A roundup of film favourites from our most prolific Auckland and Wellington correspondents at the New Zealand International Film Festival 2013.
Jacob Powell (Auckland)
A strong and incredibly rich programme (which seems a redundant statement to make as they’re always full of treasures), NZIFF 2013 held for me a surfeit of cinematic luxuries in every section. At the less enjoyable end of the scale, only one film really irked with another one, or perhaps two, coming off as a mite pedestrian. I’m looking forward to various films I loved, or missed, appearing in local cinemas over the coming year and lamenting a few that will never make it. This has been an excellent festival with a string of highs making it an enjoyably energising experience.
Exceptional:
- Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, USA) Read More
- Harmony Lessons (Emir Baigazin, Kazakhstan)
- The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway)
- Starlet (Sean Baker, USA, 2012)
- Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor/Véréna Paravel, France, 2012) Read More
The rest of the best: Cheap Thrills, A Field in England, A Hijacking, La jaula de oro, Much Ado About Nothing, Museum Hours, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Past, The Selfish Giant, Stories We Tell, Goblin play Suspiria.
The Dud: Magic Magic.
Steve Garden (Auckland)
This year’s NZIFF programme boasted a staggering assembly of the good and the great, best of all being a rare chance to see a film by Filipino maverick, Lav Diaz. Bill Gosden and his programming team can’t be thanked enough for scheduling it.
Outstanding:
- Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
Exceptional (in alphabetical order):
- The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway)
- Camille Claudel, 1915 (Bruno Dumont, France)
- Gebo and the Shadow (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 2012)
- Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor/Véréna Paravel, France, 2012)
- Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Japan, 2012)
- The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh, Cambodia)
- Paradise: Love/Faith/Hope (Ulrich Seidl, Austria)
- Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, 2012)
- Three Sisters (Wang Bing, Hong Kong/France, 2012)
Damn fine (in no particular order): Harmony Lessons, The Strange Little Cat, Everyday Objects, Child’s Pose, Charulata, The Past, Cops / The Cameraman, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Stories We Tell, A Touch of Sin, Museum Hours, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, The Gatekeepers.
Clunk!: To the Wonder, Upstream Color, Only Lovers Left Alive, Dormant Beauty.
Continue reading Steve’s full post-festival report here
Tim Wong (Wellington)
Although there were no genuine left-of-field discoveries, NZIFF 2013 delivered on the promise of its hugely impressive programme, the strongest of any year I can remember. Bookending the festivities were two fantastic one-off events: Goblin’s spine-tingling performance of their Suspiria score at the Civic, and a rare screening of King Vidor’s magnificent The Crowd with stirring live accompaniment. A special edition in anyone’s language; a collector’s edition with the inclusion of Lav Diaz’s masterful Norte, the End of History, an exclamation mark on a festival still committed to all kinds of cinema—a godsend in such risk-adverse times.
- Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
- Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, Austria/USA, 2012) Read More
- A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhang-ke, China/Japan)
- Gebo and the Shadow (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 2012)
- Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Japan, 2012) Read More
- Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France)
- The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway) Read More
- Paradise: Love/Faith/Hope (Ulrich Seidl, Austria) Read More
- Camille Claudel, 1915 (Bruno Dumont, France) Read More
- Ilo Ilo (Anthony Chen, Singapore) Read More
Also excellent: Computer Chess, La jaula de oro, Leviathan, Lines of Wellington, Mud, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, Post Tenebras Lux, Three Sisters; plus, live cinema glories The Crowd and Goblin play Suspiria.
Not entirely convincing, but still worthwhile: Heli, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon.
Off the boil: Frances Ha, To the Wonder, Upstream Color.
Continue reading Tim’s full post-festival report here
Brannavan Gnanalingam (Wellington)
I’ve purposefully excluded any films that I didn’t see for the first time at NZIFF 2013. What is evident, though, is that the festival this year has nabbed the best films from the European circuit: The Act of Killing, Gloria, Norte, the End of History, Gebo and the Shadow, The Great Beauty, A Touch of Sin, the Paradise Trilogy, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, at the very least. It shows how incredibly lucky we are with what we’ve got here.
- Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France) Read More
- Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, Austria/USA, 2012)
- Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor/Véréna Paravel, France, 2012)
- Starlet (Sean Baker, USA, 2012) Read More
- The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh, Cambodia) Read More