Last week’s student party at the Wexner Center was a giant success! Over 1,500 students stopped by to see the film, visit the Wegman exhibition, and grab some free shirts and pizza.

Click here to see our photo gallery from the evening!

If you’ve driven through downtown Columbus lately, you’ve probably seen our many banners promoting William Wegman: Funney Strange, our current exhibition now on view.

Earlier in September we had a ceremony and press event to mark the unveiling of the banners. Speakers included Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin, Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks, and Fred Ransier from Experience Columbus board of trustees.

Click here to see all of the photos!

Traditionally, my colleague Dave Filipi and I travel to the Toronto International Film Festival together, but outside circumstances caused me to arrive in Canada for the second half of the festival—just as Dave was leaving. As a result, my screening schedule felt out of synch with my peers’ itineraries. I didn’t have an opportunity to see some of my most anticipated films (including Jacques Rivette’s The Duchess of Langeais, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Flight of the Red Balloon, the Coens’ No Country for Old Men, or Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg). Instead I had the luxury of discovering a number of exciting films that were overlooked by most festivalgoers, and of seeing Todd Hayne’s remarkable I’m Not There, one the most discussed films of the festival and, happily for me, saved for the second half of the event.

Festivals such as Cannes and Sundance are aimed more exclusively at press and industry attendees, but Toronto prides itself on being as geared towards the general public as it is to those audiences. If the idea of watching three to six films a day (often introduced by the directors or stars) sounds like a great vacation to you, you should look into attending the Toronto festival some year. The weather is usually lovely, and Toronto is filled with diverse restaurants, museums, and shops (perhaps in future years the exchange rate will once again allow for great shopping deals). I know of a handful of Columbus residents who make the trip annually, and each one says that it’s one of the highlights of the year.

Here are brief notes on the stand-out films from my visit to the festival:
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Here are the films I saw today, my last full day at the festival. I can return to leisurely cups of coffee in the morning, not having virtually every conversation interrupted by a call someone “has to take,� and a reasonable amount of sleep each night.

The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat, France)
I REALLY debated about getting up for this 9am screening or treating myself to another hour or two of sleep. After directing two films that I enjoyed quite a bit (and that we screened at the Wexner Center), Fat Girl and Sex is Comedy, Breillat followed with a film that I abhorred, Anatomy of Hell, a film that included a scene where lead actress Amira Casar had to endure the handle of a shovel in her bum. I was skeptical about her latest. But, duty called and I made it to The Last Mistress, adapted from the novel by Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly. The film follows the impending marriage between a young aristocratic woman and a young libertine who can’t give up his longtime lover (Asia Argento!). The film was remarkably restrained considering Anatomy of Hell (and an earlier film Romance), or as restrained as a film can be with a scene showing Argento licking the blood off of her future’s lover’s chest. The great Michael Lonsdale has a nice supporting role.

Redacted (Brian De Palma, United States)
The film is De Palma’s account of the war in Iraq and is presented in the form of a pseudo-doc, interweaving the home movies of a soldier, a polished doc on the war by a French film team, internet video, and the military’s own surveillance video. The film is centered on the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl and her family by U.S. soldiers (based on a true 2006 event). There is no disputing that De Palma has created a powerful film but I wish he would have focused more energy on creating great cinema as opposed to an argument (the acting is at times amateurish because it is trying to appear amateurish). The film is very timely but I don’t know that it will hold up 25 years from now. But perhaps we don’t have that luxury at the moment. Films like this need to be made (and seen) now.

Gone with the Woman (Petter Naess, Norway)
Gone with the Woman is one of those films you occasionally find yourself seeing when you have just enough time to see it and there isn’t anything else you’re interested in seeing. Sometimes you’re kicking yourself ten minutes into the film (or heading for the door) and sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised. The film is a likable enough comedy about a directionless young man who is sick of his girlfriend. But the more she clings to him and the more time she spends at his apartment the more he starts to grow attached to her (at which point she takes a job teaching on an island off the coast of Norway). Again, not particularly memorable but certainly enjoyable.

