You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Movies: Days 7 & 8

Given how many films I'm seeing that were made with Canal+ money, it's only appropriate that I point you in the direction of an ad for them about the “March of the Emperors”.

* * *

Okay, I'm now on a bus. It's 1:08am, and I'm hoping to make it in on time for my 11:30am movie...

...and then I had to shift my jacket so someone could sit next to me, and so couldn't type. I'm now in the Paramount, dreading four movies in the Seats of Butt-Killing. I think it's a pretty bad sign that I'm seriously considering walking to Briscoes to buy a cushion. We'll see how I feel in the long break I have between my first two movies and my last two.

Oh, and I'd normally have caught an earlier bus – I'm a little paranoid about running late because of public transport – but I had to go in to help Editorial this morning. It's a little frustrating; some of the external clients are making it very, very hard for us to automatically import their data. I mean, you'd think that this would be a win for them as well, right? If we could create the shots and plates correctly and quickly? But I guess one of the problems is that many of them haven't really worked out their processes, and are sending us whatever blob of data seems sensible at the time, and expecting someone to painstakingly comb through it by hand, since that's the way their set-up works. Bah.

More about actual movie stuff shortly.

* * *

Thursday started with Who's Camus Anyway, where a group of Japanese film students are making a movie based on a famous account of a school-boy who randomly and without remorse murdered an old woman. The write-up in the booklet made me a bit dubious, but when it opened with a single long shot in a university courtyard that followed different groups to set the scene... and then started following some of the students who talk about how cool some films are because they have minutes-long single-shot opening scenes – I think that was the point I was pretty sure I would enjoy the film. I don't know whether I'd watch it again, but the whole “making a movie” feel seemed quite real (from my limited experience), and there were some good fakeouts, as well as genuine dramtic moments. I liked a number of the characters – the slightly effete main actor, the somewhat crazed girlfriend of the director, the superstitious student in his 30s – although it was in some ways a shame that the large cast meant that some characters weren't as developed as they could be. Anyway, I'm glad I went.

Next was Vampires Vs Sheep Man, a couple of shorts at the City Gallery. I'm afraid I really didn't rate the first short, Sheep Man; it was a parody of Grizzly Man, except with a death due the lanolin allergies. It was very much a one-joke short, and unfortunately for it I'd already seen a Grizzly Man parody done both more professionally and funnier on the net a few weeks ago. A few good moments, but on the whole pretty disappointing.

Interviews With Some Vampires was a lot better, though it was a bit patchy at times; there was some nice humour to be gotten out of exploring some of the consequences of our modern ideas about vampires, and looking at how three vampires, each hundreds of years old, might deal with flatting with each other – complaining about bloody pots being left out for weeks without being cleaned, giving each other fashion advice (since they couldn't see themselves in mirrors), etc. (Actually, I imagine a dressmaker's dummy would be an essential part of the equipment of any sharp-dressed “creature of the night”.) There was also the recently turned vampire who insists on wearing the puffy shirts and old-fashioned jackets, despite being born in the 1980s.

There was a judicious use of special effects – fake bats, a “look, I'm not in the mirror” scene – but most of the humour was verbal rather than visual. Unfortunately, some jokes were a little weak... for example, there's a section where one of the vampires talk about were-wolves, and says that there other were-creatures... then give as examples were-geese, were-horses, and, in Outer Mongolia, the dreaded were-women. It seems to me that, if you're going to make that joke, why not give it a little more build-up? Talk about the were-hyena of Africa (associated with smiths, by the by), and the were-jaguar of South America; and then go for were-hamsters or were-gerbils. And if you're going for ridiculous, why not were-goldfish – so sad, flapping about on the ground like that? (That'd be a curse that'd have to be carried through bloodlines, though, because really: who is a goldfish going to be able to bite?) And why not go completely silly, and talk about the dark and deadly were-portmanteau. It's a... it's a type of bulky travelling bag, you see? And they're particularly dangerous, because who is going to waste silver bullets on luggage? Ah, but, then, then you turn your backs to them, and that is when they strike!

Sorry. Though “portmanteau” is officially a pretty awesome word. Look it up on prettyawesomewords.com if you don't believe me.

Seeing the parts shot down-town on a Friday night were pretty depressing; I prefer to think of Wellingtonians as being pretty tolerant, but I guess a bunch of drunken rugby-heads aren't ready to deal with a bunch of guys in frock-coats in front of a camera. They did manage to get a nice zinger or two in, though, which made me feel marginally better. And there's some very good question-and-answer bits earlier in the short. I'd definitely say it was worth seeing; just don't go into it expecting too much.

