Media Diet

This started out as a log in January but by mid March we were watching a lot more tv due to the Covid lockdown. By April it was already the 19th before I made note of my media diet, so only the memorable titles are listed. Now May, and all the blue font makes me wonder when we'll sit in theatre seats again.



excellent = italic font and bold / worthwhile (entertaining, informative) = italic font / okay but not outstanding = normal font / avoid = small font
@home is blue
movie theatre is deep orange

Where'd You Go, Bernadette * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) MAY Fantastic Funghi, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Storm Boy, Boy, Far From Heaven, Platform, Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera)  Ugly Delicious, Tiger King  APRIL This is Us * Forever * Valhalla Murders * Midsommer Murders* Midsommer * Bombshell * Zorba the Greek * Crashing (Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge) * The Hunters * The Good Place MARCH You Tube: Aurora Borealis Nature Relaxation; Birds Singing in the Morning (Garden Birds Video and Birdsong); Time Lapse of Container Ship travels; Waves on the Beach * 1917 * Network (1976) * Better Call Saul * Love Sick * Groundhog Day * Miss Americana * Grace and Frankie FEBRUARY Grace and Frankie * Hustlers * Succession * Wonderful Day in the Neighbourhood  * Golden Globes Awards * Our Man in Japan * The Vanishing * Mrs. Maisel JANUARY Jo Jo Rabbit * Parasite DECEMBER

Hot Docs!

Portraits of the famous and not so famous include their relationships with partners, rivals, family and friends.

Rob picked the selections this year, and for three of the selections we ordered extra tickets so we could bring along friends and family.

Seeing so many films over the week is immersive and intense and eye-opening. The stories reflect the larger society and times in which we live, from the quirky to the endearing, to the truly horrifying. It's like traveling the world, and just like at the end of a long trip, I am happy to arrive home with a new perspective.

all descriptions from Hot Docs catalogue unless otherwise noted

You're Soaking in It From Madison Avenue to Silicon Valley, Scott Harper deconstructs advertising’s pervasive presence through a comprehensive and engaging look at the dynamic changes it has made over the past half century—shifting from “mad men” to “math men.”

Mermaids In this tribute to the eternal allure of an ancient myth, colourful fins and swimming pools fill the lives of five modern-day women who strive to embody the mysterious siren as part of a growing “mermaiding” subculture.

Whitney "Can I Be Me" Most of the concert footage in the film comes from Dolezal's incomplete documentary about Houston's 1999 world tour. This forms the backbone of the film, as it constantly flashes back and forth between the tour and historical information about Houston's life. It's stunning to watch the singer at such a pivotal moment in her life, when her connection with husband Bobby Brown became more destructive and she lost touch with her longtime closest ally, Robyn Crawford. It is with Crawford that Broomfield's intention most clearly lies: He takes Brown's claim that Crawford and Houston were lovers and runs with it, portraying Houston as a queer woman trapped in a time and family that rejected anything besides heterosexuality. Hype

Gilbert What’s not to love about Gilbert Gottfried? Publicly polarizing yet intensely private, the scandalous comic opens his peculiar life and process to cameras.

All That Passes By Through a Window That Doesn't Open Embark on a mesmerizing railway journey through the Eurasian expanse where Azerbaijani men labour, dance, dream and wait for a more fruitful life while building the “new Silk Road."

Goran the Camel Man Goran is Swiss, who travels to his gypsy wagon with his dogs, goats and camel recreating the Silk Road. The film was made in Georgia (Eurasia) shows a fragment of his unusual lifestyle.

Avec l'Amour An aging teacher in Macedonia is set to retire and devote himself not to his hard-grafting wife, but to his first love: collecting rust-bucket cars. Find delight in one man’s compulsive drive to live his lifelong dream.

The Last Animals From Africa’s front lines to Asian markets to European zoos, this animal-rights thriller follows the conservationists, scientists and activists battling poachers and transnational trafficking syndicates to protect the last of the world’s elephants and rhinos from extinction.

