Today, at the IndieLisboa'12 (2/5)

My major highlight is the third Talks and Debates session, Portuguese Cinema as Seen by Young Talents – Reflection on the Current State of the Portuguese Cinema, 6.30pm at Cinema São Jorge. The speakers will be Filipe Melo, writer of the awarded horror short I'll See You in My Dreams, co-author of the internationally successful comic series Dog Mendonza and the Pizza Boy, and jazz musician; Filipa Reis, co-writer/director of the surprising Portuguese short Cat Craddle (my review here); Gabriel Abrantes, Locarno-winner with the short A History of Mutual Respect; and Jorge Jácome, one of the six young investigators that built a fundamental compendium to understand the paradigms of the Portuguese Cinema, The New and the Old practices of the Portuguese Cinema (my translation).

New Talents session with short films, 7.15pm at Cinema São Jorge, from the Portuguese directors Diogo Sequeira, Tiago Ferreira, Filipe Afonso, Gonçalo Robalo, Filipe Pinto & Pedro Pinto, Catherine Boutaud & Rafael Morais.

East Punk Memories (2011), a documentary about the discovery of the punk in Budapest as a way into the socio-political context of the former USSR. Fat Cat (2011), a Belgian B series thriller that seems promising, 9.15pm at Cinema Londres and Still Life (2012), a suspense story about a pedophile father, in competition, 9.45 at Cinema São Jorge. Let's not forget the International Shorts 4 that, among others, will have two animated shorts, The Great Rabbit (2012) and The Centrifuge Brain Project, that seem very interesting, 9.45 at Culturgest.

IndieLisboa'12: "Cat Cradle" and other shorts

Cat Cradle (2012) was one of the most interesting Portuguese films I've seen in quite a while - possibly since Viagem a Portugal (2011), at the last edition of the festival. I now regret having not watched Blood of My Blood (2011) yet, for the 57-minute short film I saw today was a truly, sincere, genuine, socially relevant approach to the life of a girl in a poor neighborhood. Written and directed by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra, it is a hybrid take on the life of a teenage mother - her daughter, her friends, her routines, the imprisoned father of the child, her family, the whole social context. Joana Santos is herself on the movie, providing the drama both with its documental structure, pacing and events and with a huge emotional drainage, voraciously credible and accurate dialogue and very funny moments. A character study of how to carry on with the days by assuming joy instead of pamphleteer the mourning.

Les Dimanches (2011), by Jean-Guillaume Bastien, only works as a documentary, which is not how it is classified. And it does work well, indeed. It shows us the way a handful of people go through the typical boring Sunday, with a special intonation on going to church. There's an amazing scene of this opera playing on a red-lit turned-on dish-washing machine, as imagined by a kid. What felt great about it was the little situations that suddenly aroused for each of the characters. What I missed was the rest. You know, suddenly that was not a normal Sunday for anyone and I would've liked to see what would expect each one of them afterwards. Belly (2011), a 7-minute animated short by Julia Pott, is a bizarre imaginative tale of three man-mashed-with-animal creatures going to the beach and to the bottom of the sea. There were also Juku (2011), by Kiro Russo, and Afrikka (2012), by Katti Harju.

IndieLisboa'12: IndieTalks (1)

The series of conferences Lisbon Talks at the IndieLisboa Film Festival 2012 kicked off on Sunday with a seminar on Traineeship, Production and Distribution. But the Talks and Debates began yesterday with an interesting discussion on the topic Alternative or Independent Distribution and Creating New Audiences. Miguel Gonçalves Mendes (director, José and Pilar (2010)), Alexandre Oliveira (producer, Disquiet (2010)), Pandora da Cunha Teles (producer, Florbela (2010)) and Joaquim Bidarra (ZON Lusomundo). The conversation focused on how these people found and developed alternative distribution circuits for their last films, chiefly on bringing them to the north and inside of the country. Very little money, inexistent databases from the Portuguese Audiovisual Institute, the alleged prejudice against the Portuguese cinema (in which I do not believe one minute) were the major tide-waves they all had to paddle against. Miguel Mendes presented a very enthusiastic speech regarding his all-in option to waste all the money for trailers on a single new version of it to air prime-time on Christmas Eve, capturing a wide audience with a new approach (funnier, mostly, about such an austere figure), something that paid off very well. About the new audiences, Miguel, Joaquim and Pandora seemed to agree that one must be very careful with the eventual implement of the Film National Plan (for schools)  because there's a huge slice of pedagogy to be attended to instead of merely looking at it as a magic strategic potion. One of the most interesting questions asked was why do they only think the distribution after the film is made, instead of trying to include it in the package as another asset to search for financing. There was never a real answer.

