JDIFF 2012

e_e

strawdog wrote: »

Hello, was at Le Havre on Sunday, very enjoyable, kaurismaki with a lighter touch than usual tho I was a little miffed with the ending.

Wish I'd gone to this on Sunday instead. Will be out soon enough anyway.

Manco

Heading up with the NUIG Film Society for the weekend, should be a good few days. Contraband, The Raid, Colonel Blimp, Headhunters, Dollhouse and Surprise Film 2 all on the agenda personally.

jefreywithonef

jefreywithonef wrote: »

It transpires that I have three extra tickets for one showing that I don't need. Anyone know if you can get a refund from the ticket office (through showing up or doing it online) or am I left to sell them on my own?

Rang up the JDIFF number and turns out I can't get a refund, bleh. If anyone wants tickets (I have three) for Contraband tomorrow let me know via PM. (Hope this is OK with the mods; selling for face value fwiw.)

Squelchy

Thoroughly enjoyed that. A lot of fun, kinda silly but fairly brutal too.

Skinfull

Batman viewing last night was great though it felt like half the crowd were not too interested. Screening was supposed to start at 6 but there was a talk on beforehand by a lecturer from Trinners talking about the musical score. fairly bland intro to the movie but...meh.

What surprised me was the amount of people that turned up late, and the lack of atmosphere in the room. Everyone was taking it so seriously! Even the clap at the end was lack lustre. Maybe it's that I'm too used to the Screen crowd who revel in the cheesy joy that is a retro flick. *shrug*

mikhail

Skinfull wrote: »

...Even the clap at the end was lack lustre...

I was there, and enjoyed it immensely, but I have never applauded a film, and question the sanity of those who do.

Skinfull

Well I'm on your side there, in that I hate the clap after a movie, especially when you go to opening night / weekend of a hyped up flick. It just seems so forced and pandering, but for a festival you're not clapping a movie, but the choice thereof and its inclusion etc.
But last night, it was almost a slow clap for Batman.

johnny_ultimate

Chicken With Plums was an often awkwardly delivered film but it eventually got its surprisingly bleak message across in act three. Flawed but interesting and with a curious style throughout.

Marjane Satrapi gave a charismatic, honest and entertaining Q & A after which was well worth the entry price.

Renn

Awkward is right. Film found it hard to settle in my opinion - was trying to be a load of different things but failing at that. Undoubtedly grabbed a few ideas from Jeunet in the process. Felt that the American scene was horrendous enough

Q&A was decent enough, even if she was leaning towards going on some feminist rant. Once again the audience questions were a bit meh - always cringe when somebody HAS to begin their question with 'I LOVE YOUR WORK, THOUGHT THIS WAS DELIGHTFUL'...

johnny_ultimate

Yeah serious tonal and pacing issues with the film. I think it eventually won me over when it settled on bleak melodrama, and there were some decent gags and visual flourishes throughout. But found a lot of it a slog, and while there's much to like, it's nowhere near as successful as Persepolis.

I guess audience Q & As are always destined to be a mixed bag question wise. A lot of people seem to blabber on forever before they actually ask something. One thing I will credit JDIFF with this year, though, is having a large amount of filmmakers over. I've been to four films, and three have had the writer/director there (I believe the director of the Raid is due to be present tomorrow morning too). Lynn Shelton, Kenneth Lonergan and Marjane Satrapi may not be household names, but I admired their previous works so really was delighted to hear them speak (even if Lonergan clearly isn't a fan of speaking in front of crowds . I appreciate the opportunity to listen to them far more than big A-listers like Pacino, and is one thing the festival definitely got right this time around.

e_e

I'm kind of hoping there'll be a Q&A after The Raid, but then again I'll have to race over to Parnell Street to catch Baraka at 1. :pac:

403 Forbidden

Did anyone else get a mail from JDIFF today - Final Weekend Recommendation

But there was a lovely CSV File attached to it. :eek:

Seriously not cool :mad:

e_e

Well I can honestly say that The Raid was the most fun movie screening that I've ever been in.

The highlight: A single guy going "WUUUUUUUHAHAHAHAHAHA!" to one death and the entire audience then erupting with laughter because of his reaction.

impr0v

e_e wrote: »

Well I can honestly say that The Raid was the most fun movie screening that I've ever been in.

Agreed (per the dedicated thread).

Did anyone see Contraband? I thought it was really poor.

opr

Sad Professor wrote: »

Well, I dragged myself with much difficulty to see Once Upon a Time in Anatolia tonight. Very impressed and I'm glad I made the effort. A slow but mesmerising film that offers a fascinating existential mediation on human nature. I think it’s out in the IFI next month. I’d definitely recommend it, as well as Ceylan’s previous film Three Monkeys.

Been raving about this film to anyone who will listen. The first half or so of film when it follows a three vehicle wagon through the winding hills and roads in the dead of night is among some of the most sumptuous film making I have ever seen. Stunning piece of work.

