by Jaime Grijalba.
I’m in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For the first time in my life I’ve taken a plane and left my country, Chile, to visit somewhere else, and the promise that I made the year earlier that I would go one step beyond each year is getting real and tangible, I’ve been here for about 4 days now and it’s been an amazing and at the same time tiring endeavour. The city is enormous and beautiful, even if a bit cranky at times (the public transport is slow as hell) and the usual hunger that one suffers when you are travelling on a budget… but, what the hell, we are here for the movies! And movies we shall have! There have been surprises and incredible conversations had with directors and other assistants to the festival. Now, I shall chronicle in a brief way how my first days of Bafici went by using the movies that I saw as a marking point. Shall we proceed?
Day 1 – April 11th
I arrived Buenos Aires at 7:45 am, and due to a confusion with the incredible guy who is admitting me in his house, I arrived the apartment that I had to arrive to at 10.30 am, loosing my first screening of the festival, but anyway I had to get my credential that allowed me to see a maximum of three movies a day (except for the press screenings that are made every morning). My credential reads ‘Jaime Grijalba – wondersinthedark.wordpress.com’ so, yeah guys, the site has an special corresponsal in Argentina covering the festival, but what did I see that day?
· Chiri (Trace) (2012, Naomi Kawase)
This film is 45 minutes long and it’s strongly tied to the earlier works of this famous and influential japanese director, specially with her earlier work in which she chronicled her special relationship with his grandmother, who was the one who took care of her when she was a child, all very autobiographical and personal, and here we have the opportunity to see some kind of closure to that relationship, represented by the death of the grandmother, whose painful process is chronicled with an expert hand who knows when to film and when not, and when to break the distance and can’t help but feel those emotions of deep affection go through Naomi herself as she watches her Alzhaimer-ridden body, there is a love in the image treatment. (****)
· All This Can Happen (2013, Siobhan Davies, David Hinton)
This was seen alongside ‘Chiri’ (2012), as both are short features, yet as this movie started to happen it was clear that it had nothing to do with the japanese effort, in fact, this wasn’t even a documentary for starters. 50 minutes of another kind of experiment, let’s take a famous text and put images over it to try to convey a new message to the images, the words or the recomposition of both of them, using either stock footage or copyrighted material to do so. For example, the experimental film ‘The Clock’ (2010) does that, and more recently ‘Room 237′ (2012) manages to tell new stories from already existing material. This time we have the reciting of a poem contrasted with the images edited in a tight and orderly manner, yet the whole thing ends up being pretentious, the text may be good, but it’s filled with common places and the images chosen are what they are to be expected due to the text spoken. A missed oportunity and really boring at times. (**1/2)
· El crítico (The Critic) (2013, Hernán Guerschuny)
I reviewed this movie for my blog, here is the link. (****)
· Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)
This time Kiarostami follows up his themes and ideas from ‘Copie conforme’ (2010) into this movie filmed in Japan with a mostly japanese crew and funding from France, just as the earlier film, signifying the future of filmmaking and the universal approach that is having much more prominently in terms of co-productions and influences of every country’s aesthetic into the final product. In this film we follow a young japanese girl who studies at the university and at nights serves as a prostitute for older men, she has a jealous boyfriend and problems regarding her own family and her particular actual state. The old man that she visits gets involved with her beyond the times of the duty, seeing him involved with her relationship, only having to pretend that he is her grandfather. There are more deeper layers beyond what I described, there is violence and suspense, and that all this was made with mostly silences and still images… I applaud Kiarostami for making a great movie. (****1/2)
Day 2 – April 12th
This day I overslept and lost the first screening in the morning, which was for ‘Stoker’ (2013), but it will be on cinemas here soon enough so I’ll just wait and see. This was also the most tiring day, I traveled to different and far places in the city of Buenos Aires, going to Belgrano in the morning and Caballito at night. The only main problem with Buenos Aires is the public transportation that takes almost an hour to take you anywhere, that is no good. Let’s see what I managed to watch.
