Her har Mathias Sky funnet at de har stor biff og pizza til Bud. Den er sikkert kald nå. Takk for bidrag.

anię spotkałam po raz pierwszy kiedy byłyśmy jeszcze bardzo młode, po kilku latach grywania z Tym i Tamtym (m.in. warszawską grupą Los Trabantos, zaśpiewała też na płycie Pogodno “pielgrzymka psów”) osiadła muzycznie (oraz komunalnie) w towarzystwie hrabiego fochmana, “legendy tyskiej alternatywy” (określenie znalezione w prasie, które niezmiernie mnie bawi:)  nominalnego bohatera płyty “pogdodno gra fochmanna – hajle silesia” (czekajcie aż znajdę zdjęcie leszka w białym sztucznym futerku, miodzio).

o ich dokonaniach muzycznych można oczytać się tu natomiast my zajmiemy sie tym co mnie niezmiernie cieszy, mianowicie stylem ani, która kreacje swoje zawdzięcza nie tylko projektantom kostiumów scenicznych (choć i to się zdarza) ale głównie sobie. no, może odrobinę zawdzięcza też lady gaga. oczywiście, o tyle o ile wszystkie zawdzięczamy jej jadalność cekinów, na ten przykład.

na zdjęciach wybranych do tego posta ania występuje jedynie w swoich zasobach garderobianych (są tam zarówno egzemplarze z sieciówek jak bershka, zara czy aldo, ale też zaprojektowana specjalnie dla niej przez elizę milaniuk spódnica/kołnierz i lamparci kombinezon z lumpeksu w tucznie).

przed państwem królowa ania brachaczek z zespołu BiFF:

photo by robert ceranowicz

photo by robert ceranowicz

photo by robert ceranowicz

nie posiadam praw autorskich do zdjęcia

nie posiadam praw autorskich do zdjęcia

nie posiadam praw autorskich do zdjęcia

photo by robert ceranowicz

i wreszcie  — moda przy dźwiękach muzyki, z najnowszej płyty zespołu (z najlepszą na świecie okładką):

Today is the much anticipated official start of the 6th edition of the Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF). Taking place from December 10-17, the festival will showcase 68 films from 26 countries, including 38 features of which several are world or international premieres, and nearly all Bahamian premieres. The four competition categories at BIFF are Spirit of Freedom: Narrative; Spirit of Freedom: Documentary; New Visions; and Short Film. Special sections include a Caribbean Sidebar, World Cinema showcase, Hispanic Cinema Spotlight and special screenings.

Among the films screening at BIFF this year are the drama Skin, starring Sophie Okonedo, BIFF’s Rising Star; Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, Joshua Goldin’s dark comedy Wonderful World, starring Matthew Broderick, and acclaimed documentaries Sweet Crude and House of Numbers, to name just a few.

Bahamian filmmaker Kareem Mortimer’s acclaimed indie drama Children of Go‘ will raise the curtain at this year’s festival as the official opening night film, while Lee Daniels’ critically lauded drama Precious, starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Mo’Nique, Sherri Shepherd and Paula Patton, will bring the week’s festivities to an end as the official closing night film.

Festival patron Sir Sean Connery will again be lending his full support throughout the week. On Sunday, December 13, internationally acclaimed actor Johnny Depp will be honored with the Career Achievement Tribute. On Tuesday, December 15, Bahamian Director of Photography Gavin McKinney will be awarded the First Bahamian Tribute Award. On Wednesday, December 16, Academy Award nominee Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, Skin) will be feted with the festival’s special Rising Star Tribute. Festival-goers will also want to keep an eye out for rock icon Lenny Kravitz, celebrated filmmaker Lee Daniels and a host of Hollywood talent in town to celebrate cinema in paradise

The full BIFF programme is available in print or online at www.bintlfilmfest.com.

Tickets can be purchased at the BIFF Office, 4th Terrace East, Collins Avenue.

For more go to the original report at http://www.tribune242.com/12092009_BIFF_features_pg10

Nassau, Bahamas – December   2, 2009 – The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) announced today that three-time Academy Award® nominee Johnny Depp will be honored with the prestigious Career Achievement Award at this year’s Film Festival, taking place December 10-17 in Nassau. The announcement was made by BIFF Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool.

Depp will be on hand for the special tribute and presentation at the Balmoral Club in Nassau. Legendary leading man Sir Sean Connery will again be lending his full support at BIFF, serving as Festival Patron and presenting Depp with the Career Achievement Award.

“There is no actor better suited to receive BIFF’s highest honor, the Career Achievement Award,” said Leslie Vanderpool. “Johnny Depp is one of the finest actors of our generation and is, simply put, an icon. We’re all tremendously excited to bestow him with this honor and celebrate his incomparable career. What makes this tribute to Johnny even more special is that he has a home in the Bahamas and possesses a true love and appreciation for the region and culture. This will be an amazing and magical event for everyone involved.”

The Career Achievement Tribute honors an actor or actress whose work has had a major impact and advanced the frontiers of cinematic artistry around the world. Past recipients include Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage, Academy Award® nominee Laurence Fishburne and acclaimed actress Daryl Hannah. The Career Achievement Award evening is once again sponsored by Lombard Odier.

“We at Lombard Odier, are proud to be sponsoring the Career Achievement Tribute for the 5th year in a row. We are excited by Mr. Depp’s presence and hope the evening of the Career Achievement Tribute will become a fond memory for Mr. Depp,” said Laurent Colli, Head of Private Clients at Lombard.

The Bahamas Minister of Tourism, Minister Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, commented, “It gives us great pleasure to welcome Johnny Depp, an esteemed resident of the Bahamas, to the Bahamas International Film Festival. We are proud of all his remarkable achievements and the great contributions he has made in all walks of life. We are glad this prestigious award and tribute is going to almost one of our own.”

An internationally acclaimed actor with over fifty films to his credit, Depp has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters and earned critics’ praise for his commanding performances. He has garnered three Academy Award® Best Actor nominations — for his memorable performances as a singing barber in Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd”; as Sir James Matthew Barrie in Marc Forster’s family drama “Finding Neverland;” and for his iconic role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

He has received both critical and popular acclaim from his unique work in a variety of memorable films but when he was cast as Captain Jack Sparrow in “The Pirates of Caribbean” trilogy, his characterization of the plundering pirate captivated international moviegoers, made box office history, and catapulted Depp to an all new level of international stardom.

Depp’s screen credits include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “The Libertine,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” “Blow,” “Chocolat,” ‘Sleepy Hollow,” “Ed Wood,” “Donnie Brasco,” “Don Juan Demarco,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “The Ninth Gate,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “From Hell,” “Before Night Falls,” “Secret Window,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Benny and Joon” and “Platoon,” to name a few.

Most recently, Depp portrayed famed Chicago bank robber, John Dillinger, in Michael Mann’s period heist, “Public Enemies” and is one of three actors selected by filmmaker Terry Gilliam to substitute in the starring role left behind by the tragic death of actor Heath Ledger in “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus”.

Depp will next be seen starring in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Rum Diary.”

Entering just its sixth year, the Bahamas International Film Festival has established itself as a marquee international Festival in the Caribbean region, discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from around the world and showcasing a diverse array of international films.

Matt Damon putting on some big-ass pounds!

While gathering evidence against his employer, ADM in Decatur, Ill., to help the FBI build a price-fixing conspiracy case, wealthy, affable executive Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) begins to piece together a fantasy world of his own.

I was looking forward to really seeing this. I like a lot of Soderbergh films, but really what I felt going into this film wasn’t really met by the end of the film.

First of all, the film has got a a little good slice of humor. It has a sort of ironic tone with its jokes that aren’t very funny at first, but once you actually think about them, they are actually pretty funny jokes.

One thing that the film benefits the most from is its main protagonist. Damon is the exact opposite of the under-handed and sleek saboteur. Instead he is a bumbling, quirky, mid-western family man who is really bad at lying. I found that he was the funniest, as not much as Damon but as much as the way the character was put out to be, and how almost every lie he made up, just failed cause it was so obvious and dumb.

The little running narration that plays throughout the whole film from Damon at first is funny, but soon by the end it comes out of nowhere at points and just becomes a bit annoying.

The score switches by between secret spy theme songs and frantic circus music depending on how wacky the characters were acting. All this did for me, was remind me that the scenes were supposed to be funny, but I wasn’t laughing. I felt like Sodebergh just threw this music in to make this story more interesting and to add more of an element of humor towards its characters.

Matt Damon really does inhabit this guy Whitacre, and seems like this actual schlock of a guy. This does speak to show his abilities as an actor and how he can handle these films. The problem I had with the cast was that the supporters we’re people like Joel McHale, Scott Backula, hell even Biff from Back To The Future is here and they aren’t really doing anything funny here, considering that they are basically all stand-up comedians.

Consensus: Though it has a lazy direction from Soderbergh and a lot of bad mistakes, The Informant! is still satirically funny with a great performance from Damon, but it doesn’t quite keep your attention for long.

6.5/10=Rentall!!!

The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) announced today that three-time Academy Award® nominee Johnny Depp will be honored with the prestigious Career Achievement Award at this year’s Film Festival, taking place December 10-17 in Nassau. The announcement was made by BIFF Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool.Depp will be on hand for the special tribute and presentation at the Balmoral Club in Nassau. Legendary leading man Sir Sean Connery will again be lending his full support at BIFF, serving as Festival Patron and presenting Depp with the Career Achievement Award.

