“The problem with every story is you tell it after the fact. Even play-by-play description on the radio, the home runs and strikeouts, even that’s delayed a few minutes. Even live television is postponed a couple seconds. Even sound and light can only go so fast.
Another problem is the teller. The who, what, where, when, and why of the reporter. The media bias. How the messenger shapes the facts. What journalists call The Gatekeeper. How the presentation is everything. The story behind the story.”
- Chuck Pahalniuk
This cup of coffee isn’t going to cut it. Five days into the 53rd Melbourne International Film Festival, sleepless nights, a psychosomatic work overload, a string of obsessively dedicated film outings, a Feature Article to deliver… and the shit has hit the metaphorical fan. Rocking up to the Forum Theatre box-office last Friday evening and the place was buzzing with activity, burlesque bees busy in the beehive… working the walk and tweaking the talk. I queued up to collect a Mini-Pass and a veritable host of media and pre-booked tickets and checked out the line. It stretched from the foyer through to inside the main theatre, down the hall, down some steps and across what is usually the bar to the makeshift ticket collection office. It was on for young and old, pierced Generation X’ers standing alongside the cultured middle-class, with just about every conceivable race and culture present. Only at the Film Festival said the pot to the kettle.
After listening to a girl have a mobile phone conversation with her dog, watching a clean-cut nine to fiver tap at his watch for what must have been the fiftieth time (I was on to him though, it was obvious he was sending Morse Code signals Infernal Affairs style), seeing a disheveled man in a trenchcoat attack his crumpled MIFF guide with a pen like an absent-minded rocket scientist working on formulas for advanced quantum physics, and stepping over the decomposed bodies of the people who had been waiting in line too long… one hour later I reached the ticket collection desk. Normally a relatively simple process, this was anything but. I had multiple sets of tickets to collect all under different booking numbers in different categories and swaps to do and changes to be made and tickets to be cross-referenced and, well, you get the picture. This was taking some time and I copped a sour-faced look from what looked to be a member of the female British Equestrian Team waiting in line. I used my ninja eye-melt technique and with that and a handful of free Stella coupons thrown at me shuriken style, I dive rolled back out to the street. A little bewildered, I sucked up a huge breath of minus fifty-eight degree Melbourne winter air and nearly got run over by a curmudgeon creature known as a Redneck Road Rager. It was time for me, ‘Crouching Ninja-Fish, Hidden Journalist’ to mount my third camisado on this unique and unforgettable pocket of clique film culture.
With a host of work focusing on the imminent dangers of the modern political climate, the unease in the Middle East and for the majority of Australians what borders on cultural ignorance towards our closest neighbours, the answer to this year’s ‘Need To Know?’ catchphrase is explicitly yes. But like any good messenger shaping the facts I’ll be excluding the sections of the Festival of little personal interest. As a frequent cultural banqueter this is quite simply, tongue in cheek, all you need to know.
Opening/Closing Night and FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Held at the Regent Theatre, Opening Night played host to the Australian premiere of SOMERSAULT by Australian writer/director Cate Shortland, which also screened in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. SOMERSAULT is a visually haunting film telling the story of a young girl’s sensory journey, through which she learns the true meaning of love, family and friendship. A worthy Australian entry that sits awkwardly in the existential genre it places itself in, you can comfortably catch this one post-MIFF.
Closing Night presents the Australian premiere of breakthrough Thai film ONG BAK by director Prachya Pinkaew. After a rapturous reception at the Toronto International Film Festival and reports claiming the lead actor Tony Jaa is the new Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan rolled into one and still packing evidently more punch, Melbourne audiences are in for an epic kung-fu treat riddled with extraordinary stunt work and the next generation of fight choreography. Riding on the new wave of contemporary Thai cinema, ONG BAK showcases martial arts form Muay Thai in a story about a young man chosen to delve into the seedy underworld and neon glow of the big city in order to rescue a sacred relic stolen from his peaceful village. Provided you are lucky enough to secure tickets, wise man say to the grasshopper this barrage of fists is not to be missed.