Bird on a Wire Leonard Cohen's career was on the verge of complete disaster in late 1971. Songs of Love and Hate, his most recent record, peaked at #145 on the American charts – this despite containing future classics like "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "Joan of Arc." CBS was ready to cut their losses and drop him from the label. A tour would give him the chance to regain some momentum, though Cohen hated performing live; he only reluctantly agreed to a one-month run in Europe because Songs of Love and Hate found a much bigger audience there than in the States. "He endlessly said that he didn't want to tour," says filmmaker Tony Palmer. "It had nothing do with him, he said. He was a poet, first and foremost."The rock documentary was still in its infancy, but Palmer had chronicled Cream's farewell show at the Royal Albert Hall three years earlier. He was also a huge Cohen fan, and showed up to a meeting at the office of the musician's manager, Marty Machat, clutching a copy of the Canadian icon's poetry book The Energy of Slaves. He didn't realize he had been summoned to create a tour documentary – what would become Bird on a Wire, a legendary lost film that would exist only in bootleg form until 2010, when it was painstakingly pieced together from raw footage. Nearly 40 years later, Palmer's chronicle of what would become one of Cohen's most legendary run of shows is finally getting an audience. Rolling Stone

Dish: Women, Waitressing & the Art of Service From Toronto’s diners to Montreal’s “sexy restos,” Paris’s haute eateries to Tokyo’s fantasy “maid cafés,” waitresses around the world dish the dirt on gender, power and the art of service.

Last Men in Aleppo As the Syrian conflict intensifies, residents of Aleppo prepare for a siege, becoming increasingly reliant on the selfless bravery of the White Helmets, a volunteer search-and-rescue group risking their lives to save others.

Let's Sing!

Florence Foster Jenkins lived in New York and in the 1940's, when she herself was well into her 70's, decided to rent Carnegie Hall and perform opera to rally the troops. There is a great documentary, A World of Her Own, on You Tube about the rich socialite with dreams exceeding her talent. Stephen Frears directs Meryl Streep in the recently released version of the Hollywood film. There is a line in the movie that I love, "They can say that I can't sing, but they can't say that I didn't sing."

I saw the film the night before attending my first singing lesson. I showed up to the night class along with the other forty hopefuls. Many seniors, several middle-aged workers, and ten or so young adults. During introductions we heard from people who had been told they couldn't sing in grade school, and now, here they were in their sixties and seventies, figuring, why not? There were others who already sang in church choirs and were looking for some professional voice coaching. When it was my turn to introduce myself, I shared the Florence Foster Jenkins line above.

Going to the Scarborough Uke Jam is fun, and partly because we sing our hearts out as we play. None of the players in the BPYC Uke band, Lost at C, are exceptional singers, but we sing (and beg our audience to sing along with us).

So far I've been to two night classes and there has been some of what I expected... vocal exercises and funny faces and deconstructing songs to look at phrasing (where to take a breath). Also a bit of the unexpected... stretching exercises and yoga to help free the chest, diaphragm, jaw and neck.

I'm not ready to rent Carnegie Hall by any stretch, but then, neither was Florence.

For now I will stick to the shower, uke jam, and strumming with 'Lost at C'.

October 1 is International Music Day.  I think I'll celebrate with a few stretches and singing in the shower!

Hot Docs 2016

As subscribers to Doc Soup, we get 12 free tickets to Hot Docs, which ran April 28 to May 8. Choosing from all the films can be a bit overwhelming, with 232 titles spread across 14 different programs and 11 different theatres. 

The Toronto festival is the biggest in North America by volume. We get many international premiers of a lot of docs that have already screened at Tribeca, Sundance, or SXSW. Many of the Canadian films are world premieres. Catching these films on the big screen is hard to do. Although the festival may be over, the Hot Docs Cinema continues to screen documentaries 364 days a year (every day but Boxing Day).

Persistence and fortitude seem to be at least as important as talent for documentary filmmakers. Isn't that the way with most things? Many of the pieces take five or more years to finish, often because of the difficulty of raising the cash. A few titles this year were partly made possible with funds raised through Crowdsourcing, which also helps secure an audience eager to see the final product when the film is complete.

For more than one of the filmmakers, it was the first time they were seeing their own film on a big screen in front of a large audience. Their excitement was contagious. I walked by someone sitting in the audience at I Am Not Your Guru that looked remarkably like Tony Robbins - and it was - he had flown from Australia to be part of the Toronto festival.

This year, our film selection was limited by a busy calendar, but we still managed ten in ten days. Hot Docs is definitely one of the perks of living in Toronto!

After Circus
Koneline
The Last Laugh

Gleason

The Happy Film
Android in Lala Land

Contemporary Colours

Obit

Weiner

I am Not Your Guru

There were some unconventional subjects with conventional approaches. After Circus joined retired circus performers in a retirement community, where they banded together to resurrect some of their acts. Engaging and upbeat, but it literally avoided too many close-ups of the characters' warts, which would have made it all the more interesting.

Koneline's director had the perfect name for a documentary about an indigenous community facing a new mining venture: Nellie Wild. She talked about bringing along a camera with a curious vs. judgemental eye, into the community. It was gorgeous to watch, even the skinning of a moose was captivating. The sound editing was incredible, as well, with the director sharing how one song was played backwards to avoid it coming across as too dreary. This could have been a typical film with a narration or one point of view, but it took a more unconventional approach and was all the more richer for it. I only wished it had more visuals with the Northern Lights, instead of one single 20 second shot at the end.

