POWFest (Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival) invades the historic Hollywood Theatre once again this year, showcasing the work of women directors ranging from the local to the global. Like the attractive graphic above states, the festival's 5th anniversary edition will run from Thursday, March 8th until Sunday, March 11th, packing a remarkable 80+ short and feature length films into the four-day schedule.
Things kick off on Thurs. 8th at 7pm with a series of locally-produced short films, "including Stella's Flight, a 'dramedy' about a woman trapped in a life that even her dog finds boring, written and directed by OPB Livewire host Courtenay Hameister."
The entire schedule is available for access here. Festival passes can be acquired at this link and tickets for individual shows can be purchased here.
Keep an eye on this blog for upcoming posts highlighting some of the films at POWFest 2012. In the meantime, here's a handful of trailers from the upcoming festival:
As for the details, I defer to the experts at the Grindhouse webpage:
Vigilante (1983) Robert Forster stars as a New York everyman, with a blue-collar job and a small family he loves. When his family is violently assaulted by street punks, he is shocked to find the police and court system useless and corrupt. His co-worker (Fred Williamson) is fed up with the gangs and drug dealers who have taken over the city, and starts a vigilante group to take care of what the police are too terrified to do. Forster is hesitant to join, until he's finally pushed over the edge, and starts down a road of vengeance. This is one of the greatest revenge films ever made, directed by William Lustig (Maniac) and inspired by Italian crime films and spaghetti westerns.
As a bonus, here's a 2010 AVManiacs/CineFiles interview w/ William Lustig:
Vigilante will
screen at the Hollywood Theatre for one night only: tonight (Feb. 28th) at 7:30pm.
Hey all--
Just to mix things up a bit, I thought it'd be fun to start a recurring series of posts highlighting short form films. Not really looking to analyze or review them...just intending for it to be a low-key curatorial sweep through some of my favorites from the past. And I'll probably end up finding some new favorites along the way, too.
As for style, format, etc., I'm not really planning on imposing any rules. Look for the avant-garde to rub shoulders with the strongly narrative or non-fiction to sit side-by-side with popular animation of the past.
Before we begin with the first installment, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to the visual arts blog Fuzzimo, whose free, hi-res 16mm film frame images post is the source material for the 1 Quick Fix image above. Yup, that's the name of the series: 1 Quick Fix. Hope you enjoy it.
I wanted to ease into things with a film that many of you have probably encountered before. Charles and Ray Eames' Powers of Ten.
I first saw the film in an elementary school science class (via a 16mm
film-strip version). The film's pondering of infinite space blew my
mind then and it still wows me to this day. Over time, it's become famous enough to have
been paid homage to in an intro segment for The Simpsons, practically the modern equivalent of canonization.
'Nuff said about it. Why don't we just take a look at the film? Here it is, from 1977, Charles & Ray Eames'Powers of Ten:
Anyone else exhausted from seeing (or working) so many of this year's screenings at the Portland International Film Festival? The festival officially came to a close last night (although you still have time to catch a few of today's encore screenings at the Whitsell Auditorium and Cinema 21) with, of all things, the PIFF After Dark presentation of Invasion of Alien Bikini.
With PDX' biggest fest behind us, now what? Of course, there's always tonight's Academy Awards telecast, which you could watch in the privacy of your own home or, if you're looking to make it more of a communal thing, catch over at the Hollywood Theater (got my fingers crossed for Mr. Malick and his film, although I'd be just as fine if they give it all to Woody).
But, if I were inclined to just ignore the Oscars (as I often do), the number one thing appearing on a local screen that I'd hit up is the Laurelhurst Theater's limited engagement of The African Queen. Bogie and Hepburn floating down the river under the direction of Humphrey's best drinkin' buddy John Huston (the duo were reportedly soused on gin for much of the production, "to keep the mosquitoes off)...what's not to love?
The African Queen will
screen for
the public at the Laurelhurst Theater today at 1pm & 6:40pm. It runs through Thurs. 3/1, all weekday screenings are at 6:40pm.
...and there's absolutely no reason that you can't pull for Demián Bichir as the long-shot for best actor while simultaneously getting your Bogie on, right?
