Month: April 2017

Film Review: HANGING, USA, Animation

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Played at the March 2017 ANIMATION Film Festival

MOVIE POSTERHANGING, 6min, USA, Animation
Directed by Nick LeDonne

An abstracted animated documentary based off of Nick LeDonne’s personal struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts after a near attempted hanging in November 2014. His feelings of depression are personified through a dark luring fog and a loving mother desperately trying to keep her son alive.

Review by Kierston Drier:

Hanging a USA animation directed by Nick LeDonne, is a deeply emotional, deeply powerful piece that takes a raw and honest look at the seriousness of the depression in the mind of a misunderstood boy longing for comfort.

Told through a voiceless abstract lense, our character battles the onslaught of words and labels- symbologies for the troubling thoughts that plague his mind- and must choose between the relief of death or the trauma of continuing to live. The personification of a mind of suffering may be a difficult viewing experience for some- but for many it will be an eye opening and important film.

There are very few films that so clearly capture the sense of entrapment and suffocation of mental illness. The visual style personifies the depth of despair- something that is perhaps difficult to understand if never experienced first hand.

While Hanging has a darkness to it, it also has unspeakable bravery- a clear and heart wrenching look at the battle one men wages between his inner demons and the sanity of his mind and soul. A difficult film to distill, because it is such a powerful film to witness.

 

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK VIDEO. Moderated b Matthew Toffolo:

Film Review: KAROUMA, United Arab Emirates, Animation

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MOVIE POSTERKAROUMA, 12min, United Arab Emirates, Animation
Directed by Boubaker Boukhari

Karouma is a Unique gift striving to break through and to leave his parent’s nest to live pursue his dreams and live his life in its full potential.

Review by Kierston Drier:

This UAE animation is the story of a strong bright child born without arms. Despite the limitations of their lives, our hero Karouma refuse to lose his sunny disposition and bright optimism.

Perhaps most surprising in this film is that the dialogue is nonsense words- the inflection of speak is certainly there, but what is actually being said is unknown. This creates a beautiful sense of anomie within films’ universe and the child’s world.

Through the eyes of childhood, Karouma is sheltered from the gazes and whispers of the world around him. What matters is not the dialogue, but the actions.

Although fairly sheltered, Karouma is able to break free and see the world, only to discover it a difficult place to be when you are different. But Karouma’s uncrushable spirit allows him to rise above his differences- literally.

Whether symbolic and based on true events, Karouma is a tale of triumph over adversity. Karouma reminds us we are as free and boundless as our imaginations.

 

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK VIDEO. Moderated by Matthew Toffolo:

Film Review: BABY AND GRANNY, Animation

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Played at the March 2017 ANIMATION Film Festival

MOVIE POSTERBABY AND GRANNY, 2min. USA, Animation/Comedy
Directed by Zheng Kang

A 2D animated action-comedy about a baby and granny who share a common bond (Baby’s Mother is Granny’s Daughter) but who fight like crazy when left alone. The visuals are highly-influenced by the work of 60’s Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein

Review by Kierston Drier:

 
Short, punchy and full of action Baby Vs Granny will turn classic familial love of a grandmother and a grandchild on it’s head. This two minute UAE animation directed by Boubaker Boukhari boasted bright colors, lighting fast reflexes and two family members ready to square off when no one else can see them.

This piece totally delivers where color and character are concerned. Stylishly animated mostly in black and white with special attention paid to coloring the main characters, it is a lightening fast and never skips a beat.

It speeds through it’s short time with whirl-wind intensity, feeling like it is only a few seconds long, rather than a few minutes.

A comedy which needs little to know dialogue and is outstandingly visual, BABY AND GRANDMA is an awesome film to watch!

