Lake Tahoe [IMDB][MFF], directed by Fernando Eimbcke, starring Diego Catano, Hector Herrara and Daniela Valentine…a story of Juan, a teenager who crashes his car on the outskirts of a sleepy Mexican town and tries to find a mechanic. During his quest he doesn’t seem to find what he is looking for, but meets an old paranoid dog owner who wants him to walk his dog, a young punk mother who is looking for a babysitter and a Kung Fu fanatic who’d like to watch a Bruce Lee movie with him. Their relationship to each other is quiet, perhaps as sleepy as the town, but during his mission to get the car running again he slowly finds some friendships and people he hesitatingly begins to care about.

Lake Tahoe was a genius mix of deadpan humor and drama that kept me interested from beginning to end. I loved the overall mood and atmosphere, the characters and how they interacted with each other. It was slow and quiet, but in a very good way. Very nicely paced, beautifully photographed, it managed to say a lot without using many words or music. Watching this movie reminded me of spending a relaxing vacation in another country…and I could have stayed a bit longer.

Our second screening was Stringray Sam, directed by Cory McAbee, starring himself, Crugie, Joshua Taylor, Willa Vy McAbee, Bobby Lurie, Frank Swart, Caleb Scott, Jessica Jelliffe, Ron Crawford, Michael DeNola, Michael Wiener and David Hyde Pierce [IMDB][MFF]. It actually was a story split in six Youtube-friendly parts…a sci-fi-western-musical. Another musical?! Yes! When I looked at the film-descriptions all it took to make me want to see it were Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and “homage to the cinema, rock & roll, comic books, and everything else cool from our childhoods.”

I didn’t expect it to become our second musical this year…and what a cool and fun musical! I absolutely enjoyed the songs, I loved director Cory McAbee in his role as Stingray Sam and guitarist Crugie as Quasar Kid, the Monty Python’esque collage-art…and how it managed to speak to the kid inside of me. During the Q and A Cory McAbee told his story when he was interviewed in Europe about one of his previous features The American Astronaut. The interviewer explained to him that many people in Europe were very angry with the American government and what they were doing at that time…that they feel like they don’t like Americans. His movie, however, included many things Europeans always loved and enjoyed about America and American culture. With this conversation in mind he wrote Stingray Sam including the Wild West, Cowboy, Sci-Fi, Musical, Space-Travellers that Europeans (or Germans in my case) always loved about American culture, but also highlighted the dark side with Tobacco and pharma companies, the privatised prison system, etc. Being European myself I can confirm that in Stringray Sam you can find the “cool” things we love about America, without ignoring the not so cool things.

It felt a bit strange to see six separate episodes in a row and not one full-length feature, but these episodes had cult-potential, were a lot of fun and I absolutely enjoyed them. I haven’t seen American Astronaut yet, but will have to check it out sometime.

After a short break we saw a documentary about Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun in Strongman [IMDB][MFF] by Zachary Levy. A man strong enough to leg-press massive trucks and bend pennies with his fingers reaches his middle age and struggles with difficult personal relationships and a number of career disappointments. This documentary was filmed over the course of several years and presents a close portrait of Stan who wants to prove that he’s still got it, and that he is more than a kids’ party-attraction. Life, however, presents him with another reality…other strong men who bend bolts with much less of an effort or pull nails with their teeth…problems to stop smoking, breathing issues…family and relationship problems…and an alcoholic brother who developed a crack habit.

This film moved me on several occasions. It seemed obvious that Stan invested a many years and a lot of discipline to train and build up his strength, to become “the strongest man on earth”. I had the impression he might have found his motivation in an attempt to find a better life for himself than what his background was like growing up. His brother was presenting him an example of what not to become. I felt reminded of my own background… I, too, put a lot of work, time and discipline into my education to break out of my working class background and find a better living for myself. I don’t think I’m the strongest man, but there was a time I felt like I was the best software developer on earth. After a few disappointments I had to realize that was a big mistake. There were a few other moments in Strongman that reminded me of my own history in one way or another, turning this documentary into more of a personal experience than I ever anticipated. I really enjoyed this film.

Your Humble Narrator

In a slightly different matter: The film description in the festival booklet calls Strongman a cinéma vérité portrait. I think the director mentioned this documentary style during the Q and A as well. Not familiar with this expression I looked it up and found that it combines “[...] naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camera work, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects.” I might be wrong but I didn’t feel this applied to Strongman. Direct cinema on the other hand seemed to be a better fit. I read that both cinéma vérité and direct cinema have in common that they don’t use voice-overs, they both try to let the subjects speak for themselves, avoiding to make them dependent on the filmmaker’s interpretation, and they both try to avoid assigning social problems to a larger political or cultural context. Instead, they both try to capture truths and the everyday reality.

Furthermore I read that the difference between cinéma vérité and direct cinema is that direct cinema tries to put the camera and film maker as far into the background as possible. The camera is as a “fly on the wall” supposed to be as unnoticed as possible. Camera and crew should try not influence the situation at all to capture the “privileged moments” in which the person forgets about the camera’s existence and reveals truths you otherwise wouldn’t get to see.

Cinéma vérité, so I read, follows a different strategy…instead of being a “fly on the wall”, the film maker becomes a “fly in the soup”, actively participating in the situation and trying to provoke those “privileged moments”. Some examples would include reality-television or interview movies. Even fictional movies like the Blairwitch Project used this technique. I wonder if I understood it right… how would you as educated film people define the difference between cinéma vérité and direct cinema? It has nothing to do with Strongman, but I was curious because I wasn’t familiar with this word before.

