Bon Voyage!

Well it’s that time of year again. I must pull out my parka, prepare the sandwiches and bring plenty of change for xxl coffees as I travel to all four corners of the globe in search of new adventures, romance, drama, thrills, spills laffs and popcorn. Yes it’s my holiday time. I’ve packed my bag and I’m off to

The Melbourne International Film Festival.

Many hours have been wasted perusing the guide. Circling, highlighting, ticking and crossing are all part of the process before handing over the cold hard cash for the round the world in 16 days ticket.

I’ve done the festival differently almost every year, trying to find the perfect balance of socializing and film going. I never quite get it right but I always look back fondly at past festival highlights.


Run Ramona Run

One of my loveliest friends (hoo roo Jackie!) always tries to make it to at least a couple of sessions with me. One year we were desperate to see a new German film called Run Lola Run. Only we ended up at the wrong cinema. We had to run 4 city blocks to get to the other venue on time. We arrived panting, weezing and damp and then had to watch the very beautiful and very fit Franke Potente run for two hours. The irony was not lost on us.

It’s not easy being green…

My friend G (hoo roo Mr K!) and I had a rather bonding experience when we did a four- films-in –one-day marathon. He had a terrible hangover and had to keep leaving the queue to vomit. It was gross and funny all at the same time. We’ve been friends ever since

Again with G and my other mate M – both of whom have a penchant for all things terrifying and Japanese made me sit thru Dark Water and then teased me about screaming in the cinema – very uncool!

Other highlights over the years have included the Herzog mini festival, seeing David Cronenberg’s Existenz at the midnight screening, discovering the animation of Bill Plimpton, and catching up with friends in the queue to see Godzilla (V – we should really catch up again soon!)

They’re all a bit of a blur to me now. But there is nothing better than Melbourne at Festival time. People clap at the end of films. Everyone is cheery, even in those freaking long queues. The festival club at the forum is beautiful and all the films – good bad and ugly take me out of my world and into another. Magical.

I admit funds do not permit me to take the long trip this year- it’s just the minipass for me this time round (as apposed to the 43 films I did last year – I felt like I’d run a marathon by the end of it). But I do have some pointers for the Festival newbies…

Don’t forget to factor in meal breaks. I walked out of a Ewan McGregor film because I knew I had to get lunch before the next three sessions -insane.

Bring your own water. Jackie and I paid 4 dollars for tiny bottles of Evian after our Lola sprint. Ridiculous.

Go it alone. I have to admit that standing in queues full of happy young couples isn’t so great so I do avoid flying solo in the evening sessions but during the day there is nothing better than some obscure documentary and a cup of coffee (or in M’s case a beer – not Coopers mind you – Stella!). There are lots of other solo flyers then too. If I was brave enough I would have asked that lovely man in the green jumper whom I saw at every day session on his own to accompany me to an evening screening but alas I have no courage dear readers and the moment passed.

See things you wouldn’t normally see. I started out just seeing indie American films and animation. Now I try to see as wide a variety as possible – often just picking things because they are on at a good time. Last year I discovered how amazing a weekend can be when my friend Beck and I just went to back to back documentaries. Brilliant.

that being said if you are like me and you can’t wait for things to be released by all means go to them. I loved seeing Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and American Psycho with festival crowds – it was a real event.

Don’t limit yourself to a country/region/style. If G and M had their way we would all only watch violent, scary, insane films. Don’t let you festival buddies dictate everything you see. Better still have several festival buddies so you can get enough variety in there.

Do not assume tickets won’t sell out. They do. I’ve already missed one film this year because I am so freaking disorganized.

Remember there is always next year. Don’t panic if you haven’t gone to anything. It’ll be there for you every year. Like the perfect holiday destination it is…

The Windy City

There has been much talk lately around the Couchville campfire about New York City. My spiritual home and number 1 destination features in dozens of the films that grace my DVD collection. I considered doing a list of my all time favorite NYC films but it’s almost too obvious. I mean do you really want to read my opinions on Woody Allen (Genius) Spike Lee (Auteur) Martin Scorsese (Royalty) or even Hal Hartley (Love of my Life)?

