‘Intruder’ woman-in-peril thriller – ‘Violin Player’, ‘Tess’ take top awards at Durban fest
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LOS ANGELES, June 26, (RTRS): The notion of a “midnight movie” is still enough to provoke a primitive tingle of excitement. It is, after all, not just something you watch at midnight — it’s something that belongs at midnight. It’s a movie that opens up into the darkness, into the strange and the outre, the forbidden, the jaw-dropping, the eye-widening, the mind-blowing. It’s something — in theory, at least — that’s not ready for prime time. No movie, of course, absolutely has to be watched at midnight (though Alejandro Jodorowsy’s 1970 “El Topo”, the spaghetti Western head trip that started it all, sort of does; it wilts in the sunlight). But “Intruder”, a low-budget woman-in-peril thriller that’s as bare bones as its title, is being released under the IFC Midnight banner, so in a way it’s only fair to evaluate it as a post-polite-hours experience.
An early scene offers an amuse-bouche of midnight kink, even if it isn’t totally clear where camp leaves off and ineptitude begins. A trembling blonde ice princess, who looks like she has never so much as attended a classical music concert, is sawing away at the Dvorak Cello Concerto (is the scene meant to be stylized, or did the director forget to tell her to move her fingers?). Then her teacher approaches. He’s played by Moby — yes, that Moby — in a gray sweater and professorial beard and horn-rims.
Comfy
The cellist, whose name is Elizabeth (she’s played by the British-born Louise Linton), returns to her comfy place of residence in Portland, and it’s not long before the title stalker slips inside the house. He’s an anonymous psycho in a hood, and his every furtive move is heralded by the kind of boom/clang! on the soundtrack that has been goosing audiences for decades. Once that happens about half a dozen times, a menace-who-cried-wolf feeling starts to hover over the proceedings, and we begin to wait for something a little more interesting to occur. But no. The stalker, in his cloak of “mystery” (i.e., is he the Moby character or the handsome uptight young Norman Bates hipster at the laundromat?), just does a lot of standard stalker stuff. He hides in the closet and looms in the shadows, takes a bite out of an apple and returns it to the fruit bowl, pets the kitty cat and then pets our heroine while she’s sleeping. The whole staging is so generic it begs the question: Where’s the gimmick, the midnight twist? And somewhere around the 45-minute mark, it begins to dawn on us: This is the twist. The fact that a stock intruder-in-the-house suspense scene that, in another film, would have been a minor exercise in routine string-pulling has now become the entire movie.
The slightly preposterous thing about “Intruder” — apart from the way that Linton’s British accent comes and goes, to the point that you honestly can’t tell whether the character she’s playing is supposed to be British or not — is that as the stalker keeps doing his creepy thing, until he almost begins to fade into the furniture, the movie persists in subjecting the audience to those boom/clangs! on the soundtrack, as if we were supposed to be surprised, each time, that a maniac is skulking around and taking his sweet time doing it. “Intruder” is a novel concept indeed: a slasher film without the slashing (or much of anything else), which in theory makes it the best midnight movie of 1952. Or, just maybe, a film that should be shown deeper into the wee hours, when even addicts of late-night movie danger are asleep.
The 37th Durban Intl. Film Festival wrapped Saturday night with an awards ceremony that was followed by the closing film, Marco Del Fiol’s “The Space in Between: Marina Abramovic and Brazil”, a documentary about the acclaimed performance artist’s search for spiritual healing in South America.
The award for the Best Feature Film went to “The Violin Player”, by Bauddhayan Mukherji, which the jury described as “a seductive and mysterious tale of a violin player’s mundane life, and an interesting take on how chance encounters are almost predestined.”
The award for Best South African Feature Film went to Meg Rickards’ “Tess”, which the jury heralded as “a measured and uncompromising debut feature.”
“Martha and Niki”, directed by Tora Mkandawire Martens, won the award for Best Documentary, with the jury calling it a “visual feast that skillfully intertwines a profound reflection on (an) art form with the inner journey of two compelling characters.” The jury also made a special mention of “Action Commandante”, by Nadine Cloete, for “its exceptional quality and commitment to its subject matter.”
Disturbing
The Best South African Documentary went to “The Journeymen”, directed by Sean Meterlekamp, which opened the fest June 16, and was praised as a “strong and uncompromising cinema that is simultaneously disturbing and life-affirming.”
Best Short Film went to “Grandma’s Day (Dzie’n Babci)”, directed by Milosz Sakowski, with a special mention for “Ave Maria”, by Basil Khalil.
The Best African Short Film Award, which is supported by the Gauteng Film Commission, went to “New Eyes”, directed by Hiwot Admasu.
“eKhaya (Home)”, by Shubham Mehta won the Best South African Short Film award, which is also supported by the Gauteng Film Commission.
The shorts jury also made special mention of two other films: “Amagugu”, directed by Ndududo Shandu, and “Discovery of Fire”, directed by Gerhard Pretorius.
The Best Actor Award went to Mohsen Namjoo for his performance in “Radio Dream”, directed by Babak Jalali. The award for Best Actress went to Christia Visser for her role in “Tess.”
The award for Best Direction went to Ciro Guerra for “Embrace of the Serpent”, while Guerra and Thoedor Koch-Grunberg also won Best Screenplay. Best Cinematography went to Chris Lotz, for “The Endless River.”
A new award for Best Editing, sponsored by the South Africa Guild of Editors, went to Linda Man, for “Tess.” The award for Artistic Bravery was given to Gabriel Mascaro’s “Neon Bull”, for its unique portrayal of a little-known community of Brazilian Rodeo workers.
The Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award for the film that best reflects human rights issues, which comes with a cash prize donated by the Artists for the Human Rights Trust, went to “Noma”, directed by Pablo Pineda.
The international jury this year was made up of four jurors: Bianca Balbuena, an award-wining producer from the Philippines; Fibby Kioria, the program director of Maisha Foundation, an initiative founded by Mira Nair to empower filmmakers in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda; Sherif Awad, a film critic who currently works for the Luxor African Film Festival; and Trevor Steele Taylor, a former programmer for the Cape Town International Film Festival, the Weekly Mail & Guardian Film Festival, and the Durban Intl Film Festival, who’s currently the curator for film at the National Arts Festival.
The South African feature film jury consisted of filmmakers Jahmil Qubeka and Melissa Parry, while the documentary jurors were filmmakers Rehad Desai, Omelga Mthiyane, and Riaan Hendricks. The short film jurors were filmmakers Neil Coppen and Sumayya Rawat.
The Amnesty Jury consisted of Coral Vinsen, Nonhlanha Mkhize, Betty Rawheath, and Mark Povall.
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