Femina Potens’ ASKEW Film and Performance Festival

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Queen of Versailles

I watched more than my usual share of documentaries in July and August.  I'm not a big fan of documentaries.  I prefer my documentaries to be more of the Victory at Sea variety.  The line between documentary and reality show has become blurred.  I think too many audience members accept the documentarian's work as "fact" when in fact it is frequently "fact filtered through a subjective prism"...as opposed to my blog where I state unassailable facts.  Still, when I view a documentary in the same manner as a narrative, I can be entertained and even enlightened.

The Queen of Versailles played at the 2012 SF International Film Festival and has enjoyed an extended run at the local Landmark Theaters.  I saw it at the Embarcadero Center Cinema.

The Queen of Versailles; directed by Lauren Greenfield; documentary; (2012) - Official Website

The Queen of Versailles was certainly entertaining.  Directed Lauren Greenfield started the project with the goal of following David & Jackie Siegel as they build the largest single family dwelling in the United States.  Outgrowing their 26,000 square foot house near Orlando, the Siegels plan a 90,000 sq. ft. structure to house their belongings, 8 children and household staff.  However, construction is ground to a halt as the Great Recession derails their financing.

Filmed over two years, Queen of Versailles showcases the opulent lifestyle of the Siegels, the stress their marriage faces as their fortunes reverse and unexpectedly draws a parallel to the financial hardships many families find themselves in.  Septuagenarian David Siegel is a time share mogul (Westgate Resorts) who married his trophy wife Jackie, 31 years his junior.  As the film begins, the billionaires are riding high with private jets and Jackie's million dollar shoe & purse collection.  The film implies that Dave is an asshole who hints that he may have committed election improprieties in Florida during the 2000 Presidential race.  Jackie is presented as a vacuous woman who spends her days spending her husband's money.

They start off with grand plans for their new mansion.  The film's title comes from the Palace of Versailles, the design inspiration for the Siegel mansion.  As the economy tanks, the Siegels are forced to halt construction and eventually scale back their lifestyle.  David hunkers down as he seems more interested in making money than spending it.  Jackie however seems to have trouble adjusting to her new circumstances.  We witness the Siegel children as they are forced to fly commercial for the first time in their lives and later go to public school.  We laugh as Jackie asks the rental car agency clerk for the name of her driver thinking it is more akin to a limo service.  Towards the end we see Jackie going downscale as she shops for Xmas gifts at Walmart (she buys multiple shopping carts full of stocking stuffers).  Greenfield skillfully depicts the conspicuous consumption that most of the audience likely expected going into the film.

More interesting for me is the change which occurs in the Siegel's relationship.  Jackie was a Mrs. Florida winner when she met David which gives the impression she lacked intelligence.  Her behavior through most of the flim reinforces that impression.  However, glimpses into her past reveal some surprising history.  Siegel graduated with a computer engineering degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and went on to be hired by IBM.  A few years younger than Jackie and with an engineering degree of my own, I can attest that IBM was a very prestigious company for engineers to be hired in the late 1980s.  Jackie says she left IBM soon after starting because her boss had a computer program which counted down the seconds until he could retire and "really start living his life."  This was too depressing a future for Jackie to contemplate so she left IBM...to get married...to a wife-beater...and model swimsuits...and compete in beauty pageants.  Her career choices is more damning of our society than necessarily Jackie.

As the film progresses, Jackie shows quite a bit of patience for her husband's loutish behavior; more so than her children who begin to resent their father as he verbally mistreats their mother and works longer and longer hours.  Jackie even displays some self-awareness and an understanding that she and her marriage are not being portrayed positively.  After the film was shot, the Siegels complained they were being portrayed inaccurately and that some of the scenes were staged.  I wonder why they allowed themselves to be filmed at all; especially as the economy faltered and their relationship became strained.  As his finances deteriorate, David treats his wife as if she is his ninth child and Jackie clearly recognizes his patronizing behavior. 

The third aspect which I found fascinating is how David Siegel explains his predicament.  He uses some of the same catchphrases as the Occupy Movement.  He paints himself as a victim of easy credit and predatory bankers who won't temporarily extend additional credit which would allow him to ride out his financial storm.  Amazingly, Greenfield was able to invoke some sympathy from me towards the Siegels.

