Another day where everything was enjoyable.
Best film of the day - Polisse. A look into the lives of a Parisian Child Protection Unit of the police. While a fictional movie, it's based on real cases. The focus is more on the police themselves as opposed to the cases. How they deal with the stress and emotions that often come up in such a role.
I was concerned that due to subject matter, the film would be quite depressing. While some of the situations/scenes were potentially upsetting, overall the film handled the subject matter quite well, with the occasional funny moment (humour being one of the ways the police used in dealing with the stress). I certainly did not leave the film feeling uplifted, but on the other hand I was not feeling sown/overwhelmed by it.
Worth mentioning - an interesting Documentary I also watched this day, PressPausePlay, that looked into the impact (both good and bad) technology is having on media (be it music/film/written word). Focus was more on music and film. Could have gone into written word a bit more.
Saturday 6 August 2011
Tuesday 2 August 2011
MIFF 2011 Day ten
(this was Sunday 31st July. At the end of the day I'd attended 40 sessions)
Due to a sore back (Greater Union has seating from the 70's) and having two films I'd picked just to fill the spots of which I was not particularly interested in, I ended up only going to one film today, resting for the rest of the day.
I also had a craving for a decent meal. Alas The rare Steak House is closed on Sundays, so I settled for a seafood & steak resturant on King St. The food was ok, but it was no Rare Steak House.
The only film I watched today was Hobo with a Shotgun. This was a fun film, not taking itself too seriously, with lots of (I beleive) intentially corny lines. While supposedly a Grindhouse film, it reminded me more of the Troma films of the eighties and similar films (such as Class of 1984/1999 - which Troma did a take on with their Class of Nuke'em High). The music reminded me at times of the music from Escape from New York. Recommend watching this film with others as it's one of those fun group films. Some of the scenes were over the top gore as often occurs with these types of films. I'd like to think Rutger Hauer had fun making this.
Due to a sore back (Greater Union has seating from the 70's) and having two films I'd picked just to fill the spots of which I was not particularly interested in, I ended up only going to one film today, resting for the rest of the day.
I also had a craving for a decent meal. Alas The rare Steak House is closed on Sundays, so I settled for a seafood & steak resturant on King St. The food was ok, but it was no Rare Steak House.
The only film I watched today was Hobo with a Shotgun. This was a fun film, not taking itself too seriously, with lots of (I beleive) intentially corny lines. While supposedly a Grindhouse film, it reminded me more of the Troma films of the eighties and similar films (such as Class of 1984/1999 - which Troma did a take on with their Class of Nuke'em High). The music reminded me at times of the music from Escape from New York. Recommend watching this film with others as it's one of those fun group films. Some of the scenes were over the top gore as often occurs with these types of films. I'd like to think Rutger Hauer had fun making this.
Monday 1 August 2011
MIFF 2011 Day Nine
Today was a day of average sessions. Nothing fantastic, nothing horrible. Two of the sessions were taken up with shorts – Australian Shorts and Animation Shorts.
The best short that screened during the Australian Shorts session was actually an animation – The Missing Key. A very inventive short, story wise, with some nice animation.
The best short from the Animation Shorts session was Miss Remarkable and Her Career. Partly because I could associate with it as the main character reminded me of a friend and some of the issues she has been going through and partly because it was a well written subject with a bit of humour.
The worst session of the day – Play. While the main story was good and interesting both in plot and as a comment on society/human behaviour, the side stories to me seemed pointless and not particularly interesting. eg two scenes involving South American Indians. One of the scenes with them in semi traditional dress playing/busking and selling CDs. The other scene showing them, still in traditional dress sitting in MacDonald's, eating. While likely there as a social commentary, did not see the relevance/link to the main story. Each scene involving the main story would often have something involving other characters that lasted for sometimes 5-10 mins before the main chars appeared. Again felt these were pointless and detracted from the main story.
MIFF 2011 Day Eight
Overall the films today were all enjoyable so it was hard to determine a best/worst.
Worst film of the day – Kill List. Part of the nightshift section. This screened at 11:30pm. As mentioned previously this film was not bad. Thinking about the four films I saw today, I think I enjoyed the other three a bit more. As to why, I’m struggling to put my finger on it. Some parts of this film reminded me (in a good way) of dim memories of B grade British horror films relating to evil cults.
Best film of the day – Route Irish is a Ken Loach film. A conspiracy/political thriller about an ex-soldier/private contractor who finds the death of his best friend (that occurred while working as a private contractor in Iraq) suspicious and starts looking into it. The film does not shy away from touching on subjects such as “acceptable losses”, civilian casualties and the impact on those both fighting and the civilians living there. It is also not a good triumphing over evil film. The story has more of a ring of truth about it.
