Showed a couple of people the blog now and, well, I kind of expected to be ridiculed a little more than I have been. Really, is seeing this many films that normal? Anyway, I’ve made some changes tonight to the side-bar, which lists all the sessions I plan to see, as well as highlighting those that I’m most looking forward to, and I’ve added links for each film to the MIFF website so you can see what they’re about… Now do you think I’m sad? Good. It’s about time.
Some other random musings/tips I’ve thought about as I picked films this year, which others may find handy (or not) – these are my opinions based on what I like in a film. So, keep in mind that other people’s tastes may very easily be different to mine;
– If it’s showing at ACMI, the ‘film’ quality is quite possibly not going to be great – last year they showed a lot of movies shot with video rather than film. I tend to treat anything at ACMI with a bit of apprehension.
– If you can see something at the Capitol Theatre, choose it over any other. Even if the film sucks you can still check out the ceiling which is absolutely amazing. My brain begins to melt every time I look at it and try and imagine how anyone sat down to design it in a pre-computer era…
– If the film is from South Korea, it’s likely to be amazingly good, or incredibly bad. How to tell a bad one? Well, if the description of the plot doesn’t seem to make sense, it’s possible that it’s actually and accurate description of a film that doesn’t make sense… Be warned!
– If the film is scandanavian and sounds like it might be humourous, (even if it’s with a dark edge) it will probably be good.
– If the words “experimental” “dreamlike” “surreal” etc are used, be warned you may be watching a super 8 film that is less interesting than the part of the credits of Lord of the Rings – extended edition where they thank all the members of the Lord of the Rings fan club…. One film this year is described as having an “evocative, dreamlike visual code”… and that it “traces the physical and metaphysical journeys that Louis must undertake in his existential quest”. I’m sure this stuff is great to a fan, but I’m going to be running in the opposite direction.
😉
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