Karl Fischer as Dr. Sigmund Freud, Tobias Moretti as Count Geza von Kozsnom in the Austrian film Therapy For a Vampire.
Therapy for a Vampire is a little confection from Austria, something to while away 87 minutes early on Friday afternoon.
The conceit is that a vampire consults Sigmund Freud in his Vienna office, in 1932. In the evening, of course. Count Geza von Kozsnom says that his life has lost its bite, that he has seen it all, that his blood runs cold, that he is tired of this endless night. Naturally, the good doctor assumes that his new patient is using the language of metaphor. Ha!
The Count no longer loves his wife, Elsa, and he’s had it with her constant questioning: “How do I look?” It’s that old problem with the mirrors, you know.
In a parallel situation, sort of, are Lucy and Viktor. Their relationship is rocky. He’s a painter who lives in the requisite garret and Lucy is his model and girlfriend. He never paints her as she really is, a bruntte with a bun, he paints a fantasy blonde, instead. Lucy is very hurt and insulted by this. (She doesn’t visit Freud, though.)
One day, who knows why, Lucy arrives at Viktor’s place in a bright orange dress, with her hair curled and dyed blonde. All the neighbourhood men are sending her chocolates and flowers and Viktor doesn’t like that one bit. Lucy’s new look reminds the Count of his long-lost true love, Nadila, who promised him that she’d be reincarnated some day.
The Count sends Elsa to Viktor to get her portrait painted; when it’s finished, she will know what she looks like; in the meantime, he will be freeto spend time with Lucy, telling her about her past life.
Viktor is quite happy to meet the mysterious Countess, and seems willing to forget about Lucy, but changing partners is not going to be as simple as all that.
Therapy for a Vampire, Horror/Comedy, Austria, (2014) 87 min., DCP, German, with English subtitles
Director: David Rühm
Screenplay: David Rühm
Cast: Tobias Moretti, Jeanette Hain, Cornelia Ivancan, Dominic Oley
Company: Picture Tree International
Therapy for a Vampire
Friday, July 17, 2015, 12:45 p.m.
J.A. de Sève Theatre, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14-Aug. 4, 2015. Read more about the festival at fantasiafestival.com
Photo opportunity! From left, Fantasia Market & Industry Director Lindsay Peters, Fantasia Marketing Director Marc Lamothe, SODEC President Monique Simard, Fantasia Festival President Pierre Corbeil, Fantastique Week-End du Cinema Quebecoise Director Isabelle Gauvreau pose for a picture before the sold-out screening of Miss Hokusai, on the first day of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, on Tuesday July 14, 2015. Photo by Liz Ferguson
The first day of the Fantasia International Film Festival got off to a roaring start on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Every word from the stage in H-110 of the Hall Building was greeted with cheers, applause, whoops of joy, or some combination of all three.
People listened patiently when Marc Lamothe recited a long list of government and private-industry sponsors. Of course they did, because those sponsors allowed a small festival to become the big deal that it is today. Yay, for the sponsors!
All four films shown on Tuesday were sold out: Miss Hokusai, Ant-Man 3D, Therapy for a Vampire and Tangerine.
Miss Hokusai will be shown again at Fantasia on Saturday, July 25, at noon, in the Hall Theatre. Therapy For A Vampire will be shown again on Friday, July 17 at 12:45 p.m. at the J.A. De Sève Theatre. (Maybe nine-to-fivers could ask the boss for a long lunch hour? The film is only 87 minutes long.)
Ant-Man goes into general release in Montreal on Friday, July 17.
I saw Miss Hokusai and Ant-Man 3D, and while they are quite different, I found both quite entertaining.
The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14-Aug. 4, 2015. Most screenings take place in two theatres at Concordia University, near the Guy metro. Read more about the festival at fantasiafestival.com
The Arti-C, centre, a wood-and-metal mechanical man, is the title character of The Arti: The Adventure Begins, an animated film from Taiwan that’s being shown at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival. On the left is Mo, on the right is his sister Tong. The Arti-C was invented by their late father.
Martial-arts fighters with lightning moves, the clang of swords, the whoosh of garments, special effects and. . . puppets?
Does that ring a bell? Fantasia International Film Festival veterans might remember a wonderful gem from Taiwan called The Legend of the Sacred Stone. For me, it was one of the most impressive films at Fantasia in 2000. Well, the organization behind that film, the Huang family’s Pili Puppetry, is back at Fantasia with The Arti: The Adventure Begins. (奇人密碼－古羅布之謎)
The Arti of the title is actually Arti-C, a wood and metal mechanical man with movable eyebrows and Astroboy ankles. He is like a sibling and a servant for brother-sister orphans Zhang Mo and Zhang Tong, and he’s controlled by a sort of wearable console on Mo’s arm.
Zhang Mo wears the controls for wood-and-metal mechanical man The Arti-C on his left arm.
