miz mulligan

The Corporation

2007-02-05T15:56:00.003-08:00

coming soon!

Elles Etaient Cinq (Quebec)

2007-02-05T15:56:00.001-08:00

coming soon!

Blood

2007-02-05T15:55:00.002-08:00

coming soon!

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-02-05T15:55:00.001-08:00

coming soon!

children of men

2007-02-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

coming soon!

aurore - 9.5/10 quebec forgotten histories

2007-02-05T15:43:00.000-08:00

what is there to say?

this is based on a real situation that happened in small town in quebec in the first half of the last century. my mother's family grew up in the same sort of time, in the same sort of French Quebec family, as did thousands of others - how many stories are like this one?

first, families suffered loss in those days. nothing was like it was today. most woman had complications with pregnancies and sometimes didn't have fancy hospitals to go to. i'm sure many women died in childbirth of from infections that today could be treated with ease.

i believe that blended families were much more common that today - too many mouths to feed, children taken care of by grandparents, children abandoned.

one must remember that the church played a much more important role in those days as well. the church was judge and jury in alot of cases, and everyone did mind their own business until they were involved. things that happen behind closed doors are no one's business.

since this movie is based on real events, i'm sure it was a precedent setting conviction. wasn't this just the normal way of life? abuse children because they are bastards/stupid/inept/dirty? what kind of anger must a person have to starve and beat your own child with the blind belief that they are sinful?

a must see, in my books. when you think this poor girl is nearly at the end, you can't believe what she went through (and even is this was dramatized - you just know that whatever happened, it was bad and probably far worse than what was portrayed on screen).

this movie hit me a little like "The Passion". how much can one person endure if they have to when they believe in something so fully, and are running against all odds?

the DVD i got had weird fade outs (i assume from being a CBC production and having those commercial breaks don't translate over well to full feature film). all in all, the production quality was very good.

Intertia - 8/10 menage a quatres

2007-01-26T15:17:00.003-08:00

from winnipeg comes this strange tale of 4 people who all want to love someone. it revolves around a man, his estranged cousin, his lover, and his friend.

i think the format for the movie was interesting - the director allowed the actors to improvise and changed the script accordingly (as i seem to remember that most of the actors had theatre experience). it fell down in a few places, but overall, the timing kept up and it didn't lose my interest.

i didn't really understand the whole "its in the water thing", it seemed like an after thought.

in the extra bits, the director talked about winnipeg taking on one of the character roles. i like that about Canadian stuff. the city in question is usually featured in some way that otherwise would just be a backdrop of any city. i like that...

Capote - 8.5/10 newspaper articles

2007-01-26T15:17:00.001-08:00

coming soon!

a day so beautiful (short - quebec)

2007-01-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

a succinct film that tells a sad tale

in my opinion, a young man bound by death and wanting to keep on living...because his day is beautiful. written in poetic language, it struck me that most people don't see what is going on around them most days. just getting by. not taking the time to really think about the whys.

the gift - 8/10 bodies floating in trees

2007-01-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

for such a high caliber ensemble cast this movie lay a little flat. not bad, but just flat.

following a small town and the characters in it, it lays out a story of an abusive man who the town psychic thinks may have killed a local socialite. i did like the overall concept of psychic ability and its quiet place within the community. cate blanchette downplayed her role very well. she is a very talented actress.

my favourite was the giovanni rabisi character who is the local mechanic with emotional problems. his character has the most depth and certainly his scenes (the truck and the gun, and the firestarter, are the most riveting of the movie).

what makes this movie a step above is the cast - award winning actors and actresses who seemingly took on this "smaller" role - the movie - co-written by billy bob thornton may have had something to do with it.

some of the language was stiff, but otherwise believable.

this movie won't scare you to death, but it is worth a rental.

nine 1/2 weeks - 6/10 mind-games

2006-12-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

a few weeks back friends of mine got into a philosophical debate over this movie. i hadn't seen it (ever), so i could not add my two cents (as i always like to do...). that being said, i got it recently from zip and watched it. here is my take.

