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What’s worth seeing at this year’s WFF

REFUGEE REFUGE: The Sweetest Embrace

by MARK SLUTSKY

Yet again it’s time for the World Film Festival, Montreal’s oldest and most baffling fest. Since triumphing over the upstarts at the Montreal New FilmFest a few years ago, it’s become increasingly clear that the WFF isn’t going anywhere, so we may as well enjoy the highlights.

In there with the weird international co-productions are some genuinely good movies, as well as some respectable retrospective programming and a strong selection of free outdoor screenings.

LENSER ON THE LAM:
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

I’d be remiss in not mentioning Woody Allen’s latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which is opening any day now, and features Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. Did I mention they have a three-way? Yeah… might check that one out. Other high (ish) profile directors screening new works include Emir Kusturica, with Maradona by Kusturica, about the beloved Argentine soccer player, and Polish legend Andrzej Wajda, whose latest, Katyn, tells of the murder of Polish officers in WWII.

ARGENTINE ALL-STAR: Maradona by Kusturica

There’s plenty of docs to go around: one of the most interesting may be Marina Zenovich’s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which revisits the events surrounding the director’s flight from the U.S. after being held up on charges of statutory rape and which has gotten plenty of attention on the festival circuit so far. The NFB will be premiering seven films, including long-form docs The Sweetest Embrace, about two Afghan refugees who try to return home, Griefwalker, an exploration of loss and Bachir Bensaddek’s J’me voyais déjà, which follows a year in the life of a baker’s dozen of aspiring actors.

Local entries are fairly strong this year, with two in official competition. Benoît Pilon’s latest, Ce qu’il faut pour vivre, is a ’50s period piece about an ailing Inuit hunter from a director more known for his documentary work. The other Quebec film in competition, Stéphane Géhami’s En plein coeur, is about a pair of friends who steal trucks for a local gang.

And then there are the wild cards. Paris 36, by Christophe Barratier (Les Choristes) opens the fest; it’s about working-class folk in 1930s Paris who put on a big show in a music hall. Sounds heart-warming. Alison Reid’s The Baby Formula is a low-budget Canadian feature about a lesbian couple who have each other’s babies. Giuliano Montaldo’s The Demons of St. Petersburg tells the story of Dostoevsky getting mixed up in an assassination attempt.

Then there are the older films. Brian DePalma will be honoured with a master class this year, which means some of his films will be screened, including Mission: Impossible. A tribute to Tony Curtis means you’ll get to see Some Like it Hot under the stars at a free outdoor screening. A tribute to exec Alan Ladd, Jr. means you’ll also get to watch Young Frankenstein al fresco—not bad. There’s also a tribute to Russian musical comedies of the Soviet era, which is bound to be interesting at the very least.

The World Film Festival runs
from Aug. 21–Sept 1;
for more info see
www.ffm-montreal.org

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