For us film fans, Christmas comes early when the New Zealand International Film Festival arrives. After opening our biggest present this week, the programme, and having pored over it these past few days, we can now share with you our ‘Must See’ picks from the 2012 fest.
It’s another truly outstanding lineup – our budget for tickets has been thrown out the window. The festival team has done an amazing job, once again, in bringing us the very best from Cannes. For those after some winter chills, you’re in luck, as there’s plenty of great horrors, thrillers and gritty dramas to make the hair on the back your the neck bristle. There’s a boat–load of outstanding documentaries too and the sheer number of Kiwi films in the programme is exhilarating – great docos, a post-apocalyptic Western and even a comedy about stalking(!)
Here’s where the festival will screen:
Auckland: July 19 – August 05; Wellington: July 27 – August 12; Dunedin: July 27 – August 19; Christchurch: August 09 – August 26; Palmerston North: August 16 – September 02; Hamilton: August 23 – September 09; Nelson: August 29 – September 16; Tauranga: September 06 – September 23; Hawke’s Bay: September 13 – September 30; Masterton: October 17 – October 31; New Plymouth: tbc.
Right, on with our picks. For tickets to our ‘Must See’ films we’d happily share an isolated mountainside hotel with Jack Nicholson – fortunately we only have to brave a cold Wellington morning. But if our ‘Must See’ picks don’t make you want to axe your way to the front of the queue, we’ve also listed some others we think look great.
For more details on each pick click on the film name, or head on over to official website home page for the full schedule.
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ADMIT ONE‘S ‘MUST SEE’ FILMS:
(Michael Haneke, France/Germany/Austria, 2012, 127 minutes)
Palme d’Or, Best Film, Cannes Film Festival 2012. Veteran French stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva are unforgettable in Austrian director Michael Haneke’s tender, wrenching story of love and death.
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(Ken Loach, UK/France/Belgium/Italy, 2012, 101 minutes)
Scottish lads decide to liberate a barrel of single malt in Ken Loach’s caper comedy direct from Cannes. “This is British comedy at its warmest and most pleasurable; cask strength, unfiltered and neat.” — The Telegraph
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(Benh Zeitlin, USA, 2012, 93 minutes)
We open the year’s programme with an exhilarating rush of pagan festivity from the Louisiana Bayou – and a declaration of confidence in brilliant, purely cinematic originality. There’s a collective of artisanal talent informing every frame of this wild blend of social realism and eco-sci-fi. Winner of the Grand Jury and Cinematography Awards at Sundance, Beasts also took the Camera d’Or for Best First Film at Cannes in May.
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(Lee Hirsch, USA, 2011, 94 minutes)
Lee Hirsch’s doco is a powerfully effective tool in the campaign to drag school bullying out of the dark corners where it thrives. “Maybe, this film suggests, getting power to the powerless is not as impossible as it sounds.” — LA Times
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(Drew Goddard, USA, 2011, 94 minutes)
Writer Joss Whedon’s (The Avengers) deconstruction of the contemporary horror film manages to deliver the thrills of a teens-get-sliced scenario while piling on big laughs with meta-punchlines.
