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Over the course of the festival, we will be adding reviews and festival goer comments. Check back reguarly to see what we, and others at the festival thought!
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Jabe Babe – A Heightened Life (Australia) Jabe has Marfan's syndrome (or "Muffin's" syndrome as she prefers to call it), a connective tissues disorder which causes extreme stature, extended fingers, flat feet, as well as more serious health problems such as poor eyesight and an ever-present risk of heart failure. This is Jabe's story. Director Janet Merewether skilfully uses an "Attack of the 50ft Woman"-style construct to introduce the chapters of Jabe's life, a mechanism which plays up to Jabe's natural affinity for theatrics (Jabe plays the 50ft woman herself). The film traces Jabe's existence from her fractured foster-care childhood through to her adult career in the sex industry as a dominatrix; a role which allows her to take control of life as well as that of others. Despite the often tragic depictions of Jabe's life, this ultimately uplifting documentary is never less than entertaining. |
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Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate (USA) In 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Snr. and D.W. Griffith banded together to form a motion picture studio entitled United Artists. 70 odd years later, the studio was destroyed by Michael Cimino's ultra mega mega flop, Heaven's Gate. This film is the story of how Cimino ruined that studio. Collecting together interviews from studio executives, movie critics and the film's stars (Kris Kristofferson, Brad Dourif and Jeff Bridges), this documentary paints a picture of a director determined to make the greatest film of all time, whatever the cost. The film charts Michael Cimino's career from his Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter through to the downright poisonous reception of what he considered his master work. Cimino is notably absent from this documentary, an absence which speak volumes about what he must feel about the whole sorry saga. The film doesn't pass a verdict on the final release of Heaven's Gate, thus encouraging the audience to see Cimino's film and judge it for themselves. It's fitting then that BIFF has acquired a rare print to present in the final days of the festival. |
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Inside Deep Throat (USA) Shot for $25,000 but reaping over $600M in profits, 70's porn classic Deep Throat is touted as the most profitable movie ever made. Inside Deep Throat examines the social climes which allowed this film to be made and its success. The film also examines the aftermath in great detail; the attempts of a conservative US government to kill the porn industry, the devastating effect the film had on its crew (particularly the lead actors Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems), and how the film affected society as a whole. This is a fascinating insight into a time before video, a time when film auteurs viewed pornography as a legitimate artform. |
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Manners Of Dying (USA) Director Jeremy Peter Allen presents an interesting and unusual take on the "dead man walking" movie. The film is a study on the varied behaviour exhibited by a man on death row awaiting his execution and the possible array of responses by the authorities to this behaviour. The film follows a Groundhog Day style mechanism, repeating the same series of events over and over; each with the prisoner exhibiting a different behaviour juxtaposed with the respective prison authority response. For instance, one scanario has the prisoner exhibiting grief-striken remorse; another has him flying into a violent rage in his final hours. By its very nature the film is very repetitive and this is its achilles heel; the film feels it is a few scenarios too long. But this is a minor point given the fascinating nature of the subject and the impressive performances by Roy Dupuis as the prisoner Kevin Barlow, and Serge Houde as the prison director Harry Parlington. |
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The Beautiful Washing Machine (Malaysia) After buying a second hand washing machine, Teoh soon finds the machine reincarnated as a subservient woman who caters for his every whim. But when he prostitutes her to other men, she leaves him for another. While it is obvious that director James Lee is drawing an analogy between the role of married women and the humbly obedient electrical appliance, the result is a film which ostensibly has us watching a woman doing housework for an hour and a half; and the film is as interesting as this implies. Where Lee's analogy seems to fall apart however is where, almost universally, the male characters want to take sexual advantage of Teoh's "appliance". Now call me a prude, but I've never had any amorous intentions towards my whitegoods and, this may be a long shot but, I'm guessing most guys don't! |
