Edinburgh Film Festival
Jun. 22nd, 2008 06:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeThe film festival is on! I didn't manage to book everything I wanted, but I'm hopeful that some of the things I missed might be in the best of the fest on Sunday and I might be able to get tickets then instead. I have a block of tickets for things that mostly I don't recall the synopses for. I can only hope that I made good choices, and have a pleasant surprise waiting for me when I get to the cinemas.
First of all I went to see Milky Way Liberation Front with Sarah. It's a Korean film, kind of about making a film. The cinema was UNBEARABLY hot, but I still enjoyed it. There's a young guy trying to make his first full-length film, with a scenario about a guy who wakes up having lost his voice. Then the director wakes up having lost his voice, and they have to get an actor who can throw his voice to come to the meeting with the investors and pretend to be talking. The actor takes this opportunity to make the director say that the actor will definitely have a part in the film. Then the director can only talk through a microphone, and the rest of the time he makes flute noises. It was odd but a bit great.
The next day I saw The Wackness, which tried to buy votes on the way in with "The Wackness" rizlas. I fear I was not their target market, but then I did at least have satisfaction in the knowledge that my vote was pure and unsullied by advertising. I like the ability to cast a vote. You get a card as you go in and then have to tear off the corner that best characterises your opinion. These are "unmissable" "very good" "enjoyable" and "not my thing". I see I will have to be careful to carry a pen to write in my true opinion in case I see a film that is truly dire. I assume that they must have some way of recording such votes. I did quite like The Wackness, which was rather sweet. There's a dealer who's just graduated high school, and his only sort of friend is this shrink guy who gives him sessions in return for weed. Then he takes up with the shrink's (step)daughter, who was at school with him but never spoke to him because she was cool and he wasn't, but her friends are all away for the summer so she might as well. He's trying to sell lots over the summer because his family's about to get evicted, but it turns out that he had no idea of the magnitude of the debt, so his $26,000 doesn't help. Mary-Kate Olsen was in it as an annoying hippy type. It was very odd because it's set in 1994, and it's a sort of period piece, but that was YESTERDAY and so peculiar. The shrink asks him if he's messed up because of Kurt Cobain. (He isn't.)
After a short break I went to see Pageant, which is a documentary about the Miss Gay America pageant, in which female impersonaters compete in categories such as performance, solo talent, evening gown and interview. It was a really good film, following five individual competitors and then showing the overall thing as well. The director did a short Q&A afterwards, and said that he's been asked if he's sanitised the film, cutting out squabbles and drugs etc, but he said it just wasn't there, and had there been something sensational he'd definitely have included it. It was lovely to see the competitors with their families and supporters, and really caring about their profession and each other. One of the questions was about the dads - there were a number of mothers and children and partners, but no fathers around, and he didn't really have an answer for that. I'd really recommend seeing Pageant if you get the chance. (There was one bit where a man said 'I said I'd like to be an actor or an actress, and they said, "what, both", and I said "well if I can't be one I'll be the other". And here I am, being the other', which was all a bit academically pleasing.) Before it, there was a screening of a short film called "Small Town Boy" about a fifteen year old boy in Axminster, who was gay and about to be the first alternative carnival queen in the parade.
Today (Sunday), I went to see Jules et Jim, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I'd heard about it, of course, but thought I would go and see it because it was the sort of thing I thought I would like, but would never sit through on television or get around to renting it. I thought it was a seventiesish film, for some reason, and so it was quite surprising when it opened on 1912, though it was sufficiently black and white and full of French people smoking to satisfy me. I really liked the relationship between Jules and Jim, and especially loved Jeanne Moreau's jump into the Seine. In the future I shall only listen to misogyny near rivers as it seems a very effective counter-argument. I thought that the child was deeply unprepossessing.
After that, I went to see Alone in Four Walls, which is a documentary about a Russian reform school. They went and filmed some of the boys, and their daily life, and then went to film some of their parents, and a mother of a boy that one of the reform school boys had brutally murdered. It was very moving, such little boys all shorn and sometimes crying about missing their mothers in their interviews. Their home lives seemed very desolate very often, and they would talk about who in their family had been killed as a normal occurence. The cinematographer did a Q&A afterwards, and said that they were still in contact with the boys, trying not to just seem interested in their lives for a short while and just disappear. He also said that they too had thought what nice little boys they seemed, until they discovered that some of them had been planning to kidnap the camera assistant, and realised that seeming nice is not incompatible with rather nasty crimes.
Now I have a break in films until later in the week, when I am seeing Dummy, Love and Other Crimes, A Film With Me In It, Transsiberian and Princess of Nebraska. I am feeling that I would like to see more documentaries though, so I'll probably see what else is on and what I can fit in. [Bah! For two of the films I missed out on (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Stone of Destiny are part of best of the fest, but they clash, and I will have to Decide.]
It's just as well that the film festival's on at the moment, because there is NOTHING on television. It's appalling. I can't believe how much of a difference freeview makes. And, I suppose, going to bed at a reasonable hour. Although earlier I caught the middle bit of some property show or other, and the voiceover said "so, we need an office for [the man] and a big kitchen for [the woman]", and I grumped quietly to myself, but then decided that this was unreasonable, as sure, they'd chosen a traditional gender roles couple, but if that's what they wanted then fine, BUT THEN, not five minutes later, the presenter man said "so, who does the cooking?" and IT WAS THE MAN. Perhaps they decided that it sounded unbalanced to have two rooms for him, but more likely it was hideous gender fascism at work yet again. Women like kitchens! Men do not like kitchens! I bet he doesn't want an office at all, they just forced it upon him in case he had any dangerously modern ideas about actually spending time with his eventual children. Anyway, it turned out that what she really yearned for was an upstairs bathroom, so they could have had that in there instead. Or are bathrooms too unisex?
