THE MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
2005 DIARY

By Laurie Meunier Graves

DAY 9

It is the next to the last day, and we’re holding out pretty well. Before the movies begin, we decide to start the day at Gaetano’s restaurant in Waterville. We are joined by four other cinéastes, and the meal we have is absolutely delicious—wonderful homemade soups and great bread with simple but tasty combinations. I have bruschetta topped with artichoke hearts flavored with a touch of lemon and garlic. It probably isn’t wise to judge a restaurant after only eating lunch there one time, but I would have to say that Gaetano’s is by far the best restaurant in Waterville. Admittedly, the competition is not stiff, but for a city the size of Waterville (population of about 15,000 according to the 2000 census), there are a fair number of good restaurants. The Bread Box, separated from Gaetano’s by The Waterville House of Pizza, is very, very good. Then, there is the Last Unicorn, about a quarter of a mile away. While the food at the Last Unicorn isn’t as good as the food at Gaetano’s and the Bread Box, it’s better than average, and the same can be said for a Thai restaurant on the outskirts of town. Finally, there are a couple of Lebanese restaurants that are supposedly quite good, and I plan to visit them sometime soon.

I must admit I am puzzled by the sudden proliferation of fine restaurants in this former mill town. Except for Colby College and the hospitals, it seems to me that there are no really decent paying jobs in the city. How can such a limp economy support these restaurants? Are there a lot of state workers who live in Waterville but work in Augusta, Maine’s capital, which is not far away? I just don’t know, but it’s wonderful to see a bit of life return to this once vibrant little city where people used to come from miles around to do their shopping. I remember those days very well, when Waterville had nice department stores lining Main Street, and there were drug stores, two music stores, a bookstore, a real diner, two five-and-ten stores, three movie theaters, and a lot more as well. Those days are gone, but perhaps something different is coming to the fill the holes left by all the businesses that have died. Maybe we are becoming a sort of Paris on the Kennebec, as Alan Sanborn suggested at the beginning of the festival. It seems farfetched, but who knows? It could happen. And perhaps if I’m really lucky, I’ll live long enough to see someone open a Franco-American café on Main Street where tourtière pie is served. Now that would be progress.

THE OVERTURE
Thailand, 2004; 104 minutes; 35mm; in Thai with English subtitles



Melodrama in the best and truest sense of the word. This Thai movie follows the life of Sorn, a true musician who plays a wooden xylophone called the ranard-ek. The film begins some time in the 1800s and ends in the 1940s. Along the way, Sorn must overcome all sorts of obstacles: the threat of violence from rival players; his own father’s understandable reluctance to let him play because of that violence; Thorn’s personality, which rocks between being timid and bold; and, finally, as an old man, the Thai government’s attempt to ban traditional Siamese music because it is not modern enough. Throughout the movie is the music, sometimes lovely and soft, at other times energetic and loud, and reminiscent of American jazz.

As is common with melodramas, The Overture doesn’t hold back with either the symbolism or the emotion. A rival is dressed in black while young Sorn wears white. The movie opens and closes with a butterfly. Yet, it all works as a true melodrama should, and, in the end, I even find myself crying a little. Particularly poignant is when Sorn, as an old man, confronts an officer who has come to interrogate him about playing the forbidden music. Sorn explains (and I’m paraphrasing) that the military might need rules and discipline but that music and art need freedom.

I couldn’t agree more, and I find myself, yet again, disgusted with the way people impose arbitrary and meaningless rules on each other.

THE EDUKATORS
Germany, 2005; 126 minutes; 35mm; in German with English subtitles

¾

This German movie about three disaffected young people is almost very good. Jan, Peter, and Jule are committed activists, antiglobalists whose enthusiasm for protest and slogans is more than a little zealous. There intentions are admirable—they want the world to be a fairer place—but I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a society where they are in charge. Humor, balance, and empathy seem completely foreign to them, and like their American counterparts in the 1960s, they are an odd combination of the hedonistic and the puritanical. That is, self-indulgent with themselves and severe with those of whom they disapprove. On the other hand, what kind of movie would we have if Jan, Peter, and Jule were happy, well-adjusted adults? Not much of one, and their struggles with themselves, each other, and their society make the movie interesting and, at times, even rivetting.

Jan and Peter are “The Edukators” of the title. By day, they protest in the streets. By night, they go into mansions and rearrange the furniture so that little figurines are piled in the toilet, and pictures are shoved in the refrigerator. (How Jan and Peter support themselves is never really made clear.) When they are done, the mansions are topsy-turvy, and the finishing touch, the cherry on the sundae so to speak, are the little preachy notes they leave behind.

Jule is Peter’s girlfriend, and one night when he is away, she and Jan break into a mansion to do some rearranging. Let’s just say that things don’t go as planned, and before long, the hapless trio has kidnapped the owner, and they all go on an impromptu trip into the countryside to Jule’s uncle’s cabin. There, they discover many things, not the least of which is that the darned toilet paper never lasts as long as they think it should and that they must constantly run to town for more. And, also, as it turns out, that the man they kidnapped was once a radical when he was young.

The three young actors who play Jule, Jan, and Peter are very good, but unfortunately, their parts don’t have much depth. They begin the movie as self-righteous and self-absorbed, and that’s pretty much how they stay for the rest of it. While it’s true that Jule, Jan, and Peter are neither as hard nor as clueless as they initially seem to be, they just don’t have the spark necessary for fully-realized characters.

BREAKING NEWS
Hong Kong/China, 2004; 90 minutes; 35mm; in Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles

1/2

A kicky little film that pits cops against robbers and robbers against each other. As to be expected, bullets fly, and, by the time the movie is over, the body count is high. The movie’s sly humor makes it more entertaining than the average gangster movie, and the role of the media provides additional interest. Both the cops and the robbers try to use the media, to hilarious effect, to manipulate public opinion, a move that nowadays doesn’t really seem all that farfetched. I must confess I am really tired when I see this movie. I have the feeling that the movie would probably seem a lot funnier if I wasn't so exhausted. Still, I laugh more than a few times, which is no small accomplishment at the end of day nine.

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