Off to the next and last movie of the day, presented by director Bobcat Goldthwait himself: World’s Greatest Dad [IMDB][MFF] with Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore, Geoffrey Pierson, Henry Simmons, Mitzi McCall and Tony V. It’s the story about a middle aged author and poetry teacher Lance who fails to find somebody to publish his writing. He also seems to fail as single father of an abusive son Kyle. After an abrupt turn of events, Lance faces new challenges, fame and respect approaching from all directions.

Bobcat Goldthwait and Jed Dietz

Bobcat Goldthwait originally planned somebody else for Robin William’s role, and his character as poetry teacher was not at all related to the old Dead Poet’s Society at all, he explained during the Q and A. I enjoyed this film. It was very entertaining, funny, and sometimes also very dark which I always appreciate in a comedy. Similar to Sleeping Dogs Lie (a screening we saw a year or two ago), he managed to play with a darker, unspoken side of an individual’s psychology or social/cultural standards as a whole, while giving it all a very entertaining, lightweight appearance.

The following list is in order from my top pick down for both Friday and Saturday:

1. Modern Love is Automatic
2. Love Songs
3. Invisible Girlfriend
4. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
5. Strongman
6. Stingray Sam
7. Lake Tahoe
8. World’s Greatest Dad
9. Seventh Moon

Our day started with Modern Love is Automatic [IMDB][MFF], directed by Zach Clark, starring Melodie Sisk (as Lorraine) and Maggie Ross (as Adrian).

Modern Love is Automatic was a dark and dry comedy-drama about nurse Lorraine who, bored with with her environment and the people in her life, detached herself emotionally and socially from everything. Controlling every detail in her life it doesn’t seem surprising when she finds interest in a dominatrix magazine. When she finds her boyfriend cheating she decides to look for a new roommate and becomes a dominatrix at night. She finds aspiring fashion model Adrian, whose emotionality and bubbliness very much is Lorraine’s total opposite. But just as opposites attract, they very slowly develop a friendship in the background of their individual lives and Adrian’s boyfriend Mitch who is uncontrollably obsessed with Lorraine.

Zach Clark, Maggie Ross, Melodie Sisk, Daryl Pittman

This movie was easily one of my favorites this year. I not only loved the great performances, cool sets, colors and costumes, but also the pace and quiet as well as Melodie Sisk’s facial expressions that said more than could ever be said with words. Modern Love feels like a nice companion to my other favorites from the last two festival years when I saw Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland and Mary Bronstein’s Yeast. In these movies I was able to identify with the characters and their paralyzed social lives and relationships to an unusual extent. What can I say, I loved everything about Modern Love is Automatic. Even the bursts of doom metal worked really well in there. Definitely a movie I would like to see again sometime, and one I can highly recommend.

David Redmon

Our second screening this Friday was Invisible Girlfriend [IMDB][MFF], directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, with and about Charles Fihoil, a bipolar paranoid schizophrenic who lives in Monroe, Louisiana with his parents and children. He is in love with his invisible girlfriend, the spirit of Joan of Arc, and decides that DeeDee, his pen pal and New Orleans bartender, might be Joan of Arc in the flesh. The filmmaker follows him on a 400-mile bicycle journey to find DeeDee.

This was a wonderful documentary about a man who may be a bit crazy, but also very intelligent, insightful and caring. During his journey through rural Louisiana, which lasted about 12 days, he met several generous, kind and very down-to-earth people who gave him a ride or shared food and stories with him. I found it interesting how this journey was accompanied by a number of moments of death and decay that foreshadowed what he would find at his destination. Beautiful, sometimes funny, but also very sad, this film managed to create a non-judgmental portrait of Charles Fihoil and the people he met on his way. I really liked this film. I was also very impressed by some of the music choices.

Another documentary we saw this Friday was Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, directed by Jessica Oreck. This film portrayed a part of Japanese culture I was completely unfamiliar with before: Japan’s love and fascination with insects that is inherent in the whole society and all generations from young to old age. Insects are collected like trading cards or comic books, are part of quite a significantly sized industry of collectors and breeders. Insects appear in shape of dolls, toys, video games, candy, but also inspire art and literature, dating back to the beginning of Japan’s history.

Jessica Oreck and Sean Williams

Beetle Queen was partially in English, partially Japanese with English subtitles and filled with a great amount of insight, history and poetry about an ancient and still mysterious culture that may mostly be known to the Western world for their car and electronic brands, fashion and pop culture, their tv-shows or cuisine. I can highly recommended it to anyone who is interested in learning more about Japan from a slightly different angle. The cinematography comes from Sean Williams who also shot Frownland and Yeast I mentioned above. I would love to see it again and follow the history and poetry in more depth than I was able to comprehend upon my first viewing.

I have to admit: A few days ago, if someone had told me to watch a romantic musical, I probably would have would have smiled and dismissed it without giving it a chance. The musical genre was not one I was particularly interested in before. The few musicals I have ever seen were entertaining to a degree, but they didn’t manage to grab me. Why? I’m not sure… perhaps it’s something I wasn’t properly introduced to growing up in Germany. About every movie made in Germany of the 50s and 60s was incredibly silly and featured a lot of bad German Schlager music. Television was practically non-existent, and eventually the popularity died off and no musical films were produced anymore for a very long time. I can’t really think of any musical film produced in Germany since the days of the economic boom.

