Festival De Nouveau Cinema - Entry # 1

It's always a blast to cover this film fest and just like I did last year, I'll be updating this blog many times in the next few days with my take on some of the hottest titles playing in Canada's oldest film fest, Montreal's Le Festival De Nouveau Cinema. In fact the film fest hasn't even started yet but I was given a few screener DVDs to wet my appetite. At this year's fest I hope to get the same treats as I got last year. Every film fest has its fair share of surprises and this year's edition should be no exception.

The first film I saw was Nadav Lapid's Policeman, an Israeli film that knocked me out for a loop. The film tells of two stories. The first half has to do with Yaron, a hard working Israeli Police Officer with a pregnant wife and a sense of unequivocal fraternity amongst his unit. The second half of the movie is more political - a group of five young Left wing radicals decide to start a revolution to protest the vast difference between Israel's Rich and Poor societies. They want to create a new order in a country they see decimated by poverty. Both stories come together and converge into a thoughtfully carried out finale that consequentially ups the tension a notch. Also showing at the prestigious New York Film Festival, Lapid's film is one like no other. He shoots it with a bracing poet's eye, choosing the right shots and experimenting with the style a little. Here's a small budget movie made into a grandiose cinematic statement, I wouldn't be surprised if more people hear about it in the months to come.

Actress turned director Sarah Polley's followup to her -in my books overrated but- critically acclaimed 2006 debut Away From Here starts off in the same vein as her previous picture, simplistic storytelling and a narrative that doesn't really give us anything new but .. it changes in its last third into a kind of vision I never thought Polley had in her. Take This Waltz is a flawed picture that takes more than its fair share of chances as it goes along. Michelle Williams' Margo is married to a lovable shlub played by Seth Rogen yet she's not contently happy and almost taken aback when she meets the next door neighbour on a business trip and strikes a forbidden chord with him. You know a movie is doing something right when you can relate to some of its characters. The questions Polley raises are valid. Is love enough and worth keeping more than isolated sexual pleasure? Does desire trump love? Williams gives her usual impeccable performance and Rogen is not bad in one of his first dramatic roles. It's a film at war with itself, a kind of schizo mess that doesn't always work but takes chances that make it worth checking out. I think Polley is headed into the right direction but she's still a work in progress.

My recap of the Film Fest

After close to 2 weeks of covering the local film fest, I'm completely movie'd out but I've had time to write about it through The Link and Awards Daily. You can read my thoughts over at Awards Daily by clicking HERE & The Link coverage HERE. If you're too lazy to click and can only scroll here's what I wrote on Sasha Stone's web site.

Montreal’s Le Festival Du Nouveau Cinema concluded its 39th edition on Sunday with Palme D’or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a mesmerizing journey into the nature of life and death. Its puzzling nature was a reassuring sight to see at a fest that was filled with disappointing efforts from the likes of Clair Denis and Catherine Breillat. Sadly, I wouldn’t bet on Weerasethakul’s film getting nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, it is too visionary and ahead of its time to likely get recognized. However, Japan’s official entry in the Oscar race, Tetsuya Nakashima’s Confessions won a deserved Audience Award which is a good sign for its chances come nomination time. Nakashima’s film was THE summer hit in Japan this season and is riding high as a crowd pleaser in festival circuits worldwide. Was it as good a movie as Uncle Boonmee? Of course not but Confessions has an accessibility that the academy will likely cuddle to, in its depiction of a high school teacher seeking revenge on the students that killed her daughter.

Canada’s official submission Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies will also most likely get recognized with a Foreign Film nomination, in fact it might just be a masterpiece & has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classic for a 2011 release. Take that in mind and the fact that it won Best Canadian Film at the recent Toronto Film Fest and you got a real contender. Meanwhile Mexico’s Official entry, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful got a rapturous applause at its screening more than a week ago. I dug Inarritu’s first three directorial efforts but thought this new one didn’t live up to them and was a slight letdown in its depiction of a dying man trying to leave his children a better future before he dies. Javier Bardem is guaranteed a Best Actor nomination and is the reason why the film is even worth watching. As Uxball, a man haunted by his past and worried about his future, Bardem infuses a raw and unforgettable grittiness to his role. The film, despite its exciting visual style, was too conventional to get me all excited.

Although Bardem impressed, Lesley Manville gets my award for Best Performance of the fest as an alcoholically depressed middle aged woman looking for love in Mike Leigh’s great Another Year. Just like Leigh’s other films, Another Year is an actor’s delight and something truly special. We should cherish the films this man gives us because not many people make them like this anymore, simple and wonderful. The film is worth watching alone for Manville’s master class in acting. She infuses the film with a comedic and touching gravity that will astound you from the get go. As far as I’m concerned she will be competing with Annette Benning for the critics’ awards come December, they might just boost her to a nomination.

As far as animated film goes, nothing came close to touching Sylvain Chomet’s follow-up to Belleville Rendezvous, The Illusionist. It’s a real shame that this year has been wonderful in terms of animation but If I were the Academy this would be a cinch for a nomination. Chomet’s breathtaking visual style is a wonder to behold and if The Illusionist might not be as Inventive as his first film, it’s still got more to give us than any other animated film this year, save for maybe Toy Story 3.

Other films that I dug at the fest were Gaspar Noe’s incendiary Enter The Void which, just like Uncle Boonmee, gave a new voice to how cinema could be told with its frenetic camera movements and trippy images that test the patience of its audience- It reveals a spiritual side that I never thought Noe had ditto Mathieu Almaric’s Tournee (On Tour), which won him a Best Directing prize at Cannes. It’s his ode to the American Burlesque performance and he directs the film like a true veteran, infusing hand held camera with a loose narrative to give a kind of cinema verite style to his film.