Reflection on Rotterdamn Film Festival 2016

 

Towards the end of January, I was able to attend Rotterdam Film Festival. The Festival showed a wide range of talent in many different film genres and I was able to have the pleasure of watching a fair few of these films. The first film I saw was situated in a huge 2 tier venue, with nearly every seat taken. It was to view the film, ‘The Daughter (2015)’. This film ended up being my personal favorite of the entire festival and showed the struggles of a family torn apart by a secret love affair and with the character playing the daughter committing suicide over the fact that her father could not look at her anymore when he found out that she wasn’t his blood child. Over all a very moving film with smooth running and artistic cinematography. When looking at my own work in comparison I think ‘The Daughter’ captured story telling very well and I would love to create or work on a film with such a compelling script, the look and cinematography of the film brought it down to earth and helped the audience bond with the characters, this was essential to bring such a powerful ending. Again, something I would like to incorporate into my own film.

On the same day I was able to watch the highly anticipated ‘Demolition (2015)’. The film was shown in a huge film space with not much leg room between the seats and a metal sculpture on the wall that reflected the entire film. Demolition was a satisfying film but did not live up to the storytelling standards of ‘The Daughter’. The film had many subplots that seemed to thin out and not r
eally be explained and personally wasn’t as compelling. Although actor Jake Gyllenhaul is always able to interpret characters to a high standard and played well within the film as the main character. The film did use some high quality shots and gave me ideas for my own cinematography.

The Next day I was able to view three Malaysian short films all within one sitting in a fairly small cinema space. These three films portrayed ideas of possession, seduction and paralyses. Each film left a lasting impact with an alternative style of cinematography such as the short film on Paralyses that was entirely filmed from the point of view of someone who was paralyzed. Also the films left disturbing yet intriguing ideas of seduction and possession.

On the same day I was able to watch another attention-grabbing film called ‘Aaaaaaaah! (2015)’. The film looked at the idea if humans acted like apes on a daily basis, creating a hilarious yet odd film. The entire audience of the film didn’t know whether to laugh or cry which I think helped for an impacting film that would leave a lasting memory. ‘Aaaaaaaah!’ helped me with my own ideas with wanting to leave a lasting impression on the audience.

Overall Rotterdam Film Festival was an eye opener and helped in enabling me to create my own ideas for my film work.  

Film Synopsis: Amy

 

 Asif Kapadia’s documentary ‘Amy’ 2015’ Is the tragic story of singer, Amy Winehouse and her life leading up to her early death. The film begins showing Amy’s life with clips of her growing up and the audience watching the star rise through the use of home video and interviews with her family and close friends. The documentary delves into Amy’s rise to stardom showing the ongoing battle with her long term boyfriend Blake and their struggles with fighting and addiction to heroin that Blake introduced into Amy’s life. We also see Amy’s father who took on a manger role for her even when she was in rehab, forcing her to do shows. The film shows unheard tracks that Amy had wrote and kept secret from the world. Also discovering Amy’s ongoing battle with bulimia, this illness, drugs and alcohol left Amy dead in her flat and this broke the hearts of many fans, family and friends.

Film Synopsis: Fantastic Mr Fox

  

Wes Anderson’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ (2009) is a witty adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book showing the struggles of a family of fox’s as character Mr. Fox returns to his old habits of stealing from the farmers that reside next to where the fox family live. Whilst this is going on there is also conflict between Kristofferson, the family’s cousin and Mr. Fox’s son, Ash. Kristofferson effortlessly succeeds in everything that Ash doesn’t, in doing so aggravating Ash. The farmers find out about Mr. Fox’s antics and get their revenge. They dig up the entire tree and area around the fox family home in an attempt of killing Mr. Fox even shooting off his tail. The fox family and surrounding animal families flee to the sewers and end up residing underneath a supermarket. The animal families go up to the surface to take food from the supermarket, Ash & Kristofferson also make amends.