I have this yen at the moment (no pun intended), to watch old black & white films, all those stellar movies I’ve either missed ‘cos I’ve been too busy watching everything for work…or doing other stuff (like making movies, working too hard for too little… lamenting my life, the usual)

So far two titles have sated this hunger: The Third Man (1949) and His Girl Friday (1940) - only one of the most intense, excellent and sophisticated movies ever! Rosalind Russell is my new hero – it’s amazing watching these films from 50+ years ago. I’m pretty sure we’re devolving judging by most of the popular entertainments we make now. It’s amazing to think that His Girl Friday – an essay in love and sexual politics and – gulp - feminism before it turned khaki and no fun – was made so long ago.

It made me love dialogue in movies – in an era where it's so often abused. A film that made the invention of sound worthwhile – listen to those words! It gave me faith in the past, made me angry about the present and hopeful about the future of film. We need more. I need more. The Lady Eve is next. Bring it.

So I saw a play this week… Yep, theatre. Very hard for this certified film geek to reconcile given that most of my waking life has been spent in the dark watching images on a screen and hearing sound thundering through 5.1... Yes, real live people in the round give me the certified creeps – always seems so fake, so removed, hard to relate to… Blame it on panto when I was in kindy.
BUT. Saw a play this week that changed everything. Sydney production of Crestfall at Tap Gallery by Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe (his movie Intermission didn’t leave much of an impression on me but this – well).
From my humble seat, it’s nigh on impossible not to be engaged by this play. The material is such that you get it in an instant; profane, tough, survivalist, female, abuse, brutal and poetic and decidedly moving – in execution too. Actors and crew to be well applauded.. Translates particularly into an Australian context – the performances and staging made it so. it really needs to be seen to be felt. And not a G. Rush, a C. Blanchett nor a chardy in sight…

I don’t think I’ve ever started watching a movie and 5 minutes in felt the urge to start watching it again from the start. Till now. I saw Once last week. A friend was over from Tassie; hammered at 3 in the a.m. we made a pledge to go and see Once together that afternoon, hung over or not… Our collective seediness was assuaged fast when we realised what we were watching; the next great love story – AND a musical to boot! Yes it’s as romantic as hell but oh emotional authenticity! And humour. And music – talk about anatomy of a song. I haven’t fallen in love with a film this much since Stranger Than Fiction. But that didn’t have the music…

Nothing like a bit of filmmaking to re-inspire and re-energise. Been having fun putting together the 'special features' for the upcoming DVD release of my doc Lovestruck: Wrestlings Number One Fan, about Sue Chuter (pictured), who is just that.  
Special Features are so fun because nothing has to make sense or add up to anything more than it is. Experimental even... Maybe more films should be made up of random unrelated weirdness instead of operating under the pretense lead imperative of 'story'... Like the Jackass movies - Knoxville was onto something I reckon. There is too much emphasis placed on story, which for the most part can bog films down.
Maybe that'll be my next doc project - knitting together random weird non-fiction clips, just 'cos. That might be more entertaining and possibly more profound than half of the docs billed as such.

Writing from Changi airport on the way back to Australia from London. What better way to catch up on some of the films than to sit on a long haul flight with video-on-demand at my finger tips – a film geek’s paradise! With close quarters stereo sound, that surreal, dreamlike mindset can also enhance the experience. And not just regulation popcorn fare- “foreign” and “arthouse” movies were on the menu! Some shockers: ‘Next’ (Nic Cage, has now officially made as many bad movies as good ones); ‘The Dead Girl’ (gotta be the most overrated movie of the year); ‘Fracture’ (“Twaddle” with a capital ‘T’ even with the fabulous Ryan Gosling). But – the good stuff was good: ‘The History Boys’ – excellent; ‘Lucky Miles’ – nice, and wait for it – ‘Waitress’! What a beauty! Shed tears and laughed out loud. Made all the more sad with the director, the beautiful Hal Hartley actress Adrienne Shelley, having her life cut tragically short before this gem came out. Such a beautiful film and such a rotten-sad post-script to it.
So. No snakes on a plane. Just movies. It was good for me…

Well the BFI that is. I am over in London for a couple of weeks after intense work at a
film festival in Perth (Revelation). Wanted to literally lose myself in a giant city with
giant history - and have! Have also been overwhelmed at how vast it is, and old
(Australia is the mini-golf version of the rest of the world). But film calls no matter
how hard I try and shake it and live a real life (a bit like trying to escape AFL in Victoria). So. Surrender. The British Film Institute in Southbank is the mecca for the likes of me and thousands of other London filmies. It has an awesome bookshop that I should not have gone into, but did. Walked out with 4 DVDs, just what I need more of - Withnail & I (3-DVD anniversary edition - well I am staying in Camberwell); the first DVD issue of Punishment Park; Following (Christopher Nolan's first feature) and a film I cannot wait to watch a doco called The Alcohol Years. Plus I bought an awesome book about David Lynch at Clapham Books, best bookshop in London. Too much money but too good. Now I have to get all this stuff through Heathrow.
Next week, 'movies on a plane'.

It's no wonder The US VS John Lennon has been a hit with US audiences under 30. Lennon's battle with Nixon for his outspoken stance against the Vietnam War is an all-too plain allegory for what's going on now in the Bush administration, waging war in a country where it doesn't belong. The film's biggest plus is its intimacy - Lennon is portrayed as a real person (not a rock star), fully engaged with the world around him when being opinionated and giving a shit wasn't unfashionable.