this is a movie about power and how some people are strong and other people are weak. if you can imagine a magnetic field. when someone steps into the magnetic field, their composition changes - they are pulled. this can happen to anyone...

in this story, the main character is going through a fairly smooth divorce (or so can be assumed since it is only a side-story). this woman is taken by a strangely alluring man who happens to show her attention and affection, likely at a point in time where she needed it. he also makes her feel beautiful, but playing into her sexuality, but this is at a price. he wants her to be a puppet and a toy to take care of, and to pretend she is something she is not. he gets her to agree to things that she likely would never have done before, and he suggests things by asking questions and making it seem like everything is normal and safe.

one of the best lines is : "how did you know i would respond to you the way i have?"; "i saw myself in you". brilliant.

she begins to lose herself. in most cases i would say that this was BAD, but in this case most of this stuff is tame, and probably for this movie at the time this stuff was not tame. are we becoming desensitized? i think the plot line where she realizes she has lost herself is weak, but then her entire character is weak, so maybe she was in character...

i did say to myself (and outloud) a few times as i was watching it - "danger" - meaning that i knew these situations were dangerous, but she was a grown woman, and other than a few romps (some on cement steps which were hot) and a self-love scene, we know that the man she met is dangerous and dangerous, but who cares? he's hot.

i recall my watching the movie Secretary - a much more provocative movie in my opinion...Secretary feels like a more "grown-up" version of "nine 1/2 weeks". darker.

okay if you want to see what dominance and submission is like, but watch Secretary instead. you'll be doing yourself a favour.

peau blanche (white skin) - 7/10 redheads

2006-12-23T21:52:00.000-08:00

this is not the movie i expected from the little write up i got with it from zip.ca... strangely, it is a well thought through and well composed movie, but, when you realize what's happening, it goes a little south.

the story follows two young french canadian men (one from rural quebec, and one from urban montreal) who are going to university in montreal. i'm glad i understand french enough, because i found the english subtitles lost the subtleties of the language. i guess this is the case with most subtitles, but i found this one to be more so than others i've seen in the past.

we find out that the white boy hates redheads - doesn't like to see the veins beneath the skin (he wouldn't like me - i have translucent skin). it is a bit strange then soon after that he should fall for a redhead, and, that she isn't what she seems to be. he gets involved with this woman, and for the most part, exhibits normal "relationship starting" material - seclusion, secrecy, etc. he also experiences a hightened level of sexual stimulation from her at the outset. something is up, but we just haven't figured it out yet.

an interesting blend of supernatural and Quebecois makes this movie kinda interesting. it bent a little to far into the black/white debate for my liking. perhaps this movie tried to be too many things, and didn't do any one thing very well.

21 grams - 8/10 accidents

2006-12-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

i liked it. it wasn't what i was expecting.

a simple story, shot and cut in unsimple ways about the ties that bind three main characters together over one man's heart. i was reminded of crash in the way that the stories wove in and out of one another. i found the pace at the beginning very fast, but once the story was set, the pace slowed. it wasn't difficult to follow however, like i find some movies where the cuts are mind-blowing and you get a headache because you can't keep up...

the acting is quite good as well. i always like sean penn. he seems to play "wounded" very well.

this story will appeal to many people. i was thinking it was more about the whole idea of 21 grams - the exact weight lost at the time of death. an interesting concept if you think that we are energy and that this is the culmination of our lives - a simple 21 grams (nothing really) that your soul amounts to.

there are some subtle connections between this notion and several others themes running through the movie about the theory of numbers. i like stuff like this. makes you think about things you wouldn't normally care about.

butterbox babies - 7.5/10 untold canadian stories

2006-12-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

this is not "road to avonlea".

by the same producer, and originally seen on cbc, this more realistically dark movie tells the tale of young women in nova scotia just prior and during the second world war, who got pregnant out of wedlock and who gave up their babies to keep the town secrets under wraps. well - that's my take on it anyway. it also tell of the tragedy and remorse that some people had during that time, and how good things can turn on you, despite best efforts and good will.

