Another great film fest report. Good work folks. I just love reports like this one from film fests...
Hey, Harry, Capone from Chicago here (I submitted the first review of Beloved a couple weeks ago) with the first of my two-part Chicago Film Festival report.
I've read some of the previous reports on the festival that have run so far, and those fools have reviewed some of the most obscure selections (with a few exceptions). Since I've seen so many reports on films like Apt Pupil, Gods and Monsters, The Mighty, Pleasantville, and Happiness, I'll keep my comments on these to a minimum.
I haven't seen Happiness yet, but of this bunch, Gods and Monsters made the greatest impression on me for all the reasons that have been stated on your site a thousand times. Aside from the obviously wonderful lead performances, I cannot say enough about Lynn Redgrave's unrecognizable turn as Whale's maid. Director Bill Condon was in attendance.
Apt Pupil didn't creep me out as much as I'd hoped, but what a one-two punch for Ian McKellen.
Pleasantville had much more depth then the trailers had led me to believe it would. The shots of book burnings, in particular, made the hair on my arms stand on end. But on the way out of the theatre, I heard several audience members compare it to The Truman Show, which frankly I don't get. If you verbally describe the stories of the two films to someone, I suppose they come out sounding slightly similar, but the execution is so different. If anything, Pleasantville was a deconstruction of the '50's TV-show mentality and of the 1950s in general. The question asked here is, How would the seemingly perfect and innocement casts of "Leave It To Beaver"- or "Father Knows Best"-type shows have handled issues about sex, for example? The answer, according to writer- director Gary Ross, is that they'd turn into paranoid, Nazi-esque bastards. It was this dark corner that Ross chose to look at under a spotlilght that I appreciated. Ross was at the screening and he confessed to swiping a few camera angles from Citizen Kane and Patton (think of J.T. Walsh in front of the bowling scores as George C. Scott in front of the flag; very funny).
Little Voice--Although it had its flaws, Little Voice will probably leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Jane Horrocks (who you may remember from Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet and who also had a part on Ab Fab) plays the title character as she did in the play on which this film is based. The playwright apparently wrote this play for her to capitalize on her uncanny ability to mimic the singing and speaking voices of singers such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday, Shirley Bassey, etc. It was great to see Michael Caine back in form. He definitely did not pay for an addition to his house with this part. Brenda Blethyn (from Secrets and Lies) plays LV's evil, spiteful mother; and Ewan McGregor plays a nice guy who raises pigeons. (He probably did this thankless part as a favor to director Mark Herman, who directed Ewan in Brassed Off.) Horrocks and Blethyn were at the opening night screening.
Blethyn also attended the screening of another of her films called Girls' Night, with Julie Walters and Kris Kristoferson. It was a better-than-it-has-any-right- to-be film about a woman (Blethyn) who finds out she has cancer the same day she wins a huge British lottery. She and Walters decide to leave their husbands for a week and party in Las Vegas before Blethyn dies (real cheery, right?). In Vegas, they meet a rugged cardboard-cutout cowboy played by...hmmmm, I wonder? The best thing I can say about this is that, along with Little Voice, you get a real sense of Blethyn's range, two completely different roles. You also get a sense of Walter's total lack of range.
Hold You Tight--Already reviewed by someone else. Sad story about a computer programmer whose wife dies in a plane crash. (I had trouble believing that a computer programmer could every find someone to marry him, but that's just me). Beautiful film, with a subplot about a gay friend of the programmer's who quietly loves him from afar.
Of Freak and Mean--Bizarre but beautiful film set in turn-of-the-century Russia, right at the creating of the motion picture (and thus the Russian porno industry). The director explained that his idea was to create a loose story around some old faded photos he's seen of young women being spanked by elderly women. I guess these were big sellers in Russia at the end of the 1800s. The whole film is shot looks like a faded black-and-white photographs. The look and pacing reminded me a great deal of old David Lynch.
Down in the Delta--Maya Angelou's dismal directing debut. She has no idea how to control actors, I'm sorry. I feel terrible saying that. Al Freeman (from Malcolm X) is the only one who doesn't seem fake in this. There's another film floating around the festival circuit right now called Mixing Nia with Burt Reynolds that covers this material a little better.
Hi-Life--from the director of Sleep With Me and Bodies, Rest and Motion comes this Christmas-themed film about a bunch of 30-somethings with nothing. Stars Eric Stoltz, Campbell Scott, Moira Kelly, Charles Durning, Daryl Hannah, and Katrin Cartlidge. Funny but nothing special. The director said it was scheduled to premiere on HBO around Christmas.
My Son the Fanatic--One of the hidden gems. About a Pakistani man (played by the actor who was the main villain in Temple of Doom) living in London whose son decides to become ultra religious. Based on a short story by the guy that wrote My Beautiful Launderette. Also stars Stellan Skarsgard (what isn't this guy in these days?) as a sex-starved German businessman.
My Name Is Joe--I haven't seen too much on your site about this one, but I think your readers would love it. The new film by Ken Loach featuring the best male performance I've seen all year by Peter Mullan (he won the best-acting prize at Cannes this year for this). This film avoids all the trappings of films about recovering alcoholics. There's genuine tension and heart in every corner of this one. Seek it out.
Class Trip--The latest from Claude Miller (who did The Little Thief and The Accompanist, for those French film buffs out there). The story of a child killer as told through the eyes of a child who seemingly has nothing to do with the killer. It sounds strange, but the "killer" aspect of the film is secondary to the story of the child whose shyness and imagination lead to serious trouble. Lots of Hitchcock and Chabrol elements to this one. Really great.
Those are the ones worth mentioning that I've seen. There's still a week to go: Including a screening of Horror of Dracula (1958) with festival judge Christopher Lee in attendance; Foxy Brown with honoree Pam Grier in the house; Happiness; Too Tired To Die (with Mira Sorvino); Theory of Flight (with Kenneth Brannagh and Helena Bonham Carter); Waking Ned Devine; Claude Lelouch's Chances or Coincidences; Bergman's return to directing, In the Presence of a Clown; the Cannes Palme d'or (sp?) winner Eternity and a Day; Left Luggage with Isabella Rossellini and Maximilian Schell; and Central Station from Brazil (everybody's crowing about this one).
Talk to you in a week or so,
Capone
