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)
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
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 | ||||
Monday, 11 July 2011
60th Melbourne International Film Festival
It's that time of year again. I've worked out & booked most of the films I'm going to see. Some gaps that I need to look at to see if anything appeals.
This year Johnnie is going to come along & watch some films as well.
Currently trying to work out a way I can take the schedule MIFF gives me of the films I've booked along with the links and place it here to show which films I've booked.
The festival runs from 21st July to the 7th of August
This year Johnnie is going to come along & watch some films as well.
Currently trying to work out a way I can take the schedule MIFF gives me of the films I've booked along with the links and place it here to show which films I've booked.
The festival runs from 21st July to the 7th of August
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