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FEST on repeat – Jupiter’s moon, Before we vanish,

Legend of a Demon Cat…
Another FEST film festival is behind us, and until next year the only thing that’s left is a
long list of missed movies for yet another year because, unless you figured a way to break the
laws of physics, there is no way of making it to all the screenings of movies you were
anticipating. Luckily, every year there is a “FEST on repeat” segment after the festival, where for
the entirety of one more week, most watched movies from the festival are being screened for one
more time. For that occasion, we’ll take the opportunity to look back on some of the movies
(from fantastical genres plus some special mentions) that we saw and got our attention, for
reasons good or bad, and give you an overall thought of the festival.

Jupiter’s moon
Jupiter’s moon is a new film by an acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Kornel Mundruczo, behind
2012s White God, which was also part of the competition here on festival back in 2012.
Mundruczo is a type of filmmaker who has a unique approach to arthouse where even though he
practices aesthetic techniques that are reminiscent of filmmakers like Miklos Jancso (authentic
locations, long takes that have almost transcendental value…), he also likes to make things
interesting by inserting fantastical elements into the plots of his movies and making them center
of the conflict in order to better underline a sociological problem he’s exploring in that given
film, but to also make things more interesting as well. Even though his movies have fantastical
elements they’re both feet on the ground and are always dealing with things that are present in
our daily lives, which makes fantastical elements all the more effective, since you get the
impression that the most improbable things could happen to you. In a movie White God, subject
matter Mundruczo was dealing with was racial inequality, and egoism of people as a species in
general, since people (usually) assume one natural order of things in nature which privileges
them as a species, but is ruing a quality of life for all the other animals in nature that don’t
occupy a dominant place in that dominance hierarchy (in that movie… dogs to be exact). That
movie was to me really good, from it technical achievements, it’s approach to the subject matter
which was not at all pretentions which is a rarity for that type of film, an interesting approach to
the story from a point of view of dogs (which was probably hard to shoot), ending that is best
described as poetic, and a lot more. That movie had a lot of things going for it, which you could
say applies to Jupiter’s moon as well… But not on the same level.
Mundruczo’s film starts out in a very unsettling way, treating us to a very raw and uncomfortable
sight of illegal immigrants being badly treated on a Serbian – Hungary border, where due to the
escalation of conflict, one immigrant boy, named Aryan, all of a sudden uses his messiah-like
powers to escape his captors. Aryan in Budapest runs on Gabor Stern, doctor of very
questionable moral values, who sees a big chance in Aryan to earn some money by exploiting
boy’s supernatural abilities, all the while a boy just wants get in touch with his father who’s by
occupation a carpenter.

This film has an appearance of a calculative type of film that is attempting to make a big splash
on the festival circuit, that will bring home all the prizes, but at the same time make audiences
around the world rave about it’s boldness and uniqueness and on that front, i think, it mostly
delivers. Film is first of all really well made on a technical side. Throughout the film we have a
lot of very striking long takes that were probably very hard to realize and demanded really good
coordination between the main cast and all the extras present in the shot, and all of that on a real
location where every minute counts since sun is always changing its position which makes it
impossible to shoot more than twice at best; and each and every one of those long takes was
realized perfectly. Acting of the main protagonists is always on point, not going to high or low
extremes, visual effects were very well blended with the rest of the movie and looked very
convincing… What is wrong with this movie then? First of all, oversaturation of its content. Film
is trying to deal with the themes of migrant crisis, rise of fascism and right wing rhetoric in
Hungary, racial discrimination, religious connotations, consequences of positivism and that
worldview, and possibly more, and all of that in a two hour running time. Like a diverse buffet,
only with symbolism… A symbolic “all inclusive”, if you will, but the funniest thing of all… In
a first act they even menage to pull it off. Even though it crammed way too much symbolism to
fit, in the first act it was more or less well balanced, but the thing is, this movie had to end
eventually, and that meant that it had to have one thing it would all lead up to, and by doing that
they’re forced to drop some of the less important parts that were set up, in order to conclude the
story. Why even include such raging issues if their inclusion will not enrich the film, not will
they be part of a central conflict, but are instead just there as a side show without much point to
it. It’s as if you had an elephant in the room you point to, but you will not do much about it, nor
do you have much of an opinion (at least that is articulated clearly). In the second act are not
only most of the thematic threads dropped, but film instead turns into a cat and mouse chase
through Budapest, where at the point between acts two and three we have pretty stagnate pace
where much of the already familiar beats are repeated again. The very ending attempts to, yet
again, be poetic like in White God, but instead of clearing things up it just menages to confuse
even more and leave you with much of the questions you were asking, unanswered. All this
aside, Jupiter’s moon is a movie i enjoyed watching, and will probably give it few more
watches. Even though it has its problems, complexity and mere number of subjects it attempts to
deal with and even the way it was made, demand repeated viewings to fully grasp all that is
being addressed.
 Before we vanish
While we’re on a subject of fantastical arthouse, let’s talk about a movie made by a veteran in
this category… Kiyoshi Kurosawa… director that has been building his career for the past two
decades by taking a typical genre setups and giving an arthouse treatment. This year it’s
melodramatic sci fi, Before we vanish.