In the mid to late 80s (stage) musicals became very popular with Cats. Many others including Starlight Express, Phantom of the Opera followed later, and they are still popular in Germany, but as far as I know, there haven’t been any movies to speak of. Every time I saw a movie with dancing and singing people they appeared very foreign to me. Something I couldn’t connect to.

Perhaps the setting and background were too artificial…perhaps the music was too methodical or constructed…perhaps I was thrown out of the story every time one of the actors starts to sing instead of keeping his character. How believable is the evil villain, mad professor or action hero who suddenly begins to dance and sing?

John Waters and Jed Dietz

Being a romantic musical I never would have volunteered to pick Love Songs [IMDB][MFF] if it hadn’t been the John Waters pick this year. The annual “John Waters Pick” has been one of our traditions since we started attending the film festival. His movie selections did never disappoint in the past few years. Most of his selections, including Story of Women, Dog Days or Head-On offered an extraordinarily realistic view on love, people and the complexity of their emotional, social, sexual, human interactions…reflecting what life is really like, challenging what most movies try to suggest as reality.

Love Songs was directed by Christophe Honoré and stars Chiara Mastroianni, Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier and Clotilde Hesme. It’s a romantic musical, yes…but one I actually enjoyed very much! It felt very current and natural, the songs and music were beautiful and were very elegantly woven into the story. So fluent, it almost felt as if these moments could have happened in real life… although I have never seen someone walking down the street singing, have I?

Everybody looked great, very natural and likable, the story was beautiful, so was the atmosphere and mood. I still find myself surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. Another contemporary musical film I saw a while ago (Sweeney Todd) left me with the same impression I had of other musicals before, not so Love Songs. Perhaps it worked so well because it was in French and playing in Paris? I don’t know, but I really enjoyed its pace and rhythm. I think I might have to correct some of my views I used to have about musicals. Perhaps there is more out there I would enjoy if I gave it a try.

After Love Songs we had our first break of the day and we used the opportunity to celebrate our 5th filmfest membership anniversary with a pitcher of sangria. I should have eaten something first, because the wine quickly made me feel a little fuzzy-headed.

Of course this didn’t help when we entered our fifth and last screening of the day: Seventh Moon [IMDB][MFF] directed by Eduardo Sánchez, starring Amy Smart, Dennis Chan and Tim Chiou. The story takes place in China where Melissa and Yul enjoy their honeymoon. Their visit coincides with the sacred Seventh Moon festival, celebrating the full moon of the seventh lunar month, which, according to a Chinese myth, is a time when the dead are free to walk the earth. The couple, drunk after celebrating, start a late night cab-drive to Yul’s grandmother’s house in the countryside. This trip will of course end somewhere lost in the middle of nowhere where the horror is about to take place.

Directed by Eduardo Sánchez who with Daniel Myrick also wrote and directed the Blair Witch Project, Seventh Moon felt a lot like Blair Witch Project including its shaky camera work. Even without sangria I got motion sick when I watched the Blair Witch on the big screen. The same happened Friday night during the Seventh Moon. I survived about three quarter of the movie, but I had to close my eyes because I felt increasingly dizzy. A few minutes before the movie was over I had to leave the theater to breathe some fresh air and get stable ground under my feet which made me feel better. Unfortunately I missed the ending of the movie and the Q and A afterward, but my stomach wasn’t ready for it. Next time I should probably take some pills for motion sickness before I watch another shaky movie.

The following list is in order from my top pick down for Friday, May 8:

1. Modern Love is Automatic
2. Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
3. Invisible Girlfriend
4. Love Songs
5. Seventh Moon

PS: Sorry about the bad quality of these photos. My camera didn’t take the low-light too well. I hope I got all the names right. Please correct me if I made a mistake.

But once in a while I discover a movie like Together or The Fall too impressive not to mention in some way. I may not analyze it deeply, take it apart and write about every single aspect, but I feel I have to create a record of its existence and make a recommendation. Yesterday I watched such a film: Vozvrashcheniye or The Return, by Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev.

What a brilliant and unforgettable movie! Although it was his debut directing a full-length feature after working only with commercials before, it instantly found a place in my list of top-favorites. The Return is a masterpiece and I can only hope that Zvyagintsev continues his path that started out so promising. He could be worthy to become Tarkovsky’s, Truffaut’s or Ingmar Bergman’s successor.

Everything was as close to perfection as it can get. The photography was just beautiful, the camera work outstanding. The actors, especially Konstantin Lavronenko were fantastic. The music (as well as the silence) was wonderful, the mood and setting, psychology, characters and story, the ending, the complexity within the minimal, the unexpected…

I can’t wait to see what his next projects will be like. After The Return he also directed a film named Izgnanie or The Banishment released in 2007, also starring Konstantin Lavronenko. I have to watch it as soon as it becomes available on video.

I have to thank Zvyagintsev for enriching the movie industry with The Return. I can highly recommend this film.

One house: one revolutionary; two open straight marriages; three gay people (maybe four); three children; two carnivores and eight vegetarians; there’s only one way they’re going to make it… together.

Last Thursday we saw Lukas Moodysson’s “Together”, a funny and beautiful story of a Swedish commune in the 1970s. To keep it short, I just loved it…for all the individuals and their differences, troubles, compromises, solidarity and being real. Although I’m normally not a fan of happy endings, I thought it worked really well in “Together” considering how they all influenced each other and developed over the course of this film. The American trailer I found on YouTube is really bad and doesn’t reflect what I have seen on Thursday at all, but I can highly recommend it.

