Fascinating filmmaker portraits, masterpieces of film music...
(From Listen to me Marlon.)
Fascinating documentaries about filmmakers are traditionally part of the Midnight Sun Film Festival experience. In 2016, MSFF also brings forth some films with some of the most memorable soundtracks in history of cinema.
Steven Riley’s Listen to Me Marlon is a unique actor portrait, based on hundreds of hours of audio Marlon Brando recorded to tell his life story. Brando also takes the lead in Bernando Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris, one of the great emotional experiences of our time, not to forget the harrowing score by Gato Barbier.
Documentary conversation film Hitchcock/Truffaut by Kent Jones, a distinguished critic, documentary filmmaker and festival director, is accompanied by Hitchcock’s Psycho (music by Bernard Herrmann). Meanwhile, Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema by Chin-Lin Hsieh gives a reason to present The Assassin by Hou Hsiao-hsien, vouted by last year’s best premiere by international experts in Sight & Sound.
1000 Eyes of Dr. Maddin by Yves Montmayeur is a particularly successful filmmaker portrait in the spirit of celebrated Canadian director Guy Maddin. Portuguese “motion machine” Manoel de Oliveira is honoured with his posthumous Memories and Confessions. Another former Sodankylä guest, Italian Mario Monicelli is remembered with his “deserted island film” The Dead (directed by John Huston).
In the long list of brilliant film scores are included Jacques Demy’s Lola (music by Michel Legrand), Giuliano Montaldo’s Sacco & Vanzetti (Ennio Morricone), Lina Wertmüller’s Love and Anarchy (Nino Rota), David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (Angelo Badalamenti) and Martin Scorsese’s Mean Street, known for its outstanding rock score.
