1. Today began with a tribute to Peter Dinklage and a screening of his new movie “Cyrano” When the festival pays tribute to someone they show clips from a number of their films and have a short discussion with them before the main event. It was fun to see the interview with him. Joe Wright, the director, introduced to film Cyrano and told us that the film was made during the pandemic. They filmed on the island of Sicily and he said he edited the film at his house! I thought the best part of the film was the setting and cinematography —gorgeous —but the most surprising aspect of this movie is that it is a musical! I was not impressed with the music and I have very mixed feelings about the movie overall but if you are a fan of Peter or the story, you will probably enjoy it.
2. “Julia” is a biopic ( world premiere) about Julia Child and given that it is about such a fun person and often set in France, they had me at the title! I found it to be at delightful retrospective of her career and her impact on cooking, cooking education & programs, and our culture overall. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up on PBS at some point. I do highly recommend it.
3. “The Same Storm” was also shot remotely, all during the pandemic and the subject is about what happened to us all during the pandemic. It has vignettes about how our lives were changed, e.g. dealing with loneliness, family in the hospital, distance learning, remote relationships… My description isn’t good but I found the film to be a relevant summary of this period of our lives. The filmmaker said he never even met some of the actors because nobody was ever in the same room with anybody else. We’ve all seen some rather uneven examples of zoom performances in the last year and a half. But I can say that this was certainly the best I saw. Some excellent actors such as Sandra Oh & Mary Louise Parker. Before seeing it we feared it might be hard to see but it wasn’t at all! I do recommend it
The title was taken from a quote: “we’re not all in the same boat; we’re in the same storm.”
4 “ The French Dispatch”— This film was a sneak peek which means we did not even read about it in the program that we got on Wednesday. Just appeared on the schedule today. It’s Wes Anderson. Enough said. He assembled a huge cast —some cameos—including Tilda Swinten, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Benicia delToro, etc…. I laughed at a lot of French language satire and some of his hysterics, but overall I thought it was uneven. I expect it will have cult appeal. Can’t begin to describe the plot.
No comments:
Post a Comment