Music to moon mining: Village Theatre’s Film Festival programme promises strong stories
Film fans, clear your diaries. The Village Theatre’s annual film festival runs from 16 April until 2 May and the programme is packed with fascinating films from all over the world and from many different genres. This reviewer refuses to point out any likely highlights. Having seen the festival trailer compilation, he has simply resolved to see as many as he can.
In order to aid film-fans’ choices, the festival will open on Friday 16 April with the compilation of trailers. It’s a less-than-20-minute appetiser and it’s bound to impress. The festival proper will start after the trailers with the engaging and heart-warming Noodle. An Israeli drama about an abandoned child and his impact on the lives of the adults around him, Noodle will certainly have festival-goers happily anticipating the following 16 days.
Village Theatre manager Sarah Kay has scheduled two screenings, at 5.30pm and 8pm, for every day of the festival except for the Fridays (23 and 30 May), when the children’s Friday afternoon feature will proceed as usual, so the 8pm screening will be the only festival offering on those days.
“Having the multiple screenings means I can show every film two or three times,” said Sarah. “And if some of them are really popular, I’ll put them on again in the schedules that follow the festival.”
Sarah said that she was pleased with the way the programme had come together. “There really is something there for every film-lover,” she said. “Drama, comedy and documentary are all well represented. There’s a great low-budget sci-fi too. Probably the thing that characterises them all is a strong story.”
The French drama Séraphine is dramatised portrait of the early-20th century “naïve” French painter, Séraphine de Senlis. We are told that she is “a woman devoted to the higher power of art”, and that devotion is depicted with great warmth and compassion. The film won a pile of Césars, the French equivalent of Oscars.
The Norwegian romantic comedy Gone With the Woman attempts to decode love from a man’s perspective. In order to maintain some control of his life he must work out how to co-exist with the girl who has virtually colonised him. It has been well received at film festivals worldwide.
“People ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I live for a living.” So says Peter Karena, the star of the stunning New Zealand documentary This Way of Life. The film is about “the magic in the everyday” of a family’s hardships and happiness in the backblocks of the North Island. This will be a hit.
In the docudrama, The Age of Stupid, evergreen English actor Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living in 2055. Things have gone exceedingly badly since our time and he asks why mankind failed to act on climate change when we had the chance. Directed by Franny Armstrong, who made McLibel (2005), it is a multistranded and multilingual tale.
Australian drama/biopic Mao’s Last Dancer will attract plenty of attention for the beauty of its appearance, let alone the strength of its story. An 11-year-old boy is sent to Madame Mao’s dance academy. He ends up as a ballet star in the US and eventually has to choose between home and family, and the love of his life.
Precious won two Oscars and the overall award at Sundance. It is powerful and ultimately uplifting story about an illiterate and obese abuse victim and the barriers she has to surmount.
Romanian comedy/drama Silent Wedding is a perfect example of a challenging but rewarding festival film that we might not otherwise get around to seeing. Stalin has died and the compulsory period of five days’ mourning coincides with some boisterous wedding celebrations. The villagers try to proceed. This may not be a good idea.
“Moon is a rare sci-fi gem” says Sarah Kay. Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie) overcomes his small budget to create a tense and convincing rendition of the life of a mining engineer on the moon who is nearing the end of his contract in 2036.
Valentino: the Last Emperor is a documentary covering the final two years of the career of the legendary Italian designer. It also pays homage to the devotion – under extreme conditions - of Valentino’s partner of 45 years, Giancarlo.
The Indian drama/romance My Name is Khan tells the tale of a Muslim man and his Hindu wife in San Francisco. In the days following 9/11, Khan is subject to all the hysterical prejudice on offer. As a man with Aspergers, he views the world arguably more clearly than the rest of us. He sets off to tell the President of the US that he is not a terrorist in order win back his wife.
We were unable to view a trailer of the homage to the electric guitar called It Might Get Loud. Starring The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White (of The White Stripes fame), this documentary has been called “personal, intimate and hilarious”. And Sarah says it doesn’t even get loud.
Festival ticket packages will be on sale at the trailer-viewing opening next Friday. Four-movie pass: adult $40, conc $32, sch stud $22. Unlimited Pass: adult $85, conc $75, sch stud $55.
In case you needed to be reminded how lucky we are to have a theatre (and especially an independent, community-owned and brilliantly managed theatre in Takaka), this year’s film festival will serve as the perfect reminder. Enjoy.
Neil Wilson
