VIFF 2009 - Part two: Docs to watch

In part one, I recommeded five films to be on the lookout for and to recap, they were An Education, The Eclipse, Mid-August Lunch, I Remember and Cooking with Stella.

Now, in Part two, its the docs turn. Five non-fiction films that range in topics from Porgy and Bess to cooking to looking at various aspects of aging.

The first documentary I want to recommned is Porgy and Me: In the World of Porgy and Bess. In the (white) world of opera, Gershwin's alternately celebrated and controversial opera Porgy and Bess is one of the very few works that takes people of colour as its subject. Susanna Boehm's stirring documentary follows the cast of the New York Harlem Theatre Company on their European tour of Gershwin's work.

To view more information about the film, go here:

http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=2989

The second film I like to recommend is Cooking History, a film that inventively uses the field kitchen as a prism through which to view 20th century European history.

To view more information on the film, go here:

http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=3721

Number three is The State of Old, a package of films that addresses various aspects of aging in sensitive, revealing and heartwarmingly positive ways.

To view more information on the film, go here: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/Title/SSrg/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/Title/SS

Pelleas & Mellisinde (http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/2986) comes in at number four as a doc to watch. Since 1902, Claude Debussy's setting of Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist drama Pelléas and Mélisande has divided critics and audiences, but if its enigmatic drama and the hypnotic sound of its world have never really entered the mainstream, its influence on later music has been incalculable and its fans quasi-religious in their devotion. This film depicts the first Russian production of this notoriously demanding opera and also blends in rehearsal footage and interviews.

The final doc that must be watched at VIFF 09 is Argippo Resurrected (http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/4705). Antonio Vivaldi's lost opera Argippo was originally composed for a Prague debut in 1730. Lost for centuries, the opera's score was discovered by young Czech conductor Ondrej Macek.

The 2009 Vancouver International Film starts October 1 and runs until October 16. Hope you go and enjoy all 10 films that I have recommended.

BONUS VIFF 09 Recommendation -The Young Victoria

So there is one more film that I need to give a tremendous shout out to that is playing at VIFF09 and that is The Young Victoria.

This film closed TIFF 09 and now it is coming to Vancouver. The film tells the story of the early reign of Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt), showing how she ascended the thrown and her shaky start trying to rule a nation. It also depicts her romance with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). My friend Sheri Block who covered the film at TIFF 09 for CTV.ca named The Young Victoria as her second most favourite TIFF experience.

More information including the trailer, go here: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/2982

VIFF 2009 -Films to watch Part one

The 28th Vancouver International Film Festival is just around the corner (it starts October 1 and ends October 16). While VIFF doesn't quite get all the pomp and circumstances (meaning Hollywood celebs) as TIFF or the Toronto International Film Festival does but VIFF does offer many of the same high quality films that TIFF often presents such as this year both film festivals are showing The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt.

This year is no different. Here I like to present 10 films that people should check out at VIFF.

In Part One, I present 5 films that are a must see.

The first film is An Education starring Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson and in her breakthrough role Carey Mulligan. I wrote in a previous blog post that this is one of the films I am looking forward to seeing in the fall and am so glad that it is playing at VIFF.

An Education is the story of a teenage girl's coming-of-age set in 1961 London, a city caught between the drab, post-war 1950s and the glamorous, more liberated decade to come. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) stands on the brink of becoming a woman: a brilliantly witty and attractive 16-year-old whose suburban life is about to be blown apart by the utterly unsuitable 30-something David (Peter Sarsgaard). Urbane and witty, David manages to charm her conservative parents Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour). David introduces Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers with his attractive friend and business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny's girlfriend, the beautiful but vacuous Helen (Rosamund Pike). Just as Jenny's family's long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford seems within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life.

You can view more about this film on the VIFF website: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/2628

The next film on my list is Cooking with Stella, the feature debut of Dilip Mehta, who co-wrote the film with his sister Deepa Mehta. The film stars Don McKellar and Lisa Ray as Michael and Maya, new parents from Ottawa who arrive in New Delhi where Maya has landed a diplomatic post. There taste of India comes from their cook Stella, a brilliant chef, loyal employee, devout Catholic and a bit of a thief. Director Dilip Mehta will be in attendance.

You can view more about this film on the VIFF website:
http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/3118

Film #3 is The Eclipse not to be confused for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, this Eclipse stars Ciaran Hinds (soon to be Aberforth Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) as a widower who falls for a visiting ghost story writer while enduring some shocking apparitions in a film set in scenic, Cobh, County Cork Ireland.

You can view more about this film on the VIFF website: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/3413

The Italian film, Mid-August Lunch, is the number 4 film that you should watch at VIFF. The film is abou an obliging middle-aged son who finds himself catering to a spry but temperamental geriatric foursome including his own mother.

You can view more about this film on the VIFF website: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/2574

Number 5 is a Quebecois film called I Remember, a dark satire about two-time Premier Maurice Duplessis and set in the mining city of Abitibi in 1949.

You can view more about this film on the VIFF website: http://www.viff.org/tixSYS/2009/filmguide/films/5275

Part 2 are five documentaries that are have to be seen at VIFF and they range in topics from seniors to opera to cooking.

Whiteout: A Perfect storm of predictability

By Vanessa Ho

Whiteout, a mystery-thriller based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, starts off in 1957 with a gun fight involving Russians in the air over who knows what and ends with the plan crashing in the icy tundra of Antarctica.

Then it switches to the present day and we see U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) finishing her rounds of a U.S. Station in Antarctica. The basic premise of the film is that Stetko is three days away from her tour of duty in the frozen tundra and is about to return to the States just before 6 months of Winter darkness descends and a whiteout that would pretty much keep the people at the station trapped inside for the entire winter. She as she is preparing to leave, a body is discovered out of the middle of now where and she goes to investigate but has a tight time frame or else she would be trapped with a killer on the loose. Of course her investigation does tie into the beginnings fo the film. Helping with her investigation is a UN operative (Gabriel Macht).

Now I am not sure if the graphic novel was predictable but the movie sure was. I pretty much figured out who did it early on and knew that this person wasn't working alone. If you remember what Yoda said in The Phantom Menace: "Two there are: A master and an apprentice."

And this second person was also easy to predict. It was almost like a Murder, She Wrote. Pick the least likely person to be the killer and that person will be the killer.

Beckinsale was fine but Macht was pretty terrible as Robert Pryce, who was supposedly to have some sexual chemistry with Beckinsale's Carrie Stetko but nothing really came of that. Aside from the lack of chemistry with Beckinsale, his other problem was his line delivery was very flat and also he acts so suspicious all the time that you are supposed to think that he is the killer when you know that the most suspicious person in any mystery usually never does it.

The film used Manitoba as a stand-in for Antarctica and one of the things that director Dominic Sena did well was capture the coldness of the place. I have felt the cold of the Prairies and -40 celcius temperatures so I could relate to what the characters were feeling.

As a thriller, the film really does fail. I wasn't scared at all. The only thing that scared me was when Beckinsale's character got frostbite and had to have some fingers amputated.

In the end, Whiteout had more chills (temperature-wise) than thrills.