Well, I'm tired.
12 movies this weekend. Starting to get the blend effect (you know, that awesome movie I saw about the Palestinian priest who tries to save a Japanese rainforest. That was a great one.)
Yesterday started off with I Bought A Rainforest at the ROM. I arrived hungover, I left hungry. It was an easy movie to wake up to, but I thought we were done worrying about the rainforests. Did I miss something?
After Rainforest I left my bike outside the ROM and felt my way towards the Cumberland for The World According To Ion B. The sun was way too bright for me. I had to dig through my survival kit (which currently comprises of an oversized purse filled shredded screening schedules) for some sunglasses. I cuddled into one of those cushy seats at Cumberland 1 (rated #1 movie theatre seats at a Hot Docs venue by Pink Milkcrate) with my butter popcorn and watched a movie about a street drunk in Romania who has spent the past few decades making these incredible collages. I want one.
Next up was Budrus, which I would rip a 4.5. Check this one out if you have the time. I love movies where you just can't believe there was someone there with a camera. The audience ate this one up; seems like a contender for the audience choice award. [ed note: I just checked the Hot Docs website to check up on the actual name of the award, and I see that they are tabulating the scores as they go along! Magnifique! I am baffled by some of the front runners, but I suppose a utilitarian approach makes more sense than letting me pick the winner by myself. And I am wrong, Budrus is not up there.]
Back across the road to the ROM for Soundtracker, which missed the mark. If there's going to be only one person in your entire movie, that person better be captivating. The Soundtracker was not. Hot Docs lost some points here for scheduling a movie about sound in the ROM theatre (rumble rumble rumble, all aboard the Spadina subway express!!). And Mr. Director, if you are reading this, please tell you friends that checking your phone during the movie is not nice. Even if you know the directors.
Last up at 9:45 was Ito. I was tired. I napped. Japanese dialogue can be incredibly hypnotic. Although I can't tell you what I thought about it, I can tell you that the audience did not applaud until the FOURTH frame of credits. Something to think about.
Tonight I'm going to see Gros Morne and Sins of My Father. I'm going to have to spend some time at work today rearranging my schedule because there are some movies that have been buzzing in my ear that weren't originally in my schedule, such as Marwencol, The Canal Street Madame and 12th and Delaware. There's a lot of movies that I want to see and not a lot of time to see them. I sense a sick day coming on...
Cough.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
day three.
# of movies so far: 9
# of cell phones ringing during a movie so far: 0
# of times HTML outwits me by inserting extra line breaks into my posts: 1
On day three all of my screenings were at the Bader, the Rom or Cumberland, which made it an easy day. With the Freedom March happening at Queens Park, there was lots going on in the neighbourhood and the intervals between movies were pleasantly aromatic.
Pick of the day: Arsy Versy screening with The Inventions of Dr. Nakamats is my top pick so far. Arsy Versy is a short film about a guy who photographs bats, and the film is set to the soundtrack of Space Odyssey 2001. It was whimsical and quirky, just how I like 'em. The Inventions is about the Japanese Thomas Edison, this wacky, creative and completely egomaniacal character named Dr. Nakamats who holds thousands of patents and is planning on living until 144. I was sitting up on the side seats at the Bader so I had a birds eye view of him spontaneously shuffling onto the stage before the movie, uninvited, unintroduced. He took the mic, looked at the audience, and said something that sounded like "look at camera A" but it might have been Japanese. Confused laughter spread through the crowd. Then he left the stage.
The movie was great - Japan always looks wonderful on the big screen. The layout and design of the titles and credits was enough to give me a doc-on.
BUT. I hate it when characters who speak broken English are subtitled, and the subtitles blatantly do not translate what they are saying. Example. Dr. Nakamats: "After two days I shall become 80 years old." Subtitle: "In two days I turn 80." Come on.
After the movie the Doctor came back on stage, handed out some magic business cards to the audience and was presented with an award from Hot Docs for being...an inventor? I didn't really catch what the award was but I thought it was thoughtful of Hot Docs. After the movie I overheard some insider telling their friend that Dr. Nakamats refused to come unless he was to be receiving an award!
Disappointments of the day: A tie between Anne Perry (zzz) and The Parking Lot Movie. I overheard one of the festival programmers telling the director before the movie that this was her favorite film of the whole festival, and I walked away wondering how many films she has actually seen.
Disaster of the day: Disorder, which played for about 15 minutes before anyone realized there was supposed to be subtitles and the movie was restarted. Then, and I'm not sure how much this affected anyone else, but one of my contact lenses fell out. It just couldn't handle the stress of seeing 5 movies in one day and it gave up, tumbling onto my lap and hopefully to a better place. It gave the rest of the movie and even more abstract quality, and led to a couple of awkward run ins after the movie where I had to pretend I knew who I was talking to.
