By Evrim Ersoy Oct 10, 2005, 6:40 GMT
Greetings from London! As another wonderful Raindance comes to an end, I find myself alone at my keyboard with ‘The Bunker’ playing on the T.V. in the background and the memories of the movies I have watched over the last couple of weeks.
It has been a good festival this year with a varied and very unique programme. From homegrown originals such as ‘The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmicheal’ and ‘ ‘ to true American indie efforts like ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and ‘Dead Girl’ as well as the usual selection of documentaries and shorts, the festival has managed to present an impressive list that would appeal to nearly all tastes.
This year I found myself at a number of screening: ‘Guy X’, ‘The Gingerbread Man’, ‘Dead Girl’, ‘Edmund’, ‘The Art Of Losing’, ‘Keller – Teenage Wasteland’ and ‘No Limits’.
‘Guy X’ is an enjoyable black comedy directed by Saul Metzstein and starring Jason Briggs in what is probably his first ‘serious’ role. The film tells the story of Rudy Spruance who ends up in Greenland when he is expecting to be transferred to Hawaii. Once there, he finds himself plagued by consequences of this bureauratical error, being appoint PO and desperately trying to find a way out.
Jason Briggs is in fine form in the role of the hapless young man whose only desire to escape gets slowly replaced by something that approaches and resembles idealism. The rest of the cast is also game with special mention going to Micheal Ironside who once again shows what he is capable of with his performance as Soldier X.
The film is beautifully photographed and there is a real sense of the absurd as the whole scenario gains momentum. However there is a small complaint which derives not from the film specially but from the source material: although the satire is spot on at the times, there is a feeling of the film being out of touch with current politics and therefore some of the situation comedy just was unbelievable.
The second film I saw this year was ‘The Gingerbread Man’. Now ‘The Gingerbread Man’ is not coming to a cinema near you, nor are you going to be able to rent in from your local Blockbuster or whatever video store you have near you. In fact probably the only way you will be able to view this title is through www.worldcinemaonline.com where for a seminal fee you can download and watch the film for five days or even buy it to own. But the question exists: is it worth it?
The answer is both yes and no. James Spirk’s ‘pseudo-documentary’ is an intriguing project: the premise being that the fifteen year old daughter of a third grade teacher disappears. Over time through his grief and anger, he become a vigilante of sorts, tracing down missing children all over the country and slowly wiping out the links and members of some sort of children trade ring.
The film is shot mainly in a documentary style with the main character’s brother following the action with a handheld camera and the occasional direct to the camera monologue. The journey they undertake is a curious and disturbing one, tracing these children through every stage of the ring, finding out about how these trades occur, what these children are used for, illegal adoption and so on.
However the film falls very short of its’ very noble aims. James Spirk claims he wanted the film to be ‘a light bulb being turned on in a dark room’. If that is the case then this is a very weak lightbulb indeed. Simply what the characters discover into the workings of the kidnap ring remain no more than very blurry details. Even the abuse the children go through is never specified but merely just treated as something passing. This obviously is not a prerequisite for anyone yet the problem remains that this is a film which claims to be hard hitting and illuminating.
The moral stance of the main character in the movie also remains a very hollow issue. Without revealing any major plot points, there is a point later in the movie which made me question the whole enterprise and when this reviewer questioned the director vis a vis this point in the later Q & A what he received was a very short and very unsatisfactory answer.
So ‘The Gingerbread Man’ remains a curio but whether you will enjoy it or not will depend entirely on your willingness to suspend disbelief and interest in the subject matter. The dear friend I took to the cinema, Jimbo, was not someone who is a keen follower of indie cinema: however he enjoyed the film with gusto and came out perfectly happy with the product at end.(As a final note, one thing that really irked was the misspelt subtitles during the tapped phone conversations. It seems that whoever did the subtitling was not paying attention because a character name changes from one scene to the other. And this is a major character who plays a pivotal role in the whole thing. I did want to point this out to the director but decided that somethings were best left unsaid lest I be lynched by the audience who seemed a tad too enthusiastic with their reception.)
