Jafar Panahi under arrest

While checking out the Cannes festival website, I was disturbed to stumble upon this article about the Iranian government's detention/imprisonment of renowned film-maker Jafar Panahi. The director of such celebrated films as The Circle and Crimson Gold, he is clearly a director of great integrity and social conscience. Given the widespread support that Roman Polanski received for his detention pending extradition for his alleged crimes, it's most disappointing that Panahi's case is all but absent from the mainstream media. The Iranian government's claims that Panahi has been detained for security reasons seems flimsy at best.

From Google News:

Panahi arrested for making anti-regime film: minister

(AFP) – 14 April 2010

TEHRAN — Iran's culture minister said on Wednesday that the award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested because he was making an anti-regime film, the ISNA news agency reported.

"The culture and Islamic guidance ministry asked the judiciary and the security authorities about the arrest of Mr Panahi and they told us that it is a security case," Mohammad Hosseini told ISNA.

"They informed us that this director was making a film against the regime and it was about the events that followed election," he added, referring to the unrest which rocked Iran after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year.

It is the first time that an Iranian official has given an explanation of the basis for Panahi's arrest.

But in an interview with AFP in mid-March, Panahi's wife, Tahereh Saeedi, denied that Panahi was making a film about post-election events, saying: "The film was being shot inside the house and had nothing to do with the regime."

She added that at that time prosecutors had yet to press any charges against her husband.

Soon after Panahi's arrest, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the filmmaker had not been detained for political reasons or because he was an artist but because he was "accused of some crimes and arrested with another person following an order by a judge."

According to opposition websites, Panahi was arrested along with 16 other people, including his wife and daughter and six human rights activists. Fourteen of those detained have been freed so far.

A vocal backer of the opposition movement, Panahi was arrested when security forces raided his Tehran home on March 1.

Fifty Iranian filmmakers and artists signed a letter in mid-March urging the authorities to release him.

Panahi, 49, is known for his gritty, socially critical movies such as "The Circle," which bagged the 2000 Venice Golden Lion award, "Crimson Gold" and "Offside," winner of the 2006 Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival.

In February, the authorities banned Panahi from leaving the country to attend the Berlin Film Festival.

The same dreary criticism

So now Michael Coulter, The Age's production editor (whatever that means) is an Andrew Bolt wannabe, criticising the state of Australian cinema. Criticism is not unwanted nor unneeded, but this dross in today's paper is just as tired a criticism as the type of films he's criticising. Coulter's solution, à la Bolt, is to remove public funding and have Australian films funded as per Hollywood. As far as I know, this only works in one country, namely America, and even then, most films coming out of that place are not big success stories.

In particular, these closing comments in the article lead me to not take Coulter seriously:

Personally, I'd be more than happy to see the Australian Film Commission's funding handed over to, say, MICA paramedics, who are at least delivering a demonstrable benefit to society.

Until then, I'll stick with the majority of Australians and vote with my feet - which will take me, likely as not, straight into the next session of Transformers.

Mind you, I agree that we don't need any more mediocre films made to the same old tired formula that we've been pumping out for the last few years. But does Coulter really think we should be producing films like Transformers? I'd rather spend that money on MICA paramedics. The world does not need more mindless trash movies.

More Chinese shenanigans

"Online sales are currently offline due to a Denial of Service attack of Chinese origin."
- MIFF ticketing website

"China summons Australia over Uighur leader visit"
- ABC News Online

With ticketing information offline, I'm unable to update my 'sold out/selling fast' page.

[Update 1-Aug 11:43 AM]: the MIFF ticketing site went back up but is currently down again. The Age reports on a concerted effort to sabotage MIFF by the Chinese.

The Chinese farce continues

While more Chinese film-makers are reportedly withdrawing their films from MIFF, I can't for a moment believe that there is not undue pressure being placed on them by their government to do so.

The Age reports that "Three more Chinese films pulled from Melbourne festival".

Other than MIFF

With a full-on schedule booked for MIFF (some 40 films), it's easy to forget that there's other things on (all film-related, of course). I had booked myself in for United Red Army at the Forum this morning but, at 190 minutes, figured I'd take some time out, and hence this post.

Having given Balibo a whopping 5 stars (and I don't know how that's justified), I'm a little bemused by Jim Schembri's 1/2 star for Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control and, furthermore, his description of the film in today's Age as a 'blockbuster':

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince enjoyed a second weekend at No.1 with a massive haul of $6.46 million across 510 screens for a total of $29.6 million. This was despite the opening of the new Jim Jarmusch blockbuster The Limits of Control, which managed $28,999 on five screens.

