My Life As A Courgette

Hats off to the team who made this stop motion movie which I think took them seven years.  It is the story of a young boy, who after an accident at home is sent to live in care with others of his age group, all of whom have been damaged by the absence of the adults in their lives.

It is not all doom and gloom however, and made me secretly smile throughout as it tries to  show how everyone blossoms with live in their life, and this can take many forms and come from many people you encounter.   4/5

The Chalk Pit - Elle Griffiths

Ruth Galloway is one of my favorite thriller characters, although she may be a bit too involved in cases than her job would usually permit, the ordinary  parts of her life make her a believable character and more real to me.  I like that she is a single mother just trying to do her best, even when her patience with her five year old daughter and elderly parents is tried.

Harry Nelson too feels real to me, I get a sense of him and there is a good balance of his police work and private life.  Nothing like hating the boss, and having an affair to make detective feel conflicted.

In this book several homeless men are killed and two women are missing and everyone is wondering if there is a link.  I guessed who the bad guy was pretty early on, but still 4/5 from me.

The Big Sick

So in a little break from the Film Festival - I went to the movies!!! The Big Sick has had a bit of hype lately and this was it's first week of release here.  If you don't know the story it is based on the real life relationship between Pakistani/American comedian Kumail Nanjiani (who plays himself in the movie) and his wife Emily Gordon.  They meet when she heckles him at a comedy club.

Their relationship is new when Emily gets sick, and Kumail has to introduce himself to her parents that he had never met before.

Not a huge laugh it is a sweet movie, and although I did see a poster declaring it the best rom-com ever, I felt that was a bit of an exaggeration.   3.5/5

A Ghost Story

Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play a young married couple C and M, who notice some strange occurrences in their new house.  As we come to find out, the house is haunted by what becomes the main character in the movie, a ghost in a sheet with two holes in it, who has no spoken dialogue for most of the movie.  At times it is sweet and dreamy, but at times it is a bit confusing although Wikipedia does a good job of explaining the plot.

I did struggle with a long scene of eating a pie, and thought it was maybe all a bit too much hipster for me.  3/5

Kedi

You know I was going to love this one, as I like my kitty cats and I had read good things about this little documentary.  Filmed in Istanbul, it follows about 5 street cats as they go about their days and the people that feed and look after them.  It must be a tough life, trying to find food and shelter and with markets and homes being pulled down to make way for apartment blocks and motorways, their existence is threatened.

Not only is it the story of the sweet cats, but it lets us learn about people and how it adds to their lives to feed and pat the cats, something most of us know.  5/5

The Paris Opera

This was the next documentary I saw, a show about the famed Paris Opera.   Following a season, it starts in the managers office, but we get to see lots of backstage organizing, onstage bickering, rehearsals, auditions and snippets of performances.  I have never seen an Opera myself, and not a big fan of classical music, opera or ballet, but still enjoyed this movie.  It showed a human side to this huge organization and I liked that they at least briefly discussed the elitist nature of their entertainment while trying to justify seat prices (prices have increased 91% while cost of living increases have only been 23%).

A couple of the stories withing a story that made me smile, was the introduction of a large bull into a live stage performance and the young 21 year old Russian Opera Singer who at the beginning of the movie is shown at his audition, where he is barely able to speak French.

It was enjoyable, the music although not my think was still great and worthy of a 4/5.

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

It was a lazy morning getting up this morning, as the first film I had booked didn't start until 10:30am.  This was another interesting documentry.  As urban populations increase by one million people a week, we are faced with changing our cities to fit everyone in.  How will we house and transport the increases in population.

This movie focuses on New York, that after WWII goes through immense change as urbanization takes hold.  Slum tenement buildings are pulled down and large scale housing projects go up in their place, and many historical districts are threatened to be pulled down to make space for motorways. On one hand this modernization is spear headed by power broker and developer Robert Moses, who with his posse of middle aged men seeks to change the face of the city.  With little opposition and not much discussion, his vision is not often challenged.

Jane Jacobs, a writer does offer up a different vision.  She questions the loss of eyes on the street that comes from having cafes and shops at street level, and with low windows and stoops there were places to talk and gather and spots for children to play safely.  She wonders why the people that live in the city aren't being asked what they want in new buildings and does the new developments actually serve the purpose they are made for or are they just hiding the poor people away on the city verges?

As well as being a compelling story that tells a story from the sixties, it still resonates today as our own cities swell and struggle to cope with everyone moving in.  I did enjoy looking at the historical images of New York - man that is one busy city. 4/5

Mountain

A couple of years ago I saw the wonderful documentary Sherpa at the film festival. This year it was Mountain - a story about the lure of the mountains, to climb, ride, ski and snowboard on and to jump off.

Much of the movie is made up if beautiful natural scenery, scarily high Vistas and steep slopes.  I did feel a little like the middle part was a collection of youtube videos which was a bit distracting.  3/5

I Am Not Your Negro

This evening it was a documentary that I went to see, it was meant to be sold out, but some tickets were freed up while I was waiting.  It is based on a manuscript that the author James Baldwin was writing about race relations in the US.  In it he talks about his friendship with African American leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

At times it was immensely moving and relevant to look back at how much has changed and then realize that there is still much to be worked on.  As James Baldwin died in the 80s i wonder what he would think of what he would see around him now.  I did leave the cinema thinking though that I expected more and it underdelivered.   3/5.

Dries

For the past couple of years at the film festival there has been a couple of documentaries that have outshone many of the other movies shown.   The ones that show us the world of high fashion are some of my favorites.   It may have been a dream of mine when I was 12 to be a fashion designer.  Now as an adult I have an admiration for their talent and the art of design.  I dislike the business side of it though and loathe the snobbery that looks down on people while trying to sell you a $900 tshirt.

Dries Van Noten is a Belgian designer who is shown looking at his past collections while trying to bring together his men's and women's new shows.  It is interesting seeing his processes, developing his own fabrics and what I like about his style is that so many if his beautiful clothes look like you would want to wear them, or at least a cheaper more diffused version that may filter down to the high street.

The shows were beautiful , in amazing sights around Paris.   When I see these fashion shows I am always surprised by the young gamine models on the runway, wondering why there is no diversity on stage.  When the designers spout off saying they love women, yet only seem to design for the one type of young tall and slim body type.

We get a small glimpse into the designers private life.  The lovely country home with beautiful gardens that he shares with his partner, and most touching if all was his lovely dog, who gets little bits of play time in between jobs.  4/5