* * *

Hmm. Could you have a movie, or at least a short, where the flatmates talk in subtext, along the lines of that short where they're making an ad? You know, “Make the meat-puppet show the emotions in as broad and cliched a way as possible”? Either actually saying the lines, or subtitling... I'm sure there could be some fun to be had there.

* * *

Next, Army of Shadows at Te Papa, an older film about the French resistance. While it was obviously made as something of a propoganda piece, it didn't glamourize the situation nearly as much as it could; while there was the occasional daring escape, one of the first deaths was the strangling of a collaborator who'd betrayed members of the resistance. They were going to shoot him, but a family had moved in next to the spot they had chosen, so two of them had to hold his hands and feet while the third used a towel... nasty. I didn't realise it going in, but it was all based on real people and events, which may have been why any heroics were pretty low-key. I liked it, though it was a little slow, as you'd expect with a film this old; I doubt I'll watch it again, however.

Next was House of Sand, the story of three generations of women (played, as adults, by two actresses, who swapped back and forth as characters got older) living on the fringes of the desert, and the fringes of civilization; at first desperately trying to get back, and then dealing with their isolation in various ways. World wars come and go, and by the end of the movie man has landed on the moon; but life in that place, like the sand, has shifted but not really moved. It reminded me, for no particular reason, of I Capture the Castle.

And finally, Last Train to Freo; possibly not a movie to see if you're already nervous about travelling on public transport at night. It starts with two thugs getting on an empty carriage, one of whom had just gotten out of jail, and then a young pretty law student gets on... and it's revealed that the guards that normally patrol the train are on strike. There are a number of cool things about this film; for example, it's set in Perth, and the duration of the film is pretty much how long the train journey would take. And they take advantage of an experiment that the train company actually made about piping classical music into the carriages; this let them use evocative (and conveniently copyright-free) tracks to illustrate and underscore the action. (I saw a web-site for copyright-free classical music in the credits, as well as thanks to Naxos.) It was originally written as a play, and the makers seemed to feel that they had to explain the talkiness of it; but I thought it worked really well.

They also brought up the interesting dillema of the eloquent thug who, they point out, might have been a prince or proud warrior in another time and place, but doesn't really have a role in our culture any more – the quick-witted, passionate and violent type that make good Greek heroes and poor salary workers. However, I think that there might be something else at play here as well. There seems to be something in Australian culture that likes the “yob”, and idolizes it in a way that New Zealanders don't; we seem to prefer more phlegmatic heros. (They have Ned Kelly shooting lawmen in armour; we have Barry Crump unconcernedly driving up vertical cliffs. Though obviously I'm talking more about the public image of Barry Crump, than the much more complicated man.) This film, made here, would be very different, I think.

It'd have to be on a bus, for a start. ;)

Anyway, I think that the makers would be glad of that; their stated goal is to make Australian films, so it seems appropriate. It's a good film, and I'd certainly recommend seeing it; a few twists seem a little contrived, but there's plenty of tension, and a good story.

It did make me wonder – was The Method originally a play? If not, I'd bet even money that the script-writer was a playwright originally; it had that kind of feel. And it would be relatively easy to stage, if you had the right actors; there are really only four sets (the meeting room, the reception, the hallway and the toilets), and while I liked what they did with the camera, nothing in the story depends on fancy cinematography. It'd be kinda cool.

* * *

I know I should be shunned in rational society if I used the word “chillaxing” in normal conversation; but is it acceptable to think it non-ironically? Just throwing the thought out there. Onto the interweb. Kinda thing.

What?

* * *

Which brings us to today.

I started with Host & Guest, a Korean film about a friendship that develops between a out-of-work divorced film lecturer and one of those Christians who knocks on doors to witness. They started by showing Korea in economic depression – phone-spam, spam flyers under the windshield-wipers and tucked into car windows, the film lecturer having to sell his nice big car for a clapped-out older model. The friendship worked really well, and I found it quite engaging; even so, not sure I'd watch it again.

Next: Event 16, a NZ time-travel movie. Intriguing idea, good script, fairly good dialogue, and some uneven acting that thankfully didn't get in the way of the story (though in the last scene, I found myself wondering – is she smiling, or freaking out and trying to cover it by fake-smiling?). I found it relatively easy to follow, but I've read a fair amount of time-travel fiction, and some other people apparently struggled; part of that may have been because the main chap behind the movie was initially motivated by the effects that he could do, rather than, say, a Big Concept or characters that he wanted to explore.

