It amazes me how bad the trailers for the Twilight movies always end up being :] And who came up with the idea of doing trailers for the Twilight trailers? lol So far both of the New Moon trailers had 20 second clips released first and the full versions released a few days later. I just hope other production companies don’t pick this idea up cause it’s annoying and stupid :]
Anyway, the full new trailer is below:
A report about why election results are probably not going to be accurate…
Afghan elections will take place on the 20th of August, the Taliban are naturally already trying to use force to stop people from voting. I wonder if, ironically, their call to boycott elections isn’t why the two main contenders are both very moderate and eloquent people. If Taliban supporters were voting that might not be the case. I also find it amazing that there’s as many as 41 candidates registered.
Below is a great video report about Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan’s current president), who has good chances of being re-elected. I’ve always found him a fascinating man and I think he is one of the best and most eloquent diplomats in the world today. How well he’s done his job as president is a different matter, but I’ve always wondered how much has even been in his power. Sometimes it seems like the US and international forces have tied his hands.
And I also wanted to embed something about Hamid Karzai’s main opponent. At first it seemed that Hamid Karzai would win the elections in a land slide, but Abdullah Abdullah has gained a lot of support. I don’t like the interviewer in the video I’ve embedded below, but I haven’t found anything better *sigh*
At first I had my doubts about Abdullah Abdullah (the moment I hear the magic words “Northern Alliance” I bristle - they have some horrible war crimes on their hands, yet somehow the West thinks they’re safer allies than the Taliban). But I’m now getting the feeling that he’s the kind of guy, who tries to find the option that will work best for Afghanistan at the current time. The Northern Alliance freed Afghanistan from Soviet occupation and at that time they were, I think, a very positive force for Afghanistan (though I really should read up more on this - Afghan recent history is so complicated that getting one’s head round it is quite a challenge :]). Anyway, check out the interview with Abdullah Abdullah below:
I’ve no idea who I’m supporting… I was initially on Karzai’s side, but I’m now wondering whether a change wouldn’t be a good thing. The interesting thing about Abdullah Abdullah is that he sort of came from nowhere - nobody was expecting him to be a major force to be reckoned with in these elections. The Americans have apparently held conversations with Karzai on how they would like certain policies taken care of after his re-election, but as Abdullah wasn’t even in the running, it’s doubtful they’ve had such talks with him. So Abdullah is probably at this point not obliged by the Americans to do or act in any particular way.
While I’m on the topic, check out this editorial. It’s the best I’ve read on the topic - it really sums up all the problems of US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One of the more interesting points the author makes is:
Pakistan is experienced in governance and is well able to deal with its own Islamists and tribalists under normal circumstances; until recently, Pakistani Islamists had one of the lowest rates of electoral success in the Muslim world.
When I listen to both Karzai and Abdullah, I have the same impression - they have a very good grip and understanding of Afghanistan’s situation and of the Afghan people. If they could do their own thing with the support of the international community rather than let the Americans do their own thing and be themselves only in a supporting role, I think Afghanistan would be making much better progress. After Obama was elected and starting putting his new Afghan policy into place, Karzai was against it and said so. He argued that an increase of US military forces in Afghanistan would only destabilize the situation further by increasing civilian casualties. Time has shown that he was right.
I found it hilarious how tendentious the report is (but hey, Indian media just is like that, I’ve sort of gotten used to it now). SRK was really trying to play it down, while they were trying to get maximum scandal out of it. It was kind of funny ;) Still, the main facts seem to be confirmed - US authorities really are stupid enough to detain one of the world’s biggest Muslim stars and not think about the kind of reaction their actions will have in the Muslim world :]
I thought this was a rather interesting report. It says that Hugo Chavez is not a dictator as the international media suggests. The main argument here is that if he were a dictator then he would not allow media opposition as strong as what there is in Venezuela now. They even say that in the US such aggressive criticism from the media would not be permitted.
Whether you agree with the report or not, it’s a very different voice in the debate about Venezuela and worth hearing out I think.
This sort of thing has happened before (SRK has spoken about being frisked and checked at US airports before), but unless the Indian media is misrepresenting what happened, it’s just been taken to new levels…
Apparently, Shahrukh Khan was detained for 2h at Newark airport yesterday. He was only released after the Indian embassy interfered. The reason? Khan is a popular Muslim surname.
It’s rather ironic, considering he just recently finished shooting for My Name is Khan, which, from what I understand, is the story of a man with Asperger’s syndrome (a very mild form of autism), who becomes obsessed with the idea of telling everyone that his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist.