· Post Tenebras Lux (2012, Carlos Reygadas)
This one is hard to talk about. Visually is a masterpiece, I don’t think I’ve seen nothing more visually inventive and breathtaking in a long time, the lens used in most scenes distorts the borders of the frame and makes everything there as when you see a straw inside a glass filled with water (the double image of sorts), and that’s not all, the cinematography of the exterior shots is amazing with purples and darkness and light breaking from every place in the frame, filling the (small) screen in which this was projected, it also has some puzzling scenes that are still magnificently done, like the demon that was rotoscoped and put into scene, putting red all over the place, neon-like, shining in the darkness… even after all that, the movie is completely inaccesible, we have a mexican family that lives in the countryside and a father with evil tendencies as well as a porn addiction (wtf) and the whole thing then cuts away to a group of english kids playing rugby… I don’t know, this rating is for the visuals alone. (****)
· Fogo (2012, Yulene Oyaizola)
This film was seen with the presence of its director, who answered some questions at the end, and if it wasn’t for that, I would’ve dismissed it completely. I thought that I was watching a documentary on the people who lived in the island of Fogo in Canada, where something strange was happening, it seemed that people were going away, as if the island had something bad, and here we are following two natives while they try to survive those last moments, drinking beer, remembering past and forgotten loves, as well as their dogs who always follow them and how they chop down trees in the forest that sorrounds them. When it was said that the film was a fiction I was amazed, the level of detail and how the shots were planned for it to seem an abandoned island were amazing, the work here is apparent, even if the actions aren’t exactly exciting to see at times. (***1/2)
· Much Ado About Nothing (2012, Joss Whedon)
I was surprised by how loyal and great the treatment to Shakespeare was in this movie by the director of ‘The Avengers’ (2012) Joss Whedon, and how he took 12 days off editing that blockbuster to make this film with a group of actors, all of them who’ve worked with him beforehand in some way or another. Here the bard’s farce is respected in terms of lines and interpretation, and I must say that it’s its main strength, how much of the acting was amazing and how well suited the characters were for the actors. Here in black and white (because color is not mandatory) it tells the same tale of old but with a modern twist, with modern tunes and artifacts, but maintaining the callings of ‘signor’, ‘neighbour’ and other words that aren’t used in modern speech at all. It’s entertaining and has certain slapstick that I found really enjoyable, it’s like when you go see a theater to a good performance of a Shakespeare play, you applaud at the end because it’s Shakespeare and because it’s well performed, here it’s the same… but filmed. (****1/2)
Day 3 – April 13th
This day had much going for it and it was a good day at the end, but it also inspired me to do some reviews at my blog, so I’ll have to interrupt you a couple of times to direct you to my blog for full reviews.
· El día trajo la oscuridad (The Day Brought Darkness) (2013, Martín De Salvo)
A full review can be read at my blog here. (***1/2)
· Inori (2012, Pedro González-Rubio)
A documentary made in Japan by a mexican filmmaker, we’ve heard that before, it’s a trend for festivals, countries, universities or cities to catch some of the best festival or critical success and make them do something about their properties, in this case the festival of Nara made him do a documentary of Japan, and he chose to do one of a little village in which old people live, far away from the technology-savy society of Tokyo or other cities. The documentary ultimately fails, no matter how beautiful it is, because when it lingers too much on the biological/scenery side of the village it looses strength that it quickly recovers with the anthropological/people side of the village, where there are many interesting characters, but that is lost when it goes back to the beautiful scenery. Focus man! (***)
· Sueños de hielo (Dreams of Ice) (1993, Ignacio Agüero)
Part of the festival is a bunch of retrospectives and special screenings, this is part of the retrospective on the famous and incredibly talented chilean documentary director Ignacio Agüero. Funny that this was one of his least documentary works in his entire filmography, here he tells the tale, through a subjective camera, of how Chile in the World Fair of Spain wanted to have a statue that represented an iceberg made out of ice from the Antartic. The main character, kinda, is a sailor that follows the ship and works in the recovery of the ice, but then comes the problem, everyone seems to have Antartic Fever, having visions and ideas like the ones that say that the ice is speaking to them and that it doesn’t want to go to Spain. The travel follows in this film with a great description of the ship, the illusions, the idea of ice and what it remembers as well as a great tale of sea reminding you of Melville. This is one of the hidden gems of chilean cinema, I can’t recommend it enough. (****1/2)
· Qué historia es esta y cuál es su final? (What is this story and which is its end?) (2013, José Luis Torres Leiva)
You can read a capsule review of this film at my blog.
