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The festival ended yesterday.
Here's my complete list of films, from best to worst, based on my overall enjoyment of the films. Movies in red featured at least one boy.
1. The Tulse Luper Suitcases, parts 1, 2 and 3 10/10
2. Mondovino 10/10
3. Adieu 8/10
4. Comme une image 8/10
5. Duck Season 8/10
6. Innocence 7/10
7. Notre musique 7/10
8. Mirage 7/10
9. Tropical Malady 7/10
10. Childstar 7/10
11. Une place parmi les vivants 7/10
12. Clean 7/10
13. A Letter to True 7/10
14. 10 on Ten 7/10
15. Cinévardaphoto 7/10
16. Palindromes 6/10
17. Demi-tarif 6/10
18. Claude Sautet ou la magie invisible 6/10
19. Public Lightings 6/10
20. 9 Songs 5/10
21. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things 5/10
22. Turtles Can Fly 5/10
23. Star Spangled to Death 2/10
24. Anatomie de l’enfer 1/10
I will only comment on the ones that feature boys, but if you have any questions about the others, just ask and I'd be happy to tell you more.
1. The Tulse Luper Suitcases, parts 1, 2 and 3 10/10
This is Peter Greenaway's insanely ambitious project. The total feature film, shown in three parts on three separate evenings, is about seven hours long. The boy character only has a significant role in the first episode of the first part, so you should know this before you decide to invest so much time into such a large project.
The boy with the most screen-time, then, plays the young Tulse Luper in the episode that deals with his childhood. He continues to appear from time to time throughout the film, but only briefly. There are a few other boys who show up once in a while, most notably in Part II.
I don't really know how to describe this movie. If you're a fan of Peter Greenaway, then you probably know what to expect and you would probably enjoy this. Otherwise, you will probably be very confused. Greenaway pushes the multi-layering that has defined his style throughout his career to new extremes here. I thought it was brilliant, but many, many people will hate it.
I haven't been able to find the names of the actors yet, but I'll post more info if I can figure it out.
5. Duck Season 8/10
This is essentially a Mexican rip off of Jim Jarmusch's style, but the movie is very well done and tells an original story, so I didn't mind. Shot in black and white with many other characteristics of Jarmusch's style (a camera that almost never moves, precise use of music, frequent fades to black to separate scenes, quirky dialogue, understated performances, etc.)
The story is about two adolescents (13 and 14) who plan to spend Sunday alone playing video games. But the girl from next door comes to use the oven to bake a cake, and the pizza delivery guy refuses to leave until they pay him. The four characters hang out and get to know each other.
*mild spoiler ahead*
I noticed in a very early scene that one of the boys was paying a lot of attention to his friend as he was getting dressed, after taking a shower. I suspected there might be more than friendship between them. Later in the film, the boy who was doing the looking ends up kissing the girl. He then brags about it to his friend, but when he asks how it made him feel he says he doesn't know. Later, he confesses to the girl that he sometimes has fantasies about his friend. For example, they play a game at the arcade and when they win they jump around and his friend takes him in his arms. Very mild fantasies, I admit. But significant.
Finally there is a scene where he dares to try a few moves on the other boy, who doesn't offer much of a response. At the end of the film, his friend has decided that he will move with his father, who lives in a different city. The other boy says: "So there won't be any more Sundays?"
I really liked the way the subtle "love story" between the friends was presented. In the end, not much has happened between them, but at the same time you feel that this last Sunday together is going to have a huge impact on their lives (for different reasons). In fact, it will probably have a huge impact on all four characters. But the one that moved me the most was the boy who quietly comes to realize that the friendship will never be what he wishes it would be (because his feelings are unreciprocated), and in fact is likely to come to an end when his friend moves away.
*end spoilers*
8. Mirage 7/10
In terms of pure "boy movie", this is my favourite from the festival. It's very, very hard, so don't expect a happy ending. But it's very moving and the boy (who is the lead character and who appears in every scene) is appealing in every way - in terms of his looks, acting ability and character.
The film tells the story of a boy who is going through hard times and receiving help from no one. His father is an alcoholic. His mother is a non-responsive victim. His older sister is an abusive bitch. And the bullies at school make his life a living hell. The boy has a talent for writing, and his teacher starts to take an interest in him because of it. He wants him to write a patriotic poem for an upcoming contest, saying his writing might be his ticket out of this place to a better life.
At first, it seems like a typical story about how a teacher helps a kid to find his place in the world by nurturing a particular talent (in this case writing, but it could have been music, sport, or even dancing). However, the film refuses to go the easy way and insists on showing you a reality that is much harsher.
*major spoilers ahead*
(I am going to pretty much describe the entire plot until the more-or-less shocking ending. Don't read if you don't want to know what happens.)
