This was worth the flight to Montreal. Sunday Morning 9:00 showing -- the first time an audience had ever seen the film -- and it was greeted with cheering and a well deserved standing O. The Globe and Mail a day or two later said Montreal hadn't received a film like this since Once Were Warriors. I'm sure Nic Balthazar (the writer/director) had to be blown away by how well this film went over. It has to find a distributor or there are no brains left in Hollywood.

In the Talk Faith Talk Film seminar, we did an exercise of being a jury using the Ecumenical Juries criteria. Both groups doing this picked Ben X. (There was really no contest -- nothing measured up to this.) My section wrote this in our commendation:

Ben has focused his life and energy into an only fantasy game, but has separated himself from the life around him.

Through a blending of reality and virtual reality, Ben X offers a vision of new life through courage and creativity that can overcome violence and misunderstanding.

This is very likely to be atop my top films list this year. I'm hoping the rest of you will have it on your lists next year.

Trailer available at film's website.

Words to help the search engine: benx, Asperger's, autism, suicide, revenge, judgment, rebirth, bullying

The Ecumenical Jury awarded its prize to Ben X. Their statement:
« Using religious imagery of the Passion of Christ, Ben X represents the possibility of a different response to violence. Afflicted more by others’ bullying and misunderstanding than by his autism, the main character responds to this violence with creative intelligence and effective use of media. The film’s stylistic innovation presents different versions of Ben’s reality in a way that thwarts spectators’ expectations and that implicates the viewer within habitual social responses to violence. »

And it shared the Grand Prix of the Americas with A Secret. It was also voted most popular film of the festival by the public.

Ran into Nic Balthazar at the PSIFF press room today and had a brief interview with him. Updates: They are talking to people about distribution, but nothing is set up yet. Also they are talking about what IMDB lists as Ben X Remake Project -- which I think would be a US version. One of the things he mentioned is that the title of the film sounds in Dutch and German as Ben Iks which would be very similar to bin nicht - I Am Nothing.

Sight & Sound December: "Abu Dhabi: October's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival has awarded Belgian drama BEN X its top prize for best film from a debut or second-time diredtor. Both Harvey Weinstein and Paul Haggis were in attendance."

And now this.

Here's my very brief interview with him from Palm Springs.

Someday somebody else will see this and we can kick spoilers around.

A friend sent me this:
I just learned over the weekend that Film Movement picked up the rights to Ben X. I am a member of their film-of-the-month-club and it is scheduled to be the September 2008 film. You don’t have to be a member to purchase it, you just have to wait a month or so to purchase it and it’ll cost about $25

Yeah, I saw that. I may extend my subscription just to get hold of that.

I wonder if you'd do us all a service and report on these titles, even in brief, in this thread. We don't appear to have a dedicated Film Movement thread, although the DVD series has been mentioned in several other threads on the board.

My local library gets these titles, but I often find the films taking a back seat to other releases. That's probably my loss.

Heh:

Film Movement nabs 'Pope's Toilet'

Film Movement has acquired U.S. rights to the Uruguayan narrative pic “The Pope’s Toilet” (“El Bano del Papa”), a fest fave that screened in Cannes in Un Certain Regard.

The film is set in 1988, as a small Uruguayan town, Melo, gears up for the arrival of Pope John Paul II. One local resident, trying to profit from the visit, decides to build a portable pay toilet for the event, setting in motion a chain of unforeseen complications.

I watched Ben X last night and found it to be inventive, at times excruciating (deliberately so), and ultimately, well...

... this one is more interesting for me to read about and think about than it is for me to actually watch it. I'l have to watch it again. I found it very interesting, but can't say I felt particularly enthusiastic at the end.

That's partly my own problem.



I'm really, really tired of movies that involve characters who are a figment of the main character's imagination.

And I found the conclusion to be just a little too self-satisfied with its own cleverness. (The movie seemed to think it had faked out the audience, when I suspect that most viewers will see the trick coming.)

Having said that, the Christ imagery is powerfully employed, and the incorporation of the video game was very well done.

The lead actor, Belgium's answer to Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal, seemed too old to be a high schooler, which is strange considering that the director dropped the lead actor of the stage version because he had aged too much.

The bullying scenes are very, very painful to sit through. Rightfully so.

In about 90 minutes, the film covers a lot of ground, with thoughtful observations on why video games appeal to young people, and the ways in which we equip (or "arm") ourselves to deal with challenges.

The film reminded me of Donnie Darko and Choking Man, and a few others that, if I name them, will incline you to guess the surprises, so I'll leave them out for now.

My column at CT this month is about Ben X and Choking Man.

Minor correction: it's in Dutch, not French. Ben X sounds much like "I am nothing" in Dutch. "Nothing is all he said" was the title of Balthazar's book, "Neits" (Nothing) is the name of the play.

Hmmm, you end on a note that seems to accept the common evangelical misunderstanding of a certain line in Unforgiven. Munny isn't talking about "retaliation" or judgment there, he is talking about death. I'll say more about that in the thread on that film (if I haven't already).

Thank you, Darrel. That was added to the article after I turned it in, so I wasn't aware of the error.

Peter, I guess I interpret the line more loosely... to mean *judgment.* Death, sure. The kid says, "I guess he had it comin'"... meaning, the guy that the kid just shot. Death as justice. In Ben X, there is a sense of judgment, punishment. So sure, it's not as extreme, but there's still a sense that the film plays into our desires to see certain bad men judged. As far as that goes, I think it's important that we remain humble and realize that if we are going to demand severe justice for the wrongdoer, then we should expect that we too will be dealt with according to our sins.

Overstreet wrote:
: Peter, I guess I interpret the line more loosely... to mean *judgment.* Death, sure. The kid says, "I guess he had it comin'"... meaning, the guy that the kid just shot. Death as justice.

That is what The Kid meant, yes. But it is not what Will Munny meant. So in that sense, it is not a "confession" of any sort.

It's a common misunderstanding among evangelicals, though, so you're certainly not alone in that. It is so common, in fact, that I happened to cite it just last week when I gave a lecture on how Christians should (and shouldn't) read films. So I've had that particular quote on the brain.

I was very impressed with this film. I'm not qualified to comment as to the accuracy of its portrayal of Asperger's Syndrome, but I think the film did an excellent job in showing how difficult and painful it would be for a high school student who has some kind of condition preventing him from communicating with people and in having social skills. I can understand how Ben could retreat into his fantasy world of the computer game to cope with the extreme bullying he faces. And I could buy how someone in his situation would create imaginary characters in the "real world" to help him cope..

Some minor flaws, though. Ben looked too old to be in high school. And the monstrous behavior of the bullies was a bit over-the-top.

As far as the ending goes, given a couple of other ways I was afraid the movie would end, either suicide or Ben takes physical violent action against his bullies, I could appreciate the path the director chose. Even if one has to assume that Ben suddenly is discovered to a creative genius in scene-directing and filmmaking