Czech, please

Upskirts, Albanians and Afros in our
report from the 44th annual Karlovy
Vary International Film Festival

DEVASTATING DRAMA: About Elly

by MARK SLUTSKY

There’s always a whirlwind of activity during the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival at the Hotel Thermal, an architectural incongruity in this usually sleepy spa town of wedding-cake-like 19th-century architecture. The communist-era Thermal is a hotel, conference centre and several movie theatres, bars and restaurants at once; it’s a huge complex, and for a couple of weeks in July, glamorous Albanian starlets, American directors, Russian journalists and hundreds of college-age Czech kids rub shoulders in its sprawling halls and corridors.

The young Czechs in particular are some of the most enthusiastic festival-goers I’ve ever seen. At any hour of the day, you’ll find them camped outside of each screening room’s doors, resting on their backpacks and tapping away at the tiny “netbooks” that seem so popular over here. And at night, they know how to party—the hotel’s grounds host an abundance of food stalls and beer stands and they’re just as popular as the movies. When the sun goes down, DJs and bands set up and it practically turns into a rave. Our festivals could take a cue from the way the KVIFF integrates nightlife, food and drink with its cinematic offerings.

It’s as much a meeting place for international film as it is for international visitors. There’s naturally a strong focus on Eastern European cinema, but Asian films, North American indies (including several Canadian films, like the world premiere of Rafaël Ouellet’s New Denmark) and selections from Cannes make for an exceptionally well-rounded and well-programmed little festival.

Sometimes the abundance of choice can pose dilemmas. Should I see Pedro Almodóvar’s latest, Broken Embraces, almost certainly a sure thing, or do I check out the strange-looking Japanese film Love Exposure and catch the Almodóvar when it inevitably opens in Canada? I went for the latter, and never regretted it—Love Exposure is, by far, the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen in my life, and while I’m not sure I enjoyed it all or would even recommend it, I’m glad I experienced it.

How to describe this magnificently strange thing? Directed by Sion Sono, Love Exposure is basically a four-hour perverted epic about upskirt photography and boners. It’s about Yu, a kid (Takahiro Nishijima) who uses kung fu skills to perfect the art of shooting photos of women’s panties in order to get the attention of his distant priest father, who only shows his paternal side by beating him up. That’s just the first 90 minutes or so—castration, cross-dressing and the aforementioned hard-ons, as well as a sweet love story are yet to come. Absolutely insane—and playing at Fantasia this week.

A far more sober film, in every possible way, and probably my favourite of the fest, is Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly. Banned in its native Iran because one of its stars (Golshifteh Farahani) is no longer permitted to act after appearing in Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, this is a fascinating drama about a group of friends who travel to the countryside that turns into a dark mystery. I don’t want to give any of it away, but suffice to say this movie is compelling, charming and ultimately kind of devastating.

Films by two of Korea’s biggest directors were a couple of the festival’s biggest draws. One I liked a lot and one I hated. The good one was The Host director Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother. It’s hard to convey the suspense and visual kineticism of this film by mere plot description, but it’s basically about a middle-aged woman in small-town Korea who sets out to prove her developmentally disabled son’s innocence of a murder charge. A great mystery (with plenty of red herrings), this feels almost like a neo-noir at times.

The one I really didn’t like was Park Chan-Wook’s vampire shlock Thirst—see p. 32 for my Fantasia review. I will tell you that I was divided on whether this movie should have been called Worst, or if that honour should have gone to the festival opener, the shlocky, inaccurately titled Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon weeper The Greatest.

The festival’s East of the West section gives an opportunity to see Eastern European and Balkan films I’d otherwise almost surely miss. My favourite discovery here was the Albanian movie Alive!, directed by Artan Minarolli, about a 20-something student who, against his will, is drawn into a 100-year-old family blood feud. A fascinating glimpse of the way ancient mountain traditions intersect with the modern world, with many truly excellent moustaches on display.

There’s a pretty rockin’ moustache up on the screen in Scott Sanders’ blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite, belonging to the eponymous lead character played by co-writer Michael Jai White. I know what you’re thinking when you hear “blaxploitation spoof”—Afro wigs and pimp jokes. And while yes, there are some of those, this is a remarkably funny and watchable pastiche that hews closely to the original form (it really looks exactly like a movie from the ’70s) and is excellent fun. This should open in Montreal near the end of the year—keep your eyes out for it.