MIFF 2023

I’m a bit late with this post but here we go. I had a wonderful time at this year’s MIFF until the last week when I caught Joe’s cold and was couch-ridden for a couple of weeks. They say colds post covid are worse than usual and I can attest to that. Anyway here are my short reviews. In the order in which I saw the films. I’ve left the stars as I posted them on the MIFF app but they’re not quite right. The 8 stars could possibly be 10. I didn’t give nine to any film. I preferred the 5 star system.

Showing Up ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I wasn’t very keen on this despite all the rave reviews. I get what it was portraying; the trials and tribulations of a creative life – but too slow and boring for me. Michelle Williams is being much praised for her role here as a potter preparing for a show and she does do it well. Suffering the inane comments from parents, underlying competitiveness with her sculpture friend, difficult living environment (with little money she is relying on said friend but the hot water system is not working!) dealing with the person who is firing her work. It’s all there but didn’t engage me. The pottery depicted is striking – statuettes of figures, very dramatic.

Past Lives ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Loved this movie. Slow moving and nothing much happens but emotionally gripping. In South Korea childhood friends are separated when her family emigrates to Canada. Later, as adults they meet up virtually; he in Seoul, she in New York. Later again they meet up in person when he visits New York. She’s married and starting to find success as a playwright. The American husband is a good guy. Effectively these three are the only people that matter. The film opens with the three of them sitting in a bar while an observer across the room wonders aloud what their relationship to each other might be. Which the film goes on to explore. Will the childhood friends end up together? Do you want them to? The director suggests the film is about three goodbyes – two bad ones and a good one. Beautifully done. It was already on commercial release during the festival, I don’t know whether it still is.

Robot Dreams ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This got rave reviews at Cannes but while I found it pleasant enough I thought it was a very run of the mill animation – in both story and graphics. There’s no dialogue – the story is delivered in pictures. And I can’t remember if there was music. Our protagonist who is a cutely expressive dog lives all by himself and sees all around him other dogs with friends and lovers. One lonely night he sees an advertisement for robot companions and gets one delivered. And the story goes on from there. Perhaps the existential question is can happiness be purchased? Maybe it’s looking forward to AI. The story is pretty basic apart from a couple of scenes that suggest alternative scenarios – if this happened all would be well but instead this did. Which was Interesting. I’m finding it more interesting talking about it rather watching it!

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Loved everything about this movie and strongly recommend it. Fantastic performance from the lead, Eka Chavleishvili as Etero. She has the most expressive face – and eye-brows. There are a lot of close-ups with emotions expressed visually, not verbally. All of the acting is terrific. Set in a Georgian village where everyone knows everything about everyone, this is a film about a middle-aged woman finding herself. The film starts with Etero experiencing a near death experience – it’s very dramatic. This prompts her to question her thus far dutiful life. Although she is marked out as different from the norm in that she has eschewed marriage, preferring her independence as manager of the local store. Not for her the drudgery of wifedom Georgia village style. She embarks on a clandestine affair with her regular delivery man. It’s all very realistic and is beautifully portrayed. As the MIFF note says this is a complex portrait of late-life desire that depicts its ageing protagonist’s sensuality withour sentimentality or cliché. In the background relations between the villagers – the women at any rate, we only see the men from a distance, drinking – rumble along with memories and grievances underscoring their relationships. All so authentic, you feel a part of this community despite its narrowness and you certainly hope things turn out for our heroine. We leave her in a cafe assailed by a whole array of emotions – disbelief, joy, fear, pleasure. Just wonderful.

Japanese Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved this when it first came out in 2003 to much acclaim, winning numerous AFI awards and nominated in the Un Certain REgard section of the Cannes Film Festival. It’s been beautifully restored and I loved it all over again. A perfect film. Toni Collette is geologist Sandy Edwards, forced to accompany the Japanese investor so important for her company, played by Gotaro Tsunashima also wonderful, around the Pilbara. The clash of cultures is discretely observed. HE sits in the back expecting to be chauffered around. He has no understanding of the country but wants to see more – which ends in disaster. A night in the desert changes things. She has to express such contrasting emotions – antagonism, attraction, embarrassment, love and finally hidden grief. Just wonderful. Her character’s excruciating experience having to deal with a dead body is conveyed brilliantly with barely a word spoken. Fantastic imagery, fine performances all round, this is a classic. If it gets a commercial run I’d be tempted to see it again.

