2022: MIFF @ 70

MIFF: BACK AND READY TO ROLL!

The big news was that we were back in cinemas for the 70th MIFF and that it was likely to go ahead this time. The bonus was that the Play section of streamed material would continue: more movies, cheaper and without the threat of the plague.

The screenings were good. The only time I lined up was when I got to ACMI too early and got sick of looping around Fed Square in the light but annoying rain. There was a definite buzz in the crowds to be back in the old venues as though it had been much longer than two years. Getting to my front row spot in the beautifully otherworldly auditorium of The Forum for my first session felt warm.

I missed two screenings, one through a weird snag with my front door lock (one side of dead lock upside down which I somehow fixed too late to get to the film) and the other from illness. Both of these were unavoidable but really stuck in me when I had to make the decision to exchange tickets or just go to them. I didn't go if I was actually sick but, later, when the cough was not hazardous to anything but the peace I wrestled with my capacity to hold the cough. I did a lot of exchanging and managed to cough as little as possible behind my N95 mask. 

All of that meant that I missed Eami and The Balcony Movie (both at the end of quite long exchange chains).  So, if anyone wants to tell me that they were the greatest works of cinema viewable then they are free to do so.

Selection

If I went through and counted I might find fewer titles and less range than previous years but that has more to do with the times than the organisation. I found I filled my share pass easily with documentaries, titles from favourite directors, enticing-sounding unknowns and anything else that fell into my field of vision. 

I avoided titles with buzz already attached and kept a wary eye on anything that might pick up too much of an audience. The only one I kept after it was marked "selling fast" was Decision to Leave as it was unlikely I'd see it outside of the festival context. All others that filled up as I monitored them started looking too superspready. Then, of course, I walked past the wrong conversation and breathed in and gave myself a week of ghastly non-covid chest cold. So ...

I was very sorry to have to miss Blaze but it turned up at the Kino the week after the festival. I'd already exchanged Crimes of the Future away, knowing it would turn up soon and so it did. 

Process

Ticket exchanges were smoother than before. I wanted to avoid sold out sessions so got out of about four screenings and settled into a schedule that happened to be more of the adventurous lean that I used to take in setting the fest up.

Glitches

The day tickets went on general sale there was a glitch which meant that trying to access your own account resulted in an inadvertent account deletion. The email even told me I'd done it willingly.  I had already created a new account and now I was being told that I already existed on a system that had cruelly cast me out. Luckily a call to the box office got me through within a minute and I found out that the problem was across the board. A few details later and all my bookings were restored to the new account. I don't know if this was the case but the first thing I noted on regaining access was that a new discount status had been added. Not the thing to do on day one of sales, folks. Then again, my experience with righting the problem was so smooth and amiable I let it slide.

Apps

MIFF

An acquaintance of mine had trouble with the app acting erratically on her iPhone but on my Android it was smooth. Because of the number of exchanges I did (overcrowding or illness etc.) I found it very responsive to alteration. There was never an issue with the tickets getting read by the scanners and the information available on the smaller platform was up to date and correct. 

MIFF Play

As with last year the Play app for streamed content worked easily. All purchases and any exchanges or other transactions had to be done at the site, through the box office or with the main app; the Play app was for playback only.  This time I could easily get through the six minutes of ads with the fast forward button on the remote and get straight into the movie. Pausing, leaving etc were the same as using any other streaming service./

The one glitch was watching a film that needed subtitles but for which none appeared. I foraged around the app without success and then tried it on my PC which allowed, though a menu not part of the phone app, these to be turned on or off. Finally, I called the box office and was able to work out how to switch them on with the app which involved a lot of guessing between myself and the staff member I was talking to. For the record, most Play content that needs captions will have htem play automatically, if they need turning on you need to go to the white band on the app screen with the film title and the play pause icon on the right, press and hold any space within the band until the menu appears, choose ON and start it playing again. Very clunky and should have been picked up and made more obvious either in the app itself or on the Play page on the MIFF site. There was nothing that offere

NB This worked (almost) perfectly for me because I have new smart tv with a built in Chromecast, a robust NBN connection and a recent smart phone. Take any one of those out of the list and you might well face a few problems. 

Audiences

Why some people choose to sit in cinema seats as though they're at the dentist still bothers me. It is bad for their backs and, considering how well designed most new cinema seats are for correct sitting, there is no excuse at all beyond whatever behavioural meme struck them that this was the cool way to sit at the movies.

