FILMSTRIP TEASE

There are more than 100 reasons to get excited about the 31st Cleveland International Film Festival.By Melinda J. Benson

Rolf de Heer is why I go to the Cleveland International Film Festival. And Jan Hrebejk, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Hal Hartley and Aleksei Balabanov. They are filmmakers whose works I discovered at the film festival.

Since then, I have sought out their past films and eagerly awaited new ones. While I haven’t loved – or sometimes even liked – all their other works, I still feel a surge of anticipation every time they release a film. They have thrilled me before, and they could do it again.

The 31st Cleveland International Film Festival, which runs March 15 to 25 at Tower City Cinemas, not only has new films by these five directors, but it’s offering up works by more than 100 other international filmmakers who might impress me enough to make it onto my future “must-see” list. Will it be Britain’s Andrea Arnold with Red Road? New Zealand’s Taika Waititi with Eagle vs. Shark? Cleveland’s Ted Sikora with Hero Tomorrow? I can’t wait to find out.

There were far fewer films available for preview than in the past, so my festival recommendations are primarily based on filmmakers’ reputations and reviews from outside sources, as well as my own preferences and knowledge.

For example, I screened the well-made, exhaustively researched documentary Rape of Europa, about the theft and destruction of artworks during World War II. It was fine, but had I known less about these events going in, I may have taken more from the film. In general, when it comes to documentaries, I believe a lack of familiarity can be a plus.

With that in mind, here are my 10 must-sees for the 31st annual Cleveland International Film Festival (with a bit of cheating):

1. Rolf de Heer Director’s Spotlight. I literally gasped with excitement when I learned the festival was screening seven of this amazing Australian’s films, and that he is expected to be here in person. De Heer is responsible for one of the most loved and detested films in the festival’s history, a true cult classic brought back for an unprecedented third time: Bad Boy Bubby.

For those who haven’t heard about it, 1993’s Bubby is a one-of-a-kind tale of child abuse, death, love, fame, religion and cats that is disturbing, hilarious and unforgettable. When the festival first showed it in 1995, people walked out in droves, while those who stayed requested – and got – an additional screening.

When it was shown again by popular demand at the 25th festival, I feared this “Forrest Gump from hell,” as it has been aptly described, couldn’t possibly live up to my memories of it – but it did.

Unless you are an extremely sensitive soul who doesn’t like to watch anything unpleasant at the movies, you really should give Bubby a try just to see what all the fuss is about. De Heer does, however, have less extreme films worth viewing as well.

His latest, Ten Canoes, a beautifully shot story-within-a-story based on Aboriginal legends, received rave reviews. Another Aboriginal tale, 2002’s The Tracker, is a gripping look at a man caught between two cultures, with a wonderful performance by native actor David Gulpilil.

Reviews are also positive for older works, such as The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, a jungle meditation on man versus nature, and Dingo, a jazz film with actor Colin Friels and music legend Miles Davis. While not quite as disturbing as Bubby, the domestic revenge drama Alexandra’s Project is controversial and has divided audiences.

Beauty in Trouble
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY
OF CLEVELAND FILM SOCIETY

Invisible Waves
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY
OF CLEVELAND FILM SOCIETY

2. Beauty in Trouble. The first Jan Hrebejk film I saw was the charming audience favorite Cozy Dens at the 24th Cleveland festival. I’ve since seen three more of this modern Czech master’s works, including the Oscar nominated Divided We Fall and 2004’s Up & Down, and he’s one of the most consistently excellent filmmakers around. Whether set during World War II or in modern Europe, his films are humanist political comedies that manage to be warm yet not overly sentimental. I will gladly watch anything he makes.

3. Invisible Waves. Thailand’s Pen-Ek Ratanaruang was featured at the 28th CIFF’s Someone to Watch program highlighting up-and-coming directors. His colorful black comedies, 6ixtynin9 and Last Life in the Universe, which skillfully blended humor, violence, love and pathos, convinced me he’s a cinematic stylist worth checking out. His new film about a chef-turned-reluctant assassin sounds like more of the same.

4. The Art of Crying. This Danish debut by Peter Schønau Fog sounds like it has the potential to be another Bad Boy Bubby. This very dark comedy about a manipulative, suicidal father includes child abuse and has been called “horrific” and “not for those easily disturbed.” It has also been called “funny,” “refreshingly unconventional,” “satisfying” and “affecting.”

