Ip Man 2 Take 2

I saw three films at the Asian Movie Madness series at the 4 Star in June.

Iron Fan and Magic Sword; Mandarin with subtitles; (1971)
Ip Man 2 starring Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung; directed by Wilson Yip; Cantonese with subtitles; (2010) - Official Website
Tiger Cage 2 starring Donnie Yen; directed by Woo-ping Yuen; Cantonese with subtitles; (1990)

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I'll be honest and say I can't clearly remember Iron Fan and Magic Sword. I may be confusing parts of Deaf Mute Heroine (which I saw in May) with Iron Fan and Magic Sword.

Instead of a deaf and mute heroine, Iron Fan and Magic Sword features a blind heroine. Wait a second, was she blind? Her mentor was killed and she had these iron fans that she used as a shield. I think the magic sword belonged to her late father who was murdered. I remember a battle scene on the beach and another at a grave or something.

Let's just say I have forgotten most of Iron Fan and Magic Sword in less than a month and leave it at that.

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I saw Ip Man 2 at the 2010 Chinese American Film Festival at the 4 Star in November 2010. As they seem to do every year, the 4 Star screened a Chinese language film without subtitles. In 2010, the film was Ip Man 2. I sat through the film because I had enjoyed Ip Man and wanted to see the sequel. At the time, I didn't think I missed much due to the lack of subtitles but there were a few scenes I wanted translated.

What did I gain by seeing Ip Man 2 with subtitles. Sammo Hung's character dies from asthma and not a heart attack which I would have assumed give Sammo's girth. Sammo is packing a huge spare tire around his gut and this is the second film I have seen where he is a kung fu master and 50 pounds overweight. It's laughable to see Sammo doing his kung fu moves in the shape he is.

Also, I thought Ip Man (Donnie Yen) and Sammo's character had some profound conversation before Sammo is beaten to death by the English boxer. Instead, Ip Man simply suggests that Sammo attack the boxer's mid-section. Later, while being pummeled by the boxer, Sammo returns to Ip Man in a hallucination and suggests he attack the mid-section which Ip Man does and eventually leads to his victory.

Despite these underwhelming insights provided by subtitling; Ip Man 2 is the best film so far in the Asian Movie Madness series.

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Ip Man 2 was the second half of a Donnie Yen double feature. The first film that evening was Tiger Cage 2. Before re-watching Ip Man 2, I said Tiger Cage 2 was the best film in the Asian Movie Madness series. Now I say it is the second best but not by much.

In Tiger Cage 2, Donnie Yen plays a cop (or ex-cop) who is getting divorced. His wife's lawyer or the divorce arbitrator witnesses a murder and Yen is the prime suspect. Eventually, the two of them are on the run from the law while trying to find the real killers. Rosamund Kwan plays the lawyer and is for the most part a whiny pain in the ass.

The film has some nice action sequences as David Wu shows up as a third wheel. The climax of the film is quite good. Yen has to face three bad guys in a row - white guy John Salvitti in a hellacious sword fight, black guy Michael Woods in something like an MMA bout crossed with a WWE match and finally Chinese guy Robin Shou in a running battle from an office to a warehouse.

I'm becoming a Donnie Yen fan and Tiger Cage 2 only reinforces my opinion of Yen. I'd like to see Tiger Cage which also starred Jacky Cheung & Simon Yam.

Mamma Mia! Mamma Roma!

In early June, I caught Mamma Roma at the YBCA.

Mamma Roma starring Anna Magnani; directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini; Italian with subtitles; (1962)

I added the Italian exclamation to the title because it sounds like something Anna Magnani would utter in the film. Ms. Magnani is like a force of nature in so many of her films - fiery, volcanic, passionate...she's the Mt. Vesuvius of Italian cinema. Sometimes it works and sometimes it seems like she is doing a parody of a loud and crass Italian woman. Fortunately in Mamma Roma, her character is a loud and crass Italian woman.

Magnani plays Mamma Roma; I don't think the character has a "real" name. Mamma Roma is a whore; not figuratively but literally. Technically, she is an ex-whore for part of the film but her pimp shows up and blackmails her into getting back into the life. Mamma Roma is not quite a hooker with a heart of gold. She shepherds some pigs into the pimp's wedding and engages in not-so-playful banter with the bride and groom at their wedding reception. She also plays a variation of the Murphy Game to get her son a legitimate job. All in all, Mamma Roma is trying to go legit for the sake of her mixed up teenage son, Ettore (Ettore Garafolo).

