TIFF 50: Colombia's "A Poet" and Japan's "Kokuho"

by Cláudio Alves

It's easy to understand why artists would be drawn to stories about artists. Self-reflection is a powerful siren call, and the particularities of another creative's tale can help you elide the pitfalls of more direct auto-fiction. This is especially true for those who consider the artistic practices beyond their chosen medium. In this year's Oscar race for Best International Film, we find two such projects. They represent journeys of inverse success, one about failure and the other focused on glory beyond reason. But of course, such greatness comes with a price that can be as bitter as a floundering. A film looks at the smallness of man, another at being bigger than life, inspiring awe and alienation, losing humanity along the way.

First up, there's Simón Mesa Soto's A Poet, representing Colombia. And then Lee Sang-il's Kokuho, selected by Japan after proving itself a box office hit…

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TIFF 50: Musical mayhem in "The Testament of Ann Lee"

by Cláudio Alves

Why do we make musicals? What compels us to sing and dance our emotions, our spirits, our many meanings? Is it the communion of making yourself heard and seen by others? Is it the need to be witnessed? Does it have anything to do with a search for what lies beyond our everyday lives, an exuberant gesture reaching toward transcendence? It could be all of these possibilities at once or none whatsoever. Perhaps it's the same thing that compelled the Quakers to shake. By telling the story of Ann Lee, the founding mother of the Shaker sect, Mona Fastvold draws parallels between the two, studying, testing, and preaching the form of the musical, much like some might proselytize the Bible's teachings. 

The result is a movie musical like few others, a complicated mess of ideas and wild impulses, animated by a spirit unbound, unafraid to alienate or risk ridicule. The Testament of Ann Lee is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating films of the fall festival season and, since experiencing it at TIFF 50, I haven't been able to stop thinking about what Fastvold wrought…

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TIFF 50: “Couture” reflects on fashion, bodies and mortality

by Cláudio Alves

In Alice Winocour's Couture, Angeline Jolie enters the film in a rush, already late and running. She plays Maxine Walker, an American director famous for her work in horror, who has been recently hired by one of those legendary French fashion houses to create a short film that will play alongside their new haute couture collection at Paris Fashion Week. She's there to work with the highest budget of her career, pumping out a vampire fantasy in a couple of days as the rest of the French capital prepares for the runway shows. At the top of the world, she's still struggling, burdened by doubts from higher-ups, a stifling schedule, and confusing calls from physicians back home. Those last ones are so insistent that she ends up leaving the shoot for an emergency appointment…

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TIFF 50: "Steve" and "The Ugly" waste no time

by Cláudio Alves

Following festival coverages can be a frustrating business for the common cinephile. As someone who's often on the other side of this dynamic, reading about films that are months or even years away from general release may induce all manner of negative feelings. Think of envy or the put-upon disinterest of someone who's set on divesting eagerness and spare himself the dissatisfaction that comes with it. For those who feel the same way as The Film Experience continues to house this prolonged TIFF 50 rundown, here are two titles for which you won't have to wait too long… or at all. And to make things more interesting, both films share the meta-cinematic intrusion of documentary crews into their narratives. Now, there's a double feature for you.

After its world premiere in Toronto, Steve, Tim Mielants' follow-up to Small Things Like These, is already on limited release. And then there is Yeon Sang-ho's The Ugly, a Korean drama that arrives in US theaters next week…

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TIFF 50: "Mārama" serves Gothic horror with an anticolonial twist

by Cláudio Alves

Before even its company credits unfold on screen, Mārama hits the audience with a smash of historical context. A short text positions the narrative to come within the legacy of colonialism in Aoteaora, renamed New Zealand by its invaders. Specifically, it warns of the desecration of Māori culture and the violence that persists to this day, concluding with a statement that might as well stand for the film's thesis: "To move into our future we must understand our past." Such sentiment underpins much of contemporary anticolonial art, and Mārama makes for a particularly curious example, as it explores the subject by appealing to genre precepts, moving away from didacticism toward the pulpy visceral. 

For his feature directorial debut, Taratoa Stappard has imagined a Gothic story cum revenge fantasy, where a Māori woman travels across the globe to Victorian England and seeks justice for what was done to her, her family, her people…

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