Had a hell busy week on Tintin so only just getting caught up on the last three films I saw at the NZ Film Festival now… And only two more to go today (Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Wim Wenders Pina in 3D) and its all over for another year…. But first here’s a photo I took the other day before the movie started, taken from my favourite seat, the middle of row C at The Embassy… which prompted me to ask this question at SSD: where do you sit in the cinema?

I was looking forward to Norwegian Wood as Haruki Murikami is one of my favourite authors and this is only the second film to be made, based on his writing (I highly reccomend the first, Tony Takitani, based on a Murikami short story, which has the most achingly beautiful score by Ryuichi Sakmoto) So combine the source material with a fascinating director Anh Hung Tran and a score by Johnny Greenwood and I was looking forward to a thoroughly enjoyable film, and it was…. but it was also a difficult film, full of emotionally raw & painful silences… Rinko Kikuchi is excellent in the lead role – although the film is really told from Ken’ichi Matsuyama’s point of view, it is her story and emotional unravelling that makes the film, and at times makes for challenging viewing. Its interesting to reflect on my memory of the book (admittedly I read it many years ago) and the process of reading a novel compared with seeing a film. I’m stating the obvious but reading a book means experiencing the story is spread across many weeks, whereas a film is necessarily over in a few hours. So my distributed feelings about the book were confronted in the timeframe and emotional arc of the film, as the most important themes (how do we cope with loss? do you ever recover from the loss of a loved one? of course you never do, but the coping process is a deeply personal journey every one of us must take, sooner or later) were made very apparent via the contrast between the two leads…. Here’s the trailer – its a beautiful film, and will probably make me re-read the book, while I patiently wait for Murikamis new book to be released in english: 1Q84

In terms of the score and mix of Norwegian Wood, I have to say it was great to hear Can cranking in a few scenes and the great use of source music, but the main memory I have of the mix are the many shifts to silence in the film, poetic & full of pathos…

Original Music by Jonny Greenwood

Kazuhiko Tomita – sound recordist
Yujiro Miki – sound recordist
Tomoharu Urata – sound mixer
Akihiko Okase – sound effects supervisor
Philippe Amouroux – sound re-recording mixer
Hiroshi Ishigai – dialogue editor
Niels Barletta – sound mastering engineer
 

 
There’s something to be said for not knowing anything about a film before you see it. When I realised there was a Lars Von Trier film in the festival I booked for it without a second thought – I knew it would be challenging viewing but very, very worthy of the time taken to experience it on the big screen. And I’m not providing any spoilers to say the film similarly deals with mortality, albeit on an epic scale – after all the byline for the film is “Melancholia – A beautiful movie about the end of the world”
Here’s the trailer, and after seeing the film I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the associated website which is both beautifully presented (I love the way it scrolls – this might sound like weird ui geekery but go have a look, and watch as you scroll down.) But the actual reason I enjoyed the site is due to the film itself – it is a film that you will reflect on, repeatedly.. and for me, that is the sign of a good film i.e. that I am still thinking about it days and weeks later…
 

 
The film opens with a prolonged sequence of beautiful super-slow motion shots (its so great to see technology like the Phantom camera in the hands of an auteur) and by placing them at the start of the film we are essentially forced to enjoy the images without being able to assign meaning to them. But by the time the film has ended the memory of those images is rewarded, almost like reading a 2 hour long haiku, where meaning is retroactive and almost dream-like.

Kirsten Dunst is very good in the lead role, proving she is capable of far more than just being Spidermans love interest and I found it very interesting to read that the original idea for the film came from an exchange between Penelope Cruz and von Trier, from which von Trier began developing the project to star her, only to then lose her due to her committing to Pirates of the Carribean… fascinating career choice right there…

The soundtrack primarily uses Wagners epic romanticism as recurring score, almost to the point of becoming tiresome (and maybe that is the point) but it is the silence at the end of the film that speaks the loudest. The sound design & mix work beautifully, reinforcing the often jarring camera work in the middle third of the film but retaining dynamic and space in the build to the climax of the film. As the action itself slowly become unbearably oppressive the restraint shown by the sound design & mix is admirable.
 
André Rigaut – sound mixer
Ivan Dumas – boom operator
Kristian Eidnes Andersen – sound designer
Naomi Dandridge – adr mixer
Dean St. John – adr mixer (uncredited)
Sigrid Dagny Aalbaek Jensen – sound assistant
 
 

 
Miranda July is another director I happily book for, with no prior knowledge of her new film The Future required. Its a few years since I saw Me and You and Everyone We Know but it left a strong impression and is I suspect in my favourite genre of American films, no juvenile robots, shoot ’em ups or huge VFX budgets here, just intriguing human performances & reflections on the human condition. Here’s the trailer:
 

 
The one word I won’t use to describe this film is quirky – it will make you chuckle, and even laugh out loud, but it is the quiet moments of internal processing by the two leads that reveal the films heart, as opposed to the leaps of metaphorical whimsey. The film has a really great score by Jon Brion, who maintains a light touch (great to hear The Weeknd in a film too) and the sound design and mix is also very good – it’s so refreshing to not have a film shout at you, there is nothing LOUD in this film at all, but there is great emotional complexity in the soundtrack that is both totally engaging and rewarding. I think this might just be one of my favourite films from the festival, don’t miss it!

Original Music by Jon Brion

Patrick Veigel – sound mixer
Amber Conroy – boom operator
Dennis Grzesik – sound mixer: additional photography
Tula Snoeck – boom operator: additional photography

Rainer Heesch – sound designer, supervising sound editor
Lars Ginzel – sound re-recording mixer
Adrian Baumeister – dialogue editor
David F. Van Slyke – adr supervisor
Dominic Fitzgerald – sound effects editor
Peter Roik – foley artist
Roman Volkholz – foley editor
Johannes Hampel – foley mixer
Eric Horstmann – re-recording stage engineer
Christian Lerch – dolby consultant