Gelso d' Oro to Silenced at Far East Film Festival14, Udine

By Moira Sullivan

Silenced wins FEFF14 Gelso D'Oro

The Gelso d’Oro , the public prize for the best film at the Far East Film Festival (FEFF14 - April 20-27) went to South Korea’s courtroom-drama Silenced by HWANG Dong-hyuk, 2011. The tough and true story of the abuse of hearing appeared children that enraged the Korean public was also voted best picture by Black Dragon accredited film critics at the festival.

Second place, went to the Taiwanese road movie to the highest point in Tibet. One Mile Above, from Taiwan by Jiayi Du.

The Korean war drama The Front Line won the bronze medal. Just before the armistice is signed between North and South Korea in the 50s the soldiers engage in one final and unnecessary battle with each other.

MYmovies.it chose the Japanese farce about bathhouses in ancient Rome and modern Japan Thermae Romae, which was presented in Udine as a world premiere.

This year Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To won the coveted "Lifetime Achievement Award". The 57 year old filmmaker presented his latest film Romancing in Thin Air. 

The Friulian film festival  in Italy – “a rock-solid Asian outpost in the West” attracted over 50 thousand viewers at the Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine” theatre with 1200 seats, and 1200 accredited (journalists, critics, film students, experts, and insiders from 16 countries. 

At least 20 thousand people participated in numerous side events in downtown Italy such as martial arts demonstrations and at the Minnamoro discotheque, the after hours hang-out for festival fans. 

More than 100 volunteers helped out the staff of this prestigious quality festival that showcases the very best of new Asian films. Special film experts stationed in Korea, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysi and the Philippines cull the box office to bring amazing films to this medieval Italian city close to the Italian Alps. Nearby is the little town of Casarsa where Italy’s controversial and beloved filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini lived with his mother.

The Far East Film Festival is precided over by president Sabrina Baracetti and is part of the "Center for Cinematographic Expression" (Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche).  

Next week Movie Magazine will bring you an exclusive interview with Darcy Paquet, Korean film programmer and curator for the Far East Film Festival retrospective on Korean films from the 70s "The Darkest Decade".

For Movie Magazine this is Moira Sullivan , UDINE Italy

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 05/02/12
Movie Magazine International

Far East Film Festival 14, Udine Italy, Report 1

Abe Hiroshi in Termae Romae

By Moira Sullivan 
The Korean drama Sunny was featured on the opening day of the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy, which runs from April 20-28. A renowned and excellent extravaganza of popular films from Asia, this festival is now in its 14th edition.

The title of the film comes from the hit single "Sunny" (performed by Bonie M, and written by songwriter Bobby Hebb - 1966). The story is about a seven-member girl gang who meet years later when one from the group is hospitalized with a grave illness. The film revisits the first day of school for Na-Mi who hails from a small town in the Jeolla province and moves to the capital city Seoul. 

Na-Mi quickly makes friends with six other young women who come to her rescue from classmates who otherwise would have bullied her for her dialect. Na-Mi quickly fits in with the gang comprised of the excellent fighter Choon-Hwa, heavyset Jang-Mi, and Jin-Hee - skilled in the use of profane language, the literary Geum-Ok, future Ms Korea Bok-Hee, and arrogant and perceptive Su-Ji.

Being a teenager is often painful and girls are cruel at this age. The pressures from home, school and growing up are formidable. At school, they find reasons to pick on any kind of difference and often judge each other on appearances, class differences or perceived lifestyles that clash with their own. The heteronormative upbringing is often homophobic and requires conformity. Girl gangs are sometimes a necessity for survival. Director Hyeong-Cheol Kang is adept in bringing these conditions to film and was present at the festival.  

As if the first day wasn’t enough entertainment, on the second day Hong Kong producer Johnny To was in town to present his new film Romancing in Thin Air – a film about a woman who lives in a hotel in the mountains and loses her husband. Then, her long time idol arrives who is suffering form alcoholism. She nurses him to back to health but must come to term with her loss that takes precedence over her fan worship. Johnny To also presented his latest project of several years, Fresh Wave - a Hong Kong mentoring program for young filmmakers including a short film festival, which is now partnering up with other international festivals.