Out of ten cinema screenings I can't remember a single case of disruption or audible talking. I was almost always at the front and so might not have noticed the light pollution problem from oafs who HAVE to have their screens on didn't seem to arise.

All up, I'd have to give a thumbs up for an overall improvement in apparent respect for others at the mass events. It won't last but it was good to see after the confinement. It felt grateful. I'm sure that's projection but that's my story.

MOVIES

High

Enys Men - lo-fi auteur Mark Jenkins creates a '70s looking and feeling folk horror made mostly of  disruptive editing and it works.

The Novelist's Film - Hong Sang-soo. The name should be enough but this prolific director's work needs local release. It's too good to keep to festivals.

Something in the Dirt - current cinema's most followable duo produced a tale with roots in their past but an obvious readiness to work with the present. A cosmic horror from lockdown.

The Lost City of Melbourne - a documentary about architecture that credibly included a full and changing culture as a city moved ahead but not always wisely.

Lola - by which a young film maker proves you can brew period sci-fi and conduct it without camp or self-referential jokes. It works.

Mass - expertly handled quartet discussion about an atrocity, what parenting should be, and how to face the worst. 

Hit the Road - how a family road trip can transcend the genre's boundaries and venture into the cosmos within and without. Impressive.

Middle

Whether the Weather is Fine - tragedy plus time equals comedy, this time with a spoonful of magical realism and satire.

2000 Weeks - "lost" classic turned out to be perfectly functional debut feature by a director who forged a path in the following decade. Glad I finally saw it.

You Won't be Alone - new folk horror with body jumping witches but Terrance Malik pacing can lose its way but brings it home with honour.

Millie Lies Low - fun but sobering fable of the futile flight from oneself kept to its task without issue. 

Sissy - muscular addition to recent genre of social media influence vs real world socialising worked best as satire as its horror/comedy aspects could jar with the overall flow.

Lynch/Oz - six film essays linking the films of David Lynch with The Wizard of Oz is, as expected, uneven but at best intrigues and delights.

The Real Charlie Chaplin - conventional telling of the Chaplin timeline pauses now and then to make points about cinema itself as well as Charlie Chaplin and doesn't shy away from the controversies of his life. Made for tv but worked well in a cinema.

Dual - nice idea given a good treatment still left me wanting.

Domingo and the Mist - a sober portrait of resistance, however futile, for the good of one's own life and the legacy of the departed. Strong use of spare means and a touch of magical realism capped it off.

Low

Decision to Leave -  one of contemporary cinema's masters showed that even he could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by making an intriguing modern noir heavily repetitive when it might have been lean and mean.

The Humans - I find the term pretentious a lazy criticism, often misused, but it fits here.

The Lonely Souls Variety Hour - indigestible whimsy and cute comedy failed to be balanced by graver scenes of the protagonist in a coma. Should have stayed a stage play. As soon as it hit a screen it looked and felt overcooked.

Petrol - beautiful looking piffle about coalescing forces of the cosmos with a black hole at the centre instead of a star.

Vibes and End

I've been holidaying at MIFF for about twenty years. I say about as while 2003 was the first year I bought a mini pass and took time off work to get the extra weekday screenings, there was a ramp from choosing a small number of titles to building up to needing time off work. I'm thinking that 2002 was the first of the committed fests before I formalised it. That means that there are around twenty years of events that vibe up like nostalgia.

I don't mean a mental clipshow of fun times 'n' frolics but rather a general sense of discovery when the holidays start and I have weeks to luxuriate in my favourite art form (as it contains most of the others), wonderstruck through this one, managing micro-naps through that one, and each day bringing more in some venues that are only open as cinemas for the duration. There was a thrill of getting in first with favourite film makers or strands like Asian horror or mumblecore indies. This persisted into the lockdown years where I'd prime my living room for a morning screening and even buy a box of choctops from Coles to go with it. The sense of connection continued. This time I did both, shivery mornings in the Forum foyeur and the heated darkness of my lounge. I miss some venues like The State Film Theatre, The Regent and the downstairs area of the Forum as the festival club but some things just get dropped or swallowed over time and it's probably best to consider their loss inevitable. For all the changes that make me miss features, that spirit of cinema remains, even in the isolated dark of lockdown.

But this year, along with a fresh zero anniversary number, we were offered the best of both worlds with a good range of titles from around the sphere. The warmth of striding across the carpet of the Forum's auditorium on a cold Sunday morning, choctop in hand, felt like at long last spending something I'd saved.