The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan’s answer to the Academy
Awards and sometimes called the Asian Oscars, ran for 14 days in
November. Here’s a brief roundup of some of the films shown, as
reported in the Taipei Times.

With more than two 200 art-house, feature and short films shown
Taiwan’s biggest movie festival attracted floods of film lovers to
screening venues at the Warner Village Cinema complex in the trendy
Xinyi district of Taipei City.
After the primary screenings in Taipei, the festival will tour until
mid-December, stopping in the cities of Keelung, Kaohsiung, Changhua,
Taichung, Hsinchu and Hualien.

The “Master Class” section presented a collection of works by
internationally esteemed directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Peter
Greenaway, Jim Jarmusch, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders from Germany
and Raoul Ruiz, Alain Cabalier and Manoel di Oliveira from France.
Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach and Ermanno Olmi joined together to make
”Tickets”, a triptych composed of three interconnected stories which
take place on a train journey from Central Europe to Rome.

”Changing Times” by veteran director Andre Techine teamed up two of
France’s national treasures, Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu,
and told the tale of two aging lovers coming to terms with long-lost
love.
Also worth watching was ”Filmman”, a poetic documentary about a
filmmaker’s relationship with his camera, by French director Alain
Cavalier.

”The Wild Blue Yonder” by Werner Herzog was a space fantasy which
fused images from outer space and underwater scenes to convey the
director’s views on humankind and the universe.

There was also 85-year-old Ingmar Bergman’s final work ”Saraband”,
Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes winner ”Broken Flowers” and Jean-Pierre
Dardenne and Luc Dardenne’s second Cannes’ Golden Palm Award winner
”The Child”.

Another film, “Lemming”, the opening film of this year’s Cannes
International Film Festival, was about a dead rodent in the drain
which triggered the collapse of a couple’s once ideal and orderly
life.

In ”Housewarming”, the Taiwan filmgoers got a chance to see
icy-looking French beauty Carole Bouquet playing a lawyer who danced
and sang her way through the French comedy.

”Blood and Bones” by Japanese director Sai Yoiachi depicted the
harsh and bloodstained life of a Korean immigrant moving to Japan on
the eve of the World War II.

Another film that attracted attention was ”The Piano Tuner of
Earthquakes” by the Quay Brothers, returning to feature films after a
decade to present a fable set in a completley mechanized era. The film
mixed animation with puppetry and bizarre costumes.

A big winner at this year’s Cesar Awards in France, ”L’Esquive”
offered a refreshing look at a 15-year-old boy’s life in the suburbs
of Paris.

In addition, a category called “Global Vision” presented 38 films from
32 countries in Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa and Europe.
Cannes winner ”The Forsaken Land” from Sri Lanka followed the story
of a woman and a man burdened by love and guilt. ”A Stranger of
Mine” traced the lives of five characters in a neurotically funny
take on modern life in Japan. ”Woman of Breakwater” from the
Philippines brought to light for Taiwan filmgoers the cruel, sometimes
unbearable, stories of people living below the poverty line.

”Battle in Heaven” and ”Japon”, both desolate cinematic landscapes
crafted by Carlos Reygadas, a rising star of world cinema from Mexico
were also hits at the festival, according to industry sources.

”Orlando Vargas” from Uruguay was a stylish, beautifully composed
film about the disappearance of a disheartened businessman.

”The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael” from the UK was a highly
controversial work that put ”A Clockwork Orange” by Stanley Kubrick
to shame, according to one local critic.

”The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” employed a documentary approach to tell
of a 63-year-old man’s attempts to receive medical attention on a
Saturday night. The film offered a poignant view on the absurdity of
modern medical and social welfare systems.