SIFF 2009--part 1

5/23/09

The Seattle International Film Festival has just begun, and already TVOR is way, way behind with her comments. First, the non-festival related stuff for non-Seattle people:

If you live in a city where the lovely French film Summer Hours is playing, go see it. It's the best thing TVOR has seen for a while. And if you've already seen that, try Kabei: Our Mother, from Japan. It's not quite the film the first is, more melodramatic, but still worth seeing. If these films haven't come to where you live yet, make a note of them.

Now, for the SIFF notes. Here's what TVOR knows about what's playing the first few days of the festival, all based on her own viewing:

Top choices: Summer Hours, Departures, Quiet Chaos, Still Walking, Treeless Mountain, The Hurt Locker, Snow

Also good: We Live in Public, Captive, Hooked, The Cove, Tulpan

Not bad, but missable: Terribly Happy, My Dear Enemy, Melodrama Habibi, The Higher Force, Carmo, Hit the Road

Flawed, but you probably won't hate yourself...then again, you might: Tahaan-A Boy With a Grenade

TVOR hasn't seen any real stinkers showing in the first few days, although they could be lurking.

And then there are those archival choices, wonderful old films on the big screen during SIFF: Sunset Boulevard, The Third Man, etc. You could always do a lot worse than watch an old classic like one of these.

More later.