focusing on the man and wife team who helped these young girls, this is also a tale of the religious bent at that time, and i think the main characters that this movie portrays are quite progressive for the time - not because of progressive thinking, but because they felt they were doing the work that god would be proud of.

likely many babies did died under their care, and were buried in butterboxes. i'm sure that many more were saved, and sold at a profit, as the movie suggests. i'm sure there are still emotional wounds that run deep, although many of the "babies" that surviced would be past retirement age now. those who have ties to this canadian tragedy will be passing on this story and working this out for generations to come (much like the children who were sent to canada from the united kingdom at the turn of the last century as cheap labour).

truly a tiny dark crystal on the pristine canadian landscape, these are the types of stories that people need to see, need to understand.

for a cbc production - i was impressed.

birth - 3/10 reincarnated husbands

2006-12-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

i'm not sure. i fell asleep. partly due to my lack of interest, and partly due to being tired. so, this will be a two part review. this first part will be my sleepy version, and i'll post another version when i watch it again.

part 1

if you can get past nicole kidman as a doe-eyed fiancee, and the creepy boy who thinks he's her dead husband (and i think i woke up and heard him say he wasn't) then i'm sure this movie is just great. i'll have to watch it again and see what is really happening....

eyes without a face - 6.5/10 creepy doctors

2006-12-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

this movie is odd to say the least (and perhaps a prophetic commentary). having been made in 1959, i'm pleased that it took some strange chances that you just wouldn't see today. i would have preferred to see more depth in the characters. they were two dimensional in a movie that was trying to be something more than what it turned out to be.

it also shows us how far we have come. this is a science fiction of sorts about a doctor who tries to transplant facial flesh onto his daughter's face after a horrible accident, which we can only presume he feels responsible for. he is a "experimental" doctor who keeps dogs caged in a basement cellar (with his home operating room) so he can perform experiments on them. a little far fetching, but i'm always up for something different.

cleverly done were the scenes with the daughter - she wears a mask for most of the time we do see her face on screen. she has a sympathetic relationship with the dogs because she too is one of her father's experiments.

given the time period, it has some obvious flaws that you just would not see today in big budget films. for what it is however, it proves to be an interesting movie.

i'm being harsh, unduly, since i prefer more modern movies, but i feel as though i have to start watching older films to get a sense of what i am doing with my own writing. this is one of my first, and i have much left to learn.

the hanging garden - 9.5/10 sweet williams

2006-12-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

this is just such a wonderfully magical dark canadian movie. one of my favourite movies, ever. gets you thinking about the things that happen in life that are never spoken of, things that are left undone, things that maybe should have been....

the story of a young man who travels back to his home for his sister's wedding after being away for ten years. and, he is dead. right. that's the magic.

we see an east coast family through the eyes of a young man, with gaelic roots, a hard drinking father, a distant mother, a rebel for a sister and a close-to-senility grandmother.

the sister has a wedding in the garden where her brother hung himself. she wants everyone to remember. this is the thing that hangs over the family. you could look at it two different ways: either he didn't die and he did go live in toronto, or her did die and his sister has brought his spirit back to life with the wedding.....he comes back the way he wanted to be, and his family doesn't really understand what he is doing here....but in the end they must all let go.

i don't want to give everything away, and i don't think i have. there is a richness to this movie that is lacking in cinema today. the willingness to risk and take a chance on a story that is not easy to portray and not easy to grasp. something magical.

this movie isn't for everyone, but i think you will like it anyway.

click - 8.5/10 universal remote controls

2006-12-01T23:02:00.000-08:00

so, was i surprised. yes. i wasn't expecting such a moving story as this one. perhaps because it is a social commentary on the state of affairs today for most people from 30-45 who are working their asses off, with their life passing around them, and not knowing when to call it stops, hold the phone, put on the breaks. i'm in there. we are the kind of people who take on too much - for what? the good of our health. no. because we don't have enough to do during the day. no. and i don't even have kids, so i can't imagine how much faster life would go if i did.

