Should I see these films?

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Auckland International Film Festival starts in three weeks and I'm trying to work out what to see. There are 134 titles, including new prints of Singin' in the Rain and the re-jigged Metropolis, plus the latests from Cronenberg and Akerman that I've been waiting forever for, but what I'd like to ask youse about is my "might see" list - consisting of interesting-sounding titles I don't have much info on, movies with mixed reviews, and acclaimed stuff that sounds crap. In extremely approximate order of preference:

The Phantom of the Opera (1925, Rupert Julian)
Dracula, Pages From a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin)
Personal Velocity (Rebecca Miller)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (Paul Justman)
Sweet Sweetback's BaadAsssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles)
Chihwaseon (Im Kwon-taek)
Blue Car (Karen Moncrieff)
The Crime of Father Amaro (Carlos Carrera)
Tape (Richard Linklater)
Open Hearts (Open Hearts)
Sex Is Comedy (Catherine Breillat)
Lost in La Mancha (Terry Gilliam)
Marooned in Iraq (Bahman Ghobadi)
All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green)
Together (Chen Kaige)
Stevie (Steve James)
Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (Lee Hirsch)
BaadAsssss Cinema (Isaac Julien)
In This World (Michael Winterbottom)
Oasis (Lee Chang-dong)
Stone Reader (Mark Moskowitz)
Ripley's Game (Liliana Cavani)
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (Kevin Brownlow)
The Unknown (Tod Browning)
City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund)
Travelling Birds a/k/a Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin)
Abouna (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
The Decay of Fiction (Pat O'Neill)
Women's Prison (Manijeh Hekmat)
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (Shane Meadows)
Seafood (Zhu Wen)
Love Is a Treasure (Eija-Liisa Ahtila)

(Just be thankful I didn't list all 134 titles.)

― b.R.A.d. (Brad), Monday, 16 June 2003 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

City of God is incredible. I haven't seen the rest.

― Sommermute (Wintermute), Monday, 16 June 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't like Chen Kaige's Together--but then again you might like it.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 16 June 2003 14:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I can definitely second City of God--that's a must-make. Sweet Sweetback is a must, too, if you haven't seen it before. I'm not saying you'll like it, necessarily, but it's sort of a rite of film-nut passage. And I'd say anything by Tod Browning on a big screen is worth checking out, sight-unseen. I missed a recent local screening of The Unknown, but it sounds wild.

Beyond that, Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a not very well-done take on a fascinating subject. Open Hearts is a surprisingly compelling Dogme drama that I liked a lot.

Stone Reader played at the Maryland Film Festival earlier this year. I didn't see it, but the person who reviewed it for our festival supplement liked it a lot. Ditto for Stevie.

Among the rest, I'v heard good things about Blue Car and Winged Migration, and I've heard less than complimentary things about All the Real Girls and Together. Personally, I would try to see the new Breillat if only so I could argue about it with whomever later.

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 16 June 2003 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't seen any of the films, but I've heard a lot of praise for City of God and All the Real Girls.

― Anthony (Anthony F), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 01:13 (twenty-two years ago)

My reservation with City of God is that it sounds like yet another Tarantino-but-dumber flick, but I think there's enough doubt about the "dumber", so I'll see it.

The only reason I'm interested in Together is because Armond White gave it a glowing review in the NY Press, and when he gives outspoken praise, he's right enough of the time (about Mission to Mars, for instance, although maybe not A.I.) to make me interested. Still, I'll probably skip it.

― b.R.A.d. (Brad), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 01:23 (twenty-two years ago)

City of God is mindblowing. Once upon the time in the midlands passes the time nicely enough. I've not seen the Guy Maddin one but his films are generally um, interesting.

― Tag (Tag), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes to CIty Of God, it really is that good. I liked Tape a lot, and Chiwaeson is surprisingly bawdy fun. I'd move InThis World up the list as well - with the exception of the voiceover it is magnificent. Abouna - unfortunately - is a bit so-so. Ripley's Game = feh.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I am more sick of Tarantino knock-offs than ANYONE on earth. That said, CITY OF GOD is a very unique beast. It has more in common with Z and The Dancer Upstairs than post modern 'crim' flicks. *****

― PVC (peeveecee), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Re City of God comparisons. See also:

Goodfellas
Boyz in the Hood
The Harder They Come

It's worth seeing. Really.

― Lee G (Lee G), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 13:41 (twenty-two years ago)

The ones on which I can speak:

1. Tape (Richard Linklater) - I would generally rather die painfully than ever watch a Linklater movie ever again, but YMMV.
2. Lost in La Mancha (Terry Gilliam) - This is just kind of there. It felt kind of self-defeating to me - not that it's self-defeating to make a movie about an unmakeable movie, but rather that its conceived audience seems to be film nerds like me, and I'm well aware that movie shoots can go horribly horribly wrong. I guess it's worth seeing for a few of the contained anecdotes, and the part with the rainstorm is pretty great, but overall I'd probably skip this.
3. Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (Lee Hirsch) - Film used to position some other art form as a "true" "pure" form of expression, as if that's a shopworn trope that hasn't been done to death already. If I never see another one of these movies again it will be too soon; it's like having someone bake you a cake to teach you math.
4. Travelling Birds a/k/a Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin) - This is pretty cool, although Microcosmos is way more interesting. But I'd definitely make an effort to see it on the big screen.

― James Cobo (James Cobo), Wednesday, 18 June 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

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