Persepolis (Vincent Parannoud & Marjane Satrapi, France)
Persepolis is the animated adaptation of Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic novels about her childhood in Iran before and after the revolution and her years spent abroad after her parents sent her away to escape the repressive climate at home. Many wondered how well the books would translate to the screen. They do so beautifully and the film stands on its on as a great work that preserves the look of the books while enhancing it with a style of animation that often reminds me of the limited animation of UPA. The film is at times hilarious and at others terrifying. Some of France’s leading stars provide the voices (Catherine Deneuve as Marjane’s mother, Chiara Mastroianni as Marjane, and Danielle Darrieux as the grandmother) but unfortunately it looks like the film will be dubbed into English for the U.S. release.

Encarnacion (Anahi Berneri, Argentina)
One of the pleasant surprises of the festival. Argentina is producing some of the most interesting films in the world (we presented an eight-film series of new Argentine cinema in January) and Encarnacion is another great example. The film is about a forty-something actress who is at the point in her life when her looks aren’t getting her the jobs or glamorous lifestyle she could rely on as a young sex kitten. The depiction of this change in her life is wonderfully subtle. She attends the premiere of a friend’s film but few recognize her and her friend blows her off for his younger crewmates saying he might drop by later. She has time to work on a website devoted to her career which features pinups of her as a young actress. She attends her niece’s birthday out in the sticks and but is not welcome by the girl’s parents who have issues with her lifestyle. Though she is older, she still dresses and acts like a young woman (plunging necklines, bikinis, short skirts) and still manages to bed the young stud manager of the hotel where she is staying. It is a great role for an actress and Silvia Perez makes the most of it.

My favorite films of the festival in alphabetical order: Don’t Touch the Axe, Encarnacion, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, Joy Division, My Winnipeg, Persepolis, and You, the Living. I regret not being able to see many films including Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon to name just a few. – Dave Filipi

(Dave Filipi reports from Toronto…)

Here are the films I saw on Day 3 of the festival:

Joy Division (Grant Gee, United Kingdon) Very well made, apparently exhaustive and I would argue definitive documentary portrait of the influential Manchester band. We screened Gee’s film on Radiohead, Meeting People is Easy, in 2004 as part of our “Rock Docs� series. One of my favorite films of the festival.

Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico)
Reygadas examines the marital infidelities of a Mennonite man in the Chihuahua region in Mexico. A film about a Mennonite community in Mexico is one of the more surprising things I’ve seen in a film for quite some time. Beautifully shot, very deliberately paced (like his Reygadas’s past films) and most of the performers are non-actors living in the region. I wasn’t a fan of his last film Battle in Heaven but liked this one more. Reygadas also directed Japon which we screened a few years ago.

Jellyfish (Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret, Israel)
Yet another of the recent wave of films depicting a number of intersecting lives directed by chance, this time set in Tel Aviv. The film is set in motion when an ethereal little girl emerges from the sea and is discovered by a young woman. Filled with bittersweet moments and episodes of absurdist humor, the film is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

You, the Living (Roy Andersson, Sweden)
The follow-up to Andersson’s critics-fave Songs from the Second Floor (which we screened at the Wexner a few years ago), You, the Living is similarly constructed as a series of often bleak and/or humorous vignettes. If memory serves, the humor in Songs was a bit more refined and the humor in Living a bit broader but it’s still a wonderful film and so different from anything you’re likely to find from any other director. Andersson’s gift is the ability to make his characters seem all the more human by framing them within depressing environments (the overripe characters, the faded rooms and landscapes) and highlighting their often absurdist fixations and tendencies.

I was having a late lunch with colleague on Saturday outside one of the festival’s main theaters and near the entrance often used by the celebrities attending screenings within. Midway through our lunch the black SUV’s started arriving causing a mob scene along Bay Street. We couldn’t see anyone until the final truck pulled up and Uma Thurman stepped out and ascended the red carpet with a security team helping her make her way past the cel phone camera wielding crowd. I was reminded of a great festival moment a couple of years ago when I happened upon Francis Coppola and his wife arriving at exactly the same spot in a regular taxi. No security team, no crowds…just the director of a handful of the greatest films ever made but perfectly capable of showing up on his own for an event. And that’s one to grow on….

(More from Assistant Preparator, Will Fugman, installing William Wegman: Funney/Strange in our galleries)

So, the last time you heard from us was almost a year ago, during our preparations for the Frank Stella, Louise Lawler, and Shiny exhibitions. I thought this would be a good time to give you another peek behind the scenes, in the middle of the installation of our Fall exhibit from William Wegman, entitled Funney/Strange. Most of you are probably familiar with some of William Wegman’s work, but you might not be aware of the many directions his work has taken throughout his career. This show includes a little bit of everything….quite a bit, actually.

