Day 7: September 15

Yeah, today's the day the brain jellifies. Oh, sure, I'm not doing seven consecutive screenings like I did in my youth (last fest, for example), but by this point in time you've missed a tonne of what you wanted to see, and your sleep deprivation is at an all time high (can you be deprived in a "high" way? too tired to argue).

Bad news in the evening, when Colin at Midnight Madness announced that tomorrow's public screening of Kung Fu Hustle would have to be scrapped because of print damage. Sucky. Is the future of cinema digital? God, I'm sick of that question... All I know is that the digiprojectors are good but not great, that DV shown on film looks better than from a DLP, and, well, if I were a billionaire I'd have a fleet of helicopters and a pet puma.

I'm telling ya, sleep madness.

Oldboy
Directed by: Park Chan-wook

Not hard to see why Quentin Tarantino loved this film so much at Cannes this year. Part character study, part action flick, the film seamlessly blends genres in an extremely satisfying way. In particular, the photography is spectacular - of particular note is a Escher-like staircase sequence that is simply extraordinary.

If I'm forced to find fault, it may be that the central "quest" underlying the film is a bit obvious and distracting. Translation: the McGuffin is, depending on the moment, either too important or not important enough in the telling of the film. This fluctuation is a bit distracting, and the power of the story is somewhat lessened by the doom-and-gloom conceits (unopened boxes, tense cell phone calls, etc.) Still, this are minor quibbles, and certainly tied to the culture where the film comes from (me, I found losing a tongue more gruesome than how the -big- shock is dealt with).

As a calculated and protracted revenge tale in the mode of Seven, it plays extremely well and is certainly worth a screening or two.

Grade: A

Eros
Directed by: Wong Kar-wai, Steven Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni

Three directors combine short films to form a triptych about love. The problem? The connections are tenuous at best. These are really three films marketed as sharing a theme.
Wong kar Wai film is, as always, beautiful and distant. Gong Li was unrecognizable to me, but her companion in the film I recognized as the guy from Crouching Tiger. Lovely, would have worked well on its own and had a good running time.

Between each segment are connecting tissues, sketches of erotic poses. The thin sketch lines inadvertently symbolize the thin connection held between these films.

Soderberg's is the most accessible and, well, by far the silliest. It's a fun short, with good performances and a decent enough story. Alone, it would be top notch, but nestled between its two companions it seems out of place.

Finally, Antonioni has created a obscure and odd tale of marital grumpiness. This is the type of "art" film that often gets made fun of, as it's hard to tell what exactly he was going for (for the adventurous, it's based on a published story that he wrote, so, dig up the book to make sense of the nude dancers at the end.) Full of symbolism and blather, this one's a miss.

Grade: B/B-/C-

Lightning in a Bottle
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

This concert is basically a bonus disc to the (wonderful) PBS series The Blues, spearheaded by Martin Scorsese. A concert is organized in New York to celebrate the PBS show, it is then filmed for broadcast (and showing at film festivals, natch), and the cycle keeps on going. Organized in a general historical progression, from foundational African rhythms through to an exuberant performance by Chuck D doing John Lee Hooker, it's a pretty amazing swath of musical output for one show. I must admit to being extremely worried about Fuqua's involvement, but he wisely stays out of the way of the performances, letting them build naturally without the cameras getting in the way of the rhythm of the show. Think of this as The Last Waltz but entirely with Blues guys and gals, and you'll get the general idea. The filmmakers really have captured something quite spectacular with this one.
Grade: A-

Land of Plenty
Directed by: Wim Wenders

Hey, remember September 11th? Wasn't that just ripe for comment by aging German directors who last had a good film decades ago? Let's go to the trailer park, kids! Oooh, the homeless shelter, that'll be a kick.

Major tragedy that September 11th has gone from horrifying to exploited (U.S. congress, anyone?) to, now, really freakin' boring German films about deserts and campervans.
Grade: D

Kontroll
Directed by: Nimród Antal

Kudos to Antal for making a fresh, dense and creepy genre flick entirely in the bowels of a subway system. Sure, it's a bit wacky, but the best part of all is the announcement by the director of the transit system for Hungary who claims that none of the stuff you're about to see is real, nor should it be a reflection upon the transit system as a whole, but enjoy the movie anyway! Subways are ripe for horror, with their mix of crowds, rats, darkness, closed in areas and, of course, electricity. It's not a perfect film by any means, but it certainly succeeds quite well in telling its tale with enough charm and gore to keep thing interesting.
Grade: B