This month, Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity unveils a new series on the 25 best films of the 21st century (discussions and debates are welcome!), one-of-a-kind murder mystery nights at the VIFF Cinema and live events.
Tom, what are the unmissable events in July at the VIFF Centre?
We’re launching our second big series of the summer on July 9, and it’s running right to the end of August. It’s called 21st Century Classics, and it’s the 25 best films of the 21st Century.
Of course there is no definitive list, but a series like this can get you thinking about what gives a film lasting power. I hope it’s a fun and intriguing list that starts discussions about what other films should be included. There will also probably be films you missed the first time around, so this is your chance to catch them in the cinema.
In the Mood for Love + In the Mood for Love 2001
We’re kicking it off with an essential title that everybody would agree with: In the Mood for Love. It’s the film’s 25th anniversary, and I’m thrilled that we’re able to show it with a 9-min short film from 2001 that Wong Kar-wai made with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung when the original plan was for it to be in three parts. The first part of that plan expanded and became a feature on its own, but the 9-min film was supposed to be the final part of this triptych, and outside of the screening in Cannes in 2001 it’s never been screened in cinema.
How did you decide on the films to include?
It’s been a challenge to distill 25 years of cinema into 25 films. I reached out to colleagues here at VIFF and to a bunch of friends, academics, and people who introduced Pantheon screenings for us to take an informal survey and compile a long list of potential titles. Then I just made some really tough calls. It’s not a list of 25 Oscar winners or 25 box office giants. I’ve tried to expand the discussion around cinema and share diverse films from all over the world, from different perspectives, and put these films up in conversation with each other.
Get Out
Petite Maman
Paprika
The 25 films more or less run in chronological order through the summer, and they all get at least two screenings. And there’s a $99 pass if you want to see all 25, which is a really good deal.
Our upcoming event Murder at the Movies combines film screenings with live murder-mystery components — how did that come about?
For years, I’ve had a secret desire to stage a film screening that is interrupted by a shocking incident in the audience. I’ve always loved scenes in Gremlins, Matinee and Purple Rose of Cairo where film characters come out of the screen, and I’ve wondered what we could do in that vein. Occasionally, I’ve reached out to theatre companies and had discussions, and we’re finally making it all come to come to pass, and I’m very excited.
Murder at the Movies
We’re working with Tanya Bennett at Vancouver Mysteries to present Murder at the Movies. The premise here is that the VIFF Centre is the venue for a red-carpet premiere of a film noir, transporting us back to the 1950s, and the stars of the film come to attend the premiere. We all sit down and watch the beginning of the new film, and then the film breaks down, and the stars get into an argument in front of everybody.
When the film starts up again, it’s changed, and there’s a violent incident that takes place on-screen that has repercussions off-screen. I don’t want to give too much away, but the project is both a film screening and an interactive, who-done-it mystery game, with improv and roles for the audience. It’s going to be fantastic fun.
What are our VIFF Live Events in July?
The Jimi James Quintet is doing a bebop set, which is showing alongside The Wild One on July 5, because I had this thought that bebop and method acting basically came at the same time. The late 1940s and early 1950s was a great era of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie forging a new kind of jazz. At the same time, you had the Actors Studio in New York creating a different way of being real on stage and film. Both performance styles are about being in the moment in a way that wasn’t the case ten years before. Ten years before, jazz musicians were following the song sheet, they were following the notes written down. Same with actors, they were reading the script, and they were doing what they were told. And then you have this real moment of liberation when both practitioners are exploring and improvising with the form.
We’re also doing Luis Buñuel’s great film The Exterminating Angel on July 6, with a live score by Magazinist. We got special permission to do a new score for it. The film is about people who come to a dinner party and can’t leave. Magazinist is going to create a brand-new soundscape for this film while using dinner party accessories. They’re making music from crystal glasses and from a pepper grinder, and even from burnt toast. I don’t know how you make music from burnt toast, but I look forward to finding out.
Thanks Tom!
Tom Charity has been the year-round programmer at the VIFF Centre since 2009. He is the author of the critical biography John Cassavetes: Lifeworks, and has written or cowritten several other film books. A former film editor and critic for Time Out London magazine and CNN.com, he has also written for The Times and Sunday Times, the Vancouver Sun, and many other publications. He contributes to Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound Magazine on a regular basis.