23rd
Portland International Film Festival
Feb. 11-27
http://www.nwfilm.org
or call 221-1156 for schedule and ticket information.
It's that time of year again, the exhausting (but often entertaining)
period when the Northwest Film Center inundates Portland with
some of the best and, sometimes, the most overrated movies
from all over the globe. As usual, the festival boasts a variety
of movies from such faraway places as Mali, Senegal and Israel
and within all genres--comedy, drama, music and documentary
(OK, there are no slasher pictures here, but there should
be). Mixed with films by renowned filmmakers such as Werner
Herzog (My Best Fiend), Errol Morris (Mr. Death)
and Chen Kaige (The Emperor and the Assassin) are also
many interesting directorial efforts by newcomers including
actor Tim Roth's The War Zone, Justin Kerrigan's Human
Traffic and Marc Recha's The Tree of Cherries.
Here's a look at what's screening during the first week of
the festival. (KM)
OPENING NIGHT: Friday, Feb. 11
THE CARRIERS ARE WAITING
Director Benoît Mariage's The Carriers Are
Waiting feels like a feature-film debut, complete with
awkwardness and startling moments of promise and beauty.
The film chronicles the tragi-comic shenanigans of Roger
Closset (Benoît Poelvoorde), a photographer for a
tabloid newspaper who dreams of making some kind of impression
on the world. After local merchants sponsor a contest for
new world records, he becomes obsessed with making his 15-year-old
son Michel (Jean-Francois Devigne) the champion of opening
and closing doors. As the father's selfish desire for fame
and a new car becomes increasingly disturbing, the film
twists and turns from darkness to light, often very sloppily.
But there is much to admire here, particularly the superb
acting and the absolutely beautiful black-and-white cinematography.
NR, Belgium (KM)
Broadway Cinemas, 1000 SW Broadway, 7:30 pm; also 3:30
pm Feb. 13.
ME MYSELF I
Australian Pip Karmel's debut, Me
Myself I, is a smart comedy with a clever premise: Pamela
(Rachel Griffith) is a successful but lonely journalist
who gets to explore an alternate reality. Thirteen years
ago she decided not to marry longtime beau Robert (David
Roberts), but suddenly Pamela finds herself zapped into
a life in which she said yes to marriage, kids and an SUV.
Through a series of quietly surreal escapades, Karmel creates
a tantalizing reflection on the magnitude of the choices
we make and then have to live by. NR, Australia (BL)
Movie House, 1220 SW Taylor St., 7 pm; also 1:30 pm
Feb. 12 and 7 pm Feb. 13.
WELCOME BACK, MR. MCDONALD
This frantically paced
Japanese comedy is an enjoyable lark in the classic tradition
of American screwball comedy. Taking place in one day, the
story involves a prim Tokyo housewife who wins a contest
that puts her radio play on the air with real actors. Things
go topsy-turvy when the lead actress changes her humble
character of a fisherman's wife into a high-powered New
York lawyer named Mary Jane, thus beginning a spiraling
madness of production changes both before and during live
airtime. Though some jokes fail, the film is so buoyant
and likable that it would be tough for any viewer to sit
through it with a straight face. NR, Japan (KM)
Broadway Cinemas, 7 pm; also 3:30 and 5:45 pm Feb. 12.
The First Week:
1999 MADELEINE
Madeleine (Vera Briole) is a 30ish
woman who quietly sews clothes in a dead-end seamstress
shop and desperately wants love. The mousy protagonist pores
over horoscopes, indulges in flimsy spirituality, takes
out a singles ad and even allows men (entirely the wrong
types) into her apartment. Briole plays her as a cipher
and does such a good job that you wouldn't be the least
bit surprised to learn she was, à la The Sixth
Sense, a ghost throughout the entire picture. Though
the film is shot with an interesting use of color and camera
angles, Madeleine's premise is too obvious and, worse,
not as darkly humorous as it should be. NR, France (KM)
Movie House, 4:30 pm Feb. 12; Broadway Cinemas, 7:15
pm Feb. 13 and 8:45 pm Feb. 14.
CHILDREN OF CHABANNES
Lisa Gossels' film documents a
small school in rural France that rescued approximately
400 Jewish children--including Gossels' father--from the
clutches of the Vichy government that conspired with the
Nazis during World War II. Gossels combines interviews with
survivors and three of the school's former teachers, who
recount passionately the terror and exhilaration of the
times. That Holocaust documentaries have become increasingly
common dulls the impact of an already routinely assembled
film. But the passion brought by Gossels' special connection
to the story makes Children of Chabannes engrossing.
NR, USA (BL)
Guild Theatre, 829 SW 9th Ave., 2:30 pm Feb. 12 and
7:15 pm Feb. 13.
COMING TO LIGHT:
EDWARD S. CURTIS AND THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN
Anne Makepeace's Coming to Light is an
informative, solid and exhaustive documentary about pioneer
artist Edward S. Curtis. Coming out of poverty and obscurity,
Curtis became the most famous American photographer at the
turn of the century for his ethnographic and artistic pictures
of the American Indian, a group that he felt was vanishing
much too fast. Makepeace's film uses interviews with historians,
Curtis biographers and many Native Americans to shoot a
portrait of the man whose work shaped public perceptions
of Native American life. NR, USA (KM)
Guild Theatre, 4:30 pm Feb. 13 and 6:30 pm Feb. 15.
DETERRENCE
Director Rod Lurie's claustrophobic political thriller
is one ideologically confused picture. Set in 2008, it traps
the president of the United States (Kevin Pollak) inside
a Colorado diner, where he immediately learns the Iraqis
have invaded Kuwait (again). His response to the Iraqis:
Pull out or the U.S. nukes Baghdad. Though it's set in the
future, Deterrence oddly recalls the patriotic, flag-waving
days of '80s Cold War Hollywood. Not since Red Dawn
has such a blatantly jingoistic thriller tried masquerading
as an anti-war sermon. Its message: "War is hell...especially
if America doesn't win." NR, USA (DM)
Movie House, 6:45 pm Feb. 12 and 4:45 pm Feb. 13.
THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN
The latest from award-winning filmmaker Chen Kaige
(Farewell My Concubine) is a grand and thrilling
epic about the struggle to unify China in the third century
BC. Recalling Lawrence of Arabia and Richard III,
the story chronicles the life of King Ying Zheng, who believes
it is his destiny to become China's first emperor and deliver
the known world from centuries of tribal war. Kaige beautifully
combines incredible battle scenes with tender personal stories
and complex palace intrigue. This is an extraordinary saga
that more than justifies its nearly three-hour length. NR,
China (BL)
Guild Theatre, 7:30 pm Feb. 12 and 14.
THE WAR ZONE
Actor Tim Roth tackles the easily disturbing subject
of incest with the right balance of subtlety, shock and
disquieting resonance. Events are seen through the eyes
of 15-year-old Tom (Freddie Cunliffe), a depressed teen
who attempts to grasp just what the hell is going on in
his supposedly normal middle-class household. Filled with
intriguing touches that suggest more secrets than what Tom
(and viewers) witness, Roth's film is simultaneously blunt
and open to interpretation. NR, Britain (KM)
Broadway Cinemas, 8:30 pm Feb. 12 and 5:30 pm Feb. 13.
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Willamette Week | originally
published February 9,
2000
|
