Arts & Entertainment

 

 

Vancouver International Film Festival
Preview, Volume One

Luke Simcoe, OP Arts Editor

V ¥ ell, it’s that time of year again,

and the Vancouver International Film
Festival is almost upon us. Screening
some three hundred foreign and
independent films, the VIFF is not just
for movie buffs, hipsters and indie film
nerds, but rather anyone who’s tired (or
tiring...) of all the pap that passes for
cinema coming out of Hollywood.

The festival doesn’t get under way
until September 27, but to whet your
appetites for alternative films, the OP
will be sneak previewing 10 films a
week until it begins. This first batch is
culled directly from the festival’s media
kit, but advance screenings start this
week, so expect some more original
content in the next issue.

One of the first films that first
caught my attention was Persepolis
(Iran, 95 min.): “The Ayatollah
Khomeini meets Iron Maiden in this
spirited adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s
celebrated graphic novel. When
Iran’s Islamic Revolution hits home,
nineteen year-old Marjane remains
determined to discover all that life has
to offer, including punk rock, boys and
rebellion.” Douglas’ own Dr. Peter
Wilkins teaches the graphic novel in his
Major Themes in Literature course, so
check it out and try to score some extra
credit.

Never one to exclude local content,
the festival will also be screening
The Prince of Pot: The US vs. Marc
Emery (Canada, 52 min.): “Martin
Luther King Jr., Gandhi... Marc Emery?
Is his fight against extradition to the
United States for selling weed seeds
also about Canadian sovereignty, unjust
prohibition and silencing political
dissidence? Nick Wilson’s provocative
documentary asks this and more about
one of Vancouver’s most notorious
residents.”

Sticking with CanCon, there’s also
The Tracy Fragments (Canada, 78
min.): “Bruce McDonald’s (the man
behind Hard Core Logo and Lexx) latest
is fragmented and granular story of 15
year-old Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page,
Hard Candy, X-Men: The Last Stand),
who we find traumatized and sitting in
the back of a bus, naked except for a
torn shower curtain.”

For fans of the Jason Bourne series,
there’s the Canadian premiere of The
Champagne Spy (Israel/Germany, 91
min.): “A fascinating real-life tale of
intrigue, espionage, love and betrayal,
Nadav Schirman’s film relates the life
and times of a high-level Mossad agent
who posed as an ex-Nazi millionaire,
champion horse breeder and leisurely
socialite. He took on this long-term
personae so that-he could mingle with
scientists and the Egyptian elite. The
tale is told by his mystified son.”

In the wake of the release
Mulroney’s memoirs, it might be

poignant to catch Elijah (Canada, 88
min.): “In 1990, the fate of the Meech
Lake Accord (and possibly Canada)
hung on a single word by Elijah Harper:
No. Paul Unwin directs this dazzling
biopic about the man that dared to

defy Brian Mulroney as he held in his
hand not only an eagle feather, but the
direction of our democracy.”

I hated the book when I had to read
it in high school, but I’m pretty excited
about The Stone Angel (Canada, 115
min.): “The irascible and fiercely proud
Hagar Shipley (Ellen Burstyn in an
outstanding performance) escapes from
home when her son and daughter-in-law
tell her she must move into nursing care.
Kari Skogland has done an excellent job
of conveying the wit, sexual frankness
and elegantly shifting time structures of
Margaret Laurence’s classic novel.”

No film fest is complete without
some controversy, and I’m sure there’s
a reason why the filmmakers chose
Vancouver as the place to screen For
the Bible Tells Me So (USA, 95 min.):
“What does the bible actually say about
homosexuality? The hermeneutics of
hate are detailed in Daniel Karslake’s
documentary that follows five Christian
families, each with a gay member.
Winner of Audience Award for Best
Documentary at the Seattle Film
Festival.”

Having just joined the bicycle
class, I’m tempted to go and see Island
Etude (Taiwan, 108 min.): “Taiwan’s
surprise box office hit of 2007, Chen
Huai-en’s lyrical road movie is about
university student Ming who bicycles
around Taiwan in one week. Elegiac and
intensely local, set off by breathtaking
seascapes, it offers vivid portraits of the
people he meets enroute.”

The film-most-likely-to-succeed
outside the festival is No Country
for Old Men (USA, 122 min.): “The
Coen Brothers return to Blood Simple
territory in this adaptation of Cormac
McCarthy’s celebrated novel. Two
million in cash, a quantity of heroin and
a pile of corpses are only the beginning
in this serpentine tale.”

And finally, there’s Young People
Fucking (Canada, 95 min.): “Martin
Gero’s feature debut is a smart and
fast-paced comedy that intertwines
the stories of five couples over the
course of one sexual encounter. As the
couples attempt to have some seemingly
straightforward sex, they run into all
sorts of problems.”

The VIFF will be running until
October 12, and screening at a variety
of theatres in Vancouver. For more
information, check out www. viff.org.

 

Persepolis

   
   

Island Etude

No Country for Old Men

13