London Film Festival
Oct. 9th, 2017 10:13 amEvery year, my brother creates a shortlist of films to see at the London Film Festival, and for the last few years, I have joined him in viewing some of them. Yesterday, we travelled between three different cinemas to see three very different films. We both enjoyed all of them, but I liked the first one the most and the subsequent ones slightly less each time, while I believe he had the opposite experience, which was interesting.
First up was Big Fish & Begonia, a Chinese animated film, about a realm in the heavens, where a very diverse range of people and creatures control the weather in the human realm. It tells the story of Chu, a sixteen-year-old girl, undertaking her rite of passage; namely, transforming into a dolphin and travelling to the human realm for seven days to learn about how the weather works. Most of the story, however, takes place in the period after her return. There's the inevitable teenage love triangle, and rather more reciprocal self-sacrifice than I would have preferred, but the story also set up several expectations that were then subverted. The animation was beautiful, particularly in the use of reflections, and the lack of distinction between the sea and the sky. The characters were well-rounded, and the relationships both complex and involving. It was very sad in places, and a little repetitive in others, but overall I thought it was really good.
Next was Gemini, written and directed by Aaron Katz, one of the founders of what is apparently known as Mumble Noir. This is a sub-genre of mumblecore, a type of film that focuses on naturalistc acting and dialogue. Gemini is a thriller, following the actions of Jill, the assistant of a Hollywood actress, after she discovers a murder. I found the relationships engaging and the story quite tense in places, despite the low-key tone. There was a very good range of very different and well-written female characters (interestingly, I found the male characters very one-note, despite the writer/director being male, but they did receive a lot less screen time) and it was funny and intriguing by turns. It also must have been quite well constructed, as all the clues to the mystery were there, but I didn't put it together until I was supposed to, at which point I felt very foolish for not seeing it all long before.
Our last film of the day was Manifesto, starring Cate Blanchett in thirteen different parts. I'm really not sure what to say about this. It was definitely weird, and it was definitely mostly beyond me in both artistic and intellectual endeavour. It was basically a series of scenes, in which Cate Blanchett engaged in a range of both weird and wonderful, and wholly mundane, activities, whilst reciting various artistic manifestos, either as voice-over, or within the actual scene. I found it quite difficult in most cases to really take in the words and their meaning, since it was a bit of an onslaught of ideas and theories, and I certainly didn't understand the significance of most of the visuals. Still, I didn't find it boring, and the range of different personas was both interesting and impressive. A couple of the segments were very funny (I have to admit those were the ones I found easiest to understand and enjoyed the most), but overall it was quite baffling.
First up was Big Fish & Begonia, a Chinese animated film, about a realm in the heavens, where a very diverse range of people and creatures control the weather in the human realm. It tells the story of Chu, a sixteen-year-old girl, undertaking her rite of passage; namely, transforming into a dolphin and travelling to the human realm for seven days to learn about how the weather works. Most of the story, however, takes place in the period after her return. There's the inevitable teenage love triangle, and rather more reciprocal self-sacrifice than I would have preferred, but the story also set up several expectations that were then subverted. The animation was beautiful, particularly in the use of reflections, and the lack of distinction between the sea and the sky. The characters were well-rounded, and the relationships both complex and involving. It was very sad in places, and a little repetitive in others, but overall I thought it was really good.
Next was Gemini, written and directed by Aaron Katz, one of the founders of what is apparently known as Mumble Noir. This is a sub-genre of mumblecore, a type of film that focuses on naturalistc acting and dialogue. Gemini is a thriller, following the actions of Jill, the assistant of a Hollywood actress, after she discovers a murder. I found the relationships engaging and the story quite tense in places, despite the low-key tone. There was a very good range of very different and well-written female characters (interestingly, I found the male characters very one-note, despite the writer/director being male, but they did receive a lot less screen time) and it was funny and intriguing by turns. It also must have been quite well constructed, as all the clues to the mystery were there, but I didn't put it together until I was supposed to, at which point I felt very foolish for not seeing it all long before.
Our last film of the day was Manifesto, starring Cate Blanchett in thirteen different parts. I'm really not sure what to say about this. It was definitely weird, and it was definitely mostly beyond me in both artistic and intellectual endeavour. It was basically a series of scenes, in which Cate Blanchett engaged in a range of both weird and wonderful, and wholly mundane, activities, whilst reciting various artistic manifestos, either as voice-over, or within the actual scene. I found it quite difficult in most cases to really take in the words and their meaning, since it was a bit of an onslaught of ideas and theories, and I certainly didn't understand the significance of most of the visuals. Still, I didn't find it boring, and the range of different personas was both interesting and impressive. A couple of the segments were very funny (I have to admit those were the ones I found easiest to understand and enjoyed the most), but overall it was quite baffling.