The film is set in ancient China and contains many familiar themes, in addition to the orphan one. For example: being outcasts/misunderstood while carrying on a father’s work, a desire to restore the family honour and that father’s reputation, going on an adventure to unfamiliar and dangerous lands. The younger sister, Tong, is the “feisty female character” who is quite handy with weapons herself. Mo looks a bit like a manga character, with his hair falling fashionably in his face.
The Arti-C runs on a mysterious power called The Origin, which seems to be petering out. So Mo, Tong and the Arti-C go searching for The Origin’s source. While they are still at the local market, which seems like quite a multinational sort of place, a red-haired woman named Kameedia just blatantly invites herself along on their adventure.
Mechanical musicians in The Arti: The Adventure Begins, an animated film from Taiwan thats on the program of the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival.
In the course of that adventure, they will cross a desert, ride giants camels and insects, get caught in a sandstorm, visit the luxurious palace of the King of Loulan, enter the Arti-C in a martial-arts tournament against many impressive foes, and meet several scary creatures, human and otherwise.
There’s an environmental message, and a “why can’t we all get along” one, too. Before I read any background material about the film, I could tell that Avatar was one of its inspirations.
Stick around when the credits start to roll and you’ll see the creation of the puppets, the sets (some with green-screen backdrops), scenes being shot, and some of the many, many people involved in making the film. The Arti: The Adventure Begins seems to indicate the possibilities of sequels if this first film is popular enough.
The elaborate details of The Arti: The Adventure Begins are quite amazing. Here is a close-up look at a sword.
BTW and FYI: I was curious about the history of mechanical men. While researching that, I came across an interesting article on a Stanford University web site. The title is Man-machine and Artificial Intelligence and it’s written by Bruce Mazlish. It’s adapted from Mazlish’s own book, The Fourth Discontinuity: The Co-evolution of Humans and Machines, Yale University Press, 1993.
Here’s a paragraph from that article: “The wealth of mechanical toys cited in ancient China is awesome. In addition to the flying machine mentioned earlier, mechanized doves and angels, fish, and dragons abounded; automated cup-bearers and wine-pourers were prominent; and hydraulically-moved boats, carrying figures of singing girls, animals, and men in motion are said to have amused the emperors. Of particular interest are the chariots that moved of themselves-auto-mobiles-attributed by legend to the scientist Mo Ti in the fourth century BC. Were they actually wheelbarrows, or “pedicarts”? A mechanical man of jade is reported, as well as all kinds of wooden dolls, gold Buddhist statues, and puppet orchestras.”
Is the Mo Ti mentioned here the same Mo of the film? Maybe not, but maybe the name was inspired by him?
The Arti: The Adventure Begins, will be shown once, on Sunday, July 19, 2015, at 13:00 (1 p.m.) in the Hall Theatre, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., in downtown Montreal. The monsters aren’t so scary that you couldn’t take your children!
The Arti: The Adventure Begins
Sci-Fi / Fantasy/ Animation, Taiwan, 2015,102 min, DCP, Mandarin, with English subtitles
Director: Huang Wen Chang
Screenplay: Huang Liang Hsun
Voice cast: Huang Wen Tze, Ricky Hsiao, A-Lin
Company: Golden Network
The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14-Aug. 4, 2015. Read more about the festival at fantasiafestival.com/2015/
Derek Tsang, left, and J. Arie in a scene from the Hong Kong film Robbery. They play convenience-store employees whose lives are in danger when they are help hostage in the store. Robbery will be shown at the 2015 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.
The Hong Kong film Robbery will make you think more than twice about a late-night visits to the dep (or convenience store, for you non-Montrealers).
Robbery is a very black comedy, that’s to say, many parts are hilarious, but several people do end up dead. I was expecting the laughs, but not the deaths. Surprise!
In an early scene, Robbery’s main character, Lau Kin Ping, (played by Derek Tsang, 曾國祥) seems like a slacker, and a stoned one at that, but you can’t blame him much; he’s just one more poor guy in the cutthroat world of Hong Kong. After watching Bruce Lee’s advice to “Be like water, my friend,” Lau remarks that he’s 32, the same age the martial-arts actor was when he died, and adds: “I’m just a joke.”
Late one aimless night, Ping impulsively applies for a job in a 24-hour convenience store; he’s hired right away. The store is called Exceed. You know, as in “excessive.” This name is no accident, my friends.
The storeowner is played by Lam Suet (林雪). Anyone who’s seen more than a handful of HK films will probably know his face. He usually plays gangsters, and he often plays them for director Johnnie To. As the boss he’s quite cranky and insists that his employees push sell that night’s special, a $5 package of Pop Rocks. (Don’t freak out, one Hong Kong dollar is only worth 82 Canadian cents. Pretty good deal, actually!)
Ping’s co-worker, Mabel, is played by pop singer J. Arie. Ping is embarrassed because she’s better than he is at scanning etc., and she’s kind of smug about it, too, despite this, they soon establish a rapport.
