Film festival preview: theatre to screen top documentaries and high-quality stories
The evenings are drawing in and that’s a sign that it’s film festival time again. Village Theatre manager Sarah Kay has put together a programme that is certain to challenge, delight, charm—and in at least one case enrage—the Bay’s film fans.
For those who enjoy a good dose of justifiable outrage, the film to look out for is Inside Job, the Oscar-winning documentary that examines the causes of the last international financial meltdown. It contends that the meltdown was avoidable, principally because the big-time financiers who brought it on were aware of what they were doing and didn’t care. Who can we trust? it asks.
Festival films often ask us to try flavours we might not encounter during the rest of the year. A good example in this year’s programme is the topical French romantic comedy, The Names of Love. A young woman tries to convert her political enemies by sleeping with them. When she encounters an uptight, right-wing Jewish bird-flu expert (I kid you not), her strategy is put to the ultimate test.
Set in beautiful Tuscany, Certified Copy will prove thought provoking and luscious all at the same time. Juliette Binoche stars in a story about a British writer (William Shimell) who goes to Tuscany to promote his latest book. There he meets an antique dealer and they have just one day together. Binoche won the best actress gong at Cannes last year for this role.
Takaka film festivals always include top-quality documentaries and there are plenty again this year. Oceans, a Disneynature production, promises unprecedented underwater footage of things photographed from the sea creatures’ point of view. It is a follow-up to Disneynature’s acclaimed 2009 doco, Earth.
From the makers of The Real Dirt On Farmer John comes Queen Of The Sun: What Are The Bees Telling Us? It examines the threat to our civilisation posed by colony collapse disorder in the bee population. It starts with the prediction by Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s that the world’s bee population would collapse. It describes the relationship between bees and humanity and looks at the problems humans have put in the bees’ way. Then, by looking at the efforts of biodynamic beekeepers and their allies, it somehow manages to maintain an upbeat stance in the face of potential ecological disaster.
Continuing on the environmental theme, Force of Nature: the David Suzuki Story asks important questions like “How much is enough?” Telling the story of the inspirational Canadian environmentalist, it offers us the chance to experience a new vision of life on earth.
The last two documentaries could scarcely be more different from each other. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work tracks the 75-year-old actress and comedienne through a not-particularly-busy year in her career. It speaks of the innate insecurity of those who make a living by making us laugh. The film also deals with issues of ageing and the cosmetic efforts Rivers has famously made to resist it.
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet is a lengthy piece. It follows no fewer than seven ballets through rehearsal and performance. Described elsewhere as a portrait of an institution, the film provides a detailed and intimate picture of the intense collaboration and sheer hard work involved in maintaining standards in one of the world’s great ballet companies.
New Zealand’s contribution to the festival bill is sure to win plenty of friends. Hook, Line and Sinker has a strong story, excellent leads, scenery we recognise and lots and lots of singing. Ordinary people, singing for the sheer joy of it, it seems. The preview left me asking plenty of questions but I will be making a point of seeing the film to get the answers. I think it will stack up against the very best of the story-driven films in the festival and suffer not at all in comparison.
The standard of the story-driven films is very high, though. Mike Leigh’s Another Year has been acclaimed as some of the great English director’s best work. When you think that his work includes both Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake, you realise the value of that acclaim. Another Year traverses four seasons in the life of happily married Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen). Their friends and family bring an assortment of troubles with them and the very ordinary, easy-to-identify-with couple must cope.
So, another hugely varied, hand-picked assortment is in this year’s festival. It kicks off on Friday 22 with a “taster session” in which Sarah herself will give a brief introduction to each film after the trailer has been screened. Then the first of the festival films will screen. Fittingly, because 22 April is Earth Day, the first film will be Queen Of The Sun.
Postscript:
The GB Weekly was unable to preview one of the festival films. Many Kisses Later is, apparently, an Italian romantic comedy. We are told that the film follows six couples between Christmas and Valentine’s Day by means of intertwining episodes that revolve around the end of a love affair and the ways former lovers can shape our lives. Exes can affect us for many years to come. Some relationships have turned into hatred, some into friendship, and in some the flame of love still burns. The film’s plot is like a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces fit satisfyingly together. Director Fausto Brizzi mixes clever social observation, entertaining dialogue, comic situations, a sprinkling of drama and a dash of sex.
Neil Wilson
