Monthly Archives: July 2016

MIFF 2016: Monsieur Mayonnaise (2016)

Director: Trevor Graham
Featuring: Mirka Mora, Phillipe Mora, Georges Mora, Marcel Marceau (archival footage), Hitler (archival footage)

https://www.facebook.com/monsieurmayonnaise/

In this documentary we follow Phillipe Mora as he retraces the history of his family through World War II and before while painting the scenes for a graphic novel about his families’ experiences and finding out things he never knew before.
During the Q&A after the film the director said he did know some of the things that Phillipe was going to find out beforehand, but he wanted his genuine reactions on film when he found out things so he did not tell him exactly what to expect.

Mirka Mora is also interviewed throughout the film and reveals some surprising things about why she paints a lot of ducks and birds (phallic symbols) and the significance of fences in her works that they represent the people left behind in the camps after she was rescued.

Phillipe Mora’s film career is covered including his debut at Cannes that caused a commotion for “humanising” Hitler with colour close up footage of him sourced from the CIA archives. I knew that he had directed the Howling III and Mad Dog Morgan with Dennis Hopper but not the other movies.

There are some very touching scenes with Phillipe meeting one of the children rescued by his father and the daughter of the family who sheltered his mother’s family during WWII. As he said he had to make the film as the original witnesses were starting to get thin on the ground.

When the story gets into Phillipe’s fathers work with the French Resistance it is also very interesting as it turned out Georges Mora worked with Marcel Marceau on some operations involving rescuing children from the Nazis. While they may have had differences in their mayonnaise recipes, their work with the children was never in doubt.

Marcel Marceau was Phillipe’s godfather and a frequent visitor of the family when they were in Australia. Phillipe thought he was a “weirdo” when he was younger due to him wanting to rub the left over olive oil all over himself whenever they had a salad. He did get to know him when he was older and they became good friends.

I don’t actually know when the graphic novel featured in the story is coming out as it is not mentioned in the documentary or during the Q&A afterwards. I am sure it will do very well when it is released.

There was a question of how Mirka Mora’s family was released from the camp when only 100 other people managed to be released. The answer was the French resistance was involved falsifying documents and also the Nazi officials where receptive to bribes.
This was a really enjoyable and interesting documentary about a family I had heard a lot about but didn’t really know their history. As Phillipe and the director said they had wanted to make a story together on the topic before, but didn’t want it to be so serious you would come out of the experience depressed.

The screening I saw it at was the world premiere with a lot of the family in attendance including Mirka Mora who got a lot of applause for yelling out and waving her bouquet around.

It was quite a shame that this documentary did not get a presale into television in Australia and had to be backed by a TV station in France, but they recognise the importance of their history.

MIFF 2016: The Love Witch (2016)

Director: Anner Biller
Starring: Samantha Robinson, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Dani Lennon, Lily Holleman, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell

http://www.lifeofastar.com/

Elaine (Samantha Robinson) moves up into a mountain town looking to start a new life after her ex-husband dies in mysterious circumstances. She is a witch and uses love magic to get what she wants from men but it never turns out the way she expects. After picking up Wayne (Jeffrey Vincent Parise) from the park and going up to his cabin he also passes away, she does her best to bury him and look after evil spirits but things start to spiral out of control when she goes after another lover.

Just describing the plot makes this movie sound a lot more serious than it turns out to be on screen especially as it is difficult to describe the wonderful production design and costumes that were also produced by Anna Biller. A lot of the time it is a big warning if the director tries to do too much on the production, think Manos Hands of Fate but other times it can go all the way around to being awesome again. This is such a case and the paintings remind me of the lion wall hanging from Samurai Cop.

If a movie can make you sad that you can’t go to places in the movie and just hang out it is a good sign. One such place is the Victorian ladies tea room where it is women only with a harp playing and serving high tea all day. Elaine wears her wonderful pink dress and floppy hat there.

Her apartment is riot and filled with every clichéd thing you could think about witchcraft, but in bright colours and with very strong imagery. Elaine does wear a black dress at one point, but on the reverse it is rainbow.

There is a mention of black and white witches in the movie and it is not really made clear on which side Elaine belongs. She is just unlucky it seems and you do feel for her at times even if any normal person would not go so far.

The cast is all excellent and I would like to see another movie with some of the same people as they all worked well. Special props to the wizened old dude who “let it all hang out” in the group witch scene even though it must have been cold. Extra special huge love to Samantha Robinson for keeping it together for the pissing into the bottle scene.

Shooting this movie seems like it would have been bastard hard as you feel like people would have wanted to crack up laughing all the time and then all the makeup would have to be redone and there was quite a lot of it.

The movie runs off the track towards then end where it breaks the “show, don’t tell” rule to get everything wrapped up with the character. It just tries to do too much with the feminist message by dumping all the reasoning in the one scene. It was hinted at in the rest of the movie but if it was done properly there wouldn’t need to be a dump at the end.

If the director wanted to they could be an award winning production and costume designer on other movies, I am sure they have considered that but wanted to do their own movies. It is more a case of trying to do too much it does not always work out which is frustrating as the rest of the movie works so well.

I would still recommend this movie to a fan of retro horror films including Hammer Horror and older 60s style movies. Even though it is not explicitly set in the past people do not seem to be immersed in technology and actually talk to each other. There were a lot of the fashionable crowd at the screening and it has sold out at MIFF for both of the screenings.