Unfortunately, it was the last of the free movie series at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Despite two years of great screenings of visionary films from all over the world with an average attendance of 150+  people, the BMA has decided to stop the funding. Anyone who enjoyed this series in the past and wants to ask the museum to reconsider their decision can reach them at: programs@artbma.org

The winners are announced today at the awards ceremony and party that begins at 7pm. Unfortunately we won’t be able to attend because we had the car for only one day, but we watched all 20 candidates yesterday, most of which I enjoyed a lot. Before getting to my conclusion I can already say upfront that this was a fantastic little film festival with a really nice and diverse choice of short and medium length films. We both were glad we could come. All of the films were nice for one reason or another, so I will try to make it shorter this time. :) I especially liked the “deeply personal” and the “unusual funny” candidates of the following films we saw yesterday:

Cause

Documentary (57 minutes) by Denise Prichard – Washington DC

Meet four Americans who have dedicated their lives to a cause — putting their ideals on the line, every day, every hour.

Britt, the Minuteman, living his life out at the U.S.-Mexico border, defending his America from invasion; Kayla, the PETA Activist, exposing the plight of animals, while sometimes exposing herself; Dennis, the Pro-Life Minister, crisscrossing his way through the country spreading his truth about abortion; and Concepcion, the Peace Activist, maintaining her twenty-six year long anti-nuke vigil just steps away from the White House.

This film, entitled “CAUSE”, peels back the layers to uncover the personal histories and motivations that make these individuals who they are, and what drives them to behavior some would call extreme. Going beyond the labels and what initially meets the eye, their stories weave together to form a collective thread and reveal that they have more in common than one would think. (from the official website)

Vignette

Experimental narrative (17 minutes) by Dustin Thompson – Forest, VA

Quick Feet, Soft Hands

Drama (25 minutes) by Paul Harrill

Set against the backdrop of our national pastime, Quick Feet, Soft Hands follows a young couple trying to pursue the American Dream.

Greta Gerwig (Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs) stars as Lisa, a young woman whose hopes of moving up are tied to Jim, a minor league baseball player.

As Jim falls deeper into a batting slump, the couple must cope with the day-to-day realities of being young and poor. And they must confront the prospect that they may never make it to the big leagues.” (from the official website)

I was quite amused to find that we actually missed only a minute or even less when we had to leave the screening back at the Maryland Film Festival. It was nice to see this film again, and I still have the same good impression. It’s a sad but very realistic slice of life applicable to many individuals, couples, relationships, hopes, dreams and failures.

Rogue Gnome

Animated music video (5 minutes) by Stephen Guidry – Arlington, VA

Richard Wants a Nickname

Drama (9 minutes) by Julie Haberstick – Arlington, VA

Nunna Mia e la Barca

Documentary (13 minutes) by Jacob Dodd – Richmond, VA

Nunna Mia e la Barca is a short film about an Italian grandmother, Nunna, who endured the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956. Despite living 50 years in the U.S., Nunna continues to preserve her Italian heritage. Through the act of preparing a meal and selflessly giving of her time, Nunna passes on the heritage to her grandchildren.” (from the official website)

Alchemy

Experimental (2 minutes) by Victoria Hanabury and Joshua Rachford – Charlottesville, VA

Birds

Drama (17 minutes) by Mark Betancourt and Marc Ryan – Washington, DC

I really liked this short film and its conclusion. They packed quite a large emotional spectrum into the 17 minutes. It was humorous and thrilling, personal and serious, and also very wise at the same time.

Mexico Painting

Video art (3 minutes) by Vin Grabill – Ellicott City, MD

Lustig

Drama (16 minutes) by John Black – Gainesville, VA

Lustig, set in the years after the end of WWII, tells the story of a man’s solitary journey for redemption. Carrying haunting memories from time spent in a concentration camp, the man seeks out the family of a friend he knew there. He brings a secret to their doorstep that only the strength and courage of the deceased allows him to reveal. In admitting his own cowardice, he creates the heroic legacy of a man. A man a young son will always remember.

The title “Lustig” is not the German word for “funny” here, but the name of the main-character in this film. It actually is a true story about Branko Lustig, a Croatian Jewish survivor of Ausschwitz, who produced a number of movies including Schindler’s List. He was the inspiration for this short film. I liked this film which was very moving, personal and very well made. John Black chose to have all dialog in German, but only the mother (played by Ilka Fischer) spoke German fluently without an American accent. While I could believe that the Croatian visitor wasn’t fluent, I didn’t buy her son’s and the Nazi commander’s accent. I found this a little distracting. That’s a shame because I really liked this film otherwise. I thought it might have been a better decision to keep the dialog in English instead.

Dance Party: The Teenarama Story

Documentary (57 minutes) by Beverly Lindsay-Johnson – Washington, DC

Untitled No. 9

Comedy (5 minutes) by David Butler – Annapolis, MD

This short film shows where you might end up if you let your life be guided the philosophy found in pop lyrics. Some of the philosophers quoted in this film include Paul McCartney and Wings, Janis Ian, Elvis Presley, Paul Simon, Don McLean, Bob Dylan, Three Dog Night, Melanie, Simon & Garfunkel, Don Henley, Carole King, Bread, The Rolling Stones, The Romantics, U2, The Beatles, Petula Clark, The Talking Heads, 10cc, Elton John, ABBA, Tracy Chapman, Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Jimi Hendrix, Harry Nilsson, Bruce Springsteen, The Drifters, Billy Idol, Rappers Delight and Baha Men.

