WatchSeeLookView At The LFF 2019 - Dogs Don’t Wear Pants

I had an unexpected gap between films on Day 8. The advantage of the festival is that there are 345 films playing so the likelihood is that you’ll be able to find one from your wishlist to fill up any unexpected downtime.

If there seemed to be an unintentional theme to this year’s festival, it would probably be weirdly twisted anti-romances. Like this one...

Dogs Don't Wear Pants
Dir. J-P Valkeapää / Dur. 105 mins / Country. Finland
Festival Strand:- Dare
In A Nutshell:- A widowed man with a young daughter attempts to find a connection to his dead wife by indulging in auto-erotic asphyxiation with a dominatrix.

The Good:- You can probably guess by the “nutshell” description that we’re firmly into non-conventional territory here. The film is anchored by strong central performances by Pekka Strang as the grieving Juha and Krista Kosonden as Mona. It’s a tricky subject - the intermingling of sex, pain, love and grief - and there is a murkiness to the characters motivations and desires that makes it fascinating to see how it will unfold. The black humour laced throughout helps to keep it moving and offsets some of the more squeamish moments - for those of without strong stomachs, there are a couple of moments that wouldn't be out of place within a horror film (the Japanese horror film Audition sprung to mind at one particular point). The film also has a pleasingly ambiguous ending - for a film that very much plows its own path, it feels like a suitably fitting way to leave the characters.

The Bad:- I thoroughly enjoyed this one - I can’t think of anything that was particularly bad about it.

The Verdict:- Definitely not for everyone - if you like your romantic comedies to be advertised by a white poster with the two main leads on it then this is not going to be your cup of tea. However, if you like your romance with a dark, twisted and blackly funny edge then this will right up your alley (so to speak).

The Venue / Intro / Q&A:- Back on the recliners at the Vue West End for this one. Director and co-writer J-P Valkeapää along with star Krista Kosonen were on hand for a Q&A after the fim. It hadn’t originally occurred to the director to refer to the film as a romantic comedy but he now (only half-jokingly) does so. There was a period of research undertaken with a dominatrix - the most surprising thing about that being the number of people who were quite happy to let a prospective film crew watch what was going on! In terms of performance, there wasn’t a lot of improvisation - given the potentially painful nature of the BDSM scenes, a lot of choreography was needed which limited their ability to throw new stuff in.