2005 Foreign, Alternative and Independent Films (1 Viewer)

[Edwin Pereyra]

Thanks for the review of Daybreak, Michael. I'll keep an eye out on this one.

~Edwin

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Any member comments at all on Downfall? This is the one film that I am mostly interested in seeing.

~Edwin

 

[Ted Todorov]

Downfall is a first rate, gripping piece of filmmaking with a number of outstanding performances, certainly including Bruno Ganz, who has now played both an angel and the devil and found both to be human. It in large part based on the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary.

I would recommend Downfall to anyone interested in the subject.

Ted

 

[Ted Todorov]

They could, and indeed they do at least in the context of narrowly themed festivals in New York. The main problem is that with many potentially successful films, the producers are holding out for the upfront money that only a real distributor could produce. By the time they finally give up, it is way too late for anything but a direct to DVD release.

A few years ago I was at a Q&A with the director of Divorcing Jack after the film was screened, and IMHO it is a very commercial film. It was never distributed. Anyway, don't hold me to th exact figures, but what the director said was that there were plenty of distribution offers for 50K plus percentage, but the producer was demanding 500K up front, and that was obviously not going to happen. So due to stupid greed it was never released at all. Thanks to the Film Society/Walter Reade theater I see a great many films that are never distributed in the US.

My picks from this years' Film Comment Selects series are for new film: Le Pont des Arts and for old ones Pont du Nord -- I guess it is an all bridge recommendation. Great stuff from recent years that never got released: Happy Here and Now (Michael Almereyda), Investigating Sex (Alan Rudolph) and many more...

Ted

 

[Holadem]

I am all over this one if I can find it, I love this sort of stuff.

--
H

 

[Adam_S]

The Animation Show (2005) - :star::star::star::star:

My first 2005 flick may very well end up being one of the best of 2005. The animation compiled here is outstanding and delightful. "Ward 13" and "Hello" are the standouts, "Guard Dog" is brilliantly funny, and "The Man with no Shadow" is incredibly gorgeous. "When the Day Breaks" is possibly my favorite, though it's hard to beat the first two I mentioned; most of the films are wonderful pieces of filmmaking. The lone CG piece, "Rock Fish", is an incredible work of animation. "Fallen Art," doesn't stand out like the top tiers, but it's a very delightful black comedy. "Pan with Us" is a an interesting work of virtuosity, and "FEDS" has an interesting if slightly headache inducing style/story.

Finally Don Hertzfeld's "The Meaning of Life" is interesting and fun, but ultimately not as good as Rejected, Billy's Balloon. However its more memorable and a better work than Genre, Lily and Jim, or L'amour. But it's not at all the strong closer its programmed as, it's definitely in the lowest third of the entire program; sadly it just isn't as good as most of the rest of the brilliant shorts.

Adam

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, we get those at places like the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard Film Archive and Goethe Institut here in Boston, but that's not what I mean. Bombay Cinema gets movies from India the same day they come out there, and they seem to do really well despite the fact that they get almost zero mainstream advertising - not even in the alternative weeklies. I know about them because the theater they used to run at also had a weekly martial arts series; otherwise, they fly completely under the radar outside the local Indian population.

I just wonder - Boston's got a sizable Indian population, but not out of proportion to other groups. Is it just because India's films have seldom gotten US distribution deals, creating an opening for Hindi-American entrepeneurs that Chinese/Japanese/Korean/French ones don't have?

 

[Michael Reuben]

According to Newmarket's website, it's a very limited release. It's already left New York and has just opened in L.A. The only other location listed is Boston, and that isn't until April.

M.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Bingo. That's exactly it -- they can do it, because the films have no hope of "mainstream" distribution. If Indian cinema were to suddenly arouse the interest of someone like Miramax, that would be it. Keep in mind also that a company like Miramax, will buy the rights to far more films than they actually distribute. They simply take them off the market -- a cheap way to limit competition. Even prominent titles like Kairo (Pulse)(Kiyoshi Kurosawa) get bought but never distributed. Miramax & Fox own the rights to tons of Hong Kong titles that will never get a theatrical release.

Ted

 

[Jason Seaver]

Hmmm... Makes me wonder how much US revenue the average Hong Kong film makes for its producers compared to the average Bollywood feature (figuring that something like Infernal Affairs 2 has added zero to the numerator but one to the denominator if it's included in a Miramax deal but not exploited). I imagine the HK guys must be doing better, or else they'd have tried going to the Bollywood model by now.

Which stinks for the artists and audience, but I guess it works on the corporate level. --sigh--

 

[Michael Reuben]

Lost Embrace

This was Argentina's submission for the 2004 foreign film Oscar, although it wasn't selected as one of the five finalists.

The film centers on Ariel, a young man who works in his mother's lingerie shop in a tiny mall in downtown Buenos Aires. The mall is a mini-U.N., with shops owned by Italians, Koreans and Ariel's family, who are descended from Polish Jews who fled the Holocaust.

