Vilnius International Film Festival 2019

[Silga]

My hometown's Vilnius Film Festival has announced its lineup and I am looking for any recommendations that fellow SCFZ members would have:

Link to full programme: https://kinopavasaris.lt/en/programa

This year there are two retrospectives with some of the films presented in 35mm: Claire Denis and Djibril Diop Mambéty.

As for Claire Denis the films are: Chocolate, I Can't Sleep, Nenette et Boni, Beau travail, Trouble Every Day, Friday Night, 35 Shots of Rum, White Material, High Life.

And 2 films from Mambéty: Touki Bouki and Hyenas.

Also In Memoriam for Jonas Mekas with As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty.

Experimental films section has two films by Ben Rivers and Quantification Trilogy by Jeremy Shaw among others.

As for main programmes, they also feature a number of well known names so if anyone has already seen some of those, I'd appreciate a recommendation or a warning to avoid.

So far I've marked these films:

Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (Bi Gan)
Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)
Birds of Passage (Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego)
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine)
The World Is Yours (Romain Gavras)
Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)
Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Bruno Dumont)
The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Magical Nights (Paolo Virzì)
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (Steve Loveridge)
Our Time (Carlos Reygadas)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
Blue (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Manta Ray (Phuttiphong Aroonpheng)
3 Faces (Jafar Panahi)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Close Enemies (David Oelhoffen)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Julien Faraut)
What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (Roberto Minervini)
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky & Nicholas de Pencier)
The Good Girls (Alejandra Márquez Abella)
Beautiful Boy (Felix van Groeningen)
Before the Frost (Michael Noer)
Maya (Mia Hansen-Løve)
In My Room (Ulrich Köhler)
Museo (Alonso Ruizpalacios)
Third Kind (Yorgos Zois)
Queen of Hearts (May el-Toukhy)

[pabs]

This is very subjective, so take with a pinch of salt:

Of those I've seen:

Excellent:

Burning (Lee Chang-dong)

Good:

Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)

Not good:

Beautiful Boy (Felix van Groeningen)

[Silga]

Thanks, Pabs.

I marked Beautiful Boy because I loved Felix van Groeningen's previous film Belgica. But thematically I don't have much interest in Beautiful Boy.

As for Burning, it is one of my most anticipated films. I keep hearing about a dance scene over and over again. Got to see what it's all about.

[pabs]

.
Burning haunted me days after.
.

[pabs]

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I wish I could see the Claire Denis on the big screen. Beau travail, of course, but those other two of hers I saw that are set in Africa, White Material and Chocolat, were vivid and very atmospheric, too. I recommend them if you haven't seen them.

.

[DT.]

^ High Life is screening as part of the French Film Festival right now - check to see if it's playing where you are: https://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/fff19highlife/

[Silga]

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I wish I could see the Claire Denis on the big screen. Beau travail, of course, but those other two of hers I saw that are set in Africa, White Material and Chocolat, were vivid and very atmospheric, too. I recommend them if you haven't seen them.

.

The only one Denis film I’ve seen is Bastards (2013). Great film elevated by Tindersticks music.

[nrh]

really recommend the denis films if you can, not just because they're good but because they (especially trouble every day) transfer to dvd very badly, so getting to see on a print is a great pleasure. i like all the films screening except white material which isn't bad but probably her weakest.

the most intriguing movies not on your list are probably infinite football and diamantino. it's not a bad festival line up at all.

oh and i really liked ash is purest white, but wished i had revisited some of his earlier films (especially still life) before watching it, because it references and looks back to those films and jia's career throughout.

[john ryan]

And I love White Material.

I've heard Long Day's Journey Into Night is interesting, and it has a 3d element that probably needs a theater screening to fully appreciate.

[Silga]

@nrh

Three days into the festival and so far I've missed on Denis films, but I'll try to see at least one.

I've watched Ash Is Purest White and liked it a good deal. It's my 3rd Jia Zhangke film and it is pretty close to how much I loved A Touch of Sin. I still need to see his earlier films. As for references, I noticed some connections and ideas from his previous film Mountains May Depart.

@john ryan

The word of mouth on Long Day's Journey Into Night is great so far, especially when it concerns the use of 3D. And while I've already noted on SCFZ's dedicated thread for 3D of my personal disdain for the gimmick, but I nevertheless will try to see this film and give it shot.

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But the first highlights of the festival have been the two-film-retrospective of Djibril Diop Mambéty (Touki Bouki and Hyenas). Mambéty son Timour visited the festival and gave extensive Q&As and was very welcoming with his stories of his father and film-making in Senegal. I would go on and say that Hyenas is a perfect masterpiece. A film that I most likely would have missed if not for this retrospective. I'm still in awe from the beauty and pure love for storytelling that was put in making of these films.

Another joy was to see the newest joint (all possible puns intended) from Harmony Korine - The Beach Bum. For someone who adores Spring Breakers, this film was one of the most anticipated in years that followed the Korine's gem from 2012. I would have to see it again and again, but this is destined to become a cult classic.

All films I've seen so far in the festival:

Angelo (Markus Schleinzer, 2018) 6/10
Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973) 7/10
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019) 9/10
Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1992) 10/10
Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2018) 8/10