Having blogged about my Ten Star films here and my Eight Star films here (I didn’t give any Nine Stars) here are my Seven Star films from this year’s MIFF. Remembering these films some weeks after seeing them I wonder a bit about my harsh judging! Comes from seeing around forty films over a couple of weeks. Comments in italics are from the tweets I sent contemporaneously.
7⭐️In Front of Your Face Another languid, conversational film but this time filmed beautifully in colour from Hong Sang-soo. All the big issues covered – family, connection, regret, how to live to the fullest. Concentrate on what’s in front of you. Another film from a very idiosyncratic film-maker so if you like his films you will like it, if you don’t then you won’t. I like them. They are films where not much happens. Lots of conversations and lots of drinking! Lots of women talking to each other – and not about men! This is unusual in that it is in colour which was interesting and very beautiful colour it is. A woman has returned to Korea from America – it takes a while for the reason to be revealed but it’s not a surprise when it comes. She talks to her sister and later to a film-maker she has known in the past. She’s an actress and maybe he’ll give her work. They share a meal and get drunk together. Lots of subjects covered and lots to think about. I liked it a lot.
The trailer is here
7⭐️ The Novelist’s Film Wonderful natural performances beautifully filmed in black & white (with a concluding touch of colour) let us eavesdrop on conversations about creativity, relationships and life. One of Hong Sang-soo’s best. And here is another Hong Sang-soo film. The novelist has returned to her old town and has met up with a former woman friend. You’re not sure about the current state of their relationship. The novelist has writer’s block. Later she goes for a walk and meets up with an actress – the wonderful Kim Min-hee. This leads to the novelist writing a screen play that is made into a film. I would have said this was Hong Sand-soo’s best film until I saw In Front of Your Face. Both seemed to have more of a story but that might be because it’s a long time since I’ve seen his other films. This one is, as usual for this director, in black and white. I liked it a lot.
The trailer is here
7⭐️ Under the Fig Trees but maybe worth more. It’s streaming and worth a look. Beautiful imagery – both people and trees. Very concise film-making. Snippets of conversation conjure a whole world – the lives of both young and old. Quite lovely. This is a very beautiful film and I suspect I should have given it more stars. It’s a beautifully observed snapshot of Tunisian life – all told through the short conversations between the people picking figs. As I tweeted we have both young and old characters, perhaps more women than men although I wasn’t counting. The young people – female and male – are beautiful. There are romances, break ups, betrayals, sexual harassment, a dispute over inheritances, money worries, memories. A whole world inside a day’s work, We absorb these stories while looking up through the branches of fig trees – green leaves against a blue sky. Faces peering down, hands reaching up for the purple figs. The older women carefully packing the picked figs in trays lined with fig leaves. They have lunch, return to their picking, then line up for their wages and return the way they came – in the back of a ute. The young women having changed their clothes and applied make up for the night to come.
The trailer is here.
7⭐️ Brian and Charles Beautiful little film. Engaging characters, beautiful landscape, lovely story. Suspension of disbelief required but achieved. To give the flavour – Charles’ tummy is a washing machine! It seems disparaging to call a film little when it is anything but. This was terrific. I was unsure at the start, which you can see in the trailer but the story moves along quickly to become a study of loneliness and how it is overcome. Brian is a terrific character, played by one of the writers, David Earl while Charles is voiced by the other, Chris Hayward. There is beautiful scenery – we are in Wales. Small village life in all it’s glory – good and bad. There is a bully and a romantic interest. Gentle absurdity according to the MIFF notes – and indeed it is. Heart-warming.
The trailer is here.
7 ⭐️ Godland Incredible scenery of Iceland and it’s worth seeing for that alone. Starts wonderfully but loses tension halfway. Great performances from lead actors and wonderful cinematography. But let down by some fatal flaws in concluding stages. I had great hopes for this film having read the reviews coming out of Cannes but I was disappointed in the end. Wonderful beginning but there is a twist mid-way through that I felt completely undermined the story. Fantastic scenery and some amazing scenes – confrontations between Old and New – Christian versus Pagan – Denmark versus Iceland. Great acting – so much that you end up hating the central figure – at least I did. We start out in the great Icelandic wilderness – incredible scenery and worth seeing for that alone. We end up in civilised Iceland which is filmed in beautifully warm colours. We watch a church being built and a community celebrating. Will our priest marry the woman intent on returning to Denmark? Will her mischievous younger sister unsettle him with her boldness? And what is their father doing to protect them? All beautifully filmed but narratively a bit of a jumble I thought.
The trailer is here.
7 ⭐️ Domingo and the Mist Spectacular images seen through a ghostly mist, strong characters and great sense of place. Family, friends, regret, forgiveness and a shoot-out on a dark road. I wasn’t sure about this movie for much of the viewing time – anxious about where the masculine isolation and rage was going – but in the end liked it a lot. It’s about men really and how they deal with grief, shame and family. An old man is resisting selling his house which is the way of a new highway. The scenery is fantastic. We are in rural Costa Rica. Domingo is the proverbial grumpy old man and I didn’t like him at all although he is beautifully played by Carlos Ureña. He is being haunted by his late wife who he perceives in a mist that slides through h is house every evening. The images are arresting but I thought the dialogue a bit banal. During the day he milks his cow and takes milk down to his daughter – not much love lost there, she’s basically given up on him; he wasn’t much of a Dad. Nor was he much of a husband we learn which makes you wonder why his wife wants anything to do with him. In the evening he drinks with his mates who are facing their own demons. Male friendships and their inability to help each other and family relationships are both a focus. Explosions from the road site where they are digging through the mountain and the lights and sounds of motorbikes roaring around isolated roads at night produce create an unsettling atmosphere. Domingo polishes up his rifle and takes to wandering those roads in a bright yellow raincoat. Very atmospheric but the violence when it comes is over in seconds. We saw it at IMAX which was a huge screen that was wonderful for showing the beautiful imagery.
The trailer is here.
7 ⭐️ Nelly & Nadine This was towards the end of the festival and I didn’t have the energy to tweet! Fascinating story of two women – one French, one Chinese – who fell in love in Ravensbruck concentration camp. Both survived the war though it took them some time to reconnect and build a happy life together in Venezuela. We follow Nelly’s grand-daughter as she slowly uncovers her Grandmother’s written account – diaries, letters and a full unpublished manuscript. Also lots of home movies. Marred only by extraneous material about Nelly’s grand-daughter who inherited all of the written material – diaries, a draft memoir – that is the core of the film. She couldn’t face reading it until recently. Nelly is a beautiful writer – much of it is poetic even while being written under brutal circumstances. I don’t think we needed shots of her husband harvesting. And I found filming of parts of the journey of discovery got in the way of the story.
The trailer is here. And an interview with the documentary maker is here.
7⭐️ Marcel the Shell With Shoes On Another that I didn’t tweet about – not for lack of liking. I enjoyed it a lot. An internet sensation I discovered after being advised to grab a ticket before they sold out. So I did. Ended up three of the young people came with us – they knew all about it. A sweet animation. Conceived and posted by a couple during lockdown to become the aforesaid internet sensation. The couple separated but the posts continued and now we have a film. Marcel is very cute although the movie was marred a little for me because I couldn’t hear a lot of the dialogue -and it was a bit frustrating hearing the audience laugh and not know why! But the story is easy to follow. Check it out on YouTube. In the meantime the trailer for the movie – with subtitles which I needed – is here.
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