With the sound of children vomiting into popcorn bags and the clatter of empty beer bottles bouncing down the floors of theaters, another St. Louis International Film Festival comes to an end. We saw twelve feature length films and two collections of shorts. Some were great, some were OK, one was annoying, one was 45 minutes too long, all were worth seeing, if for no other reason than to think about why you didn’t like them.
We almost made it; we still had four punches left in our ticket.
Saturday, 11/14/09
Branson – a documentary about entertainers trying to make it big in Branson, MO. The main focus was on Jackson Cash, a Johnny Cash impersonator whose voice took on an uncanny resemblance to Johnny’s after he got punched in the throat by his drug dealer while they were squabbling over money. You can’t make this stuff up.
Made in China – Guerrilla filming in Shanghai, about a young entrepreneur who goes to China to manufacture his “humorous domestic hygiene product” and make his dreams come true. Very good. The Shanghai locations were interesting.
Spooner – One of the most enjoyable films we saw at the fest. A used car salesman has been given an ultimatum by his parents; move out of the house by your 30th birthday. An amusing and touching romance. Great cast.
Sunday, 11/15/09
XXY – Argentine film set in Uruguay. A sexual coming of age story where the sexual coming of age is made even more confusing for the protagonists because one of them is struggling with biological gender issues as well as emotional issues. Beautifully made and paced with a very “real” (i.e. unresolved) finish.
Cloud 9 – A German film about sex after seventy. It turns out there is also passion, betrayal, and heartbreak after seventy. Lots of over-seventy nudity. You get used to it. And we should all be so lucky with sex in our seventies (ideally without the betrayal and heartbreak).
Helen – Beautiful but turgid film about a teenager taking part in a police reconstruction of the disappearance of one of her classmates. The dialog was incredibly annoying:
“Line of dialog”
. . . .long pause. . . .
“Line of dialog”
. . . .long pause. . . .
“Line of dialog”
. . . .long pause. . . .
mostly recited while the actors stared expressionlessly into space. This came across as an artifice and a cheap way to turn a twenty minute short into a feature film, though I’m sure the director was aiming for profundity. It might have worked better if the actors hadn’t been so wooden. I like slow movies. I have no problem with unresolved endings. But each conversation became so irritating I lost interest long before it was over.
Thursday, 11/19/09
We Live in Public – Riveting documentary about Josh Harris, “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of.” After he made his bundle in the nineties, he created several troublesome but fascinating social experiments in which the subjects lived for extended periods under 24/7 web cam observation, even during sex and on the toilet. Glad we saw it. I’d like to learn more about these experiments.
Friday, 11/20/09
The Only Good Indian – I’ve seen one of Kevin Willmott’s films before (CSA: The Confederate States of America) and I was expecting to be annoyed. He failed to disappoint. The movie is a fictionalized account of a young boy’s escape from one of the late 19th early 20th century off-reservation boarding schools where the objective was to assimilate Indian children into European American culture. In the words of the founder of the movement (Richard Henry Pratt), the goal was to “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
These schools were a perfect illustration of the old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it’s a story worth telling. Many if not all of the children went home emotionally and physically scarred and unable to fit back in to their communities. But, as in his other films, the director seems to think his mission in life is to shock European Americans with the news that racism exists and the Indians got a raw deal. This is no longer news to most European Americans, at least the ones who will see his films.
To make sure the insidious evil nature of European culture is revealed to the audience, there is a running analogy between the attempt to assimilate Indians and Dracula’s “assimilation” of victims into the ranks of the undead. Subtle as a brick through a windshield. At the same time he bemoans the racial stereotypes applied to African and indigenous Americans, he lays on the Evil European stereotypes with a trowel. His audience consists of the victims and the guilt-ridden.
Willmott doesn’t seem to be interested in healing the racial divide. He’s just picking at the scab. Here endeth the rant.
Absurd Shorts (and they were, truly, absurd). There were nine.
Feeder – A mouth’s-eye view of eating. Interesting and revolting.
Karaoke Show – A naked man (the director) dances in a stop-motion style while singing what can best be described as the Sounds of Flatulence. An obvious ploy by the director to show off his courting tackle. Amusing for thirty seconds. Lasted four and a half minutes longer.
Welgünzêr – A terrific short about a man who invents a time machine so he can travel into the future to kill himself. Why doesn’t he just kill himself now? Because he thinks his wife might return to him if he puts a pool in the back yard. Outstanding! And funny!
The Attack of the Robots from Nebula 5 – Starts out as quirky and amusing, then leaves you with the uncomfortable realization that you’ve just had a glimpse inside the mind of a schizophrenic. Very good.
The Taxidermist – A very surreal film. I thought it was great. See this if you get a chance! And keep an eye on the lamp.
Naïade – Magical short combining stop motion with live action and animation. Mesmerizing.
