MIFF 2019 - Day 5

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

This film pissed me off. Ostensibly about Marianne Ihlen, Leonard Cohen's partner for maybe 8 years, it frequently drops her from the story to talk about random Cohen stuff that's often less interesting. More unfortunately, there are interviews and commentary that hint toward a far more interesting film. One about the destruction a person leaves in their wake while pursuing their art. Centred as it is on Cohen's time with Marianne on the Greek island of Hydra, we hear about the children of the expats on the island, mostly now dead or institutionalised. Stories of the freewheeling artists spiking children's drinks with acid, the hedonism consuming the talent of the adults living there, etc. There's a better film to be made about this, deconstructing the romantic myths of artists abroad, producing great works while living free. And while it dances around the idea of destructing the myth of an artists muse, it shies away from really going where the material keeps pulling your interest, the roadkill on the path to success. It's a gutless work, though probably still worth it for a Cohen tragic.

Over the Rainbow

Opening on an interview with a psychologist examing PTSD in claimed alien abductee victims, we're set up with an interesting idea. That the very thing that causes you trauma can also be something that profoundly elevates your sense of being. It's an interesting angle to take in understanding why people believe in and stick with Scientology. What does it bring to someone's life? What does any religion for that matter? Unfortunately, while it presents a number of believers to us, it never asks them that question. It's a bit of a waste of time really. And the numbing, hypnotic soundtrack is probably not well chosen. When a film is this dull, a soundtrack that threatens to put you to sleep is ill advised.

Midnight Family

Best doco of the year. Easily. Following a family run private paramedic service in Mexico City, you start off heralding them as heroes for filling the gap that endemic government corruption and disinterest has created. There are very few government ambulances, so private ones take on the role. For a fee. But roughly 70% of patients either can't or won't pay, and police shake them down regularly for bribes. And you follow the family as they have to make more and more ethically dubious choices to stay in business. They're on the edge of poverty themselves, constantly near broke, and providing an essential service. You're going to be challenged, as it would be easy to view them as shakedown artists by the end. But things are far more complex. It's a ground level view of the consequences of government failure and corruption. Go see it the moment it's on general release.

Memory: The Origin of Alien

A more angular take on the making of Alien. Not just looking at the influences on the script, design work and so on, but at the influences on those prior works. Diving into mythology, the collective unconscious and more, it brings out a lot. Easily one of the most interesting analyses of the film to date, and one definitely worth checking out.