39: A FILM BY CARROLL MCKANE
USA , Gary Sherman, 2006
World Premiere, hosted by director Gary Sherman
Carroll McKane, having already killed 17 couples, sets up eight DV cameras on reticulated arms in a warehouse to document his crimes and kidnaps a celebrated psychologist in the hopes that he will write his biography. Told entirely from the perspective of Mc Kane's unblinking cameras, 39 is a disturbing slice of verite filmmaking from Gary Sherman, director of DEAD AND BURIED and RAW MEAT, making his return to the genre after over a decade's absence. Make no mistake, this is a graphic and unsettling work, but it doesn't rely on abject depravity or exploitative gore to disturb. No, this one's by Carroll McKane, who's far too obsessed with himself to let his victims take centre stage.
BAD BLOOD
Portugal , Tiago Guedes & Frederico Serra, 2006
Montreal Premiere
A respected academic inherits a sprawling country home and packs up his wife, children and grandchild, moving them against their wishes. And the country is a vastly different place than the city, a place where superstition runs rampant, the local priest still performs exorcisms, and there may just be a thread of truth embedded in the strange, disturbing tales told about their new home. Beautifully shot and augmented with a minimalist score that evokes the work of Daniel Lanois, this is a subtle, slow-burning tale of a haunting in rural Portugal . Built around a carefully nuanced script and strong performances from all involved, it is a welcome relief from all the noise of most Hollywood films, a film that takes its time to build mood and atmosphere. A major prize-winner at the Fantasporto Film Festival.
BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON
USA, Scott Glosserman, 2006
Canadian Premiere, Hosted by Director Scott Glosserman
A breakout success at this year's South By Southwest Film Festival, this critically acclaimed comedy / horror film takes place in a universe where the happenings of the HALLOWEEN and ELM STREET films actually occurred, and where being an unstoppable killer is virtually a career option. A documentary crew follows budding supernatural killer Leslie Vernon as he prepares to become his town's worst nightmare, training vigorously to be able to walk slowly yet still catch up with his victims, learning the ins and outs of electricity etc. One part mockumentary, one part stylized narrative filmmaking, Mask opens like a Christopher Guest film and effortlessly shifts gears along the way to become exactly what it satirizes, virtually evolving into an 80's slasher movie, while cleverly de-constructing the subgenre, exploring and parodying the deeper reasons why these films have typically been structured in such specific ways.
BON COP BAD COP
Québec, Érik Canuel, 2006
World Premiere, Hosted By Director Erik Canuel
Bon Cop Bad Cop stars Patrick Huard and Colm Feore as a pair of cops, from Quebec and Ontario respectively, who must work as a team to crack a series of crimes which target the national sport – hockey. Based on an idea of Huard's, Bon Cop Bad Cop is the first completely bilingual Canadian film. Érik Canuel has been recognized for some years now for his work in advertising, music videos and the direction of television series. In cinema, he brought us successful and critically acclaimed films such as
Le Survenant Le dernier tunnel , Nez rouge and La loi du cochon .
THE DESCENDANT
Québec, Philippe Spurrell , 2006
World Premiere, hosted by director Philippe Spurrell
It's a year since the mother of 25-year-old James Duke passed away, and he finds himself hungering to learn more about her life, and about the grandparents she's cut him off from since early childhood. Resentful stares and tense whispers follow behind James as he seeks to learn more about his roots, and his grandparent's often inexplicable behavior suggests that there are secrets deeply buried in the Duke family history. Inspired by little-known but deeply tragic events in the foggy history of own province, The Descendant , the 35mm debut feature by Montreal filmmaker Phillippe Spurrell, is an eerie and effective mystery with an effective, grounded supernatural twist.
EDMOND
USA, Stuart Gordon, 2005
Canadian premiere, hosted by Director Stuart Gordon
A powerful, confrontational, exploration of male middle-class white America's undercurrents of hate, written by David Mamet ( GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS ), directed by the equally legendary Stuart Gordon ( RE-ANIMATOR ) and starring William H. Macy, Julia Stiles, Joe Montegna and Jeffrey Combs. Gordon, who founded and ran Chicago's Organic Theater for 15 years before venturing into film, was one of the first people ever to direct a Mamet play, and has been wanting to adapt EDMOND for well over two decades. Until recently, it was deemed too controversial and no producer was brave enough to touch it. Undiluted by the calculated hipness that often plagues edgy US indies, it is a violent film, both physically and emotionally, boiling with existential provocations and jet-black wit that redefines the term "uncomfortable." Mamet's script, written during a painful period in his life, plays almost like a 70's Paul Schrader work dosed in breathless “Mametspeak”. Tough as nails and provocative to the extreme. .
