Oct 13: Today we saw The Debt and Faithless, both foreign films with subtitles. The Debt is a Polish film about friends that want to start a scooter business who get involved with a small time gangster who provides their financing. The friends have a great business plan which the banker is very responsive to except that without substantial collateral, there will be no loan. I once heard that bankers only lend money to people that don't need it. For most of us that means if you want to borrow $100,000, you will pledge $150,000 in equity in your home or marketable securities. The only benefit to you is that you don't have to sell your assets on the front end to start the business.

One of the friends met a former tenant in his building who was going to arrange a meeting with a venture capitalist. When the deal falls through, the broker says he owes them a substantial fee that grows each day. It becomes clear quickly that he is not a broker but a hustler/loan shark. He sets up phony deals and then charges for his "services". He then uses ex convicts as his enforcers to get as much money as he can.

The two friends' see their personal lives deteriorate and finally are forced to take on the bullies to get them out of their lives. They have one of three choices: 1) pay up; 2) leave the country or 3) stay and fight. What they choose to do and how they do it is something that everyday people can relate to.

Faithless was a critic's choice selection by the lead critic for the Chicago Tribune, Michael Wilmington. This Swedish film was directed by acclaimed actress Liv Ullman which proved to be a controversial showing at Cannes this year. The lead actress in the film was Lena Endre whom many felt should have won best actress rather than Bjork of Dancer In The Dark. Both performances were indeed wonderful and each demonstrated considerable acting range. Endre is certainly beautiful and elegant while Bjork demonstrated strong emotional power with few words and actions. In my view, I would choose Bjork as best actress.

Wilmington is a prolific write who often makes you read 300 words or so before he begins to tell you what the film is about. After hearing him speak, I now understand better his passion and depth of knowledge of film which causes him to write as he does. He hosted the evening and conducted a Q&A for the audience with Ullman after the screening.

The screenplay was by Ingmar Bergman who again does not disappoint with his ability to show tragedy in people's lives. Essentially what the film is about is the consequences of being unfaithful with the concept of no faith adding an exclamation point to the our notions regarding fidelity. The smartest people often set traps in which eventually they become ensnared. Once caught, unintended consequences will change your life forever, and not necessarily for the good. If you are involved in or thinking about being unfaithful to your significant other, it might be good to see this film more so than the soon to be released, La Buche. Bergmans films is probably more realistic in the final consequences while the other shows how people can adapt to the infidelities within their relationships. La Buche is a more watchable film in that in many ways it's a comedy. It was a big hit in France and will likely do well when released in the US.

Oct 16: The Best of the Fest is a combination awards ceremony and film presentation. Numerous awards were given which you can locate at the film festival web site . This affair is only for the truly dedicated. While the award portion went fairly quickly and started on time, the start time was 8:30 because another film was being screened at 6 PM.

Amores Perros is a Mexican film that was also a Grand Prize winner in Cannes and the best feature film winner at this festival. It's the best Pulp Fiction type movie since Pulp Fiction in that it takes the genre to a higher level. The characters were very real to me and represent three different segments of society who have their lives altered because of their love for dogs and a car crash. The car crash is indeed realistically spectacular in part because you see it from three vantage points at different times in the film by different people.

My review will get into more detail on the individuals in each of the three segments but for now I'll provide a general overview. One group are lower class folks who commit armed robberies and earn a living with dog fights in an abandoned wading pool. Events from this group of people lead to a car chase and crash that first affects the second group in the movie, a high-end model and her advertising executive boyfriend who is married. The model and her boyfriend were the most moving of the three segments to me because they were people that thought they knew the consequences of their actions and had their future in control. They bring up the words we hear more than we'd like…."you never know"… The last segment (and I should say that the three segments occur at the same time but with a focus on one more than the other) is about a professor who left his family and became a guerrilla fighter for a higher social cause. He returns to the city and lives as a homeless man and occasional assassin. Walking near the scene of the car crash, he picks up a dog left for dead and nurses him back to health and learns that he and the dog have a lot in common.