More Talks and Debates during the whole week, at Cinema São Jorge:


Tuesday, 1/5, 6.30 pm
A Case Apart– The New Swiss Cinema

Wednesday, 2/5, 6.30 pm
Portuguese Cinema as Seen by Young Talents – Reflection on the Current State of the Portuguese Cinema

Thursday, 3/5, 6.30 pm
The Construction of New Narratives as an Answer to the New Media

Friday, 4/5, 6.30 pm
The Importance of Sound

IndieLisboa'12: "The Fairy" (2011)

The Fairy is a pretty idiosyncratic piece. It not only feels deeply personal, it is actually written, produced, directed and starred by three good friends: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy. Even more, the main characters are called Dom and Fiona, as they were in their previous film Rumba (2008). A strong artistic freedom, I suppose, and a creative set of sensitive minds have unfolded the carpet for a tale that has as much great funny moments as random pointless boring stuff. Those good moments make it worth, that's when the script does a skillful counterweighting of weird nonsense humor with familiar little nags, plus a sense of drama arousing from character clues. The first twenty minutes are lovely on this matter: the boredom of Dom's profession showed by the constant interruption of his dinner (a sandwich), working the suspense as a comic device, for we know he is eventually going to eat the tap of the ketchup bottle that fell with the sauce onto the bread, because he was too distracted on his own imagination. The repetition not only makes you laugh for the gags but also increases the tension for when he finally chokes on the tap and is saved by Fiona, a woman who claims to be a Fairy. Dom lying on the floor, she then steps on top of him, dances to crack-massage his back and the day after he wakes up and one of the first wishes was fulfilled: to have a scooter. Right there, a brand new blue scooter. And he doesn't even now how to ride it.

They have a date now. A light sequence in which Fiona robs a dress and a pair of shoes (she's always barefoot). But the rendez-vouz takes place on a rather banal caffee, managed by a man who constantly hits the wall because of how blind he is. Another proof of script dexterity with little details is the way Fiona gets Dom his second wish: gas for a lifetime. She trades her room key, a blue chip with the number "23" for a similar one with the number "57", that opens one of the big gas containers by the riverside. We get a little bit more into their real world and she's a patient in a mental institution and hence we wonder if what we're seeing is all but in their heads. You have to see the way Dom finds to rescue her from that place and I'm only telling you, a baby suddenly puffs up on someone's belly.

 
Somewhat after the middle of the movie, I started to feel the lack of plot or character design planning. As it kept adding more and more characters, I begun to realize most of the things wouldn't payoff and it would all feel even looser, the drama was surpassed by the quirkiness, which exhausted it, and I don't even want to go into the three musical scenes. Yet, I must walk off with a big note of appraisal for some fine, fine touches of visual conception. The hotel at night, the silent and desert bit of street we glimpsed at, the colors and forms of the sky against the cemented roof, it all gave the piece a funny-dark comic-book sketch tone that helped to corroborate the balance between the reality and the fantasy. It went off trails on that magic realism though, and let the what-the-hell take the reigns.

IndieLisboa'12: "Terri" (2011)

Terri (Jacob Wysocki) is a depressed overweight teenage boy who suddenly starts wearing pajamas to school and, while taking care of his dependent ill uncle, finds a peculiar breach from routine by contemplating mice being stuck killed on mousetraps for a piece of Cheddar and posteriorly being eaten by birds, on the forest. Those are the woods he has to trailblaze every morning to go to school, along an old wrecked train rail, the perfect metaphor for his condition of misfit. We learn such right away, from the sad looks Jacob brilliantly puts on his face, from the way his colleagues mock him. When Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), the school principal, calls him up to know what has been going on, he says he considers Terri to be in the group of the good-hearted kids, instead of the bad-hearted kids. However, when Terri comes back on the first of their weekly appointments, he realizes those are only for mentally or physically crippled students plus him: and that's the group he is in. And it hits him and us, without words and only reactions, as a comic-relieving harsh-dramatic bomb. Then, there's Chad (Bridger Zadina) over there, going bald for pulling his hair out one by one, blood clots sprayed all over his scalp, who seems to need yet another category. Terri and Chad begin to understand each other and befriend with little conversation.

