The feature I viewed at the film festival was Kaboom, a story about a bi-sexual college student who encounters mysterious secrets as he learns more and more about himself. The film was… interesting. It was shot at what appears to be 60p on digital, and has a visual style that mirrors that of a pornographic film. Oh, and it is a soft-core porn. The acting and shot composition reflects this style, but I feel that it does have a bit more to offer. The problem that I found with it is that it established plot threads that seemed absolutely unrelated to the rest of the plot, then when it was time to end the movie, all of these threads were haphazardly smashed together to create a “climax”. I guess I’d compare this movie to The Room, as one can see that there was an intention of serious drama, but fell flat when the delivery came off as hokey and mildly amusing. I’d figure that the hardest movie to attend at the festival would actually be “good”, but it looks to be that the most “entertaining” movie got the attention. Things that I can draw to WKW is the use of time and color (blue). In this movie, the main character experiences multiple false dream sequences that jump around in time. Also, the main character’s room s always lit with a blue light, which gives it a safe but mysterious tone. I can’t really draw much else, as both of those were a stretch. I’m not necessarily homophobic, but the film made me feel quite uncomfortable due to it’s use of gay sex. It was about even with the strait sex, but let’s just say the twist left an awful taste in my mouth.
Final Thought: Kaboom is not for everyone. It features gratuitous sex scenes, has the writing comparable of a high school student, struggles to maintain plot, and has some really bad acting. However, it al becomes entertaining if you take it with a grain of salt.
In addition to working at the festival this year, I saw the film ! Women Art Revolution, which is a documentary about sexism in the art world - specifically in the second half of the 20th century. The film itself was almost entirely interviews collected over several decades, interlaced with examples of feminist art and historical footage. Having very little knowledge of the art world, and being a male, I felt a little bit like a fish out of water at the screening. I wish I had known more about art going into the film in order to have some context, but I enjoyed the film anyway. Being a documentary, there isn't a strict narrative to be found in the film, instead it plays out through interviews with mostly female artists as they cover their struggle with a misogynistic art world over the last 50 to 60 years. My one complaint with the film is the narrator/writer/director. While it's great that she put all this work into making the film, I felt like she focused on her own work too much. Her contributions to feminist art seem to be at their pinnacle with this film, but she doesn't seem to be content with that. Instead she interlaces herself into the story, while the work of other (in my opinion) more interesting artists is passed over.
Overall I enjoyed the movie a great deal, it was the first movie in a long time that I can say I learned a lot from. The music in the film, I believe, was all original, and was superb - definitely my favorite part.
I went to go see "Before The Rain" last night. It was interesting, as my girlfriend and I thought we'd sat down to watch "Animation Night", which was actually playing in another theatre thirty minutes later. We decided to stick with this movie, though, and 'm glad that we did. Cinematographically, it was really pleasing to watch. The plot was a bit slow at times, but I didn't mind that, as the director gave the audience plenty of interesting shots to look at throughout. This story was told in three parts, and my only problem was that there was not much cohesiveness between the plots until the end. The theme of the movie was that a circle never ends, and I do understand how this tied into the movie beginning and ending in the same place, but I felt that director left a lot of loose ends open. Perhaps I just missed minor details that wrapped things up for other characters. Overall, I did like this movie, thoug, and am glad that I went.
)I am going to see a package of shorts today at 4:45, and will do my second post then. Jac.
