Where film becomes too grim....

The art house or alternative film industry has often presented confronting and provocative images of contemporary society and/or political or moral dilemmas. The 2010 Sydney Film Festival which showcases a selection of such films appears increasingly stark as the mid point of the festival is crossed. Winter's Bone is set in the hillbilly badlands of Missouri and provides a grim perspective on a family in an inwards-looking struggling rural community. The Killer Inside Me appearing more like a poor man's version of American Psycho, follows the story of a sociopath murdering deputy sheriff and his brutal way of dealing with women as pawns in a larger plot (although in many ways its not clear what that may be). Women Without Men a more sublime, allegorical Iranian film deals with repression particularly within contemporary Iran especially as it affects women. So many of these films take a dark look at life that at times it seems the genre itself has difficulty in uplifting itself from a sense of depression.

On the screen.... big pictures but few new stories...

The 57th Sydney Film Festival is at its mid point this week and once again offers a mix of films from across the globe drawing also from the other major film festivals of Sundance, Venice, Cannes, Berlin etc. The festival in recent years has been significantly trimmed in duration and numbers of films screened. Perhaps one early observation that can be made is the lack of original screenplays and an almost endless easy-to-see collection of cliches. A few stand-outs are Kawasaki's Rose, a Czech film dealing with the controversial issue of collaborators and totalitarian regimes and Ajami which features inter-related stories in the occupied territories in Palestine. Sadly Australian films such as The Tree and Red Hill lack original imagery and thought, preferring to rely on cliche driven plot lines (although not lacking enthusiasm).