Fifty something men have various oral fantasies but lusting after your dentist is a novel way of exploring a mid-life crisis.Another Cinema Takes review from the Melbourne International Film Festival 2009.
Empty Nest: fatuous fantasies
Friday, July 31, 2009
MIFF Flicrit: Empty Nest
MIFF 2009: North Korean Science Sings
It's refreshing to hear songs about Science, even if they do honour the "General" aka Kim Jong-il. The Schoolgirl's Diary is the first North Korean feature film to be distributed internationally.
The state of their film making in 2006 only outshone their Science. Let's hope their nuclear and missile industries are similar fizzers.
For the Flicrit from MIFF 2009, please see:
The Schoolgirl's Diary: Propaganda 101
Thursday, July 30, 2009
MIFF Flicrits: Kill Daddy Goodnight
Another Cinema Takes review from the Melbourne International Film Festival 2009:
Kill Daddy Goodnight: not just history
Kill Daddy Goodnight (Das Vaterspiel), an Austrian feature, draws in the viewer gradually. Director/screenwriter Michael Glawogger has created a holocaust film with a difference. The Jewish victims are Lithuanian as is their exterminator. The horror is mostly “off-stage” without the detailed re-enactment customary in this genre.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Bayside Views: Red Bluff
It's comforting to know that sea levels will have to rise a lot before Red Bluff is submerged. HMVS Cerberus will struggle to survive, with or without climate change.
MIFF Flicrits: Home & About Elly
Two more Cinema Takes reviews from the Melbourne International Film Festival 2009:
Home: living besdie the fast laneThere's no place Home until one day the expressway that they’ve been living happily beside for ten years is finally opened. Separated from their access road and pounded by traffic noise, an outwardly well-adjusted family comes apart.
Not really About Elly
About Elly is not just a different and highly relevant perspective on urban, middle class Iranians. It’s about the nature of truth and what it means for our closest relationships.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Oh My God! Oh My God! A short film gem
Cross post from Cinema Takes:
Oh My God! Oh My God!
The short film at the Melbourne International Film Festival before North was a 9 minute gem.
The Norwegian Film Institute sums it up extremely well:
Oh My God! is a humorous observation of children´s interpretations and experiences of sexuality. The film also looks back through grown-up eyes at the reality of being part of the in-crowd” and the lengths to which one is prepared to go to become a respected member. But first and foremost Oh my God! is a film about the orgasm.It's about three 11 year old girls exploring their sexuality, in particular their idea of orgasms.
It's been described as courageous, taboo-breaking and provocative. It was certainly funny!
Monday, July 27, 2009
MIFF Flicrits: Milk of Sorrows and North
Two Cinema Takes reviews from the Melbourne International Film Festival 2009:
Milk Of Sorrows: walking close to the walls (Peru)
North: Battling the Blues (Norway)
Both excellent foreign language films.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Melbourne International Film Festival: all publicity...
The controversy over the withdrawal of Chinese films from the Melbourne International Film Festival seems to be great for business.
The head of the Melbourne International Film Festival says the event will not bow to pressure over the films it shows, after its website was hacked into.Ken Loach's boycott of the festival because of Israeli government sponsorship has not dented its appeal either. If the two sessions we attended today were any indication, business is thriving. Sellout attendances is a gross understatement.
A Chinese national hacked into the website calling for it to dump the documentary Ten Conditions of Love, which tells the story of Rebiya Kadeer - a figurehead for China's Uighur population - who is seen as a criminal by the Chinese Government.
MIFF 'sticking to guns' over Uighur film
The free publicity has been priceless.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sauce for the goose: film festival politics
Cross post from Cinema Takes:
So what's sauce for the goose...
You're a filmmaker who objects to a particular government's actions. Then boycott film festivals with whom they are connected.
You're a country that objects to a film festival that has entries critical of your government. Boycott it.
The Goose:
British director Ken Loach has withdrawn his film Looking for Eric from the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest of Israeli government funding.The Gander:
UK director pulls out of Melbourne film fest over Israel funding
THE Melbourne International Film Festival is reeling after the withdrawal of three Chinese films in what appears to be retaliation for the festival's backing of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.Once upon a time the debate was about sporting boycotts such as the 1971 Springbok rugby tour. Mixing politics and sport. The Moscow and Los Angeles Olympic Games were the main casualties.
China pulls films out of festival
The dilemma: To protest against Israel you forgo the Uighur documentary. Rather than bin your membership of the Melbourne International Film Festival, the only alternative seems to be to lobby the Festival to end sponsorship by foreign governments or political organisations.
That's the course I'll be taking. Any thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
