siff day 18
Jun. 10th, 2008 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenstill wide awake. not a good sign for day 19...
Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema
who is Pierre Rissient? trust me, you don't care. i watched the whole thing to confirm that this documentary is nearly content-free.
i followed this with a late brunch of stuffed french toast and bacon at Peso's, washed down with giant cups of coffee. it was delicious, and i got the bacon for free since it was the last of the day.
i tried to stop at Bliss before the next film, but Phil and Chuck are out of town until the 14th. fine soap fans take note.
Sweet Thing
i went because i had no preference for the slot but wanted to watch the next film at the venue. it was not raining inside the Harvard Exit, and it was a pleasant temperature (unlike the unseasonably wet and windy outdoors) so i watched the whole thing. unsympathetic characters with no motivation for their actions do nothing in and around Seattle. the director introduced the film and said he'd been working on it for five years. i rushed out before the Q&A in order to resist the temptation to tell him what i thought.
i called Mom and wished her happy birthday between films. it's 95 and humid in PA.
Tulia Texas
excellent documentary about a 1999 drug enforcement operation in a town in the Texas panhandle. funny thing, nearly all the accused dealers were black. and they were all supposedly selling powder cocaine in a small town with a depressed economy. you get the picture.
since it's a matter of public record: eventually justice prevails, and a few of the white folks there are not racist assholes. (but i still want to cleanse the place with fire.)
the storytelling is excellent, and the film raises many questions about "the war on drugs," enforcement funding, and undercover cops. this is going to be on PBS on Independent Lens sometime this year. definitely worth watching. (just take something for your blood pressure first.)
(it was paired with a well-made depressing dramatic short set in post-Katrina Louisiana. whitey ruined everything.)
a happy accident: a film was delayed in shipping and so there was a magic third showing of Bliss instead.
Bliss
this came highly recommended, (thanks Steve and other random Fools!) and was wonderful. i'm so glad i saw it. it's a Turkish film about honor killing, and modern versus traditional society, and sailing (real and metaphorical). great performances, excellently tense plotting, beautiful scenery. one of the best of the festival, the sort of film that i feel in my gut for an hour afterward.
most days i enjoy spending the festival alone in a crowd, just me and the films. this was one where i wished i was sharing an armrest.
Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema
who is Pierre Rissient? trust me, you don't care. i watched the whole thing to confirm that this documentary is nearly content-free.
i followed this with a late brunch of stuffed french toast and bacon at Peso's, washed down with giant cups of coffee. it was delicious, and i got the bacon for free since it was the last of the day.
i tried to stop at Bliss before the next film, but Phil and Chuck are out of town until the 14th. fine soap fans take note.
Sweet Thing
i went because i had no preference for the slot but wanted to watch the next film at the venue. it was not raining inside the Harvard Exit, and it was a pleasant temperature (unlike the unseasonably wet and windy outdoors) so i watched the whole thing. unsympathetic characters with no motivation for their actions do nothing in and around Seattle. the director introduced the film and said he'd been working on it for five years. i rushed out before the Q&A in order to resist the temptation to tell him what i thought.
i called Mom and wished her happy birthday between films. it's 95 and humid in PA.
Tulia Texas
excellent documentary about a 1999 drug enforcement operation in a town in the Texas panhandle. funny thing, nearly all the accused dealers were black. and they were all supposedly selling powder cocaine in a small town with a depressed economy. you get the picture.
since it's a matter of public record: eventually justice prevails, and a few of the white folks there are not racist assholes. (but i still want to cleanse the place with fire.)
the storytelling is excellent, and the film raises many questions about "the war on drugs," enforcement funding, and undercover cops. this is going to be on PBS on Independent Lens sometime this year. definitely worth watching. (just take something for your blood pressure first.)
(it was paired with a well-made depressing dramatic short set in post-Katrina Louisiana. whitey ruined everything.)
a happy accident: a film was delayed in shipping and so there was a magic third showing of Bliss instead.
Bliss
this came highly recommended, (thanks Steve and other random Fools!) and was wonderful. i'm so glad i saw it. it's a Turkish film about honor killing, and modern versus traditional society, and sailing (real and metaphorical). great performances, excellently tense plotting, beautiful scenery. one of the best of the festival, the sort of film that i feel in my gut for an hour afterward.
most days i enjoy spending the festival alone in a crowd, just me and the films. this was one where i wished i was sharing an armrest.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 10:01 am (UTC)I agree: Sweet Thing was not good. I agree that the main problem was the unlikable characters. The talk after the film was more interesting, although hardly the most interesting Q-and-A. The director said that the script was originally not as coherent, and that he realized that when he looked at a rough cut. He rearranged everything to get a sense of narrative. One wonders what sort of mess it was originally. I also found some technical details interesting, specifically stuff about the lighting and sound. It did look good, particularly for a $35k budget. Still, if that had been my film, I think I would have done my director's appearance wearing an Alan Smithee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee) mask.
I exchanged a few words with the actress who was present, the one who played the stoner. I praised her performance, but when she asked what I thought of the film itself I confessed that I wasn't all that excited about it.
I'll have to watch for Tulia, Texas on television. It seems to be getting good comments from others too.
Glad you liked Bliss too. Someone said that of the top-ten films on the Fools' ballots since (I forget when), almost none have made theatrical releases, and a fairly large number don't even exist on DVD or tape. I hope this one doesn't suffer that sort of limbo.