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Mother, from director Bong Joon-ho. Thanks to terrific acting and a story that twists and turns to reveal layers of intrigue and different points of view, the audience’s sympathies switches from character to character until it’s difficult to say for sure what’s right and what’s wrong. The unrelenting greyness of the village and the over-the-top soundtrack add to the tension as Hye-Ja, the mother, tries to prove that her mentally-disabled son is not guilty of the murder of a teen-aged girl.
Here's a pretty good trailer.
Fri, Oct 2nd 3:45pm / Tue, Oct 6th 9:30pm / Mon, Oct 12th 1:20pm / Visa Screening Room at Empire Granville Th7
(Cinco días sin Nora), which for some reason is called Nora's Will in the VIFF program, is not dark at all, despite that fact that it’s all about death. When a Jewish woman dies in a largely-Catholic country at a time when her ex-husband—who has lived across the street from her for 20 years and is a cynic and an atheist—is the only one around to deal with the funeral arrangements, funny things are bound to happen: the body laying in an ice-filled metal container in the bedroom (Jewish) while an empty wooden coffin sits in a flower-filled livingroom (Catholic), and loved ones sneaking into the bedroom, first to put makeup on the corpse (Catholic), then to wash the makeup off (Jewish). The timing of the death and the fridge full of carefully prepared and labelled food convinces the ex-husband that the dead woman is still imposing her will on him and he fights against this as if she were still alive. This is a beautiful film that examines how death can push us to overcome petty concerns and move toward a more generous outlook on our own and others’ lives.
Mon, Oct 12th 4:20pm / Wed, Oct 14th 6:45pm / Empire Granville 7 Th 2
