But maybe not these movies…
11 Nov 2022 02:26 pmOne of the great joys of Inverness in the autumn is the film festival. I normally take a week off for it - I was super grumpy last year because I didn’t get to take time off for it and had to squeeze in screenings round work. They were doing a festival pass this year so - with the loss of the Edinburgh film festival earlier in the year still vivid in my mind - indulged in one of those. I saw 16 features and a bunch of shorts. Yeah. I have read no books whatsoever, it’s been all about the films this week.
Obviously I don’t have the spoons to write up reviews of them all - well, I mean, I have written reviews of them all, if you’re really interested they can all be found over at my grown up blog - but I thought I’d share the highlights with the rest of you. By it’s very nature the festival leans art house, lots of documentaries, a few films by local film makers, lots of foreign language films - I saw films in Quechua, Georgian, Dzongkha (Bhuatanese) and Persian, but there were also films in French, Spanish and Arabic - a silent film with live musical accompaniment, and there were a bunch of ‘coming attractions’ that were expected to be crowd pullers. (Weirdly I saw John Hamm in a sequel to those old Chevy Chase ‘Fletch’ movies? It was oddly charming?) Plus it’s the festival’s 20th year so they showed a handful of ‘classics’ from past festivals so I took the opportunity to see some things for the first time - No Country for Old Men and Brooklyn - and to see Gravity on the big screen with lovely surround sound and was delighted to find that it held up so well nearly a decade on. If you like your contemplative world cinema then I recommend Utama From Bolivia, and Lunana From Bhutan is a delight of a film. The highlights of films that anyone reading this is likely to be able to see at the cinema are Bones and All (Coming of age road trip movie with cannibalism) and The Menu (Darkly humorous satire of class and foodie culture, with murder) both pretty dark and violent films but if you like the kind of films that they are then I think you’ll enjoy them.
I also got my flu shot yesterday morning before my screenings started, and I can’t figure out if I’m knackered because all the films or because of the flu shot. Also I was a contributor for a piece at work, so spent a chunk of this morning trying to articulate my feelings/experiences of SAD in Gaelic. At least it meant I had to tidy the flat for my colleague coming round - she’s just back from maternity leave so was delighted to have me as her first interviewee, who would be a) patient with her rusty camera skills, but could also help out if she got stuck! - so now that I’m all knackered and can’t be arsed, at least I can do it in a tidy flat without feeling guilty about the house stuff I ought to be doing!
Obviously I don’t have the spoons to write up reviews of them all - well, I mean, I have written reviews of them all, if you’re really interested they can all be found over at my grown up blog - but I thought I’d share the highlights with the rest of you. By it’s very nature the festival leans art house, lots of documentaries, a few films by local film makers, lots of foreign language films - I saw films in Quechua, Georgian, Dzongkha (Bhuatanese) and Persian, but there were also films in French, Spanish and Arabic - a silent film with live musical accompaniment, and there were a bunch of ‘coming attractions’ that were expected to be crowd pullers. (Weirdly I saw John Hamm in a sequel to those old Chevy Chase ‘Fletch’ movies? It was oddly charming?) Plus it’s the festival’s 20th year so they showed a handful of ‘classics’ from past festivals so I took the opportunity to see some things for the first time - No Country for Old Men and Brooklyn - and to see Gravity on the big screen with lovely surround sound and was delighted to find that it held up so well nearly a decade on. If you like your contemplative world cinema then I recommend Utama From Bolivia, and Lunana From Bhutan is a delight of a film. The highlights of films that anyone reading this is likely to be able to see at the cinema are Bones and All (Coming of age road trip movie with cannibalism) and The Menu (Darkly humorous satire of class and foodie culture, with murder) both pretty dark and violent films but if you like the kind of films that they are then I think you’ll enjoy them.
I also got my flu shot yesterday morning before my screenings started, and I can’t figure out if I’m knackered because all the films or because of the flu shot. Also I was a contributor for a piece at work, so spent a chunk of this morning trying to articulate my feelings/experiences of SAD in Gaelic. At least it meant I had to tidy the flat for my colleague coming round - she’s just back from maternity leave so was delighted to have me as her first interviewee, who would be a) patient with her rusty camera skills, but could also help out if she got stuck! - so now that I’m all knackered and can’t be arsed, at least I can do it in a tidy flat without feeling guilty about the house stuff I ought to be doing!

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Date: 11 Nov 2022 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Nov 2022 06:25 pm (UTC)