Archive for August, 2010

The Méliès d’Argent winners of Espoo Ciné International Film Festival announced

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Exceptionally many films have taken part in the Méliès d’Argent competition series for fantasy films at Espoo Ciné this year: nine feature films and ten short films. Pleasingly four Finnish short films were presented in the short film competition series. Also screened at the festival are two Méliès d’Argent winners from earlier this year.

The jury of the competition consisted of film director Zaida Bergroth (head of the jury), screenwriter and film director CHRZU, journalist Anu Silfverberg and production manager Essi Suomela. The jury decided as follows:

Espoo Ciné’s nominee to the Méliès d’Or award for short films:
El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5 (The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5)

In this film fantasy takes on a very literal meaning: flight from reality. The protagonist of the film leads his life alone but the fantasy of an “encounter of the third kind” gives him a sense of meaning. The message he perceives to receive from the creatures of Nebulosa-5 allows him to feel important and noticed. The film’s view of the end of the world is full of hope: afterwards everything will be different. The film looks at its subject with a sensitive gaze: the protagonist is touching and recognizable. The film is visually interesting and descriptive. El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5 is a warmhearted and humoristic, yet a melancholic film.

Espoo Ciné’s winner of Méliès d’Argent award:
Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Amer

Amer is a stylistically flawless, yet a very experimental adaptation of the Italian giallo genre. The film is shamelessly direct in the way it deals with urges, fears and the feeling of shame. The protagonist’s sexual awakening and development is presented through horror imagery. The point of view is interestingly subjective: the age period of the main character determines the visual style of each segment in the film. Giallo films are traditionally murder mysteries, and also in this film tension is built by withholding information from the spectator. In the end, however, the viewer is rewarded. Amer speaks to the viewer more through the senses and individual images than through a narrative. The spectator is left haunted by sounds and images. The film plays with the limits of its viewers’ tolerance.

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Espoo Ciné 2010 Diary # 4: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Today is the last day of the competition and later tonight we will have to decide the winner for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film for Méliès d’Argent. There is still one more feature film and two short films to consider and then we are done. At the moment I still haven’t made my final decisions, so for the time being it’s anyone’s game as far as I’m concerned. Tomorrow the results will be made public around noon.

Yesterday we saw three movies in total and to my surprise I’m almost feeling a bit hangover this morning. I didn’t drink yesterday, so it must be a symptom of a some sort of movie overdose. I didn’t even think that would be possible, but since we have been watching Star Trek the whole year and kept the movies on a down low, I think my brain is just over heating by this sudden change in pace. Well what ever it is, I’m so happy to be a participating the festival and doing what I love most – watching movies.

The last film on the Méliès d’Argent menu is Outcast. It is an intriguing movie to say the least. In the Espoo Ciné booklet it says: “if Mike Leigh would do a werewolf movie, it would be something along the lines of Outcast”. Before the film there are the last two short films Touch of Red and The Sack.

Outcast

Mother and son live hiding in one of the rougher suburbs of Edinburgh. Someone – or something – is after them, and soon the neighbourhood is shocked by a wave of brutal and untimely deaths. Outcast fuses strong social drama with a werewolf horror plot that draws influence from ancient Irish and Scottish mythology (via espoocine.fi).

I’m now faced with the difficult job of choosing the winners. To be honest I’m not going into the judges table with the calmness of knowing what to do yet. Hopefully tonight will make it clear to me.

Since I’m still keeping my opinions to myself about the competing films, you can read Timo’s review of Vampires right here.

Until tomorrow.

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Man Bites Man – A “Vampires” Review

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Considering the heaps of shit that keep on flowing out from the tubes dressed up as vampires these days, I’m not envious of the directors who decide to invest their time and enthusiasm on just another vampire story set in the modern world. Vampires (2009) does that. But in order to deliver something new, one needs to face the Big Three of the modern Vampires – True Blood, Let The Right One In and Twilight, each in their own fields of expertise.

Belgian director Vincent Lannoo has been able to find an approach vector that hasn’t been explored thoroughly yet – a mocumentary with a black comedy twist (well, they all have that, don’t they). He leads the viewers with the camera crew into the world of a perfectly normal Belgian middle-class family: a man, a wife and two teenage kids – but all vampires.

