Day 3: Beam up Scottie out of order; use normal means of transport and stress for a few more generations:

Planning ahead and scheduling has never been my strong point. In fact it has never have had any point whatsoever in my life. Of course, there is a price to pay, and I did today. My restless mind awoke my cinema-indifferent body at four in the afternoon (don’t envy, I still needed let alone wanted more sleep), still not having solved today’s scheduling problem. Half Nelson. Red Road, Thundercrack!, Daisies, A Scanner Darkly, En Soap and Severance were all heavy contenders and it was to make any satisfactory combination.

The only thing certain was that I wanted to see A Scanner Darkly. I am a big fan of P.H. Dick (one of the first to genuinely defend pop art with his work, a classic writter lost in his own generation), and A Scanner Darkly is the best book so far make it to the pictures, plus I have seen the trailer and I was excited at the prospect of seeing the digitally mastered glossy photography. So in a decisive moment, I elected for Daisies (if I made it in time) and A Scanner Darkly at Danaos, Red Road in Attikon (taxi or metro, to make it there in 15 minutes was the big dilemma) and Severance back in Danaos (mental, eh?). I finally saw Half Nelson, Red Road and Thundercrack!, all in Attikon and Danaos. I went twice to Attikon and once in Danaos, queued 4 times, confused my screenings at least 3 times, foul mouthed the tight schedule a million times and soaked myself with sweat running up and down metro staircases. A Scanner Darkly was sold out, typical of the Athens crowd and of my lack of planning, the only positive side being I would not witness the day I had to see Keanu Reeves (why? why? if you agree with me check out the link) act himself out during festival days!

Sweating and panting, I sat down to watch Half Nelson, the story of a talented and streetwise Brooklyn history teacher (Dan, a cat-person like myself)), who (alas!) has a drug problem but is admired (if not something greater) by one his pupils, Drey (a girl so that we don’t get confused), with whom they become friends of sorts. The story was interesting, although you could say it had flaws, some things just sticking out let's say. For example the teacher is too good and too cute to be a crackbase, Adrei is too intelligent to be 12, Frank is too caring to be a dope dealer, but then again this movie has a lot to do about opposites. Black vs white, teacher vs pupil, coach vs player, solitude vs healthy social relations, an adult acting as a child and a child acting as an adult, junkie vs dope-mule. In fact opposites are part of what Dan teaches along with change, which in contrast to the first, does not occur, or at least does not happen in any dramatic sense. Dan remains a junkie, eventually looses his job, never finishes his children book about dialectics, his cat dies, he remains isolated from everybody else (with the possible exception of Drey) and still avoids any intimacy of any sorts (‘I want to be alone’ is his trademark line). Photographic, yet not too extravagant, the director chooses to approach his subjects like a child is trying to learn the world but without understanding it fully, managing to provide a scene where Drey delivers crack to Dan at a mini crack party in a motel without any dramatic effects or overtures or any shock of any kind. Simple and to the point, with great productions values and good performances by the two protagonists, Half Nelson is a movie about how human personalities, relationships and interactions are created and evolved, not to any ideal status, but simply exist flawed, misinterpreted and crooked, and how they go on without change most of the times, contrary to our hopes and beliefs, failing us and other most of the times. Like Dan, who fails himself and others (family and students); what is worse is that he accepts defeat with a ease and a smile, he is compromised and has imited himself. With scenes reminding me of Leon, and Finding Forrester, and the trembling emotions and uneasiness of Lolita, Half Nelson has a good story to say and it does so, indifferent to the end results of its heroes, who contrary to their status (‘heroes’), they never manage to overcome themselves, and it accomplishes that without any judgment or criticism, but simple observation. Honestly, I think A Scanner Darkly will have a hard time proving a better film, although the critiques will probably think otherwise (the absence of any good morale will not go down well with them).

Next was Red Road, the only one of the 3 movies I intended to see shortly after I woke up. Its Cannes accreditation and its Great Britain (in fact I am watching Little Britain as I write these lines) legacy for good films were good enough reasons for me. At the end of the film, I remembered why I begun going to the festival a few good years ago: great movies.

You know you are watching a good movie when your body reacts to it. If you get a stomach knot, or smile involuntarily or loose your breath, or cry, or the movie is making you feel like you haven't felt felt for a long time, or making you wanna leave the theatre, not because it is bad, but because it is too good. Red Road is simply realistic, Arnold’s directing is fantastically mature, getting the audience within Jackie’s cold but still breathing body without ever becoming brutal nor cynical, and delivering a very dark movie not because of it’s scenery or style, but due to Jackie’s overwhelming lack of emotion and borderline psychosis. Arnold is slowly taking you to a journey into Jackie’s psyche without you realizing it, bolting you down to the theatre seat and touches you in places sensitive to the some times cruel reality of the nature of things, in areas you don’t expect to (or even don’t want to) be touched by music, cinema, theatre or books, but eventually they do and when they do, as this film does, they reaffirm the greatness of art, the study of the soul. With true devotion not to style (without lacking it of course), easy emotions, pleasure, communication, or even the story itself (one of the not so popular but still classic versions of the revenge and closure theme), but to the depths of the soul, the unexplored areas of it, the anima of our lives which we so easily take for granted, but which is what defines us as human beings and differs us. Arnold is not attempting anything partisan or anything surprising to divert our attention from Jackie, for whom she sets up the perfect conditions for us to discover, by examining her without prejudice or horror but with compassion and understanding to her cause. Red Road could be said to be about revenge, but it is more about death, and how death lives on into our lives, it is a movie searching and finding whatever hope can remain in life (no matter how wretched it can have become), the breath itself which we all seek, as the shell for the soul, the body, thrives to live on and exist, with sequences so great that you forget you are watching a movie, and just stare and awe at how feelings can manifest themselves in our actions and posture. Red Road never bores you, and it even scares you at how sorrow, grief, guilt and loss can bring a person into the brink of non-existence even if he or she walks and talks around us like everybody else, Jackie’s job (supervising and watching dozens of Glascow’s safety cameras) being the ultimate symbolism on the vast lack of affection and intimacy we all share in our lives. Arnold’s directing and co-scripting, and Kate Dicki’s sublime performance, provide a stunning character, who can only be compared with the likes of Yeaong-ae Lee from Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (probably more poetic and more elegant and beautiful visually, but not necessarily better or more soul embracing than Red Road). A truly emotional movie, shattering your defenses, probing your own psyche and essence, which propels you to the deepest foundations and defining characteristics of yourself, as any good piece of art does. I know I might kid about the movies I enjoy watching, but in a way it is funny that it was just yesterday that I wrote that I seek more style (photography, scene layouts-canvases, colours, directing, aesthetics, aiding to the cause soundtrack) than content (scenario and performances essentially) from a movie, not of course not seeking out some of it along with intelligence and expression. The reason behind my style-seeking proness, is that you get content everyday in your regular life, and for me, cinema and art in general is most of the times a release from all of that, if not sometimes a good companion and reflection of our inner selves. However, sometimes art goes further down into the avenues of our subconscious and shakes things up, changing us for the better or worse, like this movie does. Borrowing a lyric from The Cooper Temple Clause, Red Road was ‘…honest, true and from the heart…’ and that is what makes it so great.