I ended the day at Lee's Palace at the Yeasayer show. I know, I know, not a movie, but there are other things in life, you know.
Day four is going to be all over the place, I'll be back to let you know!
# of cell phones ringing during a movie so far: 0
# of times HTML outwits me by inserting extra line breaks into my posts: 1
On day three all of my screenings were at the Bader, the Rom or Cumberland, which made it an easy day. With the Freedom March happening at Queens Park, there was lots going on in the neighbourhood and the intervals between movies were pleasantly aromatic.
Pick of the day: Arsy Versy screening with The Inventions of Dr. Nakamats is my top pick so far. Arsy Versy is a short film about a guy who photographs bats, and the film is set to the soundtrack of Space Odyssey 2001. It was whimsical and quirky, just how I like 'em. The Inventions is about the Japanese Thomas Edison, this wacky, creative and completely egomaniacal character named Dr. Nakamats who holds thousands of patents and is planning on living until 144. I was sitting up on the side seats at the Bader so I had a birds eye view of him spontaneously shuffling onto the stage before the movie, uninvited, unintroduced. He took the mic, looked at the audience, and said something that sounded like "look at camera A" but it might have been Japanese. Confused laughter spread through the crowd. Then he left the stage.
The movie was great - Japan always looks wonderful on the big screen. The layout and design of the titles and credits was enough to give me a doc-on.
BUT. I hate it when characters who speak broken English are subtitled, and the subtitles blatantly do not translate what they are saying. Example. Dr. Nakamats: "After two days I shall become 80 years old." Subtitle: "In two days I turn 80." Come on.
After the movie the Doctor came back on stage, handed out some magic business cards to the audience and was presented with an award from Hot Docs for being...an inventor? I didn't really catch what the award was but I thought it was thoughtful of Hot Docs. After the movie I overheard some insider telling their friend that Dr. Nakamats refused to come unless he was to be receiving an award!
Disappointments of the day: A tie between Anne Perry (zzz) and The Parking Lot Movie. I overheard one of the festival programmers telling the director before the movie that this was her favorite film of the whole festival, and I walked away wondering how many films she has actually seen.
Disaster of the day: Disorder, which played for about 15 minutes before anyone realized there was supposed to be subtitles and the movie was restarted. Then, and I'm not sure how much this affected anyone else, but one of my contact lenses fell out. It just couldn't handle the stress of seeing 5 movies in one day and it gave up, tumbling onto my lap and hopefully to a better place. It gave the rest of the movie and even more abstract quality, and led to a couple of awkward run ins after the movie where I had to pretend I knew who I was talking to.
I ended the day at Lee's Palace at the Yeasayer show. I know, I know, not a movie, but there are other things in life, you know.
Day four is going to be all over the place, I'll be back to let you know!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
day two.
So I was sprawled out in the back row at Innis Theatre last night, on the middle aisle (my safety zone - lots of room to stretch out and dump my stuff, and close enough to the exit for a quick escape in case of a boring movie), thinking that the bathroom in the basement of Innis is a pretty good representation of hell on earth. Don't believe me? Go check for yourself next time you're there. I know that the 15 other women in line thought the same thing - I could see it in the beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads and in the crazy in their eyes. Note to self - pee at the preceding destination, or avoid Innis all together. Those chairs just don't cut it.
I had just come from The Oath at the Bader. (Yes, like I've said, my schedule is a living, breathing organism. For those of you who are actually paying attention, you'll note that I was supposed to be seeing And Everything is Going Fine, but between us, it looked really effing boring. There's only so much archival footage I can take.) The Oath was awesome. I would have ripped it a 5 if I was inclined to participate in that barbaric practice of rating movies by ripping a number on my ticket and putting it in a box. On a scale with such little range, I can see little evidentiary value in asking people to rate a movie before they've seen all of the ones they plan on seeing. It's all relative, non? A 5 today might be demoted to a 4 tomorrow. I hereby DEMAND that Hot Docs implement an online voting system system so viewers can vote after they've seen a bunch of flicks. I'll even get my friend SK to design it for you for free. Ok, SK? Thanks kid! Just give me the word, Hot Docs! Besides, I never would submit my ticket at the end of a movie. If I don't keep my ticket stubs, how am I supposed to remember what I've seen? (I have the retention skills of a gnat).
I was interrupted in my note taking at this point by an announcement from the front of the theatre that the director will not be joining us for a q&a afterwards. ...Whaaaa????---no director??? b-b-bu I chose this screening of Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go because it was a retroprective screening, and I assumed I could hear from the director. For shame. On me. For missing Gasland or Disco and the Atomic War to watch 2 hours of behaviourally demonic children having temper tantrums. I can throw a mighty fine tantrum myself, so there wasn't much new here for me. (The audience agreed with me - the flick ended with a freeze frame, but still no applause until the 5th frame of credits! The Oath? Applause on the first credit. The Applause-o-meter tells it all.)
