Latauro @ MIFF #3: SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS, THE WILD BLUE YONDER and SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE!!!

In the past twenty-four hours, I've written the following three reviews, plus two for this weekend's AICN-Downunder column, and I don't think I have much more typing left in me. Basically, you're spared another rambling intro. On to the films!

SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS

Like many of the films I booked, I knew practically nothing about this film. From the title, I could only presume this was the sequel to SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, wherein Joseph Fiennes once again finds true love with a man pretending to be a woman, only the twist is he's actually a man.

The film actually turned out to be a documentary about a programme known as, believe it or not, "Shakespeare Behind Bars", designed to aid the rehabilitation of prisoners in the US by giving them a Shakespeare play to perform each year. When you discover this, you expect an uplifting story featuring an inspirational teacher who will one day be played by Willem Dafoe, but instead get a sobering look at who these guys are and what they do.

Impressively, the film avoids judgment of any kind on anyone in this film. The prisoners are not the devil incarnate, but nor are they Andy Dufresne. The warden is neither a hero or a villain. The bloke who initiated the programme is not Jesus; he's just a guy. Every time you think the film is telling you how to feel, it goes in the other direction. Just as we get close to a prisoner we're told what it is they did that put them in prison. But we're not told by any third party; we're told by the prisoners themselves. Watching one of the inmates talk about the seven girls he molested whilst fighting back the tears, you don't know whether you feel sorry for him or whether you want to throw away the key.

Watching these guys get so passionate about performing "The Tempest" is really quite (and I hate to use the word) inspirational. Without ever directly raising the subject, the film makes you question the quality and relevance of incarceration, of punishment versus rehabilitation, of forgiveness and redemption. I find myself re-evaluating my own opinions and positions, and all I did was watch some guys try to put on a play. A truly rewarding experience that I'll be tempted to seek out on DVD.

THE WILD BLUE YONDER

I was afraid this would come to light at some point, and I suppose now is as good a time as any: I haven't seen any Werner Herzog films. GRIZZLY MAN slipped past me, and I'm only minutely sure I even saw his version of NOSFERATU, but on the whole I'd say I've missed the contents of his filmography. So how was my induction to Mr Herzog, given it was via THE WILD BLUE YONDER, a truly bizarre film if ever there was one?

I think I love this film. It's hard to tell, particularly when a film doesn't let you get close to it, but I'm pretty sure it won me over. By the time the film reached the end and I understood the point of it all and I suddenly realised what questions I wanted to ask, the film had hit me in a way I wasn't really expecting. It's impossible to accurately describe what the film is about, but, on a very basic level, an alien from the Andromeda galaxy gives you a brief rundown of his planet's history, and what happened when Earth discovered them. And having said that, if I still worked at that video store in Bentleigh, I'd be putting this under "Documentary" to fuck with people.

The film isn't exclusively the humourous mockumentary that the first half suggests. There are long periods of time in the second half where we're just looking at... things. It's a bit difficult to switch gears in the middle of a film, but if you can get into it, you'll be completely sucked in by the images alone. It wasn't until this point that I realised what Herzog was trying to do. By using the documentary format, he attempts to draw us in and make us believe everything we're watching, thus heightening the impact of the images we eventually see. Is he successful? Mostly. I think he undercuts his (presumed) intention by making the first half so damned entertaining. By the end frames, though, I don't think there will be too many people who won't find themselves truly affected.

Or maybe I'm wrong. This was, after all, the first MIFF screening I'd been to where the audience didn't applaud at the end. It's a terrific feeling that generally only happens to me when I see something powerful at The Astor (THE PASSENGER, 2001, etc), and to experience it so much over the past week has been pretty cool. The applause was significant in its absence (or, as my friend pointed out, the absence of the sole clap-starter who generally kicks us all off), so maybe I'm alone in my appreciation of this film. Who knows?

When the film started, I laughed immediately because I realised the narrator was going to be Brad Dourif. Then I became convinced I was mistaken (without harsh makeup, a big moustache, or a Chucky doll, it's not easy to recognise him), until the end credits revealed I'd been correct in my initial recognition. Dourif is very funny and very sincere in this piece, and a brilliant choice.

I'm really hoping to hate one of the films I see at MIFF, just to break up the monotony of the constantly praise-ridden reviews, but unfortunately WILD BLUE YONDER is not that film. I expect a lot of people won't like it, but it's a film with a message that is told in quite an impressive and unexpected way. It's also one you must see on a big, big screen, so don't wait for the DVD if it's playing anywhere near you.

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE

Like many, my introduction to Park Chan-Wook (or Chan-Wook Park, or Chook Pan-Wark, or Chark-Wan Pook, or whatever order we're supposed to put the letter in these days) was when SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE appeared on Harry's best of list in, I think, 2001. My reaction to any film that could beat out FELLOWSHIP was sceptical, so I wandered along to the next MIFF to check it out. I was suitably blown-away, and have managed to check out OLD BOY, JSA and his THREE... EXTREMES entry. It's safe to say I'm a huge fan, and I'll be at the front of the queue whenever he has a new film playing. (Fun note: I was actually at the front of the queue for LADY VENGEANCE. So I all I write is true.)

The title (we had the SYMPATHY re-attached down here) suggested to me that the tone of this film would be closer to SFMV than OLD BOY. Now, I love both films, but MR VENGEANCE was a much tougher watch than OLD BOY. The brutality was still there in OLD BOY, but it wasn't as seeped in human suffering as MR VENGEANCE was, making it a film I think I'd find it easier to revisit. As the lights dimmed and LADY VENGEANCE begun, I had a shudder of nervous anticipation I usually only get before David Lynch films: what exactly was I getting myself into?

Well, the film is probably the least brutal of the three. Or it could be that I'm just getting more and more desensitised, who knows? But given I was expecting wall-to-wall gore from word one, including horrific rapes, severed limbs, and inconceivable suffering, it was pretty easy going. Don't get me wrong, the film contained those things; I was just pleasantly surprised to find non-gory scenes in-between. Man, this says a lot about my expectations of a Chan-Wook film, doesn't it?

From the moment the credits start, we're treated to the most beautifully operatic opening sequence in quite some time. Instantly, you're reminded of just how good this guy is, and how much better he is with every passing film. The guy does more with his shot design that most other directors, and it's almost overwhelming to see the sheer number of ideas he has for every moments... but they all work. It's not over-directed, and the story is given room to breathe.

And what a story it is. The notion of vengeance seems to become more refined with each film in the series (for newbies, it's a trilogy linked only by the theme of revenge: SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE was first, OLD BOY was second), and it's a lot more touching that I was expecting. Vengeance is cyclical, and the subject of such stories usually end up becoming the thing you hate the most, but the delicacy with which that idea is handled is so subtle and beautiful that I almost forgot about the extreme violence that accompanied it. I say this frequently, but to give you any of the story is to ruin the experience. Park Chan-Wook gives you each morsel when he thinks you're ready for it, and everything is delivered with impossibly-perfect timing.

Is it his best film? Hard to say; I'd need to revisit OLD BOY to find out, but such comparisons are irrelevant once you've seen the film. I only mention the possibility that it may be his best to tantalise those who have yet to see it, as I went in expecting, for some reason, that it wouldn't be a patch on last year's masterpiece. Oh, and the MIFF audience appreciated all the Australia references, so cheers for that, too.

I know I'm praising everything I see (I'll try to see something crap soon, promise), so to give you some added perspective, of the eleven films I've seen at MIFF thus far, LADY VENGEANCE is a contender for the number one spot. Park Chan-Wook really does keep getting better and better...

Peace out,

Latauro
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com