MIFF roundup 2018

MIFF 2018 arrived and found me fully prepared with booked pass and readiness to exchange any session that was getting too full at venues where that's bad (the only one where it's indifferent is Hoyts) and fairly high hopes of seeing some fine flickeroonies. Oh, and hand sanitiser to ward off the lurgies.

But maybe I was too ready. Despite sharing a few screenings with cronies (one of them a date) I feel now I over organised it to avoid the social aspects almost entirely so what was left was some movies in fine places. So, while I got around and caught up with friends on non-screening nights the experience of the festival itself was oddly quite lonesome. I think this is largely due to how much of an intolerant old grump I've become. I've got all frowny at the sight of people taking the best spots in the front row of the Forum (as they are perfectly entitled). I've mentally grumbled at having to stand in a queue because the person who has been nice enough to want to see a movie with me can sit somewhere less geeky than the front three rows. And then I've felt the frozen palm of injustice at how some of the sessions I've chosen go into "selling fast" or "standby" status. I even exchanged a screening of festival favourite Hong Sang Soo as it was getting full at the Kino and that would mean having to queue for half an hour.

The worst was saved to last through, as I timed the four pm session of Asako I & II so I could just stroll in and take my front row vista but still had to wait in a queue. I was near the top of the stairs, true enough so close to realising my dream. But it had gone four and there were still people strolling out of the cinema. None of the staff seemed stressed by this and by ten past I was getting irked. I was about to collar one of the ticket inspectors when a thought occured and I checked the starting time. I'd got here half an hour early, exactly what I used to do and had congratulated myself that I did no more. That's how bad it got.

Apart from that I had no symptoms of a cold ... until today, the Monday after (which means I got it from a Friday screening and probably the non-festival one). Having read about the importance of hand health I packed a sanitiser for generous application after every screening. It probably did nothing (viruses wouldn't even notice it, after all) but it felt thorough.

Finally, this will be the last MIFF helmed by Michelle Carey who has steered the great ship well clear of reefs of mediocrity. Under her reign we have seen a much heightened professionalism in the volunteer staff (who don't need to be professional so it's more impressive when they are). If her successor is half as good future fests will still be joyous. Farewell!

So, lonesome and lately bugged by disease, how was it?

THE MOVIES

HIGH

Our House

As lean as prize sashimi this story of either a haunting, time travel or perhaps collision of dimensions makes everything it tries work






Thoroughbreds

A new member at the cool table at Heathers High this deadpan folie a deux wins its every last scene








Nico 1988

Kept cold and video-ugly, this story of the last ditch of someone famous for a past she'd rather erase embarrasses the likes of The Doors, Stoned, Sid and Nancy etc by leaving the mythology in the bin. Rock icons have kitchens, too.





Tigers Are Not Afraid

Unsettling and heart rending account of displaced kids orphaned by the cartel gangs needs every frame of magical realism it can muster to keep us from screaming at the scenes it dishes up.






Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits

Fat free rockumentary keeps its accounts plain and participants separated for a neat and hard history of a band made icons after their time. Take note all who think they can do Julian Temple's signature cheek, you might just try this approach, it's simpler and more effective.



MIDDLE

Cold War

Love and indecision in a time of hate and scission: this love across borders tale works well for most part but unlike the same team's luminous Ida this one ends up feeling too light







The Eyes of Orson Welles
Mark Cousins makes film personal like no other but this started feeling overlong when it should have been constantly engaging. Next time?






Good Manners
A sagging middle act prevented this from being the Angela Carterian fable it almost was.






Los Silencios

A hair more of the magic and a hair less of the realism might have left a deeper impression





The Insult

The characterisation of the principle combatants was good enough to have more of them and their complicating encounters and less of the swell building around them which grew repetitious and draggy







Happy as Lazzaro
Despite a beautiful realisation of the title character and intriguing treatment of the strange world of the first act this one lagged a little too much in its journey to the finale which felt rushed.





Asako I&II

Common gripe of the slow or saggy middle act also applies here as an otherwise fresh and engaging tale of love and identity beckons us in. Could survive the removal of about twenty minutes. Like The Insult the third act would only to open on a new scene (really? there's more?)





LOW
The Green Fog
Some inspired loony mechanisms were highlights but it grew repetitive and tiring









Wildlife
Good performances all round couldn't lift this above its own softly waving surface






The King

Nice idea to use an enduring public figure to make a moral map of his nation but it ends up too self confused to mean a great deal.