(One chap complained that he was in the right “Playstation” demographic, and liked Doctor Who, but still had trouble following it... but then again, even though the good Doctor is meant to travel through time, that's always (as far as I can remember it) used as a way to frame the stories, rather than used within the stories; and I don't remember them being that narratively complex. I think that watching or reading noir detective fiction, where people are often other than they first appear, would actually be more useful. That said, the movie might have benefitted from having a premise exposition scene – I don't want to have too give spoilers, but there seems no reason for the guys with the armband-screens not to tell the main character what, in general terms, they're doing, and why. On the other hand, I liked having to think a little.)

It was interesting to find out that it had been completely overdubbed, because they weren't thinking about sound quality when they were filming; in some ways, the clunkiness of the dialogue might have been easier to take in subtitles, but that wouldn't have worked with the whole Wellington setting. :) I think they made a very good call in not trying to hide the artificiality of some of the effects, and instead going for a unified look that played to the effect's strengths; even little things like having the people who went back in time greying out to match the stock photos and footage that they used. And I think it's exciting that this kind of niche film can now be made by a few determined people for $60k, and that the quality of what can be done on a home set-up will only get better going forward. The fact that they were able to finish it off with the money from presales, and were looking at overseas marketing (which seems like the only way to do things with genre movies in NZ) was pretty cool, too.

Someone asked if, given this was the film-maker's Brain Dead, what did they forsee as their Kong? In many ways, I'd say it's more his Bad Taste... which means I'll be very interested to see what his Heavenly Creatures is. :)

* * *

Just saw Men At Work, an Iranian film about a group of four middle-aged men who come across a rock sticking up beside the road. They decide to push it over, which turns out to be a lot harder than they anticipated.

For such a simple premise, there a lot of movie in there, and quite a bit of fun. I don't think that setting a goal on a whim (a goal that might actively be dangerous, what's more) and getting obsessed with it is a uniquely male thing; but it's certainly something that resonates with me. (I'm sure that everyone who knows that I'm going to 70+ films within two weeks, plus work and blogging, will be astonded by that assertion.)

Wow, I've actually managed to nearly run down a battery. You guys must be fed up with these infinitely long entries. (Actually, I assume anyone who isn't interested would just skim, so I should tuck something completely scandalous somewhere in one of these... if I haven't already, bwah-hah-ha. :)

One more film to see tonight, and then I'm off home. I finish around midnight, and so won't be home until even later than that... I may as well finish this entry tonight, but I'll leave checking my email until the morning, I think.

* * *

Just got home from Mind Games. It started with a crazy montage of scenes from parts of the film, and you're trying to create a narrative out of it, and thinking, “Holy crap, this is going to be really tiring to watch if the whole thing is like this.” But it soon settles down, and while it stays fairly crazy, it does so at a more managable speed. It's... well, one of the main threads is about a guy, a manga writer, and his childhood sweetheart who he was always too shy to go after properly; in many ways, it's about him being given a second chance. In some ways it reminds me of The Triplets of Belleville, though not as slapstick, and more prepared to exaggerate and distort the images to express emotion; and there was a wide variety of animation techniques used. (For example, the characters, who were normally drawn, would sometimes be photographs that had been drawn on; or things would be painted, rather than pen-and-inked.) In many ways, I'd like to re-watch it, because there are a number of scenes that you understand differently as the movie progresses; and I'm sure that I missed some stuff.

It was pretty cool; I don't think that it would be for everyone, and I had to pay a fair amount of attention to follow everything I noticed, but I enjoyed it, and could imagine rewatching it.

* * *

Oh, and homeperm – you're absolutely right. Everyone with an ounce of soul in their body loves Island Bay. Unless, I guess, they're some sort of demon-thing, and digesting someone else's soul. But the person that demon-thing ate – they undoubtedly loved Island Bay prior to being devoured.

Hmm. Maybe I'm a bit tired. Signing off.

Movies: Day 6

Today, I decided, would be another “bring my laptop in” day, as I don't have any dashing between venues to do. :)

In further proof that there are only about 400 people in the world, the guy who very patiently served me while I bought about three meters worth of tickets from the MFC was behind the desk at the Embassy today. He said hi, and then asked whether I was from Island Bay? Had I gone to St Francis de Sales School? And was I related to the other Andersens there? So... Erik, despite not seeing you for fifteen years, Tim McDonald says hi, and congratulations on your engagement. :)

I was up until about 1am dealing with work mail; I'm going to have to set up some filters, since otherwise I'm not going to manage to make it these two weeks. On the upside, it feels like it's been two weeks since I left work, rather than four working days; I'm pretty sure it's because life has been full of novelty, rather than because life has been empty of sleep. :)

I'm now sitting in the Paramount, waiting for the start of Struggle No More. I knew the daughter of one of the members, and have an album by The Windy City Strugglers, so it should be good fun; but the crowd definitely seems skewed towards the older end of the spectrum. Maybe that just reflects who can take a Wednesday morning off to see a documentary about a local folk/blues band?