Well maybe you do. But instead I want to turn your attention to another great town

The windy city of Chicago.

It just seems to be the featured city a lot of films I’ve seen recently. I rewatched The Untouchables, While You Were Sleeping and High Fidelity all in the space of a week and there it was in each one.

What do I think of when I think of Chicago? ER, Oprah, gangsters, the blues, snow, firemen, that river, those trains. A tough city. A dirty city. A place that if you aren’t born there you’ll never understand. Here now is my

Top Five Chicago Movies

5. Blues Brothers (1980)
And I quote:
Elwood: I'm gonna quit work first thing in the morning.

Jake: And how are you gonna get to work Mr Lead Foot, Mr Hot Rod, Mr Motor Head? Those cops took your license away. They got your name, your address.

Elwood: No they don't got my address. I falsified my renewal. I put 1060 West Addison.

Jake: 1060 West Addison? That's Wrigley Field!

4. Ordinary People (1980) Cold Chicago. This is actually in my Top 20 all time favourite films so I could bang on about it for a whole blog entry. Mary Tyler Moore gives one of the great ‘ice mother’ performances ever on screen. The film of course is owned by a young and vulnerable Timothy Hutton. great shots of Chicago when Donald Sutherland confesses to his business partner that things aren’t so great on the home front.

3. High Fidelity (2000). I wasn’t one of those anxious Nick Hornby fans terrified that the soul of his book would be destroyed in its transatlantic move. I was one of these anxious John Cusack fans who were worried he was doomed to being in shit films like Pushing Tin. Of course this film also unleashed Jack Black on the world for which I will be forever grateful. I think everyone was happy with the outcome – and let’s face it Hornby is really responsible for the Top 5 becoming the list of choice.

2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Anyone who does not love this film is off my Christmas card list. Really. I mean it. Having watched this again recently I was overcome with nostalgia. I don’t love it the way I did when I was 16, and it’s funny now to think of whole new generations becoming attached to this film. Part of me wants to say ‘hands off! You got American Pie now leave us alone!” but I know in my heart that Ferris would have wanted to share the love with everyone.

1 The Untouchables (1987). Rewatching this last week I was reminded of a time when Kevin Costner was fantastic to watch. When this came out he was being dubbed the new Redford. Alas that was not to be Takeaway the script by David Mamet and the direction of Brian De Palma and all you got left is Costner, not much chop on his own I’m afraid.

The Untouchables is a study in clever filmmaking, fine editing and a perfect musical score along with pitch perfect performances from Connery, Garcia, and Costner. The city at the time was gripped by prohibition and owned by Al Capone and a corrupt and powerless police force. It's an amazing true story of Eliot Ness and his team taking back Chicago in a great David and Goliath tale.
And Costner has come good again with The Upside of Anger.

Other good Chicago films

Hoop Dreams (one of the best sports films ever made)
The Sting (yummo. Redford and Newman in their pinup boy days)
Adventures in Babysitting (for those that haven’t seen this, it’s a great treat)
Backdraft (ok so it’s not a great film, but hey it does have firemen)
Chicago (noisy, lush, full on assault of the senses that couldn’t go unmentioned)