We chose some films because of their famous musicians. Android in Lala Land (Gary Numan / Cars) and Contemporary Colors (David Byrne / Talking Heads). Android was a satisfying portrait of a musician in their later years, creating a new album not only for artistic but pragmatic reasons - needing an income. Contemporary Colors, on the other hand, was quirky but had only glimpses of Byrne - it was more about an event the icon staged to feature high school kids presenting Color Guard choreography. 

Death and the question of the meaning of life were central to at least two of the docs we saw. Gleason was about a young man struck with ALS. A well known football player in New Orleans, he is able to leverage his celebrity to raise funds and awareness for the disease, creating a Team Gleason. He lobbies Washington to provide technology that will enable sufferers to continue to communicate after the disease has ravaged their ability to speak. Shortly after his diagnosis, Gleason learns his wife is pregnant with their son, and he begins a series of vlogs to his son, trying to communicate life's important lessons. In early days, before the child is born, he is able to speak, but as the disease progresses, and after the child is born, Gleason is using technology to explain his struggles with the disease. 95% of ALS patients opt out of an operation that, while it will continue their life, will afterwards require around the clock care. Gleason chooses to continue his fight, and I couldn't help but wonder if he would have made a different choice if he hadn't been fundraising with a slogan that was, "No white flags."

The New York Times employs a staff of five to write obituaries, some prepared ahead of time for the subject's eventual death. Obit interviewed the writers about their craft and allowed the camera into the morgue - the place the paper files old clippings prior to the digital era.

The Happy Film took almost 7 years to complete and faced many challenges, including lack of funding, the death of the first director, and some creative ennui. The concept was to follow three different regimens to see which would result in the greatest incremental improvement in happiness: meditation, therapy, and drugs (prescription). The concept belonged to a graphic designer, who learned a lot about storytelling, shooting, and editing in the process of the film. Great graphics! Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author, acted as advisor to the film.  Stefan Sagmeister fell in and out of love four times during the making of the movie, and the quest for happiness came across more as a quest for a relationship. In the end, Stefan advocates drugs as being the most efficient route to increasing happiness.

You have to wonder if all the negative publicity Weiner received about his inappropriate sexting would have made as many headlines if it weren't for the opportunities his last name presented for sexual double entendres and scintillating headlines: Weiner's Second Coming! Beat It! Too Hard to Stop!  The headlines took away from his stand on the issues as his name in the run for NYC mayor became a punchline.

Some jokes are in bad taste and some are offensive. Are there some things you should never joke about? Are jokes about the Holocaust ever funny? That's one of the questions the director of The Last Laugh posed to comedians Sarah Silverman, Mel Brooks, Gilbert Gottfried, and survivors. The Anti Defamation League deems it is never appropriate, whereas some survivors say being able to laugh at absurdities helped to keep them sane.

I Am Not Your Guru was an uncritical look at Tony Robbins, filmed during his trademarked seminar, Date with Destiny. Six long days are edited down into two hours, including looks behind-the-scenes into how the motivational speaker works with his team and keeps his energy pumped to the max. Many who sign up leave with lives genuinely transformed. Director Joe Berlinger had his own Date with Destiny, and it affected him so profoundly, he wanted to share the experience with a wider audience. The film isn't a replacement for the full-length experience, but offers more than a glimpse into why 200,000 people a year line up to pay the $5,000 entry fee. 

Hot Docs

The world is such an amazing place. During the span of a few days I watched a Sri Lankan captain a freighter across the transatlantic, a chef gain his third Michelin star, Haitian dancers at Carnivale, a Buddhist play the role of Christ in a Passion Play, the sad life of an Elvis impersonator, and the mysterious disappearance of an eco-terrorist.

Hot Docs is the largest screening of documentaries in North America. The directors are often on hand before and after the screenings to give a behind-the-scenes view. Rob and I attended almost a month ago now, but am still thinking about the documentaries we saw:

• Transatlantic and Nan Lakou Kanaval
• Jesus Town USA
• For Grace
• Hadwin's Judgement 
• Orion The Man Who Would be King

There were some traditional 'films'.... shot on film and not developed until much later, so the directors weren't entirely certain what they were capturing or how it might come together. Very few people work like this in today's digital age, where you can see what you've got immediately and adjust or plan accordingly. After the footage was developed for Kanaval there were a few reels that were overexposed, so the filmmakers worked with the lab to give those scenes an other-worldly effect. It may not have been premeditated but it was effective.

