Day 10: A pink leather, a short job and a classic

Never say never again; last night I declared myself perplexed, but there are always movies that can drive you further down the spiral, may that spiral be of puzzlement and confusion or delusion. You will understand more as this post progresses.

The day started with just a few hours of bad quality sleep, and then me showing up at the Danaos box-office with a box of cakes literally bribing my way on good seats; I am not kidding here, it worked (!) and we also had a good laugh. I then continued with me walking a lot, appreciating the Panormou neighborhood even more, eating again at Epi tis Panormou, having tea at Starbucks, and eventually finding my way back to Danaos, sharing opinions and comments on the festival and movies in general with the great guys at the foyer. Obviously, I had one of those orgasmic apple-pies again, and finally got on one of my privileged seats for the second installment of the short movies mini-special. Pleased with the first installment, I again treated them lightly and as a warm up for the next features. The 1^st one was Love, This Time, a rather sad and depressive short, but featuring the ‘mature girl transforming into a woman – maternal figure’ theme, exhibiting very good performances and interesting approaches at inter-children relationships. Next came In the Eye Abides the Heart, a good video clip for a Shirley Manson song, as far as I could follow it, since I was asleep for most of it. Linerboard was bizarre, awkward and embarrassing at times, with strange use of photography, original dialogues and embarrassing moments, typical Scandinavian. Banquise, the story of a fat girl trying to loose weight by wearing warm clothes in summer, and who loves winter, is slightly sad, but bed-time story stuff, makes you go ‘ohhh….’. After that came (sure?) Our Man in Nirvana, a groovy and slightly psychedelic journey, which has a simple story to say, using two different animation techniques, reminding us of the saying, ‘build a home, have a baby, plant a tree’. Tragic Tale With a Happy Ending, was exactly what its name suggested, a very good short, styled after underground comics, with a beautiful and gothic story. So did, Phantom Canyon, the most interesting of them all probably, but also the most difficult to follow (don’t forget, I used these as a warm up). Sniffer, had a simple symbolic idea (human bodies drawn in the opposite direction of gravity), but nonetheless was rather uninteresting and very static. Finally, the last one was Kwiz, an amazing and hilarious anecdote which actually got the warmest applause in the festival so far (Pistols, Sex Pistols!). Brilliant.

Being in good spirits, I did my best to get my teeth as brown as possible (=coffee and cigarettes), and then entered Danaos 2 cinema theatre, probably for the last time during the festival. In case I have not mentioned, Danaos 2 is an amazing place to watch movies. It is very small (maximum 60 people I think) and steep, thus allowing anyone to sit as he-she likes without bothering the one in behind, something like a home cinema experience. The movie in question was Free Floating from Russia, which as explained by one of the festival people and the director himself, had a slight technical issue (some of the shots height was cut out, missing a few heads and feet here and there).

Free Floating is a very slow, picturesque and extraordinary piece of work, making Kaurismaki’s pace look like a Ferrari running on nitro. Nonetheless, this does not prove to be a problem, and it manages to be poignant, solid and independently thinking like Leonyl, the protagonist of the story. Wide, deep and distant shots creating beautiful elongated stills, is one the characteristics of the movie, which follows Leonyl through his work-shifting as he goes through a number of odd and dodgy job placements, where he finds himself in all kinds of paradoxical and surreal situations and amongst graphical characters. Typical examples are the hunchback and his slimmy fatty co-worker (both lazier than a turtle), and their unprofessional and bullshit talking foreman, who is completely ignorant as far as foundations are concerned, Leonyl’s old co-workers, who believe that they can wake up the next morning and have a ready-job doing nothing and getting drunk in the nights (derelicts of the USSR era possibly), or finally the sly flea-market shoe salesman who minimalisticly seduces his clients and convinces them to buy his shoddy pairs.

