reach middle class. Which did surprise me the first time I read about this long time ago. Apparently socialism isn’t that much different from capitalism.

The film is very interesting and I think the filmmaker did a great job with making this quite complete picture. The twelve portraits feel so sincere and honest. The shots of the children to me stand for their future. What will the future bring for them? I can imagine the filmmaker did ask himself this question... it’s all so complex.

I loved this film and this film absolutely gives food for thought!

Sun spots

2010-02-04T19:18:00.007+08:00

by Yang Heng
Hong Kong/China, 2009

From IFFR site:
Successful Chinese example of minimalist cinema combines beautiful, very sharp HD images without camera movements with a story about a tragic relationship between a tattooed gangster and a hesitant girl suffering the pains of unrequited love.  The plot of Sun Spots is minimal. It all comes down to a tragic love triangle. A tattooed young man lives without God, injunctions or aim in a quiet green corner of China. He does violent jobs for loan sharks - his machete is never out of reach. He falls in love with a pretty girl. She tries to forget her sorrow about the deceit of her former lover. If this synopsis sounds like a typical Asian gangster melodrama, the style and story of Yang Heng's second feature is very different. In 31 shots, he shows what is possible with the sharpness of modern HD video, without camera movements, zooms or cuts. The visual experience is shaped by the length of time that people get to study all the details in the beautiful landscapes - from discarded beer bottles in the foreground to small rivers in the background and of course the body language of the characters, who are (usually) somewhere in the middle. The soundtrack, in which the occasionally uncomfortably long silences in the conversations are filled by background sounds, has the same beauty. And as one can expect in successful examples of this kind of minimalist cinema, the last shot (nine minutes long) is as enchanting as it is scary. Yang previously made Betelnut and, especially for the IFFR, the installation Nirvana. Sun Spots was made with a contribution from the Hubert Bals Fund. 

My thoughts: a tragic relationship love triangle indeed! Very Asian and through that a little vague, but very cinematic which made it easy to watch.

A girl is angry with her boyfriend for sleeping around. Another man – type gangster – is after her as well. She does not really decide what she wants or at least doesn't seem to do so.

The scenery is great, the countryside of China where pace still is a bit slower, apart from the beatings up in the world of the gangster, which you don’t really see, it all happens out of sight ;).

I loved how the girl is sooo silent. You need to totally rely on her non verbal communication. And still you will get the story!

The film is very moving in the relationships and beautiful in landscapes. Loved it!

My Tehran for sale

2010-02-02T21:52:00.003+08:00

by Granaz Moussavi
Iran/Australia, 2009

From IFFR site:
Debut film by the Iranian female poet Granaz Moussavi is about the secret double life that many young people lead in repressive Iran. They can only be themselves and express themselves behind closed doors. The film shows an underground scene in Teheran that is never reflected in the media.  The actress Marzieh Vafamehr plays the young actress Marzieh in My Tehran for Sale. Vafamehr also forms the primary source of inspiration for the female poet Granaz Moussavi, who wrote and directed the film. Because her theatre work was banned, Marzieh was forced to lead a secret double life in order to express herself artistically. The Iranian-born Saman, who emigrated to Australia, gives her an opportunity to leave the country. According to Moussavi, she wanted in her debut film to tell the story of her generation, which has learned to live with double morality and with fear and which has to survive with lies and deceit. As teenagers, they were not allowed to be noticeable or wear colourful clothing and they had to behave seriously and obediently. Now they can only be themselves behind closed doors. In the film, Moussavi shows an Iranian underground scene that is never portrayed in the media.

My thoughts: Wow, this is such an interesting and moving film. Sad as well though. Of course we all know that life in Iran isn’t easy but a film like this makes it all the more clear. This film absolutely gets under your skin.
You so feel for Marzieh, a woman full of power and positive to go her own way, to follow her dreams even if she has to go underground for it.
I guess we cannot truly understand or feel what that must be like. Living in freedom is such a precious thing which we take for granted once we have it. But it never will be for everyone on this big wide world.

I so loved this powerful film! It feels so realistic and honest. And it’s not all serious and heartbreak… the film definitely gives you a warm feel of life as well. Behind the doors there happens so much more!

I loved Vafamehr in her role of the main character Marzieh. It was hard to believe she had not been acting before. Wow! She is doing such a wonderful job!

One of the most intriguing films I have ever seen!