 

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK VIDEO. Moderated by Matthew Toffolo:

Film Review: NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER (USA/Israel 2016)

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

norman.jpgDirector: Joseph Cedar
Writer: Joseph Cedar
Stars: Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Michael Sheen

Review by Gilbert Seah

Not to be confused with the other film NORMAN made in 2010, this new NORMAN comes with a long subtext in the title that essentially tells everyone what the film is about.
Written and directed by Joseph Cedar, NORMAN (film’s original title was OPPENHEIMER STRATEGIES) tells the moderate rise and tragic fall of the said man. The film is well shot and directed as a combination of set pieces are performed almost meticulously by veteran actor Richard Gere. At the age of 67, Gere could be almost be doing old fart movies like GOING IN STYLE. (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin share the average age of 80), Here in NORMAN, Gere is in top form, articulating his character who still has the ability to charm and ‘cheat’ investors of their hard earned savings.

Cedar’s film begins with two dramatic set pieces that show Norman hard at work. In the first, he is unsuccessful while he succeeds in the second. In the first segment, he stalks a high-profile businessman interrupting his private life, while he is jogging in the morning to pitch his deal. In the second, he successfully courts a young politician, Nicha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi) after paying for his shoes at a shoe store. (French actor Isaac Bankole is immediately recognizable as the shoe salesman who flatters Eshel.) Three years pass and Eshel becomes Prime Minister of Israel. Eshel’s name is used to no end by Norman in all his present and future schemes.

At the film’s start in one of Eshel’s speech, he says: “I do not look at the way things are and ask: Why? I look at the way things should be and ask, why not?” The same idea can be used to critique NORMAN. The film is fine but the question that should be asked is what the film should have been with the question why not.

For one, nothing is mentioned of Norman’s background. Norman is shown the way he is – no girlfriend, minimal family and a loner at heart and in life. It is hard to identify with a person like Norman and especially as he is a trickster at heart. Norman has few redeeming qualities. There is no suspense in the way he could have got caught which could have added some needed suspense into an otherwise monotonous film.

Gere is good and the film contains an impressive cast of actors that include French Bankole and Charlotte Gainsbourg and others like Hank Azaria (always appearing in con films), Michael Sheen, Dan Stevens and Steve Buschemi. One could say that Gere is too good looking an actor to play a shady character like Norman. But one could argue too that as Gere said, when he was here for the film at TIFF that it shows that there is a Norman in each one of us.

The film is shot partly in Hebrew and English in New York City where the story is set. NORMAN is not bad but could be better. And why not?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXFCrl37HzU
 

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Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

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Film Article: CINEFRANCO SPECIAL QUEBEC 2017

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Top 25 Films Starring Bela Lugosi

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Talking Pulp's avatarTalking Pulp

I have done a list like this for Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone. I am working my way through all of the legends of classic horror.

So of course, I have to do one for Bela Lugosi.

It was Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula in 1931 that created the image of vampires in cinema and fiction from that point forward.

Even though Dracula is his most famous role, he also went on to star in a slew of other horror classics. He went from being at the forefront of the Universal Monsters franchise to horror legend and to befriending infamous director Ed Wood. He also had a song made about him by the post-punk band Bauhaus.

These are his twenty-five best pictures.

1. Dracula
2. The Wolf Man
3. Son of Frankenstein
4. The Ghost of Frankenstein
5. White Zombie
6. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
7…

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In The Mood For Love (2000) [Romance]

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Nicolò Grasso's avatarEnjoyTheMovies

Directed by Wong Kar-Wai, In The Mood For Love is a Chinese romantic drama starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. It premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and has since received many accolades around the world.

At first glance, the story might sound very familiar: set in 1960s Hong Kong, a man (Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) who live in the same building discover that each other’s spouses are having an affair. They start seeing each other, first re-enacting how their spouses could have fallen in love, and then spending time together chatting and keeping each other company. They do say that they are “not going to be like them”, engaging in a platonic relationship. However, as time goes on, they start having deep feelings about one another.

“Feelings can creep up like that. I thought I was in control”.

– Chow Mo-wan

This sentence perfectly…

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What sets Logan apart from X-Men?

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Sid's avatarDr Ayaz Ahmed Siddiqui

IMG_4015 Watching the film with some fusion spicy dumplings. 