Digital shooting seems to lead to incredibly high shooting ratios. In the doc, For Grace, more than 300 hours were captured to produce 90 minutes; Jesus Town was 10 hours of shooting every day for 5 months with 2 cameras for the final 90 minutes. These films are shaped in the editing process as well. Even after deciding on the storyline, there are an infinite number of choices in how to tell the story.

With documentaries you don't always know how events will unfold. You might go in with preconceptions but have to be open to the twists of fate. Is the presence of a camera and crew changing the choices the subjects are making on the film? Can you control what will happen next?

We also saw a few docs that recounted events after-the-fact, so the art of the documentary was how it pieced together available found footage or first-hand interviews with people who had direct experience. So many different points of view. What really happened? Will we ever know?

For Grace was shot on 2 DSLR cameras and then edited on a desktop computer. You don't necessarily need to invest a huge amount of money in gear and crew to get incredible results. The film started as a video short for the Chicago Tribune lifestyle section.

Hadwin's Judgement re-enacted and re-imagined scenes brought to life using an actor and was inspired by a non-fiction book.

Orion, a Brit film, was on the festival circuit and had premiered within the previous week at Tribeca.

I'm signing up for the Doc Soup/Hot Docs combo. Great value per ticket price, but also a great way to expand my point of view.

All Is Lost

2 points of view after watching

All Is Lost

Wonder if we were actually at the same film?

Rob
So unrealistic.
Redford must have a horse ranch.
What's that guy doing solo sailing and being so unprepared?
First thing he should have done was plug that damn hole.
Why is he constantly putting up and taking down the boards in the companionway?
Where's his life jacket?
Gravity was way better.

Diane

Redford must have a sailboat, he seems to know how to handle the lines.

He sure looks fit.

Bet he gets a Best Actor nomination.

Well prepared for a solo sail - has all the right gear.

Good thinking to drop the sails.

Great repair job on the hull.

Good story - held my attention all the way through!

This is way better than Gravity.

.... Anyway, I'm definitely glad we saw this after the boat is 'on the hard'.

Here's hoping we never get struck by a shipping container in the middle of the lake!

Silver Linings Playbook

It was easy to see why the novel, Silver Linings Playbook (by Matthew Quick) was turned into a film. The short chapters made for quick scenes. The characters were lovably quirky. The language was cinematic. There was even a chapter written with a cinematic montage of the dance-training.
The film was true to the novel in the way it followed the development of the romantic relationship between Pat and Tiffany, but the book was better able to explore Pat's other relationships. His father, brother, therapist, best friend and mother all help support Pat, but we are also able to read his insights into their personalities as well. No one is perfect. Pat's mental illness doesn't stop him from making great observations.

As part of his self-improvement plan Pat strives to be kind, rather than right. This point was driven home on more than one occasion. The dance routine he practises with Tiffany becomes a metaphor for Pat's other relationships. Most of which could be labeled dysfunctional, well-intentioned, imperfect, but still loving.

I got a kick out of Pat's literary criticism, as he makes his way through some American classics. His obsession for Nikki drives him to read everything on her class syllabus so he can impress her with his knowledge when their 'apart time' ends. In Pat's opinion, The Bell Jar, Farewell to Arms, Catcher and the Rye, The Great Gatsby are all too depressing and should be banned from the classroom in favour of stories with silver linings.

Oscar Picks

My absolute favourite film of the year was Life of Pi. Spectacular visuals!  I want to see this in 3D again. And again. I loved the novel and was dubious it could be made into a film. Ang Lee did not disappoint. Truly innovative in its adaptation. And it is a Canadian co-production! I don't think it will win Best Picture, not because it doesn't deserve to win so much as because most of the voters in the Academy are rumoured to be old white guys.

We all have our biases. Personally, I have absolutely no desire to see Django Unchained... way too violent, and way too long. So when Rob went to see Django, I was in the theatre watching Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis was outstanding. He portrayed Lincoln with a bit of a hobble, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had studied a pair of the dead President's shoes with an informed cobbler's eye (one of Day-Lewis' hobbies is shoe-making).

Anna Karenina was definitely worthy of the big screen.  The transitions were brilliant in the way they layered behind-the-scenes against the stage. The scale of the story and the sheer magnitude of some of the scenes demanded a large frame. The music, costumes, and sets were meticulously rendered. The adaptation of the novel must have been intimidating; it is such a long work and so well known. I walked out of the movie with a new perspective of the characters and their place in time. 