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If there's any justice in this world, Bullhead will take home the trophy for best foreign language film next Sunday (although I suspect a much safer film will do so). Either way, go see this movie! Hit the link to see what I had to say about it a couple of weeks ago.
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Like it or not, 35mm projection is a dying form. The rumors of its death have been coming for years now as the digital revolution has rapidly gained ground, at first on film and television production sets, then, more recently, as the majority of theaters nationwide have added (or, in many cases, transitioned entirely to) digital projection for exhibition purposes.
Care for a more local example of this technological shift? One of the Regal Cinemas locations in Portland is abandoning 35mm exhibition forever this week; the last film (read: 35mm presentation) shown there will be a PIFF 35 screening.
But (with all this context building) I'm kind of spinning away from the event that I wanted to highlight: next week, local gem Cinema 21 is hosting what they're calling "a celebration of over a hundred years of celluloid bliss, before it disappears." What this translates to is a double-feature of Billy Wilder's 1944 noir classic Double Indemnity paired with Hammer Productions' 1969 technicolor horror flick Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.
Tom Ranieri and the gang over at Cinema 21 are offering up their 35mm-centric, double-feature for two nights only, Wednesday, February 29th and Thursday, March 1st. What's more, admission is on them! Yeah, that's right, a FREE, classically-minded double billing at one of the best theaters in town. Be sure to thank them at their very reasonably priced concession stand. Maybe I'll see you in line?
The FREE double feature of Double Indemnity (@7pm) and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (@9:15) runs next Wednesday (2/29) and Thursday (3/1) at Cinema 21. Don't miss out!
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It didn't matter how tired I was after so many PIFF screenings. There was no way I was gonna miss out on Wim Wenders' appearance at Cinema 21 last week. The man is a personal hero of mine, his fluidity of process continually inspiring my own approach to creative work.
There's a unique flavor of narrative freedom saturated with resigned nostalgia present in the best of Wenders' work (Alice in the Cities, Lightning Over Water, Paris, Texas, and The American Friend, to name just a few). Even if you've only seen a couple of his movies, his style is unmistakable, though his path to getting there varies from project to project.
One of the New German Cinema pack (a name given by film journalists to a group of post-reconstruction era German auteurs of the time that also included Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, etc.) that sprung into the limelight during the 1970s, Wenders, like Herzog,
is one of the few who grew into an international artist, working outside
of Germany regularly, spreading his European sensibilities beyond the borders of his homeland.
Presently, he's promoting his most recent film, Pina, the Oscar-nominated, 3D documentary that presents the work of the late choreographer/dance company director Pina Bausch. It's why he showed up in our small burg, introducing the film, as well as sticking around to answer a few questions from the audience after the 7pm screening.
Before the film, Wenders asked if anyone had ever been to a small village named Wuppertal, where the film is set. A couple of hoots from the audience either suggested that, yes, a few people had visited, or that the many beers being sold in the lobby were inspiring an agreeable conviviality bordering on benign deception; either way, it was clear that the audience was already in the palm of Wim's hand.
The film itself is a wonderful use of stereoscopic technology. Even more than Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, I can't imagine how reduced the experience would be by seeing the film in a two-dimensional presentation. It requires the illusion of defined 3D space to properly convey the dances that Pina and her company conceived together. Beyond that, it's a beautiful introduction to Pina's work, even to a dance neophyte such as myself.
Post-screening, Wim admitted that if Pina had not passed shortly before
shooting on the project began the film would have been an
entirely different picture. He said his original vision was to make a film about Pina's eyes, the way she saw, and how it influenced her work. After Bausch's death, the dancers convinced Wenders that there was still a film that could be made about Pina; one that still included the four numbers that Pina had wanted in the project.
On their own, those dance pieces were not enough to constitute a film and Wenders found himself in need of an appropriate solution for supplementing the material. He relied on the dance company's intimate knowledge of Pina's process to inform his own ability to add to the planned material, devising a film that included additional dances prompted by a complex series of (Pina's) questions answered by danced responses. Those additions, all filmed outside the studio, add a harmonizing playfulness that breathes much life into the film. Yet again, another example of Wenders' ability to work outside the box to great results.
