Certain problematic words and phrases may appear in the course of SIFF Notes, or may be overheard while waiting in line for a SIFF film. The following is a handy guide to help viewers decipher them.
Anime: Japanese term, translates loosely as "fetishize the sexuality of cartoon schoolgirls."
Auteur: French for "pretentious control freak."
Autobiographical: Confessional, irrelevant. (See also "Indulgent.")
Award-winning: Synonym for "I couldn't think of an adjective that describes this film."
Breathtaking: Large or fast.
Celebrated: (See "Award-winning.")
Compelling: Didactic.
Conventional: Formally competent; respectful of its audience; based on classic principles of structure and behavior. Antonym for "Postmodern."
Courageous: 1. A female performance involving nudity or sweatpants. 2. A male performance involving bigotry, retardation, or a mustache.
Critically acclaimed: (See "Celebrated.")
Decadent: Possessed of a healthy appetite for food, sex, or production design.
Epic: Offensively long. (See also "Important.")
Heartfelt: Nauseatingly sincere.
Heartwarming: Sincerely nauseating.
Hollywood Renaissance: Made in 1970s, ethnic, violent.
Important: Self-important.
Indulgent: The fundamental condition of all art.
Intoxicating: Manipulative.
Kinetic: As in "kinetic camerawork"; overcompensating for a lack of meaningful material in script. (See also "Oliver Stone.")
Luminous: Overlit.
Lynchian: Incoherent; often involving lesbian sex or the suggestion of some.
Neo-realism: A school of filmmaking that relies on not owning a tripod.
New Wave (British): Features well-dressed, mostly silent men with guns, cockney accents, and homosexual tendencies barely concealed by their violent nature.
New Wave (French): Features well-dressed, incredibly talkative young men with cigarettes, incredibly foxy girlfriends, and socialist tendencies belied by their indolent nature.
Noteworthy: (See "Critically acclaimed.")
Oeuvre: French for "egg."
Pastiche: A combination of elements recontextualized from other sources. (See also "Plagiarism.")
Peerless: (See "Noteworthy.")
Postmodern: Free to be meaningless; liberated from the strictures of quality and reason.
Semiautobiographical: Autobiographical.
Sensuality: Nudity, preferably involving two or more women at once.
Tender: Gay. (See also "Identity.")
Urban: Black. (See also "Gritty.")
