OFF CAMERA DIARY: OPENING DAY

Oct 03 | Author: Mike Plante

Next to a beautiful river and the center of Krakow is a gigantic castle. Once upon a time there was a dragon there, eating all the virgins. Until a local man put sulfur into a sheep and fed it to the dragon, making it explode. Finally safe, the castle and the town were built, named Krakow in honor of the man. Fill in the blank analogies for independent filmmakers fighting dragons.

The opening night film was THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS) by Laurent Cantet, this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes. Following a teacher and his French class throughout a year, it’s reminiscent of Cantet’s earlier films HUMAN RESOURCES and TIME OUT, exploring social systems and people struggling to stay individuals within. The plot is slightly frustrating as it brings up various issues the teacher and students have but then does not come back to them in favor of covering an entire school year. However, the overall film feels great, the lead actor and the kids are all incredible. It has an unmistakable documentary feel, with the kid’s hormones and attitudes raging yet with none of the triteness that contemporary teen films and television shows suffer from. Here each teenager is a real human being, with ups and downs, intelligent decisions and unfortunate mistakes.

The film played at a nice, big single screen theater to a sold out crowd. Preceding the film was a great singer/accordionist and nicely paced introductions to the jury and festival heads. After the film was a party in a train station, where everyone talked about the unusual environment and great lineup. From Dan Sallitt, whose two films (ALL THE SHIPS AT SEA and HONEYMOON) at Off Camera barely got fest play anywhere, to Sol Tryon, whose film THE LIVING WAKE has still not played in his hometown New York, to juror Michael Almereyda, whose early Pixelvision films will be playing this week – people feel like this could be a special festival. Fingers crossed. David Zellner, who is here with his lost cat/man-in-distress film GOLIATH (co-directed by brother Nathan), has already been interviewed by a Polish cat magazine.