Ping barely has time to settle in before his first customer arrives. One thing leads to another, very smoothly too, and before you know it, there are three unstable, unpredictable criminals, with assorted weapons, in the store. They are NOT working together, either. Far from it. Ping, Mabel, their boss and one unlucky customer are trapped in the store with these dangerous loons. Hmmmm, I wonder if they use the expression “Murphys’s Law: in Hong Kong?
Every time a new customer walks in, crooks and hostages try to act perfectly, excruciatingly, normal until that customer buys something and leaves. Lots of laughs and tension in those episodes. The film could have ended after the arrival of several police officers – but then it would have been a short, not a feature.
Derek Tsang, left, as a newly hired convenience-store clerk and Lam Suet as his cranky boss in a scene from the Hong Kong film Robbery. Robbery will be shown at the 2015 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.
There’s lots to like in Robbery – writer/director Fire Lee (aka LEE Ka Wing, or Ka Wing LEE) has fun with film clichés like macho posturing, super-observant people: training montages; walking in slow-motion, defusing a bomb, while seconds tick by on a conveniently large display; people pretending to be someone they’re not, and/or being perceived as someone they’re not; the old Mexican standoff (people standing in a circle pointing guns at each other), etc. Several flashbacks put a whole new light on the characters. And then there are the platitudes like this one: “Pain is good. . . pain is a feeling, it lets humans know they are alive.” Not to mention: “But you have ME!”
Quibbles: One female star has to wear a skimpy outfit in her scenes at the store, and perform an amateur strip tease, along with other humiliations. In regard to the outfit, writer/director Fire Lee might claim that he was showing: 1) how people judge a book by its cover; 2) the person who forced her to do these things is a very evil dude; 3) that he was mocking a cliché. Maybe, but to me this is just pandering to a segment of the male audience. Before anyone asks if sex is bad while deaths are OK, I’d say that the film could have been quite funny without either.
Somewhat random info and thoughts connected to Robbery: Fire Lee wrote the script for revenge flick Sasori, which was shown at Fantasia in 2008.
Actor/director Derek Tsang is the son of actor Eric Tsang. Derek Tsang is 35 now, and might have been 34 when Robbery was made, though he looks much younger. Derek Tsang went to the University of Toronto; he used to live in Vancouver.
J. Arie’s real name is Rachel Lui. She’s an accomplished piano player who also has a degree in law (to make her traditional parents happy.)
The berets that the Hong Kong police wear look quite dashing. Are their shirts really so form-fitting?
Robbery will be shown at the Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs from July 14 until Aug. 4, 2015.
Robbery: Written and directed by Fire Lee ( Ka Wing Lee)
Starring: Derek Tsang, J.Arie, Lam Suet, Feng Tsui Fan, Philip Keung, Anita Chui, Eric Kwok, Aaron Chow, Edward Ma
In Cantonese with English subtitles
90 minutes long
Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 18:45, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at 15:10, in the J.A. de Sève Theatre, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Joo Won in the Korean romantic comedy Catch Me (Steal My Heart).
The main characters in Catch Me (Steal My Heart) are Lee Ho-tae, and Yoon Jin-sook.
Lee is a smug police profiler, who sweeps into rooms and immediately starts pontificating. We see snippets of his dramatic lectures, when he tells his fellow cops that crimials are heartless monsters. His boss seems to appreciate him, as do his immediate co-workers, though there’s a rivalry happening with some other cops in the division. Lee is full of himself, for sure, but he isn’t evil, and since he’s played by the incredibly charming Joo Won, how could anyone possibly dislike him? Seriously. I dare you to even try it! (More about Joo Won later.) Those who are already fans might like to know that he sings a bit in this film, too.
Lee and his men have been trying to catch a serial killer for ages. Mere seconds before they move in to arrest him, their suspect is knocked over, not once, but twice (!) in a hit-and-run accident. (He survives, BTW.) Lee is mightily annoyed by this. His professional pride is hurt, and his boss teases him that the accident makes the unknown driver the real hero, instead of Lee, even though vehicular-almost-homicide is usually frowned upon.
Lee vows to find the driver, and his search leads him to the rather fancy home of Yoon Jin-sook. When her beauty-treatment mask falls off, he realizes that she’s the former girlfriend he has not seen in 10 years. Surprisingly, she does not resist arrest; she’s quite willing to go to the police station with him. They get into his car, he starts to drive there. . . but between one thing and another, they do not go to the station, he does not turn her over to his colleagues. (The police HQ looks really familiar to me. I’m wondering it that’s because it appears in many films, or did I possibly walk by it when I was in Seoul?)
Lee gives Yoon Jin-sook (remarkably chaste) shelter in his apartment while he tries to figure out what to do next. (Yoon Jin-sook is played by Kim Ah-joong, who is probably most famous for her role in 200 Pounds Beauty. In that film she plays a talented backup singer who embarks on a severe diet/fitness regimen and has lots and lots of plastic surgery to impress some guy. . .or to prove that he’s a shallow hypocrite. Possibly both? It’s been a few years since I saw it. Kim Ah-joong was also in the TV dramas Punch, Sign and The Accidental Couple.)