Three aliens land on earth, in order to acquire information needed for a full scale invasion of our
planet. They acquire knowledge about people by taking their abstract notions that people have
developed over their lifetime, but since aliens are unable to grasp their meanings in their own
nature, they took control over human bodies entirely. One of the aliens takes a body of a guy
named Shinji, who is married to Narumi, while two other aliens remain in the company of an
opportunistic journalist Sakurai, that has long ago gave up all hopes on society as a whole and
wouldn’t mind one bit to watch it all burn.

This movie is very interesting, but in a really unconventional way. Let’s get this out of the way,
it’s 130 minutes running time feel like way too big of a stretch. After we figure all the variables,
it takes more than an hour to get it’s plot into motion. Since i was expecting to get a sort of
meditative vibe from it, instead of generic genre fare, i wasn’t surprised when we got a lot of
philosophical conversations in a two hour alien invasion film. Those meditations on the human
nature were easily the best aspect of this film, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that the film loses
from its sight what it was setting out to achieve in the first place and also stretching huge chunks
of its plot for purely atmospheric reasons, and doing that till the point where a lot of people
surrounding me (and mind you, this was a press screening) were falling asleep out of boredom.
This didn’t mind me very much since, when things do escalate, you do feel that escalation which
makes up for the moments where the pacing was maybe, a bit slower. Kurosawa would hold
back his guns, only rarely letting a few violent or fantastical elements to dominate the screen,
and he would place them in between the moments that are calm and contemplative in nature, but
shoot them very much the same (really intricate long takes, no cheap tricks in order to provoke a
reaction…), which makes action scenes more impactful. Making this movie about fantastical and
action elements would miss the point entirely since this movie is first and foremost a melodrama
where one of the main characters is alien that wants, but can’t feel nor understand what love is.
Love story between Shinji and Narumi is an emotional core to this film, and even though
melodrama between them stick out in a movie where all the other elements are either cold or
fantastical, you get used to its rhythm and it doesn’t take a long while to get to that place. The
melodramatic would slowly build as the movie got along and by the time we get to the end,
you’re really are with them. Contemplative part of the movie is, as i said, probably the most
interesting because of the way it approaches said ideas and concepts since these things usually
take small parts of the movies of this nature, and are usually not this much down the earth.
Before i used the word philosophical, and it is like that in a real sense of the word. Subject of
abstract concepts in a way that is expressed here, is also thematized in a similar manner by the
enlightenment philosophers. If these aliens really do need to absorb abstract notions like love in
order to understand them, instead of just experiencing love, does it mean that Kant was right
about a priori forms in a sense that these aliens don’t have presupposed conditions for such
concepts. The moment these aliens take control over human bodies, and they’re stripped of all
cultural heritage, these people become shallow. This movie leaves a room for a wide
philosophical discussion about the nature of abstract concepts and human nature as well, but this
is not what the movie is about since its intent is not to be cold about the nature of being, but to be
tender and romantic instead. The very core message of love as an unconditional neglect of your
needs for the sake of someone else’s, is not as obvious throughout the film, but when we reach
that ending where emotional highpoint of the film is, you will get it and is in my opinion, very
effective. Regardless, a bit longer running time, some pacing issues and at certain places
noticeably bad CGI for me kind of lowered the experience and the overall opinion of the film,
but even with all of that it was an ok experience.

