Thoughts on the Sydney Film Festival

I was supposed to go camping on the Saturday and Sunday of the June long weekend so I cut back my Sydney Film Festival sessions to a Flexipass10 (usually I buy a Flexipass20 or 30 and watch 15-20 films and share the rest). Of course I knew that watching fewer films meant any 'bad' films would comprise a higher ratio of the overall selection and skew my impression of the festival as a whole. But even though I had to skip a few on my shortlist due to clashing schedules and other commitments, I was fairly confident of my choices because the last few years I seem to have picked films I've liked fairly universally.

So, how was it?

Here's are some short reviews (some spoilers—beware!):

NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS

Blurb: In this assured and astonishing feature-film debut, life in a middle-class neighbourhood in present-day Recife, Brazil, takes an unexpected turn after the arrival of an independent private-security firm. 

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars and surprised myself by awarding it that highly. In this 'slice of life' film, narrative plays a loose second to character. All the characters and the roles they play in the neighbourhood show the dynamic and culture of the street but there is simply not enough here to be more than a sketch of a film. We have a bored housewife, a bored building manager and his grandfather, a bored property magnate, and the families and ancillary characters that encircle them threatening, but never quite managing, to carve some sort of narrative arc.

Top marks go to mood and for the artful elevation of the neighbourhood into a character of its own. I suspect I gave one more star than it deserved because I have a soft spot for the underlying theme, the interconnectedness of all things.


POSTCARDS FROM THE ZOO

Blurb: Maverick Indonesian director Edwin creates a dreamlike world in this story about a girl raised in a zoo whose life changes when she meets a handsome cowboy with magical powers.


I gave it 3 out of 5 stars, one for the mention of 'postcard', one for the mention of 'zoo' and another for having a character best described as 'handsome cowboy with magical powers'. This film shows what happens when tight magical realism unravels into a 'then this happened' kind of story. The first thing that happens is a really cute little girl wanders around the zoo at night looking for her father. It's never explained how she was left behind. She finds an encampment of unofficial zoo workers and we accept that she grows up at the zoo as an unofficial guide before following said magical cowboy into the 'real world' as his assistant. During practice of a disappearing trick, he literally disappears and she gets a job as a masseuse in a shady parlour down the road.

I think Edwin was trying to hard to convey the parallels between this innocent girl and the captive animals that she loves so much. There's a sense of exploitation at both the zoo and the parlour, and even the cowboy's employment of her as his assistant. The reason it doesn't work is that he's trying to cram too many surreal moments into a fairly weak narrative and these quirks jolt us into realising there are too many unanswered questions, enough to make us distrust the quivery story. However, the lead actress was likeable and I love zoos so I'll stick with the rating.


L

Blurb: Drolly funny Greek 'Weird Wave' film about a driver, referred to as the Man, who lives and works in his car and spends all his time sourcing the finest honey for a narcoleptic—occasionally meeting his wife and children in a carpark.


I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. The theme of disconnection and connection is quite strong, coming through in the set-up of the Man living in his car and then, after he loses his honey-couriering job, joining a motorcycle gang. Meeting his estranged wife and children is also a recurring motif, as is dreaming about a dead friend who appears in the film as a man pretending to be a bear.

There's quite a bit of WTF?! in this film and in some weird way I do care about the Man, but the piecemeal story was too alienating for me to truly like it. At the end, all I could think was 'that was it?'


LOVE LASTS THREE YEARS

Blurb: This charming comedy follows the misadventures of a literary critic who meets an irresistible and inaccessible beauty and tries to hide the fact that he wrote a cynical bestseller denouncing love.

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars for its tight script, well-cast characters and real laughs. It was also a beautiful film with some excellent cinematographic choices, which is unusual for a comedy. The script plays for laughs on three levels: there is farce, there is slapstick but there is also plenty of clever wordplay (the main character is a literary critic, after all). Our protagonist is a likeable but self-absorbed rogue who is too smart for his own good but with whom we empathise in his quest to understand love after he's jilted by his wife and falls for his cousin's spouse.

There's no Hollywood ending here; although he gets the girl, he doesn't 'learn a lesson' about himself or about love, but in the meantime we do. Sort of. At least we laugh at what we think we understand, which is far more important in a film that bills itself as a comedy.



BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Blurb: A Sundance and Cannes prize winner, this unforgettable feature-film debut is set in a defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world, as icebergs melt and prehistoric creatures descend.

I gave it 5 out of 5 stars for its heartbreaking beauty, vitality and indomitable spirit. This is magical realism at its best: grounded enough in reality for us to understand and care for these fringe characters who dwell in poverty but are otherwise happy, but wondrous enough to open our eyes to the world that they see for themselves, a sparkling, carefree future. The theme of freedom was as tearaway as the main character Hushpuppy and lingered long after the closing shot.



