eden Tagged Articles at Cinematical

By: Scott Weinberg (review reprinted from 04/27/08 -- Tribeca Film Festival)

Even at film festivals, my tastes generally run towards the dark, the funny, or the weird movies -- but I've always had a real soft spot for all things Irish, so as I browsed through my film guide I found a good option called Eden. Based on the award-winning stage play of the same name, Eden is about not much more than the slow disintegration of a marriage -- just as the couple is about to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, no less. Gee, that sounds like fun, doesn't it? OK, so Eden isn't exactly a "fun" movie -- but it is one of the most honest, touching, and quietly insightful "people stories" I've seen in quite some time. And that sort of experience is definitely "fun," albeit in a decidedly grown-up way.

Clocking in at a brisk 84 minutes (and without a wasted frame in there), Eden tells the tale of Billy and Breda, a seemingly contented -- but actually quite bored and uncommunicative -- married couple who have slowly come to take each other for granted. The spouses obviously still love one another, but there's nothing there in the way of spontaneity, passion or surprises. Breda hopes that their upcoming anniversary will smooth things over a bit, but it's pretty clear that this couple is suffering from a few quiet years of "going through the motions." Billy is a good provider and a loyal dad to their two children, but he seems to be on the cusp of a seriously embarrassing midlife crisis. For her part, Breda (like most women, regardless of age) simply wants to feel wanted -- and Billy's not exactly delivering the goods in the affection department.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam just wrapped - here's a wrap up of the word around the Internet on the best (and worst) of the fest's offerings:

Over on Twitch, reader Peter sent in a most impressive summary of the 25 films he saw in Rotterdam, focusing heavily on the Japanese offerings at Rotterdam. A couple of fun, Kamikaze Girl-style flicks (The Great Yokai War , a children's film directed by hard cult director Miike Takashi, and Yaji and Kita - The Midnight Pilgrims, which may be "the most cheeful drugs film every made"; a trio of very "weak and nasty" films, one of which ends with three bad guys getting anally violated at a proctologist's office - ouch!); and one very good film, It's Only Talk, directed by Hiroki Ryuichi. I'll keep an eye out for that one - Peter describes it as being like Lost in Translation, which I liked very much. Peter also details other films he enjoyed, including Drawing Restraint 9, by performance artist and sculptor Matthew Barney.

Indiewire' s Mark Rabinowitz  has a great write up about Cinemart, Rotterdam's co-production market and one of the "jewels of the indie film world".

Frenchy enjoyed Reefer Madness: The Musical. (film is an adaptation of the stage version, starring the original stage cast,)and hated Analife - "crap onna stick". Ouch.

Eden, Michael Hoffman's "romantic culinary comedy", picks up the Tiscali Audience Award.

The White Light Weblog - a special programme section of IFFR, which presents a series of "drugs driven" cinema. No, that doesn't mean the filmmakers are on drugs; section features "hallucinating cinema" and "narco cinema", in which drugs appear as a plot catalyst.