Dublin International Film Festival 2017 (ADIFF17)

JP Liz V1

Ben Wheatley's Free Fire and John Butler's Handsome Devil already announced to screen

I think maybe The Founder, Hacksaw Ridge, Tulip Fever, Loving, Miss Sloane, Trespass Against Us, Moonlight, Hidden Figures and Elle

Any predictions?

Sad Professor

Loving and Moonlight will be out by then.

I’m struggling to think of anything major from last year’s festival circuit that won’t already be out by the time DIFF chugs around. The Love Witch, Always Shines, Personal Shopper, maybe Voyage of Time.

Sad Professor

Programme has been announced.

PDF of schedule here: http://www.diff.ie/content/files/DIFF_Schedule_2017.pdf

Full programme here: http://www.diff.ie/content/files/DIFF_Programme_2017.pdf and on the website.

mystic86

Anyone got any thoughts on the programme? What is worth going to?

johnny_ultimate

Not the most exciting of programmes at all TBH. Sure, ADIFF suffers in particular this year from almost every major film being out by the time mid-February rolls around, but this year and last (perhaps a consequence of the sponsor change?) there simply seems to have been quite a bit of a step down in the depth and variety of the line-up. I am coming from the angle of having seen a couple of the bigger films a few months ago (can vouch for After the Storm, Personal Shopper and Neruda) but yeah really not the most exciting of programmes even with that in mind.

Still a few I'm looking forward to mind you. Have heard nothing but good things about The Love Witch so looking forward to that. The Age of Shadows seems like a great Saturday morning choice, and will be heading along to Aquarius too. The Red Turtle is also a given, albeit outside the actual festival schedule oddly. But have to confess there wasn't a whole lot jumping out on the first few flicks through the schedule, and while I'll still probably end up at a dozen or so screenings, I'll be hoping there's a lot of worthwhile smaller films buried in there because it'll be quite a few random gambles to fill up the hours between other screenings.

Sad Professor

Not much in the way of guests this year. Feels like half them (Reynor, Murphy, Gillen) would have been sitting in the audience anyway. Definitely a sign that they have less money to spend than in previous years.

I think the main line-up is as good as it could be considering nearly everything is out or will be out by the time the festival starts. For someone dipping in there’s a reasonably good choice. For someone planning to spend the week binging on films, it’s a little underwhelming.

Some notable absences: Malick’s Voyage of Time, Herzog’s Salt and Fire, Ozon’s Frantz, and The Levelling.

Decuc500

I think it looks like a pretty good line-up. Some big names of world cinema there. I’m particularly looking forward to Personal Shopper and The Age of Shadows.

I have a season ticket so will see as many as I can. It’s always a bit of a lucky dip with a season ticket. I haven’t heard of a lot of the films I’ll be going to. Hopefully some hidden gems there.

A lot of films I’ll be getting tickets for have guests attending so there should be a few good q&a’s, always the best part of festival screenings for me.

JP Liz V1

Eric Bana will join co-stars Vanessa Redgrave, Jack Reynor and Susan Lynch and director Jim Sheridan at the Gala Irish premiere of The Secret Scripture at the Savoy Cinema on Saturday 18th February

The Irish premiere of Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer, a film with a legendary reputation that has never been screened in Ireland, has also been announced to pay tribute to the late Sir John Hurt on Friday, 24th Feb in the Savoy Cinema

http://www.diff.ie/news

Decuc500

Nice move to show Snowpiercer in the Savoy. I've got tickets for something else that night. Must finally watch the blu ray I have of it this weekend.

safetyboy

Got tickets to Mindhorn, been looking forward to seeing this.

cruhoortwunk

Got a spare ticket for Salesman on tonight, the Iranian film. It's sold out.
Getting very good reviews, up for oscar for best foreign film.
Drop me a PM

Deisler

I won 2 tickets for Mindhorn next Tuesday @8.40pm in Lighthouse but can't make it. PM me if u want them.

Earthhorse

I went to Maudie in the Savoy last night and thought it was really good. Quite funny and moving.

urbangoo

I couldn't make it to the Maudie premiere. Does anyone know when it's on general release in Ireland?

Sad Professor

urbangoo wrote: »

I couldn't make it to the Maudie premiere. Does anyone know when it's on general release in Ireland?

They said it will be a few months.

urbangoo

Thanks. I was hoping it would be released sooner than that.

Decuc500

Four films in and first dud. The Love Witch was way too whimsical for me. I thought it was an annoying and silly film with the type of humour I just don't get.

Deisler

Tickets gone.

Deisler wrote: »

I won 2 tickets for Mindhorn next Tuesday @8.40pm in Lighthouse but can't make it. PM me if u want them.

Decuc500

I don't normally watch animated movies but My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea was great fun. Very impressively drawn and an inspired and witty script.

Decuc500

The Rehearsal, a New Zealand film set in a drama school, could easily been a precious examination of young actors learning their trade through 'arty farty' set piece performances but even though there was that 'Fame' element to it there was also a substantial drama there. It was a very enjoyable and well made film.

