Where the !@#$ is my password to redeem my FlexiPass tickets for the Sydney Film Festival.
2 (TWO) days ago I called Ticketmaster to book my FlexiGold* pass ($375). I was told they will email a confirmation (they did not), I called the next day to get a reference number (that the guy forgot to give me on the phone). He said it would take up to 2 days for them to send me a password so I can redeem the tickets for films. Like hello - get with the program!
Because I am a-n-a-l, I have already done some research into this year’s Sydney Film Festival. The program isn’t launched until 8 May. Firstly, if you are so fortunate to be able to take 2 weeks off work and watch films all day and night, you can buy the daytime and evening subscriptions. You can even have a reserved seat at the State Theatre for the whole festival. How I would love if I could do that! AND How I would love if every cinema had reserved seating. I’ll probably get the FlexiPass 20 for $250 ($12.50 per film), although the FlexiGold (40 + 10 bonus weekday daytime) for $375 ($7.50 per film) represents even better value! Finally, you are able to redeem your Flexi passes online this year. Did the SFF organisers not realise how much it sucked to have to go into a ticket office, in person, to redeem the flexi passes??? The SFF sent out a survey at the end of last year (and you all know how much I love a survey) but it was crap because it was in PDF format. You were supposed to fill it out and send it back. I tried to type into the editable pdf but it got all screwed up.
Anyway - there is a sneak preview of a few things in this year’s program and one has already caught my attention:
Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story
Packed with interviews, archive clips (watch out for a pink-suited Otis Redding blowing the socks off a London audience) and reams of fabulous music (Booker T and the MGs, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes and more), Respect Yourself tells the unbelievably rollercoaster story of Stax Records.
Well we finally saw Transformers - the movie. Something that Dave had been looking forward to for a long time. Family and work commitments had postponed seeing this for quite a few weeks. We had seen about 3 different trailers for the 9 months before it opened, many many times. Nothing like showing off your new tv with a hi-def Hollywood trailer. I enjoyed this film much more than Spiderman 3. Normally schlock-busters are off the list but I’m glad I saw this on the big screen. The acting was much more “believable”, the main teenage character (new hottie on the block Shia Labeouf) was great as the owner of a car that turns into an alien robot - “…who knew?” and at least the “heroine” wasn’t blonde. The Transformers were pretty cool too, Megatron was very scary! Warning - it is a bit long (about 2 and a half hours) but there was enough action to sustain my attention. Unlike S3 where I was like, when is this movie going to end? Rozie rating 4 stars out of 5.
The Bridge - A structure of great majesty, the Golden Gate Bridge is also the most popular suicide destination in the world. Throughout 2004, director Eric Steel and his crew filmed the bridge during the day from two separate locations.
I found this doco to be a bit disturbing. Basically the film showed people killing themselves by jumping off the bridge, then interviewing those family & friends left behind. It made me feel uneasy watching this footage and waiting for them to do it. Did you notice a recurring theme in my film festival program this year? I was amazed that it is so easy to jump over the bridge, unlike the Sydney Harbour Bridge which has a high fence and barbed wire. Suicide is such a tragic thing, for some reason I wanted to hear from a “professional” mental health worker as well as the personal opinions on the matter in this film. Luckily I had Ms JW’s semi-professional views to consider afterwards. So that’s it for the Sydney Film Festival for another year, I really enjoyed the trip.
Control - Celebrated photographer and music video artist Anton Corbijn’s highly anticipated biopic about the late Ian Curtis, the enigmatic lead singer of iconic English post-punk band Joy Division, was selected to open Directors Fortnight at Cannes this year.
I was really looking forward to this one and luckily I am a-n-a-l and bought my tickets early because all the sessions for Control have sold out. Someone from the film festival announced that they had received the film reels direct from it’s premiere at Cannes but unfortunately one of the reels (number 3 of 4) was missing!!! This caused a bit of grief in the audience until she said that they had managed to get a digital version of the missing reel. There was a change of screen format during the screening but it didn’t really matter as they wouldn’t have been able to show the movie without it. All those old school indie trainspotters would have started a riot!
Everyone knows what happens at the end (except one girl who was bawling at the end, maybe she didn’t know what happened to him - what a surprise that would have been), so it made it a bit tense waiting for Ian Curtis to kill himself. Sam Riley who plays Ian Curtis does a great job (he is also very hot), though not as intense as Sean Harris‘ Curtis in 24 Hour Party People. This compelled me to watch a bit of 24 Hour Party People as soon as I got home. It was interesting to compare the same characters played by different actors. I have to admit that I like New Order much better than Joy Division, but it was a great story and beautifully shot in black & white.
These are the films we checked out on the Long Weekend.