“There is no actor better suited to receive BIFF’s highest honor, the Career Achievement Award,” said Leslie Vanderpool. “Johnny Depp is one of the finest actors of our generation and is, simply put, an icon. We’re all tremendously excited to bestow him with this honor and celebrate his incomparable career. What makes this tribute to Johnny even more special is that he has a home in the Bahamas and possesses a true love and appreciation for the region and culture. This will be an amazing and magical event for everyone involved.”

The Career Achievement Tribute honors an actor or actress whose work has had a major impact and advanced the frontiers of cinematic artistry around the world. Past recipients include Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage, Academy Award® nominee Laurence Fishburne and acclaimed actress Daryl Hannah. The Career Achievement Award evening is once again sponsored by Lombard Odier.

“We at Lombard Odier, are proud to be sponsoring the Career Achievement Tribute for the 5th year in a row. We are excited by Mr. Depp’s presence and hope the evening of the Career Achievement Tribute will become a fond memory for Mr. Depp,” said Laurent Colli, Head of Private Clients at Lombard.

The Bahamas Minister of Tourism, Minister Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, commented, “It gives us great pleasure to welcome Johnny Depp, an esteemed resident of the Bahamas, to the Bahamas International Film Festival. We are proud of all his remarkable achievements and the great contributions he has made in all walks of life. We are glad this prestigious award and tribute is going to almost one of our own.”

An internationally acclaimed actor with over fifty films to his credit, Depp has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters and earned critics’ praise for his commanding performances. He has garnered three Academy Award® Best Actor nominations — for his memorable performances as a singing barber in Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd”; as Sir James Matthew Barrie in Marc Forster’s family drama “Finding Neverland;” and for his iconic role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

He has received both critical and popular acclaim from his unique work in a variety of memorable films but when he was cast as Captain Jack Sparrow in “The Pirates of Caribbean” trilogy, his characterization of the plundering pirate captivated international moviegoers, made box office history, and catapulted Depp to an all new level of international stardom.

Depp’s screen credits include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “The Libertine,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” “Blow,” “Chocolat,” ‘Sleepy Hollow,” “Ed Wood,” “Donnie Brasco,” “Don Juan Demarco,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “The Ninth Gate,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “From Hell,” “Before Night Falls,” “Secret Window,” “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Benny and Joon” and “Platoon,” to name a few.

Most recently, Depp portrayed famed Chicago bank robber, John Dillinger, in Michael Mann’s period heist, “Public Enemies” and is one of three actors selected by filmmaker Terry Gilliam to substitute in the starring role left behind by the tragic death of actor Heath Ledger in “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus”.

Depp will next be seen starring in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Rum Diary.”

Entering just its sixth year, the Bahamas International Film Festival has established itself as a marquee international Festival in the Caribbean region, discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from around the world and showcasing a diverse array of international films.

F.A. Hayek, along with other thinkers and building on the works of other philosophers, put forth the idea of spontaneous order.

Spontaneous order, in a short description: order coming out of seeming chaos that is the result of action and not planning. One example I was once told of is that of a campus. Whereas the location of the buildings and pathways is the result of human planning, those pseudo-paths that form on the grass from people individually walking the path of least distance is the result of human action. Another example is language. Spanglish never had a chance because, as much as a bunch of people wanted to design a language, language is the spontaneous generation of people acting over time. A more familiar, closer example is that of Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand.

An example of a path spawned from human action and not human design.

Spontaneous order is used by some to argue that freer markets are a better way of allocating resources than any central planner could ever dream of. When governments try to disrupt the spontaneous order of society, they risk making things worse. Pouring salt on the wounds, governments try meticulously to solve the problems of disrupting spontaneous order by, you guessed it, disrupting the spontaneous order even more.

I came across a great example the other day of an entity trying to realign spontaneous order after disrupting it. It was in the movie Back to the Future. In it, Marty McFly goes back in time and accidentally makes his mother fall in love with him. This screws up the properties of time and Marty slowly becomes “unborn”. He needs to undo this and get his parents back together. Think of the “Butterfly Effect” here.

Like governments, Marty got in the way of how things were “supposed to happen”. Although most people don’t agree with how things are “supposed” to happen, Hayek would say that the best spontaneous order is the one that happens based on voluntary exchange of individuals in a system with legal equality. Unlike governments, Marty was able to correct the spontaneous order (only to be followed by a myriad of challenges, laughs, and excellent actions scenes in the second and third parts of the trilogy).

Governments, it seems, tend to do the opposite. Austrian economists would argue that all of the world’s ills (ok, maybe not all of them) come from the government disrupting spontaneous order through manipulation of the money supply. But I’ll give a more relevant example: minimum wage. Assume, for just a second, that my thoughts on minimum wage are correct: it creates a surplus of workers instead of its intended consequence of just raising the wage of workers. To combat this unemployment, the government raises welfare benefits which, as any cross-country comparison shows, creates a higher level of the natural rate of unemployment.

Maybe there were too many assumptions necessary for that example to be convincing. But I think you can probably think of an instance where government’s “cure” is worse than the disease – the disease it happened to have created. Plus, I figured it was about time for a more lighthearted post.

I picked up my first book by author Christopher Moore last year after searching related books on Amazon.com. I read the description for Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal and knew I had to pick it up. [I'd advise you to do the same!]

After I read that one, I passed it along to my significant other (who LOVED IT), and picked up Bloodsucking Fiends and its sequel You Suck. I also bought A Dirty Job and read it immediately. My SO also read Dirty Job, and now goes to the library again (thank you, Christopher Moore) and scours bookstores for this man’s books. I look forward to reading The Stupidest Angel this holiday season.

Keep reading for some quick thoughts, and links to connect with Moore online.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

In Lamb, Moore offers readers a satire of Christ’s life from childhood to crucifixion. This novel would probably be considered blasphemous to majority of the American population, so religious readers, beware!

Levi who is called Biff (or just Biff), Christ’s childhood sidekick recounts their adventures and misadventures (quite a few involving Mary Magdalene), many of the latter being the fault of Biff.

The writing is quick and clever, just like Biff, and very well-paced until the last portion of the book. Nonetheless, I still recommend it to any and everyone I think would like it, and attempt to quote my favorite part from memory. [It's the part where Biff is watching MTV in the hotel room and trying to figure out today's slang, just FYI.]

Learn more about Lamb, here.

A Dirty Job
This novel is completely different from Lamb, but still features Christopher Moore’s wacky style. What happens when beta male Charlie Asher becomes a “death merchant”? The book starts immediately with the death of Asher’s wife and birth of his daughter, Sophie, and spans many years. We see Sophie grow up and see Charlie resist his beta male tendencies to take on “dark forces”. What is a “death merchant’? Who in the world is named Minty Fresh? All will be revealed if you read the novel

Learn more about A Dirty Job, here.

***Christopher Moore’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/theauthorguy
***Christopher Moore’s Blog: http://blog.chrismoore.com/
***Christopher Moore’s Website: http://chrismoore.com/

So I’m writing a post from work today because I was going to write it yesterday at home but actually did stuff like clean out my fridge and wash towels instead. I had a really good weekend. Anyway – today I’m going to talk movies that have stuck in my head for the past however long, and I’ll start with the more recent that I’ve watched.

So let it begin.

The Saturday just gone my sister and I watched How To Be because we are total dorks and Robert Pattinson fans (I swear it’s the only thing me and the world agree on). As for the movie, I liked it but found it a little bit painful to watch. Not painful as poor acting, I didn’t mind the acting at all. It hit a little close to home and reminded me of a point of life I feel like I’ve only just come out of and don’t particularly want to run back to. My take on the film was that it was about that point in life where you’re really confused and beginning to finally understand what being an adult is.  I remember talking to my Dad with similar questions to Art with his, and hitting similar realisations. It was a bit Seinfeld and a movie about nothing while also being about everything. I loved the lack of high note it ended on. I loved the character Nikki – that guy made me forget that the movie had Robert Pattinson in it and I couldn’t help but think that guy (that stereotype) is always in Irish Pubs in Brisbane. I thought the friends would have made a really good BBC TV show. I understand why it wasn’t pushed in theatres everywhere and why it was hard to categorise. It’s a strange film that leaves you feeling a little strange. It in part reminded me of I Heart Huckabees with those really strange moments the self help writer would appear under a light that turned on. And when dealing with the mother character in the movie it felt a little bit theatre and less film. I think I liked the pub scene the most, especially when the new boyfriend is nice and starts to list off his awesomeness. I thought the movie really understood the ‘loser’ without really putting judgement on it by making a miraculous recovery into coolness – there was no ‘he got a hair cut and wrote a good song and all was right in the world when you become cool’ ending. And that is all I’m going to say.

Next. Something I watched recently and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about was Happy Go Lucky. I didn’t watch it from the beginning and I missed the end because I had to pick up the husband but what I did see of it I LOVED and can’t stop thinking about it. Again it’s one of those strange movies that are about nothing as far as events go, and I’m not even sure of the message of the movie. All I know is that the driving teacher was spot on – although mine was Scottish so on top of being a little angry about things I couldn’t understand a word he said. I loved the lead character and how she did very odd things, like following that homeless guy (this is the last part I really got to see) to see if she could help because sometimes I find myself following someone to see where things lead too. I like how the lead character giggled all the time and watching her relationships with family and friends – it left me feeling happy. Now when I see Sally Hawkins in other films I always think of her as Poppy in Happy Go Lucky. I really want to see it again, all the way through.

