Tuesday, September 10
The film fest experience hasn't really changed on this one. It's still just a cluster of people waiting outside the same theater to go in, and then they open the doors, and we all do. I am getting a bit tired of seeing the same trailers in front of every movie. I think it was a slightly different trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux this time though. Maybe.
I will say it's a bit trippy to see German-dubbed trailers for English-language media. I've seen the Agatha All Along trailer in front of all five of these movies so far, in German, with no subtitles. I hadn't even seen the trailer in English yet. Still haven't.
I may or may not have mentioned, there's an MC that comes out before every movie and does a little introduction for the movie. I don't think it's a director, or producer, or star, or anyone associated with the actual film, i think it's literally just someone from the film fest. All of these introductions have been done in German, though, so i have no idea what they're saying.
There was no introduction for the first movie today. They still brought up the house lights after the trailers, though, and put the spot light on the empty stage in front of the screen. Just...no one came out to say anything.
However, once the lights went back down, there was a short video intro from the director, clearly recorded over Zoom in his home office, which was not cleaned or arranged in a way indicative of any forethought about this clip being played for an audience. He talked about how the movie is about wars, and the horrible things people are capable of during wartime, in particular, women. He talked about how, during preproduction, the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, and a lot of what he was seeing from that informed the choices made in the film.
I didn't really see any of that in the finished product, myself.
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BREATHING IN
I thought this movie was well directed, the performances were all very tight and controlled, like there was a cohesive vision for how each of these characters behaved and moved about the screen, and the director got exactly what he wanted from each of them. I thought the production design was absolutely perfect.
The film started to frustrate me right from the opening scene. I kept rolling all the thoughts form the previous paragraph around in my head as i watched, and then kept thinking, this movie is not for me. I am not the target audience for this.
I honestly don't remember why i bought a ticket for this one. I must have watched a trailer at some point, but i didn't recognize anything in the film. I must have at the very least read a blurb about it? But none of this was ringing any bells at all.
Another thought i kept having was, this seems like it was meant to be a play. 98% of the movie takes place inside a single room with four characters, one of whom is mostly unconscious, and another who can't walk. The blocking and staging all seem to indicate traditional theatrical methods.
As the credits rolled, the first few cards read, written and directed by so-and-so, based on the play by this other person.
Yep. Nailed it.
When the movie ended, no one clapped.
There were even applause for that pretty bad wrestling movie two days ago.
Nothing for this.
Okay, after the credits had fully ended and it was clear there would be nothing after, one person clapped. One.
Applause are pretty much expected at film festivals. Cannes is notorious for absurdly long standing ovations, to the point where if the applause don't continue for a certain amount of time, it's considered insulting. Joker: Folie à Deux, for example, just premiered at Cannes this year, and received an 11-minute standing ovation, which is considered mediocre.
That would not be normal at a smaller film festival, but some applause certainly is.
Turns out this movie wasn't for any of us.
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PLASTIC GUNS
I was pretty excited about this one. It didn't have a proper trailer, per se, but instead a short scene was included on the Fantasy Filmfest web site, a Zoom exchange between the police departments of Paris and Copenhagen, where they are trying to negotiate a prisoner transfer, and no one can agree on anything. The Copenhagen police can't speak French, the Paris police can't speak Danish, so they are fumbling through a conversation in English, which the Parisians have a feeble grasp of. It's a very funny scene.
The whole movie is like that, very lighthearted and fun...right up until it's not.
I might wade into some light spoiler territory here, but i'm hoping it doesn't detract from your enjoyment of the movie if and when you finally see it. I wouldn't recommend this movie for everyone, but for a lot of you, yes.
The opening scene is an autopsy. Literally the first thing you see is a morgue worker using what look like giant bolt cutters to snap open a rib cage. Meanwhile, he and his colleague are talking about the oversaturation of true crime content in the market these days. One of them brings up a statistic that media has to be about 30% shocking and violent content to be successful nowadays. Just 30% trash, he says.
This whole conversation is incredibly funny, and as they are having it, they are removing more and more organs from this corpse's torso.
If that sounds like a thing that you can handle and would laugh at, then this movie is for you. If it doesn't, then maybe skip this one.
The opening scene doesn't seem like it really connects to anything else that happens in the movie, but i think what i've just described is the overall thesis of the whole film. I had to think about it for a bit afterward, because the ending is so jarring that i was kind of upset about it at first. The second and third to last scenes in the movie are such a whiplash of a tonal shift from the humor of everything that came before them that i was honestly, in my head, shouting, what the fuck, what the fuck, why would they do this. And then the last scene tries to get back to the humor of it all, but just...can't.
And i think that's the point, the whole reason the film exists.
I think keeping that opening scene in mind is the key to understanding why it ends the way that it does.
So just...be aware of that, i guess. If you see this movie, you're gonna have a good time.
Until you don't.
Anyway i liked it quite a bit.
Tomorrow! The two movies i'm most excited about!
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