Not content with getting him a job, Mamma intervenes in his love life (even setting him up with another whore) and tries to buy his love with a Vespa. Mamma is quite busy juggling manipulating her son, running her fruit stand by day and talking up potential johns at night. Magnani never goes for subtlety though. Mamma is a brassy woman.

Mamma Roma is anchored by three performances. Magnani as Mamma Roma, Franco Citti as the weaselly pimp (in a role very much like the one he played in Accattone!) and Garafolo as the mixed up son. The three of them propel Pasolini's plot while Pasolini pulls out all the stops in terms of blocking and camera angles. More than once, Mamma is shown recounting her life to various people in a continuous "walking and talking" tracking shot. The extended opening (with the pigs) is arresting for the imagery as well as the spectacle of Magnani's Mamma. In the end, Ettore, considered mentally unfit, is bound to a table in a Christlike pose which Pasolini shoots from various angles.

If I left it at that, Mamma Roma is highly recommended. However, Pasolini mixes in a lot more into the story. As I mentioned, Christian iconography is brought into play but Pasolini also seems to dabble with Greek mythology as Mamma's suffering and Ettore's fate seem more Bulfinch than Biblical. In keeping with the Greek mythology theme, Pasolini imbues Mamma with a rather sordid and Oedipal interest in her son's nascent sex life. I'm sure there were some Marxist imagery shown which escaped my bourgeois sensibilities.

What's left to say about Mamma Roma? It is Pasolini & Magnani after all so expectations are set high. Fortunately, Pasolini & Magnani easily clear the hurdle as I was engrossed in the film from start to finish. In fact, I'd like to see Mamma Roma a second time as I'm sure there are a number of threads I missed.

2011 United Film Festival

I saw three films at the 2011 United Film Festival at the Little Roxie in June.

Gabi on the Roof in July starring Lawrence Michael Levine & Sophia Takal; directed by Levine; (2010) - Official Website
Cleanflix; documentary; (2009) - Official Website
Official Rejection; documentary; directed by Paul Osborne; (2009) - Official Website

The first thing I noticed about these films is that they are "old"...at least by film festival standards. Gabi on the Roof in July played at the 2010 Cinequest and 2010 Indiefest. Cleanflix played also played at the 2010 Cinequest. Official Rejection is a documentary about the film festival journey of Ten Til Noon which played at the 2006 Indiefest! Clearly, the United Film Festival is not about getting the world premiere. Although their Saturday night screening of Superheroes appeared sold out less than 10 people attended the screenings I was at. For Official Rejection, there were only three paid attendees including myself and I think all of us came because we saw Ten Til Noon at Indiefest.

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Gabi on the Roof in July is a Mumblecore film (if that terms still applies). In general, I don't like Mumblecore films. The best I can say is that I didn't dislike Gabi as much as other Mumblecore films I've seen. Actually, that left-handed compliment is more sincere when one considers that every character in Gabi behaves in unlikable ways.

Gabi, a college student and would-be artist, travels to New York City to spend the summer with her older brother Sam, an artist of modest success. Gabi is childish and disdain conventional jobs which would help pay the rent. Sam is more practical in pecuniary matters as he spends time with his girlfriend who has a regular teaching art to school kids. Sam shows his flaws when his ex-girlfriend returns to town and commissions a few pieces from him for an avant-garde bed & breakfast. Sam quickly resumes his relationship with the woman while treating his current girlfriend in an increasing shabby manner. Meanwhile, Gabi is exploring her sexuality with frequent nudity and with Garrett, Sam's ne'er do well college classmate.

As I mentioned, each and every character displays character flaws which I found deeply off-putting. I guess this passes for common behavior among the new Bohemians in NYC. Although it is difficult for me to personally relate, I found myself drawn to Gabi's plight. She was a girl in over her head. Still testing the limits of her sexuality, Gabi is a girl in a woman's body. She also has some anger towards her recently divorced father which manifests itself in inappropriate behavior. Sam is not much better as it becomes clear his current girlfriend was on the rebound and that he never got over his breakup with Chelsea.

Recounting the plot or the character flaws is fruitless because Gabi and Mumblecore films in general, are not about plot but rather relationships gone awry. Gabi has broken relationships in spades but it also has a semi-poignant story of a confused young woman whose summer vacation falls well short of expectation and almost ends in rough sex (at least rougher than she was bargaining for).

