Tuesday, June 2, 2009
SIFF SIFF Picks of the Day
Posted by Lindy West on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 3:46 PM
Not to be missed today, if you are a person who likes things that are good:
Charles Mudede adores Welcome:
Starring the great Vincent Lindon, Welcome is all about the feeling of longing. And longing is only longing as such if the thing that is longed for is totally out of reach. There are two men in this film—the Iraqi teenager (Firat Ayverdi) and the middle-aged swimming coach (Lindon)—and each longs for a woman. In both cases, she is “somewhere not here.” For the Iraqi teen, the longing becomes a matter of immigration, of crossing borders, and eluding border agents. The desire for the woman is a desire for a better, higher standard of living. For the swimming couch, the woman he loves is symbol of emotional enervation, of lost hope, a sense of emptiness and drifting. The end of this film almost made me cry. And African men don’t cry.
Jon Frosch endorses Summer Hours.
Jen Graves jumps up and down and claps for Laila's Birthday:
Remember that Hollywood movie where that poor, downtrodden, white-collar white guy completely loses his shit? What's it called? Falling Down. Right. Michael Douglas. Well, this movie is the story of a Palestinian father and judge who actually has cause to break down over the course of one unbelievably (and yet typical) day, who actually has cause to become an insane murderous freak a la Michael Douglas, but who doesn't, because, you know, not everything is about him. It is, for instance, his daughter's birthday. You will love this man.
Eli Sanders demands that you see William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe:
This fantastic documentary is about activist lawyer William Kunstler—director of the ACLU, defender of the Chicago Seven, subject of FBI surveillance, mediator at the Attica uprising, lawyer for Abbie Hoffman and Lenny Bruce. Equally fantastic is that this film was created after Kunstler’s death in 1995 by his two daughters, Emily and Sarah, who, without the gauze of familial loyalty, explore the evolution of a complicated man—their father—who was both a strident idealist and a blatant hypocrite, a selfless activist and a camera-loving egotist, a revered hero and a despised villain. It’s a wonderful, weird, and very American story.
And Jesse Vernon quite likes Daddy Cool:
A dash of magical realism and the ghost of Albert Einstein turn the typically trite tale of the out-of-touch father and his rebellious teenage daughter into over-the-top satirical glory in Francois Desagnat’s Daddy Cool. Daniel Auteuil (nerdy microbiologist) and Juliette Lamboley (faux-rebel hottie) play a clueless father and a 15-years-estranged daughter. Romantical slo-mo scenes, a ludicrous daddy boot camp, and a raging rave in the woods make this film light, funny, and so French.
Tonight is also your last chance to see Spike Lee's Passing Strange.
So get to it! Chop chop!
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1
Nothing about ZMD or Animating Enemies?
On the other hand, I still have a hefty rant against projected DVD at SIFF. Last night I went to the archival presentation of The Great Race, which I had never seen before (thought it was kind of OK). Instead of being treated to a nice crisp 35mm projection (I'd hope for 70mm, but it wasn't at Cinerama), I was shown a projected DVD that looked like it was killing the player.
SIFF probably has some sort of up-res DVD player to simulate high-def. But, the player chokes on DVDs, and isn't very good. For the first 10 minutes, the central channel was not working (the vocals were very very quiet compared to the sound, and they were not hunting rabbits). But, that was passable if just a technical glitch.
The major issue was the video quality. It was tear-my-eyes-out poor. First, It had the quality of being shot on digital. Now, we're talking a big budget overblown movie that was filmed on 35, and blown up to 70 (with some success). Next, the image couldn't decide between being full of artifacts or soft focus. And last, during more contrasty scenes (such as night shots), the video had interlacing issues, where all of a sudden we got major lines through the image for most of the scene.
I don't know what the major deal was, but it was awful. AWFUL. If Hitchcock in High Def was anything like this bullshit, I'd have been even more pissed off.
Stick to 35mm when you can SIFF. I know at festivals, sometimes filmmakers can only get you video. But, if you're doing something that I KNOW has a 35mm print somewhere - especially something archival - don't show me a second rate DVD.
On the other hand, I still have a hefty rant against projected DVD at SIFF. Last night I went to the archival presentation of The Great Race, which I had never seen before (thought it was kind of OK). Instead of being treated to a nice crisp 35mm projection (I'd hope for 70mm, but it wasn't at Cinerama), I was shown a projected DVD that looked like it was killing the player.
SIFF probably has some sort of up-res DVD player to simulate high-def. But, the player chokes on DVDs, and isn't very good. For the first 10 minutes, the central channel was not working (the vocals were very very quiet compared to the sound, and they were not hunting rabbits). But, that was passable if just a technical glitch.
The major issue was the video quality. It was tear-my-eyes-out poor. First, It had the quality of being shot on digital. Now, we're talking a big budget overblown movie that was filmed on 35, and blown up to 70 (with some success). Next, the image couldn't decide between being full of artifacts or soft focus. And last, during more contrasty scenes (such as night shots), the video had interlacing issues, where all of a sudden we got major lines through the image for most of the scene.
I don't know what the major deal was, but it was awful. AWFUL. If Hitchcock in High Def was anything like this bullshit, I'd have been even more pissed off.
Stick to 35mm when you can SIFF. I know at festivals, sometimes filmmakers can only get you video. But, if you're doing something that I KNOW has a 35mm print somewhere - especially something archival - don't show me a second rate DVD.
2
Daddy Cool is fun.
But I know watching the subtitled Icelandic film White Wedding was kind of hard when it derezzed the words so you could barely read them, TM.
But I know watching the subtitled Icelandic film White Wedding was kind of hard when it derezzed the words so you could barely read them, TM.
3
Summer Hours had two screenings at SIFF on the 22nd and 24th of May; now it is just playing at the Harvard Exit (under their regular ticket system).
5
Lindy pay attention! Summer Hours screened at SIFF previously and is now screening theatrically at Landmark. Get it straight girl!
7
I saw the William Kunstler documentary last night, and it was fucking AWESOME. Easily one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Even the Q & A was amazing. See this film!
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