Image via MIFF
This Melbourne Queer Film Festival screening was my third attempt to see this film; booked at MIFF but sacrificed for tiredness, waiting for half an hour at Cinema Nova yesterday before it was cancelled due to a technical hitch and then rescheduled today. I’m glad I hung in there; it was a beautiful film that pulled me into a world both foreign and familiar. Continue reading
This Korean adaptation by Chan-wook Park of the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters was a delightful surprise. Skipped at MIFF because it seemed a bit trivial, I discovered it is a beautiful exploration of the power of women and the many guises of oppression and truth. Continue reading
Lovely, lovely. This Brazilian film reminded me a little of Sebastian Silva’s work (The Maid MIFF 2015). Pierre and his sister Jacqueline live with their mother, Aracy. Pierre plays in a band and behind closed doors puts on lipstick and dresses, finding connection with girls and boys alike. But then the police arrive and it seems his mother is not his mother, he was stolen as a baby and now must forge a new life with a new family. Continue reading
A MIFF lesson – if you’ve booked a film, give it a go. I thought of staying in bed this morning and missing My Life as a Courgette and this French coming of age drama. I’m so glad I didn’t. They were both wonderful, sad, poignant and heartwarming. Tales of the value of the friendships we make, the pain of making ourselves vulnerable and the way this opens us up to the love of others. Continue reading
Oh goodness me. Another film inspired by a true story. This one couldn’t be more different from The Revenant in style and sensibility, although I reckon it might also be playing to the Academy Award crowd. Eddie Redmayne plays Einar Wegener, a Danish artist in the 1920s who was the first publicly-known person to undergo gender reassignment when he became Lili Elbe. The Danish Girl focuses on him/her and Gerda, Einar’s wife and fellow artist. The story is…nice, palatable, inoffensive. Transgender packaged up neatly for a heterosexual world. Continue reading
Meh.
Can any film review be unbiased? I watched this film while I was sick. People love this film. Ron, sitting one couch over from me and watching exactly the same film, was impressed. I was unmoved. Continue reading
Sworn Virgin is another of those multinational coproductions but I’m going to call it an Albanian film. The thread of the story is about gender roles in rural Albania, and although it is set equally in Italy, it is Albanian life and culture that we experience. The story is set in two time periods, we see Mark traveling from Albania to Italy and reuniting with his sister and her family after 14 years. We can tell that Mark is actually a woman and we know that Lila, his sister, knows but everyone else is oblivious. We then flash back to Lila and Mark’s teenage years in Albania and we discover the story. Continue reading
All the way home on the tram I thought about whether to give this outstanding Australian documentary about the children of same-sex parents 4.5 or 5 stars. For me, it was a perfectly crafted documentary, how docos should be made (and I’m talking to you George Gittoes). Engaging subjects who feel safe enough to be real on camera, a story and a message that slowly unfolds, that we observe and understand without the need for exposition, and no sign of the film maker, we are totally absorbed into the world of the subjects. Continue reading
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