Film
WEDNESDAY
10.06.2010

VIFF Film Guide

by / kihada Share this post /

After much anticipation, the festival’s opening weekend was a treat for cinephiles with many sold out screenings and a host of directors and guests in attendance… and so much more to see this week.

Here are only a few upcoming highlights

Vancouver International Film Festival September 30 – October 15, 2010


THE INFIDEL UK, Director: Josh Appignanesi [INFID] Sat, Oct 9th 4:15pm, GR2 Mon, Oct 11th 6:20pm, GR3 When a middle-aged Muslim named Mahmud discovers that he was in fact adopted and is actually Jewish (his birth name was Solly Shimshillewitz) all holy hell breaks loose. Josh Appignanesi’s film is as funny as it is smart. Comedy can sometimes tackle themes that more serious films would shy away from. This is one.—The Guardian		PROTECTOR (Protektor), Czech Republic, Director: Marek Najbrt [PROTE] View Trailer Wed, Oct 6th 6:45pm, GR2 Tue, Oct 12th 4:00pm, PAR The Czech submission for the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Marek Najbrt’s whip-smart WWII drama about moral compromise benefits from stunning cinematography and incredible production design. A Prague journalist joins a radio station controlled by the Nazis, using his position to protect his Jewish movie-star wife. But for how long? more & buy tickets


THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER (La princesse de Montpensier), France/Germany, Director: Bertrand Tavernier [PRINC] View Trailer Tue, Oct 5th 12:30pm, VSR (GR7) “A young noblewoman is torn between passion, duty, companionship and ambition, each quality personified by a different man, in [Bertrand Tavernier’s] compelling period drama. Like its heroine [newcomer Mélanie Thierry], Tavernier’s visitation to 16th-century France has both beauty and brains…”—Variety more & buy tickets		REVOLUÇION Mexico, Director: Carlos Reygadas, Fernando Eimbcke, Diego Luna, Rodrigo Garcia, Rodrigo Pla, Amat Escalante, Gerardo Naranjo, Patrica Riggen, Gael García Bernal, Mariana Chenillo [REVOL] View Trailer Tue, Oct 5th 9:30pm, VSR (GR7) Made to mark the centenary of the Mexican revolution, [this] surprisingly cohesive omnibus… features shorts by 10 directors [including Carlos Reygadas and Gael García Bernal] that generally augurs well for the future of Mexican filmmaking… A subversive streak throughout obliquely questions what the revolution achieved and what its legacy is today… — Variety more & buy tickets


TAMARA DREWE UK, Director: Stephen Frears [TAMAR] View Trailer Tue, Oct 5th 6:45pm, VSR (GR7) Fri, Oct 8th 1:15pm, VSR (GR7) Mon, Oct 11th 1:15pm, VCT When attractive celebrity journalist Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) returns to her rural English village after the death of her mother, the men fall all over themselves… “A charmingly entertaining film that sees director Stephen Frears in relaxed and funny form and… Arterton delivering a sweet and smart performance. It is a fresh and witty film…” —Screen International more & buy tickets		SLEEPING BEAUTY (La belle endormie), France, Director: Catherine Breillat [SLEEP] Wed, Oct 6th 10:30am, VSR (GR7) Thu, Oct 7th 4:15pm, VSR (GR7) Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, a film auteur named Catherine Breillat turned a classic fairy tale upon its head. Charles Perrault’s famous story of Princess Anastasia, three fairy godmothers, a spinning wheel, and an evil curse is reinvented as a symbol of adolescent sexual awakening. more & buy tickets



*FIVE UNDER THE RADAR*


DANIEL SCHMID (Daniel Schmid – Le chat qui pense), Switzerland, Director: Pascal Hofmann, Benny Jaberg [DANIE] View Trailer Wed, Oct 6th 6:45pm, PCP Thu, Oct 7th 10:45am, PCP Tue, Oct 12th 11:00am, VCT Daniel Schmid made wonderful films like Tosca’s Kiss and The Written Face, directed plays and operas, and was a close early collaborator of Fassbinder’s. This deeply affectionate and quite beautiful tribute captures the ineffable mystery of the creative process through Schmid’s oeuvre. “Brilliant, funny, stirring, self-deprecating, idealistic, diva-ish – a worthy salute to Schmid…” —Strangeflowers more & buy tickets		HOPE BUILDERS (Les porteurs d’espoir), Québec, Director: Fernand Dansereau [HOPEB] View Trailer Mon, Oct 4th 8:45pm, GR5 Tue, Oct 5th Noon, GR5 Fernand Dansereau, the Jutra Tribute award-winning director, returns with a fascinating look into freshly seeded grassroots activism by following a grade 6 class from La Farandole school in McMasterville, Québec, as they participate in a research-action project. more & buy tickets


REJOICE AND SHOUT USA, Director: Don McGlynn [REJOI] Wed, Oct 6th 6:40pm, GR4 Mon, Oct 11th 12:20pm, GR1 Don McGlynn uncovers the progression in gospel music over the course of two centuries. This rousing combination of rare vintage clips, probing interviews and fantastic music will, indeed, make you want to rejoice and shout. more & buy tickets		ROBINSON IN RUINS (UK, Director: Patrick Keiller [ROBIN] Wed, Oct 6th 7:00pm, PAR Thu, Oct 7th 4:00pm, PAR A droll historical essay on where we’ve come from and where we may be all-too-unwittingly going, set to Vanessa Redgrave’s narration of director Patrick Keiller’s text, juicy quotations, and much refreshingly un-hackneyed landscape cinematography of England. It is also a survey of “strategic assets,” including the present-tense vibrations of nature. more & buy tickets

		WINTER VACATION (Hanjia), China, Director: Li Hongqi [WINTE] Wed, Oct 6th 1:15pm, GR2 Mon, Oct 11th 10:45am, PCP Poet-novelist-cineaste Li Hongqi spins a comatose comedy of seriously slack kids and their oblivious parents in small town Inner Mongolia with a devilishly sharp wit buried under the saddest, dead-pan humour imaginable. Brilliant, unnerving, hilarious. more & buy tickets