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Cleanflix bills itself and comes on as a documentary about companies (primarily in Utah) that edit films so that offensive material are removed. Imagine Pulp Fiction without the profanity...and violence...and sodomy...and brain matter... Actually, one of the talking heads mentions that some films are beyond sanitizing but many film just need a few surgical edits to make it past the standards broadly established by the Church of Latter-Day Saints. As you would expect, when Hollywood is made aware, arguments in support of artistic integrity and copyrights are made.

The film would be rather mediocre if that is all there was to it. Fortunately for the filmmakers, Daniel Thompson, the most successful purveyor of sanitized films in the Beehive State is arrested for paying for sex with an underage girl. Some in the film argue that the repression of sexual imagery partially caused Thompson's troubles. I don't know if that is true. Thompson never even admits to the crime on camera. He is found guilty and sentenced.

What I do know is that the filmmakers "got lucky" in that there is no way they knew that Thompson would be arrested for the crime when they started the film. As a result, the film takes this strange detour which becomes the main focus during the second half of the film. It makes the film disjointed. Thompson's story would have made a better documentary but the filmmakers seemed too invested in the original premise to let the time and footage go. By the end of the film, a court ruling had basically gutted the film sanitizing business so the film had the feel of telling the audience about a business practice that no longer occurred.

I found the ostensible subject of Cleanflix to be uncompelling and the admittedly sordid business with Thompson to be in need of more examination. Cleanflix tried to have it both ways and I wasn't buying either.

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One of the films which really turned me on to SF Indiefest was Ten Til Noon (Official Website) at the 2006 festival. That might have been the first year I bought a festival pass. Ten Til Noon had its world premiere at the 2006 Indiefest.

Ten Til Noon was an exciting story about the interconnectedness of numerous people over a 10 minute period. The 10 minutes is played over and over again from different viewpoints. Each replay adds certain details and surprises to the story. I recall being tremendously enthusiastic about the film.

Official Rejection is a documentary directed by the screenwriter of Ten Til Noon. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of the filmmakers as it Ten Til Noon on the film festival circuit. Along the way, it becomes an exposé of certain film festival practices as well as direct criticism and kudos to specific festival. San Francisco Indiefest comes off quite well. Former programming director Bruce Fletcher gets significant airtime as the audience's instructor on various film festival practices. Chicago Indiefest comes off the worst as a number technical errors and a reclusive festival director incur the wrath of Official Rejection director Paul Osborne.

What did I learn? The big four in North America are Sundance, South by Southwest, Tribeca and Toronto. I already knew that but Osborne attacks their indie street cred (particularly Sundance). Part of that may be sour grapes. Osborne goes on to criticize the film festival industry's preoccupation with "premieres." Premiering one's film at a Big Four festival is not a guarantee of success but increases the chances than if you premiere, at say, SF Indiefest.

Additionally, Osborne addresses issues such as festival entry fees, the secretive and suspicious nature of festival programming, rivalries among the festivals and the personal costs that filmmakers invest in their films. Scott Storm, the director of Ten Til Noon, gets divorce with the implication being that his frequent absences due to following Ten Til Noon on the festival circuit is a primary contributor to his marital woes.

Although I chose to attend the film due to my enjoyment of Ten Til Noon, the merits of that film were only tangentially referred to. The typical audience for Official Rejection probably hasn't seen Ten Til Noon. Official Rejection has to stand on its own two legs and not as a companion piece to Ten Til Noon. I think it does so quite well.

At over two hours, the film breezed along as I started to root for the amiable Storm who doesn't seem to take himself too seriously. By the end, I felt like I had experienced the Ten Til Noon festival tour along with Storm.

Jason Wiener gets about a minute of screen time in Official Rejection. He's interviewed in front of the Roxie as representative of the film festival audience or at least überfan. Osborne added animation to point out the $100 festival pass Jason was wearing around his neck. Jason is a good guy but he came off kind of creepy on film. There is the trench coat and the Fear-the-Beard (four years before Brian Wilson made it cool) which are attention grabbers. During the interview, the enthusiastic (and perhaps nervous) Jason periodically giggled in a manner which suggested he was slightly deranged. Obviously he made enough of an impression on Osborne to keep him in the film.

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A fixture at the 2006 SF Indiefest was John Daniel Gavin whose film, Johnny Montana (Official Website) screened that year along with Ten Til Noon. Having been to many film festival, I can say that Gavin was the hardest working filmmaker I've ever seen. I saw him all around the Mission District handing out postcards for Johnny Montana. Every cafe and restaurant in the Mission had Johnny Montana flyers in the window or on its bulletin board. The man was indefatigable.