A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory - director Esther Robinson’s attempt to uncover what happened to her uncle, Danny Williams, who was Warhol’s lighting designer, lover, and a promising filmmaker before his unexplained disappearance in 1966. Continuing with the Australian Rozie Andy Warhol bender I am on, it was great to see this doco on Danny Williams. It did feel a bit long and dragged out at times but the archival footage of the Factory crew and seeing what some of the Warhol stars look like now was interesting. These were the beautiful, young, cool, underground NYC posse of Andy Warhol and now they are old, balding, fat, hairy and not quite right, with major memory loss and bitter egos.
The Blood of Yingzhou District - Produced by the China AIDS Media Project which was established to help spread AIDS information, Yang’s extraordinary film won this year’s Academy Awards® Documentary Short Subject category. This is a very depressing subject, the doco follows orphans in a poor village in China, some with HIV contracted from their parents who sold their blood as a means to survive and ended up with AIDS due to the negligence of the illegal blood collectors. I was in tears in the first minute! It does end hopefully, with the charity involved able to get these children more help, care and medication. The husband of the director was there to answer a few questions at the end which was enlightening. He said that they haven’t been able to show this doco in China itself yet but they’re working on it. Also most of the illegal blood collectors have been caught and punished (maybe even executed).
Please Vote For Me - A class of eight-year-olds in China undertake an experiment in democracy. Three candidates are selected and quickly learn the techniques required for success: lying, defamation and bribery. This was hilarious, kids will be kids even when they are being guided and/or coerced by their parents! Apparantly, it was the first time the concept of “democracy” was taught in a primary school in China.
Still Life - Shot on location at the flooding of the Three Gorges Dam, this Venice award-winner is a meditative work in which documentary and fiction merge, producing a painterly, narrative flatness. Jia’s digital camera lingers on the dangerous exploits of the workers and the incredible terrain as much as it follows the loose stories of a man who returns to look for the wife he abandoned and a woman looking for the husband who forsook her years ago. This was also very good, it was a bit s-l-o-w (luckily a 10am session, rather than a late night one), but I found it to be very touching and moving. I also took along my dad and aunty - they don’t need to read the subtitles! Usually dad prefers more action (martial arts, Hollywood schlockbusters etc) or nature documentaries, he said it was good but a bit slow too.
1 and a half stars (out of 5).
I just didn’t enjoy it. The acting was cheesy, especially between Peter Parker & MJ. The supposed “dark-side” was just light weight emo-side. I couldn’t stop laughing at the Sandman guy who was on Ned & Stacy and in Sideways - he looked so “comic book hero”. There were some exciting “action” parts but overall, I wasn’t impressed. now, Batman Begins… that was dark!
I went to these gigs:
Pet Shop Boys at the Hordern Pavillion - Hey it was Good Friday, nothing else was open. Lots of gay men young and old, and a few women in their 30s. Obviously rejects from the 80s. Lots of hits and memories, quite few new songs which I didn’t know but the costumes, dancers and visuals made up for it. See photos here.
John Mayer at the Sydney Entertainment Centre - a last minute freebie from my bro and seated 12 rows from the front. He was very “pleasant” or shall I say, “Middle of the Road”, but he was on Chappelle’s Show once, so he must be cool. Everyone around me was loving it and knew all the words to the songs. I know the one he did with Herbie Hancock (Stiched Up)and the one “about his body being a temple” (It’s actually called “Your Body is a Wonderland”) which he didn’t sing. When he did one of his fancy guitar solos - the audience went wild. I just don’t get the glory of the guitar solo! I guess I was brought up on DJs and turntable tricks as an impressive live performance. Ben Kweller was the support, he was good in a twangy guitar/country/blues/white boy kind of way.
The jazz legend Herbie Hancock - at the State Theatre. The night it pissed down with rain and I was ankle deep in water, but anyhoo it was fantastic to see Herbie live in concert. He was definitely one of the musicians I needed to see before I die (or he died). He started with a classical piece which was really ambient and slowwwww. It lasted about 25 minutes and I was hoping the whole show wouldn’t be like that. He came out and spoke to the audience numerous times which was great. He has a personality, a sense of humour and a strap—on keyboard. He played some awesome tracks with his wonderful guitarists and drummer. The only lowlight was the version of I Just Called to Say I love You, which he did on the Possibilities album. It’s such a cheesy song, he could have picked any other Stevie Wonder tune.
The flicks I saw this month were:
Rock the Bells (5 stars) - a freebie from FBi radio about a hip hop festival in LA which tried to get the whole Wu Tang Clan back together live on stage. This docu had intense suspense and drama. As someone who has put on events before, I was cringing and crying when things went wrong. I really felt for this guy and it was brave of him to show his naivety/greediness/failings on film. I won’t tell you what happens at the end.
Sunshine (3.5 stars) - because we had vouchers that were about to expire and Dave got to pick. As if you could fly that close to the sun!!!
Running with Scissors (4 stars) because I loved the book (but the book is better).