As any mocumentary, the film consists of interviews with the family members and important people around them, mixed with being in the middle of the action with the cameras, stitched together to form a story. Vampires basically a reprise of Man Bites Dog (1992), the famous belgian black comedy mocu which follows the life of a serial killer – only much less shocking. Where Man Bites Dog goes deep into the psyche of a contract killer, Vampires stays on top of the mythos, never actually digging its teeth deep enough to make us believe that there really is tens of thousands of years of vampire culture behind this modern vampire family.

Vampires feels thin… Sort of stretched, like… butter scraped over too much bread. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the story, the fresh take on a worn-out mythos, and the work the actors did. But in the end, Vampires is a joke – quite a good one, I must admit – that’s been told for a bit too long by a guy who loves his voice a bit too much. It’s bound to make you laugh, but it’s 20 minutes too long, and a bit too obvious.

Had this film been done in the 90s, it would’ve become a legend. But today, the viewers expect more. See, in modern vampire film, if you even so much as mention “count Dracula”, you’re out of the game.

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Espoo Ciné 2010 Diary # 3: Hitting Hard to the Core of Genre Films

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Today is the day I have been waiting for the most. Not only are there three awesome films to see, but they are really hitting to the core of genre film for me. I mean there are vampires, monsters and even bloodthirsty mutants all in one day. It just doesn’t get any better than that! First up is Vampires that takes a look into the “real” life of vampires. This documentary-like film, or even a mocumentary, promises to show us what vampires are really like. Great concept indeed, but let’s see how they execute it. Before Vampires there is David Jackson’s short film The Last Breath.

Vampires

Belgium is the home to an extensive vampire community, whose secret life is revealed in Vincent Lannoo’s inventive, fictional documentary. What is the weekly amount of blood required by the children of the night, and how is their waste management arranged? Vampires does the same to our blood-sucking friends that The Last Horror Movie did to serial killers: strips off their masks and brings them next door to us (via espoocine.fi).

Monsters is a film I’m extremely exited about. First off the film’s budget was only 15 000 dollars, which is absolutely nothing for a film of this magnitude. Secondly the film crew consisted only from the director and a sound guy, and all the special effects were made in the directors bedroom. Of course this is not unheard of, but it’s always interesting to see a movie that has been made with that amount love and devotion. I can’t wait to see it. The film begins with Chema García Ibarra’s short film El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5.

Monsters

Monsters starts where monster movies usually end. Six years ago a space shuttle that carried samples of extraterrestrial life forms crashed in Mexico. Soon the cargo had taken over half of the country, which was quickly quarantined. Monsters was produced on a shoestring budget and has already been named the most realistic monster film of all time.

La Meute or The pack is French horror film that was in the official selection in Cannes this year. That alone is a good enough reason to want to see the film, but there is also something else. La Meute rides on the new wave of French horror and if you have seen films like Martyrs (one of the best horror films of the decade), you certainly don’t want to miss this. The screening of the film begins with Mikael Palsio’s short film Child of Frankenstein.

La Meute (The Pack)

High Tension, Inside, Frontier(s), Martyrs and now… The Pack! The new wave of French horror films continues with an atmospheric but very bloody film where Georges Franju meets John Carpenter. In The Pack, a young woman driving through a remote mining region encounters a pack of bloodthirsty mutants and their matriarch (via espoo cine).

So as you can imagine I’m really exited about today and hope to see some pretty awesome genre films tonight. That’s it for today, I’m soon off to Espoo, but don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the introduction of the last film in the Méliès d’Argent competition.

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Espoo Ciné 2010 Diary # 2: Jury for Lunch, Warriors for dinner and Zombies for Dessert

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Yesterday was a surprisingly hectic day for me. I had to work all sunday and then went to see two films in the evening. So unfortunately I didn’t have time to write. But here’s a recap of what’s happened so far in the wonderful land of Espoo Ciné.