Legend of the Demon Cat

Even though these types of movies were is some way, shape or form, always present in cultural
zeitgeist, in the past few years these movies from countries all around the world are really
exploding in number. Countries like Russia, China, and many more, are producing highly
budgeted spectacles that are attempting to reach the level of mythical filmmaking set by old
Hollywood (westerns, old biblical movies…) by adapting some of their old folk legends into
movies. These kinds of movies mostly came to us from Russia where they produce wide variety
of movies dealing with old legends, from not that good Stalingrad (2013) to somewhat ok-ish
movies like The Viking (2016) or Furious (2017), though Hollywood and other European
productions are no strangers to this phenomena (Age of uprising: The Legend of Michael
Kohlhaas, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword…). Movies like Furious end up being overly
stylized, with big emphasis on visual effects, over bloated set pieces, idealizing of a legend
and/or main protagonist of the legend, characters are not developed slowly and with caution but
are characterized in big strokes, because primary focus of those films is fun spectacle. Legend of
the Demon Cat is a new highly budgeted Japanese/Chinese co-production, and is at what it sets
out to do, very effective and in some instances even menages to provide certain comments about
the genre it occupies (if we can say that they are a genre).

Story of this movie is adopted form a novel by Yoneyama Mineo, called Samana Kukai, and is
set during a ruling under Tang dynasty in China, year 850. A demonic black cat show up and
starts making a mess of things in one of the main Xi’an districts, Chang’an, by setting off the
events that are very strange in their nature. Chinese poet Bai Letian and a Japanese monk Kukai,
linking multiple murders in a sequence, come to conclusion that the demonic cat wants them to
investigate strange circumstances under which Concubine Yang, emperors favourite concubine,
died. Further investigation of her death would only lead them to the new discoveries that
demystify legend on which Chinese culture is based on, and beliefs our characters hold are being
put to the test.

Easily, the best aspect of this movie are its visuals, which doesn’t surprise since they spent
something around 200 million on the production of this film, and it shows. Movies like Furious
from Russia, even though can be fun, require from you to lower your standards of expectation
when it comes to the technical (and a lot of times, narrative) aspects of the film, this movie
doesn’t need you to adjust your technical standards since all the visual effects (which there are
plenty of) are very well integrated into the movie, and you don’t feel their presence for the most
part. Even though it’s obvious that this is a revisionist approach to history with exteriors that are
highly stylized, it doesn’t feel inauthentic at all, and all the setups that have lots of kinetic energy
in them are very well orchestrated in order to entertain. Even though it’s perhaps, a bit too much
for my taste, i am aware that constantly moving cameras, crane shots, and all the other
techniques of that nature, are now common place in movies like this (even when it’s not
appropriate), so we shouldn’t expect otherwise nor complain about it. Luckily, very fast you get
over it, so it’s not that big of a deal. Another thing that goes in its favor are fantastical elements
in the movie that feel really refreshing since, most of the fantastical genre fare comes from the
Hollywood it kind of gets repetitive, but these people by their very nature that they come from a
different cultural landscape use different visual shorthand’s to suggest certain things which
differentiates them form the start (and that’s a good thing). A premise of a demon black cat
killing people, sounds interesting not only because of superstitious connotations that black cats
bring with them, but also because the very premise sounds really wired and new. We could make
the case for this film having some metanarrative remarks, which are being expressed by a poet
Bai Letian who has his wish to write a song that would outdo a legendary song written by his
favourite writer who wrote about a great beauty of Concubine Yang, but when he finds out the
truth behind the lyrics of the song and how inauthentic they really were, his whole world
crumbled since a poet and a beautiful concubine he wrote about turned out to be fake. He lost his
confidence since his idol has fallen in his eyes, and through the course of the film he must learn
to overcome those feelings and stop idealizing parts of culture and instead focus on his own
feelings if he wants to be a good writer. In a certain sense, movies do that too, they represent
(idolize) characters form legends that were idealized for centuries, and based on those myths
whole cultures of certain nations would be build. When you deal with great idols, you usually
end up dealing with ‘great’ lies, since they were so built up that there is no way of truth rising up
to that and when truth is revealed, inspiration turns to cynicism. Here in Serbia we witnessed this
first hand last fall when a tv show about Serbia’s first royal family Nemanjići was aired, and it
left a bitter taste in people’s mouths to say the least. In that sense, this movie deals with an
approach to idealization and approach to historical revisionism, while still occupying the space
within that genre of film, but let’s get real, even though this movie is aware of all the things
mentioned, it’s opinion on the matter is nothing noteworthy and are being expressed right to the
audience by a main character at the very end of the film. This film is interesting and fun, but to
be honest, most of the plot of this film has faded from my memory after only a day or two after
the screening. If you like Chinese culture (or eastern in general), are a fan of fantastical elements
in a story and have two hours to kill, this could be a fun experience.

