20, 21 & 22, 23

film 20: the invention of dr nakamats with alex and jenni. a funny documentary about a very egocentric japanese inventor, dr nakamats. there were definitely some laugh out loud moments.


film 21: jean-michael basquiat: the radiant child. interesting doco on the life of the artist, set mostly in new york in the late 70s, early to mid 80s. i'm still not particularly fond of his style but it's reminiscent of a few australian modernist painters, so that was interesting. (damn, i need to get to the NGV for the European Winter Masterpiece exhibition and the Tim Burton exhibition at ACMI before they're over... and Heide, when was I last there??)


film 22: the wedding party. new australian rom-com. a nice gentle film that doesn't require much thought at all. about love, sex and relationships wrapped up in one family.


film 23: four lions. UK film about muslim terrorists. funny but scary too. fundamentalists all apparently born in England, yet decide to be suicide bombers in the country they were born. i don't understand that. obviously. some hilarious moments but they get you thinking about the possibility of this hitting too close to the truth of it all.

18 & 19

i managed to squeeze in a quick drink and a crepe with jenn and chris at le choix before racing off for my first film of the weekend.


film 18: rejoice and shout with mark. this could have been so good. the music itself is just beautiful. how can gospel not be? i think this film tried hard to make us not like it. ;) there were moments of okay-ness though. have someone re-edit, clean up the image and the sound, and cut out a whole chunk and i'll take another look. as the film started a bit late and was nearly 2 hours long i nearly blew a gasket running between kino and greater union. i'm usually the first one in to save seats but luckily enough jamie got us some seats.


film 19: enter the void was a very long and a somewhat strange film. almost dream-like at some points and started out as POV of one guy - i think they used the eye lens camera for the first 20 minutes. i probably got the most out of the first hour and then it just got too repetitive for me. hallucinogenic at times... i found myself thinking all kinds of thoughts, perhaps the film makers were trying to send us subliminal messages, or hypnotise us. so each time this surreal pattern came up i chanted to myself "i am not a chicken, i am not a chicken" (just in case!). then the paranoia started seeping in, what if that is what the film maker wanted us to think... aarrghh... it was a vicious circle. then when i thought it was all over, all the sex began. hmm... i won't give away the one scene that made the audience laugh - i'm pretty sure because of the absurdity. there was applause at the end that i'm certain was out of relief it was over. what can be said is that an experience was had.

16, 17 &...

film 16: adrift. a quiet, meandering type of film. i haven't watched many vietnamese films so i'm not sure if it's a chosen style or not. there was an affair, a death, a bit of a chase scene, but nothing seemed to happen. nothing seemed to stir anyone up. oh, except a scene where a father is wanting money from his daughter to bet on his cock-fighting rooster (who is eventually kicked to death - this is not the death i referred to earlier). i felt i was in a dream watching this film, cocooned against feeling anything.


film 17: the reluctant infidel. this was a blast. and it also led to some uncomfortable moments for the audience. an english-born muslim finds out after the death of his mum that he was adopted. he was born a jew, adopted by muslims and bought up in the faith. there are many scenes where he's trying to be the stereo-typical of both and i think some of the images that people are asked to laugh at, they find confronting. there were a couple of dead moments which was really interesting. it'll definitely get a general cinema release.

a no film 24 hours

it was AWESOME.

& 14, 15

film 14: the genius and the boys with susanne and andrew at acmi. a nobel prize winner with some extremely warped views of what is natural. i liked how this film travelled, how the documentarian introduced you to the world of a brilliant youngster, the decisions he made to study incurable diseases across the globe and adopting 57 children from different countries and bringing them up in the U.S. gajdusek was accused of being a paedophile after FBI surveillance, and instead of denying he said that it was only natural for adults and children to have sexual relations. a strange, strange mind.


film 15: the special relationship. this one will be out in the regular cinemas soon. the relationship between the uk and the us, but also blair and clintin. it was interesting watching a story that is still in my recent memory of events. i was in a different place in my life at that time but still recall quite a bit.

