A royal buffet at Fantasia

The next three weeks will vibrate to the rhythm of Fantasia, with its uninhibited cinema that allows itself all the excesses. This 26^e edition, which brings together more than 300 films and activities, is so packed that we had to cut it into five parts in order to do it justice. Overview.

The big visit

John Woo is coming to Montreal to receive an honorary career award and offer a master class (July 16). The Hong Kong filmmaker has revolutionized action cinema with his unmistakably recognizable style where the balls seem to dance the ballet in slow motion. The opportunity will be ideal to rediscover in good company its classics Hard Boiled (July 15) and Front/Off (July 17) which this year celebrates its 25^e anniversary. The all-too-rare director Neil LaBute will also be in town to present House of Darkness (July 22), a black comedy about a meeting with unsuspected consequences. As always with the author of In the Company of Men, the dialogues lead the way and the sexual relations take it for their cold. The festival will also welcome renowned director Patrice Leconte for his long-awaited rereading of Maigret (July 26) in which Gérard Depardieu slips into the skin of the mythical commissioner created by George Simenon.

The first

The works presented in world premiere are numerous this year. This is the case of Polaris (July 14) by KC Carthew, a magical and bloody opening film set in the Yukon. Here we think of madmax with an all-female cast and a particularly charismatic polar bear. More playful is The pace steps (July 16), a UFO by Alexandre Leblanc that plunges Jean-Sébastien Courchesne and Sophie Desmarais into an offbeat and paranoid reality against a background of garbage radio. The rich black and white photography and cartoonist impulses make it a unique experience. Even more destabilizing is The Diabetic (July 14 and 27) by Mitchell Stafiej, a grunge feature about youthful dreams that didn’t necessarily materialize.

The unavoidable

The big names seem to have given themselves the word to present their most recent creation. This is the case of Quentin Dupieux (Incredible but true, July 31), Takashi Miike (The Mole Song – Final, July 25) and Dario Argento, the master of giallo, who offers with Dark Glasses (July 30) his first director in a decade, taking his daughter Asia to the edge of horror. Presented at Cannes, Cut! (July 15) by Michel Hazanavicius, a remake of the brilliant cult film One Cut of the Dead, will make you scream with laughter by taking an interest in the underside of an out-of-the-ordinary shoot. It’s about fantasies in Sharp Stick (30 July and 1^er August), a provocative sex comedy as only Lena Dunham can imagine. For his part, Anurag Kashyap (the creator of traumatic ugly and Gangs of Wasseypur) crosses genres in Dobaaraa (July 31), while the master of animation cinema, Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game), will easily put the audience in his pocket with his rock opera Inu-Oh (July 27).

The events

For those who wonder why Fantasia audiences meow before each film, the phenomenon was born at DJ XL5’s evenings (July 28), which has been delighting festival-goers since 2004. Once again this year, around twenty short footage from here and elsewhere are assembled. “The movie theater becomes like an enormous 700-seat sofa and everything is presented as a reflection on the pop culture of yesterday and today,” explains its founder, Marc Lamothe, in an interview. We will have to take advantage of it, because this tradition bows out at the end of this edition. In a completely different register, a panel will take place on July 20 in order to establish actions for the film industry to reduce its ecological footprint. We also highlight the broadcast of the first four episodes of The King of Pigs (July 24), an adaptation of a controversial school bullying animation, which is Fantasia’s first TV series. The result is as disturbing as it is unhealthy.

Local flavors

Quebec cinema has always taken the lion’s share of Fantasia. The short films section is particularly extensive this year with several high quality titles. This is the case of beautiful river (July 31) by Samuel Matteau, Yannick Nolin and Guillaume Fournier, a magnificent contemplative essay on the resilience of the inhabitants of Louisiana. Moviegoers can see A summer like this (August 2), the most recent feature film by Denis Côté, which deals with female sexuality. Fans of nanars will be delighted with a rare representation of Dangerous (August 2), of which we highlight the 20^e anniversary of the release. This is an opportunity to rediscover this blockbuster by Louis Saia which was reviled by critics.

The Fantasia festival is held from July 14 to August 3.