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(Leos Carax, France/Germany, 2012, 115 minutes)
An extraordinary surreal night journey through Paris starring Denis Lavant. With Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes. Don’t miss the sensation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, rapturously received and wildly debated. “Weird and wonderful, rich and strange – barking mad, in fact… A great big pole-vault over the barrier of normality by someone who feels that the possibilities of cinema have not been exhausted.” — The Guardian
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(Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark/Sweden, 2012, 111 minutes)
Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, A Royal Affair) took the Best Actor Award at Cannes as an innocent man demonised by a child’s false accusation. “Entirely convincing… An unbearably tense drama-thriller.” — The Guardian
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(Bart Layton, UK, 2012, 95 minutes)
Legendary French-Algerian con artist Frédéric Bourdin recounts his own breathtaking exploits. “A mesmerizing psychological thriller bulging with twists, turns, nasty insinuations and shocking revelations.” — Hollywood Reporter
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(Phillippe Falardeau, Canada, 2011, 94 minutes)
Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lazhar is a flawlessly acted, sensitively understated teacher/student drama that accumulates surprising, affirmative, emotional power. “A really great movie.” — Village Voice
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(Wes Anderson, USA, 2012, 99 minutes)
Wes Anderson’s Cannes opening-night film is a highly idiosyncratic, impeccably made portrait of young love circa 1965. With Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton. “Hilarious and heartfelt.” — Rolling Stone
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(Pablo Larrain, Chile/USA/Mexico, 115 minutes)
Gael García Bernal stars in the dramatic true story of the poppy advertising campaign that urged Chileans to oust the dictator Pinochet in 1988. “Weirdly funny and rousing, both intellectually and emotionally.” — NY Times
NO TRAILER AVAILABLE
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Room 237: Being an Inquiry into The Shining in 9 Parts
(Tim Kirk, USA, 2012, 102 minutes)
Rodney Ascher’s clip-laden doco deciphers the visual details of Kubrick’s horror classic in the company of five obsessive and haunted cineastes. “Catnip for Kubrickians and critics both professional and otherwise.” — Variety
NO TRAILER AVAILABLE
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(Malik Bendjelloul, Sweden/UK, 2012, 85 minutes)
Amazing Sundance-winning doco about renewed appreciation for 70s Mexican-American singer-songwriter Rodriguez. “A hugely entertaining, emotionally touching, and musically revelatory experience.” — The Playlist
http://youtu.be/pf46PmWXGjE
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(Stanley Kubrik, USA, 1980, 142 minutes)
Heeeere’s Johnny!! The Jack Nicholson/Stanley Kubrick horror classic returns to the giant screen in merciless HD DCP! “Alive with portent and symbolism, every frame of the film brims with Kubrick’s genius.” — Empire
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(Chris Kenneally, USA, 2012, 99 minutes)
An engrossing, open-minded investigation of the digital revolution in filmmaking and its impact on the creativity of filmmakers. Keanu Reeves interviews Cameron, Lucas, Nolan, Lynch, Scorsese, Fincher, DOPs, VFX artists and many more.
http://youtu.be/vldY0uyuB2c
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(Zal Batmanglij, USA, 2011, 84 minutes)
In this creepily ambiguous lo-fi metaphysical sci-fi thriller, a young couple infiltrate a suburban LA cult. With writer/star Brit Marling (Another Earth). “Taut, compelling… [A] nifty little spellbinder.” — Variety
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(Adam Wingard/David Bruckner/Ti West/Glenn McQuaid/Joe Swanberg/Radio Silence, USA, 2012, 115 minutes)
Funny, scary anthology about a group of louts hired to burglarise a creepy house and steal a rare VHS tape. “V/H/S delivers the thrills and chills craftily… Watch it with friends.” — William Goss, The Playlist
http://youtu.be/IOu9LY8Eexk
(Note: Red Band trailer. Not for kiddies.)
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(Amy Berg, New Zealand, 2012, 147 minutes)
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were producers on this lucid, angry documentary and key players in the battle for justice for the ‘West Memphis Three’ imprisoned as teenagers for murders they did not commit.
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ADMIT ONE’S ‘OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS‘:
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(Emad Burnat/Guy Davidi, Palestine/Israel/France, 2011, 90 minutes)
Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat’s family movies of village life under siege in the West Bank have been edited by Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi into an unforgettably personal account of political struggle. Doco Director Award, Sundance 2012.
(Bibo Bergeron, France, 2011, 82 minutes)
Animator Bibo Bergeron (A Shark’s Tale) delivers a lively child-friendly love letter to Paris (and the movies) a hundred years ago featuring a cute and sassy singer, a projectionist and a musically gifted giant flea.
