MIFF 2011 Day Eleven

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.

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.

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.