Boyd from European Films here, reporting on the ongoing Venice Film FestivalMood: tired
Weather: sunny but not particularly warm
Films seen: Cassandra's Dream, The Nines, La graine et le mulet, Un baiser - s'il vous plaît, The Darjeeling Limited, Hotel Chevalier, Il dolce e l'amaro, En la ciudad de Sylvia, Der Freischwimmer, Mal nascida, Sukiyaki Western Django, Désengagement
People currently on the same square mile of earth as I am: Peter Greenaway, Manoel de Oliveira, Amos Gitai, Tsai Ming-Liang, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp.
A Plea from Venice:
Dear directors (and dear editors of the aforementioned),
Life is short. Please remember this when putting your films together. Life is short. Repeat after me: Life is short. Life is short. Life is short.
Directors! What has happened to you? If the new films presented at the 2007 Venice Film Festival are any indication, anything shorter than 80 minutes is considered a short film, and anything shorter than 100 a medium-length feature. Don't you think viewers and especially critics don't have anything better to do?
Here is the evidence for my case:
Atonement: 123 minutes
Se jie (Lust, Caution): 156 minutes
Sad vacation: 136 minutes
Michael Clayton: 119 minutes
In the Valley of Elah: 120 minutes
Les amours d'Astrée et de Céladon - 109 minutes
Empire II - 180 minutes
Hotel Meina - 110 minutes
Cléopatra - 116 minutes
Cassandra's Dream - 108 minutes
La fille coupée en deux - 115 minutes The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 155 minutes
La Graine et le mulet - 151 minutes
I'm Not There - 135 minutes
Sukiyaki Western Django - 121 minutes
Désengagement - 115 minutes
Freischwimmer - 110 minutes
Nightwatching - 134 minutes
and the list goes on...
Do you really think we have nothing else to do in life? That we have no friends, no family, no TV set, no internet connection? What is wrong with you people? If you want to mirror life in your films, please remember what I said earlier: life is short.
In the list above, there are only two films that merit every single minute of their running time: Atonement and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Both are historical epics and benefit from the long running time (in Atonement's case it should ideally have been even a bit longer; it's closing section is handled too quickly). All the other filmmakers have committed what might be a minor infraction if you are out on your semi-weekly multiplex visit, but what turns out to be something on the level of a crime against humanity if you are at a film festival.
If all the films above would have been shortened by just ten minutes, I would have had three whole hours of my life back, in which I could have: a) seen two medium-length films, b) watched the restored copy of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance playing here in Venice, c) gone out for a nice Italian meal d) gone for a swim in the Mediterranean and a nice Italian snack.
So, my dear directors, pleas bear this in mind when putting together your next film. Less is more. Life is short. Critics also like solid food instead of straw-fed Red Bull and coffee. And a dip in the Med is more than they could ever hope for. After any of the above occurrences (or -- God forbid -- a combination of them) , they might even be more mildly inclined towards your movies as they will not review them in a state of lethargy or somnambulance.
Thank you for your future consideration.
(a sleep-depraved) Boyd
editor of european-films.net and
TFE guest blogger from Venice
NB: Note to the editors working with the directors: If you feel that the film you are working on is too long, please advise the director to "jump straight into the story" (read: chop of the endless city-, landscape or other useless shots at the beginning) and to go for an "enigmatic" ending (read: chop ten to twenty minutes of the ending).
Reviews:
Though I've seen a lot more, I haven't been able to review much (or very extensively) for the past two days, since I've had about a dozen interviews that will be published in the upcoming weeks at european-films.net.
What I can give you are the two reviews of highly anticipated titles that both come with reservations: Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited and, as promised, Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream. Both star stars and are too long but should appeal to fans of the directors. The links above are to the medium-length reviews on european-films.net.
The score board:
On the score board published in the festival daily, the French film La graine et le mulet (The Secret of the Grain) is currently the top choice of both the Italian critics and the Italian audience so far, with Branagh's Sleuth in second place for the audience and the critics placing their bets on Rohmer's Les amours d'Astrée et de Céladon. My personal top three of festival films so far: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement and Se
jie (Lust, Caution).
Tim Burton & Sweeney Todd:
Earlier today, US director Tim Burton received the Career Golden Lion from the hands of an actor completely unknown to the director until the time of the ceremony: Captain Jack (the two bearded and bespectacled men can be see in the picture above, courtesy of Fabrizio Maltese). In honor of the director, the festival declared September 5 "Tim Burton Day" and screened the 3
D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the first eight minutes of Sweeney Todd, which I haven't seen but which I have been told were quite out of the ordinary (not that anything less would have been acceptable from Burton).The director walked down the red carpet with his rotund partner Helena Bonham Carter (she is eating lots a the moment but has good reason: she's pregnant), who plays the pie-baking Mrs Lovett in the adaptation of the Sondheim musical about the demon barber. Johnny Depp plays the sharp-cutting title character.
