Starting Out in the Evening (2007, Andrew Wagner) 39
The above image (from the festival catalog) just about does justice to how terrible the HDTV photography looks in this film, especially the dark interior scenes which have distracting waves, which is especially surprising because a quick look at Harlan Bosmajian's filmography on IMDB reveals he has worked in this format before and would likely be aware of the limitations of his equipment. I don't want to just pick on the look of the film though because it is actually dead in the water with a (mostly) poorly written script and mismatched performance styles (Langella is theatrical and proud, Ambrose not really doing anything interesting). Adam Gorgoni's score is also notably weak; a syrupy Thomas Newman ripoff. There is very little to like here but every now and then a scene will find some truth or an emotional pay-off will strike you offguard but mostly this is very predictable fare and offers very little indication of the talent given to Andrew Wagner.

Day Three: Grades

The Banishment (2007, Andrei Zvyaginstev) 54

My Kid Could Paint That (2007, Amir Bar-Lev) 65

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007, Cristian Mungiu) 68

Ploy (2007, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang) 26

Happiness (2007, Hur Jin-ho) 70

Diary of the Dead (2007, George A. Romero) 74

Day Two: Grades

Les Amours D' Astree et de Celadon (2007, Eric Rohmer) 72

The Mourning Forest (2007, Naomi Kawase) 48

Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (2007, Hou Hsiao-Hsien) 57

The Man From London (2007, Bela Tarr) 43

The Visitor (2007, Thomas McCarthy) 22

Frontière(s) (2007, Xavier Gens) W/O

Day One: Grades

Starting Out in the Evening (2007, Andrew Wagner) 39

Mother of Tears: The Third Mother (2007, Dario Argento) 50

Pre-Fest: Lars and the Real Girl

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007, Craig Gillespie) 51
The version I saw was a work print with a temp score and without final color timing. Grade obviously doesn't reflect the final product but it would take a lot of work to get me out of mixed territory because of its tonal inconsistency and the general feeling that the film was making fun of a character that is more tragic than comic, echoes of my arch-enemy Mike White. Terrific performances by Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider.

Pre-Fest: Flash Point

FLASH POINT (2007, Wilson Yip) 52
Hot Fuzz was just making fun of this kind of movie earlier this year, except clearly here when shit gets real it does so in beautifully brutal martial arts. Over-stylized and hyper-kinetic to disguise how little happens for the first hour and then the film finds its purpose with a climactic eight-minute fight scene that is fairly spectacular. A film for the DVD age because there is no reason to watch the entire running time but you might want to look at the final fight again, especially while among friends.

Pre-Fest: Chacun Son Cinema

CHACUN SON CINEMA (2007, A Bunch of People) 41
The one I was really stoked for was inexplicably missing from this collection (The Coens Bros). Far to many of these shorts tread similar ground and very few actually distinguished themselves from the others. Youssef Chahine either misunderstood the assignment or simply thinks that he is cinema, but his short was a hilarious misfire. Michael Cimino is also in his own world and will hopefully just disappear without another filmed effort. The 41 is for the overall experience, but here is the breakdown for the individual shorts:
Recommended:
DIARY OF A MOVIEGOER (Nanni Moretti)
THE ELECTRIC PRINCESS PICTURE HOUSE (Hsaio-hsien Hou)
ARTAUD DOUBEL BILL (Atom Egoyan)
OCCUPATIONS (Lars Von Trier)
CINEMA EROTIQUE (Roman Polanski)
AWKWARD (Elia Suleiman)
HAPPY ENDING (Ken Loach)

Indifferent:
ONE FINE DAY (Takashi Kitano)
DANS LE NOIR (Andrei Konchalovsky)
DARKNESS (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
UPSURGE (Olivier Assayas)
THE CINEMA AROUND THE CORNER (Claude Lelouch)
AT THE SUICIDE OF THE LAST JEW IN THE WORLD IN THE LAST CINEMA IN THE WORLD (David Cronenberg)
I TRAVELLED 9000 KM TO GIVE IT TO YOU (Wong Kar Wai)

Not Recommended:
OPEN AIR CINEMA (Raymond Depardon)
TROIS MINUTES (Theodoros Angelopoulos)
ANNA (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
MOVIE NIGHT (Zhang Yimou)
LE DIBBOUK DE HAIFA (Amos Gitai)
THE LADY BUG (Jane Campion)
THE FOUNDRY (Aki Kaurismaki)
47 YEARS LATER (Youssef Chahine)
IT'S A DREAM (Tsai Ming-liang)
THE GIFT (Raoul Ruiz)
FIRST KISS (Gus Van Sant)
NO TRANSLATION NEEDED (Michael Cimino)
WHERE IS MY ROMEO (Abbas Kiarostami)
THE LAST DATING SHOW (Billie August)
SOLE MEETING (Manoel de Oliveira)
A 8 944 KM DE CANNES (Walter Salles)
WAR IN PEACE (Wim Wenders)
ZHANXIOU VILLAGE (Chen Kaige)