Opr

Phony Scott

Just returned from the NCH show tonight and it was brilliant. I can't say I'm overly familiar with Danny Elfman's music, other than the more obvious theme tunes of The Simpsons and Batman, but I absolutely loved the music to Mars Attacks! It was a definate highlight, as was the opening Bernard Herrmann Suite to The Day The Earth Stood Still. Terrific night, wish the NCH would do more film score nights. Thankfully there is an up and coming John Williams night, which I'm sure for most film fans is a no brainer.

Sad Professor

Headhunters was very enjoyable. Jamie Lanister from GOT was in it.

IrishWing19

flowrider04 wrote: »

Did anyone else get a mail from JDIFF today - Final Weekend Recommendation

But there was a lovely CSV File attached to it. :eek:

Seriously not cool :mad:

Yeah, I noticed that myself. They're probably hoping no one notices or reports them to the data protection commissioner.

impr0v

Sad Professor wrote: »

Headhunters was very enjoyable. Jamie Lanister from GOT was in it.

I thought it was excellent. Highly recommended.

mikhail

flowrider04 wrote: »

Did anyone else get a mail from JDIFF today - Final Weekend Recommendation

But there was a lovely CSV File attached to it. :eek:

Seriously not cool :mad:

I didn't get it. What was in the file?

alastair

mikhail wrote: »

I didn't get it. What was in the file?

A spreadsheet of 450 odd jdiff subscribers with names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. Bit of a gaff alright.

Miguel_Sanchez

alastair wrote: »

A spreadsheet of 450 odd jdiff subscribers with names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. Bit of a gaff alright.

Seriously? Did someone get on to them to let them know?

That sort of thing is not on.

blaa85

The raid was the greatest action film I have ever seen. The best time I've had in a cinema, every scene ended with a cheer from the audience, and the applause for the two lads at the end was brilliant and deserved.

johnny_ultimate

This Must Be the Place was surprise film two.

Can see people liking it but thought it was woeful myself. Tried to distract its structurelessness with countless pointless crane and dolly shots. Penn's performance was devoid of substance and merely irritating. Only good thing about it was the David Byrne performance scene.

e_e

I thought it was pretty good myself. The rambling pace and genuine oddness of it worked for me, that and it's often very funny too.

johnny_ultimate

I think parts of it were decent, but as a whole it just didn't gel together at all for me. Mostly I felt it overdosed on quirk, while there were plenty of scenes (and indeed actors) that could have been excised without any effect. Or maybe it was just that they crapped out and went for the ridiculous

'finding the Holocaust war criminal' angle.

Still, it was at least an offbeat and interesting choice (guessed correctly too ). I saw a lot of people writing down '21 Jump Street' as a guess so thank **** they didn't stoop to that level.

Have to say that I rather enjoyed This Must Be the Place, I didn't see it at the JDIFF but rather on the small screen and I think that it's one of those films that plays better at home. It's also one of those films that you really have to be in the mood for, took me awhile to sit down and watch it having started it a few times but turned it off. The first 30 minutes in Dublin is rather pointless, really adds nothing to the over all story and the characters aren't that interesting. Could easily have trimmed 45 minutes from the films run time and lost nothing.

I can't decide if Penn was simply phoning it in or was just immensely bored. At times he looked like he was sleepwalking through the film and as a character he really wasn't all that interesting. Judd Hirsch, Harry Dean Stanton and Shea Whigham were all very good if underused. Would have like to see more of Stanton, he's one of the last great American actors and seems in recent years to have relegated to small cameos.

I loved the leisurely pace of the film, the final 90 minutes was in no hurry to get to where it was going and it suited the tone. Though that said the over use of dolly and crane shots was distracting. The final confrontation with the

Nazi war criminal

and his speech should have been the films big moment but a lot was lost due to the way that it was filmed.

johnny_ultimate

Deleted User wrote: »

a lot was lost due to the way that it was filmed.

They did the same thing in the Conversation with much more grace and subtlety. This Must... was certainly a pleasant looking film a lot of the time, but it was just baffling how many swooping shots featured. Shots of that sort lose all their effect when they keep coming. They cut mid swoop a worrying amount too.

Also, The Raid wins best film from the critics circle! http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/screenwriter/2012/02/26/the-dublin-film-critics-circle-at-jdiff/ Deserves every award bestowed upon it, the audience award is surely a given too

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

They did the same thing in the Conversation with much more grace and subtlety. This Must... was certainly a pleasant looking film a lot of the time, but it was just baffling how many swooping shots featured. Shots of that sort lose all their effect when they keep coming. They cut mid swoop a worrying amount too.

The shooting style has been used to great effect in many films but in This Must it was over board. Far too many scenes felt like they were right out of a music video and not a very good one at that. The final

confrontation

should have been a powerful and emotional scene but that was lost due to the editing and shooting style, a simple fixed shot of his face would have been so much more efficitive.

Really liked the way they shot Dublin, nice to see the city on screen and not looking like some grotty run down ghetto. Shame that the entire opening 30 minutes was completely redundant and could easily be cut with no real effect on the film.

As for the spoiler, I thought everyone was aware of how it ended. I hadn't read a review or saw the trailer before watching the film but knew that it ended with

Penn confronting the Nazi.

johnny_ultimate

Just given that it's an unreleased film, better to err on the side of caution with spoilers! I had no idea the film featured that (inane) subplot going in, so we can only assume many others won't either