Amour is the Oscar nominee I've most recently seen. The actress' portrayal of the end of life is incredibly real. It must have been an exhausting role to play.
 
Of this year's nominees  I've also seen The Master, The Impossible, Argo, Hitchcock, and Moonrise Kingdom. 


So here are my Oscar picks... let's see how close I get:

Best Picture: Lincoln
Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis
Best Actor (in a supporting role): Robert De Niro
Best Actress: Emnanuellle Riva (Amour)
Best Actress (in a supporting role): Sally Field
Foreign Language: Amour
Make-up: Hitchcock
Cinematography: Anna Karenina
Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Director: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Production Design: Les Mis
Music (original score): Anna Karenina
Music (original song): Sky Fall
Sound editing: Argo
Sound mixing: Les Mis
Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Writing (adapted Screenplay): Anna Karenina
Writing (Original): Amour

I've not seen: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables, Sky Fall, Flight, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Hobbit, Chasing Ice, The Avengers, Prometheus, Documentaries, Animated Features or shorts, most of the Foreign Films

il dolce far niente

Friday night, a fine night to contemplate il dolce far niente.  Italians have known the sweetness of doing nothing for centuries.  I love the phrase.  I think the first time I stumbled on it was in Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert... the phrase then survived the screenplay and editing room floor to make it into the film version.  The other night I was watching 'The Big C' on Net Flix, and there it was again, our heroine planning a trip to Italy to research the concept first hand.

gato il dolce far niente

I'm image googling il dolce far niente.  I love the wild card thrust of an image google, regurgitating everything from art nouveau, romantica, erotica, and of course the obligatory kitty cats that seem to turn up in any random image search.

I like this definition:
An example of dolce far niente is what someone would say to describe that they are laying on a blanket gazing at trees in Florence.

It definitely
loses something in the translation to Arabic and I bet it sounds less than relaxing
إلى حد بعيد دولتشي لا شيء يذكر.

Strangely, when I paste the Arabic into the google news search it yields nothing.

Many more results with an Italian news search.  I can't really translate any of it but in my minds ear it's a lovely, soft murmur in an Italian cafe.

Other stumbles:  there's a restaurant named Far Niente in Toronto, yet nothing by that name in the app store, not yet anyway.  Anyway, do I need an app for that?

Chianti Classico is a nice match for this not-so-frivolous past time.  Rocca delle Macie, 2010.

The Artist

My Christmas present from Alex this year was dinner and a movie, so I cashed in tonight and we went to see The Artist, grabbing a bite at the Bloor Street Diner before the show.

Funny how simple stories can be so complex. On one level this is a love story. On another cinematic historical fiction. An allegory for artists, and for finding your unique voice. A story about the struggle of adapting to changing times. An account of overcoming pride.

Body language and dance speak louder than dialogue... altering the channels of perception made me more alert to other ways of telling the story.  Plus - the dog is adorable (actually, that part is played by three different Jack Russells).

It was great fun hearing my son talk about the visual humour and the director's approach to character development in the film.  Alex is perceptive and articulate,  I throughly enjoy the time I spend with him!

It will be interesting to see how many Academy Awards nominations this garners (I wonder if it made the deadline for release?)

And I absolutely love the closing line,
"With pleasure."

When so few words are spoken, those that are said aloud become all the more significant.

Full Long Nights Moon - December

With the winter solstice approaching in another 12 days, we are due for even shorter days and longer nights.

Time to enjoy the comfort of the season, the twinkling lights, and the promise of a distant spring.

Light a candle to celebrate the Full Long Nights Moon, which became full at 9:36 EST this morning.

Illustration credit

In the mood for a little classical entertainment?

Clair de Lune, Debussy's moonlight sonata... hard to believe this beautiful scene was cut from Fantasia....

Full Frosty Moon - November

The moon has looked full to me for a few days now.  Especially since the nights are getting longer.  The Full Frosty moon is peeking through my bedroom skylight and shining in my eyes, and it is glowing in the mornings when I sit for meditation.  Bright enough to cast shadows.

Today though, at 20:16 the moon is 'officially' full.

I found a fabulous site by googling moon music.  And another.

November is such a moody month, I think this song strikes the perfect chord.




Illustration credit

Breaking Bad

After watching a few episodes I feel totally stressed because the suspense is so incredible.  Yet I can't stop.  I'm totally addicted!  How appropriate for a series that looks into 'cooking' crystal meth.

Rob and I hadn't watched the AMC series 'Breaking Bad', but Liz was raving about it when we were on vacation.  So,  early October, we started into the Season One DVDs. Now, 26 episodes later, we're launching into the Season 3 DVDs.

