Lots of films since Thursday, lets see if they've all blurred together yet..
Friday..
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas/France, The Netherlands, Germany, Mexico) This is a Very Slow Film. So I slept through bits. And I don't think I missed much in this one either. The opening sequence is a sun-rise. Then it's a scene of a family having breakfast. Then, of a man (seen earlier having breakfast) crying. At this point, you start to see where this film is trying to take you. It doesn't take long to find out why he's upset.. I think most of the film is spent trying to get you to feel the same pain. The end was a bit mystical, but I didn't think that spoilt the film.
The Red Awn (Cai Shangjun/China) A man and his brother and his son and his brother's tractor (combine harvester?). Also, a bit slow. This was the first on-stage director Q&A we got, he explained the whole shoes on the side of the road thing. Made a lot of sense. I didn't mind this one.
Her Name is Sabine (Sandrine Bonnaire/France) This was probably the most emotional film I've seen so far in the festival. Also possibly angry. But don't just take my word for it, watch me say it to some guy in an alley way. What I mean't was, the story is tragic, Sabine has been autistic all her life, but as a young girl she was attractive, smart, capable of getting around, but after five years of institutionalisation she lost all of that. And her sister, the film maker, seemed, to me, to be angry at the doctors, the institution, the system, that took her sister away from her. And at herself, for not being there for her sister to stop it happening. The scene of Sabine watching a DVD of her trip as a young girl with her sister to New York is moving. And that other guy in the alley way was probably right, it was a bit long.
Saturday..
Quiet Chaos (Antonello Grimaldi/Italy) The first film I really liked. Meaning either this was a bit more accessible, simpler, easier to watch, or I'm starting to get into the mood of the festival. This is about a man whose wife has died, and he decides to wait for his daughter outside her school. Probably as much to reassure himself that he won't lose her too as to reassure her that she won't lose her father as well as her mother. It's kinda funny, a bit sad, and maybe slightly complex.. the relationship between him and his wife might not have been that strong (or maybe that's a failing of the film).
Of Time and the City (Terence Davies/United Kingdom) I would've preferred to attend the Q&A session for Quiet Chaos instead of seeing this one. But how can I know (since I don't read the blurbs, mostly not even the film names) before the sessions. It did have a few moments.
Just to explain, this year the festival has a selection of films "in competition." So far the first film of the day in the day-time subscription session has been a competition film. After the morning screenings, they hold a Q&A with the director (or, perhaps, whichever supporting actor turned up) at the lounge under the theatre DURING the next film. So far, I've picked watching the next film.
Sunday..
Rain of the Children (Vincent Ward/New Zealand) This was a mix of documentary and re-enactment. Telling a story I'd never heard told before, of Maori history during early white settlement, and in particular of the then 80 year old woman that the film maker had lived with in 1978 when making his first film (I'm assuming). This guy made The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey -- I loved that.
Fugitive Pieces (Jeremy Podeswa/Canada, Greece) This was really nice, based on the book of the same name. About a Jewish boy who escapes from Poland during WWII with the help of a Greek archaeologist, and becomes obsessed with the details of people who lived through the holocaust. Audience loved it. I loved it. The director does a lot of good TV stuff. Look him up.
Monday..
Hunger (Steve McQueen/United Kingdom) Best in-competition film so far. But, paradoxically left me a bit cold. This is about Bobby Sands' 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland.. and it's not pretty. I'm sure someone in the audience was dry-wretching during one of the less graphic scenes (I think it was of a guard sweeping up urine). The scene of the conversation between Bobby and the priest revealing that the strike will take place is an amazing bit of cinema.
Son of Rambow (Garth Jennings/UK) Loved this. Take your kids to see this when it comes out. And stay for the end of the credits.
And then, just coz they still had tickets left and I'd finally remembered one reason for seeing it as part of the festival:
Kung-Fu Panda (Awesome-ness) This was awesome.