Back to the plot: When he returns to work, Lee is asked why he hasn’t brought the driver in yet; he also sees surveillance footage that suggests Yoon Jin-sook has committed other crimes – she is a suspect in a series of big-time art thefts. (Strange that she is so clumsy behind the wheel, in the kitchen and when handling Lee’s expensive action figures – dolls by another name! – yet she can be so light-fingered with precious vases, etc. Well, that’s comedy for you. Nobody slips on any banana peels in this film, though a few scenes come quite close.)
Joo Won, left, and Kim Ah-joong examine “love locks” in the Korean romantic comedy Catch Me (Steal My Heart).
Back at Lee’s apartment, the two get reacquainted, and, through flashbacks, we learn, among other things, how they met, why Yoon did not show up for their 100-days-of-being-a-couple anniversary date (fans of Korean films and K-dramas will understand the importance of the 100-day-anniversary) and why Lee, an art student, decided to become a police officer. Most of these flashbacks are funny. Not all of them, though.
Awww! Are they cute or what? Joo Won, left, and Kim Ah-joong in a flashback scene in the Korean romantic comedy Catch Me (Steal My Heart).
So, a few more words about actor Joo Won. He has lots of fans, all over the world and all over the Internet. He was in many popular TV dramas, including Cantabile Tomorrow, Good Doctor, 7th Grade Civil Servant, Bridal Mask, Ojakgyo Family, and King of Baking, Kim Takgu.
While watching the first few minutes of Catch Me I was reminded of my fave, Kang Dong-won. It’s far from a “separated at birth” situation, and the similarity is easier to see when his face is in motion (especially his eyes) as opposed to frozen in a photo. When I Googled Joo Won I realized that this resemblance was a popular discussion topic, and that I had even read about it before. I just hadn’t remembered Joo Won’s name since I hadn’t seen any of his work yet.
In most of his scenes in the Korean romantic comedy Catch Me (Steal My Heart), actor Joo Won wears casual clothes or a nice suit, but here he wears the police uniform of his charcacter Lee Ho-tae. I can imagine all his fan girls saying “Oppa! Arrest me now!”
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As for the film in general, if you Google Catch Me (Steal My Heart) you can easily find some negative reviews. And I’ll grant you, the plot is pretty feeble (though no worse than many others) but the film is still good for many hearty laughs, especially if you watch it with a group. I saw it at a free public screening, presented by Ciné-Asie, at MAI on Jeanne-Mance St. The audience included males, females, young, old, Asian and non-Asian and everybody there seemed to be having a very good time.
The evening got off to a great start with several wonderful tunes from singer Griot, and guitarist Yellow Beats. While they played together on this occasion, they also have separate musical identities. The songs they played reminded me of the K-indie music I heard in cafés during my South Korean vacation. That was no accident, apparently they worked closely with the Ciné-Asie staff to choose just the right tunes to share with us. Their efforts were rewarded with very enthusisatic applause. I certainly hope to see and hear them again.
While the date has not been chosen yet, Ciné-Asie will probably show the very popular South Korean historical costume drama The Face Reader in August. Song Kang-ho (송강호) plays the face reader of the title, Kim Nae-kyeong, a man who can “read” a face the way others read a book. He sees through any kind of fakery to a person’s true character (clever, stupid, honest, corrupt, humble or haughty) and, by extrapolation, predict his/her future actions. Because of this talent, Kim finds himself in the middle of dangerous court intrigue.
You might know Song Kang-ho from his work in Snowpiercer, The Attorney, Secret Reunion, The Show Must Go On, The Host, Memories of Murder, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Joint Security Area, The Foul King, Shiri, The Quiet Family. And that’s just a sampling, not his entire output! (Note to self: Write reviews for some of those films. Share links to reviews that I wrote a long time ago for the Montreal Gazette.)
Consider “liking” Ciné Asie’s Montreal Monthly Asian Film Screening (MAFS) Facebook page so you’ll be notified when a date is chosen for The Face Reader. The room has a limited seating capacity, so people will be asked to RSVP via email. (Sadly, the “monthly” part of the page’s name is no longer valid. But we can always hope for a change in the future, right?)
BTW: Ciné-Asie also organizes the AmérAsia Montreal Asian Film Festival (www.amerasiafestival.com), Korean Film Festival in Canada (www.koreanfilm.ca).
Guy Maddin’s film My Winnipeg includes a weird tale about racehorses who were trapped in a river when they fled a stable fire. The horses remained there, frozen in place, until spring arrived. The frozen horses even became a local tourist attraction!
Montrealers! You can experience the wonderful film My Winnipeg this afternoon, for the first time or as a repeat visit, at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. And I strongly suggest that you do just that!
