Crossing Europe 2010

As I’m sitting here on the train on my way back to Vienna I can’t help but think: “Wow, what an amazing festival it’s been!”. The festival in question was the 7th edition of what is undoubtedly the cultural highlight of my calendar: the Crossing Europe film-festival taking place in Linz, Upper Austria.

Even though I didn’t manage to see quite as many films as in previous years – I think that record is still 18 or 19 – I’ve never before been so satisfied with the program. Out of the 15 films which I saw since Thursday afternoon only 3 were absolutely disasters and the rest ranged between really good and absolutely amazing. In fact it’s never been harder for me to try and pick my favorite(s).

Having said that I think it’s safe to say that Zvonimir Jurić and Goran Dević definitely deserved winning the jury’s award for Crnci / The Blacks (Croatia). The movie is an excellent and thought-provoking account of a small Croatian special forces unit and its members’ emotional states during the last hours of the war in Yugoslavia.

Other films that I particularly liked were

• Iki dil bir bavul / On the Way to School (Turkey) which is centered around a young Turk’s experiences in his first year of being a teacher in a remote Kurdish part of the country.
• Kak ya provyol etim letom / How I ended this Summer (Russia) which focuses on an unlikely 2-man team living in a weather station in the Arctic.

Three other movies that deserve a special mention are:

• South (Austria) for the filmmakers dedicating 12 years of their life to making it happen.
• Kynodontas / Dogtooth (Greece) for being seriously, I mean very seriously disturbing (in that regard it’s right up there with Twentynine Palms which I saw at the first Crossing Europe).
• Hadewijch (France) for simply being the most pointless and boring movie I have seen in my entire life.

(Incidentally I just found out that Twentynine Palms and Hadewijch are from the same writer/director…)

Apart from the movies itself the overall atmosphere at Crossing Europe is always awesome. I met a lot of people which I hadn’t since last year’s festival and a number of interesting folks from all around Europe.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed Crossing Europe 2010 and would like to thank all the people who made it happen!

You can find more information about Crossing Europe on the festival’s Web site, its blog and via @crossingeurope on Twitter.

P.S. Oh, and don’t forget about Crossing Europe 2011 taking place from April 12 through 17, 2011;-)

In Bruges

After a friend’s recommendation I watched In Bruges the other night and I really liked the movie a lot. The story starts with two hitmen arriving in the Belgian city of Bruges where they’re supposed to await further instructions. It subsequently turns out that Ray, the younger one of them (played by Colin Farrell), had accidently killed a young boy during his previous job. After a couple of days his older colleague Ken (Brendan Gleeson) receives orders by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to kill Ray. Amidst the unfolding story Ray meets two very interesting characters: Chloë, a Belgian girl and Jimmy, a dwarf actor.

The film works incredibly well due to the interesting combination of very unique people, the excellent acting, the quiet backdrop of Bruges and the three unique main characters portrayed by Farrell, Gleeson and Fiennes. Definitely a well recommended movie, though some viewer discretion is advised as the f-word is used quite extensively (126 times according to IMDB) and there’s one scene towards the end that might be hard to stomach for some people.

The International

I went to see The International tonight after reading quite a lot about the film’s opening during the Berlin International Film Festival in early February. Plus being a big fan of director Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and actor Clive Owen helped in the decision to watch this movie during a time when the list of interesting movies currently in the cinemas is ridiculously long.

Anyway, while the story is off to somewhat of a slow start the pace picks up after about 35 minutes and goes on to include some truly great action scenes and very nice locations for the unfolding plot. The highlight is undoubtedly an extensive shootout in New York’s Guggenheim Museum. The film also makes great use of the locations such as Berlin, NYC and Istanbul the characters visit. Plus there are two relatively slow on-foot chases which are a nice change from the insanely-fast-cut action sequences one sees way too often.

Apart from the slow start the only slight downside of The International are some of the dialogues. Often they look like the actors / characters are trying too hard which makes things look overly artificial.

All in all this was a very enjoyable movie and definitely among the better action flicks I’ve seen in the past year or so.