Room 999 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A nice idea – put directors into a bare hotel room and get them to opine about the future of cinema. Apart from a single sheet of paper with questions suggested which we don’t see, but which some of the subjects read from, they are left to their own devices. The results are patchy. Of the thirty interviewed some are incredibly eloquent and fill their designated time with lots of ideas and observations – too many to take in. I’d like to see the resulting script written down. Others are prosaic. Filmed at Cannes in 2022, modelled on a 1982 film by Wim Wenders who this time is the first interviewee, I didn’t know a lot of the directors. Our Baz is there and acquits himself well. Lots of women but mostly European and in fact French. I really liked the man, unknown to me, who came in with a couple of shopping bags and proceeded to dress himself in designer clothes – all black but amazing shoes – and did a little dance. Creative. If it comes on a streaming service I’ll watch it again.

One Last Evening ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was really good. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I hadn’t heard much about it. A couple are leaving Hanover for Berlin where Lisa has an exciting new job. Clemens is going to see what he can find. They’re having a house-cooling party. There’s a little bit of tension at the start – he hasn’t finished packing their books, she’s in the kitchen cooking which doesn’t go to plan. You foresee things spiralling down – and they do. A delivery driver wants to use the toilet, a neighbour and a woman who’s been hanging around the apartment all day show up. Lisa’s best friend drops in to say she’s not coming – but manages, with Lisa to drink a bottle of gin all the same. Lisa’s friends are medicos with high paying, high status jobs. One’s been lusting after her for years. Clemens is hostile. Like Clemens, his best mate is currently unemployed – he’s a comic who has been cancelled because he got too close to an audience member contrary to covid restrictions. Clemens gets increasingly uptight. Disaster looms. You feel for Lisa and Clemens and hope they make the move together.

About Dry Grasses ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I loved this film, as I’ve loved all of the films I’ve seen by the Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. It’s long – 197 minutes – but those minutes flew by for me; I could have watched for longer. As in his other films it’s very wordy and I would like to read the script because there are so many ideas discussed it’s hard to absorb them all. In this it reminded me of the director’s other film Winter Sleep which won the Palme d’Or in 2014. This film was a Palmed’Or nominee. Here we have Samet, the disillusioned teacher protagonist struggling to hold himself together in the backwater where he teaches. He feels above the other teachers, even his friend Kenan. Publicity material for this film focuses on a claim of misconduct against him but that’s not really the main game here. Although it serves to highlight local political chicanery and officious education bureaucracy. The housemates both become friendly with Nuray a teacher in the bigger town nearby. Played by Merve Dizdar who won best actress at Cannes for the performance. She is a Kurd and has lost a leg in what we assume is some sort of militant action – it’s never explained. There is a terrific debate about collective action versus individualism between Nuray and Samet which I’d like to read. They go back and forth as they drink wine and subtly flirt. He has come without Kenan who unbeknownst to him was also invited. Throughout the long evening you are begging her not to go bed with him. I’ll avoid a spoiler. If it comes out commercially I’ll see it again. My only criticism is it ends too abruptly and leaving things a little up in the air – which may or may not be a good thing.

Perfect Days ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I agree with all the glowing reviews this is a wonderful movie by Wim Wenders. The lead actor, Koji Yakusho won best actor at Cannes and deservedly so. He makes the movie as he’s in every scene but he makes this man’s humanity shine through. He is a wonderfully sympathetic character. He’s a toilet cleaner and all we really see is his daily routine cleaning the toilets in his area. He has a younger workmate who is responsible for half the toilets on their watch who is nowhere near as punctilious about his work. Hiramaya is a professional – and we see every aspect of what could be called his art, which is his work. Such clean toilets! They are all amazing architectural structures which provides added interest. Not that you need any. We are not told Hiramaya’s back story but it is alluded to by his sister when she comes to pick up her daughter who has run away to her uncle’s for a couple of days. It seems he wasn’t always a toilet cleaner and she clearly thinks it beneath him to be one. He doesn’t respond to the unsaid accusation. We see him at work, having dinner at his regular cafe, buying used paperbacks and reading them every evening. We see him behave kindly to various characters who come into contact with him. Every day the same routine. It is riveting. I loved everything about it – including the beautiful Lou Reed song of the same name that accompanies it. .

On The Adamant ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This was quite lovely, a worthy winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear. As it says in the programme notes, what sets it apart is the empathy it shows to the residents of a floating art-therapy centre in Paris. It lets these people, all of whom have mental health challenges, tell their own stories in their own way. They undertake activities like painting, singing, dancing and sewing. Each day there is a meeting at which decisions are made about what sort of classes will be undertaken. There are health specialists and social workers present but they remain in the background. The vessel, moored on the Seine, in which this all takes place, is amazing and we watch it wake up, so to speak, each morning.