Oh how I loved this film! It was one of my very favorites of the day. What a fantastic idea to tie all these song lyric fragments together to a “lyrical meditation on life”. And what a brilliant camera-work and delivery. I really liked Mark Redfield in this and would love to see more of him. It made me think of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation and Spalding Gray in Steven Soderbergh’s Gray’s Anatomy which I loved. But Untitled No. 9 was still different and very clever. I wonder what Untitled No. 1-8 may be like? David Butler’s site is butlerfilm.com.

My Best Friend Mark

Personal narrative (5 minutes) by Renee Shaw – Washington, DC

Las Historias Mas Sexy del Mundo No. 2

Comedy (15 minutes) by Eric Cheevers – Washington, DC

This was another of my favorites. Brilliant, funny, cool, hot, surreal, mesmerizing, fascinating, sexy…a kind of 70s Swedish soft-core porn meets Quantum Physics meets Matthew Lesko (the infomercial questionmark-suit-man played in this film) meets David Lynch’s red room meets a weird but great music performance by The Raveonettes. I read that the predecessor, Las Historias Mas Sexy del Mundo No. 1, won the Rosebud Film Festival in 2004 and I think No. 2 might win again this year. Unfortunately I didn’t find a clip on the web, but here is an an interview with Eric Cheevers and Scott Mueller, also also a few pictures. I loved it.

Unraveling Michelle

Documentary (85 minutes) by Michelle Ann Farrell – Bel Air, MD

I loved Unraveling Michelle. I haven’t read any reviews or watched any trailers before we watched it at the Rosebud Festival. I didn’t know anything about it at all. So the documentary started with a very funny guy working on indie-horror-comedy type movies. He just announced something like “I want to be a female filmmaker” and it sounded as if he wasn’t really serious about it. It could have been just another example of his wicked humor. The clips that portrayed the old filmmaker Joe O’Ferrell and his history looked too crazy and unbelievable to be true. There you saw the athlete, the addict, the film-maker and businessman, the dude and manly man. At first I wasn’t even sure if I was looking at the same person or just different actors representing him in his different life stages. I thought it was all staged, and that what we were about to see was a funny kind of mockumentary, but not a serious documentary about a sex change.

The first facial surgery approached. It was again very funny, in a similar dry Tom Greenish humorous kind of way, as he leaves the hospital looking painfully awful and his head wrapped in bandages, but still making jokes about it. When they lost their way he moved over to the driver’s seat in the state he was in, with bloodbags hanging off his face… and I still thought, that has got to be a joke… after all he is in the horror-comedy industry.

But as the story continued it became more and more clear that his/her journey was very real, and that the male Joe O’Ferrell was really about to become the female Michelle Ann Farrell. The documentary followed the transition from the beginning to the end and revealed so much in addition about her past and present life, the problems and challenges without losing a healthy sense of humor. I couldn’t believe how many really extreme changes she went through in her life. If I trace back my own life of the last 20 years I can find many drastic visual and physical changes that make it sometimes hard to believe the person from back then was really me. But Joe’s and Michelle’s roller coaster history exceeds everything I could ever imagine. I have to admire the strength and courage she was able to bring up and transform her life through all these stages.

This documentary was about a journey of a sex change, but there really was so much more. It was a very personal portrait of an extraordinary, interesting, humorous and very likable individual. It was also a milestone for both: Joe’s final masterpiece and best work in his filmography, as well as Michelle’s debut, marking the beginning of a great future. Very impressive — I just loved everything about this film… the film itself and its flow…it was really well done…the deeply personal portrait…the very unusual history with all transformations…the humor, and of course, last but not least, Michelle herself. :)

Headache

Experimental (8 minutes) by Robert Parrish – Arlington, VA

This film was entirely made with public domain clips taken from archive.org. I loved how cleverly it recycled old footage to tell a completely new and different story. We once saw a short film at the Maryland Film Festival that made use of public domain footage and thought it was such a great idea. Headache was very well done, but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything on the web.

Signage

Drama (12 minutes) by Rick Hammerly – Washington, DC

A receding hairline, the beginnings of crow’s feet, and a chance meeting with a young shirtless deaf man in a bar, force Lex to confront getting older in a youth-conscious world.

I loved signage — “when life calls the last shot” and the way it touched this internal battle of aging, self-doubts and insecurities that tend to increase proportionally with the gap between oneself and the youthful generation you still might like to be a part of or at least connected with. I loved how main character/writer/director Rick Hammerly made his story turn even more personal and internal, as there really is nothing wrong with him. He looks just fine and not old at all, and yet there are these self-doubts.

Freedom Dance

Animation (28 minutes) by Steven Fischer – Crofton, MD and Craig Herron – Baltimore, MD

A cartoonist keeps a diary in cartoon form during his adventurous escape from the deadly 1956 Hungarian Revolution. (from the official website)

tar guys

Video poetry (5 minutes) by Cathy Cook – Baltimore, MD

Widow’s Meal

Drama (8 minutes) by Arnon Shorr – Baltimore, MD

Conclusion:

When we arrived in Arlington Alice and I both were very surprised to find a very empty and dead-silent building. The garage was empty, all stores inside the building were closed, and at first we seemed to be the only visitors to a private viewing. Eventually a few more people showed up, but the theatre never filled up. I thought it was a real shame. The Rosebud Festival has already been around for almost two decades. The film selection was wonderful, and I couldn’t see why it couldn’t attract more independent film lovers. At only $8 for an all-day pass it was a real bargain and I’m already looking forward to Rosebud 2009. Thanks to everyone who made this festival possible, and thanks to Paul for the recommendation.