Yesterday I saw Canal Street Madam, a documentary about a family run brothel in New Orleans. This particular brothel was run by three generations of women, grandmother to granddaughter. After the brothel is busted by the FBI, these women are basically out on their asses. WE are given a look in to the lives of the women after they have to completely change their lives. They get in trouble while the male visitors go untouched, and remained untouched due to the working women's fear of being harmed. It was a rare and raw look in to the life of an ex-prostitute, and gave the profession a certain level of humanity, instead of the "piece of meat" idea depicted by hollywood. Very interesting
(Bruce) Before the Rain Before the Rain is an edgy glimpse into another nations reality. It is beautiful, hard-hitting and still very simple. The film contains so many layers that a viewer cannot catch by watching this film once. The story takes the audience through many viewpoints and how each are affected by a situation. The viewer is taken through Bosnia, London and a look into the life of an orthodox priest. The parallel stories that eventually tie the film together make the movie that much more amazing. The film shows that people are not only connected by time and by relationships, but also through geography and suffering as well. War makes us all equals in the sense that it doesn’t matter what class a soldier came from, he still fights alongside other soldiers. There are so many emotions that run in this film as well. I can’t begin to imagine the guilt and sorrow after your spouse is shot right after asking for a divorce. Tragedy is a part of almost every character in the film, a circle of tragedy that never ends. The acting was outstanding, very real and very convincing. Every scene had a purpose. Not once did I look at my watch and wonder what time it was, I was lost in the narrative. After seeing this film, I was extremely disappointed I missed 72 Days and Rade Serbedzijaʼs presentation. I will definitely be looking it up.
(Bruce) Kaboom Kaboom was an interesting film to say the least. Smiley face was a very charming character, and Mysterious Skins was just perverted. The super stylized film was presented in a very clean way. Aside from the colorful presentation, the story still holds on to you. The viewer will experience a wide array of emotions. the funny scenes definitely make you laugh but some scenes will chill you. The filmʼs tone toward sexuality and discovery is very lighthearted. The title is definitely foreshadowing with borderline impossible things happening. Iʼll refrain from writing spoilers in case you didnʼt watch it but kind of a ʻyou have to see it to believe itʼ type of things. Smith is haunted by his visions of a girl who is troubled and dangerous men in animal masks. Kaboom is a strange journey full of plot twists and extreme abstraction. Director Araki made extremely good use of an over saturated color palette and extreme contrasts in lighting to lighten even the most downer moods. All in all a decent film with moments that undergo strange transformations and almost utter ridiculousness. I liked the film. Even though the ending was completely silly, it was still extremely fun to watch and enjoyable to sit through if just for once. The film felt like, in some portions, a light hearted comedy that harkens back to the Breakfast Club.
The series of shorts I viewed for the film festival was the Experimental Landscapes Pt. 1: Eight Shorts. All of these films were very different from each other and none of them were necessarily what I was expecting to see. The first one comprised of six or eight different black and white shots being showed simultaneously through split screen. The film was from the perspective of a driver or a passenger of a car driving home. It felt very slow paced due to the long exposure of each shot. I think this was to portray how long a drive home might seem, in that regard, it was effective. The next short consisted of one shot. Entitled “Bicycle”, it opens up to a man riding his bike up to a parking meter. He decides to lock it against the meter leaving it easy to steal. Once he leaves a man walks from around the corner and waits for an elevator. Becoming impatient, he steals the bike and rides off. It was a very simple idea and made for a good laugh, especially since it was set to olde-timey silent film music. The next film was one of my favorites of the eight. It was a series of shots showing the autumn traditions of small town New England. It showed everything from football games to county fairs. The shots were all really well done from the composition to framing. It also had a very good score. Another one of my favorite was either the fourth or fifth film. It used a simple horizontal mirror effect on cityscapes of Las Vegas. The lights of the city made for a mesmerizing effect and was easily one of the more rememberable shorts. “Forest”, the film had the most narrative of all of them. It started with a boy viewing something in the woods and running in terror back home. When he comes home you find out that his dad has been gone for the day. It then cross cuts to a man in a cabin, who is believed to be his father. Later, you see the man filing what appear to be horns growing out of his head. This film definitely had some uncomfortable moments but was one of the more well made films. My final favorite short was “This… is the Orange Line”. This was a simple movie that was shot while riding the Orange Line of the Chicago elevated train. It was beautifully shot and scored. The black and white made the shots of the buildings look especially cool, one in particularly had a lot of windows which made a nice reflection. Overall I thought the films were good and showed just how many different “types” of films there can be and what actually defines a film.
