#VIFF

[rickchung]

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant, dir. Ariane Louis-Seize) x VIFF 2023.

This is a surprisingly fresh take on teen vampires in the form of a low-key Quebecois coming-of-age indie comedy about trying to consume human blood and find victims ethically. Sara Montpetit and Félix-Antoine Bénard star as a 68-year-old undead woman in the body of a teenage girl and a depressed high schooler with suicidal tendencies. They form a sweet but strange bond as they try to earnestly help each other achieve their unconventional goals in life. Its exploration of the more mundane but annoying parts of vampiric life makes for an altogether humorous endeavour.

Screened at the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival as part of the Altered States series and screening again at the VIFF Centre from Oct. 21–30.

[jontheblogcentric]

VIFF 2023 Review: Lynx Man (Ilveskuiskaaja)

Finnish hermit Hannu and his fascination with the endangered Eurasian lynx is the subject of the documentary Lynx Man. The documentary Lynx Man showcases a man who you’d first think to be an eccentric. Over time, you’ll see his work is less of a hobby and more of a mission. The film begins with an old Finnish man finding a dead Eurasian lynx near the street. He picks it up and takes it with…

[awardswatcherik]

J.A. Bayona's 'Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la nieve)' to Close 2023 Venice Film Festival

[hslllot]

la biennale di venezia 2022

[trulymadlykiki]

My favorite red carpet looks from VIFF 2022

[the-celluloid-correspondent]

Best of VIFF Round 2

The Teachers' Lounge: Directed by Ilker Catak

When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.

The most stressful film of the festival thus far easily goes to The Teachers' Lounge. Teaching for a long time has been romanticized as an inspiring, fulfilling job of mentoring the next generation. However, this is incredibly far from the truth. Teaching is an incredibly stressful job, and those stresses are portrayed masterfully in The Teachers' Lounge. From annoying and disruptive students, to the overbearing parents, and the failure of the school administration, this film does not hold back by showing the harsh realities of being a teacher. These harsh realities can't help but make you furious while watching this feature. It highlights the failure of the school system and how it currently is set to push teachers to their breaking point.

These themes do take precedence over the story. The story is relatively easy to follow, but there are some lose strings by its end. However, the biggest highlight of the film was Leonie Benesch performance. She perfectly illustrates the abuse the teachers face everyday. Whether its from her students, their parents, or her administration, she carries the weight of the world in her performance. Germany has picked an excellent feature to submit for their Oscar contention.

My Rating: A-

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Seven Veils: Directed by Atom Egoyan

Jeanine, an earnest theatre director, has ben given a task of remounting her former mentor's most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, shall allows her represses trauma to shape this new iteration.

The Seven Veils is not your typical Opera big screen adaptation. I have no words to describe it other than it's an opera within a opera. For one I respect this different approach to adapting this opera to the big screen. It modernizes the story properly, while keep true to the original source material. The connection between Jeanine abuse and the tragedy of Salome works for the most part, though it is not the best of execution. There are some elements that don't align as well as it should. But still it has my respect. The opera scenes are spectacular to watch and feels like you are watching the opera live in the opera house. Amanda Seyfried is at the film center. Her performances is nothing really special, but works for this feature. Overall, I respect the ambition and vision of the Seven Veils, it is not the best at its execution.

My Rating: B

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Monster: Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that something is wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into school demanding to know what is going on. However, the truth of the matter is more than what they thought.

Nothing will quite prepare you for Hirokazu Kore-eda, Monster. For one, this film has some balls for exploring the sexual awakening in pre-pubescent kids. It handles this touchy subject with delicate care as it should. But infusing this theme with the consequences of lies and deceit is almost masterful. We witness these themes through a singular story, but told from three different point of views. Each of the stories complement one another by showing the complexities of this situation. However, not all of the stories align perfect as there are some lose ends by the films end.

The performances are outstanding, especially from the two young actors, Soya Kurokawa and Hinata Hiiragi. For both actors being incredibly young, they masterfully portray the internal conflicts that their characters are going through. Overall, a great feature that Japan might end up regretting not picking for their Oscar submission.

My Rating: B+

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Fallen Leaves: Directed by Aki Kaurismaki

Ansa, a supermarket shelf-stocker on a zero-hour contract, later a recyclable plastic sorter, and Holappa, a sand-blaster alcoholic, finds their paths accidentally crossed and soon find themselves slowly building a relationship.

To state it simply, I think Fallen Leaves is not meant for me. Something about the film just didn't click for me. I found many of the jokes to stick their landing, but something is missing. I am unsure if I didn't like the overall wooden direction of the film or that I didn't by the romance between the two leads. I am not sure. The story is a cute romance, but it lacked the substance to keep me engaged and to care. The jokes would only get me so far. I think this film just comes down to taste and for me, it just didn't click.

My Rating: C+

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Just the Two of Us: Directed by Valerie Donzelli

When Blanche meets Gregorie, she things she has found the one. However, during the passionate love affair, she finds herself caught in the grips of a deeply possessive and dangerous man.

Just the Two of Us, is an engaging of stereotypical drama dealing with domestic abuse. It follows all the tropes beat per beat with very little deviation. With the only deviation being it choosing to portray emotional and psychological abuse, rather than physical. This abuse is portrayed with horrifying accuracy that will send chills down your spine. However, the heart of this film are the performances from the two leads. Virginie Efira perfectly portrays the trauma and horrors of being a victim of domestic abuse. While Melvil Poupaud perfectly portrays a controlling psychopathic narcissist. Other than that its a standard domestic abuse drama. Remember, if you are a woman who is a victim of abuse, all you have to do it pick up the phone or talk to family, friend, or stranger and say you are being abused. You will get all the help you need. If you are a man, document everything and hope to god that they believe you.