[p.18 in the Arts section under 'Box office' - as yet not online; emphasis is mine]

Now, though I loved The Limits of Control (which you may have gleaned from my review), I'd hardly call it a blockbuster. It really is a niche film and Jarmusch is a niche director. That the film is showing on a measly five screen pretty much confirms that. And how can a film screening on five arthouse screens take a dent out of a mainstream blockbuster screening on over one hundred times the number of screens, largely the big multiplexes?

Opening on the eve of MIFF was always going to hurt the film's box office in Melbourne, because the target audience is largely focused on the mega-circus that is MIFF. It's a pity, because it's a better film than anything I've seen yet at MIFF (13 films to date).

...

Cedar Boys
This new Australian film by Serhat Caradee opens on limited release today and my preoccupation with MIFF has prevented me from reviewing it in more detail. It depicts the struggle of immigrant families in contemporary society. I often connect with this subject, though Australian films tackling these themes in recent years have usually failed to have the authenticity and dramatic tension that Cedar Boys achieves.

The film is nicely photographed and well-acted. The dialogue in particular is excellent, very real. Hopefully Cedar Boys will find an audience. The lack of marketing and the timing (mid-MIFF) isn't working in its favour, so if you're steering clear of the MIFF crowds, this is one to look out for - just be quick; it may not be around for long. Check out the official website.

...

Lake Mungo, another Australian film, opens today. There's a Q&A session with the cast and crew 6.30pm tonight at the George cinema.

...

Post-MIFF
For your post-MIFF fix, you may want to put the following into your calendars:

• 16 August: Gruber's Journey at ACMI
  
• 18 - 20 August: Indonesian Film Festival at ACMI
  
• 19 - 26 August: Russian Resurrection Film Festival at the Como
• 21 - 30 August: Melbourne Writer's Festival at ACMI
  
• 25 - 30 August: Israeli Film Festival at Como and Brighton Bay cinemas
• 27 - 30 August: Anna May Wong on Film at ACMI
  
• 3 - 30 September: AFI Professional Members' screenings at ACMI
  
• 4 September & 2 October: Red Hot Shorts at ACMI
  
• 10 - 15 September: The Bicycle Thief at ACMI
  
• 16 September - 5 October: Italian Film Festival
• 17 - 27 September: Focus on Australian Noir at ACMI
  

Controversy

In today's Age:

Beijing pressures film festival to dump documentary

It must have been a bit of a shock for poor Richard Moore to have an irate and insistent Chinese consulate on the phone. I mean, he's a festival director, not a politician or diplomat. Ah, nothing like a bit of controversy!

6th Annual Bayside Film Festival

This looks like a nice little film festival. I added the Q&A info to my previous post, but I don't think that does justice to what this festival, put on by Bayside City Council, has on offer. I'm just going to post the media release, and keep your eye out on the official website for further info. This should be a real treat for those in the Brighton area, as it's being held at Palace Brighton Bay, 294 Bay Street, Brighton. I'm on the other side of the city, but I'll make it there if I can fit it in.

Don’t Go Stateside…stay BAYSIDE for the 6th Annual BAYSIDE FILM FESTIVAL!

The electrifying BAYSIDE FILM FESTIVAL will take place from 15th to 18th July at Palace Brighton Bay Cinemas. An event that celebrates and encourages young filmmakers via a range of filmmaking initiatives and screening programmes, BAYSIDE FILM FESTIVAL is committed to introducing today’s youth to the endless possibilities that film, in its many guises, affords.

Lively and informative workshops will play a key role in the 2009 line-up, including an in-depth Q&A with Adam Elliot and Melanie Coombs on their latest movie, Mary and Max. Likewise, renowned filmmaker Rohan Spong will discuss his fascinating documentary ‘T’ is for Teacher. Actor Lisa Maza (City Homicide, Stolen), will provide a first-hand insight on the making of her first documentary, Living in Two Worlds, whilst director Anna Brady and actor Blair McDonough (Sea Patrol, Heart Beat, Neighbours) will conduct a workshop on their film-noir spoof, Strangers on a Sushi Train.

In celebration of humanity’s indomitable spirit, the 2009 Festival will also highlight films that illustrate qualities such as courage and strength, suspense and truth. These qualities are in evidence throughout the Festival’s four-part Beyond Our Shores strand, which will screen fifteen diverse short films ranging from powerhouse documentaries like Skin, ‘T’ is for Teacher and Old Country, New Country (exec-produced by George Negus and Kirsty Cockburn), to David Michôd’s endearing Netherland Dwarf, which played at the recent Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals.