I’m curious to find out who won this year, but the winners haven’t been published yet. I will follow up with another blog as soon as I find out.

Directed by Tarsem Singh

Written by Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, Tarsem Singh, and Valeri Petrov (1981 screenplay)

With Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Lee Pace, Kim Uylenbroek, Aiden Lithgow, Sean Gilder, Ronald France, Andrew Roussouw, Michael Huff, Grant Swanby, Emil Hostina, Robin Smith, Jeetu Verma, Leo Bill, Marcus Wesley…

Released in 2008

When I received the last issue of the Friends of the Maryland Film Festival newsletter about a screening of The Fall, my interest and excitement was at first a bit damped after I read that is was made by the same director Tarsem Singh who created The Cell. Although The Cell was visually interesting, I still remember how disappointed I left the theater after watching it back in 2000. I expected so much more than this film was able to deliver.

However, I always give trailers a chance to spark my interest before I decide to dismiss a movie. When I watched the trailer to The Fall I was intrigued and decided to find out a bit more about it.

The first thing I noticed in the trailer was that it was presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze. “The Trailer? Or the Film?” I wondered. And why were neither of them mentioned in the details of Internet Movie Database entry?

David Fincher has been one of my favorite directors with such remarkable and psychologically dense films like Se7en, The Game or Fight Club. Spike Jonze created some great films with Being John Malkovich or Adaptation as well. So I was even more curious about what The Fall was about.

Later I read on a David Fincher blog that Tarsem Singh financed this film fully out of his own pocket and shot over a period of four years in 24 countries around the world. The Fall never found a release until David Fincher and Spike Jonze decided to arrange at least a limited US-release beginning in March 2008.

David Fincher described the film as “what would’ve happened if Andrei Tarkovsky had made ‘The Wizard of Oz’”. This quote in addition to the incredibly mesmerizing trailer helped to free me of any doubts I might have had in the beginning based on my experience with The Cell before. I knew I would have to see this film as soon as it was out. I knew I had to find out what Tarsem Singh would create without any marketability constrains — and I’m absolutely thankful for this opportunity to watch this film at the Charles today.

The Fall takes place in a hospital in Los Angeles of the 1920s. Alexandria, a young girl with a broken arm (played by Catinca Untaru) befriends a bedridden stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace) who tells her the vivid, imaginative tale of an Indian, an ex-slave, an explosive expert, a masked bandit and famed evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin who joined together to fight their common evil enemy, Governor Odious. Being paralized and having lost faith in life Walker plans to commit suicide. He begins to tell Alexandria this marvelous story in pieces to make her provide him with Morphine and other pills.

This story is actually based on a Bulgarian film from 1981 titled Yo Ho Ho, written by Valeri Petrov and directed by Zako Heskija. It also reminded me of an important Swedish movie in my childhood: Bröderna Lejonhjärta (The Brothers Lionheart). Astrid Lindgren’s story was about two brothers one of whom suffered from tuberculosis and knew that he was dying. The older told his younger brother a fantastic fairy tale to comfort him and give him hope that one day they will meet again in the fantastic world of Nangijala. This film treated the sad reality of death with great sensibility. The reality of death is also inherent in The Fall: Roy Walker’s death wish and suicide attempt, the death of the beloved monkey, the death of all the heroes… Another thing both The Fall and The Brothers Lionheart have in common is how the line between reality and imagination blurs. People that surround them in their everyday lives become characters in the fantastic world of the fairy tale… which of course makes me think of Wizard of Oz as well.

Visually, The Fall was absolutely stunning – the imagery and transitions were just beautiful and breathtaking. I think it can’t get any closer to perfection than what I have seen today. Every scene was composed with such an indescribable eye for detail and aesthetics. Interwoven into the imagery and superior story-telling there also was a nice tribute to the greatest films in cinematic history. From the earliest silent movies, the Whirling Dervishes and the Balinese Kecak dance in Ron Fricke’s Baraka to swimming elephants in Gregory Colbert’s Ashes & Snow. The magic of my childhood, the Persian tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the Czech and East European stop motion/animation and fairytale tradition, and even a brief hint of Pirate stories found a place here in The Fall. All those moments flow into a fascinating story that blends elegantly and brilliantly from reality into imagination, back and forth with the freedom to adjust and tweak as the story unfolds. Catinca Untaru’s performance was fantastic and stunningly natural. I am sure she will have a long and great career ahead of her. And what music would be more appropriate to a masterpiece like The Fall than the wonderful Symphony No. 7 Allegretto by Ludwig van Beethoven. I get teary-eyes just watching the trailer.

Absolutely phenomenal… this film is essential. I can only urge everybody to go and watch it as long as it’s still playing in the theaters. Nowadays you will not be able to find a lot of movies of such a superior quality. Not a lot of film-makers can afford to transform their vision without a focus on financial and marketability requirements which destroy cinema as an art form. I wish there were more filmmakers courageous enough to create films without having to make compromises, but I hope many will follow Tarsem Singh’s example.

I immediately fell in love with the magic of The Fall and have to watch it again soon. On IMDB I’m happy to rate it 10/10. I’m usually very selective about which films to own on DVD, but The Fall is definitely one I will have to purchase as soon as it becomes available. I’m still spellbound…:)

There are hardly any films or characters I could say this about. Am I as emotionally stunted as the summary above described Mikey’s character? Is this a story many people share but would never talk about in public, perhaps because they feel embarrassed about it? Or is it really just such a coincidence that the story line matches my own experience very closely? But not only Mikey’s character and situation appeared so familiar to me, his parents’ gentle way reminded me of my own parents, too.

