The 2013 New Zealand International Film Festival kicks off in Auckland this week before traveling around the country. As we’ve come to expect, the festival is filled with an eclectic selection of international and local feature films, short films, documentaries and classic cinema.
With 106 films to choose from here are a few that have caught my attention, which may help you with your own picks....
The 2013 New Zealand International Film Festival kicks off in Auckland this week before traveling around the country. As we’ve come to expect, the festival is filled with an eclectic selection of international and local feature films, short films, documentaries and classic cinema.
With 106 films to choose from here are a few that have caught my attention, which may help you with your own picks.
In the ‘Straight from Cannes’ category there are a raft of films worth seeing, although there’s a good chance they’ll open in cinemas here over the coming months. Opening the festival is Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, staring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Soderbergh has announced he’s retiring from directing and that Behind the Candelabra was his last movie; let’s hope he was just having a bad day when he said this!
Other films from Cannes include Japanese director Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s family drama, and Cannes Jury Prize winner, Like Father, Like Son, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty and Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake.
If you’re looking for controversy, Mexican director Amat Escalante’s film Heli, about drug-gang violence in small town Mexico, fits the bill. Winner of the Best Director award in Cannes, this brutal film got the critics talking and is not for the squeamish.
Asghar Farhadi’s The Past is also at the top of my must-see list. His previous film A Separation was a highlight of 2012, and while the critics aren’t raving quite as loudly about The Past this relationship drama won its lead actress Berenice Bejo the best actress award at Cannes.
Moving away from Cannes, a few quirky, low budget films have also caught my attention, including Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. A modern day take on Shakespeare’s comedy, this low budget passion project shot in Whedon’s own home has been delighting audiences and critics on the film festival circuit.
Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha also looks delightful and kooky. An unconventional dating manual, Frances Ha was written by Baumbach and actress Greta Gerwig, who also stars, and shot on the streets of New York using a digital camera. Lo-fi and with plenty of improvisation, I’m hoping this will be one of my magical moments at the festival.
Speaking of kooky, also screening is the latest film from quirky genius Michel Gondry (The Science of Sleep) Mood Indigo. Staring Audrey Tautou, as a woman suffering from an unusual illness, caused by a flower growing in her lungs, it’s just as romantic, weird and wonderful as you’d expect from Gondry.
Looking locally, director Tim van Dammen also gives Shakespeare a shake with his rock opera Romeo and Juliet: A Love Song. Featuring music from Michael O'Neill and Peter van der Fluit, and set in a beachside caravan park, this is Romeo and Juliet for the YouTube generation, Kiwi style. Also not to be missed is the comedy The Deadly Ponies Gang from director Zoe McIntosh, featuring a couple of characters that are being described as “the Conchords’ embarrassing lowlife country cousins”.
You’ll also be able to see some of the best short films produced over the last year in the New Zealand’s Best 2013 Special Presentation screening, as well as documentaries with local connections.
There is once again a huge range of documentaries to choose from depending on whether you’re into sport, music, art, politics or world issues. Worth mentioning are two documentaries from Oscar winner Alex Gibney; the self explanatory We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, about how the Catholic Church handles its most errant priests. Sebastian Junger also presents a moving portrait of his colleague and friend, war journalist Tim Hetherington, in Which Way is the Front Line From Here. The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington.
And don’t forget the Restorations section of the programme featuring Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder 3D, and the 1959 classic North by Northwest; a wonderful and rare opportunity to see a classic piece of cinema on the big screen.
It’s a lot film, and should be a lot of fun.
Visit www.nziff.co.nz to find out more.