If you'd like to hear Wenders speak more about the project, why not listen to the most recent edition of the NW Film Center's Adjust Your Tracking podcast, featuring Film Center staffer/journalist Erik McClanahan's phone conversation with him. Hit the link to tune in.
All photos are courtesy of Viva Las Vegas, who was lucky enough to be in the front row for Wenders' Q&A. Thanks again, Viva!
Also many thanks to both Cinema 21 and PIFF/NW Film Center for partnering to bring Wenders to PDX! A great night, folks.
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Where the two films diverge, however, is in intent; Tarr's story seems
focused on the social plight of those made to subsist on little food and only meager shelter, while unnamed
others have "acquired everything in a sneaky, underhanded fight." The unending storm raging outside Ohlsdorfer's cottage, paired with the repetition across the film's documentation of six days, traps the characters in this world, allowing for few options other than those that preserve them in a state barely resembling life.
The Turin Horse is some kind of horror show; one where base reality becomes the stuff of nightmares, a slow, creeping apocalyptic vision that indicts the day-to-day, hand-to-mouth existence of the majority. Tarr's affinities lie with Ohlsdorfer, his daughter and the titular
beast, whose own degraded state is reflective of the people in the film. Those not suffering under such conditions are kept out of view, hidden by the storm and ignored by the film, save a brief mention of having "debased everything."
This is reportedly Tarr's final work as a director. If this holds true, it's one hell of a way to end his career. Tarr and his regular crew of collaborators have crafted a slow-moving, elegiac farewell of such depth and substance that one wonders if they ever could have topped it.
The Turin Horse will
screen for
the public at Cinema 21 on Feb. 18th at 8:15pm and Feb. 21st at 7pm.
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Darkness enshrouds the landscape in much of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's (Climates, Distant) latest work, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia; the best film I've seen from this year's crop at the Portland International Film Festival. Whereas some films at the fest have seemed wafer thin (The Silver Cliff being a prime example), Ceylan's is a substantial feast; a visually stunning, 2 1/2 hour-long flick that navigates its extended running time without losing the interest of viewers or relying on cheap spectacle to keep 'em in their seats. The balance is all in the story and characters, both of which are, like the land traversed, hidden from full view at first.
At the beginning of this tale, all we know is that a caravan of cars are driving at night. They carry a group that includes a police commissar (Yilmaz Erdogan) and his men, a prosecuting attorney (Taner Birsel), a doctor (Muhammet Uzuner) and some suspects. One of the suspects, Kenan (Firat Tanis), is leading them to where a body has been buried. The only problem is that Kenan had been drinking heavily when the suspects disposed of their victim, so he's having a difficult time remembering the exact spot. Frustration sets in; an emotion that is transferred to the viewer, given the immersive quality lent to the film by its languid pacing and, eventually, the men begin to tell each other stories.
Ceylan pulls off a clever narrative bait-and-switch here: we expect the film to be about the search. But as the characters divulge their secrets one by one, it becomes clear that the film isn't in any hurry to resolve that quest. So we're left with what the men have to say to each other and the golden-hued spaces in which they speak their truths; a far more fascinating prospect than I could describe here without spoiling the content of those conversations.
In the overall realm of indie drama, there's the gritty stuff and then there's Snowtown, an Australian feature that makes darkly-themed masterpieces like Michael Cuesta'sL.I.E. and Andrea Arnold'sFish Tank seem almost lighthearted in comparison. First time director Justin Kurzel shows an unflinching resolve to tell his story without compromises; a choice that means that many people will not make it all the way to the end of his debut film. For what it's worth, it's an incredibly well-crafted but, ultimately, bleak and disturbing picture.
Let's quickly go over the details: Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) lives with his mother, Elizabeth (Louise Harris), and his brothers in a run down hovel. Not long after Elizabeth unwisely leaves her boys in the care of a neighborhood pedophile, she begins a relationship with John (Daniel Henshall), whose unhealthy obsession with retribution against sex offenders is an early indicator of his own violent dysfunction. John and Jamie rapidly hit a dynamic that mimics a father-son relationship, promising Jamie a respite from his otherwise bleak existence, that is, until John places a gun in his hand, demanding that he become an accomplice in the first of many unthinkable tasks.