On Saturday night a wild film about bathhouses - Thermae Romae was screened by Japanese director Takeuchi Hideki and made at Cinécitta in Italy. It features ancient Rome renowned for its bathhouses, and modern Japan and it’s contributions to this area. 

A retrospective of Korean films from the 70s entitled “The Darkest Decade” is featured with some rare films on the Korean psyche during this period. 

Other films include The Front Line by Jang Hun about a final maneuver by the North and South Koreans before the armistice is signed in the 50’s.  In The Great Magician, Derek Yee from Hong Kong has created a mind-boggling extravaganza of color and fanfare starring Tony Leung as a magician who outmaneuvers a warlord and his seventh wife. And from Thailand comes a story of ladyboys, MTF transgenders who experience heartbreak for choosing their lifestyle, but still keep their spirit, directed by MTF helmer Tanwarin Sukkhapisit in It Gets Better.

Next week more from the Far East Film Festival!

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan- Air Date: 04/25/12
Movie Magazine International

Warren William Magnificent Scoundrel of Pre-Code Hollywood - Book Report

By Monica Sullivan

When we watch old movies on the late show, one of the questions that comes to mind is, “Are any of these actors still alive?”  For fans of films made in the 1930’s and 1940’s, the answer to that question is usually no, with a few exceptions among the youngest members of the cast.  One of the busiest actors of that era was Warren William who specialized in playing smartly-tailored rogues. 

John Strangeland has written an absorbing biography “Warren William Magnificent Scoundrel of Pre-Code Hollywood” for McFarland Publishing Company, revealing a wealth of fascinating details about this sensitive, thoughtful actor.  “The Mouthpiece” made Warren William a star in 1932.  Vincent Day was a part that demanded both flamboyance and restraint.  Edward G. Robinson and other Warner Brothers actors had turned down the role, which only made it all the more appealing to Warren William.  Interestingly, Robinson did appear in a 1955 remake, “Illegal”, a well-made lower-key effort which does not quite pack the wallop of the original.  To watch William lose and re-gain his soul as a lawyer is an unforgettable experience.

Warren William was also famous for 1932’s “The Match King” as Paul Kroll, based entirely on Ivan Kreiger, a womanizing Ponzi schemer who destroyed many lives and international economies before his suicide in 1932.  Warren William played this heartless charmer to perfection, blending intense drive and calculated subtlety.

Left to his own devices, Warren William would have made many more comedies like “The Lone Wolf” than villainous character studies.  Imagine Perry Mason lying drunk in his office and still solving 1935’s “The Case of the Lucky Legs” and you get some idea of Warren William’s playful streak.  In real life he was madly in love with Helen, his much older wife, his three pet dogs (they all survived him) and his extremely happy home life.  On page 136, there is a picture of the actor at a Hollywood party, looking bored out of his skull.  Three dozen pages later he looks much happier with the pups Jack, Jill and Babs and they look equally happy to be with him.  Warren William also enjoyed working on his ranch and tinkering with inventions.  His work with carcinogenic chemicals undoubtedly led to his early death at 53 from multiple myeloma.  As he physically weakened, he accepted low budget films like “Strange Illusion” and starred in “Strange Wills”, a series of radio dramas.  John Strangeland's insightful, sympathetic biography packs many great Warren William stories into 230 pages.  For more information go to mcfarlandpub.com.

