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Streetheart [imdb] [viff] Dir: Charles Binamé Country: Canada Untitled Folder [viff] Dir: Benedicte Ronfard Country: Canada

This was the opening film of the whole Canadian programme. Since I saw "The Hanging Garden" at the last fest and liked it, I was rather optimistic about new Canadian cinema. I'd disliked it for o long, maybe it's getting better...

well.... no.

Untitled Folder (short)

Ooooohhhhhh clever title there, people. Right. Okay, basic premise- innocent young child finds a gun in a sandbox. Hey nifty. He knows how to use it, presumably because of all the violence he's seen on television. Ugh boo. Nasty teevee violence. Evil. He starts shooting around, swat team appears from nowhere, shoots him dead. End of film. Nice camera work, but isn't this whole media-violence-is-bad thing getting a little tired already? Come on, people, please.

Streetheart

That's something about Canadian films. They frequently have good ideas, but they follow through so very poorly. Take this one. A woman, deperate to belong somewhere, roams the street giving herself away for free for one hour. Complete strangers can do anything they want with her for an hour. Nifty premise, and there are a couple of good sequences (one dance class in particular, a roller coaster montage) but on the whole, the film tries to do too much, and ends up scattered and unfocussed. Speaking of unfocussed- the camera work was absolutely horrid. I don't know what they were thinking, but please! Invest in a tripod, people! My goodness...

There is a good kinda-subplot (everything in this film seems like a subplot, actually) happening with her and a semi-steady boyfriend charachter. He's married with kids, and they have some issues... it all comes out in one dramatic monologue of his... dramatic, yes. Well-written.... hmmmmmm in spots. There were a few times in the film (this was one of them) where I almost started to like it. Then it got bad again. Oh well.