Flix in the Wet

Since the traditional outdoor and deckchair cinema cannot continue to screen its movies during the wet season and we will have to wait until the rains disappear entirely in April, they take the opportunity of slow Mondays to rent a screening room within the Darwin Cinema to run private (but public) sessions. Yesterday I went to see the impressive anime entitled 'Waltz With Bashir' which is an obsolute must see. The unexpected insertion of real footage from the Sabra and Chatillah massacre right before the closing edits is a moment difficult to digest but leaves you with food for thought for hours and days and weeks.

Les Plages d'Agnès

Agnès! What an incredible woman. I have not seen so many of her movies / documentaries but every single time I do I am in love with her work. Everything she does is done with so much humility and kindness. This latest movie, still showing in quite a few cinemas, is a kind of autobiographic documentary on the eve of her 80th birthday. She gets to share a glimpse of her life that saw her moving from the beaches of Knut-Le-Zout to New York. She witnessed so many Art movements and Artists. Most of them now dead. That is the emotional element of the movie but it is with pleasure we cross the path of individualities as different as Jim Morrison, Catherine Deneuve, Jim Morrison or Yolande Moreau. And of course the biggest emotion comes along with every mention of her late husband, Jacques Demy. If it had not been issued last year this could easily have been my movie of the Year!

Arthouse Movies

I just saw two very good movies back to back. I always enjoy it to ‘discover’ movies I had never heard about before. As I go there with no expectations I am rarely disappointed. First we went to the Flix festival in Darwin yesterday to watch the latest Claude Lelouch movie entitled ‘Roman De Gare’. What a plot!? I have always been a bit wary of Lelouch and don’t remember actually liking any of his movies. It’s probably due to the fact that I went to watch ‘Les Uns et Les Autres’ when it came out and let me tell you it was a real torture for a 12 year old kid. Maybe I would appreciate it now but I can’t face the idea of watching it again. As a result, ‘Roman De Gare’ came as real revelation. I would never have suspected it was a Lelouch movie.
Tonight was a completely different atmosphere, far from the twists and actions of yesterday’s flick. ‘The Band’s Visit’ is an amazing account of an Egyptian musical police band lost in a desolate Israeli town. It is based on a true story and I decided on it simply on the ground of the last lines of the synopsis: “Not many people remember this story, It was not that important”. I knew I would be in for a special story indeed!

Black Balloon (at Nova Cinema)

It is interesting how small things can turn a little movie into a great one. I just saw the Australian flick called ‘Black Balloon’ and it was very funny and heart-warming. A coming of age story about fitting in, discovering teenage love and accepting your family. The choice of actors, the choice of filming angles, the set-up, everything made this movie extremely touching. The whole project could also have turned sour because of the subject – the main character being autistic – but you can’t keep bearing a smile all through (to the exception of a few tears here and there). Highly recommended.