MIFF (Melbourne Int Film Festival) 2011 Sneak Peek - An Analysis
So the 60th anniversary of
this much loved festival is this year, and the First Glance categories and
brief listings of just some of the hundreds of films was just
announced on their website,
just a few hours ago.
This is an exciting and slightly bewildering list, I felt compelled to cover some of these films in their respective categories and my thoughts on them.
International Panorama
The Kid with a Bike (
The
MIFF has the advantage over
SFF (Sydney Film Festival) in that it actually goes to
Submarine (
Richard Ayoade (star of The
IT Crowd) directs a Rushmore influenced love story.
Richard is a comic talent, I hope he can bring his unique brand of humor to the directing chair, although from what I have seen on ScreenAnarchy, I am really looking forward to this.
Documentaries
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (
Cinematic legend Werner
Herzog presents an astonishing glimpse of our prehistoric forebears.
Whether this will be in 3D (as intended) remains to be seen.
El Bulli - Cooking in
Progress (
Covers the meticulous
preparation that goes into one of the most imaginative menus in the world.
MIFF has a food fetish, there were at least 4 doco's last year that covered the topic of food and cooking, and this year will probably be no different, I expect the inclusion of SFF's Jiro Dreams Of Sushi too; good news for the restaurants surrounding the venues!
Project Nim (
A chimp is taught sign
language and raised in a human family in an attempt to bridge the gap between
human and animal.
Anything by James Marsh (Man on wire) is sure to be a winner.
Next Gen (cinema for
the young at heart)
Falling for Sahara (
Three young African refugees
in
A love square set in the
'burbs of
Tales of the Night (
Master of animation Michel
Ocelot presents an entrancing series of six fairy tales, in silhouetted 3D.
This just sounds amazing.
Under the Hawthorn Tree (China/Hong
Kong)
Zhang Yimou (Hero) adapts a
story about youthful passion amid the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution of
1970's
An awful adaptation of a classic novel; middle class, badly casted and directed without passion Zhang Yimou continues to meander.
Accent on
Norwegian Wood (
I once had a girl, or should
I say she once had me.
It is not uncommon to see
films I dislike, or even hate, but Norwegian Wood surpasses even those negative
feelings to enter a league of its own; it is a crime to the original and
beloved masterpiece by Haruki Murakami. It misses all of the vital elements of
the book, ignoring the protagonists other lover almost completely. Sure it has
beautiful scenery but it is irrelevant to the explanation of the INTERNAL
struggles each character faces, and the music by Johnny Underwood belongs in
There Will Be Blood, not counter-revolutionary
13 Assassins (Japan/UK)
"[Director] Takashi Miike is
in top, slashtastic form." - Variety
The house of blue leaves showdown (Kill Bill Volume 1) stood as my all time favourite fighting sequence in a movie; 13 assassins has now taken that place.
The Piano in a Factory (
An unemployed steel worker who is deeply passionate about music, does whatever it takes to keep his estranged family together
MIFF is not MIFF without a Chinese humanist drama.
The Unjust (
Police corruption is rife in this one, as they find a fall guy to take the blame for a spate of serial killings, but then regret the unforeseen consequences.
Police corruption, South
This Sporting Life (a
new category, but basically documentaries that focus on sports)
Bobby Fischer Against the
World (
"Chess and me - it's hard to
take them apart." - Bobby Fischer.
This could almost fall under MIFF's other new category from last year, Flawed Geniuses, this should be very intriguing, to get into the head of such a man.
Networked (a new
category, but basically documentaries and a few films that focus on the
interwebs)
Life in a Day (
A historic cinematic
experiment shot by thousands of people in 192 countries, Life in a Day is
the true story of a single day on Earth.
It would be tough to capture life in a day but it is seemingly done so here, thanks to YouTube.
So that's it for now, as always the actual program guide comes out next next month, so Australians, can chew on these sneak peeks, biding their time until the program blows away any of the offerings above with an awesome and varied selection of diverse, popular and hard to get films.