Since the limited release of Queen of Versailles, the Siegels have launched their own media counterattack. I read that the Siegels are about to restart construction on their Versailles.  At the end of the movie, I thought the Siegels would be divorced by now but they are still together.  In the film, David joked (half-joked?) that he was going to trade Jackie in for two 20 year olds.  Jackie may even get a new career out of the film - she claims to have been offered a role on a reality television series.  Ironically, this thoroughly enjoyable documentary confirmed all that I don't like about modern documentaries or perhaps more accurately, all that I don't like about modern society.

Whores, Morticians, Granville's Hammer and Talmudic Scholars

I've procrastinated in posting so I have a tremendous backlog of films which I want to catalog.

In the past week, I saw four films at Landmark Theaters.

Whore's Glory; directed by Michael Glawogger; documentary; Thai, Bengali & Spanish with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Bernie starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine & Matthew McConaughey; directed by Richard Linklater; (2011) - Official Website
Hysteria starring Hugh Dancy & Maggie Gyllenhall; with Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones & Rupert Everett; directed by Tanya Wexler; (2011) - Official Website
Footnote starring Shlomo Bar-Aba & Lior Ashkenazi; directed by Joseph Cedar; Hebrew with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website

I saw Whore's Glory at the Lumiere, Footnote at the Opera Plaza and Bernie & Hysteria at the Embarcadero.  Hysteria was one of the films I had tickets for but skipped at the 2012 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF).  One of the other films I missed at the festival, Where Do We Go Now?, has already come and gone from local Landmark Theaters without my having seen it so I was anxious to see Hysteria.

§§§

Whore's Glory was directed by noted documentarian Michael Glawogger.  I had never seen a Glawogger film before.  Although I read the SF Chronicle review, I wasn't quite ready for what I saw.  Many years ago, I saw Sex: The Annabel Chong Story, a documentary about a porn actress who set "a world record by having sex 251 times with 70 men in 10 hours."  That was truly a depressing film as Chong's (real name Grace Quek) family discovered her day job and she seemed deluded in convincing herself that her behavior was an example of female sexual empowerment.  After seeing that film, I thought I was prepared to see to Whore's Glory.

I was mistaken as Whore's Glory is a profoundly depressing film.  Although female sexuality is nominally the subject of the film, the degradation of a legions of women across the world is the overarching theme.  Starting in Bangkok, Thailand, which is a place I consider notorious for prostitution, Glawogger focuses on a bar/bordello which would seem quaint when compared to what would follow.

Young Thai women work as prostitutes at this club.  They sit passively in a glass enclosed room as a salesman tries to sell their services to members of the audience.  Identified by a number on a pin they wear, the girls wait to be chosen.  The effect is like a aquarium.  Men press up against the glass and debate with each other the perceived merits of #253 vs. #187.  Although Thai men were present, the majority seemed to be foreigners as I heard Chinese, Japanese and English spoken by the patrons.  So this vignette confirmed what I had previously read which is that foreigners go to Thailand for sex tours.  However, this was a little antiseptic as there was no interaction between customer and provider prior to the selection.  In addition, the women seemed relatively well adjusted.  Some even prayed that they would get a lot of customers.  The women seemed free to come and go as they pleased and one woman even had enough money to go clubbing and seemingly procure the services of male prostitutes.

The next stop was a city in Bangladesh which reminded me of Born into Brothels which I saw on a rainy Saturday at the Lumiere 6 or 7 years ago.  Covering some of the same ground, Glawogger's second vignette follows a madam in a red light district.  I was amazed at the economics.  Some of the men said they pay for the ladies' services 2 or 3 times a day!  The volume of men these women have to service is mind boggling.  The men were impoverished so I could only imagine what the women were getting paid.  Several of the "women" were teenagers.  Whereas the Thai prostitutes looked like women, the Indian prostitutes looked like girls playing dress up and applying make up for the first time.  It seemed clear these women would be used up and discarded.  There was one older prostitute who looked in her forties to me.  She looked out of place amongst the teenagers.  The luckiest ones will becomes madams and perpetuate the cycle.  