Saturday was the first official day of my so called jury duty in Espoo. I first met with the other members of the jury over lunch where we discussed our tactic how to approach the competition and got to know a little about each other. I’m sharing my place in the jury with Zaida Bergroth, CHRZU and Anu Silfverberg. Clearly we all represent a wide range of different opinions and insight to film, so this should be very interesting. After lunch we went to see the first film on the Méliès d’Argent-menu, which was Luc Besson’s Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec. in front of the film was also our first competition short film, Meruan Salim’s animated short film What’s Up.

After the film there was a two hour break, which I used up by going to see Centurion. It’s a movie festival after all and I’m there to see as many films as I possibly can. Here’s the synopsis and trailer of Neil Marshall’s Centurion.

Centurion

The 9th Legion of the Roman Army has invaded Scotland, but is soon ambushed by a northern tribe of warriors, the Picts. Only a handful of men survive, and are forced to make their escape through the barren highlands. Neil Marshall’s Centurion, a combination of a fascinating revenge story and an excruciating escape plot, is historical action at its very best (via espoocine.fi).

After Centurion, it was time for the second Méliès film Amer. In front of it was a short film Les Bessones del Carrer de Ponent. I’m not gonna get too much into these competing films before we announce the winners, but let’s just say that I might never completely recover from the combination of these two movies. I’ll explain later…

Then became sunday and I had to work all day, so no time to write. In any case we saw two films in competition, Solomon Kane and [Rec] 2. The two competing short films in front were Iron Heart and Pokayoke. As you might imagine I’ve been eagerly anticipating the sequel for Rec, after all I really enjoyed the first one and all zombie films just have a special place in my heart. Unfortunately I can’t go into details yet, but I’ll be getting back to this issue later this week for sure.

Solomon Kane

James Purefoy (of TV series Rome) plays an early 17th century mercenary who has left ways of evil behind him. Soon, however, Satan himself and a black magician working for him entice Solomon Kane to take up his sword once more. The majestic and dark fantasy vision directed by Méliès winner Michael J. Basset finally brings the cult character created by Robert E. Howard to the big screen (via espoocine.fi).

REC 2

In 2007, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza startled audiences with their explosive cocktail of documentary style and zombie horror. Now they push the ultimate limits of the genre with a sequel that continues where the previous film ended. The film follows a scientist and special police task force who capture a house plagued by a serious outbreak of aggressive rabies (via espoocine.fi).

Today I only have one film in the competition to see called L’ Autre monde (Black Heaven) of which I’m really exited about. Check out the trailer below, it looks pretty cool.

L’ Autre monde / Black Heaven

A group of teenagers finds a mobile phone, which takes them on a journey into a twisted world of sex, death and virtual reality. A gothic bride (Louise Bourgoin) takes a sexually inexperienced young man deep into the passionate and dark depths of an online game called Black Hole. Reality, however, proves even more unimaginable than the virtual in this top-grade thriller (via espoocine.fi).

Ok, well that’s it for now. Check back tomorrow.

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Espoo Ciné 2010 Diary # 1: Jury duty

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

Yesterday was the first official kick-off day of this year’s Espoo Ciné extravaganza, although the party started already 2 days ago with a special screening of Fatih Akin’s heartwarming Soul Kitchen in the brand new Kino Tapiola. The festival goes on during 10 days 20.-29.8.2010.

This year is extra special for me personally since I’m not only attending this fine festival as a guest, but I’m also a part of the prestige Méliès d’Argent jury. I take part in the first stage of the competition where each participating festival organises a Competition during its event, at the end of which a European film is awarded with a Méliès d’Argent, also known as the silver Méliès. This film is then automatically nominated to take part in the Méliès d’Or Competition, the Golden Méliès, which is awarded for the Best European Fantastic Feature Film & the Best European Fantastic Short Film. The Méliès d’Or Award is the the only competition organised between collaborating festivals in Europe. Once all the affiliated members have awarded their own Méliès d’Argent, the next festival on the calendar organises the Méliès d’Or Competition and Ceremony. For that competition, an international jury (with five members from five of the affiliated festivals) is gathered, their task is to decide which of the 10 Méliès d’Argent will be awarded with the Méliès d’Or. If I remember correctly the next Méliès d’Or Ceremony will take place at Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya in October 2010.