The well

2010-02-02T21:43:00.012+08:00

Vihir
by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni

India, 2009

From IFFR site:

The everyday cares and uncertainties with which 14-year-old Sameer wrestles are suddenly unimportant when his best friend drowns in the well where they often swim together. This light-hearted mosaic of family troubles changes to a moving reflection on life and death.

This beautifully shot story, larded with everyday family vicissitudes about saying goodbye to childhood, changes slowly but surely into a moving reflection on loss and death. Sameer (14) feels insecure about the choices he faces. He can swim as well as anyone. He also admires his slightly older cousin Nachiket, even though he needs to use floats in the water. The deep well where the boys often swim adds a symbolic accent to this autobiographically inspired story. Following a mysterious accident, Sameer is suddenly confronted by a major question in life. The time of playing hide and seek without cares has passed. After his debut Valu (The Wild Bull), which was warmly received in Rotterdam, Umesh Kulkarni also shot The Well in Marathi, the language of one of the largest states of India with Mumbai as its capital. Marathi film has very old roots, but is now overshadowed by Bollywood. 

My thoughts: a very interesting work by this filmmaker. It starts off as a coming of age film but suddenly arrives at the bigger questions in life as in the death of a dear one.

I felt this film to be a very warm bath… the story about a family, the cinematic scenery, the relationship between the two boys… a wonderful film to watch!

And then all of a sudden so sad: one of the boys dies … you really feel for the other boy searching for answers, searching for his friend… without being dramatic the filmmaker showed us what the boy went through.

The film is based on a personal experience of the filmmaker, I felt that he wanted to keep distance and draw you into it at the same time. And made it the more impressive.

Great film!

Let each one go where he may

2010-02-02T21:39:00.002+08:00

by Ben Russell

USA/Surinam, 2009

From IFFR site:

A reflection on the history of Surinamese migrants and slaves by one of the most prominent experimental film makers of our time, in thirteen takes each lasting ten minutes. He follows two brothers from the outskirts of Paramaribo via forest paths, goldmines and rivers to a Marron village.  'This is how we’ve heard it: during slavery, there was hardly anything to eat. They would whip you until your ass was burning, then they would give you a bit of plain rice in a bowl. And the gods said, they said that this is no way for human beings to live. The gods would help them. "Let each one go where he may." So they ran.' This text from Lantifaya Masiakiiki is the starting point for the full length film debut by Ben Russell, one of the most prominent experimental film makers of our time. The film can be regarded as the culmination of his work: from his often ethnographically inspired short film oeuvre to the period when in the 1990s he was first active as a development worker in Bendekonde in Saramacca, Surinam. Let Each One Go Where He May is made up of thirteen takes of ten minutes each. Two brothers (Benjen and Monie Pansa) are followed with a 16mm steady cam, an athletic and aesthetic top achievement by cameraman Chris Fawcett. From the outer suburbs of Paramaribo, along forest paths and marketplaces, past illegal goldmines to the jungle and on a motorboat along the river to a Maroon village, where they take part in the most exciting rituals still performed by these descendants of slaves who once fled the Dutch colonial rulers. The result is a reflection on the history of forced migration and a profound investigation into the cultural characteristics of looking and showing. 

My thoughts: I was so interested in this film…. and yet so disappointed after watching it. I thought I would learn something more about Surinam, a country that interests me a lot. The film is a very slow one, it follows two brothers on their day of work.

I guess the photo you will find with this entry is the one and only shot with actual action in it. The rest of the film consisted of dozens of minutes each of: chain sawing trees, walking through the bush, working in the goldmines, etc. Long and boring shots without any action at all.

I was so longing to see more of the country and culture. Is this really all there is for the filmmaker?

I managed to sit through till the end (while more and more people left) because I hoped we would somehow get to some climax but it didn’t happen. It was just long (2.5 hours) and boring… so much that it almost started to intrigue me… almost!

The Annunciation

2010-02-01T21:44:00.002+08:00

by Hsu Ronin
China, 2010

From IFFR site:
Moving, atmospheric social realism by the young Chinese debutant is about a simple newlywed couple who have moved to the city like so many others looking for work. He really wants a child, she wants to make him happy. But how does she convince him that his sperm isn't helping?  A newlywed couple would love a child. At least, the man wants one. When his wife Xia is still not pregnant after a year, Dong blames her. After medical tests, it becomes apparent that there's nothing wrong with Xia. Dong has his doubts about his own fertility and starts using stimuli so he can do it more often and in this way improve the chances of getting a child. Xia thinks of a solution: she'll get pregnant by someone else. When Dong then finds out that he is infertile, there's hell to pay. In his debut, Hsu Ronin focuses on the Chinese workers who move from the countryside to the city looking for work. It's a group that is hardly taken seriously and is generally regarded as only being interested in money, marrying and having children. Hsu shows that for these people, too, love is the most important driving force. 

