My highly recommended films for the EU Film Festival are LITTLE GIRL BLUE (2007, Alice Nellis, Czech), THE PRANK (2009, Péter Gárdos, Hungary), VENICE (2010, Jan Jakub Kolski, Poland), ECCENTRICITIES OF A BLONDE-HAIRED GIRL (2009, Manoel de Oliveira), and THESIS (1996, Alejandro Amenábar)
I saw THESIS and like it a lot. I haven't seen any films by Jan Jakub Kolski, but I have heard his names many times. I like films by Alice Nellis, Péter Gárdos, and Manoel de Oliveira very much.
I just saw LETTERS TO FATHER JACOB (2009, Klaus Härö, Finland, A+/A) today. Many people like it a lot. There was a big applause after the film had ended. But I think the film tries too much to be "touching". It really touches many viewers' hearts, but not mine.
UNDER THE STARS (2007, Félix Viscarret, Spain, A-) is an entertaining film. I think it's too "feel-good" for me.
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Did you see Sergiu Nicolaescu's Poker yet? It sounds like you went to the destival on 24 Oct. but I didn't see you.
I only went to see LETTERS TO FATHER JACOB on Oct 24, because I had to work on that day.
I just saw POKER (2010, Sergiu Nicolaescu, A-) today. I admire its strange taste very much. It's like a kind of an exotic dish which gives me a taste I have never experienced before. Somehow it reminds me of some films by Yuthlert Sippapak—a little bit of "bad taste", but unique. I can't say POKER is the kind of films I really like, but I just like it because it is different from many films I have seen before.
I think black comedy from East Europe is very interesting. It's cruel, but it has a taste of its own: POKER, FRIDAY 12 (2009, Vladimir Zaikin, Russia, B+), MECHANISM (2000, Djordje Milosavljevic, Yugoslavia, A-).
The girl in POKER is an example why I give this film A-. There's something I like about her and something I don't like about her. I admire her toughness, her being cheerful no matter how other people treat her, her being resurrected after having been gunned down, exclaiming "I had survived from Afghanistan", her eating while being penetrated from behind, etc. She is as tough as the heroines of BAISE-MOI, but she is forever cheerful, while the heroines of BAISE-MOI are forever angry.
However, I can't truly connect with the heroine of POKER, or any other characters in POKER. There's something soulless, heartless, or inhuman about them, or maybe not. I just can't connect with them. But that's not the film's fault. Maybe it's just a characteristic of Eastern Europe black comedy. Anyway, I also can't connect with the characters in Yuthlert's films. Hahaha.
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