June 2006 (continued)

Midnight Eye interviews Shunichi Nagasaki (one of the directors in focus at the IFFR a couple of months ago) [via]

April 2006

Black Brush official site [via]

Blue Cha Cha stills and behind-the-scenes shots on Flickr [via]

Blue Cha Cha official site (one of the better films I saw at the IFFR) [related]

February 2006

IFFR day 10

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

IFFR day 9

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.

IFFR day 8

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)

IFFR day 7

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.

January 2006

IFFR day 6

Shanghai Dreams
La Perrerra
Langer Licht: One of the best things about this showing was the Q&A with director David Lammers afterwards, which was definitely the funniest and most enthousiastic I've seen yet.
NEXT: A Primer On Urban Painting: I wasn't expecting to vote 5-out-of-5 on a documentary this week, but I did today. This film is simply dripping with awesomeness; the first one I'm seriously considering attending a second time. Packed with so much inspirational and original and varied art and design from all over the world - all set to great music of course. Highlights: the trek deep into a cave below the Paris underground to find tags from the 19th century, the ninja-like Tokyo speed-taggers, and the pleasure of seeing the PIPSlab 3D lightsigs on a giant cinema screen.

Clear People: Basically a collage of scenes and sounds in and around an apartment complex, emphasis more on the surroundings than on the people. Lots of interesting shots that made me wish the picture quality/resolution was better.
Linda Linda Linda: Probably the movie I had the highest expectations for, and though it started a little slow, I was not disappointed. Lots of very funny moments, some subtle, some not so subtle but not at all as slapstick-y as I was fearing. With a great soundtrack (highlight: a version of Happy End's 風来坊 by 湯川潮音). My new favourite.
Black Brush: Since Ode to Joy was sold out I went to this one instead, which turned out to be very funny and entertaining. With a very cool occasional thumping soundtrack-beat by the director's brother, that I wish would occur even more often during the film.
Play: Beautiful Chilean film. Reminiscent of Amélie in parts, though far less fantastical. Another definite favourite.
Look for Me (short)

Zone 5300: Film Festival Rotterdam 2006

IFFR day 4

Some Kinda Love: Nagasaki's films are turning out to be quite good fallback-choices; at the very least the Q&As afterwards with Nagasaki and his wife Mizushima are always entertaining. At this (very enjoyable) film in particular since it featured Mizushima in the leading role.
Trying To Kiss The Moon: Lots of walk-outs at this one; I guess people expecting something like an actual film with an actual story could only be disappointed in Stephen Dwoskin's seemingly endless collage of old home video and film clips.

IFFR day 3

pathé nightshot
Didn't have anything planned for today (most interesting films were sold out and most non-sold-out films didn't seem interesting), but decided at the last minute to attend the Nagasaki Shunichi interview in the Schouwburg, which inspired me to go and see his Heart, Beating in the Dark (new version), which turned out to be pretty good.

The Lonely Hearts Club Band In September
Citizen Dog: Best film I've attended so far. Extremely colourful, funny, full of original special effects / fantasy sequences, with a great musical opening.
Daddy's Vacation (short)

IFFR vipspotting

Tony Rayns, Nagasaki Shunichi, translator guy and Mizushima Kaori at the Q&A after Wild Side/After That, all completely blinded by the stage lights, unable to see who in the audience wanted to ask a question.

The Lost Hum: Having to wait for 30 minutes until the "technical difficulties" with the projector were solved made this seem a very long sitting, but still an impressive unusual and original film.
Ahlaam: The first and only Iraqi film I've ever seen, and it's a great one... Shot with mostly non-actors in various very photogenic locations in and outside of Baghdad, all the more amazing after hearing the director talk about how the crew itself had (and has) to deal with threats and kidnappings as well.
The Magicians (short): Very moving 40 minute story filmed in one single continuous shot by Song Ilgon (three films of whom appear in my best-of-2005 list).
Haze (short): Shinya Tsukamoto's amazingly intense vision of claustrophic hell, painful to watch at times but still left me wanting for more. Looking forward to seeing the extended 49 minute version.
Worldly Desires (short)
After That: The first Nagasaki film I saw, apparently one of his most inaccessible (or so Tony Rayns warned). A behind-the-scenes documentary with very poor picture and sound quality, the first half is difficult to sit through, but the second half gets quite funny and exciting as the filmcrew secretly trails the girlfriend of one of the actors through Tokyo.
Wild Side (short)

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