My Cannes 2009 - II

Film Notes

Spring Fever (Lou Ye) - three gays, one wife, one girlfriend. Everyone wants to sleep with each other, and if they can't at least they can spy on each other. Well, what else is there to do in Nanjing anyway? It's an exercise in narcissism especially since they all look the same. Directed with the fervour of Just Jaekin and the fantasy lust of Bernardo Bertolucci, this is a film again inflected by Hitchcock - especially his speculation on the exchangeability of women. In Hitchcock, the girls would look the same but one would be blonde, the other brunette. For Lou Ye, the difference is made by long hair and short hair. Semiotics was never so simple.

Air Doll (Kore-eda) - one geek, one inflatable sex doll, and some thoughts about disposability in contempo Japanese society. What makes it all watchable for more than 10 minutes is the fabulous Bae Doo Na (BDN) who becomes the fleshy realization of the inflatable sex doll (we are waiting for BDN inflatables to hit the market now). When owner's away (waiting tables in some low end fast food chain where he is regularly insulted) BDN becomes a hot cosplay girl in maid's outfit who goes and works in a video store where - yes! - she attempts to learn about cinema. But as an inflatable, she's full of air so learning for her is something of a zen experience. Mainly the film is a riposte to Spielberg's AI, another movie about an imitation human who develops emotions. Although they travel different paths, the two fantasists reach the same destination - human society doesn't want machines that talk back. The main differences? Kore-eda can do it cheaper, and Hayley Joel Osment has absolutely nothing on BDN.

Yuki & Nina (Nobuhiro Suwa & Hippolyte Girardot) - one hip Japanese filmmaker who has yet to score in Japan, and a French actor turning director make charming tale of two young girls. Yuki is half-Japanese/half-French (her French father is played by Girardot) while Nina is her French neighbor. Everyone's family is disintegrating and Yuki's mother decides to return to Japan to live. Yuki wants to stay but reject's Nina's crazy plan to bring that about. The tussle between the two is perhaps a reflection of and a reflection on the problems of making cross-cultural relationships.

Ne Change Rien (Pedro Costa) - Art house darling films diva Jeanne Balibar (JB) and music group rehearsing, recording, and performing (in Tokyo, we know this because of one arty insert shot of two aging Japanese waitresses taking a cigarette break). In between we see backstage of some Offenbach musical opera in which JB is performing. Music is pleasant enough but the filmmaker's focus seems intent on form (black and white, long static shots). Forget it, the movie is like an MTV shot by the Straubs. The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Balibar - coming soon to your TV set.

Like You Know It All (Hong Sang Soo) - First Half: Woody Allen-ish filmmaker with no hits serves (or snores) on jury at Jecheon Film and Music Festival and gets into trouble with both the festival director (a woman who has no problem voicing her problems) and his ex-business partner's New Age wife. Second Half: 12 days later, our filmmaker is giving a talk at a film college in Jeju Island. Once again he gets into trouble with his ex-teacher's young wife, and a girl student. Hong's world is plagued by strong women towards whom he means no harm but inadvertently provokes into sometimes violent reaction. It's an apologia for Hong himself, or rather a fantasy version of himself - the modest artist who goes about doing his work quietly but treads on so many emotional landmines that everything blows up around him. Best film in Cannes? Probably.

Thirst (Park Chan Wook) - Song Kang Ho plays a priest who volunteers for a blood infection experiment in Africa (it's always the Dark Continent). He turns into a vampire and fools around with the abused wife of a friend. They have a lot of sex with each other so he turns her into a vampire as well. Big mistake: she wants some kind of independence and loves jumping over buildings and killing innocent guys. It all gets too much so he forces their death by watching the sun rise over the ocean. They turn into variations on Giacometti - something between a spoiled fireplace log and bacon bits. Whatever happened to the good old stake through the heart? (We assume already that garlic doesn't work because they are Korean and eat a lot of kimchee.) This is a movie with a beginning and an end but no middle. And despite all that blood, it's also a movie with no heart.

Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza) - A moral tale. If you're going going to do drugs, make sure you pay your bills otherwise you're going to end up like the poor prostitute in this relentless, gruesome account of kidnap, rape and dismemberment. And if you do buy drugs, it's better not to get them from the type of guys in this movie who are all corrupt cops (is there any other type in the Philippines? Mendoza seems to ask). And don't place any faith in the rookie of the crew to save you out of sheer horror. In this movie the new chop chop recruit is a young police trainee trying to make an extra buck for his young family. Although he tries to change his mind and maybe save the prostitute, he doesn't. He survives the horror of this descent into the heart of darkness but the new day doesn't seem to bring any respite. You know he's going to do it again. For Mendoza the country is enveloped by this dark, seamy side of crime and officialdom. What a downer, and it's all done with no sense of irony at all. Which means that it could be a good REMAKE property for Russia. Vodka with your balut?