Ok. Next. Away We Go is one of the movies I saw at BIFF this year and again with being stuck in my head, every now and then themes from this movie sneak into my head and I can’t stop thinking about it. I have to say that I really loved this film. If there was a type of film that got made over and over it would be like this. I love real space, real emotion conveyed. I like actors/directors that at least try to be authentic with their stories. I’m not saying being entertained is fun, I love to be entertained too. But I think these films are just as important as books. One thing I found with Away We Go is that it parallels a little bit of how I feel in my life since I’ve have CP with the Husband. We moved here to Brisbane a few years ago but without the intention of settling, so what we have is a life that needs to be settled without the means to do so yet – so I liked that they found theirs. Another thing I loved about Away We Go is that it didn’t feel over styled. You didn’t feel like they were selling a doona cover or wall lamp to you through it, and movies often don’t really offer you that anymore. And like with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (the train hi-jack scene with the light through the trees – the beauty of the movie haunts), the images from the film flick in my head – like the end scene where they look outside from the house, it was beautiful. I hope we see more films explore lifestyles that are different.

Action. Star Trek was really fun and it got my entertained double thumbs up fonz style. I have trouble with time travel films because it gets you thinking about alternative realities and what’s improbable, and because lately I’m feeling very answerless I find those kind of questions a little too much (not to mention I don’t have any education/understanding of those concepts). But the action was great, the cross cultural representation was quite pleasant and could they have picked a better person to play Scotty? I love Simon Pegg. Friends came back from London with Spaced, which was funny but then when his movies started to flood us I was lost to Mr Pegg forever. Back to Star Trek, it was great, cheesy and fun, my only complaint was that it was such an introduction to do a series of films. And Bana as a bad guy was hard for me to deal with after seeing a lot of his butt in the Time Travellers Wife.

Which reminds me. A movie I rented a little while ago and fell in love with was Charlie Bartlett (the lead actor also in Star Trek). I loved this movie so much. I mean it had so many things to comment on but I can’t really think of much right now. Mr Jr. as a principal, hello – best looking principal of all time. Would have totally fantasised about my principal if he’d be anything on Mr Jr., but we had a guy named Fuller who we couldn’t help but draw parallels with Skinner (Australians are the reason the Simpsons still exists I swear, it’s like a religion to us – House of the Simpsons where we pray in ‘Doh’s). I thought the honestly the Mr Jr. brought to his characters’ alcoholism is in part why the man can have such a huge “comeback” (because he has skills – honest to god compelling to watch him skills) and I look forward to buying my tickets and renting his films. My favourite scene in the film had to be when Charlie Bartlett freaked out on Ritalin and played piano in his undies. I totally googled that actor after falling in complete love with the character. I loved Kat Dennings in the film, but I think she’s quite a loveable actor for me. I quite like the girl who represents a girl a little different and I think she held up as Mr Jr’s daughter, there was some honesty to a relationship there without an incestuous vibe (incest vibe: see Heroes and the chemistry between cousins Claire and Peter). Charlie’s house was amazing (love a good house in a film) and the old car he was driven around in reminded me of Wes Anderson stuff. I did find myself drawing comparison between Rushmore and Charlie Bartlett, although they are different. Man I loved Rushmore. Jason Schwartzman is sort of my ideal guy, apart from the fact that he would be way too cool for me to ever know, even when he’s not cool. I mean his family is reason enough of being too cool. His sense of humour is dreamy. I could go with being with a guy that was like him, but the real him would make me feel like a rock next to a mountain. I think I friended him on myspace which is weird. I don’t know why I do that. I like to use myspace to bookmark bands I like but I also seem to have added people like Ashton Kuchter etc. as myspace friends.

And now I’m trying to match myself to famous people I’ll never meet but add (on a strange impulse I can’t explain) to my myspace friends although I’m happily married with a young child and if said actors were standing in a line up with my husband I would always pick the husband because even though sometimes he makes me want to smash him in the head, I passionately love the guy.  So because of the change from poor movie review to devotion of love – I’m going to end my blog before it becomes a fan letter to Jason Schwartzman begging him to never change and lobby for Wes Anderson to make Rushmore 2.

Today we are travelling to South America and Japan. One journey I will take only once, the other I can’t wait to take again.
The Colombian road movie Los Viajes del Viento has two strengths that make up for many of its conventional traits: It never descends into a too typical South American sentimentality and it has the luxury of taking place in a geography that is seldom seen on films. The story is about an old, taciturn accordion master who recently lost his wife, and the young boy who may be his son. The old master wants to travel across the entire country in order to give back his accordion to his master. As legend will have it, he once won the instrument in a duel with the devil. The boy sees apprenticeship with the old man as his only possibility to make something of himself and thus follows his unwilling companion stubbornly through some spectacular landscape and hairy situations.

While beautiful to look at, the film didn’t really stand out in any particular way. You could substitute the old accordionist with, say, a kung fu master, or a literature professor, or any old sage with a special gift to impart on the young, and the basic story would pretty much be the same. And in the history of films, God knows this has been done again and again. The accordion only really comes to the fore in an early duel with a younger braggart in a music contest. Like the rapper’s duels in Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile, the accordion contest consists in psyching out one’s opponent by rhyme and insult while sticking to the chosen accordion tune. It may sound far fetched, but this part of the film really worked.

The travelogue, or road movie, is often an excellent way of highlighting a country’s geography and supporting the local tourist industry. Often, the tourist industry will help finance the film if the country is represented as a series of tourist vistas. This being Colombia, I’m not convinced that the ploy will be entirely successful, but we, the audience, win anyway. Especially since most of us will not get the chance – or take the chance – of visiting the country, I can’t think of a better way to be able to experience Colombia’s breathtaking natural vistas than in the comfort of the cinema chair, where the most immediate danger is an aneurysm triggered by some popcorn-munching moron by our side.

Ultimately, the film is worth seeing for its depiction of nature and the very varied geography – or geology. The stone formations towards the end were a sight to behold, as was the endless salt flats, the village built almost on the lake itself, and the Indian village atop a mountain. I have not seen exactly these sights before and felt fortunate to witness them in this way. The film also strikes up some laconic humoristic moments and I did chuckle a time or two. As for the main plot, I didn’t feel that it resolved itself entirely satisfactorily, but, as is my habit in these posts about films that most have not yet seen, I shan’t be spoiling the end here. The titular symbol of the travelling wind has a double bottom, referring both to the literal wind that has shaped the country and the various wind instruments. There is a scene where the wind blows through a piece of wood with a whistling sound, perhaps telling us that the tradition of these men has its roots in nature itself, in a time before Man, and that all we contribute are complications of that theme.

Hirokazu Kore-eda has made some seven films, not including his TV-work and some short films. Unfortunately not all of these are readily available in the west. His first film, Maborosi, an Ozu-style examination of a young widow trying to find a new lease on life after the loss of her husband , had a limited international run. But it was his second feature, the often wonderful After Life, which made him into a household name, if that house was an art house. (Yes, I know, bad pun…) In 2001 he made Distance, perhaps inspired by the gas attacks of a suicide cult in Japan; the Aum cult’s nerve gas attack on the city’s subway system. Then came Nobody Knows, which got a wider release and was nominated in Cannes and won a number of Asian awards. The story of a group of children left to their own devices after their mother takes off, was a masterpiece of naturalistic acting. Kore-eda directed over almost two years, and the children visibly live in the film. There are scenes in Nobody Knows that should break most hearts that are not already irredeemably broken. In 2006, two years after Nobody Knows, he made Hana, about a samurai who doesn’t really want to be a samurai. He is no good at fighting and wishes he could spend his days helping the poor people of the village in which he takes up residence. His very latest film is Air Doll, about a blow up sex doll that turns human Pinocchio-style. I have not seen this yet, but those that have, comment that it is remarkable in that the film never is exploitative, nor even is interested in the sexual aspects of this offbeat story. The film is more about what it means to be human and the innocence of the non-human in comparison. The first thing the doll learns after becoming human with a beating heart, is to lie.

This lengthy introduction is spurred by my absolute satisfaction with Kore-eda’s penultimate film, made in 2008, and shown this day in the BIFF-festival. Still Walking is perhaps the first perfect film I’ve seen this year. I really can’t find any faults with it. The only film coming near it in quality is the Swedish Burrowing, which I spoke of in a former post. The two films have in common that they are influenced by other directors. In Kore-eda’s case, the spectre of Japanese master, Yasujirō Ozu, is present, but not overwhelming, while in Burrowing, Terrence Malick is perhaps an even more present godfather.

The majority of Still Walking takes place within 24 hours, but including the epilogue, the time covered is three years. The real scope of the film, however, reaches much longer, as both the past and the future is so implicit in these 24 hours, that the film nears an almost general understanding of the human situation, particularly our place in the everlasting links between generations, from the very first to the last. I was most impressed by the way in which the director achieved this generality from a very specific time in a specific family.

A man who has just lost his job brings for the first time his wife, who is a widow, and her son to the annual family reunion. He clearly is not on good terms with his mother and father; “you should call your mother more often“, the father tells him. “I can’t stand listening to all her complaints“, the son answers. The father is a retired doctor who feels useless and socially in a no-man’s land, as he hasn’t anyone to continue his practice, and therefore must still play the role of village doctor himself, even though he is not up to it.

