It may say a lot about the year in film generally that there seem to be fewer "must-see" titles than usual as 2019 comes to an end. I had hoped Bong Joon-ho's Parasite would be featured, and was fairly confident it would be the closing film. For a while now, each year's Palme D'or winner at Cannes has been a common fixture on the LIFF programme. In the last seven years I've seen Shoplifters, (2018), The Square (2017), Winter Sleep (2014), Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) and Amour (2012) at the festival. Unfortunately I have to wait until the UK general release in February 2020 to check out one of the most acclaimed films of this year. A new work by Takashi Miike featured at LIFF in 2017 and 2018 but alas, there was no sign of First Love in this year's mix.
Late additions were made after the initial unveiling of the programme with titles such as The Irishman, The Personal History of David Coppefield, Promare and Aquarela. I plan to see The Irishman on Netflix later in the month, primarily due to its 210 minute running time. Several other major titles featured, including A Marriage Story, I Lost My Body and Atlantics, will be on Netflix before the end of the year. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all was that Jojo Rabbit was the closing film. As someone who finds Taika Waititi criminally unfunny the idea of ending the festival with his latest comedy didn't hold much appeal. In the end, it won the audience prize so despite my lack of interest it was obviously a sound choice.
When I noticed my most anticipated film of the year (Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life) was showing in the final week it more than made up for any shortcomings elsewhere. Due to the way that the films were spread out it felt like I was sitting through a fair selection of titles with the main attraction of the festival never far from my mind. It was the second to last film I saw, although at any stage it would have overshadowed the rest of the offerings. As a devout follower of Malick's work it meant that it wasn't really on a level playing field with the rest of my selections. It was entirely unexpected and I was more or less resigned to waiting until next year to see it on general release.
The new Explorer pass seemed to be controversial. Hardcore festivalgoers were used to having a pass that allowed them to go to as many screenings as possible for a fixed price. The Explorer pass allowed passholders to book individual tickets for a much smaller fee. For me, it worked out fine and I don't think I spent any more than I did in the previous year. I accepted a while back that it's unlikely I'll see everything that I would like to see and if I do somehow find a way then I'm too tired by the end to enjoy the films. I'm past a stage where I feel a need to see as much as possible so the change wasn't a big deal for me but I could understand the qualms of loyal and devoted festivalgoers. For those wanting to sample as many films as possible (I've heard of people going to more than 40 films over the two weeks) it was a much more pricey option than the Full pass available in the past. To their credit the festival organisers did respond to the complaints by later offering a full access Explorer Gold pass for £150.
Films I went to see:
Atlantics (Mati Diop)
Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
Children of the Sea (Ayumu Watanabe)
A Dog Called Money (Seamus Murphy)
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaaa)
The Fading Village (Feifang Liu)
Five Million Dollar Life (Moon Sung-Ho)
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (Lee Won-tae)
A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers)
Ordinary Love (Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma)
Ride Your Wave (Masaaki Yuasa)
We Are Little Zombies (Makoto Nagahisa)
White Snake (Amp Wong & Ji Zhao)
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yi'nan)
Standouts: A Hidden Life, The Fading Village
Disappointments: A Dog Called Money, The Lighthouse
Films that I missed but would liked to have seen:
The Cordillera of Dreams (Patricio Guzman)
Darlin' (Pollyanna McIntosh)
Family Romance, LLC (Werner Herzog)
House of Hummingbird (Kim Bo-ra)
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmo (Karim Ainouz)
Judy & Punch (Mirrah Foulkes)
Land of Ashes (Sofia Quiros)
The Juniper Tree (Nietzchka Keene)
Promare (Hiroyuki Imaishi)
The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Zizotek (Vardis Marinakis)
The worst experience by far was The Lighthouse. Discomfort had set in and I was fidgeting about for most of the screening. The Town Hall acoustics made a lot of the dialogue difficult to decipher at times. I had a similar experience 3 years prior with Jim Jarmusch's film Paterson. Even without the audio issues I found the film to be a letdown. I thought Robert Eggers's debut feature The Witch showed promise but his followup seemed to almost build on the flawed aspects of the earlier film rather than learn from them.
Few films that I watched soared to the heights that I'd hoped for. Although both were worthwhile efforts, I'm still pondering the overall merits of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Atlantics. I caught 3 of the 4 titles on the Animation Sunday (White Snake, Children of the Sea, Ride Your Wave). All were decent offerings but not a patch on some of those I've caught in the past (e.g. Garden of Words, A Silent Voice). With hindsight, I gravitated too much towards areas that usually pique my interest like crime thrillers, East Asian cinema and animation. For many of the featured works it is a rare opportunity to see them as there are no guarantees that they will receive a general release in the UK at a later date but I could have taken a few more risks with my choices. Oddly enough I've never been tempted to attend the two featured Horror marathons - 'Day of the Dead' and 'Night of the Dead' but that's something I may try next year. Regrettably I had to miss the two free screenings of silent films. Both were wonderful choices (Haxan and Man with a Movie Camera) that were no doubt spectacular experiences in the Town Hall setting with a live organ accompaniment.
The festival was effectively bookended by what were for me its two major highlights. The first and penultimate films that I saw more or less eclipsed the rest of my viewing choices. In recent times China has produced several exceptional works in the documentary field and The Fading Village was another scintillating look at a society, its traditions and the forces of "progress". I haven't been able to see a Terrence Malick film on the big screen since To the Wonder in 2013 as his subsequent work has had almost nonexistent theatrical runs in the UK so the presence of A Hidden Life in the lineup came as quite a shock. It was beyond a doubt the main event of this year for me as a filmgoer so I'm extremely grateful to the organisers for acquiring the film for an early showing.
In the city centre the decorations and German Christmas Market are also there to enjoy. Like Halloween and Christmas the film festival has become a beloved annual tradition of mine. This year there was a bit of a failure on my part to put in the necessary groundwork. After being disappointed by what was missing from the programme I should have done more research in to what was on offer. If ever there has been a year where one film dominated proceedings then this was it. Looking back, I could have been more adventurous. I had hoped that the festival would provide more contenders for my 'best films of 2019' blog in December. As things stand I still have a lot of viewing to do to build up a more satisfying list and have a bigger and clearer picture of the year in film.
