ZERO-G MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2005 FILM NOTES
26th Jul 05
ROB JAN AND ZERO-G’ S 2005 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM
FESTIVAL
SELECTED FILM NOTES
AS FEATURED ON ZERO-G #518 (18.7.2005) AND #519 (25.7.2005)
FESTIVAL RUNS FROM 20TH JULY TO 7TH AUGUST 2005.
FOR SCREENING TIMES, BOOKINGS AND OTHER INFORMATION-
melbournefilmfestival.com.au
GENERAL NOTES-
1- MOST, BUT NOT ALL, FILMS GENERALLY SCREEN AT LEAST TWICE
DURING THE FESTIVAL WITH MANY SECURING CINEMA RELEASE
SESSIONS
OR TELEVISION BROADCAST AFTERWARDS.
2- SOME HIGHLY POPULAR SESSIONS MAY BE BOOKED OUT, CHECK THE MIFF
WEBSITE FOR UPDATES
3- I HAVE NO FINANCIAL CONNECTION WITH THE FESTIVAL BUT AM
PERMITTED TO PREVIEW IN ADVANCE SELECTED FILMS FOR THE PURPOSE OF
REVIEW
THE FILMS- (I WILL BE ADDING MORE NOTES TO THIS LIST AS TIME
PERMITS,)
SCIENCE FICTION-
ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES YU LIKWAI CHINA/FRANCE 2003 SCIENCE
FICTION (REVIEWED)
Admirably bleak (right down to the framing, which often uses long
perspective shots of pipes, wires, fences, etc to contribute to a
feeling of personal distance and dimishment of humanity) story
about the effects that the collapse of a Pan-Asian Religious
Cult-Regime has upon individualswho are abruptly no longer
prisoners of the collective. One character pleads, “I want to
live like before” only to have another reply, “What was before
like?” This film works as an olbique criticism of Maosim and the
atrocities of the Great Leap Forwards/Cultural Revolution,
perhaps sneaking in under the radar as a tract about the dangers
of religious cults, perhaps specifically the Falun Gong sect by
way of the Aum cult.
ELI, ELI, LEMA SABACHTANI? AOYAMA SHINJI JAPAN 2004 SCIENCE
FICTION (UNSEEN)
GODZILLA: FINAL WARS RYUHEI KITAMURA JAPAN 2004 SCIENCE
FICTION
(REVIEWED)
Completely insane new Godzilla flick! All Japan’s monsters battle
it out with flying United Nations battleships, alien UFOs whose
occupants look like Neo and Darth Vader (without the helmet) and
cool battle-armoured mutants. Destruction of Sydney is a
highlight....! Also, they have a very funny dig at the Amercian
Godzilla movie’s star; oh those naughty Japanese. The visual FXs
are ‘monsterous’, especially the ugraded “Toho-Vision” men in
advanced rubber suits, and there are so many cheerfully unashamed
rips from other films that its dizzying. The characters are just
as nutty,
especially a Gajin Captain who looks like a clone of Jesse
Ventura. Dialogue regularly spins out gems like, “You must
captivate us alive” and “You won’t interfere with our plans lowly
worms!”
NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOJ DOZOR) TIMU BEKMAMBETOV RUSSIA 2005 SCIENCE
FICTION (UNSEEN)
PRIMER SHANE CARRUTH USA 2004 SCIENCE FICTION (REVIEWED)
A methodical, engrossingly detailed time travel ‘caper’ flick
that blends elements of 12 Monkeys and the implied dark side of
Back to The Future as 4 guys in a suburban garage work through
the complications of having built a working time machine. The
detail is impressive, and the plot convoluted as a moebius strip,
in what is essentially a film that ends up so tightly wound that
it explodes beyond the budgetry confines of its guerilla
fillmmaking origins. Ignore (or revel in, if you happen to be a
technogeek!) the arcane jargon and procedural exposition that
leads up to and permeates the quartets ‘eureka’ discovery and the
consequences that spin out from it. Warning: May take repeated
viewings to untangle it !
RESPIRE WI DING HO TAIWAN 2005 SCIENCE FICTION (UNSEEN)
ZOMBIE HONEYMOON DAVE GEBROE USA 2004 SCIENCE FICTION
DEAD MEAT CONOR MCMAHON IRELAND 2003 SCIENCE FICTION
THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO
ANTHONY LUCAS AUSTRALIA (ANIMATION) (UNSEEN)
CASSHERN KAZUAKI KIRIYA JAPAN 2004 SCIENCE FICTION (UNSEEN)
THE SORROW OF SUPERMAN - JEUNG IN-OK SOUTH KOREA (ANIMATION)
(UNSEEN)
TOKYO EXPRESS (ANIMATION) (UNSEEN)
FANTASY-
STRINGS ANDARS KLARLAND DENMARK FANTASY (REVIEWED)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ! The most remarkable festival film I’ve seen
so far, a full blooded Shakespearian fantasy epic magnificently
staged using stringed puppets...rocketing the artform of
marionattion to the levels that Claymation has already reached on
screen. Actually, I can see this is going to be a festival
highlight for me. The way the puppet strings fill a practicial
purpose while at the same time being integral to both the plot
and as metaphors is ingeniuous. The Dark Crystal/Labyrinth of
stringed puppets. Oh, and they’ve enlisted actors like Dereki
Jacobi and Julian Glover to do the voices....