Special mentions
Now, as far as the movies that are not fantastical in nature, there has been a huge catalogue of
films to choose from, ranging from passable, good and in certain cases, disappointing. One such
film was Eva starring Isabelle Huppert. First of all, the story it tells is flawed to the point that it
baffles me how someone let this get into production before developing a better draft of the script.
Hardly anyone could have made a good movie out of this plot without some reworking of the
script. Best thing about it is of course Isabelle Huppert, giving her best to elevate what was given
to het to a higher level but there is not much she could have done. I get that by now she has a
huge catalogue of characters she played behind her and when you’re that experienced and at the
age of seventy, this type of character seams challenging and the thing is, she was great every
minute she was on screen. It’s just too bad that the movie was a disappointment.

On the other hand, we have a different kind of movie about a struggling writer called Based on a
true story, directed by Roman Polanski. Unlike Eva, Based on a true story show us how this
type of movie is done (even though a lot of people had a negative first reaction to this film). It’s
biggest virtue and flaw at the same time is the fact that a lot of this feels familiar to us, since all
of Polanski’s usual themes are present here, from identity theft, writers block and anxiety that
derives from that… All the ways Polanski could display anxiety are widespread through his
entire opus, starting with Repulsion (1965) to only have them perfected at The Tenant (1976)
and Rosemary’s baby (1968), and from then on he reused similar tactics in some way or
another, and did it really well. First, he would introduce us to the main characters, get to know
them and get all the minutia about their life that will come into play later, then he isolates the
protagonist and puts them in an uncomfortable position and at that point would arrive a character
that would get really close with the protagonist and would help them out with their problems,
which would lead to that character moving into the protagonists apartment, and little by little
absorb their life and eventually become them. Formula that he uses very often, something that
perhaps he realized himself, which is why he at the midpoint mark twisted the formula a bit and
turned it on its head, and as a result of that we shift form an anxiety of expecting the inevitable to
“who’s going to get to whom first” type of feeling. Good thing is that two main parts are being
played by Emmanuelle Seigner and Eva Green, two very good actresses that have very striking
presence and that dynamic is what really elevated this movie. The only bad thing about this film
is the way it concludes its main conflict because, tension was building up for the entirety of the
film to this one thing, to then resolve it in an unsatisfactory way in a matter of minutes. Even
though it felt anticlimactic, i still get what he was going for and for me at least, doesn’t drag the
movie down way too much. It is an interesting addition to Polanski’s catalogue of films, even
though this movie will probably end up being forgotten.

Two of the films i was really looking forward to, that didn’t perform to my set expectations were
Paul Schrader’s First reformed, and Michel Hazanavicius’s Godard Mon Amour. I can safely
say that i enjoyed both of these films, and will rewatch them again sometime in the future, but i
was kind of expecting a bit more. Around this time last year, Paul Schrader was giving a keynote
lecture at TIFF (Toronto international film festival) where he announced that his next project will
be a transcendental film. What aspect of this was exciting to me was that Schrader was one of the
first American film scholars that thematized the subject academically and published his analysis
on the subject of ‘transcendental style in film’. While he never actually made a film in that style,
he did reuse a lot of Bresonian themes time and time again, and his movies are intimate and
personal, but would always end up being part of a genre. Unfortunately, First Reformed doesn’t
appear to be the one to change that since it’s a movie where Schrader mostly recycles old themes
and narrative techniques, well established and potentially overused throughout his career.
Themes present from his script in Taxi driver, to movie like American Gigolo, Light Sleeper,
Affliction and may others, are all present here, which is a good news for me since these movies
happen to be some of my favourites, it’s just that he doesn’t have anything new to say on the
subject. You could, by all means, look at this movie as a remake of Taxi driver, only instead of
Travis we get reverend Toller. One thing that is in the essence of every transcendental film is that
they’re listening to the rhythm of nature, they’re not composing the shots and cutting in a certain
patter to pass the time, nor are they interested in condensing the reality of the situation... They’re
interested in life as is, triggering emotions by putting you in an ambience that is striking, and this
movie kind of lacked that. This movie has a very specific cutting pattern, it has a certain shot
composition and framing, and just because you can find some Tarkovsky references and not as
much music, doesn’t make it automatically transcendental. It’s perhaps not fair criticism, since
transcendental style does not have one strict definition and you are supposed to follow your gut
feeling and not over think it, and i do believe Schrader tried. If you ask me, it’s more telling of
what Schrader considers transcendental, and what kind of a filmmaker he is. It’s not inherently
bad, and i’m glad i did see it. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Mishima, but this film could
definitely occupy the same place as all of the first or second tier Schrader films.