With My Winnipeg, director Guy Maddin made something that’s both very intriguing and very hard to classify. That’s par for the course with Maddin, though. (The first Maddin film I saw was Tales of the Gimli Hospital. So strange! I did not write about it at the time. Maybe some day.)
My Winnipeg combines elements of history, myth, fantasy, personal memoir and docu-drama. Even with that description, I’m probably leaving many things out, since it’s been a few years since I saw this 2007 film. Watching it was like being a guest in someone else’s fascinating, foggy dream. It was mesmerizing and occasionally hilarious, though Maddins delivery remains deadpan throughout.
Among the things I remember: Maddin talks about insomnia, his childhood home, a large network of secret alleyways that covers the city, without appearing on any maps, the brutally cold winter that saw race horses fleeing a burning barn only to die in the river, where they remained, frozen stiff, until spring came. Walking onto the ice to “visit” the horses became a popular thing to do.
Winnipeg is the capitol of Manitoba; Maddin takes us to the provincial legislature where he talks about Freemasons and examines the alleged symbolism and significance of the building’s architectural elements and the statue of the Golden Boy on the building’s dome.
In scenes set in Maddin’s childhood home (over a beauty parlour) elderly U.S. actress Ann Savage portrays his mother. Many early viewers thought that she WAS his mother. I believe that she won an award or two for her work. (I’ll try to verify that.)
Other things I remember: An old-fashioned looking map (like something from a film or TV show made back in the 1950s) showing Winnipeg as the centre of the world with various lines converging there, a visit with an astronomer, some kind of Nazi parade during World War II (it was part of a civil defence exercise, in case Canada was invaded by Germany).
My Winnipeg is a treat and it’s made by a Canadian, too. What’s not to like?
(Disclaimer: In the interest of speed, I have written this post based entirely on my memory of the film – except for the part about when it will be shown, the address of the Cinémathèque Québecoise, etc. After posting I’ll do some research and modify this post if necessary. And I’ll add some quotes from favourable reviews. I know they won’t be hard to find, because I’ve read them before.)
I’m back, with some review snippets. My Winnipeg has 119 reviews on imdb.com, though sadly, many of the links are broken, including the one to the review written by Al Kratina, my blogleague at the Montreal Gazette’s Cine Files. Tsk! Technology is not always our friend.
Esteemed film critic Roger Ebert liked My Winnipeg a lot. Here are some excerpts from his review: “If you love movies in the very sinews of your imagination, you should experience the work of Guy Maddin. . . If you hear of one opening, seize the day. Or search where obscure films can be found. You will be plunged into the mind of a man who thinks in the images of old silent films, disreputable documentaries, movies that never were, from eras beyond comprehension. His imagination frees the lurid possibilities of the banal. He rewrites history; when that fails, he creates it.”
“(1) Shot for shot, Maddin can be as surprising and delightful as any filmmaker has ever been, and (2) he is an acquired taste, but please, sir, may I have some more?”
Mark Kermode of The Observer says: “Fans of early David Lynch will find a kindred spirit in Maddin’s surreal monochrome vision, while his infatuation with the archaic mechanics of early cinema yields peculiarly modern dividends.”
“The narrative tone is sonorously ‘factual’, yet how much of this alternative history should we believe? . . .Is there really a surreptitious taxi trade serving backroads and alleyways that do not appear on any maps, crisscrossing the city over a maze of hidden rivers through which the true blood of the locals flows?”
Kermode’s final verdict? My Winnipeg is “poignant, truthful and hilarious.”
A.O. Scott of the New York Times says: “After seeing “My Winnipeg,” Guy Maddin’s odd and touching tribute to his hometown, I was tempted to do some further research.”
But . . .”Fact-checking “My Winnipeg” would be absurd, since the film, which combines archival documentary images with freshly shot, antique-looking passages, is more concerned with lyrical truth than with literal accuracy. And even though I suspect that some of its more outlandish assertions are at least partly grounded in fact, Mr. Maddin is engaged less in historical inquiry than in hallucinatory autobiography, ruminating on the deep and accidental relationship between a specific place and an individual life.”
As “My Winnipeg” conjures it, the bond between city and filmmaker is ambivalent and reciprocal. Much as he may dream of taking that one-way rail journey to somewhere else, Mr. Maddin can no more spurn Winnipeg than it can disown him.”
“. . . unleashing his eye and imagination on the prosaic, sad reality of an ordinary North American town, he proposes an alternative account that is mysterious, heroic and tragic. His Winnipeg is a place where ghosts commingle with regular citizens and may in fact be the true native spirits.”
See My Winnipeg (2007) 35 mm, directed by Guy Maddin, 80 minutes long, in the original English version, on Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 5 p.m., at the Cinémathèque Québécoise, 335 de Maisonneuve Blvd E., (metro Berri-UQAM)
You can watch a trailer for My Winnipeg on the Cinémathèque’s web site. That trailer is not bad, but the excerpt below, about the secret alleys, will give you a better idea of the mood of the film.
