2007 - Day 1

Ok, so the film festival is back, but that is not of much importance. As it has always been there to serve me, my personal state of mind and psychosis is far greater than you would expect, especially around the days of the festival itself. It could be the September leaves, the summer departing for the southern hemisphere, who gives a fuck. The truth is I am not as geared up as the previous years and that bothers me a bit. Nonetheless i did manage to see four films yesterday, not without considerable damage of course.

The first one to break my 2007 festival cherry (and my nerves) was Eagle vs. Shark. If you come out of a cinema feeling blessed that the film is finally over, you know you are off to a bad start. Eagle vs. Shark proves without much difficulty that you cannot be smart and modest at the same time. It is just too much. Although the bitter viewer might claim it is the love story between dumb and dumber, you must even more of a fool (thanx mr. T) to think that it is any good. It miserably tries to be different in every possible way, muppetterring its characters into caricatures during the rather mundane process. It attempts to be a comedy for the eclectic intelligent (somebody shoot me, now!), but it is as a boring as dry toothpaste.
I have nothing against odd characters, in fact Ι love them, as any self-respecting Tim Burton fan would, but when the writer-director himself does not respect them, why should I? Why should I empathise when the directing is cheap and the writing is pathetic? The whole concept of the film can be summed up to 'let's make a rather bizarre movie about an odd and dysfunctional set of characters and in the end love prevails, or whatever'. The result is boring, inanimate, and a complete waste of time. The only interesting part was in fact the New Zealand accents, which of course did not take much effort, given that the movie is from New Zealand. Just fucking great.
If you are at all sympathetic to the film, you could argue that it is a gentle and a non-critical exposure of a bunch of down to earth, next-door kind of characters, but guess what. It is not. It is just disappointing and poor, an insensitive glorified freak show. Oh well, what do I know? I could be wrong. It could be that it is extremely subtle and sympathetic, sweet and quirky, and if anything else at least innocent and pure in it's attempt. Nah. Fuck it. I still think it is horribly cheap and stupid.
Ευτυχώς η συνέχεια της πρώτης μέρας δεν ήταν το ίδιο απογοητευτική. Αντιθέτως είχα την χαρά και την τύχη να δω το Persepolis, ένα αυτοβιογραφικό, σχεδόν αθώο, animation (βασισμένο στην αντίστοιχη σειρά comic) για την ενηλικίωση, τη δέσμευση, την οικογένεια, τον αποχωρισμό και την αποσύνδεση.
Ευαίσθητο και προσωπικό, το Persepolis σε συγκινεί χωρίς να σε εκβιάζει, και σε κερδίζει με την εικαστική του αφαίρεση, την ειλικρίνεια και την απλότητα των σχημάτων και των συναισθημάτων, αποφεύγοντας τις υπερβολλές. Παρακολουθώντας τη πορεία της Marjane από τη παραμυθένια και παιδική ερμηνευτική των πολιτικών γεγονότων, στη σκληρή πραγματικότητα του πολέμου, στους εφηβικούς έρωτες, την κατάθλιψη και την ενηλικίωση, η δημιουργός καταφέρνει να μη χάνει ποτέ το humour της παρόλο την σχεδόν αδιάκοπτη διαδικασία αποχωρισμού την οποία εξιστορεί. Αποχωρισμού από την οικογένεια, τη πατρίδα, τους φίλους, το σύζυγο, αλλά ποτέ από τις αναμνήσεις και την ακεραιότητά της. Η ιστορία είναι πραγματική, αλλά αυτό λίγη σημασία έχει. Αυτό που έχει πολύ περισσότερο ενδιαφέρον είανι η ψυχραιμία και η αίσθηση γαλήνης με την οποία ο θεατής προσλαμβάνει τα βιώματα της Marjane, σχεδόν σαν οι αναμνήσεις να του είναι οικίες, πρόσφιλες, αποκαλυπτικές αλλά ποτέ τραυματικές. Ευγενικές.
Σε ένα πλήρως αναζωογονητικό βαθμό, το animation επιτυγχάνει την άμεση επικοινωνία χωρίς να υποσκελίζει τον πάντα απαραίτητο αγηφηματικό λόγο. Μια πλήρως ισορροπημένη και αξιόπιστη χρήση των comic-καρέ, γεμάτη διαύγεια και καθαρότητα, η οποία κατατάσσει το εξαίσιο αυτό δημιούργημα στη φτωχή αλλά υπερπολύτιμη κατηγορία των εικαστικών ποιημάτων. Μια άψογη σύνθεση που αναπνέει και επικοινωνεί, που αρθρώνει λόγο, μια εξαιρετική κλειδαρότρυπα στις αναμνήσεις της δημιουργού. Μακάρι πολλές 'κανονικές' ταινίες να ήταν τόσο άμεσες και όμορφες, και μακάρι κι άλλα animation να ήταν σαν κι αυτό.
Και να φαντασθείς πως κάποτε νόμιζα πως οι γυναίκες δεν μπορούν να κάνουν τέχνη!
