The name “Lars von Trier” evokes as much dread in me as the words “H1N1″, “chicken feet”, and “I’m staying over tonight.” After suffering through The Idiots, Dancer In the Dark (and who, other than this oft-accused misogynistic director would make ethereal, eternal cinematic icon Catherine Deneuve carry a plate of spaghetti while singing “My Favorite Things”? Please, some things are sacred cows!) and parts of The Kingdom, I said I’d rather have my eyes poked out than sit through another one of his films. So no Breaking the Waves, Dogville, or Manderlay for me. However, after hearing and reading all the buzz, both heated denouncement and rapturous praise, I wouldn’t be true to my self-proclaimed cineaste status if I didn’t go to see his latest opus, Antichrist, the notorious sensation of the global film festival circuit this year (actually I was just more curious than anything else). Now on a commercial run after its sold-out screening at the recently concluded Chicago International Film Festival, I must say the film is ridiculous, overblown, and a whole lot of sheep dung for significant parts of it, but it is also undeniably hypnotic, impressively infuriating, and ultimately, for better or for worse, memorable. And it’s probably the funniest film I’ve seen all year (yes, it’s funnier than Bruno!), hilarious in its self-absorption and pretension, like an eccentric, middling artist at a pseudo-hipster gallery opening.
Since I started going to the Film Festival in 1999, I always feel a little “festivaled”-out by the second weekend. It is sometimes a struggle to haul my bleary-eyed, stiff-backed, sensation-weary self back for another go-round of films about Kazakh magic healers or Argentine illegal loggers. But my second week schedule for this year contained some of the most surprising, most overwhelming, most provocative films I’ve seen recently. They weren’t all successful, but their daring, original, thoughtful topics made for some interesting, sometimes difficult and emotionally-draining, viewing. Here, then, are my thoughts on the final four films of my viewing schedule for the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival:
Even for a film festival junkie like me, the whole thing could sometimes be a little too much. After the tenth time of lining up for a film, or after suffering through another concentration-requiring scene while the person beside you loudly chows down on his nachos like a Siberian tiger gnoshing on a piece of deer leg (thank goodness for subtitles!), or after the fifth Q and A session with a film’s director full of inane questions (such as “what’s your advice for an aspiring filmmaker?” to which my response would have been “It’s to get the hell out of a film festival Q and A session and make a film! Geez!”), I sometimes wonder why my DNA wasn’t rigged to be a Cubs fan instead. Drunk on their ass wearing sweat-stained shirts in a Wrigleyville bar, they look like they live much simpler lives. Then the lights go down on a film which turns out to be exhilaratingly stimulating and transcendent, and I wouldn’t want to trade my film festival life for a Cubbie fan’s life- ever (plus, where would I get such heinous outfits?). Several years ago, that film was Michael Haneke’s Cache, which was followed the next year by Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, both of which went on to much deserved universal acclaim. This year, that wonderful film that defines my film festival experience for the year is another one from Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective, a prime example of envelope-pushing filmmaking, which had already won this year’s Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. My comments on Police, Adjective and two other films I saw in the past couple of days are below:
So this year’s Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) is in full swing – well, as full a swing as a lesser number of films and smaller theaters will allow. I think it’s somewhat misleading to see all those “Sold Out” signs on the Festival’s big schedule board by the ticket tables at AMC River East, because I think most of those films were being shown in the smaller theaters in this cineplex (three of the first four films I saw were in these theaters). In previous years, when the venues were the much larger Music Box Theater (where I had various body parts shoved in my face during the scramble for seats for Patrice Chereau’s Intimacy, for example) or the Landmark Century, “sold out” signs meant there were herds of film aficionados in the house. I’m not sure that’s the case this year. I’ll be eagerly anticipating the Festival’s attendance figures, but I hope there aren’t less people attending – that’s going to be a shame, because the Film Festival is a pretty critical element of this city’s cultural fabric. In the meantime, here are my reactions to the first set of films I saw since last week’s opening:
A reduced, streamlined Chicago International Film Festival opened it’s 45th year last night with the premiere of Uma Thurman’s latest flick, Motherhood, and will run for the next 14 days until October 22. For many Chicagoans, the fall season marker is the Chicago Marathon (happening this weekend), for me, self-styled, hot-blooded film aficionado, it’s the Festival. I was a little surprised, though, at the lack of big, event-type movies in this year’s schedule, since last year saw the likes of eventual Oscar Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire, Mickey Rourke’s return to civilization, The Wrestler, Arnaud Desplechin’s festival circuit favorite A Christmas Tale, and Charlie Kauffman’s headscratching debut, Synecdoche, New York, among others. This year, only two much-buzzed-about films are included in the Festival slate, the latest Lars Von Trier sex-gore-talking fox grostesquerie, AntiChrist, which provoked massive walkouts at Cannes but won the Best Actress Award for star Charlotte Gainsbourg for cutting her delicate parts in extreme, jawdropping close-up; and Lee Daniel’s Precious, based on the book “Push” by Sapphire, which has been acclaimed everywhere from Sundance and Toronto, with alleged Oscar frontrunner performances from Mo’Nique and Mariah Carey (Academy Award-nominated Mariah Carey???? This trumps Lars von Trier talking-fox-genital-cutting insanity! You go, girl!). This lack of showcase films, many of which we’ll get to see anyway in their regular runs after the festival, may bode well for the celluloid-mad Chicago audience to discover obscure gems that may never see the light of commercial release in the United States. My own festival viewing slate (I buy a pass every year) is a combination of festival circuit favorites and little-known films that could potentially be transcendent…or a train wreck.
The Film Festival closes this Wednesday, October 29, with the Viggo Mortensen-starrer Good. The divine Viggo is gracing the closing night festivities at the Harris Theater, but despite the temptation of seeing out-of-this-world yumminess in the flesh, I think I’ll be back at the River East or 600 N. Michigan for the Best of the Fest screenings. Hunger (which won the Festival top prize, the Golden Hugo) and Terribly Happy, two of my top viewing experiences during this year’s Festival will be given return screenings, but so will that piece of sheep turd, Dead Girl’s Feast (roll eyes). Check out all the Best of the Fest selections on the website. To close this year’s coverage of the Chicago Film Festival, here are my impressions on the last three films of my viewing schedule:
Recently Attended Events
- 8/31/2010: The Scottsboro Boys (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis)
- 8/22/2010: Carousel (Light Opera Works)
- 8/18/2010: Frost/Nixon (Timeline Theatre Company)
- 8/11/2010: A Little Night Music (Walter Kerr Theatre, New York City)
- 8/07/2010: Hesperia (The Right Brain Project)
- 8/03/2010: Billy Elliot - The Musical (Broadway In Chicago at the Ford Center for Performing Arts)
- 7/25/2010: Red Noses (Strawdog Theatre Company)
- 7/23/2010: F**king Men (Bailiwick Chicago)
- 7/18/2010: A Guide for the Perplexed (Victory Gardens Theater)
- 7/11/2010: A Parallelogram (Steppenwolf Theatre Company)
- 7/10/2010: Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (Bailiwick Chicago)
- 7/09/2010: La Visita de la Vieja Dama (Teatro Buendia at the Goodman Theatre)
- 7/08/2010: Eros (National Pastime Theater)
- 7/04/2010: The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles)
- 6/27/2010: Equus (Redtwist Theatre)
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