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Nashville Film Festival – Days 1 & 2

 Visual Arts
Apr 172010
 

I probably was a little too harsh in my earlier estimation of the Nashville Film Festival.  While far too many bad and mediocre films get programmed at NaFF, the same could be said for the St. Louis Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival (or any other), albeit in different proportions.  The truth is, if NaFF programed only films that I wanted to see, very few people would attend.  So I understand that a little huffed-up fluff is necessary in order to subsidize the brilliant-yet-unpopular films that NaFF courageously programs.

On opening night, I was treated to an example of the former category: Nowhere Boy.  A biopic about a seventeen-year-old John Lennon and his relationship with his bi-polar mother, the film sold out two large theaters and spilled over into a third.  I myself was caught up in the hype, believing that it may break the opening film curse (that being, high-profile low-quality films traditionally open the fest, last year’s passable 500 Days of Summer the only recent exception.)  Unfortunately, Nowhere Boy was clumsy, slow, and overwrought, coasting on the fumes of a legend. The film was introduced by the festival organizers after some crowd-working about Nashville being the best music town in the world (sorry, it’s not).  Next up came a local singer who sang Don’t Let Me Down followed by the “Na Na Na NaNaNaNa” part of Hey Jude (who apparently was ok with the fact he was singing a McCartney song at a Lennon biopic.)  And then came the film.  2 out of 5.

The two films I saw today were much more engaging, yet they drew much-smaller crowds.  First up was Catherine Breillat’s Bluebeard, a retelling of the fairy tale about a young girl who is wed to an infamous lord.  The film interweaves two modern day girls reading the story.   Breillat succeeds again in defying our expectations and doing exactly the opposite of what we expect.  She’s one of the few real auteurs working today, and I’m quite please NaFF chose to book her new film.  4 out of 5.

Next was the Korean film Vegetarian about a housewife who suddenly develops an obsessive distaste for meat and finds solace in body paint.  Yes, really.  I’m still processing this engagingly ineffable film, and I don’t quite know what to make of it.  But I enjoyed myself throughout the screening, and the images are still in my mind.  My rating may change as I get a sense of the aftertaste, but for now: 3.5 out of 5.

Stay tuned for daily updates on the films I see at the Nashville Film Festival.  Be sure to listen to excellent Nashville film podcast The Film Talk every day at 12pm central for live coverage of the fest and interviews.  I’m behind the mixing board throughout the week.

  • However, “Hey Jude” was written for Julian Lennon, so it’s kind of on-topic– Julian’s relationship with his father/mother, John’s with his, etc… Offhand, I can’t think of a Beatles song that would have been more appropriate in terms of theme.

    Also, did I mention that I’ve booked you for the 3rd Annual Noise Summit? Make no commitments for April 2011 until I nail down a date, lol.

  • Aha, didn’t catch that.

    How did the summit go?

  • The Summit starts 3 hours from now, actually. But in advance, I’ll say that it went well and a good time was had by all– except the monkey, who really took one for the team, and will always be remembered, but who unfortunately and unexpectedly died several days later after an extended battle with a rogue run-on sentence.