© 2012 - Monica Sullivan- Air Date: 03/06/12
Movie Magazine International

The Charlie Chan Encyclopedia - Book Report

By Monica Sullivan

Fans of Charlie Chan (and there are more of them than you may think) are a fairly discrete group.  Whenever there is even a whisper of a rumor to reactivate the series, focus groups pounce on the prospect as if it were the worst idea ever.  Why didn’t a Chinese actor play Charlie Chan?  He did in Chinese language Chan films.  Doesn’t the series reinforce racial stereotypes?  Read the books or watch the movies.  Charlie Chan is a clever, patient investigator.  Whenever he senses resistance to his polite, persistent methods, he tells the resisters to cut it out with quiet, firm courtesy.  Charlie Chan doesn’t cut corners, brawl or rely on car chases to catch killers.  He disarms them with tried and true techniques so unobtrusive, they’re barely noticed. 

Earl Der Bigger’s novels are precise, colorful and entertaining.  The 20th Century Fox films tried to capture their flavor and usually succeeded, thanks to sharp scripts, careful direction and vivid character actors.  That’s part of the reason I bought all the books and the Fox Collection when it became clear that broadcast television was skittish about airing the films, even though all the available titles had been beautifully restored. 

The paperback edition of “The Charlie Chan Encyclopedia” by Howard Berlin is a welcome addition to the Charlie Chan canon.  Berlin knows and loves his subject and in 1900 entries he supplies a welcome context for the golden age of Charlie Chan in Hollywood.  The photographs are sharp and well-chosen, although on page 111, a slinky picture of Marguerite Chapman is identified as Marguerite Churchill.  Berlin succeeds in showing why Charlie Chan was so popular in his heyday and also why he is still a source of interest for today’s audiences.  For more information on “The Charlie Chan Encyclopedia” check out mcfarlandpub.com.

© 2012 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 02/29/12
Movie Magazine International

British Film Noir Guide - Book Report

By Monica Sullivan

“Film Noir.”  The words, meaning “black pictures”, come from French movie critics, enraptured by low budget black and white American productions of the 1940’s and 1950’s.  In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, film noir festivals became brisk money makers for archives, repertory theatres, video and DVD distributors plus countless late night broadcasters and cable programmers.

Unsurprisingly other copyright holders of vintage European titles wanted to get in on this profitable phenomenon.  Michael Keaney’s “British Film Noir Guide” from McFarland Publishers provides noir buffs with an illustrated guide to noir efforts across the pond. 

One of Keaney’s favorites (and mine) is “Black Narcissus” which shows the struggle of 5 nuns to keep their faith in Calcutta.  The film is not a pro or con argument about nuns.  It shows how women cope with their emotions in a different environment with a very different climate.  The leader of the group, (Deborah Kerr as Clodagh) is swept away by her romantic memories of lost love (lost in the sense that she loved him and he didn’t love her back).  Another nun (Flora Robson) is supposed to supply the convent with vegetables from the garden but, dreamily she plants flowers instead.  An unbalanced young nun (played to the hilt by Kathleen Byron) imagines herself in love with Mr. Dean (David Farrar) as a local man sent to help the group.  She also engages in a deadly power struggle with Clodagh, whose youth and inexperience leave her unprepared to cope with the violent undercurrents of insanity.  Why does “Black Narcissus” qualify as film noir?  Mainly because it gets to the heart of the noir universe, with nary a gunfight nor fisticuffs in sight.  A noir atmosphere is more about feelings and perceptions than it is about direct action and uncluttered decisions. 

“No Orchids For Miss Blandish” is a 1948 film heavily influenced by U.S. gangster lore.  Its star, Jack La Rue as Slim Grisson, had a long career in Hollywood and is perfect as a bad guy to whom a rich English Rose (Linden Travers as Miss Blandish) is irresistibly drawn.  English critics detested the picture, but American audiences liked it and Robert Aldrich remade it in 1971 as “The Grissom Gang.”

Michael Keaney likes the movies he likes and lets the other ones go, sometimes with just one sentence.  His dislikes are described in such a cursory fashion that I wondered why he bothered to include them at all.  1959’s “Beat Girl” is a subversive little film which women seem to appreciate more than men.  Keaney complains about the score (by John Barry, no less, clearly revving up his gears for the James Bond scores to come) and gives the rest of “Beat Girl” short shrift in a few disparaging sentences.