Fitzgerald has a wise way not only with kids but with people. He is so self-conscious of his own flaws that he has the serenity of mind and spirit to understand and trivialize the imperfection of the human being. He has a special way with Terri, a special way with Chad and a special way with Mrs. Hamish (Mary Anne McGarry). When he shouts for the first times, behind that door, we think we know the kind of director, both good and bad family-guy-cop, but we soon unveil it's not strategy: it's faith. Between him and Terri, a friendly unorthodox relationship builds out of tiny solved conflicts, like the true meaning of his photo album "Yesterdays" or the fake-reprimand. They take Chad to the funeral of eventually recently deceased Mrs. Hamish and the film takes a light touch on death to develop the value of each single individual when part of a group - now, a group of people who care for each other.

 

Terri has been observing Heather (Olivia Crocicchia) for a while. We had the foreshadowing where she was on the verge of being fingered in class and the tension maintained. The second part of the movie, the most touching, starts developing with the payoff. When she doesn't resist Dirty Jack (Justin Prentice) and her own adolescent curiosity, he masturbates her in the classroom and she becomes the new social scapegoat, even Terri being preferred by the cute girls. Things get intense and the writer didn't expect us to guess it, he gave us visual action and character development to conclude that: Terri's rage outburst when he expels Chad off his house. The day after, he stands up for Heather in an incredibly sweet funny moment and their friendship triggers, shyly. That's when we turn to the yet same soft-paced third act, though steaming with emotional tension. A beautiful indie set-piece in which Terri finally cleans the house (his uncle had asked for it in the beginning), takes a nice bath, still keeps his pajamas. Heather is coming over. Chad interrupts, jealous but sincerely needy of attention. The three get drunk and drugged and have to deal with inconsequential sexual impulses they end up not carrying on - naivety, respect, shame, much of it. In other context, they would be humiliating themselves, all the three. But their disposal up there, taking their clothes off, it is taking it all in, all problems and hopes, falling asleep upon them. The next day, it feels weird, dreamy and embarrassing. But Terri remembers the connection. Its Saturday morning and he and Fitzgerald spend the day at school, dealing with the hangover, eating hamburgers, playing basketball. Terri finally smiles. Besides them, the place is empty, a perfect visual clue for what certainly staid pleading on Terri's mind - "It feels good to be desired", said Heather the night before.

I would have liked to have a little bit more of the mouse metaphor. A conclusion, although this film is never about conclusions. Every relationship is laid out open, uncertain, ambiguous. Every moment is so small and simple, so sincere. The characters are perfectly designed, extremely original, always surprising you in the end, when the emotional suspense of the decision-making second overbears the lack of a main plot line. The comedy doesn't provide laughs but its dramatic blossoming is absolutely enveloping. A great work by Azazel Jacobs and Patrick Dewitt, the cast, pretty songs, making this another 2011 Sundance premiere worth showing the world - my list already went with Take Shelter (playing on IndieLisboa on May 6th), Win Win, Our Idiot Brother, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Like Crazy, Margin Call and The Guard.

If you'd like to see the movie, it will play again on the festival, on May 3rd.

IndieLisboa 2012 opens today

 

 

Opening film. Dark Horse (2011), written and directed by Todd Solondz.

Lanthimos, Nichols and more at the 2012 IndieLisboa

(click on the image to visit the official website)

Complete program and press book.

Starting on April 26th with Todd Solondz's Dark Horse (2011), nominated for the Golden Lion in the last Venice Film Festival. I had the pleasure to watch his prior Life During Wartime (2009) in the 7th edition and I vividly recommend you check these out. Other highlights are Giorgos Lanthimos's (Dogtooth (2009)) new film, Alps (2011), which also premiered in Venice; Jeff Nichols with one of the year's best works, Take Shelter (2011), with Michael Shanon and Jessica Chastain; Cerro Negro (2011) and Golden Bear short winner Rafa (2011), both by Portuguese young filmmaker João Salaviza; Andrea Arnolds's Wuthering Heights (2011), the adaptation of the 1847 classic by Emily Brontë; Los Angeles Plays Itself (2004), a documentary by Thom Andersen that explores the city as we've been seeing it in the movies throughout the last hundred years; Into the Abyss (2011), the latest Werner Herzog (he featured here two years ago with My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done (2009) and Bad Lieutenant: Port Call New Orleans (2009)) and many others, such as short films from all over the world and a whole bunch of possibly surprising features in and out of competition.

I'll be covering some of the pieces I watch and thus will be around.