I've just wrapped a film festival and I'm about to take a long holiday, which may mean a little less blogging and a little more living. I feel the need to stay connected though, even during these less productive times, so I thought I'd inaugurate a new feature: notes about my (movie) week. Allow me this self-indulgence. It's a way to practise a more conversational tone and perhaps mention a few items on the radar without going in depth. Please don't hesitate to tell us about your movie week in the comments, it's all part of this global conversation we're having...
It's been a busy week, so I didn't spend much time reading other blogs, but I did greatly enjoy Hell on Frisco Bay's Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors Blog-o-Thon (thanks to Andy for the useful blog-o-thon calendar). Sorry I couldn't contribute. Made me want to see Mr Hong Sang-Soo's film again...
A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days at the wonderful Adelaide International Film Festival in South Australia. I wrote about the Asian and Australian flicks I saw there, but unfortunately there wasn't time to cover everything. One film in particular which made me laugh out loud was the whacky Air Guitar Nation by Alexandra Liepsitz (whose main interests outside of film are air guitaring, yoga, text messaging and sex, according to this interview).
Well the American doc won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the fest, it was just announced. In the feature film category, the winner was Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, while Christopher Houghton's Swing won Best Short Film. Australian films did well, with Dr Plonk, Lucky Miles, Home Song Stories and Clubland all making it into the top 10 features.
Tuesday night I finally watched the pilot for Aaron Sorkin's follow up to The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Inspired by Network, this much-hyped series takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live SNL-type sketch comedy show. The series has been airing in the US (to rave reviews but poor ratings) since September 2006, and should come to Australia this year on Channel 9 (Channel 9?!). Sorkin's trademark Walk And Talks, intelligent writing and machine-gun dialogue are all present and for better of worse, I am now totally hooked.
Wednesday I caught my ninth and last film at the French Film Festival, Christophe Honoré's playful Inside Paris (Dans Paris) starring Romain Duris and Louis Garrel. It feels like a loose, Nouvelle Vague-nostalgic adaptation of J.D. Salinger's Franny & Zooey, with an all-male cast. (Fans of that book will have a field day spotting references.) It's cheeky and poignant and beautifully acted. It really did feel like reading a novel, which is perhaps not surprising since Honoré is a novelist avant tout. See it the first chance you get. It was a great film with which to bid the FFF adieu (it's now headed to Melbourne), and ranks alongside Comedy of Power, Private Property and The Young Lieutenant as my best of the fest.
Yesterday I caught Clint Eastwood's second feature in under a year, the WWII drama Letters from Iwo Jima. I hadn't been totally convinced by Flags of Our Fathers, which I found repetitive and emotionally inert, and while Letters doesn't really shine a new light on Flags, it does greatly improve on its predecessor, completing a canvas of staggering ambition.
Period war films made in countries currently at war have the potential to offer enlightening perspectives on topical events. For an American to direct what is effectively a Japanese film which attempts to examine the war from a Japanese point of view, at a time when the US administration seems blatantly unwilling and incapable of understanding the world view of others, is interesting in itself. For that American to eschew the didacticism and simplistic dichotomies of so many of his fellow countrymen's WWII movies and instead embrace the humanism and subtlety of Japanese masters such as Kurosawa or Ozu is simply remarkable. That American is 77 year-old actor, composer and director Clint Eastwood. May he work for another twenty years.
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