· Plaga zombie (Zombie Plague) (1997, Pablo Parés, Hernán Sáez)
A classic of the trash cinema of Argentina, this movie is for those who can take it and can have a bit of fun. This was an after midnight screening and the ambience was great, laughs and jokes everywhere, just to see this first instalment in a trilogy of zombie films made in Argentina on an almost non-existant budget by very very young filmmakers (if they were under 18 years old I wouldn’t be surprised) where they use crazy makeup and over the top acting and special effects to convey a simple story of alien invasion through zombie infection. The jokes are there and the film is tongue-in-cheek, it doesn’t matter if they’re all argentinian actors, they all speak in a neutral spanish, as if it were a dubbed english release. Funny at many times, gory and entertaining this is for those who can take the joke and laugh with it. (***1/2)
Day 4 – April 14th
I had some problems with screenings and travel this day, so I spent a nice afternoon sitting in the park listening to some bands playing there, eating a choripán and reading a magazine. The rest of the time was spent at the movies, of course, but that’s the reason there are so few this day.
· Barroco (Barroque) (2013, Estanislao Buisel)
One of the biggest surprises I’ve had in this festival so far was seeing this argentinian film. I want to write a full review of this in my blog so I’ll keep it short. A university drop-out finds a job as a attendant at a local book store, there he reads what he wants when his boss isn’t around, at the same time his passion project is being made: a photo-novel that tells the story of what would happen to Argentina if there was no gas to fuel the kitchens or ovens, an intriguing subject that will come to fruition at the end where we see a filmed version of said photo-novel, that just after one of the biggest humillations that a character can have at his workplace. Well acted and paced incredibly, this is my favorite to win the main prize, as of now, that is. (****1/2)
· Locaciones: Buscando a Rusty James (Locations: Searching for Rusty James) (2013, Alberto Fuguet)
This one I also want to write a bit more in my blog, but just to spew my bile at it. It’s an interesting idea for a documentary made by a chilean, here he analyses his love for the film ‘Rumble Fish’ (1983) (that I haven’t seen yet, but I will soon enough) through interviews with unknown voices that we must asume that are important, at the same time as the director shows the raw footage that he filmed at Tulsa, the place where the film was made. The idea is neat but the execution is clumsy, the cinematography is poor and the interviews are just too uncomprehensible without knowing who the people are. It uses the movie well, it makes you want to see it, but we know that this film will have its start and end right here, not even as a film essay it works, as it serves more as a masturbatory fantasy on how the director is now what he is thanks to that movie. Then, I wanted the movie to never exist. (***)
· Mujer lobo (She Wolf) (2013, Tamae Garateguy)
An Argentinian genre film taht I want to talk more about at my blog. It’s a horror/erotic film where a woman is a serial killer that seduces, has sex and then kills her male victims. She is vicious and at the same time incredibly psychotic, as she has three personalities (each one acted by a different actress) that switch magnificently in between shots to show what kind of ‘she wolf’ she is. The story takes a turn south when the police investigation draws near to her position and her comfort zone, as well as the appeareance of a young boy who may be the one indicated to saciate her thirst for blood and sex. I thought that the movie was made well, but the script needed more work, specially when it came to the presence of the young man, because we didn’t have the chance to actually fully see her power and already we are seeing some kind of ‘chill pill’ in the way of a young man. Eventually her true ferocity comes true as the film progresses, and that is fine. (****)
That’s all for now, I’ll have a new installment of this on thursday. Sorry for the late entry I had a late night screening (Mujer Lobo) and an early one just now (Leones), now… did I catch your attention right there? Yes? No? Well, we shall see.
You can also follow me at Twitter searching for @jaimegrijalba for instant updates on the films I see.
