The Festival du nouveau cinema came to an end last Sunday,
the closing film being Monsieur Lazhar,
the latest endeavour from director Philppe Falardeau. Between the Seats did not
attend the screening, but no matter, the film came out this past Friday in
Montréal cinemas. It’s been a while since we’ve posted a Films du fleur de lys column anyhow, so that would be a good excuse
for an update, as would recent releases Café
de flore and Marécages, both of
which have received rave reviews and we have been too lazy to go see.
Nay, on Sunday evening it felt more ‘cool’ to go see the
latest Takashi Miike movie, Hara-Kiri-Death
of a Samurai. Let’s be honest, it is kind of cool to see a Takashi Miike
film before it opens wide, sort of. Back in mid August and early September when
Between the Seats wrote up some brief summarizing thoughts on the Fantasia and
World Film Festival respectively, the articles offered more praise than
anything else for both events. Rest assured, this article will not take a
radically different stance, we did not leave the FNC 2011 in bitter
disappointment. The festival deserves a fare share of applause for the good
setup and especially the strong lineup, one that included many of the Cannes
and TIFF critical darlings. A job well done overall, even though the event’s
base of operations was in a strange spot (the inner courtyard of UQAM university?
Seriously, that’s not an easy spot to find if you never studied there, which I
didn’t...).
The movies I saw also offered opportunities to finally enter
places like the Ex-Centris and Cinéma Impérial, neither of which I had ever
been to. Cinéma Impérial is quite fun for its double-story screening room.
Opportunity to watch a movie from the balcony for The Turin Horse, something I hadn’t done in years, was too great pass
up on! Still, the most props must go to the Odeon Cineplex in the Quartier
Latin, who once again sacrificed their top floor for festival screenings
instead of the usual dubbed Hollywood blockbusters.
The crowd was somewhat similar to that which attended the World
Film Festival. Quiet for the most part, notwithstanding the more energized
crowds which attended the screenings of Hashoter
and Shame. Kotoko
was notable for the number of walkouts, of which there were many, and I can’t
say I blamed those people. I felt there was more media coverage than with the
FFM, although that might have been due to the fact that simply more people attended
films. More prestige films played at the Festival du nouveau cinema, so more
noticeable media coverage was to be expected I guess. On the flip side, there
were a lot fewer directors and actors providing Q&As, unlike at Fantasia
and the FFM. Between the Seats didn’t attend any at all, in fact.
There is one thing that bugs me about all these festivals,
and it really has nothing to do with the people running the events, but rather
those attending them. Ironically, most of my issues have stemmed from
screenings of 13 Assassins at
Fantasia and Hara-Kiri at Festival du
nouveau cinema, each directed by Takashi Miike, so that might be an indication
about the sort of people who show up for such films. I’m referring to people
who arrive late, especially at festival screenings. Arriving late at a regular
multiplex movie, that happens all the time since one suspects that ‘regular
folk’ show up, and among this specific movie going social group are people who
don’t really care about what they go see, so, as the saying goes, ‘whatever.’
When it comes to festivals however, I have a harder time digesting the reality that
some people will walk in 5-, 10 and, yes, even 15 minutes after a movie starts.
It’s a festival, buddy, you won’t get those 15-20 minutes of previews and adds
which would have in other instances given you some extra time to show up as the
movie starts. To make matters worse, those same people reserve themselves the
right to discuss amongst themselves, sometimes not very quietly, during said
movie. Such disrespect must stop, at the very least during a festival
screening. You have the privilege of seeing a movie that most people won’t see
for another few months, if even at all in a theatre. Depending on your city, it
might only come your way on DVD or Blu-ray in 7, 8, 9 months. A slightly
drastic decision would be to totally close the room doors 10 minutes after a
movie starts. Harsh, maybe, but by and large (since there are always some
exceptions) someone who can’t arrive on time or, worse still, arrives terribly
late for a movie, probably does not care about enough about the movie anyways.
Enough negativity for now. After all, the festival was a lot
of fun to attend and offered some excellent films. Strange that this was the
very first time I went to see anything at all at the Festival du nouveau cinema.
Lesson learned: go next year too.
As for the remainder of the year, festival season is pretty
much done here in Montréal, certainly as far as the major festivals go. Now our
attention can turn to the high brow dramas that shall populate our multiplexes
in the leadup to the Oscars, and other fun stuff, like the long awaited conclusion
of the Shaw Brothers Marathon, the Definitive Bond Marathon, and maybe another
joint marathon with a fellow blogger many of you are familiar with.
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