The Portland International Film Festival continues at the NW Film Center this week. I haven't seen as many this year as I'd like to, but the ones I have seen have been good. Recommendations (be sure to check nwfilm.org for an updated schedule):
Bluebeard
France
dir: Catherine Breillat
(6pm Thurs, 6pm Fri, and 3pm Sun)
Catherine Breillat is brilliant but a little wacky. Her films aren't for everyone, but if you like her previous work (Sex Is Comedy, The Last Mistress, among others), Bluebeard will be a treat. It's a retelling of the bloody fairy tale about a wealthy ogre of a man whose new brides keep disappearing. He marries the younger of two sisters after the death of their father leaves them penniless. The fairy tale is interspliced with scenes from the 1950s in which an adorable little girl terrorizes her older sister by repeatedly reading the Bluebeard story aloud. The film is hilarious in about sixteen different ways, which lets it be moving almost by accident. Breillat's devotion to artifice and staginess works particularly well given the double-framed structure of the film, and of course the whole thing looks spectacularly beautiful.
A
Fish Tank
UK
dir: Andrea Arnold
(6pm Friday)
Everyone at the press screening seemed to hate this movie, but I loved it. It's bleak, no question, and it covers some rough territory indeed. But fans of Mike Leigh or of Andrea Arnold's previous feature, Red Road, should make a point to see it. Set in and around a grody apartment complex in Essex, the story follows Mia (Katie Jarvis), a furious teenage girl who, at first glance, hates everything except hiphop dancing and an old white horse she keeps trying to set free. Everything about the setting is epically claustrophobic, down to the way the camera moves through the apartment Mia lives in with her boozing mother and spunky little sister. When her mom brings home a new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender, of Inglourious Basterds), he seems like a door to the rest of the world. But nothing in Mia's world is that uncomplicated and easy. The performances are extraordinarily fine, especially Jarvis and Fassbender, and the bleak world of the film will stick in your head for a good long time.
A
Vincere
Italy
dir: Marco Bellocchio
(8.45pm Fri, 4.45 Sun)
I hesitate to say too much about this one, other than it's totally wild and operatic and over the top in the best way. It's the story of Benito Mussolini's abandoned first wife, who had his illigitimate son and then was apparently deemed insane. The use of pastiche and archival footage add a rich visual texture that matches, almost, the decadent emotional tenor of the film. Not for seekers of restrained political analysis.
B+
BAM Fest
Also happening this week: more screenings in the Beer and Movies (BAM) festival, including the much-talked-about House. For a schedule: http://bamfestpdx.com/
Oscar-nominated Shorts
Two programs of Oscar-nominated short movies will be screening at the Hollywood Theatre for a week, starting on Friday - one set of animated films and one of live-action. Highlights for animation fans include the pretty outrageous Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, the very French French Roast, and a new Wallace & Gromit (always awesome) called A Matter of Loaf and Death. The live-action shorts tend to be less reliably fun, but Australian writer-director Luke Doolan's short "Miracle Fish" is excellent. There's also an excruciating short about a Napoleon Dynamite-style aspiring magician that offers insight into that strange, incomprehensible universe known as Swedish humor.