12 & 13

there shall be no dancing this night. instead i am a-filming.


film 12: world's greatest dad. a black comedy with robin williams. not sure if i was really in the mood for this because i didn't really enjoy it, though others who watched it did. a story of a wannabe writer (and english highschool teacher) who has a tosser for a teenage son. the kid accidently suffocates himself while jerking off, and williams character chooses to make it look like a suicide instead. a suicide note and a journal (written by the father and not the son) are published and it snowballs from there. didn't grab me.


film 13: blank city with jamie. documenting new york underground film in the late 70s, early 80s. really enjoyed this one. i honestly didn't realise that parts of new york were really that bad, it looked as though it had been through armaggedon. broken down buildings and streets. really scary place to live. the images were fantastic to look at. i'm definitely more of a fan of No Wave filmmaking than the Cinema of Transgression. it seemed to just be pushing against boundaries because it could, not because it made any sense to do so. but i wasn't there at the time, it could have made perfect sense then.

7 & 8, 9, 10, 11

i managed to get a bit of a sleep in, though the downstairs neighbour started playing his music with the windows open just a tad early for a sunday morning. i suspect it's his first time living away from home...aww... but he should really get drunk on a saturday night and sleep in til at least 11 on sundays. maybe a note under the door expressing just this might be in store?? ;)


film 7: view on vermeer - 12 short stories. vignettes of people talking about how vermeer influenced their art, or they way they'd sign over everything they had if they could find another "missing" vermeer canvas, about the stillness. oh, vermeer for those who don't know was a 17th century dutch artist who painted the girl with the pearl earring. there was a song underneath the third story that i managed to track down called koop island blues by koop. beautiful. and i've seen another film recently that had a woman dancing in it, but i can't recall if it was real or animated. memory fragments.

went for a walk in the sunshine, sat in the park by parliament house and listened to the fountain. melbourne open house all weekend. i missed it. they really should've thought this out better. i'll write and suggest better planning next year. ;)


film 8: the red chapel. not sure how i feel about this one to be honest. danish filmmaker mads brugger took two danish-korean comedians over to north korea on a "cultural exchange". one of the comedians was handicapped. i wasn't sure who was taking advantage of who at times. disturbing, funny, sad.

an aside - there needs to be hotdog carts between the forum and greater union.


film 9: a somewhat gentle man with jamie. a norwegian film about a man who just got out of prison for murdering his wife's lover. the crime caper ran about 107 minutes (i'm already classifying films by their running time, what hope is left?) funny and strange and i continue to wonder how this unassuming man managed to get as much sex as he did. ha!

and since the film was a little late starting we had to fairly bolt up the hill to greater union. damn, i'm so unfit. honestly i'm going to start getting into shape as soon as this is over. all for next year's MIFF of course. ;)


film 10: the ghost writer. double digits and dinner has already resorted to a chocolate choc top. this was a new polanski film i shared with jamie and mark. it was entertaining enough but i expected more. nothing really wrong with it but it didn't stand out for me either. what i did get excited about was that had managed to get my favourite position in the big cinema at greater union and every seat was filled. when the movie started i just nudged the boys in excitement. yeah, i know. hopeless case.


film 11: the trotsky. in the same theatre so all i needed to do was a mad loo dash before heading straight back to my seat. susanne and andrew joined me for this one. quirky, fun film that could have been saved for a dvd night.

my favourite hostess/ organiser is still in attendance. i had thought she had moved on. but no... it was so funny, as i was leaving she waved and said "see you tomorrow night". ha!

i crawled into a taxi "home jeeves".

**favourite film so far?? probably the illusionist, followed by the red chapel.**

3, 4, 5 & 6

film 3: despicable me. new animation out of universal about the world's number two supervillian. enjoyable but it was missing the heart i've come to expect from these types of films. pixar has spoiled me.


film 4: the boys: the sherman brothers story. these are the songwriters who composed for disney's mary poppins, chitty chitty bang bang and a zillion other wonder tunes we all grew up with, like winnie the pooh. a little on the long side but a well told tale i shared with jill and her friend dorothy.


film 5 was a walk up the road from the forum to greater union. this was a doco on merle haggard: learning to live with myself. shared the cinema with barb and jamie and a few others. ;) interesting musician with a great voice who doesn't seem to like himself very much (my opinion). and there was a shot of one hot pink truck in this film, stunning. ha!