Huh. If I were a better writer, I daresay I'd be able to draw something profound out of these experiences about the importance of place – bumping into people from your old school, hearing people singing about the Desert Road or Courtney Place, being part of where you grow up. But instead, I'll drink my Fair Trade English breakfast tea, listen to “Red Right Hand” playing on the stereo in the Paramount foyer, and worry in a low-key way about work.

* * *

Okay, quickly again, because it's 11:30pm and I still have to go through my work mail, and see if there's anything broken that I need to fix.

Struggle No More was pretty cool, although I'm perhaps biased by liking the music beforehand. I found it interesting that Costa Botes, the filmmaker, didn't really know their music before he started making the documentary; he was just intrigued about this group that has basically been around for thirty years, and has a following, and yet never really went anywhere. (Though their latest album has been picked up overseas, and they just did a tour of twenty dates in Europe, staying, as they put it, “in youth hostels and retirement villages”.) It was cool to see how different members were connected to the NZ music scene (one of them was a member of Blerta, for example), and I like the 1920s jug band blues sound. And there's one song... about loving you when you're smiling, and loving you when you're frowning, and loving you when you roll your eyes at me... Maybe it's just C has just cause to roll her eyes at me an awful lot. ;)

My next was my first noir-fu of the season, Bittersweet Life, about an enforcer who makes a choice and has to live with the consequences. I don't think it's anything super-remarkable, but it was fun and bloody (or bloody and fun, depending on your tolerance for blood), and did pretty much everything right; certainly in the top quartile of violence-filled honour-torn Asian gangster films, and there are a lot of contenders in that genre. I thought, right at the end, they might be implying a twist; but I'm pretty sure it was metaphorical. (I think my glut of slow-moving Asian films made me appreciate it even more.) Oh, and I bumped into Beerman there, which was a pleasant surprise.

Then it was off to The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang, which had no “cool” characters, a plethora of unfortunate haircuts, and a minor female character named “Blondene”. It was fun, not at all dark, and though for a while there I was feeling an uncomfortable resonance for the geeky main characters, I then remembered how awesome I am, and the uncomfortable feeling went away while I nestled in my comfortable cloud of self-delusion. :) I saw it with Jenni and Lee – did you know Jenni, when not restrained, may actually dance in her seat to the end-credit music? I leave this as a warning to others!

Then what? Oh, I popped in and said hi to... uh, I can't remember what he calls himself online, so let's just say I popped my head into his place of work on my way to the Embassy, and had a quick chat about his recent cycling trip to Japan. And then I got to the theatre just as Pearce, Morgue and Hix were leaving their session of Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and had a brief chat with them. (They enjoyed it.)

I was at the Embassy for Offside, an Iranian film about a group of girls who try to sneak into the Iran/Bahrain match that determined whether Iran would be going to the World Cup. Some of the key scenes were filmed during the match itself; the filmmaker was there, and when asked how the story would have gone if Iran had lost the match, admitted that he didn't know. As it was, it was a very cool film, and the girl actors did a really good job of conveying the excitement and eagerness that their characters had for the game. It was good fun to watch, and the Q&A session afterwards was interesting, too. (The film, unsurprisingly, is banned in Iran, though the filmmaker and all the actors continue to live there.)

And then finally, The Method, a Spanish film about a group of candidates for a executive job that get locked in a room, and then through a series of psychological tests get eliminated one by one. I liked it a lot – all the voyerism of a show like The Apprentice or Survivor with none of the waiting, and a bit more of an edge, since you know that the psychologists are deliberately messing with them. Oh, and it was set with the backdrop of the protests against the IMF and World Bank, which gave it a nice context, and a really good ending shot.

* * *

So, that's it. I've just got to knock off my mail, and then it's back for another five movies tomorrow – including Vampires Vs Sheep-Man. Should be good.

Movies: Days 2-5

So it's now Monday. One advantage of doing something like this movie thing is that it makes the time you're spending away from work seem that much longer – it feels much more like a week than a weekend since I was last in at work. Unfotunately, I've just been called about one of the coordinators having problems that the people left behind can't solve, so I'm going to have to go in tomorrow morning and see what I can do. (Which sucks, frankly, but at least they're not demanding I miss movies.