Part of me even wonders whether the film has had something to do with it. The film was shot in the US and I’ve never heard of any Bollywood film having as many visa problems as this one did - many of the Muslim crew members were denied visas.
It’s stories like these that make me wonder what American officials are thinking. They’ve just made headline news in India, Pakistan (which is a very strategically important area to them) and probably a few other Muslim countries as well (Shahrukh Khan is apparently the most popular film star in Afghanistan as well). Needless to add - the publicity they’ve given themselves is very negative.
And this isn’t the first such case either - what were they thinking when they frisked former Indian president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in April?
Every time they do something like this they shoot themselves in the foot. According to a recent poll conducted by Al Jazeera, the majority of Pakistanis now consider the US to be a bigger threat than the Taliban or even India! How is antagonising more Muslims a good security policy? I just don’t get it…
Below is a long, but very interesting interview with Zainab Salbi, an activist who works with women in post-conflict areas. What I really loved about it was that she explains the situation so simply and practically. There are some issues there that I’ve never heard of before (for example I never knew that Saddam Hussain promoted literacy and equal rights in the work force for women). So if you have the time to spare, I really recommend it :)
Just a short Al Jazeera news report on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and how Barack Obama has promised gay men equal rights to serve in the military, but still hasn’t delivered on it.
{FILM DIARY}
Production House: WFDiF
Plot: The festival programmed two sets of films commemorating 60 years of activity of Poland’s biggest production house. I watched the first set which included: Powódź (Poland, 1947), Błękitny Krzyż (Poland, 1955), Spacerek Staromiejski (Poland, 1958), Pamiątka z Kalwarii (Poland, 1958) and three shorts by Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica.
Video
None found *sigh* I really wanted to find some clips of Powódź, but no such luck.
Impressions In Short
These films hold a lot of historical and ethnographic value. Powódź, however, is much more than that - I was quite smitten by it :)
More About the Film
Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica are, I guess, basically the fathers of Polish animation. As my sensitivity to animation is still rather crappy, I don’t have much feelings about their shorts other than that they were kind of funny ;) For someone who doesn’t understand animation I do seem to be watching quite a lot of it lately, so maybe in a couple of years I will finally develop more sensitivity for animated films *grin* (there was a time when I didn’t “get” documentaries either, but I now have a lot of appreciation for them, so it’s possible *grin*)
It was kind of cool to see more of Andrzej Munk’s films (Błękitny Krzyż and Spacerek Staromiejski). Socrealism doesn’t allow artists much freedom, but somehow Munk seemed to be able to work within those borders and create some very good films. I don’t think these two were as good as what I’ve seen of his before (Człowiek na torze (1957) and Eroica (1958)), but they were classy all the same.
Błękitny Krzyż is based on the diaries of Błękitny Krzyż, which is the Tatra Mountain rescue service. It portrays one particular event from the very end of WW2. It’s anti-German propaganda of course and like most socrealism films it glorifies the working man (in this case the rescuers). It’s a good film nonetheless.
Spacerek Staromiejski follows a little, pretty, blonde schoolgirl and how she walks around town on her own making mischief. This one doesn’t have any obvious propaganda in it and it made me wonder what Munk’s films would have been like if he hadn’t had his creative freedom limited by the regime… This one is kind of on the verge of doing something quite experimental and maybe even abstract, but regimes don’t exactly appreciate abstract art, so he could only go so far…
Jerzy Hoffman’s Pamiątka z Kalwarii held mainly etnographic interest for me. It’s a documentary showing the Corpus Christi rituals performed in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska - Polish Catholicism at its most folkloric and its most intense. It looked rather exotic to me, which is maybe a bit strange. But then this was the 1950s and a very intensely Catholic region of Poland. IMDb says the film was not released for 7 years after being made because the communist censors wanted anti-religious commentary added and Hoffman opposed it.
But the film I’m really dying to write about is Powódź *grin* It won Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in 1947 and it’s not difficult to see why. It’s only 13 minutes and has no dialogue, but that’s all it needed to be. The subject matter is the 1947 flooding. The film shows people getting ready for the flood, people being evacuated and of course the flood itself. The amazing thing about it is that through the way it was shot and edited it really captures the force of nature and the reality of the flood. It starts off with some amazing shots of the flood tearing down a bridge and then goes on to show all the evacuated people with the property they were able to save, the confused cows and goats that the people took with them and so on. Something else that stunned me was the quality of the editing. Usually in those old reportage style documentaries the shots are too long and shot angles uninteresting. But this one had editing that wouldn’t be out of place in a modern film. For one thing, the cutting of it was pretty fast. Not choppy, but it was done in a tempo that is still perfectly acceptable for contemporary films. I was really surprised to see that. Would love to see the film again, but I have the feeling that finding this will be almost impossible *sigh*
Recommended?