Still, the main aspect of a book like the “British Film Noir Guide” is that it supplies the reader with an overview of movies they might otherwise not even notice.    “Dual Alibi” with the great Herbert Lom playing two parts, “The Fallen Idol” revealing adultery through the eyes of a lonely little boy and “Frieda” which shows life in a British village through the eyes of a German war bride who is driven to despair by the prejudice and bitterness of her neighbors, are some of the titles receiving examination.  There are 369 entries, a useful start for any noir buffs.  For more information, check out mcfarlandpub.com. 

© 2012 -Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 02/12/12
Movie Magazine International

Charles McGraw: Biography Of A Film Noir Tough Guy - Book Report

By Monica Sullivan

I can think of few movie gangsters I admired as much as Charles McGraw.  He was the real deal.  Larger than life, riddled with conflict, blessed with a sandpaper voice and a face to match, McGraw was born to play film noir.

“Charles McGraw: Biography Of A Film Noir Tough Guy” by Alan K Rode reveals the difficult personal life of McGraw as a backdrop to his long successful career.  McGraw’s vulnerability was alcohol.  It led to his accidental death in 1980 after 77 movies during a 35 year film career.  Marie Windsor told me in an interview conducted during the 1990’s: “I loved working with Charlie McGraw on ‘The Narrow Margin’ and no, he wasn’t drinking.  I want you to know that.”  Anyone who watches Charles McGraw’s carefully shaded performance as Walter Brown will see a character bursting with resentment at his job and grief over the violent death of his partner.

Being a hard-drinking tough guy on screen was one thing, playing one off-screen was a long, slow, painful ride to the summer of 1980 and his bloody demise in his own bathtub.  It was called an accident, but it was so clearly one that was waiting to happen.  McGraw was convinced that he could, with effort, control his drinking, as he controlled his harsh, realistic, performances over the years.  McGraw believed he could accomplish this on his own, but the women who loved him knew better.  Alcoholics Anonymous was in the year of its infancy when Charles McGraw turned 21, and it would be many years before its educational materials were widely distributed.  Hard drinkers like Charles McGraw and his cronies, used to doing things their own way, might not have been receptive to outside help in any event.  This is the sad, dark and relentless side of Charles McGraw’s life and that of his family.  His finely etched performances on film will live long after him, of course, and Alan K. Rode does a thorough job with his biography of a film noir tough guy, now available from mcfarlandpub.com. 

© 2012 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 02/22/12
Movie Magazine International

Applause

By Moira Sullivan

Paprika Steen as "Thea" in Applause.

The subject of the 2009 Danish film Applause seems like a western luxury about problems of people's own making.  The cinematography has a "Dogme" feel to it—the outdated Danish cinematographic conception created by Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier, which involves making films in the here and now -  no props, natural lighting, and no guns.

The Danish actress  Paprika Steen plays Thea, a middle aged alcoholic actress, along with many of the people in her city in Copenhagen: problem drinkers, heavy drinkers, alike. She is trying to quit and regain the love of her two sons from her failed marriage a year and a half ago. The film is shot around the stage performance of Applause with Paprika Steen.

Martin Pieter Zandvliet makes his directorial debut in this film, and although it was made three years ago it seems enmeshed with the virtues of "Dogme"- 'naked' reality in detail such as Thea smelling sheets that belong to her young sons an, listening to their forgotten wind up toys. Not only is Thea's husband gone but is together with a new woman, and she must follow them on excursions such as to the zoo if she wants to see her sons. Seeing them once and awhile is all her husband wants to offer.

Broken homes are sad to watch. Thea consoles herself with drink. Her abandonment of herself and her family before and after is tragic. When she goes out, she sits alone, and insults, rightfully so, a man who wants to pick her up. When she later feels sorry for him, he puts her down. Later she meets him again, and discovers she has already been with him one night, in a blackout. She starts to drink again.

