THE 34th PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, DAY 4

"behind blue skies," sweden, dir. hannes holm

not every film at the festival is going to do something for everyone. "behind blue skies" did almost nothing for me. this coming of age story, about a 17 year old kid from stockholm who gets mixed up in a crime ring after getting a summer job at sandhamn island through the wealthy father of a school friend who summer's there, is something like "almost famous" meets "dirty dancing" meets a made for television version of "spun." sadly, none of the rich kids ever hang out at the yacht club workers' quarters, and there's not a single dance scene. so, really, it's just a coming of age movie, though the actor who played martin, the main character, was convincing across a wide range of emotions and was able to tinge his performance in every scene with just enough "virginal confusion at encountering the dubious morality of adult responsibility" (which is probably a direct translation of the character's emotional motivation as it was described in the swedish screenplay). there's also a blow job aborted over awkward conversation in the first scene. they're teenagers! she's asking him to promise to stay the night as his dick is going limp in her hand -- and that's not inference, i'm describing exactly what i saw. that's how you know this film is art.

"heartbeats," canada, dir. xavier dolan

it's not fair. xavier dolan is twenty-one, gorgeous and wrote, directed and starred in this film. i'm not sure why it was titled what it was in english instead of a more literal translation of the original title, "les amours imaginaires," which seems much more descriptive of a story about a young gay man and his young female friend both lusting after a rich, insouciant adonis mcgill student who flirts but doesn't reciprocate any real affection; but that's just an afterthought on a completely brilliant film. i think that dolan must be a fan of christophe honoré, because he directs in a very similar new wave throwback style -- not to mention that the premise of "heartbeats" isn't at all unsimilar to that of honoré's "love songs," and that just when i thought the movie might be going on too long it went on just another thirty seconds longer to deliver a perfect final cameo by louis garrel. dolan also narrates with a woody allen wit and visually frames his dialogues on love a la the counter-rhythms of sex romps and psychoanalytic brain picking characteristic of eric rohmer. but i suspect that it won't be too long before critics start writing that so-and-so makes films like xavier dolan. for "heartbeats" in particular i happily suspended my disbelief until that final cameo by garrel, although, who knows, that may have just been the result of my familiarity with (proximity to) the costuming and conceits of the contemporary north american twenty-something (the knife was on the soundtrack, too, although -- i think -- not "heartbeats"*). who wants to wife me in montreal? teach me french so that i can watch "i killed my mother" without the titles.

*but thinking about that puts the title in better perspective. there's a spanish version of nancy sinatra's "bang bang" (remember the "kill bill" soundtrack?) that recurs as well. the internet learned me that françois ozon used a french version in a film called "a summer dress" in 1996 (seven years before tarantino).