weblog/photolog by Milo Vermeulen milov.nl

Number of feature-length films seen: 29

Number of short films seen: 7

Number of legs worn out from the constant sitting in cramped theaters: 2

Number of times I found myself sitting next to snoring journalists: 1 (maintaining my record from last year)

Favourites: It's Only Talk, NEXT, Linda Linda Linda, Play, Ahlaam, Princess Raccoon, Haze and Taking Father Home.

Also very good were: Blue Cha Cha, The Magicians, Citizen Dog, Black Brush, Some Kinda Love, Heart, Beating in the Dark and Langer Licht.

Funniest Q&A: David Lammers after Langer Licht.

Cutest producer/director couple: Peng Shan and Ying Liang of Taking Father Home.

Funniest moment in any film: the Don't try this at home, kids! freeze-frame in The Great Yokai War.

Number of films seen that feature a Susumu Terajima appearance: 1 (out of a possible 3), upping my Susumu-index from 24 to 25.

Best soundtracks: Linda Linda Linda, NEXT and Black Brush.

Best poster (though I can't find a big version online): Blue Cha Cha.

View my complete list of IFFR-related posts...

Seen on the last day of the festival:

Taking Father Home

Ultra-low-budget or not, this was a pretty good film, making the absolute most of limited means and amateur actors. The combination of "distant" cinematography and the realistic and close-up feel of cheap-DV-camera footage in general gave this an interesting atmosphere.

Vendredi Ou Un Autre Jour

Seen on friday:

A Little Trip To Heaven

Best part of this film was seeing Forest Whitaker (who talks with a weird voice here which took some getting used to) walking through all the wonderfully grimy looking landscapes and locations. Interesting soundtrack too. Story could have been a little better though.

Blue Cha Cha

Beautifully shot, with quite moving performances.

Glue

Midnight, My Love

Beautiful and funny in a lot of ways, but slightly spoilt by a couple of strange and fantastical plot twists near the end.

Seen today:

It's Only Talk

Another favourite... Simply beautiful. And quite a fun experience to suddenly recognize one of the characters as being the same actor playing the villain in The Great Yokai War, which I saw only hours before.

The Great Yokai War

Don't try this at home, kids!

Walking On The Wild Side

Analife

Wrong (short)

Seen yesterday:

Green Mind, Metal Bats

9 Dragons

Princess Raccoon

Somehow I was expecting this to be a much grander, epic tale, but it really does have the feel of a theater/musical stage most of the time (though there are a couple of great outside location shots). Simply a very colourful, very uplifting and most of all very silly film, with a wide variety of musical styles. Not a bad choice for 09:45 in the morning.