trendaway.com

Sauna is another project by director Antti-Jussi Annila in which he combines different genres in a bizarre mash-up. His previous film Jade Warrior (which played at TIFF in 2006) incorporated Chinese martial arts with Finnish mythology. This film takes the horror genre and tries to marry it with a historical epic.

It fails. The fourteenth century setting is instantly appealing but then becomes bland as we discover that the two main brothers and a team of three others are joining forces to map out a new Swedish-Russian border after a 25 year war. Yawn! Then the traditional, pre-Christian Finnish concept of the sauna washing sins away comes into play, and these characters certainly have a lot of no-no’s in their not-too-recent paths. The brother with the significantly lesser bloody past is haunted first, and the most, while his near-blind brother’s 73 kills take their turn later.

About the older one: a lot of attention is given to his poor eyesight and the use of his spectacles (still a rather new invention back then, I suppose), but aside from one comment near the end, it pretty much led to nothing. Maybe we were supposed to see the tough guy as being weak? I dunno.

The horror parts weren’t much more than jumpy, and the historical epic parts were uninteresting to me – at least as the subject matter of a film. They should have picked one and concentrated on that.

It did have a great look to it, though. The ominous sauna was very creepy and there is no way that I would have ever stepped into it. Also, the “scary thing”, although I have no idea why or how we see it at the end, was truly frightening; I wish that it had been used throughout the film instead of just at the end.

This was screening 5/26.

Serbis (Brillante Mendoza) is a snapshot of a day of poverty in the Philippines. Handheld cameras follow family members (by blood and adopted) around their disgustingly dirty adult theater/fast food shop. We observe them walk, talk, yell, walk, fight, walk, have sex, cook, serve customers (both food and at the theater box office), talk and walk. There is no real story – we simply join them in the midst of their many varied situations.

The film is certainly not bad, but it’s even more certainly not for everyone. The title translates to “service”, which is what the many young and mainly young prostitutes say to patrons of the cinema and those in the vicinity, to offer themselves.

This is an extremely noisy film, which I’m sure was intentional. The characters’ voices were barely audible at times due to the incredibly loud street noise. It’s a bit explicit at times but not as much it was made it out to be. It’s also pretty gross, and i’m sure that was intentional. Like, really gross, though. I wanted to have a shower immediately but instead had to settle for another film’s lineup.

I found this film to be incredibly well done and I would be surprised if the majority of the cast actually had acting experience. I am a big fan of handheld photography and also of bleak, realistic films. This may not be the favourite of the films I am seeing at this year’s festival, but it will certainly stand out.

Serbis was up for the Palm d’Or at Cannes this year, the first time in 24 years for a film from the Philippines.

This was screening 4/26.

A Film With Me In It (2008, Ian Fitzgibbon) is an Irish film that is very, very dark and very, very funny. I loved it. It stars Mark Doherty and Dylan Moran as two kinda losers. Mark (Doherty) is an unsuccessful actor who lives with an unhappy girlfriend as well as a paralyzed brother. Pierce, his friend, is a “screenwriter” who attends AA meetings and is quite brilliant at not admitting that he is an alcoholic.

Doherty wrote this thing and Moran must have been in his mind as he did so. I’m a huge fan of Black Books and was pretty stoked for the opportunity to see him more in his element than as the sidekick in Run Fat Boy, Run.

The film was funny, dark, ridiculous but totally believable. At least that’s how they played it out, and it totally works. I love it when I feel terrible for laughing at something! I hope this film gets picked up for North American distribution. In the Q&A, the director says that he was inspired by Withnail & I, Shallow Grave and A Fish Called Wanda. It was shot in 20 days in Dublin, Ireland.

Below is a clip from the Q&A of Doherty, Moran and Fitzgibbon discussing some of the improvisation that occured while filming. Apologies for missing the first few seconds.

This was screening 3/26.

Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) is about a small family who I think we’re supposed to think lives in poverty. It doesn’t look like it though; although their apartment is small, it’s pretty sweet, with an awesome view of the water and a kick-ass rooftop patio. Anyway I think we’re supposed to think they are poor because the dad is a driver for a politician and they always seem to be short on money.

The story begins as the aforementioned politician is involved in a hit-and-run. He gets his driver to take the 9 month prison sentence for him in exchange for compensation. Premise: good! Execution: not so good. There’s a ton of plot in this film but not nearly enough character. We watch the family do (or not do) things but never are we given enough to come close to understanding why. And there’s a bit of spooky stuff that, sure, I can come up with explanations for… but I shouldn’t have to be *that* creative – that’s the filmmaker’s job!

Performances were great and certainly taken seriously, and probably a lot of thought was put into it; the only spectacular thing about this film, however, was the visuals. It consisted mainly of stationary shots (just like last night’s film) and this style was used to great effects as there were a lot of close-ups where the subject moves in and out of the frame. Most striking was the use of colour – or should I say, the lack of colour. It was very under-saturated and I love that look. I think it was filmed in Turkey and the horizons and skylines were absolutely beautiful. I could have looked at it all day… actually, it was so slow, it kind of felt like I was…

I didn’t feel what was probably intended to inspire empathy for a struggling family or a moral dilemma. I felt sympathy for the characters but too much was left to our imagination. There were too many facial expressions and not enough dialogue. The long, silent shots were boring and tedious, but again, they looked brilliant. I’ve including quite a few stills and posters because they look so amazing!

This was screening 2/26.

Acné follows Rafa (Alejandro Tocar), a 13-year old Jewish boy living in Montevideo, Uruguay. We witness his first sexual encounter and then follow him as he roams around town with his friends, deals with issues at home and at school and, ultimately, seeks his first real kiss.

First time feature film writer-director Federico Veiroj was present to introduce the film and then did a Q&A afterwards. He was here in 2004 with his short “As Follows“, and said that both it and Acné drew from a script that he had written back in 2000. He didn’t seem to mind informing us that Rafa’s colourful story was greatly influenced by his own, but did add later that the screenplay had been worked on so much during the past eight years that he can hardly see anything of himself in the character anymore.

This statement is a credit to young Alejandro Tocar, who, at 15 years old at the time of filming, had no acting experience. His performance is very natural and this boy certainly has talent; whether it is talent enough to play a range of characters, however, still needs to be seen (Michael Cera, anyone? I still love him, though…).

The film was shot on HD and in order to hide the format’s limitations, Veiroj made certain to include “as few shots of the sky as possible, as HD makes it look bad”. He shot a bulk of the film in an actual apartment but it was decorated especially for the film. The decor and lack of mobile phones and computers place this film intentionally in the mid-90’s. He said that he wanted to tell a story where the characters were not mingling with technology as often as, or more than, their friends and family.

Camera movements are few and far between; when it moves, it is very slow and deliberate. I love the handheld style but this made me feel more like an invisible observer than as being part of the action; this also went well with the relatively slow pacing and dialogue.

I liked the film. At only 87 minutes it still felt slightly long, so Veiroj may still have a way to go before being able to flesh out a feature length film. But it was a nice way to start this year’s festival experience, especially with its ample moments of humour and awkwardness. I love coming-of-age films, and Rafa was definitely a unique enough character to watch.

This was screening 1/26.