Film review: THE FAIRY (MIFF 2011)

My 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has kicked off with a leisurely - and to my mind, sane - pace: two films in two days. I was asked if I'd participate in the MIFF Blog-A-Thon this year, but while flattered, I said no: given everything else on in Melbourne at the moment, including the Melbourne Cabaret Festival and State of Design, there's no way I'd have the time to see 60 films in 17 days (an average of 3.5 films a day, though six brave/insane souls have accepted the challenge, and bravo to them).

Nonetheless, I do intend to try and review most of what I see at the festival this year, though I'm well aware that time constraints and other issues will cause my blog entries to become increasingly sporadic and minimal as the festival unfolds. Nonetheless, hopefully I get to write about most of the 40-odd films I plan to see. Let's give it a shot, shall we?

THE FAIRY (dir. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon & Bruno Romy, France/Belgium, 2011, 93 mins)

My first film at the 60th MIFF was the opening night feature; a wry, absurd and charming comedy set in the grimy port city Le Havre. After the disappointment of last year's opening night film, the muddled Australian rom-com The Wedding Party (which has yet to gain release either at the cinema or on DVD) I approached The Fairy with some trepidation. I need not have been so suspicious. It was delightful; a perfect film to kick off a night of celebrations at Melbourne Town Hall.

Dom (Abel) is a gangly, awkward clerk in a rundown hotel whose life is transformed when he meets the barefoot Fiona (Gordon). Claiming to be a fairy, she grants him three wishes, the first of which immediately come true.But is she really a fairy, or an escapee from the local mental hospital?

The question quickly becomes irrelevant thanks to the film's deft combination of slapstick, farce, magic realism, graceful dance sequences (one underwater, the other on a rooftop) and a charming array of characters, none of which are traditionally attractive - a refreshing change from the romantic leads in more mainstream fare.

Setting its tone almost immediately with a droll routine in which the increasingly frustrated Dom attempts to settle down with a video and and a late-night sandwich, only to be interrupted by a string of customers, The Fairy is a skillfully made comedy that gently reminds us of the plight of refugees in modern Europe, and of the power of love, without resorting to heavy-handed tactics or twee clichés.

Framed and shot in such a way that constantly reminds us we are watching a story - a deliberate reference to Abel & Gordon's earlier careers as theatre makers, perhaps - and featuring a hilarious car and scooter chase up a mountain acknowledging an earlier cinematic tradition, this whimsical film will certainly not be to everyone's tastes. Memorable, distinctive and gently madcap, it was a delightful way to get the 60th MIFF underway.

Rating: Three and a half stars

MIFF Diary Part the Sixth

LOUISE-MICHEL
(Dir. Gustave de Kervern & Benoit Delepine, 2008)

Screening as part of the festival's 'Vengeance is Mine' stream, a program of films about retribution, is this macabre French-Belgian comedy about a team of female factory workers who hire a hitman to take out their boss when he closes their manufacturing plant down.

September 11 conspiracy theorists, people smuggling, the green movement and rampant capitalism all cop a serve along the way, as a bumbling pair - Louise (Yolande Moreau), an antisocial and illiterate man who is pretending to be a woman in order to find work after serving 15 years in prison; and Michel (Bouli Lanners) a woman living as a man after taking too many hormones as a child in order to become a champion hammer-thrower - try and track down and kill the man responsible for the factory's misfortune.

This comedy is as black as it gets (as evidenced by a scene where the bumbling and slovenly Michel weasels out of shooting the capitalist responsible for the factory's closure by talking his cousin, who is dying of cancer, into doing the job for him) although an all-pervasive melancholy also infuses the story to strong effect.

The film's acerbic tone won't be to everyone's taste, nor will it's occasionally uneven pace, but I was delighted by Louise-Michel, laughing uproariously throughout.

Rating: Three and a half stars


KISSES
(Dir. Lance Daly, 2008)

This simple indie charmer - written, directed and shot by Lance Daly and set a few days before Christmas - is the story of two not-quite-teens, Dylan (Shane Curry, who was 12 at the time of shooting) and Kylie (Kelly O'Neill, 11) who flee their abusive homes in a grim estate where dead dogs and broken bikes lie scattered beside the roads, in order to scour the streets of Dublin in search of Dylan's older brother.

Kylie fights with her sister and lives in fear of her abusive uncle Maurice; Dylan tries to drown out his father and step-mother's fighting by playing computer games. But when he tries to stop his dad from hitting his step-mother, Dylan's father turns on him.