The feature I saw at the film festival was “Queen to Play”. Directed by Caroline Bottaro, this film starred Sandrine Bonnaire and Kevin Kline in his first French speaking role. Sandrine’s character is a maid in a hotel who stumbles upon a couple in their hotel room seducing each other through a game of chess. She becomes. fascinated by this and buys her husband a chess set so she can learn the game. Her second job is to clean the house of Dr. Kroger, played by Kline. She asks him to teach her how to become even better at the game. She begins sneaking off to play chess with him and her family begins to think she is having an affair. Although there appears to be a love affair going on here, it is more focused on each other’s love for chess. What she finds most interesting about the game is the Queen, it can move anywhere it wants. She begins to use this philosophy with the rest of her life and starts seeing chess moves on the table clothes and floor tiles. She goes on to play against male competitive chess players. The movie was overall a solid view. The performances are what seem to stick out the most. I feel it could have been executed a little better. The concept of a female being fascinated by the queen’s power on the chess board makes for a good metaphor but it doesn’t go much further than that.
I saw Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Experimental Landscapes Part II: 10 Shorts.
Uncle Boonmee was an interesting theory and idea, which is why I went to view the film in the first place. However, the pacing and obscurity of the film completely threw me off to the point where it was not interesting anymore. The lack of conversation needed a very visually stimulating scene in order for the audience to become captivated. However, there are many dull moments where everybody is silent and the only thing happening is somebody walking, or food being placed on a table. Still, the main story line was deep and important, I would not have understood the film if I did not read the abstract beforehand. The part that confused me the most was with the princess. She randomly appears for a quick scene, mourns the loss of her beauty, and gives herself to a fish. If they maybe expanded on that it would have been a story line I would like to know more about, rather than be left with quick intro-quick outro. I want to know why the princess lost her beauty, if the guard and she used to be in love, and why trust a fish, let alone have sexual relations with one? The ending with Uncle Boonmee finally dying was interesting as well as poetic. His death really impacted those who were close to him and they will never be the same again. Maybe because of the spiritual journey they went through with Uncle Boonmee, the sister and nephew have a connection, which is what was shown when concluded. The nephew becomes a monk and turns to his beliefs, but still needs the comforting of the Aunt to get through the night. When he visits the Aunt (sister) they decide to eat together and the audiences views them stepping outside their body watching themselves view television while they (their souls?) walk away.
Experimental Landscapes Part II: 10 Shorts went through numerous (I guess 10) different intakes on ways to view nature through a camera’s lens. It went from a digital enhancement of colors and swirls to a black and white documentary of the history of the land. I really enjoyed the shorts that actually showed the sounds, colors, textures, and such of nature. There was a beach scene where for ten minutes all you got to do was be a fly on the wall and see what it was like to be a spectator at a beach in New York. I loved the ocean waves hitting against the rocks, and the laughter of children playing in the distance. The colors were realistic and allowed me to feel as though this is what it really felt like to be there that day, rather than something created and unrealistic, which would have taken away from the atmosphere. An abstract short I liked was one about the mountains, where they had about 20 women wearing the same black leotards and neutral makeup, shot in black and white, and they danced to the formation of the giant rocks. The music and dancing was completely original, yet it fit with the scenery. I would not have thought to put this type of choreography together with nature, but it seemed to work for me. I did not enjoy the Camroulette short. The camera stayed in one place and turned around. The filmmaker decided to cut it up so that the audience viewed the same movement 8(ish) times in a row. I was bored and getting uneasy because I just wanted the film to move on. My favorite was Devil’s Gate. There was a storyline (the history of the monument) and an actual filming of the place so the audience can view the scenery.
The feature I viewed at the film festival was Kaboom, a story about a bi-sexual college student who encounters mysterious secrets as he learns more and more about himself.
