Amelie

Watched this again last night...wonderful.

Very few films have come close enough to my soul as this one...

I find it hard lately to squish a whole week of relaxation into one day...like I'm forcing myself to relax as MUCH as I can...stupid I know. I refuse to turn into one of those manic people I see out at clubs partying like it's 1999 and the end of the world all rolled into one night. Trickier than you'd think...everywhere you look there's "something to be done". I try my best to catch up on what I can and dutifully ignore the rest. Most times I'm successful. Most times.

Sunday was relaxing and lovely, lots of tasty foods, hiding from the (eternal and everpresent) rain indoors with J. Films like Amelie remind me of who I was (hopefully am still) and that this will end and soon I can go back to me...as just me. I am honestly not sure what I will do with all my spare time then.

Start a new cult? Invade Poland?

Hmm...so many choices...

Thank you Tim Burton

Alice in Wonderland is a *big* deal for me.
More than most I think.
It was the first book I ever read...over and over again. My fondest memories of Mum and I are when I was so very small and 3 or 4 - she read it to me every night. Then I read some...eventually reading it all. It's what I learned to read with...shen we got to the end we'd start over. It shaped the strange wierdness that is me...

So the fact that Mr. Burton (whose work I love) took it and made a nice 3D film based on it that made me grin from ear to ear? Seeing a bandersnatch, Cheshire Cat and March Hare?

Yes...lovely...

Moon

We have an old theatre in town - the Roxy. The main theatre is painted up like a street in a small European town, with the roof painted up to be a sky that has blinking stars in it that twinkle softy. I love seeing movies there.
Last night, I had the privilege of seeing Moon there.

I will admit I knew nothing about the film before going, but J has been wanting to see it for a while. He figured it would never make it here (we miss a lot of the less widely released films) but we were lucky enough to be in the mood to go out to see a film when we found this was at the Roxy.

It's a great film -one of the best I have seen in a long while. It centres around the one living character in it, Sam Bell. Sam has a three year contract to work for Lunar Industries. For the contracts entire duration, he is the sole employee based at their lunar station where his primary job responsibility is to harvest and periodically rocket back to Earth supplies of helium-3, the current clean fuel used on Earth. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth, so his only direct real-time interaction is with GERTY, the intelligent computer whose function is to attend to his day to day needs. With such little human contact and all of it indirect, he feels three years is far too long to be so isolated. He is beginning to hallucinate as the end of his three years approaches. All he wants is to return to Earth to be with his wife and their daughter, who was born just prior to his leaving for this job. With two weeks to go, he gets into an accident at one of the mechanical harvesters and is rendered unconscious. Injured, he awakens back at the station in the infirmary, and GERTY tells him that a rescue team will come to the station to clean up. After his recuperation, he makes an unexpected discovery. Because of his find, he begins to doubt everything, and slowly deals with the situation on his own terms...

This film is understated and brilliantly acted. Sam Rockwell (who up to this point I only recall as Zaphod Beeblebrox) plays his role very well. Kevin Spacey's voice as GERTY is also good fit. The dialog is wonderful - the computer GERTY really has a role in the story and it lures you in minute by minute as you discover what Sam does and how he plans to deal with the situation he is in. Subtle story with great depth.

I recommend you see it if you can - I really enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed the pie I had later. I'll be sad when the pie is finally gone...:)

Wierd Movies I Have Seen

Altho it might seem I have lived at the theatre this weekend I haven't. I did sew a bunch of bellydance costumery and decorate *the* most awesome baby shower cake ever made.

Nevertheless, I have seen one of the maddest films of my life last night. I laughed. I cried. It did not change my life, but it did confuse me ever so slightly in a wierd but witty way. It really was a mad film in the truest sense of the word.

Synedoche, New York is a movie about the life of a rather pathetic theatre director who attempts to create a lifesize working replica of a city in New York, with actors for all, to tell all their stories, including hiis own. The characters are odd and funny...but the lines between the real New York and the fake one get more and more confused over time... I enjoyed this film, but found it almost too much at times...mostly because the lead character, Caden was so incredibly inescapably pathetic. Coming from the same guy who wrote Human Nature, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I suppose I should have expected this...it's his directing debut. And an odd one at that...

Let the Right One In

I've always been fascinated that vampires can only come in where they are invited...

