Videos and visit

[bironic]

I'm glad they posted the Vividcon panels after I'd downgraded from attending to supporting. So many of them sound excellent, I would have been tempted to spend money I shouldn't spend. Especially Cuts Both Ways, Structure, Feedback, Timing, Use of Clips. And Lyrical Interpretation. And Using Vids in Class. And and.

Someone will take notes, right?

Right?

.

My sister came to visit this weekend, which was lovely. She had not been over since she helped me move in last fall. We saw dogs, friends and movies, cooked, looked up video clips of computer games and screen savers that we used to enjoy from the mid-'80s to the early '90s, and exchanged presents. Got accidentally sunburned. Returned to work today, empinkened.

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Still have not recovered brain from vacation. Can simply say that I watched these movies recently and they were great:

Remembrance (Die verlorene Zeit) - Loosely based on the story of a couple who escaped a concentration camp in Poland and only found each other again decades later and a continent apart. Very well made, if not exactly a documentary. I liked the understated way it depicted the mercurial moods and fierce privacy of the main character when war-related memories were forced back into play.

The History of Future Folk - Oddball, charming extraterrestrial "backstory" of a real folk duo, with a couple of good songs (especially the Spanish one), a lead who could be James Spader's younger brother, and roles for Onata Aprile from What Maisie Knew and Dee Snider. Though if you are taking this as a rec, be aware that there's a creepy-stalkery scene in the middle that is played as cute but is equally uncomfortable.

Rango - Who knew this was so quirky, thick with intertextual references and beautifully animated? Not to mention environmentally minded. The dream sequence won my heart.

Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender version) - Almost turned it off in the beginning because of the Epic Angst on the Moors -- seriously Epic -- but glad I didn't. I thought Mia Wasikowska did a fabulous job of conveying Jane's hard-learned reticence and inner turmoil. The St. John stuff will never not be boring, the school flashbacks were too short for character development beyond caricature, Rochester switched too quickly IMO from aloof skepticism to adoration, and see above re: Epic Angst, but the rest made up for it. Pretty well streamlined overall.

The Bride - Bizarre and therefore highly entertaining riff on Frankenstein in which Sting is Dr. F., a luscious young Jennifer Beal is the bride, they form a love triangle with Cary Elwes, and the creature runs off to join the circus with a dwarf. Plus feminism. Made all the better by the lack of clarity as to whether the whole thing was supposed to be funny.

Oh, and watched The Lego Movie on the plane home. It was cute and clever, as people had promised, though also mired in its own central contradiction, as some film critic pointed out, being a movie pushing a corporate product that tells you that it's good to break free of corporate control and conformity. "I only work in black and sometimes very dark gray." If only the human kid had been a girl, or they hadn't made the little sister a punchline, however funny the Duplo line was. GIRLS LOVE LEGO TOO, DAMMIT.

I guess Guardians of the Galaxy is next, because Vin Diesel. Sounds like fandom likes it. Based on the trailer, I'm still not convinced it's actually funny. We'll see.

Comments

[anoel.livejournal.com]

I'll take a lot of notes but I still wish you were coming! Save for next year :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

For sure. I had a pattern of coming every other year but now that's broken. Oops.

Your notes = super thorough and I am looking forward to them!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

GOTG is the rare movie that's better than the trailer: I think the trailers were assembled by a Fanboy of the urky variety, but the movie was cowritten by a woman and directed by someone who seems to remember it's not just White guys who are people. I found it flipping hilarious, after the opening scene (which is necessary backstory but vv sad. Just endure, it gets much better. Wait for the dancing.)

ALSO, you are totally right about the LEGO movie.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for the opinion and additional detail! Sounds like everyone has seen it already; maybe I'll just pop over one weeknight when nothing's going on and check it out.

[elfy.livejournal.com]

The animation in Rango was amaaaaaazing, really.

Have you seen Snowpiercer?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Have not. It sounded interesting at first, but now I'm less sure. Will probably wait until it's available on DVD/streaming. Did you? What did you think?

[elfy.livejournal.com]

I saw it in a small cinema here in town and I honestly loved it. And it's that kind of love that grows over time, as I am getting more and more fond of it, even if I didn't have the chance to rewatch it. It is very brutal and in some scenes feels like a theatre play (especially in the beginning). But for some reason, I really, really liked it.
There are people who take it literally, don't bother to see it as the allegory it is and for them, the movie fails. They critisize stupid things, like the impossibility of the train needing one year to surround earth or the meat/food production on the train ... but all I can say is, they didn't get it.
Curiously I just found a really, really, really good tumblr post/article on the movie, who explains the allegory behind it. It spoils the movie *heavily* and I would recommend not reading it until you saw the movie, but it's really worth a read afterward.
http://elucipher.tumblr.com/post/91587404065/meta-snowpiercer

[thirdblindmouse.livejournal.com]

Anoel takes great notes, and I intend to take notes on all the panels I am not modding. That reminds me, I ought to buy a new notebook before I go.

Guardians of the Galaxy was ok. I think it depends on the environment you see it in and what mood you're in. I wasn't too wowed, but the people I saw it with were laughing the entire time. I got the impression I would have liked it better without the living laugh track, so that the humor could have gradually built up. Chris Pratt was good in his role.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Cool - thanks for the description. I suspect I will share your lukewarm reaction, but am open to being surprised.

Thank you from at least one person if you do take notes. And good luck with the modding and the premiering! If you finished the vid I think you finished, I am so looking forward to watching it.