The Mirror
When I first started writing for Filmwell, I repeatedly voiced my intention to move to New York city. It seemed the cinematic centre of the world, at least when it came to films with a spiritual flavour. Dardenne and Tarkovsky retrospectives (with two of the three directors actually in attendance) made a Manhattan move almost mandatory. My own personal discovery of Big Apple films like The Sweet Smell of Success and The Apartment, combined with a consideration of the Gotham-inflected oeuvre of Whit Stillman and an addiction to film commentary in The New Yorker, caused me wonder if I had chosen the wrong Greatest City in The World to live in.
Until now.
I hereby officially declare the official opening of The Soul Food International Film Festival, right here in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Well, maybe not so official. It only just occurred to me around 5:00 this morning. And, it kind of already opened. So make that The First Non-Annual Soul Food Unintentional International Film Festival of Vancouver. Catchy title, eh? The NASFUIFFoV. Wonder if it’s too late to print up a festival program?)
The Magnificent Obsession
This Thursday night at Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque, The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975, Russia) shows at 7:15, followed by The Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954, USA) at 9:15. The films are also showing separately on other nights this week (see the above links for specific times), but Thursday is the one night that offers a chance to view them back to back.
Seraphine
That’s an opportunity festival attendees may wish to take advantage of, given that Seraphine (Martin Provost, 2009, France/Belgium) is running Tuesday through Thursday at The Hollywood (9:15 nightly) and Munyurangabo (Lee Isaac Chung, 2007, Rwanda) plays Friday through Monday at the VanCity (various screening times).
Munyurangabo
Toss in local screenings of A Serious Man (2009, Joel & Ethan Coen, USA), maybe even Gentlemen Broncos (Jared Hess, 2009, USA) and It Might Get Loud (Davis Guggenheim, 2008, USA) for it’s profile of U2 guitarist The Edge, and you’ll have yourself a soul-satisfying cinematic smorgasbord the like of which is unlikely to be seen again. (At least, not until we launch our own rather more intentional Soul Food International Film Festival. Hmm…)
A Serious Man