Also Kerry Fox gave a good q&a. She's slightly mad and good fun to listen to.

Decuc500

Donald Cried is a low budget American indie gem of a film. The story of a successful man who returns to his small home town and hooks up with his socially awkward childhood friend, Donald. It's equally hilarious and cringy.

Really deserves to find a big audience and success for it's director/star Kris Avedisian.

Outlaw Pete

So far have seen Catfight and Wild.

Catfight was alight I suppose. Watchable... but only just.

Wild was nuts. Not sure if in a good or bad way. Maybe both. Kept thinking the Gardai might raid the cinema at any moment and lock the whole lot of us up.

I was sitting beside a couple in their 70's and you could tell they had no idea what film they had come to see (neither had I tbh). The film is shocking enough for a younger audience, raised on Interweb shenanigans, but I can't imagine what my parents might think if they had seen it, let alone my grandparents. Fair play to them for sitting through it though.

Decuc500

The Transfiguration. I loved this. A very dark and gritty twist on the vampire film set in and around the projects of New York.

johnny_ultimate

Found The Transfiguration pretty weak. I liked some of the ideas in it

(a vampire obsessed by vampire fiction)

but just never really sparked for me. Visually uninteresting and overloaded with familiar, cliched, and awkwardly telegraphed plot details. Eric Ruffin, though, was the real weak point - maybe simply the material he was given, but his performance & character were frustratingly one-note and unconvincing - an obvious problem when the film revolves entirely around him for the most part (supporting cast fares better)

Other Side of Hope was much stronger, thankfully. Aki Kaurismaki's film feels like it needed to arrive right now, thanks to its compassionate and probing examination of the experience of an asylum seeker in Finland. Being Kaufismaki it's also delightfully funny (that sushi sequence!) and full of wry & witty compositions and editing. A film that gracefully waltzes on the line between serious and frivolity.

The Love Witch was beautifully designed, thoroughly enjoyable and superb in its best moments (like the medieval fair). But it also struggles a bit to maintain its bizarro pace and tone throughout, and in the middle particularly felt like there was too much downtime and wheel-spinning. But ultimately it's a pastiche with an identity of its own, with a magnificent 'Suspiria meets Bewitched' aesthetic.

Hema Hema was great, very pleasant surprise as a random pick. I'll give it a pass for its beautiful mask design alone, but beyond that it's also directed with incredible confidence. Patience required, but the rewards are well worth it.

Decuc500

I was looking forward to Personal Shopper and it certainly didn't disappoint. It's an strange film, Kristen Stewart's personal shopper buying clothes for her employer and illicitly trying them on while also trying to contact the spirit of her recently deceased brother.

Things take a sinister turn and the film veers into David Lynch territory at one stage. But watching Kristen Stewart shopping and riding her scooter around Paris is strangely hypnoic. Oliver Assayas brings his free wheeling style of filmmaking to these scenes.

Overall very impressive stuff. Also Kristen Stewart is really good in her role. Nice to see a Hollywood A lister trying something a bit different.

Saruwatari

Anyone going to Free Fire tonight? I got on the waiting list only a handful of days after tickets went on sale, didn't think I'd get any but just got a call from ADIFF an hour ago to say there's a pair with my name on em.

Decuc500

Neruda. Beautiful looking movie, great music, really skilfully made. I wasn't 100% engaged with the actual story though. President Higgins seemed to really like it. He was sitting right behind me!

johnny_ultimate

Free Fire was a darn good time, albeit somewhat restrict by its own self-imposed limits. As far as films about people shooting at each other in a warehouse for 90-odd minutes goes, it delivers with plenty of dark humour and playful cynicism. The gunshots are suitably deafening, the performances suitably agonised. I don't think the cinematography & editing always did the action justice - while it was sometimes pleasantly manic, other times it was so IMO detrimentally. And I still believe Sharlto Copley sticks out like a sore thumb thanks to his characteristically over-egged wacky performances - even in a knowingly absurdist work such as this I just couldn't warm to his silly acting. But it's probably Wheatley's strongest film in a while (also by far his most accessible to date), and does its basic 'one-joke' premise better than Sightseers did. Films about stupid, obnoxious men shooting the **** out of each other for stupid reasons will always be a timely subject matter.

Caught A Quiet Passion last night, which I was back and forth on for the first hour and a bit. The script's wit and Terence Davies typically artful direction kept me going for a while, but then the reality of it being a talky costume drama / artist biopic meant it came across as a bit stuffy and rushed. Still, my inherent dislike for such films was slowly chipped away thanks to an exquisite final 45 minutes or so. As it dives deeper into Emily Dickinson's despair and frustrations, its thematic focus emerges loudly and clearly. It turns into a sad, raw portrait of a woman on constant edge who - as Davies himself put it - just happens to be a genius at the same time.

Sad Professor

Note to self: unless it's Ben Wheatley, don't stay for the Q&A. It's really not worth it.

