A limited number of Australian westerns in the modern sense, tho a large number of films about bushrangers. And after The Proposition, with its appalling script (but very good cast) I wasn’t keen to see another. But now there is no doubt about the best Oz western ever: Red Hill (Patrick Hughes, 2010). Everything about this film is excellent. We’ll be seeing more from this film-maker, I’m sure.
I just found out that ‘pwn’ is a verb in the English language (tho it looks more like Welsh). I’ll bet it’ll be a while before the OED accepts that it exists.
Declan McManus asked ‘What shall we do with all this useless beauty?’ And I wonder the same thing every day with regard to the contents of my beautiful mind. But once a month there’s an answer. The crossword puzzle in the Times Literary Supplement. Yay!
I’ve had a look at Simon Nasht’s doco Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn, made for TV in 2007. The title really does say it all. Hot yacht shots.
But I watched Life in a Day, which has what looked in the credits like about a hundred directors as well as Kevin MacDonald. It’s the kind of thing that can be quite a downer, tho usually trying to be uplifting; this one maintains the balance well. It’s a valuable document – the first YouTube feature?
I had a go at a couple of Buñuel films, night before last, I guess. I’m think I’m over him. When the servants were leaving at the beginning of Exterminating Angel, it was too obvious what was going to happen to the bourgeois. And, tho I enjoyed being in the presence of Silvia Pinal in the first half of Viridiana, I really didn’t want to see what happens to her in the last third, so turned it off. What will be left after such shucking off? Only The Seventh Seal? I need to review Antonioni.
I watched this because I believe it’s nommed for an Oscar. It moves too fast for my aged brain (it’s just a physical thing). If I were really smart I might have something to say about the American version of Buddhism it utilises, but … I’m not. Maybe tomow.
My page for the prizes awarded tonight is here. Winners in bold.
As I write this, it’s ten minutes before the Channel 9 broadcast of the AACTA (formerly AFI) Awards is due to begin in Sinny Time, and Channel 9 is saying in Twitter that it’s the only way to find out who wins what. In Twitter! Which will of course tell me (if I look) three hours before I can see it on free-to-air. Dumb. Rephrase.
A friend just raised the question of flags re Australia(/Invasion) Day which was a few days ago. My immediate response was to say that I have nothing to do with nationalistic symbols – but then remembered my T-shirt with the Shetland flag on it, which I was wearing recently, and perhaps even on A/I Day.