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (HAURU NO UGOKU SHIRO) HAYAO MIYAKZAKI
JAPAN 2004 SCIENCE FICTION (REVIEWED)
IZO TAKASHI MIIKE JAPAN FANTASY-HORROR (REVIEWED)
A samurai assassin from the past is brutally executed but his
rage won’t let him die, catapulting him forwards in time through
a flickering collage of futures, where he completely blows any
possibility of kharmic redemption by promptly butchering everyone
he encounters...and I do mean everyone! One of the bloodiest
films I’ve ever seen, which is saying something in context of
other Takashi gorefests. There’s a great deal of Buddhist
philosophy accompanying the carnage, as well as a buncha savage
sex as the time-tossed Izo fights against Yakuza, SWAT troopers,
schoolkids, salarymen, other time travellers, W.W 2 Japanese
Imperials, a great big beefy bruiser carrying a very big stick,
and the Gods themselves. Sutras, swords and sub-machine guns
can’t stop this guy
as he carves his way through history on this punishingly
gruelling spatterfest. More about the meaning of death than life,
this has instant, unpleasantly riveting cult classic daubed all
over it in the ‘red stuff’.
DUMPLINGS FRUIT CHAN CHINA/HONG KONG FANTASY-HORROR
(REVIEWED)
An expansion of a shorter film from a threestory anthology (Three
Extremes) also in the festival.
This one is very, very sick, and involves Chinese cooking...and I
mean that literally! Even the Iron Chef’s wouldn’t use the
ingredients that the ‘gourmets’, seeking to find the ultimate
fountain of youth, do in Dumplings. Contains some quite stomach
churning scenes...including one toe-curling (I don’t believe I
wrote that!) abortion. Nevertheless, stunningly filmed, all the
more macabre when you bask in the radiant beauty of the
actresses.
INNOCENCE LUCILE HADZIHALILOVIC FRANCE 2004 FANTASY
(REVIEWED)
PRINCESS RACCOON (OPERETTA TANUKIGOTEN) SEIJUN SUZUKI JAPAN 2005
(REVIEWED)
THEY CAME BACK (LES REVENANTS) ROBIN CAMPILLO FRANCE 2004 FANTASY
(REVIEWED)
CINEMA/T.V RELATED DOCUMENTARIES
STUDIO GHIBLI: THE MIYAZAKI TEMPLE DOCUMENTARY. (REVIEWED)
BILLY, HOW DID YOU DO IT? VOLKER SCHONDORFF USA/GERMANY
DOCUMENTARY (UNSEEN)
FINAL CUT- THE MAKING OF HEAVEN'S GATE MICHAEL EPSTEIN USA 2004
DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
Z CHANNEL-A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION ALEXANDRA CASSAVETES USA 2004
DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
HENRI LANGLOIS-THE PHANTOM OF THE CINEMATHEQUE JACQUES RICHARD
FRANCE 2004 DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
This history of the preservation of film at the Cinematheque
Francois as faciliated by its founder and guiding light,
prodoucer Henris Langlois is longer, at 3 and a half hours than,
most of the films preserved in the archives! The
vast scope is made digestible by the intimate presentation and
Langlois’ own eccentric, but charmingly self effacing manner.
Lots and lots of clips from rare films from the collection.
I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL-SPIKE MILLIGAN CATHY HENKEL AUSTRALIA 2005
DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
MARTIAL ARTS RELATED DOCUMENTARIES
THE SMASHING MACHINE JOHN HYAMS USA 2003 DOCUMENTARY
(REVIEWED)
GIRL WRESTLER DIANE ZANDER USA 2004 DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
DOCUMENTARIES RELATED TO THE MIDDLE-EAST
ONE SHOT (ACHAT BODEDAT) NURIT KEDAR ISRAEL 2004 DOCUMENTARY
(REVIEWED)
VOICES OF IRAQ IRAQ/USA 2004 DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
GUNNER PALACE MICHAEL TUCKER GERMANY/USA 2004 DOCUMENTARY
(REVIEWED)
OTHER DOCUMENTARIES
MODIFY JASON GARY USA 2005 DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWED)
SHIPBREAKERS MICAHEL KOT CANADA 2004 DOCUMENTARY (REVIEWEDO
THE CONCRETE REVOLUTION XIAOLU GUO CHINA/UK 2004 DOCUMENTARY
(REVIEWED)
A STATE OF MIND DANIEL GORDON UK/NORTH KOREA 2004 DOCUMENTARY
(UNSEEN)
BALLETS RUSSES DAYAN GOLDFINE USA 2005 DOCUMENTARY
(REVIEWED)