5. Red Road. Andrea Arnold won the Cannes Jury Prize for this paranoid thriller about surveillance, sex and revenge. Additionally, the film was on numerous lists for the year’s best films, and many cited it as the best British film of 2006. My only concern about this reportedly stylish debut is some complaints about an unsatisfactory ending.

6. Bamako. Another film repeatedly cited on best film lists, this mixture of political exposé and human drama has been called one of the best African films in years. Acclaimed director Abderrahmane Sissako (Life on Earth, Waiting for Happiness) examines how World Bank policies have hurt Africa, with a blend of courtroom scenes and vignettes of daily village life.

7. East Side Story. For years, the festival has made an effort to seek out the best gay and lesbian films available, often small independent works that won’t get a bigger release without festival buzz. Carlos Portugal’s debut about a closeted Latino in East Los Angeles helping his grandmother with her restaurant, dealing with a crazy aunt and falling in love has played to acclaim at both Latino and gay/lesbian film festivals. The film has been hailed as a delightful, soul-satisfying romance and perfect date movie. Could it follow in the footsteps of Big Eden and The Sum of Us as winner of the festival’s audience choice award?

8. Eagle vs. Shark. Another romantic comedy that’s been delighting film festival audiences. This time, it is two socially awkward misfits in New Zealand trying to find love. Director Waititi made an Oscar-nominated short film and was recently named one of the top 10 directors to watch by Variety.

9. Fay Grim, It Does Not Hurt and The Old Garden. I am putting these three together because they are by directors whose previous work I’ve loved – Hartley (Trust, Henry Fool), Balabanov (Of Freaks and Men) and Im Sang-soo (The President’s Last Bang) respectively – but who have gotten very mixed reviews for these current films.

10. Documentaries. More than 25 percent of the festival’s features this year are non-fiction films literally ranging from A (AbsoluteWilson) to Z (Zoo). If you can’t find something to interest you, you’re not trying hard enough. How about:

• Reverential profiles of artists, including avant-garde theater innovator Robert Wilson (Absolute Wilson) and Polish filmmaking legend Krzysztof Kieslowski (Still Alive).

• Music styles from Philadelphia’s Heath Brothers (Brotherly Jazz) to house (Liquid Vinyl) to punk (Punk’s Not Dead) to hip hop (The Hip Hop Project). Also, a 30th anniversary history of Britain’s Glastonbury music festival (Glastonbury) filled with performance footage and directed by the infamous Julien Temple.

• PBS-style examinations of the Holocaust (Forgiving Dr. Mengele, Secret Courage: The Walter Suskind Story), apartheid (Have You Heard From Johannesburg?), women athletes (Boxers), and the strange story (The Ants) of Japanese soldiers forced to fight Mao’s communists alongside Chinese Nationalists.

• Passionate discourses on hot-button topics, such as the oil industry (Crude Impact), gay marriage (Saving Marriage), conditions in Afghanistan (Motherland Afghanistan), the war in Chechnya (Three Comrades) and wrongly convicted prisoners (The Trial of Daryl Hunt).

• Inspirational looks at people battling disease (The Breast Cancer Diaries, Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life) and disadvantaged children uplifted by music (To Play and to Fight, War/Dance) or athletics (Runners High, On a Tightrope).

• Quirky studies of Central Asian nomads (37 Uses for a Dead Sheep), a landlocked Russian who builds a sub (Mr. Pilipenko and His Submarine), and the inhabitants of a Macedonian town who thrive on oddball contests (The Shutka Book of Records).

• Artistic meditations on industrial waste (Manufactured Landscapes), political harassment (Strange Culture) and bestiality (Zoo).

For an alternative take on what to see, I asked festival artistic director and film programmer Bill Guentzler for his recommendations. His top 10, in order, are:

1. Reprise. The debut film by Norway’s Joachim Trier is about the loves and lives of two twentysomething best friends and would-be novelists. This dramedy has been called “daring,” “dazzling” and “effervescent.”