Outlaw Pete

Liked Personal Shopper but not massivly. If it wasn't for the nudity I'd think even less of it.

Tresspass Against Us was good but felt it lacked something. No, not nudity.. but perhaps if some of the supporting cast's characters were fleshed out a little more than they were I'd have found it more enjoyable, but as it was I felt a little disappointed in it tbh. Fassbender was excellent though. Without him and Harris's performances I'm not sure the film is all that worthy of the good reviews it appears to be receiving so far.

After The Storm was good but tbh I only went by mistake as I had a ticket for Chicken and walked into the wrong screen..

Tomatoe Red wasn't the best for me. Good story but very poorly executed. Almost fell asleep.

Really liked Moka. A better ending would have done the film far more justice. My favourite film at the festival so far for sure.

Any word on what the surprise flick was this year?

johnny_ultimate

Surprise was Get Out, which was as much fun as I'd heard. A witty, scathing horror-comedy about US race relations that delivers plenty of timely commentary while being a really solid genre film to boot (with a suitably full-blooded climax). Some of the humour is overly broad, it takes a while to sink its claws in, and we're not exactly talking Killer of Sheep or Do The Right Thing here. But it's a damn good time with some worthwhile things to say, both oddly rare traits in mainstream cinema these days.

Definite highlight of the festival was Aquarius, which was a lovely freewheeling character study with an absolutely immense performance from Sofia Braga. A lively portrait of growing older confidently and resolutely, with some fetching visual ideas and fantastic use of music.

Age of Shadows was another weekend highlight. It has a tendency to get a bit lost in its convoluted plot intrigue during the first half particularly, but Kim Jee-woon is one of the best action directors out there and therefore when it's good it's really good. Highlights were the opening roof top chase and a wonderfully tense extended set piece in a train. Probably not quite top-tier stuff from a great director, but it's a big, bold and often thrilling historical (Korean) blockbuster.

I liked Tomato Red, but it's also the sort of film I find hard to get particularly excited about one way or the other. It's an assured delivery of familiar ideas - Wilson is no doubt a capable director - and it's elevated somewhat by its willingness to engage more directly with the class inequality often stirring in the background of such films. But overall there's little to get the blood really flowing even allowing for its unashamed slow burn.

Sad Professor

The one year I don't bother with the surprise film...

Decuc500

Highlight from a long weekend of film watching was The Age of Shadows. An engrossing epic. Lots of memorable scenes. The way it built up tension to release it through brilliantly choreographed violence was superb.

Hounds of Love was a very dark Australian abduction drama. Pretty tough to watch at times but worth sticking with.

I was impressed with Tomato Red. It was very true to the writing of Daniel Woodrell. Really nailed the atmosphere and feel of the book. Maybe a bit too low key and a lack of drama held it back slightly.

Headshot was enjoyable but was no The Raid. Couldn't sustain the mayhem for 2 hours.

Surprise film, Get Out, was a very good choice. Clever idea and very funny at times.

Outlaw Pete

Sadly I went to see Handsome Devil over the Surprise Film (as my budget wouldn't stretch to both).

Well, if I've cringed more watching a film in my life then I can't recall it. What an embarrassment of a movie. Predictable cheesy dross with themes exhausted by '94. Tries to be Dead Poet Society meets Catholic Boys, with a smidgen of Philadelphia on the side, but fails spectacularly on all counts.

Major spolier!!!

In the last minutes of the film, the team come back from 21-0 down to win the game!!! Whoop-dee-doo!!! Didn't see that coming.

Every five minutes in the film has a similarly predictable cliched scene. It's one after the other from start to finish. The standing ovation gave me the best laugh of the night though. I really felt like taking the mic at the Q&A and asking them why they would even bother making such absolute horse bollox.

One of the most infuriatingly crap films I have ever had the misfortune of seeing.

gmisk

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Sadly I went to see Handsome Devil over the Surprise Film (as my budget wouldn't stretch to both).

Well, if I've cringed more watching a film in my life then I can't recall it. What an embarrassment of a movie. Predictable cheesy dross with themes exhausted by '94. Tries to be Dead Poet Society meets Catholic Boys, with a smidgen of Philadelphia on the side, but fails spectacularly on all counts.

Major spolier!!!

In the last minutes of the film, the team come back from 21-0 down to win the game!!! Whoop-dee-doo!!! Didn't see that coming.

Every five minutes in the film has a similarly predictable cliched scene. It's one after the other from start to finish. The standing ovation gave me the best laugh of the night though. I really felt like taking the mic at the Q&A and asking them why they would even bother making such absolute horse bollox.

One of the most infuriatingly crap films I have ever had the misfortune of seeing.

I saw a test screening of this a while back.....it was pretty abysmal alright. Andrew Scott was totally wasted in it.

The only film I saw this year was Hounds Of Love. I think tough is an understatement!
To say I enjoyed it maybe isn't the right way to put it but it was terrifically well done and gripping like few other films I have seen recently.