Telluride Film Festival 1994
(Part 1 of 2)
Film reviews by Wayne Citrin
Copyright 1994 Wayne Citrin
I just came back from Labor Day weekend at Telluride and thought I'd mention what showed there, what was good, and what was popular. Maybe it was the excitement last year of being there for the first time, or maybe I was paying more attention at the time to films that were playing festivals abroad, but the selection here didn't seem quite as exciting this year. Last year we had the US premieres of such widely heralded films as FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, THE PIANO, and FAR AWAY SO CLOSE, as well as such discoveries (for me, at least) as RAINING STONES (and other Ken Loach films), NAKED (and other Mike Leigh films), BLUE, and THE JOY LUCK CLUB. For those who liked big premieres, though, the festival did have the world premieres of Michael Tolkin's THE NEW AGE, Woody Allen's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, and Tim Burton's ED WOOD, as well as the premiere of the first Roadrunner/Coyote film produced by Chuck Jones and Warner Brothers in over thirty years.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
THE NEW AGE (USA, 1994, approx. 120m)
We arrived in town at 10PM after a long drive (8 hours), checked into our room, and went and picked up a program. (Programs are kept secret until the start of the festival.) We decided to catch the premiere of THE NEW AGE, a new film by Michael Tolkin (dir. THE RAPTURE, scr. THE PLAYER). It was showing as part of a tribute to Judy Davis. THE NEW AGE stars Davis and Peter Weller (who both starred in THE NAKED LUNCH) as an upscale Los Angeles couple who see the bottom drop out of their lives as they both lose their jobs. They try various economic solutions and begin to examine their spiritual foundations, but can't find any solutions. The acting and production were flawless, but I simply couldn't connect with the characters. I simply could not believe that such successful people could be so clueless about how to keep their head above water. I also found it hard to believe that these people could be so spiritually bankrupt that their lives had been completely unexamined up to that point. It seemed that Tolkin spent over two hours saying what might have been comfortably said in 20 minutes. This film will probably get mainstream release, and it'll probably (and rightly) be savaged by the critics.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
MURIEL'S WEDDING (Australia, 1994, 105m)
We slept in on Saturday after the late night before. This was something of a mistake, since we missed the morning programs and made it harder to see some of the things we wanted to see later. The first film we saw that day had been shown at the outdoor theater during an open showing the night before, and we had heard people raving about it. (Word of mouth is the best way to get information in this festival where approximately 30 programs show repeatedly over the course of four days in five theaters in this small mountain resort.) We had heard that the film got a 15 minute standing ovation at Cannes this year. Sometimes films are overhyped (THE PIANO, which I saw last year at Telluride, didn't live up to the Cannes hype), but this time the film was as good as the advance notices. Muriel, a young woman from an improbably dysfunctional family in an Australian seaside resort (with the equally improbable name of "Porpoise Spit"), and a big ABBA fan, learns to find her self-respect in a story that takes her to live on her own in Sydney. She originally believes that marriage will make her somebody, but learns in the end what she really needs. This is a delightful comedy, a real crowd pleaser. The ending was plausible and not overly saccharine, despite the fact that some people said that, although they liked it, they thought the film was a bit too "sweet." I believe that this will be a big hit in the US in the fall. And, as the director P. J. Hogan said before the showing, "if you don't know who ABBA is, you'll certainly know after the movie is over."
Before MURIEL'S WEDDING, Chuck Jones got up to introduce CHARIOTS OF FUR (USA, 1994, 6m). Jones, who looks great at 81 years old, said that Warner had decided to revive their old movie animation operation after 30 years, and asked Jones to come on board and teach a new generation of cartoonists. Jones made a few remarks about how, when he had started as a young animator in his 20's, his producers were old men of 40 and 50, and now "young men of 40 and 50 are running the studio." He also said in the old days that you could tell how much Jack Warner liked a film by how many times he had to leave the screening to pee. Jones said he was fortunate that even Warner couldn't pee more than once in the 6 minutes that it took to run a cartoon. He also said that they had decided to do a Roadrunner/Coyote cartoon because the characters were simpler than, say, Bugs Bunny. The film was good fun, the typical Roadrunner stuff, although Jones said that he had embellished the Roadrunner's character and made him a bit more "Harpo Marxish." The film will play in theaters this fall with WB releases.
STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE (Cuba, 1993, 111m)
Our passes included admission to an Opera House program "Writing for Hitch," which would include live interviews with screenwriters Charles Bennett (BLACKMAIL and THE 39 STEPS) and John Michael Hayes (REAR WINDOW). However interesting this sounded, Deborah and I had decided that with our limited time we wanted to see films, particularly new foreign and independent US films that were unlikely to make it to local theaters. Consequently we skipped the retrospectives and tributes, and the Hollywood premieres. We chose the Cuban film STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE, the showing of which at last year's Havana Film Festival resulted in the exile of the festival's director. How the director avoided the same fate, I don't know. STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE details the relationship of Diego, a cultured gay man, and David, a university student, heterosexual, and committed Communist. Diego attempts to pick up David on a dare, and after some difficulties the two become friends, despite the government's anti-homosexual policies. This causes some tension between David and his comrades, and the relationship eventually endangers both David's and Diego's positions in society. The film is well-acted and I enjoyed this insight into everyday Cuban life--something quite alien to most Americans, and all the more relevant now.
LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD (England, 1994, 102m)
English director Ken Loach and his film RAINING STONES was one of the big discoveries for me at last year's festival, and when I saw he had a new film, I had to see it. The new film tells the story of Maggie, a woman who is judged as unfit to be a mother by the British social welfare services and loses her children, then later has new children taken away by the authorities despite dramatic improvements in her life. It's based on a true story, and treats issues very much in the news these days. Loach, the film maker of the British working class, takes a very complex view of Maggie and her situation, and of the eminently reasonable policies of the bureaucracy and their brutalizing effect on people. Both of us were in tears by the end, although Deborah, having never heard of Loach before, was even more strongly affected than I was. An extremely powerful, moving film, and an amazing performance by Chrissy Rock as Maggie. See this one, and see any of Loach's other films that you can get your hands on.
LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD was preceded by an English short called "Fever," about the problems of a young woman in an English city. The woman was played by Katrin Cartledge, who had a major role in Mike Leigh's NAKED last year. She played the same kind of character here, and although she did a reasonable job, the film seemed to lack a point.
After the film let out, the only thing we could make was a showing of PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE, as part of an Ed Wood retrospective, but Deborah decided that we weren't that desperate to see another movie and we called it a night.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
THE WOODEN MAN'S BRIDE (Taiwan, 1994, 105m)
Having enjoyed FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE at last year's festival, and being a fan of Zhang Yimou's films, I was curious to see this new film by Taiwanese director Huang Jianxin. The film, set in the 1920s, tells the story of a young woman being brought to be a bride in another house. She's abducted by bandits but is recovered by the man who was accompanying her. In the meantime, the groom dies in an accident during preparations for her rescue, and the family decides to continue the wedding, marrying her to a wooden effigy of the young groom. This is a problem, since she feels oppressed by the arrangements and falls in love with the man who brought her back from the bandits. The film was definitely inspired by the work of Zhang Yimou, particularly the photography, but the story wasn't nearly as engaging, and the ending was abrupt and implausible. The film was ok, but not outstanding.
Before the film, we were shown a short nature film by Swedish director Stefan Jarl, "Land of the Lapps" (Sweden, 1994, 12m), who had a retrospective at last year's festival. The film attempted to show the pressures on the traditional Sami people by modern Swedish society, and although the photography was excellent, the presentation seemed rather heavy-handed and uncompelling.
BAB EL-OUED CITY (Algeria/France, 1994, 93m)
BAB EL-OUED CITY is a story of clash between modern life and Muslim fundamentalism. In Algiers, fundamentalists install loudspeakers on roofs of buildings, playing sermons and readings from scriptures both day and night. One day a young baker, who can't sleep because of the noise, tears out one of the speakers and throws it into the sea. The film tells the story of how the fundamentalists try to find the person who did it, and the troubles the baker's act bring on himself. The film takes the position that the fundamentalists are being manipulated by the Algerian secret police as a mechanism of social control. I felt that the film kept up a decent amount of tension, and like STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE lent insight into societies and issues relatively unfamiliar to me, yet more and more important in today's news. Not one of the top films at the festival, but interesting.