Seemingly, much of the reason for the family’s strained relationship, is that the eldest son lost his life in a drowning accident many years before, while saving a young boy from the waves. This son was the father’s favourite, and is in hindsight made to have represented the hopes for the family’s future. Every time the conversation begins to run more or less easily, the mother mentions some details about the dead son, and the family is thrown back into non-communication.

The reason for the reunion, is indeed that it marks the anniversary for the son’s death. Also present here is a sister with her husband and two children, who the father finds noisy. We can only assume that had the dead son had any children, they would be just as noisy. This is a film where I don’t want to tell much about the plot, as much of the enjoyment comes from gradually piecing together the dynamics of the family and just what has gone wrong in their lives. It is never -apart from the death of the son, which paradoxically has brought them together – the big, life-changing events that make these people be who they are, what they have become. Kore-eda is a master in communicating much bigger truths by very small movements and glances. Sometimes he lets a phrase linger a bit longer than necessary in order for us to grasp not only the context of the phrase, the feeling behind it, but its consequences, insignificant as they may seem before we have the entire picture.

It’s a cliché, but movies is really a universal language. I almost can’t think of better ways for us to see the common humanity between us all, than by immersing ourselves in works by masterful directors like Kore-eda. I felt more recognition in this film than in any Hollywood work I can recall. Nothing sudden or life-changing happens in the film, yet I felt a wiser person after having seen it, perhaps even wanting to be a better person. In this film, the characters don’t have “arcs”, as they evidently teach in Hollywood script classes. The characters that we observe become persons more than characters, and persons, for the most part, don’t suddenly learn something or change just because they have attended a family dinner, even though a number of American Thanksgiving films want us to believe this. They go on with their lives, as best they can, or maybe not even that.

What makes the film magic to me is also a consequence of the characters not only being oblivious to their shortcomings that we as spectators can detect in them, but that they actually go on living as if there never was anything particularly important about the day we have spent with them. They just go on, or as the film says in its title, they are still walking. (This phrase also comes up in a song the grandmother insists on playing on an old record player, and which she says she has a special relationship to. The song so subtly illuminates something of the past of the characters that we don’t quite grasp it before a shot of the grandfather doctor’s later reaction. The world of memories and forgotten times that comes into light here is staggering).

The only hint of sentimentality in the film, is when the unemployed son’s voiceover comments on what has happened in the three years since the family dinner. The words are spoken very matter of factly, but that very restraint is heartbreaking in its seeming neutrality to the lives that are commented. I would love to present the importance of the grandmother’s speech about butterflies and how that speech is reproduced later on, but this is such an integral part of the experience that I must leave it for the individual viewer to assess.

Not only is Kore-eda a master of presenting the social interaction and directing the actors into an almost completely naturalistic style, also his setting of the story deserves some mention. The film is shot in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, a seaside town with streets climbing upwards the mountainside from the sea. Seeing the wonderful locations, I couldn’t help but think of the kind of streets so typical of Studio Ghibli films, particularly Whisper of the Heart. There just is something very magnetic to me about this kind of setting, some serene quality that helps convince me that this site is ideal for the family home, a piece of childhood we all will always carry with us. The lack of the typical features of the big city helps the film to achieve a feeling not only of timelessness, but of placelessness. While very much a Japanese setting, the feeling is more general, of the kind of place that we find beautiful in hindsight, but that we had to move away from. The reasons probably felt important to us at the time, but any place we have lived in our formative years is bound to hold the ghosts of our younger selves in some way or another, still offering us possibilities of who we could have been had we by chance chosen differently.

Again, all this essaying runs the risk of making the film sound as if it could be boring. It is not. In fact, there are many scenes with a wonderful understated humour, not least in the comments by and about the grandmother and grandfather. As in any real grouping of human beings, be it a family or a group of friends, there is humour to be found in familiarity. Kore-eda, being concerned with reality, has the gift of finding the humour that springs from a common humanity, from recognition, even in the idiosyncratic. The actress You (yes, that is her stage name), who played the irresponsible mother in Nobody Knows, here gets the chance to use her quirky personality in a role that never seems as it is an imposed vehicle for her brand of acting. Her presence and comedic (her voice makes me think of a Japanese Meg Tilly) timing is so strong that when she leaves the film, we suddenly feel that we have been deprived of a comforting presence in what is, after all, a scary situation; reality. Or as close to reality as we want to come.

Offering us only a short glimpse into these characters’ lives, Kore-eda still makes us feel as if we’ve known them for a long time. His telling of this story is so effective that, even as we think that nothing very important happens, we get to learn everything that we need in order to fully grasp the situation as well as its ramifications. All the characters are given flesh and blood and lives that are not neatly solved by a contrived Hollywood script. Still, the miracle is that we don’t miss the solution, even though we’ve been indoctrinated to expect it. When all is said and done, we can leave and know that all is not said and it is not done. In fact, the way the characters are not able to come to terms with their shortcomings, or their disability to solve their conflicts, is the very thing that gives the piece such a powerful end. After this film, I really had to take some minutes to let the credits roll before I could or wanted to move. Those were good minutes.

Favourite film of the year without a doubt.

I’m afraid I don’t have a great deal to say about the two films of the day. One of them was good, the other very good. They are both the first feature films of directors I think have the potential to make even better films.

9 is an animated film directed by Shane Acker. He is formerly known only for a short film, also called 9( you can see it by pressing link), which won an Oscar in 2005. I was a big fan of the short film and therefore had my hopes up for the expanded feature version. Unfortunately, the transition hasn’t been to the film maker’s advantage, at least not artistically.

What made the short film 9 such a unique creature was that it threw us smack into a world that seemed familiar and alien at the same time, never offering any explanations for what we saw or why. While having many of the characteristics of a post apocalyptic earth, the protagonist was a rag doll with the number 9 painted on his back. There were no humans in sight. Exploring this destroyed world, he came upon a monstrous creature that started an intense chase of the frail doll. He found a round metallic object that, put properly together, released ghostly forms of other rag dolls who faded away into the ether or afterlife. This was the plot, and I didn’t feel I needed to know more, really. There were no dialogue and this strengthened the pure chase concept. It was certainly clear that Acker had an eye for design and a good understanding of what makes animation work. His sense of movement and gravity in animation was particularly impressive.

For the feature length version, the chase of the short film constitutes the beginning of the film and yes, ghostly figures – souls of the dolls? – are released at the end. In between we have an hour of more chase scenes and so many stock situations that I wondered if the script writers had encountered some paint by numbers guide to how to write trite dialogue for scenes seen a hundred times before.

As in the short film, the character 9 starts out mute, but unfortunately that situation is quickly remedied. As soon as these dolls start speaking American, they lose a lot of mystery, but also intelligence, it seems. All of a sudden they spout feelings that are supposed to sound dramatic or even political, but comes off as something a child would say. And no, this is not intentional. “We must save him! You are a coward! I’m sorry! You can’t hide from reality!” For some reason, the script writers have only been able to think in exclamation points while writing the dialogue. The same heavy-handedness can be found in the plot as well; never offering dilemmas we haven’t seen many times before, spouting Disneyfied sentiments about the importance of sticking up for one‘s friends and reducing everything to a fight between the good guys and the bad guys, with no grey scales. This is where animation studios like Pixar and Studio Ghibli really excels, never going for the easiest solutions or indeed world views.

As the film, then, is never more than a question of getting from here to there, I found myself bored even by the generous amount of action taking place in the plot. What saves the film is that the animation is absolutely gorgeous and that Acker hasn’t lost his eye for design and for making the characters move in exciting and fresh ways. The world he has created is indeed fascinating and had the script been better, especially the dialogue, this could really have been something. As it is it is never more than entertaining, at times it is less.

I think I’ll blame one of the producers, Tim Burton, for this. Hell, I’m feeling magnanimous, I‘ll blame the other producer, Timur Bekmambetov, as well. For one thing, I guess it was Burton who made Pamela Pettler write the screenplay. She also had a finger in the screenplay for Burton’s Corpse Bride, so I assume her presence here is no coincidence. I have a feeling that all my objections to the dialogue should be directed to her, and to Burton. Let me take a moment to explain why I consider Burton poison to the film.

9 would probably not have been made without Burton’s name attached to it, so for that Acker must be grateful. But when did Burton really make a more than passable film? His latest, Sweeney Todd, had its moments, well helped by the dependability of Stephen Sondheim’s wonderful songs. Big Fish is a cinematic atrocity best forgotten. Sleepy Hollow should have been a horror film, but was turned into an exercise in style and quirkiness and never remotely scary. His two stop motion animation films, Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, seem designed only to be different in concept from most mainstream animated features, but are they really that good? Sure, some of Danny Elfman’s music is catchy, but what is really the point of the films? That outsiders have feelings too? Burton is the cosy Goth, never daring to be different enough to be disturbing, intent on turning the borderline strange into the definite mainstream. Has he ever had any meaning behind his films other than the aforementioned call to accept the goth, the freak, the outsider? Subtle, he is not, and intelligence you have to search for elsewhere. After Edward Scissorhands, he should maybe have called it a day, realizing that he had made his masterpiece and not emulate the same formula again and again.

