Ant Timpson talks the Incredibly Strange at the 2019 NZIFF

Ant Timpson talks the Incredibly Strange at the 2019 NZIFF

Hello Ant, every year you put the Ant into Antagonistic in these Q&As, how are you feeling this year?
Does anyone actually read these Q&As – be honest now.
Do I have to feign faux fury to even get a nibble from your readership? Surely I should switch it up and play nice and be authentic. Isn’t that the new hot thing. Authenticity. Ok well I’m going to try it here.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first, a Civic premiere and a place in the main programme for your directorial film Come To Daddy - I want to just say that's great, there's nothing like a Civic premiere. Tell me more about this one and how it's been playing abroad, and how that translates to a sell-out cinema.

Well I don’t take it lightly – it means a lot to be in the programme let alone get a Big Night at the Civic.  I’m sure from the outside it looks like I’ve just slipped my film into the excel sheet of scheduling and hoped no one would notice but the reality is I was so paranoid about the fest playing favourites that I went out of my way to make sure it went through the normal process.

And that meant from Bill through to the other programmers – they all had to give it a tick. There was no way I was going to programme it in my own section of the festival – I do have some limits of shame. So the world premiere was at Tribeca and it was a thrill to go to NYC for my first film. I mean it’s DeNiro’s fest and there are Taxi Driver locations right nearby. So yeah absolutely jazzed about premiering there and then when audiences and critics gave it the thumbs up it all added up to a pretty much perfect launch for the film.

Since then I’ve seen the film in various countries with all manner of audiences and it’s been interesting to see how things play in different cultures. In terms of sell-out cinema – it’s at The Civic – I don’t think anything sells out except for opening night and a couple of others but I sure hope more than a few friends turn up for it.

What's the scene been like for the selections this year - is there one film you didn't get that you want to name and shame, in the hope that the power of this Q&A will see its distributors cringe and reconsider?
The Lodge was the film that we should be playing. But it didn’t work out.

Which is a huge shame because the film is very good and I know the directing duo very well.

In fact we hung out in Seoul where both our films were in competition. They’re very inspiring and funny as hell. Which you wouldn’t get from their films! Goodnight Mommy etc – they’re connected with Ulrich Siedl and his production company and ar surrounded by brilliant artists.

And of course the Danzig vanity trainwreck VEROTIKA is something I don’t think I could have snagged before its world prem – I even knew one of the producers and could have made it happen.

GREENER GRASS is another film that I had the filmmakers on side but there were many things in the air  - it ended up waiting to hear from Locarno to be first international festival.

So that was frustrating on a few levels. For one – it’s directed by two women and would have upped the genre gender imbalance.

Deerskin is an intriguing look at a man falling apart and a predilection with fashion - why the interest in this one, and no parallels with anyone you know?
Well  Quentin Dupieux’s aka Mr Oizo films fit my section like a well-worn deerskin jacket.

Deerskin

So it’s a no brainer that his new film that just played Cannes was going to make an appearance. Anyone who has seen his films like RUBBER & WRONG know what they’re in for.

If you need to confess something about your predilection for horrible attire and an emotional imbalance then this is probably not the place to do it Darren.

The Hole In The Ground continues our obsession with mothers and weird kids, as well as haunting atmospherics - it's quite the powerful piece for a debut.
I’d seen Lee Cronin’s short Ghost Train on the circuit and could see that he was a confident director with horror material – and so there was some anticipation about his debut feature.

I don’t think it’s reinventing the wheel but then again – not many films do – rather it takes material that feels familiar and then mixes it up a bit. I just feel it’s a solid well crafted piece that delivers the chills for those looking for some. Just very confident and features a really strong performance from the lead Seana Kerslake.

You Don't Nomi has a pun even I'd be proud of as a title. But why the need to defend the trashfire that is Showgirls with this doco?
Well it’s actually a lot more than just that – that’s the hook for the doc but it actually looks at the world of Verhoeven and offers just as much from the negative perspective as the positive. It has a surprisingly emotional weight in its last third that comes as a shock after all the humour preceding it.

I saw the film in the week it was on screens on first release. We knew it was a misfire but also felt it was utterly compelling and mesmerising – and that really is the marriage of a cocaine-addled script and a brilliant director who misread the cues.

Equally The Amazing Johnathan Documentary seems to be a film about obsession and delusion....
The less said about this doc the better. The trailer shows way too much. Don’t watch it. Just go see it.
If you like docs like TICKLED that take a turn down unseen paths – then you’ll like this a lot. It’s Benjamin Berman’s first feature but he’s very experienced and it shows in how this all plays out.

What's going to give me the high that I got from that opening scene of Climax at the Hollywood Theatre last year - Violence Voyager, Mope or Knife + Heart?
Well CLIMAX is a very special film so nothing like that.

But the opening of MOPE is something to see with an audience. Just for how much you want to shift in your seat and maybe pretend you aren’t in the cinema watching it.

Knife + Heart is an excellent film – another Cannes hit – and has been wowing audiences all over. It’s not what people probably expect. And Violence Voyager is unlike anything folks would have seen in a cinema – there’s going to a collective WTF noise once it begins and the film’s unusual primitive style takes their synapses hostage.

Koko-Di Koko-Da looks fairly surreal - is this the film likely to tip me over the edge this year?
You’ll either admire it a lot like I did and find the subtext somewhat profound or easily think it’s a mean-spirited exercise in style that has fun manipulating the audience – or you might find it both.

Whatever way you take it – I think it’s something that people will want to talk about after they’ve seen it. If you’d seen the director’s films before this you’d be very unprepared for what happens in this one.

Tell me about Vivarium, whose director is coming for a Q&A as well...
Well I was a big fan of Lorcan Finnegan’s debut feature – an atmospheric eco-thriller/horror that really built up and had me on edge.

VIVARIUM is a super ambitious psychological satirical thriller that is beautifully crafted and performed. It has its roots in Twilight Zone’s literary canon – and mines the essence of what made Rod Serling’s original series so ground-breaking.
Configuring real world societal issues and placing them in the fantastic.  And Lorcan is a very open and honest Irishman who will be fun at the Q&A.

What's the one film from your selection that you'll be pissed off if it doesn't sell out?
I have way too many other things in the world to be pissed off about than whether a film gets an audience along to it or not.

I’ve programmed the section and now people either come a long or they don’t. Some will do well. Some not so well. That is the law of film festivals. It has no bearing on the film’s merit now or in the long run.

For many this will be the only chance for audiences to see them in a cinema with a crowd and that is something that should never be over-looked.

What can you recommend from the main festival programme, and why should we see them?
There are a lot to recommend. Andrei Rublev. Art of Self Defense. Bacurau. The Day Shall Come. Escher. Fly By Night. In Fabric. La Flor. The Lodger. Monos. The Whistlers.

How many more of these Q&As do you think you can endure, and what exactly does the festival have over you that forces you to do these annually?
I appreciate your persistence in cut and pasting the same questions each year. You really outdo yourself.

Also you’re the first film reviewer I know alive who hadn’t seen APOCALYPSE NOW  - take a bow, good sir!

What's the one question you're glad I didn't ask you, and how can we ever repair this fractured relationship??

You can ask me anything, big D. I’m an open book. Like the Bible. Our relationship is fine. Fractured is more fun than inert.

You can find more details of when the Incredibly Strange section is playing at nziff.co.nz