siff day 3
May. 26th, 2009 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaideni have no memory of C leaving this morning. i slept hard, hit the snooze a few times, but still managed to catch the right buses and have a pleasant ride to the Egyptian, arriving just as the ticket holders were starting to pour in. still got a legroom seat. (didn't get breakfast, though. must rectify this. i have a break scheduled between this film and the next.)
today's slate: We Live in Public
Chef's Special
Terribly Happy
Warlords
(dude behind me asserting his hate of cupcakes can shut up any time now. i don't mind if he hates cupcakes, i do mind that he hates them because he feels the trend has passed. oh, and now he's comparing SIFF to Sundance. what a tool.)
We Live in Public is brash and loud, befitting its subject, Josh Harris. it chronicles the height of the dotcom bubble craziness, while showing us just how prescient Harris was. the core of the film is a chronicle of Quiet, an art project bunker in NYC where residents could do anything free of cost (food, drugs, sex, firing range) as long as they agreed to constant surveillance and signed their rights to that footage away. (sound familiar? i know there's at least one Big Brother fan on my flist.) it was at the end of 1999, so it was ultimately broken up because people told the police they were a millenarian cult. i'm guessing that he will resurface - technology has caught up with his ideas for internet television and constant surveillance. Harris was present at the Q&A, but he still hasn't seen the film. the current agreement is that he will watch it for the first time while being filmed...and then record the commentary for the DVD. they were trying to interview us as we left the theatre. after watching the film, one has very little desire to be on tape.
lovely brunch at Rosebud. i have no idea why i haven't been there before. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mrdorbin and southplains are here!) it's another beautiful day, so i walked down to Pacific Place, sat in a sunbeam, and used their public wifi to email back and forth with C. sometimes i really love living in the future.
the theater is pretty darn full. this is a Spanish comedy with gay themes so i shouldn't be too surprised. once again, being alone gets me a prime seat.
took forever to get started. and then, there was a trailer for El General. but the trailer ran very very much like the opening credits for a film. since i lived through a wrong print yesterday, i called out. and was wrong, but we all had a good laugh and then the feature started.
Chef's Special is overstuffed and melodramatic, in the vein of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. it's the story of a gay restauranteur whose life is complicated by the arrival of a hot new neighbor and his two children (in the wake of their mother's death). mayhem ensues. there were many-many predictable notes, but several genuine laughs and some smart writing for the kids. i liked it in spite of the barrage of slurs...if SIFF's selections are any indication, Europeans are all casually homophobic :/ recommended if you enjoy the sort of comedy where one member of the couple walks in on the other one in a compromising position, and the compromising position is really totally innocent.
in the Egyptian. and i admit that i don't remember what this one is supposed to be about at all. but i marked it as a keeper, and i definitely want to see the film that shows after, so it's worth breaking the three film rule. (wow, they let the ZonePerfect people inside the theater. i've just been handed a snack bar.)
Terribly Happy was excellently messed up in the way it seems only Danish films can be. take the initial premise of Hot Fuzz, then make everyone including the big city cop more creepy and flawed, never have a shootout. add bog and tabby cat. prepare to be surprised. i loved it. it was a bit of a slow burn at first, but it was designed with a building sense of dread and layers of strangeness that went into twists and turns that kept the entire theater gasping. not for the squeamish (but it has a Lynchian flair that makes me think it might be forbuhrger.)
i'm settled back in a legroom seat getting ready for Warlords. i think this is going to be an overfull house. i've been waiting for an Asian epic, and the buzz on this one is good.
interesting time period - 1860s China - so the technology level includes rifles and cannon, but they're also fighting with polearms, arrows, and swords. seeing Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro together is a treat. (i have such a crush on Andy Lau. i'm not usually into the pretty boys, but there's something about him.) it's an interesting story, but in this case the film suffers from being based on a true story. what starts out as an underdog martial epic in the vein of Braveheart or Battle of Wits becomes a straight-ahead tragedy. the transition is a bit awkward. still, the underdog martial epic half has moments that were edge of seat, screaming and cheering awesome. Jet Li is particularly good, rising to the complexity of his character.
trying an alternate bus route home tonight. i don't think it was a true time savings, but i think it might be on a non-holiday weekday when the buses run more often. anyway, i would rather wait across from the Neptune than by the hole in the ground on Capitol Hill. (oh wow, we stopped in Wallingford and the smell of Molly Moon waffle cones just blew in the door. nom. why there are fresh waffle cones after midnight on a weekday is beyond me. or maybe someone has perfume that smells *exactly* like fresh waffle cone.)
today's slate: We Live in Public
Chef's Special
Terribly Happy
Warlords
(dude behind me asserting his hate of cupcakes can shut up any time now. i don't mind if he hates cupcakes, i do mind that he hates them because he feels the trend has passed. oh, and now he's comparing SIFF to Sundance. what a tool.)
