The 2014 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival features more than 350 films from 70 countries over 16 days, plus post-screening Q&A sessions with actors, directors and writers. Each weekday and on the weekend, we'll provide highlights of the day ahead and One to Watch: a review of a film we recommend highly.
One to Watch: Leviathan (3.5/4 stars)
- Directed by: Andrey Zvyagintsev
- Starring: Alexey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova
- Genre: Comedy/Drama
- Year: 2014
- Country: Russia
- Language: Russian
- Showtime: 9 p.m., Vancouver Playhouse
This fourth feature from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena), is like a woolly Coen brothers movie and a blistering social indictment of contemporary Russia. Kolya, an auto-shop owner, has a beautiful house with stunning views of the sea, but the corrupt mayor and his gangster cronies will stop at nothing to take it from him. The title refers to both the Book of Job and Thomas Hobbes’s famous essay, which defines the state as a man-made monster. – Liam Lacey
How the sausage gets made
Not all of the stars at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival are on the big screen.
VIFF is also holding an industry conference through Oct. 4 that features some high-profile figures from television and film grappling with creative, business and technical issues in the business.
Friday’s lineup is especially interesting.
A panel on episodic TV called Specific Voices features Chris Collins, the executive producer and head writer of the popular biker drama Sons of Anarchy, and Jack Amiel, the co-creator of The Knick, about life in a 1900-era New York City hospital. All 10 episodes of the Cinemax series were directed by movie-maker Steven Soderbergh, known for such feature films as Erin Brockovitch, Traffic, Oceans Eleven and Magic Mike.
Mr. Collins and Mr. Amiel are to talk about what makes compelling TV, and managing on-screen violence in the interests of holding viewer attention.
Sneak peek at next season on Archer
Later Friday, the All Kinds of Funny presentation features Adam Reed, creator of the quirky animated spy series Archer on the FX network. Mr. Reed is bringing a treat for fans of the series – a preview from next season.
But the screen is the business of the festival, and the shows go on there.
Other promising prospects on Friday include a last VIFF chance to see Goodbye to Language 3D, directed by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, noted for such classics as À boute de soufflé and Alphaville. Goodbye, which won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes film festival, is Mr. Godard’s 39th film – a drama about a couple with issues to work out. A film featuring another legend of French cinema makes a first VIFF appearance this year with Catherine Deneuve playing a casino owner battling the mob in 1970s era France in In the Name of My Daughter.
And there’s the acclaimed German film Phoenix about a female concentration-camp survivor with a new identity. Some have compared it to Alfred Hitchcock’s mesmerizing classic Vertigo. The Globe rated it four out of four stars at its TIFF appearance. It has its VIFF debut at 9 p.m. at the SFU Goldthorp Centre for the Arts.
There’s also the VIFF debut of A Dangerous Game, a British documentary about the environmental impact of golf that features the views of none other than Donald Trump, who figured in director Anthony Baxter’s previous film, You’ve Been Trumped, which is about the construction of a Scottish golf course.
On the Canadian front, Friday features the world premiere of the B.C. family drama Turbulence, director Sturla Gunnarsson’s documentary Monsoon, about the impact of a weather system on India, and the world premiere of Fall, an Ontario drama about a Catholic priest in Niagara Falls, played by Michael Murphy, who has to grapple with allegations of sexual transgression. The film was directed by Terrance Odette.