The EIFF
This is the first time i've ever actually went to anything such like this. I had never been to a festival with films that ranged from Horror Thrillers to Sci-fi dramas. Every hour, a different kind of film began and we tried to catch as much as we could in the three days we had. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Edinburgh, and was happiest when viewing these new and experimental films. Hopefully, i will get the chance to go back.
My independent thoughts of each film i saw are about to be revealed. I'll go through it all in order.
To specify, the British film i saw was Running In Traffic, the Foreign language film i saw was Gavana (which also doubled as a documentary) and the documentary i saw was Outrage.
ADVENTURELAND
The first film i saw was Adventureland. A fantastic film about relationships and friendships in a strange new place. Young James is planning a trip around Europe after graduating form high school but his parents have other plans for him, after his fathers recent demotion. He is to get a Summer job back at his home town. As it goes the only job that he can get is one in a rubbish theme park named Adventureland, along side other people who agree the work they are doing is the work of useless morons. The story progresses with a love interest of James, a very naturally beautiful girl who is secretly having a relationship with a married man.
I'm not going to ruin the ending, but it is very predictable already.
Although the film is predictable and has been used a countless number of times before, this film holds some amazing charm to it which i found mesmerizing. The fact that the film was set in 1987 helped a lot as well, with the new kind of fashion that is circulating at the moment, the 80's are back in style. This film will be a big hit to the young audiences of today. The soundtrack is alive with iconic hits that not just adults can relate to.
I love the style of the film, from the opening shots of the out of focus carnival lights fully zoomed while credits fade in and out, to the sound of the eighties, to james' POV while being driven across a bridge. He stares upwards at the metal structure above his head while again the eighties comes alive on the car stereo.
I can hardly recognize Greg Mottola (cough cough Bill Hader couch) who directed Superbad in this fantastic flick about culture and the reason behind every relationship. I absolutely loved this film, both down to its original style which, in my eyes, will soon proved to be the new young style of filming. This is the young generation, reinvented. A very good feel good start to our adventure at the festival. 9/10
LONG WEEKEND
The second film i saw, was one that i ventured to out with the DFTV students, to get a singular view of a film without any chance of bias or group analogy (not to say thats a bad thing). This was the late showing of The Long Weekend. This film is set around the dying relationship of Peter and Carla. They go on a trip to the beach for a long weekend to try and recapture their love for each other, little do they know that they are walking into a nightmare. Set in Australia this film is set in the remote wilderness of a beautiful beach, in which the location is still a mystery to me. The film focuses on the destruction of nature by the average couple, who rely on technology to get them through their daily process, and natures way of fighting back. Already you can smell the strange goings on, in the fantastical sense that nature can come alive. I know what your thinking - tree vines grabbing Peter by the legs while while Carla is trapped in sinking sand - but your wrong. This film does justice to nature in a new thrilling way. If you can't see it, it doesn't mean its not there. Starting the film off with the couple traveling to the beach on a long dark stretch of road, we have the first incident - the running over of a small rabbit, then a little later the dropping of a plastic bag in the wilderness, and so on. The bag makes a return when we find a strangled baby sea elephant on the beach, later to bring the mother calling. The film has a dark and ominous feel throughout, revolving around mysterious, black shadows in the water, the coming alive of dead creatures seemingly during the night while all is asleep and the ever growing tension between Peter and Carla becomes a great backdrop for the finishing scene. The film all in all is pretty good, with the occasional cheese factor rising with the zombie animals, but it is done in such a style that did prove quiet terrifying at times, but all in all i think it was the performance of both Jim Caviezel and Claudia Karvan that brought this film out of B movie and into its full potential. 7/10.
GARAPA
The third film came early in the morning, and probably the worst time to have it screened. A very slow foreign language documentary which follows the lives of three different families in Brazil that suffer form malnutrition. Although a very interesting account of how and why families are not being able to get enough nutrition in their diets and having to resort to a substance called Garapa which is just sugar mixed in with water, the film was graded and filmed entirely in black and white. From all of us i think we found the style of filming was very unnecessary especially in a documentary of this nature. No arguments that the footage and idea of the film is very concerning and some times disturbing when it comes down to real life, but it didn't help with the footage being in bad condition. I don't entirely know if documentaries should venture into the arthouse phase, not yet anyway, until there is a clear way of transforming a documentary for the better into this style. It is possible that the early morning eyes could have limited my thoughts on the film especially with fast moving subtitles slapped onto raw footage of the three families edited together. I can see why the film could be good, but in my personal opinion, it's not the kind of film for me. 5/10
RUNNING IN TRAFFIC
The second film we saw on the second day was Running in Traffic. A British film produced by the one and only Abigail Howkins, and starring an actor who performed in one of our first year films. Aside from that the film is a good story about a drug dealing family man who is struggling to keep his family afloat after the recent death of his father. Paralleling this is the story of a poet working in a dead end waitressing job, who has recently lost a child when she had a miscarriage. The story is strange as it doesn't seem to lead anywhere, yet i was still interested throughout as many things seemed to happen. Again out of all these things i found it hard to work out the link and the way that they would all com together to have the outcome that was produced at the end of the film. The characters were very good, especially Joe, the film definitely made me want something better for the characters, hoping that the situation would change in their favour. The film was shot very nicely but one things let it down in my eyes. In some minor scenes the lighting was put off a little, casting very harsh shadows across walls, or simply just not making any sense. Aside these flaws the film still stayed strong as i still felt like watching, at no point was i ever disengaged from the film or put off trying to see a good outcome, i definitely wanted something better for the characters. The last thing i would like to comment on is the final scene. Not to give anything away but it is a beautiful moment, where all the things come together and we have the two main characters seeing eye to eye in the same place at the same time in the same situation, both running, both in harmony and both alongside one another without even knowing it until they catch their glances at one another and it soon becomes clear that there is a hidden connection, they know it, and so do we. A fantastic piece of emotional cinema. Despite its problems i still give this film 7/10.
TO BE CONT. (Vinyan, The Girlfriend Experience, Anti-Christ)