And have you ever wondered what the youth of Australia are really thinking? Well, find out at Jump Cut, where we screen films from around the country, created by 13 to 25 year-olds.

In 2009, nine secondary schools from both within and beyond Bayside, participated in the Festival’s much lauded Youth Documentary and Digital Stories projects. Innovative and educational, these projects aim to develop self-expression and investigation through the experience of making short films.

Youth Documentary invites year 9 and 10 students, working in small crews, to make a short documentary of their choice. In tandem with media teachers, professional filmmakers assist participants via a series of film production workshops over a three-month period, resulting in many amazing short films that will form part of the 2009 line-up.

Digital Stories provides students with a positive, alternative platform for self-expression, as opposed to more traditional forms of literacy, encouraging them to express themselves via a range of mediums, such as video, music or photography to create ‘mini movies’ in first-person narrative.

Visit the Festival Website at: www.bayside.vic.gov.au/filmfestival

Upcoming Q&A sessions

I consider Q&A sessions the 'cream on the cake' of the cinema experience and there's a number of them coming up soon:

• Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971) - Nova, Tuesday 16 June, 6.30pm
  Director Ted Kotecheff and editor Anthony Buckley in discussion with filmmaker Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood). This really is an awesome Australian film, made by a Canadian, and recently salvaged from destruction. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or in 1971, has been fully restored and it should be an ace experience to see it on the big screen (I saw it at MUFF last year, projected from a dubious quality pirated DVD).
• Last Ride (Glendyn Ivin) - Nova, Tuesday 23 June, 6.30pm
  Director Glendyn Ivin, moderated by Triple J's Paul Verhoeven.
  Reliable sources (via Sydney Film Festival) inform me this is a film to see. The film screens with Ivin's Cracker Bag, the film that took out the Palme d'Or for best short film in 2003.
• Bastardy (Amiel Courtin-Wilson) - Kino, Thursday 25 June, 6.30pm
  Jack Charles has for forty years juggled heroin addiction, homelessness, cat-burglary and acting. He founded the first Aboriginal theatre company in the 1970s and appeared in numerous films and TV series. Both the director and the subject of the film will be discussing the film, hosted by John Safran. I'm looking forward to this - I don't usually go to Thursday night screenings, but I'll be pushing it with the missus to go.
• The 6th Annual Bayside Film Festival includes a number of events such as a Q&A with Mary and Max director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Combes; filmmaker Rohan Spong will discuss his documentary ‘T’ is for Teacher, actor Lisa Maza (City Homicide, Stolen), will provide a first-hand insight on the making of her first documentary, Living in Two Worlds, and director Anna Brady and actor Blair McDonough (Sea Patrol, Heart Beat, Neighbours) will conduct a workshop on their film-noir spoof, Strangers on a Sushi Train. The festival is being held at Palace Brighton Bay from 15-18 July. Keep an eye on the website for further details.
  
  

My Life Without Sex - Emily's List fundraiser

While My Year Without Sex isn't my taste in film, I do think Emily's List is a worthwhile cause. It's aim is to get "more progressive Labor women elected to Parliament". This Thursday, it's putting on a fund-raiser at my local cinema, the Sun Theatre in Yarraville. Emily's List is not just a female concern; it behooves all of society to have greater diversity of government representation. The event is for both genders, though I expect numbers could be weighted towards the female of the species. Hey, that could be a good way to pick up a chick, guys!

Here's their blurb:

EMILY’s List Film Night – My Year Without Sex – Thursday June 18th

EMILY’s List has organised a Film Night for you to enjoy a night out with friends and support EL & an Australian film directed by a woman – a Comedy this time!

AFI Award winning director Sarah Watt (Look Both Ways) returns with a quintessentially Aussie comedy starring Sasha Horler and Matt Day as working class parents Natalie and Ross living in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Natalie is a happily married woman who collapses with a brain aneurysm and on doctor's orders has to abstain from sex for a while. With understated humour and a keen eye for the surreal edges of suburbia, My Year Without Sex is a knowing and defiantly celebratory snapshot of ordinary lives, seen through the eyes of a 30-something couple coping with two young children, a life-threatening illness, precarious jobs and existential mysteries such as the existence of God and an underperforming football team.

Come and have a laugh with friends & meet other EL supporters!

