Last week was the opening of the 35th annual Film Festival in Rotterdam. Now if I am not mistaken I have been coming to it for at least the last 4 years, It is a world class festival with usually a huge variety of films.
To date my record is 16 films in 8 days, I have just beat that record. 13 films in 3.5 days. Sadly that average is also countered by the fact that I have walked out of 4 of those films this year as supposed to 3 years ago when I only walked out of 1 of 16.
My friend Jacco always volunteers his time for this festival and when he is not working we often either plan to see movies together or we end up choosing the same movies for our picks to see.
My first movie was on Friday afternoon called The Fishes fall in Love, a first time feature by Iranian director Ali Raffi. I really liked this film it was sweet, well shot and showed a real insight into the day in the life of Iranian people from a poor coastal town. Of 5 I gave it a 4.
Next was the French Film Alex. A typically French film with long quiet pauses and minimal dialogue. Not my favorite film but worth the time I spent watching it, and the acting was really quite good. also a 3/5
Saturday was a little earlier than I wanted but I made my way into Rotterdam for a movie at 10:15. Ode to Joy a Polish movie made by 3 different directors. In fact it was 3 mini movies in one. It could have been shorter or 3 shorts but I really liked it,the mood and the style and the stories as well as the acting, there are some very talented actors from Poland. 4/5
The second movie was cocaine Angel a American movie that was kind of pointless but I guess interesting, there was no real plot or end to the story other than an excess of drugs are B.A.D. 3/5. Klimt was number 3, with John Malcovich as Klimt. It was shot in such a way that we were supposed to see how he might see the world, but again I just did not get where the story was going, there were lots of people coming and going from the story and much of it in a psychedelic way. I actually left the film before it was over because I was not getting any feeling for it and was annoyed about the inconsistency. 2/5. Then Jacco and I met up for Bubble the new movie from Steven Soderbergh which was a neat premise of going to some nowhere town in America and getting people to act who have no experience. It was not a bad movie, but nothing amazing 3/5.
After a few hours of having a bite and waiting for Jacco to finish with his movie I then met with Jana and Nico who had come down for another movie that in hindsight I maybe should have seen instead of our next film. Living and the Dead. A British movie where the synopsis sounded really interesting and the Director was quite funny, the movie started alright the plot interesting enough but.... then it when all went horribly wrong, seriously wrong and after not much longer we left, it was just stupid 1/5.
Sunday thankfully was a later start. 13;15 I met Jacco for Mutual Appreciation. another American Film which was done in such a way that I was not sure if I liked it or not. the people were annoying 20 something who had nothing better to do with their lives than hang around and talk about things. I guess it was fairly close to reality but strange enough on it's own. 3/5. Opal Dream was next, a sweet Australian Movie that actually made me happy to go and see it because the plot, acting and direction was good enough to make me want to vote higher than 3. It got 4/5 because it was pretty much the nicest film I saw at the festival so far. A good family movie about the importance of having imaginary friend. Writing on the Earth was another Iranian firm, which I really did not get. The director before hand said that it was told in the language of film and not a conventional way.. He was right. I left because it was just to strange for me to get my head around. 1/5. And last for my Sunday night was Mary about the story of Mary Magdalene and an actress who gets obsessed with her. It had a great cast but a shit story, I really did not get it over all. And was sad that I was not ticked up in bed instead of being bored and confused.
I took Monday off from the FF but Jacco found me two tickets for two movies on the Tuesday that I really wanted to see. Look Both Ways, another Australian film which was getting great reviews. I loved the idea, the plot and the actors were all very convincing. I recommend this movie to anyone who would maybe like to think about the bigger picture. The last movie was one I was interested in because it had Donald Sutherland and Ralph Fiennes (Yum) and many other very respected actors; Land of the Blind. I might have liked it more if it moved quicker. It was so convoluted and mixed in it's plot, it was just not a great movie. I left just before it ended because I would rather have caught my train than the last of few min of such a movie it just was not convincing enough for me to stick around to know how it ended which I am fairly sure I know anyway. 1/5.
All in all probably one of the most disappointing lineups for the Film Festival that I have experienced. Perhaps we will have better luck and a better line up next year. In fact the only big name movie that premiered at the Film Festival in Rotterdam was Brokeback Mountain, which as most of you know is not only nominated for Awards but also caused quite a stir with it's homosexual content. I watched it last night (Feb 12) and indeed it was quite interesting and well portrayed by both Jake and Heath. When the movie finished I thought to myself even if that was supposed to span 20 years from the 1960's such bigotry and hatred of the unknown still exists. A very good movie! 5/5.
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