SIFF 2015 Index

This is an index of my coverage of the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival. The reviews are all at Seattle Screen Scene, the brief comments are on letterboxd.

Reviews:

Temporary Family (Cheuk Wan-chi, 2014) - May 14, 2015
Snow on the Blades (Setsurô Wakamatsu, 2014) - May 14, 2015
Results (Andrew Bujalski, 2015) - May 18, 2015
Back to the Soil (Bill Morrison, 2014) - May 18, 2015
Beyond Zero 1914-1918 (Bill Morrison, 2014) - May 18, 2015

Natural History (James Benning, 2014) - May 18, 2015
The Coffin in the Mountain (Xin Yukun, 2014) - May 22, 2015
Haemoo (Shim Sungbo, 2014) - May 22, 2015
The Color of Pomegranates (Segei Parajanov, 1968) - May 22, 2015
A Hard Day (Kim Seonghoon, 2014) - May 22, 2015

Overheard 3 (Alan Mak & Felix Chong, 2014) - May 29, 2015
Dreams Rewired (Manu Luksch, Thomas Tode & Martin Reinhart) - May 29, 2015
The Apu Trilogy (Satyajit Ray, 1955-59) - May 29, 2015
Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, 2015) - May 29, 2015
Unexpected (Kris Swanberg, 2015) - May 29, 2015

A Matter of Interpretation (Lee Kwangkuk, 2014) - May 29, 2015
Dearest (Peter Chan, 2014) - May 29, 2015

Brief Comments:

When Marnie Was There (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2014) - May 05, 2015
Virtuosity (Christopher Wilkinson, 2014) - May 10, 2015
The Royal Road (Jenni Olson, 2015) - May 30, 2015
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014) - May 31, 2015
The Teacher's Diary (Nithiwat Tharathorn, 2014) - Jun 01, 2015

Saved from the Flames (Compilation hosted by Serge Bromberg) - Jun 02, 2015
Cave of the Spider-Women (Dan Duyu, 1927) - Jun 03, 2015
Cave of the Silken Web (Ho Meng-hua, 1967) - Jun 03, 2015
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2014) - Jun 04, 2015
¡Que viva México! (Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov, 1932) - Jun 07, 2015

Podcast:

The George Sanders Show Episode 62: SIFF Recap

1996 Endy Awards

These are the 1996 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Endy Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I've seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:

1. Big Night
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. Trainspotting

Best Director:

1. Peter Chan, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
3. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep
5. Danny Boyle, Trainspotting

Like with Boogie Nights in 1997 and Pulp Fiction in 1994, the exuberance of Trainspotting defines for me a stage of cinephilia, when I first began to really believe in the joy of making cinema. The Assayas and Hou films are more refined expressions of that same drive, while the Chan and Minghella are sublime examples of more traditional romantic forms. 

Best Actor:

1. Stanley Tucci, Big Night
2. Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient
3. Philip Baker Hall, Hard Eight
4. Ewan MacGregor, Trainspotting
5. Christopher Guest, Waiting for Guffman

Fiennes will eventually win in 2014 for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Best Actress:

1. Gina Gershon, Bound
2. Maggie Cheung, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Frances McDormand, Fargo
4. Lili Taylor, I Shot Andy Warhol
5. Maggie Cheung, Irma Vep

Disaster as Maggie Cheung becomes the first actor to be nominated twice in the same category in one year, only to split the vote and allow Frances McDormand to sneak away with the Endy.

Supporting Actor:

1. Tony Shaloub, Big Night
2. Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket
3. Steve Buscemi, Fargo
4. Vince Vaughn, Swingers
5. Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting

Supporting Actress:

1. Natalie Portman, Beautiful Girls
2. Jennifer Tilly, Bound
3. Juliette Binoche, The English Patient
4. Elizabeth Peña, Lone Star
5. Sylvia Sidney, Mars Attacks!

Binoche will win Best Actress in 2007 (Flight of the Red Balloon) and 2010 (Certified Copy).

Original Screenplay:

1. Stanley Tucci & Joseph Troppiano, Big Night
2. Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket
3. Ivy Ho, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
4. Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep
5. Kevin Williamson, Scream

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
2. Jonathan Gems, Mars Attacks!
3. David Koepp & Robert Towne, Mission: Impossible
4. Laura Jones, Portrait of a Lady
5. John Hodge, Trainspotting

Non-English Language Film:

1. La Comédie-Française (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan)
3. The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (Hong Sangsoo)
4. Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)

Documentary Film:

1. La Comédie-Française (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Get on the Bus (Spike Lee)
3. Hype! (Doug Pray)
4. The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (Adam Simon)
5. When We Were Kings (Leon Gast)

The is the second year to feature a film about Samuel Fuller in the Best Documentary category, after 2013's A Fuller Life.

Animated Film:

1. Beavis & Butthead Do America (Mike Judge)
2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)

Unseen Film:

1. God of Cookery (Stephen Chow & Li Lik-chi)
2. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
3. The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway)
4. La Promesse (The Dardennes)
5. A Summer's Tale (Eric Rohmer)

Also receiving votes: Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier), Crash (David Cronenberg), Evita (Alan Parker), Forbidden City Cop (Stephen Chow), Kansas City (Robert Altman), Escape from LA (John Carpenter), and Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf).

Film Editing:

1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. The English Patient
3. Irma Vep
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting

Cinematography:

1. Bound
2. The English Patient
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. Romeo + Juliet

Art Direction:

1. The English Patient
2. Hamlet
3. Portrait of a Lady
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting

Costume Design:

1. Irma Vep
2. Kingpin
3. Mars Attacks!
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting

Claire Danes with wings.