In Official Rejection he was full of ideas to get your film noticed. One idea was to send the festival a blank DVD screener. If they call and tell you the screener was blank, you know the programming is legitimate. If they don't call you, call them and ask how they liked the film. Gavin hinted that some festival told him they had watched the screener and liked the film but don't call us, we'll call you.

A little research shows that Gavin has no credits on IMDB since Johnny Montana. A link on IMDB sends users to his official website. Mr. Gavin is now billing himself as the Film Dr. His pitch is Let me examine your work, diagnose any problems and prescribe you a winning formula. Among his clients are Adam Bronstein, director of My Movie Girl which I saw at the 2010 SF Indiefest.

A Moveable Feast Served by Woody Allen

In June, I took advantage of the Balboa's policy of free admission on your birthday. I saw Midnight in Paris.

Midnight in Paris starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams & Marion Cotillard; directed by Woody Allen; (2011) - Official Website

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I'm not a huge fan of Woody Allen's films. I won't bother to catalog the films I enjoyed or didn't enjoy. Midnight in Paris falls into the "like" category.

The plot revolves around Owen Wilson's Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter with ambitions of being a serious novelist. He travels to Paris with Inez (Rachel McAdams), his fiancée and her parents. Inez is materialistic (her parents are Republicans after all) and noticeably dismissive of Gil's opinions in general.

For his part, Gil seems ambivalent about his upcoming nuptials. Inez's pretentious friend Paul is guest lecturing at the Sorbonne. While Inez hangs on each and every supercilious word out of his mouth, Gil finds him insufferable and quickly decides he prefers roaming the streets of Paris late at night to the company of his fiancée and the ever present Paul.

Gil eventually falls in with the wrong crowd - promiscuous alcoholics without steady income...at least that would be Inez's opinion. Through a tear in the space-time continuum or some other explanation which is never broached, at the stroke of midnight, Gil is able to travel to 1920s Paris where he encounters his artistic heroes - Ernest Hemingway, Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Luis Buñuel, etc. Gil returns night after night to interact with the legendary expatriates as well as receive critical advice and editing help on his novel from Gertrude Stein.

Gil catches the eye of Adriana (Marion Cotillard as appealing as I've ever seen her). I believe Adriana is a fictional character but she is presented in the film as Picasso's mistress and Hemingway's conquest. Adriana is attracted to the uninspiring Gil because he is unlike any of the men she knows in 1920s Paris. Ultimately, Gil & Adriana "double time travel" - they travel from Paris in the 1920s to Paris in the 1890s where they encounter Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas.

Adriana considers this period (Belle Époque) to be the Golden Age is dissatisfied with the 1920s which Gil similarly considers the Golden Age. Adriana wants to stay in the 1890s with Gil but the situation has made Gil realize that each generation is nostalgic for the past and that his time travel is enabling his dysfunction. Gil returns to the present day, confronts Inez about her affair with Paul (which he has been subconsciously denying), breaks off the engagement and decides to stay in Paris to work on his novel as well as explore the nascent relationship he has struck up with a pretty antiques dealer.

This is a Woody Allen film and a romantic comedy which is another way of saying it was too obvious by a half. Woody portrayed the 1920s characters as caricatures which is acceptable to me. Was Gil really in the 1920s or was he imagining (hallucinating?) the whole thing? Allen implies the former but it is easy to understand how Gil's impression of these people could be influenced by the legends which have taken hold in the intervening years. In particular, Corey Stoll's performance as Hemingway conflates the man, his work and the legend but it is to good comedic effect.

More troublesome for me is the portrayal of Inez, her parents and Paul. These people were so irksome that I wondered why Gil would associate with them much less marry into their family. I took a breath and softly repeated "It's a Woody Allen comedy. It's a Woody Allen comedy." Accepted on those terms, Inez's shrewish nature and her parents obvious condescension towards Gil were easier to appreciate. Actually, Mimi Kennedy and the always solid Kurt Fuller delivered some genuinely funny moments. Rachel McAdams who I last saw as the preternaturally perky producer in Morning Glory showed some range between the two films.

Overall, Midnight in Paris was an enjoyable Woody Allen film. It is a lightweight comedy which seemed as though it had the potential to be more. Rather than focus on what it wasn't, I appreciate it for what it was.

Wanted: Jesus Christ, for Anarchist Tendencies...