Hopefully this movie does well on DVD/Blu ray and video on demand. Not sure what happened with all the associated artwork and costumes. I know some people who would quite like to buy them or at least get the designs to make them.

MIFF 2016: The Big Mouth (1967)

Director: Jerry Lewis
Starring: Jerry Lewis, Harold J. Stone, Susan Bay, Buddy Lester, Del Moore, Paul Lambert, Jeannine Riley

A comedy of errors with Jerry Lewis character going fishing and snagging a skin-diver who has been shot and gives him a map to diamonds, with the wacky coincidence being they are dead ringers for each other so everyone thinks he is the one they are after.

Just explaining the movie does not really do it justice and the movie is already seen as a classic so I do not really have that much to add. I did want to see at least one Jerry Lewis movie from the program of his movies on the big screen during the festival and chose this one as the time worked out for me.

This sort of film is not really made that much these days as it is difficult to pull off as there are so many things that need to go right. The comedy is very broad as you would expect with a more wacky edge from the actors being gun comedians especially the gangsters when they go mad.

I did like the fake FBI agent who seems like I have seen him in another movies playing the same role.

The part with the Chinese pearl dealer is embarrassing due to the white actor in yellow face but it is a product of the time. George Takei makes a cameo as the poor dude that gets dumped into molten plastic.

The caper and running around part reminded me a bit of it’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and there is a big ensemble cast and a lot of people chasing Jerry Lewis’ character around towards the end.

I am not sure where you would be able to get this movie as it is not on DVD at the moment. Hopefully it will be out on video on demand soon. At least it is not locked in a vault.

MIFF 2016: The Lost Arcade (2015)

Directed by: Kurt Vincent

https://www.facebook.com/ArcadeMovie/

A mark of a good documentary is if it can draw you into the story and keep you engaged. This does that but also manages to do it while also turning out to be about something different than you would have thought. While it was promoted focussing on the video game aspect and used the media of that sector most effectively, it turns out to be about community and belonging and nostalgia hitting the hard wall of real life where it turns out you can’t just live on memories.

I really enjoyed the opening about one of the main protagonists saying how he dreamt he was going to the Chinatown Fair arcade in his dream and he swore that it was like doing it in real life.

While filming inside the arcade the director sees someone else taking photos for posterity and then the story expands to follow this person’s story.

The history of the arcade including the chickens is covered and some of the previous owners are talked to. The history of arcade games is well covered elsewhere so it was not really necessary to show it here mainly just to skip over it.

Some of the people involved in the arcade had difficult lives and nowhere else to go. The owner of the arcade ended up offering them jobs to work there as they were there every day, one of the sweetest lines of the documentary was “my best friend was a 65 year old Pakistani man” and it does show the relationship between the two. A lot of small businesses are run by people who do it for other reasons than money or they would not still be there.

When the arcade finally closes the people going there are upset about losing their community, but one person opens their own space and manages to bring back some of the people. They also find out for themselves how hard it is to run such a place and that nostalgia can’t pay the bills.

The arcade is bought by a new owner who makes it over, changing it as often happens and alienating a lot of the former players. This often happens but there are signs that it is building its own community and one of the customers says it is better than before. I do not know if it is still running though.

I really enjoyed this documentary as I remember going to the arcades myself in the late 80s and early 90s and even when two different places in my small town had arcade machines (one placed closed them down as they did not like teenagers hanging around and swearing, what!?) The one thing not in this film that I remember is one player saying “What am I….” *PERFECT* (machine response to no-damage round). The person in question also said their parents threatened to buy an arcade machine just so they would stay home.

I used to be in a bowling league and there were always heaps of arcade machines there also.

It does seem to be different in the documentary as the owners have to buy their machines rather than renting them. The Street Fighter IV machine was a custom build as it was not released in the arcades in the USA. One of the arcades featured in the documentary largely used consoles as it was cheaper. I remember a video store charging by the hour in the 90s. I spent a long time there.

I would recommend this documentary even if you are not that into games as the audience seemed quite mixed and the stories are interesting to enough that you would enjoy them.

MIFF 2016: Film shortlist

Based on my first read through of the program without having any limtations for screening times or fitting on an E-Mini Pass added.

Might actually reschedule some of these to see at Cinema Nova after the festival after the festival as a lot of them are screening there.

High Rise
The Neon Demon
The Handmaiden
Heart of a Dog
Lo and Behold: Reveries of a Connected World
Neon Bull
Clash
How Heavy This Hammer
Operation Avalanche
Girl Asleep
Monsieur Mayonaise
Destination Arnold
Three
Right Now, Wrong Then
Office
Tokyo Story
Smorgasboard
Which Way to the Front?
The Big Mouth
Jerry Lewis: The King of Comedy
Kedi
The Lovers and the Despot
The Eagle Huntress
The Lost Arcade
Zero Days
Tickled
Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie
Don’t Bloml: Robert Frank
National Bird
Notes on Blindness
The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe
Miss Sharon Jones!
Meal Tickets
The American Epic Sessions
Ella
Kubo and the Two Strings
Long Way North
Our Huff and Puff Journey
The Red Turtle
NUTS!
Seoul Station
The Love Witch
Train to Busan
Phantasm: Remastered
The Lure
Bugs
WTF Shorts
Animation Shorts