Speaking of missing movies – I've now missed two, which is something of a personal worst, I think. The first, A Lion in the Room, I missed yesterday due to a mistake in scheduling. (It was on during two other films I'd booked to see with C.) The second, Last Supper, I missed, as far as I can tell, because my first film today, Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes, started late... so even though I jogged from the Paramount to the City Gallery, the person on the door quite reasonably said that I was too late to go in.

But let's go back to Saturday.

* * *

Saturday morning C and I went to Kiroku and the Sorceress, a French-made animated version of a traditional African tale of Kiroku. It was nifty, both in the way some things were stylized (the fetishes, the sorceress) and the way that some things were decpicted realistically. For example, Kiroku is asking his mother why the sorceress is so angry and evil, and his mother is telling him about his grandfather, a wise old man in the mountains; but while this is going on, Kiroku is crawling under the mat, and putting a ladle on his head, curling up to sleep, and generally acting in a baby-like fashion. It was pretty neat.

Then we collected Hix and Morgue, and headed out to Kapiti to continue Phoenix. (Phoenix was a Primetime Adventures game we played several months ago. We'd come up with a noir-ish setting somewhere in rural America where a Waco-like cult was doing something sinister. (You can read more about the previous games here.) This time, we talked through episode 8 (where the sherrif, Molly Kelso (played by me), has been captured by the cult, and the teenager Terri (played by Debbie) has gotten away with the teacher (Boyd, played by Morgue) and her boyfriend, Tom; Tom's little brother, Saul (played by Luke), had been left behind. We decided that it would end with Saul being hunted down by the other kids, Lord of the Flies-style, and after appealing to the head of the cult (Carl) as a father-figure, he would still have to enter The Room. (“The Room” was a reoccuring threat within the cult – there were definite elements of some sort of social conditioning (no-one was allowed to refer to the person while they were in The Room), but it was strongly implied that Something Else went on in there. In the meantime, Tom was not recovering, and Terri realised that the cult had done something to him while he was in The Room, and that she had to break back in with him and get them to reverse it; and the authorities had settled in to start a seige, and the teacher, Boyd, had been unable to convince them to back off; so he snuck into the compound, was captured, and, unfazed, asked to be taken to Carl. (Molly, having managed to stop Carl breaking her by needling him until he attacked her, was left to the mercy of Lacie, an abused girl who Boyd had been unable to help, and who'd run away to the cult; Molly had punched her in the face with a shotgun butt while trying to get to Carl in the one-woman raid that got her captured.)

So that's how we started the final episode of series one of Phoenix – the FBI and ATF at the front gate, just as Carl wanted them; Tom collapsing in a sezuire in a storm-drain as he and Terri sneak back into the compound; Boyd captured; Molly being beaten in a locked room; and Saul in The Room. The first scene was Carl letting Saul out of the room, taking him to the roof, and telling him that he had a very special role to play: someone had to die that day, and Saul would have to choose.

Boyd tried to get through to Aaron, Carl's second-in-command, and didn't really succeed; Terri had to make a choice about leaving Tom concealed and proceeding by herself, or selfishly bringing him into danger, and let her cowardice get the better of her; and there was a chilling conversation between Molly and Lacie, where Molly got Lacie to see that she had let Carl get her into the position that she was just as hurtful and hateful as the parents she'd run away from. (All the while, Molly is getting the crap kicked out of her, of course.)

Rather than giving a blow-by-blow, I'll just give a quick outline – it was revealed that this was just the latest in a series of cults, and both Tom and Saul (and maybe others) were the cult leader's literal children, altered in some way towards his vision. Carl intended Saul to shoot him, to absolve the children of any blame, and to seal his heart against others; the other cult members were members in the compound were meant to provide publicity, to raise Tom's profile for him to eventually lead a cult of his own in an even more “effective” manner. Saul worked this out, and decided that he had to kill Tom; Terri tried to stop him, and ended up shooting Tom herself by accident. Molly managed to escape, and save some of the children (by hiding in The Room, ironically); Lacie sacrificed herself so that Molly, Boyd and the kids could be safe.

There were definitely moments of, “well, that's super-creepy”; it was pretty damn good, and lived up to our memories of the other game, which was no mean feat. We then had dinner, and decided to play another game of PTA, but something more silly this time; something EXTREME!! And thus ******, the TV series (based on a 1990s movie, based on a 1980s US TV show, based on a 1970s Hong Kong TV show) of illegal hover-board racing and giant mecha (controlled by the police). To give you a feel for the show – the opening sequence had the three different hoverboarding “gangs” (The Syndicate, The Scrabblers and The Outcasts) uniting to honour one of their fallen, Johnny Hero, who died running while boarding. They did this by crashing his funeral, stealing the coffin (with their hoverboards), putting it in the futuristic equivalent of a eighteen-wheeler truck, setting it on fire, and shooting it off a ramp to explode over the city in what they saw as a modern equivalent of a viking funeral. There was a lot of high-speed racing scenes, outwitting the police “Bulls” (giant mecha who could leap on jets for extended periods), and posing for status. It was daft, but good fun, and actually held together pretty well. :)

The only downside was that we ended around 2AM, and I had to drive back because I had five films the next day.

