The Maroon Door Man Cometh

It's interesting who you end up in company with during a festival. You don't really expect to see the same face twice. Admittedly this is a small film festival at the Cinéma Rabelais in Chinon, so I suppose there's more of a chance that something like that is going to happen. But we have now seen Maroon Door Man six times. He has clearly been reading the publicity he's been posting on his double doors and like us, has been supporting the festival every day. We are on 'Bonsoir' terms now!

Fifteen films made up the festival this year, which was an all American affair. Older classics alongside the contemporary. We got to five in all. Sunday was a bit of a marathon - if you were up for it. 11am, 3pm, 5pm and 8.30pm showings - four different films. If you bought a pass for the whole day, brunch was included at the Café Francais, which we normally go to for jazz and other music gigs.  We didn't. Two films were enough. Hate to think that we've lost the Edinburgh Fringe Spirit, where around twelve shows a day was our average. But every film we saw gave us so much to think and talk about - we just didn't want to cram ourselves senseless. 

So what were our choices. We at last got round to seeing To Kill A Mockingbird . Fifty years old this year, we'd seen never it on the big screen. Commanding! It's one of my all time favourite films. The Night of the Hunter (1955) Robert Mitchum/Charles Laughton. Only seen this once and a long time ago. But it remains for me a curious piece, with nonetheless, some outstanding sequences and ideas. Summertime (2012) directed by Matthew Gordon. His first full-length film. Set in Mississipi, it's the story of 14 year old Robbie, who lives with his younger half-brother and his frail mute grandmother. Their mother sends postcards from time to time and the older brother drops in and out of their lives leaving Robbie to care for everyone. His life is on the edge and at a crossroads. Excellent work, with a flavour of 'Mark Twain' about it. A young director with real talent. William Patrick Ruffin as Robbie, was quite remarkable. The link is to a French site, but is translatable and there are Youtube clips available. 

The surprise of the festival was the work of Jeff Nichols. He seems to me to have the spirit and touch of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, in terms of subject, issues and text, the quality of the film work and the ability to get amazing and truthful performances from the actors.Take Shelter (2012) and Mud (2012). Set in the Midwest and Mississipi respectively, both films were pitch perfect. Wonderful work, particularly Mud, which would be for me THE film of the festival. Can't do them justice in a blog. We'd be here all night. So the links are to interviews. Think/hope you'll find them interesting if you've a moment to take a look.   

The final film  was a romantic comedy, The Five Year Engagement / Cinq Ans de Reflexion, directed by Nicholas Stoller. If it hasn't been influenced by Mike Newell's 'Four Weddings' I'd be really surprised. Packed with excellent British actors, but also a fine American actor- Jason Segel - in the lead role, I haven't laughed and physically rolled around like that since 'Four Weddings'. I don't know if the translation worked well throughout the film for the French, but there were times when they were just rocking. Poignant, hilarious, sad, touching and peppered with the most outrageous black humour, it was a great choice and
an absolute gem with which to wind up a fabulous festival.

PS The grey links will take you to the right place, but you might have to click on the address bar to get to the right film. The Nicholas Stoller link is to the four star review in The Guardian from June 2012.

PPS I've no idea why some film titles are translated into French and others aren't.