T icketsare selling fast for the Golden Horse Film Festival this year. More than 20 screenings have already been sold out and the box office has broken NT$6 million in advance tickets sales for the event which will be starting in less than a week.
The first film to sell out was the star-studded Ten Minutes Older, the combined creation of seven acclaimed film directors who each made a 10-minute film on the theme of time.
The directors include Aki Kaurismaki from Finland, Wim Winders and Werner Herzog from Germany, Victor Erice from Spain, Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee from the US and Chen Kaige from China. Kaurismaki displays the black humor of The Man Without a Past in this 10-minute short. Spike Lee presents a powerful short We Wuz Robbed, about election night when Gore campaigners said they were bushwhacked by gangsters.
Chen who's known for epic style and grand scenes, made an intriguing miniature lamenting the vanishing of Beijing's hu-tungs or alleyways. The originally scheduled two screenings of Ten Minutes Older sold out so quickly that an extra one was added for Oct. 31. Those who haven't seen the work of these great directors should rush to get hold of the 100 tickets remaining.
Another hot seller has been the three hour and 23 minute classic, Apocalypse Now Redux, which despite being restricted to film professionals due its excessive violence, already only has 10 seats remaining for the screening, according to festival organizers.
This year's Cannes Jury's Grand Prix winner, The Man Without a Past, is definitely worth catching. It tells the story of a man who loses his memory after being severely beaten at a Helsinki train station. Without a job and unable to rent a place, he manages to survive by teaching music and living with the homeless. He then falls in love with a social worker. When he regains his memory, he must think about his responsibility to his wife. Kaurismaki again expresses his unique wit and warmth, yet looks at all absurdity of human life with a cold eye. The color and humor of the film have a lasting charm. Only one screening remains for which tickets are available (Friday, Nov. 1).
David Cronenberg continues to explore the dark sides of the human heart in Spider, which was also well received in Cannes. Ralph Finnes plays a loner suffering from schizophrenia. Set in the 1960s, the film begins with young Finnes seeing his mother brutally killed by his father in order to accommodate the father's prostitute lover. The film explores the dual nature of desire in the Oedipus complex and matricide.
In Spider Cronenberg has shifted away from his signature shocking images but remains very stylish. Other films for which you should probably hurry to get your tickets are Mike Leigh's All or Nothing and Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.
Mike Leigh's latest feature is another neatly woven drama set in a London housing estate. Leigh's insight into the life of the urban dispossessed is enriched with excellent acting and photography. Jade Scorpion, released last year, is a detective comedy starring Helen Hunt, Elizabeth Berkley and Charlize Theron. It is filled with Allen's neurotic humor, 1940s Jazz music and the hypnotic atmosphere of the Jazz era.
Screenings of 8 Femmes and Read My Lips, the opening and closing films of the Golden Horse festival have already sold out but are both scheduled for general release after the festival.
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