The point to make here, is that while the original short film of 9 retained much mystery and, by necessity of its format, perhaps, allowed the audience to actively make its own interpretations of what they were seeing. After Burton’s hands have fondled the package, every movement now has to be given a reason and that reason is never very interesting when you peel away the, grantedly, spectacular surface. Much like so many of Burton’s own films.

Pretty much all the protests I have directed at Burton’s cinema, I could also send the way of the film’s other producer, Timor Bekmambetov. He as well has made a career on pure surface, seemingly having little interest in what he is actually trying to say, or even accomplish, with his films. Daywatch, Nightwatch and Wanted all look very good, but have so many narrative problems that were they a person, Mel Gibson would seem sane in comparison.
While these big name producers ensured that Acker could bring “his vision” to the big screen, they also ensured that said vision would be severely diluted, turning all mystery into cliché and placing something that had aspirations of being original plump into the safety of the still waters of the mainstream. And that, my friends, is not where you catch the biggest fish, and certainly not the most succulent.

Sin Nombre is a film about people seeking escape because they have to. The young Honduran girl, Sayra, has no prospects in her own country and chooses to set out on the long journey towards USA with her father, who she hasn’t seen for many years. El Casper(or Willy, as he sometimes calls himself) is a young man – or boy – who has pledged his life to a local street gang, seemingly in perpetual war with the rival Los Chavalles. After he kills the leader for a number of reasons, he knows that his life is over, but chooses to make his way to USA as well, on the same train as Sayra. I don’t want to say more about the plot, again not to give away too much.

The director, Cary Fukunaga, has formerly made a short film about the subject of Mexican immigrants dying of overheating in a truck, trying to make their way into USA. However, Sin Nombre, separates itself from a number of films about the crossing over the Mexican/US border by treating USA almost as a MacGuffin. USA is some vague goal that we doubt will influence the proceedings in other ways than to bring the action forward.

The film is as much about the possibility of starting anew in a philosophical sense than in the particular case of USA as the necessary site of this renewal. More than that, it is about innocence and the limits of innocence; the mechanisms that taints us by some sin, some overstepping of a boundary we only realize that we have crossed when it’s too late to go back.

I hear that the director spent some time travelling on top of trains the same distance as the protagonists, in order to get a grip of what they are going through. This, if true, serves the film well, as the train riding scenes seem very realistic, while at the same time offering the director the opportunity to show how evil and good is often a question of the geography of chance.

I should not forget to mention that Sin Nombre works very well as a thriller. It shows us a world we don’t often see and there is not a false scene or sentiment in the film. The guns are primitive, and they don’t make the explosive noise of a Hollywood actioner, but they are just as deadly. And in many ways they are more fatal.

The festival is beginning to take its toll on me, especially as I also have to work during these afternoons, so I only managed to fit in two films in my schedule. By shear chance, both of them were South Korean and both starred the always good Kang-ho Song.

Song is one of Korea’s biggest moviestars, but he also is a very competent and versatile actor, often adding a touch of humour in his roles. I first became aware of him in Swiri (from 1999) by Je-gyu Kang, who five years later made the good war film Brotherhood. After Swiri, Song did J.S.A. Joint Security Area, which was his first collaboration with Chan-wook Park. Park used Song in his next project, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, as well. Park went on to make the internationally acclaimed Oldboy, without Song this time. He gave him a cameo in Sympathy for Lady Vengeance before granting him the undisputed lead in Thirst, which is the first film I saw today.

Thirst is a gorgeously filmed vampire story. For the first hour it is really good, at times exceptionally so. There are scenes we haven’t seen before and the protagonist is definitely not your typical vampire. Song plays a devout catholic priest who becomes a vampire through a tainted blood transfusion after having briefly died as a test subject for an experimental vaccine. He soon realizes his predicament, and not feeling it is a sin, as he didn’t ask for this to happen to him, he considers it an illness and not inherently bad in any moral way. There is initially no big change in his personality and he makes sure that he doesn’t harm anyone in order to procure the necessary quantities of blood, tapping blood from coma victims at the local hospital who are not likely to miss a bottle or two of the red stuff.

Soon, however, he is introduced to Tae-joo, a young woman forced into servitude of her sickly husband and mother in law. The priest, soon to be ex-priest, and Tae-joo begin an erotic relationship which is very well represented in the film. The scenes of love making all seem natural and as a result comes off as truly erotic and not the silly wish fulfilment fantasies of countless Hollywood films. Unfortunately, it turns out that his love is a bit of a femme fatale who uses him for her own ends. From this point in, I felt the film became overlong, dwelling too much on its grantedly beautiful frames, but not advancing the plot in any surprising ways, or at all. I won’t spoil the film, so I’ll limit myself to saying that for me, at least, the film didn’t reach its potential. I saw where the film was heading and it didn’t make any meaningful detours from that direction. As a result, a short trip felt far too long. What made this second half of the film worth staying, was the stellar work of Ok-vin Kim, an actress I’d never heard of before. She really made the character of Tae-joo a full bodied creature, upping the menacing aspects of her arc in the film. I’ll recommend the film with caution, as it is very well made and looks fantastic, with some really breath taking scenes. Just be aware that the recommendation is not unconditional.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird also stars Kang-ho Song. In this film he plays almost an amalgamation of the two characters he has played in the films of my favourite Korean director, Joon-ho Bong. I assume anyone with an interest in Korean films has seen Memories of Murder, in which Song plays a policemen with a temper and some intellectual shortcomings. I personally found this even better than David Fincher’s Zodiac, being a very similar story. Song also played in the environmental monster film The Host, which was a bit of a hit internationally as well. Here he played a well meaning buffoon, possibly short of some marbles.

As The Good, the Bad, the Weird gives Song the chance to essay a character who seemingly has two personalities, he can really let loose with his two most typical screen personas. Song, of course, is the weird one of the title.

The film is directed by Ji-woon Kim, who among others has made the solid A Tale of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life. Kim is a very visually oriented director, often presenting tableaus which are easier to admire than really like, but in The Good, the Bad, the Weird, he uses his considerable talents to give us the purest entertainment this side of Indiana Jones (disregarding the fourth near-abomination). The title of the film makes the countless nods to Sergio Leone quite clear, but more than a Spaghetti Eastern, I felt this was an adventure film, an action film like they don’t make em anymore.

The plot is all a bit of nonsense, with a treasure map serving as a MacGuffin for countless inventive chases and spectacular fight scenes, not with kung-Fu, but guns, cannons and everything that can be fired from a steel tube. In between the action scenes, we get to know the characters just enough to care about them. There is also a sub-plot regarding how Korea has been stolen by the Japanese, and as a result the three protagonists are men with no country, all now making a life lived in the eternal present in a soon to be mythic Manchuria. This gives them the chance to reinvent themselves, something Song’s character has done most successfully, gladly accepting the role as a happy-go-lucky small time thief and adventurer. Again, I can’t say more, as it would spoil a plot point towards the end.

The plot, however is not the important thing here. The unbridled entertainment on display is all that counts. I laughed out loud many times during the film and too often during the action scenes, I found myself sitting with my mouth open for a longer time than is considered proper in polite society. The only thing that was a let down was the ending, which I felt was too abrupt and disappointing in its stock situation. I felt that it was unnecessary to emulate Leone to such a degree at this point. That particular scene can probably never be bettered anyway, so it was a bit of a suicide attempt for Kim to try to get away with it. Be sure, by the way, to watch some minutes into the credits, as some resolution can be found there. Heartily recommended, but not for those who feel that all art should be slow moving, reflective and involve the deeper meaning of life, come hell or high water.

Such a good start of this day! The Swedish Film Burrowing (Man Tänker Sitt) is the first true masterpiece of the festival. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a better (new) film this year. Experiences like this make everything worth it; the amount of mediocrity and pretentiousness (hello again, Un Lac!) one usually has to wade through in order to happen upon small jewels like this. The film is directed by first time directors Henrik Hellstrøm and Fredrik Wentzel. If they stick with their partnership, I can’t but think that we have much to look forward to in the coming years.

This is a small film, both in length and, I presume, in budget. This means nothing more than that every scene is the perfect length, everything the film wants to tell, it tells admirably and with confidence. Hellstrøm and Wentzel has made a true film, in that the sentiments it wants to communicate are not easily reduced to words, but created by images and sound. The result is at times heartbreaking. More than being just a simple back to nature fable, the film lets us see people interacting with other people and how they have each discovered an emptiness in the world that perhaps has no remedy, but that in nature can somehow be reduced. A society needs rules, but when these rules take over each aspect of human interaction, they have a deadening effect on the soul, and personal identity becomes suspect.

I feel that it is difficult to address these issues through formal language, as the very uttering of the sentiment is based on a need to be understood by as many as possible, an agreed upon system. This is where Burrowing so admirably does the job better than I can in this review, as the film is not easily reduced to a clearly delineated argument. Some of the best novels of the world has talked about these issues, the estrangement of man in society is one of the oldest tales and constitutes an important part of what we call tragedy.

The film starts with a quotation of Henry David Thoreau, famous for his Walden, about a man retreating from civilized society into the wilderness, into nature, for two years and two months. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”, he says in that book, which could have been used in the film as well. Instead they use another Walden quotation, from the economy chapter: “The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior“. The film then cuts to a young boy walking along a lake. We hear his voice narrating. This innocent, yet wise in its way, voiceover will intermittently accompany us to the very end of the film. And what an end it is! Damn, if my eyes didn’t fill up… I could write about the poetry of the scene and how well the words illuminates all the preceding scenes we have witnessed, but that would be to deprive you of the pleasure of finding the beauty of the film for yourselves.