Date & Time: 7pm Thursday 18th June
Venue: Sun Theatre, 8 Ballarat Street, Yarraville 3013 Victoria
Cost: $18.00
Inquiries: Email: emilyslistvictoria@gmail.com or phone: Sally on 0419 389 590

Guerín season at Cinémathèque

The Japanese noir season at Melbourne Cinémathèque ended on a high tonight and, given the very cold and wet conditions, I was surprised by a very strong turn-out. I was a couple of minutes late and struggled to find a decent seat.

Starting next week, we have the highly anticipated Guerín season. Following is the official Melbourne Cinémathèque blurb:

Searching for Paradise Lost: The Films of José Luis Guerín
Screening at ACMI, June 17 –June 24

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is excited to present a season of films by highly acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Jose Luis Guerín.

Commencing June 17, this season of specially imported 35mm prints presents all the key works of Guerín’s fascinating career. Guerín has created a body of work that is intensely personal and highly film literate. Like the work of Chris Marker and Pedro Costa, his films are classifiably non-fiction, and yet they transcend the conventional definitions of the documentary form, exploring the spatial, temporal, geographic and mercurially quotidian qualities of the cinema. His latest film, In the City of Sylvia (2007) appeared in numerous 2007 “best of” lists and Guerín’s work has been the subject of recent retrospectives at the Harvard Film Archive and the BFI.

The season opens with Guerín’s latest and most celebrated opus, In the City of Sylvia (2007). Guerín’s portrait of Strasbourg is a lingering, romantic work that characteristically explores the themes of longing, unfulfilled desire and voyeuristic pleasure. Some Photos in the City of Sylvia (2007) is a companion piece to his feature film that “revisits” many of the situations, emotions and places of its fictionalized counterpart. The season also includes three films that explore time, past, film history and environments forever gone: Tren de Sombras (1997), Work in Progress (2001) and his homage to the world of John Ford, Innisfree (1990). Screening as follows:

Wednesday June 17

• 7.00pm In the City of Sylvia (2007)
• 8.35pm Some Photos in the City of Sylvia (2007)
• 9.50pm Tren De Sombras (1997)

Wedneday June 24

• 7.00pm Work in Progress (2001)
• 9.15pm Innisfree (1990)

FURTHER INFORMATION about Melbourne Cinémathèque and 2009 program details please visit http://www.melbournecinematheque.org/

Sergio Leone Retrospective

The Kino is screening a Sergio Leone retrospective next week as part of the Melbourne Italian Festival. It runs from 2 - 7 June.

Screening:

• Il Colosseo di Rodi (The Colossus of Rhodes, Italy/Spain/France, 1961)
• Per un pugno di dollari (Fistful of dollars, Italy/Germany, 1964)
• Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More, Italy/Spain/Germany, 1965)
• Il buono, il brutto e il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Italy/Spain, 1966)
• C’era una volta il West (Once Upon A Time In the West, Italy, 1968)
• Giu’ la (A Fistful of Dynamite, Italy, 1971)
• C'era una volta in America (Once Upon A Time in America, Italy, 1984)

Also screening, films about Leone:

• Sergio Leone Cinema, Cinema.... (Carles Prats & Manel Mayol, Spain, 2002) 105' BETA SP
• I Sogni Nel Mirino (Dreams are my Focus, Luca Morsella - asst. dir. Once Upon a time in America) BETACAM 55'

Bastardy

Amiel Courtin-Wilson's award-winning Bastardy screened at MIFF last year, is screening in competition at Sydney Film Festival this year and is by all accounts worth seeing. I've met the subject, Jack Charles, an aboriginal actor/cat burglar/heroin addict, who I stopped in the street a few years ago and had a colourful conversation with. I'd seen him a few days earlier in a small role in Alkinos Tsilimidos' excellent Tom White, with Colin Friels in the title role. We spoke like long lost friends and he had all the time in the world to chat. It was a lovely experience. At the time, I knew nothing of his dark history and look forward to seeing the film.

It's now been announced that the film has a two week season starting 25 June at the Kino in Melbourne, Chauvel in Sydney and Palace Barracks in Brisbane and Palace Nova Eastend in Adelaide. This is a good opportunity to support diversity in cinema by seeing a festival-quality film during a short theatrical release.

Update:
See Stephanie Bunbury's article in The Age about Amiel Courtin-Wilson and his recent film, Cicada, that screened recently in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes

MIFF Changes in 2009

Taking a look at the MIFF mini mag, which arrived in the mail today (and, as posted yesterday, downloadable as a PDF), I noticed that the Closing Night film (Bran Nue Day) and celebrations are taking place on Saturday 8 August, leaving another day of screenings before the festival actually closes. Now, I've had double tickets to the Closing Night screenings and celebrations for the previous two years and not used them. Being held on Sundays has been a put-off for me. After two and a half weeks of screenings with a full festival pass (and seeing around 40 films), the thought of a Sunday night film with work the next day holds little appeal. So for me, this represents a change for the better.