Snowtown is based on the true story of John Bunting, a notorious Australian serial killer, whose extreme hatred for homosexuals and pedophiles led him to perpetrate a series of crimes known as the Snowtown murders. Although it's focused on Bunting's crimes, the story is relayed almost entirely from Jamie's perspective, which means the viewer is given just the contours of Bunting's malevolence at first, providing a Hitchcockian tension to the film that, once the threat has been fully substantiated, fills the audience with fearful apprehension about what lies ahead.
It's also worth noting the overall aesthetic at play here. I mentioned Fish Tank at the beginning of the review. Like that film, Snowtown draws heavily from Ken Loach's strategies for social realist storytelling, handheld camerawork mingles with an undressed sense of poverty-stricken places and the disenfranchised people who occupy them.
Because Kurzel's film is about a serial killer, the overall result of the realist approach couldn't be farther from other movies dealing with the same phenomenon; unlike Hollywood blockbusters about serial killers, this film doesn't romanticize or glorify its monster. Contrasted with examples of the genre like American Psycho or Natural Born Killers, Snowtown is truly capable of inspiring a horrified recoil in the viewer, especially in those willing to stick with it and ponder the unmitigated evil being depicted here.
It's an incredibly potent and self-assured debut film, exceptionally nihilistic in its worldview and containing hypnotic, career-making performances from both Pittaway and Henshall. It's also one of the darkest films I've ever seen at a festival, presenting sequences involving incest, pedophilia, torture, murder, animal abuse, etc. Consider yourself warned.
Snowtown will
screen for
the public at the Lloyd Mall 6 on Feb. 24th at 6:30pm and at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 25th at 8:30pm.
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There's a good chance that many people will come to Free Men because Tahar Rahim is its lead actor. Fair enough, Rahim deservedly got a lot of attention for his electrifying performance in Jacques Audiard's 2009 prison crime film, A Prophet. I hadn't read anything about Free Men before seeing it, so I wasn't even aware in advance that Rahim is in the film. To his credit, he disappears so much into the role of Younes, a black market smuggler turned resistance fighter, that I didn't recognize him until the final scene of the film.
The movie that Rahim appears in is only slightly less nuanced than his performance, probably due to a lower budget than what Audiard's film was afforded. Free Men is set in Paris during the Nazi occupation, focusing on Algerian men who threw their lot in against the occupying forces. The main thrust of the story lies with Younes burgeoning friendship with Salim (Mahmud Shalaby), an Algerian singer whose true ethnicity is called into question by German forces. Seeing the danger that is unfolding, Younes is forced to interrogate the ethical code upon which he has always relied, choosing between self-preservation or what he knows to be the right path.
Free Men contains a very good third act, but does take its time getting there. There's a strong sense of economy at play in the film that, while delaying the thrills early on, saves the majority of the impact for when its best utilized, near the end of the story.
Free Men screens twice more for
the public at Cinemagic on Feb. 14th at 6pm and at the Lloyd
Mall 6 on Feb. 20th at 2:30pm.
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Patagonia does something that's become quite common in contemporary cinema; it attempts to tell parallel stories based around a single theme. Like with Robert Altman'sNashville, pretty much the model for how this structure works, director Marc Evans (Snow Cake) chooses to make the setting of his film the lead character; in this case, the South American region referenced in the title.
The latter tale is the more interesting of the two and I couldn't help wishing that Evans had chosen to focus only on Alejandro and Cerys' journey. The other story arc
comes off as overly soapy in a film where the tone doesn't justify the
dramatic excesses of the material, resulting in a film that feels more
than a little schizophrenic at times. Even though you can easily guess how
Alejandro and Cerys' story will end, it's lovely to watch as the two meander through Patagonia, searching for the farm where Cerys' mother used to live.