Those are the opening words to Klaus Kinski's performance on November 20, 1971 in Berlin. Kinski was the sole performer in a spoken word performance called Jesus Christus Erlöser or translated, Jesus Christ Saviour which is the topic of Klaus Kinski: Jesus Christ the Savior which I saw on a Sunday afternoon at the YBCA.

Klaus Kinski: Jesus Christ the Savior starring Klaus Kinski; documentary; German with subtitles; (1971/restored 2008)

I have memorized the opening words to the performance because Kinski repeated them four or five times. The lines were repeated because the audience kept interrupting Kinski. For reasons that are largely lost on on me, Kinski began the performance with an antagonistic relationship with several members of the audience. He was heckled and on two occasions, an audience member stepped up on stage to confront Kinski on one topic or another. Each time Kinski's concentration was sufficiently lost such that he would storm off stage...only to reappear later to restart his performance. Seeming to draw strength from his frustrations, some in the audience would continuously deride Kinski during his performance.

The interruptions happened so often that it became a punch line when Kinski would intone "Wanted: Jesus Christ, for anarchist tendencies..." (in German of course).

The cultural differences between 1971 Germany and 2011 United States are considerable and many references were lost on me as a result. One person yelled that Kinski had made millions from his films which implied people were resentful of his success. From the perspective of 2011, Klaus Kinski performing Jesus Christ Savior seems outlandish. It would be like Charlie Sheen performing Buddha: A Moral Life.

It is clear that Kinski had less patience than Jesus is purported to have. Although he attempted to turn the other cheek to his hecklers, Kinski would seethe until he couldn't continue his performance. Even after the performance was cancelled and the stage was being dismantled, Kinski appeared for a few hundred fans to attempt his soliloquy. At this point, just the murmurs of the audience was enough to throw Kinski off his game.

His full performance was never captured on camera and the handbills indicated it was only a one-night gig. The audience is left to believe that Kinski never performed his anti-war manifesto. Although the portion that was captured seemed pretentious (Kinski was able to get 15 to 20 minutes into his performance), it was still interesting enough for me to wonder how Kinski was going to use Christ to validate his anti-Vietnam War opinions.

I didn't think Kinski came off so bad. Compared to today, security was extremely lax at his performance which was held before approximately 5,000 people. I mentioned the two audience members that came up on stage (Kinski did "invite" of them up to the stage). I can't see that happening today. Although Kinski did ultimately reacts to the provocations, he let most shouted comments go unanswered. I thought it was a few in the audience who instigated the contretemp. Today, I think other audience members would complain about the behavior of people disrupting the performance.

Speaking of the audience, the YBCA screening must have 90% full for the performance which was amazing to me. I doubted that the average patron would know who Kinski was much less attend a film documenting a failed performance by him 40 years ago.

Size Dosn't Matter, Right? And Life Begins at 35!

The Castro Theater had a 70 mm film series in June. I watched two films.

Play Time starring & directed by Jacques Tati; (1967)
Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn & Alec Guinness; directed by David Lean; (1962)

Both film are well known. I saw Play Time at the PFA (listed as Playtime in their program) last year. It's unclear from the on-line listing if PFA screened the 70 mm print. I don't know if they have that capability.

I've seen Lawrence of Arabia on television a few times but not in one sitting. It turns out I had seen 95% of the film from my multiple viewings.

I won't write much about the films. Play Time stood up well to a second viewing. The office and restuarant scenes are still crisp and funny. I still lose focus in the middle part where he visits his friend's apartment. I also noticed a lot of red herring Hulots in the film. A lot of actors were dressed as Hulot and mistaken as Hulot by the audience and characters in the film. I believe Hulot's traditional overcoat was a beige or khaki MacKintosh which the imposters wore. In Play Time, he switches to a houndstooth or herringbone coat.

Lawrence of Arabia also stood up well to multiple viewings. O'Toole piercing blue eyes after he has been tortured (presumably sodomized) by the Turks are unforgettable. I noticed how the English characters are rather staid except Lawrence and how the Arab characters are colorful except Faisal (Guinness). The sweeping panoramas weren't quite as impressive on 70 mm as I was expecting. I don't think there was a single actress with a speaking part in the film.

Actually, I thought the prints or the projection were flawed. I periodically noticed some vertical lines on the edge of the screen on the stage right side for both films. I was sitting right of center for both films. So although the films themselves did not disappoint, the much ballyhooed 70 mm prints left me underwhelmed. I've seen a handful of 70 mm prints in standard theaters (as opposed to IMAX) before. I don't recall ever being impressed by 70 mm per se. The widescreen format impresses me as much in 35 mm as 70 mm.