All Thea seems to have is her estranged husband and children, and without them she doesn’t seem to have anything except her personal assistant. There is no hope. Only personal misery. Where are the lawyers and why does Thea have to beg her husband’s psychologist lover for the right to see her children? Eventually she seeks professional marital help, makes an appointment with her husband, but doesn’t show.

Paprika Steen makes this film bearable, and is excellent in her role. Many women in her situation will be able to relate. She is the mother of her children but everyone around her punishes her for being ill. No one is better at it then Thea herself whose self-inflicted pain is difficult to watch. 

Applause is an admirable film for its sense of reality, even if the problems in the larger scheme of the world seem unimportant. Nothing is more real than the human connection, and in this respect, Applause is virtuous.

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan- Air Date: 04/11/12
Movie Magazine International

The Lady

By Moira Sullivan

Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi

Luc Besson admits he couldn’t let the story about Aung San Suu Kyi go - and so he made a biopic of the woman who recently won a landslide victory for her party in Burma.

The story begins in 1947 when Aung was a young girl and rebel soldiers assassinated her father, the leader of Burma. The film then jumps to many years later where there is a scene with her British husband Michael who hasn’t seen Aung for three years. He has just been diagnosed with cancer. Three years before, Aung left England to take care of her mother in Burma.

Michelle Yeoh plays Aung Saan Suu Kyi and David Thewlis, her husband Michael Aris, a man whose hair is dreadfully uncombed through the entire film.

This is not your typical Luc Besson film; the story is straightforward and dominated by dialogue and sentimental background music. The rising and falling action documents how Aung San Suu Kyi became the beloved leader of her people. 

Burma is plagued by heroin trafficking and the spread of AIDS/HIV, problems escalated during the military junta that took over the government led by Aung's father. A spirit becomes more dangerous if it becomes a ghost, according to a fortune teller.  Furthermore, when a country is in peace it won't need a ghost, she says. Her prophecy to the the general of the military junta makes an impact. However, when Aung is hailed by the people, he considers himself badly advised and instead of retiring to play golf, his red kerchiefed men continue to terrorize the innocent.

Aung’s first speech is done in front of a live audience of one million -  not a computer generated crowd scene,  which is  a refreshing development.  Her life with a foreigner and time away from her country did not diminish her love for the land her father gave his life for.

It is just these simple facts that the military regime becomes aware of, and their obvious truths made Burma the closed society it became. In the documentary released last week and still playing in San Francisco, They Call it Myanmar everyone is watched. The self contained country became closed to public scrutiny inside and out. For these reasons, Aung was put under house arrest.  Unless she was taken to prison to join her people, she declared she would not eat. Michael talks her out of it.

All the lines to Burma are down, especially the ones between Aung and her husband Michael. He tries to return to Burma and is permitted no contact with his embassy - no engagement in politics.

The story is emotional with violin music. The constant phones lines going dead and the ensuing tears make it a dismal story. Nevertheless, it is a true one. While Aung was under house arrest, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.  She listened to the story on a radio in her home in Burma.

A remark in the film by an Englishmen after the award that now Burma would have to pay attention is naïve—a country that had been under military control for many decades. Burma did not follow the heed for democracy until just this past week when Aung’s party again won a landslide victory in the government. The military government did not heed her need to be with her dying husband in his final days, forcing her to choose between her people and her family.  She replied that it was no choice.

Eric Serra’s soundtrack accompanies the film even as the Burmese march in peaceful protest.  The only people seen in traditional face paint – are Aung's maids.

Aung's struggle was still ongoing in 2010 when The Lady was finished. An end to the torture of the Burmese people was not swayed by political pressure of any kind and it is a miracle that Aung San Suun Kyi survived at all. This film, despite it’s flaws, champions her cause and that of her father. Sade’s “Soldier of Love” accompanies the credits.

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 04/11/12
Movie Magazine International

Jiro: Dreams of Sushi

By Moira Sullivan 

Jiro: Dreams of Sushi is a 2011 documentary that is making the rounds and will be opening this week at Landmark Theatres. If you thought you knew all there was to know about sushi, this film will prove you don’t. 

