What we do in the Shadows (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi
	Actors: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh
	Country: NZ
	Genre: Comedy, Horror, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 11.07.2014, Cinema Temple du Bas, NIFFF14
Synopsis: The daily life of four vampire friends sharing a house in New-Zealand.
Review: Let me get this straight: What we do in the Shadows is not a masterpiece of filmmaking because of the simple way it is directed, shot and acted, and the unimportant music. But you will definitely laugh your ass off when watching it, preferable between friends or in a full theater room like I experienced it at the NIFFF. By coincidence I was wearing the T-shirt of the Espoo Film Festival 2011 displaying a character from another mockumentary about the vampire community, Belgian this time: Vampires by Vincent Lanoo (also responsible for the excellent In the Name of the Son). Can you believe there are already two movie of this exact same sub-genre?! There were so many good and funny ideas around the original concept in the first 10 minutes that I feared this well would dry long before the end. But it does not, and we only notice a slight slowing down of the laughing rate. The movie is a bit bloody but not scary at all. It is shot in a documentary style but there is no interaction with the crew, it is more just a gimmick to have the characters speak to the camera for more comic effect. Four vampires from different epochs struggle to find food, get invited in order to enter bars, get dressed without seeing their reflection, and decide who is going to wash the dishes. There are so many hilarious moments in the movie but I cannot describe any, you have to watch them to understand. What is amazing is how the writers (also playing two of the vampires) could come up with funny ideas around simple events like a vampire in love, being friend with a human, meeting a gang of werewolves (this bunch is also incredibly funny). I can only repeat this to conclude: the movie will probably never hit the cinema screens in Europe, but find it in DVD and watch it, or go see it as Centerpiece of the Fantasy Filmfest, I guarantee you will have a great time. It won the prize of the public at the NIFFF14, definitely not a surprise when I heard the bursts of laughter during the projection.
Rating: 9 /10

Der Samurai (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Till Kleinert
	Actors: Michel Diercks, Pit Bukowski, Uwe Preuss
	Country: D
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 11.07.2014, Cinema des Arcades, NIFFF14
Synopsis: A young police officer (Diercks) investigates the presence of a lone wolf in a small German village. He delivers a sword to a unknown transvestite (Bukowski), and will then hunt him down while he feels that this meeting has changed him.
Review: Till Kleinert has directed this movie as the end project for his cinema studies, and the quality of the product is very high when you know that. It is not as impressive as another end-of-studies movie I have recently seen: Robin Hood, but still very seriously done. The story may be a bit confusing and the references mismatched, so much that the first questions to the director at the end of he movie he just presented at he NIFFF14 were: "what is the meaning of your movie?" and "what does the samurai mean?" and "what does the wolf represent?". He patiently replied to those questions although I think the public should have more thought about it by themselves before asking. For a long time I believed the transvestite Samurai (yes that's a man on the poster) was another side of the policeman's schizophrenic brain, like Tyler Durden in Fight Club. This guess did not come true but the director confirmed that this is one message he wanted to convey. So the movie is not perfect but it is short enough (80 min) that I didn't get bored and liked the originality.
Rating: 5 /10

P'tit Quinquin (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Bruno Dumont
	Actors: Alane Delhaye, Lucy Caron, Bernard Pruvost
	Country: F
	Genre: Comedy, Polar, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 12.07.2014, Cinema Temple du Bas, NIFFF14
Synopsis: On the French Cote d'Opale (in the North), a dead cow is found in a bunker, with pieces of human body inside her. While the Gendarmerie Captain is investigating, P'tit Quiquin is nosing around with his group of friends.
Review: One had to be motivated to watch the four 50-minute episodes of this TV mini-series back to back as a 3.5-hour movie starting at eleven in the morning at the NIFFF14, but I had a hunch it could be good. You should know that the cast in this movie had never acted before, and the director chose them for other qualities, mostly as it seems for their not-so-beautiful faces, their nervous tics, or their speech difficulties. And in the end this is what makes you laugh (a lot) in this movie, as it sadly reminds of a reality-TV show: the characters and incredibly realistic, and at the same time try to play a role as best as they can but with limited success. I felt a bit ashamed and voyeuristic when laughing at/with some characters/actors. At the beginning I didn't really know what to expect, and was a bit stunned by the acting but once I understood it was all done on purpose, I relaxed and could really appreciate the twisted story and the many improbable characters. The movie was presented as a "Camembert thriller" and it describes it pretty well. You spend a lot of time with characters born and raised in the deep countryside of French North, and see how they live with their defects (it is true that unfortunately we don't see much of their good sides). Don't expect a serious police investigation though, the captain in charge is very odd and his reasoning foggy (thus his surname: "The Fog"). Instead, we see a lot of repetition of comic behavior that will make you laugh every time, at least in the first 2 hours. After that the rhythm changes, we laugh less and there seems to be a lack of ideas. At the end of the article you can find pictures of the hilarious police captain, and of the touching young couple. The mini-series will be shown on Arte between September 18th and 25th, and my advice would be to watch (in French at any rate) for sure the first episode and maybe the second, well at least until the church scene. Then if you have the time watch the rest but don't expect to like it as much as the beginning.
Rating: 7 /10

