Month: March 2012

By Joe Bendel. Simon Weiss knows a side of Paris few tourists see. Well, some do. In fact, the clubs the vice captain polices might be the ultimate purpose of many visits. Whether high-end or low-rent, there is definitely something brewing in the city’s nightspots during the fateful night chronicled in Philippe Lefebvre’s wickedly stylish Paris By Night (trailer here), which screens tonight as part of the 2012 Rendezvous with French Cinema in New York.

The ambiguously corrupt Weiss knows someone is trying to jam him up with internal affairs. He intends to find out whom as he makes his nocturnal rounds. As he explains to Officer Laurence Deray, he must engage in a different sort of policing. She will be his driver tonight. It is considered a difficult assignment no cop wants to do twice. She will soon learn why. Indeed, it will be an eye-opening night for them both.

Granted, much of the film consists of Zem’s Weiss strutting through the red light district like a shark, smacking around punks as if they are little girls. Of course, that is also why it so seductively entertaining. Yet Lefebvre steadily raises the stakes, slyly revealing details of the frame-up job Weiss is trying to slip out of.

Frankly, Weiss is the sort of role Roschdy Zem was born to play. Easily the baddest hard-nose making films today, Zem already has mucho street cred for his manly turns in films like Point Blank, 36th Precinct, and Outside the Law, but he kicks it up to a whole new level in PBN. This is not Eastwood coolness, this is McQueen coolness. While he could carry the film on his own, Zem still gets a head-turning assist from Sara Forestier as the somewhat incredulous but impressively poised Deray. Together they are quite a dynamic pair.

True to its title, PBN gives viewers a memorable tour of after-hours Paris, whilst unfolding its surprisingly cerebral crime story. Cinematographer Jérôme Alméras vividly captures the glitz and grime, conveying the late night vibe in spades.

While the French-Moroccan Zem is already a major star in France, he is overdue for widespread acclaim in America. PBN is the sort of vehicle that could get the job done. It is a perfect showcase for his stone cold flintiness. Slick, taut, and brooding, PBN is one of the clear highlights of this year’s French Rendezvous. Highly recommended, it screens again tonight (3/6) at the IFC Center.

Posted on March 6th, 2012 at 4:30pm.

By Joe Bendel. Maybe Edward Bulwer-Lytton and the hollow Earthers were not so wrong after all. There certainly seem to be mystical forces intruding up into the surface world around the Japanese countryside. One shy school girl discovers the fabled subterranean world of Agartha in Makoto Shinkai’s anime epic Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Down Below (trailer here), which screens during the 2012 New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Asuna Watase is a bright student, who works equally hard around the house, as well. After her father’s untimely death, her mother must put in long hours at the hospital to support them. In her mountainside refuge, Watase tunes the crystal radio her father left behind. One day she picks up an otherworldly melody, achingly sad and beautiful in equal measure. Soon thereafter, she is saved from a bizarre Gamera-esque monster by Shun, a mysterious boy roughly her age. He makes quite an impression, but it seems a tragic fate soon lies in store for him.

Though she only briefly knew him, Watase grieves him deeply. As a result, she finds particular resonance in her substitute teacher’s story of Izanago and Izanami, the Japanese variant on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Likewise, Mr. Morisaki is very interested in her when he realizes she has made contact with the world beneath. It turns out he has been working with the Arch Angels, a group of “empty-headed Gnostics” outfitted like S.H.I.E.L.D., who have sought the legendary power of Agartha. Unconcerned with such matters, Morisaki seeks to resurrect his late wife. Stranded on the other side with her fanatical sub, Watase accompanies him on his quest, for reasons that are not yet clear to her.

There is a heck of a lot that transpires in Agartha, involving big time mythological archetypes. Highly literate by anime and wider animation standards, Chase is packed with allusions, including periodic nods to the grand old man himself, Hayao Miyazaki. Of course, the diverse mystical fantasyscapes play to Shinkai’s strength. His breathtaking vistas and richly detailed nature studies arguably surpass the recent Studio Ghibli productions.

NYICFF cautions parents that there are several potentially nightmare-inducing scenes in Chase, which is rather good news for grown-up anime fans. True to their billing, Shinkai has created some pretty creepy wraith-like shadow-dwelling creatures, as well as an ancient entity that looks as if it shambled out of a Salvador Dali painting. He also keeps the tension ratcheted up, preying on viewer emotions rather ruthlessly. Indeed, more than just another plucky kid who saves the world, there is something quite touching about the spiritually resilient Watase.

Chase is definitely high-end animation, in both visual and narrative terms. It largely skews towards older kids and general fantasy audiences, but should pay-off handsomely for both groups. Highly recommended, it screens again Saturday (3/10) and the following Sunday (3/18) at the IFC Center, as well as next Saturday (3/24) at the Asia Society, as this year’s NYCIFF continues at venues around the City.

Posted on March 6th, 2012 at 4:29pm.

