Major Abracadabra Dept lapse there. Lost the internet magic because there are too many great things going on outside of it lately, including the introduction of Sandra Bernhard (above) to our home. When we call her for dinner, she responds “oy, alright already, I’m comin’, I’m comin’!” which is my response to those asking when I’ll post here again. On that note, see you very soon.

For those who can’t come meet mini lop Sandra in person, try this one instead.

This one goes out to Arthur Plum White Sarlos, born today, hooray!
*first image: Dragonauttt

Julie Delpy . . .

Anne-Charlotte Pascal . . .

Emmanuelle Seignier . . .

Got a horse, got a sheep, gonna get me a good night’s sleep.

And now, the festival is something I juggle with all my millions of jobs and generally end up seeing the films that I am doing an interview for, or a story about. It takes some of the fun away, as nice as it is to get to ask the behind-the-scenes business. Sometimes it is just SUCH a pleasure to see something and know that when I come out of it, I’m free to think about it as much as I’d like without committing any kind of commentary. I saw just a handful of films in that way, the best being those below (which will get a commentary as they are released nationally, but for now, nup) and the worst (?) being Black Venus, which I was so excited for and then so harshed by it that I went home at 7pm after the screening and promptly went to bed, destroyed.

The first Saturday of the festival, having filed a few interviews for radio, I went to see my first non-work film, Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D, rushing from the studio. As the line snaked to the front, an attendant gave me a bummer blow: the ticket I’d been given had accidentally been assigned to the next week’s session while I was on air. I ran to the press room and rifled through the other films starting soon and settled on Tomboy, which had been on my maybe list for the following week. I ran back to the cinema which was now full and I sat up the front, catching my breath. And you know what?

Tomboy was the best film I saw during the festival. I adored it.
If you can, see it! See it!

That’s her, the tomboy, above, aged 10. Not to be confused with this one:

And then there was Meek’s Cutoff. How I’d waited! How I loved it!
How I can’t wait to see it again!

Lastly, Attenberg which I’m still in two minds about, but it’s stuck with me, that’s for sure. For the record, I saw The Tree of Life in non-festival digs so I’m not counting it. And if you’re feeling for me that I never met anyone to love, lingering between screenings, fear not. I took my babe to the closing night at the State Theatre which was the really wonderful Beginners. Fitting.

Digital remnants of something I made. Leftover stars & black holes.

It’s easy to burn out and opt to stay home and watch cosmic 70′s British kids shows, so I’m taking breathers where possible, like looking through the online gallery of MIFF posters, complete with catalogue information. Here are 12 of my favourites below. Gotta say (I’m a designer when I’m not ranting about movies on radio), the designs really make a grim turn in the late 80′s, with last year’s MIFF poster being the worst of the lot. But these? So nice.

Featured Film 1953: Germania Anno Zero dir. Roberto Rossellini
Featured Film 1960: Hiroshima Mon Amour dir. Alain Resnais

Featured Film 1965: Bande à part dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Featured Film 1969: No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger dir. David Loeb Weiss

Featured Film 1970: In the Year of the Pig dir. Emile de Antonio
Featured Film 1971: Metello dir. Mauro Bolognini

Featured Film 1972: Johnny Got His Gun dir. Dalton Trumbo
Featured Film 1973: Morgiana dir. Juraj Herz

Featured Film 1975: Still Life dir. Shahid-Saless
Featured Film 1978: Before Hindsight dir. Jonathan Lewis

Opening Night Film 1983: The Draughtsman’s Contract dir. Peter Greenaway
Opening Night Film 1986: Kangaroo dir. Tim Burstall

The new film adaptation of Brighton Rock which repositions Graham Greene’s classic novel in the mods vs rockers clash of 1964 inspired a mod film special on my radio show Too Much today. While digging up old newsreels about the brawls (“the threat of long haired youngsters with knives indulging in an orgy of hooliganism”) and exploring mods on screen then (Quadrophenia) and now (We Are The Mods), I became way way waylaid by the more commercial, late 60s mod aesthetic (when the subculture lost its prefix). Hard not to get carried away revisiting tongue-in-cheek fave raves like Smashing Time.

The images above are from Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London, a particularly pervy sequence with Alan Aldridge where the camera lingers just . . . a little longer than it really needed to. Reminds me of the ant-climbing-breast sequence in Saul Bass’ Phase IV but that’s another post entirely.

The best new (to me) clip I came across online, however, was a 1967 episode of the excellent Look at Life series, this one: IN gear narrated by Michael Ingrams.

“Conforming to the non-conformist image of the in, what they used to call way out, and before that with it, and before that groovy, and before that hep, and what granny herself would have called the very latest thing, my dear.”