2. Darius Goes West: The Roll of His Life. Don’t dismiss this as just another disease of- the-week documentary as I initially did. Yes, you probably will end up crying as you watch 15-year-old Darius, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, travel to Los Angeles with some male buddies to get MTV to “pimp” his ride, in his case, a wheelchair. However, this energetic film is so much more. It is a great effort to promote awareness among young people who may not know or care who Jerry Lewis is, and it paints a portrait of youthful male bonding that is touching and unforgettable.

3. Eagle vs. Shark. (See above)

4. Fraulein. Despite an abrupt ending that left me wanting more, I really like this lovely, award-winning multi-generational character drama about three Yugoslavian women in Switzerland who change each other’s lives. The acting is sublime.

5. Change of Address. Veteran festival-goers know that eventually they will need a respite from all the global angst and misery unfolding on screen. This fluffy French romantic comedy is a fun and frothy antidote.

6. Boy Culture. A new film from Q. Allan Brocka, director of the 28th Cleveland festival’s popular sex comedy Eating Out. Reviews tag this look at a Seattle hustler trying to understand love as more serious, yet still witty, and a big step forward for Brocka.

7. Big Dreams Little Tokyo. I was very impressed with young Dave Boyle, who wrote, directed and stars in this sweet offbeat comedy about the adventures of a business-minded guy obsessed with Japan, his sumo wrestler–wannabe friend and a cute Japanese nurse.

8. Fay Grim. (See above)

9. A Map for Saturday. This documentary promotes itself as “an around the world trip in 90 minutes.” The filmmaker, Brook Silva-Braga, left his job at HBO and spent a year traveling through 26 countries on four continents with only five pounds of clothes and 30 pounds of video equipment, recording his interactions with 24 fellow solo travelers.

10. Prague. Denmark’s Ole Christian Madsen focuses on a deteriorating marriage coming to a critical point in the latest intense domestic drama from the director of Kira’s Reason: A Love Story, which the festival showed previously. As with that film, viewers who don’t like jiggly handheld camerawork and lots of close-ups might want to pass.

Besides a jiggling camera, which also is mentioned in reviews of the Polish drama The Collector, here are some other criteria to help you decide which films might suit your taste:

Deadpan Comedy
These films (12:08 East of Bucharest, Fresh Air, Looking for Leonard) have been compared to the works of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismaki, which means a lot of people won’t think they’re funny. Don’t expect big belly laughs or slapstick. Deadpan Valentine, which calls itself an anti-romantic comedy, probably falls into this category. For the opposite of deadpan, try The Valet by Francis Veber, king of wacky French comedies such as The Dinner Game and The Closet. A close cousin of deadpan is mordant Eastern European comedy (All for Free, Pleasant Moments and Two Players from the Bench), which tends to be more political and tragic.

Oscar also-rans
None of the eight films in the festival submitted by their respective countries for the foreign language Oscar made the final five. They are: American Visa, The Collector, Falkenberg Farewell, Love for Share, Kontakt, Reprise, Ten Canoes and Tomorrow Morning.

Familiar faces
If you prefer recognizable actors, you can see Julie Christie struggle with Alzheimer’s (Away from Her); Parker Posey and Jeff Goldblum get involved in international espionage (Fay Grim); Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, William Fichtner and J.K. Simmons make their way through a psychological thriller (First Snow); Richard Dreyfuss, Hugo Weaving and Timothy Spall face a dangerous jaguar (The Old Man Who Read Love Stories); David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver parody pilot season (The TV Set); and Lukas Haas (the kid from Witness) stars in two films (Swedish Auto and Who Loves the Sun).

It’s Kind of Like ...
Sometimes, reviewers find that the easiest way to describe a film is with a comparison.

• Eagle vs. Shark: Napolean Dynamite meets ... Little Miss Sunshine or When Harry Met Sally or The Royal Tenenbaums. (For the record, the director says he’s never seen Napolean Dynamite.)

• Severance: The Office meets ... Shaun of the Dead or Deliverance.

• Beautiful Ohio: a cross between The Ice Storm and The Squid and the Whale.

• Change of Address: Eric Rohmer meets Woody Allen.

• Angel-A: Variety describes it as “a sort of ‘It’s An Adequate Life,’” for the tale of an angel who comes to earth to help a downtrodden man who owes money.