Also I have a new icon. It is my tattoo underwater, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
humanfemale took the picture.
First of all I went to see Milky Way Liberation Front with Sarah. It's a Korean film, kind of about making a film. The cinema was UNBEARABLY hot, but I still enjoyed it. There's a young guy trying to make his first full-length film, with a scenario about a guy who wakes up having lost his voice. Then the director wakes up having lost his voice, and they have to get an actor who can throw his voice to come to the meeting with the investors and pretend to be talking. The actor takes this opportunity to make the director say that the actor will definitely have a part in the film. Then the director can only talk through a microphone, and the rest of the time he makes flute noises. It was odd but a bit great.
The next day I saw The Wackness, which tried to buy votes on the way in with "The Wackness" rizlas. I fear I was not their target market, but then I did at least have satisfaction in the knowledge that my vote was pure and unsullied by advertising. I like the ability to cast a vote. You get a card as you go in and then have to tear off the corner that best characterises your opinion. These are "unmissable" "very good" "enjoyable" and "not my thing". I see I will have to be careful to carry a pen to write in my true opinion in case I see a film that is truly dire. I assume that they must have some way of recording such votes. I did quite like The Wackness, which was rather sweet. There's a dealer who's just graduated high school, and his only sort of friend is this shrink guy who gives him sessions in return for weed. Then he takes up with the shrink's (step)daughter, who was at school with him but never spoke to him because she was cool and he wasn't, but her friends are all away for the summer so she might as well. He's trying to sell lots over the summer because his family's about to get evicted, but it turns out that he had no idea of the magnitude of the debt, so his $26,000 doesn't help. Mary-Kate Olsen was in it as an annoying hippy type. It was very odd because it's set in 1994, and it's a sort of period piece, but that was YESTERDAY and so peculiar. The shrink asks him if he's messed up because of Kurt Cobain. (He isn't.)
After a short break I went to see Pageant, which is a documentary about the Miss Gay America pageant, in which female impersonaters compete in categories such as performance, solo talent, evening gown and interview. It was a really good film, following five individual competitors and then showing the overall thing as well. The director did a short Q&A afterwards, and said that he's been asked if he's sanitised the film, cutting out squabbles and drugs etc, but he said it just wasn't there, and had there been something sensational he'd definitely have included it. It was lovely to see the competitors with their families and supporters, and really caring about their profession and each other. One of the questions was about the dads - there were a number of mothers and children and partners, but no fathers around, and he didn't really have an answer for that. I'd really recommend seeing Pageant if you get the chance. (There was one bit where a man said 'I said I'd like to be an actor or an actress, and they said, "what, both", and I said "well if I can't be one I'll be the other". And here I am, being the other', which was all a bit academically pleasing.) Before it, there was a screening of a short film called "Small Town Boy" about a fifteen year old boy in Axminster, who was gay and about to be the first alternative carnival queen in the parade.
Today (Sunday), I went to see Jules et Jim, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I'd heard about it, of course, but thought I would go and see it because it was the sort of thing I thought I would like, but would never sit through on television or get around to renting it. I thought it was a seventiesish film, for some reason, and so it was quite surprising when it opened on 1912, though it was sufficiently black and white and full of French people smoking to satisfy me. I really liked the relationship between Jules and Jim, and especially loved Jeanne Moreau's jump into the Seine. In the future I shall only listen to misogyny near rivers as it seems a very effective counter-argument. I thought that the child was deeply unprepossessing.
After that, I went to see Alone in Four Walls, which is a documentary about a Russian reform school. They went and filmed some of the boys, and their daily life, and then went to film some of their parents, and a mother of a boy that one of the reform school boys had brutally murdered. It was very moving, such little boys all shorn and sometimes crying about missing their mothers in their interviews. Their home lives seemed very desolate very often, and they would talk about who in their family had been killed as a normal occurence. The cinematographer did a Q&A afterwards, and said that they were still in contact with the boys, trying not to just seem interested in their lives for a short while and just disappear. He also said that they too had thought what nice little boys they seemed, until they discovered that some of them had been planning to kidnap the camera assistant, and realised that seeming nice is not incompatible with rather nasty crimes.
Now I have a break in films until later in the week, when I am seeing Dummy, Love and Other Crimes, A Film With Me In It, Transsiberian and Princess of Nebraska. I am feeling that I would like to see more documentaries though, so I'll probably see what else is on and what I can fit in. [Bah! For two of the films I missed out on (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Stone of Destiny are part of best of the fest, but they clash, and I will have to Decide.]
It's just as well that the film festival's on at the moment, because there is NOTHING on television. It's appalling. I can't believe how much of a difference freeview makes. And, I suppose, going to bed at a reasonable hour. Although earlier I caught the middle bit of some property show or other, and the voiceover said "so, we need an office for [the man] and a big kitchen for [the woman]", and I grumped quietly to myself, but then decided that this was unreasonable, as sure, they'd chosen a traditional gender roles couple, but if that's what they wanted then fine, BUT THEN, not five minutes later, the presenter man said "so, who does the cooking?" and IT WAS THE MAN. Perhaps they decided that it sounded unbalanced to have two rooms for him, but more likely it was hideous gender fascism at work yet again. Women like kitchens! Men do not like kitchens! I bet he doesn't want an office at all, they just forced it upon him in case he had any dangerously modern ideas about actually spending time with his eventual children. Anyway, it turned out that what she really yearned for was an upstairs bathroom, so they could have had that in there instead. Or are bathrooms too unisex?
Also I have a new icon. It is my tattoo underwater, and
humanfemale took the picture.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-06-22 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-23 11:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-22 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-23 11:06 am (UTC)Yes! As if the problem is with me if I don't like something, and not the stupid film. Boo to their feelings.