Yasmine (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Siti Kamaluddin, Chan Man Ching
	Actors: Arifin Putra, Reza Rahadian, Liyana Yus
	Country: BRU
	Genre: Drama, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 11.07.2014, Theatre du Passage, NIFFF14
Synopsis: At 17, Yasmine (Yus) is experiencing changes in her life: new school, new friends, conflicts with her father (Rahadian). She subscribes to a Silat club (a Martial Art) against his will to get closer to a boy she likes.
Review: It is hard to find out whether Yasmine is the first feature-length film ever made in Brunei, or the first in 50 years, or the first Martial Arts movie, and I also found on Imbd a film from Brunei dating 2013. So many contradicting information, but for sure it is the first movie by its director, and she had to import many things from abroad because they don't exist in Brunei: cameras, material, and even professional actors or dialogs coach. It is not very clear from the poster but the main actress (in her first role) is 17 and the story is really about coming of age. Silat is just one activity she finds to differentiate herself. I was pleasantly surprised that unlike many other Martial Arts movies, this one is not just a random story revolving around fights, but rather the realistic depiction of the life of a teenager in this far away country (a sultanate actually) that is Brunei, and Silat training is just a way to see her from another side (OK and to insert some action in the movie as well). You cannot believe that it is the first movie from Brunei because it looks very professional in its images, music, fight choreography and even acting, the most surprising for some members of the cast that never acted before. Only sometimes it looks naive, but this is not disturbing. The relationships between all characters is very well told: a young selfish girl, her new friend trying to loose weight, the single father, the 'clown' master and the 'serious' master in a wheelchair. all those ingredients are nicely mixed to deliver a pleasant movie that I can recommend. No wonder it won the first price in the New Asian Cinema selection.   Below you can find some alternative movie posters that I find much better looking than the 'official' one.
Rating: 8 /10

Dancing Karate Kid (2013)

	Also Known As: Ryûkyû Battle Royale (original)
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Tsukasa Kishimoto
	Actors: Joey, Yui Koike, Masahiro Arakaki
	Country: J
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 12.07.2014, Cinema Bio, NIFFF2014
Synopsis: Ken (Joey) travels to the Okinawa island to live off his dancing skills while improving them and finally chose a style. He will end up in the middle of a battle between dojos.
Review: This is the only movie I have seen at the NIFFF14 that is part of the selection "Fantasy Japan", organized to celebrate 150 years of trade between Japan and Switzerland. This selection didn't seem to present a very strong interest, only gathering recent movie that can be classified as "genre". Dancing Karate Kid evolve very slowly, the stakes are not really interesting (fighting to keep a dojo and get a bride) and the jokes rare and not too good. The main actor does dance well, and we see a couple of fights well coregraphed, but I will forget this movie very quickly.
Rating: 3 /10

That Demon Within (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Dante Lam (The Stool Pigeon)
	Actors: Daniel Wu, Nick Cheung, Kai Chi Liu
	Country: HK, CN
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 11.07.2014, Cinema des Arcades, NIFFF14
Synopsis: A dutiful cop, guilt-ridden over saving the life of a gang leader, becomes obsessed with bringing down the crime syndicate of the man he saved.
Review: I missed this movie at the FEFF14 and heard good things about Dante Lam, so I saw it this time at the NIFFF14, but it was not as energetic as I expected so I had a hard time fighting digestion after a solid lunch. That Demon Within tries to be a different kind of polar, more following the psychology of the main character, but while doing that it lacks the action required to keep you awake. The motivation of the main character is not always clear and I frankly got lost at some point in the story. We learned during the introduction of the movie by the Festival organizers that the main actor was not the planned one, this one having been drowned in a story of stolen personal pictures that even affected the director. I should probably better see the best polar by Date Lam since the scandal: Unbeatable.
Rating: 3 /10

