Rotterdam p4: all films seen/ranked

BEST SHORTS:

River Rites
Sack Barrow
The Return
Le tempestaire (1947)

ALL FEATURES SEEN & RANKED (loosely), w/ INITIAL TWEET-REVIEW WHERE APPLICABLE

1. Two Years at Sea
2. Eight Deadly Shots: Mikko Niskanen writes/directs/acts up a storm in this riveting 1972 miniseries abt an alcoholic farmer's plight… srsly one of the greatest acting performances I've seen; only discovered it was the film's maker afterward. Whadda dude
3. small roads
4. The Loneliest Planet: the volume of things left unsaid, made enough to fill the valleys in Georgia. Exquisitely sad
5. Eden's Ark: major find of #iffr so far. Gorgeous, suitably oblique essayfilm draws lines between film and nature preservation. Gr8 debut ft
6. Ballet aquatique: Raul Ruiz goes full Owen Land in this hilariously deadpan, surreal cheapo homage to Jean Painleve's science films
7. Neighbouring Sounds: uber-promising debut.
8. The Comedy: a skewering of white male hipster privilege that cuts deep; by turn abrasively funny & very sad.
9. Alps: at first this felt lacking in real-world resonance, then the unreality got under my skin. more formally distinct than DOGTOOTH
10. Anna (1975)
11. Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema: dreamy portrait of a dreamy filmmaker with lots of dreamy clips and dreamy ocean footage. Dreamy
12. Verano: Juggles a low-stakes narrative w/ intimate, purely sensual immersion in nature and flesh; not wholly successful, but a brand of unsuccessful that I prefer to a lot of brand of successes.
13. Damsels in Distress: total cornball delight, perfect for this point of the fest. Stillman should be working at a Woody Allen rate
14. O despertar da besta: Coffin Joe does Cinemanovo w/o losing psychotronic side, skewers hippies; my jetlag kicks in, nitemares ensue
15. Helsinki, Forever: City symphonies, never not lovely. Peter Von Bagh (its director + cinephile-extraordinary) was sitting next to me
16. O bandido da luz vermelha: anarchic, ultra-digressive, sublimely obnoxious Brazilian crime 'tale', makes PIERROT LE FOU look like Melville
17. Wavumba: Picturesque fic/doco hybrid portrait of Kenyan fisherman & his animist beliefs. Slight but gorgeous; promising debut feature… leans a bit 2 heavily on drone score for 'mystical' effect
18. The Pettifogger
19. Rua Aperana 23
20. Punk in Africa: Loses focus as the years go by, but I guess that comes with the territory. Wanna find some KOOS recordings now
21. Miss Bala: Fightin' objectification w/ objectification. Whatever this film has against beauty pageants, it does the same w/ steadicam
22. Black Dove: So frustrating; nearly every effective scene followed by an equally clumsy one, culminating in a really confused ending
23. L: Has its moments, but verrry overstretched; the DOGTOOTH crew's brand of deadpan absurdity is starting 2 feel very brand-like indeed
24. Egg and Stone: Chinese small town coming-of-age hardships observational static camera autobiographical festival-bait derp derp derp
25. Beyond the Mountains
26. Living: so singlemindedly intent on winning the title of Most Depressing Film Ever that I almost admired it's grim willpower (almost)
27. The Names of Christ: Yikes, Albert Serra should never do essay films. Although, I stayed for all 3hr and 20mins, so I guess there was something there…
28. Me Travelling Across the World to A Beautiful European City Only To Watch Movies: j/k, it was worth it.