NEXUS ISSUE 22 2014

nexus magazine
AUTEUR HOUSE PRESENTS FILM FEST
Auteur Dr Richard Swainson
The annual International Film Festival wrapped up a fortnight ago.
Whilst it will be some time before any of the festival movies come out on
DVD, Auteur House has the earlier work of many of their directors. The following
list takes some of the better titles from the festival and details the
back catalogue of the respective auteur.
1. Winter Sleep - for me this 3 1/4 hour epic from Turkey, this year's Palme
d'Or winner at Cannes, was the pick of the litter. Comparisons to Chekov and
Bergman were not misplaced. Co-writer/director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's previous
films are even slower and a lot less dialogue heavy but offer rich rewards for
the patient viewer. We stock Uzak (2002), Three Monkeys (2008) and Once
Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011).
2. Under the Skin - more abstract and art house than mainstream science
fiction, this intriguing puzzler saw Scarlett Johansson as an alien seducing
lonely hearts in coastal Scotland. Director Jonathan Glazer is as well known
for his music videos as his features. We have a collection of the former as
well as Birth (2004) and his stunning debut, Sexy Beast (2000).
3. Maps to the Stars - a pitch black, corrosive comedy about contemporary
Hollywood that made The Player look like Mary Poppins. A real return to
form for veteran Canadian horror specialist David Cronenberg. We have all of
Cronenberg's previous features, the best of which are The Fly (1986), Dead
Ringers (1988), Crash (1996) and A History of Violence (2005).
4. Leviathan - life in Putin's Russia involves drinking yourself senseless
with vodka, paying off politicians and mouthing platitudes in the Orthodox
Church... or at least that's what this wrenching drama suggested. Earlier
films by director Andrei Zvyagintsev include The Return (2003) and Elena
(2011).
5. Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? - a stylised rendering of a series of
conversations between French director and animator Michel Gondry and
the iconic political activist and ground-breaking linguist Noam Chomsky.
Gondry's best work includes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
and Science of Sleep (2006). Chomsky has previously been profiled in the
classic Manufacturing Consent (1992).
6. Two Days, One Night - this harrowing tale of a Belgian mother who is
forced to beg her work mates for the right to keep her job whilst simultaneously
battling depression should be compulsory viewing for any fuckwits
who voted for the National party. The hand-held camerawork and cinema
verite style is very much in keeping with earlier masterpieces by two-time
Cannes winners the Dardennes brothers. The Son (2002), The Child (2005)
and The Kid With a Bike (2011) are all essential works.
7. Charlie's Country - a third teaming of writer/director Rolf de Heer and
actor David Gulpilil, based in part on the latter's own life. A beautifully shot
and told tale of the contemporary Aboriginal experience. Auteur House has
both The Tracker (2002) and Ten Canoes (2006) as well as the cult Bad Boy
Bubby (1993) and many other films by the prolific Mr de Heer.
16 nexusmag.co.nz