Just got back from the Broadway - this time seeing Låt den rätte komma in(Let the Right One In)...a swedish film based on the novel Let the Right One in.

Subtitles.
Vampires.
A subtle interesting story about a boy who has a vampire move into his apartment...
Interesting stuff.

Go see it.

Hooray for Bollywood

Our local artsy, old restored theatre, the Broadway, shows a lot of art films, documentaries and films that don't make it to our few other theatres in town, as well as live music and theatre.
They have just begun a new thing I am so very excited about - Bollywood Sunday. Once a month the local Indian Community Cultural Association and the theatre are going to be bringing in and showing new Bollywood films. They're even having chai and samosas at the snack counter, just for fun.
I love Bollywood films...I can't help it. I grew up watching and loving old musicals like Court Jester and the like, and Bollywood has all the cheesy music, usually paired with a cheesy love story and some great dance numbers and beautiful scenery and costumes. I work with a lot of grad students and coworkers from India, so I get to see the odd film...and seeing one on the big screen is going to be so much fun. They are films that just entertain you, make you smile and tap your feet...and leave you feeling happy. My brother and his wife love Bollywood too, so we're making it a monthly date (and J is very happy too as he isn't trapped into going along with me - he really does not like musicals or Bollywood films - everybody wins!)

This past sunday was their first one of the year -Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. If you've never seen a Bollywood film before - I'd recommend this one - it's subtitled, and the music and dance numbers are fantastic...really top notch. The story is pretty standard - romance and humour...but it is beautiful, and really has a lot of elements of Indian culture that don't carry over to Canada that often... It had an interesting thought about love - that in loving someone, you see your God in them - the divine part of them that loves you...interesting thought.

And with that...I am off on my friday off to do something useful...:)
Have a nice weekend!

Quantum of Solace: akshun-UR doin it rong.

I was really excited about James Bond...I really enjoyed Casino Royale...it reminded me of the Bond of the novels, a "do over" of sorts where they could get away from excessive gadgets, bad fighting and lame villains and make James Bond a calloused agent with a double O licence to kill again. It was my favourite James Bond film so far...back to Bond doing his thing...all in a well tailored tuxedo. Unfortunately, Quantum of Solace, which starts up a few hours after Casino Royale ended, isn't as good as it's predecessor. It looked at the ideas of revenge...of dealing with loss and trust. It wasn't *bad*...it just left me in a state of non-grippedness. My main complaint wasn't so much the story, as it was OK, but the editing style. It was all jumpy shakey camera quick cut shakey shakey swing punch cut cut action boom action...with random artsy cutaways to nothing in particular. Parts of the movie were stunningly shot, but a lot of the action scenes (involving more explodey things than should really exist in a hotel) were extremely hard to follow. Extremely hard. I'm assuming it was cut like *you* were Bond...trying to focus and figure out what was next and struggle to fight back...which is fine if you're the double O. I wasn't-I was the person who'd come to watch the fine Mr. Daniel Craig be the callous secret agent I've grown to love over the years...I think they went for a style, but then kind of forgot what it was. If the editing style leaves the viewer thinking "enough dammit, hold the camera still so I can see what the hell is going on!" in *every* action scene...you're doing it wrong. Pity really. It just left me with the feeling that it could have been more. There was too much action, not enough substance. There was a good basis for a story there, and a great idea for the reason behind what happened with Vesper Lynde and the "bigger" picture...even a girl companion with revenge on her mind to give Bond someone to help, and look at the idea of the emptiness of revenge and the meaning of trust and duty, and well...it just sort of fell flat.
Daniel Craig and Judy Dench nailed their roles, and a lot of the supporting characters were very good...yet, the bond girl lacked in sexy and a lot of it just didn't work for me.
I'm just glad I used a gift card to pay for the admission, or I'd be a bit miffed...

Ah yes...

I just had to say that the new Hellboy movie looks obscenely good.
I have made little sqeuaky sounds while watching the trailers.
So um...yeah. That is all really...

Another World. Another Time. In the Age of Wonder.

