confessions of an amateur cineaste

Based on the same events as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Requiem, a German film, wasn’t exactly what I had expected it to be, but was compelling nonetheless. (The lead in particular, a virtual unknown, was amazing.) I had thought it would be more of a thriller, but the director presented the story sans special effects, allowing us to make up our own minds. Another intense SIFF offering. If I keep going to features like this, it’s going to be an exhausting festival.

The Death of Mister Lazarescu is a Romanian film about an evening that an elderly man spends being shuttled from hospital to hospital. It was longer than I had expected it to be (note to self: when plotting a tight schedule, do not assume all movies are two hours) but totally engaging.

Twelve and Holding is an American film about three friends dealing with the death of a fourth. Very intense. Some elements of the plot might be taken as extreme, but worked within the structure. It was interesting seeing it with an audience; the way they react to obesity was pretty depressing but not surprising.

* “Black Books“, series 1. I’ve seen the first season through many times and I still DIE OF THE LAUGHING. So, so good. Series two and three can come out on region one dvd any day now, really, I will be pleased with that.

* Saved!, which I hadn’t seen since it was in the theatre. Still great. (When I first saw it, I had expected it to be uneven, because it has a tone that’s difficult to maintain, but I was pleasantly surprised.)

* Desk Set. Katharine Hepburn as a librarian! How could I have not seen it before? Rather a hurry-up ending, but great fun nonetheless.

* Latter Days is another mediocre gay movie, but I was mostly seeing it for Amber Benson, who wears a tie and swears a lot, and for that it was worth it.

* Trembling Before G-d. I had been looking forward to seeing this documentary on gay Orthodox Jews for some time, and it was good, but I felt there was something missing. I see that there’s another disc of features, so I’ll have to add that to my Netflix queue.

* MASH was fantastic, obviously. I’d kill to see it on the big screen; there’s so much going on in every frame, and it’d be awesome to have better sound than my wee tv for all the overlapping dialogue. I spent a lot of time last night on the special features, and the behind-the-scenes and development stories were fascinating.

It’s been a while since a horror movie actually creeped me out, but A Tale of Two Sisters certainly did. Aiieee. It’s Korean, flawless, and freaky as all hell with the ultimate unreliable narrator. I wish I hadn’t sent it back today; I should have kept it to watch again. Thumbs up.

Junebug came over the weekend. I’m a sucker for family drama, Amy Adams was great (of course) and I always forget how much I like Alessandro Nivola.

I also enjoyed I Capture the Castle, partially, I am sure, because it’s been some time since I read the book, and so the comparison wasn’t an issue. Serviceable, not brilliant. Beautifully shot and good casting, though. Of course, I never did hate Marc Blucas. And I’m not sure I had known Bill Nighy was in it. La di da.

SIFF begins on Thursday and my first screening is (I think) a Romanian film on Saturday morning. I’m pretty sure this is my tenth year attending* and I love it all, from the strategic schedule planning to the ticket holder line to the voting (”5 is Citizen Kane, 1 is Ishtar”) to the frequent director Q&As (yes, Kip Koenig, I really -do- want your autograph).

It is one of if not the largest and best attended film festival in the US, but it’s not as buzzed about as it overlaps with Cannes and isn’t an industry festval. It’s not about the celebs and swag; it’s all about getting the films out to the people. Which is -awesome-. (Not to say that there aren’t going to be luminaries here, but it’s more foreign film directors and less Paris Hilton.) There are 277 features in this year’s line-up, I’m going to 17 of them, and you’ll all hear about them here whether you like it or not.

Now I just need to make sure I have my in-line knitting projects ready to go. Eee!

* Yes, it is. Research shows Colin Fitz played the 97 festival, and I definitely saw that there. One of those great films that no one else has ever seen.

I’d never seen Team America: World Police before. Entertaining enough (the way the puppets walk just -kills- me) but, ergh. Political reservations. And seriously. Enough with the gay as an insult already. Little else prompts me to get my soapbox out faster.

Mystic River, however, was awesome. I really had no idea what to expect. I just remembered it made a showing at the Oscars a few years ago and though I can’t remember now who the other contenders were, it was certainly worthy of being up there.

I got a free pass to The Da Vinci Code, which was a good thing because I certainly didn’t want to pay money to see it. My Plus-One was in line mad-early, which was a good thing as there were roughly ten bazillion people trying to get in. And -then- in addition to being searched (par for the course; I always lie about having a cell phone) we were wanded. Checking for metal in case we were insane Catholics planning to shoot up the theater, I guess.

No worries here. The movie never got off the ground, as it were, so there was no danger of anyone getting riled up. It was too long by probably a half hour, and I think the problems in general were probably problems the book had: laughably bad dialogue, cardboard characterization. The cast did what they could with what they had to work with.

Paul Bettany, however? All I could have hoped for and more. Ian McKellen chewing on scenery was also nifty.

Verdict: Better than Firewall.

Yay! Saving Face was worth the wait! It’s the first film from Alice Wu, who, iirc, took a screenwriting class in order to write it. I loved it to bits. It’s the sort of queer film I always want but can never find, where the story is about people, not about the gay. It’s about the family interaction and the mother’s issues, and it’s sweet and complex and yay. I’m going to have to buy it.

Fifth season of Oz. Okay, so there are things in it that are getting a little weird (Rev. Cloutier, anyone?). Plus I still am bothered by how the flashback production value went down in the fourth season and stayed down here. But there are still lots of things I -do- like plus things that made my head explode (like Fr Mukada performing “Leather”). The clincher is that I still care about the characters, and so I will wait impatiently for HBO to announce the release of the sixth and final season. Oh Oz. You have forever spoiled me for Prison Break. God bless you and your shanking, your full frontal nudity, your ruthless killing off of awesome characters.