Melbourne International Film Festival 2010

Dates: 22 July - 8 August 2010
Venues: Greater Union City, Forum, Kino and ACMI cinemas

It’s that time when cinema buffs are sharpening their pencils to pick their preferred films from this year’s MIFF program - and there’s a long list from which to choose. With over 200 features from 50 countries plus documentaries and short films, you’ll have your work cut out selecting tickets. With an exciting and varied program, you’ll have plenty to discuss over coffee between shows. Here’s a brief glimpse of some highlights, though limited space cannot do justice to the number of films.

MIFF kicks off appropriately with the premiere of Melbourne filmmaker Amanda Jane’s debut feature, the romantic comedy The Wedding Party; starring Isabel Lucas, Josh Lawson, Steve Bisley and the city of Melbourne. While, on a totally different note, the closing film chosen is Matt Whitecross’s Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll a biopic on musician Ian Drury, the wild punk rocker as played by Andy Serkis (King Kong).

Special festival guest will be cult American director Joe Dante, presenting his very first film, the four-and-a-half hour The Movie Orgy (1968). Dante is known for his subversive humour in movies like Piranha and Gremlins - to be shown in his retrospective program. Another guest is Adrian Grenier, star of popular American TV show Entourage, previewing his new documentary Teenage Paparazzo about 13 year old paparazzo Austin Visschedyk battling men three times his age to capture intimate shots of the rich and famous in L.A.

Robin Williams appears in World’s Greatest Dad a very dark comedy about a poetry teacher and frustrated writer trying to come to terms with his testosterone-fuelled, foul-tempered adolescent son. What’s interesting here is that the film’s director is none other than Bobcat Goldthwait - you might remember the weird guy with the demented speech patterns in that wacky Police Academy series. Surprisingly, he steps up to the director’s chair with considerable aplomb.

Bollywood storms into MIFF with Not Quite Bollywood, and Indian superstar Aamir Kahn will be in Melbourne to present the movie. Michael Rowe, that bright boy from Ballarat, will introduce his Camera d’Or winning film Leap Year.

MIFF offers the world premiere of another Aussie production, Michael Henry’s Blame, a thriller on the theme of a murder gone horribly wrong. Slightly off the beaten track are The Invention of Dr. Nakamats about a man who invented more than Edison himself, and Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, a look behind the scenes at this famous musician.

Now two films by legendary directors working from the 60s: the controversial Roman Polanski hones his skills for atmospheric suspense with The Ghost Writer, a political thriller based on the Robert Harris’s novel. Ewan McGregor plays ‘The Ghost’ writing memoirs for ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan); no easy task as he discovers a wall of deception. Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall is in thespian mode is the PM’s secretary Amelia Bly.

The film explores dangerous territory dusted with paranoia and menace as McGregor uncovers dark secrets. Polanski presents a polished piece of cinema in this thinly-disguised Tony Blair history, a work of maturity though perhaps lacking the vitality of his early pieces Chinatown and Repulsion. Curiously, it reflects Polanski’s own situation.

Jean-Luc Godard - darling of the French New Wave - on the fiftieth anniversary of his Breathless, brings his latest and possibly last film/video Film Socialisme. “We’ve entered into an era with the digital wherein, for different reasons, humanity will be confronted by problems which will not have the luxury of being expressed”

Divided into three sections, the first takes place on an ocean liner as passengers from different countries interact . Section two has a news crew investigate the politics of a family-operated country service station. The third is a journey through history and countries around the Mediterranean including a visit to the Odessa Steps made famous in Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. Typically obscure, it will appeal to Godard fans, but may not win him many new ones.

The near forgotten 1966 masterpiece Au Hasard, Balthazar by austerely brilliant French director Robert Bresson will be shown again this year. It gained a screening at MIFF on its first release. The burden of humanity is placed on the shoulders of God’s forgotten creature, a donkey.

The donkey has several owners whom exploit it; some with cruelty, some with kindness. The aesthetic spiritual message has a transcendental quality. Jean-Luc Godard said of it “Everyone who sees this film will be absolutely astonished, because this film is really the world in an hour and half”.

Another blast from the past is the 50th anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous film Psycho on the big screen with Bernard Herrmann’s full orchestral score live from the Bates Motel Orchestra on stage. Should add extra shivers to the master’s essay in terror.

The Special Relationship is a behind-the-scenes look at the uneasy friendship between US President Bill Clinton and British P.M. Tony Blair, again played effectively by Micheal Sheen - I’ve reviewed it in full elsewhere. Finally I must mention Boy, a charmer from New Zealand, one of the most endearing and amusing coming-of-age stories set in a poor Maori community with lovable characters, and standout performances. Put it high on your list, you’ll surely come out feeling the world’s a better place.

So sharpen up those pencils and happy viewing!

John Bale