Revelation - 16th Perth International Film Festival July 4 – 14th
Interior. Leather Bar.
Hollywood heartthrob and agent provocateur
James Franco and fellow filmmaker Travis Matthews put themselves out on a limb
and create a re-imagining of something precious few have ever seen: the
notorious and legendary - amongst cinephiles – missing forty odd minutes that
director William Friedkin was forced to cut from his controversial movie
Cruising in order to secure an R-rating from the MPAA, and not get slapped with
the kiss-of-death X cert. Just what were in those forty minutes? Al Pacino deep
undercover as a NYC homosexual prowling an underground gay club in search of a
vicious serial killer. As perversely fascinating as that sounds Interior.
Leather Bar. is far more interesting as a documentary on the organisation,
auditions, and rehearsals during the making of this maverick indie exploration
of desire and identity on film. What is ultimately exposed and studied is the
creative process stripped back.
Friday 11th, 10pm, C1 Luna
London – The Modern Babylon
Director Julien Temple takes the viewer on
a kaleidoscopic journey through the annals of London’s development from the
turn of the century right through into the new millennium. It’s a paen and a
lament wrapped up in greasy fish’n’chip paper and thrown into the gutter of
Trafalgar Square. Temple’s perspective is a very personal one, deeply
entrenched in socio-politics. This is not a travelogue to entice tourism, but
it does celebrate the city in a contemptuous fashion. This is a richly
archived, darkly fascinating history of a city plagued by problems; poverty and
social disease, racism and classism, but also a city that has continued to pick
itself up from its knees and blossom once again, if only until the next
thrashing. The montage of extraordinary archival footage is intercut with
Londoners, both ordinary folk and celebrities, recounting their love/hate
relationship with the metropolis. Temple punctuates with a selection of gritty
songs of (mostly) yesteryear, no doubt plucked straight from his own
collection.
Saturday 6th, 1.45pm, C2 Luna, Saturday 13th, 8.30pm, SX, Sunday 14th, 3pm, C1 Luna
The Act of Killing
An utterly original take on the inhumanity
of humankind, this lengthy documentary follows a clutch of former Indonesian
death squad leaders as they recount and, more curiously, reenact (and film) the
killings they did on thousands of innocent men, women, and children in the mid-60s.
It’s a hard pill to swallow, as the appalling nature of their acts is strangely
and disturbingly lightened in tone as the central figure is of a charming
disposition. It’s not surprising Werner Herzog and Errol Morris are the
executive producers, as this kind of provocative documentary filmmaking is
right up their alley. At times surreal and beautiful, at times heartbreaking,
at times utterly grotesque, the violence of truth is exposed and laid bare. But
time is a beast unto itself. Forty years have passed and these sanctioned
murders have been buried. Now they have been exhumed and the repercussions have
a resonant edge all of their own.
Sunday 7th, 2pm, C4 Luna, Saturday 13th, 11.30am, C1 Luna
Exposed
“There is freedom in vulgarity,” says Bunny
Love, an American burlesque performer. And in this frightfully endearing exposé
on the risqué side of cutting edge burlesque – New Burlesque, if you will – a
bunch of performers from the US and the UK talk candidly about the trials and
tribulations of this confrontational stage art, but more importantly, the
passion they share for its unabashed exhibitionism and stalwart individualism.
Some of these people are damaged souls that have found solace behind the
nakedness, some are considered freaks by the conservative norm, but in the
realm of the burlesque they are normal. It is this portrait that filmmaker Beth
B. brushes with broad strokes, coaxing deeper ideals from within the sexual
mind. Exposed isn’t designed to titillate, despite the inherent nature of
burlesque’s leftfield eroticism. There are many insights into the nuts and
cracks of the burlesque revival of the past twenty years, with a vibrant and
sly sense of humour, and plenty of nudity whipped up into a frenzy of political
drag.
Tuesday 9th, 9pm, C1 Luna, Sunday 14th, 7pm, C4 Luna