When it comes down to it, the attributes that well suited to 70 mm or widescreen formats are not the most important aspects of a film for me. That begs the question of "What are the most important aspects of a film to me?" I'm not sure I know the answer. Perhaps it's like Potter Stewart and pornography, I can't define it but know it when I see it. I know that plot and dialog factor heavily into my enjoyment of a film.

Getting back to 70 mm, perhaps my appreciation of cinematography is lacking such that I cannot enjoy the splendor of 70 mm. My feeling is that you don't need 70 mm to make a great film and a great film will be just as great in 35 mm (or even digital nowadays). There are all kinds of arguments as to how 70 mm can enhance a film or film experience but those are largely pearls before swine and embarrassingly, I have porcine qualities as far as 70 mm is concerned...perhaps with respect to other parts of my life as well.

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I exchanged some comments with Jason Wiener regarding 35 mm prints on his blog. To clarify my comments, I believe that films that were shot in 35 mm were crafted by the director, cinematographer, set designers, lighting crew, etc. with specific consideration of the medium. To see the film they made, it should be screened in 35 mm. The same can be said for any medium or watching a film on a television screen.

Because of my taste in films, I've seen a lot of 35 mm films in theaters so I may have a bias towards 35 mm films. However, I think the bias is subconscious if it exists at all. For several years, the general release films I see at multiplexes have been a combination of 35 mm and digital depending on the theater. I haven't noticed a drop off in quality of the viewing experience that can be attributed to digital vs. celluloid. I've seen a few low budget digital films that looked like crap but that was a few years ago and their low budget probably affected their choice in cameras or ability to light the set or even have a set.

I'm not a filmmaker but even I know that the Red One digital camera has made high quality digital films available at relatively reasonable prices. I have nothing against well made digital films. Still my bias shows up in small ways. When digital films pixilate, it mildly irritates me. When 35 mm prints show scratches, I fondly think grindhouse or that the scratches are proof that the film is worthy of viewing since it's been screened so many times before.

I'm also fully aware that major studios will shortly stop striking 35 mm prints for their new films. I'm fine with that. Striking a print for each venue or even screen, is inefficient and expensive. In almost every other aspect of society, I would commend and understand the cost saving (as well as environmentally friendly) move and I do so for new films. Can it still be called "films" if there is no film stock in the production and projection?

Studios and archives have invested a lot of money in storage of film negatives and prints. Will they digitize the inventory in their film vaults? I would think so if they could. Perhaps there will be some movement to declare 35 mm prints historical landmarks and thus require their preservation. I don't support that and doubt it will happen.

As technology improves, I believe it will be possible to digitize a 35 mm print such that a human cannot tell the difference when it is projected. At that point (are we there yet?), I think most of my nostalgia for 35 mm prints will evaporate. I used to be able to spot a digital film a mile away and I guffawed at festivals when an audience would ask if it was shot 35 mm. Lately, I can't tell the difference.

I read that Woody Allen's latest film (Midnight in Paris) was shot on 35 mm but used a digital intermediate meaning it was digitized during the editing process. If Woody can switch to digital in his 41st film, I can make the switch too.

Jason mentioned in his post that Super 8 was screened digitially (with D-Box!). Director J.J. Abrams put the whir of a film projector on the digital soundtrack to give it an old-timey feel. Clearly, I'm not the only person who waxes nostalgic for celluloid.

2011 Another Hole in the Head

The 8th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival ran from June 2 to 17. The festival is sponsored by SF Indiefest. June 2 and 17 were the opening and closing night parties respectively. No film screened those days. All films screened at the Roxie (on the big Roxie screen).

I bought a festival pass for $100. I saw 11½ programs. The festival screened films on 14 days but I missed 7 days due to travel, other social engagements and apathy. I could easily have seen another half dozen films but trips to the gym and an early bedtime prevailed on a few days.