Sunday 31 July 2011
MIFF 2011 Day Seven
Last night I had gone to bed at 10:30pm, the earliest night in a long time, to try and catch up on some sleep for the film festival. I’d just gotten hold of a copy of Jim Butcher’s latest Dresden Files novel – Ghost Story & thought being how tired I felt, I’d read for 10 or so mins and likely start nodding off. It got to 1:30am in the morning and I forced myself to put the book down & get some sleep.
Worst film of the day – Oki’s Movie. A group of short stories featuring the same set of characters – students and teachers studying film making. Did not find the characters or stories particularly interesting
Best film of the day – Submarine. The coming of age comedy story of a neurotic teenager set during the 80’s. While not as laugh out loud funny as The Guard I did have a smile on my face for the majority of the film.
Directed and written by Richard Ayoade, who some may recognise as the actor who plays Maurice Moss (he with the boofy hair and black rimmed glasses) in the very funny The IT Crowd.
MIFF 2011 Day Six–Tragedy Strikes!
A mostly full bottle of Red Eye has emptied itself into my bag. I noticed this while walking to get some dinner and noticed a wet patch developing on my back where my backpack was resting against it. It had soaked through the bag, my overcoat, jacket & two layers of clothing.
Inside the bag my Kindle, an out of print RPG book as well as several other items were showing off their absorptive powers. Luckily my netbook was not in my bag..
I am currently back at the apartment attempting to dry things off as I write this (in my notebook before transcribing into my blog). Have just under two hours before next screening. Will see how things dry out.
Update: did not make the screening sue to items still being damp. Eventually got things dried out. Thankfully the Kindle still works & the other items don’t appear to be too much worse for wear. The inside of my bag (after 4 days) still has the slightly sweet odour of Red Eye about it. Not sure how I’m going to go about washing it.
Only managed two films on day six – The Third Man, the British film noir considered by some (not I) to be the greatest movie thriller and Into Eternity a so-so documentary about the way Norway intends to dispose of it’s Nuclear waste & the challenges due to it being dangerous for 100,000 years.
Thursday 28 July 2011
MIFF 2011 Day Five
At the end of day five I’d attended 21 sessions
Worst film of the day – The Stoker. I found this film slow. There were also scenes that to me there was no point to them. For example early in the film the first encounter we have to the stoker’s daughter is a scene of her naked walking around her room taking on the phone to her mother. There was no point to her being naked. There were lots of scenes of people travelling from place to place, be it by tram or walking through the snow. Once or twice would have been fine, but every time a char went somewhere several minutes of the film was of them walking. Perhaps they needed to pad out the film.
One piece of music seemed to be repeated continually, especially during the travel bits. It played quite loud & you could not hear any background noise (which could have been the point of it). There was one scene in the film which purpose seemed purely to promote the group. One character visits another, playing on a tv in the background is the band playing the same annoying piece of music. One of the characters mentions liking the band, mentioning it by name & saying they were thinking of going to their concert. The other character says they’d like to as well. There were even close up shots of the TV. This scene could also have been used to establish the friendship between the two chars, but there were enough scenes elsewhere in the film to do that & it could have been handled much better.
MIFF has several people blogging about the film festival (all people that write reviews for a living) and while most of the people that have seen The Stoker appear not to have liked it either there was one or two people that enjoyed it. That is one of the things I like about the festival. It caters to a wide and varied taste.
Best film of the day – King of Comedy. I’d never seen this film before. Jerry Lewis, Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhardt all do very good performances. De Niro and Bernhardt play the obsessed celebrity stalking fans extremely well. Being used to seeing Jerry Lewis play a goof ball, seeing him play virtually the straight man in this film shows him to be very talented.
Honourable mention to Viva Riva!, a Congolese crime thriller film. A enjoyable and interesting story interweaving the social structure and way of life into this crime story.
Worst film of the day – The Stoker. I found this film slow. There were also scenes that to me there was no point to them. For example early in the film the first encounter we have to the stoker’s daughter is a scene of her naked walking around her room taking on the phone to her mother. There was no point to her being naked. There were lots of scenes of people travelling from place to place, be it by tram or walking through the snow. Once or twice would have been fine, but every time a char went somewhere several minutes of the film was of them walking. Perhaps they needed to pad out the film.