click shows us that no one can escape death (wrapped in a bobby ewing shower-esque scene). no matter how hard we work or don't work, that's where we end up. so, i have to ask the larger question (and i can because i'm in that age range that STARTS to ask the big questions)....what does all this mean? what is all this crap that we buy for each other, and all the money driven things we do really mean in the end. why are we so driven by money (or other things of seemingly equal value). will we continue to sacrifice ourselves for the "man". one of my frineds calls it FU money. we slave to get paid the big money (bankroll) so we can do what we want. is that enough?

getting back to the movie. i was expecting to be disappointed with the lame-ish kinda jokes at the beginning. stereotypes mostly depicting the nagging wife, the approaching senility parents, the bratty kid who if he didn't play with his neighbour wouldn't have any friends and the horny dog.

what i got instead was a funny, topical story about a man not realizing what he has, and eventually wanting more for himself than the next promotion.

i see people on their crackberries, and wonder - do i really want to be a part of all this?

i don't think so.

technology will kill you. i'll never get a universal remote. i prefer to have all the different parts of my life seperate, that way if i ever want to slow down, i'll have the option.

rent click. i think you'll like it.

how to lose a guy in 10 days - 7/10 baby love ferns

2006-11-26T07:13:00.000-08:00

this is a sweet romantic comedy that portrays a smart young woman of the magazine industry in new york looking to land a perfect cover story so that she can write about the things she really cares about (poverty, war, strife, etc.), and about the young ad exec who wants to land the big account. yes - how typical. if you can suspend your belief for about 100 minutes, then you can enjoy this movie.

it has its one line funnies, and some skin shots. personally i think andie's character is much more evil and sinister than ben's character. i'll let you be the judge. between the clingy, whiny, controlling, bossy, needy andy, to the pleasing-to-a-fault ben, it could really go either way. although you feel sorry for ben at one point, because all his friends know what's happening and that he has to string this girl along for the gag.

this movie will likely be one of the classic comedies because, let's face it, these people are beautiful and they make you laugh. there is even a tender moment when andy realizes that Ben is "real" and that she may not want to lose him. then they end up making it in the shower. yes - how typical. if this happened in real life i would be married with children by now.

marie antoinette - 8/10 flings with military men

2006-11-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

i wanted to see it, simply to see what the hype was about. i was delightfully surprised by the frankness of the piece, although i found the young antoinette to be a bit too sugary. i would have preferred to see more of the dark side of how things really were (like The Libertine...). I don't believe that it was all dresses and cake. i'm glad it didn't stay there for the full duration of the film.

a few times, i felt like i was watching "the simple life" - although with much better acting (ouch...). yound girls frolic around, drinking and disturbing. makes it seem like a good time to be alive, but it couldn't have been.

the mood shifts mid-way and that's when it gets interesting, in my opinion. i especially like the change of costume and makeup, and the beautiful transition from young vibrant mother, to older more distant mother losing a child. i think it should have been a bit more racy (is that all i can think about tonight...?) with the young military lad.

obviously from her birthdate - she was a scorpio. the sheer sexuality and lavishness that she desired could not have been easy for her husband to deliver. "le dauphin" apparently suffered from phimosis - look it up - i'm not going to tell you - you have to find out for yourself.

i keep forgetting that these people were also very young. my friend rob says that there is nothing scarier to a 14 (in this case 15) year old boy than a 14 year old girl. this young thing that landed in the dauphin's bed was 14 and all he wanted to do was go hunting with his buddies and pick locks.

and what was up with that - he had a lock to pick beside him and he couldn't have cared less. duty vs. love. and a mother's love. i especially like the "talk" that lock boy has with brother-in-law. i think lock boy was not cut out for marriage, and decided he had better just make the best of a bad situation. of course marriage, anthropologically, was never meant to be sugar and roses - it was meant as an alliance between families to access wealth. when did we bastardize that with love?

all in all, i enjoyed the juxtaposition of the old and new worlds. a relationship with today and the frivilousness of youth - cavorting and being seduced by the sunrise... & a bold expression of a young woman who fought her way through boredom at a time when all she had to be was a pretty childbearing wife for a king.

