Tiff, Day Four
Sep. 7th, 2008 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedDay four, and I haven't succumbed to film fest exhaustion. Yet.
Oh, and I forgot to mention my encounter with celebrity yesterday. I'm standing in line for Every Little Thing and I notice this rather attractive man in a natty suit heading in my direction. "Huh," I think. "He looks like Jeremy Northam." As he pulled along side me I realized it was Jeremy Northam. Oops. (Note to self: the streets are lousy with actors during the fest. So pay attention.)
Title: The Real Shaolin
Director: Alexander Sebastien Lee
Country: U.S./China
P's Rating: Recommended
A documentary about four students studying martial arts in China, this one is more of interest for the subject than the filmmaking, which is serviceable if not extraordinary. The film follows two Chinese and two Western students who have traveled to Dengfeng, ancient site of the Shaolin temple and now home to a number of schools purporting to teach real Shaolin kung fu. It's fascinating in that it doesn't follow the usual arc of such things, where the students overcome the odds to triumph in their chosen pursuit. Instead, they suffer from injuries, and fail to win tournaments. The Westerners struggle vainly to be accepted in China in spite of being laowai (foreign devils). The youngest student, 10 year old Yuan Peng, has to put up with a bad school and beatings from his kung fu master. But in spite of their setbacks and difficulties, you're left with a sense of their devotion to mastering this most difficult art.
Title: Of Time and the City
Director: Terence Davies
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Okay
The best of Davies' films, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, were all about his working class roots in Liverpool. Now he's made an actual documentary about Liverpool and it's place in the history of 20th century England. It should have been fascinating, but it's a little more than a clip film, with Davies providing the somewhat ponderous and pretentious voiceover himself. There are genius little moments throughout, but it doesn't amount to a significant whole.
Oh, and I forgot to mention my encounter with celebrity yesterday. I'm standing in line for Every Little Thing and I notice this rather attractive man in a natty suit heading in my direction. "Huh," I think. "He looks like Jeremy Northam." As he pulled along side me I realized it was Jeremy Northam. Oops. (Note to self: the streets are lousy with actors during the fest. So pay attention.)
Title: The Real Shaolin
Director: Alexander Sebastien Lee
Country: U.S./China
P's Rating: Recommended
A documentary about four students studying martial arts in China, this one is more of interest for the subject than the filmmaking, which is serviceable if not extraordinary. The film follows two Chinese and two Western students who have traveled to Dengfeng, ancient site of the Shaolin temple and now home to a number of schools purporting to teach real Shaolin kung fu. It's fascinating in that it doesn't follow the usual arc of such things, where the students overcome the odds to triumph in their chosen pursuit. Instead, they suffer from injuries, and fail to win tournaments. The Westerners struggle vainly to be accepted in China in spite of being laowai (foreign devils). The youngest student, 10 year old Yuan Peng, has to put up with a bad school and beatings from his kung fu master. But in spite of their setbacks and difficulties, you're left with a sense of their devotion to mastering this most difficult art.
Title: Of Time and the City
Director: Terence Davies
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Okay
The best of Davies' films, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, were all about his working class roots in Liverpool. Now he's made an actual documentary about Liverpool and it's place in the history of 20th century England. It should have been fascinating, but it's a little more than a clip film, with Davies providing the somewhat ponderous and pretentious voiceover himself. There are genius little moments throughout, but it doesn't amount to a significant whole.
