AFI Film Fest – Nov. 1 – 12
Posted by Guest Author (info@filmschoolrejects.com) on November 28, 2006
This article was written by guest author Payam Emrani.
Merci beaucoup
Being a film critic in Los Angeles two things are for certain: you are jaded and you are burnt-out. You write so many negative reviews that the venom seeps into your soul until you can no longer recognize yourself. The last time you saw Originality was; well hell it was a long, long time ago. So why do we do this? Why do we even bother getting out of bed in the morning, send endless pitches to magazines who could care less, and waste our lives in front of a computer screen?
For a while I forgot why I did it, but AFI’s film festival reminded me why. The wonderful thing about AFI is they do not care. There mission is to show the best films out there and they really do not care who made it. This creates a wonderful mix of seasoned veterans and first time filmmakers. They also do not care where the films come from. This creates a blissful week for us film critics were we reacquaint ourselves with our beloved foreign cinema and reaffirm our hope in our own, domestic cinema.
When I attend AFI I also do not care. I do not bother finding out what is playing and trying to pick the best movie; I simply show up and see whatever is playing at that time. I think this is the best way to judge the overall strength of a film festival, in essence you create a random sample. Not once in my endeavor was I disappointed; surprise and delighted, yes, but disappointed never. This, however, is not the norm with American Cinema.
If you simply decided to simply show up to your local megaplex at any given time and see whatever was playing more than likely you would be disappointed. This is because we make movies in this country, not films. We watch them in megaplexes and not cinemas.
While to the average movie viewer this might seem like mere semantics; there is a real difference. A film stirs your soul; movies are mere escapement. Cinemas are houses of worship; megaplexes purely peddle popcorn. This is why AFI is so important. We cannot comprehend our modern condition until we view it through the prism of French nihilism and apathy, Spanish heartache and surrealism, British humor and detachment. This does not mean that there are no great American films, I actually saw one or two of them, it does mean that our great American culture is dying, if not dead.
The wonderful American films I saw were hampered by our puritanical views on nudity and our waning attention spans. If this was not bad enough these views and this rigid dogma has started to seep into foreign films as well. I know the French are famous for surrendering, but that applies to territory and not artistic vision.
I guess all that is left to say is Gracias, Merci Beaucoup, and Thank You AFI.
A few short film reviews:
Marquez’s Surrealism
Lorca’s Pain.
Neruda’s Hope.
I watched
The thoughts in my head;
The desires in my heart
Frozen in time,
Manipulated,
And replayed for all the world to see.
My mere
words
Cannot do
Justice
To the
Pain
Anguish
Hope
Of this
Film
To be
Shocked
To be forced to Rethink
Established
Norms
And
Beliefs
There are things I did not think were possible
In contemporary American Cinema
Even I can be wrong
Read more articles by Guest Author