In the past, MIFF members received the full festival guide a day before its general distribution in The Age newspaper. This year I'm delighted to see that members get the opportunity to receive it a full four days earlier. The general release is Friday 10 July and the festival launch will be Monday 6 July. That's a good head-start on thrashing out what's on offer when, and beginning the daunting task of distilling some 250 films down to a 40-film program over 17 days.

A potentially contentious change this year is that full festival passes are no longer open to the general public. One must now be a MIFF member to purchase a full pass, a strategy obviously designed to increased festival membership. This follows last year's decision to provide priority entry to screenings for MIFF members, a strategy that resulted in a tripling of members. Some complained that this is not very egalitarian while I, as a member, had no problem with it. I also feel similarly about this latest change. MIFF involves a massive endeavour and costs that require a lot of support, which ultimately benefits the supporters. Membership benefits MIFF, and the member benefits outweigh the costs. I see it as a win-win situation. What about you? Any thoughts for or against?

Repeat of Thornton Shorts

Just a quick one: the Nova has added a couple more sessions of the screenings of the Warwick Thornton shorts. Check out my earlier post about these four films that precede the Camera d'Or-winning Samson and Delilah.

The sessions are on Wednesday 3 June at 7pm and 8.30pm.

MIFF 2009: The 2nd Peek

Following the announcement of opening and closing night films, MIFF has now revealed a number of other titles being screened across the different streams. As usual, I'm particularly interested in the retrospectives and this year there's one on Anna Karina. But I know jack about nearly every other title, so any tips for or against are welcome.

You can download the PDF from the MIFF website, and these are the titles in each stream:

International Panorama

• Double Take (Johan Grimonprez, 2009, Belgium/Germany/Netherlands)
• 35 Shots of Rum (35 rhums, Claire Denis, 2008, France/Germany)
• An Education (Lone Scherfig, 2009, UK)
• In the Loop (Armando Iannucci, 2009, UK)
• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (Rebecca Miller, 2009, Germany)

Docos

• The September Issue (R.J. Cutler, 2009, USA)
• The Beaches of Agnès (Les plages d'Agnès, Agnès Varda, 2008, France)
• The Queen and I (Drottningen och jag, Nahid Persson, 2008, Sweden)
• Sergio (Greg Barker, 2009, USA)

Neighbourhood Watch

• Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi, Sion Sono, 2008, Japan)
• 12 Lotus (Royston Tan, 2008, Singapore)
• United Red Army (Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi, Kôji Wakamatsu, 2007, Japan)
• Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2008, Japan)

Arts and Minds

• Guest of Cindy Sherman (Tom Donahue, Paul Hasegawa-Overacker, 2008, USA)
• Theater of War (John W. Walter, 2008, USA)
• Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine (Marion Cajori, Amei Wallach, 2008, USA)
• Little Joe (Nicole Haeusser, 2009, USA)

Backbeat

• It Might Get Loud (Davis Guggenheim, 2008, USA)
• Celia the Queen (Joe Cardona, Mario de Varona, 2008, USA)
• The Liberty of Norton Folgate (Julien Temple, Luke Creswell, 2009, UK)
• Need That Record (Brendan Toller, 2008, USA)

Anna Karina retrospective

• Alphaville (Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution, Jean-Luc Godard, 1965, France/Italy)
• Anna (Pierre Koralnik, 1967, France)
• Living Together (Vivre ensemble, Anna Karina, 1973, France)
• Victoria (Anna Karina, 2008, Canada?)

NextGen

• Cheeky Girls (Freche Mädchen, Ute Wieland, 2008, Germany)
• It's Not Me, I Swear! (C'est pas moi, je le jure !, Philippe Falardeau, 2008, Canada)
• Brendan and the Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey, 2009, France/Belgium/Ireland)
• Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009, USA)

Night Shift

• Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2008, France/Canada)
• Eden Lake (James Watkins, 2008, UK)
• Mum & Dad (Steven Sheil, 2008, UK)
• Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009, USA)

See also: Anna Karina to be a guest of MIFF 2009 (The Age)

Congratulations Warwick Thornton

Congratulations to Warwick Thornton, who has just won the Camera d'Or, the prize for best first feature at Cannes Film Festival. Samson and Delilah was well received by the critics and the jury obviously took warmly to it as well.

ABC Online reports:
"The jury described it as the best love film they had seen for many years."

