Quick note -- I really liked Paprika! If you like anime, you may as well! :)
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I was thinking about the fact that I haven't been talking to as many random people this festival as I have in previous ones -- I've been either typing, or reading various novels. If I see someone I know, they take precedence, of course; but in earlier years, I've been caught without a book, and ended up chatting to whoever is sitting next to me; but I haven't had that happen more than once or twice this year, and I was vaguely regretting it, Which made it ironic when, Wednesday night on the bus, someone plopped themselves down beside me and started chatting happily away... and it took them a minute or two to realise that, no, I wasn't their mate Darren who they hadn't seen in a couple of years. I could smell that they'd had a beer or two when they sat themselves down, so I had been deliberately affable initially; and I felt that I had to continue chatting until he got off in Newtown.
So, if you hear of any banks being robbed by someone that looks like me, it's probably this Darren guy. In fact, if someone that looks like me has ever said anything mean to you, it was probably that Darren guy.
Anything nice -- that was me. ;)
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Black Book was my first movie on Tuesday, and I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I mean, I know Paul Verhoven from things like Robocop and Starship Troopers; what will a film about a woman, a Jew, in Holland towards the end of WWII be like? As it turns out, pretty good. I mean, there are bits of what one writer calls "refridgerator logic" -- things that, when you're looking into a fridge for a snack, make you go, "Wait a minute; did that actually make sense?" The thing is, that's not actually a huge problem in a screenplay, if the movie works while you're watching it. I mean, it's not something to aim for, but I won't necessarily ding a movie points for it.
There were a bunch of scenes that will stick with me -- the woman having to duet with the Nazi officer who she saw in charge of a slaughter, for example. Hmm, it's hard to think of examples without giving spoilers, especially since this is a film that will probably be widely available. There is a certain amount of nudity and gore, but it makes sense in the context of the film. It won't be to everyone's taste, but as an action/thriller with a bit more moral meat on its bones than most, I'd recommend it.
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Next was These Girls, a documentary on a gang of Egyptian street girls. It was both interesting and sad; they squabbled and fought, by also loyally defended each other. They sniffed glue and took pills to make time pass more quickly, but they were also trying to look after their kids. And the film explored the dangers they faced -- they talked a lot about being threatened with having their face cut up, having to cooperate with men who kidnap them to stop from being cut. (They showed the documentary makers a shack where men keep kidnapped girls tied up for days or weeks.) There was also the danger of their fathers; if they found them pregnant and unmarried, then there is a real danger of them killing the girl to redeem the family honour. One of the pregnant girls actually said -- if her baby was a boy, he would be the apple of her eye; but if it was a girl, better that she killed her now, rather than have her grow up like her mother.
There was a woman who visited the girls, who seemed to be a combination of confidant and arbitrator -- she was just doing it as a private citizen, rather than having any sort of social work training. She was trying to convince them to stop sniffing, but the girls were reluctant. There are other connections with the outside world, too -- many of them had boyfriends, or potential boyfriends... but they were in jail. We did see them laughing and dancing around; but at other times, they asked where they could go? Other than the street, what options did they have?
(Why is it, I wonder, that almost all the documentaries that I see about people living lives completely alien to my own make me think, "Thank goodness I live here, now, as me"? Presumably it's because adversity is more interesting to film.)
Anyway, this documentary was a good slice of life, though I would have been interested to see more context about the "why" of their situation. But I guess that would have been a different documentary, and quite possibly one that wouldn't have sounded interesting enough to go to. ;)
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Next was a Kurdish movie, Half Moon, about a famous musician and his sons trying to get from Iran to Kurdish Iraq to perform in a concert, preferably with a female singer. There were some things that were never explained -- why all the female singers were immured in a village, and why they were such an issue that the border guards had specially trained "woman-sniffing dogs", for example. But there were definite moments of humour from the irrascible musician, their fast-talking driver, and some of the more cautious sons. It wasn't as good a movie as Turtles Can Fly, but it wasn't bad.
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After that, it was off to the Paramount to a full house for Antonello and the Architect, a documentary about one of the grand old men of NZ architecture. This was a gently ambling film, and the unhurried interviews of the architect telling his stories at his own pace made it feel very much as if you were having a conversation with him over a cup of tea. On the other hand, I can understand why some people might have found the pace a bit slow; after some of the other films I've seen, that wasn't a problem for me. :)
They were handing out fliers for the DVD; I might have to see if Ellen is interested in this guy's work.
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My last movie was Retribution. I'd gotten tickets for Jenni and Lee, so they had to cope with the fact that I hadn't realised that the seats in the main part of the Paramount had been refurbished when I ordered them, and went for the increased leg-room of the seats next to the stairwell. Sorry, guys!
The film itself was a Japanese horror -- the central character was a police detective who is worried he committed a murder he's investigating. Jenni said that it wasn't as scary as, say, Dark Water, and I think that's true; on the other hand, I still found it plenty scary. She also pointed out that drowning seems to be a recurring theme in Japanese horror. Being drowned alone, actually, now that I come to think about it -- The Ring as well as Dark Water. I wonder whether it's anything to do with them being an island nation, or the way that water is thought about in their society. I'm sure there's a doctoral thesis lurking in there somewhere!
At any rate, while there were one or two moments that induced titters rather than gasps of horror in the crowd, it was plenty scary enough for me. And there was some really clever camera work, including some artfully placed mirrors that did more than just show you "the scary thing behind the character". I liked it a lot, and won't be at all surprised when the Hollywood remake comes out.
Posted by svend at July 26, 2007 9:49 AM