My rating: B

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Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting S******l Person: Directed by Ariane Louis-Sieze

Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem, she's too sentitive to kill. When her parents cut off her blood supply, her life is in jeporady. Soon she meets Paul, a lonely teenager with s******l tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers.

Please pardon the censoring, I do not wish for this post to be demonetized. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting S******l Person is easily one of the best film titles I have heard in a long time. But more over it lives up to this title. For once we finally have a vampire dealing with the moral conundrum of killing a human in order to eat. This moral problem is handled perfectly with its own humorist twist. Furthermore, it handles the delicate subject of s*****e with incredible care. It knows when to be serious with this subject matter for which I respect it for. Nearly all of the jokes stick their landings as the film has it own twisted humor that everyone will enjoy. Furthermore, Sara Montpetiti steals the show as the vampire with a conscious. And her chemistry with Felix-Antone Bernard is comedic perfection. In general, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting S******l Person is a very fun horror comedy that everyone will enjoy.

My Rating: A-

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Deep Rising: Directed by Matthieu Rytz

The fate of the planet's last untouched wilderness, the deep ocean, is under threat a a secretive organization is about to allow massive extraction of seabed metals to address the worlds energy crisis.

Deep Rising is easily one of the most pretentious documentaries that I have watched in a very long time. It pretends to be intelligent by showing the "nuances" of seabed metal extraction, but it never puts in any effort of showing the complexity of this situation. It covers its topics at the most basic of level. It spends the entire time screaming that an alternative must be found because what we are currently doing is not sustainable and is destroying the planet, but never provides a viable solution. When they finally bring in the alternative, they cover it in less than 30 seconds, and spend the rest of the film complaining. If you are going to scream that something needs to change but you no not provide an alternative, you are not adding anything to the conversation. This also would have been a good time to educate the community of these alternatives, but nope it chose to complain even more. However, I do respect this documentary for calling out how much pollution green energies causes from its extensive mining. However, its criticism is geared only towards electric cars, not wind and solar energy who uses the exact same metals and minerals for their batteries and panels. If you are going to criticize mining for these materials, you can't focus it entirely on one group. Furthermore, the docs complete lack of mentioning nuclear energy as an alternative is insulting. Deep Rising could have been a very interesting documentary. However, its shallow and basic activism does nothing but hurt the conversation to achieving a society that is kinder to our planet.

My Rating: C-

[synthesizerbook]

#enysmen #enysmenfilm at #viff @viffest #arthousecinema (at Vancouver, British Columbia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CquCq3DrZP7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[irisfieldhouse]

Nisha Platzer's BACK HOME World Premiere at VIFF! Added screening Saturday October 8th at 1pm.

We are thrilled that Iris Film Collective member NISHA PLATZER's brand new documentary back home has had a huge response for its world premiere at this year's VIFF with two sold out shows, and we are happy to announce that a third has been added, door tickets only at this point! Tickets and more information here: https://viff.org/whats-on/back-home/

[irisfilmcollective]

Nisha Platzer's BACK HOME World Premiere at VIFF! Added screening Saturday October 8th at 1pm.

We are thrilled that Iris Film Collective member NISHA PLATZER's brand new documentary back home has had a huge response for its world premiere at this year's VIFF with two sold out shows, and we are happy to announce that a third has been added, door tickets only at this point! Tickets and more information here: https://viff.org/whats-on/back-home/

[jminter]

VIFF Returns to Cinemas for its 41th Edition

Head back to cinemas as the 41st editions of @VIFFest features a line up of events and over 200 feature and shorts coming to screens September 29-October 9 #VIFF2022

VIFF returns to cinemas September 29-October 9, 2022(VIFF 2019 Svenja Mehmke) Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) comes back to cinemas for its 41st edition, September 29-October 9, 2022Announcing its 2022 lineup, VIFF will feature nearly 130 feature films and 100 shorts screening across seven Vancouver venues, as well as 20 other events. Programs include a revamped film series and a…

[rickchung]

Monster (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda) x VIFF 2023.

The real "monster" was the snap judgments and assumptions we made along the way. Kore-ada once again chooses compassion through understanding in his nuanced portrayal of children experiencing trauma and conflict as he unfolds his touching melodrama from three shifting character perspectives (not unlike Rashomon). It's a soulful portrait of youth with adults struggling to understand strange behaviour in children.

Screened at the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival as part of the Special Presentations series.

[jontheblogcentric]

VIFF 2023 Wrap-Up: A Very Late Wrap-Up

DISCLAIMER: As most of you know, the Vancouver International Film Festival ended on Sunday, October 8th. That’s the day before Canadian thanksgiving. Also many of my more common readers know I usually delay my VIFF wrap-up until November. The reason why this year’s wrap-up comes so late is because, like Angela in my last VIFF review, I was overworked. Not completely because of jobs but also…

[lipstickmotherfucker]

Jacob Elordi attended the "Priscilla" photocall at the 80th Venice International Film Festival – 04/09/23

[stuckinreversemode]

CATE BLANCHETT ━ "Tár" premiere during the 79th Venice International Film Festival | September 1, 2022

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

"The suit is the modern gentleman's armor."

Harry Hart/Kingsman: The Secret Service

[jalboyhenthusiast]

cant wait till harry actually enters his hair down era