ReplyDeleteThe film was… interesting. It was shot at what appears to be 60p on digital, and has a visual style that mirrors that of a pornographic film. Oh, and it is a soft-core porn. The acting and shot composition reflects this style, but I feel that it does have a bit more to offer. The problem that I found with it is that it established plot threads that seemed absolutely unrelated to the rest of the plot, then when it was time to end the movie, all of these threads were haphazardly smashed together to create a “climax”.
I guess I’d compare this movie to The Room, as one can see that there was an intention of serious drama, but fell flat when the delivery came off as hokey and mildly amusing. I’d figure that the hardest movie to attend at the festival would actually be “good”, but it looks to be that the most “entertaining” movie got the attention.
Things that I can draw to WKW is the use of time and color (blue). In this movie, the main character experiences multiple false dream sequences that jump around in time. Also, the main character’s room s always lit with a blue light, which gives it a safe but mysterious tone. I can’t really draw much else, as both of those were a stretch.
I’m not necessarily homophobic, but the film made me feel quite uncomfortable due to it’s use of gay sex. It was about even with the strait sex, but let’s just say the twist left an awful taste in my mouth.
Final Thought: Kaboom is not for everyone. It features gratuitous sex scenes, has the writing comparable of a high school student, struggles to maintain plot, and has some really bad acting. However, it al becomes entertaining if you take it with a grain of salt.
-A. Nowak
In addition to working at the festival this year, I saw the film ! Women Art Revolution, which is a documentary about sexism in the art world - specifically in the second half of the 20th century. The film itself was almost entirely interviews collected over several decades, interlaced with examples of feminist art and historical footage.
ReplyDeleteHaving very little knowledge of the art world, and being a male, I felt a little bit like a fish out of water at the screening. I wish I had known more about art going into the film in order to have some context, but I enjoyed the film anyway.
Being a documentary, there isn't a strict narrative to be found in the film, instead it plays out through interviews with mostly female artists as they cover their struggle with a misogynistic art world over the last 50 to 60 years. My one complaint with the film is the narrator/writer/director. While it's great that she put all this work into making the film, I felt like she focused on her own work too much. Her contributions to feminist art seem to be at their pinnacle with this film, but she doesn't seem to be content with that. Instead she interlaces herself into the story, while the work of other (in my opinion) more interesting artists is passed over.
Overall I enjoyed the movie a great deal, it was the first movie in a long time that I can say I learned a lot from. The music in the film, I believe, was all original, and was superb - definitely my favorite part.
I went to go see "Before The Rain" last night. It was interesting, as my girlfriend and I thought we'd sat down to watch "Animation Night", which was actually playing in another theatre thirty minutes later. We decided to stick with this movie, though, and 'm glad that we did. Cinematographically, it was really pleasing to watch. The plot was a bit slow at times, but I didn't mind that, as the director gave the audience plenty of interesting shots to look at throughout. This story was told in three parts, and my only problem was that there was not much cohesiveness between the plots until the end. The theme of the movie was that a circle never ends, and I do understand how this tied into the movie beginning and ending in the same place, but I felt that director left a lot of loose ends open. Perhaps I just missed minor details that wrapped things up for other characters.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I did like this movie, thoug, and am glad that I went.
)I am going to see a package of shorts today at 4:45, and will do my second post then.
Jac.
Yesterday I saw Canal Street Madam, a documentary about a family run brothel in New Orleans. This particular brothel was run by three generations of women, grandmother to granddaughter. After the brothel is busted by the FBI, these women are basically out on their asses. WE are given a look in to the lives of the women after they have to completely change their lives. They get in trouble while the male visitors go untouched, and remained untouched due to the working women's fear of being harmed. It was a rare and raw look in to the life of an ex-prostitute, and gave the profession a certain level of humanity, instead of the "piece of meat" idea depicted by hollywood. Very interesting
ReplyDelete(Bruce)
ReplyDeleteBefore the Rain
Before the Rain is an edgy glimpse into another nations reality. It is beautiful, hard-hitting and still very simple. The film contains so many layers that a viewer cannot catch by watching this film once.
