Rotterdam Wrap Up

The annual Rotterdam Film Festival has just come to a close and the reports are starting to roll in ... thanks to ScreenAnarchy reader Peter for sending in the following recap ...

Round up from the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)

Out of the smaller but still massive program of the IFFR this year I saw 25 films. I would like to give a small recap of the highlights (and some disappointments) for the ScreenAnarchy readers.

First up: new Japanese movies.

There were a lot of them this year. The most fun were The Great Yokai War and Yaji and Kita – the Midnight Pilgrims. As mentioned before on this website Miike’s new film is aimed at a younger crowd than usual and not without a few flaws (like an underdeveloped plot). This didn’t keep it from being a lot of fun, and even sexy in bits. Yaji and Kita is another entry is a recent series of colourful over-the-top and just plain crazy Japanese comedies (Survive Style 5+, Kamikaze Girls and Taste of Tea). Like the other films, this one is a bit too long. There is only so much craziness you can put in a film before the plot starts meandering. But on the other hand, when it’s this much fun I always say ‘keep it coming’.

There were also three weak and very nasty movies. The Lost Hum is a psychological experiment about crime and punishment. It would have been quite interesting if it hadn’t already been done so often and I wasn’t really in the mood for a fix of sadism. That’s why I also didn’t like Green Mind, Metal Bats. A new film from the director of Kichiku based on a manga and with a guest appearance by Wakamatsu Koji. It could have been good, but all the main characters are nasty in a violent and nihilistic way and I just couldn’t care less about them. Analife was a better movie with some interesting use of digital video effects. There is also some really black humour in there that I am sure I would have liked if the theme of the movie wasn’t so off-putting. There are three characters in this movie and it is divided in three parts telling each of their stories. The first part is about a rapist and it basically explains in detail how to be a successful rapist. The next character follows a killer to make pictures of his victims and then to have sex with him. Finally there is a guy who goes through other people’s trash like a typical pervert from the All Night Long movies. All three end up anally injured at a proctologist office for a non-impressive fantasy ending.

The best Japanese film by far was It’s only talk by Hiroki Ryuichi. I liked Vibrator and L’amant, two other recent films of this prolific director, also very much. This movie is a little more accessible than those other two. It shows a lot of Japanese culture and there is also a bit of light humour. But aside from that, the movie still deals with manic depression. This is done in a very realistic manner helped by an incredible performance from the main actress. It’s a movie that stays in your head. I would like to compare it to Lost in Translation but it’s smaller, more realistic and more Japanese. Would be a nice double-bill though.

I also saw Shinya Tsukamoto’s Haze in the ‘digital short film’ program; so in it’s short incarnation. I liked it, but felt that the impact could be a lot greater in the longer version. So now I can’t wait for it to come out. There are moments in this film where the imagery becomes so claustrophobic and the sound so threatening, that it’s becomes a vision of hell (somewhere in between Phillipe Grandrieux’s La Vie Nouvelle and Hellraiser).

I was also really impressed by three independent American films:

Me and You and Everyone We Know needs no introduction after all the awards it has already won. When I saw it I felt that it was a little but too much praise for what is basically just another quirky independent comedy. And yet the positive energy from the film stayed with me and I also liked to wonder how much of her own life director Miranda July has put in the main character, also played by her, who is a struggling video-artist. Totally different was Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, which won a Tiger-award at the festival. This is a small and subtle movie about two friends (one of them played by alt-country star Will Oldham) who go on a hiking trip in the woods around Portland and about how their relationship has changed from their youth. Equally subtly written and even better acted and better filmed was Mutual Appreciation by Andrew Bujalski. The best of the three and compared by a lot of critics to the works of John Cassavettes. It’s about young creative people trying their best to make something of their lives and about the relationship between two friends and the girlfriend of one of them. Maybe it could have been called Young Joy.

The most unique films at the festival were surrealistic, strange and beautiful mood pieces:

It’s always an unique opportunity to see a film from performance artist and sculptor Matthew Barney. The Cremaster Cycle was an absolute IFFR highlight two years back and this year there was the equally great Drawing Restraint 9. If it’s in a cinema or museum near you then go see it, because there will be only a very few DVD’s made and they are sold to art-collector’s for astronomical figures. It’s a feast of imagery, symbolism and this time the music is also of the highest quality because it is composed by Barney’s wife Björk. The premiere of Jan Svankmajer’s Lunacy was one of the main events of the festival. The festival had prepared a special gift for Svankmajer that was presented to him by an ecstatic Terry Gilliam. And the movie itself was indeed worthy of this much praise. I think it’s the best movie Svankmajer has made so far. The story and all the elements in it about lunacy, the abuse of power and the relativity of freedom are nothing new, but the execution of them is eloquent and powerful. It’s a pessimistic vision not only because Svankmajer is, as a true surrealist artist, disappointed about the lack (or impossibility) of any serious art-movement these days but also as a political statement about the current state of the world. Another unique film turned out to by a (only minor) disappointment. The Piano tuner of Earthquakes, the second feature length movie of the Quay brothers in ten years, already had some negative reviews. So I was prepared. And I even found that there was more plot compared to Institute Benjamenta and the pace was also slightly quicker. The imagery was also beautiful and reminded me (it turned out, in the final twist of the movie, not unintentionally) of Arnold Böcklin’s famous painting ‘the isle of the dead’ and works of that other great symbolist painter, Caspar David Friedrich. Then why the disappointment? I just wasn’t awed by it and, even if the pace was not as turgid as in Institute Benjamenta, I started to dream away after an hour or so. I think this is an effect that the Quay brothers aim for on purpose, to let us experience their films as if we are dreaming them (the subtitle for Institute Benjamenta was not without cause ‘This Dream People Call Human Life’). But I just like to experience my movies fully conscious.

Finally I also liked Tideland, the Sun and Seven Invisible Men:

Of these three Seven Invisible Men is easily the best. It’s the latest film from Sharunas Bartas. Like Drawing Restraint 9 this movie is very hermetic and its plot seems of no importance. It’s a journey that needs to be experienced. ‘You have to feel this movie’ said the director who refused to give any explanation of what the film was about. It’s also beautifully filmed. For fans of Bartas it is good to know that Moskwood has released his debut feature Trys Dienos on DVD in the Netherlands recently. As far as I know this is the first release of any of his movies on DVD. Tideland was better than I expected after the negative reviews. A true Terry Gilliam movie and so I am positive that this will prove to be another cult favourite in a few years time. When you see this movie you have to realise that the point of view is trough the eyes of the main character, which is a young girl. When you place yourself in her state of mind everything makes perfect sense. Sort of. The Sun is the latest from the Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov. It’s a very good movie, but I expected more from Sokurov. It is just not as captivating and beautiful as some of his previous movies. I also am not totally sure about what it is he wants to say with his series of movies about the demise of totalitarian political leaders (this film about Japanese emperor Hirohito was the third in the series, after films about Hitler and Lenin).

A pretty good festival I should say. I had a great time and I hope you liked reading this recap.