The 34th edition of the Starz Denver Film Festival is now in full swing, with screenings taking place at the Tivoli Center, the Colfax Film Center and select other locations such as the King Center and Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Opening night offered up an enticing film in "Like Crazy," an indie hit from this year's Sundance Film Festival directed by super young bad-ass filmmaker Drake Doremus (of "Douchebag" fame). It was a surprisingly good film for opening night and not-so-surprisingly received a fairly tame reception, in fact the auditorium wasn't nearly as packed as in recent years, a true sign of what the opening night wanna-be crowd generally expects. We felt that it had a lot to offer in it's absorbing execution and magnetic performers including newcomer Felicity Jones. The screening suffered from digital projection issues that apparently rendered all of the coloring in the film improperly, but if you hadn't seen it yet you'd never know that it wasn't anything more than an "artistic" choice. Guess we'll have to see what it really looks like if and when it resurfaces later in the year.
With all of the major opening presentations behind us, the community can now fall in line and get into the groove of what the festival is really about: serious, extremely heralded (in the real world of film) and often unheard of films that are labors of love or efforts to be put on the map of independent cinema. Bela Tarr's latest "The Turin Horse" falls into the category of the former, quite serious and applauded by most everyone with a deeper understanding of film as art. Reportedly the director's final film, the two and a half hour epic was an unrelenting, often mesmerizing fable that carried the director's stamp in spades (extremely long and very repetitive). Tarr's films are always dark and full of existential grist, but quite beautiful to watch and ponder, his cinematic style is not only singular but highly influential upon other directors works, most notably Gus Van Sant's better films. Though his latest and possibly last is about as depressing as can be, it's not without small, ripe doses of humor and good will. It was a challenge for sure, but those who made it through will most likely never look at a potato in the same way ever again.
On the documentary front, "A People Uncounted" stands as the yearly tribute to the holocaust and it's survivors, something that crops up not only yearly at SDFF but throughout world festivals, a topic that never seems to diminish because of the historic magnitude of the period. This particular film stands as one of the most well-crafted, something that no doubt stems from the filmmakers concept that the Gypsy People of whom the film focuses on are said to not have any relevant or known artists who have risen to major status. It puts forth many strong impressions about this largely derided group of nomads whom Hitler and others across the European continent reviled. Strong subtexts, such as pop-culture hits like Sonny and Cher's "Gypsy's, Tramps and Thieves" amongst others distill the concept in terms closer to present day, validating that the return to suppression of the Gypsies may not be as far off as one might think. There are some awefully strong, bone chilling moments, such as the recounting of Joseph Mengeles experiments with children, from a survivor who was actually on his operating table. Overall it's a very thorough and engaging experience, a well composed film with generous doses of creativity that will hopefully go far in rectifying some of the issues it purports.
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