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Things I hate: when a perfectly good film festival comes along and I only find out about it right in the middle of it. That’s what happened this morning, when there was a mention of the Argentine Film Festival, running from April 19-22, in the Film London Newsletter. Why oh why? Why can’t they mention it a week or two in advance? Not only have I missed two days of the festival, but

a) I have another film scheduled to see tonight (Karl Markovics’s Atmen/Breathing) which I could have perfectly well seen on another date because it is on general release in the UK and

b) some films that I would have liked to see, like Medianeras (featured in my Trailer Weekly #4 and mentioned again in Trailer Weekly #7), are of course long booked out by now.

Wahhh! So all I can do is put those films I would have very, very much liked to see but am missing in this week’s Trailer Weekly. (And I’ll get off my ranting pedestal now and keep my fingers crossed that I will get to watch these some other time.)

  • El último verano de la boyita (The Last Summer of La Boyita, Argentina, 2009) – “Julia Solomonff’s second feature examines themes of burgeoning sexuality, inviting comparisons to other Argentine auteurs such as Lucia Puenzo and Lucrecia Martel. Her film is made with a tenderness for its young protagonists and a genuine nostalgia for those last, lingering moments of childhood, where innocence is soon replaced by the bitter-sweet knowledge of approaching adulthood” (from the festival’s website). Interestingly there is a review quote from the Lesbian & Gay Festival on the film’s synopsis page. Given that it’s a film about a young girl and boy, that makes me wonder what else there will be going on in the story for the film to have screened at the LGFF.
  • Abrir puertas en ventanas (Back to Stay, Argentina, 2011) – I am not even going to try to sum this one up – just watch the trailer. It looks fab. Won three prizes at the Locarno Film Festival. Must see.
  • Un cuento chino (Chinese Take-Away, Argentina, 2011) – (Turn on captions for subtitles.) This one’s rocking hilarious. Rubio Darín plays Roberto, “a disgruntled hardware store owner whose main pastime is the collection of odd and sensational stories to paste into his cuttings book. Roberto’s lonely existence is disrupted when Jun (Ignacio Huang), a Chinese man recently arrived in Buenos Aires but unable to speak a word of Spanish, stumbles into his path” (from the festival’s website).
  • Ausente (Absent, Argentina, 2011) – I’m intrigued by this one because the festival website describes it as a film that “teases expectations”, raising the question whether it will be “a gay romance, a social melodrama about an illicit relationship, a stalker thriller – or possibly all of those?”

I have got some trailers beyond the Argentine Film Festival as well:

  • 도둑들 (Dodookdeul/The Thieves, South Korea, 2012) – It’s the first teaser trailer for  Dodookdeul, which I originally mentioned in Trailer Weekly #12, when there wasn’t even an official film poster available. Looks okay. It’s actually not the sort of film I normally go for, but then I remembered Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens, Argentina, 2000), which is an absolutely fabulous crime-heist film I watched way back. I doubt Dodookdeul will be as clever as Nueve Reinas, but I might give it a try – if only to see how Kim Soo-hyun fares in his first film role. :-)
  • 朱花の月 (Hanezu no Tsuki/Hanezu, Japan, 2011) – This one is a bleakie, no doubt about it. It’s about a love triangle involving a woodwork artist, who moves to a small village where his former classmate Kayoko, fascinated by the colour of 朱花 (hanezu/crimson), lives with her boyfriend. I’m not fond of love-triangle stories but I do love my Japanese bleakies and there is something about this one that captivates me. Plus, I’m keen to explore Kawase Naomi’s work.

As you may know, the line-up for the Cannes Film Festival was released this week. I will write a separate post on this for some of the highlights on the programme, but one teaser here:

  • 愛と誠 (Ai to Makoto/The Legend of Love and Sincerity, Japan, 2012) – Takashi Miike’s brings us, ummm, a Japanese high school musical. I had heard of the film previously via Wildgrounds and I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but the Cannes endorsement sure adds some intrigue/attraction to it. Also on the plus-side: I’ve enjoyed quite a few films with Satoshi Tsumabuki, who plays one of the leads. (See my review for his 보트 / ノーボーイズ、ノークライ/Bo-teu/Boat aka No Boys, No Cry.) Update 31/12/2012: REVIEW added on Otherwhere.
Bonus bits:
  • 宇宙兄弟 (Uchu Kyodai/ Space Brothers aka Space Brothers: Let’s Go to Space, Brother, Japan, 2012) – No trailer yet. I came across this while working on the review for キツツキと雨 (Kitsutsuki to Ame/The Woodsman and the Rain, Japan, 2012), which, by the way, I should have ready for you within a day or two. As for Uchu Kyodai: Okay, it doesn’t sound like the most gripping tale, but Oguri Shun and Okada Masaski in ONE movie? Everyone gets an eyecandy film quota, right? So this will be part of mine – and, beyond the eyecandy factor, Oguri and Okada definitely are solid actors that often do interesting projects. And Uchu Kyodai is based on a manga, which piques my curiousity even more (and I see now where Oguri’s whacko hairstyle is coming from).

Last, but not least, in case you want the strutting poster of 도둑들 (Dodookdeul/The Thieves):

(I don’t care for it. Makes me think of Hollywood a little too much.)