Michael Moore’s (BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE) Cannes 2004 Palme D’Or winner FAHRENHEIT 9/11 had its Australian premiere on Thursday 15th July to an overwhelmingly sold-out MIFF screening. It had similarly sold-out advance sessions at Nova and Kino/Dendy Cinemas the following night. The first documentary to win the Palme D’Or since Jacques Cousteau’s THE SILENT WORLD in 1956, FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is Moore’s reflections on the current state of America and the fallacy of the Bush Administration, including the powerful role oil and greed may have played after the 9/11 attacks. Lucky enough to see it, it was everything I expected, a sense of urgency and omnipresent dark humour making it satisfyingly nefarious. Although it used questionable and manipulative filmmaking techniques in some sections, it definitely deserved its winning place at Cannes… more so because it will bring some largely ignored political ideas to the masses. The film’s most poignant moment shows President Bush dubiously devoid of action in front of a classroom of children for a full seven minutes after being informed of the attack on the World Trade Centre. The expression on his face is peculiar indeed. But as biased and one-sided as it is, if Moore didn’t make this film then perhaps fifty years from now the only history we would have access to of such events is an even more biased portrayal given to us from the likes of CNN. It takes courage to make a film like this. Rumours of George Bush’s brother Jeb (Governor of Florida) threatening to remove tax breaks on Disney World, subsequently leading to Disney’s subsidiary company Miramax being unable to release the film are worrying indeed. Thankfully Lions Gate and IFC have picked up the distribution rights and it will be released in independent cinemas across Australia on July 29th. Check it out.
International Panorama
The International Panorama programme will once again survey the world. Brimming with audience favourites, critics’ choices, innovations and award-winning masterpieces, it presents tomorrow’s talents alongside today’s auteurs. With 45 films to choose from, making a selection is about as easy as finding Weapons Of Mass Destruction in a dictatorship. It’s time to don the ninja mask and go deep, using the five-step exploding brain technique to separate the must from the miss.
Already sold out at both sessions this year, US indie film icon Jim Jarmusch’s (STRANGER THAN PARADISE, MYSTERY TRAIN, NIGHT ON EARTH, DEAD MAN, GHOST DOG) new film COFFEE AND CIGARETTES is certified cool. Assembling a cult cast of Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jack and Meg White (The White Stripes), Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, the film is a collection of eleven vignettes shot in black and white between 1986 and 2002 about two of society’s favourite vices. Judging by Jarmusch’s previous work you can expect sparse minimalism both in vibe and cinematography, profound use of mis-en-scene, sharp dialogue and a combination of black and laugh-out-loud humour. Always poignant and understated, Jarmusch is one of the greatest working independent directors in America today. COFFEE AND CIGARETTES will be released locally next month, and needless to say is not to be missed.
I caught the first screening of a fantastic new film last weekend from Italian maestro Gabriel Salvatores (MEDITERRANEO) called I’M NOT SCARED. The film is set in the sun-soaked Italian countryside and focuses on a small boy who uncovers a surreptitiously sinister scene at a nearby abandoned farmhouse. In inexplicable child-like logic, he is unable to fathom the extent of his discovery nor make the moral choices that face him, seeking refuge in the guidance of his parents. Although creepy to begin with it’s no horror/thriller as advertised, it is however a very well-made drama on the fears and mindset of the child and the shift from the moment a boy believes every word his parent’s say, to the darker, more complex and often puzzling loss of innocence beyond.
Beyond bizarre and infinitely weird come the cries of those who have already seen cult Canadian director Guy Maddin’s THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD. The striking Issabella Rossellini plays a legless Baroness whose artificial glass legs are filled with beer. Set during the Great Depression, the film centres on an international contest to find the saddest music in the world, a plot conceived by the Baroness to increase the sales of her beer. Featuring a failed Broadway impresario, an alcoholic doctor and an amnesiac, nymphomaniac sleepwalker, THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD is “a surrealist whirl of crackpot characters, expressionistic sets, glimmering cinematography and musical numbers satirizing old Hollywood musicals… the work of a filmmaker in total control of his craft”.
