Rotterdam International
Film Festival

Thursday, January 25

When walking the
streets in a Dutch city, one must be very careful to look in all directions
at a crosswalk, not only for car traffic but also keep a watchful eye on cable
cars and the bicycle lanes. It's a real art to not get run over. Once inside
the Doelen Centre - the festival hub, one can navigate normally on the four
floors by escalator.

The top floor houses
the press mailboxes and service center complete with computer stations for surfing
(1 NLG per 15 minutes) and also the video viewing room where festival-goers
can see those films they may have missed the day of their screening. The third
floor houses the offices of the press, Herbert Bals Fund, CineMart and guest
services as well as the Willem Burger theatre where the press and industry screenings
are held. The VPRO competition office is on the second floor, while CineMart
cocktails and lunches occupy the first floor.

It is the ground
floor that is the convivial center with restaurants and bars serving all day long,
while at 10pm it becomes the stage of The Late Show, a spin-off of Johnny Carson's
talk show including a jazz duo performing between guest appearances. Among them
was Sandra den Hamer, co-director of the festival with Simon Field. She announced
that business was good, she had just purchased the free festival paper, The Daily
Tiger, from a homeless person. Sandra also introduced the Main Programme which
is the biggest festival section with more than 250 feature films. As she explained,
"These were the best films we saw while traveling all over the world last year."
And indeed, what a selection, from Australia's Chopper
to Japan's Eureka,
Requiem
for a Dream from the US, Korea's Barking
Dogs Never Bite, France's Merci
pour le chocolat, In Vanda's Room from Portugal, Spain's El
otro barrio, Mexico's Amores
Perros, Canada's The Law of Enclosures, on and on and on.

The next guests,
Edwin Carels and Zoe Beloff presented the Ex-Voto - Mapping the Heart, an off
section "devoted to those who work with dedication rather than ambition." An
art-object mobile home located at Schouwburg Square welcomes those interested
"to see a film on a toilet for a one-on-one with the images of filmmakers such
as Jean-Luc Godard, Guy Maddin or the Quay brothers."

It must be said
that the Rotterdam Festival is very devoted to the different art and mediums
in cinema. Unlike Locarno or Cannes, Rotterdam takes "other" cinema serious,
featuring a whole section called Exploding Cinema revolving around Cinema Online
- with such works as Stainboy by Tim Burton, Cinema Live! - for a comeback
of cinema as a "live event", Cinema Without Walls - as even the cultural institutions
have exhibits of cinematic installations during the 12 days of the festival,
and finally The Future of the Small Screen - a master class exploring how television
and the Internet can combine to become a platform of new programme concepts.

Back to the Late
Show. Daily filmmakers are featured and it was Clara
Law, Australian director of The
Goddess of 1967 who came on stage. She explained the bypass processing
used to obtain the contrasty colors that she and husband Eddie (also writer
and producer of the film) spent seven weeks trying to perfect, the digital Outback
images used in rear projection, the "montage narrative editing" describing the
short story within a bigger story that create a new chemistry, as well as her
preference for Japanese leading actors with their structural faces representing
modernity.

Earlier in the
evening, Simon Field had presented the first competition film showing, I
Know I'll See Your Face Again by Alex Stockman (Belgium), a B & W sketch
following a young man in a period where he doesn't quite now what to do with
himself, checks into a hotel in his own city and leaves himself open to whatever
serendipity may arrive. The public neither manifested great appeal nor dislike
for the film.

In store for tomorrow,
the competition section for first or second films by their directors is featuring
Ternitz Tennessee by Mirjam Unger and Compassionate Sex by Laura
Mana. Maggie Cheung is expected to show up for the screening of In
the Mood for Love in the Main Programme, which will also feature La
Captive by Chantal Akerman, Cite
de la Plaine by Robert Kramer and YiYi
by Edward Yang.

Opening
Night

Day
Three

Weekend
Report

Mid
Fest Report

Rotterdam site