Out of the Blue – A touching story about a man finding love in a water-logged TV. Very good.
Cattle Call – Four minutes of fun with auctioneers and spinning cowboy hats. Like I said, fun.
The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar – Excellently creepy version of Poe’s classic short story. Riveting.
That night I found myself sharing the restroom at the Tivoli with TV’s Frank. The place was jammed, so I didn’t yell “push the button, Frank!“
Saturday, 11/21/09
Three Monkeys – Slow but intriguing Turkish drama, looking as though it was filmed in the cinematic equivalent of Blu-Ray. I loved it, Nan hated it.
The Way We Get By – A documentary about three retirees who spend almost every day at the Bangor Maine airport greeting and saying farewell to troops deploying from and to the Middle East. Touching. The three provide a lot of insight into the fifth stage of life, service to others.
The Hollywood Cartoon, with commentary by Michael Barrier, author of “Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age” and “The Animated Man: The life of Walt Disney”
- Who Killed Cock Robin?
- Woodland Café
- Book Review
- Fresh Airedale – One of my all-time favorites. For a change, the cat is the good guy.
- Beep Beep – Early Road Runner, the second made. It doesn’t get better than this.
- Little Rural Riding Hood – OK, but I never liked the Tex Avery stuff as much as the Warner Brothers toons.
The best part about this program was the fact that little kids in the audience were laughing and giggling at material created up to eighty years ago. Timeless stuff.
Sunday, 11/22/09
Song From the Southern Seas – A non-Borat film from Kazakhstan that I can’t resist subtitling Desperate Yurtwives (sorry). We meet two families, a young Russian couple and a young Kazakh couple, and are introduced to their methods of marital conflict resolution; the Russian couple chases each other around the farmyard, screaming, throwing objects, and threatening each other with billets of firewood. The young Kazakh husband and his wife have a calmer style, he whips the “devils” out of her on a regular basis, she meekly submits. The families live next to each other for years, drinking vodka and eating gherkins with no problems until the Russian wife gives birth to a dark-haired baby who grows up to look more Kazakh than Russian. The Russian wife and the Kazakh husband both deny any hanky-panky.
Mongol East has meet Slavic West in Kazakhstan for hundreds of years. There has been a lot of intermarriage between Slav and Kazakh. It turns out there are reasons for the child’s appearance that have nothing to do with the neighbors.
This whole region has a history largely unknown in the United States, which is unfortunate. There are a lot of parallels with US history. The Czars and the Soviets expanded east into the steppes in much the same way the US expanded westward, but with considerably more bloodshed. The Russians didn’t have disease working in their favor; they had to shoot more people.
***
I have to say, as much as I love movies, seeing this many in such a short period of time was a strain. We probably won’t try it again next year. We barely scratched the surface of the movies we would like to have seen if time and money were infinite and we could be in five or six places at once.
But it was fun to try.
The Pi North Beach Classico – mozzarella, berkshire pork sausage, mushrooms, onions, hold the green bell peppers
Gotta have the food shot. You knew there’d be food, didn’t you?
Moonlight on Brown Hall at Wash U. Looks Dracula-ready.
One of the film festival venues was Brown Hall at Washington University. It made for an atmospheric setting.
Either a lens flare or a UFO over Wash U. I'm going to assume it was a UFO.
- Poppa
There are five people per tram barrel and I had no desire to feel like spam in a can again. Darren was a little disappointed by the top, he was expecting a carnival with elephants balancing on balls and fire eaters and sword swallowers. We went home to make baked ziti and watch a Pittsburgh video with Nan.
Turkey Day! I rose at dawn to prepare the traditional Green Bean Casserole (Nan and Donna did things with potatoes, pumpkins, and succotash the night before), and we caravanned to Mary Jo’s with Susan and Kate.
Leah and Darren with Donna.
The Children’s Table.
The Grownup’s Table (Kate got a temporary promotion).
The Perfect Thanksgiving Plate.
Friday morning, Nan had to work. The rest of us went on the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour.
Donna was thrilled to see the Clydesdales. . .
. . .and the beer wagons.
We repeated the Photo Op jape.
Darren and Leah surrounded by beer.
The day was gorgeous. After St. Louis Pizza at Imo’s, we hit the cemetery and did the driving tour. Then it was home to make tuna casserole and have Joe and family for dinner at our place. Rick was back in town from Dallas so we got to see the whole gang. Marie made ice cream cake.
Saturday morning, Darren crafted Eggs Benedict with home-made from scratch Hollandaise sauce. To. Die. For. Then two Peace Corps friends and their exceedingly charming one-year-old little girl came over for lunch and we carried in BBQ from Pappy’s (Warning: Pappy’s web site plays annoying music when you get there, so if you want your boss to think you’re working, hit mute before you click).
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