Films & Schedules - C

A suspenseful psychological thriller, Chameleon centers on a clever con man who targets lonely, disillusioned women, playing on their romantic fantasies. But can the con man be conned if love gets in the way?

Gábor cleans offices. Working nights, he rarely has any contact with his employers, yet he learns everything about them by thoroughly analyzing their garbage. Nobody suspects that Gábor is in fact a con man who carefully chooses his victims by the trash they leave behind, and usually targets disillusioned, lonely women. In a few months he destroys all their romantic illusions by taking all of their savings. When he gets a job at a psychologist’s office, Gábor meets Hanna, an injured dancer from a wealthy family. Insecure and vulnerable, Hanna seems to be the perfect victim. Gábor pretends to be a doctor who can cure her body and her soul. Everything goes according to plan until Gábor falls in love, and must choose between his beloved and her money. A suspenseful psychological thriller, Chameleon is this year’s Hungarian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Filmography: Just Sex and Nothing Else (05), Children of Glory (06).

104 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, Comedy.

Charting the renowned jazz bassist’s life from his rural roots through his seminal collaborations with the legendary likes of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, Reto Caduff’s rollicking documentary affords the unassuming music icon the chance to take centre stage.

Music legends don’t come any more unassuming than Charlie Haden. Courtesy of Reto Caduff’s charming documentary, we discover that the affable jazz bassist’s underlying honesty and decency inform every note of his music. As Haden camps out in a studio to revisit the country music of his youth, he reflects on his rural roots and his debut crooning twangy ballads on the radio at the age of two. Through wondrous archival footage and enlightening interviews, Caduff leads us through the next six decades, detailing Haden’s seminal collaborations with legends like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, as well as his ongoing projects such as Quartet West and Liberation Music Orchestra. Just as Haden’s simple playing style masks an innate understanding of the complexities of melody and composition, so too does his placid exterior disguise a deep-seated passion that manifests itself in his art, relationships, and politics.

Filmography: Krokus (04), A Crude Awakening (06).

Sponsored by Consulate General of Switzerland, San Francisco.

84 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views, Music.

“The Rape of Nanking” by Japanese soldiers remains one of China's darkest historical chapters. This luminous black-and-white film uses several small stories to illustrate the bigger picture: man's incredible inhumanity to man.

The atrocities committed by the Japanese army during its occupation of Nanking in December 1937—more than 300,000 were massacred, sexual assault was pandemic, and the city was virtually decimated—remain some of the most harrowing chapters of war in the 20th century. Lu Chuan’s vivid recreation of the “Rape of Nanking” tells the story of a small group of Westerners and Chinese engaged in anguished negotiations with the Japanese to limit the suffering of the civilian population. A series of key vignettes—a young Chinese soldier leads a doomed resistance group; a confused and anguished Japanese private is overwhelmed by the insanity; John Rabe, a German businessman, establishes a safety zone in an attempt to protect the lives of countless Chinese; and the harried secretary of a Nazi official betrays his charges to try and save his family—told with Lu’s burning, black-and-white images, bespeak man’s amazing inhumanity to man.

Filmography: Missing Gun (01), Kekexili Mountain Patrol (04).

135 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, Asian, History.

This riveting, unusual documentary takes a tour of 20th century battlefields through the eyes of those who kept the soldiers fed and fighting: military cooks.

This riveting film opens the door to the secrets of little-known historians to show a dimension of war not found in textbooks or archives. Cooking History presents portraits of various army military cooks from all over Europe who have witnessed the European wars of the 20th century. Their recollections tap into a subjective view of historical events, one that diverges in some respects from conventional beliefs. They take us on a journey through pivotal dates, facts, declarations of war, battles, and peace agreements. The tales they tell convey a sense of life and death in the “war apparatus,” as well as a sense of hope, longing, and survival in the midst of destruction and despair. Kerekes’ look behind “great moments in time” introduces a fresh perspective on European history.

Filmography: About Three Days in Monastary Jasov (94), The Mary-Valery Bridge (00), 66 Seasons (03).

Special Jury Prize, Toronto Hot Docs.

Sponsored by KINK.FM.

88 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views, Narrative Feature, French Language, History.