The Age reports:
"Thank you for believing in our first-born baby," Thornton said as he accepted the award. "I don't know what to say. Viva Cannes, viva le cinema."

An emotional Warwick Thornton accepts the Camera D'Or award from actress Isabelle Adjani at Cannes.
















See also: video clip at The Age

All the Cannes winners:

In Competition:
Feature films

Palme d'Or
DAS WEISSE BAND (THE WHITE RIBBON) directed by Michael HANEKE

Grand Prix
UN PROPHÈTE (A PROPHET) directed by Jacques AUDIARD

Award for Best Director
Brillante MENDOZA for KINATAY

Award for Best Screenplay
LOU Ye for CHUN FENG CHEN ZUI DE YE WAN (Spring Fever)

Award for Best Actress
Charlotte GAINSBOURG in ANTICHRIST directed by Lars VON TRIER

Award for Best Actor
Christoph WALTZ in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS directed by Quentin TARANTINO

Jury Prize Ex-aequo
FISH TANK directed by Andrea ARNOLD
BAK-JWI (THIRST) directed by PARK Chan-Wook

Vulcain Prize for an artist technician, awarded by the C.S.T.
MAP OF THE SOUNDS OF TOKYO directed by Isabel COIXET

Lifetime achievement award for his work
LES HERBES FOLLES (WILD GRASS) directed by Alain RESNAIS

Short films

Palme d'Or - Short Film
ARENA directed by João SALAVIZA

Short Film Special Distinction
THE SIX DOLLAR FIFTY MAN directed by Louis SUTHERLAND, Mark ALBISTON

Un Certain Regard:

Un Certain Regard Prize - Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema
KYNODONTAS (DOGTOOTH) directed by Yorgos LANTHIMOS

Jury Prize - Un Certain Regard
POLITIST, ADJECTIV (POLICE, ADJECTIVE) directed by Corneliu PORUMBOIU

Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize Ex-aequo
KASI AZ GORBEHAYE IRANI KHABAR NADAREH (NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS) directed by Bahman GHOBADI
LE PÈRE DE MES ENFANTS (FATHER OF MY CHILDREN ) directed by Mia HANSEN-LØVE

Cinefondation:

1st Prize Cinéfondation
BÁBA directed by Zuzana KIRCHNEROVÁ-ŠPIDLOVÁ

2nd Prize - Cinéfondation
GOODBYE directed by SONG Fang

3rd Prize Cinéfondation Ex-aequo
DIPLOMA directed by Yaelle KAYAM
NAMMAE UI JIP (DON'T STEP OUT OF THE HOUSE) directed by JO Sung-hee

Golden Camera:

Caméra d'or
SAMSON AND DELILAH directed by Warwick THORNTON

Caméra d'Or - Special Distinction
AJAMI directed by Scandar COPTI, Yaron SHANI

Japanese Noir at Cinémathèque

Further to my Bits and Pieces post, here's the Melbourne Cinémathèque about the Japanese Noir season, starting this Wednesday and running over three weeks:

Japanese Noir: Violent Cops & Pistol Operas – Screening at ACMI, May 27-June 10

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is proud to present a season of film noir from some of the most innovative filmmakers in Japanese Cinema.

Commencing May 27, Japanese Noir: Violent Cops & Pistol Operas celebrates one of the most dynamic, raw and socially investigative forms of Japanese genre filmmaking - the crime film. Often focusing on the brutal honor code of the Yakuza, the post-war emergence of youth gangs, the influence of American culture and military occupation and featuring narrative and stylistic abstraction, film noir and the broader crime genre are an important form of post WWII Japanese Cinema.

This season of films produced by the Shochiku studio features works by many of the key directors of Japanese Cinema including: Takeshi Kitano (his incendiary debut feature Violent Cop, 1989), Masaki Kobayashi (the dark but characteristically humanist Black River, 1957), Masahiro Shinoda (Pale Flower, 1964), and Nagisa Oshima (the seminal The Sun’s Burial, 1960). The season concludes with two of the most striking examples of the form: Tai Kato’s I, the Executioner (1968), a legendary exploitation film portraying the disturbing anatomy of a serial killer, and Seijun Suzuki’s Pistol Opera (2001), a hyper-stylized reworking of his controversial classic Branded to Kill (1967).

