First up today was the heartbreaking documentary Project Nim about the monkey brought up like a human and taught to use sign language. Nim is an absolutely adorable monkey and full of energy and personality, ripped away from his mother at birth and bought up in the house of a liberal hippy with lot's of children and a professor husband. Initially the film is a blending of quaint home movies of Nim's "childhood" and interviews with his "family". Nim's life was documented with amazing comprehension and filmmakers had a treasure trove of stock footage to tell Nim's story. The interviews were fantastic and the characters that emerged through these discussions were compelling. The film was composed chronologically so as each individual interview came to an end and the interviewee left Nim's life for good, for one reason or another, the camera panned away from them and lead into the next stage of his life, which I really loved as it made it a lot easier to keep track of all of the people coming and going from his life. The film became quite disturbing and incredibly sad. A fantastically heartbreaking tale of animal cruelty and a devastating warning for people who work with animals about how receptive and aware they are.
My next session was accidentally The Guard so in the morning I looked at the other films in the time slot and decided to see the Israeli film The Matchmaker, and I absolutely loved. The matchmaker is the incredibly sweet and moving coming of age story following the adventures of crime novel aficionado and 16-year-old Arik when in the summer of 1968 he is hired by a childhood friend of his father, Yankele, to spy on potential love matches at his matchmaking agency. When his best friends beautiful cousin comes to stay, love is in the air and his life becomes a lot like the plots of his favourite Dashiell Hammett books as he and his friends work to understand what Yankele actually does for a living and also understand what he and Arik's father went through in the Holocaust. The music and costumes are brilliant, I loved it.
Next up was the documentary Tabloid, exploring the bizarre life of Joyce McKinney, the "Mormon sex in chains" girl embroiled in a bizarre mystery in the late '70s. She is quite the character and I can see how this story captivated the attention of the British public so fervently. Some words I used in my post film notes were; insane, very dry, hilarious, twisted, unbelievable and utterly engaging. I don't want to say too much because although this story was huge in Britain at the time it never really got here, so part of the joy of the film is not knowing what is coming next. Errol Morris is an inventive story teller, presenting each perspective of the film but managing to make an uproarious tongue in cheek film that is incredibly enjoyable. McKinney is a lively, vivacious character and I was left thinking how nobody could write a person and a story so delicious as this.
In the same cinema again I picked the perfect spot to sit and saved a seat for my friend. I like watching all the people pile into the cinema, seeing how diverse the crowds flocking to the film festival are, and there were quite a variety of Melbournian film buffs coming to see the latest from Miranda July, The Future. I am not an avid follower of the bizarre career of Miranda July but I have seen Me and You and Everyone We Know and although it was weird and left me in an odd mood, in a weird way I enjoyed it. This one however felt completely unfinished, not as a film but as a script. The plot was bizarre and disconnected with intermittent voice overs from the perspective of a cat the leads were supposed to adopt. It did have some redeeming elements, such as the cat, but ended in an unresolved and unbelievable way (within the context of the film). I thought it was going in one particular direction and then went completely off the rails and I was left wanting more. If it had have gone where I'd thought I might feel differently but I actually hated it.
Pick of the day
The Matchmaker was just so beautiful and lovely and quaint and I absolutely loved it despite it being one of the "kids films". One of my favourite films from a previous film festival was Son of Rambow and that was a kids film too. Maybe I'm not as mature as I think.
Surprise of the day
Tabloid was just so outrageous beyond belief and was an absolute joy to watch, especially with such a receptive audience.
Film total so far
25
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