A holiday weekend during the season of long, dark nights is the perfect timing for a film festival. But why wait for July when Sky's Rialto channel has one that lasts the whole of June?I counted some 120 films in this month's listings and broke them into
A holiday weekend during the season of long, dark nights is the perfect timing for a film festival. But why wait for July when Sky’s Rialto channel has one that lasts the whole of June?
I counted some 120 films in this month’s listings and broke them into several groups (bearing in mind some may have had their single showing).
The Sky Watch magazine and on-screen guide descriptions are lean and mean, often obscuring the film’s origins and the key players. I have added a few details to overcome these faults.
The result is a veritable feast of festival fare that belies the thought that there is nothing on tonight, or any night.
For a start, let’s get rid of the classics – the ones you should have seen or should see again:
Japan: Rashomon and Seven Samurai from its greatest director Akira Kurosawa; Departures (Oscar winner)
France: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Un Secret, Female Agents, The Dinner Guest, Une Veille Maitresse (An Old Mistress/The Last Mistress); 2 Days in Paris (bilingual Julie Depry)
Britain: Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; Trainspotting; Northanger Abbey (ITV version with Carey Mulligan) and The Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons); Charlotte Gray; Dean Spanley (NZ co-production); Girl with a Pearl Earring; My House in Umbria; Mike Leigh’s Career Girls and Naked
Hollywood: The Coens – Barton Fink, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy
Martin Scorcese – The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver
Annie Hall, Blue Velvet, Coming Home, Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart
New(ish) this month and all festival favourites –
Foreign: Three Monkeys (Turkey’s Oscar entry in 2009), The Sicilian Girl and Gomorrah from Italy; Caramel (Lebanon), Lemon Tree and The Band’s Visit (Israel); Silent Light (Stelle Lecht, a German/Mexican production); Gone With the Woman (Norwegian award winner)
France: After Him (Apres lui, with Catherine Deneuve); L’Age d’homme…maintenant ou jamais (Age of Man); Brodeuses (A Common Thread); The Grocer’s Son; 13 Tzameti (Georgia/France); La Graine et le Mulet (Secret of the Grain); Shall We Kiss (Un baiser s’il vous plait by Emmanuel Mouret, whose current release is Please Please Me)
Britain: And When Did You Last See Your Father? Hunger (best film last year, according to the Sight & Sound critics’ consensus); Last Chance Harvey (Dustin Hoffman in London); Richard Attenborough's Closing the Ring; and some excellent TV dramas – All or Nothing (Timothy Spall), The Little Traitor (set in 1948 Israel), Last Resort (political asylum)
Hollywood/Sundance: Battle in Seattle (WTO drama with New Zealand’s Martin Henderson); Steven Soderbergh’s Che (both parts); Richard Linklater’s Slacker; Todd Solondz’s Storytelling
Most would be happy to leave the list there, as all can be recommended. But digging into the rest on offer results in a treasure trove of little-known films, many of which could be gems. (I have not so far viewed any.)
UK (mainly) TV dramas: Abroad (journalism); Another Life (Victorian murder mystery); The Best Man (not the US political thriller); Blow Dry (Alan Rickman and a hairdressing contest); Born Equal (ensemble character drama); Fakers (London art scene); The Good Samaritan; I Know You Know (Robert Carlyle); Man and Boy (Simon Curtis directing); Poppy Shakespeare (mental health); Sugarhouse
Also from the UK and Ireland are these forgotten, quirky or over-looked films – Garage (rural Irish); Hearts in Atlantis (a Stephen King story with Anthony Hopkins); Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (disco period); Yes (Sally Potter). For those with the stomach: Donkey Punch and Lesbian Vampire Killers.
From elsewhere in Europe: Our Land (La terra, Italy); The Soul Keeper (Italy’s Predimi l’anima about Carl Jung); Who Loves the Sun (Scandinavia)
From the US and Canada, a standout looks to be Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, based on a Romanian novel set before World War II. There's a huge swag of mainly “indie” productions, with several based around similar topics.
Youth/family: Charlie Bartlett; Education of Charlie Banks; Elvis and Anabella; The Girl in the Park; Purple Violets; Rocket Science; Take; Turn the River; The Wackness; What’s Cooking?
Medical/social: Arranged; Diminished Capacity; Dot the I; He was a Quiet Man; Life as a House, Music Within
Crime/horror: Eden Lake; The Proposition (Catholic Boston in the 1930s); Surveillance (New York horror festival winner)
Finally, but by no means least, are enough Australian films for a separate festival. In 2008 alone, some 45 films were made across the Tasman, and a lot of them have turned up this month.
Nearly all are unknown quantities to me. But first a couple of must-see classics: Wake In Fright (1971) and The Black Balloon (autism).
From 2007-08: Boxing Day, The Jammed, Last Ride, Men’s Group, Monkey Puzzle, No Through Road, The Square, Ten Empty and Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback.
That leaves just one Kiwi film – Athina Tsoulis’ Jinx Sister, a light urban drama set in Auckland – and a few others that could be missed: Adulthood and Kidulthood (UK social dramas); Adventures of Power (air guitars); the docos Dear Zachary, Earth Days, My Enemy’s Enemy (Klaus Barbie) and Who Killed Nancy? (punk); IP Man (martial arts).