Just a warning about the Cinémathèque’s web site – the page for “Today at the Cinémathèque'” says that the 5 p.m. film is La nuit du rêveur. What? A change in schedule? I feared that I had written this post for nothing. But no, La nuit du rêveur is the French name of the film. This version does not have French subtitles, though. This screenings is part of a series called Les nuits du cinéma, which runs until June 20, 2015.
Tickets at the Cinémathèque Québécoise are $10 for adults, $9 for students and seniors. Admission is FREE for those 16 years old and younger. How great is that?
Teacher Ralph Whims us ready to defend his students from an invading motorcycle gang, in the short film, The Chaperone.
The closing event of the 2015 Montreal Animated Film Festival is all about heroism.
The feature film is 108 Demon Kings. That film takes elements from the Chinese classic novel Shuihui Zhuan (known in English as The Water Margin, Outlaws of the Marsh, or All Men Are Brothers) which is based on 12th century events and first published around 1368, and adds a young prince to make it even more appealing to a young audience. (Though, what with good guys and bad guys, demons, monsters, battles, etc., it ought tobe pretty appealing already!)
Image from the animated film 108 Demon Kings.
The The Water Margin is sometimes compared to Robin Hood to give Westerners an idea of the flavour.
The last minute addition of two shorts emphasizes the heroic theme. They are both Canadian and one is local, too!
High school dance, circa 1972, in The Chaperone.
The local one, The Chaperone, is based on a memorable event that took place at Rosemount High School, in east end Montreal, back in the 1970s (though I don’t think the school is named in the film.) One teacher and one DJ are the only adults at a high school dance. (In a recent radio interview, one of the filmmakers said that these days there’d be 10 teachers and eight parents or something like that.)
Anyway, scary-looking members of a motorcycle gang crash the dance. Oh, oh! Teacher Ralph Whims tells DJ Stefan to lock the doors and then proceeds to teach the bikers a lesson, so to speak, using chairs, fists, feet, etc. Just like in the movies! But it really happened! The film uses thousands of crayon drawings, puppets, stop-motion animation scenes showing the outside of the school, passing traffic, and the eventual arrival of police cars, shreds of paper from the explosions of dozens of pinatas, an hilarious live-action segment inspired by B-movies, AND a cheesy (in a good way) soundtrack inspired by blaxploitation films. There are some 3D parts, too. In other words, a bit of everything. It’s truly quite amazing. I watched it at home without the benefit of the 3D aspect, I’m sure it will be even more mind-blowing on the big screen. The film is made by Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone. Fraser Munden knew the story well, because his father had been one of Ralph Whims’s students.Here’s a link to an article in Spectacular Optical about The Chaperone.
The other Canadian short is Mynarski Death Plummet. It’s about Andrew Mynarski of Winnipeg, a gunner with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. On June 12, 1944 his plane was badly damaged by gunfire and everyone was ordered to don their parachutes and jump from the burning plane. But Mynarski struggled through the flames to try to free tail gunner Pat Brophy, who was trapped at the back of the plane. This film blends live action and animation and ends with a fantastic creation unlike anything else I have ever seen before. The film contains 21,000 hand-painted 35 mm frames!
“This is such a great film. I could have watched all seven minutes of it if they’d somehow been elongated to a Dreyer-like pace and spread out over 90 minutes. That said, it’s perfect as it is. The fact that you don’t want it to end is a testament to director Matthew Rankin one of the young torchbearers (along with Astron-6) of the prairie post-modernist movement which hatched out of Winnipeg via the brilliantly demented minds of John Paizs and Guy Maddin. Blending gorgeously arcane techniques from old Hollywood, ancient government propaganda films with dollops of staggeringly, heart-achingly beautiful animation – bursting with colour and blended with superbly art-directed and costumed live action. . .”
108 Demon Kings, The Chaperone, and Mynarski Death Plummet are part of the Closing Ceremony and Awards Presentation of 2015 Montreal Animated Film Festival.
The event begins at 7 p.m., Sunday April 19, 2015 in H-110 of the Hall Building of Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve W.
Visit the website lemiaff.com for prices and more information.
Philosopher, writer and activist Grace Lee Boggs in her Detroit home.
There aren’t any dull moments in the documentary American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs.
The philosopher, writer and activist Grace Lee Boggs will turn 100 in June, but in this film, which was released in 2013, she still has all her wits about her. Even more impressive, she still talks about revolution and social change, and does so in Detroit, her home since the 1950s. She has so many stories to share and hasn’t given up hope that people can work together to make a better world. She warns against placing too many expectations on political messiahs, though. She suggests that “We are the leaders we are looking for.”