Powódź I’d recommend quite widely. It’s only 13min. so even if you don’t get why I’m raving about it (which is quite likely ;) ) then it’s not like you’ve lost much time on it. The rest is only for people who are at least somewhat interested in this sort of thing I think.
Runtime: 82′
Director: Peter Strickland
Cast: Hilda Péter, Norbert Tankó, Tibor Pálffy
Production House: Libra Film
Plot: A woman in the Transylvanian countryside is forced to leave her village when everyone finds out her husband is not the father of her son. The only thing she can think of doing is to seek out the real father and get her revenge.
Trailer
Or you can check out this interview with the director, which is what got me wanting to see the film in the first place :)
Impressions In Short
Enjoyable enough and good for such a low budget film I suppose. But it hasn’t exactly stayed with me.
More About the Film
There’s not that much to say… The film attempts to capture the atmosphere of the Transylvanian countryside and I think that’s pulled off reasonably well (though I haven’t actually been there, so I don’t know :]). I think that’s the most interesting part of it.
It’s acted and shot well, the story is fine. But I just didn’t find it special in any way I guess (mind you, when you watch four films a day at a film festival, films very rarely seem special ;) ).
Recommended?
It’s involving enough. It’s not something I would particularly recommend though.
People who don’t like stories unravelling slowly with long shots and a lot of landscapes would do best to avoid this though.
Runtime: 77′
Director: Bruce McDonald
Cast: Ellen Page
Production House: Shadow Shows, Corvid Pictures, Alcina Pictures, Tracey Fragments
Plot: (from imdb)
15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz is naked under a shower curtain at the back of a bus, looking for her little brother Sonny, who thinks he’s a dog.
Trailer
Impressions In Short
A very experimental piece of work with all the split screens and stuff. Interesting to see Ellen Page in something other than Juno.
More About the Film
I guess the main reason to see this is because of how it’s made. Tracey, the protagonist, is a very depressed and confused character, so the way she sees the world is also quite dark and confusing and that’s what the audience is presented with. Tracey’s reality is very fragmented, she lives in her head a lot and that’s where the split screens come in. They’re sort of supposed to portray the fragmented state of her mind.
I’ve never quite been sold on split screen kind of editing (though I think Mike Figgis has used it very effectively). I thought it worked reasonably well in this film, but I’m still not sold on it. The part I liked the most was the ending, when she gets herself together and her reality stops being so fragmented and we finally get a nice, long, uncut shot lol It was a nice ending I thought ;) (and I don’t think writing this is a spoiler if somebody’s worried)
It was interesting to see Ellen Page in a different part, but I had mixed feelings about her… I mean she was ok (she’s clearly a very good actress), but I couldn’t quite buy into her being this vulnerable and there were a lot of things I recognised from Juno even though this was a very different part. She has this mannerism kind of thing with dialogue… I’m not even sure how to explain it exactly. But it got me thinking that I’d really like to see her in a Kevin Smith film ;) I think the way she tends to deliver dialogue would go really well with his style.
Recommended?
I think a lot of people would find this tough watching. So unless you like “experiments” stay away. For those who would consider watching an “experiment” - keep in mind that that’s the main thing this film has to offer. If the convention doesn’t work for you you’re probably going to hate it.
If you’re curious about seeing Ellen Page in a different sort of part I guess this isn’t a bad film to watch and she is pretty good in this (even if I wasn’t that impressed with her ;)).
Runtime: 66′
Director: Yun Suh
Production House: Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), City of Borders Productions, ITVS
Plot: (from imdb)
Interviews with the owners and diverse patrons of a Jerusalem gay bar called “Shushan.”
Trailer
Impressions In Short
Very interesting, warm and funny documentary :) And also… you know that bit on the Rove show where Rove used to ask everyone who they’d turn gay for? I have a true answer to that now - her name is Samira ;)
More About the Film
When I decided to see it, I figured that even if the film itself wouldn’t be that good, the interviews would probably be interesting. Clearly I needn’t have worried, the film was excellent :) Despite having quite a heavy subject, it was a lot of fun.
