MACARONI # 62     Spring 2004

international film festival

Year after year, I enjoy thumbing through the ninety-six page booklet that describes the films being shown at the Mpls/St Paul International Film Festival. It's rare, however, that I actually see more than one or two. We're often camping in the Southwest at that time of year. And besides, so many of the films sound good that it becomes very easy to talk yourself out of making the effort to see any one in particular.

I outdid myself this spring—fourteen films from fourteen countries. I realize this is not an extraordinary number. We were sitting in a coffee-shop across the street from the Riverview Theater early on in the festival, waiting to see what would be our fourth film, and we struck up a conversation with a gray-haired woman who had already seen sixteen! Festival-goers become a sort of floating community, it seems to me, and frequently strike up conversations with one another in order to share opinions, compare notes, and get tips for the upcoming shows.

If none of the films I saw were of the riveting, must-see variety, this may be because I avoided those star-studded attractions that will be returning to town for commercial runs somewhere down the line.In any case, the over-riding appeal of the fistival lies in the fact that so many films are refreshingly different, so why waste time on the latest Pierce Brosnan vehicle? It became a kind of spring evening entertainment, the drive down University Avenue to the Oak Street or the Bell Theater, the gathering crowd of devotees and eccentrics, the same dedicated ticket-takers night after night... and then the lights go out.

No real purpose would be served in describing any of the films in detail—they won't be showing up in your neighborhood any time soon—but a few brief remarks might give you an idea of the variety of films that were being shown.

Distant (Turkey) The most beautifully shot and professionally produced film I saw, this work recounts a few weeks in the life of a country bumpkin who, having lost his job, travels to Istandbul to stay with a distant cousin while looking for work. His host, a successful commercial photographer, is divorced, taciturn, withdrawn, and humorless. Both individuals are cut off from life by either circumstances or personal history, and it's a rather tense and grueling ninety minutes.	Destiny Has No Favorites (Peru) In this agreeable farce a wealthy woman is drawn into the world of a soap opera that's being filmed around the swimming pool in her back yard. Her husband is away, and before long she's not only been cast in a role herself, she's writing the scripts! Writer / Director Alvero Velarde (Peru's Almadovar) has filled this extended skit with plenty of crude pratfalls and semi-clever plots twists to keep it interesting. Nothing is for real, but almost everything is fairly amusing.
Dutch Light (Netherlands) The question addressed in this documentary--has the Netherlands lost the "light" for which its was once famous?--is merely a pretext for a celebration of the wonderful light we actually see throughout the film, while famous painters and eminent art historians prove once again that they know little about art.	Elina: as If I Wasn't There (Sweden) You've got to love the birches, the bogs, the farm buildings, and the hearty, good-natured folk in this simple story, set in a northern Swedish village, of a young girl and the difficulties she encounters with her domineering teacher (Bibi Anderson). An audience favorite, this film gives a new dimension to the expression "tow-headed."
Eyengui (Camaroon) Once you adjust yourself to the deep British voice narrating the adventures of this tribe of bushmen, there can be no better way to get the feel of animistic thinking in the jungles of sub-Saharan Africa.	Asshak: Tales from the Sahara (Switzerland / Niger) If it's the desert you're looking for, look no further. Here we see what life is like among the Tuaregs, who cook their bread in the sand and travel by camel.
Zatoichi (Japan) Director Takeshi Kitano (Violent Cop, Boiling Point) plays a blind intinerant masseuse who happens to be an expert swordsman. He arrives in a village torn by rival clans of thugs, and ends up coming to the aid of two geishas intent on avenging the slaugher of their clan many years earlier. Unlike such elaborately choreographed films as Crouching Tiger, Takesi's duels are brief and bloody, to the point of being comical.	The Agronomist (Haiti) Jonathan Demme tells the story of Jean Dominque, who began his career as an agronomist but spent decades as a radio personality promoting the causes of justice in corrupt, oppressive Haiti. Documentary footage of public events is interlaced with extended interviews with Dominque, whose bright eyes, crisp speech and enormous smile bring light to even the most depressing aspects of the beautiful little island's troubled history.
The Mystery of Trinidad (Mexico) An old man bequeathes his ocean-going ship to a bastard son, a surgeon who's just been strapped with an eight-year-old daughter for the summer, and sets in motion several interesting developments amid the extended family.	Master and his Pupil (Netherlands) A video documentary which explores the line between charisma and pedagogy, as lion-conductor Valeryi Gergiev works with three aspiring symphony conductors on a movement from Scriabin's Poem of Ecstacy.
Danube (Austria) This trip down the Danube from Vienna to the Black Sea stays mostly in the middle of the river, wrangling with a sketchy plot rather than exploring the fascinating country passing by in the distance.	Minnesota Shorts Showcase (USA) Ten short films by local film-makers, several of which, unfortunately, seem to be stuck in parody mode. We have a zombie film (Living Dead Girl), a 50s paranoia knock-off short (Menace); a Twilight Zone "Who am I really?" story (Kerst); and a well-told Hallmark Hall of Fame episode (My New Life). Solder Man has subtle humor and great animation, and I actually enjoyed the bizarre graphics and electronic-noise soundtrack of terrorist/chic Digits although the subject-matter might be considered offensive to some. But the only short that really opened up to film possibilities yet unexplored was Wyatt McDill's Garbage Man. A hapless garbage-man's life begins to change when he starts wearing the blazer he picked up off a pile a debris removed from a dead man's house. I couldn't tell you what the stain on his neck means, or what the recorded messages mean that he later listens to on the dead man's answering machine (Yes, he's got the key), but in keeping to its own mysterious logic, the film reminds us that the medium's great potential for expression often has less to do with film "technique" than with imaginative thought.
Sibelius ( Finland) Music biographies are usually aided by strong soundtracks, and this one is no different. Otherwise, it's an extremely conventional, if not actually wooden, retelling of the life of Finland's most famous composer, who wrote some very lush and beautiful music, while spending most of his free time drinking with his buddies.
Destination Moscow (Norway) In this film The French Connection meets A Hard Day's Night, as a troupe of actors wander through Russia on a bus selling drugs, with the ultimate goal in mind of putting on a play in Moscow at the Puskin Theatre, which has long since burned down. The characters are zany to a fault, the story-line is fragmented, and the best bits come in the musical-comedy interludes, but the film has a cheery buzz that keeps us interested throughout the mayhem.