Kidnapped ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this but we needed something to do in between films and Meredith recommended it. I loved it. Amazingly lush cinematography, terrible true story. A maid baptises a Jewish boy and when this is revealed to the Catholic hierarchy the Pope orders his removal to a Catholic ceremony. Baptism can’t be undone, and has immediately made the boy a ward of the Catholic Church. Apparently this happened a lot but this case made headlines all around the world. The Pope was Pius IX, played with oily charm by Paolo Pierobon. Beautifully acted, glorious cinematography – operatic says the MIFF programme – and emotionally gripping. Scenes with the boy’s mother are heart-wrenching. Wonderful performances all round. The young boy is wonderful. The film is true to the real story. The boy in real life never returned to his Jewish family, instead becoming a Catholic priest. in one of the church’s most conservative sects.

The Nature of Love ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This is the only movie I couldn’t remember much about when I came to write this. However watching the trailer it all comes back. I didn’t like it as much as my stars suggest. Pierre-Yves Cardinal playing builder Sylvain was so handsome! He’s apparently well known for playing a bad guy in the movie Tom at the Farm. Very good looking and in the Q&A after he was quite lovely. It was easy to see why bored university lecturer Sophia, played by Magalie Lépine, would fall for him – though perhaps not on sight as happens here. Actors and director are from Québec. The film explores whether physical attraction can overcome differences of class and upbringing. I won’t spoil the ending by revealing the answer. I know the film was all about unbridled desire and so on but I didn’t like the sex scenes – better left to the imagination I reckon! And overall I was unconvinced about most of it. Sophia lectures at a University of the Third Age type of place on philosophy and I liked the regular inserts into the story of snippets of her lectures about different philosophers and their understanding of the nature of love – hence the title.

The Munekata Sisters⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I couldn’t find a trailer for this very old film. I love the films of Yasujirö Oze and this is described as a rare gem because it’s made out of a different studio to his normal one.Made in 1950 it’s like all his films beautifully shot in black and white and beautifully acted. Two sisters, a bold younger one, Setsuko, who dresses in western clothes and is outspoken and an older one, Mariko, dressing in traditional costumes and submissive to her horrible husband. The lovely familiar Ozu actor Chishû Ryû plays the girls father but he’s not in it much. Marikohas always been in love with another man, Hiroshi, who returns her affection and has been living in France since being broken-hearted by her marriage. He has now returned – very cosmopolitan. Setsuko wants Mariko to leave brutal husband – unemployed and drunk most of the time – and pair off with Hiroshi. She forthrightly meddles in the affairs of everyone to bring that about. So far so good. But the way women are depicted in society at large and especially by the brutal husband is awful and the ending seemed to me to be ridiculous. Happiness avoided all round. So I didn’t like it much.

It’s Raining in the House  ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I didn’t know what to expect. of this film but it was very poignant. Made in Belgium it stars the director’s half brother and sister, Purdey Lombet and Mackenzie Lombet as siblings. You would never know they were new to acting. They live in a rundown house – their grandmother’s holiday house – with their erratic mother. Erratic is putting it kindly. She’s an alcoholic who takes off from time to time with lovers. They teenagers, Purdy the sister is nearly 18, Mackenzie her brother is younger, mange pretty well on their own. But it is heart rending seeing themhaving to deal daily with the impact of poverty. And their mother’s reckless behaviour – and sometimes characters from her life who come knocking. They live in a holiday resort in Wallonia province and daily see rich tourists cavorting about. Even their best friends have more money – and opportunities than them. Purdey, gets a job cleaning tourist accomodation instead of continuing her studies. Mackenzie dabbles in soft crime – stealing and selling bicycles, ripping off rich kids by selling them dope at inflated prices. There’s a leak in their house which Mackenzie somewhat haphazardly attempts to fix. The siblings are affectionate to each other but dealing with things in their own way. Then mother returns – dead drunk on the hallway floor. We leave brother and sister eating chips after a day at the lake – not wanting to go home. Very affecting, subtly showing the real impact poverty can have on the life chances of young people. Terrific performances from the young Lombets.