That Summer
An 80 minute admission that the filmmaker was more interesting than interested in a subject that master documentarians would fashion into gold soon after





NAVIGATION
App downloaded stealthily and in good time (I can remember the terrible days of waiting on the post for the credit card passes), ready to rock from the word go. If anything it's a touch more reliable and slicker to use (maybe I'm just better at using it). I wish the login would allow access to tickets on startup rather than having to thumb a few taps to get there. Not a big deal and maybe one only related to persons with passes but still... Otherwise, exchanges and additional tickets were easy to arrange with the app.

Website is much improved with very easy and rapid navigation through the mass of information presented. The Calendar is the best way of shortlisting with a pass and allows immediate information on venue vs time grid for making those difficult session choices.

VENUES

REGENT
A little Regent is better than no Regent at all. My first two sessions were in this splendour and I only wished the use of the venue stretched further than the opening weekend. Still ...

FORUM
The old favourite. I managed to get a good swag o' screenings in there. Other people continue to prefer the front and when your session is annoyingly sold out at 1.30 pm on a weekday that can get annoying.

COMEDY THEATRE
I don't have the same gripe with this venue that others do. Then again, I sit on the front row when I can so I wouldn't be bothered. I love the old style theatre ambience and the wine and choctop kiosk open until curtain up.

ACMI
It's a well appointed modern cinema but I still find it a little too sanitised. That gets forgotten when the movie starts, of course, but I'll still steer away from sessions there if I can. Only saw one at ACMI this time.

KINO
My least favourite MIFF venue as it doesn't cope well with larger crowds. Even the front seats get taken early and if you're too far to either side the image will be warped. Only had one session there and it was fine but I still veer from it when choosing.


HOYTS
The only cinema that even standby sessions can't faze me with. I have never failed to get a good seat in that first three-row block where you are at the front but no one is sitting behind you. Even when seeing a film with a friend who won't sit at the front we got good seats.


STAFF
It's worth repeating year after year that the staff in the past five to ten years have been good to deal with, being both well informed and courteous. I have clear memories of when they were a necessary feature the festival that you just had to put up with.

CROWDS
I hate standby sessions. I know they can convey a sense of really being in the festival vibe but considering how crap the average punter had got with cinema etiquette they can also be a nightmare of mobile light pollution, seat kickers or folk who fail to understand that the seat in front of them is not a good place to jam their shoes. Had someone two seats away who jostled past "sorry, I have to be in the middle" and then had to be told to turn her light polluting phone off as the film was starting.

Latecomers still frustrate me as they disrupt the screenings. It's an event to go to a festival film; you really can't calculate the likelihood of getting to a venue on time, factoring in your trains or parking? Why are you only getting here half an hour into the movie?


MISSED
The new Hong Sang Soo film, Grass, went into standby rapidly. Rather than battle the grots at Kino I exchanged it for another film. This director's films have so long been popular at MIFF that it's crazy that none of the marginal mainstream or arthouse, if you will, cinemas have picked up on it. If he can fill the Forum or the Kino at one in the afternoon he'd good for a release for a month or two in the wild, surely. His fans' reverence approaches that of David Lynch's or Wes Anderson's. Release his movies normally! Kino! Nova! Westgarth! Freezers of choctop sales guaranteed.

Otherwise, the same thing got me out of The Kindergarten Teacher and Behind the Curve (which, unlike Grass, will quite likely turn up at the cinema if not on streaming). Kore-eda's Shoplifters and The Third Murder would be good to see. I wasn't going to bother trying for a session of the new Terry Gilliam film as it's unlikely not to get a general release. See also Mandy and The Cured. Tower: A Bright Day might conceivably turn up on SBS on Demand as might The Night Eats the World or Fugue. Looking forward to local releases of Now Sound and Bad Reputation.

As usual I wanted to see almost everything on the program. I knew I'd be adding sessions to the thirteen I'd already picked. Maybe next year I get membership for the passport and really do it.

FIN
I got up from my seat at Asako I&II with feelings described in my intro, that it had been a quiet and solitary affair, regardless of the company I had kept throughout. While the top titles provided real delight I have felt very little of the experience of seeing Wisconsin Death Trip at eleven in the morning at the Forum all those years ago that sold me on getting a pass and committing to ten or more movies. Wisconsin Death Trip is not a great film but the whole experience got me hooked. I'd been to MIFF before but now I had a way of approaching it that promised riches by avoiding the big tickets and looking in the shadows. I made my way down to the club and had a glass of shiraz, taking a few pictures. It's not the same without either company or the expectation of something really strong on screen coming up or bidding recovery from. So, yeah, I gotta plan it better.

Roll on August 2019.