Retro IONCINEMA.com
Tribeca dispatch #8
Based in Northern Ontario, the film relates the unlikely relationship between an autistic mother whose daughter was recently killed in a car accident and the man – a complete stranger – who was driving her. For the first few minutes, the film starts off as a very conventional Canadian road movie until the narrative takes a turn for the dramatic straying away from the shaky camera aesthetics that characterized the first half.
[Pierre-Alexandre Despatis suffers for his cinema. Now covering his second edition, our official festival reporter and multi-function human cyborg will provide us the sights (plenty of cool pics!), the sounds, the reviews and the occasional interviews of the still very young 5th edition of the Tribeca film festival. Below are some of Pierre-Alexandre’s reviews in easy to read, insightful capsule form. Enjoy!]
Snow Cake
Based in Northern Ontario, the film relates the unlikely relationship between an autistic mother whose daughter was recently killed in a car accident and the man – a complete stranger – who was driving her. For the first few minutes, the film starts off as a very conventional Canadian road movie until the narrative takes a turn for the dramatic straying away from the shaky camera aesthetics that characterized the first half. The accident is shot in a startling manner (it's the kind of mise-en-scene where repeat viewings are mandatory). The film's cinematography and aesthetics are quite effective too – the first encounter between the mother and the man is sleekly shot. Very few films can mix in an interesting and realistic manner humor and drama; this film does it perfectly. The woman (an astonishing performance by Sigourney Weaver) says many funny remarks throughout the course of the film … " my daughter described to me was an orgasm was like … [it seemed to me] like an inferior version of what I feel when I have my mouth full of snow". The film is literally hilarious … never has an audience (even the industry and press screening folks) laughed that much during a screening. Marc Evans’ SNOW CAKE is a staggering film – not to be missed.
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
In the nineties GM marketed the EV1 … a car that could run entirely of battery power; a decade later, the car has vanished from the market and major companies only produce lame hybrid cars which have a 25% fuel efficiency rate. Yet another anti-bush film at the festival! The film isn’t anti-bush per se, but as you’d expect from such a film, it points fingers at who’s guilty for killing the electric car … and guess who's to blame? The film has numerous charts and, of course, it features the obligatory very authoritative narration. In other words, the doc features all you’d expect from a commercial-ish activist film. Nothing more, nothing less. The film does a great job at outlining the causes of the death of the infamous electric car, but it remains on the surface of too many issues. It covers everything ranging from the US politics to battery manufacturers, so there is no time to look deeply in each of the projects. Chris Paine only scratches the surface of many issues and as a consequence, many of the facts the films outlines are common knowledge. The film would have really got our engines started if it could have been more informative – had it focused on a (or a few) specific aspect and to research it thoroughly. Nonetheless, Who Killed the Electric Car is a fun and entertaining film to watch.
When the Road Bends…tales of a Gypsy Caravan
The actual world of gypsies is very different than how it is interpreted in film. Gypsies aren’t all traveling in circus and cursing people as we see in some films. This film by Jasmine Dellal aims at showing us who these people really are and it follows a group of gypsies in a series of concerts in majors cities, such as NY and Toronto. As one of the flabbergasted performer’s notices, there are scalpers selling tickets for the show in New York … “it’s amazing to see that for Hungarian music”. The films combines interviews, behind the scene footage of the various groups part of the tour, and actual musical numbers from the shows. The film does a great job at documenting the tour, however, the tour takes a bit too much importance in the film. After seeing the film, you’re not going to know much more about gypsies than you knew before going in. The film would have greatly benefited if some aspects such as the cultural heritage of gypsies and their modern way of life would have been empathized. Still, the film is a nice introduction to the extremely obscure and unknown world of gypsies.
Tribeca Dispatch #7
Tribeca Dispatch #6
Tribeca Dispatch #5
Tribeca Dispatch #4
Tribeca Dispatch #3
Tribeca Dispatch #2
Tribeca Dispatch #1
Tribeca Preview