FROSTBITE
Suede, Anders Banke, 2006
Canadian Premiere
The first vampire film from Sweden is a gleeful teen comedy/horror that takes full advantage of that country's Polar Night - the period during which the sun stays beneath the horizon, causing months of darkness without sunlight! Director Banke was given an almost unheard-of budget, and he and producers Magnus Paulsson (longtime programming director at Lund 's celebrated Fantastisk Filmfestival) and Goran Lindstrom used a large portion to load their film with state-of-the-art makeup and visual effects on par with any American studio release. Featuring the most destructive use of a garden gnome ever, and a soundtrack that mixes contemporary pop with an original score by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, Frostbite marks the opening of a new chapter in Scandinavian cinema.
THE GRAVEDANCERS
USA , Mike Mendez, 2005
Canadian premiere, Hosted by Director Mike Mendez
A group of college friends joking around in a cemetery find themselves followed home by spirits, commencing a terrifying month of supernatural visitations that are designed to end in death. Scary as hell and consistently surprising, the film is driven by freakish scare sequences piled one on top of the other to exhilarating effect. Director Mendez ( The Convent ) has said that he designed his film to play like a very adult version of Disneyland 's haunted mansion ride and this spirit comes through strongly. Coffins burst up from the earth, cadavers shriek, graves shoot flames and the ghosts themselves wreak unbelievable havoc. A freakish dose of old-school 80's horror.
ILS (THEM)
France, David Moreau & Xavier Palud, 2006
Montreal Premiere
THEM is a visceral and very Freudian feature-length siege film depicting a couple being chased throughout their residence and the surrounding forest after their home is broken into by an unknown group of attackers. Stark lighting effects and intense set pieces centered around rows of flowing curtains, endless corridors, elongated tunnels and the like are constructed in a way that can best be described as a fusion between the tones of Val Lewton and Alexandre Aja. Tension heats up to incinerating degrees as intricate production-design manipulations make bizarre nooks and crannies seemingly stretch onwards to infinity, lending a nightmarish tone of irrationality to otherwise straightforward occurrences. Its closing punchline will absolutely floor you, and is of the sort that most North American films wouldn't venture near. Expect the almost inevitable US remake to end quite differently. A gripping exercise in horror film atmospherics.
Kebab Connection
Germany, Anno Saul, 2005
Ibo, un Turc de Hambourg adore Bruce Lee et voudrait entrer dans l'histoire comme le créateur du premier film de kung-fu allemand. Comme son ambition n'a d'égal que son manque d'expérience, il tourne un spot publicitaire pour le snack de son oncle Ahmet. Le spot connaît un succès extraordinaire et Ibo est maintenant célébré comme un nouveau Spielberg. A peine a-t-il remporté cette victoire qu'il apprend que sa copine Titzi est enceinte. Ibo réussira-t-il à mener de front sa carrière cinématographique naissante et son futur rôle de père? Une comédie romantique déjantée sur fond d'intégration sociale.
THE KOVAK BOX
Espagne, Daniel Monzon, 2006
International Premiere
A disturbing thriller with sci-fi overtones from the producers of The Machinest , directed by Daniel Monzón ( Heart Of The Warrior ) and co-written by regular Alex De La Iglesia scripter Jorge Guerricaechevarría ( Day Of The Beast, Perfect Crime ). David Norton (Timothy Hutton) is a best selling author on a publicity tour in Majorca . Everything seems to be going well until his fiancée receives a strange telephone call. Suddenly, she jumps to her death from their hotel balcony. What could possibly have driven her to do this? As David desperately searches for an answer, people start dying all around him, inexplicably committing suicide. David becomes the reluctant hero of one of his own stories.
THE LOST
USA: Chris Sivertson, 2005
Canadian Premiere, hosted by director Chris Sivertson
This blistering portrait of teen disaffection, depicting a narcissistic delinquent's spiral into a killing spree, has shattered audiences wherever it's been shown. Director Sivertson chose to set the narrative in an indeterminable era, one that combines elements of 50's America with modern-day styles, peppered with traces from all periods in between, giving The Lost a chilling timeless quality perfectly suited to deal with horrific truths that transcend generations. This approach also creates a subtle sense of dislocation that runs throughout the film. Based on the acclaimed and notorious novel by Jack Ketchum (an except from which was published in The Outlaw Bible Of American Literature , alongside passages from Henry Miller, William Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson etc) and produced by May director Lucky McKee, whose own film The Woods is having its North American Premiere at this year's festival. .
