Ebertfest, Day 2

Go to Scarlett Cinema for a full run-down of Day 2 as it happened live!

Seen: Thursday, April 24, 2008
The following films played on day 2 of Ebertfest 2008:

Delirious (2006)
To say indie director Tom Decillo's latest film Delirious received distribution is to completely redefine the meaning of the word. More than upset about its poor marketing and subsequent lack of box office success, DeCillo was just plain befuddled about it. He corresponded with Roger Ebert last fall, and Ebert had their Q&A exchange published in the Chicago Sun-Times--a little crash course on the indie film market for the unknowing public. You can read that here, it's a nice chat to be privy to.

Beyond his written response, Ebert had it included on the slate of films at Ebertfest, day 2. The crowd really went wild for Delirious, and so did I. More than anything the script is an original take on celebrity culture that's a palatable balance between comic and grotesque. And the performances are out of this world. Michael Pitt plays a budding paparazzo who follows the elder, and much saltier, Steve Buscemi, an established failure in the business himself.

See it on DVD!


Yes (2004)
A beautiful movie. I'll have more on director Sally Potter as I move through this long, backlogged queue that includes more of her films. But if pressed to rank this among its Ebertfest counterparts, it gets the silver medal (just behind....ah, well, not to be revealed just yet. I made you wait this long for an Ebertfest recap, what's a few more days?)

Also, what a great poster



Canvas (2006)
Canvas was my one and only disappointment at the festival, which was much too inspired by the oeuvre of the Lifetime network for me to appreciate. Though, if nothing else--good performances from Joey Pants and Marcia Gay Harden!










Shotgun Stories (2007)
And I believe director Jeff Nichols' Shotgun Stories wins the bronze! I also loved this movie, which has an uncanny look and tone of David Gordon Green's films (excepting, perhaps, The Pineapple Express). And that isn't a tough parallel to draw, Nichols told us the two directors actually went to film school together. In sum, beautiful scenery of a space that isn't usually thought of as beautiful. Find this one on DVD right away too.

Ebertfest 2008: Opening Night

Hamlet (1996)
Seen: Wednesday, April 23, 2008

360 degree shots? 360 degree shots! Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996) opened the 2008 Ebertfest last April, and we watched it in 70mm projection, which is so huge it's like staring into an Olympic sized swimming pool. Apologies for the Olympics reference, but I've caught the fever for the Beijing games. Back to Branagh: I live blogged every day at Ebertfest, so you can read more about Hamlet here, at Scarlett Cinema

Minimal/Clean/Feminist

Orlando (1992)
Seen: Sunday, April 20, 2008

I was long overdue to see some Sally Potter films by the time Ebertfest rolled around back in late April, so in preparation for her 2004 film, Yes that was scheduled to screen at the festival, I picked up Orlando (1992), just to get a sense of her cinema before hand. Potter's style is so simple. Clean, bright sets, minimalist, but striking mise-en-scene, and compositionally it feels more like a modern painting. Even in the image shown above where Tilda Swinton's character is cloaked in ornate 18th century garb, there is a sense of separation from it. Mostly, perhaps, that is because Orlando (Swinton) often turns away from her own space and time to address us, speaking directly into the camera. It's sort of an acknowledgment of a primarily 20th century technology that didn't exist when her character would have. So there's an eternal life of her character that transcends time, which is, of course, the premise of the original novel "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf. Young, male Orlando decides not to age, but when he wakes one morning years later he is a woman. Swinton herself has a wryly androgynous look to her; she couldn't have been better cast. I found this film to be so curiously, almost coldly feminine, a feeling that repeats itself again in Yes, in particular. More on Potter to come...