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The New Zealand International Film Festival is nearly upon us.
With around 150 films to choose from during the month of July, it can be pretty tough negotiating your way through - but if you want to stray off the straight and narrow, the Festival's always the place to see something a bit different.
So, we at 2 Movies thought we should do what we can to help and recommend a few flicks at this year's New Zealand International Film Festival (which runs nationwide until November)
1)
Big River Man - if I told you one of
the best films of the festival was about a 200lb Slovenian
endurance athlete who tries to swim the Amazon while making sure he
continues his hard living lifestyle, you'd probably think I've gone
mad. However, this 100 minute doco is an incredibly compelling
watch. With his documentarian son in tow, this flick charts the
attempts of 52 year old Martin Strel as he swims the 3274 miles of
the Amazon. But Big River Man somehow manages to become an at
times, hallucinogenic piece about madness and the effects long term
deprivation has on people - it's a kind of cross between Apocalypse
Now and watching a marathon.
2)
In The Loop - ferocious political satire
from the team who made the BBC political satire Series The Thick Of
It. Masterminded by genius writer Armando Iannucci, Peter Capaldi
and James Gandolfini star in this - when The British Minister of
Internal Development accidentally burbles to the press that war is
"unforeseeable" he unwittingly starts a chain of events that sets
the UK and the US hurling towards war. Capaldi is the star of this
outing and if you're not a fan of the TV show it's spun off from, I
guarantee you'll be trying to find it online afterwards.
3)
Che - already released in Europe, but
with no sign of a New Zealand release date, Stephen Sodenbergh's
epic Che is unleashed on the Film festival. With Benicio del Toro
playing the titular character, this four hour epic sees both parts
(Che Part 1 and Part 2) up on the New Zealand big screen. Described
by some as a "riveting portrayal of the man that has become the
icon of 20th century counterculture" Che promises to be one of the
highlights of the festival.
4)
The Gold Rush - with live accompaniment
from the Auckland Philharmonia - what can you say about this? One
of Chaplin's finest outings (it inspired a heartfelt tribute by
Johnny Depp in Benny and Joon), this repeatedly watchable comedy
about the prospecting lifestyle is greatly boosted by the lush
arrangements of Timothy Brock. Brock has worked with the Chaplin
Estate since 1999 to reinstate Chaplin's own film scores. There's
nothing to beat the big screen of the Civic and the full orchestra
to show off the continuing magnificence of Chaplin and the music
which we miss these days at the cinema.
However, there's so much to see at the festival that recommending just a handful of films is hard enough - to do so is at the expense of Neil Gaiman's Coraline 3D, the explosive documentary The Cove - already recommended by festival director Bill Gosden ( read our interview with Bill Gosden here ) - Samson and Delilah which has taken Australia by storm and that's not even beginning to mention the films in The Incredibly Strange section of the programme ( Dead Snow, Drag Me To Hell) as well as Sam Rockwell (much underappreciated as an actor) in Moon and the list goes on and on and on.
Our advice - if you're in two minds about seeing something, take a punt on it - chances are you're more than likely to enjoy it - and if not, there'll be something else around the corner which you'll love.
Still, if you don't believe us, take a look at some trailers for films at this year's festival: take a sneak peek at Moon, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Trip To Asia, Flame and Citron and Mary and Max!
tvnz.co.nz will be at this year's New Zealand International Film
Festival and will be posting regular reviews throughout the
Auckland run - but are you heading to the Film Festival this year?
Tell us which films make your pics on our 2Movies messageboard -
click here to post your
thoughts!
Visit
the official New Zealand International Film Festival site
here!