film 6 with jamie and mark was spine tingler: the william castle story. fantastic tale of the fantastic. a filmmaker who wanted to make "a" grade movies but just had a knack for the "b". all gimmicky joy like vibrating seats in the theatres, nurses in the foyer for the scariest movies, ghost glasses (for those who want to see the ghosts and those who don't). bill castle was the producer on rosemary's baby... who knew? well, plenty of people and i do now.

abandoning my last movie of the day (just couldn't face an 11.30 film at this stage) i joined the boys in a couple of drinks on the roof of tuscan.

1, 2 buckle my shoe

i wonder what the melbourne international film festival (affectionately known as MIFF) is going to bring this year. a lot of a-lone time with big screens and thousands of strangers.


film 1:the illusionist - the same animator who created the triplets of belleville. this one was with alex and chris. it was beautiful. very little talking, just the actions telling the melancholic story.


film 2: a doco, villalobos, and it was disappointing. it had the potential for an energetic and exciting film about a globally successful dj was there but it got bogged down in itself... i think i even micro-napped (but it was okay, i wasn't driving).

SG Universe

stargate universe... season one... done and dusted. thanks muchly lea. bring on september when season two begins.

MIFF starts tomorrow. i am trying to out film myself this year with booking 47 films. wait and see what shape i'm in come august 8. eek!!

3 cars went out for a drive

then we all came back again. sunday driving through the bunyip national park. had lunch at a pub called the robin hood inn on the way home. a lovely day for it.

what we wear

lea and i went along to kustom lane gallery in hawthorn for their skins 'n' sharps exhibition before having a "dmc" over a burger.





the evening had me congregating with some gal pals at lou's place for a clothes swap. fun evening of food, clothes and chat. then a short walk home clutching two new pieces for summer. yah!

food for stomach & mind

a drive through the city on the way to south yarra and the jam factory. another date with another screen. a quick meal of pasta to sustain ourselves before sitting through a forum of old school journos talking about the demise of print.


as part of the festival they replayed state of play, i had missed it when it first came round. enjoyed it a lot.


and now have the bbc series to watch (this'll probably take place after i work my way through MIFF).

one ticket booked

to los angeles and back again. this time in 3 months i'll be winging my way north east. what fun.

exits are on the way out

think about that!!

gold class in 3D

AWESOME!!! you HAVE to, MUST see this glorious film. i laughed out loud, and cried. had a red lemonade spider and mini burgers. will be seeing this brilliant movie again (after the film fest of course).

just a day

the usual start of the weekend at starbucks. then i wandered over to the forum to pick up my passport to the film festival in a couple of weeks and met some strange sights along the way.




i've been wondering what's behind this wall that holds up this sign for the longest time. it's like an oasis in the middle of the city. does anyone know?



i see brains wearing crowns in these lights that guard parliament house. a strange story may eventuate from it. if you and i are very lucky.


the evening had me walking over to annie's place for a wine and cheese night. i love brunswick. :)

pap fiction

walked into the city to watch the third film in the twilight series. i've read all the books so i might as well see the films as well. it wasn't really anything truth be told but it got me out the house for a couple of hours. ;)

no mumble core

in my 46 booked MIFF films

off to the opera

i won tickets to vic opera's performance of turn of the screw at the playhouse. it was preview night, so anything could happen. it was entertaining enough, though i must admit my mind wandered a bit. the staging was wonderfu. which is kind of like saying the film was beautifully shot huh? anyway, it was a nice evening out.

MIFF and write club

into the city at 6pm for the program launch of the 2010 melbourne international film festival. there was a buzz about the room, what's being delivered this year? the 59th year of the festival and richard moore's last. which is a shame, i like his style. fuzzy hair unite.

then it was off to smith street to meet dave. coming up with new ideas for films. always a fun time, though difficult. 2010 has been a strange year so far.

a name

that was spelt correctly for the first time today. not even sure how they got it right. fortuitous accident i'm sure.

day two of the shoot

why is it over?? sighhhh.... many many thanks to af for including me in this adventure.