You can't choose your family but

The Family Stone
There are just some films that slip through the cracks. For some reason you just don’t get around to them when they hit the cinema. Often it’s because in the back of your head you think ‘I can wait for the DVD'. The Family Stone was one of these. It jsut wasn't going to get me into the cinema.
I was completely over Sarah Jessica Parker despite having liked her in many previous films (If Lucy Fell is a guilty pleasure I can heartily recommend). But you know what? I got so sick of her being shoved into my line of vision as the style icon of my generation. And it’s not for the obvious reason – namely she probably weighs as much as my right thigh. I’ve got no problem with skinny and I completely get why it is considered beautiful. I consider it beautiful. That’s fine. I like her quirky ugly pretty face and that mass of hair – it’s all good.
But enough already.
You know what – shove me into vintage Yves Saint Laurent and give me a dozen stylists I may scrub up ok too – but it sure as hell won’t make me a style icon. Anyway I digress…
The family Stone just kept bleeping away on my radar and I’ve kind of figured out why. It’s about family. And if there is one genre I really really love it is The Dysfunctional Family. Everyone has one so it stands to reason there have been a few good films made about them. I loved the Family Stone, it surprised me. It made me want to revisit all those other crazy families I’d loved over the years…

Five key elements

1. Very Crazy Parents.
Yes I guess the most obvious choice here would be Robert De Niro’s turn in Meet the Parents but that is almost too obvious. For my money you can’t go past Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum. But I’m also very fond of Patricia Clarkson and Oliver Platt in Pieces of April which falls into another fave category - the Thanksgiving Film.
The Family Stone takes place at Christmas and the crazy parents are Diane Keaton and Craig T Nelson. They swing between being unlikable to loveable all the way back to complex and heartbreaking in the space of 10 minutes. Beautiful and subtle performances from both of them.

2. The weird/kooky/wayward Sibling
Nothing beats Robert Downey Junior in Home for the Holidays. Nothing. But I tell ya Tom Hulce in Parenthood is the most wayward of them all and it’s his one great role (forget Amadeus – try seeing him tell his dad Jason Robards that his life has turned to hell in a hand basket –great scene).
The Family Stone does have the lovely Luke Wilson who can charm the pants off anyone. Rachel McAdams (whom I really am warming to, is it just me?) as the nasty sister is just so horrible it’s amazing how you still like her by the end of the film.Of course if you want the sexiest sibling go straight to Bill Pullman in While You Were Sleeping. Nothing is hotter than a man that can build a chair.

3. The Love Interest that Brings the Family Together.
See you think that it’s going to be Sarah Jessica Parker but when her sister (Claire Danes all grown up) arrives in town things take a twist. Let’s just say it’s a little unexpected who rescues whom. Dermot Mulroney as the good man is playing to type – see my Best Friends Wedding and you’ll know he can do this material in his sleep. There is one scene in The Family Stone where he’s allowed to get a bit messy. He’s great. Shame he’s so good looking. He’s the new Pierce Brosnan I’m sure of it. Best Love Interest in this cateogory goes to dreamboat Dylan McDermott in Home For the Holidays.

4. The Dinner Table
It all winds up at the dinner table at some point. What better place to really understand the family dynamic? You only have to watch the dinner scene in Hannah and Her Sisters to see the whole film laid out in front of you. For the greatest dinner scene go straight for the undervalued Katie Holmes flick (yes she was good once) Pieces of April. Talk about a Turkey Trial (it gets cooked in three different apartments). in The Family Stone they don’t quite make it to the table – most of the food end up on the floor…

5. The House.
The house is almost always another character in the film and this is true of The Family Stone. Remember those long cold corridors of The Ice Storm? The still life neat as a pin rooms of Ordinary People? My favorite dysfunctional family home was that house in On Golden Pond. Dreamy. Of course in Life as a House it becomes a metaphor for the entire film. The Family Stones abode is chaotic and warm and weird and great – a lot like the Family Stone.

Dysfunctional Family Movies I love:

The Royal Tenenbaums
Home for the Holidays
ParenthoodLife as a House
The Ice Storm
The Safety of Objects
Ordinary People
Beautiful People
The Myth of Finger Prints
The Day Trippers.
Hannah and Her Sisters.
The Substance of Fire.

Au Revoir

Dear John,

you introduced me to every Fred Astaire movie. You taught me about Westerns, Noir, and why Gary Cooper really was Super Dooper. You were so cool. Thankyou for everything.

RIP

John Hinde 1914 -2006

ABC PM Transcript