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The Wayward Cloud (France/Taiwan) Shiang-chyi has just returned to Taipei from Paris to find the city without water (the government is promoting watermelon as a suitable substitute) and it is here she meets her old flame Hsiao-Kang, a former watch salesman. The pair attempt to rekindle their relationship but unbeknownst to Shiang-chyi, Hsiao-Kang now has a career as a porn actor; a position which complicates the requisite intimacy of their blossoming relationship. It's not often I can say this (though I revel in it when I can) but this absolutely mad film is completely unlike anything I have ever seen before. Without batting and eyelid, it deftly combines near-pornography with touching romance interspersed with crazy Bollywood style song and dance numbers. It's certainly not for conservative audiences, and female viewers may find its overtly misogynistic finale highly offensive, but for open minds there's a lot of fun to be had. |
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Mad Hot Ballroom (USA) Being ballroom dancings answer to the brilliant Spellbound, this film follows several groups of children from the poverty-stricken districts of New York through their training in ballroom dancing to their participation in district competitions. Like Spellbound, the film has a much wider focus than just the competitive aspects of the movies title. Through interviews with the children we realise their hopes, dreams and aspirations and gain insight into the society these kids inhabit. Of course the film would not be so strong if the kids (and indeed their teachers) were not such lively characters. Their spunk enables the audience to develop great affection for them such that, by the end, you will be quietly (if not vocally) cheering them on to win. A great heart-felt documentary. |
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The Taste Of Tea (Japan) This delightful film by Ishii Katsuhito follows the daily lives of a highly idiosyncratic Japanese family: a 6 year old girl who is quietly observed by a gigantic doppelganger, her older brother who is desperate to find his first love, her manga artist mother, her hypnotherapist father, her uncle who is stalked by a yakuza ghost with a turd on his head, and her loopy Grandpa who appears to be some sort of performance artist. The film lacks a strong narrative but this doesn't matter one iota because all the characters are so beautifully drawn. All the performances are fabulous. the somewhat omnipotent Tadanobu Asano plays the uncle and Tatsuya Gashuin is an absolute scream as Grandpa. Similar in mood to Edward Yang's Yi Yi: A One And A Two, this film will leave you with the warm and fuzzies. Just sit back and let it charm your socks off. |
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| Shin Sung-il Is Lost (Korea) Raised in a remote orphanage which teaches that eating is a shameful sin (and has been ever since Eve ate the forbidden fruit), Sung-il discovers that the facility's director and her cronies regularly indulge themselves in foods denied to the children. Becoming disenfranchised with the doctrines of his keepers, Sung-il flees the orphanage to the city where culinary temptations abound. In the midst of all the gastronomic sin, will Sung-il stay true to his faith or will the lure of the humble fried chicken wing lead him to eternal damnation? This is a fascinating premise which, in hindsight, would make a great subject for a short film. Unfortunately here it is overstretched to feature length with the effect being that director Shin Jane is force-feeding her idea to us long after we've got the point. It's a valiant and ambitious idea though and it certainly deserves credit for that. The toughest time...in anyone's life...is when you have to kill a loved one just because they're the devil. -- Emo Phillips |
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Spying Cam (Korea) Alone in a room without air-conditioning in the sweltering summer heat of Seoul, a thuggish man and his wimpish companion occupy themselves by reciting prose from a Russian novel and spying on the couple having sex in an adjacent room. Moving at a snail's pace, it is only after an hour of dull exposition (shot almost entirely within the hotel room) that the point of this film finally emerges and we find that this is actually a political thriller. Sadly, because the film takes so long to make its point, the thrills are entirely absent and by the time it winds its way to its conclusion, we really couldn't care less. |
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Hotel (Austria/Germany) When Irene accepts the position as the receptionist in a hotel in the woods, the mysterious disappearance of the previous receptionist is still being investigated by police. Despite her enquiries, none of the hotel staff seem too willing to talk to Irene about the missing girl, but it is not long before she starts to sense the evil menace that pervades the premises. I've always found Austrian cinema to be droll, dour and un-engaging and Hotel is true to form. All the characters in this film give deadpan performances and even the pretty Franziska Weisz, who plays Irene, can't raise this cold film above freezing point. Seriously, would it kill these people to smile once in a while? The extreme minimalist plot involves a missing girl (presumed dead), something about a witch burnt at the stake in the 16th century, an uninviting workplace and a stolen necklace. Links between these elements are implied but by the end of the film we still have no idea what's going on. The end result of this is a horror film that really isn't very frightening. |
