57th SF International Film Festival
April 18, 2014 The 57th San Francisco International Film Festival takes place next week (April 24-May 8), so get your tickets before they're sold out. 168 films will be showcased from around the world, so there's a lot of great films to choose from. Here are a few previews:
Claudia Sainte-Luce's debut feature, "The Amazing Catfish" ("Los Insólitos Peces Gato"), is an understated gem to savor. When lonely Claudia ends up in the hospital with appendicitis, she's pulled into the happily chaotic world of fellow patient Martha. As Claudia engages with Martha's lively household, she bears witness to Martha's daily struggle of living and dying with intention. Based loosely on the director's life, she teams up with cinematographer Agnès Godard to capture the warm, colorful scenes of Guadalajara.
Claudia Sainte-Luce's "The Amazing Catfish," playing at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival.
Japanese singer Atsuko Maeda does a fine turn as couch potato Tamako in Nobuhiro Yamashita's light drama "Tamako in Moratorium" ("Moratoriamu Tamako"). Aimless and lethargic, loner Tamako returns home from college with little incentive to find a job. Her father endlessly dotes on her as she eats and sleep all day, but she eventually realizes that she needs to leave the nest and forge her own path.
Atsuko Maeda in "Tamako in Moratorium."
A thinly-veiled self portrait of her past, Catherine Breillat's "Abuse of Weakness" is an honest account of a co-dependent relationship between a partially crippled filmmaker and a notorious con man. Isabelle Huppert is simply magnetic as Maud, a director recovering from a debilititating stroke. She soon discovers Vilko (Kool Shen), a celebrity con man and casts him in her next film. Painfully uncomfortable at times, it is an unflinching look at Maud's perverse power games with a dangerous man.
Kool Shen and Isabelle Huppert in "Abuse of Weakness."For more festival information and tickets: www.sffs.org/festival-home.
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