At one point, the boy is beaten by the bullies and the professor runs away rather than come to his rescue. This is the moment when everything starts to fall apart and the boy realizes that this man who has promised to help him, and who should therefore protect him, is much weaker than he at first imagined. From our perspective, he may just be another flawed human being, but from the boy's perspective this constitutes a major betrayal and marks the beginning of both their downfall.
The boy meets a criminal who lives in an abandoned train wagon and who teaches him that the way to survive in this world is to "eat them before they eat you". He tells him if he wants something he has to get it himself, even if it means stealing. He tells him that others are abusing him because he fears them and once he stops fearing them they will be afraid of him.
It doesn't quite work that easily, though, as the bullies in school are getting more and more violent and they don't seem to have any reason to fear him. The biggest bully who leads the gang is actually the son of the chief of police (who catches our main character selling stolen perfume) and pretty much gets his way by shoving his dad's gun in other people's faces.
Then things start to get really bad. The criminal teaches our young protagonist how to use a gun. He promises to take him away with him, but leaves without telling him. Meanwhile, the professor at school continues to let him down. Witnessing the change in his favourite pupil's character, he turns his back on him instead of reaching out to him.
You know this is all leading to something terrible, and when the boy gets his hand on the bully's gun, he's reached the point of no return. Now, for the first time, he's not afraid of them and they are afraid of him. He goes home and when his father starts yelling at him, he pulls the gun out on him. But he's not going to wast his only bullet on him. He returns to the school on the day of the celebration of independence, where a girl has taken his place and is reading the poem he should have written and read. The teacher sees him, takes him aside to ask if he's OK. "I'm sorry", the boy says. "Oh, it's nothing" the reacher replies, thinking he's apologizing about the poem he never wrote. But the boy continues: "I'm sorry you didn't help me." And shoots him in the chest.
It's very rare that this type of movie dares to go this far in bringing the conflict to its logical resolution. I've seen a lot of movies where I felt that something like this was going to happen in the end, but the filmmakers usually chicken out near the end and turn things around for a pseudo-happy ending that is completely unsatisfying. This one may be brutal, but it is very effective.
*end spoilers*
10. Childstar 7/10
Mark Rendall was probably around 15 when this was filmed and he does indeed play a 12-year-old character. This is annoying, of course, but not as bad as it could have been. For one thing, he is a very talented actor. For another, he plays a character that is more mature than his age (in some ways), so he does look and act older than he is. And finally, he looks slightly younger than he is.... although I'm not quite convinced he would pass for 12. You can judge for yourself when you see the film.
But putting that aside, I think it's a very good movie and one that is definitely worth seeing, especially since it deals with the subject that we are all fascinated with here: boy actors.
Don McKellar (the director) made a film that intelligently mixes humour and drama. I don't really have much more to say on the topic, actually.
12. Clean 7/10
Maggie Cheung won the prize for best actress at Cannes for her performance in this film. Nick Nolte is also great in it. It's about a former rock musician who tries to cope with the death of her boyfriend, for which she is blamed by the media and his family, while trying to kick off her addiction to heroin and find a job, in order to regain custody of her son.
The son lives with his grandparents in Vancouver. He's very cute and there are a few scenes with him throughout the film, especially at the end. The focus is definitely on the mother, however.
16. Palindromes 6/10
Todd Solondz continues to make films about awkward teenagers and to shock everyone in the process by tackling some sensitive issue with characteristically black humour. In this case, he deals with teen pregnancy and abortion. The focus is on teenage girls, but there is one sequence with a boy. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the actor's name and IMDb doesn't have the full cast listed yet. I'll post more info when I have it.
17. Demi-tarif 6/10
An unusual film, only 65 minutes long and completely improvised. We follow three siblings around (two sisters and one brother) as they try to survive without parents. There is a bit of voice-over narration to give us clues as to what is going on. Most of the dialogue is so insignificant that the translators didn't bother subtitling it.
The boy is appealing, but there's not much in terms of a story. An interesting experiment.
21. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things 5/10
If you're intersted in seeing two hours of extreme child abuse, then this movie is for you. That's pretty much all it is.
On the positive side, the boys playing the main character are very cute and very talented. I prefered the first part, with the younger Jimmy Bennett, but fans of the Sprouse brothers won't be disappointed with their performance.
22. Turtles Can Fly 5/10
People loved this. They even gave it the Public prize. I was not impressed. Apparently, filming a baby crying and holding a barb-wire fence for three minutes is considered an original and powerful way of showing the horrors of war. Apparently, also, people have never heard of a thing called life magazine.
This is in competition for the foreign-language Oscar. I wouldn't be surprised if it was nominated or even if it won. Machuca is also in competition and I think it deserves much more recognition than this. We'll see what happens.
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Festival du nouveau cinema 2004 (Read 14,296 times)