Make-up:

1. The English Patient
2. From Dusk til Dawn
3. Kingpin
4. Mars Attacks!
5. Romeo + Juliet

Farrelly grotesquerie at its best.

Original Score:

1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. The English Patient
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. That Thing You Do!

Adapted Score:

1. Basquiat
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Romeo + Juliet
4. Swingers
5. Trainspotting

Very tough category this year. Swingers rode a wave of swing dance/Rat Pack revivalism, so that's obviously out. Tough to pass over the New Wave/Punk hits and The Cardigans, but I have to go with the Teresa Teng tribute that is Comrades.

Sound:

1. Big Night
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. The English Patient
4. Irma Vep
5. Trainspotting

The sound of scrambling eggs.

Sound Editing:

1. The Frighteners
2. Independence Day
3. Mission: Impossible
4. The Rock
5. Twister

Visual Effects:

1. The Frighteners
2. From Dusk til Dawn
3. Independence Day
4. Trainspotting
5. Twister

1997 Endy Awards

These are the 1997 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Endy Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I've seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Jackie Brown
3. Lost Highway
4. Taste of Cherry
5. Too Many Ways To Be No. 1

Best Director:

1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
2. Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown
3. David Lynch, Lost Highway
4. Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry
5. Wai Ka-fai, Too Many Ways To Be No. 1

Honestly I'm afraid to go back and rewatch Boogie Nights. It's been years since I've seen it, a film that defined the youthful exuberance and openness of the early stages of cinephilia for me in my younger days. I'd hate to go back and find it to be less than the thrill I got walking into the theatre right at the start of that opening tracking shot. Lynch will win Best Director in 2001 for Mulholland Dr., Kiarostami will be nominated again in 2010 and 2012. Wai will win for co-directing Running on Karma in 2003. This is Tarantino's first nomination for directing, he will have been nominated for Original Screenplay in 2009.

Best Actor:

1. Leslie Cheung, Happy Together
2. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Happy Together
3. Thomas Jay Ryan, Henry Fool
4. Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic
5. Wang Hongwei, Xiao Wu

Best Actress:

1. Joey Lauren Adams, Chasing Amy
2. Jodie Foster, Contact
3. Pam Grier, Jackie Brown
4. Patricia Arquette, Lost Highway
5. Kate Winslet, Titanic

I'm arguing back and forth on whether this should go to Cheung or Leung, they're both so good. Giving it to Cheung knowing that both will have more chances at the Endy as we move backward in time. Leung will be nominated another four times between 1997 and 2004, winning in 2000 for In the Mood for Love.

Supporting Actor:

1. John C. Reilly, Boogie Nights
2. Chris Tucker, The Fifth Element
3. Robert DeNiro, Jackie Brown
4. Robert Forster, Jackie Brown
5. Russell Crowe, LA Confidential

Supporting Actress:

1. Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights
2. Minnie Driver, Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Parker Posey, Henry Fool
4. Bridget Fonda, Jackie Brown
5. Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter

You could fill out two or three supporting actor categories with the cast of Boogie Nights, Jackie Brown and LA Confidential. 1997 was a great year for ensembles. Moore just missed a nomination for The Big Lebowski in 1998, so this might be a bit of a make-up award for her.

Original Screenplay:

1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
2. David Lynch & Barry Gifford, Lost Highway
3. Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry
4. Matt Chow, Szeto Kam-yuen & Wai Ka-fai, Too Many Ways To Be No. 1
5. Jia Zhangke, Xiao Wu

Adapted Screenplay:

1. James Schamus, The Ice Storm
2. Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown
3. Brina Helgeland & Curtis Hanson, LA Confidential
4. Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter
5. George Toles, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

As is often the case, adapted screenplay, outside of the winner, is a wasteland. There's probably another 5-10 original screenplays deserving of nomination.

Non-English Language Film:

1. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
2. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)
3. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Too Many Ways To Be No. 1 (Wai Ka-fai)
5. Xiao Wu (Jia Zhangke)

Hard to imagine two films more different in style than the Kiarostami and Wai films.

Documentary Film:

1. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris)

Morris picks up his first (but surely not the last) Endy with the only doc I've seen from this year.

Animated Film:

1. End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki)
2. Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki & Masayuki)
3. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)
4. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)

Unseen Film:

1. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
2. Destiny (Youssef Chahine)
3. Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan)
4. The Mirror (Jafar Panahi)
5. Same Old Song (Alain Resnais)

Film Editing:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Happy Together
3. Kundun
4. Lost Highway
5. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1

Cinematography:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Happy Together
3. The River
4. Titanic
5. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1

Really tempted to give the award to Too Many Ways... just because of the upside-down fight sequence. But this has to go to Titanic.

Art Direction:

1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. Starship Troopers
4. Titanic
5. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

Costume Design:

1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. The Ice Storm
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic

Don Cheadle's King Tut outfit.

Make-up:

1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. Kundun
4. Men in Black
5. Titanic

Not only because of Milla Jovovich's hair. Other stuff too.

Original Score:

1. Kundun
2. LA Confidential
3. Princess Mononoke
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic

Score, not song. The song is terrible, the score is good.

Adapted Score:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Happy Together
4. The Ice Storm
5. Jackie Brown

The Delfonics in an upset!

Sound:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Lost Highway
3. The River
4. Starship Troopers
5. Xiao Wu

The sound design in Jia Zhangke's debut is extraordinary, the noises and chaos of the rapidly modernizing city intruding on and dominating every aspect of the young pickpocket's life.

Sound Editing:

1. Face/Off
2. The Lost Word: Jurassic Park
3. Men in Black
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic

Visual Effects:

1. Lifeline
2. Men in Black
3. Starship Troopers
4. Titanic
5. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs