La Mirada 2009 in Review

I've mentioned more than once that La Mirada is one of my favourite film festivals. Partly it's the enthusiasm and organisation of the festival director, Rocio Garcia. Partly it's the festive atmosphere, with generous door prizes of DVDs, books, T-shirts, cosmetics, Spanish classes, free tickets, etc. (not that I've ever won anything). Sometimes there's five or more prizes per session. And partly it's the programming of films by Pedro Almodóvar, the director whose work I feel most ambivalent about. Yes, I have a love-hate relationship with his films, and I find they stimulate ample discussion over what I consider both their strengths and weaknesses.

Each year, I focus on the older films selected by Almodóvar, films that have inspired him. In 2007, his selections focused more on the canon, the classic Spanish films like Spirit of the Beehive and The Executioner. I was a little disappointed by 2008's selections, many of which I found melodramatic. But this had much relevance to Almodóvar's work, which is afterall, very melodramatic. In my opinion, it's the weak point in his films.

This year, the Almodóvar's selections were more serious and gutsy, and overall I enjoyed them immensely. I caught all five in this section, as well as Woody Allen's selection for the festival. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the screening of Penélope Cruz's selection, but I did see 9 films in all. Here's my 2c worth.

Furtivos (The Poachers, José Luis Borau, Spain, 1975)
An intriguing story, very dramatic, with strong political overtones. It was, afterall, made in the dying days of the Franco dictatorship. I'm sure the story was very allegorical, but I couldn't translate what events were referring to in the political context of the day. In this respect, it was a little like the politics depicted in early Kieslowski films like Blind Chance. Australian films rarely depict politics, and it's something I like to see, even if I don't entirely 'get' it.

Bilbao (Bigas Luna, Spain, 1978)
A very gutsy film, and only the second by Luna. As Rocio Garcia mentioned in introducing the film, it can be seen as being pornographic, but it never feels gratuitous or exploitative. It does, however, challenge an audience with its graphic depictions of nudity, sexuality and sexual violence. This film clearly inspired Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, but is of a completely different mood and style.

La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly's Tongue, José Luis Cuerda, Spain, 1999)
This was Woody Allen's contribution as guest programmer. Apparently it's his favourite Spanish film. I wonder how the hell he would ever have become acquainted with the film, as it doesn't seem like a film that would have had a release outside of Spain. It's a fairly mainstream story with some character stereotypes, but competently made. Not really my cup of tea.

La buena vida (The Good Life, Andrés Wood, Chile/Spain/Argentina/France, 2008)
This is a sort of social-realist ensemble film, combining different human stories of people struggling in various endeavours. It has a fairly bleak, naturalistic look but feels compromised to appeal to a middle-class audience. It's a worthy film, but forgettable.

Arrebato (Rapture, Iván Zulueta, Spain, 1980)
A difficult film, drenched in drugs and delusion, historically significant. Almodóvar was involved - his voice is used to dub over an actresses lines at one stage. It also depicts a lifestyle of decadence that Almodóvar was very much a part of, that engulfed Spain in the wake of the downfall of fascism. I really liked that La Mirada has the guts to show films like this and Bilbao.

Surcos (Furrows, José Antonio Nieves Conde, Spain, 1951)
Visually fantastic film, a kind of cross of the aesthetics and characterisations of the best of New Wave and classic Hollywood cinema. While the film's political context was explained with an introduction, I was still a little confused as to why it was both such a propaganda piece for the government in some respects and yet provoked the ire of the censor with other respects. The capturing of a way of life all but gone in modern Spain is just beautiful. One of the most enjoyable films of the festival.

La casa de mi padre (Blacklisted, Gorka Merchán, Spain, 2008)
A contemporary film, set in the Basque region. It's gutsy for it's attempt to show both sides of the conflict between the ETA Basque separatists and the government stand. Mostly, it feels like a middle of the road family drama, but the political element puts it a level or two above what it might otherwise have been.

La mujer sin cabeza (The Headless Woman, Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2008)
A really interesting contemporary film, about a woman who may or may not have run over a boy and driven off. For 87 minutes, we suffer the claustrophic perspective of this woman as she suffers her guilt in silence. I have been in a similar situation and could really relate to the story.

Mi querida senorita (My Dearest Senorita, Jaime de Armiñán, Spain, 1971)
That sneaky Almodóvar, he had to sneak a melodrama in there somehow. This was it. It must have been a challenging film for its time, but is certainly tame by modern standards. I found it of most interest as an influence on Almodóvar though it tends to lack focus.


