Festival du Nouveau Cinema

Hong Sang-soo is often accused of making the same film over and over again; a man and a woman meet, have awkward conversations, drink soju, and life goes on. It’s by turns tiresome and winsome, because Hong’s films are often centered around profound ruminations on a sense of self and human relationships, wrapped up and delivered with a soft charm and humour that permeates each film to its core. In Right Now, Wrong Then, he literally makes the same movie twice, and in the process, he both acknowledges and dismantles his critics’ objections.

The 44th Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) has announced the 19 films, including 12 in competition, that will make up this year’s selection for the Focus section, a showcase for productions from Quebec and Canada. The 12 films in the running for the Grand Prix Focus are: Les Êtres chers (Quebec/Canada) by Anne Émond (here …

Quentin Dupieux, otherwise known as electronic music DJ Mr Oizo, in attendance for the first screening and playing a set at the Société des Arts Technologiques the very same night, presented the Montreal audience with his latest movie, Réalité.

This year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema is also about audacity and novelty. A perfect example is Sion Sono’s extravagant Hip-hop futuristic gangster musical presented at the opening night of the FNC’s 10 years old program “Temps O” , an adaptation of Santa Inoue’s 1993 manga Tokyo Tribe 2.

Presented in the FNC Lab section, that features experimental and more minimalistic films, Tsai Ming Lang’s Xi You- Journey to the West is a beautiful and stylistic piece on Lee Kang Sheng and his very slow walk that he films in different spaces. In Ming Lang’s words: “In 2011, Lee Kang Sheng walked very slowly on the stage during my play called Only you. His performance was so perfect that I decided to film it”. Xi You is Tsai Ming Lang’s latest film out of his six “Walker” film series that seek to document the particular walk. It takes place in the city of Marseille, France.

Evolution of a Criminal is Darius Clark Monroe’s first film. Produced by Spike Lee, who happened was Darius’ film teacher, it won the Special Jury Prize at the Dallas International Film Festival. A recent graduate from the NYU Film School, as we learn at the end of his film, Darius undergoes the original project of documenting his own life, and what happened to him, which not your ordinary teenage years. In 1997, at 16 year old, Darius Clark Monroe robbed a Bank of America and stole a huge amount of money along with two accomplices and friends. Following that, in what his prosecutors called a “lucky” sentence he spent 5 years in prison to be released only at 22, thus spending among the most formative years of his life in jail.

While Festival du Nouveau Cinema is not known for showcasing a large number of world premieres, the Focus section is always the exception. Taking a look at Quebec and Canadian features, films large and small are allowed space to find an audience. The section consistently features a large number of adventurous first time filmmakers, making …

There is a certain simplicity in Alain Guiraudie’s L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake) not seen in many films these days. However, that is not to say this is a simple film; it happens to run deep with emotion, stimulation, and humor. The story is set in what appears to be the early 1990s in the south of France, where local men gather around a crystalline lake to swim, sunbathe in the nude, and cruise. Starring Pierre Deladonchamps as Franck, a sensitive and curious young man; and Christophe Paou as Michel, a seductively dangerous stranger, the film is suspenseful, sexy, and smart, not to mention beautifully shot.

Tsai Ming-Liang has built a reputation for himself as one of the foremost artists of contemporary cinema. His work is often lauded for its challenging ideas, careful pacing, and incredible compositional sense. His newest film Stray Dogs (rumoured to be his last) is about an alcoholic father and his two children struggling to survive in Taipei. Blending stark realism with elements of fantasy and absurdity, there is little doubt that this is one of the most unique films of the year, offering a singular vision of the world.

Male bodies glisten in the summer sun while wandering eyes fall upon a murder that leads to a torrid love affair with a killer. This is the premise to Alain Guirandie’s L’inconnu du lac, an incredible thriller with the mood and atmosphere of a great horror.

In this outrageous action opus from writer/director Sion Sono, an ambitious young film director Hirata (Hiroki Hasegawa) gets caught in the middle of a bloody Yakuza war sparked by the vengeful wife of a powerful crime boss who is sent to prison after massacring several of her husband’s rivals. The plot is so convoluted, your head will spin when trying to piece it all together. In short, it bounces back and forth between Mitsuko (Fumi Nakaido), a former child star and the daughter of the kingpin, and a group of independent, but talented guerrilla filmmakers who call themselves the FUCK Bombers.

