Fantastic Fest 2010 Day Six: Women in Peril, Hair on Fire
Earlier this week, several women I know at Fantastic Fest commented that they're "over" certain kinds of violence in film, particularly rape/revenge themes and taking the woman-in-peril concept to brutal extremes. Earlier today, Ain't It Cool contributor Massawyrm made a similar comment. After reading it aloud to a table of badgeholders, there was a moment of pause when someone said, "I don't think I saw rape yesterday." How jaded we've become, when we have to notice if we haven't seen such brutality in film. But that's a bigger discussion than I have time for here.
Interestingly, the first movie of my day did involve rape, but was not among those films I'd classify as typical: Bedevilled, which won a Fantastic Fest audience award as well as a best actress win for Seo Yeong-hee. She delivers a powerhouse performance as a woman struggling to escape her oppressive life just as her childhood friend returns to their childhood home to get away from her own mistakes. It's a haunting film, and while I found the ending to be a bit jumbled, it's one that will stay with me for a long, long time.
My next film was Kidnapped, which has a lot of parallels to Mother's Day, but without the mother. I was ready to shoot someone just to get the 10-minute panting screams to stop. I'm getting tired of near-gratuitous brutality. But no, then I went on to watch Cold Fish, which despite being based on a true story is hard to take. There really needs to be more thought put into women's motivations in some films, and in this one in particular. But before I get on to a feminist kick, let me get back to the important stuff: secret screenings.
My last movie of the day was the much anticipated Secret Screening #3, preceded by a special 8-minute clip from Jackass 3D. Other than the extended poo supreme (I know I'm butchering that), it was actually funny. Steve-O was there and demonstrating his brand of humor with a pink mohawk'd Tim League, who assisted Steve-O in a hair-lighting event. I heard a lot of strong response to the clip.
The secret screening itself turned out to be Hell Driver by Yoshihiro Nishimura, who said the film was just barely completed three days ago. The intro included sumo (un)dress, and promise of a Q&A. Unfortunately for me, the soundtrack was proving to be a migraine trigger, which had me vacating my seat more quickly than I intended. After a brief stop at The Highball before Karaoke Apocalypse started, I headed home. And now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.