AFI FEST 2009: POLICE, ADJECTIVE; TO DIE LIKE A MAN
To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues (top); Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu (bottom)
AFI FEST 2009 continues in a more compact version on Friday and Saturday at the Santa Monica Laemmle Theater 4 on 2nd Street in Santa Monica. There’ll be only four screenings per day, with the last one starting at 5:00 p.m.
The screening films on Friday, Nov. 6, are:
- Japanese filmmaker Sabu’s Kanikosen, described as "Sergei Eisenstein put into a blender with Busby Berkeley."
- João Pedro Rodrigues‘ To Die Like a Man, a chronicle of a Lisbon drag queen who has been living as a woman for decades, but ends up meeting her maker as a man. Rodrigues is the director of the intriguing O Fantasma.
- Jiri Barta’s stop-motion fairy tale In the Attic, about a couple of dolls who set out to rescue another doll that has been kidnapped.
- Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective, a complex tale revolving around a police officer who refuses to arrest a high-school student accused of being a drug dealer. Dragos Bucur and 2007 Los Angeles Film Critics best supporting actor winner Vlad Ivanov (for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) star. Police, Adjective won both the International Film Critics’ Prize and the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Schedule and film information from the AFI FEST 2009 website:
Kanikosen – 11:00 a.m.
See synopsis.
Police, Adjective – 1:00 p.m.
After researching the subject of POLICE, ADJECTIVE—which begins with the depiction of a cop on the beat and ends with a comic inquiry into the meaning of the word “conscience”—filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST, AFI FEST 2006) realized “that the truth of my character lies in the small things, in his daily routine and in a certain time of being and reacting. I think that this is what cinema makes fresh: a time of being.” The policeman at the heart of Porimboiu’s absurdist inquiry is Cristi (the brilliant Dragos Bucur), assigned to tail a high school kid suspected of drug dealing. Cristi, like the film audience, waits and watches as this stunning film, builds toward an unforgettable face-off between Cristi and his boss (the inimitable Vlad Ivanov) that forces everyone on screen and off to consider the meaning of what one sees and the words one uses. Robert Koehler
In the Attic – 3:15 p.m.
Marking his return to animation after 20 long years, director Jirí Barta’s latest wicked brew is a welcome reminder of why stop-motion fans consider him one of the few true masters. Barta’s previous works, including THE PIED PIPER (1985), have been notable for their distinctive aesthetics and a knack for exploring deep, daring themes. These qualities energize IN THE ATTIC, a grand, ingenious fairy tale about friendship and standing up to tyranny. When Buttercup, the fairest doll in the land is kidnapped, it falls to her best friends—Teddy, Sir Handsome, and the spastic ball of clay Schubert—to undertake an epic quest to the darkest reaches of the attic to save her. Barta’s inventive and original world of misfit toys is a fully realized fantasy realm that will delight the young and the not-so-young alike. Matt Bolish
To Die Like a Man – 5:00 p.m.
Plus-sized Tonia (Fernando Santos), born Antonio, has lived as a woman for decades. She’s a battle-scarred veteran of the Lisbon drag clubs, with a cute if somewhat crazy lover young enough to be her son (she also has an actual son, an army deserter working through his own sexual issues). But as the title flatly suggests, she ultimately finds it impossible to escape her biological destiny. This is a poignant rumination on the mysteries of identity but hardly an affirmative celebration of our fluid and malleable selves. João Pedro Rodrigues (O FANTASMA, TWO DRIFTERS) rejects the clichéd ostentation of musicals and drag shows—as indicated by the constrained 1:33 frame —and his vaguely ascetic approach has the perverse effect of making his material all the more magical. Dennis Lim, Cinema Scope
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Tags: AFI FEST, AFI FEST 2009, Corneliu Porumboiu, In the Attic, Jiri Barta, João Pedro Rodrigues, Kanikosen, Los Angeles Screenings, Police Adjective, To Die Like a Man, Vlad Ivanov
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