Oops, apparently, due to some language confusion, I just went to the women's bathroom here. Oh well, it's a one person bathroom anyway.
Back from the film festival officially, but I think I'll be heading back on Wednesday because I'm free and I want to catch Farenheight 9/11 and elary.
Thought I'd do a quick rundown of the movies in case you ever get to see them.
The Missing - No, not the Ron Howard/Tommy Lee Jones movie, but a Taiwaneese film by the same name. By far the worst thing I've ever seen. If you want to hear more of what I have to say about it, go here and read my review. It's easy to find, there are only two reviews and mine's under the name "sansmerci".
Om jag vnder mig om (Daybreak) - A film with three stories and broken families and marital problems. Normally something this conventional doesn't catch my interest, but this was REALLY good.
Matrubhoomi (A Nation Without Women) - I was the only one in my group who really liked this film. It's about a futuristic India in which their tradition of killing off female children has resulted in a country with virtually no women, and what happens when the men actually DO find one. Hillarious and some points, but mostly just absolutely disturbing! A little repetitive in the middle, though.
La Nina Santa (The Holy Girl) - Yes, I know that's not how you do an N in that word, but my keyboard has its limitations. Anyway, this was about a catholic schoolgirl in Argentinia who tries to "save" the guy who's hitting on her mom (and her, really) and instead becomes corrupted herself. Good idea, bad writing. The characters changed by the end, but I didn't see any justification for the changes in their personalities.
Jedna ruka netlesk (One Hand Can't Clap) - A Czech crime comedy. I don't know if this film will ever be available in the states but, I must stress this: IF YOU EVER GET A CHANCE TO SEE THIS FILM, DO IT! It is fucking hillarious! The whole thing is about this guy who is arrested because he was hired to deliver some chickens for a restaraunt, but finds that he was actually smuggling endagered eagles. He goes to jail while the people who are really responsible don't and, when he gets out, he teams up with a recently fired security guard and these two girls to figure out what happened and why the restaraunt that hired him was even having him deliver chickens in the first place since the restaraunt is supposed to be vegetarian. Truly fucking hillarious in every way and genius. WATCH IT IF YOU CAN! Also, the two girls in it are GORGEOUS!
This was one of them:
And this was the other one who I liked more and who spoke after the film:
Pod edno nebe (Under the Same Sky) - Bulgarian film. Girl's father left over four years ago, she goes to find him. Boring film, beautifully shot!
Lad de sma born (Aftermath) - Beautiful film from Denmark about a couple who lost their 12 year old daughter to a drunk driving accident and how the cope with it. It was directed by this woman who was, apparently, a long time comedy actor (she came to speak before it too) and so it had some VERY funny moments.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - This was my fourth time seeing it, but I wanted to see it at the Czech premier. They told me, though, that nobody was going to get into this one without tickets, unlike all the other films where, if you have no tickets, you can basically just wait until everyone with tickets gets in and then if there are empty seats, which there always are, they'll let you in. So, to sneak into this, I went into the bathroom after the movie before it, which was in the same theater, hid for 15 minutes playing games on my phone, then walked right back into the theater. Once I got in, though, it turned out they had gone back on their "tickets only" policy. Elijah Wood came to introduce the film. Most anticlimactic celebrity appearance ever. He spoke for literally a minute. He didn't have anything interesting to say, but I was glad that he admitted "I shouldn't be the one introducing this film, I have a really small role in it." I was disappointed that he didn't have a Q & A, I was planning on asking him questions like "How does it feel to not be doing crap anymore?" Charlie Kaufman was supposed to show up for it too, but he was "sick" (translation: Kaufman is mortally afraid of public appearances.)
Shadows - Old John Casavettes film from the 50s that they showed because they were doing a tribute to Casavettes. Really good. Plot meanders a bit, but that's because the whole thing was based on improvisations that Casavettes's theater group came up with. On a side note, his daughter, Xan Casavettes was at the festival promoting her documentary "Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession" and a whole bunch of people from my group got to meet her and talk with her for a while, and some of them got her email too.
Well, hope that didn't bore you, but that's really all I have to say. I do have a few pictures to upload at some point, but I'll do that tomorrow. Later, all!