Anselm ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Loved this film by Wim Wenders; beautiful, soulful, enigmatic. It’s a portrait of his friend and compatriot the German artist Anselm Kiefer. Utilising the whole set of tools cinema provides – re-enactments of the child Anselm (played by Wenders’s son), old footage of the young activist Anselm, footage of Anselm’s son and finally filming Anselm himself in his current studio in Paris which is a massive barn-like space. His paintings these days are gigantic affairs and there are lots of assistants racing around, but he’s in charge. Very sprightly for a seventy year old – as is Wenders, they were both born in 1945. We also see lots of Kiefer’s 35 hectare studio compound in Barjac, called La Ribaute which he bought in 1992 and left in 2008 – it’s still there looked after by a caretaker. It was a derelict silk factory. A 2010 documentary Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow has been made about it which I’d like to see. The Wenders movie covers a lot of ground. An operatic soundtrack heightens the visual engagement. It was screened in 3D so we were all wearing those funny glasses. I’m not sure how that enhanced the effect. Either way it was wonderful and I was set to see it again until I contracted the beastly cold! I’ll go again if the opportunity arises – it’s so full of information its hard to absorb it all in one sitting.

I Heard It On The Grapevine ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I could only find the full movie on Youtube so here it is. Though I don’t really think it is worth watching. Made in 1982 it follows Baldwin as he travels to towns and cities from the deep South to DC where significant civil rights actions occurred. We hear Baldwin’s reflections, see archival footage and watch contemporary interviews with Baldwin. I found it too jumbled up and Baldwin’s overall message to be too nihilistic. No message of hope here – perhaps he’s right but dispiriting all the same.

Anatomy of a Fall ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I loved everything about this movie. I’d been looking forward to it since it won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. I love the actress Sandra Hûller and she is compelling in this; which makes the film as she is in almost every scene. It’s described as a thriller but could also be described as scenes from a marriage. Hüller plays Sandra, a successful author whose husband, Samuel, an unsuccessful author, is found dead at the bottom of their three storey house in the French mountainside. Glorious scenery. Did he jump or was he pushed? Sandra favours the earlier interpretation but the lawyer friend who is called in to help doesn’t think that will fly in court. An accident then. And so we come to the courtroom drama. And very dramatic it is. Sandra’s whole life as an independent, assertive woman is on trial. The prosecutor is easy to detest! And what sort of marriage could it have been, with the husband emasculated by his successful wife? He even starts reading passages from her novels seeking to equate fiction with fact. Their eleven year old son, who is blind following an accident (and who’s to blame for that?) is called upon as a witness. And so he cannot be left alone with his mother – a chaperone is introduced into the family home. The law is a blunt instrument when it comes to considering human relationships. There’s a wonderful dog involved as well – who should get whatever awards for acting are available for dogs. Terrific film and strongly recommended.

Little Richard: I Am Everything  ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

We saw this as part of the programme that MIFF streamed having missed it on the big screen. Described in the programme as a rollicking dive into one of rock’n’ roll’s most exhilarating personalities I was disappointed. Too much repetition and he finally comes across as old and bitter despite widespread acknowledgment of his talent. It didn’t illuminate the harshness of his childhood enough, nor did it properly explore the period when he turned away from rock ‘n’ roll and indeed turned his back on his queer identity. So not great

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Another film that we watched via streaming and which I was looking forward to after it won the Golden Camera Award at Cannes. I loved everything about what I would liken to a beautifully filmed meditation on life and death. It’s the death that leads to Thien, described in the MIFF notes as a detached and morose Saigon thirty something, on a bike ride through the Vietnamese countryside. He’s bringing his sister-in-law’s body to be buried in her home village. Accompanied by her son, his nephew. He then goes on alone in search of the boy’s father, Thien’s long lost brother. Three hours long it truly is as described, a spell-binding journey across the seductive, dreamlike landscape of the countryside and soul with an hypnotic rhythm, exquisite visuals and textured sound design. Thien’s conversations with people he meets – a former girlfriend now nun, a South Vietnamese army veteran, a mechanic’s mother – allow different perspectives to be presented. It’s a spiritual journey. Thien falls asleep and dreams different scenes into his journey. I found it riveting. Looked fine on the small screen but would be better on a big one.

A Couple  ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I’ve vowed and declared I’m never going to watch a Frederick Wiseman documentary again – too long by far! This is described as a dramatic feature – his third – and lasts just over an hour. Which is still quite long for what is essentially a monologue. The script, co-written by Wiseman and Nathalie Boutefeu who acts it, is based on Sophia Tolstoys letters and diaries about her marriage to Leo. She was eighteen and he twice her age when they married. Their marriage famously underpinned by his rage and demands and her solace and suffering. Lots of interesting material but it was hard to concentrate and absorb everything that was said. Boutefeu as Sophia walks back and forth amidst beautiful scenery which the notes tell us is a sprawling garden in Belle-Île. She only moves out of the garden once or twice to sit at a desk in a monk like cell lit by a candle. All very evocative. And beautifully spoken direct to camera Nathalie Boutefeu.