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Venice Festivals by Year: Prizes, Juries, Favorites Other Fests: Cannes / Chicago
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Jurors: Bernardo Bertolucci (president), Andrea Arnold, Renato Berta, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Pablo Larraín, Virginie Ledoyen, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jiang Wen
 Competition Films I Have Seen:Ranked in order of preference My Golden Lion: Under the Skin (UK, dir. Jonathan Glazer) - Themes, visual ideas can get soft or obvious, but execution always a marvel. Stunning sound, score, cinematography. The Wind Rises (Japan, dir. Hayao Miyazaki) - Gorgeous, daring, and imaginative, however sandbagged by its sentimentality. A delicate, subtly haunted swan song. Stray Dogs (Taiwan, dir. Tsai Ming-liang) - I prefer hunting Tsai's ideas; these felt overt. Some too-long takes, but quite a view of poverty and shame. Impressive. Tracks (Australia, dir. John Curran) - Protects privacy of Robyn's sojourn, aided by Wasikowska's lovely reticence. Pretty, if anodyne. Some coddling of audience. Joe (USA, dir. David Gordon Green) - Cage, Sheridan ground it well but film belabors portentous mood. Non-professionals can be a plus but on occasion feel awkward. Tom at the Farm (Canada, dir. Xavier Dolan) - Memorable atmospherics and perversity but story logic too slipshod to sustain suspense. Propelled by anti-rural panic. Philomena (UK, dir. Stephen Frears) - Pro or con to keep mixing tones and to avoid overstating analogies at the cost of vague, fitful storytelling? Your call. Child of God (USA, dir. James Franco) - Early, iffy McCarthy novel gets earnest, proficient go-round from Franco & Co. Visible straining for dubious effects. Night Moves (USA, dir. Kelly Reichardt) - Utterly untrusting of its ideas and its audience. Reichardt makes leap from intriguing-but-frustrating to off-putting.  Sidebar Films I Have Seen:Ranked in order of preference At Berkeley (USA, dir. Frederick Wiseman) - Prodigious in every sense. Typically lucid institutional survey, comprising many views of what politics and ideas mean. Gravity (USA/UK, dir. Alfonso Cuarón) - Sure, the emotional allegory feels kind of shoehoOH MY GOD! THE CAMERA! Maybe a bit maudJESUS! DID YOU SEE AND HEAR THAT?! Eastern Boys (France, dir. Robin Campillo) - Hustler-rescue drama deftly makes a moral impulse appealing, dismaying, and perverse at once. "Party" scene amazes. 'Til Madness Do Us Part (China, dir. Wang Bing) - Harrowing 4-hour stay in Chinese asylum; peeks outside harrow, too. Sensitive but too long. Context thin. Wałęsa: Man of Hope (Poland, dir. Andrzej Wajda) - Refreshingly lusty, boisterous blend of the homefront biopic, the political docudrama, and the revolution film. Locke (UK, dir. Steve Knight) - Confined-camera gambit dulled a bit by antic edits. Flaunts its conceit at some cost to emotional impact. Fine, but limited. The Canyons (USA, dir. Paul Schrader) - Bad eye makeup [yawn] Yuck, what a gross shot [...] Yep, those are big. [...] Yow, that thing's huge. [yawn] I'm tired! Competition Films I'm Curious to See: Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window) Sacro GRA, Italy, dir. Gianfranco Rosi The Police Officer's Wife, Austria, dir. Philip Gröning Miss Violence, Greece, dir. Alexandros Avranas The Rooftops, France/Algeria, dir. Merzak Allouache La Jalousie, France, dir. Philippe Garrel A Street in Palermo, Italy, dir. Emma Dante The Unknown Known, USA, dir. Errol Morris Parkland, USA, dir. Peter Landesman Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See: Listed alphabetically The Armstrong Lie, USA, dir. Alex Gibney Moebius, South Korea, dir. Kim Ki-duk Unforgiven, Japan, dir. Lee Sang-il Wolf Creek 2, Australia, dir. Greg McLean |
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