Long form drama like this is so immersive, I find myself entirely caught up in Walter White's predicament.  As much fun as it is to lose an entire weekend to back-to-back viewings, it's going to be tough to withdraw to weekly episodes when we get up to speed with Season 4.

The two main characters, Jessie and Walt, make an interesting study in ethics, the power of intention and the philosophical quandary of whether the end justifies the means.   As they go about expanding their business and face hurdle after hurdle, you almost find yourself rooting for their success... or at the very least, their survival. 

eReader

For my birthday this year some wonderful ladies at the BPYC Book Club chipped in to buy a Kobo for me.

I figured it would take me a few books to get comfortable, so I started with a classic -  Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.  I brought it along to Italy, loaded with The Prince (Machiavelli); The Inferno (Dante); and the Decameron (Boccacio).

There's a lot to like about my eReader.  The convenience.  How compact it is.  The adjustable font size.  Being able to highlight sections for later reference (perfect for the book club!).  Sharing eBooks with other readers in the club.  But mostly I like it because it was a birthday gift from some wonderful women.

It did take a bit of getting used to, but by the time I read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay for our book club meeting this week, I'd gotten perfectly used to reading this way. 

Although the book this month was enjoyed by everyone, there were some common criticisms.  Why, o why was that romantic ending conjured up?  It seemed so superfluous.  The ending was so incredibly sacharine compared with the rest of the novel it didn't seem to fit.  Pressure from the agent to appeal to Hollywood?

I'll have to get around to seeing the movie while the book is still fresh in my mind.  This may be one instance where the film ends up being better than the book:

What is it about Paris, Midnight, and Moonlight?

Midnight in Paris is both entertaining and beautiful to look at, especially in the rain.

Owen Wilson is perfectly cast in this romantic comedy with Rachel McAdams.  As soon as I saw Kathy Bates listed on the cast, I knew she would play Gertrude Stein.  Adrian Brodie does a hilarious Dali. 

The Fitzgeralds, Hemingway, Picasso and Cole Porter can all be found together in a smoky scene or two.

The movie made me want to pull out my copy of the Movable Feast again:

But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight. (p. 89)

Saturday Night At the Movies

Do we know how to throw parties at BPYC or what?

It was L's turn to host the annual dock party and their theme was 'Movies':  Bob and Milly greeted everyone with a bag of popcorn and we hopped from movie to movie, boat to boat.

Quite the buffet:  Wendy and Raymond did Memoirs of a Geisha (Wendy made her own sushi, served sake, and greeted guests in a kimono); Dick and Maureen did Pirates of the Caribbean (hot wings and talking parrots); Sex in the City with Bob and Margaret (Cosmos, New York style pizza); Blue Hawaii with Stu and Jennifer (shots of rum); in Chicago with sexy Louise and dapper Paul (spicy sausage).  So many more great movie themes (Sea Biscuit, Batman, GI Jane, Slumdog Millionaire), fabulous decorations, yummy food and lotsa fun.

We were watching old movies projected on a sheet hoisted into the rigging.  Buster Keaton, Olivia De Havilland, Carmen Miranda, Fred Astaire...

Liz P. was my guest, and good thing!  She ended up winning the Poker Run.  Dinner and a movie for 2.  We took first with three tens. 

Before we knew it, it was 1:30 in the a.m. The party lights were reflecting off the still water.  Those people on L were still raising a ruckus, but I had to turn in to be in quasi-shape for yoga at 9 a.m.

Rob and Alex were off in Montreal, enjoying their Christmas present from me... a weekend at the Grand Prix.  Boy-bonding. I heard the weather wasn't great, but the race was fabulous.

Still, I know where I would rather have spent Saturday Night... at the movies...

Hot Docs - Still Reeling!

Saw more than 12 films at this year's Hot Docs.

There were some outstanding documentaries and others we sat (or slept through) were very forgettable if not downright boring.

Too bad you can't always tell the duds in advance.  Even some of the great docs seemed to go a bit past their ideal length. Hmmm.... Looking for feature status or a salable slot on tv?  Although it didn't help matters that we often screened many of the films at 9:45 pm - which is about 15 minutes before my normal bedtime. I'm going to have to do a better job picking my schedule next year! 

This was the largest ever Hot Docs, with more than 151K audience attending 360 screenings of 199 films.  

All of these did have some brilliant bits and unforgettable characters.  I can definitely see why the directors picked their "stars".  They make or brake the story (yes, I meant to spell it that way :-)).

Quick highlights of some of the films I saw (I've starred my absolute favourites).