Feature Films
The Oregonian; (2010) - Official Website
Karate-Robo Zaborgar; directed by Noboru Iguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website
The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue; (2010) - Official Website
The Craving; (2011) - Official Website
Rat Scratch Fever; (2011)
Absentia; (2011) - Official Website
Apocrypha: (2011)
Red Ice; (2011) - Official Website
I Am Nancy starring Heather Langenkamp; documentary; (2010) - Official Website
Breath of Hate with Jason Mewes; (2011) - Official Website
The Bleeding House; (2011) - Official Website

Short Films
The Unicorn Girl; (2010)
King of England; (2011)
Off The Beaten Track; (2010)
The Monkey and the Quiet Corpse; (2010)
By a Hair; (2010) - Official Website
Roid Rage; (2011) - Official Website
An Evening with My Comatose Mother; (2011) - Official Website

The half program I saw was a An Evening with My Comatose Mother which played with Zombie Undead. The hour was getting late and I was afraid BART would run the last train through 16th St. Mission Station so I skipped it. Actually, there was a little more forethought. I get particularly bored with zombie films so I never had any intention on seeing Zombie Undead.

An Evening with My Comatose Mother was a 33 minute film so I thought it deserved ½ program status on my list.

I saw two of the Hole in the Head films at this year's Cinequest - Bad Behaviour and Midnight Son at Cinequest. I rather enjoyed Midnight Son; Bad Behaviour not so much. Neither of them enticed me enough for a second viewing at Hole in the Head.

Perhaps, I'm getting old but increasingly, it's hard for me to get too interested in films about zombies, vampires, Japanese superheroes, raccoon on crack or giant rats from outer space. I know I haven't completely gone to the dark side because last year I greatly enjoyed Ticked Off Trannies With Knives. Looking at the post from last year, I think last year's festival program was much stronger than this year.

I preferred Cinequest's Midnight Son to anything I saw at this year's Hole in the Head.

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Nothing really stood out this year. There were a trio of local films that I saw. The Craving is about a chef whose serial murder victims are the sources of protein for her critically praised meals. Apocrypha is about two vampires with amnesia who reunite in San Francisco. Red Ice is about a guy who one demon as a result of machination by another demon. As I mentioned, Red Ice co-stars Yasmin Lee, a transsexual porn star, as one of the demons. They allude to her unique qualities ("She's not what you think she is.") but never reveal her secret despite her being in the film's only sex scene.

Red Ice director Ralph Hyver held a Q&A after the film and urged the audience to write a review (good or bad) on IMDB. I'll write a capsule here.

Red Ice is a muddled and confusing horror film about a plot by one demon to kill another demon. To add to the mystery, Mr. Wu, the demon's right-hand man, plots to trick a mortal into doing the murder. The film is plagued with too many twists and turns and some wooden acting. I will note that they had a nice scene where the human confronts a rock & roll band in a bar with his flute. His awesome flute playing seduces his target, a female looking demon. Later, his flute is used as the murder instrument. As Joe Bob would say, Flute Fu. The pivotal role in the film was played by Haining, an Asian actor who seemed to play his evil henchman role as if he was channeling a Shaw Brothers film - part obsequious, part sinister, full of facial gestures that would put a opera singer to shame and constantly distracting. Mr. Wu isn't all that is wrong with Red Ice but he is the most visible problem. Director Ralph Hyver showed some skill in Red Ice. It'll be interesting to see what his next directorial project is.

Of the three films, The Craving was best in show. Star Anna Curtis was sufficiently libidinous and murderous as Chef Ronnie Sextos; especially when compared to her co-stars who seemed lost on screen in their respective roles.

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Absentia was my favorite feature film. The plot concerns Tricia, a woman whose husband disappeared years ago. She is still trying to come to grips with his absence when Callie, her younger sister comes to live with her. Still legally married to her missing husband, Tricia is pregnant and the father of Tricia's unborn child is a secret. There are a lot of secrets between the sister. Callie is a recovering drug addict with emphasis on the "recovering" part; she has a stash box. The father of Tricia's child is the detective who investigated her husband's disappearance; talk about conflict of interest. Callie can't move on with her life but is encouraged to have her husband declared legally deceased. The two sisters are pretending to get along until a) Callie has some weird
encounters in a pedestrian tunnel while jogging and b) Tricia's ex-husband shows up (just as she is about to go on a date with the cop).

I won't give up the ending which was a little disappointing to me. The disappearance could be linked to drug use, drug induced hallucination or a evil spider or spirit that lives in the tunnel. Resolving the mystery is secondary in the film as achieving the right tone and atmosphere are given higher priority. In that regard, Absentia fully achieves its goals. Let's face it, these horror films are mostly silly. If a director can achieve some scary moments or creepy atmosphere, s/he has done better than most. Better than most - that's an accurate if not a left-handed compliment for Absentia.

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A number of films just didn't appeal to me for various reasons.