Ariel's life is defined by his absent father, whom he barely remembers, who lives in Israel and about whom Ariel's mother, elder brother and grandmother seem to have relatively little to say. Ariel dreams of moving to Europe, which appalls his grandmother, and he marks time at the mall by having a casual romance with Rita, who runs one of the other shops. But really Ariel is just marking time as he tries to get past his sense of abandonment. The film is about his efforts to come to terms with a past he wants to understand but no one seems to be able to explain to him.

I wanted to like Lost Embrace, but it runs too long, and while it starts off with a nice sense of ironic detachment, by the end it has moved from humor to sentimentality. The locale is colorful (if seedy),and the cast is uniformly interesting to watch, but in the end Ariel's story failed to move me.

M.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Feature listings and index updated.

~Edwin

 

[Dave Hackman]

Watermarks

This is a documentary about a group of Jewish women who competitively swam together as youths in the 1930’s in an athletic club called Hakoah Vienna. This club was created because other Austrian sports clubs in those days prohibited Jews from joining. These girls were dominating the competition at various events and one of the girls in particular was considered one of the worlds best. All things changed when Hitler began his madness and these women each tell their story of what they endured and how those events affected them. The goal of this film is to take the remaining swim team members from their homes around the world back to Vienna for a reunion and another swim in the pool they used to spend much of their youth in.

All in there 80’s it is pretty impressive to see how strong these women are today and how much more fun it is to gain insight from real people rather then through movie characters.

Subtitles are used periodically.

Highly Recommended.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Great review of Head-On (Gegen die Wand) Michael! (Just one small correction: the Bosphorus is a strait (which runs through Istanbul), not a river.) I just saw it and loved it -- an amazing film. And you have correctly identified the main reason -- for a suicidal pair the film's protagonists exude an overwhelming life force. A pair of performances that truly embody their characters.

Does anyone know of an English subtitled DVD of Head-On (Gegen die Wand) ? Does Strand do their own DVD releasing? There is a German DVD out, but if one is to believe Amazon.de it only has Turkish subtitles. I am highly tempted to pick up soundtrack though.

Inside Deep Throat -- entertaining, but not very deep. A forgettable diversion.

Ted

 

[Michael Reuben]

I agree that the talking-head segments with cultural pundits aren't worth much, but some of the people actually involved in making and marketing Deep Throat are real characters, and I found them memorable, particularly director Damiano and the Miami distributor whose wife kept telling him off on camera.

And for anyone born after home video transformed the porn industry, I'd recommend it as a history lesson that's anything but dull. How many people today are aware that a commission appointed by President Nixon reached the embarrassing conclusion that pornography isn't harmful?

M.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I agree wholeheartedly. In my case I was altogether too familiar with the subject, but for someone who isn't this should be fascinating stuff. The one piece of new info I gleaned, was that the song More, More, More was performed by a porno star.

An interesting article on one of the subjects covered by Inside Deep Throat, the anti-porn feminists, appears in The Boston Globe (click here).

Ted

 

[Ted Todorov]

New Directors/New Films at Lincoln Center and MOMA

The schedule is up:
http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/films/index.html

Tickets went on sale at 11 AM Friday, I already bought mine...

The bad news is is they compressed it from 17 into 12 days, which means I'll have to miss a couple of films I wanted to see due to delays in my personal cloning program. As it is I'll be seeing 15 films.

The good news -- finally a Bulgarian film: Mila From Mars I even heard that it's actually good.

Ted

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

A weekly listing of this week's notable new releases:

Dear Frankie - Director: Shona Auerbach; Stars: Jack McElhone, Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler

In My Country - Director: John Boorman; Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Juliette Binoche, Brendan Gleeson

Millions - Director: Danny Boyle; Stars: Alex Etel, Lewis McGibbon

Off The Map - Director: Campbell Scott; Stars: Joan Allen, Sam Elliott, Valentina de Angelis

The Upside of Anger - Director: Mike Binder; Stars: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, Mike Binder


~Edwin

 

[Eric Howell]

Ahh, so Millions is in limited release I see. This film made my top ten last year, and I can certainly recommend it. As someone who normally can’t stand children in movies, I know a movie is good when I can get over that aspect of it.

Also out in theaters now, Nobody Knows. Another film featuring kids, hrm, maybe I’m in denial, and I’m just a sucker for movies with kids? This one is much more for an adult audience though than Millions. I made a separate post on this movie when it got its release(couldn’t find this thread) here http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...readid=225812.

Coming later this month to theaters Oldboy. This monster of a film will hit NY, LA, Frisco, and Chicago 3/25. At this point, it is unlikely to be able to live up to all the hype, but hopefully most people will go to this movie fresh such that they will be able to maximize their enjoyment of this wonderful Thriller.

I know I’m not writing up reviews of these films like many in this thread, as I prefer to just plant a seed of interest, and hold discussion of a film with those who’ve seen it. I do, however, certainly enjoy reading this thread and everyone’s reviews. Keep up the good work.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Something to look forward to - Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros) will direct Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchet and Gael Garcia Bernal in Babel from a script by Guillermo Arriaga who previously wrote the two films Iñárritu directed above.

~Edwin