KIFF 2023's selection this year is better than last year and cineastes will get to watch a lot of great cinema in the next couple of day...
KIFF 2023's selection this year is better than last year and cineastes will get to watch a lot of great cinema in the next couple of days at the festival.
Among the films worth watching in the first three
days were Akaler Sandhane, Gondola, Breaker Morant, Scarlet Blue, How to Have
Sex, Close Your Eyes, Brotherhood, 60 Days, Broken Borders,, and Perfect Days.
Most of them were excellent with three being brilliant: Close Your Eyes, Broken
Borders and Perfect Days.
Close Your Eyes and Perfect Days were directed by
already famous and respected filmmakers, but Broken Borders, Rodrigo Alvarez
Flores’ directorial debut, topped them all. The film, which had its world
premiere at KIFF, is raw and unflinching in its portrayal of a family in a shambles.
The cinematography is disorienting with implied brutality, and the performances are as
raw as can be, adding another layer of naturalness to the film.
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is a gentle masterpiece
from a master of cinema. It is thankful for everything around it: nature,
people, buildings. It’s hard to make a film that appreciates life so much and
Wenders has done it again (after Paris, Texas). Perfect Days doesn’t have a
long plot; it’s slow, simple, and optimistic. It’s about everyday life and a
simple and normal man. Koji Yakusho’s performance is excellent and truthful. It
never once feels like he’s acting in a film, it’s as if he is Hirayama and
we’re observing him. The use of music is excellent, especially the final
haunting shot where Nina Simone’s Feelin’ Good is used so effectively.
Close Your Eyes, directed by the great Victor
Erice, is, essentially, a metaphor for cinema and celluloid. There are many
instances in the film where the characters talk about cinema and the importance
of celluloid filmmaking; and the film is about one’s search for “true” cinema:
cinema that hits hard and is the right film watched at the right time, and the
protagonist does find it halfway into the film, but it’s not the right time
yet. It’s a meditation on aging and the power of cinema. The final shot
beautifully shows the power of cinema (heavily inspired by Cinema Paradiso’s
final shot). The characters are realistic and the performances are excellent.
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