It's been a week. We are now through most of it, with only grocery shopping tonight, and Deb to physio today. Yesterday we were early for her 8:30 am appointment at the Met hospital in Windsor, to see if her wrist had healed. The good news is that yes, it has healed, and she no longer wears her cast. The bad news is that just over two weeks ago, the five hospitals in Windsor and surrounding areas were hacked by dark web ransom pirates. Needless to say no money was paid out, but all computer systems are down and will have to be rebuilt from scratch. Cancer treatments had to be scrubbed, but have slowly resumed. So everything is currently being done on paper, including registration, diagnosis, etc. So it took a long time for Deb to see the doctor giving her the all clear.
Monday she went for the x-ray in nearby Lasalle. That went very quickly. Later that morning we got our Covid boosters in Amherstburg. That also went quickly. Afterwards, we had another financial meeting at our bank, as we are transferring our mutual fund assets there from Primerica. Now all of our assets will be in one place. Until they are hacked, and we lose everything. On Tuesday Deb got her new orthotics. Right afterwards we went for a long walk, and they seemed to work fine for her feet. So all is slowly becoming well and back to normal. Next week is Deb's flu shot, and also I have a doctor appointment. So a relatively light week ahead for us.
In film news, there are several to report. My festival choices this month were all unrelated to each other, as no theme was chosen. First up was number #59 on the most recent Sight and Sound top 100 movies choice. Sans Soleil is from 1983. Here is the blurb from Criterion, where it is showing:
Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now
videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging
moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries
about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet.
SANS SOLEIL is his mind-bending free-form travelogue that journeys from
Africa to Japan.
Here is a quote from the director, from Wikipedia:
"On a more matter-of-fact level, I could tell
you that the film intended to be, and is nothing more than, a home
movie. I really think that my main talent has been to find people to pay
for my home movies. Were I born rich, I guess I would have made more or
less the same films, at least the traveling kind, but nobody would have
heard of them except my friends and visitors."
[3]
The film reminds me of something stoned people might have gone to see in the 60s or early 70s. On certain types of drugs, the film might appear to be deep and philosophical. But without drugs, it is actually pretty empty, perplexing, incoherent, and sometimes downright confusing. There are so many better documentaries out there, it is hard to believe that this one has pulled the wool over so many eyes. What most viewers take for depth is really a mostly empty look at somebody's home movies. The gratuitous scene of a hunter killing a giraffe is inexcusable, another reason not to watch this mess of a film.
Now showing on Criterion.
Next up was a series of short films watched on Mubi. I came across an early David Lynch film, 30' in length, starring Harry Dean Stanton. So I chose it and decided to fill in the time of one full length feature with other shorts. The Cowboy and the Frenchman is from 1988, and has to be one of the worst films we have ever seen. It is pointless, humourless, and completely unredeeming. Deb tried watching some of the director's early animation attempts, and pronounced them to abysmal to continue. Avoid this short film, or watch it at your own peril.
David Lynch at his worst, now on Mubi.
Green Vinyl is from 2004, a short Brazilian fantasy film about a little girl left home alone by her working mother. She is told not to play a certain green children's record, and the girl promises not to listen. Of course as soon as mother leaves, she plays the record. Mother comes home that night with an arm missing. And so on. Truly bizarre and unsettling, it is still a fun film to watch. It blows Lynch out of the water, anyway.
All The Crows In The World is a Hong Kong short from 2021. It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes for best short. A young woman goes to a party filled with middle aged, sexist men. This is a very fun film, with lots of off kilter attitude and bizarre situations. She ends up making friends with the one man who does not come on to her. But he ends up being gay. So much for male heterosexuals; this film tears them apart, with glee. Recommended.
Ein Sof is a Mexican film from 2021. It is 4 minutes long. It purports to be an avant garde film, but it's just a 4 minute music video with some very strange fashions. Even so, it is still better than the Lynch film.
Less and Less is a short film from France from 2010. It follows the history of coin operated machines in Paris from the 60s and onward. Tres amusant. The one and only bagel dispensing machine is a highlight.
We finished with a Woody Allen feature film from 2014 called Magic In The Moonlight. An arrogant magician is taken down a peg or three by his old friend, and along the way he falls in love with a young medium. At first he is fooled into believing that she is the real thing, despite his attempts to prove her a fake. An okay film, but nothing terribly special here, though we do get to see an elephant disappear from the stage. Costumes and period cars (1920s) are also very good.
And one last image before signing off for today--this is a weather map of the area just north of us from yesterday. I think every possible form of precipitation is shown in one area of Michigan and Ontario: green, yellow, and red for rain; pink and purple for ice storm; and blue for snow. Very pretty. The deep red shows heavy rain and possible hail. I wonder how they enjoyed their day in those areas.
We are south of Detroit and west of Kingsville.
Mapman Mike
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