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
USA , Graeme Whifler, 2005
Canadian Premiere, hosted by director Graeme Whifler
A knockout black comedy / horror illustrating a young couple's troubles with a right-wing Christian fundamentalist neighbor that escalates to outrageously grotesque extremes. The feature directorial debut from the man who scripted Sonny Boy and directed experimental videos for The Residents is a twisted, audacious work that opens as an ironic comedy, takes a few black turns, keeps you smiling (albeit far less comfortably then before), introduces some extremely perverse sexual elements, throws in some gross-out humour as a diversion - and then plunges its audience into a violent abyss of extremities that will shock the un-shockable and floor the rest of you – literally – a person fainted during a recent screening!
PUSHER 3
Denmark, Nicolas Winding Refn, 2005
Montreal Premiere, hosted by Director Nicolas Winding Refn
A hard-hitting masterpiece of urban crime cinema that traces one man's descent into personal apocalypse over a single day, night and following morning, starring brilliant Croatian actor Zlatko Buric as a junkie trying to quit the habit - while maintaining his position as one of Copenhagen's biggest heroin dealers. This 3 rd entry in Refn's acclaimed trilogy - a series of engrossing explorations of Denmark 's criminal underworld, each film baring relation to the others only through peripheral characters who inhabit the same universe – is one of the strongest works of its kind since Scorsese's heyday. Extraordinary character writing and wholly immersive ensemble performances have always been Refn's signatures, but Pusher 3 is exceptional even by his standards. Reflecting Denmark 's sometimes troubled cultural melting pot, nearly half the film's dialogue is in languages other than Danish - Polish, Serbian, Arabic and Albanian. A gritty, violent and above all, honest film that thrives with a humanity (and melancholic sense of humour) as impacting as any of its darker surprises.
WILD BLUE YONDER
Germany, Werner Herzog, 2006
Canadian Premiere
“I want to use imagery and sound in a way you have never before experienced.” This is how Werner Herzog describes his mesmerizing new science fiction/fantasy. Brad Dourif is a space alien gone to seed, living in an abandoned southern Californian ghost town (“We built a mall here, but nobody shopped”) and stewing over CIA conspiracies, Roswell cover-ups and eons-long interplanetary travel ("Our ancestors were great scientists, but the journey was long and boring and, by the time we finally arrived, we all just sucked."). Herzog appropriates previously unseen footage - a 1989 NASA launch for the “interstellar” mission, underwater images from the Arctic ice shelf for the alien world…- accompanying these strange visions with one of cinema's most hypnotic scores. A deserved prize-winner at the Venice Film Festival.
THE WOODS
USA, Lucky McKee, 2006
North American premiere, hosted by Director Lucky McKee
From the director of May . Indie hero Lucky McKee's highly anticipated entry into the studio-production big leagues is an atmospheric film about witchcraft in a mysterious all girl's boarding school that hits unique notes uncommon to most modern studio releases. Graced with an effective cast that includes Agnes Bruckner, Evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell and the always-fascinating Patricia Clarkson ( Wendigo , Dogville ), delivering one of her most memorable performances to date. McKee shot The Woods right here in Montreal , assembling a stellar team with many figures from the city's industry, both in front of and behind his camera's lens.
AN EVENING WITH UNDERGROUND COMICS LEGEND JIM WOODRING
Hilarious, mysterious, melancholic, mystical and mesmerizing, virtually throbbing with fecundity and profundity, wit and wonder – these are but a few words with which to describe the utterly astounding, gobsmackingly psychedelic artwork of American comic-book artist and illustrator Jim Woodring, who Fantasia is proud to present live and in person at the festival this year!
Following a special screening of Visions Of Frank , a Japanese collection of animated adaptations of Woodring's comic strips, Woodring himself will share a not only a few thoughts about his work and life, but also a very, very special treat. "Lazy Robinson" is a 20-minute audiovisual presentation of, in Woodring's words, "a series of charcoal drawings of unnatural objects floating in a black that cross-dissolve into each other, the midpoints being the real points of the exercise." Don't miss this rare opportunity to encounter Woodring and his work in close quarters – having your mind bent into strange new shapes has rarely been so much fun!
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