My thoughts: a very moving film. I looked forward to see this film as it’s an issue that is talked about a lot in this country: the migrants.
Of course everyone understands the idea of moving to the big city to get a job. Everyone would do that I guess. But it’s not that evident that life gets any easier in the city. Life can be extremely hard on these people with regard to work conditions, discrimination, rights etc. It’s something that can move me enormously.

In this setting the story unfolds of a young couple. He desperately wants a child and is prepared to do anything for it, apart from a medical checkup. She feels sad but eventually searches for a different solution: to get pregnant without him.
What follows is an intriguing story about life and love.

I loved this film, I won’t easily forget it!
Unfortunately I haven’t found a picture of it, but as soon as I will have one I will post it ;).

Chaque jour est une fete

2010-02-01T20:56:00.006+08:00

Every day is a holiday
By Dima El-Horr
France/Germany/Lebanon, 2008

From IFFR site:
A bus full of women gets stranded on its way to a prison in the Lebanese Desert. Three women try to find their way, while they wrestle with relationship problems. With surprising camera work, the debut director El-Horr focuses on the absurdity and drama of the events. The film follows three women from the group who try to find their way back, both physically and psychologically - each wrestling with a difficult relationship. One is carrying divorce papers, the husband of the other was arrested at their wedding, the third is carrying the pistol of her dominant husband, a prison guard. In the meantime, we hear explosions and, above their head, fighter planes. They pass refugees, deserted cars, empty houses - victims of fighting that is not defined any further. Dima El-Horr is making her directing debut and shows the endless desert landscape in different forms and tints, in which the three women look insignificant. With supple camera work from often surprising angles, El-Horr stresses both the absurdity and the drama of the story, which is spoken sometimes in Arabic and then in French.

My thoughts: different women, who never met eachother before, take the same bus to a prison to visit their husbands. Each with their own story and background. You learn about the women little by little, but never get to know too much about them. It all remains a bit mysterious.

The journey feels like a roadtrip, undertaken partly by bus, partly walked, partly by car. A roadtrip full of personal drama though… but one towards personal freedom and independence in the end. Very beautiful!

The scenery makes it even more special. The desert and mountains, the sounds of war. Not an easy life to live, that’s for sure.

One would actually want to get to know the women better. But the filmmaker keeps distance, she doesn’t judge, just observes. I think it makes the film even more impressive.

A lovely film!

Let’s fall in love

2010-02-01T20:08:00.005+08:00

by Wu Wuna
Taiwan, 2009

From IFFR site:
The Taiwanese marriage market cannot do without the energetic matchmaker Chen, who is specialised in notorious bachelors. Chen also tackles Wu, the maker of this tragicomic documentary. While Wu waits impatiently, she documents bickering couples with everyday irritations and deeper relationship problems.  The Taiwanese marriage market is nothing without the matchmaker Chen, who is specialised in difficult cases. She likes to tackle them and thinks that young women should hurry, because otherwise they'll be left on the shelf. Wu, the maker of this tragicomic documentary, also finds herself a client of Chen. Wu has the feeling she missed the boat, but Chen knows what to do with such ‘hopeless’ spinsters. Her motto: There's nothing wrong with failing, as long as you know why you failed. While Wu waits impatiently, she follows a few couples who have found each other under the supervision of Chen. Some couples have just fallen off their silver clouds and bicker openly about everyday annoyances. Others have more deep-seated problems, and reproaches about selfishness and cold-heartedness never stop. Torturing silence is their tactic. With fifty percent of marriages ending in divorce, Taiwan tops the tables in Asia - so there's plenty of work for Chen.  

My thoughts: although the marriage market isn’t so important anymore as it used to be it still forms an important part of life for a lot of young Chinese. I like reading Chinese dating ads (in translation that is, my knowledge isn't that great yet ;) because they are so different. Very interesting.

The film is a mixture of documentary, comedy and drama where the filmmaker plays an equal part in as well. I liked that combination, it gives the film a special touch.

