the illusionist - a ‘talk cinema’ presentation where we didn’t know what film we were going to screen. it turned out to be a cool little movie with ed norton and paul giamatti. i won’t spoil it, but it was very well done and pretty entertaining. they introduced the series as “films that we trick you into seeing, since you probably wouldn’t come if you knew what it was about.” which is true as we agreed we may not have been interested in it based on the plot description, but it ended up being quite enjoyable.
three times - the new work from taiwanese master filmmaker hou hsaio-hsien. quite lovely, detailing three different love stories in different periods in china, but with the same two actors. one was set in modern times, one back in the 60’s, and one while taiwan was still under japanese rule but just before the wuchang incident that lead to the chinese overthrow of the qing dynasty. lovely to watch, really. very nice.
(although this did raise a thought in my mind: every year they have an award for best feature and best documentary. how would it feel if you’ve spent years toiling away and you finally make your film, and it even gets picked to be in this big film festival, but suddenly you’re there competing against hou hsaio-hsien who’s released another masterpiece? what the fuck? ed harris talked about the times he’s been nominated for an oscar, and that if he’s going to bother to go to the ceremony, he WANTS TO WIN, right? but he said that it’s really a strange thing. to make a film and suddenly someone wins and someone loses? it make sense in sports, but in art? who’s to say whether film x is better than film y, if they’re both the best film they could be? they’re different things— how do you quantify that? is 100 in the x-axis more than 100 in the y-axis? it’s a strange thing to put competitiveness towards art.)
belle de jour - hmc was upset that we didn’t see this on saturday since the famous screenwriter jean-claude carrière was going to be at that screening. however, it turns out he was at the pfa for the sunday screening as well (as i suspected he might be), so it all turned out all right. it was a pretty insightful q&a, and it’s just fun hearing him talk about buñuel and catherine deneuve and others. and now i know what’s in the mongolian wrestler’s box! girls, you don’t really want to know. or do you?
princess raccoon - every time i think i’ve seen the weirdest film at the festival, another one just comes along and blows them away. sachiko hanai, wayward cloud, even drawing restraint 9, none of them has anything on this. not that i would expect anything less from seijun sukuzi, since he’s absolutely nuts now. like pistol opera a few years ago didn’t tip you off. this time he’s telling the tabuki legend of those raccoon-dog spirits, but as a musical. a serious musical. well, not “serious” musical, but filmed almost like a stage play. very strange. thank goodness i had seen pom poko so i was already down with the tanuki/raccoon-dog and their lore. and their giant testicle attacks. word. (actually, there weren’t any testicle attacks in this movie, and it STILL was the weirdest one so far. what does that tell you?)
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