The next film I saw was ‘Dead Girl’ which if not anything else was certainly surreal. Written, directed and starring Adam Coleman Howard it tells the story of Ari Rose who is trying to make it (big or small) in Hollywood. When he meets Helen Catherine who is the girl of his dreams, literally, he is head over heels obsessed. And before long he has strangled her and turned her into his fantasy plaything with whom he does EVERYTHING.
‘Dead Girl’ is a surreal satire on Hollywood with some very well aimed swipes and some very interesting ideas. However as a whole, the film does not quite gel together. Held back by legal wrangles and only seeing the light of day now, it is a film that I can recommend to those who are looking for a different taste than the usual stuff. My companion, Miss Emery, enjoyed it tremendously and I can honestly say that there were a few very good laugh out scenes in there including Val Kilmer doing Chinatown's Faye Dunaway in a bizarre imitation.
I am going to gently skim over ‘The Art Of Losing’ and ‘Keller Teenage Wasteland’ as I really want to speak about ‘No Limits’ at length. But don’t worry, I never review a movie without giving it its’ just desserts.
‘The Art Of Losing’ is a political thriller from director Sergio Cabrera, shot entirely in Bogota. Although the film doesn’t present with anything entirely new, it is handsomely shot and is peppered with fine performance. Although not up do date on Colombian politics, I believe most of the satire is spot on and the film comes through as a solid production.
‘Keller – Teenage Wasteland’ on the other hand did not do much for me. I can honestly say some of the other regular festival goers that I chatted with seemed to enjoy it a lot more than I did which makes me think perhaps I should watch it again in order to reach a final decision. Directed by Eva Urthaler (who apparently has no formal education about film) it tells the story of three boys and a shop assistant and the increasingly violent events that take place. If any of you out there have any ideas regarding this title, this is one I am open to discussion on.
Finally ‘No Limits’. Starring Vincent Martinez and Melanie Thierry, the film opens in a police station where lovers Marc and Lea are telling conflicting stories. Prodded along by the police inspector Marc starts to relate his own version of events and therefore lead us back in the tale in order to see how we ended up at the police station.
Marc and Lea are lovers (as well as being half related) who go on a vacation in an old but beautiful French country house which Marc’s boss owns. Here they shut themselves away from the real world and play mind games with each other.
For me ‘No Limits’ was a wonderful film and a great note to finish the festival on. Although the last twenty minutes were a bit weaker than the rest of the film, there was so much enjoyment to be derived from the complex and layered screenplay that I found myself turning a blind eye to its faults. It is one of those films that the French seem to be damned good at: Throw two people into a house (or a room) and let the angst ridden electricity charge until there’s an outburst. In this case the sexual repression between the lovers and the inability to reach some sort of expression managed to declare itself in the insanity that comes to wrap their behavior. The nature of the games the two play with each other are simple yet at the same time they reveal the desires and the wishes of the characters as well as their true reasons for coming on this vacation. What starts out as a basic exploration of the dynamics of a taboo relationship becomes something much darker with a killer soundtrack added for good measure. All in all ‘No Limits’ succeeds in exploring the murky ground that is called ‘love’ and the film manages to finish on a simple yet clever coda which leaves the audience to question their view about life.
And so came the end of the festival. Since I’ve started writing this article time has zipped and it is now 04.00 in the morning. I would like to personally thank all the staff at the Raindance information desk who were helpful at every turn (one even remembered my face today!)( which by my standards is a miracle), the organisers for a brilliant event and most of all to Emma Greenwood for putting up with my e-mails and organising everything with such flair. Thanks guys!
Next up: Times London Film Festival! And guess who is going to be your guide through this one?
That’s right! Me!
Keep reading, folks
Yours SincerelyVoorheves
Contact Evrim on - evrim dot voorheves at monstersandcritics dot com
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