By Dennis Hartley
In case this has been keeping you up nights, I have been accredited for the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival. It is a privilege for which I remain forever in debt to the readers who went to bat for me a while back (you know who you are) and to my good pal Digby, who graciously allows me this weekly forum to scribble about film and creatively “waste valuable Digby-space” (as one of my more ardent “admirers” once offered in the comment thread). And thanks to SIFF for acknowledging our neck of the blogosphere.
The festival kicks off May 17th and runs through June 10th. Navigating such an event is no easy task, even for a dedicated film buff. SIFF is showing 273 feature films over a 25 day period. That must be great for independently wealthy slackers, but for those of us who work for a living (*cough*), it’s not easy to find the time and energy to catch 11 films a day (I did the math). I do take consolation from my observation that the ratio of less-than-stellar (too many) to quality films (too few) at a film festival differs little from any Friday night crapshoot at the multiplex. The trick lies in developing a sixth sense for films most likely up your alley (in my case, embracing my OCD and channeling it like a cinematic dowser.) With that in mind, here are a few titles on my “to-see” list for 2012…
Of particular interest to Hullabaloo readers, there is a rich crop in the socio-political vein. On the documentary side, The Revisionaries (USA) examines the controversy surrounding the Texas Board of Education’s Religious Right-informed methodology for revising school textbooks. The Invisible War (USA) pulls back the curtain on something the MSM has virtually ignored: the soldier-on-soldier rape epidemic within the U.S. military. As a history buff, I’m intrigued by The Mexican Suitcase (Mexico/Spain) which pores over a recently discovered archive of 4,500 negatives taken during the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa and others. Speaking of history, The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD (Switzerland) should be a trip, as should All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (UK), a 3-hour epic about how we are all becoming the Borg.
More documentaries of note: On the “eco-doc” front, there are at least three that look promising. The Atomic States of America (USA) is based on Kelly McMaster’s memoir about growing up in a nuclear reactor community (pleasant dreams!). Wiebo’s War (Canada) is about a stalwart landowner (branded by some as a cult leader/eco terrorist), living out in the boonies and waging a war with the energy industry. Chasing Ice (USA) uses time-lapse imagery assembled by National Geographic photographer James Balog to illustrate the distressingly rapid retreat of the world’s glaciers (sounds like a good film to force global warming deniers to watch while strapped to a chair a la Clockwork Orange).
I always look forward to SIFF’s “Face the Music” showcase. Several music docs in this year’s series have caught my eye. Bad Brains: A Band in DC (USA) looks to be a potentially fascinating (and long-overdue) profile of America’s premier African-American punk outfit. The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America (USA) takes a look at the career of the Swing Era musician credited with bringing black and white performers and dancers together for the first time. The cheekily entitled Paul Williams: Still Alive (USA) promises to fully update us on the eccentric (and apparently, still breathing) singer-songwriter-actor who wrote a slew of monster 70s hits (“We’ve Only Just Begun”, “Old Fashioned Love Song”, “Evergreen”), and Beware of Mr. Baker (USA) dares to get within swinging distance of the mercurial Ginger Baker.
OK, enough Reality, already. The primary reason we go to the movies is to escape from it, nu? Making my list on the sci-fi/fantasy front, there is Extraterrestrial (Spain), which has a groggy couple awakening after a one-night stand to the sight of alien spaceships hovering over Madrid. I have high hopes for Robot and Frank (USA), a “one last heist” caper/buddy pic about an ailing ex-cat burglar (Frank Langella, who rarely disappoints) and his caretaker robot. Despite its title, The Last Man on Earth (Italy) is not another film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend; but rather based on a graphic novel about an alien invasion of Earth as seen through the eyes of a misanthropic recluse. Thale (Norway) has the owners of a crime-scene cleanup service stumbling upon “a seductive nymph with a cow’s tail” (this year’s Trollhunter?). The animated Tatsumi (Singapore), an omnibus based on the autobiography of gekiga artist Tatsumi Hoshihiro, has potential.
In the action-adventure department, Countdown (South Korea) purports to be “a pulse-pounding thriller” whose protagonist has 10 days to live, whilst trying to keep his organ-donor savior alive (shades of D.O.A.). And two promising Hong Kong imports: The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake mixes historical biopic with martial arts actioner to profile revolutionary Qui Jin, who helped topple the Qing dynasty; and for those in a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon mood, there will be an opportunity to watch genre superstar Jet Li do that voodoo that he do so well, in The Sorcerer and the White Snake.
I’m always a sucker for a good noir/crime/mystery thriller, and several selections are on my radar. 38 Witnesses (France) is a “grim tale of social responsibility”, based on the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese murder. The Glass Man (UK) is about a desperate man who loses his job and is about to lose his wife, unless he acquiesces to the demands of a debt collector from Hell. In The Invader (Belgium), after his relationship with a Belgian business woman sours, an African illegal, desperate to gain an economic foothold, gets sucked into crime. The Women in the Fifth (UK/France) features Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas in a psychological thriller about a novelist whose life gets turned upside down by (you guessed it) a “mysterious woman”. Intertwined secrets of two families inform The Crown Jewels (Sweden/Denmark), a “fantastical, imaginatively shot gothic tale” launched by a woman’s plan to avenge her brother’s murder (Hitchockian?).
You want drama? There’s plenty of that. Breathing (Austria) is about a young man doing time in juvie, who gets a job in a morgue, serendipitously putting him on the trail of his “wayward mother”. Four Suns (Czech Republic), being billed as a “village drama about growing up, believing, and letting go” vibes like a Mike Leigh character study. I’m particularly intrigued by Found Memories (Brazil/Argentina/France) a culture-clash drama/personal journey about a young female photographer who wanders into a (fictitious) isolated village located in Brazil’s Paraiba Valley (sounds similar of one of my favorite 70s films, La vallee). White Camellias (USA) stars Cybill Shepherd (where has she been?) as a “hopeless romantic in her early 60s”, spending all day prepping a dinner party. The fickle finger of fate threatens to ruin her “perfect evening”. It’s a prospect that could go in one of two directions: an insightful glimpse at the human condition, or a vanity piece that eventually disappears up its own ass. I’ll get back to you.
And lest we forget to laugh, some selections in a much lighter vein. I will sheepishly confess right here in front of everybody that I am eagerly anticipating Bobcat Goldthwait’s (very) dark satire, God Bless America (USA), a film in the Serial Mom vein that has already stirred up a shitstorm of controversy. It’s not like I would ever go on a murderous spree to take out everybody who offends my personal sense of aesthetic (a keyboard is my weapon of choice), but Mr. Goldthwait and I are muy simpatico regarding our view of modern American pop culture. Speaking of stirring up the shit, The Woman in the Septic Tank (Phillipines) launches a clever Trojan Horse assault on the hipster brigade with its tale of two no-budget filmmakers who set out to manufacture the “perfect film festival hit” by packing every possible indie film cliché they can into 90 minutes. Fuck My Wedding (Chile) is the aptly entitled sequel to the 2010 film, Fuck My Life, continuing the saga of “beloved characters Javier and Angela.” And Superclasico (Denmark) is a “romantic, globe-trotting farce” about a man who decides to win back his ex-wife when she splits to South America with her new squeeze, an Argentine futbol star.
I can’t guarantee that I will catch every film that I’d like to, gentle reader- but you will be the first to receive a full report, beginning with my Saturday, May 19th post. And obviously, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the catalog tonight. So in the meantime, visit the SIFF website for more info about the 2012 films, events and the festival guests.