Cinema Paradiso

We’re very excited and for once it’s not just about the Asian movies. One of the best films ever, ever, ever is coming to the Third Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. Ever. Tarnation, the transcendent genre-defying debut from filmmaker Jonathan Caouette is a carousel of trippy musical interludes, poignant personal narrative and lo-fi documentary sculpted from answering machine messages, video diaries, pop iconography and home movies which the director has been making since the age of eleven. Part outsider art, part autobiography and completely genius, Tarnation documents Mr. Caouette’s relationship with his bi-polar mother and an extended Texan clan who would seem like ideal neighbours for Leatherface and company. It’s not so much a movie as an epiphany. Go, for the love of celluloid, go.
Though we’ve damn near exhausted our supply of superlatives at this point, we’ve saved a few for The Woodsman, another audacious knock-you-right-on-your-arse piece of cinema boasting a mesmerising performance from Kevin Bacon as a recently released paedophile battling hysterical prejudice and dread personal demons. If afterwards you’re still aching for heavy hitting drama, there’s always the female Aussie bildingsroman of Somersault; the kids’ inhumanity to kids picture, Mean Creek; Palindromes, the latest cry of angst from Todd Solondz, or the fascinating Columbian drug mule drama of Maria Full Of Grace, featuring a remarkable Oscar nominated performance from screen debutante Catalina Sandrino Moreno.
The DIFF’s rather lighter moments are provided by Mickybo And Me, a feel-good cross-sectarian movie set in 1970s Belfast and Wes Anderson’s eagerly awaited follow-up to The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, a terrifically fishy and surreal exercise in deadpan built around Bill Murray’s hangdog features. The fantastic Garden State, with Zach Braff and Natalie Portman provides similarly indie-accented humour. Fans of rather broader Shaw Brothers styled shenanigans, meanwhile, would be best advised to check out Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. But, if you’re not feeling all that exotic, there’s always the new Woody Allen picture, Melinda And Melinda. This time around Will Ferrell leads the sophisticated smut.
Speaking of which, no festival line-up would be complete without several films capable of getting the chattering nabobs all in a fume and the DIFF boasts a happy number of deviant titles. Perhaps the most notorious of these is Michael Winterbottom’s Nine Songs which features performances from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Von Bondies, Franz Ferdinand and The Dandy Warhols plus explicit scenes of a sexual nature (or as people around these parts would have it, decent action). Ms. Sexton and I are very keen on going along to protest vociferously. Those with a purely academic interest in sexuality (as if), meanwhile, can improve their minds with the terrific Kinsey, a biopic on the John The Baptist of sexology, played with suitable zest by Liam Neeson.
More indigenous tumbles can be found in the Dublin based romantic drama The Trouble With Sex, which boasts a superbly spiky, sensual turn from Renee Weldon as an anti-Bridget Jones, replete with stilettos and a vodka-swilling habit. So much more effective than simpering over Chardonnay, don’t you think?
Asian highlights – ooh, this is my bit – include the sublime House Of Flying Daggers, the absolutely unmissable Nobody Knows and a couple of shock and awe classics from the Tartan back catalogue; John Woo’s Hard Boiled and Miike’s lurking horror, Audition. Even more exciting is the chance to catch The Cat Returns, Studio Ghibli’s follow-up to the awesome Spirited Away.
We also can’t wait for Guy Maddin’s latest demented melodrama Cowards Bend The Knee, Bruno Ganz’s Hitler in Downfall, The Dandy Warhols’ mockumentary Dig! and seeing daylight again come February 21st.

The Third Jameson Dublin International Film Festival runs from February 11th until February 20th. Call (01) 8721122 for more details.