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Mysterious Skin (USA) Mysterious Skin is the story of two boys who are sexually abused at an early age. Brian (Brady Corbet) reacts with a forced denial of the event (preferring to believe he was abducted by aliens), while Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) embarks on a self-destructive career as a rentboy. As Brian attempts to find out more about his "abduction" he realises that Neil is somehow connected to his traumatic experience and he is inevitably drawn closer to the truth. The key to the success of a film with a subject as seriously morbid as this is not to get bogged down in the horror of its core subject; the audience needs to be "let off the hook" now and then. In the opening acts, Mysterious Skin looks like it's going to be a hard slog through some relentless heart-string tugging, but after about 20 minutes some much needed humour is added which allows us to empathise with the characters, thereby developing some affection for them. As a result, Mysterious Skin is ultimately a rewarding experience. |
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Badlands (USA) In what is a precursor to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, Terrence Malick's 1973 Badlands follows Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) on their killing spree across the US. Considered by many to be among the greatest of road movies, Badlands nevertheless doesn't hold a candle to the more polished, and similarly themed, Bonnie And Clyde. It does however consist of some great performances from Martin Sheen as the wannabe celebrity Kit, and Sissy Spacek as the girl with seemingly nothing better to do, Holly. |
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Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (Mexico/USA) After his young virginal daughter is found pregnant, a Mexican baron places a bounty on the head of the father, one Aldredo Garcia. This 1974 Sam Peckinpah road movie stars Warren Oates as Benny, a piano bar musician who, with the help of his prostitute girlfriend, travels across Mexico to collect the head from the grave of the (as it turns out) already dead Garcia. Being very much a product of its time (ie. the 70's), this film looks dated; the pace is dead slow and the characters are none too intriguing. Call me a philistine but I didn't like it. |
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Moog (USA) Bob Moog, inventor and builder of the Moog synthesiser, walks us down memory lane showing us how he developed his seminal instrument, how the instrument works, and his philosophy on music (and life in general) in this moderately entertaining documentary. Through discussions between Moog and various musicians, sound engineers and instrument salesmen, the film builds up a picture of Moog as a musical innovator whose invention changed the face of music. While this is certainly true to an extent, the film ultimately fails to convince us that the Moog synth is anything but a product of its time; a product that sounds dated next to contemporary classical instruments or even the electric guitar. |
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Phil The Alien (USA) After crash landing on Earth, Phil (the alien) finds he has a penchant for Earthly vices such as alcohol, cigarettes, rock music and religious evangelism. With help from his friend the talking beaver, Phil struggles to overcome his vices whilst simultaneously finding a means to return home. Meanwhile evil government authorities have dispatched bounty hunters to eliminate him. The challenge with a film that has a premise as mad as this is to pull it off without degenerating into silliness. On this score, Phil The Alien's jokes miss far more than they hit. There are some laugh out loud moments, however, and Nicole de Boer's portrayal of steamy Czechoslovakian bounty hunter Madame Madame is worth a look. A movie best watched with a few mates with a few beers under the belt. |
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Vital (Japan) From director Tsukamoto Shinya (Tetsuo: The Ironman) comes this sombre tale of loss and grief. Stalwart Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano is Hiroshi Takagi, an amnesiac recovering from a traumatic car accident. After he enrolls in medical school, he comes to the slow realisation that the cadaver he is examining in his dissection class is that of his girlfriend who died alongside him in the auto wreck. The dissection process, then, becomes a pathway of discovery for his fractured memories. As you would expect from Tsukamoto, this is a very offbeat, and somewhat dour, film with some very striking imagery and the story gives him ample opportunity to display his wares. Hiroshi's girlfriend, Ryoko (Nami Tsukamoto), is a slightly unhinged soul with a penchant for autoeroticism, as is his neurotic classmate Ikumi (Kiki) who is not averse to a little homicide as she romantically, and relentlessly, pursues him. Images of car wrecks and human dissection abound, images that will come as no surprise to fans of Tsukamoto's work. A morbidly beautiful and striking film that will leave a lasting impression. |