One piece of music seemed to be repeated continually, especially during the travel bits. It played quite loud & you could not hear any background noise (which could have been the point of it). There was one scene in the film which purpose seemed purely to promote the group. One character visits another, playing on a tv in the background is the band playing the same annoying piece of music. One of the characters mentions liking the band, mentioning it by name & saying they were thinking of going to their concert. The other character says they’d like to as well. There were even close up shots of the TV. This scene could also have been used to establish the friendship between the two chars, but there were enough scenes elsewhere in the film to do that & it could have been handled much better.
MIFF has several people blogging about the film festival (all people that write reviews for a living) and while most of the people that have seen The Stoker appear not to have liked it either there was one or two people that enjoyed it. That is one of the things I like about the festival. It caters to a wide and varied taste.
Best film of the day – King of Comedy. I’d never seen this film before. Jerry Lewis, Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhardt all do very good performances. De Niro and Bernhardt play the obsessed celebrity stalking fans extremely well. Being used to seeing Jerry Lewis play a goof ball, seeing him play virtually the straight man in this film shows him to be very talented.
Honourable mention to Viva Riva!, a Congolese crime thriller film. A enjoyable and interesting story interweaving the social structure and way of life into this crime story.
MIFF 2011 Day Four
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
Worst film of the day – Detroit Wild City. Well actually the 20 min short, The Future Will not be Capitalist that screen with this was worse, so overall it just was not a good session.
I was hoping for some inspiration for an upcoming Tribe 8 game I’m going to attempt to run. “In Truth”” (something from an annoying vic roads ad that was screened constantly last year at MIFF and has screened a couple of times this year. Who uses this expression in conversation now a days anyway?) I was overall disappointed with this doco. Was hoping for a bit more on communities adapting/converting/taking over the ruined and abandoned factories and other buildings but it only showed a couple of groups setting up small vege gardens.
Best film of the day – The Unjust. South Korean thriller with lots of twists and turns. A couple were a bit flimsy and one or two things that happened I assume would make more sense if II was more familiar with South Korean culture, so I just accepted them as a given. Johnnie found some of the twists too flimsy for his liking.
This was a doco I picked on a whim. It turned out to be quite interesting and enjoyable. The trail the doco makers followed, the clues they found and the conclusions they came up with when putting the pieces together on this mystery made for good viewing. The Toynbee tiles in on themselves I found intriguing.TOYNBEE IDEA
IN Kubrick's 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER.
Worst film of the day – Detroit Wild City. Well actually the 20 min short, The Future Will not be Capitalist that screen with this was worse, so overall it just was not a good session.
I was hoping for some inspiration for an upcoming Tribe 8 game I’m going to attempt to run. “In Truth”” (something from an annoying vic roads ad that was screened constantly last year at MIFF and has screened a couple of times this year. Who uses this expression in conversation now a days anyway?) I was overall disappointed with this doco. Was hoping for a bit more on communities adapting/converting/taking over the ruined and abandoned factories and other buildings but it only showed a couple of groups setting up small vege gardens.
Best film of the day – The Unjust. South Korean thriller with lots of twists and turns. A couple were a bit flimsy and one or two things that happened I assume would make more sense if II was more familiar with South Korean culture, so I just accepted them as a given. Johnnie found some of the twists too flimsy for his liking.
Wednesday 27 July 2011
MIFF 2011 Day Three
Four of the five films I watched on day three (Sunday 24th July) covered things such as philosophy and the human psyche/mind.
Worst film of the day – Fruit of Paradise. A 1970 Czechoslovakian film (according to one of my Czech friends - Mariana, the film’s title actually translates into English "We eat/are eating the fruit of the trees from/of Paradise"). The style of the film could be termed new wave/Avant-garde. While I did not see any really bad films this day, the film did not connect well with me, possibly because of my state of mind. By that I mean if I was of a state of mind of the time period the film was made in as opposed to my mind state being of the 21st century I may have gotten into it better.
Best film of the day – 13 Assassins. I have a soft spot for samurai flicks and I usually enjoy the works of Takashi Miike so a Samurai film directed by him was a real treat. I thoroughly enjoyed this. While this could be compared to Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai it’s actually a remake of a film by the same title. As to how this film compares to that one as opposed to Seven Samurai, I’m not sure. I intend to track down the original (if it exists with English subs) and watch it. One of the characters did remind me of Toshiro Mifune’s character so this could partly be the reason for comparison.
Did not see any sign on “ninja blood letting technique*”, although in one scene where someone is blown up there are buckets of blood that come over the rooftop and rain down.