Patagonia will
screen for
the public at the Lake Twin Cinema today (Feb. 11th) at 8:30pm and at Pioneer Place 5 on Feb. 14th at 8:45pm A final screening will occur
on Feb. 16th at Cinemagic at 6pm.
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Philippe Faladeau'sMonsieur Lazhar travels well-trodden cinematic ground; it's easily filed into the inspirational teacher genre, of which there are already some fairly successful models out there (To Sir, with Love and Stand and Deliver come to mind). So it's nice to see that what could have been yet another by-the-numbers entry is, in fact, an intelligent and humanistic look at a group of students and the adults mentoring them through the healing process in the wake of a tragic event.
Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) is a man who has recently immigrated to Quebec from his Algerian homeland. He shows up at the elementary school where most of the action of the film takes place, seeking to replace a teacher who has recently died. While the circumstances behind Bachir's move are complicated, they make him the ideal candidate for dealing with a classroom packed full of children who have recently experienced their own loss.
Monsiuer Lazhar is an excellent film with an emotional core that has the potential to resonate for all ages (however, younger children might have difficulty with the themes or the fact that the film is subtitled). In many ways, it reminded me of Thomas McCarthy'sThe Visitor, another film that tackles difficult subject matter in an optimistic fashion without attempting to declaw the more troubling emotional aspects at play.
Monsiuer Lazhar will
screen for
the public at the Lake Twin Cinema today (Feb. 11th) at 3pm and at the Lloyd
Mall 6 on Feb. 13th at 6:15pm A final screening will occur
on Feb. 15th at Pioneer Place 5 at 8:45pm.
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The organized crime genre is a pretty crowded fieldbut I'm fairly certain that Bullhead is the only film I've ever seen centered on the Flemish mafia. Directed by Michael R. Roskam, Bullhead doesn't romanticize it's characters or their trade; these mobsters deal in bovine growth hormone, forcing the local ranchers and farmers of the Belgian countryside to produce "their cows." The film begins just as a police investigator has been killed on the order of a crime boss.
If the crime angle is the wide view of the story, the close-in perspective lies with Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts), a mountain of man whose own daily use of steroids and hormone treatment therapy darkly parallels the business in which he is an enforcer. Roskam slowly paints the details of Jacky's back story, showing us how a young child of promise was turned into a man who intimidates for a living.
Schoenaerts plays Jackie as a maladjusted child in a giant's body,
aching with loss, unable to connect with others, and placed into dire circumstances where he stands to lose everything.
This is a gritty, excellent character piece masquerading as a crime thriller. The majority of Belgian cinema I've encountered has been inspired either by the Dardenne brothers or the wry comedy of Finland's Aki Kaurismäki (Eldorado or Aaltra are examples of the latter's influence). In this regard, Bullhead feels fresh and without precedent in the realm of Belgian imports; its nearest comparisons in tone being Steve McQueen'sHunger or David Michôd'sAnimal Kingdom. It's a fascinating and disturbing ride, well worth the price of admission.
Bullhead will
screen for
the public at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 11th at 12:30pm. A second screening is scheduled
on Feb.
14th at the Whitsell Auditorium at 8:45pm.
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The crux of The Extraordinary Voyage is of more modern concern, detailing the discovery of a hand-colored version of Le Voyage dans la Lune and the painstaking restoration of that print. The piece does a good job of detailing the challenges of the process without dwelling too long on the technical aspects of the task. And its easy as a viewer to root for the restoration team and their small victories as the film is rescued frame by frame.
The real treat of the presentation, however, comes after the documentary reaches its end. The chance to see the restored, color version of A Trip to the Moon projected on a large screen is not to be missed. Featuring a new soundtrack by the French musical duo Air, A Trip to the Moon vibrates with an unexpected amount of energy, more than a century after its conception.
Contemporary audiences may have endless amounts of onscreen fantasies and spectacle to choose from nowadays, but this is a rare opportunity to see one of the earliest examples as it was meant to be experienced, in a theater setting. Do not pass it up.
The Extraordinary Voyage will
screen for
the public at the World Trade Center Theater tonight (Feb. 10th) at 8:45pm and at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 12th at 3pm.
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