One moment left me a little suspicious.  A teenage prostitute asks rhetorically why women's lives should be so difficult.  I recognized that as a quote by Sita from the Ramayana.  It makes sense that the girl would be familiar with the quote but it made the moment artificial as if it may have been scripted.

After Bangladesh, I didn't think it could get any worse but Glawogger found the truly hellish La Zona of Reynoso, Mexico, a border town across from Hidalgo, Texas.  Having grown up in El Paso, I now about the wretched conditions along the border.  El Paso's border counterpart is Ciudad Juárez which was pretty damn seedy when I was living in the area 25 years ago.  The drug wars have turned Juárez into a lawless frontier town like something out of Desperado.  Nothing I saw in Juárez prepared me for La Zona.

La Zona is an area of Reynoso comprised of one story dormitory style housing.  Women will stand outside their room hawking their bodies to men who drive by.  Whereas the Thai women were reasonably attractive and the Indian women looked underage, the Mexican women looked like used up whores.  Many were addicted to drugs and/or seemed to have a screw loose.  That any man would even consider having sex with these women was beyond my comprehension.  Glawogger seemed to have no problem getting men to discuss their exploits in La Zona.  One man even gave a critique of the girls as he drove by  and in the next sentence mentioned his wife.

Amazingly, Glawogger even filmed one session which couldn't have been scripted better.  The woman seems disinterested and even contemptuous of her john.  Rather than be dissuaded, the young man proceeds with a curious interest in the woman's name.  La Zona is so dehumanized that the women don't even bother with noms de guerre...a name is not necessary to complete the transaction.  The young man, despite the thorough if not enthusiastic ministrations of the woman, is unable to achieve climax.  Unfortunately for him, the time limit is strict.  Despite full tumescence, he is informed that his time is up and that he must leave.  I would think most men would express some frustration and dissatisfaction.  This young man dutifully puts on his pants but can't help but ask one last time for the woman's name.  To me it appeared to be an encounter that would be best forgotten but this young man seems to want the woman's name as a keepsake.  Almost comic in its multiple dysfunctions, the scene perfectly captured the sad and pathetic lives of the prostitutes and johns.  A trip to La Zona is about as erotic as an encounter with a surly DMV clerk.

At nearly two hours, the film could probably have been edited down without losing any of the impact.  One scene in Bangkok, where Glawogger trains his camera on dogs having sex in front of the club went on for too long and seemed unnecessary.  It was indicative of the film which was a tad self-indulgent on Glawogger's part.

§§§

Bernie was a late addition to this year's SFIFF.  Based on a true story, the eponymous Bernie (Jack Black) is a mortician or more officially an Assistant Funeral Director in Carthage, Texas.  Unusually skilled in his job which entails treatment of the body, sales of the coffins, organizing funeral services and comfort to the bereaved, Bernie become quite popular in the small town.  He becomes active in local civic and religious circles.  Bernie's life is forever altered when he comes into contact with the widow Nugent (Shirley MacLaine).  The wealthiest (and meanest) woman in town, Nugent quickly succumbs to Bernie's gentle ways and kind demeanor.  Over time, their friendship grows to a point which is left undefined in the film.  Were they lovers?  I don't know as it is hinted that Bernie is gay (he does like Broadway musicals).  Whatever they were, Nugent was an insecure harpy who actively worked to isolate Bernie from others.  I won't completely ruin the surprise which I already knew but the second half of the film covers Bernie's trouble with the law in the form of District Attorney Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey).

Bernie is a satire on small town attitudes.  McConaughey's turn as the big-fish-in-a-little-pond DA is inspired.  His character mangles the pronunciation of Les Misérables in open court and I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not.  MacLaine dominates every scene.  So the two of them buoy the film which I thought was a role a little beyond the range of Black.  Black mugs for the camera a little bit but his performance is as subtle as the character and Black can be.  

