Stars and Numbers

Film fest has come and gone for another year. The stats I racked up are really quite impressive. I worked 7 shifts, earned 11 pinks, saw 9 films (only two of which were during/after my shift), encountered at least 12 famous/semi-famous people, all without missing a single day of work. I even managed to attend a seminar.

What did I see:

• Terra - a CG animated film that seems a little too heavy for kids...war, genocide, environmental terrorism, etc. But the little tadpole aliens are cute.
• When Did You Last See Your Father? - a story about fathers and sons and the relationship between the two. Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent were great, and it made my guy-friend a little teary.
• Across the Universe - a film featuring a wide selection of the Beatles' repertoire, which is perfect for me. The beginning was great, the middle was a psychedelic acid trip, but the end was also great. A thoroughly predictable film, but experiencing Bono singing "I am the Walrus" was utterly bizarre.
• The Jane Austen Book Club - it inspired me to continue my current goal of reading all six of her novels. A funny film where the lives of six members of a book club mirror the plots in Jane Austen's novels.
• And Along Come Tourists - a German man serves his mandatory one-year civil service at Auschwitz. It doesn't focus on the camp at all, but rather the people who live in the nearby town in the present day. Very thought-provoking.
• Iron Ladies of Liberia - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa. The documentary follows her during her first year in office. A tough job for anyone after 14 years of civil war. Good thing she appoints other women to help her out.
• Caramel - a surprising Lebanese film. Much funnier than I thought it would be. Four women who work in a beauty salon in Beirut have four very different life challenges.
• Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge - a remake of the classic film starring Juliette Binoche. I still don't get the ending.
• Angel - a poor arrogant girl becomes rich and famous by writing ridiculous romantic novels in early 20th century England. Very reminiscent of Gone with the Wind. But I kept waiting for something to happen.

Who did I see:

• I nearly saw Viggo Mortensen at the airport. He's apparently much shorter and older than you'd think.
• Danny Glover spoke to me (he said "Thank you"). I just think it's cool because it was completely unexpected.
• I was five feet away from Ewan MacGregor as he got into a car, but I didn't recognize him. His hair was all over the place and he looked surly, but I guess that's because he just got off a plane from London.
• The most surreal moment was when I saw Deepa Mehta (director of "Water" and "Bollywood/Hollywood"), in a beautiful yellow sari, getting in line for popcorn.
• From a fair distance, I saw a huge mob of people outside a toy store near Yorkville, and, without even bothering to cross the street, I was willing to bet any money that Angelina Jolie was in there (I was right).
• I saw Christopher Plummer two days in a row. I still dig him as Captain Von Trapp.

There were two rather humorous trends this year: 1) Four of the films I saw featured a lesbian or implied lesbianism, and 2) at each screening I attended, there was at least one person in the theatre who would say "ARRRR!" when the anti-piracy statement flashed on the screen before the film. Hee hee, pirates...

Final thought: Colin Farrell may not be quite as bad-ass as he seems.

"I'm sick and tired of everybody, thinking they know what's best for me and, maybe I wanted me to be nothing special"

Observations

I originally wrote this blog on August 11 but I never got around to publishing it. Better late than never I guess...

I was walking through a department store, and I noticed that they had set up a huge display of chocolate right beside the swimsuits.

I saw a pedestrian get hit by a car today. I was waiting at a traffic light, not really paying attention to anything, when I heard a "whump!" sound, and looked up to see a woman toppling into the middle of the street on the other side of the intersection. At first, I asked myself if the woman had just fallen out of the minivan that had stopped. But seeing a younger woman jumping out of the driver side of the minivan and checking on the middle-aged woman in the street gave me the impression that the minivan had been turning left and didn't see the woman crossing. It was a low-speed impact and the middle-aged woman was conscious, but it was still a semi-shocking experience. When the light turned green, I was in the right lane and there were cars behind me. It wasn't a hit and run, and there were far more accurate witnesses on the opposite side of the street, so I drove slowly past the scene, where the younger woman was retrieving the middle-aged woman's purse from the middle lane.

I've discovered that I leave destruction in my wake when I pass through Europe. Two years ago, I went to London, and just over a month after I returned, the bombs went off. This year, I went to Greece, and a month later, the worst forest fire in the country's history started and killed almost 80 people. Not to mention the fact that my friend and I narrowly escaped from the tuberculosis guy in Santorini. Maybe I shouldn't go to Europe for a while.

"Hey flathead don't you mean she's the second best killer that I ever have seen"