The 14th Athens International Film Festival is over. It has been for a week at least. It wasn't bad. Very different crowd this year. Many new, younger faces, while many of the typical ones were missing. Strange.
What with work and being broke, I only saw 10 films.
1. Better Things (uk/germany): Awful, awful, awful film. The english countryside at it's most dreary and it's inhabitants at their worst. Everyone was either a near catatonic teenager/twenty-something with a drug/sex problem or a depressed OAP. They hardly spoke and nothing really happened. A total waste of their time.
2.The Wild Man of the Navidad (usa): A b-movie featuring a man-monster, my kind of film! It takes place somewhere in the american countryside and is complete with red-necks, moonshine, guns and a weird "monster". Very fun!
3.Cat People (Jacques Tourneur 1942 usa): A classic b/w thriller. Not half bad even though it doen't scare anyone - except a two-year old - anymore.
4.The Tune (Bill Plimpton 1992 usa): A cute little cartoon musical about a guy who has to find the perfect song to keep his job and girlfriend.
5.I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur 1943 usa): Another classic b/w thriller. I really liked this one. Zombies, voodoo, skeletons in family closets and innocent nurses, all taking place in the Caribbean.
6.Le Marais (Isilde le Bescaux 2005 france) and Demi-Tarif (Isilde le Bescaux 2003 france): She is supposed to be a new up and comming director. Le Marais was a short amusing documentary about the district in Paris. Demi-Tarif was a crazy, strange, touching, ultimately sad story of three children abandoned by their mother. The film was oddly intimate and claustrophobic, and a bit disturbing at points.
7.Bananaz (uk): An on the road documentary about the Gorillaz. Damon is an oddball and Jamie is nuts. We love them anyway.
8.The Upsetter (usa): A very informative documentary about another loony, Lee Scratch Perry. Very informative. Lee Perry was really crazy, but who cares, he's also a genius.
9.Gonzo - The Life and Works of Dr Hunter Thomson (usa): Yet another documentary about a crazy genius. Thomson was the inventor of Gonzo journalism and the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Very good documentary with good footage of Thomson. Only problem was that it skipped out all his early years.
10. Sita Sings the Blues (usa): A cartoon about the story of Sita from the Ramayana incorporating blues songs. Very funny and well drawn, using different drawing styles.
And that's about it. Not much, huh?
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