The scenery, the shots and the whole environment set us is a mixture of calm decay and abandonment, a time capsule of sorts or a constant pause in time, weird and almost never worrying, something like an Alice in Wonderland, but in tangible terms. Despite this however, the movie is never pessimistic or depressive; the same goes for the character of Leonyl, who is always sincere and honest in his wording (not that he says a lot) and actions, hard working, never losing focus, patient, quietly determined, but also an introvert and keeping to himself, not getting over his head or excited easily, but always trying to fit in various comical ways, reminding a lot from Charlo mute comedy. He is also a fast learner and unseemingly optimistic, a character that is more than meets the eye. This great persona acts as part of a larger ensemble that is formed by simple but yet very effective directing, thoughtful photography and a very entertaining script. The slow pace fits in brilliantly, giving you ample time to appreciate and think over the shots and scenes without ever becoming boring, almost challenging you to pick up on the subtle humor that is greatly scattered throughout the film. It avoids making any political or social statements, but instead approaches the character and individual side of the unemployment and economical drawbacks in the former USSR, mainly through the odd support characters who almost none of them have a real job, and the protagonist, who while might be too much of a bizarre fairy tale character, you like him from the beginning to the end, and enjoy him in plenty of moments, like when he botches a proper screw over his foreman was trying to make, or his wordplay with the girl he likes, or his obvious embarrassment when his mother buys him a heavy metal top. Exodus from this loop of peculiar and non rewarding jobs and unemployment comes in the form of an outlandish and peculiar barge, made up by trackters spare parts, with a minimal crew scavenging metal parts, a journey boat that gives Leonyl the opportunity to be himself, assured and more sociable.

Although the movie could be said to be too naïve and light, it is these qualities that make it enjoyable and entertaining, an extraordinary result that makes you smile almost constantly. A very nice film, not intimidating as first impressions might conjure, and very pleasant.

Feeling that I made a wise choice for choosing Free Floating and not seeing German Requiem, and after sipping down 2 double espressos (I am feeling terrible now), I went back to Danaos 1, to watch the ever classic and tremendous Seconds by Frankenheimer, with one of the most unrecognized and misunderstood of Hollywood’s old stars, Rock Hudson. With principal ideas from The Portrait of Dorian Gray and Faustus, based on the David Ely’s novel ‘The Seconds’ is the story of a depressive banker (Arthur Hamilton) having lost interest in his life, and unpleased by his material success, who receives an invitation to transform himself and start over again, a second chance in life (a life more free, with no mistakes of the past, more primitive, based on instinct and essentially a release for the subconscious desires) manifested as Tony Wilson thanks to the Company, which takes care of everything, even your fake death. Such a transformation is achieved mentally and artistically in the much more recent Lynchian world, but here, it is done through plastic surgery and relocation, and identity assignment, making it much more straightforward by also more raw in a sense. Seconds is a directing masterpiece, with appealing angles and amazing camera positioning, use of the camera fixed to reference to the body while the body moves, the shots architecturally laid out with at least props as possible, composing a fantastic mystery thriller, with a mesmerizing and always shifting plot. I have to insist on the simple but yet amazingly classic and enthralling directing, always bringing in mind the fantastic way in which the camera always places in the same relative position the eyes of the protagonist (Wilson or Hamilton) and in general the fascination with the eyes. Furthermore I should point out to an amazing scene where Wilson visits his wife in his previous life, who as she talks about Hamilton, looks at the visible to us mirror holding a picture of her ‘late’ husband while Wilson looks out of the shot diagonally, but his eyes still visible, thus producing 2 doubles (Mrs. Hamilton and her reflection, the picture of Hamilton and Wilson) all looking straight at the audience, creating a perfect allegory about the double standard of ourselves, what we show and what we hide, and how the eyes can always betray us. Another memorable scene near the end, is the sequence of impressive close-ups between Wilson and his friend in the waiting room of the Company.

Seconds, even 40 years after its production, remains innovative, daring, and with an incredible plot, which even when you think it has climaxed, it in fact goes even further with the final few scenes becoming the epitome of the futile attempts of the incomplete and overambitious egotistical clients of the Company at getting what they desire. What it is even more exciting, is the fact that every time a part of the plot is revealed, you manage to feel both satisfied at the progression but also still worried about what’s coming next. Hudson’s performance is unique and longstanding, definitely drawing a lot from his personal life, and the way he attempted to keep his secrets under the hood of his appearances, his gazes and looks in the movie redefining the terms ‘sad’, ‘empty’ and ‘depressed’.

Apart from being great, Seconds, can be used as an excellent reference point with regards to other movies, not only of the same genre, but also of cinema in general. I was having just recently a short discussion about the way modern movies stir away from the classic movie of the 50’s or 60’s, where the simple solid structure of directing, plot and casting was the golden rule, to over-creating, creating a multiplicity of characters and interpretations, subplots, and always filling in the cava with all kinds of visual aids, polychromy, fast or varying pace, and other such techniques an gimmicks. Although I do agree that movies of the first format always manage to keep the audience extremely focused and driven into the movie, while films of the second form create tremendous visual and aesthetic results, I feel that repeating successful and top shelve recipes all of the time, will halt cinema from its development. We should not forget that it is the youngest of the arts, and considering lets say for example painting, cinema might as well still be at its primitive stage, something like etch drawings in caves. That is why I am always looking forward to a new film, just to see if something new, extraordinary or novel has been tried out and how well it works, and how it compares with previous work.