Jiro Ono

Jiro Ono is a Japanese sushi master with 10 seats in his subway restaurant in Tokyo and he serves up the most exquisite handcrafted sushi. Few sushi restaurants have such quality. I can think of one on Clement St in San Francisco that seems to live up to the reputation of Jiro—Murusaki’s.  It is the kind of restaurant with three courses, as is explained in this documentary, with different kinds of sushi. The San Francisco chef has a diploma for using the deadly blowfish, and that is difficult to come by.

Jiro takes us through the male dominion of sushi making in Tokyo, from the fish markets where brokers bid on fish like the stock market in New York to the restaurants. It takes a while to become a sushi master and Jiro, who is now 80, has received several prizes. 

New York filmmaker David Gelb briefly traces Jiro’s upbringing. Apparently Jiro was raised by a strict father who failed at business and he almost never smiles through the film. We learn he was a bully in grade school and he travels to meet his old school chums who can testify to that.

The style of the film includes interview with Jiro’s son, Yoshikazu, who is now in the sushi business, workers in the field, the fishmongers, and fans of his eating. 

Documentary filmmakers should find new ways of making their films, because to show interview after interview with a nice background is not enough. The use of fast film speed to convey the routine nature of this business is done a couple of times without much artistic flare. And just when you think you have heard enough Philip Glass to last a lifetime, David Gelb trots him out again, to symbolize the frenzy of this routine business. 

It is true that Jiro dedicated his life to improving his craft and perhaps his life doesn’t need a documentary film for us to realize his talents. But how else would we have every learned about him? 

Now, to do some serious investigation for the best sushi restaurants in San Francisco.

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 03/21/12
Movie Magazine International

Joan Chen Honored at San Francisco Asian American Film Festival

By Moira Sullivan

Joan Chen in The White Frog

The San Francisco Asian American Film Festival has acquired an excellent reputation as a showcase of new films by directors of Asian heritage who grew up in America. This year’s  festival runs from March 8-18 with 100 films from 20 countries.

The special spotlight this year is on the Shanghai born actress Joan Chen whose Chinese name is Chen Chong. Joan Chen has lived in San Francisco for the past twenty years and although the designation Asian American didn’t quite fit for her before, it does now, especially with her two children who grew up in the city and her husband Peter Hui, who is a cardiologist in San Francisco. 

Chen was discovered on the rifle range by Mao Zedong’s wife and was selected for the Actor’s Training Studio in 1976. She won best actress in 1980 for her role in Little Flower. Shortly after, she moved to the US and studied acting at Cal State Northridge. Her international film debut was in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) when she was only 26. 

Chen was interviewed in the documentary Hollywood Chinese (2007) by local filmmaker Arthur Dong and revealed that had she been a white actress her film career would have taken off at that point. Despite nine Academy Awards, she didn’t get a single film offer unlike white actors in the film. Instead, she received marginal roles afterwards. She is perhaps best known to audiences in the USA as Josie Parker in Twin Peaks.

Chen tired of being an exotic symbol in film and turned to directing. Her favorite accomplishment is the film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl from 1998, which will be screened at the festival. The film is about a young girl who is to take charge of her cavalry youth group in the Peoples Republic of China of the 70s but learns that government officials of the event are corrupt. The film won several Golden Horse awards in 1998 for best picture, best screenplay for Chen, and best actress and actor awards . Other notable recent films starring Chen are Jiang Wen’s The Sun also Rises from 2007 and  Jia Zhangke’s 24 City (2008), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
 

The world premiere of The White Frog directed by Quentin Lee is the opening night film of the festival on March 8 at the Castro Theater. Chen plays the mother of a young man with Asberger's syndrome played by Booboo Stewart, alongside San Francisco BD Wong, who plays the father.

© 2012 - Moira Sullivan- Air Date: 03/07/12
Movie Magazine International