Screening as follows:

Wednesday May 27

• 7.00pm Violent Cop (1989)
• 8.55pm Pale Flower (1964)

Wednesday June 3

• 7.00pm Black River (1957)
• 9.05 The Sun’s Burial (1960)

Wednesday June 10

• 7.00pm Pistol Opera (2001)
• 9.05pm I, the Executioner (1968)

Check the Melbourne Cinémethèque website for more details

Bits and Pieces

St. Kilda Short Film Festival
Generally, I'm not big on short films. Partly it's because the shortened format doesn't allow the development of a story in the way that a longer film does. And partly it's because I overdid it at the St. Kilda Film Festival ten years ago. At the time I was self-employed and managed to get to 13 of the 17 competition sessions. By the time the week was up, I was pretty much over it. The repetitiveness of many of the films really drove home that there's not a whole lot of originality out there.

But that was then, and seeing that number of sessions doesn't do justice to the medium. In moderation, and with more careful selection, short film can be a very rewarding experience. Take the Thornton shorts at the Nova on Thursday, for example. That's something I'd be happy to see again. Others I've seen relatively recently have also impressed, like Nash Edgerton's Lucky and Spider, and Julius Avery's Jerrycan.

I've since returned to the St. Kilda Short Film Festival on occasions, generally to see the touring programs. I don't write off the local competition sessions, but I think you need to be selective and don't over-do them. The touring programs - this year there's four of them - are usually the best of other festivals. The quality has been distilled and there's usually an awesome variety.

The festival is on this week and while I'd like to see the Mexican program, it conflicts with the Melbourne Cinémathèque start of the Japanese noir season, which takes precedence. Wednesday is also the Cinémathèque AGM (6.40pm), so if you have an interest in Melbourne Cinémathèque, come along.

I will, however, be making a point of seeing the German shorts (from the InterFilm Berlin Short Film Festival) screening this Friday at 7.30pm, the French shorts (from the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival), screening Saturday at 6pm, and the Confrontations selection, international films against violence and intolerance from the 2008 InterFilm festival, screening Sunday at 4.30pm.

There's 100 local short films in competition, and other sessions as well. The festival runs from Tuesday 26 - Sun 31 May. It opens at the Palais theatre and other sessions are at the George cinema. Check the official website for more details.

Melbourne Cinémathèque
As mentioned above, this weeks sees the start of a three-week season of Japanese noir, kicking off with the much-anticipated (by me, at least) Takeshi Kitano debut, Violent Cop (1989) and Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda, 1964), continuing next week with Black River (Masaki Kobayashi, 1957) and Sun's Burial (Nagisa Oshima, 1960), and finishes with Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki, 2001) and I, the Executioner (Tai Kato, 1968).

MIFF Opening & Closing Night films announced
You've probably read that the MIFF bookend films have been announced. Both are MIFF Premiere Fund projects and these will be world premieres. Opening the festival will be Robert Connolly's Balibo, a story about five Australian journalists who were killed on the eve of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Closing the festival will be Rachel Perkins' Bran Nue Day, a musical. The Melbourne International Film Festival runs from July 24 to August 9.

Portable Film Festival
On the subject of MIFF, they have a new competition, and this is their information:

Portable Film Festival wants you to get a little critical. To celebrate the launch of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2009, Portable is launching the Everyone’s a Critic competition in association with MIFF!

What you need to do from now till July 6th 2009 is to create a 30 second clip involving the line “Everyone’s a critic.” There are no genre, format or production limitations- they just have to be your great ideas put into 30 seconds! Now get critiquing!

For more information; visit www.portablefilmfestival.com

ACMI First Look - Overlord
From ACMI:

ACMI Cinemas Presents
FIRST LOOK: Overlord (Stuart Cooper, 83mins, UK, 1975, 35mm, B&W Courtesy: Stuart Cooper & Janus Films)
Thursday 11 June - Sunday 14 June

“Unlike Saving Private Ryan and other dramatizations based on D-Day, Overlord is an intimate film, one that focuses closely on Tom Beddoes (Brian Stirner), who enters the British army, goes through basic training and is one of the first ashore on D-Day.

Beddoes is not a macho hero but a quiet, nice boy, who worries about his cocker spaniel and takes along David Copperfield when he goes off to war.” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

To coincide with the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is screening the restored 35mm print of Stuart Cooper’s critically acclaimed Overlord as part of First Look this June.

Originally released in 1975 and winner of Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival that year, Overlord remains an original meditation on war, standing apart from any other war film ever made. Shot by legendary cinematographer John Alcott (Barry Lyndon, The Shining), Overlord seamlessly combines a fictionalised narrative with startling documentary footage of one British soldier’s journey from basic training to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

ACMI Film Curator Kristy Matheson says “Watching Overlord for the first time was an absolute revelation. It is very exciting that Melbourne audiences will have the chance to revisit or discover this extraordinary cinema classic on the big screen at ACMI. It is the combination of Stuart Cooper’s seamless amalgamation of a fictional narrative and archival footage; John Alcott's spectacular cinematography; and Jonathan Gili's hypnotic editing that make Overlord one extraordinary cinema experience.”