trailer park boys - 9/10 shopping carts

2006-10-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

i know, i know.....the trailer park boys? you ask - what are you thinking?

i must admit - it did take me about a year to get tuned into what was going on in the park. HOWEVER, i laughed my ass of at the first episode i saw and couldn't go back. it is just so out there and real all at the same time...let me explain.

i grew up in the "country" where most everyone knows everyone else (or is related), and there are fights in the parking lot at the arena between the town guys and the out-of-town guys. small towns always make the best fuel for stories, because there is just so much dirt going on there...

i can see the appeal for the park - it is bold, brash, and uncharted territory (except for the series of skits and the movie about ronnie dobbs "Run Ronnie Run").

the movie leaves you feeling like you've watched a very long episode. i wasn't fond of them rehashing some of the back story about the who's and what's in the park, but i can understand that they were trying to appeal to new and old audiences alike. it doesn't take long to know these characters, because most everyone i know, knows someone like them (except for some strange people i know in bc - what? they don't have people in the west growing dope? oh, they don't know anyone living in a trailer park,...right...)

"the making of" for the movie and the leadup on the showcase network highlighted the "relationship" quality of the show. these are just people, trying to make a decent life, screwing up, making up, blowing up, and burning down things. they make mistakes.

what i find funny is that the episodes were picked up by BBC to run in the US, and they were thrown at the wall, but they didn't stick....stange, eh?

i won't give anything away, but i think if you want some fun, you should see why julian finally puts down his drink....

everyone should watch canadian - get to know these boys while they still are...

gone too long

2006-07-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

i have way too much to catch up on.....will get there in a few days....
maybe this weekend, i have an "extra" long weekend
we'll see.

SIFT

2006-05-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

i wanted to write every night on my impressions of my screenwriting workshop i'm taking at SIFT. i missed last night, but i will recap.

Tuesday

the opening night saw guest speaker, and beowulf & grendel director Sturla Gunnarsson on the stage to tell us some golden nuggets of wisdom from the front line. invaluable. he made no grandstanding or wild gestures that this was all fun and games, and that it is a real business, and sometime people aren't very nice.......and that when you are successful in canadian film you always have to make the next project your comeback project......odd

the reception that followed was lovely, across from parliament hill. i talked with an interesting fellow, jeff, from the montreal theatre scene. i also spoke with rosslyn (spelling?) about writing and her family publishing business.

Wednesday

class started at 9:00 with jefferson lewis. his style of teaching is very organic (which i like), but not for everyone. the class is a nice mix of people from the industry and those (like me) just starting out. a nice mix of ages too.

the screening at lunch was a short called "out of the closet" from a production company in toronto. it is a light hearted look at a young man on the day of his first kiss, and being shoved in a closet when the girl's father comes home. he then must endure the earache of listening to his girlfriend's father have sex with a woman and says something like "horny people are really loud when they think no one's listening...." clever.

more class in the afternoon whereby we sketched out the premise and rough structure for a screenplay.

a panel discussion on new media in a mock interview style with a rep from the bell new media fund. it seems to me that everything has to be thought of so far in advance in anticipation of the funding, that projects might get stale......i'm not sure.

for homework we had to read the screenplay for "thelma & louise" and write a pitch. i'm gonna use the one i'm working on to get some ideas back from the group.

tonight we screened the doc "mozartballs" by larry weinstein. he also did "beethoven's hair", and many other docs on composers. he was very engaging with the audience.

more tomorrow night (unless the writing assignment kills me)

Secretary - 10/10 spankings

2006-05-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

well i have to tell you that one of my most favourite movies of all time is "Secretary".

it wasn't because i saw it on my last night in ireland in 2003 that made it special either (ok, maybe a little). if you've seen this movie, you know how many masturbation scenes there are in it. i was sitting beside this older gentleman in a long trenchcoat that night, and to be honest, i think he was gone before the movie ended.....strange.....