Under the Skin (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Jonathan Glazer
	Actors: Scarlett Johansson (The Man who wasn't there, Iron Man 2), Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay
	Country: USA, GB, CH
	Genre: Horror, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 10.07.2014, Theatre du Passage, NIFFF14
Synopsis: An attractive woman (Johansson) is driving across Scotland in a van, seducing single men into her den.
Review:  One should not read anything at all about this movie before watching it because some keywords in many summaries (alien, vampire) could prevent you from making your own opinion about Under the Skin. But one description that fits well and can help you decide whether to watch the movie or not is that it is a 'visual trip', warning you that it is going to be slow, very slow. Indeed not much happens, and it seems a it too easy to show the main character driving around, and every 10 minutes she picks up a guy, and each time we see a little bit more of what ha[ens of him. This will occupy you for the first hour. The rest of the movie is different but also intriguing if not really surprising. The common point to the whole movie is the quite stylised filmmaking, espcially in the main character's den. It is visually interesting and the sparse music helps this feeling. Some shots in the second half of the movie are also very well constructed. Scarlett Johansson is very natural in her acting and dressing, not really put to her advantage (see picture below), especially when we see her totally naked several times. This must have been for her a choice of getting a bit away from the Hollywod Blockuster machine (The Avengers and co.). In a few words: it looks good, but this simple story is told very slowly.
Rating: 6 /10

Late Phases (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Adrián García Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil, The ABCs of Death)
	Actors: Nick Damici, Ethan Embry, Lance Guest
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 10.07.2014, Temple du Bas, NIFFF14
Synopsis: Ambrose (Damici), a blind war veteran, moves into a retirement village with the help of his son. During his first night there he will be attacked and his dog killed.
Review: Late Phases is the first English language movie of the director Adrián García Bogliano from whom I liked a lot the weird Here Comes the Devil and its original story of cursed mountain in Mexico. It starts with a barely credible Werewolf attack scene (guys in cheap costumes), but fortunately the real interest in the movie is the preparation of the retired blind war veteran for the next attack at the following full moon. His reactions as a blind man are also not always credible, and I found the actor looks too young for the part, but we get to see him interact with his son and his neighbourhood and slowly investigate the origin of the monsters as he is getting ready until the final attack, short but much better than the first one. An interesting attempt of a different view for a werewolf movie, but not an extraordinary one.
Rating: 5 /10

Discopathe (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Renaud Gauthier
	Actors: Jérémie Earp-Lavergne, Catherine Antaki, François Aubin, Sandrine Bisson
	Country: CDN
	Genre: Horror, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 10.07.2014, Theatre du Passage, NIFFF14
Synopsis: Duane (Earp-Lavergne) is a troubled young man who cannot keep a job in New-York at the time when Disco music becomes popular. An evening at a club will unleash a side of him he did not suspect.
Review: The concept could have made a good comedy: a man that is pushed to kill only when he hears Disco music! Actually the movie was sold to me as a retro slasher. But finally there are only a few moments that were made funny on purpose, the rest of the movie tries to show seriously a police investigation, and depicts the life of young people in New-York (in 1976) and Montreal (in 1980). This is not badly done in itself, but one gets lost because of the jumps between characters presentation, police work, murdered psyche and brutal scenes. It looks like the director didn't know which kind of movie to make, so he mixed too many genres. The kind of absurd of some scenes made me think of Quentin Dupieux's filmmaking (Steak, Rubber). The public at the NIFFF14 applauded at the end of the movie, but only to thank it for being over, so that we could finally go to bed after this late projection.
Rating: 2 /10

The Lady Avenger (1981)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1981
	Director: Chia-Yun Yang
	Actors: Hsiao-Fen Lu, Lun Hua, Nien-kuo Kao
	Country: RC
	Genre: Drama, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 10.07.2014, Bio cinema, NIFFF14
Synopsis: A TV commercial actress is raped by a rich man, who is found not guilty at the trial. A young journalist tries to have rape more recognized by the society of the time.
Review: Needless to say that I didn't know much about the Taiwanese cinema of the 80's. Discovering such films is what Festivals are for. The Lady Avenger was presented in the poorest copy I have ever seen for any movie in my life, but we were warned: the original negative (moldy) was transferred to a beta tape and this is what we saw. So the film was full of stripes and red/green waves were crossing the image at every moment. Check the picture down below for some better quality images. The sound was also rather high-pitched, and some scenes were lost or censored from the movie. But if it is the price to pay to have the opportunity to see such a rare item, then why not. The Lady Avenger is a classical Rape & Revenge movie, reminding the recent (at the time) I spit on your Grave (1978) for the length of the rape scene, and the upcoming Sudden Impact (1983) directed by Clint Eastwood. The story is well told especially when you think it was directed by a young woman during a hard period in Taiwan, and she couldn't show anything. The editing is also strange: you get to see all the murders in the opening credits, and then they are cut during the main film! What I liked is the framing of the scenes that look very professional and actually American. The use of the repetitive music is also well done, and the staging of the murders. The rape scene couldn't be shown so we actually spend 10 minutes witnessing the humiliation inflicted to the victim, and this for the two rapes of the movie. All of this makes the movie quite realistic and involving for the viewer. An interesting rare piece of cinema history.
Rating: 5 /10