Right now, we’re in the process of laying out all of the work, and finding the perfect place for each piece. This time around, the exhibition takes up all four gallery spaces, so there’s a lot of moving things throughout the building. The best part of the job is the moment when we open all of the crates, and see the work in person. It’s like having a really nice birthday every three months.

We all become very familiar with the pieces in the show before hand, however, there’s obviously a big difference between seeing it on a piece of paper and pulling the actual object out of a giant box. Likewise, we layout a floor plan for the show as much as possible before hand, but things change a bit once the actual work is occupying the gallery. The walls are currently lined with a ton of pieces, in various mediums, inching their way to their final destination. In some areas, hanging of the artwork has just started, and some of it’s up on the wall already. Everything’s been going very smooth so far, and I think everyone will enjoy the final outcome. Then we get to relax for a minute, and begin to work on the next round of exhibitions.

Wexner Center Assistant Preparator, Will Fugman relates tales from two installations. First, Will travels to New York City to assist with the installation of Chris Marker: Staring Back (which was at the Wexner Center this summer, curated by Bill Horrigan). Later, he relates progress from the work on installing William Wegman: Funney/Strange, opening next week at the Wexner Center.

——

Will Fugman writes:

In the middle of installing this huge William Wegman exhibition, the Chris Marker show from our last rotation just opened at the Peter Blum Gallery, in New York City. The show’s curator, Bill Horrigan, sent me along to make sure everything went OK. The gallery is a really nice space, and the show looks great. I was there for four days last week, and the show opened on Saturday, Sept. 8th. The gallery was laid out a bit differently than our space was, so the big challenge was fitting the vast array of images into the room, while maintaining the right sequence, and the general feel and flow of the work, as it was intended. After all was said and done, I think we did it pretty well. In addition to the exhibition at the Chelsea gallery, we also hung the images from the “I Stare 2� series at the gallery’s Soho space, which were shown in our exhibition, but in a smaller format. It was nice to finally see the work in that series shown like this, as well. So, if you’re in New York in the next couple of months, be sure to stop by and see it for yourself!

Sometimes your festival schedule just doesn’t work out. If you are determined to see film “A� at a certain time, it might have a ripple effect both before and after the screening that keeps you from seeing other films in which you might be interested. After seeing five films on Thursday, I saw only three on Friday. But what I lacked in quantity I made up for in quality. – Dave Filipi

No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros, USA)
I usually don’t see films I know will be opening widely in Columbus, but I couldn’t resist seeing this one, with the rave reviews it has been receiving. I’m not sure I have much to add to the accolades the film has already garnered, but Javier Bardem is quite possibly the best heavy in a film in the past ten years and brings to mind Jack Palance in Shane. The story? A man stumbles on a drug deal gone bad, finds a suitcase stuffed with cash, and spends the rest of the film in a battle of wits with the killing machine on his trail. I would be shocked if Bardem isn’t one of the nominees for best supporting actor at next year’s Oscars. Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson also appear, and it’s based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy (with a Coen bros. twist). (Celebrity sighting: Michael Moore was escorted/inserted in line right in front of me as the line for the screening was about as long as they get. He was very nice and almost apologetic for the VIP treatment and chatted with all around him.)

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Christian Mungiu, Romania)
The title refers to the length of the pregnancy of the main character in 4 Months as she seeks an illegal abortion in late-1980s Romania (when, if I’m not mistaken, both birth control and abortions were illegal). The young college student enlists her roommate to help her find an illegal abortionist to help her end her pregnancy. The film is nothing short of devastating as it illustrates the horrible choices a woman is faced with when she has no options. Although it is an obvious critique of those in power at the time, the film is hardly unabashedly “pro-choice,� and Mungiu quite explicitly displays the result of a terminated pregnancy. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, Canada)
The official “world premiere� of Maddin’s interpretive doc on his home city featured the famed director serving as on-stage narrator for the film. The film tells not only Guy’s version of the history of the city but also of his own history and the story of his family as it relates to Winnipeg. I’ve been looking forward to this film for a long time, and I wasn’t disappointed. If you’ve seen all of Guy’s films and heard him talk at one of his visits to the Wex, you probably have formed a pretty accurate picture of the finished film (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). Like most of Guy’s films, My Winnipeg is an engrossing intersection of memory, loss, and nostalgia, and both his affection and profound frustration with his home city are evident throughout. The film also features some of the most striking images of Guy’s career, especially the surreal horse head ice jam sequence (you’ll have to see it to believe it). (Celebrity sighting: Harvey Weinstein. Yes, sorry, that’s the best I can do.) The film was followed by a fun after-party at a not-very-nearby bar that included Guy and fellow Canadian hot shots Don McKellar and Louis Negin. It’s always nice to see so many people so happy for Guy. Free drinks are always nice too after a long day of film watching.

