July 21, 2007 Archives
Contrarily to what was previously announced, there won't be free screenings of those premiering HK flicks, for reasons still unknown (none of this was even announced on the website).
There is also an extra day of film presentations, as it has usually been the case.
Montmayeur is a documentarist whose films are featured in this year's festival. We caught these two videos after the screening of In The Mood For Doyle:
The most notable of this triple-header (originally advertised as a double of the two first ones) was necessarily In The Mood For Doyle. It was what impressed festival programmers and movie-goers alike. If you are a fan of Christopher Doyle, which is the case for most fans of Wong Kar-wai, then this is a must-see, if you can find it. The director, Yves Montmayeur, was in fact present to introduce the films. In a single ride, we're able to meet all the characters of Mister Doyle, a really really crazy (dingue) man, as translated by singing on Night Shyamalan's set, or pseudo-impromptu disruption of the Olivier Assayas interview.
The other two were 30-minute episodes destined for TV. The Milkyway Image one was more a sort of making-of for several movies of the HK-based independent film production house. The treatment for the latter two was also different, as there was no narrator in In The Mood For Doyle. unny bit in the Milkyway one where Andy Lau attempts English - he should never do that again.
Mr Montmayeur stayed 15 minutes after the movie answering questions, from whether he was influenced by Chris Doyle for the making of the documentary, and how long it took him to know this fantastic circle of HK celebrities.
It was well-made, and left me rather chilly coming out from the theatre. Horror flicks in Asia often succeed with very little blood, few close-combat weapons, and with lots of single-mother and child ghosts. Polyglot characters, just like in WKW's flicks. The movie was interrupted by some disruption that forced authorities to close down all Concordia buildings (downtown and Loyola campuses) at around 9:30PM tonight, which delayed the movie presentation by an hour. Met cool Fantasia people and Concordia cinema profs while killing time.