WOW! What a start to what is slowly becoming one of my favourite Australian film festivals.
Entering the grand Palais Theatre out near Acland St out of the frosty Melbourne air, I was greeted by the same nostalgic wave that hit me last year, reminding me of my first attendance of the festival. St Kilda is special to me as it was the first film festival I attended when I moved to Melbourne and it has become a yearly tradition ever since. I was fortunate enough this year to score a double pass for my sister and I to attend the opening night and the two of us ascended to the second storey to meet up with a few of my other friends who were joining us for the night's festivities. The theatre was packed to the brim with people from all walks of the film appreciation life - filmmakers, actors, investors, producers, critics, fans and general members of the public who just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I even spotted my fair share of celebs including Eddie Perfect (Offspring), Stefan Dennis (Paul from Neighbours) and Gyton Grantley (Underbelly), although admittedly I saw him at Vineyards on the way to the opening, not actually in the theatre itself.
At 8pm on the dot, the chimes began and we made our holy ascent to the 'dress circle' or what I would coin more appropriately, the "stairs of hell." I don't think I had ever sat so far back from the stage before but even from there, we could still see all of the action. Finally, the lights dimmed and a familiar face graced the stage to welcome everyone to the festival. Shane Jacobson, Australia's most lovable loo cleaner, performed yet another brilliant MC job throwing in some gut-clenching one liners, a few eye-brow raising quips, but enough cheer and merriment to get everyone through the other, more dull (sorry, there is no other word for the Mayor's speech) introductions by the sponsors and organizers.
AND THEN, the films. Starting with Pop, the audience were exposed to the more subtle approach of film making. With no dialogue, our attention was drawn to the impeccable sound design and performances given by the 2 man cast as well as the beautiful cinematography featured throughout. There was a reminiscence of the sound-to-visual editing style seen in every Edgar Wright film but not to such a degree that its prominent. Rather, the film focuses on the beauty of communication through non-verbal means whilst exploring father-son relationships.
Next was the highly anticipated Suburbia, featuring Don Hany (Offspring) and what I had hoped would be an Underbelly homage. Not quite. Without giving too much away, the film portrayed the real life events of a man who uncovers a shooting in his own neighborhood. But that's about it. The film's focus on its technical elements (you really need to see the film in order to understand what I'm talking about) caused there to be a lack of detail undertaken with the script and plot itself. In the end, we just ended up watching Hany running a Northern Sydney suburb under the false impression that something utterly disastrous was about to happen. Rather disappointingly, it didn't and the film ended with a massive anti-climax which left many in the audience perplexed or unsatisfied.
From there we moved into the first animation presentation of the festival from the Berlin Film festival. A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation was an incredible story that was difficult to keep up with accompanied by some amazing computer-generated imagery. With a Tim Burton-esque feel, the film had great editing and narrative rhythm but lost its audience around the 4th Act. Taken separately, the animation and the story are great elements. Together however, they were slightly confusing and possibly too ambitious for a short film. I would really recommend reading the script however if you can get your hands on it as it was fascinating trying to keep up throughout the screening.
The 4th film of the night was Beesting starring Brendan Cowell and another one of the films I was looking forward to. Like Pop (but less successfully), Beesting explores the relationship between a widowed man and his young son who both share the same affections for the boy's teacher. A little sneakily, the film flirts with the idea of the teacher having a crush on the son but that is quickly dissipated by the film's final act. Again, like Suburbia, the film finished at a moment I would not have have thought wise, neither focusing on the son's reaction to his father's behaviour to make us sympathisise with him, nor revealing a witty twist for the son to seek revenge. It was a film about nothing I would say and whilst there were some cute moments, it wasn't what I was hoping for. The sound mixing also pissed me off at times.
The SoundKilda entry for the night was Old Fitzroy, a beautifully photographer music video based on a story about one of Melbourne's most cultural suburbs and really if I were to award it any form it would simply be a photographic essay. The shots were beautifully retouched in a darkly contrasted black and white with a few focus pulls and long DOP(depth of field)'s thrown in here and there as well. It would be the sort of thing I would hope the City of Yarra would use to their advantage.
And finally, THE film of the festival, if not the year, that shook everyone to the core and turned their world upside down. Bear, the brilliant production by Nash Edgerton and David Michod, was a film I already knew would be amazing but what I wasn't anticipating was just how incredible these two men are when put in the same room together. Following a similar trajectory to Spider (for all of you familiar with their work but don't let that fool into thinking you can guess what happens in Bear), the film has that perfect blend for narrative development in the way it establishes character, mysteriously suggests the plot's direction, and then hits you out of left field with the twist of the century. I knew it was coming but even I was shocked by the ending and everyone in the audience was in rapture. It really was a brilliant piece of filmmaking and the boys at Blue-Tongue should be very proud.
To cap off the wonderful evening, I bumped into Adam Elliott outside the theatre again who I had gone to see speak at RMIT last night and got to have a nice chat with him about the films. So all in all, a great start to the 2011 St Kilda Film Festival and I can't wait for tomorrow's screening.
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