Hasty Departures

It might come as a surprise, but the one movie I might have been looking forward to over any other (well, save maybe Kathryn Bigelow’s sensational The Hurt Locker) was director Yôjirô Takita’s Departures. This was, after all, the surprise winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, beating out supposed frontrunners The Class and Waltz with Bashir for the prize.

Sad to say, after seeing it I can’t quite understand how this upset took place. Sweet, sometimes moving and definitely heartfelt, Departures is nonetheless a bit of a disappointment, repeating itself far too much and not really going anyplace you don’t readily expect right at the start.

It’s an intriguing concept, to be sure. The film follows cellist Daigo Kobayashi (soulfully played by Masahiro Motoki) as he moves back to his home province with his wife after the big city orchestra he plays for disbands. In need of work, he answers an add asking for someone to help assist with ‘Departures.’ Thinking this advertisement must be for a travel agency he immediately applies and hopes for the best.

He gets the job, but the position isn’t with a travel agency. Instead, it is to assist with the ceremonial ‘encoffinating’ of corpses before they are sent for cremation, not exactly the type of work he ever expected to be involved with. While frowned on by the community, Daigo finds himself learning to love his new job, however, the value of what he is doing for the families involved one they seem to appreciate almost beyond words.

There’s more to it, including a subplot about a missing father, an elderly owner of a bathhouse and marital strife caused by the supposed ‘disgrace’ of Daigo position, but it all is trotted out rather perfunctorily if you ask me. What is wonderful is the encoffinating ceremony itself, Takita tapping into that emotional wellspring family members can’t help but feel when a loved one passes.

But even watching those grows tiring after a while. There is, unfortunately, a problem with overkill, the ceremony presented so many times the film’s 131-minute running time almost begins to feel like a funeral dirge itself. I also felt that the ultimate resolution of the missing father subplot was cloying and false, and while Motoki admittedly does an admirable job of hitting the emotional center of the moment, I myself never was moved by the event near as much as I felt I should have.

As for my journey through the first full day of the festival, let me tell you getting your sea legs at the start of SIFF ain’t no easy proposition. My day consisted of watching a movie (the fun and frothy mock documentary Morris: A Life with Bells On, a movie I hope to get more into in a later post), interviewing Robert Osbourne, interviewing Charles Thomas Oldham (writer and star of Morris, thus why I’m getting into it later), wrote for a little while, than finally settled down to watch an additional four movies in a row, including Parker Posey/Amy Poehler/Rachel Dratch dumb but very funny comedy Spring Breakdown and the surprisingly disappointing Dominic Monaghan/Ron Perlman midnight horror flick I Sell the Dead.

It’s a lot to do, and it usually takes me a couple of days to get my rhythm down so I’m not continually exhausted. Like anything you do that’s worth the effort of doing, it takes a certain bit of stamina to be a SIFF die hard. You don’t get much in the way of sleep, you drink far too much Diet Coke, eat dinners of popcorn and soft pretzels, and end up running madly around from venue to venue with barely any time to spare like a chicken with your head cut off.

Which is exactly the plan today. After sitting down with Dratch to talk about Spring Breakdown (an interview I’m actually kind of giddy for – I love her on “SNL”), it’s another marathon day starting with the locally produced The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, followed up by the apparently charming Paper Heart, changing venues I’m planning on taking in the Spanish comedy Chef’s Special before finally topping it all off with a midnight viewing of the supposedly gory and fun Norwegian shocker Dead Snow (mutant killer Nazi zombies attack – that fact alone makes it a must-see).

It’s a lot do, of course, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being ecstatic about it all. But SIFF has a way of doing that to a person, and for film lovers life doesn’t get any better than this.

A Moment with a Legend

First thing this morning I received a call from one of the SIFF publicists asking if I could be at there office within the hour, she had a brief window for an interview she knew I might be interested in. It was with Robert Osborne, the well-respected primetime host of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and to say I was showered, changed and out the door faster than the Road Runner is a total understatement.

No one who loves and cherishes the art of film could refuse the opportunity, no matter how brief, to sit and chat with Osborne. Considered the official biographer of Oscar, this University of Washington alum and former Colfax, WA native (roughly 60 miles from Spokane, my hometown) is a titan as far as I’m concerned, sitting with him a ten minute cinema class no college or university could ever hope to equal.

If I sound a bit like a gushing schoolgirl I guess I am. TCM has supplied me more hours of enjoyment and edification than I can even begin to relate, Osborne himself leading me to films I’d probably never have watched had he not spoken so highly of them. Every time I hear his voice I can’t help but feel safe and comforted, secure in the knowledge that, for right now at least, someone out there has a passion and a love for the medium that maybe even surpasses my own.

But enough of this. While our window was brief, Osborne had plenty of interest to say, and instead of dolling it out piecemeal I’m just going to let his words speak for themselves.

On the strengths of Turner Classic Movies: “We just got a Peabody Award calling [TCM] the ‘American Cinematheque,’ and I love that. One thing I love about the channel and the people doing the programming and the people behind it are all people who really do know film and the really know aspects of [it]. It’s not just Clint Eastwood films that we’re showing, not just Jack Lemmon films, it’s everything. We have our Silent Mondays so you get some of the [Greta] Garbo films, and we run some of the more obscure foreign films and we’ll find some of the lesser known films and show those as well.”

“We’ll show things like 1933’s When Ladies Meet with Myrna Loy. Not a lot of people are going to want to see it or like to see it, but if they’re people like you, people who want to learn about the history film, see these old pictures the way they were meant to be seen, you’ll get a chance to see it, and I think that’s great. I’m very proud of that fact.”

On trying to watch films with commercial interruptions: “I love that we show out films without interruptions. Films aren’t supposed to be cut, not for any reasons.”

“You know what’s always confused me, when television first began TV needed film more than film needed television. I don’t know why that they just didn’t then have a law or write into the contracts saying, we’ll sell the films, but they have to be shown uncut. That would have made it start right at the very beginning that when films were shown there would be commercials at the beginning and at the end, but not in the middle. If they had done that they would probably still being [broadcasting] them in that fashion even until today. They should have forced it to happen, and I don’t know why they weren’t adamant about that because [commercials] really destroy their films. You take a Hitchcock movie like Rear Window or Rebecca or Psycho and you put commercials in there, that whole movie is lost.”

On growing up in small town Washington State and imagining he’d ever have a career like this one: “Of course, not, no, but there are certain things that I got to do because of my passion for film like going to Los Angeles and getting the chance to associate with these people like Lucille Ball right off the bat. I remember one time being at Lucy’s house and she was showing Funny Face, it was not a new film then, but Kate Thompson was there and – it was the strangest group, actually – Joseph Cotton, Janet Gaynor, Roger Edens, Chuck Walters, Kate Thompson and couple of other people, were all their to watch the move. You went into the living room and she pushes a button and the painting goes up, she pushes another butting and the screen comes down, picks up the phone and tells the projector he could start the film, the film rolls and we’re suddenly watching Funny Face.”

“So, the movie is going on and that number between Kate Thompson and Audrey Hepurn on, ‘how to be lovely,’ comes on, and Kate stands up and actually starts doing the number. I’m sitting there thinking, this is where I’m supposed to be. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“I have to say that, by desire I programmed myself so much that I would be doing this that it doesn’t come as that big of a surprise. Now, I know that is totally stupid. This is like fantasy come true. But I was so strong about that fantasy that it hasn’t come as a surprise. What I can never stop thinking is how lucky I am that I’m the one who got to do it.”

Let the Festivities Begin

One of the things I love most about my job and about living in the city that I do is that I get a chance to cover and enjoy the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Without a doubt, this is the highpoint of my entire year, these 25-days of cinematic goodness ones cinephiles of all ages are almost certain to giddily revel in.

This 35th edition of SIFF promises to be the best one I’ve covered yet. The opening night film In the Loop is without question one of the funniest motion pictures I’ve seen in years, while if the closing night feature OSS 117: Lost in Rio is half as good as the hilarious 2006 Golden Space Needle award-winner OSS 117: Nest of Spies than I’ll be sitting happily in comedic heaven.

But the big news of this festival has to be the arrival of two directorial icons, Spike Lee and Frances Ford Coppola. Both will be presenting new pictures (Spike the documentary Passing Strange, Frances the highly personal esoteric drama Tetro), the former also this year’s recipient of a 2009 Golden Space Needle Award for Achievement in Directing.

They’re not the only major guests expected to attend the festival. “Saturday Night Live” star Rachel Dratch will be at screenings of her new comedy Spring Breakdown, Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti is expected to show up for the debut of his latest Cold Souls, director Kathryn Bigelow will present her gut-wrenching military thriller The Hurt Locker, Andy Warhol icon Joe Dallesandro will be on hand to take questions from the audience after screenings of the documentary Little Joe while TCM’s own Robert Osborne will be the presenter for many of this year’s archival presentations.

These are only a handful of the handful of international guests expected to come to Seattle. On top of that, with almost 400 narrative features and documentaries the list of attendees is in constant flux, and just yesterday one of the festival’s publicists told me that future announcements were guaranteed to knock my socks off.

Admittedly, SIFF is not for the faint of heart. With 14 different locations screening programs at some point along the way, 17 different festival programs (including perennial favorites Contemporary World Cinema, Face the Music, Midnight Adrenaline, Films4Families and the always exciting – just as long as you don’t talk about it – Secret Festival, five award categories and more premieres (31 World, 45 North American and 13 United States) than you can shake a stick at trying to do more than gloss the surface of what is offered is nearly an impossibility.

You know what I say? So what. For my money SIFF is just about perfect the way it is. Yes, it is exhausting, and of course you can’t experience it all but none of that matters as far as I’m concerned. This festival is about the pure, blissful joy of cinema, the sudden bursts of creativity that can make a person laugh, force them to think and bring them to tears. I love it, and as things officially begin this evening I’m as raring to go as I’ve ever been.

Moviefreak.com is proud to present our 4th annual coverage of this 35th edition of the Seattle International Film Festival. Starting to day and running all the way until June 14, please check our Blog for reviews, thoughts, interviews and highlights of this year’s events as seen through Sara’s increasingly-bleary eyes. For the best, most complete coverage of one of the most popular and the largest film festival in the entire world, your number one destination is right here at Moviefreak.com.

Welcome to SIFF 2009

Running from May 21 to June 14, SIFF is "the largest film festival in the US. This year we are proud to present 392 films from 62 countries over 25 days, with 31 World Premieres, 45 North American Premieres, and 13 US Premieres."

This year, SIFF challenges you to Find the Unexpected. Start with the Calendar to look for films on the schedule.

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