§§§

I saw Hysteria about 20 minutes after Bernie ended.  Being mild about Bernie, I wanted to see if Hysteria was more satisfying.  The premise of Hysteria is amazing but true.  In Victorian England, a whole range of female maladies were attributed to the catch-all diagnosis of hysteria.  Anxiety, listlessness, insomnia, weight fluctuations, depression, et al. were diagnosed as hysteria.  One character estimates 50% of the women in London at the time suffer from the disease.  The treatment, for women who could afford it, was manual stimulation of their the clitoris.  The treatment was successful if the patient she had one or even multiple "paroxysms."  The doctor would ask the patient how she felt afterwards.  If she felt better, the treatment was obviously effective and recurring, weekly appointments were scheduled.

This all seems silly but is purported to be true.  Hysteria follows Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy), a young doctor who treats hysteria under the auspices of  Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), the undisputed expert in the field.  Dr. Granville's technique is extremely effective and his appointment book fills up.  However, the treatments are taxing on the doctor's right arm and he eventually develops a repetitive stress injury not unlike carpal tunnel syndrome.  This injury reduces the efficacy of his treatments to the severe disappointment of his patients.  Fortunately, Granville's best friend is the wealthy Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett).  Not weighed down by pecuniary concerns, St. John-Smythe spends his days experimenting with electricity.  While holding  St. John-Smythe's prototype for an electric feather duster, Granville has his Eureka! moment.

Soon Granville and St. John-Smythe are marketing their device as a tool to treat hysteria.  Clinical trials indicate that the device (which in real life was known as Granville's Hammer) was much more effective in treating hysteria than Dalrymple's manual techniques.

For the premise, Hysteria seemed to underperform.  The writers & actors should have been able to milk more laughs out of script.  Maggie Gyllenhall appears as Dalrymple's eldest daughter who is the black sheep of the family due to her outrageous ideas about feminism.  Felicity Jones is Dalrymple's younger daughter whose musical skills and expertise in phrenology make her the ideal English lady in the Victorian age.  Granville wrestles with his attraction to both sisters.  Gyllenhall delivered an appealing performance and Everett seemed gleeful as the droll St. John-Smythe.

§§§

Footnote is about two Talmudic scholars.  Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar-Aba) is the father and less heralded scholar.  Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi) is his more acclaimed son.  Eliezer receives a phone call that he is receiving the prestigious Israel Prize for his work.  Later, Uriel is called to the Ministry of Education offices to discuss his father's award.  It turns out that Uriel was the intended recipient but human error resulted in Eliezer being mistakenly contacted and told he was the winner.  The award committee wants Uriel's help in breaking the news to Eliezar.  This is difficult on many levels as the two men are barely on speaking terms.  Eliezar is resentful for a lifetime of professional slights and jealous of the attention his son has received for what he considers inferior and trivial research.  Uriel, for his part is pompous, has little commitment to his research and harbors anger towards his father for the time spent on his research during his youth.

These two flawed men are put in a difficult position.  Wanting to appear as the good son, Uriel convinces the committee to let Eliezer keep the award.  However, the committee chair (a rival or Eliezar) has two conditions.  First, Uriel must write the commendation and second, Uriel must never submit his name for consideration Israel prizes.  The second condition is difficult for Uriel to swallow as he is an ambitious man but he agrees to it.

Soon after Eliezar's award is officially announced, he is interviewed by a journalist.  After some prodding, Eliezar dismisses Uriel's work as lacking in academic worth.  Uriel is initially crushed by his father's criticism when it is published.  Soon, his emotions turn to revenge and in the most damning scene, Uriel reveals to his mother that Eliezar's award was a mistake.  To put your mother and your father's wife in such a position is despicable.

Without any explicit clues from his wife, Eliezar recognizes a phrase from the commendation as identical to a phrase Uriel had used in a previously published work.  Recollecting the phone conversation when he was (mistaken) informed he had won the prize, Eliezar realizes that he was addressed as Dr. Shkolnik.  Combined with his son's direct quote in the commendation (which was supposed to be written the award committee), Eliezar begins to deduce the circumstances of his award.

The film ends with Eliezar waiting in an auditorium to receive his award.  The film gives no clue as to whether he will accept the award or reveal the error and decline the award.  Regardless, the already troubled relationship with his son has been dealt an irreparable blow.