I’ve always enjoyed the thought the provoking stories of X-men franchise that brings it closer to science fiction novels then comic books. But Logan set’s itself apart from the usual plot; it’s not the exceptionally violent and gritty feel of the film, although that plays to the unsettling aura, rather a fresh take on the story of ‘good mutants’.

Set in the near future where mutants in their quest to live harmoniously alongside non-mutants have actually struggled to survive. As if the picture that Charles Xavier had imagined and the course his followers took ultimately backfired, after the events of ‘X3: The Last Stand’.

At first this alternative story line may not seem surprising. After all, this scenario is quite close to what Magneto had been fighting to prevent all along. Although, I imagine that in his version of the clash of species…

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Compare: Movie Posters Back Then and Now

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Film4Fan's avatarFilm 4 Fan

Movie posters were there to persuade you into seeing a certain film, but nowadays they just seem to view them as an obligation, which is a real shame, because movie posters often can be seen as art.

POSTERS BACK THEN

Posters were there from the beginning of film. They were simple and were just there to let you know that a certain film was playing a movie theater. dracula_one_sheet_style_fOf course I’m still talking about the time before trailers were a thing. Yes, I know that Méliès used some form of trailers, by projecting pictures of the films playing at the moment above the entrance of Theatre Robert Houdin, but I mean real movie trailers, with a man talking over them. Back then the posters were hand drawn like this poster of the Dracula film that came out in 1931, about the well-known character. The images depicted on these posters could either…

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Interview with Festival Director Diana Ringo (Prague Independent Film Festival)

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Prague Independent Film Festival (PIFF), established in 2016, is an annual event held in August which focuses on international independent cinema. Its purpose is to recognize and support new filmmakers and to present their films to the Czech audience. The festival includes screenings and an award ceremony where The Golden Eagle is given as the Grand Prix.
http://prague-film-festival.com/

 Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers?

Diana Ringo: Prague Independent Film Festival gives an opportunity for filmmakers to showcase their films, to network, find important contacts and to become part of an elite cultural circle of cinematography. Our film awards are significant and respected; many of our winners have received substantial press coverage from many major press outlets concerning their triumph. Our festival is IMDB qualified event.

What would you expect to experience if you attend the festival this year (2017)?

To see great new films presented by the filmmakers themselves, to participate in discussions and parties.

What are the qualifications for the selected films?

We expect highly artistic films made with different budgets, widely ranging in genres and made in the last two years. At PIFF we screen feature films, short films, experimental films, documentaries and music videos.

Do you think that some films really don’t get a fair shake from film festivals? And if so, why?

Yes, I do think that some films do not receive the recognition they deserve at film festivals. Many large-scale festivals have become so politicized that if a picture does not have a suitable thematic subject it might become lost at the festival circuit. Huge festivals which heavily rely on government funding cannot be fully independent; they are forced to coordinate everything with the powers-that-be which causes the festivals to mirror local political tendencies. Because of this it is important for independent film festivals to exist.

What motivates you and your team to do this festival?

Our immense interest in cinema and desire to create an impact on the cultural scene in Prague.

Where do you see the festival by 2020?

I expect more participants and that we successfully continue our traditions without betraying our core essence.

What film have you seen the most times in your life?

I have seen “À bout de souffle” many times and find it inspiring because it is an important and influential picture made by a young independent director on a limited budget.

In one sentence, what makes a great film?

A great film should be able to make a deep impression and linger in the viewer’s heart and mind.

How is the film scene in your city?

Many beautiful historical cinemas are located in Prague, for example Kino Lucerna which is one of our venues. Cultural life of Czechia is mostly concentrated in Prague, so it was especially important to create a festival here with its rich cultural traditions.

prague_2.jpg

Interviewer Matthew Toffolo is currently the CEO of the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival. The festival that showcases 20-50 screenplay and story readings performed by professional actors every month. And the FEEDBACK Monthly Festival held in downtown Toronto, and Los Angeles at least 2 times a month. Go to www.wildsound.ca for more information and to submit your work to the festival.

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