Austin Film Festival 06–Death Of A President/Stories Of Disenchantment

DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

What happens when a president, loved or hated, gets assassinated? What events are set in motion in order to catch his killer? What does it mean for the idea of Freedom?

In this British film, the president who is killed is our current one, George Walker Bush. According to the movie, it happens almost exactly a year from now. We see the events leading up to the assassination and the investigation afterwords. And it’s riviting from beginning to end.

Many will call this a mockumentary, but that’s kind of an unfair word for it. It’s so well detailed and so well researched that it’s almost a pre-emptive documentary. There is footage of the actual assassination made with archive footage of the president and CGI special effects. (And, no, it’s not graphic. There are shots and he’s thrown into the car. Not much blood is shown at all. So, already, it’s less violent than the footage we’ve all seen of JFK getting killed.)

After the assassination there is a violation of Freedoms that we all hold dear. Cheney is put in office. A Syrian who was trained as a terrorist is accused. PATRIOT ACT III is put into effect. We are all on lockdown, basically. It gives the Republican party leverage to take away some of the last rights we have.

Is the movie anti-Bush? No. Not really. It doesn’t make a judgment call as to whether he was right to go into Iraq or not. It shows plenty of protestors, but it never agrees or disagrees with them. (Although, they are shown as sort of a violent bunch.) If anything, this movie is saying, “Please DON’T let this happen, because this is what will happen.” It’s kind of anti-Cheney, actually.

It’s a very interesting movie that is in questionable taste, but considering the questionable taste of Bush and his cronies, I think it was a risk worth taking. Ballsiest poster ever, too.

Good luck seeing it, though. At least two major theatre chains have decided against showing it. Look for it at your local art house…maybe.

STORIES OF DISENCHANTMENT

After two hours of watching this movie, I still am a little confused as to what it was about.

Ximena (Ximena Ayala) and Diego (Mario Oliver) are two kids in Mexico somewhere around the turn of the century. They seem to be kind of lost in their own innocence. They walk around town in a strange daze of happiness until they walk into what they think is an abandoned building. It turns out to be the home of Ainda (Fabiana Perzabal), who is possibly a Harpy. (She definitely has wings.) They all have sex and sing and then it’s all over for these two crazy kids. Then they both fall in love with her and decide that change is the only thing that can save themselves from Ainda’s devious ways.

Since the movie takes place in some sort of dream state (and Ximena can see into her dreams…or something), it’s all shot in a really strange way. It almost looks like you’re watching a really low-res video on a laptop. Some shots are clearer than others, but it’s all super-ultra-saturated and a little bit out of focus. At first I thought something was wrong with the projection, but it made more sense as the movie went on.

This movie definitely isn’t for everyone (the guy in front of me walked about about 15 minutes into it), but I really liked it. How could you not like a movie where a heart rips itself out of a character and sings a song to them? (Yeah, it’s sort of a musical.) I certainly didn’t understand everything that happened, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying it. If you’re into surreal Mexican cinema, check it out.

And keep your eye out for Diego Luna in a very small cameo towards the end. I didn’t even notice until the credits roled.