what can i say about this movie. it is a distinctly fresh movie about a young woman's need to feel - anything. she self-injures to heal herself from the pain that is inflicted by herself, her family and her general surroundings. when she gets a job working (after having been cooped up for a while) as a secretary she learns that she is not so alone in her self (world) loathing, and that her need for pain and healing is as real as others need for breathing, control, etc.

james spader and maggie gyllenhaal (spelling?) are wonderful opposite one another and lend so much chemistry on screen that they are a delight to watch through all the spanking.

james spader plays e. edward grey, a very isolated man who has an intense want and drive for self-control. he is also the cultivator of beauty and peace. in his heart he is very romantic, but his expression of love is very controlling and quietly violent. it all seems to work so effortlessly that one can not help but like him. in lee holloway (clever name too for the hollow aspect of someone who self injures), he is scared to realize that he has found someone who will understand him and who will not shy away simply because he expresses himself the way he does. the character is very erotic as we can see from his sensual surroundings and attention to detail.

overall, the movie is sweet and honest. we are all freaks at our core, and when we choose to love, we choose it all - all the weird things that the "other" brings to the table. acceptance and permission are a big part of the two main characters. we must give permission to the ones we love to be who they are and choose to accept them that way with every fiber of our being.

i want more movies to be like this one.

monty python and the holy grail

2006-05-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

funny as all hell.....a guy i work with thinks its funny that i'm a woman and i find stupid potty humor funny.......go figure.....

loved the flying cow and the extra bits on the dvd - and the part for those hard of hearing.....and the armless and legless black knight

i haven't really seen anything else lately. i hear the davinci code is "ok". not as mush depth as the book, but then they never are......i will get the scoop from my mom later this week

scriptwriting

2006-05-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

one of the hardest things about being a writer is the writing......

now that the pitch is in (and i haven't received confirmation as to the actual transmittal and reception yet), i can breathe for a few days. my next goal is to have a solid working outline of the script for the next time out group meets.

the group, the IFCO Screenwriting Circle, is a very dynamic group of writers and film people. i'm not sure yet if i want to be on the director side of the camera - maybe in the future.

i just had another fantabulous idea today for a movie.......i can't tell you what it is, but its gonna be great. first, i have to concentrate on getting this one done.....

two movies - Emily Rose & Brokeback Mountain

2006-05-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Exorcism of Emily Rose - 6/10

alright i guess. the director and writer interviews were suggesting it was a perect blend between horror and courtroom drama. i found it kinda boring. there wasn't enough of the horror, and the previews from what i remember led one to believe that there was going to be more. the actors were understated and again, kinda boring. one of the most interesting characters was played by Colm Fiore, and it was only a very small part at that. the writing played on some of the ideas of "what if" and possibilities. i think there should have been more of what really happened. step over the line a little more. i find that there aren't many horror movies these days, and maybe that's because people don't know what they are. i think back to the original "The Haunting" - masterpiece - got you by the throat. not so much this one, and i couldn't help but falling asleep about halfway through - only to pick it up again later that night......

Brokeback Mountain - 8/10

it doesn't matter that it involves two gay men, who don't think they are. it is a love story. if you look at it from that angle, it gives you a perspective into what it was like for ranchers and cowboys who could only be who they really were, and how hard that is to reconcile with real life.

i wouldn's say that i loved the movie, but i do realize the universal themes that played out and the unique untold story that it brought to the screen. i think the reason it wasn't turned into a film for so long was because it was so real. too real, and no one wanted to admit it. sometimes those are the hardest stories to tell.

the acting alone made this movie what it is and the cinematography was beautiful.

Ottawa Senators

2006-05-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

my ten dollars is lost....rumors on the radio suggest that the Sens will look very different next year. the team stuggled, and were overskated, i believe. i'm not sure why they weren't more hungry. i'm wondering how long the NHL will hold ottawa at bay. now i'm cheering for edmonton.

Ottawa Senators

2006-05-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

They have to win the cup so Mr. Murray can parade it in Shawville. And I have 10 dollars riding on it.