Horror fans carve up your mother because the next generation of French horror has washed ashore. Light years beyond standard gore-fests, this disturbing chiller is a nerve-wracking flight of paranoid fancy, touted as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE with a French twist. Director Aja Alexandre’s SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE sees two nubile young girls watch on as their entire family is carved up by knife and circular saw. Drawing comparisons to legendary Italian horror director Dario Argento, this is intensely psychological horror for the twisted generation. Catch it next weekend because I doubt you’ll see this baby again anytime soon.
Screening at Cannes this year, German-born Jessica Hausner has crafted a bizarre David Lynchian chiller with her new film HOTEL, drawing similarities to one of my favourite French directors, Michael Haneke (FUNNY GAMES, THE PIANO TEACHER, TIME OF THE WOLF). The film’s protagonist is a front-desk clerk for a small mountain resort, named Irene. As she wanders the long and empty corridors at night she begins to learn of how the woman she replaced went missing and as her paranoia grows, so too do the corridors and the dark shadows in the corner.
Regional Focus
MIFF will again underline the dynamism of our northern neighbours in the Regional Focus section of the programme, with a stunning range of diverse and poetic films from the Asia/Pacific Region. My favorite section of the Festival, it was tough work putting the eight-stroke pregnant cow maneuver into practice and sorting the rock from the schlock.
Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes this year, South Korean Park Chan-Wook’s (JOINT SECURITY AREA, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE) latest film, OLD BOY, is an intensely visceral cinematic ride. It shows an ordinary man kidnapped from his wife and daughter and waking up to find himself in a makeshift prison. After failed attempts at both escape and suicide and seeing his wife brutally murdered on television, he swears revenge against his captor. Fifteen years later he is finally set free and as he receives a call asking him to figure out why he was imprisoned, so begins an electrifying tale of retribution. Judging by the critical acclaim and the strength of his previous work, this is a Festival must.
Often unfairly compared to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s HERO is a spectacular mix of dazzling cinematography, slick CGI and an array of wire-fu fight choreography. A visual tour-de-force and intoxicating feast for the senses, HERO has received an incredible amount of critical acclaim, even garnering on Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Set in 3rd century BC China, the film focuses on low-ranked law enforcer Jet Li as he presents himself before his ruthless King, claiming to have killed the three most deadly assassins in the land. As he recounts their demise in a series of flashback sequences his true intentions are revealed. Light on plot, it was one of the few films where story was almost irrelevant for me. The cinematography and art direction courtesy of Christopher Doyle (long-time Wong Kar Wai collaborator responsible for cinematography on such films as CHUNGKING EXPRESS, FALLEN ANGELS, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE) was breathtaking, the fight choreography so on the money… and the story flowed and ebbed in a quazi-dreamlike, almost lyrical fashion. With a sense of vivacity that is hard to ignore, HERO is a brilliant film that perhaps references Kurosawa’s RASHOMON on the duality of truth.
ONE MISSED CALL is the latest fare from cult Japanese iconoclast Takashi Miike (AUDITION, ICHI THE KILLER, DEAD OR ALIVE, GOZU, HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS). Nothing like usual Miike product, ONE MISSED CALL is a little unoriginal with a bigger budget and a wider audience in mind. If you’ve seen either of the RING films or THE GRUDGE, you’ve a fair idea of its basic premise. But is it creepy? Definitely. Miike handles a horror story that’s pretty much been done before and twists the genre. Carefully balances a mix of gore, fright scares and sparse minimal suspense, none of which I believe RING or THE GRUDGE managed to quite get right. Although a fairly standard piece in comparison with his more fucked-up exploitation cinema, he still injects some typical weirdness in a strange mix of parody humour on the Jap-horror genre and an ending that as wrong as it is, is quintessential Miike. It’s just another of his gags, quietly laughing off screen whilst the audience is left thinking WTF?