(Mads Brugger, Denmark, 2011, 93 minutes)
Denmark’s fearless Mads Brügger in person with his gonzo documentary. He buys himself a diplomatic post in the Central African Republic and proceeds, envelopes stuffed with cash, to jockey for power and influence.
(Richard Linklater, USA, 2011, 104 minutes)
“Jack Black gives the performance of his career, under the pitch-perfect direction of his School of Rock director, Richard Linklater, who expertly crafts a black comedy with a deceptively sunny surface.” — NY Post
Blackmail (Live Cinema) *AUCKLAND ONLY
(Alfred Hitchcock, UK, 1929, 84 minutes)
This year the Festival’s popular collaboration with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra features the ninth and final silent film directed by young master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. With classic Charlie Chaplin short Easy Street.
(Juliet Bergh, New Zealand, 2012, 84 minutes)
Shot on the spectacular hills overlooking Cook Strait, Juliet Bergh’s salvagepunk Western set in a post-apocalyptic future is the first fruit of the Film Commission’s low-budget Escalator scheme. Starring Loren Taylor.
The Flight of the Airship Norge over the Arctic Ocean
(Paul Berge/Emil Andreas Horgen, Norway, 1926, 99 minutes)
In 1926 Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile made the first undisputed crossing of the North Pole by air. The film of the expedition has recently been discovered and magnificently restored. Live Cinema accompanied on piano by Nikau Palm.
(Howard Hawks, USA, 1953, 91 minutes)
Marilyn Monroe is at her most beatifically ditsy alongside Jane Russell in Howard Hawks’ dazzling 1953 Technicolor comedy seen here in a new DCP restoration. Based on Anita Loos’ 20s bestseller, the film pairs them perfectly as two best girlfriends prospecting for squillionaire husbands on a cruise ship heading for Paris.
Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigridur Nielsdottir
(Orri Jonsson/Kristin Bjork/Kristjansdottir/Ingibjorg Birgisdottir, Iceland/Denmark, 2011, 62 minutes)
Meet the little old lady of Icelandic music who recorded her first album in her kitchen at 71 and produced 59 homemade albums before calling it a day. “Small-scale. Fun. Successful. Just like its subject.” — Twitch
(Christopher Pryor/Miriam Smith, New Zealand, 2012, 99 minutes)
Filmmakers Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith lived at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River and have produced a lively, visually beautiful picture of the local community and the three Sisters of Compassion stationed there.
How to Meet Girls from a Distance
(Dean Hewison, New Zealand, 2012, 85 minutes)
The inaugural winner of the Make My Movie feature film competition, Dean Hewison’s ‘Peeping Tom romcom’ is a funny, kooky and rather sweet look at one shy guy’s attempt to find true love via unethical means.
(Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan, 2011, 128 minutes)
This deeply charming, kid-centred film contains a multitude of perspectives to surprise and delight audiences from nine to ninety.
(Sergei Loznitsa, Russia/Germany/Latvia/The Netherlands/Belarus, 2012, 125 minutes)
An intense, slow-burning Russian war drama that considers moral choice in the moral vacuum of occupation. “Truly eloquent and moving… Actors and landscapes alike could have come out of 19-century Russian paintings.” — Sight & Sound
(William Friedkin, USA, 2011, 103 minutes)
Matthew McConaughey is a Texan cop with a sideline in murder (for hire) in this lurid and bloody trailer-trash melodrama. With Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon. “Unabashed pulp.” — The Guardian
(Mikkel Norgaard, Denmark, 2010, 89 minutes)
Blisteringly funny throughout, this hysterical Danish outing from the comedy-of-the-uncomfortable school will appeal to those who think Curb Your Enthusiasm and films like The Hangover don’t push the envelope enough.
(Costa Botes, New Zealand, 2011, 97 minutes)
For the past 40 years, in a remote and harshly beautiful corner of northern Manitoba, Brian Ladoon has devoted his life to preserving and breeding an endangered species: the Qimmiq, Canada’s indigenous Eskimo dog.