* * *

Okay, this is going to be brief, because I have to check my work email, fix any problems that have arisen today, and still get enough sleep to deal with five movies tomorrow. :)

First thing on Sunday, C and I saw An Inconvenient Truth. (We'd bought tickets seperately, but C ended up sitting behind me, and Jenni & Lee were sitting a few seats over from C.) I thought it was everything I want in a documentary – interesting, engaging, with enough background to the facts to give you context, and tied together really well. On one hand, Gore talking about his family (the car accident with his son, the fact that his family stopped growing tobacco after one of the members got lung cancer) set off my heart-warming-drama-meter... but these are presumably things that actually happened in his life, so why not draw on them to make points? After all, he's very explicit about being part of the documentary. And while they mentioned the fact that Gore was basically defeated by somewhat... dubious dealings in Florida, and later mentioned the whole Katrina disaster and debacle, they certainly didn't go, “Hmm.” or anything like it. It does make one wonder what the last decade or so would have been like, if we'd had a Gore presidency.

I didn't go to A Lion in the House, though I had a ticket, because I am a dumbass who didn't realise it clashed with two other movies.

C and I then went to Animation Now, which Jenni had warned us would be... disappointing. She wasn't wrong; a few good ones in a sea of mediocre stuff, and nothing like the awesome Jasper Morello. Still, you never can tell when some excellent stuff will turn up there.

C's final movie of the day was I for India, my first film at the Film Archive. It took us a while to get there, mainly because I thought I knew where it was, and was terribly, terribly wrong. Luckily, C used her librarian-senses to detect the archives innate library-ness, and steered us in the right direction. This was quite a cool documentary about a doctor who leaves India in the 1950s to get more training in Britain, buys two film cameras, and sends one back to his family so that they can stay in touch. As well as this footage (with his family alternately scolding him for not being there, and begging him to return), there is a bunch of recent stuff that the daughter making the documentary shot, as well as some BBC footage of around the time – Margret Thatcher talking about preserving British culture from immigration, sections on the British Health system relying on immigrant doctors, stern British gentlemen addressing the camera for the benefit of these newcomers saying, “This is a switch. A switch. This is a light. A light. When I flick the switch, like so, the light will come on.” Quite interesting, especially the parents having to deal with one of their daughters going off to Australia.

C headed home, and I headed out to another documentary -- Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People's Temple. I knew about this tragedy in general terms, but I had no real context for the Jonestown massacre, and the story was basically told by the witnesses: former members of the cult, or relatives of members; one of Jones' adopted children; and the aide to the Congressman who went down to Jonestown to investigate, and was gunned down as he was leaving. I think the saddest thing was that there was the hint, the suggestion that it was a group that might have worked and succeeded if the charismatic head hadn't become crazy. (Hix asked me if they looked at the conspiracy stuff at all; the answer is no, it wasn't mentioned at all. Given the kind of schenanigans that the CIA has admitted to being up to at the time, I can easily imagine them doping his food with LSD or what-have-you in attempt to make him act crazy and discredit him with his congregation; but I can equally well believe that he went bonkers by his own damn self.)

Spooky thing that stayed with me – Jones announcing over the loudspeakers each night that he was sending out someone that they knew, someone that they loved, who was going to tell them that they wanted to get away; but they'd be lying, and it was a loyalty test, and it would be an act of betrayal if they weren't turned in.

Finally that day, I saw Three Times, a love story played out by the same actors in three different time periods. The first, set in the 1960s, was my favourite; some very tender moments. The second one I had trouble staying awake for; it was set in the 1910s, and moved even slower than the first. The third was present-day, and all right; a lot more nihilistic and narcissistic than the first.

* * *

Monday, I started out with Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes, which is a quote from Samson to God just before he brings the temple down on the Philistines, killing more then than in the rest of his lifetime. It was another Israeli/Palestenian documentary, but this time only featuring the Palestinians in passing, and mostly focusing on the stories the Israelis were telling themselves about themselves, especially the Samson story (and how glorious it was for him to kill so many to avenge his humiliation, even though he himself died in the process) and the Zealots at Masada (who killed themselves and their families rather than submit to the Romans). There was also some scary footage of the Israeli racist movements, jumping about and singing rock songs about “Revenge on Palestine”.