Last Friday I was able to catch my first taste of new-wave Japanese arthouse director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (CURE, PULSE), and it definitely won’t be the last. Stunning scenes of mutant jellyfish, strangely creepy, quietly humourous and quazi-metaphorical, BRIGHT FUTURE is an allegory for the youth of Tokyo; lost and out of place they sting the society around them until they inevitably move out to sea to find their own bright future. A film that grows on you the more you think about it, BRIGHT FUTURE is a beautiful monster movie for those prepared to give it the afterthought it deserves. I’m also looking forward to checking DOPPELGANGER, an intense fusion of macabre horror, dread and impenetrably dark humour about a scientist whose exact double turns up one night in a restaurant. Unscrupulous and hell-bent on wreaking havoc, the double embarks on a rampage of destruction, sabotage and murder, all in the name of technological progress.
Another cool Japanese director to watch is Toshiaki Toyoda (BLUE SPRING) and his latest surreal work, NINE SOULS. Essentially a prison-break movie, NINE SOULS explores the damaged souls of nine assorted psychos, criminals, losers, over-the-edge businessmen and a dwarf in a masterful work of kinetic energy. After the frequently macabre cult classic BLUE SPRING, I definitely suggest dosing up on this guy, just be sure to hang on to your hat.
A hot tip for a Festival favourite, SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER… AND SPRING is a South Korean film by Kim Ki-Duk, an exquisitely simple movie of lyrical beauty, profound cinematography and sophisticated artistic sensibility. Structured as five chapters, as the title alludes, the film focuses on the journey a young Buddhist monk takes on the path to enlightenment, along the way discovering something essential about human nature and comprehending the scope of human experience.
Legendary Japanese auteur Takeshi Kitano (HANA-BI, DOLLS, BROTHER, SONATINE, KIKUJIRO) brings to screen a reworked and remade Japanese classic about a blind Samurai swordsman, ZATOICHI. Perhaps my favourite Japanese director next to the great Akira Kurosawa, ZATOICHI follows in the footsteps of YOJIMBO, SANJURO and SEVEN SAMURAI as the director’s first foray at Jidai-geki (period drama). Renowned for pretty much re-inventing the Yakuza genre in the early-nineties, his works are often extremely violent, bizarre, poetic, deep in allegory, metaphorical and foreground a strong, minimalist aesthetic. Released in Japan in the same year as Tarantino’s KILL BILL saga, ZATOICHI is considered the director’s biggest crowd-pleaser to date and took out the audience award at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival and four prizes at Venice. All who appreciate the Samurai code should polish their swords and check this out either at MIFF or upon its local release next month.
Based on the cutting-edge genetic manipulation in modern science and projecting itself eight decades into the future, NATURAL CITY is a high-impact South Korean sci-fi blockbuster for all those who ponder do androids dream of electric sheep? In developments mirroring the classic of the genre, BLADE RUNNER, human-robot hybrids have been manufactured to take care of the most dangerous and unsavoury occupations in the new world order. An illicit trade in doctored cyborgs and their controller neuro-chips has resulted in a series of extremely violent crimes. An MP task force is launched to deal with the problem and mercy is not part of their orders. Although the film is pulsing with award-winning CGI effects and gadgetry, the core of the story is basic questions of humanity. If we are the sum of our thoughts and emotions, what difference does it make whether they are generated by an organic brain or an artificial one?
Brain Monkey Sushi: Raw Japanese Cinema
The Brain Monkey Sushi showcase returns for MIFF 2004, jam-packed with frenetic action and a high-powered, genre-busting collection of new Japanese features and shorts. Offering radical filmmaking techniques, narrative experimentation and relentless visual exploration, Brain Monkey Sushi is cinematic Wasabi-snorting madness. Grab your Katana blade, employ the three-slice minced liver method and let’s cut to the vital organs.