Oct 17: The Yards will be released this Friday Oct 20th. It's a very good movie with an all star cast that will likely do about as well as Blood and Wine with Jennifer Lopez, Jack Nicolson, and Michael Caine which is just so so. It's a crime drama aimed at adults where the main focus is with action supporting dialogue and not the reverse. However fans of James Caan, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix will get a kick out of this flick. It's like a modern day Godfather film where the criminals only consider killing if backed into a corner….it's a defensive survival response rather than aggressive battle tactics.

It deals with relationships that you and I could with not a great stretch imagine getting ourselves into. Once you are not poor, or have any money or power, think for a moment about your reaction to losing it all. What would you do to keep what you have? In some ways The Yards is like an ensemble Robert Altman film except this is not over the top humor or satire. It is people doing their thing just trying to get through life in some measure of comfort with a minimum level of respect and dignity.

The film was shot to give a mixture of feeling of today as well as yesterday. In some ways it feels like the 1960's and other ways just like it was earlier this year. Most of the clothes came from Goodwill. The furniture settings were things that you feel comfortable with. As the director, James Gray pointed out, we keep furniture 20 years or more so having old furniture does not date a film in any way. The strangest thing that Gray shared with us was that to give the film a grainy but polished look, he shot the movie with film (not digital) and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes!

Oct 18: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was a critic's choice by Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader. This film was made by the late John Cassavetes in 1976. The film has many bleeding edge ideas which demonstrated that the director would act in commercial films so he could do arty ones. Over 25 years later when we first see a black in a key role we still tend to look for a racial angle. Here, sister girl (black chick) , was the main squeeze of Ben Gazzara. While he referred to her race it was only to describe someone like a blonde or brunette. Cassavetes used lighting techniques some time very light and at others dark to make his point. The version shown at the festival had about 20 minutes that is not on the video edition. How much value it added remains to be seen. The story is about a strip club owner, Gazzara, who gets into trouble because of poor business at the club and gambling debts. To pay off the debts, he is asked to kill a Chinese Bookie. Without all the time shifts of some films of late such as Pulp Fiction, in many ways it is similar in that we spend time with hustlers and small time crooks who we might actually come into contact with. This too was a sold out show.

Oct 19: Closing night of the festival was again at The Music Box Theater. As with last year when The Cider House Rules was the closing film, The Shadow of the Vampire is expected to garner some Oscar nominations. Possibly getting the nod are best actor, costume and director. The house was packed to the gills, literally and to the point that this sold out show had three checkpoints of ushers looking at your ticket to be sure you were suppose to be there. The organist was playing hard and got a huge ovation when he finished with the song Chicago. Director E. Elias Merhige welcomed us and came back for a Q&A after the film. During my interview him earlier in the day, he shared his vision about filming to include that he wants films that are made for the future as well as today.

This film is based upon the classic film Nosferatu (1922 by F.W. Murnau) which is still quite popular. I was going to rent it this week from Facets Multimedia but could not as all 22 copies were out! It set the standard for vampire movies and what makes it special is that it assumes the directors actually dug up a vampire to play a vampire in the film so it could be realistic. The problem is that the vampire is suppose to wait for his prize, which is the blood of the leading lady in the movie, until the film is completed. He is having difficulty in not only waiting for her but he is attacking others in the film. The Shadow in the Vampire contains many levels of nuances and will likely do well at the box office and become a cult film for many years to come. John Malkovich plays the director Murnau and with fine performances by him and Willem Dafoe as the vampire It was made for less than $8M and shot in only 35 days! With directors like this I would expect it will not be another 10 years before Merhige makes his next feature film.

All in all this was a great film festival. I should add that it's worthwhile to check out the article on how to attend the festival if you plan on seeing 5 or more films. There are many factors to consider like logistics, dining, etc. that can take a lot of the potential hassle out of what can be an exhaustive process to see a lot of great films in a very short time.

The staff was helpful and with a smoother ticket process next year, it should move to World Class in it enjoyability. The festival offered a variety of outstanding films in numerous categories. It has many of the films at the Toronto Film Festival but is easier to figure out what to see. First, some of the films have a buzz created from there and Cannes. By the time you check those off, plus some of the ones you know you want to see, a schedule starts to evolve. Who needs the maddening crowds of Cannes and over 300 films to choose from in Toronto when you can do it so easy in Chicago?