01 June 2008

in the city of sylvia

after another year in which the indianapolis international film festival underwhelmed me with its minimal scheduling of films i actually want to see, i am at least somewhat satisfied with the fact that they brought back hou-hsiao hsien(or as he's known in this neck of the woods, ho ho ho) and his lovely new "hou does paris" piece the flight of the red balloon.

other than this surefire pleaser, the only other highly anticipated film on my list, in the city of sylvia proved to be redeeming of the otherwise wholly piece of shit festival. set on the streets of europe(the fact that it is strausborg is not explicitly stated) the film explodes with images that celebrate the sheer joy of looking(generally at the wonders and beauty of women) it evokes the pure experience of being receptor to the constantly shifting energies of the world around us. without forcing us to contemplate the banal question of "what does it all mean," jose luis guerrin instead allows us to see and experience the world on its terms, where a simple glance or sound can involve us so completely in the moment that the mere notion of rationalization beyond the now becomes this unnecessary time waster as the only thing that matters is the atmosphere we take in and the audio visual experience taking place in the space in front of our face.

an truly interesting experience to say the least, i left this film wanting to not just walk through the lobby toward my car, but to experience the lobby. i needed to look at the faces of the people milling about, i needed to hear the cavernous echo that creates a large distance between me and the consumption inducing muzak that radioed out from the gloriously white glowing mall where the film unspooled. i needed to find a glimpse of a gorgeous girl as this film is , if nothing else, a lovely homage to the passtime of girlwatching. alas all i found was my car.

other than these two however, i think that the indianapolis international film festival should adopt a new tagline. from here forth the posters should read:

indianapolis international film fetival: wholly shit!
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3 comments:

Ryan Micheel said...

I think you're being a little harsh on the festival. We are in agreement that In The City of Sylvia is a masterpiece. Haven't caught the Triple H yet. I'll get to next month. Red Balloon and Munyurangabo are far above average and a handful of features were more than worth seeing. These days the pickings around Indianapolis theatres are slim. Keystone ART cinema is too busy playing mainstream films they have no business showing (Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, Sex and the City, Made of Honor, etc.), the same middlebrow mainstream films for 50 year olds they always play(Then She Found Me, Flawless)or liberal guilt films (the Kite Runner, over half of the documentaries that are played) which are all just as uninteresting. For the exception of Snow Angels, I couldn't tell you the last time Key played something that wasn't a doc or something that Keystone already played. My point is, I too don't care about a lot of what the festival plays. I have plenty of unmentioned complaints myself, but a) I'm glad they exist, b) they are a nice change of pace from the everyday ho-hum of Indianapolis Cinema and C) they are more interesting and well rounded than any other existing film festival in town.

June 2, 2008 at 7:51 AM
Shane M. White said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
June 2, 2008 at 10:22 AM
troy myers said...

ryan, i truly appreciate the comment and i agree up to a point...i suppose my problem is the wild inconsistency of the festival and wahat i see to be a lack of excellence in a certain direction. i mean is it a documentary festival, as when they sucked at the tit of the maysles...is it a showcase for the best that the international circuit has to offer, as in the year where three times played alongside the new shane meadows, water, lady vengance, sokurov. is it afestival which showcases the new and exotic, as in the year of the very beautiful washing machine and oldboy.
my argument is that it is none of these things. it seems more that the festival takes what it can get. however when i have mags like fc and cinemascope dangling what is available in front of me, i start to believe that there is much more to be done. i mean seriously, get me one of the two guy maddin films, get me one of the two jia films, hell get me silent light...anything. get me things that arent going to immediately fall into irrelevancy or fall into the regular landmark schedule. the only film on that schedule was in the city of sylvia.
while my assessment does seem harsh even as i reread it now, i feel it needs to be there as a snap reaction to a lackluster effort in this years scheduling. however i sincerely would like to shower with appreciation the staff and volunteers that worked the festival as they tend to be the nicest, most helpful, and least pretentious staff i have ever encountered at a film festival. cheers to them.
next year just get on the phone and get me the new dardennes and the new ceylan(even though he bores me i want to see it) do festival work...dont wait for them to come to us, because this is indianapolis and history has proven that they wont. we must go to them.

June 2, 2008 at 10:27 AM

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