My pick of La Mirada:
Bilbao and Rapture for their gutsy depictions
Furrows for an engaging story and beautiful black and white visuals
The Headless Woman for an original and engaging story

MIFF Day 14

I saw one and a half films today: one must-see, and one walk-out. There was an arsehole in the first film, three rows in front of me. He pissed of the woman in front of me with his arrogance when she tried to get past him, and then later holding his mobile phone in his hand with the lights visible. She moved away and after about five or ten minutes, I leaned over and called "excuse me". After repeatedly ignoring me, I called out to please turn off the phone. By this time, an usher thankfully intervened, the phone was put away and the usher remained seated close to the offender. Arsehole offender left soon after, during what is one of the best films of the festival. C'est la vie.

Thu 7 August
Milyang (Secret Sunshine, Lee Chang-dong, Korea, 2007)
La Rabia (Albertina Carri, Argentina, 2008)


Secret Sunshine
I only saw this by changing my program at the last minute (thanks Goran, for the idea). If I'd read the MIFF program more thoroughly, I'd have selected it to start with, as it's by the director of Oasis, one of the very few films I saw at MIFF in 2003 and really enjoyed. As I recollect, that film was bleaker than this one.

The film's title refers to the literal meaning of a town's name that a woman, Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) moves to with her son. It's the hometown of her recently deceased husband. The film starts out as an understated social drama, but turns into something else when another tragedy befalls the woman. The film's focus is then on a crime, but shifts again when Shin-ae discovers religion. This is a very interesting part of the film, as Lee shows great insight and sensitivity in his depictions of how and why someone chooses this path (something I could relate to myself), without placing any personal judgements on religion per se.

Everything changes for Shin-ae when she visits the perpertrator of the crime to forgive him. What then transpires exemplifies the unpredictable nature of the film's narrative. Secret Sunshine is one of the better films at MIFF and though I'd only had 4 hours sleep last night, I was thoroughly absorbed by it for its 140+ minutes. There are some genuinely heart-churning moments that had me in tears. Joen's performance is truly remarkable and I only later discovered that she won Best Actress at Cannes this year for the performance. Her renditions of grief are particularly impressive and authentic. I attended the final screening, but I note that the DVD is available (which I have ordered) from Amazon Canada.

La Rabia
I can't honestly review this film, but I can explain why I walked out in disgust after 45 minutes. It's not unwatchable, in fact, I found its visuals looks quite good. But first seeing one gratuitous tits'n'arse scene, then followed up by an even more gratuitous sex scene really grated. When a third, yet more gratuitous soft-porn sex scene started, I decided if I wanted this, I'd rather go home and masturbate. Fact is, I'd rather go home and sleep. Aside from this, the film aims pretty low, with a commercial audience in mind, and I found it an insult to one's intelligence.

MIFF Day 11

Mon 4 August
Boogie (Radu Muntean, Romania, 2008)
Leonera (Lion's Den, Pablo Trapero, Argentina, 2008)
Kong bu fen zi (The Terrorizer, Edward Yang, Taiwan, 1986)

Boogie
This film is screening as part of the Romanian Wave stream at MIFF. I liked it quite a lot. I felt it wasn't as powerful as it could have been, perhaps due to a lack of dramatic tension, or perhaps the characters were hard to empathise with. There were other elements that worked well. Like most of the Romanian films I have seen, there is a unified aesthetic, in films by various directors. And Australian film-makers could really learn a thing or two from these, as they are clearly made on shoe-string budgets (probably much less than our own productions).

Boogie uses very long takes of naturalistic dialogue - it fits clearly into the social realist genre that I'm fond of. It depicts the everyday in a very typical relationship, the sparring, the conflict. A couple are on vacation with their young son. The husband's meeting up with a couple of old friends and going out to drink with them while the wife (played byAnamaria Marinca, the central character in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) stays behind is the central plot. It's not an earth-shattering film but is quietly satisfying, showing confidence by the director, using subtlety and understatement to tell his story.

Lion's Den
I didn't like this film at all. There's a sense one gets right from the start of some films that it's trying too hard to be cool and stylish, but treats the audience's intelligence with, if not contempt, then indifference. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but that's how I felt with Lion's Den. A supermodel-looking babe finds herself accused of murdering her boyfriend and we never find out for sure. The movie is so caught up in its own sense of cool to bother with resolving little details like those. As implausible as every step is, we're taken on a silly ride through the nursery section of an Argentinian women's prison, where our babe goes when she's found to be pregnant.

The film tries hard to wring our emotions, but at every point where I felt I should be crying or feeling some gut-wrenching emotion, I felt nothing. Everything looked staged. I could have walked out of this film at any point from two minutes into it.

The Terrorizer
This is my favourite Edward Yang film yet. It's an ensemble piece that connects people from different social standings within Taiwanese society. The connections are clearly contrived, yet it works quite well because of the film's visual and narrative austerity. There is a sparseness that has a very attractive aesthetic. The circular structure that reminds me of Jafar Panahi's The Circle.