Festival Circuit 2024

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Festival Circuit 2024

#1 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Jan 27, 2024 8:26 pm

I don't think we have a Festival Circuit 2024 thread yet

I'm curious of anyone is planning to attend the $25 screenings available at Sundance - some are sold out, but I'm pretty in the dark about a few of the ones still open if anybody has thoughts

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The Curious Sofa
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:18 am

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#2 Post by The Curious Sofa » Sat Feb 24, 2024 6:52 am

I went to the premiere of the German-Austrian Des Teufels Bad/The Devil's Bath at the Berlin International Film Festival. It's the third dramatic feature by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who previously made two horror films that relied heavily on plot twists, Goodnight Mommy and The Lodge. I wasn't a big fan of the first one, but I think The Lodge is underrated, and where some were disappointed that the twist was not
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supernatural,
I thought the resolution was quite clever.

With their new film they try to move away from genre fare with a historical drama, although they are not above a few jump scares and the beginning and end of the film are probably the most horrific things they have ever put on screen. It's the two hours that make up the bulk of the film, that's the problem for me. A prologue sets the course and the rest is easy to guess, but it unfolds at an agonisingly slow pace. The filmmakers were inspired by historical records of a loophole in Christian doctrine,
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that a Christian who committed suicide in 18th century Europe would be condemned to eternal damnation because they could not be absolved of their sins. So the good Christian way of suicide was to commit murder, confess and be absolved of all sins and then face suicide by execution. The end informs us that most of these murderers were women who killed children and that there are hundreds of documented cases.
The problem for me is that the filmmakers don't translate this into a compelling drama. Once our protagonist falls into depression, you know where this is going. It feels like a modern, vaguely feminist thread has been grafted onto the story, which never really made me believe in its past. It's not like The Witch, which it resembles in some ways, but which I found far more compelling because its past, including the way the characters act, felt so authentic and therefore utterly alien. The course the female lead is on here reminded me of many women-on-the-verge psychodramas, something they did more successfully with The Lodge.

I never found my way into the plight of Agnes, who isn't happy in her new marriage, but whose life doesn't seem so bad for an 18th century peasant. And while the lead actress, Anja Plaschg, gives a technically accomplished performance of mental disintegration, she never really drew me in. The cinematography is beautiful, at times reminiscent of 70s Werner Herzog, and the score, composed by the lead actress, who is also an Austrian DJ and musician, is effective. So far this has received rave reviews, so I seem to be in the minority.

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The Curious Sofa
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:18 am

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#3 Post by The Curious Sofa » Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:31 pm

I managed to catch two more films at the Berlinale. The first one was a fluke, in a rush to get an online ticket for A Different Man before they sold out, I clicked the Danish Vogter/Sons by mistake and only noticed when I got the email. Then I read up on it and saw that it stars one of my favorite actors, Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen, The Duke of Burgundy), so I was happy enough to go and see it. It's the second film by Gustav Möller who previously made The Guilty and all I remember about that one-location thriller is that I didn't much care for it, though enough people must have as it was remade with Jake Gyllenhaal. Vogter is also mostly set in one location, a men's prison where Knudsen plays a prison officer whose life is shaken up when a violent prisoner gets transferred to her prison, who turns out to be someone from her past. She gets herself moved to his high-security ward and proceeds to make life difficult for him, till he turns the tables on her. The best thing about the film is Knudsen who excels at playing authority figures with a mixture of toughness and vulnerability, so the part is made for her. There are some serious credibility issues I couldn't get past and it feels like the actors had been instructed to leave long pauses between sentences to add gravity, which hobbles the pacing. In the end, the film is watchable enough but doesn't amount to much and it's certainly not something that should be in competition at one of the major film festivals, which speaks to the general crisis this festival is in.

The last film I saw was Sasquatch Sunset by Nathan and David Zeller. With this absurdist, one-joke comedy it depends on how funny you find the joke but it won me over. The structure resembles that of a nature documentary, chronicling one ill-fated year in the life of a Sasquatch family. Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg are unrecognizable under the makeup, in what is impressive creature design. The film looks and sounds beautiful thanks to the gorgeous cinematography and a soulful indie-folk score by The Octopus Project. This is in stark contrast to the sheer ridiculousness of these creatures, who keep getting themselves into trouble thanks to being incredibly dim. Initially, I doubted the film could sustain itself, but there are some genuinely funny set pieces along the way, and while the gross-out jokes keep coming, as the film goes on it becomes more serious and melancholy. There are moments of genuine pathos, the Big Foots are essentially harmless (the younger of the two kids tries to kiss every wild animal it comes across, which doesn't always go well), they may well be the last ones of their kind and not all of them make it to the end.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Festival Circuit 2024

#4 Post by Matt » Sun Feb 25, 2024 4:35 pm

Mati Diop (of Atlantique fame) won the Golden Bear for her documentary Dahomey

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- Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: “A Traveler’s Needs,” Hong Sangsoo
- Silver Bear Jury Prize: “The Empire,” Bruno Dumont
- Silver Bear for Best Director: “Pepe,” Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias
- Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance: “A Different Man,” Sebastian Stan
- Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance: “Small Things Like These,” Emily Watson
- Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: “Dying,” Matthias Glasner
- Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: “The Devil’s Bath,” Martin Gschlacht, cinematography

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The Curious Sofa
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:18 am

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#5 Post by The Curious Sofa » Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:37 am

Awarding The Empire the Jury Prize, really says it all.