Footnote is a complex film about two unlikable characters who are forced together by their familial relationship.  I though Uriel was the more distasteful but many of his negative qualities could be traced to the father who spent more time with his research than his son.

I was very impressed with the film.

2012 San Francisco International Film Festival

It's been over three weeks since the festival ended so I'm a little late in posting.  Three events have postponed by post.  First, I saw over 20 films at Elliot Lavine's I Wake Up Dreaming at the Roxie earlier this month.  Second, Google changed their Blogspot  user interface.  I find it much harder to compose this post.  Finally, I've been taking a chess class.  Yes, once upon a time I was an avid chess player.  The class has reawakened my interest in chess.

§§§

The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) ran from April 19 to May 3.  I saw 25 films but I did something deeply offensive - I wasted money by buying tickets to 28 screening but only saw 25.

I skipped out on the screening to Where Do We Go Now? on April 27 as I needed to go to exercise and was fatigued at the halfway point of the festival.  Too tired to watch films but not too tired to workout.  I was also confident in the knowledge that Where Do We Go Now? was opening at the Landmark Theaters in May.

I also had a ticket to see Wuthering Heights on May 2 but abandoned the screening at the last minute to see Louise Brooks in A Girl In Every Port at the Stanford.

Finally, I made a mistake in reading the schedule and bought tickets to Rebellion and Hysteria on May 3.  The screening of the two films overlapped so I had to make a choice.  I was leaning towards Hysteria but noticed it is also opening at the Landmark Theaters in May so I attended Rebellion.  I was able to donate that ticket to a festival volunteer.

I saw all feature length films and none of them had short films preceding them.  I saw one films at the Castro and PFA each, four at the Viz which is now officially called the Film Society Cinema and 19 at the Sundance Kabuki.  This year, I saw more screenings in Auditoriums 2, 7 and 8 than any previous year.  In past years,  Auditoriums 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were the mainstays.  Auditoriums 2, 7 and 8 are smaller than the others so I wonder if attendance was down or if the Film Society decided to rent smaller auditoriums this year.

Also, the April 22 screening of Ethel was delayed by nearly an hour due to a fire alarm in the Kabuki.

The 25 films I saw were:

Robot and Frank starring Frank Langella and the voice of Peter Saarsgard; with Susan Sarandon, James Marsden & Liv Tyler; directed by Jake Schreier; (2011)
The Giants starring Zacharie Chasseriaud, Martin Nissen & Paul Bartel; directed by Bouli Lanners; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Wu Xia starring Donnie Yen & Takeshi Kaneshiro; directed by Peter Chan; Mandarin with subtitles; (2011)
Dreileben - Beats Being Dead starring Jacob Matschenz & Luna Mijovic; directed by Christian Petzold; German with subtitles; (2011)
Dreileben - Don't Follow Me Around starring Jeanette Hain, Susanne Wolff & Misel Maticevic; directed by Dominik Graf; German with subtitles; (2011)
People Mountain People Sea starring Chen Jianbin; directed by Shangjun Cai; Mandarin with subtitles; (2011)
Ethel; directed by Rory Kennedy; documentary (2012)
I Wish starring Koki & Oshiro Maeda; directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda; Japanese with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Headhunters starring Aksel Hennie & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau; directed by Morten Tyldum; Norwegian with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Polisse starring Joey Starr; directed by Maïwenn; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Last Screening starring Pascal Cervo; directed by Laurent Achard; French with subtitles (2011) - Official Website
Unfair World; directed by Filippos Tsitos; Greek with subtitles; Greek with subtitles; (2011)  
Mosquita y Mari starring Fenessa Pineda & Venecia Troncoso; directed by Aurora Guerrero; English and Spanish with subtitles; (2012)
Cherry starring Ashley Hinshaw; with James Franco, Heather Graham & Dev Patel; directed by Stephen Elliott; (2012) - Official Website  
Somebody Up There Like Me starring Keith Poulson; with Nick Offerman; directed by Bob Byington; (2012) - Official Website
Quadrophenia starring Phil Daniels; with Sting & Ray Winstone;  directed by Franc Roddam; (1979)
Compliance starring Dreama Walker, Ann Dowd & Pat Healy; directed by Craig Zobel; (2012) - Official Website
Dreileben - One Minute of Darkness; directed by Christoph Hochhäusler; German with subtitles; (2011)
Life Without Principle starring Ching Wan Lau and Denise Ho; Cantonese with subtitles; directed by Johnnie To; (2011)
Luv starring Common & Michael Rainey Jr.; with Dennis Haysbert & Danny Glover; directed by Sheldon Candis; (2012)
The Waiting Room; directed by Peter Nicks; documentary; (2012) - Official Website
Choked; directed by Joong-Hyun Kim; Korean with subtitles; (2011)
Policeman; directed by Nadav Lapid; Hebrew with subtitles; (2011)
Rebellion starring Mathieu Kassovitz & Iabe Lapacas; directed by Mathieu Kassovitz; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
Twixt starring Val Kilmer & Elle Fanning; with Bruce Dern; directed by Francis Ford Coppola; (2011) - Official Website