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Dumplings (Hong Kong) In an effort to regain the affections of her husband, aging actress Mrs. Li turns to Aunty Mei's dumplings to take advantage of their youth-giving effects. But Mrs. Li's resolve is tested as she increasingly becomes aware of the horrifying cost of her radical treatment. Asian horror is alive and well in this deliciously repulsive slow boiler which is sure to give you the squirmies. Directed with great confidence by Honk Kong indie auteur, Fruit Chan (directing his first mainstream film) and photographed by the ever-reliable Christopher Doyle, Dumplings is excruciatingly vile one minute and seething with sex appeal the next. To reveal any more would be unjust, suffice it to say that this commentary on the cost of everlasting youth is definitely not for the squeamish (there were several audience walk-outs in the session I attended). Very much a guilty pleasure. |
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Murderball (USA) Testosterone-fuelled quadriplegic meat-heads annihilate each other in wheel chairs built like tanks. This is the rugby-style sport formerly known as Murderball, now known as Quad Rugby (as star player Mark Zupan notes, "It's a little hard to get commercial sponsorship for a sport called "Murderball"). Directors Henry Rubin and Dana Shapiro present a fascinating documentary of this brutal sport which is played world wide (including Australia and New Zealand). The directors spotlight several of the players showing their home life, their relationships with their girlfriends/wives/friends, the circumstances in which they became incapacitated and their subsequent rehabilitation. This is all handled with great tenderness but is never over-sentimental. The main focus of the film, however, remains on the dedication of these men towards their sport. This is yet another shining example of some of the truly great documentaries showing at BIFF this year. To see the Kiwi Murderball team performing the Haka is worth the price of admission alone. |
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The Love Crimes Of Gillian Guess (Canada) The Love Crimes Of Gillian Guess is based on the true story of a Canadian juror who became sexually involved with the defendant while the trial was in progress. Director Bruce McDonald utilises a fictional chat show, hosted by the ostentatious, vulgar (and perhaps diabolique) Bobbie Tomahawk, as a means to interrogate Gillian, thereby unravelling her psyche. Think of the final courtroom scene in Alan Parker's film of Pink Floyd's The Wall and you'll get the idea. McDonald uses every visual trick in the book to dazzle the audience and to maintain its upbeat tempo. But ultimately he can't maintain this pace, the film downshifting several gears as it decelerates towards its downbeat conclusion. This tends to create a lack of cohesion in the film as a whole; it's as if the film doesn't ultimately deliver what it promises in the beginning. But no matter, the visual flair of the film and the performances of the two leads, Joelly Collins (daughter of Phil) as Gillian and Hugh Dillon as the flamboyant Tomahawk, keeps the audience engaged throughout. Overwhelming at first, this is a film which will improve with repeat viewings and is possibly destined to be a cult hit. |
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I Am A Sex Addict (USA) A very personal and frightfully honest autobiographical account of director Caveh Zahedi's infatuation with prostitutes. Zahedi's film is simultaneously comedic and painful as he unflinchingly describes his ailment and recounts the outlandish strategies he employs to cure himself of his fetish and the effect it had on his respective wives and girlfriends. Zahedi plays himself in his re-enactments of his therapy sessions and sexual encounters, including several simulated sex scenes with French porn star, Rebecca Lord, who plays his wife (the things a man must do for his art!) Painfully funny but well worth the effort. |
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Battleground: 21 Days on the Empires Edge (USA) After joining the resistance against Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War and subsequently fleeing Iraq to the United States, Shi'ite Fahran Al Bayati returns to his US-occupied home land to discover the fate of his family. Having had no contact with his family since his departure, Fahran fears his betrayal of Saddam may have had fatal consequences for his family members. Journalists from the Guerilla News Network follow Fahran in his quest, interviewing his relatives as well as Iraqi civilians and US soldiers to form a picture of modern Iraq under US occupation. This magnificent film is both touching and informing and is surely the most balanced documentary on the Iraqi conflict to date. There is no political agenda here, just an honest presentation of facts supplemented by interviews with the only people who count: those on the ground who have first hand experience of the conflict. Brilliant! |
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Based On A True Story (The Netherlands) |
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