The fight for gay rights in Jerusalem is very different to the fight for gay rights in other parts of the world. As the film depicts, the gay communities in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem actually have a lot of tension between each other because they’re that different. The Palestine issue is very much alive in the gay community in Jerusalem and is probably the reason why the gay community there is involved not just in gay rights, but in human rights more generally.
Shushan, the bar in which a lot of Jerusalem’s gay community unites, attracts both Israeli and Palestinian people. One of the interviewees actually said that it was thanks to Shushan that he stopped being prejudiced against Arabs and it was where he kissed a Palestinian for the first time (something he would not have been able to do publicly in any other place in Jerusalem). Unsurprisingly, the film is as much about Israeli-Palestinian relations as it is about gay rights.
The best thing about it though is how colourful and funny the interviewees are. Their quirky sense of humour was great.
Sa’ar, the Israeli owner of Shushan, is also in the city council. He regularly receives death threats. So we get him sarcastically translating the latest threats he’s received for the camera.
Adam, regularly walks his dog by the fence between East and West Jerusalem. He gets nervous when his dog decides to go on the other side under the fence. When he finally manages to call his dog back, he remarks that his dog doesn’t understand borders.
But my favourite interviewees were Samira (a Palestinian) and Ravit (an Israeli). They make such a charming couple. Samira, in particular, was hilarious. She’s just so laid back and so comfortable with herself and her sexuality. I particularly loved how she talked about her mother. Her mother keeps telling her that she wants her to have a nice marriage with a doctor, a nice house, children and all of that. And Samira’s answer to that is that she already has all that - it’s just that the doctor is a woman ;) (Ravit *is* a doctor) And I seriously think Samira is incredibly hot *grin*
Recommended?
Absolutely :) It’s a great documentary and it’s a lot of fun to watch.
{FILM DIARY}
Runtime: 90′
Director: Miklós Jancsó
Production House: MAFILM IV. Játékfilmstúdió
Plot: (from imdb)
In Hungary, the national movement led by Kossuth has been crushed and the Austrian hegemony re-established, but partisans carry on with violent actions. In order to root out the guerilla, the army rounds up suspects and jails them in an isolated fort. The authorities do not have the identity of the guerilla leaders, who are supposed to be present among the prisoners. However, they know enough about some of the suspects to apply perfidious forms of coercion effectively.
Scene From The Film
Impressions In Short
This is a very good film, but it just isn’t for me :] Great cinematography, a slow rhythm and a rather heavy theme.
More About the Film
I wanted to see this cause I rather like prison films. Unlike most films with prison themes, however, it doesn’t invest much time in character development (I think this is largely because it has an extremely broad host of characters).
So in the end, what one gets left with is politics. And as I usually love films which are character driven and dislike films that focus on politics I think you can see how this film did not hold much appeal for me even though it was very good ;)
Recommended?
If you like films in this sort of style then definitely yes. It’s an excellent film. But if you’re anything like me then the answer is no :]
Runtime: 79′
Director: Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy
Cast: Annie Townsend, Sandie Malia, Dennis Jobling, Danny Groenland
Production House: Desperate Optimists
Plot: (from imdb)
Helen is a teenage girl who, when asked by the police to play the stand-in for a reconstruction, realizes it gives her a chance to confront her own troubled past.
Trailer
Impressions In Short
The film would be rather blah if not for Annie Townsend, the lead actress. She’s absolutely amazing :)
More About the Film
This is a very low budget film with an amateur cast and many inexperienced crew members and IMO this did show. Though on the other hand considering the difficult conditions the film was made in they really made the most of it.
When I think back on it, it feels like the worst part of the film was the dialogue - some of it felt quite corny. Though it only really showed with some of the cast members. Others seemed to be able to pull off even the iffy sounding dialogue (I thought the acting was rather uneven).
Without a doubt the best part of the film is Annie Townsend. I hope she continues acting cause I’d love to see her in more things. From what the directors said after the screening it doesn’t sound like she will though. I’ll be hoping anyway…
The other cast member that caught my eye is Danny Groenland. I thought the scenes between the two of them were really quite something. Helen and Danny (the characters in the film) develop a very peculiar kind of relationship, so they really had lots to do there.
Recommended?
I think it’s worth it for the acting, not particularly for anything else though.
Plot: A screening of 7 short films from Europe: Bruit blanc (France, 2008), Guyane (France, 2009), Evigt elskes kun det tabte (Denmark, 2008), Lubrique (France, 2008), Cheeese… (Austria, 2008), Suspended Animation (UK, 2009), Of Best Intentions (Ireland, 2008)
Impressions In Short
I had very varied feelings about the films… I liked two of them a lot (Lubrique and Of Best Intentions), another two were intriguing (Cheeese? and Suspended Animation), two of them I hated (Guyane and Evigt elskes kun det tabte) and one I had totally neutral feelings about (Bruit blanc).