Last year’s feature film winner in Espoo Cinè was Duncan Jones’s captivating sci-fi flick Moon. This year we have 9 feature and short films from which we need to decide the best of the best. The films selected to Espoo need to be seen between today and next wednesday and after that we need to decide the winners. The winners will be announced next thursday, so stay tuned!

Here are the two films I’ll be seeing today.

Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec)

The latest film by Luc Besson, who has returned to live action film from animation, is an intense adaptation of Jacques Tardi’s graphic novel that enjoys cult fame. The divinely beautiful Louise Bourgoin is Adèle Blanc-Sec, a cross between Amélie and Indiana Jones, whose incredible adventures take us to the outer limits of fantasy (via espoocine.fi).


Amer

Amer is giallo at a very high voltage. Cattet and Forzani have created a perfect genre pastiche and a film so beautiful that its every image could be framed and made into a poster. The film’s soundtrack, packed with songs by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai as well as other classic compositions of the genre, would make even Quentin Tarantino envious. (via espoocine.fi).

Ok, that’s it for today. I’m off to start my jury duty.

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The Expendables are coming. You ready, mofos?

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

After so many disappointments lately, it’s a wonder there still are films left that give you a boner. The Expendables is definitely one of them – a brutal, straight-forward action flick, like they made them back in the 80’s.

Well, that’s what I hope, at least.

Zombie Room takes a look at The Expendables, possibly the manliest movie ever made.

Story is supposedly the core of any film, isn’t it? Well, that’s what I thought, and then I saw Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. But tugging that pile of boiling dung aside, let’s see what The Expendables claims to be about:

This gives me a boner because: Well, the plot has everything. South America, corrupted dictators, mercenaries and a clear mission – with a twist! Love it – nowadays plots tend to go too far beyond what we want to see.

How can they botch it? It’s easy. If the twist sucks ass, or if they write too much story there. We don’t want the twist to be too fucking brilliant – one that overshadows what the reason why we are in the theater, which is bad-ass action. Also, the story shouldn’t be too fat – really, in case of The Expendables, we don’t’ give a shit about hardcore environment and/or political issues, deep story arches for the characters or any of that nonsense people usually like to see in the films. This is not that kind of a film.

The film is written by David Callaham and Sylvester Stallone, and directed by Sly himself. Looking at Callaham’s previous films, I’ve only seen Doom (2005), and Sly’s films we know already – Rocky (1976), Cobra (1986), Cliffhanger (1993) and Rambo (2008).

This gives me a boner because: Doom was stupid. It was ridiculous, idiotic, tasteless low-brow action comedy based on one of the best first-person shooters of all times. The film was shit, but fun to watch. Now Sly himself has always known how to take a very simple concept and make a flawless story around it. And as a director – well, this is right down his alley: masculine, bad-ass kick-you-in-the-fucking-face action with men, muscles and machine guns.

How can they botch it? As said, Doom was stupid, ridiculous, idiotic, tasteless, low-brow action comedy, and Sly is known to be best with films where he’s the main guy. Alone.

Of course, the biggest selling point from the very beginning is the cast. Stallone. Statham. Li. Lundgren. Rourke. Willis. This is how you sell a film.

And then, there’s a bunch of creeps I’ve never heard of before, like Eric Roberts (a hyperactive actor known lately from an extensive list of TV-roles), Randy Couture (Wrestler, known previously from shitty action films and games), Steve Austin (another Wrestler), David Zayas (that scary head honcho Latino from Oz), Giselle Itié (a Mexican-Brazilian super-hottie) and Terry Crews (the freaky president from Idiocracy).

And then, god among men, the giant of Graz, the Tyrannosaurus of Thal… Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This gives me a boner because: Stallone. Statham. Li. Lundgren. Rourke. Willis. Itié. Schwarzenegger.

How can they botch it? Really… they can’t. The cast is perfect.

And this is how the film looks like.

Jet Li complains his size:

Jason Statham plays basketball:

Rourke doing tattoo:

Statham blows some shit up.


The Expendables Exclusive Clip in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

TV-Clip

Trailer #1:

Trailer #2:

In conclusion, if The Expendables doesn’t give you a boner, go see a doctor. It’s coming out in about a week, and I’m eagerly waiting for the first reviews to confirm that this is what I hope it to be.

The Zombies are watching.

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