By Joe Bendel. Supposedly, 1950’s America was an era of stultifying conformity. Yet it represents a breath of freedom for a group of galactic delinquents “sentenced to Earth.” They can only return when their leader commits a truly selfless act. However, one or two have rather mixed feelings about leaving their new world in Paul Bunnell’s mash-up The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (trailer here), which has its world premiere this Saturday at the 2012 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose (and hey look, free posters for the first 100 audience members).

Johnny Xavier is a bad kid, but when the stern Grand Inquisitor pronounces his banishment, it temporarily breaks his hardened tough guy exterior. He seems to acclimate just fine on Earth, though, leading his gang of Ghastlys as they rumble about dusty southwestern burgs. Gone are the Liberace outfits of their home planet. It is now strictly a Fonzy wardrobe for Xavier, a.k.a. Johnny X, with one exception. He is dead set on reclaiming a powerful telekinesis suit stolen by his ex-girlfriend, Bliss. Things get complicated as their quarrels sweep up a smitten soda-jerk (who will hear the “jerk” part emphasized many times over the course of the film) and an aging (or somewhat dead) rockabilly star.

There are also musical numbers that are necessarily goofy, but considerably better than one might expect from an aesthetic standpoint. Clearly, Bunnell and everyone else he convinced to appear in Ghastly have a real love for the B-movie alien invasion genre. Arguably most significant to fans is the final screen appearance of Kevin McCarthy (fondly remembered as the protagonist of the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Sadly, McCarthy passed away soon after completing his work as the Grand Inquisitor, but his commanding presence is undiminished in Ghastly. Clearly in on the joke, he plays it to the hilt, which is cool.

Frankly, Ghastly has a far more notable cast than viewers might expect. As local late night talk show host Cousin Quilty, Paul Williams is rather funny, while also proving he is indeed still alive. Creed Bratton of the Grass Roots (the band) and The Office (the television show) also gets to ham it up as the late but still rocking Mickey O’Flynn. On the other hand, Ghastly’s proper leads are not especially charismatic, but they can dance and carry a tune well enough.

Ghastly looks great, lovingly shot by cinematography Francisco Bulgarelli on the last surviving stock of Kodak Plus-X black-and-white film. The design team also nicely captures the appropriate ambiance of B-movie cheese for the sci-fi scenes, as well as the right frothy teeny-bopper look for the musical numbers.

Bunnell helms the retro goofiness with brisk clarity, but perhaps he has too much affection for the films he is sending up, treating his characters and their situations rather gently. Still, there is plenty of room for viewers to insert their own jokes, which may be the whole point. A nostalgic valentine to early Roger Corman and his contemporaries rendered with greater style than thematically related films like R.W. Goodwin’s Alien Trespass or Madeleine Olnek’s Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Ghastly should find an appreciative genre audience when it premieres this Saturday (3/3) at the California Theatre. It also subsequently screens at the San Jose Repertory Theatre on Tuesday (3/6) and Saturday (3/10) as part of this year’s Cinequest Film Festival.

Posted on March 1st, 2012 at 3:31pm.

By Joe Bendel. Marked by denial, obstruction, and spin, the Chinese government’s response to the 2008 earthquake that rocked Sichuan Province bordered on the outright surreal. As a result, the experimental approach of Canadian-based native Chinese filmmaker Tao Gu’s On the Way to the Sea conveys the physical and spiritual enormity of the disaster quite aptly. The winner of the Special Jury Prize at last year’s Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, arguably the world’s most prestigious fest for shorts, OTWTTS (trailer here) screens tomorrow night in New York as part of a Clermont-Ferrand Highlights program at the 92Y Tribeca.

Unlike more conventional documentaries, OTWTTS does not rake the mock of the shoddy school construction practices that exacerbated the quake’s death toll or challenge the state’s dubious fatality statistics. Instead, Tao Gu gives a personal-impressionistic sense of the catastrophe and aftermath, through the eyes of his survivor parents. Bearing symptoms of post-traumatic shock, they do not sound merely displaced, but bereft of their sense of belonging in the world.

Through grainy black-and-white images, he captures a devastated Wenchuan that brings to mind London after the Blitz, coastal Japan after the tsunami, or even a post-Atomic Hiroshima. Despite their terrifying memories of the actual quake, it might even be more painful for his parents to watch the authorities raze the not inconsiderable extant remains of their home.

Ironically, Tao Gu’s visuals might arguably be too artistically composed, giving the disaster area a patina of scarred beauty. Clearly a talented eye, his contextual shots of the surrounding countryside could make striking covers for ECM Records.

Deeply felt and arrestingly rendered, OTWTTS is a haunting film. While it certainly eschews the standard techniques of traditional documentaries, viewers should not be scared away by the “experimental” label. Indeed, the nearly twenty minute short stirs audience emotions rather directly. Highly recommended, it is the highlight of the 92Y’s Clermont-Ferrand highlights, screening as part of program 2 tomorrow night (3/2).

Posted on March 1st, 2012 at 3:30pm.