I was so moved by the movie, that I was tempted to stay at the Q&A session with Arnold herself, but thankfully I checked my watch and went to Apollon to grab a coffee and a beer to write down my notes waiting for Thundercrack! to start. The movie arrived in one of the four surviving reels in the world (so I count myself lucky for watching it adding to the legend), as Koutras (the Director of the Attack of The Giant Mousaka) explained to the crowd during his introduction. He went on pointing out to the legendary cult status of the movie and how influential it has become ever since. He of course used metamodernism (a tag under which apparently any piece of crap can be justified as art of the highest degree) to elate the value of the film, describing it as cult-underground poetic (?!?!? No way!) polysexual metamodern piece of cinema. Myself, not being an avid cult cinema follower, but always enjoying its taste (I guess it has to be salty…) whenever I want to (without overvaluing it in any way), could not really tell the importance of what he was talking about, and I was waiting to see for myself.

Now the movie itself (described as ‘one of the most walked out on films of all time’ by its own fansite!) is a feast of ridiculous tag lines (‘You had the pipe, now the cigarette, how about my shaft next?’ - ‘Your body is already full of fat, adding a bit more wont make a difference (just after using pig fat for lubricant!)’, - ‘I deflowered the gorilla!’, - ‘…my late husband used to say it [her body] reminded him of an ancient greek sculpture …[Doydy in reply:] …well it reminds me of something Greek but it is not sculpture.’ - ‘…she would put a peacock on my dick…and the bird would shit…and then she would eat the shit from my dick!’ - ‘So you are still a virgin after 3 years of marriage?’ and others of that caliber), explicit sex (MM, FM, FF (with the one unaware that she is participating!) FM while FM watches and performs oral satisfaction, GM –G standing for gorilla-, MDD, the first D standing for doll and the second for dildo, I let you imagine the rest, MM while M watches and tell us of his sex life with his dearly departed wife, and CF, C standing for cucumber – a rather untasty one), situational comedy of high degree (widow Hammond inducing vomit to herself, drops wig into the toilet bowl but goes on and wears it anyhow, Toydy slipping in and out of a rubber doll, Willene discovering a whole bunch of cucumbers the widow Hammond has used in the past – not for cooking -), kitsch(erella) unearthy terrible performances in various degrees (where to begin…) and memorable monologues from Marion Eaton (the widow Hammond – Friday the 13^th the day my husband died….the estate lies between two rivers – please let me finish – blah blah blah) and Mookie Blodgett (Chandler – of the Phillips Unlimited...road 135…Texas…blah blah blah). Obviously shocker of its times, making The Rocky Horror Picture Show blush, Thundercrack! was good entertainment and fun to watch…and that’s about it! Not much more to it (for me that is of course), but definitely one of the movies I would like to have and watch just for a good laugh out of ordinary. If you do follow cult cinema, it is an obvious must see.

Well, the sun is up and shinning, and I have to get some sleep fast; I have to plan out tomorrow’s (or better today’s!) schedule!

Didn’t like:

- I don’t know. The Conne-x sponsoring again?

- My mp3 player messing up the shuffle operation.

- Myself for not planning ahead.

- My leather jacket for making me sweat.

- People raising bad cult movies to the status of great and legendary good movies. We like them, exactly because they are sooooo bad.

- People booking tickets days ahead and never showing up leaving empty chairs in sold out shows and disappointed fans outside.

- My nagging as I am writing all of the above!

- The photographers. I envy them....

Liked:

- The fact that Severance and A Scanner Darkly will be released and so I will get a chance to see them.

- The weird way that occurrences led me to see the best trio of movies for tonight. The festival and the schedule pamphlet still rule my world for now!

- That I sat on the second row for the last 2 movies. It is always good to strain your neck!

Blackberry award for the night:

Thundercrack! It would be extremely unfair and cruel if the movie didn’t get this award!

Best movie of the night:

Red Road without a shadow of a doubt.

Blackberry award for the festival so far:

Black Kiss still rules as the worst among the rest.

Best movie of the festival so far:

As much as I adore asian cinematography, European cinema I know better and understand better, and it is always more daring to reach out. Red Road is here to stay.

Schedule pamphlet status at time of writing:

God