It’s 1:44 AM and I have a 9 AM screening. Coffee can only do so much. That’s all for now.

Please excuse the abbreviated nature of this post, as I saw five films today and I’m filing this report after midnight (while watching U.S. Open Tennis). Here are some notes:

The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey)
Our regulars might remember that we screened Akin’s two most recent films–Head-On and Crossing the Bridge–relatively recently. Edge is in the vein of films like Babel and Crash in that its narrative is structured around the intersecting lives of the main characters. The comparisons end there, however. Edgeis much more compelling: the characters are fully developed, and Akin doesn’t have to rely on the narrative gimmick to draw in the viewer. Like Akin’s previous work, Edge examines the intersection between Turkish and German culture. The story is difficult to condense but it follows the relationship between an elderly Turkish father and his university professor son living in Germany and the connection they form with a prostitute and her daughter, a political revolutionary. The performances by the actors playing the adult children are especially noteworthy (I saw the lead actress Nurgul Yesilcay in a hotel lobby…stunning).

The Man from London (Bela Tarr, Hungary)
I hate to say it, but one of my most-anticipated films of the festival was disappointing. The film features the stunning black-and-white cinematography one would expect from a Tarr film, and there are moments of brilliant deadpan humor, but I had a hard time getting into the story and the characters. That is not to say it’s not more interesting than the vast majority of the new films I’ll see this year, but I was hoping for more. We screened Tarr’s Santantango last year and Werchmeister Harmonies a couple of years before that.

Love Songs (Christophe Honore, France)
Obviously inspired by Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Love Songs features sexy young stars Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, and Chiara Mastroianni. They are the figures in a love triangle set in Paris, and (as in Umbrellas), they sing their feelings to one another…until tragedy strikes and leads them into the arms of others. I found it very enjoyable. French friends sitting on either side of me found it very sweet and poignant (and it was the second viewing for one of them).

Don’t Touch the Axe (Jacques Rivette, France)
My favorite film of the day. Adapted from a story by Balzac (one of Rivette’s major influences), Axe is a period film that follows the increasingly frustrating flirtation, and the evolving power dynamic, between a bored, married aristocratic woman and a dashing soldier. It will be released in the U.S. as Te Duchess of Langeais (snore). Believe it or not, but Rivette is just one of three new wave directors (Chabrol and Rohmer are the others) with a new film in this year’s festival. Assistant Curator Chris Stults organized a partial retrospective of Rivette’s work last April, and we screened his recent The History of Marie and Julien a couple of summers ago.

The Orphanage (Juan Antonio Bayona, Spain/Mexico)
A wonderfully creepy ghost story and the first feature by director Bayona. A couple and their adopted son live in the former orphanage where the wife grew up. The son often talks about imaginary friends that only he can see and that often tell him which games to play. The family plans to invite a group of special needs kids to live with them, but at the welcome party a number of strange things begin to happen including the disappearance of the son. A really solid horror film though one scene at the end drew laughs from the audience (at some point it’s just time to move out of the house). Exec produced by Guillermo del Toro.

Here’s what’s on tomorrow (or later today, technically): the premiere of Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg and Cannes award winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, And 2 Days. Time for bed! – Dave Filipi, Film/Video Curator

Prepare yourself for the first half of the Next@Wex fall series with our third mixtape. This compilation is just over 24 minutes.

MP3: Wexner Mixtape #3
Subscribe to Podcast: RSS | iTunes Subscription

00:01: Akron/Family, “Don’t Be Afraid, You’re Already Dead�
04:43: The Blow, “Parentheses�
08:00: BORIS with Kurihara, “Rainbow�
12:50: Saturday Looks Good to Me, “Since You Broke My Heart�
15:38: Damon & Naomi, “Cruel Queen�
21:15: Over the Rhine, “Entertaining Thoughts