It was fun and interesting to see the different matches being made, the couples finding each other, the relationships that don’t work, the interviews… I really had a great time watching this film!

The film isn’t about romance, the filmmaker does think a relationship is something you have to work on. I like that way of thinking but on the other hand I know about some relationships which have been a bit too much out of practical reasons.

What I thought was a bit of pity was that I felt like I had to read the English subtitles in the speed of a fast train cause it was going soo fast. I did miss a few lines because of that.

One of my fave parts of this film:
Woman: “I am getting married on Sept. 30.”
Man: “Congratulations!”   
Woman: “But I am short of a groom … I pick you.”   
Man: “Me? No! … The fortune-teller said I can’t get married this year.”

They did get married eventually ☺.

All about Steve

2010-01-23T20:29:00.003+08:00

by Phil Traill
comedy
USA, 2009

I found this film so hilarious. I really had a good time watching it. A bit over the top but with Sandra Bullock one hardly can go wrong (sorry I'm kind of a fan ;).

The character she plays this time is somehow unbearable at the start of this film. You feel your hands aching to hit her in the face just to stop her being so stupid lol. But… I got to like the character again in the rest of the film.

What I like so much in Bullock is that she can do this. She can be the stupid and insane girl who stalks and rambles and is the total freak and grow into something totally else in the course of the film.
Once again I loved her. And the rest of the cast. I think they did a great job!

What I also liked was how they portrayed the business of the media. It was so funny J.

Don’t expect this film to be more than a comedy, it’s no romcom but just offers some time of laughter.

I totally liked it!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

2010-01-20T22:38:00.006+08:00

by Sanaa Hamri

comedy/drama/romance
USA, 2008

An amusing film but… the first one was better (as usual), I guess more original. Again I have never read the books so I could not say anything about it. I didn’t even know there were books for a long time lol (but maybe this wasn’t that bad since I heard from some gals that they didn’t like the adaption of the books into the second film).

The traveling pants seemed to have lost its magic and didn’t seem to be much of an item in this second film anymore. I guess the meaning would be that the girls do have the magic in themselves now and don’t need the pants anymore ;).

What I thought was interesting is that as I watched #1 I did hardly know two of the cast which are well known through tv series these days ;).

The girls have matured and grown up. I think all actresses did a great job with their roles. It was an enjoyable film to watch with these four young women.

In the beginning of the film it seems that the girlfriends have grown apart as they all are on different journeys in their lives but eventually they will find eachother again. The friendship – or sisterhood if you like – is still valid.

I think the film is not the most brilliant one I have ever seen, but I had an enjoyable night watching it.

This is it

2010-01-14T21:46:00.003+08:00

by Kenny Ortega

2009, USA

This is not a film I would have chosen to go to cinema for. Simply because I wasn’t such a big fan of Michael Jackson. I admired him for his passion and perfectionism in music and dance but in my teenager years he just wasn’t the one who drove me ;).

But… this film is very impressive! I really was amazed by his power in the last days before he died. It became very clear to me that he wasn’t ready to die yet and wasn’t supposed to. In his 50s he still had a way more flexible body than me (>10yrs younger and quite sportive). I really was flabbergasted and had not expected this.

Of course I enjoyed to hear the music (all of his great hits) and see the dance (love dance and he was great in it), to see his perfectionism, to learn more about him from the other dancers and singers around him. Very very interesting.

I guess he’s one who made history, especially in music and dance. So he won’t be forgotten. I think the film makes clear that he still had so much to offer, much more than most people thought he had.

Great film!

Fame

2010-01-13T19:47:00.001+08:00

by Kevin Tancharoen

2009, USA

I was hooked in the eighties both by the original film and the series. Dance was all I wanted to do in those days and Fame totally was my cup of tea ;).

So I just had to watch this ‘new’ Fame. Of course I knew the feeling of the early days couldn’t be topped because it was all part of the whole package at those times but it was fun to awaken a little of childhood sentiment ;)

And that was what it did. No more, but also no less. It was fun to absorb once again a little in that dance/music/theatre school world. It felt good.

The film isn’t brilliant, but it satisfied me in the way it did awaken those old sentiments and I felt like dancing and singing again, all at the same time. It’s just what dance films do to me. Most dance films don’t have much of a story and this one didn’t have a real one either.

Of course the original film was better, but isn’t it always like that?

The proposal

2009-10-31T20:47:00.001+08:00

by Anne Fletcher

Comedy/drama/romance

2009, USA

I have a soft spot for Sandra Bullock so had to watch this film.