If I were to be cynical, which I am not, the scoreline would be by now 1.5 - 1 for good movies (the extra half point is always there for good movies....). If I were to be cynical the score at the end of the night would have been 2-2.5 for bad movies. But I am not. So let me explain myself.
School of the Holy Beast is what can be best described as Japtrisch (japanese trash kitch). As I have mentioned in the past, movies of the kind, are great only when such artistically poor approaches are adopted intentionally and not by convention or ... simple lack of ability. Okay, it is not as bad as it soundσ but imagine a coven of nuns (an oven of witches? 4 rooms lol), a good number of sex scenes, quite a bit of ketchup torturing, a mental Raspoutin-look alike Hiroshima bomb survivor japanese bishop, tits and ass flashing left, right and centre and a couple of ridiculous deaths, all set back in the good old seventies. Considering our 21st century gore insensitivity this should be mediocre, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it enough (some would not stop laughing or making those god damn boring cliche remarks ... grow up already!). Who am I to argue? Anyways I guess it was alright, and I might have enjoyed it under different circumstances. After all the manga set-up of sex crazed nuns is always a good incentive. However, I think the problem was not cinematic, but rather that weird feeling i was getting, that suddenly the blood-thirsty virgin-girl screaming audience elite I once thought myself to be an extreme part of, had grown completely out of proportion. You try hard to be an elitist, to have fun in a 1/3 full theatre and next year blood and cheap scenes is all the rage! Shiiiiiiit.
Unfortunately my weird feeling was met with reassurance by the last movie, La Lupa Mannara (the Werewolf Woman). A promising title surely. This year festival has a special on the Grindhouse circuit, with which I am not too familiar with, but in general terms I know what to expect. By the way, thanks to this addition, this year's repeats seem to be far less than those of last year. Anyways, in the true spirit of the good old days we had to endure approximately 25 minutes of previews of other similarly styled films. It was boring but far more entertaining than the movie itself. La Lupa Mannara has all the typical characteristics of it's kind. Absurd make-up and costumes, at least one rape, lesbian innuendos, good old tits flashing and bobbing, ridiculous dialogues and acting that makes porn stars something to be proud of, editing made while consuming copious amounts of LSD, and all of that printed in the cheapest film possible. In other words I managed to get a 10 minute sleep in a gore film, and that is a fucking first!
Now let me blunt. There is a difference, which is not fine at all, in fact it is very fucking wide and visible, between cult and trash. The first one is useful and insightful into cinematography and extends to our pop culture. The second one, pretty much like politics, causes brain damage. And it seems that the schedule is full of movies of the second kind. I only hope I am wrong, or I will be a very moody person in nine days from now. I never thought I would say this but I kinda miss the gay cinema special from last year. Things do not look good.....

Didn't like:
- My attitude.
- The heat.
- The way past rare and cult screenings are demeaned with the likes of Lupa Mannara.

Liked:

- The Δαναός apple pie. Again and forever!
- The applause at the end of Persepolis. We might be cunts, but not that much!

Blackberry award for the night:

Shark vs. Eagle. it represents all the badness in the kind of movies I actually enjoy and like. Watch Little Miss Sunshine instead or Napoleon Dynamite, not this bullshit. Sure Lupa Mannara is complete junk and a waste of time, but it has no false intentions. New Zealand should stick to producing wind surfers and providing sets for equally rubbish films like Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Necklasses, Lord of the Bra's....

Best movie of the night:

Persepolis. It made feel good among other things.

Schedule pamphlet status at the time of writing:

Horribly disengaging and ominous.

Celebrity viewing (not be a regular feature):

George Karanikolas of The Last Drive (and other things as well...). Innnnnnnit!