PODCAST- WE FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT

OK, so after some issues with who was hosting our podcast, we finally figured it out. 

You can get the 1st podcast, our latest 2nd one, and also subscribe here.

Our 2nd podcast contains:

An interview with Doug Sakmann about his now closed 941 micro-cinema, audio from our Show & Tell of Luc Moullet's Les Sieges de Alcazar, and an interview with local filmmaker Dante Aleman.

-SHOOTING WALL

PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL #4: MISS BALA (NOTES)

(Gerardo Naranjo 2011)  

This is just some notes I took on the film. We'll add more once other members of the collective see the film tomorrow. I'm just doing this because this film does some interesting things, but walking away from the screening I wasn't fully sure what to feel, even after a couple hours of rumination. Yet, these couple points might sell you on checking out the film. One I hope, even if I come to not fully embrace the film, will come to the Ritz theaters.

Notes:
*Film comprised of a series of steadicam longtakes (similar to Alfonso Cuaron but with the grace of Wong Kar Wai) that are so planned out and put together in a precise way that the whole visual design  make this film so strange and surreal
*Naranjo is one of the foremost autuers in Mexico at present. He definitely knows what he is doing, at least in a formalist sense, in his past films and this one. 
*Amazing cinematography/visually striking scenes in the dark. A few scenes happen with little to no light, it is really innovative, so we get black silhouettes against black. Our eyes get to adjust and it is such a simple, but daring move to do cinematographically.
*The film's focus, seemingly about a gal that gets caught up in a Mexican cartel, is something more than that. It is trying to hone in on something, at times intensity of the scene, other times the humanity of the protagonist, etc., there is something larger going on.
*We technically follow the main character through out. In the beginning we're not given much of her personality, then it is seemingly posited and also forged through out. This style of lack of exposition, letting us put it together, is well done. 
*Gave me the feeling of Jacques Audiard's A Prophet.  

We're a collective, so I would like to talk about this more when we all see it because it is one of those films that I can't tell if a lot is going on or a little. Maybe it is the whole drug dealer narrative that is throwing me off, but I'll sit with a film a bit and just come back to it later.

-KARL STARKWEATHER

PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL #3: ATTENBERG

(Athina Rachel Tsangari 2011)

This film blew me away. It reminded me of My Live To Live meets Dogtooth. It is a absurd  anthropological portrait-removed at times and intense at others-of where the 21st century is going, along with a comment on the repression that has to be dominant within Greek culture.

The cinematography is beautiful in its minimalism. This works well with the darkness and dead pan of the story and actors. There are shots, like the poster above, that are so clever and interesting-yet incredibly simple-that you're angry as a filmmaker for never considering doing them.

There is also a Antononi-influenced focus on architecture that is unique. The protagonist's father is an architect who critiques modernism throughout the film-amongst the simple stone ancient homes in the film's characters aging small desolate beachtown-to a daughter who lives life like a postmodern nihilist that sarcastically states, when she isn't too busy deconstructing things until even the simple seems complex, that she is one of the last modernists. This relationship with her father is the dominant thread in the film, events outside of it add to a layered metaphor that her father, what he says and what he is going through, stands for. It is a metaphor that is so specific to our current moment, walking away from this film you have so much to unwrap, from the political to the sociological to the philosophical, this film will stay with you for sometime.

This film is also a journey that is an intellectual ride that knows when to take a break and just make us laugh. These Greeks really know what they're doing. While at the same time doing so much with so little, this film and stuff coming out of that country are the types of films we at Shooting Wall have been making and want to see more of.

It is highly suggested you run out to see this film tomorrow night at the Ritz Five at 10pm.

-KARL STARKWEATHER

PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL #2: LE HAVRE

(Aki Kurasmaki 2011)

This film is unique because it approaches a popular topic at present, globalization, but does so in a way outside the realist camp with their films District 9, Sin Nombre, etc. Somehow this film blends a romanticism with Kurasmaki's established deadpan minimalist style. The film's existentialist banality is interspersed with moments of simple and joyous humanity.

The main thing that I want to comment on as to not ruin the film for you, seriously, go see this one at when it comes to the Ritz Theaters in November, is Kurasmaki's challenges to his own cinematic methodologies. His formalism, for example, in this film and in his others contains shots that are stripped of eccentricity and can be harshly lit, yet their is still a beauty in what is presented. In Le Havre it consists of cold blues that match the grayness of the port town the main character lives in. Yet, in this film, unlike some of the man's other films, Kurasmaki attempted to test his aesthetic via including short bursts of surreal and non-motivational lighting and color.

Then his deadpan existential Bresson influenced technique was also advanced. The film has precise moments of Bresson-ian 'model' acting intermixed with moments of absurd extreme emotionality. This, contrasted with his testing of his classic visual style, in a film about the human condition gives you the audience member a rewarding challenge. All together it makes for Kurasmaki at his height.

This film was really enjoyable. It tests so much of what can be done with film. We highly suggest it. 

-KARL STARWEATHER 

PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL #1: SLEEPING BEAUTY

(Julia Leigh 2011)

Sleeping Beauty is really terrible. One of those films that pushes well done cinematography that comes from nowhere because there is nothing in the script to call for it. Everything is so over composed, even the mise-en-scène is properly aligned in the frames. The lighting is over done, harsh whites contrasted with vibrant colors and darks just for the sake of it. The cinematographer, Geoffrey Simpson, along with the literal army of art direction (this film had a set designer, art director, and set director), made this film remotely viewable, so it is really the only thing that can be commented on, being that the story is devoid of anything thought provoking.

This film just seems to be an excuse to see a 'attractive' 20-something white woman nude for 2 hours. Suggesting that the film is trying to be a polemic against white male patriarchy or sexual submission wouldn't even be accurate if the film was made during the second wave of feminism in the 1970's or even really in 1950's. The topics really have just already been covered and done by other filmmakers in much more challenging and critical ways (Breillat).

Julia Leigh shows us sexual submission, she shows us white male patriarchy, she shows us a girl who is promiscuous, she shows us a girl having desire, she shows us a girl who kind of feels guilt about sex in a manner that isn't heightened or deafened- just matter a fact and obvious. The movie doesn't let us think or really wants us to, but knows it is well shot fluff for those who think this film-really akin to hanging out in a art class while some stereotypically beautiful model that takes their clothes off in a class run by a teacher (Leigh) who thinks they're radical for making such a thing happen-possibly could constitute some sexual radicalism. It also like someone saw Eyes Wide Shut, but then proceeded to make a fully empty film.

This film is coming out in Philadelphia in December/January. Skip it then and at this festival.

-KARL STARKWEATHER