By the way, there is now a link to my blog from the Hot Docs website, so welcome to all new readers, if you've made it this far! I even have my very first follower who is not a personal friend - hello Mad Hatter, I like your reviews! And can someone leave a comment so I know you're reading, otherwise I'll assume I'm typing into a vacuum and I'll start letting you know what I really think. If I could ever figure that out. Worse, this blog could devolve into a dumping ground for my failed limerick repertoire. The choice is yours...
The following five movies were recommended to me by the cool couple in front of me in line for The Oath, and were in turn recommended to them by their friend, who is "the guy who runs Hot Docs":
- 12th and Delaware
- Gasland
- Bhutto
- Parking Lot Movie
- Osadne
This is a conversation between the two people sitting beside me at the Bader waiting for The Oath to start:
guy: I'm seeing 6 movies this weekend.
date: After a while it's like information overload.
guy: Yeah...
date; I mean, I can sit through two dramas in a row.
guy: Yeah...
[silence]
Today is going to be tricky - I'm already torn about what I'm going to see first, but I can decide on the ride up, because it's either going to be at the ROM or the Bader. And then there's the rain - please don't steal the plastic bag from the seat of my bike. You know who you are. Let's all try to get along today.
One last thing! Thanks a bunch to ZalkEn for the shiny new profile pic, taken in front of the Elgin before Babies. ZalkEn thinks the shot is a little dark but I am to movied-out to Photoshop that thing...
Gotta jet!
I had just come from The Oath at the Bader. (Yes, like I've said, my schedule is a living, breathing organism. For those of you who are actually paying attention, you'll note that I was supposed to be seeing And Everything is Going Fine, but between us, it looked really effing boring. There's only so much archival footage I can take.) The Oath was awesome. I would have ripped it a 5 if I was inclined to participate in that barbaric practice of rating movies by ripping a number on my ticket and putting it in a box. On a scale with such little range, I can see little evidentiary value in asking people to rate a movie before they've seen all of the ones they plan on seeing. It's all relative, non? A 5 today might be demoted to a 4 tomorrow. I hereby DEMAND that Hot Docs implement an online voting system system so viewers can vote after they've seen a bunch of flicks. I'll even get my friend SK to design it for you for free. Ok, SK? Thanks kid! Just give me the word, Hot Docs! Besides, I never would submit my ticket at the end of a movie. If I don't keep my ticket stubs, how am I supposed to remember what I've seen? (I have the retention skills of a gnat).
I was interrupted in my note taking at this point by an announcement from the front of the theatre that the director will not be joining us for a q&a afterwards. ...Whaaaa????---no director??? b-b-bu I chose this screening of Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go because it was a retroprective screening, and I assumed I could hear from the director. For shame. On me. For missing Gasland or Disco and the Atomic War to watch 2 hours of behaviourally demonic children having temper tantrums. I can throw a mighty fine tantrum myself, so there wasn't much new here for me. (The audience agreed with me - the flick ended with a freeze frame, but still no applause until the 5th frame of credits! The Oath? Applause on the first credit. The Applause-o-meter tells it all.)
By the way, there is now a link to my blog from the Hot Docs website, so welcome to all new readers, if you've made it this far! I even have my very first follower who is not a personal friend - hello Mad Hatter, I like your reviews! And can someone leave a comment so I know you're reading, otherwise I'll assume I'm typing into a vacuum and I'll start letting you know what I really think. If I could ever figure that out. Worse, this blog could devolve into a dumping ground for my failed limerick repertoire. The choice is yours...
The following five movies were recommended to me by the cool couple in front of me in line for The Oath, and were in turn recommended to them by their friend, who is "the guy who runs Hot Docs":
- 12th and Delaware
- Gasland
- Bhutto
- Parking Lot Movie
- Osadne
This is a conversation between the two people sitting beside me at the Bader waiting for The Oath to start:
guy: I'm seeing 6 movies this weekend.
date: After a while it's like information overload.
guy: Yeah...
date; I mean, I can sit through two dramas in a row.
guy: Yeah...
[silence]
Today is going to be tricky - I'm already torn about what I'm going to see first, but I can decide on the ride up, because it's either going to be at the ROM or the Bader. And then there's the rain - please don't steal the plastic bag from the seat of my bike. You know who you are. Let's all try to get along today.
One last thing! Thanks a bunch to ZalkEn for the shiny new profile pic, taken in front of the Elgin before Babies. ZalkEn thinks the shot is a little dark but I am to movied-out to Photoshop that thing...
Gotta jet!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)