January Film Festival

 Today was the first meeting of our new piano performance group.  There are three of us for now, which is just about perfect, giving us time for discussion and time to play for each other.  I played four of my Bach pieces; Nadia played a Theme and Variations by Beethoven, and Alde played the first movement of the Waldstein Sonata, also by Beethoven.  Everyone was enthused to get together, not having performed in a good long while.  

It was a cold day, but bright and sunny at least.  Tomorrow we are expecting two new windows to be put in.  Hopefully they will go in quickly, as it will be very cold at 8 am tomorrow, about 10 F (Wed).  We will shut down the furnace until they are done, running the wood stove and a few space heaters instead.  I'll get some photos if I can.

Deb's three-film festival was what I call a "ping pong ball" festival; which means that the films were not related in anyway (other than they are all showing on Mubi).  The first was Journey of the Comet, a Mexican film from 2009.  A man and his wife, later joined by their teenage grandson, travel from village to village in an old school bus with telescopes and other scientific gear, giving talks and demonstrations to people living on the outside of things.  They visit schools, town centers, and just about anywhere a small crowd could gather.  The school bus, a half-size one, is called Comet.  They set out from their home in southern Baja, traveling north through beautiful desert country.  When it's time to cross the bay to mainland Mexico, they find out at the last minute that they are not allowed to take their bus.  The film begins slowly, and is not that interesting.  But as it goes along the interest picks up, and the scenes of village life and people are really well documented.  A slow starter, and slowly paced anyway, it was worth a look.

 

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Next up was a restored b & w film from 1961 called Night Tide.  It stars Dennis Hopper as a young navy sailor who falls for a woman who acts the part of a mermaid in a pier sideshow.  Rescued as a starving child from a remote Greek island by a kindly captain, he runs the sideshow with her.  It is a light horror film, on similar lines to Carnival of Souls, though not nearly as creepy.  Hopper's acting style may not impress everyone, but it suits the movie well.  Even though the mystery gets solved by the end, there is still the unanswered question of who the older woman was.  Worth catching if you are in to odd little films.

 

Showing in a restored print on Mubi. 

 

Lastly came a French epic from 2021 called Lost Illusions.  Based on a novel by Balzac, it is an engrossing film based on a very decadent Paris in the 19th C, and on an even more decadent press.  A young commoner/writer follows his high born lover to the big city, and for a time makes it big as a reporter for a newspaper.  The way things worked was that whomever paid the price could garner favourable reviews of their performed plays, new novels, actors and actresses, and so on.  If someone paid higher to give a bad review, then that is what was written.  The society was totally brutal, and the film captures the hateful and horrible games that were played with people's lives.  A big budget picture in widescreen format, it tells the tale of a young man with hopes and dreams, soon shattered and left in ruins.  At the end, he must begin again.  He is fortunate to have broken even, and to have another try at life.

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Lone Mountain Homestead Bus Stop

 After more than 30 years of living here without any public transport, we now have a (very) limited service between Windsor and Amherstburg.  And there is a bus stop right outside our door.  When the service first began in September, the nearest stop was 1.2 miles away, making it pretty useless for us.  That's 2 1/2 miles of walking if the service was used.  But it's local election season, and we had a visitor stop by the house one day a few weeks back, representing someone running for reelection.  He asked me if there was anything troubling me that the mayor could fix (why do they only ask during election season?).  So I told him the bus stop was too far away to be useful.  He said he'd mention it to the mayor.  A few days later Deb and I went out for a walk, and Deb spotted the new bus stop sign on a pole about 50 feet from our property.  It's a temporary one, but it's posted on Google Maps!  When the permanent one is up, I'll be sure to take a photo.  We plan on taking the service into Windsor soon.  I will report on that, too.

In viewing news, we have watched the final (8th) episode of Rings of Power.  Some big revelations were made, and we finally got to see some rings being fashioned.  The three Elven rings look pretty sweet.  Our Middle Earth Collectible Card Game has all the correct information about the rings, too.  The Elven rings are very difficult to use in the game, as the character and ring must be in your play deck, and hopefully pop out when needed.  But now I am more interested in using them, so we'll see.  Overall, the series is quite splendid.  The story is not as much fun (or familiar) as the main Tolkien books, but it has built an incredibly complex base from which to expand, and is also laying down strong foundations for the Third Age.  We will likely rewatch the series, perhaps near Winter Solstice, and then maybe again next summer, before Season Two is released.  Yes, it's that good.

In cinema viewing, there are two to report.  We watched a short film by Ulrike Ottinger called Laocoon and Sons.  It's a strictly avante garde film from 1975, a throwback to some of the best Dada film work.  Somehow, though often ridiculous, the film works, and is fun to watch.  It's only 48 minutes long, and that certainly helps.  She seems to be a very interesting director, and we will watch more of her films in the future.  We also watched a short documentary, an interview with the director.  This is the third film of hers we have seen.

Now showing on the Criterion Channel.  

 

Next up was a documentary about Dennis Hopper, called Along For The Ride.  From 2016, it is directed by Nick Ebeling, and is hosted by Hopper's best friend and aide, Satya de la Manitou.  It's a fascinating film about a man who is very hard to categorize and pin down.  He doesn't fit in any of the boxes.  He was an actor (method), director, editor, photographer, and a very troubled person.  Drugs and alcohol were a large part of his existence, but he did manage some incredible performances and films, including Easy Rider, Mad Dog Morgan, and two films with Wim Wenders, in one of which he played Tom Ripley, from Highsmith's novel "Ripley's Game," and the other one where he plays Death.  Definitely worth watching.

Showing on Criterion until Oct. 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike