I like watching movies. Chris likes watching movies. I like eating popcorn. Chris likes eating popcorn. Of course, the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) was made for us.
Our first taste of BIFF was The FP, which we saw last November before moving to Mackay. This year we bought a handful of passes and saw four festival films over four days, plus a bonus blockbuster.
The accidental film: Berberian Sound Studio
We arrived at Tribal Theatre, where the carpet is shredded, popcorn is more aptly called kernels and the cushions are curiously absent from seats. They did have bean bag chairs though.
Our electronic tickets were scanned by a friendly volunteer and we shuffled in with a small crowd. The opening credits rolled. I turned to Chris with silent question on my face. We had bought tickets to see Norwegian film Turn Me On, Goddammit! Was this the right film? Were we in the right place?
The we heard the Italian and my fears were confirmed. It turns out that our film was showing across town at Palace Centro cinema. We were seated in the middle of a crowded row and the film had piqued our interest, so we stayed put.
Berberian Sound Studio was slow moving but intriguing. Watching a Brit mix sound on an Italian horror film was culturally novel for me. I enjoyed seeing fruit and vegetables used to create gruesome sound effects.
The Manitoban ghost film: Keyhole
The longer we spend in Australia, the more patriotic we become. Keyhole was one of the very few Canadian offerings at BIFF so of course we were obliged to see it. It didn’t hurt that the film was directed by Guy Maddin, whose silent film and surrealist aesthetic is renown in alternative film circles.
Keyhole follows the gangster Ulysses who returns to his home with a motley crew and journeys from room to room looking for his ghost wife Hyacinth with a blind girl and rope-bound boy in tow.
The informative and inspiring documentary: Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry
“The difference between cats and human is that even if cats open doors, they never close the door behind them,” explained Chinese artist and activist Ai Wei Wei to a chorus of laughter in Palace Barracks Cinema 1. My friend and collaborator Ray Hsu first introduced me to Ai Wei Wei. He remained a vague figure in my mind for a couple years. Never Sorry was a comprehensive and compelling account of Ai’s life and art.
I was moved to tears when Ai explained the quote displayed in coloured backpacks mounted on art gallery wall in Munich: ‘She lived happily on this earth for seven years’. Ai and his followers were recording names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, names that the government would not disclose. The quote above came from one of the parents who mourned the loss of their only child.
The sprouting plot film: Rust and Bone
Marion Cotillard is the primary reason we saw Rust and Bone, a gritty French drama about an orca trainer who loses her legs beneath the knee cap (Cotillard) and down-on-his-luck security guard/amateur fighter and irresponsible father. It was a film about healing and maturing. At first glance it seemed sexy but upon closer inspection, the film was more raw than arousing. Despite scenes of poor parenting, yelling matches, casual intercourse and whale jaws, Rust and Bone left me feeling that despite all odds, a better life is possible for everyone.
Bonus action film: Skyfall
While Judy Dench looked consistently 72, Daniel Craig went from 40 to 55 in Skyfall, the most localised Bond filmed of my tiny repertoire which only includes Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. I enjoyed hyper-hipster Q, flirty Moneypenny and Shanghai streets. And the more I hear it, the more I like Adele’s Skyfall theme song.
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