Scriptwriter
INT. CAMRY SPORTSWAGON – DAY
Our WRITER drives while his GODDESS rides shotgun.
WRITER
I’m thinking of revisiting my ethnic horror project –
GODDESS
I know what happens!
-- he glances at her, a little surprised, as --
GODDESS (CONT’D)
A bunch of islanders go to KFC --
(dramatic pause)
-- AND THEY’VE RUN OUT OF CHICKEN!
For as long as I can remember being a cinephile, June/July is a time of excitement and discovery and anticipation as the New Zealand International Film Festival hits town.
Multiple copies of the brochure are hoarded (1 x library, 1 x lending, 1 x booking), and one of them becomes dog-eared with innumerable passes as various selections are made (1 x if I was rich, 1 x if I am poor, 1 x if I had the time, etc). The first pass is usually where several hundred notional dollars is spent as real-world rules are abandoned. The final pass is reached after considerable pain, and eventual, reluctant, acceptance of the world that I live in.
This year, I did my first pass and… I didn’t dog-ear anything. This is a first. The Boy has made his choice – having bored and traumatised him at the last couple of fests, I thought it only fair that he have some say this year. Even The Goddess has had some difficulty finding something to discover/anticipate/get-excited-about.
Is it me? I hope not.
Time, maybe, to consult with Someone Who Knows.
Whoa. Got an outtatheblue email from Pollywood Film Festival director Craig Fasi this morning.
On Sunday 8 July at 3:00pm, To’ona’i will open the Film Screenings section of the Home AKL exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery.
Apparently I’ll be taking questions. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Comics
A nice mix of mainstream, European and indy this year.
Asterios Polyp – David Mazzuchelli
Britten & Brulightly – Hannah Berry
Chance in Hell – Gilbert Hernandez
Doing Time – Hanawa Kazuichi
Fun Home – Alison Bechdel
Hellcity: The Whole Damned Thing – Macon Blair and Joe Flood
The Lagoon – Lilli Carre
Maybe Later – Dupuy & Berberian
Powers: Z – Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming
Shaolin Burning – Ant Sang
The Third Musketeer – Jason
Walking Dead: No Way Out – Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard
Scripts
Hm. According to my reading diary, I read the average annual amount of these this year but very few have wowed me like I want to be wowed.
Billy Elliott – Lee Hall
The Good Wife: Pilot – Robert King and Michelle King
Lone Star – John Sayles
Manhunter – Michael Mann
The Straight Story – John Roach and Mary Sweeney
Maybe it’s just me.
Books
Some ah, research led me to more non-fiction reading that I would previously readily admit.
Armageddon – Max Hastings
Nemesis – Max Hastings
Striptease – Carl Hiaasen
True Grit – Charles Portis
I’m tempted to try the Demi Moore vehicle that started out once upon a time as a film adaptation of Striptease but… ‘m afraid I mayn’t survive it.
These are straight from the viewing diary. Those that I remember with a smile get some link-love.
Features
13 Assassins
Animal Kingdom
Another Year
Born into Brothels
Buck
Chugyeogja
Contagion
Frozen River
Get Low
Leaves of Grass
Please Give
El secreto de sus ojos
The Social Network
The Women on the Sixth Floor
Television
30 Rock: Season 1
Go Girls: Season 2
Breaking Bad: Season 4
Downton Abbey: Season 1-2
The Good Wife: Season 3
Justified: Season 2
Monroe: Season 1
There were some shows that were real… curate’s eggs that I wanted to try and be objective about but then I remembered that Sunday School chestnut about pointing fingers and the other three pointing right back at you. (Yeah, I chickened out.)
The latest Mission: Impossible instalment is around the corner and I’m kinda interested, kinda excited, though not because I’m a fan of either the franchise or Tom Cruise hisself – it’s for the directors who’ve gamely signed on (and the first one doesn’t count because Nobody knew)*:
– M:I-2 by a post-Killer, pre-Paycheck John Woo;
– M:I:III by the insanely prolific J J Abrams;
– and now Ghost Protocol from Iron Giant and Incredibles maestro Brad Bird.
… Yeah, I’m in.
Although somehow, somewhen along the way, whenever I think of the M:I franchise, I always flash on this:
* Disclosure: I’ll watch anything by Brian De Palma. Anything.
“I asked [Ayrton Senna] about dreaming,” Cronenberg said. The Brazilian replied that he “dreamed the racetrack. It’s almost like I am practising the racetrack in my dreams.” Asked the same question, [Keke] Rosberg replied abruptly: “No. Why would I dream about the racetrack? I spend too much time of my waking life on the racetracks.”
— From an interview with David Cronenberg where he talks about a failed attempt to make a Formula 1 feature.
Last year, The Boy and I went to see the restored cut of Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in the West. He’s a child of the generation of Playstation, Wii and iPods so I half-expected him to be bored out of his skull. Aside from a couple of fidgety moments, he was in its thrall for the 165-minute running time.
This year, he accompanied me to the New Zealand Film Festival screening of Takashi Miike‘s 13 Assassins:
INT. CIVIC THEATRE – EVENING
The LIGHTS come up as END CREDITS scrolling slowly on the BIG SCREEN.
Our WRITER turns to his teenage son, THE BOY.
WRITER
What’d you think?
BOY
That was so...
WRITER
(V.O.)
‘Awesome’? ‘Spectacular’? ‘Cool’?
BOY
... violent.
Oh.