Borne out of the current economic crisis, Bluebird is set in an obscure and isolated logging town in Maine. Coated in snow that seems to be barely ever cleared, there is a lingering fear that the mill will close and the town will fade even deeper into the past. Lost in the rituals of daily life, it is only through accidental tragedy that a true sense of malaise and hopelessness comes rising from below the surface.

In Bloom Directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross Georgia/Germany/France, 2013 In Bloom is an honest and troubling tale of the passage into womanhood entrenched in poverty and persecution. Set in the capital city of Tbilisi, Georgia right after the fall of the Soviet Union, In Bloom follows the story of two 14-year old girls, …

The 42nd Edition of Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema is just days away and the weight of an incredibly diverse and exciting program can intimidate even the most weathered cineaste. Combining the very best of big name and upcoming filmmakers, the festival has built its reputation on giving attention to groundbreaking and avant-garde cinema. Though sometimes …

Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012) The new film from Mexican filmmaker, Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux- a latin phrase meaning Light After Darkness, is an experimental family drama, which adopts a narrative flow that does moves between different levels of consciousness, fragmented chronologies and alternating points of view. Perhaps a bit too dense to …

Post Tenebras Lux Directed by Carlos Reygadas Written by Carlos Reygadas Mexico/France, 2012 Carlos Reygadas is not the sort of filmmaker who earns consensus among critics and film aficionados. A few years ago he came out with Silent Light, which was an exquisitely shot, extremely intimate story about a secluded community deep within the Mexican …

Antiviral Written by Brandon Cronenberg Directed by Brandon Cronenberg Canada, 2012 Whether it is on the level of style, theme or pedigree, Brandon Cronenberg’s new film Antiviral is sure to divide critical and popular reception. Audiences will almost universally fit into two categories: those who walk away inspired and those who will walk away alienated, …

Tabu Directed by Miguel Gomes Written by Miguel Gomes Portugal, 2012 With his third feature, Portuguese critic-turned-auteur Miguel Gomes has proven himself to be a director in complete control of his craft. Tabu is a film of artistic cool – breaking classic genre conventions in the most crafty and affectionate way by consistently subverting the …

Exciting news in the world of film for Montrealers as the two most exciting film festivals come together to present their first collaboration. The Fantasia International Film Festival and The Festival du Nouveau Cinéma will be presenting a much sought after retrospective on the 100 Years of the Nikkatsu production and distribution studio from Japan. …

Tomboy Written by Céline Sciamma Directed by Céline Sciamma France, 2011 Cannily appearing to de-politicize a thorny issue while actually keeping the ever-present conflicts intact, Céline Sciamma’s sophomore feature Tomboy sensibly and sensitively tackles transphobia and the rigidity of social constructs of sexuality through a carefully observed portrait of childhood awkwardness, suggesting that our greatest …

The Island Written by Kamen Kalev Directed by Kamen Kalev France, 2011 Generally, in cinema, there are greater crimes than overreaching. It’s often easy to forgive films that feature failures of execution if the ideas hold up to scrutiny. Unfortunately, Kamen Kalev’s second feature as writer-director, the woefully misguided The Island, is almost an opposite …

Scabbard Samurai Written by Mitsuyoshi Takasu, Tomoji Hasegawa, Kôji Ema, Mitsuru Koramoto, Itsuji Itao, and Hitoshi Matsumoto Directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto Japan, 2010 Would-be samurai Kanjuro Nomi (Takaaki Nomi) has landed himself in quite a predicament. Wanted for desertion by the government, and pursued by a trio of variously skilled assassins, he nonetheless silently carries …

Sleeping Beauty Written and Directed by Julia Leigh Australia, 2011 The premise of Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty suggests depravity: a young and beautiful woman is drugged and “given” to a man for the night. She is paid handsomely and has no remembrance or evidence of what takes place except a groggy hangover caused by the …