Grace Lee’s father owned a big Chinese restaurant on Broadway in New York. She tells us that this gave her a comfortable home life, but she also reveals that her mother had never gone to school, and that she could not read or write. Grace Lee herself earned a BA from Barnard College and a PhD in philosophy from Bryn Mawr. Despite those qualifications, cracking the job market was not easy. In those days, she says, even department stores would not hire “Orientals.” She got a job at a library at the University of Chicago that paid $10 per week. She lived in a rat-infested basement and came into contact with the black community when she joined the struggle for better housing.
By the 1940s the Depression was over for whites but not for blacks. The U.S. was gearing up for war but the owners of defense plants would not hire black Americans. Activists began planning a July 1 protest march on Washington. An estimated 100,000 people would take part. To keep the march from happening, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in the defense industry. Grace Lee was very impressed by this example of people power in action. As she later told Bill Moyers: “When I saw what a movement could do I said, ‘Boy that’s what I wanna do with my life.’ ”
She went to Detroit because that’s “where the workers were.” She married James (Jimmy) Boggs, who was an auto worker, writer and activist. Until his death in 1993, they worked together in the labour movement and the Black Power movement; they knew Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Their home was a meeting place for thinkers and organizers.
The film includes the derelict buildings we’re used to seeing in reports on present-day Detroit, along with scenes from the past – the prosperous past and the violent one, too. Some parts of the city look a bit like Montreal, with the same kind of buses we used to have; there’s a dark stone building with arches, kind of like The Bay department store on Ste. Catherine St. And then there’s the snow, Detroit seems to get quite a lot of snow, too.
There’s evidence that Detroit’s downhill spiral began much longer ago than one might think. Back in the 1930s as many as 95,000 people were working in one of the plants belonging to the Ford Motor Co., but by the late 1950s automation was already leading to layoffs.
The soundtrack includes “Run, Charlie, Run” a tune by The Temptations about white flight from the city to the ‘burbs. I count myself as a Motown fan, but I can’t remember ever hearing that one before. I wonder if it’s ever played on any “oldies” radio stations?
Philosopher, writer and activist Grace Lee Boggs, left, and filmmaker Grace Lee.
The film is directed by Grace Lee, who is no relation to Grace Lee Boggs. They have stayed in touch since 2000 when the filmmaker began work on The Grace Lee Project, a film about several Asian-American women who share the same name. (The Village Voice review of The Grace Lee Project says that Grace Lee Boggs is called Grace X by her neighbours.)
To learn more about Grace Lee Boggs, check out this book list; it includes books that she wrote and books that influenced her.
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs will be presented by Cinema Politica on Monday, April 13, 2015 at 7 p.m. in H 110 of the Hall Building at Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Admission is by voluntary donation.
Cinema Political will show films at various outdoor locations during the summer, but American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs is the last presentation at the Hall Building for the 2014-2015 academic year.
A still life by Tove Jansson, from the documentary film Escape From Moominville.
No need to be a Tove Jansson fan, or to know anything about her to enjoy Escape From Moomin Valley, it’s such a visual pleasure.
Tove Jansson (1914-2001) a member of Finland’s Swedish minority, achieved fame and presumably, fortune, through Moomins, creatures of her own invention who look vaguely like upright hippos. Moomins appeared in children’s books and a long-running comic strip; they are available as figurines, plush toys and printed on assorted bags, mugs, aprons, pencil cases, notebooks, etc. (Local publisher Drawn & Quarterly printed a large volume of her work in 2006.)
Artist and author Tove Jansson as a young adult, from the documentary film Escape From Moominville.
Jansson wrote short stories for adults and plays, as well, but she always considered herself a painter first and foremost. That’s what she wrote on her tax return, according to Escape From Moomin Valley.
Jansson came from an arty family; her father was a sculptor, her mother a graphic artist. She was expected to be an artist and a good one, too.
The film uses lots of photos, sketches, paintings and extracts read from Jansson’s letters and diaries to fill us in on her family life (she often argued with her father) her friends, her art classes and her travels. She studied in Stockholm and Paris, and visited Dresden, Brittany and Florence. Probably many other places, too. She was a forceful character and her art is wonderful to look at. Her studio is quite impressive, too. You might be jealous!
A still life by Tove Jansson, from the documentary film Escape From Moominville.
Jansson speaks briefly in the film and there are many remarks from her brothers, niece, and childhood friends.
Escape From Moominvalley is being shown as part of a double bill with the 55-minute film J.R.R. Tolkien: des mots, des mondes. A review of that is coming up! There’s a connection, too – while I don’t remember it in Escape From Moominvalley, Jansson illustrated a Swedish edition of The Hobbit.
Sunday, March 29, 2015, 1:30 pm, J.A. de Sève Theatre, McConnell Library Building, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Escape From Moominvalley
Finland, Denmark, Sweden / 2014 / Color / 58 Min / Finnish S.T. English
A still life by Tove Jansson, from the documentary film Escape From Moominville.