It’s an easy chickflick but funny as well and I enjoyed it very much!

The setting of this film is beautiful, you would want to leave to Alaska at once (although the shots were filmed at a totally different location lol).

I think the bossy type Sandra Bullock plays in this film isn’t one of her best roles but as soon as they arrive in Alaska I see a character in which I truly love seeing her: the combination of the independent strong woman with a soft vulnerable side underneath. And I so loved the sarcastic interactions between him and her… it gives the film an extra dimension.

I thought the film would be more about books…since it’s a publishing company and she is the editor and he the assistant. He did everything for his love for litterature. This aspect could have been deepened out a little more (to my taste then).

The scene with his grandma doing some kind of ritual dance was hilarious but soo good. I loved seeing it and felt like participating ;-).

I really enjoyed myself watching this film but somehow I missed a little edge in it, it just was a little weak here and there.

So all in all I guess the film isn’t the best of times but it’s perfect for a night of easy film watching!

Step up

2009-10-21T21:12:00.000+08:00

by Anne Fletcher

crime/drama/music/romance

2006, USA

I love dance films so I just had to watch this film. It kind of reminded me of Save the last dance at first, but after something like ten minutes that feeling was all gone and I got hooked in the story.

The dancing is great, you want to join in immediately (even if I wouldn’t be that great in dancing anymore…if I ever were that is ;-). But it’s so inviting and sparkling to watch!

The storyline might be a little thin and the actors were better dancers than actors, but it’s a dance film…so it didn’t bother me at all.

And the dance clothing: so awesome! I love dance clothes in general, but these were so great.

This film is all about dance and music, romantic though not corny, vibrant and sparkling and makes you wanna move…

Perfect Getaway

2009-10-08T20:46:00.000+08:00

by David Twohy
drama/horror/mystery/thriller
USA, 2009

A thriller set in beautiful Hawaii. The landscape makes you want to go there rightaway. It’s all so beautiful out there! So colourful and inviting.

Generally this is not my type of film. So I was kind of reluctant to watch it at all.

Must say the filming is done so great. With many wonderful shots building up tension. The building up is long and takes quite a while. It’s something you gotta love (or not).

I makes you question again and again who could have done what. It’s all about trusting the people around you…or not! Wow!

There are quite a few good actors in this film and the combination of them all makes it so worthwile.

And then there’s the twist…

What I found a pity is that the audience is not lead through little hints to the actual twist of the film. Instead the director misleads you which makes it a bit unbelievable to me. I like it when there are little pieces which form the whole jigsaw at the end of the film and you suddenly realise how it’s done. It’s just not such a film.

So it’s not for everyone. But it’s sooo exciting! I’d suggest just go and see this film!

Knocked up

2009-10-06T20:57:00.004+08:00

by Judd Apatow
comedy/drama/romance
USA, 2007

I have a soft spot for Katherine Heigl. So have wanted to watch the film for a while now (since 27 dresses I guess ;-).

At the beginning of the film I thought it wasn't gonna be my type of film. I was a little put off by the amount of yelling and swearing of the guys.

But must say when you manage to sit through to the end of the film there absolutely is a charm in the film.

Seth Rogen did a marvellous job in showing quite a development in the character of Ben. This kind of made the film for me worthwile. And Heigl is just who she is, a great actress!

Not the best film I have ever seen but not the worst either. Just middle of the road I guess. But a charming one.

Coco avant Chanel

2009-09-15T18:07:00.003+08:00

by Anne Fontaine
biography/drama
2009, France

Let me start by saying that Audrey Tautou is such a great actress and so beautiful. She totally carries this film!

I guess the film is not for everyone. Personally I didn’t know that much about the backgrounds of Coco Chanel so I found it interesting to know more. I didn’t know that she came from an orphanage and managed to work herself up through the years to become the famous fashion icon.

What the film shows is that she certainly did have her own ideas about it all, from the beginning till the end. She was such a talented powerful woman with her own beliefs and opinions!

I can imagine it wasn’t that easy for her to keep stand in the world of fashion coming from such a different background and having struggled so much through life to get where she wanted.

I think the filmmaker succeeded in creating a great ambiance with this cinematic film, but one has to be patient to sit through this slow film. I loved the ambiance but found myself wandering off from time to time not being able to focus completely. As a biography it certainly gave me what I wanted but as a film it could have been a little more.