VIFF Day 1

You, the Living

A pivotal moment finds itself in a psychiatrist's grievance that his patients complain about their unhappiness, but few of them recognize how selfish they are. The brief moment implies the foundation of the film, essentially comprising vignettes of people vocalizing their unhappiness - to family, friends, bystanders, or even us the audience. Uttered more than once is the common reason for misery: "Nobody understands me." But the fact is clear: nobody cares. Everybody wants to be heard, but nobody wants to listen to another person's misery.

To illustrate the idea that moping is an uneconomical act of stagnation, Andersson chooses caricatures to act out several common scenarios that could upset people. Sometimes the scenes are as realistic as they are commonplace, at other times they are as exaggerated as they are absurd - but a comical undertone runs beneath all of them. It seems that Andersson's goal is not to undermine or ridicule people's reasons for sadness; instead, he wants us to examine the scenarios from a more objective angle and realize that there are ways out. Complaining is not one of them.

Technically, the movie is perfect. Wide angles and deep spaces add texture to the already painterly compositions. Music flows from one scene to another but hardly tries to impose any emotion.

Glory to the Filmmaker!

Possibly Kitano's worst film. When voice-over gets used, one knows that something is wrong with the artist we admire so much. There are hardly any quiet moments that Kitano is so good at creating. This movie is loud, unfunny, and worst of all - unimaginative. When Tony Rayns chooses the ninja episode as his favorite, we know that he is running out of good things to say at the same time when Kitano is running out of ideas. Daring, however, is a good word to describe the film. Many scenes showcase enough bad taste to make the film look like a suicide project. Judging from Kitano's recent success, there is no reason for him to trash his creativity like this.

Walkouts: Atonement and The Elephant and the Sea

Atonement is a lot better than I thought. The cinematography is terrific, the use of music is remarkably sparse, the acting is as natural as it gets in an Oscar bait. A few scenes get replayed from different points of view. There is also one of the hottest make-out scenes I've ever seen. In the middle of the film, out of nowhere comes a bizarre and ostentatious 3-minute tracking shot of a massive army camp along a beach. God knows how much money has been invested in this one shot. I had to leave after the shot to catch The Elephant and the Sea... which to me really looks like an imitation of Tsai Ming Liang without any of his focus on loneliness and communication. The bottom line is that The Elephant and the Sea feels empty - and the warped aspect ratio certainly didn't change my mind of walking out.

I kind of wished that I had stayed to watch Atonement.