It's a Free World...

Boy, do I hate it when I go to the cinema and see a movie that really disappoints me…

I went to see It’s a Free World… and I can’t for the love of God understand why that film has an IMDB rating of 7.1. At best I would give it 5-something. I’ve seen a bunch of not-so-great movies over the past 12 months or so but I’ve hardly ever been as disappointed as when I walked out of the cinema tonight.

Seriously, on how many levels can you mess up a movie? The main character was simply appalling and superficial, the acting was less than impressive and even if those two things had worked the core of the story remains utterly questionable.

The basic story is quite simple and does have potential (IMHO): a young woman called Angie losses her job working for a British employment agency hiring Polish men and women to work in the U.K. Then she decides to start a similar business together with a flat mate, subsequently turning into a real a**hole on oh-so-many levels. She neglects her son, doesn’t take meaningful advice from her parents and, worst of all, treats the workers she hooks up to job like s***. The consequence of her actions is a serious mess of a life to say the least.

Oddly enough the movie is somehow based on the premise of the viewer connecting with the young women, yet I can’t remember ever seeing a character in a movie that was so unsympathetic. As one of my friends with who I watched the movie put it: Vito Corleone from The Godfather was a nice fellow compared to her. I’d go as far as saying that Nicky Santoro from Casino was portrayed  as a more likable character.

The thing is that even if “Angie” had been a character to connect with  the focus of the movie would have been questionable to say the least. Foreign workers (both legal and illegal) being abused by European individuals, companies and the (often informal) structure set up to support said abuse in itself is a very interesting and important topic. But why-oh-why focus on a small fish in the sea and her shallow excuses for profiting of other people’s misery? Should that be some sort of grand excuse or justification? Why not tell the story of one of these workers and their families instead? Or look at what the life of Karol, a Polish guy Angie grows quite fond of, is like instead of merely using him as a support-character of some sort.

At the end of the day I can’t help but feel that at least part of the description on the movie’s German Web site is accurate in that It’s a Free World demonstrates some of the worst kind of the Old Europe way of thinking that’s unfortunately still prevalent and therefore a “current yet timeless story.”

*sigh*

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

I watched Woody Allen’s latest movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona tonight and have to say that I liked it quite a lot. While it’s not nearly as good as Match Point, which I absolutely loved, in many ways it’s a classic Woody Allen movie and very entertaining at that.

Much has been written about Penélope Cruz in the role of the ex-wife Maria Elena and there’s little that can be added aside from saying that it’s an absolutely breathtaking performance. It’s been suggested that Cruz should be nominated for an Oscar and I certainly think that her performance would merit one of the little golden statues.

Javier Bardem performance as the irresistible artist Juan Antonio is also top-notch. All throughout the movie I tried to remember where I had previously seen him but it took a visit to IMDB to see that it was Mar adentro. In that movie, one of the secret gems which I saw in 2005 and on some level one of the most touching films I’ve ever seen,  he plays a quadriplegic fighting for euthanasia and the right to end his own life. Both times he brings an amazing energy and astounding depth of character representation to the big screen.

Rebecca Hall, a very young actress, plays the role of Vicky and does a  very good job at it. (Looking at her IMDB profile I discovered that she’s going to on the screen again in late 2009 as part of Dorian Gray. Having liked the book when I read it some years ago I’ll try and see the movie when it hits the cinemas.)

Scarlett Johansson, who I absolutely loved in Lost in Translation, as Cristina on the other hand is somewhat of a disappointment. Her performance remains shallow and I can’t help myself feeling that it’s the 4th time that I’m seeing Johansson play the same character on a different set. I can’t quite pinpoint it but it seems to be that she’s always being cast for portraying a young woman who’s somehow not really quite sure what to do with herself and has a feeling of not fitting in with her environment.

At the end of the day it’s really simple: If you liked previous Woody Allen movies you should go and see Vicky Cristina Barcelona as it’s a good fun and one of the best movies that is currently in the cinemas (here in Austria that is). If you’ve never liked Woody Allen then you’ll probably also don’t like this one…