As I mention an innocent-sounding voiceover and a longing and fascination for nature, I guess most will come in mind the films of Terrence Malick, and they wouldn’t be wrong. If Malick had been raised in Swedish suburbia, this is the film he would have made. Or something close to it. There is a scene of the boy walking through high grass, or weeds, while his voice tells of his understanding of the grown ups’ world, partly naively, partly containing a wisdom that disappears with the death of innocence, of the Eden of childhood. Soon enough the boy will be put in a suit and forced to nod politely to meaningless conversations about meaningless non-topics. It is at this point he reaches a decision. That decision has to do with the other small tragedies we witness.

One of these is the estrangement in a young man “without direction”, always carrying his baby in his arms. The scene where he changes diapers in a parking lot and is accosted by a well-meaning woman who threatens to report him to the social services seems very real and true. She doesn’t know anything about him, but has a vague feeling that society will punish her if she does not report such an obvious break with society’s norms. The young man is seemingly unable to take “control of his life” and thus has no place in the world of humans.

Then there is the Russian émigré who meant to stay a few months in Sweden, but has now lived there thirty years. He spends his days trying to spear fish in the small brook that runs between the houses. Who are you?, a suspicious neighbour asks him. He laughs, as if he has been told a joke.

There are others, all with a restlessness they seem unable to put into words, even in their own heads. Everyone stretched so thin in the need to show their neighbours “good behaviour”, that something is about to break, to break out into violence or self destruction. I think this is a feeling that is not limited to Scandinavia and their political model of social democracy, although I assume that plays a part in it.

I’ll end my recommendation by talking briefly about the music used in the film. I have never before heard of the composer, Erik Enocksson, but the way his music was used in the film made him an integral part of the experience. He has composed some almost Bach-like polyphonic and beautiful songs. They are very explicitly linked to the theme of the film. I think all the songs are in Latin, and although I’m not exactly fluent, I was able to discern some snippets.
Somnio, somnio, I heard repeated some times, meaning “to dream“, or “imagine follishly“, I think. Other lines were “Hic non serenitas regit”, which I think means something like “There is no peace/serenity here”. Hic qui virem regit, I think can mean “Here where Man – or perhaps Green – reigns“. Non Qui Periculi Imminent must be translated as something like “There is no danger here”. And other lines about wolves and bears, possibly star signs. The final line I was able to work out was Non Spiriti Mali, “there are no bad spirits here“, or something to that effect. I mention these lines as they can tell a bit about the simple, yet complicated feelings that the film addresses.

All this might lead you to think the film is boring. It is not, certainly not if you think that you can contribute a bit yourself to the little plot there is. The film is really put together like a series of situations that are linked by the characters’ mutual discontent, albeit for different reasons. Apart from the wonderful images, there are situations bound to draw a smile or a tear out of recognition. The film will have a Norwegian premiere in November, and hopefully other countries will also be able to see it outside festivals. It deserves a much bigger audience than I fear that it will have. Please see this!

The next film of the day was the Australian claymation film Mary and Max, by Adam Elliot. This is a bittersweet tale of two outsiders, who find comfort and the possibility for a meaningful life in each other’s correspondence. One is a young unattractive Australian girl, the other an older fat New York Jew with Asperger syndrome. The result is a kind of 84 Charing Cross Road for extreme outsiders. The film is by no means as depressing as it sounds, although it deals with depression and many of life’s tragedies and setbacks. In fact, it is very funny. I think the entire cinema was laughing every two minutes. I really liked this, and the animation – or claymation, to be correct – is fantastic. And it’s for adults, so the filmmakers deserve credit for making a film in this format that doesn’t depend on millions of children or unethical merchandising to keep the production afloat. Recommended!

After Mary and Max, I had to go to work, so I was unable to see more films before the last film of the day. This was the Danish Fryktelig Lykkelig, Terribly Happy, directed by Henrik Ruben Genz, most known for his TV-work. Terribly Happy wants to be a Coen brothers film, but is no such thing. A policeman is transferred to the countryside where the local village is peopled by all kinds of weirdoes and the Danish version of Texan good ole boys. The protagonist is a bit of a moron right from the start, and thus his fall from grace doesn’t contain any grace to begin with. This makes for a very bad story, clichéd and contrived. For some reason this was among the most popular films in Denmark last year, even among critics. Don’t, I say, make the same mistake as the Danish. They tell me there is something rotten in that state. Had this film been on TV, I don’t think I’d bothered to watch it through. I guess it is passable entertainment, or rather, hardly even that.

However, even the mediocrity of the Danish couldn’t take away the satisfaction of the Swedish neighbours’ Burrowing. Remember this title, should it present itself to a cinema near you. Or even at some distance.

What an eventful day!

We started off with some tasty shakes for breakfast, and some coloring.(EDIT) I forgot to mention that em was super-excited about this, not only because she loves shakes, but also because she got o be “little chef” and I go to be “big chef”.Then we went to visit great-uncle Biff, and great-aunty Flo. This visit turned into tea, then into lunch, with great conversation. They were really heavy on suggesting I pursue a Master’s before doing anything else (one more option to consider I guess). I had a great chat with aunty Flo about relationships (she’s married off more couples than there are people in Vernon – lol@divorce rates).

Aunty Flo then recruited Em to go explore outside, while I sat down to try and get the sound to work on her computer. I toiled and toiled, and read online forums, and downloaded new drivers – I think I looked for a solution for a good solid hour. I had already checked and double-checked the connections…but there was something I had missed: the cord from the speakers was blue at the end, so I unconsciously plugged it into the blue slot at the back of the comp. Of course, it needs to go in the green slot. Haha, I felt at once a great sense of satisfaction, and yet, a bit sheepish. I later discovered that my aunty Flo had been without sound for a year!!

Em got two great presents (not to mention all the desserts we ate!): a pen that lights-up when you write, and a kinder surprise. Thanking aunty Flo, and hoarding our loot, em and I headed back home. We did some drawing, and then decided to go get pizza. The girl at the pizza place gave Em a free cookie. – which was nice, but em refused to say thank you when I prompted her. She just said “AAsh! I don’t need to say thank you!” which sparked a solid 20 minute lecture on being thankful for the things we get in life. Oh, Em.

Either way, we get our pizza, dig up a movie (Sinbad) and sit down to watch. Em had a bath, then we had milk and cookies, bed time-stories, and some dawn-breakers listening. Then sleep…

…until I wake up, unable to breath for the pluggedness of my nose! Lame. I stayed up for a bit, pumping myself full of honey-ginger hot drink. It really works!

note: we took no pics today!

Due to circumstances beyond my control (work), I didn’t get the chance to see that many films this day. I did, though, have an unpleasant encounter with a member of the film jury, which – if not anything else – convinced me that the winner of the festival’s jury prize will be left entirely to chance and incompetence. I wish the festival leaders had considered their jury choices a bit more carefully. More on this later.

I first became aware of Belgian director Jaco van Dormael with his 1993-film Toto the Hero, which generally got rave reviews and which I liked. I seem to recall that I felt it put an unnecessary sentimentalism to the world of the child protagonist, but I think that was part of its theme. Not having seen the film since its cinema run 16 years ago, I don’t want to compare it with his latest work, which was my first film of the day.

Mr. Nobody is by far his most ambitious project to date. It cost close to $50 million and features at least B-list Hollywood actors. It is filmed at several locations; Belgium, the famous Studio Babelsberg in Germany, in Canada and at several other places. Most of the money, though, must have gone to the impressive special effects which are very, very good. Very complicated fx shots integrate seamlessly with the “real” world and a number of editing tricks and film styles are on display.

The film is not only ambitious from a financial or technical perspective. The story seeks to sum up the entirety of the universe’s existence, and not only this universe. It is at times a period film, a science fiction story and a contemporary love story. It is about storytelling, parallel universes, time travel, religion, immortality and death. Most importantly it is about love.

Jared Leto plays the grown up version of the protagonist Nemo Nobody and he does it well. I think this is his first leading role in a film of this magnitude. Then again, there are not that many films of this scope. In a way I felt the film was never quite only itself, but borrowed from a number of films and from the history of film. Perhaps it had to, but I felt at times that the director had seen the works of other directors he admired and tried to emulate them and, by combining their tropes, hoped to find something personal enough to call his own.
There is a bit of Darren Aronofsky’s the Fountain here, but on an even bigger thematic scale. Kubrick’s 2001 is quoted in some images. In a scene depicting humanity’s pre-existence, the moments before we are conceived, Van Dormael used the Melanesian music from Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line while at the same time putting this music to images of white and black children playing innocently together in a heavenly innocent state. So, in other words, welcome to the beginning of The Thin red Line! The basic concept of splitting destinies – of turning into several future versions of oneself – based on a choice made while standing by a train, is found in the less ambitious Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Sliding Doors. The drowning in a car scene reminded me of Lars Von Trier’s Europa (By the count of ten you will be dead, as Max Von Sydow laconically narrates in that film). In a way Mr. Nobody is two and a half hours awaiting said count. I could go on, but you get the point.

