THE HANDMAIDEN IS A HIT WITH AUSTIN CRITICS!

Lately shaping up to be one of awards season's unlikeliest of contenders, Park Chan Wook's The Handmaiden has won over one of the most single-minded of critics groups - the Austin Film Critics Association. The AFCA is a reliable group with generally strong tastes, and I can hardly fault their decisions this year. Winners will be announced, alongside a top 10 list and some special award recipients, on the 28th of December.

Best Film

Arrival

The Handmaiden

La La Land

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Best Director

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Park Chan Wook (The Handmaiden)

Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)

Best Actress

Amy Adams (Arrival)

Annette Bening (20th Century Women)

Isabelle Huppert (Elle)

Ruth Negga (Loving)

Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Best Actor

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Joel Edgerton (Loving)

Colin Farrell (The Lobster)

Ryan Gosling (La La Land)

Denzel Washington (Fences)

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis (Fences)

Greta Gerwig (20th Century Women)

Naomie Harris (Moonlight)

Kim Min Hee (The Handmaiden)

Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)

Ben Foster (Hell or High Water)

Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight)

Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Original Screenplay

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Mike Mills (20th Century Women)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Luke Davies (Lion)

Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals)

Eric Heisserer (Arrival)

Jeong Seo Kyeong and Park Chan Wook (The Handmaiden)

Whit Stillman (Love & Friendship)

Best Cinematography

Chung Chung Hoon (The Handmaiden)

Stephane Fontaine (Jackie)

James Laxton (Moonlight)

Linus Sandgren (La La Land)

Bradford Young (Arrival)

Best Score

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (Hell or High Water)

Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

Johann Johannsson (Arrival)

Mica Levi (Jackie)

Cliff Martinez (The Neon Demon)

Best Animated Film

Kubo and the Two Strings

The Little Prince

Moana

Tower

Zootopia

Best Documentary

13th

I Am Not Your Negro

O.J.: Made in America

Tower

Weiner

Best Foreign-Language Film

The Brand New Testament

Elle

The Handmaiden

Things to Come

Toni Erdmann

Best Austin Film

Loving

Midnight Special

Slash

Tower

Transpecos

Best First Film

The Birth of a Nation

The Edge of Seventeen

Krisha

Swiss Army Man

The Witch

The Robert R. 'Bobby' McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Sasha Lane (American Honey)

Keith Maitland (Tower)

Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight)

Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch)

REVIEW - THE HANDMAIDEN (PARK CHAN WOOK)

Seeing is never believing in Park Chan Wook's films. It's the premier component in what makes him such an exciting filmmaker, particularly when he can hold off allowing the abundant surface pleasures of his films to overwhelm them. He succeeds only to an extent in The Handmaiden, though there's sufficient pleasure to be had in its surface alone to sustain your interest. What makes this film so consistently engaging is that Park actually wants us to see - his jolting zooms, narrative ellipses, flashy mise-en-scene, and syncopated editing are designed to direct our attention, to impose a strong sense of dramatic irony that is itself doubly, deceptively ironic. The erotic satisfaction in the withholding and the exposing of secrets is matched by the common emotional satisfaction for the viewer, the thrill on being let in and on being led on. And with such a bold, vivid style, Park is able to hide those secrets in plain sight, both from his characters and from his audience. It's particularly fulfilling to glean the full truth knowing that the signs were there all along, barely concealed, bursting forth to greet us would that we were not so seduced by The Handmaiden's tricks and treats. It's a gorgeous film, almost too gorgeous, a buffet of beauty so extravagant you may wish there was some relief, if only to better appreciate that beauty, to compare and contextualize it. Park evidently revels in the beauty he observes in the film's central lesbian relationship; simmering away quite deliciously until it spills over in scenes of undue male-gaze prurience, only reinforcing the taboos it seeks to demolish. Yet overall, The Handmaiden's perspective on sexuality is a healthy, progressive one - sex and sexual desire are depicted here as gateways, as means of expression that open up new sensual, emotional and actual possibilities. A rich, generous film, to a fault indeed, but to a fabulous fault!

SECOND TRAILER FOR THE HANDMAIDEN

For those of us who don't understand Korean, what about this dialogue-free trailer for Park Chan Wook's Cannes-headed The Handmaiden? No clearer, though no more confusing either, and equally as tantalising! Check out the first trailer too, complete with all the Korean you don't understand!

PARK CHAN WOOK'S THE HANDMAIDEN: FIRST TRAILER

One of those foreign trailers where I don't know what's being said, nor the meaning of the text that appears on screen, but nor do I care. Park Chan Wook's Cannes competition entry The Handmaiden looks so fucking sumptuous that I don't need to know shit about what's going on, and nor should you. A delicious minute-and-a-bit of visual splendour.