Boppy's Journal

So the Film Fest swallowed me whole but has now (thankfully) spat me back out the other side. As usual, I feel a little tattered and bruised, but no major damage I think... *pats self*

The highlights of my final selection of films were The Host and The wind that shook the barley.

The Host
( Korean blockbuster monster flick with humour )

The wind that shook the barley
( Ken Loach's Irish Civil War flick, starring the unnerving Cillian Murphy )

So now that that's all over, I'll have more time to play. *waves*

I missed talitha78's birthday!! WOE. I hope you got many lovely things and had a great day. You are my fandom hero, sweetie! Best wishes for the year ahead.

I probably missed a bunch else besides... feel free to fill me in! *g* And yes, I may actually be around a leetle more now. And will stop posting about boring movies you have no intention of seeing. I promise the next post will be fannish-ish. ;-)

Well, the countdown is on until I am sane again and/or have time to myself. I'm getting through record amounts of work, and I'm three films into my Melbourne International Film Festival. This is a brief rundown of the films I've seen so far for anyone who's interested.

Offside
( An Iranian film about female soccer fans )

Sherrybaby
( Maggie Gyllenhaal in purple jeans singing 'Eternal Flame' )

An inconvenient truth
( Essential viewing--it gets a mainstream release next month, but I couldn't wait that long )

In other news, the Israel-Lebanon war is alternately breaking my heart and enraging me. It's getting to the point where I can barely watch the news. I'm sure my cries of frustration are not appreciated by my boy! Today I watched the Lebanese protest in Melbourne with a feeling of complete impotence. It makes me wish for a swifter-moving, more interventionist UN. There doesn't seem to be even a flicker of hope for a ceasefire any time soon.

That's all I got for now. But as I say, I can see a flicker at the end of the tunnel of busy-ness--not this week, but next week perhaps ...

I went to see the movie Water today. I'm still recovering. For those of you who don't know, it's the third movie in Deepa Mehta's controversial Elements trilogy (Earth and Fire being the first two). Controversial in India, that is, since I think they've been widely embraced by the international film audience. Water is a spectacular movie and highly deserving of the attention and praise it is receiving. It's also heartwrending viewing that has left me feeling completely emotionally wrung out. (mskatej, this may be the kind of depressing movie that I like and you hate! Despite that, I'd love you to see it because of the feminist angle.)

Water explores the world of Hindu widows who live in a closed ashram, condemned to an impoverished life of self-denial. The young actress who plays the 8-year-old widow is wonderful, as are the adult cast. John Abraham and Lisa Ray are both gorgeous in their roles as the Ghandian idealist law-student and the widow he falls in love with respectively. (Abraham had me totally swooning, despite the naivety of his character.) But the women in the ashram are perhaps the most compelling--the ensemble acting was fantastic. The movie is beautifully shot, the soundtrack is gorgeous, the director integrates her symbolism well and the pacing of the story is perfect. I won't spoil anyone, as I totally advocate seeing this movie, but the ending is very memorable.

This was one of those rare movie-going experiences where I felt truly transported to another world and where I felt deeply and personally touched by a hidden human tragedy. It's exquisite. So much praise!

Rambles
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And with all the technical problems I've been having, this means I've missed out on a lot of my friends posts in the last week or so, so if anyone wants to point out interesting things I've missed, please feel free! I am not being intentionally rude if I appear to be ignoring you!

The Yahoo rant
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Films: Matchpoint and Jarhead
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The BSG status: the countdown is down to a matter of 48 hours before I can dl the BSG eps I haven't seen yet.

So this is what I do on a Friday night when there's no access to SV for another 24 hours!

Since seeing King Kong a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been wanting to articulate precisely what it was about it that I liked so much.
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Could have lived without the giant insects! But otherwise, much love.