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Monday, March 22, 2010
CIFF: Day 4
Yesterday we started out – once again – with the 11AM block. We saw Ingredients, which was a film addressing sustainable and high-quality produce. It kind of introduced the idea of food as, well, food, rather than a commodity. I found it really interesting, especially the part where it was part of the “Local Heroes” sidebar but 3/4 of the footage is of places nearish to Portland, OR. Made me kind of homesick, actually. That aside, it also made me incredibly hungry and kind of made me want to start a garden this year, even though we live in an apartment and don’t have any garden space. I feel like the film could have put more of a focus on what we, as consumers without the access to things like this, can do to help create opportunities to have fresh, high-quality ingredients. I mean, we’ve been to the West Side Market, and I have to be honest – many of the booths there don’t seem to be peddling very good produce. I also felt like the film was a bit preachy without any direction and a bit pretentious in spots. You won’t win anyone with pretention! I think that was some of the individuals who were interviewed more than the film itself, though. Obviously the film got me thinking about things, which I liked. It was a pretty good film, even with its flaws.
After that, we had another documentary, which I had high hopes for. Turtle is pretty popular; popular enough that they added another showing on the second Saturday. And that’s great! I thought, cool, a documentary about sea turtles! Yeah, uh. Well. It was really slow. Lots of downtime just watching the turtles, I dunno. Swim. I think if it had been cut down to about half an hour instead of an hour and a half, the film would have been much more engaging. Both Johnathan and I felt like it would be right at home at The Living Seas at Epcot. But we also both almost fell asleep during it at its current length. I’ll be totally honest: I’m not sure I get the hype over it. But it wasn’t bad. I guess you could call it anticipointment.
Then we had a bit of a break and headed to see Accident, a Chinese thriller film about orchestrated “accidents” for pay. Essentially, hits designed to look like freak accidents. It was slow in spots, but kept me feeling engaged throughout. There were some things that went unexplained that I think I got a handle on, but I’m uncertain. Maybe that’s the point. I liked it – would definitely recommend it, though I wouldn’t say it’s a “must-see”.
Our next film was supposed to be Divided We Fall, but after seeing Cosy Dens and realizing that there was a level of knowledge that we were missing in order to fully understand it, we decided to skip it. It was by the same director and while I’m sure it was good (Cosy Dens didn’t suck, after all), I didn’t want to go into a film that we weren’t positive we’d like. So at the last second, we ran to get in line for My Heart Goes Hadippa. Everyone I’ve overheard talking about it has called it a Bollywood Extravaganza, and it totally lives up to the title. It was entertaining and silly – and I think it knew it was a little bit ridiculous and that made it all okay. Johnathan has said it’s the shortest 2.5 hour film he’s ever seen. It was meant to be shown with an intermission, but they skipped it so that it would fit into the film block. I don’t regret making that last-minute change of plans. I loved the film.
Because we changed plans, we ended up missing our original pick of Disco & Atomic War by about 10 minutes. (It started at 9PM, but even though we booked it out of the theater before the credits even started rolling, we didn’t get out until 9:10.) So, rather than rudely go into a theater with a film already in progress, we decided to catch another one. We went to see Will You Marry Us?. It’s a Swiss film, and they spoke German (mostly) throughout, which we both found interesting. Not because they were speaking German, but because of how different it sounded from the German I’m used to hearing, which is primarily the northern German accent from, well, Germany. The film itself was really nice. It really was a fairly typical romantic comedy where things build and build until the crux of the film, then there’s that moment where you think things are done for good, and then it all works itself out. It was a feel-good movie. It was a nice way to end the night.
All in all, I’d say Sunday was a good day. I managed to misplace my Powell’s literature water bottle that Allison gave to me, and the hospitality headquarters (and everywhere else) were insanely crowded, but it was not at all a bad day. Onward to day 5!
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