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Alternative Film Nights ~ April 2007
Programme Notes
Deadly Tantrum Mike Mort, Wales. 2006, 5mins
Meet Geoffrey – he’s angry, he’s stupid, he’s got a power saw!
Blood splattered comedy horror short filmed in Aberthaw, South Wales.
www.deadlytantrum.com
The Moment Before Alvaro Zendejas, Mexico, 2004, 2.33mins
Two young men experiment with the thrill of savoring the instant right
before the inevitable climax. Two and half minutes of jaw dropping
cinema made by a student director on a micro budget. The 24 year
director’s latest film Sheep Poem has just been nominated for
Best Animated Short Film at the 69th Mexican Academy Awards in Mexico
City.
www.alvarozendejas.blogspot.com
Monster Jennifer Kent, Australia, 2004, 10.17mins
A young mother struggles to cope with her son’s imagination.
Creepy and visually stunning black and white short redolent of the
early expressionist cinema of Murnau and Lang. Monster won the Audience
Favourite Award and The Ellen Award – Certificate for Distinctive
Achievement at the 2006 Aspen Shortsfest.
Kairo Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan, 2001, 110mins
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is widely regarded as one of the most talented
filmmakers of New Japanese Cinema. His unique films defy the confines
of genre, they are philosophical treatises on the individual in
society. As brilliant as they are obscure, they still manage to thrill,
amuse, and entertain.
Born in Kobe in 1955, Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa) is a
graduate of the sociology department of Rikkyo University. An avid
amateur 8mm filmmaker since high school, Kurosawa’s short film
Shigarami was selected as part of the 1981 PIA Film Festival, a
prestigious showcase for young talent in Japan. He first garnered
critical attention in the mid 1980’s with, The Excitement of the
Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl,. Though financed as a Pink Eiga, the soft-core porn
genre that dominated much of the Japanese domestic market through the
1970s, Kurosawa defied convention by intercutting sex scenes with an
extended discussion on philosophy.
His big break came with the supernatural crime thriller Cure (1997).
Enigmatic, creepy, and genuinely frightening, it wowed audiences on the
festival circuit with its intensity and deliberate exploration of
identity in modern society. The prolific director went on to produced a
film almost every year and subsequent projects License to Live (1998),
Charisma (1999), Barren Illusions and the made for television
frightener Seance all displayed his trademark elusiveness and served to
bolster his profile.
His 2001 film Kairo, also released as Pulse, is a slow-burn apocalyptic
shocker that many considered to the one of the best horror films of the
decade. A quiet, deliberate, and notably restrained tale of dread that
would ultimately have all subtlety sapped for a rambunctious American
re-make, Kairo spoke soulfully to many modern viewers who felt that
their human connection had been woefully lost in the endless quest for
technological convenience. Computers, cell phones, and other forms of
technology play a central role in the film. Unlike in some tech horror
flicks, technology in this film is not evil in itself. Rather the
horror of Kairo comes from how this technology separates and divides
humanity from itself.
‘I wanted to make a movie about ghosts. And yet, what exactly are
ghosts? Are ghosts humans who once were alive? Or are they merely the
embodiment of death? And how would such ghosts choose to interact with
humans living in the real world? Surrendering to my imagination, I
managed to create a film. Therefore, I suspect that much of this film
is based on my personal delusions about death.
In my delusion, I began to wonder what the closest feeling to
experiencing death would be as a still living human. I couldn’t
help concluding that it would be like enduring eternity utterly alone.
From there, the theme of loneliness emerged organically. Although it
was not my original intention, this process gradually led me to
incorporate the rampant loneliness of contemporary Japanese society as
an integral element of the film’ - Kiyoshi Kurosawa