It is not easy to sum up what this film is about. When the protagonist is forced to make a faithful choice at the age of nine (I think), he is separated into two persons, depending on which choice he makes. Within these two possible characters comes a further three choices – which makes it six characters(?) – based on his choice of girlfriend as an adolescent. One version of himself turns out to be a lecturer in astrophysics, who sometimes enters the action to lecture the viewer about the history and philosophy of the universe. He says there are seven dimensions in the universe; six of these are spatial, while the seventh is temporal. He then poses the question of whether the temporal – time – inhabited more than one dimension. (I take this from memory, so forgive me for any inaccuracies!) To complicate matters further, another one of these personalities takes up writing, creating a fictional world that in the film is presented as just as real as the non-fiction worlds. This fiction takes the action to space (to Mars) and the future. However, another future is also depicted in the film, a future where the protagonist is the last mortal human alive (and thus, the last who remembers love and lust; you don‘t need children if you live forever…) There is a point to this, but I won’t discuss it here, so as not to spoil the film.

While the plot of the film seems incredibly advanced and ambitious, to its credit, we are never lost and most times understand perfectly where we are in the story and what is depicted. Actually, I had no problems with the science fiction elements of the tale. They are well thought and very well executioned. It is in the way the film revolves around the concept of love that I feel it loses itself a bit; it becomes a bit too much.

One kind of love that is decisive for Mr. Nemo Nobody is the child’s love for his parents. Another kind of love is the puppy love between nine year olds, then the lustful love between adolescents and finally the emotional, during and at times hard and stressful love between spouses. Put together, this becomes a whole lotta love, as the song says. Now, if the love theme had been presented a bit more smartly, I wouldn’t have any problems with it. (While it is presented in a complicated tale, this doesn’t make the kind of love on display any more “intelligent” or new to the viewer). Especially irritating is the extremely cliché ridden music the director has chosen for the soundtrack. There are just so many times you can hear Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream… Almost every scene has music that has been used so often before in films that it brings you as a viewer out of the film’s universe and at least I began pondering boredom and references rather than the action taking place before me.

Another unfortunate effect of the music has to do with its placement. When the protagonist as a young boy sees a girl his age, nine, swimming, a lusty soul-number is played, thus turning her into a kind of sex object. This is disturbing and can’t have been the director’s intention. While he wants to tell us that the protagonist falls in love at this moment, there must surely be better ways to sonically enhance this element!

Then there is the fact that all of Nemo’s love stories revolve around three girls that he meets as a young child. I find it a bit far fetched that these same girls shall also be his only interests in adolescence and in marriage. The film is, then, not only about premeditation, but about an emotional stiltedness, as if Nemo doesn’t really evolve during the film and this is the reason for his future being so clearly delineated into his separate possible selves. The name Nemo, by the way, does not refer to the captain of the Nautilus. You’re better served by reading it backwards.

In closing, I’ll venture to say that the word ambitious will surely be used in pretty much every review of this film. (It wasn’t finished in time for Cannes, so it hasn’t been shown that many places yet). While it is certainly intricate, it ultimately doesn’t convince me. While I’m perfectly willing to take any leaps of logic that the film requires of me, I’m not sure that it ultimately adds up. I have a strong feeling that there are internal discrepancies within the fantastic logic. This should have been worked out a bit better, but I think I will need to see the film a second time to really pinpoint these errors. (And the ones I could point out would ruin the ending, so I’ll refrain).The problem is that, as much as I admired the film for what it’s trying to do, it was just a bit too long and ultimately not all that it could have been, so a second viewing will probably not take place in the immediate future. But if you are in the mood for a lengthy love story told in a brilliant technical style and with a basic sience fiction concept underlining it all, by all means take a chance on the film! I think it deserves an audience and it is without doubt a much better film than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was half the rave at this year’s Oscars, and which it also shares some sensibility with. Being the better film of the two, I’m also sure that it won’t find half the audience of Fincher’s unfortunate detour into drivel and mediocrity.

While Mr. Nobody may be flawed, it is at least interesting enough for me to have given it more attention and space than most films. This is more, much more than I can say for the next film I had the misfortune to attend this day. I guess I should have seen the warning signs; it being French the clearest.

Un Lac – A Lake – is a minimalist work about an epileptic boy, his sister and family in an unknown wintry location. This is the second film as writer/director for Philippe Grandrieux, his fourth as director. On this film, he also serves as cinematographer, so he is an auteur in the real sense. The problem is that he is just not a very interesting one. Most of the actors are, for some reason Russian, and it is filmed in France and Switzerland. And the landscape does seem wonderfully oppressing and beautiful at the same time. That is, if any of the images had been in focus. (The images of the brother and sister found to the left are pretty much the only two clear images of the film)

Grandrieux uses a handheld camera style that is extreme in its use of closeups and movements following the characters so closely that we are supposed to see the world as they themselves do. The mother of the family is blind, though it took me some time to decipher this. Many of the scenes are filmed in near darkness and the ones that are not are foggy and out of focus. The brother has a close relationship with his sister, possibly incestuous, but I was never able to tell for sure. His epileptic fits grows in frequency. He is at times very happy for no apparent reason, at times he is moody. One day he is by the cold lake that seems to be the only contact with a wider world. A young man arrives. He says his name is Jurgen. Soon this man starts a relationship with the sister and finally they sail off on the same lake. This is the film. Or what I managed to see of the film.

Do not misunderstand me. I have no problems with challenging films, be it in narrative or in film style. This film, however, is ridiculous, very boring and unbearably pretentious. The dialogue is almost non-existent. Perhaps this is a good thing, for when they speak, they speak platitudes. “You are my sister”, the brother says. Then he adds: “I am your brother”. Yes, well, you had me at sister…

Of course one can read something symbolic out of the minimalist setting and action. The more minimalist a work is, the easier to regard it as symbolical of something. But here even the symbolic meaning is trite and clichéd. Perhaps the director wants to deal with archetypes, with a biblical simplicity. If so, he fails miserably. Is he interested in hidden pockets of humanity, of humanity’s place in an unforgiving and uncaring nature? Well, he doesn’t come even close. Perhaps he wants to talk about female sexuality and awakening. If so, he says nothing new and certainly nothing of interest. – If you want an arty film about this, watch Picnic at Hanging Rock again! You will be grateful for it. Do not waste your time with Un Lac. With the basic setting of these characters in this kind of nature, you have to be pretty incompetent not to make it even slightly interesting or even beautiful even in a harrowing sense. Unfortunately, competence has no place here.
It strikes me that writing even disparagingly about the film, I make it sound better than it is. Give me a camera, this location and these characters and I would have made a better film. Look away, there is nothing to see here! By the way, this was a film I had high hopes for and that I really wanted to like. More the fool me.

Jeg er vel ikke et gjennomført motemenneske, det kan alle se. Ihvertfall av og til. De dagene jeg hiver på meg løse bukser, hettejakke og skjerf. Da er det nesten som om jeg kunne minne om en litt “troubled kid” som tilbringer mye tid på gaten. Komfort og varme er de tingene jeg legger vekt på de dagene.
Men så finns det de dagene hvor sminken legges med nøysomhet og følelse, hvor assesoirene velges ut med omhu og toppen må ha perfekt passform. Det er slike dager man får når man går på BIFF og ser “the september issue”, dokumentaren hvor de følger den beryktede Anna wintour og hennes staff mens de lager den viktigste utgaven i året!
Filmen var fascinerende og veldig morsom. Skaperne av filmen klarte å fange oppførselen og arbeidsmåtem til Anna på en måte som gjorde at jeg trodde på dem. De er ikke umeneskwlig, det er arbeidet deres! Men selvfølgelig, når man sammenligner med dramaet “the Devil wears prada” blir jo alle menneskelige. Menneskene ble ikke framstilt på en fullt så svart-hvitt måte. Her er det kudos til filmskaperne for det er det ikke alle dokumentarer som får til.
Filmen, da den ble vist på biff i går, ble introdusert av den bemerkelsesverdige t Michael som også viste oss en kortfilm som ham hadde laget med skuespillere som ikke er skuespillere fra Bergen. Alt i alt em veldig fin fredags kveld!

For Day two of the festival, I dragged myself out of bed after about five hours of sleep to watch Iranian film About Elly by Asghar Farhadi. I still haven’t quite recovered after the lack of sleep, so I am very tired as I write this. The comments will thus be brief.

While initially giving the impression of a feel-good drama about three couples – plus one in the offing – vacationing at the Iranian sea side, About Elly changes gears midway, becoming something closer to a crime film. While some of the characters’ dilemmas are related to cultural codes, they are so never to the extent that they feel unfathomable for a westerner. If anything, one of the joys of the film is seeing Iran from a very different perspective than the media normally will offer us. In a way, the film seems unifying in that it stresses common human frailties and our common capacity for making mistakes. Focusing on relationships that have the same kind of dynamic the world over, the film seems much more true than any well meaning documentary about the infamous axis of evil. Thus, eliminating any us versus them theme, the viewer can be free to follow the story and empathize without feeling that he does so through a cultural lens. The film treats well how small lies can build into something graver. None of the characters are evil, they just don’t realize the consequences of these small trespasses of honesty. In this, they are not alone.