The Oregonian - this was the most anticipated film on the schedule for me. It was advertised that it had played at the 2011 Sundance. It felt more like a Slamdance film. Regardless of its festival pedigree, I found it tedious. It was one of those films where someone dies and her spirit or soul doesn't know what is happening. The audience is treated to a bunch surreal scenes which left me disengaged. Sometimes (increasing often) I doze off during films that bore me. With The Oregonian, I wanted to take a nap during the film. It screened at 9:20 PM and I was planning on catching An Evening with My Comatose Mother at 11:30 so a little catnap would be helpful. Unfortunately, the sound effects were piercing and loud so I couldn't sleep. Perhaps that was the horror aspect of the film - like A Clockwork Orange, I was forced to watch the film, my eyes pried open by cringe-inducing sounds rather than an ocular speculum.

Karate-Robo Zaborgar - I grew up watching Japanese, cyborg, live-action, television series in Hawaii. I spent many hours watching Kikaida and Kamen Rider as a preadolescent. Karate-Robo Zaborgar captures the look and feel of those classics from my childhood but the film dragged on and on. In other words, director Noboru Iguchi seemed to have epic ambitions or a slavish devotion to the source manga. The film would have been infinitely more enjoyable if 20 minutes had been edited out. Iguchi seems to have become a Hole in the Head fixture as this is his third or fourth film over past few years. In my opinion, Machine Girl was far and away his best. Iguchi is also a pinku eiga alumni; in other words he used to make soft core porn before graduating hard-gore horror and J-pop.

Breath of Hate - Jason Mewes, who is best known as Jay opposite Kevin Smith's Silent Bob, is the third lead. The plot involves an hooker who is trying to get out of the life so she can have a serious relationship with Jason Mewes. Her last "date" hooks her up with some mental institution escapees. The rest of the film blurs reality and her torture induced hallucinations. For a hooker who is under the thumb of her pimp, Love (that's her name) is awfully intelligent and strong willed. As a heavy handed scene shows, Love was sexually molested and drug addicted so she didn't live up to her full potential. A hooker film with no nudity that I recall just isn't going to cut it. It's neither fish nor fowl - it's not exploitation and it isn't as substantial as it is pretentious.

The Bleeding House - another pretentious film which allows the suspense to build slowly. It builds so slowly that I lost interest. There is a stranger with a Southern drawl (the bad guy from
Breath of Hate also had a Southern drawl) and a teenage girl who pins dead insect on her bedroom wall as well as breaks the necks of birds. By the time the film climaxes, I had lost interest - mediocre direction (it was Philip Gelatt directorial debut), lackluster acting and a script that might have worked if the direction and acting was better.

I Am Nancy - Who is Nancy? Who is Heather Langenkamp? The film answers those previously unasked questions? Heather Langenkamp played Nancy in the original Nightmare on Elm Street. I didn't remember this but Johnny Depp played Nancy's boyfriend in that film. Whereas Robert Englund has received fame (and riches if he gets any portion of the Freddie merchandise revenue), Langenkamp has been cast in obscurity. Despite Nancy's pivotal role as the ass kicking teenager, Langenkamp is dismayed that Freddie exists in the public consciousness without a worthy adversary...namely Nancy. Langenkamps sees Freddie and Nancy as the yin and yang of horror movie dynamics and all the attention paid to Freddie means the tao of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is seriously out of balance. The film follows Langenkamp as she travels to fan fests throughout the world meeting her modest fan base and opining about the fate of Nancy. She interviews Robert Englund, Wes Craven and others in her quest to resurrect the power of Nancy. Did this subject need a feature documentary? I don't think so.

The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue - speaking of Robert Englund, he has a supporting role in this horror-comedy film as the randy senior citizen who lives in a slum tenement where pets and ultimately humans are disappearing at an alarming rate. The title says it all. The film has a few funny moments. The most memorable feature was the soundtrack which reminded me alot of Elvis Costello from the 1980s.

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My favorite film (short or feature) was Roid Rage about a man with a killer case of hemorrhoids. You've heard of vagina dentata? This the male equivalent. The short film is partly faux movie trailer so it captures the grindhouse look with a generous serving of humor.

Off the Beaten Track is basically Cannibal Holocaust in Australia. The actual attack was a little hard to follow and could have been edited a few minutes but the filmmakers paid sufficient homage to Deodato's classic.

At over 30 minutes, An Evening with My Comatose Mother took its sweet time but a adequately ominous looking court jester doll and an invalid grandma wreak all kinds of havoc on a sexy "babysitter."