More About the Films
Lubrique is the film that has stayed with me the longest even though, ironically, I thought that technically it was amongst the worst. What it did have though was warmth, engaging characters and great humour. The characters were rather exaggerated and if I’d seen the script on paper I think I’d have hated it, but for some odd reason on screen it worked *grin* Basically, it’s about the frustrations of a teenage girl who is annoyed with the amount of sex that her peers surround her with (shouldn’t relationships be about more than that?), but she also has the bad fortune of having a crush on a boy who can most adequately be described as a male nymphomaniac ;) The trailer is up on youtube, you can see it here. That dance number was so random, but I really liked it lol
Unlike Lubrique, Of Best Intentions is a very professional looking film (see the trailer here). We’re clearly looking at somebody who is (I hope!) well on their way to making a feature film. Considering how short the film was I thought it was very impressive how much detail there was in the characterizations and settings (and the film had a lot of characters and places when you take its length into account).
Cheese… is a black and white film about a Kurdish family in Iraq, who have been trapped inside their house during an American bombing. It has some pretty absurd humour.
Suspended Animation is pure technique. Some very intriguing editing in there (it’s a montage of strange images rather than a coherent plot). Disney characters make very odd appearances throughout.
Guyane and Evigt elskes kun det tabte were just bad IMO :] I don’t really feel like writing about them. I thought both were very corny.
And Bruit blanc was I thought a little boring, but technically very sound.
Recommended?
I guess you can figure out from the review which of the films I’d recommend and which I wouldn’t *grin*
Runtime: 129′
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Tamar Novas, Rubén Ochandiano
Production House: El Deseo S.A., Universal International Pictures (UI)
Plot: (from imdb)
Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.
Trailer
Impressions In Short
Good film (I enjoyed myself), but Almodovar can do better than this. Something that never ceases to amaze me is how sexy he can make all his cast feel, regardless of age, gender or even looks.
More About the Film
Lluís Homar may be over 50 and have rather average looks, but in this film he is hot - there is just no other way to describe it ;) I’ve seen him in other Almodovar films before and this is the first time I’ve reacted quite this strongly to him. I’m not sure why that is, but there you go - Almodovar magic or something :]
Of course he’s not the only one. The whole cast was great and very sexy :] But I thought it was a bit odd that it was Lluís Homar who won on sex appeal for me… I mean I’d have thought it would be Penélope Cruz - especially considering she’s a bit of a femme fatale in this, but there you go *grin*
In terms of the film I think describing plot points or scenes or whatever wouldn’t give much of an idea about what the film is like, so I’ll just say it’s an Almodovar movie through and through and lets leave it at that :)
Recommended?
If you like Almodovar then I think so :) Just don’t get your hopes too far up - this isn’t Almodovar at his best.
If you’re not into Almodovar then stay away.
And if you don’t know if you’re into Almodovar or not then try some different films first ;)
Runtime: 73′
Director: Morgan Dews
Production House: Allis and Charley
Plot: (from imdb)
A grandmother dies and leaves behind hours of secret film and audio recordings as well as an envelope with the words “Must read after my death”, which reveal a dark history for her family to discover.
Trailer
Impressions In Short
This was one of the best films I watched at the festival I think. A documentary made entirely from archive footage. Some damn difficult editing needed to be done, but the result was great.
More About the Film
This is basically the story of the complete disintegration of a family in the 1960s. A family that used to be very happy ends up so unhappy that they need to seek psychiatric help (one of the kids even ends up in a psychiatric hospital more permanently).
The story is riveting and perhaps what resonates about it so strongly is that all their problems are still issues for people today. Allis was not good material for a housewife. She is constantly being pushed into that role by everyone (even the doctors) and the film basically tells that story. Not that Charley, her husband, was a bad man. Clearly the marriage used to work very well for many years and they were both very liberal thinkers (it was an open marriage in fact).
The film is very obviously told from Allis’s point of view. After the screening the director explained that the materials she left in the envelope were very carefully selected by her and from what he could make out a lot of materials (which possibly showed her in worse light) were destroyed.
But then the film never makes claims of showing some sort of objective reality. On the contrary, it is one of the most personal and intimate documentaries I’ve seen in a long while.
Recommended?
Absolutely :) As far as documentaries go, this one is top notch.
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