Well, the last screening, consisting of two films, are definitely in the extremes of the exploration process cinema is still carrying out, both being parts of the Queer Cinema special, with aesthetics being a major characteristic of both. I equipped with the total of 3 Coronas and I found a pretty good seat, just before Scorpio Rising started. The 34 minute short is an exhibition of the leather and metal aesthetics of the gay niker community of the 60’s, with the concept of authority transpiring into sexuality, and also a subtle backdrop story just for reasons of cohesion. A nice collage, with a good soundtrack (music and roaring motorcycle engines is all the sound available), where the aesthetic result is in fact of high caliber and with great interest, with only possible drawback the way the shots are accelerating in sequence towards the last minutes; thankfully it is smartly timed.

On the other hand, the second and main feature of the screening, Pink Narcissus is the complete opposite, and I am trying to find the best combination of words to describe it in brief. Here is the attempt. Extremely kitch, dragging and boring, pseudo-artistic and posy, hedonistic, part porn, part fantasy, complete decadence and collapse of any possible structure that might have been in the beginning, portrayal of a gay narcissus (who is not that good looking) with an extreme bad taste, wild imagination and obsession with the color pink. In less words: utter shit! Rubbish! I like to think that I am open-minded, but not silly-minded. The film is so bad that even though I went through 3 beers, there were still times that it was extremely boring. It is definitely not shocking (sure you get the odd cock shot or blowjob or full screen straight at you ejaculation shot), and it is perhaps more of an aesthetics film masturbation if not anything else. Amazingly though, screenings like these are always sought after not by myself only, but by other as well, recognizing that trash of this magnitude contribute a lot in making the festival great and legendary, not to mention that there is always something to learn from even movies like these, like ‘how much pink you can tolerate before going color blind?’. One of the worst films I have seen (being there with the great Orgazmo), had I know before though I would have still gone and seen it; the reason, you ask? Simply, Pink Narcissus is so bad that it might never get another screening ever again!!!

With the last day of the festival literally coming up (six in the morning right now, 1 hour before sunrise), but also with the prospect of some repeats taking place in Attikon and Apollon until Thursday when they receive their normal film schedule again, I don’t know exactly how to feel, apart from tired. To be honest I am not looking forward to recapping the festival, because that is going to be a very painful and long effort. Anyways, I promised I would explain why my moods changed from the fifth day onwards. The reason is not only that the festival started screening some of the big guns (and perhaps my better luck at picking movies) but also because I started wearing flip flops again! My feet suffer from mild athlete’s foot, and my old Road shoes are completely messed up in dire need of a new sole, which literally left my feet grilled and smelly. Thankfully now, I have invented a new (OK obviously not so new) way of watching films: barefoot!

Have to go now…

Didn’t like:

- The fact that no one showed up to prologue Scorpio Rising and Pink Narcissus; it would be really great to hear crap like ‘epitomal and historic….first attempt…really influential….’ and then seen these two.

Liked:

- The little film chat I had with the foyer guys at Danaos, as well as the apple pie of course!!!

- Finding Penny in the crowd, sister of a friend of a friend.....

- Again watching a wide variety of films.

Blackberry award for the night:

Technically this is not a worst movie award (Beware you ill-tasted pink gay man!), but instead a greatest disappointment or flop award, and so The Lost look destined to take the crown with them!

Best movie of the night:

Pink Narcissus…only kidding! Technically Seconds was obviously the best, but because it is just a special re-screening and not part of a particular festival section or special, it honorably goes out to Free Floating, for creating the longest lasting smile on my face in a cinema ever.

Blackberry award for the festival so far:

The Lost should order an extra piece of luggage to carry the award with them…

Best movie of the festival so far:

Give me a break!

Schedule pamphlet status at the time of writing:

Like drunk Santa Claus on acid.

P.S. 1: Panagioti, leave Eleonora at her peace, OK??? Why are you bothering her? Really now, what it is your problem man? Are you starting to realize the truth of my words? ;-)

P.S. 2: Make sure to check out www.themoviescult.gr, a much better organized and professional chronology of the festival.

P.S. 3: In my post that included the first instalment of the short movies I completely forgot British Dream and Desires – Family Ties, which was rather funny but with an unappealing animation style.