In Contention

Tag: Jerichow

  • EDINBURGH: “Modern Love is Automatic,” “Jerichow,” “White Lightnin’”

    Modern Love is AutomaticWith over 100 new feature films appearing at the Edinburgh this week, and a chaotically overlapping schedule of press screenings to work with, the choice of what to see can be a bewildering one.

    With previous festival cred behind them, the likes of “The Hurt Locker” or “Fish Tank” hardly have to fight for your attention, but the programme is packed with underexposed, unbuzzed titles that have to rely on word of mouth, or just gut instinct, to get seen.

    It’s this lucky-dip process that makes festivals fun, whether you’re rewarded with the smug satisfaction of happening upon a hidden gems – or simply the knowledge of why no one is talking about a certain title. What follows are three under-the-radar titles that typify the mixed fortunes of the festival experience.

    “MODERN LOVE IS AUTOMATIC” (***)

    I probably wouldn’t have unearthed Zach Clark’s delicious, unapologetically avant-garde sophomore were it not for a tip-off from our own Chad Hartigan, which would have been my own significant loss. A study of sexual politics in the postern age of disassociation and consumerism, with precisely none of the dry academic heft of that pitch, “Modern Love” more resembles the kind of candy-colored, off-the-cuff riff that might have emerged if Andy Warhol had ever tried his hand at “Sex and the City.”

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  • Countdown to Venice: the future of festivals?

    So the Venice Film Festival kicks off tonight with its glossiest title, the out-of-competition “Burn After Reading.” Reviews ought to start trickling in tonight, though it’s worth bearing in mind that festival fever can often give the premature illusion of critical consensus.

    Screen International has a very handy rundown of the festival lineup – both in and out of competition – which paints a much clearer picture of the more international entries than anything else I’ve read so far.

    Less-covered competition films that particularly caught my eye include “Inju: The Beast in the Shadow,” a Franco-Japanese thriller starring the excellent Benoit Magimel, marking a return to fiction film for Oscar nominee Barbet Schroeder, “Jerichow,” a German riff on “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” and, by far the least heralded of the US entries, “Vegas: Based on a True Story,” a portrait of down-and-outs in the titular city from Iranian director Amir Naderi.

    (Not to mention an out-of-competition contingent that includes new works from such weighty auteurs as Claire Denis, Agnes Varda and Abbas Kiarostami, whose “Shirin,” starring Juliette Binoche, I’ve already mentioned is my most anticipated film of the fest.)

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