Established film producer James Quinn conceived of creating a documentary whilst he was working as a Museum Trustee at the Imperial War Museum Film Archive in London in 1975. He proposed the project to rising star filmmaker Stuart Cooper, whose film Little Malcolm won the Silver Bear in 1974, and together they looked at 3,000 hours of archival footage from 20,000 feet of film stock in storage. Together Cooper and Quinn decided to change tacks and make a feature film that would interweave the fictional story of a young soldier, training to participate in the D-Day landings using footage from the War Museum archive.

Stanley Kubrick said the only problem with Overlord was that it was "an hour-and-half too short". Having more recently screened at Telluride Film Festival and Seattle International Film Festival to packed audiences lauding it as a lost masterpiece, Melbourne audiences will have the opportunity to experience this elegiac piece of cinema this June.

Overlord screens daily at ACMI from Thursday 11 until Sunday 14 June
For more information www.acmi.net.au

“A war film like no other, a sublime and shattering cinematic experience” ICA
“A must-see classic” New York Magazine
“Critically hailed but rarely seen” Mike Snider, USA Today
**** Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
**** "Overlord" combines its newsreel and fictional footage so effectively that it has a greater impact than all fiction, or all documentary, could have achieved”. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
“Overlord deserves to join the pantheon of essential World War II combat movies” A. O. Scott, New York Times

Official movie site: www.overlordthefilm.com
Further Reading: www.criterion.com/current/posts/478

Links: Melbourne Film Blog's film event calendar

Thornton's mob in Cannes

From The Age:

At Cannes: the film's producer Kath Shelper (left), actors Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, and director Warwick Thornton.

Stephanie Bunbury, Cannes
May 18, 2009

THE Cannes audience gave Australian director Warwick Thornton and his cast a five-minute standing ovation yesterday after Samson and Delilah screened at the famous film festival.

"It was interesting because there was a whole mob of 'thank you for making that film'," said Thornton later. "That's bizarre, to thank you for making a film!"

Samson and Delilah, which is currently playing successfully in arthouse cinemas in Australia, is not easy viewing. It tells the harrowing but redemptive story of two indigenous teenagers who are driven out of their remote community and slip into abject poverty and substance abuse.

"Every shot," according to the review in influential trade magazine Variety, "imparts plot and character information with simplicity and intelligence."

In Cannes, it screened in the festival's Un Certain Regard section, which emphasises works by directors with a strong personal vision. The film screened twice on Saturday to packed houses while Thornton did interviews with international media. At a cocktail party on Saturday evening, he described his "beautiful day".

"I woke up in the morning and said to myself, 'Today is the beginning of the rest of my life, whether they like my film or not'.

"But they liked it, which was amazing. Because you don't know. Today was a complete validation of the film's ability to cross oceans and transcend language barriers."

The film had been sold to South Africa, which pleased producer Kath Shelper. "But I don't really care if we sell it," she said. "For me, at the moment, it's really important it works in Australia, which it has: people are really embracing it … Whatever happens overseas is a bonus."

Although it is not in the main competition, the film is eligible to win the prize for a first feature, the Camera D'Or.

Tsilimidos' Latest Film

Alkinos Tsilimidos' latest film, Blind Company, is due to premiere at this year's MIFF. Shot entirely on the east coast of Tasmania last October, the film stars Colin Friels (Tom White), Nick Barkla (Em 4 Jay) and Gloria Ajenstat (Tom White). Written and directed by Tsilimidos, it's his first film not using cinematographer Toby Oliver, using Adam Arkapaw instead, who filmed the very fine and well-received looking short, Jerrycan (2008).

The premise:

Geoff Brewster is seeing out his final days at the family's isolated coastal shack - walking the beach and leaving tape-recorded confessions for his estranged wife, Sally. But when his Porsche driving nephew, Josh, arrives unannounced, a deadly game ensues that threatens to destroy both men.

In my opinion, Tsilimidos is Australia's finest director whose work is on a par with the best of the European independents. Like Catherine Breillat or the Dardenne brothers, his films are serious dramas that grapple with social issues. Cinema is, at its best, an art form that challenges an audience and their prejudices, and this is true of a Tsilimidos film.

Alkinos Tsilimidos and Colin Friels on location for Blind Company.