Back from the film festival officially, but I think I'll be heading back on Wednesday because I'm free and I want to catch Farenheight 9/11 and elary.
Thought I'd do a quick rundown of the movies in case you ever get to see them.
The Missing - No, not the Ron Howard/Tommy Lee Jones movie, but a Taiwaneese film by the same name. By far the worst thing I've ever seen. If you want to hear more of what I have to say about it, go here and read my review. It's easy to find, there are only two reviews and mine's under the name "sansmerci".
Om jag vnder mig om (Daybreak) - A film with three stories and broken families and marital problems. Normally something this conventional doesn't catch my interest, but this was REALLY good.
Matrubhoomi (A Nation Without Women) - I was the only one in my group who really liked this film. It's about a futuristic India in which their tradition of killing off female children has resulted in a country with virtually no women, and what happens when the men actually DO find one. Hillarious and some points, but mostly just absolutely disturbing! A little repetitive in the middle, though.
La Nina Santa (The Holy Girl) - Yes, I know that's not how you do an N in that word, but my keyboard has its limitations. Anyway, this was about a catholic schoolgirl in Argentinia who tries to "save" the guy who's hitting on her mom (and her, really) and instead becomes corrupted herself. Good idea, bad writing. The characters changed by the end, but I didn't see any justification for the changes in their personalities.
Jedna ruka netlesk (One Hand Can't Clap) - A Czech crime comedy. I don't know if this film will ever be available in the states but, I must stress this: IF YOU EVER GET A CHANCE TO SEE THIS FILM, DO IT! It is fucking hillarious! The whole thing is about this guy who is arrested because he was hired to deliver some chickens for a restaraunt, but finds that he was actually smuggling endagered eagles. He goes to jail while the people who are really responsible don't and, when he gets out, he teams up with a recently fired security guard and these two girls to figure out what happened and why the restaraunt that hired him was even having him deliver chickens in the first place since the restaraunt is supposed to be vegetarian. Truly fucking hillarious in every way and genius. WATCH IT IF YOU CAN! Also, the two girls in it are GORGEOUS!
This was one of them:
And this was the other one who I liked more and who spoke after the film:
Pod edno nebe (Under the Same Sky) - Bulgarian film. Girl's father left over four years ago, she goes to find him. Boring film, beautifully shot!
Lad de sma born (Aftermath) - Beautiful film from Denmark about a couple who lost their 12 year old daughter to a drunk driving accident and how the cope with it. It was directed by this woman who was, apparently, a long time comedy actor (she came to speak before it too) and so it had some VERY funny moments.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - This was my fourth time seeing it, but I wanted to see it at the Czech premier. They told me, though, that nobody was going to get into this one without tickets, unlike all the other films where, if you have no tickets, you can basically just wait until everyone with tickets gets in and then if there are empty seats, which there always are, they'll let you in. So, to sneak into this, I went into the bathroom after the movie before it, which was in the same theater, hid for 15 minutes playing games on my phone, then walked right back into the theater. Once I got in, though, it turned out they had gone back on their "tickets only" policy. Elijah Wood came to introduce the film. Most anticlimactic celebrity appearance ever. He spoke for literally a minute. He didn't have anything interesting to say, but I was glad that he admitted "I shouldn't be the one introducing this film, I have a really small role in it." I was disappointed that he didn't have a Q & A, I was planning on asking him questions like "How does it feel to not be doing crap anymore?" Charlie Kaufman was supposed to show up for it too, but he was "sick" (translation: Kaufman is mortally afraid of public appearances.)
Shadows - Old John Casavettes film from the 50s that they showed because they were doing a tribute to Casavettes. Really good. Plot meanders a bit, but that's because the whole thing was based on improvisations that Casavettes's theater group came up with. On a side note, his daughter, Xan Casavettes was at the festival promoting her documentary "Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession" and a whole bunch of people from my group got to meet her and talk with her for a while, and some of them got her email too.
Well, hope that didn't bore you, but that's really all I have to say. I do have a few pictures to upload at some point, but I'll do that tomorrow. Later, all!
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No one has been keeping up the Survivor thread! I will probably update today or tomorrow, so check in and see what you think. I'm always looking for feedback.