We Live in Public is brash and loud, befitting its subject, Josh Harris. it chronicles the height of the dotcom bubble craziness, while showing us just how prescient Harris was. the core of the film is a chronicle of Quiet, an art project bunker in NYC where residents could do anything free of cost (food, drugs, sex, firing range) as long as they agreed to constant surveillance and signed their rights to that footage away. (sound familiar? i know there's at least one Big Brother fan on my flist.) it was at the end of 1999, so it was ultimately broken up because people told the police they were a millenarian cult. i'm guessing that he will resurface - technology has caught up with his ideas for internet television and constant surveillance. Harris was present at the Q&A, but he still hasn't seen the film. the current agreement is that he will watch it for the first time while being filmed...and then record the commentary for the DVD. they were trying to interview us as we left the theatre. after watching the film, one has very little desire to be on tape.
lovely brunch at Rosebud. i have no idea why i haven't been there before. (
mrdorbin and southplains are here!) it's another beautiful day, so i walked down to Pacific Place, sat in a sunbeam, and used their public wifi to email back and forth with C. sometimes i really love living in the future.the theater is pretty darn full. this is a Spanish comedy with gay themes so i shouldn't be too surprised. once again, being alone gets me a prime seat.
took forever to get started. and then, there was a trailer for El General. but the trailer ran very very much like the opening credits for a film. since i lived through a wrong print yesterday, i called out. and was wrong, but we all had a good laugh and then the feature started.
Chef's Special is overstuffed and melodramatic, in the vein of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. it's the story of a gay restauranteur whose life is complicated by the arrival of a hot new neighbor and his two children (in the wake of their mother's death). mayhem ensues. there were many-many predictable notes, but several genuine laughs and some smart writing for the kids. i liked it in spite of the barrage of slurs...if SIFF's selections are any indication, Europeans are all casually homophobic :/ recommended if you enjoy the sort of comedy where one member of the couple walks in on the other one in a compromising position, and the compromising position is really totally innocent.
in the Egyptian. and i admit that i don't remember what this one is supposed to be about at all. but i marked it as a keeper, and i definitely want to see the film that shows after, so it's worth breaking the three film rule. (wow, they let the ZonePerfect people inside the theater. i've just been handed a snack bar.)
Terribly Happy was excellently messed up in the way it seems only Danish films can be. take the initial premise of Hot Fuzz, then make everyone including the big city cop more creepy and flawed, never have a shootout. add bog and tabby cat. prepare to be surprised. i loved it. it was a bit of a slow burn at first, but it was designed with a building sense of dread and layers of strangeness that went into twists and turns that kept the entire theater gasping. not for the squeamish (but it has a Lynchian flair that makes me think it might be for
buhrger.)i'm settled back in a legroom seat getting ready for Warlords. i think this is going to be an overfull house. i've been waiting for an Asian epic, and the buzz on this one is good.
interesting time period - 1860s China - so the technology level includes rifles and cannon, but they're also fighting with polearms, arrows, and swords. seeing Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro together is a treat. (i have such a crush on Andy Lau. i'm not usually into the pretty boys, but there's something about him.) it's an interesting story, but in this case the film suffers from being based on a true story. what starts out as an underdog martial epic in the vein of Braveheart or Battle of Wits becomes a straight-ahead tragedy. the transition is a bit awkward. still, the underdog martial epic half has moments that were edge of seat, screaming and cheering awesome. Jet Li is particularly good, rising to the complexity of his character.
trying an alternate bus route home tonight. i don't think it was a true time savings, but i think it might be on a non-holiday weekday when the buses run more often. anyway, i would rather wait across from the Neptune than by the hole in the ground on Capitol Hill. (oh wow, we stopped in Wallingford and the smell of Molly Moon waffle cones just blew in the door. nom. why there are fresh waffle cones after midnight on a weekday is beyond me. or maybe someone has perfume that smells *exactly* like fresh waffle cone.)
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 05:57 pm (UTC)I think I'd swoon to death if someone was wearing waffle cone scented stuffs, however - I do have a Creme Brulee perfume from Bath and Body Works that smells almost like waffle cone, wonder if it's that.
*random hugs, cuz I miss you*
What's wrong with comparing?
Date: 2009-05-27 12:13 am (UTC)Re: What's wrong with comparing?
Date: 2009-05-27 04:26 am (UTC)SIFF is known as an "audience festival" where the focus is on watching movies. i'd say the biggest business that happens is generating word-of-mouth. SIFF overlaps with Cannes, so it will probably never be anything more than the largest festival in the States (sometimes in North America, goes back and forth with Toronto, kind of amazing that we support this scale considering how Toronto is at least four times larger).
Now I know
Date: 2009-05-27 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-27 01:31 am (UTC)