From the twisted mind that brought you VERSUS and ALIVE, Ryuhei Kitamura, comes AZUMI, a new film boasting some of the most impressive swordplay in the history of Samurai epics. Orphaned during the war-torn Tokugawa Shogun era in Japan, Azumi is raised by a man ordered to cultivate assassins to eliminate the bloodthirsty warlords. Burdened by the cruel orders to kill friends and enemies alike, Azumi begins to question her fate, but she forges ahead, unaware of the terrible bloodshed that awaits her. Based on a popular Manga, AZUMI is a visceral and violent epic with a hard-hitting female protagonist.
With DEAD END RUN, Japanese arthouse director Ishii Sogo returns to the big screen in a hyper-kinetic blast of sonic intensity and visual dynamism. Essentially comprised of three stories, linked by a wild chase down an alley, DEAD END RUN kicks off with a man being pursued by a female robot who has a thing for Broadway musical numbers. Drawn into the same alley is a guy chased by a hitman and another pursued by the police. Rapid editing, crashing guitars, delicately layered background noise and fast close-ups perfectly combine with first-class acting in this exhilarating joyride… all in exactly one hour. Buckle your seatbelts film freaks, this one is an express one-way trip on the neo Tokyo speedway.
Director of the semi-cult classic and quite literally brain-devouring ANOTHER HEAVEN, Joji Iida brings his latest film DRAGON HEAD to MIFF audiences. Creating a compelling vision of post-apocalyptic landscapes and cities reduced to skeletal structures, DRAGON HEAD is a gripping sci-fi disaster epic based on the infinitely popular Manga series of the same name. After seeing ANOTHER HEAVEN it is needless to say any more, get in line and inject this visionary psychosis directly to your cerebral cortex.
Thai Breakers: New Cinema From Thailand
The incredibly diverse films in the Thai Breakers spotlight are sure to spice up this year’s Festival. The resurgence of Thai cinema over the past few years has been led by a number of distinctive voices, time to use the double-gag chili up nostril prescription and get to the juice.
My favourite film at the Festival so far, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE is the greatest Thai film I’ve seen to date. Although the comparison is perhaps unfair, Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s feature is somewhat of a Thai arthouse interpretation of LOST IN TRANSLATION with a sprinkling of Miike-like Yakuza bloodshed. The film is about a suicide-obsessed Japanese man living in Bangkok and searching for signs to validate his existence. When he accidentally kills a Yakuza gang member who was pursuing his brother, his life takes a sudden detour. On the same night a young Thai woman mistakenly kills her sister after an argument at a burnt-out beach town. It’s only a matter of time before the universe conspires to throw the two together. Listening to the director speak both at the SBS Movie Show live broadcast at the Stella Club and also following the film screening with the film’s cinematographer Christopher Doyle only further served to heighten my appreciation for a film which I believe we won’t be hearing the last of. A sleeper hit, a modest masterpiece, beautifully restrained, unquestionably moody… and just my cup of underlying black humour.
THE EYE is hot new directorial duo the Pang Brothers’ follow-up to their hyperkinetic gangster tale, BANGKOK DANGEROUS. This suspenseful and atmospheric thriller travels from the hectic streets of Hong Kong to the steamy jungles of Thailand as a cornea transplant patient unravels the shocking truth behind her new eyes. Kind of like a Thai version of THE SIXTH SENSE it’s creepy in parts, has a spectacularly destructive ending and great visuals and special effects. Unfortunately it’s a relatively shallow affair at the end of the day and it seems a bit like recycled ideas on a bigger budget. That said, you can expect the Pang Brothers to have a ticket to Hollywood sometime soon, these guys are destined for big things.
D.O.A.: New Crime Cinema
From the mist enshrouded streets of Hong Kong to back alleys and beyond, D.O.A.: New Crime Cinema presents a series of hard-boiled films that dare to peer inside the seedy underworld of crime. Gritty, fresh and unforgiving, it’s time to reload, cock the barrel and use the three-fold lead into cerebellum procedure.