Before I moved to Baltimore I lived in Furtwangen for four years, which is a drive of about six hours from where my childhood home used to be. During this time I never felt nostalgic about not being with my parents anymore. We were still in touch and I had quite a few friends in both places. This suddenly changed when I moved to Baltimore. When I returned home for the first time in several years and found the remainders of my childhood, youth and early adulthood, I felt a lot of sadness, despair and nostalgia and just didn’t want to leave all this behind, my loving (and aging) parents, my old best friends, my family, my “stuff”…

I was in the same position that I could have and would have extended my stay if I have had the opportunity–just like Mikey in this movie. Whenever I visited home in the past few years I felt wonderful being able to connect with my past self as well as the familiar, supportive and friendly environment again, but it has always been difficult to face the many changes that occurred during the time of absence, and to leave it behind again later for a long time. Even after all these years I am not sure how to handle the emotional waves that break in on me when I visit the old place. Sometimes I feel it might be easier if I just didn’t visit it again.

All these impressions are very internal and based on love for my parents, my old home, my friends and the happiness of my childhood. How could anybody want to grow up? I never talk about this topic, and I never heard other people talk about similar experiences, until I saw Momma’s Man which makes this film very special and personal to me. May it be fictional, semi-fictional or real…

To describe Azazel Jacobs’ Momma’s Man is to sell it short, for on the surface it is one of the most oft-told stories in the indie-film book. In this case, however, descriptions are deceiving, for in reality, Jacobs’ heartfelt drama is an unexpectedly resonant example of artistic expression at its fiercest and most deeply personal. Mikey (Matt Boren) is an emotionally stunted young man in his early thirties, who has left behind his wife and baby in California for a few days in order to visit the cluttered, cavernous TriBeCa loft in which he grew up. When his work is done and it’s time for Mikey to return to his new home, something prevents him from doing just that. As he continues to ignore his wife’s desperate phone calls, Mikey lounges around the loft like a kid again and reunites with a few old friends, to the rising concern of his loving, supportive parents.

Conceived initially as a love letter to his supremely unique childhood home, Jacobs upped the ante by casting his own parents in two major roles (his father Ken is a celebrated experimental filmmaker, his mother Flo a painter). However, whether or not one recognizes this going into Momma’s Man is of no importance, for the film carries itself with an undeniably personal air, elevating it beyond mere fiction and turning it into something much deeper. Momma’s Man is a profoundly touching, universal ode to that terrifying time when one must grow up and embrace adulthood once and for all. (Michael Tully) (from the filmfest-guide)

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This was the last screening on Saturday and I will conclude it with a few shots of the film festival created by the CAmm Cage/Media Lab/Creative Alliance at the Patterson.

This year’s screening in 3-D opened with Pardon My Backfire. In this 16 minute 3-D slapstick short the Three Stooges are auto mechanics who manage to capture some escaped convicts who visit their garage with a damaged fender. The 3-D gimmicks in this film were fun: the knives, tools and oil really seemed to fly into the audience. I was especially amused by how you could see the strings attached to the items or how the wire did not really move through his nose but along its side and then behind the ear–things you probably wouldn’t notice on a television screen at all. I wonder can I really rate a film like Pardon My Backfire? None of the criteria that normally help to a rating decision will work here. But it was silly but fun and had some nice 3-D gimmicks. [imdb]

Miss Sadie Thompson followed next. I didn’t know this film before, and I also didn’t know much about Rita Hayworth. I have heard the name before, but I didn’t know that she was the leading sex symbol of the era and known as “The Love Goddess”. But no wonder I was so uninformed: when I looked at the list of her filmography I noticed that I hardly know any of her movies, and that I’m very unfamiliar with the 40s era in general. I probably know no more than just a hand full of films produced in the 40s.

The film started with a lot of Marine rah-rah, over-the-top excitement about a woman coming to the island, a lot of partying, drinking, smoking, dancing, laughing and singing. I thought so typical for a lot of comedic musical films in the 50s. But it dramatically turned its direction when the religious zealot started to give her a hard time and confronted her with her past as a nightclub singer, breaking her and driving her into desperation, so much that she eventually became very internal and sublimated, vulnerable and ready to fall prey to him. Parallel to this line there also was a little love story between her and the Marine sergeant who couldn’t wait for his military time to end, get married to her and move to Australia. He was the Marine, the decent, gallant, helpful, well-spirited, well-built, excited, energetic, reasonable, the perfect match for sexy Miss Sadie, who supported her in her desire to leave her past behind and the struggle with the moralizer who tried to ruin her plans to move to a different place and work a different job.

This film in many ways fit to the movie-spirit of its time and ended with a happy end, but I was surprised by some of the directions this film took. I thought some of it was quite daring and on the edge of what must have been acceptable at the time in terms of sex or sexiness, moral standards and religion. I read that her character was originally a prostitute and changed to a nightclub singer to conform with the production code of this era. The morally corrupt and sadistic reverend was changed into an unaffiliated religious zealot. Even with the changes to conform with censorship dictates the film was called “filthy, rotten, lewd, immoral, just a plain raw dirty picture” and that it should be banned. It was actually banned by several state censorship boards. I can hardly imagine how difficult it must have been to deal with censors.