• Congorama: Charlie Kaufmanesque plotting.

• The Curiosity of Chance: The “John Hughes film that couldn’t be made in the ’80s” because of its gay protagonists, according to www.queery.com.

• The Gymnast: Cirque du Soleil meets When Night Is Falling.

• What Means Motley?: In the tradition of Waking Ned Devine or The General meets The Commitments.

My best advice is to pick up the free festival guide, read the descriptions – keeping in mind they are all meant to sound like great films – and take a risk on the ones that seem appealing to you. No matter what films you are interested in, you should definitely consider purchasing tickets or a pass in advance, since there are frequent sell-outs, especially on weekends.

For more information about the film festival, call 216-623-FILM or visit www.clevelandfilm.org.

Q&A: Tyler Davidson
By Elizabeth Weinstein
A Clevelander is the producer of this year’s opening night film

Northeast Ohioans are in for a treat at this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival. Swedish Auto, a feature-length film produced by Cleveland’s own Tyler Davidson, will open the festival on Thursday, March 15. The film, written and directed by Derek Sieg, is a relationship drama that stars Lukas Haas (of Witness fame) as Carter, a withdrawn auto mechanic who lives his life as an observer. Things change when Carter meets a troubled, yet charming waitress, Darla, played by January Jones (most recently seen in We Are Marshall), and they begin an unconventional romance. The film has garnered early, positive reviews from The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and other publications. Davidson, who also produced The Year That Trembled (based on a book by his uncle and Northern Ohio Live senior writer Scott Lax), phoned in to discuss the film. (For more information, visit www.clevelandfilm.org or www.swedishautomovie.com.)

Elizabeth Weinstein: Tell me about the making of Swedish Auto. Variety called the film “a study in state-of-the-art indie filmmaking.”
TD: This film began as a project that was brought to me by Derek Sieg, who was the writer/director … he literally wrote [Swedish Auto] in a couple of weeks. We both felt there was something there, and it became the project that we pursued. We decided to shoot in Derek’s hometown, and also the town where we went to [the University of Virginia] together, which is Charlottesville, Virginia. The story takes place in Charlottesville and we felt that capturing the nuances of that environment were key to this particular story. In the fall of 2005, we shot the film … and then ended up premiering it in June of 2006 at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

EW: How did you react when you learned it would open the Cleveland International Film Festival?
TD: I was extremely excited and honored, for a number of reasons. I’ve done a couple of films that played a lot of festivals, and having attended a lot of film festivals, I feel that this festival is at the very top, and one of the very best in the country. For that reason, it was extremely gratifying. And for it to be a festival based in my hometown really just meant that much more. And of course, having that prestigious opening night slot was really the cherry on top.

EW: What do you want people to know about the film?
TD: The film is, to me, about two lonely souls who really sort of live on the margins [of society]. It’s the story of how these two people come together and form a relationship that really inspires both of them to approach life in a new way … It’s a small story, but I think it could have a wide appeal because of the universal nature of a lot of the themes. We got great performances, most notably out of the film’s leads … I’m very excited to have people in this area see it.

EW: Tell me about the casting process – how did Lukas Haas come to be attached to the project?
TD: Lukas Haas is somebody who one of my producing partners, Jay R. Ferguson, had a personal friendship with, so we were able to get the script to him directly and sort of bypass the standard rigmarole of agencies, managers and so forth. We got a pretty quick consideration of the script by Lukas, and he really took to it, and that was it, really. Lukas was not cast through a conventional casting process, whereas January was. She was somebody who was brought in by our casting director, and who actually originally read for another role, but we ended up thinking she was just perfect for the Darla role.

EW: What do you hope audiences will take away with them after seeing this film?
TD: I tend to produce films that I personally like to see, and in this case … I don’t necessarily think it’s a film that everyone will love, but my hope is that it at least will instigate conversation. If that happens, I feel it’s successful.

EW: Are you working on any new projects?
TD: Our next film will probably be the follow-up film by Swedish Auto director/writer Derek Sieg. That film is called The Anthropologist, and is also kind of a relationship drama, but this one is set in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and we’re on track to go into production with that one this summer.

Pick up a copy of Northern Ohio Live at your favorite newsstand or subscribe online now. No credit card required. We’ll bill you later.