You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Movies day 1

This blog post (or the beginning of it, at least), is being written on a bus as I wend my way to the Embassy theatre, so my apologies, but it's going to be pretty light in the humourous and interesting links department. I'm not sure I have ever been more geeky. (Well, that I'm willing to admit in a public forum, anyway.)

Because I'm taking today off to see my first six movies, I've had to do my invoice early this week. I've managed to do 17 hours over and above the 50 hours I'm meant to do from Sunday to Saturday, which is pretty impressive given that I'm missing a whole work-day; but since I did 35 overtime hours last week, it doesn't seem all that bad. (It would have been more, but I decided to take the Saturday off.) Unfortunately, work has extracted a promise that I'll be checking my mail regularly, and they have a copy of my itinerary so they can, if worst comes to worst, send a runner to pluck me from the bowels of the theatre and whisk me back to work.

Which would seriously suck, so let's hope it doesn't come to that. :)

Anyway, I approach Courtney Place with my little list of movies; so I'll have to talk about the other “Little list” C and I saw last night in a bit.

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Blogging in the theatre – I'm really outdoing myself today. :)

Because all the showings that are in the Opera House clash with films I'm going to see, I decided to go to the first show in the production of the Mikado that my brother, Giffy, Sok, J & Grant are in. It was in the Lower Hutt “Little Theatre”, which was the very devil to find – the most I could discover was that it was on Queen's Drive. After a series of adventures that C won't tell you about if she want's to be driven anywhere again, we managed to find it... only to discover that the EFTPOS machine wouldn't dial out. They ended up letting us give them an IOU, and I went for a brisk run at interval to find a money machine, after which I felt extremely ill. (I have managed, through diligent application, to become incredibly unfit. I hope to remedy this... after the film festival. :)

The performance... was mostly excellent. :) There were still a few rough edges, and the dramatic lead really needs to focus on acting rather than watching the conductor, but he seemed to warm up over time. The female leads were uniformly good, dealing gracefully with any flubs (I noticed Katisha messing up a little in her “Thy Doom Is Nigh” song, but that may just be because I know the song, and she ignored the problem with aplomb :). The male leads were good as well; a shout-out should go to Pish-Tush, who did a lot of good physical comedy. Lots of nice business, in fact – pulling out a member of the chorus during “A More Humane Mikado” was a great idea. And the chorus seemed in good voice. So; enjoyable, and I'll be interested to see how they've improved if and when I go and see them elsewhere.

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Just got out of Tristan Shandy, where I bumped into holding_pattern and grendal_khan. I really enjoyed it; a very cleverly put-together film. The chaotic nature of film-making that they depicted reminded me a lot of work, and the way they showed just how spirit-crushing the technical roles can be felt very true to life. And Steve Coogan managed to convey a narcissictic but basically good person very effectively. There was also a very nifty device of deliberately breaking the forth wall during the “movie”, but ignoring the camera during the behind-the-scenes portions. Pretty cool. (It was preceeded by a modern dance short called Break, which I think I would have enjoyed more if I was more interested in dance. I mean, I think it was good, and I thought it did some “fight-scenes as dance” stuff in an interesting way... but I wasn't really drawn into it.)

On to The Ballets Russe!

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Just out, and awaiting a pot of tea before Brick. (I'll probably eat dinner in my next break, so it'll be that and This Film Has Not Yet Been Reviewed. Given that I'm not a huge ballet fan, I found the documentary very engaging... in some ways, it reminded me of The Buena Vista Social Club. Stories of ballet and dramatic companies seem to inevitably be tragedies... I guess because they only stop because something's gone horribly wrong. Hmm... I wonder what a documentary about a success story would be like? For example, how about Agatha Christie's play, The Mousetrap? I'm sure there are plenty of interesting stories there, and it's still going strong...

Okay, Steve just turned up... more later.

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And we're back. Just got out of Dave Chapell's Block Party. Pretty good, though in some ways the bits around the music were more interesting and involving than the music itself; though perhaps that's just me being out of touch with the genre. I'd've been interested to see more about the reactions of the white people brought in from out of state, but it might have been worth it to see the funky marching band. Black guys with lapels, braid, capes and funny hats getting' down wit' there bad selves... awesome. And I saw Jenni & Lee there, so that was a bonus. And the annoying drunk guy actually behaved himself after a few initial hoots, so that wasn't too bad, either. :)

Going back in time -- Brick was very, very good. The whole “hard-boiled noir but set in a high-school, played almost completely straight” thing worked really well. While sometimes the dialogue was coming so thick and fast I wished there were subtitles, it's definitely a movie I would watch again, and I think I'll keep an eye out for it on DVD. I did say to Steve afterwards that I didn't see it spawning a whole lot of direct imitators, but... on reflection, I guess I could imagine a direct sequel that wouldn't suck. Oh, and they used, “The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze”, which is Yum-yum's “I'm so awesome” song! I've got to give them props for the G&S reference. :)

Oh, and Not Yet Been Reviewed was fun to watch, but... I didn't come away feeling that I was that much more informed. Like, I may have learned a half-page, maybe a page of stuff on the MPAA? It felt a little more like someone who was kinda pissed off at this organization, and deciding to give them the finger. Granted, I don't disagree that a little finger-giving couldn't hurt them any. Oh, and it was very interesting how any rating that was appealed went up before a couple of church representatives (who may or may not be allowed to vote), and a bunch of bigwigs in the movie making and distribution industry, who the documentary maker only found out the names of by hiring a private detective. But... I kinda agree that the ratings they give more often than not reflect the tastes of the general American viewing public; I get the impression, observing from this safe distance, that sex is much more taboo than violence. But on the other hand – would that be true if the MPAA (and the media organisations that seem to effectively control it) weren't shaping what is seen? I guess I would have liked to see a bit more background, and gotten a bigger picture about what might happen if there was, say, government regulation instead of “industry” regulation.

Anyway, onwards to my sixth film!

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Fearless... was a good, solid Chinese Pride martial arts film. Not a great one, mind, but a good one. (Though I think it had the sweetest, cutest little girl I've seen in one of these movies playing Jet Li's character's daughter.) On the other hand, the political message didn't make me uneasy in the same way that, say, Hero did. So – worth seeing, certainly.

But I have a more pressing concern – to whit, the awful, awful seats in the Paramount. They're okay for a single movie, but are pretty uncomfortable for two, and can get downright agonizing for three. I'm really, really not looking forward to next Friday, where I'm scheduled to see four in a row there. I may have to seriously think about bringing a cushion.

Anyway, this concludes what has been a bit of an experiment for me. (Basically, do my feelings of extreme dorkitude that typing on a laptop in a public space outweigh the satisfaction I get from filling my dead time with writing this stuff?) I guess I'll have to make a call on Monday. :)

Posted by svend at July 22, 2006 1:20 AM