Godard mon amour, is a film i was looking forward to purely because of the public figures in
the center of it, and partially because of the director. This movie follows the relationship between
Anne Wiazemsky and Jean Luc Godard, and since we have interesting figures in a turbulent
time, and a story being told by a director who isn’t afraid to spice things up a bit, it didn’t end up
as generic as these things usually go, but ended up running out of gas by the end. People that
enjoy French movement of intellectuals from that period, be it ’68 leftist demonstrations, new
wave directors, post-modern philosophers, will probably enjoy this film just for the fact of it
presenting them in this light. Best part is portrayal of Godard that is a bit cushioned, but is just
enough cruel that you can’t but not laugh at this man’s lack of respect for the people around him.
Another aspect of the film that sets it apart from any other ‘bio pic’ is it’s stylistic approach that
uses a lot’s of techniques present in Godard’s work which are at times used to punctuate
subjective view of the main character (Godard), or to be ironic about what is being presented.
One thing that missed me entirely is, what was the driving fore for this movie? Why did someone
want to make this? There are a lot of things that happen in this film, and yet so little does happen
actually. We do see Godard becoming more cynical and arrogant, bit by bit, eventually
destroying this relationship, but what is the point of it? By the end it just ends up feeling like we
got bunch of key events in their lives from the late sixties through the late seventies, but no point
is made of it. Even though Godardian style sometimes provides us with a laugh or two, by the
end it feel more like a gimmick. Hazanavicius has been occused of that before, but if you ask me,
in The Artist the style of the film was called for added to the story of the film, that was much
better. Regardless, i would still recommend this film to anyone, especially if you like some of the
radical groups that i mentioned earlier.

All in all, really good year for the festival. Even selections that were ok at best, like selections
‘Focus Evropa’ or even the ’Main competition’ had some really good films to offer. I could go
on like this all day talking about all the great movies that i saw so, to wrap it all up, i’ll list the
ratings for all the movies i saw on this year’s FEST, and hope i helped you find some interesting
new releases.

 Le Redoutable – 7/10
 Based on a true story (D’après une histoire vraie) – 7/10
 Legend of a demon cat – 6 or 7/10
 Before we vanish – 7/10
 First reformed – 7 or 8 / 10
 Eva – 5/10
 Bandits in serch of Mom (Banditi u potrazi za mamom) – 7 or 8 / 10
 About bugs and heroes (O bubicama i herojima) – 5 or 6 /10
 Offenders (Izgrednici) – 7/10
 Horizons (Horizonti) – 6 or 7 /10
 Ederlezi rising – 7/10
 Agape – 7/10
 You were never really here – 8/10
 Jupiter’s moon – 7 or 8 / 10
 In the fade - 6 or 7 / 10
 Nico, 1988 – 6 or 7 /10
 The Cured – 6/10
 Bikini Moon – 7/10
 No date, no signature – 7/10
 Ugly – 4/10
 The Maus – 4/10
 Mayhem – 6 or 7 /10
  Lady Bird – 7/10
 The Square – 9/10
 Call me by your name – 8/10
 Phantom thread – 8/10
 The Shape of water – 7 or 8/10
 Three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri – 8 or 9 /10
 Dovlatov – 7 or 8 /10
 America square (Plateia Amerikis) – 6/10
 Party – 7/10
 The Insult 6 or 7/10
 Comic sans – 7/10
 A fantastic woman – 7/10
 Roman J. Israel, Esq. – 7/10

*Autostoperski vodič kroz fantaskiku (Hitchhiker’s guide through the fantasy) is a Serbian web
portal dedicaded to writing articles and reporting news stories on all things considered ‘fantasy’.