VIFF 2010 in Review

I regret that it's taken me as long as it has to post even this meagre review of my experience at the 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival. Alas, I am both lazy and lately plagued with self-confidence problems, which often negates my ability to convey my opinions in a non-ambiguous manner. I have learned a great deal in my year and a bit at university, and I feel as though with each new piece information or theory or historical tidbit I absorb, paradoxically the less prepared I am to offer my comments on films or music or anything else. I hope readers of this document will read it as little more than a written history and categorization of my personal experience at VIFF 2010.

I have never been able to attend a film festival with a full pass to all the films, and now that I have, am quite certain that there is no other way to approach attending a big event like VIFF. My pass gave me the flexibility to see films at the spur of the moment if I wanted, but also enabled me to see my top picks if I was dedicated enough to line up early. Although I didn't get to see everything I wanted, I felt pretty satisfied with what I did come away with, a diverse selection of 26 feature films from a variety of countries. My one regret is that I didn't pick a more eclectic crop of national cinemas; I didn't get to a single film from Africa and only two from the Asian film category. At the same time though, I think I had a better experience seeing the films I was interested in than I would have if I forced myself to go to see films that hadn't really caught my fancy.

The film selection crew at VIFF did a fantastic job this year, and I was extremely pleased with the programming categories and the overall quality of the films I saw. I only saw three or four movies that I would dub as duds, undeserving in my opinion of being included in the festival. Although, unlike last year, no breakthrough favourites emerged from the festival, I was still very fond of the vast majority of the films I saw and would be more than happy to see them again or recommend them to friends.

So without much further ado, these are the films that I saw in their entirety, rated very roughly by letter grade:


GRADE A
Another Year (UK, Mike Leigh)
Certified Copy (France/Italy/Belgium, Abbas Kiarostami)
Inside Job (USA, Charles Ferguson)
Armadillo (Denmark, Janus Metz)
Our Life (Italy, Daniele Luchetti)
Fathers&Sons (British Columbia, Carl Bessai)
Winter Vacation (China, Li Hongqi)

GRADE B
Biutiful (Spain/Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu)
Me, Too (Spain, Alavro Pastor and Antonio Naharro)
The Woodmans (USA, C. Scott Willis)
Rubber (France/USA, Quentin Dupieux)
A Somewhat Gentle Man (Norway, Hans Petter Molland)
Win/Win (Netherlands, Jaap van Heusden)
Snow & Ashes (Quebec, Charles-Olivier Michaud)
Heartbeats (Quebec, Xavier Dolan)
Curling (Quebec, Denis Cote)

GRADE C
Good Morning to the World! (Japan, Hirohara Saturo)
Incendies (Quebec, Denis Villeneuve)
Two Indians Talking (British Columbia, Sara McIntyre)
King's Road (Iceland, Valdis Oskarsdottir)
The Woodmans (USA, C. Scott Willis)
ReGeneration (USA, Phillip Montgomery)

GRADE D
Severn, The Voice of Our Children (France, Jean-Paul Jaud)
Uncle Brian (Ontario, Nick McAnulty)
The Tree (Australia/France, Julie Bertucceli)
Monsters (UK, Gareth Edwards)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Portugal/Spain/France/Brazil, Manoel de Oliveira)


A few specific comments on individual films...

Probably my most anticipated film of the festival was Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (Babel, 21 Grams, Amores Perros)'s new film Biutiful. It was difficult to not compare this new work with his three previous films because they are so extraordinary and so moving and so entrenched in my memory, and in relation to those movies, Biutiful isn't quite on par. That said, see this film because it is still a pandora's box of interesting themes and emotional issues well worth exploring. But if you are a fan of Innaritu's previous work, don't go expecting the same sort of clarity of ideas and poignancy.

Inside Job I would say is by far the most important film that played at the festival. Everyone interested in the future of economics, politics, and the vitality of democracy in the world (this should be everyone) needs to see this movie because it explores every cranny of the corruption inside the world's economic trendsetter and the unsound base on which the country has been built. Charles Ferguson is a vital American filmmaker, and a gutsy one at that.

Armadillo is a particularly relevant film for Canadians in light of our withdrawal from Afghanistan next year. It contains some of the most extraordinary and candid documentary footage I have ever seen. The way in which this film structures itself and develops character is so effortless it almost fooled me into thinking it was a narrative work of fiction.

If I had to choose my favourite movie at the festival, it would be the Chinese film Winter Vacation. A third of the audience walked out during the screening I attended because it was so slow and aimlessly plotted, but I drew a lot out of the striking and unique mise-en-scene. This was by far the most original work I saw, it had a fantastic sense of humour, and the underpinning social commentary and nihilist philosophy I thought were conveyed in a very artful manner. A valuable insight into the psyche of the youth in China.

Destined to become a cult favourite was the midnight film Rubber. Anyone can tell just from the plot description that this film is outlandish, hilarious, and completely unconventional, but I think a lot of people missed how clever the self-reflexive elements of the film were. This is a comedy with something to say (albeit something simple) about the medium.

Young Xavier Dolan is a tremendously exciting talent to watch. Although Heartbeats is not as insightful or inspired as last year's I Killed My Mother, it is still a creatively ambitious and fun and definitely post-modern work that continues to develop a distinct cinematic voice.

Good Morning to the World! and its 23 year old filmmaker Hirohara Saturo was the surprise winner of the Dragons & Tigers Award. Even though I was not particularly struck by the film, I commend the Dragons jury for rewarding an obviously talented young student instead of gifting the award to one of the more obvious candidates like Cannes winner Poetry or the blockbuster Aftershock. Saturo, who I was privileged to hear speak after his film, is a smart young man with some terrific ideas, and will certainly be someone to watch in the future.

I was post puzzled by the superb audience reaction and my film theory professor's praise for Denis Villeneuve's new film Incendies, Canada's submission for Oscar consideration this year. I was not impressed with Villeneuve's pedestrian direction and the film's awkward weaving between time-lines, but more importantly I thought this work demeaned the tragedy of the historical conflict and the real life victims of violence by making the film's major tragedy a thing of chance or hand of God event in the style of a Greek tragedy. I seem to be alone in this assessment, so by all means see it for yourself. I look forward to a discussion with someone about it.

The Ontario production Uncle Brian I thought was an accidentally morally reprehensible work. It was clear to me after the Q&A that the filmmakers had no concept of the codes of representation their movie took on. To give on example, the final frames of the film brutally victimizes the main character at the hands of an angry, violent, repressed homosexual. I was disappointed that the VIFF programming committee thought that the shock factor of this film's content made it worthy of inclusion at the festival.


Maybe I will write more about more movies as time allows. Check back to find out.

Tell me about your experience at VIFF! What did you see you loved/hated? Do you think I'm totally out to lunch on some of my comments? Let me know.