SIFF press preview 1

[ironymaiden]

i didn't make the Monday shows and may not get back out this week due to work committments (and since i want to save up some time and energy to possibly see the Iron Man 2 midnighter).

anyway, i thought i was going to see a movie about ecstasy-dealing Hasidim but they had done a schedule switch and i got the Italian family drama instead.

I am Love is one of those films that i would only watch at a festival.

it excels in showing but not telling. the plot and relationships are revealed by actions rather than dialogue. it has a soap opera plot (family business power struggle, sekrit homosexual, adultery, death) filmed with an artist's eye, set to a score lifted from Nixon in China. it's one of the few films to convey the ecstatic experience of eating great food, and i admire that. in general it's visually sumptuous and as always i want to be Tilda Swinton (in this case, a Russian-expat MILF) when i grow up.

it is perhaps a less accessible Best of Youth meets Douglas Sirk.

i wouldn't buy a ticket, but you could do worse if you have an empty slot before the next film in the same theater.

Comments

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Now you have me thinking of all of the great food films that I've seen. Babette's Feast and Like Water for Chocolate were easy but then I thought of Ang Lee and Eat Drink Man Woman. Baghdad Cafe, too.

(And I'm still a sucker for the food scenes in The Godfather.)

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

I saw the preview courtesy of my Ebert club membership, and he certainly raved about it. I wondered why as it looked sumptuous, but seemed,as you said, soap opera-y from the preview. I was willing to be convinced otherwise given cast and beautiful shots. Not feeling over convinced.