MIFF 2016 - Day 4
Aaaaand, I'm 40. Funny, feels like I'm 39 still, which felt like 38, etc.
Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton
Guy Maddin directs a Behind the Scenes EPK for Hyena Road, an apparently real Canadian war film. But Maddin can't help himself, and his DVD extra morphs into his signature trippy weirdness, meditating on the nature of war films and questioning the age old question, "Is it possible to make an anti-war film?" It's a short film, but even so it manages to overstay its welcome. But there's some great sequences and a really potent question at the core. If a war film is combat with the absence of death, does that just make it a funeral without a corpse?
Fear Itself
A film essay on horror cinema, and the tricks it deploys to evoke fear in an audience. Ruminating on the effect different films have had on the narrator, and the strange reflections horror films show of human nature, it never quite seems to nail a central thesis. But it does raise lots of interesting points, and the catalogue of films it uses in montage would make an excellent viewing list for the horror aficionado.
The Couple
A kiwi short film about the near disintegration of a marriage after the husband suffers testicular cancer. It's clever in the way it uses mise-en-scene to misdirect, but also underscore the frustration and separation of the two partners. The end is quite beautiful too.
How Heavy This Hammer
Irwin is a man suffering a mid-life crisis. He loves his kids, and kinda loves his wife, but family responsibility leaves him cold. All he wants to do is drink beer, play rugby and play video games. So eventually he leaves and moves above his favourite bar and tries to enjoy freedom. But it doesn't really work out that way. This is a squirm-inducing film that is all too real. Shot primarily in close-up, the effect is that you never get a sense of the world, just the people, and it really works. It's claustrophobic, and just like Irwin, you can't escape. And frustratingly, there's plenty of times in the film where you can see he's a competent human being, a good father and full of the potential to be what he needs to be to cope. But every time he comes close, he retreats back into a self-imposed infantilisation. It's not exactly comfortable viewing, but it's very well made.
Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton
Guy Maddin directs a Behind the Scenes EPK for Hyena Road, an apparently real Canadian war film. But Maddin can't help himself, and his DVD extra morphs into his signature trippy weirdness, meditating on the nature of war films and questioning the age old question, "Is it possible to make an anti-war film?" It's a short film, but even so it manages to overstay its welcome. But there's some great sequences and a really potent question at the core. If a war film is combat with the absence of death, does that just make it a funeral without a corpse?
Fear Itself
A film essay on horror cinema, and the tricks it deploys to evoke fear in an audience. Ruminating on the effect different films have had on the narrator, and the strange reflections horror films show of human nature, it never quite seems to nail a central thesis. But it does raise lots of interesting points, and the catalogue of films it uses in montage would make an excellent viewing list for the horror aficionado.
The Couple
A kiwi short film about the near disintegration of a marriage after the husband suffers testicular cancer. It's clever in the way it uses mise-en-scene to misdirect, but also underscore the frustration and separation of the two partners. The end is quite beautiful too.
How Heavy This Hammer
Irwin is a man suffering a mid-life crisis. He loves his kids, and kinda loves his wife, but family responsibility leaves him cold. All he wants to do is drink beer, play rugby and play video games. So eventually he leaves and moves above his favourite bar and tries to enjoy freedom. But it doesn't really work out that way. This is a squirm-inducing film that is all too real. Shot primarily in close-up, the effect is that you never get a sense of the world, just the people, and it really works. It's claustrophobic, and just like Irwin, you can't escape. And frustratingly, there's plenty of times in the film where you can see he's a competent human being, a good father and full of the potential to be what he needs to be to cope. But every time he comes close, he retreats back into a self-imposed infantilisation. It's not exactly comfortable viewing, but it's very well made.
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:45 AM
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