The dramatic and dynamic sequence in which Kylie helps Dylan escape his dad by climbing through the bathroom window and down a ladder is superbly shot, staged and edited; one of several beautiful sequences in the film.

Hitching a lift with a canal bargeman (David Bendito), who introduces them to the music of Bob Dylan along the way, once the pair are in Dublin the film skillfully captures the sheer, unfettered joy of childhood; countered with several scenes of high tension which are made all the more menacing by the protagonists' young ages and their unfettered, innocent performances.

Kisses opens in black and white, but colour starts to slowly leach into the film as the kids make their way towards Dublin. In less competent hands this effect could have been mawkish, or an irritating reference to The Wizard of Oz; but Daly plays it so subtly that it works beautifully - especially in a final, magical moment at the film's end.

While one scene in particular - a chase sequence the likes of which I've never seen before - may strain credibility to a degree, overall I found Kisses to be a charming, touching and near-perfect film despite its slight nature and brief running time. An uncredited cameo by Stephen Rea as Bob Dylan, and a great soundtrack, are also among the highlights.

Without doubt, my favourite film of the festival to date, even though I struggled at times to decipher some of the dialogue due to the heavy Irish accents featured in the film (optional subtitles will probably be added for the local DVD release, I'm told).

Rating: Four and a half stars

MIFF: Fri 27 July - Sat 28 July

Real life keeps getting in the way of the Melbourne International Film Festival this year, which means I've only seen half the films I'd planned to see so far. What I have seen so far has been pretty dark, as the following brief reviews will show: murder, AIDS, incest and bestiality!

CORROBOREE (dir Ben Hackworth, Aus 2007)









The debut feature by young Melbourne director Ben Hackworth is a deliberately eliptical film in which tone and mood are more important than traditional three-act narrative structure. You can read my article about the film here, in MCV, which certainly helped me understand what was unfolding on screen. Many among the audience lacked such insight, which resulted in a large number of walkouts at it's Melbourne premiere on Friday night.

This slow-moving story about a dying gay man who hires a young straight boy to re-enact key scenes from his life in a final bid to come to terms with himself and his sexuality was often striking, but too often felt a little too 70s art film for my tastes. Nonetheless, I'd rather see an ambitious failure than a bland success any day.

SAVAGE GRACE (dir. Tom Kalin, USA, 2007)









The second feature film from director Tom Kalin (Swoon) in 15 years, Savage Grace is the true story of Barbara Baekland, a society dame who was murdered by her own son, Tony, in 1972. It seems that Tony eventually snapped after his mother's repeated attempts to cure his homosexuality by fucking him drove him over the edge.

This beautifully presented story of murder, class and incest is not for everyone, but I found its superb central performance by Julianne Moore as Barbara; its gorgeous texture and composition; and uncomfortably riveting plot quite fascinating.

On Saturday I was lucky enough to present a conversation with Tom Kalin at the festival, which despite a relatively small audience went over extremely well. Look for a full transcript of our hour-long some in the coming weeks on Senses of Cinema (I hope!).

THE WITNESSES (dir. Andre Techine, France, 2007)









Set in the first years of the AIDS pandemic, at a time when the HIV virus was just being discovered, this vibrantly-shot film about the impact of the disease on a tight-knit group of friends was less engaging than I had hoped. Indeed at one stage, about a third of the way into the film, I was seriously considering walking out. By its final third it had re-engaged my interest, to the point of tears, but nonetheless I can't really recommend it with much enthusiasm.

Performances are good but never great, while the story itself tells us nothing new as AIDS dramas go, failing to ever really dig deep into the psyches of the characters concerned or give us a fresh perspective on those first, terrifying years of the crisis, when gay men were dropping like flies.

ZOO (dir. Robinson Devor, USA, 2006)










My high hopes for this documentary about a famous case of bestiality (or zoophilia, as the film's subjects would no doubt prefer to be described) faded before it even began, thanks to a projection fault at the Greater Union Cinema which saw the film's starting time delayed by almost 20 minutes. When it eventually began, it was slightly out of focus, and remained that way for the rest of the screening.

Exploring the 2005 case of a man who bled to death after being fucked by a horse, which led to a clandestine network of zoophiles - or zoos, as they call themselves - being uncovered, director Devor has chosen to make a poetic, dreamlike film, instead of a more traditionally structured documentary. The result, while pleasant enough, fails to get inside the heads of its interviewees, and so consequently never really engages with its subject matter to any real degree. A pretty to watch but ultimately unsatisfying documentary.

CORROBOREE: Two stars
SAVAGE GRACE: Three and a half stars
THE WITNESSES: Two and a half stars
ZOO: Two stars