Nouvelle France - 9/10 eclaires

2006-05-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

The story is set on the backdrop of Quebec City at the time of the battle on the Plains of Abraham. I was in Quebec City on a school trip at the age of 14, and I don't remember learning that France wanted to have nothing to do with "the savages and indians" in la nouvelle france. That portion of Quebec was pretty much given over to the British, as many things seemed to have been figured out on a political agenda across the pond.

There is also a love story about a young woman, with the pet name - Marie-Loup. Her eyes in the movie were very blue and almost seemed white in the middle. Haunting. She was also a wild woman, according to the standards of the day - a daughter of an unrefined miller - and a woman with a head on her shoulders. Sadly, because she understood medicines, she was also seen as somewhat of a witch. She was no one's servant. I don't know if she was based on a real person or not.

Throughout the movie, there was a not so subtle symobology of the wheel of fate (the moira in greek mythology), highlighted by three woman who have an ominous presence throughout the movie.

The emotions of the piece are haunting as well. We see how people compromise and deceive one another to get what they want. How Marie-Loup is taken advantage of because she cannot read, and how she trusts a priest who has no intention of ever letting her into the arms of another man who can give her what she most wants. Marie-Loup ends up marrying out of defeat and compromise to a man who ruins his best friend's life. But fate gets him in the end.

One of the most eloquent and romantic lines from the entire movie is (and I'm paraphrasing) - "when I close my eyes, all I see is you, and when they are open, all I do is look for you." Remarkable.

The signature song is sung by Celine Dion.

Crash - 10/10

2006-05-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

I was completely entranced by this movie. It makes me want to be a better writer. The way the characters are developed so fully with so little dialogue, and strictly by what they do, or what they are willing to do to get by. I wept at the point (and there are several) where one realizes how fragile we all are , and how blind we are to what is actually happening around us. Why some people come into our lives. What they mean to us.......How our lives are changed by them without them even knowing.

It forces some big questions without meaning to. I listened to some of the Director commentary, and they were simply okay with following this cast of characters where ever they were going. Brilliant. No wonder it has won so many awards.

When a movie moves me as much as this one, I always wonder where the idea came from and why it needs to be told. How it is told with such honesty.

Everyone should see this film.

What is The Ice Harvest about?

2006-05-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

I rented two movies tonight. The Ice Harvest and Crash.

What is The Ice Harvest about? I'm not sure. Maybe I should read the book. If anyone can tell me I'd appreciate it.....

Right now on CBC they're playing All About Eve. I've never seen it before, but it was heavily referenced in a screenwriting book I just read.

three movies - Lie With Me/Tristan & Isolde/The Red Violin

2006-04-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

two i'd never seen and one resee.....

Lie With Me - I liked it more than I thought I would. 7/10.

A simple story line about a young women who substitutes sex for emotional connections with men. Leila, Lauren Lee Smith (aka Lara - from "The L Word"), likes to be in a power position with men, since she feels as though she can control them (and herself) through sex. She finds out that she's wrong about everything and loses herself to one man, fully. His father, Joshua, played by Don Francks, is ill and it is his demise that shatters the playtime for both of the carefree sexaholics. What happens next? She all but tells him that she will not run anymore, but he's moved backwards into his old girlfriend, Victoria, played by Polly Shannon (born in Kingston, grew up in Alymer - the poor girl). Go out and rent to see what the fuss is all about.......

I enjoyed the fluid nature of the writing, and the setup of the characters as being more fragile than their exteriors (but aren't we all?). The running metaphor is used as a coping method for Leila, and it fits her free spiritedness. She reminds me of a friend of mine, who would put herself in harms way, but unlike Leila, she usually always realized just before it was too late. Leila pushes beyond that point to extend herself to every man for sex, whether she is explicitly with them or not. Over the course of the plot, I think she begins to realize that she has been hiding, not from the fear of the physical (as she readily partakes), but directly in the face of fear of herself as an emotional person (cause in today's world, that's scary...). She finally sees herself, and loses herself at the same time, in a provocative scene with her reflection in a mirror.