Direct from a thrilling premiere at Cannes, BREAKING NEWS is a furious, hard-boiled crime drama from acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To (RUNNING OUT OF TIME, P.T.U., RUNNING ON KARMA). When a TV broadcast shows a police battalion defeated by a mere five robbers, it’s embarrassment all-round. As thousands of police descend upon their location, the police send officers with wireless cameras atop their heads into the building in order to beat the media at their own game. What ensues is all-out media warfare between the cops and the robbers in a gory battle of life and death.
After last year’s MIFF sell-out Hong Kong blockbuster, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, Andrew Lau takes the director’s chair once again for a sequel and a prequel, INFERNAL AFFAIRS II and INFERNAL AFFAIRS III. Centred on the ongoing struggle between the police, an elite selection of undercover agents and police moles, and the Triad, this trilogy brings slick production design, intricate plotting and an all-star Hong Kong line-up to new levels of cool. Perhaps the best intelligent crime drama since HEAT, INFERNAL AFFAIRS was one of my favourites at last year’s Festival. Load up bitches because these aren’t to be missed.
Takashi Miike’s other feature at MIFF this year is a blood-drenched remake of a classic Fukasaku film called GRAVEYARD OF HONOUR. Based on a true story the film follows a dishwasher’s rapid rise through the ranks of the Yakuza. The indisputable master of shock cinema and one of the most forefront visual stylists, much like The Coen Brothers Miike makes genre movies… and pushes them beyond limits at which even they would falter. A hopelessly bizarre sense of humour, boundless creativity and a willingness to defy convention makes him one of the most exciting directors to hit Western audiences in a long time. Most importantly he’s impossible to pigeonhole. He’s made everything from political parody to taut psychological thrillers, outlandish yakuza road movies to bizarre films of disjointed post-logic, and wickedly disturbing Broadway-esque musicals to all-out, blood-soaked exploitation cinema. One of the most prolific directors in the world, he churns out up to five films a year and amidst the boiling vat of controversy he’s created in the international movie scene, he is impossible to ignore.
Hidden Hero: The Films Of Chang Cheh
With the co-operation of Celestial Pictures and the Shaw Brothers Library, MIFF will present a retrospective selection from the vast filmography of seminal action, thriller and martial arts Hong Kong film director, Chang Cheh. As much a cinematic pantheon as Akira Kurosawa, Chang Cheh has largely missed the spotlight placed upon his Japanese contemporary. He passed away two years ago at the age of 79 after directing a prolific 101 films. He made his mark by combining intriguing scripts with groundbreaking martial arts sequences that literally redefined the genre. Credited by Quentin Tarantino as one of his key inspirations for the KILL BILL saga, by Peter Jackson as the source of inspiration for his epic battle scenes in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, and by John Woo as his teacher and mentor, this spotlight on the works of the Godfather of Hong Kong action cinema is a must for any fan of the Fu.
Northern Lights: New Scandinavian Cinema
This year MIFF will turn its gaze to the far northern hemisphere with the Northern Lights spotlight. From Oscar nominees to the latest Dogme95 work, Northern Lights 04 is replete with the latest films from Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland to fire up the coolest of audiences. Of particular note for me is THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS, a documentary by Danish enfant terrible Lars Von Trier (ZENTROPA, BREAKING THE WAVES, DANCER IN THE DARK, DOGVILLE) that penetrates the very essence of filmmaking. He asked fellow filmmaker Jorgen Leth to remake one of his short films five times with a manifesto-like series of obstructions laid down by the conniving Von Trier. Also of note is the Swedish film EVIL, about a sadistic group of power-tripping rich kids who terrorise a young misfit at an elite private school; Danish film THE GREEN BUTCHERS, a black comedy about cannibalism and a very special marinade; and a Norwegian film called KITCHEN STORIES, a humourous dive into the bizarre world of Swedish kitchen design and Norway’s official entry at the 2004 Academy Awards.
There’s just under two weeks of Festival time left, use the revered forty-click mouse technique and go deep:
www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au
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