The 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival is now only a couple of day away so it’s time to start my online diary to cover the event. In the past couple of years I’ve written short capsule reviews of selected films but this year I’ve decided to write up each day in short diary entries to give a better impression of the festival as a whole. There won’t be many (if any) full reviews of general release films coming from me during this time so I apologise to all my non-Melbourne readers in advance.
Booking/planning advice
Most of you have probably already booked your sessions by now but my main advice for attending film festivals it to remember that it is a festival and not a competition. It doesn’t matter how many films you see and trying to cram in too many can destroy the overall experience. Pace yourself and allow time to catch up with fellow cinephiles. Many years ago I did go nuts trying to see four or five films everyday and all I remember was getting very sick, not eating properly and always needing to go to the toilet! All the films blurred into one and it was all a bit miserable.
This year I am doing my best to follow these rules:
- Three films per day maximum
- No more than two films back-to-back
- See only what I want to see – not what I feel I should see
- If in doubt, scratch whatever is playing at the Greater Union cinemas (because those cinemas contain neither prestige nor comfort and I like cinemas to have at least one of those two elements).
I’ll no doubt break these rules occasionally but at least my intentions are good!
Finally, to help you select your films I’d suggest you check out the list of MIFF films with Australia distributors (and in some cases release dates) on A Little Lie Down; the new blog by film critic and film festival reporter (among many other things) Cerise Howard. I’ve also recently stumbled across a great online MIFF planner by Daniel Sheppard. Not only can you better organise your own MIFF schedule but you can check out what other users, including me, are seeing.
My current dilemma
My only major scheduling conflict at the moment is to do with the recent news that the 2010 Cannes Palme d’Or winning film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is now playing on the final day at the same time as Edgar Wright’s new film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Now Uncle Boonmee is clearly an important film and exactly the sort of film that is best suited to see at a film festival while Scott Pilgrim is getting released in cinemas everywhere less than a week later. It seems like an obvious choice.
However, I’ve seen Uncle Boonmee director’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul previous feature film Syndromes and a Century and although I could appreciate it, it was a very meditative film that was difficult to stay awake during! I’ve been told that Uncle Boonmee is similarly paced and I just don’t know if I can endure that as the final film of a very long festival. Scott Pilgrim on the other hand promises to be tremendous fun and exactly the kind of thing that is a blast to finish on. So, I’m edging towards Scott Pilgrim …
For my next post I’ll share some of my top picks for the festival and some thoughts on the films that are playing that I’ve already seen are also on the way.
Thomas
PS Don’t forget to vote in the very fun popcorn verse choc top poll! I’m a bit alarmed to see that at the time of writing this, popcorn is in the lead. No food should weigh less then the actually money you use to pay for it. Vote choc top: dress in black (it is Melbourne after all) and just accept that you will end up wearing half of it.
© Thomas Caldwell, 2010
CINEMA AUTOPSY 
Ah… SP vs Uncle Boonmee, I also do not want a long winded slowpaced bore-fest as my final movie, maybe somewhere in between like Nymph of last year, then again, will I see Uncle Boonmee anywhere else? Then again again I am a huge fan of Edgar Wright, agghhh!
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is listed as having been picked up locally by Transmission Films. I’m pretty sure everything distributed by Transmission that played at last year’s festival (for example, The White Ribbon and Fish Tank) did end up getting released eventually, even if it took 8-10 months in some case.
I’m starting to think that something like Uncle Boonmee may be better to see at another time to be fully appreciated, rather than at the end of a big festival.
Agreed, will see SP with as many friends as I can
Ahh yes, the great closing night dilemma. The other part of this is that there are 5 surprise screenings scheduled for the same time. From memory in the past at least one of these have wound up being additional films from Cannes that didn’t screen over the rest of the festival.
While comforting that Transmission may have picked up Boonmee, it’s only half the battle. I don’t see there being a big audience outside of the festival circuit and reckon it’ll end up a dvd release at best. So I’m booking Boonmee for now and might change if something else great comes up.
Plus : GO Popcorn!
Oh man, if I ever see you in a cinema I’m going to throw popcorn at your head! The salt will BURN YOU!