We are at 36.

{A Woman’s Face}


{Policeman}


{Amour}


{Lovers on the Bridge}


{Pure}


{Facing Mirrors}


{First Position}


{Le Tableau}


{Bestiaire}


{NO}

Before the final four days of MIFF, there is time enough to look back at the films seen earlier in the week. What a giddy ride thus far, cold or no cold.

So let us talk of favourites.

In Bestiaire I was transfixed, absorbed utterly in the beautiful, large, crisp projected scenes that quietly and slowly unfolded. I liked particularly that it allowed me time to think as I drank in the visuals. It, like Two Years at Sea, to me, reads like a giant painting on the gallery wall that, upon closer inspection, moves. Some fantastical sorcery, this! The animal gazes directly at you and holds its gaze. We may think we humans have the upper hand, but, no, the animal has sized us up. He knows us well. From zoo scenes to a taxidermist’s workroom, each read like a finished composition in own right. There, a tiger’s white whiskers and chin up close. There, the legs of the zebra dance in, I presume, their holding pen, ready to get out into their enclosure. The ears of an even-toed ungulate dance, too, flitting back and forth, listening and always at the ready. Like I said, they’ve sized you up. See three bears in a line (were those Asiatic black bears?) waiting, like little buddhas on their haunches, for a grape to be tossed their way by their keeper. A duck’s body moulded with great physical exertion by a taxidermist quietly working. Horns; hoofs; a lounging lion; a lemur feasting; a spotted female hyena receiving medical attention; big peering, searching eyes; we are up close. Up close to a host of amazing creatures in captivity. This film by Denis Côté gave me the space and freedom to contemplate and reflect as I watched an ostrich watch me, no screen between us. (The animals didn't DO anything. Didn't even run! Nothing. And to think I recommended it to a friend! bemoaned a man before me in the queue to NO. Clearly, we don't always see things the same as others do.)

From Lovers on the Bridge to Pure, classical music has played, for me, beautiful role. Several compositions of Mozart, Massenet, Bach, and Beethoven, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet in Bad Blood earlier, they’ve all had an outing. And they’ve led me well to First Position by former dancer Bess Kargman. First Position proved the uplifting ride I’d hoped and knew it would be, and I saw it in a theatre filled with dance students, a school group, parents with small children, and regular festival goers, spotted easily owing to less shine and suffering a festival fatigue body stiffness. The audience gasped when one of the dancers fell and clapped when they executed a complex series of awe-inspiring moves. They let out one unified sigh when one of the Mum’s spoke of her joy and pride when watching her eldest daughter dance and her sorrow at her youngest son’s decision to give up ballet, something he didn’t feel the necessary hunger for. It was with a feeling of ever-good camaraderie, as we watched young dancers from varied backgrounds perform and stretch and train and show to camera their feet. It reminded me, to some small extent, of my own childhood dreams and the dance classes I took, of summer holidays spent at Mr Rubinstein's classes with students from other schools. It reminded me of Miss Anna, who would spit in the palm of her hand before smoothing down any stray wisps of hair about my face. It reminded me of those sautés towards the end of class. More, girls, more. Lighter. Higher. Watch your turn out! Again. Twenty more. It reminded me of costumes and blisters, and I miss now the discipline and direction and good posture.

First Position took you right in and it led well into Le Tableau, a French animation also with its own uplifting and inspiring message to impart. A painting that is unfinished is shown as a microcosm of society. It is made up of the ruling class, the Alldunns, who look down on the Halfies the artist never completed. Beneath those still in need of colour about the face or fleshing out of costume, the Sketchies who cannot quite complete a sentence such is their lot. Another session at ACMI filled once more with school children that giggled during the scene with the naked woman painted in the style of a Mattisse Odalisque.

I have seen 36 films, and almost all I have loved. From Haneke’s beautiful Amour (an absolute favourite I recommend you see if you get the chance, it paints so beautifully the story of love and ageing and togetherness) to Ingrid Bergman in A Woman’s Face, roll on, final days. I am ready for more.

Seen:
A Woman’s Face (Director: Gustaf Molander)
Policeman (Director: Nadav Lapid)
Amour (Director: Michael Haneke)
Lovers on the Bridge (Director: Leos Carax)
Pure (Director: Lisa Langseth)
(Screened with Girl (Director: Fijona Jonuzi))
Facing Mirrors (Director: Negar Azarbayjani)
First Position (Director: Bess Kargman)
Le Tableau (Director: Jean-François Laguionie)
Bestiaire (Director: Denis Côté)
NO (Director: Pablo Larrain)