This film turned out to be more interesting than I expected it to be. It was in 3-D but not at all as strong and gimmicky as other 3-D movies. Which I think was good, because extensive gimmicks just would have subtracted from the story’s tone and flow. [imdb]

A quarantine strands Sadie (Rita Hayworth) on an exotic island with a love-sick Marine and a self-righteous religious zealot. While one man has his mind on romance, the other has his suspicions about Sadie.

Miss Sadie Thompson was released as a 3-D film in 1953, but with declining interest in the format at the time, the 3-D version was pulled off screens after two weeks and the title was re-released as a “flat” movie — making this 2008 screening a rare opportunity to see the film projected in its original, eye-popping format! The film survived censorship and went on to be one of the highest-grossing films that year, receiving an Oscar nomination for the song, “Blue Pacific Blues. (Skizz Cyzyk)” (from the filmfest-guide)

This year he picked the French film Story of Women about the last woman to be executed for performing abortions in the nazi-occupied France. Isabelle Huppert was remarkable in her incredibly complex role as Marie. As someone wrote in a review: “[...] She is clear-headed and sly as a business woman, warm and ordinary as a mother, cold and brutal as a wife, childish and careless as an adulteress, resourceful and fearless as an abortionist [...]” the scope of her character was extraordinary.

I thought this story sounded so familiar to me and I was sure I have watched this film before, perhaps a dubbed version back in Germany? But on the other hand, how could I have forgotten about such an impressive film? No, I haven’t seen Story of Women released in 1988 before. Actually, it was Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake released in 2004. It plays in England of the 50s and not France, but very much follows the similar story of a woman who performs abortions and gets into trouble after one procedure ended with complications. Vera Drake was good, Story of Women by far superior.

Story of Women is a careful, complex story and character study with a lot of attention to realism and detail. It definitely is an excellent work of French cinema. [imdb]

We live in a world where the debate around abortion is locked in simple, dogmatic positions that too often squeeze all human reality out of the equation. But this provocative film from one of France’s most talented filmmakers refuses to let us settle in so comfortably.

Film legend Claude Chabrol tells the story of women who lived under France’s Nazi-collaborating Vichy government and became involved in abortion for a variety of reasons. The lead character, Marie Latour, based on a real woman and played by the great actress Isabelle Huppert, becomes an abortionist not out of conviction, but because she sees a need and fills it. Prosecuted by a government with a severely compromised moral framework, she was one of the last women in France to be executed.

Chabrol doesn’t let the viewer take sides easily. Janet Maslin’s New York Times review praised the film, saying it “resolutely avoids passing judgment,” and Chabrol himself dedicates the film to “all its interpreters,” asking us to confront moral complexities we’d rather avoid. It’s a unique film from this great director, who distinguished himself as one of the pioneers of the French New Wave, and whose extensive body of work (with seventy films to his name and counting) is comprised primarily of subtle psychological thrillers.

Highly praised by critics and the winner of numerous awards, yet infrequently shown on the big screen in the U.S., a rare 35mm print of Story of Women has been flown in by diplomatic pouch. (Jed Dietz) (from the filmfest-guide)

Luke returns home to a small town in Pennsylvania to launch himself back into the lives of his ex-flame Hannah and her daughter Elise. A subtle and bittersweet ode to a man who’s only grounded when he’s in the sky, featuring stunt work by world-record-holding human cannonball David Smith, Sr. (from the filmfest-guide)

Haha, I can’t think of anything deep or significant to write about this little story except that it was told very beautifully. I liked the characters and enjoyed this film very much! [imdb]

Maine Story

Shelly lives in a small town and works in the local factory, going through the motions as if her life hasn’t yet started. When Alex, her high school sweetheart, comes back to town, Shelly is forced to confront the things in her life that she’s been avoiding, including Kyle, her 12-year-old son. (from the filmfest-guide)

Maine Story is a very quiet and gentle portrait of its main character and the town she lives in. A few moments including its open end managed to surprise me. I would like to watch it again sometime with the filmmaker comments in mind. I enjoyed this film. [imdb]

The Aviatrix

A gleaming silhouette rockets through the cosmos. She is The Aviatrix. And she exists in the mind of Anne, a young woman battling cancer. (from the filmfest-guide)

This film demonstrates very nicely how there still can be room for laughter despite the horrors of a disease like cancer, and how humor can help to remove the walls around a sick person. I liked the humor, honesty and realism of The Aviatrix. [imdb]

First Bass

Abbey Jacobs is a 12-year-old upright bass prodigy whose true love is baseball. On the afternoon before an elite music-school audition, Abbey tricks her mom into thinking she’s practicing and sneaks off to a Cubs game with the boy down the block. But when she leaves the safety of suburbia and arrives at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, she discovers a truth about her divorced parents that changes her relationships with her mother and her instrument forever. (from the filmfest-guide)

Anther enjoyable story in this narrative shorts program.

Quick Feet, Soft Hands

A minor-league baseball player and his fiancée struggle to pursue the American dream. Starring Greta Gerwig (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends, Yeast) and Jason Von Stein. (from the filmfest-guide)

I was very interested in how this story would continue to unfold and end, but we had to leave the screening to be in time for the next shorts program “On The Edge”. I hope there will be another opportunity to see this film again sometime. One of the main characters was played by Greta Gerwig, probably one of the busiest actresses in the young indie-film scene. Just to mention a few, she also played in Yeast, Baghead, and Joe Swanberg’s LOL I saw during one of the last film festivals. I enjoyed what I could see! [imdb]