Sunday was the last day of the Sydney Film Festival and I finished with About Elly. I have been unashamedly disappointed with the content of this year’s festival, I was hard-pressed to fill my 10 ticket flexiplass, and still ended up with more duds then I was hoping for.
John Hurt introducing 44 Inch Chest on Saturday was a pleasant surprise, though he didn’t do a Q&A afterwards which was a shame. Rowan Woods did stick around after his film Winged Creatures, and I really don’t know what was more boring, watching this sadly underwhelming film or listening to one of the dullest men in Australian film speak ?
Whilst I was lining up for 44 Inch Chest, there was a middle aged couple behind me in the queue, I had Summerteeth blaring though the headphones as I’m not good in queues or crowds, but even with Jeff Tweedy drowning my ears with sound, I could hear this really strange loud sucking lip smack noise, I turned around and saw it was this couple – in their 40s, going at it with the loudest sucky slurping noises in a crowded queue (you can kiss someone without making that noise, I tested it when I got home, really you can). I mean it was so crowded in the queue that if I stuck out my tongue I would of licked the back of her bottle blonde hair. I turned up the music louder and stood there staring at them making fools of themselves ???? Saturday night movie crowds are not the classiest - middle aged couple PDAs are inappropriate where there is space to run away from them, when you are all jammed together middle aged PDAs are just plain DISGUSTING, mind, any aged PDAs in confined spaces are disgusting – have some class people, please . She even kissed him on the nose, I was staring with my mouth open, he was slurping her face, but watching me over her shoulder – creepy guy, sad desperate woman, I felt ashamed for them, pity for them and very embarrassed (the boy thinks they were probably just wakers, end of - he has a way with words). Once my shock had lightened, I got my phone out to take a photo of them so I could post it here, but they stopped, then the doors opened, I was disappointed. A photo of a couple of 40somethings dressed liked 20somthings standing in a queue just wouldn’t of had the same impact.
I slept threw a collection of shorts earlier that day too.
Here are the other films I’ve seen, and a few notes.
Treeless Mountain – see earlier post about this delightful little treat.
Altiplano – yawnfest in the Peruvian Andes that was too arty farty for its own good. Great female leads though but with that material it was hard work.
Cleo at 5 and 7 – a delightful re-print of an Agnès Varda 1960s classic with just the right amount of darkness.
Wanda – another vintage one, the print was really grainy and I struggled with it a little
Native Dancer – a real pleasant surprise, Russian gangs v a real life shaman in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The Missing Person – modern day Film Noir, not quite reaching where it wanted to go, but not a bad effort.
DOQ was my pick of the venues too.
I hope there is a new festival director next year.
Anyways, I have a cold.
Not the flu, not the swine flu, nope, just a plain ordinary cold – running nose, stuffed head, a little sore throat and just generally feeling blah from my neck up.
We have a global pandemic, with my country having the second largest number of confirmed cases outside of Mexico, and all I get is a common cold.
I spent the day at home yesterday on the lounge rugged up in front of the heater watching Doctor Who episodes with the 9th Doctor, and probably my favourite. More tonight I think, after my pedicure, as Captain Jack has just joined the fray and there’s always a jolly old romp when Captain Jack is in town – and I’m feeling too miserable to do anything else.
It rained all day Sunday, I did my grocery shopping early Sunday afternoon and as I’m sensible and prepared, I had my umbrella with me - someone stole my umbrella from my trolley when I was in the fruit & vege section of Woollies – some people are just mean.
So there you have it – I saw some films, I got a cold and I had something pinched.
Showing posts with label Sydney Film Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney Film Festival. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Treeless Mountains, Shorts and Little Girls
I’m in the middle of the Sydney Film Festival, I don’t know how much of that I will share.
I saw this movie last night, its was delightful in its cutesiness and the young actors were superb, especially in their portrayal of emotion - loss, pain, bewilderment and determination. Disappointly though, it lost momentum slightly at around the 3/4 mark but picked it up again when the girls got to the farm - its 90 min film; its not slick and needs some editing and it just sort of stopped rather than ended, though its still a lovely film and those girls are amazing. There was no applause (or is that just a Melbourne Film Festival thingy, clapping at the end of film – I dont know, this is only my second Sydney one and as I missed most of it last year because of pilgrim flu).
TREELESS MOUNTAIN: Movie Trailer
The film was preceded by a short that I found most interesting – a young Chinese woman is selling cheap knock-off DVDs in London, she is sharing a room with 4 other Chinese men. She has one DVD she treasures but we dont know whats on it, you see a little of her life in London and it doesn’t look great but she is earning so she can send money home to her family, but she seems miserable, living in horrible conditions, doing a job that it looks like she could be arrested and deported over – I think she is an illegal (this isn’t gone into but implied).
She gets taken to the place where the DVDs are copied (wall of disk drives and pc in a backroom somewhere), she is left in this room whilst the copying of a movie is going on, she stops the copying and puts in her DVD, it’s a recording of her daughter who is back in China and she misses her terribly, she watches the footage with tears silently streaming down her face, she is interrupted viewing this and is taken away to sell more DVDs, but she doesn’t get to take her DVD out, so instead of making 10 copies of the movie, it makes 10 copies of her DVD and nobody knows this.
They are distributed to the street sellers and sold on, the film then switches to a family watching what they think is a cheap knockoff of a popular new release but it turns out to be the footage of the Chinese girls daughter – bugger that, heres the link, watch the thing yourself, it goes for 15 minutes.
THE END.
I saw this movie last night, its was delightful in its cutesiness and the young actors were superb, especially in their portrayal of emotion - loss, pain, bewilderment and determination. Disappointly though, it lost momentum slightly at around the 3/4 mark but picked it up again when the girls got to the farm - its 90 min film; its not slick and needs some editing and it just sort of stopped rather than ended, though its still a lovely film and those girls are amazing. There was no applause (or is that just a Melbourne Film Festival thingy, clapping at the end of film – I dont know, this is only my second Sydney one and as I missed most of it last year because of pilgrim flu).
TREELESS MOUNTAIN: Movie Trailer
The film was preceded by a short that I found most interesting – a young Chinese woman is selling cheap knock-off DVDs in London, she is sharing a room with 4 other Chinese men. She has one DVD she treasures but we dont know whats on it, you see a little of her life in London and it doesn’t look great but she is earning so she can send money home to her family, but she seems miserable, living in horrible conditions, doing a job that it looks like she could be arrested and deported over – I think she is an illegal (this isn’t gone into but implied).
She gets taken to the place where the DVDs are copied (wall of disk drives and pc in a backroom somewhere), she is left in this room whilst the copying of a movie is going on, she stops the copying and puts in her DVD, it’s a recording of her daughter who is back in China and she misses her terribly, she watches the footage with tears silently streaming down her face, she is interrupted viewing this and is taken away to sell more DVDs, but she doesn’t get to take her DVD out, so instead of making 10 copies of the movie, it makes 10 copies of her DVD and nobody knows this.
They are distributed to the street sellers and sold on, the film then switches to a family watching what they think is a cheap knockoff of a popular new release but it turns out to be the footage of the Chinese girls daughter – bugger that, heres the link, watch the thing yourself, it goes for 15 minutes.
Five Pound Hollywood from Westminster Arts on Vimeo.
THE END.
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