Posted on

three up

Last night I went to catch a 9pm session of Atonement with Thor. There were four other people in the cinema with us, when the movie finished and we walked out, the others had disappeared. weird. Sweetness was the choc tops we got. Made at the cinema, the sticker on the package cheerfully proclaimed, they were choc tops from outer space. a real ice cream cone (as in conical), real chocolate instead of that weird tasting stuff but what really topped it was the ice-cream. I had after dinner mint and it was a nice pale green in colour and full of flavour. Atonement was good, I liked it, well I liked the first 95%. The ending was such a cop out though. Now I know you can’t always have happy endings but if you want to have a sad/angry ending, how they did it was not the way.

Popcorn, that was actually hot for once.
popcorn & atonement, 14/366

When I was at QAG on the weekend, I picked up this little beauty in the QAG store for 40% off, because two weeks into January, who wants a 2008 diary? I do! A limited edition 2008 Moleskine diary plus a cahier.
2008 diary

Sunday; Pabbi, Matthew and I went to the bookfest. They brought home a wall of books each. I on the other hand brought home a couple of books that I had been looking for and a stack of Delicious and Australian Gourmet Traveller magazines, 15 for $3, bargain.
Bookfest bargain, 13/366

Posted on

BIFF Movies 3 & 4

Movies, Movies, Movies

First up was Dol: The Valley of Tambourines. A movie set in Kurdistan, starting in Turkish Kurdistan, then Iraqi Kurdistan then onto Iranian Kurdistan before returning to Turkish Kurdistan. The opening scenes they were warm and for a second you weren’t in geopolitical hotspot, you were with two young loves. It was scary, sad and thought provoking. There are three very different Kurdistans shown but they all have the same turmoil in the life. It was good, the landscape and the horses were stunning but something was missing to make it fantastic for me.

Unfinished Sky and Yolk.
Yolk is a 15 minute short film about a teenage girl with Down Syndrome, an egg, a boy and a mother (possibly single) who is frazzled. Shot round The Gap area it was great to be able to recognise local landmarks. I didn’t love it or it didn’t really grab me with the first viewing. It was better than average than though.

Unfinished Sky. A movie I have been waiting to see since I heard about it been filmed round Boonah last year. It was dark, gripping, contentious, a romance and a comedy in one. It was real in so many ways and I think what really made it that real was the decision not to subtitle Tahmeena when she was speaking in Dari. As the movie is really about John and his response to Tahmeena entering his life rather dramatically. He can only understand what she says once she has learnt some English until then her speaking Dari is just noise. It isn’t been released in cinemas till next year some time but if it happens to be screened at a Film Festival near you, I would highly recommend seeing it. I can’t express in words how much this movie is and what it counts for and what it portrays. The highlight of the festival for me so far and I think it will be hard to top.

Anyway I am off to The Troubadour to see Svavar Knutur and co

Posted on

BIFF Movies 1 & 2

This evening I saw my first two BIFF Movies. The first was Bamako. I missed the first 10 minutes because of traffic chaos and perhaps that is why I never quite got my teeth into it. It was one of the movies that I was most looking forward to seeing but I ended up drifting off quite a few times. Reading some reviews I think if I had caught the beginning it probably would have made more sense for me. One of the things I loved about it was the fact that they were holding a trial in this courtyard – World Bank vs the people and the everyday life of the courtyard just continues on during the trial. That was funny.

Between the two movies I grabbed bite to eat and headed over to Captain Burke to take some photos of the city and the Story Bridge. Here is one photo.

Story Bridge

The second movie I saw was Control and I just, this movie in terms of the art in it was the best for sure I have seen in a while. The cinematography was just so perfect. I was apprehensive about the decision to film the movie in black and white before I saw it but from the very first frame it just clicked. This movie needed to be in black and white for the pure starkness of the movie.
Joy Division is not a band that I have ever really gotten into other than loving Love Will Tear Us Apart for which I can vividly remember the film clip for. Seeing the movie though definitely made some of the songs click a bit more as to the context in which they were based. I will say it again, a really really great movie. Just so raw and powerful but still with the occasional laugh.