With the festival taking place in February, in the middle of awards season, there are not enough worthwhile films to premiere and this year was especially weak. They either have to push it to an earlier date or have it become more like the BFI London Film Festival and let it be more of a summation of previous film festivals. But Berlin wants its stars and its red carpets, even though the German movie stars make a point of dressing down as much as possible, so you end up with a lot of scruffy men in ugly jumpers clogging up the tabloids because Berlin doesn't do glamour.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Festival Circuit 2024

#6 Post by Matt » Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:50 pm

It’s not the date of the festival. All winners of this year’s awards will have an asterisk next to them since many filmmakers quietly withheld their films from Berlin because of the current climate in Germany regarding speech restrictions on government-sponsored cultural institutions. I don’t have the time to go into it all here, but the recent kerfuffle over Masha Gessen receiving the Hannah Arendt Prize will give you some idea of what’s going on.

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The Curious Sofa
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:18 am

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#7 Post by The Curious Sofa » Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:59 pm

Matt wrote:
Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:50 pm
It’s not the date of the festival. All winners of this year’s awards will have an asterisk next to them since many filmmakers quietly withheld their films from Berlin because of the current climate in Germany regarding speech restrictions on government-sponsored cultural institutions. I don’t have the time to go into it all here, but the recent kerfuffle over Masha Gessen receiving the Hannah Arendt Prize will give you some idea of what’s going on.
Well, thanks for trying to explain the current political situation over Gaza in my country to me, I would never have known. Artists boycotting any cultural event or competition over this issue are not going to be quiet and we currently have a political scandal preoccupying the media here in Berlin, due to very outspoken pro-Palestine/anti-Israel filmmakers, who didn't boycott the festival.

This isn't a 2024 problem, the decline of the festival has caused a lot of handwringing here for well over a decade. The February date is one of its main problems, coming right after Sundance, which gets many films that would be right for Berlin. The most high profile Berlinale films usually already had their premiere at Sundance, like Past Lives last year. Also, Berlin is truly grim in February, who would choose our red carpet over Cannes a few months later, which any high profile filmmaker would rather wait for. The other problem is poor choices and leadership by the last few festival directors. It's rare that a Berlin prize winner goes on to international success these days, the festival has long been undeserving to being mentioned alongside Cannes or Venice.

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togg
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:00 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#8 Post by togg » Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:36 am

The Curious Sofa wrote:
Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:59 pm
Matt wrote:
Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:50 pm
It’s not the date of the festival. All winners of this year’s awards will have an asterisk next to them since many filmmakers quietly withheld their films from Berlin because of the current climate in Germany regarding speech restrictions on government-sponsored cultural institutions. I don’t have the time to go into it all here, but the recent kerfuffle over Masha Gessen receiving the Hannah Arendt Prize will give you some idea of what’s going on.
Well, thanks for trying to explain the current political situation over Gaza in my country to me, I would never have known. Artists boycotting any cultural event or competition over this issue are not going to be quiet and we currently have a political scandal preoccupying the media here in Berlin, due to very outspoken pro-Palestine/anti-Israel filmmakers, who didn't boycott the festival.

This isn't a 2024 problem, the decline of the festival has caused a lot of handwringing here for well over a decade. The February date is one of its main problems, coming right after Sundance, which gets many films that would be right for Berlin. The most high profile Berlinale films usually already had their premiere at Sundance, like Past Lives last year. Also, Berlin is truly grim in February, who would choose our red carpet over Cannes a few months later, which any high profile filmmaker would rather wait for. The other problem is poor choices and leadership by the last few festival directors. It's rare that a Berlin prize winner goes on to international success these days, the festival has long been undeserving to being mentioned alongside Cannes or Venice.
why would you need to compete with two commercial mainstream festival? Under Chatrian the Berlinale showed different kind of movies, politics just want to make it commercial. Nothing more to say.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#9 Post by zedz » Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:17 pm

togg wrote:
Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:36 am
why would you need to compete with two commercial mainstream festival?
Because the funders and sponsors of the festival are more interested in glitzy events and visiting celebrities (and being seen to be in the same 'class' as Cannes and Venice) than in just showing good films?

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togg
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:00 pm

Re: Festival Circuit 2024

#10 Post by togg » Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:54 pm

zedz wrote:
Tue Feb 27, 2024 5:17 pm
togg wrote:
Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:36 am
why would you need to compete with two commercial mainstream festival?
Because the funders and sponsors of the festival are more interested in glitzy events and visiting celebrities (and being seen to be in the same 'class' as Cannes and Venice) than in just showing good films?
I get what you mean but even then public funds are the main financers of the festivals, not private sponsors.

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