The rest of the stuff I caught in SIFF'04

Will just cut and paste and edit some of the thoughts i have on the rest of the films i managed to catch before i fell sick. Yes yes, i know i am cheating but heck, its been too long to remember everything. Just try to bear in mind that i was feverish while i was typing to my friend. Especially when sharing about the film "Osama". *groan*

Jesus, you know
Bore the hell out of me. It took supreme effort not to walk out (several other people did actually). I was actually running up to Jade 1 as i was quite late. If i knew the movie would be so boring, i would have taken my time. Actually it wasnt that it was really bad or the premise of the 'story' was terrible, but the camera work was boring (still, unmoving, tripod shots all the way) and though the people had quirky tales to tell (as they confess/pray to Jesus i.e. the camera) it was just too much when it was just so monotonous visually!

The Tulse Luper suitcases
I quite like tulse luper actually. I have enjoyed the pillow book and peter greenaway has always been an interesting film maker, though i thought that the moab story is slightly over done despite the wonderful editing, stylishness, theatrics and altogether unique viewing experience. I don't think anyone can walk away from a greenaway film without having one thing or the other to say about it, be it hating it or loving it. I happened to love it because i enjoy watching things that require some "thinking" and i love how he make us think round and round over the characters and storyline (if any), as well as push the envelope of film making. It sure beats any sort of linear point to point predictable movies.

Young Adam
The second movie on saturday which i watched and thought was quite good. The storyline was simple but not exactly what i would call predictable. Very subtle acting and realistic ending (for me at least).

Osama
It might sound terribly cynical and hard-hearted but i didn't really enjoy the movie that much. I guess pretty much for the same reason i did not like Tibet: cry of snow lion nor Iranian films in general. That is not to say that i do not sympathize or feel sad for the woman under taliban regime or tibetians oppressed by the chinese govt or poor little iranian children because i do! Just that, i cringe involuntarily whenever i see romanticised "real-events" disguised as a movie-docu-drama etc etc.By that i meant making something obvious tragic, sad, real into something 'beautiful' that deliberate aims at making everyone goes "awwww". Maybe i have a very clear line between reality and fiction, by golly if it is going to be a harsh reality, people would be sympathetic without the rather obvious cliches and metaphors. I think reality speaks for itself. To attempt to beautify and romanticising it is to belittle the truth, IMO (not thinking straight enough, ask me another day what i meant by romanticising cos Wilkie and I disagreed on using this term initially). Same goes for iranian films with cutesy children.

Incidentally, did you find all those close-ups of the girl staring into the camera bearing such striking resemblence to the famous "the afghan girl" photo on times?