Sydney Film Festival Day 3

A very gay day indeed... even while the rain torrents nearly made me stay in the house.

I like to have themes during festivals and Sunday just turned out to be a little... bent. Two films that dealt with homosexuals in highly conservative societies screening on Sunday the 11th caught my eye.
Paul Schrader's 'THE WALKER' was made back in 2006 but I'd never heard of the film until this Sydney screening. Considering that the film deals with murder and corruption at the higher ranks of Washington's political elite... I wouldn't be surprised if someone up there didn't really feel like letting out of the bush.
This strange, strange post-neo-noir looks at the unconventional career of one Carter Page III - a gay Virginian tobacco heir, played with astonishing aplomb by... wait for it... Woody Harrelson. Carter makes it his duty to be that essential accessory that every rich politician's wife should have - her handbag. He's there to amuse them while they play cards in the afternoon, ready to advise them what kind of fabric they should choose for their walls, soothe their anxieties by telling them how beautiful they look and drop them off to their lovers' houses when they need an alibi. It just so happens that Carl's closest fag-hug friend, a leftist senator's wife Lynn Lockner (Kristin Scott-Thomas), needs such an alibi when her boyfriend turns up murdered. Poor Carter of course promises to help and is dragged deep into the dirty side of Washington politics.
What at first seems like a political satire with Woody hamming it up as the unofficial Louella Parsons of Washington, turns into an increasingly complex thriller that sheds skin like an onion and smells like raw fish.
Think Big Sleep crossed with My Best Friend's Wedding and you get some idea of what Schrader has come up with. Of course I don't mean to suggest that such a superficial description could do justice to a film as multilayered as this. But it's not for nothing that Schrader has authored a seminal essay on film noir. He knows the style like the back of his hand and deals his cards like an ultimate pro. You think you know where the film is going to go, but after leaving the film you might suddenly realise that if you were watching a murder mystery, you still don't know who the killer is. But that's not the point anyway. Schrader has drawn a sublime character study rendered nearly impeccable with dialogue tuned like a piano wire. Harrelson gives a standout performance. It seems every macho Hollywood star is clamoring for a chance to wear pink so expect at least some Oscar buzz.
I'm not very well versed in interior American politics, but the film works simply as a study of corrupt power masquerading as democracy and there's no audience member in the world nowadays that can not relate to that. I could go on and on about this film because it works on so many levels. Suffice to say that Schrader has made one of his best works so far which proves once again that he's one of the best, most sensitive, liberal and honest American filmmakers working today.

'LA LEON' is a chamber piece set in the Argentinian tropics. It's a quietly brooding film that looks at yet another outsider who tries his best to go on about his business without bothering anyone. Him being gay of course is a problem, although no one seems to care much except the resentful ferry man who has issues with all outsiders including a bunch of immigrants stealing wood from the region's forests.
Stunningly photographed in black and white, La Leon simmers with menace underneath its languid surface. It reminded me of some of the seminal Japanese films of the 60s ('Onibaba', 'Woman in the Dunes') that dealt with repressed sexual desire. But unlike those films, director Antheago Otheguy's second feature delivers the same old notions and truths that we've seen countless times before. Yes, the bully just wants to fuck the protagonist, yes the landscape is a sexual metaphor, yes society is a rotten microcosm no matter where its located... yawn... I felt like I was seeing 'L'Aventura' for about 10 millionth time. The arthouse trappings of films like this are just not enough to disguise the fact that the water is only ankle deep. Added to it is a plot that is almost archaic in convention, leaving this audience member catatonic with luck of suspense. And lets admit it... when you're watching someone raw a boat for minutes and minutes... the least you can ask for is some element of surprise. Still... I managed to gain some enjoyment out of exquisite shots of canes gently swaying in the water...

There you have it. A very solid start but no revelations so far.