Tristan and Isolde - 8.5/10

I knew very little about this story going into it.

Tristan loses his parents in a battle with the Irish, and is taken in by the would be king of the counties of a united Britain, who loses his hand saving him. Years later, Tristan is all fired up to avenge the bloodbath, and ends up with a scrape on him from a poision ladden sword. His comrades float him off down the river (but he is still alive - its just poison afterall....), and lands on the shores of Ireland, where, low and behold, Isolde finds him and takes him in.

Since the brute who "killed" Tristan has done such a good job for the Irish king, the king hands him his daughter, aka Isolde.

She gets handed over again later as a sign of treaty between the two countries. As much as that time period seems romantic, I can't imagine being shuffled around at the whim of any man.

There are some good fights scenes, and some tender moments between the two lovers. Tristan must be a Cancer, since he is so romantic, yet also so plagued with romantic pain. Yep, must be a Cancer.

There is an interesting subplot that comes to light closer to the end, but there are clues all along if you've been following closely.

The Red Violin - 9.5/10

What a fantastic story. Simple, and so visual it demands you to pay attention. Despite the year of this movie, it does not loose anything with the passing of time, ironically neither did the violin in question. I enjoyed it more today as I have a new take on the elements of a movie - plot breakdown, the continutity factor, how to move the story, visual elements that give a sense of place, time and character evolution. The only one thing that dated the movie (as I could see it) was the cellphone that Samuel L. Jackson't character uses to call his wife in the last sequence.

Go rent this movie, or see it if it plays in the repetoire film houses.

Beckett at the Ottawa International Writers Festival

2006-04-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

I will post here soon all of what I learned from Beckett's Waiting for Godot and End Game.

I started a scripwriting workshop tonight through IFCO. It is being facilitated by Kenneth Matthew McGrath. I love ideas and working through them (and I have many rolling around in this little head of mine....), so I think this will be an ideal group for me and my writing daemons (along with the poetry workshops run by rob mclennan), because I don't do enough......

I'm also doing a 5-day screenwriting workshop through SIFT this summer.

where to begin - Silent Hill 4/10

2006-04-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

so, i've seen some interesting movies over the past month. i'll be going through them here.....today, on the other hand, i saw a pretty bad movie......Silent Hill......

the plot was a little weak, with everything wrapped up in a few minutes of monologue-ic description about 2/3 of the way through. i just got finished reading a book on how to develop characters for screenplays, and this was one of the key points on the "not to do" list.

along with the plot, the dialog was sloppy in some spots, and really didn't do anything for me. the most interesting character was one of the secondary characters, the over-the-top police woman (in tight leather pants - is this standard issue for the police force in town?), who, despite having little to say, added a sense of reality to the movie (by swearing) that was lacking otherwise. i was expecting something more.

the actions seemed forced too, like some of these things would never normally happen to these people (husband says "did you read the websites?"). if you caught your daughter on the edge of a ravine, screaming the name of a small town, would you look that small town up on the internet and drive her there to try and solve the mystery???? probably not. i'm going to try not to give the farm away here, but when the setup in the first 5 minutes gets your attention, it sadly doesn't follow through with a punch. there was some premonitioning with the cliff scene, which was one of the more interesting points in the beginning.

on another note, i saw a lecture this week about the feminine divine, and i thought it interesting that the screenwriter had female characters on both sides of the conflict. was this intentional? there are two places i remember in the movie where the line is stated that mother is god in the eyes of a child. mother as destoyer and salvation, even at the same time. now that's interesting.

some leftover questions: who were the freaky armless/deformed people? are we led to make believe that they are the leftovers from after the coal fires? children of the leftover people? who was alessa's father? again, some camps of the feminine divine would say that a man is not necessary, that mother gives birth to daugher.....again, interesting thought, isn't it?

despite the "so-so" movie, the trailers were better - Trailer Park Boys movie (can't wait), and "A Scanner Darkly" - a la "Waking Life" animation looked promising.