MELBOURNE International Film Festival, focus on Jean Epstein

MELBOURNE International Film Festival, which launched its full program yesterday, boasts world and Australian premieres and titles fresh from Cannes, but this year there is also a distinct retrospective element.
 
Notably, there is a focus on the work of pioneering French theorist and filmmaker Jean Epstein.
 
”I think it is really important to have silent films alongside new films and among other retrospectives, to keep that alive,” says MIFF artistic director Michelle Carey.
 
Epstein, who was an important figure in the 1920s avant garde, has recently been the subject of a new book and MIFF will be screening archival prints from the Cinematheque Francaise.
 
In another way, the timing was also right for a retrospective of contemporary French filmmaker Leos Carax, Carey says.
 
She had been planning to do a spotlight on the director before his controversial Holy Motors, featuring Denis Lavant and Kylie Minogue, screened at Cannes, and was keen to see how the new movie measured up. ”It was either going to be a train wreck or genius, and luckily it was the latter.”
 
That pivotal Hollywood decade, the 1970s, will be celebrated with a program of comedies encompassing black comedy, screwball and neurotic angst.
 
Among the national cinema programs, there is a spotlight on Latin-American cinema, Through the Labyrinth.
 
”There seems to be a new indie aesthetic coming out of countries like Argentina and Brazil, as a new generation comes through, and I think it’s looking really healthy,” Carey says.
 
”There is a huge focus on Sweden that will encompass brand-new films, a look back at the last few years with some films that Melbourne audiences may not have encountered, and a retrospective looking at crime cinema, going back to the 1930s.” Several Swedish filmmakers are festival guests.
 
Guest curator Dan Edwards has put together a program of independent Chinese documentaries, Street Level Visions, and a couple of the filmmakers will be in attendance.
 
The late Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who in recent years was a distributor as well as a filmmaker, will be remembered at MIFF, with screenings of his four films, two features and two shorts.
 
The festival runs from August 2 to 19. (Philippa Hawker – The Sydney Morning Herald)