Life begins to imitate art in that the director could not be present at the screening because two of his friends had recently been shot by fundamentalists. The implication was that he was hiding somewhere in Algiers.
Before the film, we were shown a rather boring animated short called "Etude" (USA, 1994, 5m), with abstract designs choreographed to music.
FAMILY (England/Ireland, 1994, 115m)
FAMILY, as shown at the festival, is a two-hour condensation of a four-hour television series shown on British and Irish television this year. It is the first original screenplay by Roddy Doyle, the author of the novels on which THE COMMITMENTS and THE SNAPPER were based, and the author of this year's Booker Prize-winning novel "Paddy Clark ha ha ha." FAMILY was a sensation in Ireland--the most talked-about TV series in years. No previous series had the graphic and realistic language, sex, and violence of this series, and it provoked a discussion of whether this was a typical North Dublin family. Well, I don't think this was the point--the point was that problems like this exist and should be discussed. The film has four segments, each on various members of the Spenser family: Charlo the husband, a small-time thief and ne'er-do-well; John Paul, the oldest son who is having trouble in school and is taking to drinking; Nicola, the oldest daughter, who is in the process of escaping the home and fear possible molestation by her father; and Paula, Charlo's alcoholic wife who is trying to hold the family together. The director, Michael Winterbottom, reported that FAMILY may have a major influence on an upcoming Irish referendum on the legalization of divorce. You won't see FAMILY in this form outside a festival, but the hope is that the entire series will be picked up for television. It was definitely involving, and I suggest you look for it if it comes to television.
PORNOGRAPHIES ON/SCENE
After dinner, we had about an hour to kill before the next film we wanted to see, so we caught some of this presentation on pornography. Two professors from the University of California lectured and showed excerpts from various genres of pornography. I have to admit that I fell asleep, which astonished Deborah. The lecture confirmed my impression from the little pornography I'd previously seen: pornography is boring. I thought that the lecturers were completely off the mark in neglecting the difference between pornography and erotica. Erotica uses the entire array of psychological stimuli to arouse--this may include showing sex, or it may not. In fact, some of the most erotic scenes I can think of have no sex: the flamenco dances in Carlos Saura's CARMEN, the eating scene in TOM JONES, and the scene where Michelle Pfeiffer sings "Makin' Whoopie" and flirts with Jeff Bridges while lying on Bridges' piano in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS. Pornography, on the other hand, seems to rely entirely on portraying sex. It seemed that pornography is nothing more than an attempt at erotica by very unimaginative people. The two silent pornographic films from 1915 (FREE RIDE and ON THE BEACH) were kind of cute and innocent, though.
ONCE WERE WARRIORS (New Zealand, 1994, 99m)
If I had to pick one thing that I would pronounce the best thing at the festival, I would say that it was this film. ONCE WERE WARRIORS describes the lives of an urban Maori family, including the domestic violence, the alcoholism, the unemployment, and the cultural displacement. The film is beautifully acted and photographed, and there is a great soundtrack. I think, though, that what's most outstanding about this film is the writing and the characterizations. There is a depth to these characters--even the worst ones are complex and are attractive at times. There's also a realization that not everything is bleak--the good times are really good, and there can be a great deal of real warmth in these lives. The story of this film is very similar to that of FAMILY, what with the ne'er-do-well husband, the alcoholic wife, the domestic abuse, the son in trouble with the law, and the daughter fearing sexual advances, but despite the fact that FAMILY was written by a Booker Prize winner, the characters and situations in ONCE WERE WARRIORS have a lot more depth. I don't know if this film will see mainstream distribution (I suspect not, but it may well play in art houses), but I enthusiastically recommend that you see it. This is a debut film for the director, Lee Tamahori. I hope it's the beginning of a successful career.
Before ONCE WERE WARRIORS, we were shown another New Zealand short, "Avondale Dogs" (New Zealand, 1994, 15m). The New Zealand Film Commission seemed to have high hopes for this film and its director, as it was distributing fliers for it, including sales and contact information. I thought it was a very lyrical and dreamy piece about a young boy growing up in a suburban town in 1965, remembering one or two events in his life that were very important but that he didn't quite understand at the time. I felt it had the qualities of a very good short story, creating the characters and story in a fairly minimal way. I enjoyed it, and I hope that the director, Gregor Nicholas, goes on to other things.
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews