Vancouver International Film Festival 2007

Review by Sunny Oh.

Rose Hong, a beautiful lounge singer, immigrates to Australia with her two children to marry a sailor. Her vivid cheongsams stand out in 1970’s Australia. Played by the lovely Joan Chen, Rose is a sincere mother who makes terrible decisions. After leaving her sailor husband, Rose drags her two children from home to home, living off a series of “uncles.” The kids scramble to lead normal lives as their loving mother hardens and eventually breaks down under the pressures of poverty and tempestuous relationships.

Director Tony Ayres candidly confesses that Home Song Stories is based on his own experience growing up in Australia with a mother who also made bad choices. A welcome addition to growing list of Asian diaspora films, Home Song Stories presents a wonderfully even presentation of the desires and battles of both the first and second generations.

Home Song Stories
Tony Ayres | Australia | 2007 | 103min

Wed. Oct. 3 | 1:30pm | Pacific Cinematheque
Sat. Oct. 6 | 7:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Sun. Oct. 7 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre

Review by John Packman.

If you live somewhere that has electricity, you can probably recall the whirlwind of controversy surrounding James Frey's bestselling memoir A Million Little Pieces and his subsequent admission that most of it didn't actually, you know, happen. Anna Broinowski's documentary Forbidden Lie$ attempts to dissect a similar quagmire, this time centered on the veracity of author Norma Khouri's supposed non-fiction novel about honour killings in Jordan, Forbidden Love. Upon its release, Khouri's book topped global best-seller lists and earned her a considerable amount of media attention while ostensibly bringing attention to her pet cause. Unfortunately, a small cadre of Western journalists and Jordanian women's rights advocates contended that her story of the murder of a young Muslim woman for dating a Christian was almost certainly a fabrication, and Khouri found herself under an increasingly unfriendly spotlight.

After twenty or so minutes of somewhat obligatory exposition (and frankly unnecessary TV-style boingy sound effects and green-screen sequences), Broinowski decides to allow Khouri the chance to exonerate herself and prove the truthfulness of her story to her detractors. This is where the film shifts gears from a relatively standard biographic documentary into more self-reflexive and ambiguous territory. In interviews, Khouri proves to be a remarkably slick and charismatic individual, but as the evidence against her story mounts, cracks begin to show in her facade. Forbidden Lie$ is fascinating in a formal sense because its subject matter, being largely dictated by the actions of an individual who is almost pathologically dedicated to self-preservation, is constantly erased and rewritten; Khouri's attempts to rationalize her methods change gears so much that the film essentially reboots every time she is caught in a lie. Broinowski and the talking heads at the margins of the film continually strip away layers of artifice to reveal yet more artifice. The film raises pertinent questions about the relationship between truth and art, as well as inadvertently suggesting that the documentary form itself can only examine the truth insofar as its subjects possess any truth to examine. Despite moments of technical sloppiness and an eleventh-hour revelation of questionable merit, Forbidden Lie$ is by and large a success.

Forbidden Lie$
Anna Broinowski | Australia | 2007 | 108min

Thur. Sept. 27 | 6:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Sun. Sept. 30 | 8:45pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Fri. Oct. 5 | 3:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre

Review by gloria wong.

For his feature film debut, photographer-turned-director Anton Corbijn wisely chose familiar ground. As the ‘eye’ for New Music Express (and also bigger rags like Spin and Rolling Stone) from the late 70’s on, Corbijn was around for the real thing when Joy Division burst onto Manchester’s thrilling (post-)punk scene (also dramatized in the very different though extremely entertaining 24-Hour Party People). Based on the book "Touching From a Distance", Control is the story of the remarkable singer-songwriter Ian Curtis, his rise to fame with Joy Division, and sudden suicide at age 23 in 1980 (widow Deborah wrote the book and served as a producer on the film).

Like most any biopic of a famous songwriter, Control has requisite scenes of Curtis' personal life turmoil, turning real life situations into poetry, and putting depressing songs into their depressing contexts. But several things make this film feel fresh – not the least of which is its gorgeous, high-contrast black and white cinematography; the film is quite impossible to look away from, filled with images that are simultaneously beautiful and raw, perfectly composed but with the immediacy and intimacy of a great snapshot.

Performances are also impressive all around. Relative unknown Sam Riley (himself a singer) is entrancing as Curtis. He doesn’t just mimick Curtis’ distinctive stage presentation (which, if you’re too young to remember or never cared to learn, was the desperate, gangly progenitor of Michael Stipe’s bad dancing in the “Losing My Religion” video), but really embodying Curtis’ ambiguity about success and love, as well as his wide-eyed disbelief in the world coming up around him. (Joy Division went from first gig to ready-to-take-over-America in about two years). Riley also does an impressive job of singing all the performance scenes himself. Though his voice lacks Curtis’ eerie, deep resonance, it’s a remarkable facsimile that adds another layer of realism to the film. Samantha Morton does a typically fine turn as Curtis’ widow Deborah. And, despite the sadness that surrounds the Joy Division story, there are wonderful moments of tossed-off humour that remind us that so many of these mythologized figures were barely into their twenties when they hit big.

Control
Anton Corbijn | UK/Australia/Japan | 2007 | 121min

Fri. Sept. 28 | 9:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Sat. Sept. 29 | 2:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre

Review by gloria wong.

Peter Carstair’s effective historical drama September asks tough questions about the nature of friendship under atrocious circumstances. Set on a Western Australian sheep and wheat farm in 1968, the film centres around the complex relationship between the two teenage boys whose families have lived on the farm for generations. Ed Anderson is the only son of the white owners of the farm. Paddy Parker, the only son of the Aboriginal family that has worked on that farm under an arrangement that's a step short of serfdom, is in many ways his best- - maybe his only - friend. Though Paddy is not permitted to go to school, Ed has taught him to read. They also enjoy sparring in the boxing ring they’ve erected together, significantly sharing a single pair of boxing gloves. Though, like many things in the film, it remains unsaid, their friendship seems to mirror that of their fathers who also grew up together on the farm but are now much more resigned in their roles.

The 1960’s were a time of upheaval in Australia, culminating in a series of legislative and cultural changes that would begin to address the extreme inequity brought by the colonization process. One such change - mandating minimum wage to the otherwise unpaid Aboriginal workers - directly effects the two families, bringing the relationships between both the two boys and between their fathers to a head, forcing all of them to question their assumptions about the future. Excellent photography and performances are also highlights of this thoughtful debut.

September
Peter Carstairs | Australia | 2007 | 90 min

Thurs. Sept. 27 | 3:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Fri. Set. 28 | 7:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Set. Sept. 29 | 7:00pm | Ridge