The single most striking feature of this year's World Film Festival is the
veritable flood of movies by first-time directors. This makes a critic's
job hard, since it's tricky to put together a schedule when so many options
are unknown quantities. But it's good to see so many new talents rushing
into the market--odds are that at least a few will turn out to be at least
moderately gifted, and the Mighty Quentin deserves to have a pack of wannabes
yapping at his heels--and the international movie scene, which hasn't been
all that exhilarating lately, can only benefit from an infusion of young
blood.
That said, however, not every first-timer is young. Jeff Lipsky is a grand
old man of 41, and he made his name as an adventurous movie distributor
before leaving October Films and directing "Childhood's End" from
his own screenplay. The picture had acquired a fair number of detractors
even before its official world premiere in Montreal, and when Jeff introduced
it with a nod to John Cassavetes my own skepticism kicked in a little, since
the sublimely creative Cassavetes has been invoked by more than one filmmaker
trying to make a virtue of rough production values and narrative loose ends
that have nothing to do with his profoundly human and richly intuitive brand
of cinema. "Childhood's End" turns out to be less inspired than
the pedigree Jeff claims for it, but I like the picture's sincere affection
for decidedly modest characters, and the performers (especially the women)
are fun to watch even when the story (about Minnesota teenagers coming of
age) sags. It's a promising debut, and I'll be curious to see the follow-up
that filmmaker Lipsky is already working on.
"La Promesse," by the Belgian duo of Luc and Jean-Pierre Darden,
is hopping around the festival circuit with great energy, and rightly so.
The hero is a 15-year-old boy whose slimy father makes a living by smuggling
Turkish and Ghanian workers into the country, charging them exorbitant rents
for substandard housing, and pressuring them into working on his penny-ante
construction projects. When an African worker is fatally wounded in a fall
from a construction scaffold, the boy promises to help his wife and baby
son--setting up a confrontation with his father, who'll use any deception
to get the woman and infant out of his life. The story calls poignant attention
to the desperate plight of illegal immigrants in many countries, but what
makes "La Promesse" so impressively pungent is the Darden filmmaking
style--anchored by a restless, roving camera--and astoundingly good acting
by everyone in sight. (I got a special kick out of the sleazy father, played
by an actor who reminded me irresistibly of Al Goldstein.)
I also like "Palookaville," a small but engaging comedy that recalls
both the classic "Big Deal on Madonna Street" and the recent and
underrated "Bottle Rocket" with its story of small-time hoods
trying to pull off a job that's way beyond their meager capabilities. "Small
Wonders," formerly known as "Fiddlefest," is a pleasant documentary
about a real-life "Mr. Holland" who gives drifting kids a sense
of purpose through music lessons; it's surprisingly similar to "Kids
of Survival: The Art and Life of Tim Rollins and K.O.S.," another current
doc, but it's unclear why either of these pictures is going into commercial
release, since they're hardly head-and-shoulders above many other worthy
nonfiction films that never see the light of day.
Some genuine auteurs sent new movies here, too. "A Tale of Summer"
is milder and less compelling than Eric Rohmer's best work--including the
earlier "A Tale of Winter" and the recent "Rendezvous in
Paris," now in release--but he gets a lot of mileage out of attractive
young folks making and breaking dates in a gorgeous seaside town. "The
Phantom Heart" is Philippe Garrel's poignant, imaginatively structured
drama about a love lorn artist who spends as much time worrying about his
kids as pursuing his new affair and trying to get his painting back on track.
I don't think "A Self-Made Hero" is as engrossing as many of my
colleagues find it, but it certainly strikes unusual French chords with
its story of a man who becomes a bogus Resistance hero after the Nazi Occupation
is safely over. Raoul Ruiz comes up with his usual cascade of cinematic
ideas in "Three Lives and Only One Death," not his greatest work
but handsomely produced and acted with great assurance by Marcello Mastroianni
and others.
In all, plenty to see from oldsters and newcomers alike, keeping Montreal
alive and well despite the stiff competition it gets from its highly regarded
Toronto counterpart. Vive le cinema.
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