*Ninja blood letting technique was an expression coined by myself & friends to describe the amount of blood that fountained out of people, mainly ninja, in films such as the Lone Wolf and Cub series (also known as Shogun Assassin)
Worst film of the day – Fruit of Paradise. A 1970 Czechoslovakian film (according to one of my Czech friends - Mariana, the film’s title actually translates into English "We eat/are eating the fruit of the trees from/of Paradise"). The style of the film could be termed new wave/Avant-garde. While I did not see any really bad films this day, the film did not connect well with me, possibly because of my state of mind. By that I mean if I was of a state of mind of the time period the film was made in as opposed to my mind state being of the 21st century I may have gotten into it better.
Best film of the day – 13 Assassins. I have a soft spot for samurai flicks and I usually enjoy the works of Takashi Miike so a Samurai film directed by him was a real treat. I thoroughly enjoyed this. While this could be compared to Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai it’s actually a remake of a film by the same title. As to how this film compares to that one as opposed to Seven Samurai, I’m not sure. I intend to track down the original (if it exists with English subs) and watch it. One of the characters did remind me of Toshiro Mifune’s character so this could partly be the reason for comparison.
Did not see any sign on “ninja blood letting technique*”, although in one scene where someone is blown up there are buckets of blood that come over the rooftop and rain down.
*Ninja blood letting technique was an expression coined by myself & friends to describe the amount of blood that fountained out of people, mainly ninja, in films such as the Lone Wolf and Cub series (also known as Shogun Assassin)
MIFF 2011 Day Two
Overall the quality of films today was better than day one. Did not get to see The Innkeeper (last film I had scheduled for the day) due to a miscalculation of times on my part. By the time I was out of the previous film, The Innkeeper had already been going for over 30 min.
Worst film of the day – Life 2.0 While not a bad documentary, it covered things I’ve already read/seen in other docos, so there was nothing new or starting for me. About the only thing I was not aware of was (according to the documentary) the volume of players for Second Life was still increasing. I has thought the player base was decreasing. I recall several Australian companies that had presences in SL closing them down, which led me to this belief.
If you are not that familiar with Second Life and/or the impact MMOs are having on some peoples lives this may be worth checking out.
Best film of the day – The Guard. Very funny Irish film. Also a bit of a thriller. Cast of unique and interesting characters including (but not limited to) a group of philosophising drug dealers. Is apparently being released in Australia on 25th August.
The short film before it – Bunce, was also very good. An supposed autobiographical piece by Stephen Fry of a boy he encountered in school.
Yellow Sea is also worth mentioning as it was also quite good. This was a South Korean thriller/chase film. Made use of the some of the socio-economic situations of the region. Fights in this film tended to be quite bloody as they involved knives and axes. Hardly a gun to be seen.
Worst film of the day – Life 2.0 While not a bad documentary, it covered things I’ve already read/seen in other docos, so there was nothing new or starting for me. About the only thing I was not aware of was (according to the documentary) the volume of players for Second Life was still increasing. I has thought the player base was decreasing. I recall several Australian companies that had presences in SL closing them down, which led me to this belief.
If you are not that familiar with Second Life and/or the impact MMOs are having on some peoples lives this may be worth checking out.
Best film of the day – The Guard. Very funny Irish film. Also a bit of a thriller. Cast of unique and interesting characters including (but not limited to) a group of philosophising drug dealers. Is apparently being released in Australia on 25th August.
The short film before it – Bunce, was also very good. An supposed autobiographical piece by Stephen Fry of a boy he encountered in school.
Yellow Sea is also worth mentioning as it was also quite good. This was a South Korean thriller/chase film. Made use of the some of the socio-economic situations of the region. Fights in this film tended to be quite bloody as they involved knives and axes. Hardly a gun to be seen.
Monday 25 July 2011
MIFF 2011 Day One
The time has come around fast for another year of MIFF. Its been a fun year between events with travelling overseas and meeting people, making new friends, experiencing the cultures & visiting some of the places of what up until that point I'd only experienced via film. I wonder if that experience will change the way I view films from different parts of the world?
Watched four films on this day (see previous post for listing & links to what the films are about).
Worst film of the day - I Wish I Knew. That was the actual name of the film & not me trying to be smart or forgetting it's title. It was also the first film I watched of the festival & I hoped it was not going to be a reflection on my experiences for this festival. It showed the history of Shanghai through interviews with people. While a few of the interviews were of interesting stories, too many of them were not or were too long. This doco dragged for me. I didn't appear to be the only one that was not impressed by this film as people were leaving at different times during it. I persisted to the end for the occasional interesting stories.