Escape From Moominvalley
Realisation: Charlotte Airas
Script: Charlotte Airas, Kimmo Kohtamäki
Cinematography: Timo Peltonen
Sound: Pietari Koskinen
Editing: Kimmo Kohtamäki
Music: Pessi Levanto
Narration: Ylva Ekblad
Participation(s): Sophia Jansson, Per Olof Jansson, Boel Westin, Erik Kruskopf, Boris Konickoff, Tuula Karjalainen
Producer(s): Kaarle Aho
Production: Making Movies
Distribution: Making Movies
The Festival International du Film sur l’Art, known as FIFA, runs until Sunday, March 29, 2015. Visit the web site www.artfifa.com for more information
Ana Rewakowicz’s Sleeping Bag Dress expands to become a kind of cocoon, in the documentary film Microtopia.
Previous screenings of Microtopia at the Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA) were sold out; an extra screening has been added for Sunday March 29, 2015. Another film, Strange and Familiar: Home and Architecture on Fogo Island, will be shown with it, as part of a double bill.
Microtopia is about possibilities, news ways of thinking and living. It features tiny houses, micro dwellings, and a VERY portable shelter – the Sleeping Bag Dress.
Montreal artist Ana Rewakowicz arranges her Sleeping Bag Dress, in the documentary film Microtopia. Note the Farine Five Roses sign in the background.
In northern California, Jay Shafer is living in his fourth tiny (and tidy) house. He built it himself. It’s made of dark wood and from the outside it looks like something a surbanite might put in the backyard as a place to store the lawnmower or where children can play house. The exposed wood on the inside gives it a warm and cosy look. Burners for cooking hang on the wall when not in use, to free up counter space.
Shafer explains that in the U.S., there are regulations that specify a minimum size for rooms in a house. He got around this restriction by putting his dwelling on wheels; strictly speaking, it is no longer a house.
Jay Shafer’s tiny house in the documentary film Microtopia. It is being shown on Sunday, March 29, at FIFA, Montreal’s Festival of Films on Art.
Jennifer Siegel makes homes from former shipping containers, or long-haul trucks. These look relatively spacious compared to Shafer’s home.
In Mexico, Richart Sowa built his own floating island on a base of wooden pallets and reclaimed plastic bottles. (“Boats rock but island roll,” he says.) It is quite ramshackle, compared to Shafer’s construction.
Richart Sowa built his own island in Mexico, using wooden pallets and plastic bottles, lots of plastic bottles. Sowa is one of several participants in the documentary film Microtopia.
Greek architect Aristide Antonas proposes making a home from old tanker trucks, though he admits living in one might feel like being in prison.
In Denmark, Ion Sorvin shows a sort of plastic igloo that one call roll along the sidewalk and then “park” on the road, between cars. He’s also made a more spacious creation – a “walking house.”
Dre Wapenaar of the Netherlands hangs pod-like tents from trees. He had designed them with the thought that eco-activists could use them while carrying out “actions” to save forests, but before he could contact any such activists, a campsite owner offered to buy them.
Dre Wapenaar of the Netherlands designed these tree tents. Rockabye baby!
There’s even a Montreal segment! Artist Ana Rewakowickz, who’s originally from Poland, demonstrates the Sleeping Bag Dress within sight of the famous Five Roses Flour sign.
And that brings me to one of my quibbles about the film. During the opening credits, we see the names faces and dwellings of the participants while they say a few words. That’s the last time we see their names.
They rarely say where they are, either. Three people were obviously in the U.S., and two of them were in deserts, though it was not clear if it was the same desert, or what state they were in. I had to Google Sowa to find out where his island was. Maybe I should recognize Copenhagen when I see it, but I had to Google Sorvin, too.
The artists and architects in the film talk about reusing and recycling, shrinking their environmental footprints, and ask how much stuff and how much space do we really need, etc?
A fascinating topic, though one size would definitely not fit all. Claustrophobics need not apply! It’s interesting to note that, the occasional drawing aside, we never see more than one person at a time in these dwellings. Few of these people could tell their friends “Drop by anytime!”
I cannot agree with Jennifer Siegel’s statement that we can keep all our memories on our hard drives now, and therefore we can get by with very few physical things. Speak for yourself, lady! There must be a happy medium, no? Microtopia
Sweden / 2013 / Color / 52 min / English
Strange and Familiar: Home and Architecture on Fogo Island
Canada⎢ Katherine Knight, Marcia Connolly⎢ 2014 ⎢ 52 min
Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts, 175 Ste. Catherine St. W.
Microtopia
Realisation: Jesper Wachtmeister
Cinematography: Kenneth Svedlund
Sound: Jesper Wachtmeister, Kenneth Svedlund
Editing: Jesper Wachtmeister, Oscar Willey
Music: Benny Nilsen
Producer(s): Jesper Wachtmeister, Jonas Kellagher
Production: Solaris Filmproduktion, Eight Millimetres AB
Distribution: Autlook Filmsales
The Festival International du Film sur l’Art, known as FIFA, runs until Sunday, March 29, 2015. Visit the web site www.artfifa.com for more information.
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