(Pietra Brettkelly, New Zealand/The Netherlands, 2012, 84 minutes)
Internationally lauded Auckland filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) accompanies 16-year-old Māori scholar Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti to Yale and a critical turning point in his education.
(Kevin Macdonald, USA/UK, 2012, 145 minutes)
“Stirring up an exhaustive portrait of the legend behind the music, Kevin Macdonald’s Marley is sure to become the definitive documentary on the much beloved king of reggae.” — Hollywood Reporter
(Pierre Schoeller, France, 2011, 112 minutes)
This sleek, charged picture of ambition, powerlessness and posturing within government transcends the satire or critique of any similar US or UK political thriller: it’s both realistic and utterly surreal. With Olivier Gourmet.
(Jonathan Demme, USA, 2011, 87 minutes)
Neil Young fans: your man is on fire. A superbly recorded solo concert film directed up close by Jonathan Demme (Heart of Gold).
New Zealand’s Best 2012 (Short Film Competition)
(Various, New Zealand, 2012, Total: 78 minutes)
Six short films have been selected as the finalists in the inaugural NZIFF New Zealand’s Best Short Film Competition.
(Walter Salles, USA/UK/France/Brazil, 2012, 137 minutes)
“Jack Kerouac’s peerless anthem to the romance of youthful freedom and experience has finally made it to the screen with its virtues and spirit intact.” — LA Times. Direct from Cannes.
(Yi Seung-jun, Korea/Japan/Finland, 2011, 87 minutes)
Top prize winner at the Amsterdam Doc Festival, this exquisite Korean film follows the daily routine of a deaf-blind man and his tiny wife. “Cinematic love stories don’t come more convincing or singular than this.” — Village Voice
(Oren Moveman, USA, 2011, 108 minutes)
Explosive LA thriller from a James Ellroy script. “A terrific film: tense, shocking, complex, mesmerizing. It’s about a very bad Los Angeles cop, played with intricate demonic force by Woody Harrelson.” — Entertainment Weekly
(Will Lovelace/Dylan Southern, UK, 2012, 105 minutes)
“The wonderful LCD Soundsystem documentary/concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits chronicles for posterity the revered dance band’s final concert in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden… The film documents an artist intent on going out on top, even if it means leaving an army of devoted fans salivating for more – especially if it leaves an army of devoted fans salivating for more… ”
Tatarakihi: The Children of Parihaka
(Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph, New Zealand, 2012, 65 minutes)
Tatarakihi tells the story of a ‘journey of memory’ taken by a group of Parihaka children following in the footsteps of their male ancestors who were transported south after the Taranaki land confiscations of the 1860s.
(Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France/Ireland, 2011, 118 minutes)
Sean Penn plays a retired glam rocker whose father’s death catalyses a bizarre American road trip in this quietly genre-defying pic from rising star Paolo Sorrentino. Radiant cameo by David Byrne. Oddly affecting.
(Julian Roman Polsler, Austria/Germany, 2012, 108 minutes)
A woman is mysteriously separated from the rest of humanity by an invisible wall. Stunning alpine landscapes are juxtaposed with existential terror in this literate psychological thriller, based on German novel Die Wand.
(Kieran Dracy-Smith, Australia, 2012, 93 minutes)
A blowout for two young Sydney couples in Cambodia ignites a war of nerves in a fiery psychological thriller starring Joel Edgerton and Antony Starr. “Coils around and around itself until viewers may have trouble breathing.” — Variety
(Andrea Arnold, UK, 2011, 128 minutes)
Andrea Arnold’s radical, stunningly visual response to Emily Brontë’s classic excavates the primal passions that made the novel such an affront to society. “A beautiful rough beast of a movie, a costume drama like no other.” — The Guardian
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Well, there you have it. It was tough narrowing it down to just those films. We are all in for a treat this year. See you in the cinema!
So what do you think? Which films are you going to see?