Best film of the day - Cold Fish. MIFF describes this film well in it's write up. Saw this with two other people (Johnnie and his sister Anne). Pete Webb was also at this screening. Johnnie said that the film reminded him of Audition (another Japanese thriller/horror film that we'd both seen at MIFF several years ago) in regards to how it starts off normal and mundane and as the film progresses things become more and more twisted/intense (I agree with this).
Anne found the film quite disturbing overall. Partly because she could see the events portrayed in the film really occurring (according to the start of the film the story is based on true events) and partly because of some of the things the audience were laughing at. Personally I found parts of the film funny. I enjoy black/gallows humour of which the film had. I suspect some of the laughs from people were more of the kind where people laugh to hid their discomfort.
Only one scene where people laughed that I found a bit disturbing and did not laugh. Talking with Johnnie and Pete afterwoods, they though it was the ludicrousness of the scene that people laughed at.
This film has lots of blood/gore in the later parts.
Note - have tried to write this up for several days. Blogger is playing up on my netbook hence the delay (it now being the morning of the fourth day of MIFF).
Watched four films on this day (see previous post for listing & links to what the films are about).
Worst film of the day - I Wish I Knew. That was the actual name of the film & not me trying to be smart or forgetting it's title. It was also the first film I watched of the festival & I hoped it was not going to be a reflection on my experiences for this festival. It showed the history of Shanghai through interviews with people. While a few of the interviews were of interesting stories, too many of them were not or were too long. This doco dragged for me. I didn't appear to be the only one that was not impressed by this film as people were leaving at different times during it. I persisted to the end for the occasional interesting stories.
Best film of the day - Cold Fish. MIFF describes this film well in it's write up. Saw this with two other people (Johnnie and his sister Anne). Pete Webb was also at this screening. Johnnie said that the film reminded him of Audition (another Japanese thriller/horror film that we'd both seen at MIFF several years ago) in regards to how it starts off normal and mundane and as the film progresses things become more and more twisted/intense (I agree with this).
Anne found the film quite disturbing overall. Partly because she could see the events portrayed in the film really occurring (according to the start of the film the story is based on true events) and partly because of some of the things the audience were laughing at. Personally I found parts of the film funny. I enjoy black/gallows humour of which the film had. I suspect some of the laughs from people were more of the kind where people laugh to hid their discomfort.
Only one scene where people laughed that I found a bit disturbing and did not laugh. Talking with Johnnie and Pete afterwoods, they though it was the ludicrousness of the scene that people laughed at.
This film has lots of blood/gore in the later parts.
Note - have tried to write this up for several days. Blogger is playing up on my netbook hence the delay (it now being the morning of the fourth day of MIFF).
Thursday 21 July 2011
One of the World’s Oldest Film Festivals
Interesting article in The Age about the history of MIFF.
I'd heard MIFF was the oldest film festival in Australia. I had not realised it's one of the oldest in the world. According to Wikipedia -
I'd heard MIFF was the oldest film festival in Australia. I had not realised it's one of the oldest in the world. According to Wikipedia -
"The first major film festival was held in Venice in 1932; the other major and oldest film festivals of the world are: Festival del film Locarno (1946),Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1946), Edinburgh International Film Festival (1947), Cannes Film Festival (1947) , Melbourne International Film Festival (1951) and Berlin International Film Festival (1951)"
Wednesday 13 July 2011
My Current MIFF Schedule
My Schedule
Date/Time | Venue | |||
Friday 22 July 2011 | ||||
10:45 AM | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Saturday 23 July 2011 | ||||
11:00 AM | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
11:00 PM | ||||
Sunday 24 July 2011 | ||||
11:00 AM | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Monday 25 July 2011 | ||||
11:00 AM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Tuesday 26 July 2011 | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Wednesday 27 July 2011 | ||||
12:00 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
8:00 PM | ||||
Thursday 28 July 2011 | ||||
4:45 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Friday 29 July 2011 | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
11:30 PM | ||||
Saturday 30 July 2011 | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
11:30 PM | ||||
Sunday 31 July 2011 | ||||
11:00 AM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Monday 1 August 2011 | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Tuesday 2 August 2011 | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Wednesday 3 August 2011 | ||||
2:00 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Thursday 4 August 2011 | ||||
11:00 AM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
9:00 PM | ||||
Friday 5 August 2011 | ||||
1:30 PM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
Saturday 6 August 2011 | ||||
11:00 AM | ||||
4:00 PM | ||||
6:30 PM | ||||
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