DEATH OF A JAPANESE SALESMAN

Blurb: The last months in the life of recently retired Japanese businessman as recorded by his filmmaker daughter: a surprisingly funny and immensely moving documentary.

I gave it 3 out of 5 stars but on second thoughts it should probably have one more (which I will take from 'Neighbouring Sounds'...). This film is incredibly droll for a doco about death and much of that comes from the filmmaker's well-scripted voiceover as she speaks as her father. An example: "That's my youngest daughter. She should stop following me around with a camera and find a husband." However, in some ways this makes the accompanying image lose some intimacy.

The scenes were well chosen, representing the traits of both her father and the wider family, while keeping to the thread of his preparation for death. It's amazing that throughout this doco we are prepared for his death and yet feel it so acutely when he does pass. I bawled my eyes out.


PINK RIBBONS, INC

Blurb: Provocative documentary that exposes problems with the ubiquitous pink-themed corporate fundraising for breast cancer research.

I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. For everyone who has ever been annoyed at how pervasive pink is during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, how entwined pink is with breast cancer, and suspicious about where all the money really goes, this doco is for you.

First of all, this is a brilliant film to see if you are interested in how to market a disease. 'Pink Ribbons, Inc' deals with the corporatisation of breast cancer and how it shapes the way we think about charities and medical research. But beyond that, it looks at some of the hypocrisies in the Pink Ribbon campaign (e.g. companies that sell carcinogenic products sponsoring Pink Ribbon events) and the gaps in where the funding goes (too much towards research to find a cure and not enough towards investigating causes).

While presented as a stock standard doco (talking head cut to Pink Ribbon event cut to animated graphic cut to talking head), it doesn't push a cynical view but fairly even handedly allows its interviewees to say what they need to say. Any cynicism comes from the audience's perception of that interviewee. Really made me think not just about Pink Ribbons but charity marketing as a whole.




ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

Blurb: Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan takes on the police procedural, and the result is a beautifully layered narrative in which every line of dialogue contributes to solving the puzzle.

I gave it 3 out of 5 stars, all for cinematography. The blurb lies: there is no puzzle, just long lingering shots of the Turkish countryside and a seemingly neverending night in which a team of police staff attempt to find the body of a murder victim using the testimony of a prisoner who has confessed to the crime.

This is a beautiful-looking film, badly made. I understand the Ceylan is trying to make us feel like the characters who must endure the long night, but all of that could've easily been rectified with an injection of narrative. By the end of it I didn't care for any of the characters, what they did or did not do, nor the murder victim, nor the prisoner. The 'twist' is more like a clumsy reveal that loses its meaning in the weak ending.


ALPS

Blurb: The team behind Greek 'Weird Wave' films Dogtooth and Attenberg return with the absurd tale of a secret club whose members are paid to act as replacements for the recently deceased.  

I gave it 2 out of 5 stars and was incredulous when I found out it had won the 2012 Sydney Film Festival Official Competition prize. Granted I came into the session at least 20 minutes late and may have missed some of the crucial setup, I mustered no sympathy for any of the characters and what should've been a compelling premise fell flat in every scene due to the thick layer of contrivance to be weird.

The addictive nature of the club's activities was the strongest part of the film and that was well played throughout, but the dynamic between the characters was stilted and the dialogue (albeit deliberately in some scenes) even more so.


A SIMPLE LIFE

Blurb: With perfect performances from Andy Lau and Deanie Ip, Ann Hui's moving film looks at the decades-long relationship between a man and a devoted family servant who suffers a stroke. 

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. This film surprised me as I didn't expect to like it so much. Apart from being a touching story, the blurb was right about the perfect performances: for a sentimental story it was emotionally restrained and well played. It was also surprisingly humorous with some light touches that didn't feel inserted. The theme of family and belonging was very clear and although I didn't bawl my eyes as in 'Death of a Japanese Salesman', I did shed a tear for aunty when she passed, yet I was happy that she had found true friendship with her ward before she did.


OVERALL
Aesthetically this was one of the best film festivals I've experienced for cinematography, so I gave it plenty of points for beauty. For a festival that touted the slogan 'One festival, infinite stories', however, there was a distinct lack of narrative in many of the films I watched, which was disappointing from both an expectation level and an enjoyment level.

I watch films because they have a beginning, middle and end. The good ones make me think and are enjoyable to watch, the bad ones at least end. All these 'slice of life' films and movies with weak endings just make me feel like I've wasted my time. I mean, if you're not going to provide closure, all you're doing is setting me up for disappointment because hell, as a filmmaker, you have to give me enough plot, character, setting so I can construct something worthwhile for the time and money I've afforded you.

I can get a good plot from a book, I can get good characters from TV, I can get good settings from my travels: only in cinema do these three elements combine in an optimal way to become art. Unfortunately in the 2012 Sydney Film Festival there were too many parts missing for the films to really soar.