Later in the day, after having slept an hour, I caught Dutch director Alex van Warmerdam’s latest quirky film, The Last Days of Emma Blank. This is very much a black comedy. I found myself thinking of the Coen brothers quite some times during the film. While having no moral centre – or indeed any wider meaning outside its strange little universe – there is a weird truthfulness in the way the film presents its characters and situations. I especially liked the director’s role of Theo, the man who is forced to play the role of dog in the freakish family dynamics. While the situations are exaggerated, the characters live them with straight faces, making the outlandish seem positively indispensable and logical. Everything makes perfect sense within the film’s universe, I’m just not sure the film offers more than the satisfaction of seeing a well executed plot and a good time at the movies. Granted, a very good time.

Later in the evening, I felt I deserved some Hollywood entertainment after considering the art house alternatives. Funny People, Judd Apatow’s third outing as a feature director, was surprisingly good. In fact, I liked it a lot. Lasting almost two and a half hours, this comedy-drama is rather longer than the genre normally allows. Luckily, the film easily supports the extra padding. Adam Sandler is the comedian who is told that he has a rare form of cancer and who, facing death, realizes the emptiness of his life – and perhaps of life in general. Sandler handles this role very well, bringing a bitter naturalness to the part. The film has more good jokes than ten normal comedies and has a heart and intelligence seldom seen in the genre. I liked Apatow’s first outing, The 40 Year Old Virgin, but was not quite won over by his sophomore film, Knocked Up. Funny People is an unequivocal improvement on both these films. If Apatow can continue to deliver films of this quality, he will be the most important comedy director of the last twenty years, and possibly of the next ten.

One of the more freaky doggy treats I’ve bought so far.

Bergen International Film Festival tries to market itself as a documentary festival. However, the program sports plenty of fiction films as well. Some of these are the usual festival circuit films; i.e. independent films and foreign films with small chances of a wide distribution. And then there are early premieres of films that will see a regular distribution later on, normally Hollywood films or films directed by relatively big art house names.
I admit that I’m not a big fan of documentaries per se. In my experience, it’s seldom that a documentary manages to be original either in subject matter or in execution. And I’m so, so tired of Michael Moore. I have enjoyed some of the work of Errol Morris and the occasional other documentary, but films like Super Size Me just seems a dumbing down of subject matters best left for newspaper articles. Often documentaries struggle to escape their talking heads format and even more often they are extremely self important, seldom if never allowing competing realities in their narratives. This works in propaganda, but a good documentary would often be better with a bit of balance in its presentation. For some reason documentaries generally get better reviews than fiction films even though they can be just as trite in execution as well as in choice of topic.

I was initially disappointed upon glancing through this year’s program, but after some rumination, I have picked some 25 films that I plan to see. I don’t expect every one of these to be masterpieces, but it would be nice if at least 2 or 3 of them will cut the mustard.

Yesterday, day 1 of the festival, I started what will surely be a more or less exhausting cinematic week by catching Terry Gilliam’s latest personal project; The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. While overlong and probably plagued by the death of Heath Ledger towards the end of the filming, I liked this. It is certainly much better than the work for hire he did in the Brothers Grimm. Perhaps Gilliam could have needed some script revision from, say, a Tom Stoppard, who whipped Brazil into shape, as Gilliam left to his own devices can be a bit much whimsy. I hate to say it, but as much as unbridled imagination is what gives Gilliam’s films their particular qualities, a bit of streamlining on the plot-side of things would probably have helped the film. The risk is always that his films can lose some of their Gilliamness in this way, but perhaps that wouldn’t have to be an unqualified bad thing. There are scenes here, though, that make me excuse much of the meandering in the dialogue and the “real world”-segments, and the actors are all very fine. Just don’t expect a Twelve Monkeys kind of hit, as this is a more idiosyncratic feature.

The documentary Reporter, by Eric Daniel Metzgar follows the New York Times journalist/columnist Nicholas D. Kristof to Congo. It attempts three things: To be a kind of portrait of Kristof, to examine his methods of reporting atrocities/catastrophes and finally to question whether this kind of reporting has a future in the modern world of media with cut backs and less resources for this kind of journalistic enterprise. While it is impossible to remain unmoved by some of the things we witness in the film, I have to say that it misses all three of its aims. We learn little about the journalist; apart from a brief biographical sequence early on. The film seldom asks the eponymous reporter any illuminating questions and his reasons for which places to go, what cases to report, as well as his personal stance and reflections, never quite comes into focus. As for his methods, at one point the film maker says that he has begun to question Kristof’s insistence upon finding the worst cases in order for his readers to maximize their sympathy with the sufferers. That is the only critical question in the film, and it is not even put to the Kristof himself. Tellingly, the director never picks up this thread later on.Thirdly, the part of the future of journalism is kept to two sentences lasting about thirty seconds at the very end of the film, and are put there almost as an afterthought. Needless to say, in that time it would be impossible for anyone to say anything that would be news to most people. I’d suggest you see the last season of the Wire, flawed as that season is, for more insight into this matter.

In a way I found this film to represent many of the things I dislike about the documentary genre, particularly documentaries that try to say something about human rights, relief or third world problems: It is so easy to show us images of starving people and make us vicariously suffer. And certainly I found myself touched by the destinies we meet. However, I don’t know if this makes for a good film. Kristof has received much acclaim for being an insistent reporter; even though a crisis is out of vogue or has been reported upon many times before, he continues to press the matter home, reporting on many similar incidents that, by themselves, are perhaps not news in the hard news sense. In his quest to do so, he tries to find those special cases that can sum up the larger suffering of a people in the extreme suffering of single victims – of starvation, war or usually both. I would at least venture to suggest that this method is not without problems; perhaps even unethical both in a human and journalistic sense. Kristof claims that the end justifies the means: to activate “the people back home”, the readers of his articles. I won’t say that he’s wrong, but surely it would be worth looking into while making a documentary of this type! As it turns out, the film only serves as an extension of Kristof’s own methods and concerns, and as such it presents itself as something which it is not, which only makes the single line of objection in the film pathetic and dishonest.

After the horrors of Kongo, I found myself in need of some escapism, and what better way than a celebration of some of the most tasteless films ever made? OK, I exaggerate for effect. The documentary Not Quite Hollywood charts the so called Ozploitation wave of the 70s and 80s. The Australian film industry was almost non-existent until the late 60s, when more or less shady characters began to produce B- or C- films with cheap titillation as its main effect and goal. After a while Australia got a reputation as a serious film industry with films like Peter Weir’s wonderful Picnic at Hanging Rock and Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant. Concurrent with these artsy and serious period films, there thrived a sub-industry based on lowbrow humour, tits, gore, ridiculous action and over the top car scenes. This, as you have guessed, is what Not Quite Hollywood is about.
As a documentary, the film is no great shakes. Various talking heads talk in 10 second snippets, offering the odd anecdote, but never any real reflection. This is interspersed with a generous offering of short scenes from the films mentioned. Quentin Tarantino is there, of course, Mad Max-director George Miller, Wolf Creek’s Greg McLean and most of the players of the time, including Brian Trenchard-Smith, perhaps the biggest name of Ozploitation. In a way I felt as if this could be the extra features on a DVD disc; any DVD of the films “discussed”. While never pretending to be more than a presentation of the type of films of the Australian exploitation scene, the film is pleasant enough and entertaining – at least for those with even a marginal interest in the subject matter.

While we honestly love what we do (hey, we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t), it’s still safe to say that some projects have a bit more fun sprinkled in them than others. The recent posters, landing page, and YouTube channel update we did for the Buffalo Film Festival was exactly one of those projects. Not only was it a true group effort on the part of the SI design team, it was fantastic to work on a light-hearted campaign rife with geographic stereotypes.

But it’s OK, one of our own is a Buffalo native.

Let us know what you think of the campaign in the comments:

Buffalo International Film Festival poster campaign - click to view larger.

Buffalo International Film Festival Landing Page Concept

Buffalo International Film Festival YouTube Channel

Jennifer Soloway [follow me on Twitter]
Art Director
Strategic Insights

I dag har det gått i ett, og skoene mine ble drept av byens mange brosteiner. Hat prosjekt, jeg lover, men heldigvis skulle jeg møte Aina på cafe spesial og der sitter man jo stort sett stille…. Da maten var slukt oppdaget vi en BIFF brosjyre på naboboret og bestemte oss for å se filmen som skulle begynne om 20 minutter på kinoen som lå lengst unna. Kan fortsatt ikke tro at vi rakk det og faktisk fikk biletter. Hurra!

Fimen var Vietnamesisk og het Choi Voi (Drifter i drift) og var av typen herlig sær. Uten å avsløre for mye må jeg få påpeke at kamphanen som er med burde få sin egen film. Jeg har ikke ord, men ser ett potensielt kjæledyr i dyret, selv om Aina sier det er ulovlig i Norge.

Jeg dør litt…! Vanja laget (etter mitt ønske) Lille-My frisyre på hesten sin Eldmax, og jeg konkluderer med at det er det stiligeste jeg har sett på lenge. To lange ører og en knott med hår midt i mellom, fantastisk bra!

I dag har jeg shoppet disse sorte “loffene” til Kristian. Sånn at han har noe å ha på bena ute Skulle egentlig kjøpe tørketrommel i dag, men de hadde jo ingen inne Så da prøver vi lykken neste helg:) Så hvis dere har anbefalinger til tørketrommel kom med dem skriv gjerne hvorfor

Nå skal jeg lage pepperbiff med fløtegratinerte poteter og grønnsaker til kvelds. Nam nam….

Hva gjør dere i kveld?

Ha en flott kveld alle sammen