** Poster Girl
A young woman returns from the Iraq war with post tramatic stress disorder and faces an ordeal trying to rebuild her life.  She has to battle hard with the U.S. government to get access to basic benefits that will help get her life back on track so she can rejoin society.  Along the way she discovers the power of art to heal.  Robyn is the last female in the line on right.  She spoke at the screening and was direct and without pretense.  Very brave person.

** Project Nim 
A biography about a chimp that was taken from its natural mother and raised by humans.  Nim was taught sign language in an effort to discover what chimps thought, then shipped off to a medical testing lab, then onto a life of solitary confinement.  Fascinating story directed by the Oscar winning director of Man on a Wire.  This raises the nature vs. nurture debate to a whole new level.  Some of the people who worked with Nim were there to take questions from the audience.  One of the primatologists was responsible for rescuing Nim from his life of solitary confinement.

Ken and Elmo

** Being Elmo, A Puppeteers Journey
When he was 10, he fell in love with the muppets and started trying to build his own puppets.  By 18 he had met Kermit Love, master builder and Jim Henson collaborator.  He was soon holding his own with Captain Kangaroo.  But his dreams really did start coming true when he started working on Sesame Street.  Elmo came to life in his hands.  Such a curious talent... subtle movements and eye positions make such a difference, you realize these people really are artists.

**Carol Channing:  Larger than Life
I knew about Carol Channing, of course!  But this documentary made me respect her all the more.  Almost 90, she has a new beau in her life and they are head-over-heels.   She performed Hello Dolly well over 5,000 times - yet never got the opportunity to star in the film version.  Barbra out-campaigned her for the part.  The Director hung out with Carol on the theatre scene and realized she had to start recording some of her incredible stories.

Despicable Dick

Despicable Dick and Righteous Richard
This guy is at the 8th and 9th step of the famous 12 steps.  He is at the stage where he asks forgiveness for his truly despicable actions (throwing one of his wives naked into a hotel hallway, tossing another from a moving car, ignoring his children).  Despicable Dick is still a prick when sober. While he reminisces it is almost as if he is celebrating the bounder he was; he doesn't seem to be at all sorry.

Chance Encounters
By strange coincidence, a married couple of TTC drivers both encounter suicides while driving their subway trains.  The 'chance encounters' change their lives forever.  (About one person every week attempts suicide by jumping in front of a train).  10 minute student film shows definite promise.

Grinders 
My home town Toronto has a new growth industry.  People who try to make a living playing poker at underground games across the city.  These "grinders" partake in illegal activities while the cops turn a blind eye.  Not many females at the tables.  Every day there are 200+ games in clubs ranging from downtown to suburbs.  One of the featured spots was actually less than 10 blocks away from where I live.  The Director was a grinder himself and was happy to give it up because it had become as tedious a way to earn a living as working on the GM Assembly line.  Now, to make some quick cash, he'll head off to the casino to play tourists who usually don't have a clue what they're doing.

The Hollywood Complex
Kids hoping to be cast as the next star of a prime time series migrate to Hollywood for Pilot Season.  Their families put up stakes of several thousands of dollars on the gamble.  Most return home unsuccessful after a season or two.  Others are no longer children and moving into mid-adolescence, but still persist.  Heartbreaking, really.

Melissa:  Mom and Me
They stripped together in Japan.  Now 10+ years later, the Director tries to hook up again with her friend to see how her life is turning out.  Not so hot, actually.  Melissa is struggling with addictions and self-esteem issues.  Both the Director and Melissa were there at the screening, but I couldn't really think of anything to ask as I wasn't particularly curious.  The story was pretty well told in the film.

Knuckle
Over a ten-year period, two families feud and bare-knuckle fight.  These Travelers are Irish gypsies.  Remember Snatch?  Brad Pitt probably hung out with some of these guys as he was preparing for the role.  HBO is turning this into a series.

The Good Life
These characters were probably the least likable of the lot.  Once part of the ruling class in Denmark, they've now lost their wealth and are totally helpless.  The 50+ daughter sits around most of the time blaming her 70+ mother for all her misfortune.  Very similar to Grey Gardens with respect to lost fortunes.  At least 30 minutes too long.  The Director, who was there for the screening, said the daughter thought herself quite glamourous when she saw the film  Go figure.

Valley of the Moon
Hippies living on a beach in Sardinia, Italy.  When do they cross the lines and become homeless bums?  The Director was there to take questions.  Sometimes he needed the translator to restate the questions and answers; other times he spoke in English.  One of the hippies is living in Tuscany now, the other in Rome.  Maybe I'll bump into them in September when I travel to Italy?  Although I might not recognize them with their clothes on....
 

