(Untitled)

[bees4breakfast]

So the Adelaide Film Festival kicks off tonight, and we're seeing Death of a President. pretty excited for that, but more so for Svankmajer's Sílení on Sunday. Other films we're seeing include Red Road (UK), Playing the Victim (Poland), and Opera Jawa (Indonesia). Plus, a special screening of Dr. Strangelove, which I've never seen on the big screen

Comments

[capnkjb]

Hey Alex, I have been reading In a Sunburned Country and I was wondering if you had read it (and if so, if it's right).

[bees4breakfast]

i've heard a bit about it, but not read it; i don't know if it's "right" or not, but Bryson seems like a pretty scrupulous guy, so my guess would be that it is. is there a particular thesis or theses of which you're looking for confirmation or denial? if so, ask away.

[capnkjb]

Not really a particular thesis per se, just that he really digs on Australia, all full of its deadly animals and generally genial people.

Ok, well, I guess the thesis at hand would be his opinions on various Australian cities - from what I recall, he liked Adelaide but that its golden age had passed and it was still kind of living in a "we were so cool back then and we're still kind of artsy now but the country's going to hell anyway so oh well".

I might be misremembering. I'm not done with it, either, and the man seriously trekked all over the damn continent. He's at Uluru now.

[bees4breakfast]

i definitely dig on australia. his description of adelaide was correct at the time, but adelaide has (thankfully) begun a pretty substantial cultural renaissance, complete with accompanying real estate boom. it's still a tiny city, but it's becoming more sort of quietly, unassumingly fun/hip, whereas it used to be blatantly yet reluctantly boring/culturally bereft. i think this transformation was just beginning when i was living here a couple years ago, and now it's maybe... i dunno, 30% complete. it's hard to measure obviously, i just observe that there are many more city redevelopment projects, many more hip/"edgy" restaurants (and fewer stodgy old ones), more art galleries, more boutique clothing shops, etc, than the last time i was here. in short, more cultural and commercial signs of a city in renaissance. and, more importantly, people are biting. warehouse lofts are being bought, art films are being gone to, tapas restaurants are being patronized, etc etc etc

[jacksonpritt]

Svankmajer is fucking awesome.
I loved, loved, loved his version of "Faust" but unfortunately a couple years ago one of my ex-roomies stole my DVD of it when I was moving. ALAS!

[bees4breakfast]

you are a step ahead of me, in that i have never owned a Svankmajer DVD.

[mixmaster_morty]

Svankmajer keeps his hos in check. I've heard Death of a President is not as amazing as it seems but that Opera Jawa movie should more than make up for it as it makes me think of the jawas from Star Wars, you know, singing opera.

[bees4breakfast]

Death of a President was very good. i went in with virtually no information about the film other than its subject, and therefore no expectations, so i had nothing to be disappointed about. all the same, I don't see what there really is to fault. it was well-done (except for some pretty bad CG on occasion), it didn't preach, and [ZPOILERZ] i think it was spot-on, in that were bush to be assassinated, it would make everything huge volumes worse than it currently is, and that they would find a way to spin it and bend the facts and evidence in such a way that as soon as a remotely plausible al qaeda link was found, that would become the accepted explanation, one or more people would be charged, tried, and sentenced, regardless of their innocence/guilt, and the matter would be considered closed. no further effort would be made to actually solve the crime.