A meaty feast for the mind

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A meaty feast for the mind
LaMoustache
Australian
28 Jun 2006

THE Sydney Film Festival, a grande bouffe of cinema, is over for another year. To some people, merely screening 204 films in two weeks is a film festival. To others, a festival needs to have context, evidence of curatorial skill and reflect current international practice.

Artistic director Lynden Barber, in his second and final festival, chose to highlight Latin American cinema, for example, and the work of French director Jean-Pierre Melville, dead for more than 30 years. Such programming may not appeal to everyone, but that’s the beauty of a festival: you can choose what you want to see.

Negative press scared some viewers away from La Moustache by French director Emmanuel Carrere, but not this writer, who holds Carrere in high regard. Yes, the film does confound but it has its rewards... read more...