At Night They Dance
A family of women try to make it on their own in Egypt, by having two of the daughters bellydance at wedding celebrations (the portion of the ceremony attended almost exclusively by males).  I saw this film in the afternoon and despite its tantalizing subject matter still fell asleep.  This will be screened at Cannes, where I wonder whether they will share my opinion it is too long?  Amazing subject matter.  The filmmakers are married to each other, live in Quebec when they are not on the road, and answered questions while they took turns holding their baby.

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony brought a full house to the Sony Centre in Toronto.

Lots of kids in the audience - including one that made the entire theatre laugh when they heard her infectious squeal.  The musicians were from my home town, Kitchener-Waterloo, and the Hollywood musical director praised their world-class calibre. 

Back in the day, Carl Stalling adapted the classical masterpieces of composers like Wagner, Strauss, Grieg, and Lizt to the frantic antics of Merry Melodies.  He popularized tunes that entertained kids and adults alike for decades.  The music may have been chosen for the cartoons because it was royalty free, but using it in that way has ended up making "classical" music accessible to millions.

In the 1920's through to the 1950's, Warner Brothers had an orchestra they employed to score major motion pictures, like the Jazz Singer.  Sometimes, there was a half-hour  left at the end of a day, and instead of sending the orchestra home, Stalling would rush over to take advantage of the time fragments left.  Conductor George Daugherty joked it probably added to the already frenzied pace of the music.  So many notes!

click here to watch clip

In "What's Opera Doc?",  animation director Chuck Jones and musical director Milt Franklyn manage to fit 9+ hours of Wagner into less than 9 minutes of screen time (The Flying Dutchman, Die Walkure, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung, Rienzi and Tannhausser).

Now picture two middle-aged men, pot bellies touching in studio, singing the love song, "Brunhilde".  That would be Mel Blanc as Bugs and Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd.  The way Daugherty described this, it sounded more hilarious than the final animation.

There is real genius behind the appearances of Bugs, Porky, Daffy and others (remember the singing frog?  Sam Horn Leghorne? Pepis Lepui?).  I wonder if the animators, musicians and voices had as much fun creating these works as we do watching them? 




If you want more, here is some early Bugs and Elmer Fudd

How Do You Know

Back in Thunder Bay.  Ah yes.  Room service and a chick flick after a sauna, whirlpool and swim.

The movie was How Do You Know with Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson.  I was expecting a typical rom-com, so maybe it was easy to exceed my expectations.

But that was before I knew James L. Brooks was the writer/director.

I've always enjoyed his sensibilities  (Broadcast News, Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets, Spanglish).  I'm guessing that the episodes he penned of Taxi and Mary Tyler Moore were among my favourites... he must have started young though, because he also wrote for the Andy Griffiths Show and My Mother the Car.

There is one memorable scene where Lisa (the character played by Reese) impulsively drops in on a psychiatrist and then just as impulsively leaves.  Just before she goes, she turns abruptly and then asks him, if he were going to give one bit of general advice, the kind of advice anyone could follow and it would make their life better, what would it be?  He says it is a good question, and then answers her seriously, "Figure out what you want and learn how to ask for it."

Good advice, indeed.

The characters all struggle for growth and honesty, and there are a lot of great moments in the film.

Lisa's dilemma is choosing between two great but flawed guys.  She has a natural sense of comic timing and balances the qualities of strength and vulnerability brilliantly.  I'm looking forward to watching her take on Marlena Rosenbluth in Water for Elephants.

Thunder Soul

Listen to the song Kash Register below and you'll hear a great funk track from the 70's Kashmere Stage Band.

When you realize the musicians are a bunch of high school kids from the poor side of town, you understand what inspired director Mark Landson to make the documentary, Thunder Soul.

Conrad B. Johnson, the high school music director for the Kashmere players set high expectations for his students.   They went on to win the country's top band honours, toured Europe and then Japan. 

30 some years later circumstances converged to bring the documentary filmmaker into town to interview Conrad B. Johnson at the same time a group of the Kashmere musicians were returning to pay their tributes.

The documentary focuses on the band members as they practise and perform a concert for Conrad's 92nd birthday.   Just two days after their performance, Conrad died.  Which is three years to this very day, when the film was screened in Toronto.

Yes, it felt like Conrad was "in the house" tonight.

Mark Landson says it often felt as though there were a higher hand at work in the forces that brought them all together to make the documentary.  One of the biggest being that well after shooting and in the editing suite, when they were stuck with trying to figure out how they'd animate old black and white photos in place of historic footage, they discovered someone who'd captured scenes on 16mm film back in the day.  Now, on-camera interviews are interwoven with the found footage.

Great movie, great music, great moments.