The story takes the audience through many viewpoints and how each are affected by a situation. The viewer is taken through Bosnia, London and a look into the life of an orthodox priest. The parallel stories that eventually tie the film together make the movie that much more amazing. The film shows that people are not only connected by time and by relationships, but also through geography and suffering as well. War makes us all equals in the sense that it doesn’t matter what class a soldier came from, he still fights alongside other soldiers.
There are so many emotions that run in this film as well. I can’t begin to imagine the guilt and sorrow after your spouse is shot right after asking for a divorce. Tragedy is a part of almost every character in the film, a circle of tragedy that never ends. The acting was outstanding, very real and very convincing. Every scene had a purpose.
Not once did I look at my watch and wonder what time it was, I was lost in the narrative. After seeing this film, I was extremely disappointed I missed 72 Days and Rade Serbedzijaʼs presentation. I will definitely be looking it up.
(Bruce)
ReplyDeleteKaboom
Kaboom was an interesting film to say the least. Smiley face was a very charming character, and Mysterious Skins was just perverted. The super stylized film was presented in a very clean way. Aside from the colorful presentation, the story still holds on to you. The viewer will experience a wide array of emotions. the funny scenes definitely make you laugh but some scenes will chill you. The filmʼs tone toward sexuality and discovery is very lighthearted.
The title is definitely foreshadowing with borderline impossible things happening. Iʼll refrain from writing spoilers in case you didnʼt watch it but kind of a ʻyou have to see it to believe itʼ type of things. Smith is haunted by his visions of a girl who is troubled and dangerous men in animal masks. Kaboom is a strange journey full of plot twists and extreme abstraction. Director Araki made extremely good use of an over saturated color palette and extreme contrasts in lighting to lighten even the most downer moods.
All in all a decent film with moments that undergo strange transformations and almost utter ridiculousness. I liked the film. Even though the ending was completely silly, it was still extremely fun to watch and enjoyable to sit through if just for once. The film felt like, in some portions, a light hearted comedy that harkens back to the Breakfast Club.
The series of shorts I viewed for the film festival was the Experimental Landscapes Pt. 1: Eight Shorts. All of these films were very different from each other and none of them were necessarily what I was expecting to see. The first one comprised of six or eight different black and white shots being showed simultaneously through split screen. The film was from the perspective of a driver or a passenger of a car driving home. It felt very slow paced due to the long exposure of each shot. I think this was to portray how long a drive home might seem, in that regard, it was effective. The next short consisted of one shot. Entitled “Bicycle”, it opens up to a man riding his bike up to a parking meter. He decides to lock it against the meter leaving it easy to steal. Once he leaves a man walks from around the corner and waits for an elevator. Becoming impatient, he steals the bike and rides off. It was a very simple idea and made for a good laugh, especially since it was set to olde-timey silent film music. The next film was one of my favorites of the eight. It was a series of shots showing the autumn traditions of small town New England. It showed everything from football games to county fairs. The shots were all really well done from the composition to framing. It also had a very good score. Another one of my favorite was either the fourth or fifth film. It used a simple horizontal mirror effect on cityscapes of Las Vegas. The lights of the city made for a mesmerizing effect and was easily one of the more rememberable shorts. “Forest”, the film had the most narrative of all of them. It started with a boy viewing something in the woods and running in terror back home. When he comes home you find out that his dad has been gone for the day. It then cross cuts to a man in a cabin, who is believed to be his father. Later, you see the man filing what appear to be horns growing out of his head. This film definitely had some uncomfortable moments but was one of the more well made films. My final favorite short was “This… is the Orange Line”. This was a simple movie that was shot while riding the Orange Line of the Chicago elevated train. It was beautifully shot and scored. The black and white made the shots of the buildings look especially cool, one in particularly had a lot of windows which made a nice reflection. Overall I thought the films were good and showed just how many different “types” of films there can be and what actually defines a film.
