Oh boy. It turns out that when you are not 21 here, of course in the US but also in Seattle, it is not always very fun to see the weekend approaching. Even if there are great stuff to do, such as going to shows, walking around, taking coffees and going to the movies, I must confess that I can’t wait for my pals birthdays so we can see a lot more of the city…especially at night.
However, waiting for these days to come, I have the possibility to … watch even more films. On Friday, I took home from work 8 films (5 shorts and 3 long features). Of course, it was a bit too ambitious BUT I managed to see all of the shorts. To be perfectly honest, there was only one that was worth it, but I came here with the idea that I had to watch as many films as I could. I knew I would have to face many.. many.. many bad films for only a few great ones. Nevertheless, I know that it is also by watching the “not so good” movies that I’ll learn to avoid doing many mistakes with my own scripts.
The difficulty with short films is that most of time people find it impossible to tell a story in only a few minutes. Basically, what they do is that they shoot… video clips. Indeed, it is really hard to organize a script and to make it progress when you don’t have much time. Plus, short films usually need a great and original idea to be fantastic. Or at least, the story has to be told perfectly if you want to catch the audience’s attention. The one I found fantastic (let’s call it “X”) was about a sound engineer who becomes obsessed with the idea of recording silence. The pitch is quite surprising and unusual, but almost every single thing in the film was good: the cinematography, the shots, the light, the editing. A single little defect would be that it could have been a bit shorter, but even for this, I am not sure that it would have made the film better. The tension that surrounds the room the protagonist is in is amazing and strong. I was bluffed.
Other films watched (for the first – but not always – time): Abyss (incredible, Cameron really has something), Planet Terror (one word: waow) and Pretty Woman (ok, ok. It was late, we were two poor girls sitting on a couch on a Friday night and for Christ’s sake: it’s Julia!).
But what would be a weekend without going to the movies? In Paris, I could not imagine a week without going to an MK2 or an UGC or an art house rue des Ecoles. I’ve been here for two weeks and yesterday was my first time at a theater. The thing is that it is really expensive (11 bucks). The whole “illimited card” in France was an incredible invention. I don’t think that I’ll be able to go to the movies often here (sad face). Anyways, two days, two films, no revelation: You will meet a tall dark stranger (W. Allen) was not good at all, messy, boring and not even funny (and oh my, I LOVE Allen’s humor). The social network (D. Fincher) was long, yet instructive, with good actors but not really exciting. Once you’ve seen it, you don’t want to see it again.
God. That was a loooooong cinema weekend. Off to bed now. Cheers!
PS : for those who understand French and who are interested in Cinema, here a great radio program on Haroun's film "A screaming man" who won an award at Cannes Film Festival this year ---->
MJ