I was then meant to go to Last Supper, about the tradition of last meal requests for death row prisoners, but because they started my first movie late, they wouldn't let me in at the second venue. So I went and got lunch... and then got rung up at work, and was told that someone had a problem that I had to come in tomorrow to deal with. Hoo-rah.

Then I saw Factotum, the story of a writer drifting from one job and one bed to another in a sort of hard-boiled, narrated slice-of-life. I think it was a good film; it just wasn't a film I enjoyed, particularly.

And finally, the documentary Waves, about the experience of Chinese students who come to NZ to do their secondary and tertiary education. Very interesting stuff, since the film-maker was able to give examples ranging from a girl who dived into the new opportunities, taking Design and Music and making friends among the other foreign students and Nzers, to the girl who only really talked to the other Chinese students, stayed in her room, and kept her watch on Bejing time. While I liked the film, the question and answer session afterwards was a little frustrating, as the filmmaker never seemed to quite answer the questions that were asked. She did say, quite rightly I think, that the experience for NZ-born Chinese is totally different, since they're not part of the whole one-child family thing.

* * *

Coming into the home stretch... I came home, went through my mail, and then went into work at nine to explain I had fixed all the problems that the person had brought up the previous night, as there was enough detail in their email to let me do so. I said, “Hi,” to a few people, and then it was back home to hang up some washing, and back into town.

The first film I saw was One Day in People's Poland. The basic idea was to take one day, and look at some of the documentation that the spy apparatus of the Polish Communist government generated; reviews of magazines (“too positive towards the West”), descriptions of the movements of individuals (“Target and wife retired to the bedroom, and engaged in intimate activities for fifteen minutes. The wife then read aloud several pages from a travel book, and target and wife discussed those pages.”), and public broadcasts. One of the former Weta coders (who is Polish) was there, and he was laughing about it; he said that he didn't remember a lot of it, but he remembered sharpening arrows and shooting at each other as a kid, and how all the broadcasts were full of useless facts (like the number day of the year it was) to disguise the fact that nothing was allowed to be said.

Next was a nice French farce, The Valet, where a bumbling everyman is paid to pretend a supermodel is his girlfriend to throw off the wife of the man she's having an affair with. Not a deep or unpredictable film, but pleasant, and funny, and I could easily imagine watching it again.

Oxhide, on the other hand... well, it's interesting, insofar as it was all shot on one camera, with three people, in one tiny apartment. And it turns the fact that the camera is fixed, and the light is poor, to its advantage. But it is slooooooow; of the films I've seen, it's the one that lost the most people, both in absolute terms, and (more importantly) percentage-wise; I think maybe a third of the people left by half-way? It's a shame, because it's a film that I'd've liked to have liked.

Finally, I saw The Passenger, where Jack Nicholson swaps idenities with a man who dies in the same hotel somewhere in Africa. It was okay, and did some interesting stuff (like pointing out how questions can show more about the person asking them than the answers would tell you about the person being asked), but I can't imagine seeking it out to watch again.

* * *

And so, I'm now up-to-date. Maybe someday soon, I'll have a chance to actually catch up on other people's blogs. :)

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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!

* * *

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.

* * *

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!

* * *

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. :)

"That is not dead which can eternal lie..."

What am I doing?

I'm preparing from the roll-out of FileMaker 8, which entails a complete change to the way all of our production and editorial staff work.

What does this mean?

It means I've been working until about 10pm every day, and will be in all day on Saturday and Sunday.

Hence, no blog. Not even when someone pointed me at what may well be the pinacle of websitery, catsthatlooklikehiter.com, which is a site that makes me wonder why other sites even bother.

Anyway, I hope to have everything tucked away and finished by Sunday, and deal with the fallout during the week; but that means that by Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll actually be able to have evenings back! Hooray!

And now -- my film schedule. (I've had to miss Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont to go to Rich's do, and am taking the first Saturday off to roleplay with the Krazy Kats of Kapiti. And Morgue. Otherwise, a fairly good, solid schedule, for which I've booked all the tickets I can; if I've got a block free, and you'll be in that end of town, you're welcome to join me for coffee or tea. I think I'll be drinking a lot of tea. :)

SCHEDULE:

Friday, 21st July
Em	11:00am	12:50pm	Tristam Shandy
Em	1:30pm	3:30pm	Ballets Russe
Em	4:00pm	5:50pm	Brick
Pa	6:15pm	7:55pm	This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Pa	8:30pm	10:15pm	Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Pa	10:45pm	12:30pm	Fearless
Saturday, 22nd July
Em	11:00am	12:15pm	Kirikou and the Sorceress
Sunday, 23rd July
Em	11:00am	12:35pm	An Inconvenient Truth
TP	1:00pm	5:00pm	A Lion in the House
Pa	2:00pm	3:30pm	Animation Now!
FA	4:00pm	5:25pm	I for India
Pa	6:15pm	7:45pm	Jonestown: The Life and Death...
TP	8:15pm	10:25pm	Three Times
Monday, 24th July
Pa	11:45am	1:25pm	Avenge But One of My Two Eyes
CG	1:30pm	2:30pm	Last Supper
Pa	4:00pm	5:45pm	Factotum
Pa	6:15pm	8:15pm	Waves
Tuesday, 25th July
CG	12:15pm	1:15pm	One Day in People's Poland
Em	2:00pm	3:25pm	The Valet
Em	4:00pm	5:40pm	A Scanner Darkly
FA	6:30pm	8:20pm	Oxhide
Em	8:30pm	10:40pm	The Passenger
Wednesday, 26th July
Pa	11:30am	12:55pm	Struggle No More
Em	1:15pm	3:15pm	A Bittersweet Life
Pa	4:00pm	5:30pm	The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang
Em	6:15pm	7:45pm	Offside
Em	8:45pm	10:40pm	The Method
Thursday, 27th July
Pa	11:15am	1:10pm	Who's Camus Anyway?
CG	1:45pm	2:30pm	Vampires Vs Sheep Man
TP	3:30pm	5:50pm	The Army of Shadows
Em	6:15pm	8:10pm	The House of Sand
Pa	8:30pm	9:55pm	Last Train to Freo
Friday, 28th July
Pa	11:30am	1:05pm	Host & Guest
Pa	1:30pm	2:45pm	Event 16
Pa	6:00pm	7:25pm	Men at Work
Pa	10:15pm	12:00pm	Mind Game
Saturday, 29th July
Em	10:45am	12:20pm	Our Daily Bread
Pa	12:45pm	2:00pm	Animation For Kids
TP	3:30pm	4:45pm	Homegrown: Works on Video
Pa	9:00pm	10:55pm	Linda Linda Linda
Sunday, 30th July
Pa	11:30am	1:00pm	The Last Resort
Em	1:15pm	2:45pm	Saratan
TP	6:15pm	7:55pm	The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Em	8:30pm	10:25pm	Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Monday, 31st July
Em	11:00am	12:55pm	Wah-Wah
Em	1:30pm	3:50pm	Fateless
Em	4:15pm	5:50pm	Thank You For Smoking
TP	6:15pm	8:00pm	Gentille
Em	8:45pm	10:55pm	The Aura
Tuesday, 1st August
Pa	11:00am	12:30pm	Maxed Out
Em	1:45pm	3:10pm	Mary
FA	4:45pm	6:05pm	The Digital Space
FA	6:30pm	7:55pm	Beyond Hatred
Em	8:45pm	11:00pm	The Three Burials of...
Wednesday, 2nd August
Em	1:15pm	2:55pm	How Much Do You Love Me?
Pa	3:45pm	5:15pm	China Blue
TP	8:15pm	10:10pm	Police
Thursday, 3rd August
PB	11:30am	12:45pm	Bubble
TP	2:00pm	3:35pm	5 Days
PH	6:00pm	7:45pm	The Heart of the Game
Pa	9:15pm	10:45pm	13 (Tzameti)
Friday, 4th August
Em	10:45am	1:00pm	The White Masai
Em	1:30pm	3:00pm	Lonesome Jim
TP	4:15pm	5:45pm	Tale of Cinema
TP	6:15pm	7:45pm	12:08 East of Bucharest
Pa	9:15pm	11:15pm	Pulse
Saturday, 5th August
PH	12:15pm	1:30pm	Kirikou and the Wild Beasts
PH	2:00pm	3:25pm	John & Jane
PH	4:00pm	5:30pm	Friends With Money
PH	6:00pm	7:45pm	L'Enfer
Em	8:15pm	9:50pm	The Road to Guantanamo
Sunday, 6th August
TP	11:30am	12:55pm	Abduction
TP	1:30pm	3:25pm	Memory for Max, Ida, Claire and Others
OH	6:00pm	7:30pm	The Phantom of the Opera
Em	8:15pm	10:00pm	The Science of Sleep

So, back to the FileMaker mines, and I'll be back with some more pointless websites and rambling observations in the near future. :)