Toronto Film Fest, Day Eight
Sep. 11th, 2003 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedScottish angst with a naked Ewan, Italian loss of innocence and duelling Danish directors...
Title: Young Adam
Director: David Mackenzie
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Okay
Young Adam starts with an intriguing enough scene. Joe, a mate on a Glasgow barge (Ewan McGregor) fishes a woman's body out of the Clyde river. His reaction to the incident is diffidence and a strange gentleness. From that scene, the narrative teases out Joe's relationship with the drowned woman (Emily Mortimer), as well as with the barge captain (Peter Mullan) and his wife (Tilda Swinton). The acting is uniformly good; the story is ultimately less satisfying. Having written Joe into several interesting moral quandaries, the filmmakers seem to lose their way; the film merely trickles away at the end. But it is an interesting road along the way. And on a strictly prurient note, it's always a proper film fest season when I get to see Ewan McGregor stark-fucking-naked. Thanks to Ewan for always being willing to get his kit off in the name of art.
Title: I'm Not Scared
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Country: Italy
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
An unexpected and perfect gem of a film. In the Italy of 1978, Michele is a ten-year-old boy in a rural village. One summer's day, while running through sun-drenched wheat fields with his friends he stumbles across a hidden pit containing another ten-year-old boy named Fillipo. This revelation leads to his discovering the secret adult world that has been lurking just out of his sight and will now lead him to either ignore a wrong or take a stand. Everything in this film is wonderful. The cinematography is gorgeous, the acting, especially of the kids, is great and the story is perfection.
Title: The Five Obstructions
Director: Lars von Trier & Jorgen Leth
Country: Denmark
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
One thing that can accurately be said about Lars von Trier: he's an imp. And in this film he pits his impishness against a personal hero: fellow Danish filmmaker, Jorgen Leth. The two of them sit down to watch Leth's 1968 film, The Perfect Human, and then von Trier sets Leth on an experiment. Leth is to remake the film five times, each time taking into account a different limitation that von Trier has set. The meetings between the filmmakers are hilarious, two master games players trying to outsmart each other. The films produced are intriguing, thought provoking and outright beautiful.
Have finally hit the usual wall in festival going, though later than in past years. (My partner had to nag me unmercifully to get me up in time to hit our first screening at noon.) Fortunately, I saw some really amazing films today, and that kept me in a more or less conscious condition. V. glad I don't have the midnight tonight, though.
Title: Young Adam
Director: David Mackenzie
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Okay
Young Adam starts with an intriguing enough scene. Joe, a mate on a Glasgow barge (Ewan McGregor) fishes a woman's body out of the Clyde river. His reaction to the incident is diffidence and a strange gentleness. From that scene, the narrative teases out Joe's relationship with the drowned woman (Emily Mortimer), as well as with the barge captain (Peter Mullan) and his wife (Tilda Swinton). The acting is uniformly good; the story is ultimately less satisfying. Having written Joe into several interesting moral quandaries, the filmmakers seem to lose their way; the film merely trickles away at the end. But it is an interesting road along the way. And on a strictly prurient note, it's always a proper film fest season when I get to see Ewan McGregor stark-fucking-naked. Thanks to Ewan for always being willing to get his kit off in the name of art.
Title: I'm Not Scared
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Country: Italy
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
An unexpected and perfect gem of a film. In the Italy of 1978, Michele is a ten-year-old boy in a rural village. One summer's day, while running through sun-drenched wheat fields with his friends he stumbles across a hidden pit containing another ten-year-old boy named Fillipo. This revelation leads to his discovering the secret adult world that has been lurking just out of his sight and will now lead him to either ignore a wrong or take a stand. Everything in this film is wonderful. The cinematography is gorgeous, the acting, especially of the kids, is great and the story is perfection.
Title: The Five Obstructions
Director: Lars von Trier & Jorgen Leth
Country: Denmark
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
One thing that can accurately be said about Lars von Trier: he's an imp. And in this film he pits his impishness against a personal hero: fellow Danish filmmaker, Jorgen Leth. The two of them sit down to watch Leth's 1968 film, The Perfect Human, and then von Trier sets Leth on an experiment. Leth is to remake the film five times, each time taking into account a different limitation that von Trier has set. The meetings between the filmmakers are hilarious, two master games players trying to outsmart each other. The films produced are intriguing, thought provoking and outright beautiful.
Have finally hit the usual wall in festival going, though later than in past years. (My partner had to nag me unmercifully to get me up in time to hit our first screening at noon.) Fortunately, I saw some really amazing films today, and that kept me in a more or less conscious condition. V. glad I don't have the midnight tonight, though.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-12 05:11 pm (UTC)It's incredible that you're taking 3 to 4 movies EVERYDAY!!! (well, I haven't been this
crazyenthusiastic since college years ;p)Love you to pieces for the reviews. *hugs* gonna catch up with your posts. This has been a weirdo messy week *sighs*
no subject
Date: 2003-09-13 04:35 pm (UTC)