The film festival grinds on: I was disappointed and bored by Collapse, a documentary in which a narcissistic and paranoid autodidact cites widely known and mostly uncontroversial views about resource scarcity and sustainability as if he’s the only person in the world to have reached these conclusions. He also claims that ‘They’ are trying to silence him, kill him etc to prevent ‘the truth’ from being known (‘They’ include Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney).
A dull film made worse by the venue: the Wellington Film Archive has gone out of it’s way to design the least comfortable theatre seats I’ve ever sat in. The arm-rests are the worst crime: tiny little strips of wood about three centimetres wide positioned at hip height and terminating about quarter of the way down the radius bone of the average adult male. What the fuck were they thinking?
The night before that I rewatched The Room at the Paramount. I’d been a little apprehensive about seeing it again: had I amplified it in my mind, turned what was really just an amusingly bad film into something more significant? I had not. The Room is a genuine cultural phenomenon. Hopefully it’ll be back – I think it really benefits from the theatrical experience.
A couple of points to note – they may not mean anything to you if you haven’t seen it:
- I’m pretty sure the penultimate scene in which Johnny trashes his room is a direct homage to a similar scene in Citizen Kane. The shot sequence is almost identical, although Orson Welles never threw a TV through a window.
- Something I noticed this time around: various characters who have nothing to do with each other (ie most of the characters in the movie) keep exchanging meaningful glances with each other. Danny and Mark do this, so do Peter and Michelle. Of course it means nothing like everything else in the film but it hints that The Room might be multi-layered – like Nabakov’s Pale Fire – with hidden strata of meaning nested beneath the surface level chaos.
- God, those lengthy sex scenes were brutal on the big screen.
The times and the showings are a disappointing variation on last year. Either showing too early or too late – a couple of evening showings last week we didn’t get back until gone 11 because they didn’t start until 8.30. Showings have also been cut back from what I remember. Today’s Animation Now! started at 12.15 and the only other showing is an afternoon event. Which is weird, because it’s always really popular.
Having said that, you picked a couple of shitters there. If you get a chance – and the chance would be Monday afternoon at 1.30 – then Police, Adjective is choice. Seriously choice.
Comment by dontsurf — July 26, 2010 @ 12:36 am
heh – those crummy seats and their miserly armrests kept you propped up all the way through Collapse (which I found to be quite compelling and a bit of a poke in the ribs (as if I need one – talk about preaching to the converted…). I did watch it lying down on my bed though….
Comment by Cnr Joe — July 26, 2010 @ 8:33 am
the only flim we’ve seen, last night in fact, has been Enter the Void.
See it on the big screen or don’t bother or just don’t bother. Noé’s version of a sequel to 2001 sets out to laboriously defy cinematic convertion by rather lazily replicating how previous ditectors have defied cinematic convention more imaginatively.
It is mildly interesting from a techincal view but has nothing to say which I gather is what it’s trying to say.
Comment by NeilM — July 26, 2010 @ 9:03 am
thanks for fixing the formating.
Comment by NeilM — July 26, 2010 @ 9:21 am
Saw Collapse last night too, was terribly bored. A lazy documentary with meaningless stock footage and needless pauses thrown in to drag the film out.
Most of what Ruppert had to say was nothing new, so I would prefer my time and money back. I’d be interested to see if anyone found it enjoyable.
And ditto on the seating, damn they’re uncomfortable (though my girlfriend managed to sleep resonably well in one during the screening).
Best of the Fest has been Animal Kingdom.
Comment by Pete — July 26, 2010 @ 1:31 pm
As uncomfortable as the Paramount, If you are 6ft or over, you are buggered.
Teenage Paparazzo was a good doco on the cult of celebrity, measured and fairly objective. Worth the price of admission alone for seeing Paris Hilton told the story of Narcissus, while twirling her hair, and subsequently asking if it was a true story…..
Comment by max — July 26, 2010 @ 3:33 pm
Animal Kingdom definitely rocked. The Most Dangerous Man in America and American: The Bill Hicks Story were both pretty much what I expected them to be, but were no worse for it, and I recommend them both. I liked Women without Men rather better than some of the critics have, but it’s definitely skippable. Four Lions was had the entire audience rolling in the aisles, with good reason; the ending was a bit sad, but it was really the only option. Summer Wars was overall rather good, some of the depictions of how the internet work had me raising an eyebrow, but it’s better than most movies in this respect, and it was definitely worth the admission. The Time that Remains I liked very much, and was very personal. A Somewhat Gentle Man was very funny, in a dry, Scandinavian sort of way.
Comment by derp de derp — July 26, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
And Predicament was good, though I felt a bit off about Heath Franklin’s performance.
Comment by derp de derp — July 26, 2010 @ 4:51 pm
Agreed Max – I still think the best movie theatre seats I’ve sat in are the ones at Cinema 4 in Mount Maunganui – they are big and comfy and have arms that can be moved out of the way in case you want to lie down, or mack onto the person (or persons) next to you – with their consent of course.
In Wellington The Embassy has it about right, and the Gold Lounge in Reading is OK, if you ignore the popcorn and crap down the sides and back.
Comment by Pete — July 26, 2010 @ 5:07 pm
Enjoyed Extraordinary Stories – all 4 hours of it, even though they showed the last Segment first (luckily no real twists at the end)- quite fun working ones way backwards – that and getting a complimentary pass out of it – very Argentinian
Comment by Leopold — July 27, 2010 @ 9:54 am