§§§

Given my SF Indiefest experience, I think I was too ambitious in scheduling 27 (or 28 depending on how you count) films for the festival.

Headhunters and Polisse (along with Where Do We Go Now? and Hysteria) are currently playing at Landmark Theaters.  I always struggle when selecting film screenings at festivals like SFIFF.  I don't want to miss a good film but I also don't want to see a film which will be released later.

Film which I enjoyed were Mosquita y Mari, a story about two teenage Latinas with an intense friendship which also screens at Frameline in June, Somebody Up There Like Me from mumblecore stalwart Bob Byington which feature a tremendous performance from Nick Offerman in a supporting role, the high-octane thriller Headhunters (which has come and gone from local Landmark Theaters), Rebellion, a taut political thriller about an armed insurrection in New Caledonia in the 1980s and I Wish, a sweet-natured film from Kore-eda about two brothers who are separated by the divorce of their parents.

A step below are films which I enjoyed but had some serious plot deficiencies or I just didn't click with - Cherry explores the world of porn (and tacks on a semi-happy ending that seemed out of left field), Johnnie To's Life Without Principle creates an intersection between gangsters, hedge funds and the credit crisis, Ethel was made by Rory Kennedy (RFK's youngest child) spent too much time on RFK and not enough on his widow, Polisse was a slightly too melodramatic depiction of a dysfunctional police unit investigating child sex crime, Luv featured tremendous performances all around as an ex-con tries to go legit while his nephew tags along, Choked was a South Korean import about the sins of the mother being passed onto her son, Policeman, about an Israeli anti-terrorist unit and the radicals they eventually confront, had some uneven performances but was my favorite of the "second-rounders" and finally Dreileben - Beats Being Dead was my favorite of the three Dreileben films screened at the festival because it focused on a complex and ultimately exploitive relationship between a German med student and a Serbian immigrant in Germany.

Robot and Frank was the first film I saw at the festival and I was impressed at the time but after seeing the other films and upon further reflection, the film was a bit predictable and mawkish but did feature a nice performance by Frank Langella and outstanding voice performance by Peter Saarsgard.

Quadrophenia was also interesting but felt too dated to be anything more than a period piece.  It was nice to see Ray Winstone skinny and Sting preening around like a peacock.

The Giants, Compliance and The Waiting Room were difficult films for me to watch; not so much entertaining as interesting in a morbid way.  The Giants was like Stand By Me on crack, Compliance was the factually accurate retelling of a shocking incident demonstrating the pitfalls of blind obedience and The Waiting Room put human faces on the current health care crisis.

Twixt was kind of interesting but not my genre.  ACT Core Acting Company performer Anthony Fusco has a supporting role in the film.

I fell asleep during Wu Xia, People Mountain People Sea and Unfair World.

That leaves the other two Dreileben films.  They weren't bad but compared unfavorably to Beats Being Dead.  My order of preference of the three films (from favorite to least favorite) were Beats Being Dead,  Don't Follow Me Around and One Minute of Darkness.  It's all a matter of taste though.  Chatting with Jason Wiener on the bus ride to BART one evening, he mentioned he preferred the films in the exact opposite order.