"When single shines the triple sun
What was sundered and undone
Shall be whole-the two made one
By gelfling hand, or else by none"

One of my favorite films of all time...nearly eclipsing Star Wars in the dreams and imaginings of my childhood is The Dark Crystal. It took Jim Henson and his crew 5 years to create an entire world, mythology and an entire cast of live action puppeted characters for the film. The wise and gentle mystics, the evil shrewish skeksis, the gelflings forced to fullfill a prophecy and all the other friendly monsters that help them along the way: they all combine in a world that has been created to the minutest detail. When you consider the film is almost 25 years old, it is a testament to the detail of thie film that itstill stands up to repeated watching, even now as a "grown up". Unlike many films that I watched as a kid, this is not a dumbed down tale with randomly inserted songs. I find I still know the words, and still the film calls up emotions and memories from long ago. The song the two gelflings play on the river is beautiful and haunting to me... I must admit I still sing Kira's part sometimes when at the lake on the dock alone watching the water sparkle and lap the shore...


The past few days J has been working days AND nights to train at work, and I've been here alone hacking away getting over my cold. J gave me the collectors set of this film for Christmas...it has a few documentaries on the making of the film, as well as a collection of artwork, including a booklet of some of Jim Henson's original sketches and ideas for the film and a print of the film. Today was a miserable day...I had a long experiment fail for reasons I don't yet know and I still don't feel fully well. Due to a stupid mixup on my part, I've had to replace my friend Heather's same collectors edition of this film...so I've sat down to watch it tonight to be sure it is a "good" copy before I give it to her. This set is getting very hard to track down, so I want to be sure I've properly replaced her copy with one that plays...but I'm rambling. I am pleased to say tho, that I found what looks like a shard of the dark crystal at a lake in the mountains a few years ago. To celebrate I yodelled to the mountainside. I'm keeping it just in case...but again, I'm rambling.

Even now, watching the film, I just forget about everything. I get lost in it and I feel like the little who girl helped her big brother pester her Mom incessantly until she took them into the city just to see what we were sure would be "the best film ever". My parents aren't movie goers, but Mom took us both to this film and I am still grateful...this film fills your imagination with ideas. It shows you what other worlds could be like and sparked my interest in astronomy, legends, religion and magic and made them so much more real than words in a book.

What am I getting at?
Well, if you haven't seen this film-you must.
After all this time it is still one of the most imaginative and original films ever made.
And I loves it so...
Apparently they're making a live action sequel to the film, coming out next year called The Power of The Dark Crystal.
I hope they do justice to Jim Henson's greatest work.
I am looking forward to it with squeaky joy...

Silly Americans, bombs are for kids

I've been a fan of Aqua Teen Hunger Force for a while...most of the Adult Swim cartoons for that matter. So when I heard a while ago they were making an Aqua Teen movie I was happy.

I was also amused at how wierd the US has gotten when a publicity thing for the Aqua Teen show and movie went very wrong yesterday in Boston. A company had made a few dozen little electrical metal gadgets with blinky LEDs and motion sensors in the shape of a few characters of the show and put them all over the city wed night. Did it work? Well, the city freaked out and shut down major arteries and had police and fire departments out removing the "fake bombs" with their bomb squads. The people who did it were arrested, and the city wants them to pay damages for al the trouble caused. And the oddest thing about it was when the 2 guys were released on bail they were met by press on their way out. As they were advised to not talk about things by their lawyer they responded to all press queries with comments and questions about 70s hair cuts and styles. It was quite amusing. The press kept asking them questions after their lawyer said they had been advised not to talk and they kept giving joke answers. The lawyer finally said "if you feel your time is being wasted you CAN go you know" and they did leave, but the reporters kept asking questions about terrorism and if the men were happy at all the trouble they caused and made them come off as jerks. Maybe they did take it a little too lightly, but what would you do in a situation like this? It's just absurd.
I mean how can you hold them responsible for the city freaking out over this?
The signs were even lighting up with the shapes of one of the characters on the show (giving the finger). There's a photo of the display in the news articles I've linked to. Even if I'd never seen the Spacecataz character after looking at it I wouldn't think - "hey a bomb!".
Hopefully there won't be a stupid campaign against the movie from all this. I mean, it's just a cartoon...

This quote in particular bothers me:
"Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, condemned the hoax.
'Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world,' he said."

So now the TV show is responsible for the fact that the public is so freaked out by terror alerts and all the other crap going on in the US that they thought it was a hoax? It's right up there with freedom fries for sheer bizzarity.
It's all a bit too wierd for me...if you ask me, this shouldn't have happened in the first place.

AMBER ALERT UPDATE: want to see them put them up?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2a64964ab9
(sorry no link on mac...have to just copy and paste the old fashioned way).