ReplyDeleteThe feature I saw at the film festival was “Queen to Play”. Directed by Caroline Bottaro, this film starred Sandrine Bonnaire and Kevin Kline in his first French speaking role. Sandrine’s character is a maid in a hotel who stumbles upon a couple in their hotel room seducing each other through a game of chess. She becomes. fascinated by this and buys her husband a chess set so she can learn the game. Her second job is to clean the house of Dr. Kroger, played by Kline. She asks him to teach her how to become even better at the game. She begins sneaking off to play chess with him and her family begins to think she is having an affair. Although there appears to be a love affair going on here, it is more focused on each other’s love for chess. What she finds most interesting about the game is the Queen, it can move anywhere it wants. She begins to use this philosophy with the rest of her life and starts seeing chess moves on the table clothes and floor tiles. She goes on to play against male competitive chess players. The movie was overall a solid view. The performances are what seem to stick out the most. I feel it could have been executed a little better. The concept of a female being fascinated by the queen’s power on the chess board makes for a good metaphor but it doesn’t go much further than that.
ReplyDelete-cameron
I saw Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Experimental Landscapes Part II: 10 Shorts.
ReplyDeleteUncle Boonmee was an interesting theory and idea, which is why I went to view the film in the first place. However, the pacing and obscurity of the film completely threw me off to the point where it was not interesting anymore. The lack of conversation needed a very visually stimulating scene in order for the audience to become captivated. However, there are many dull moments where everybody is silent and the only thing happening is somebody walking, or food being placed on a table. Still, the main story line was deep and important, I would not have understood the film if I did not read the abstract beforehand. The part that confused me the most was with the princess. She randomly appears for a quick scene, mourns the loss of her beauty, and gives herself to a fish. If they maybe expanded on that it would have been a story line I would like to know more about, rather than be left with quick intro-quick outro. I want to know why the princess lost her beauty, if the guard and she used to be in love, and why trust a fish, let alone have sexual relations with one? The ending with Uncle Boonmee finally dying was interesting as well as poetic. His death really impacted those who were close to him and they will never be the same again. Maybe because of the spiritual journey they went through with Uncle Boonmee, the sister and nephew have a connection, which is what was shown when concluded. The nephew becomes a monk and turns to his beliefs, but still needs the comforting of the Aunt to get through the night. When he visits the Aunt (sister) they decide to eat together and the audiences views them stepping outside their body watching themselves view television while they (their souls?) walk away.
Experimental Landscapes Part II: 10 Shorts went through numerous (I guess 10) different intakes on ways to view nature through a camera’s lens. It went from a digital enhancement of colors and swirls to a black and white documentary of the history of the land. I really enjoyed the shorts that actually showed the sounds, colors, textures, and such of nature. There was a beach scene where for ten minutes all you got to do was be a fly on the wall and see what it was like to be a spectator at a beach in New York. I loved the ocean waves hitting against the rocks, and the laughter of children playing in the distance. The colors were realistic and allowed me to feel as though this is what it really felt like to be there that day, rather than something created and unrealistic, which would have taken away from the atmosphere. An abstract short I liked was one about the mountains, where they had about 20 women wearing the same black leotards and neutral makeup, shot in black and white, and they danced to the formation of the giant rocks. The music and dancing was completely original, yet it fit with the scenery. I would not have thought to put this type of choreography together with nature, but it seemed to work for me. I did not enjoy the Camroulette short. The camera stayed in one place and turned around. The filmmaker decided to cut it up so that the audience viewed the same movement 8(ish) times in a row. I was bored and getting uneasy because I just wanted the film to move on. My favorite was Devil’s Gate. There was a storyline (the history of the monument) and an actual filming of the place so the audience can view the scenery.