Author: Robert Koehler

I’ve been holed up sick this past week, and just in time, Cinema Scope and Variety critic Robert Koehler–whose excellent posts from BAFICI 2007 we’re still referring to–will begin filing occasional posts from this year’s Cannes Film Festival. –Doug

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4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

By Robert Koehler

The 60th anniversary of Cannes was meant to be a celebration, but by the end of day four, there’s been little to shout about. I wasn’t about to assume that Wong Kar-wai’s hopelessly banal opener, My Blueberry Nights, was going to be a precursor of the competition …

In Between Days

By Robert Koehler

Good, smart festivals–and BAFICI is one of them–can dole out terrible awards. The Saturday awards capping the final days (which I’ll be reflecting upon in postings to come) were no exception. I’ll be breaking down some of the results later, but the happiest result was unquestionably my international jury’s wise selection of So Yong Kim’s In Between Days for best film (with the nifty bonus of an acting award for the film’s beautifully instinctive lead actor, Jiseon Kim). Despite being a popular title on the festival circuit since Sundance ’06, Days had yet to …

Raya Martin’s Autohystoria

BAFICI, Day 11
By Robert Koehler

What does a film culture look like? Is it even apparent when it materializes in a certain place, a certain country? Even more important, when it disappears in a certain place, a certain country, does anyone notice?

The issues around this circulate in the context of BAFICI in Argentina (which has some kind of film culture), particularly as it is showing the films of Raya Martin from the Phillippines (which supposedly had no film culture). It centers on a community, and the crucial matter that a local film culture simply doesn’t …

BAFICI, Day 10
By Robert Koehler

The public nature of film festivals is getting steadily mitigated by where they’re located. This dawned on me today crossing the extremely busy Avenida Corrientes, one of Buenos Aires’ major boulevards and traditionally the home to the city’s many Broadway-style theaters and cultural institutions, such as the Centro Cultural San Martin where the Lugones cinematheque is located (and immortalized in both Adolfo Aristarain’s Roma and Lisandro Alonso’s Fantasma). My hotel is located directly across the street from the Abasto shopping center, where BAFICI is primarily based. Instantly, the moment you stick your head …

BAFICI, Day 8
By Robert Koehler

I came to BAFICI with many expectations, including what may be turning out to be a hope-against-hope of seeing at least a handful of good Argentine films. (More on that, most likely, tomorrow.) There was the additional expectation of catching up with some interesting titles from Rotterdam; again, the jury’s out, but if Vignatti’s La Marea (to name one–Pia Marais’ befuddled Tiger-winning The Unpolished is another) is everyone’s idea of a good Rotterdam film, then we’re all in trouble.

You don’t get what you want, but maybe what you need. The last thing I …

BAFICI, Day 7
By Robert Koehler

Two cool dudes in Buenos Aires….

Reg Harkema, the towering (six-foot-six) Canadian Godardian, has been here with his complete works (A Girl is a Girl, Better Off in Bed, Monkey Warfare), and sounding rather amazed that BAFICI would even consider being the first festival anywhere to screen his complete works. A good thing it has, since it’s given me a chance to catch up with the 1999 A Girl, which starts with a sweet, good-natured tip of the cap to Godard–large, bold title and text graphics and an “interview” …