My report from Natfilm Festivalen

The Danish film festival "Natfilm Festivalen" is over, and I saw a few films.

"Sunshine" by Danny Boyle

Rating: 8/10

Old-time fan of Mr. Boyle and big-time fan of Sci-fi I had to see this. Extremely beautiful shots, and a well developed world, as well as excellent performances from the cast. Very poetic and a great mood overall. Borrows from some of the best space movies: Space Odyssey, Event Horizon and Solaris. Only real grudge is that the movie changes a bit to dramatically at the end, going from poetic sci-fi to all-out action, though it retains its high cinematographic quality.

"300" by Zack Snyder

Rating 7/10

I loved the screen version of Frank Miller's "Sin City", 300 is also a screen version of Miller's graphic novel by the same name, and also uses a cartoonish style of cinematography. The movie was extremely beautiful, each framing was like a painting in itself, or more appropriately a cartoon box. Everything was exaggerated and taken over the limit - in a good way. It's important to make it clear to oneself that this is only about the visuals, i.e. the effects, picture style, choreography, costumes etc. because the story is almost non-existent, and the script is pretty horrible. But if you make that your premise you won't be disappointed. The battles scenes are plentiful and extremely satisfying. What I didn't like was the side story about Leonidas' wife back in Sparta, they could easily have cut that and just added more battle scenes, which was what the movie had to offer and should have capitalized fully on.

"Swedish Auto" by Derek Sieg

Rating 8/10

A little gem of a movie. A real indy flick. About small town life in the States, and the 'real' people who populate them, much in the line with a film like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". A very heartwarming little film about a solitary mechanic who spies on a girl, but is himself spied on by another girl, and how they slowly develop a relationship. A text-book independent film!


"Time" by Kim Ki-Duk

Rating 9/10

I'm becoming a greater and greater fan of Ki-Duk, I really love his stories about modern life and love. This is a very beautiful and funny film. Its difficult to put into words. It's about a man who is losing interest in his girlfriend, and her extreme (really extreme) jealousy when he talks to other girls. She then decides to leave him and change her appearance by means of plastic surgery, only to return later in his life, and then it goes from there...I won't give away to much. A beautiful somewhat surreal film. Highly recommended.