Food Inc sounds right up my alley — thanks for the heads up!

T-minus 2 months until my contract is up and I can blog from the TTC with my shiny new iphone.

kate

Reid

Reid

Should I point out that movies not aimed at big audiences are likely going to be all over the map on how people feel about them? Oh well, when I get through my backlog of 100 DVDs to watch, hopefully Fountain will be on DVD so I can analyse it properly — I had high hopes for R. but they did not pan out.

As a great philosopher once said… “whatever”.

Oh,
.. I guess *I* do.

Har. Har.

Seriously, I’m worried about you! Are you eating properly? Do you want us to bring you food on Thursday?!? Are you reading these comments?!???!!!

Debbie

Took this photo at brunch with Parki and Jeff, at a GREAT restaurant called 3’s Company Cafe. I had the raspberry cream cheese French toast. My MovableType woes are nearly sorted out, though I’m still tweaking templates and…

I did Filmfest starwatching last night and took photos

First, let me say that despite its slow pace (perhaps deliberate to allow time to think about it?) there are things to ponder about the movie like any, and especially foreign ones — besides trying to put yourself in the place of the characters — although I could certainly relate to my childhood which was a bit isolated. These are namely any accidental cultural juxtaposition based on the context of ones own cultural values or beliefs.

The most astonishing for me personally, is that despite being roasted regularly by my peers and reading constantly in magazines the idea of survival of the fittest (which I reject), there it was, a COUNTER opinion in the girls’ school 9 a.m. DAY ONE!!! They are taught evolution without survival of the fittest being mentioned. The children improve (by implication) with every generation. I’m pretty sure the movie was exploring this idea but trying to be super-subtle, and I’ll need more time to figure that metaphor out. (cough)

In addition, this is probably obvious, the end of the innocence described in the movie ends at the end of the movie “INNOCENCE” itself. Besides this, the common theme of life & death (or rather lives & deaths) being the beginning and the end of the movie is also explored.

It should be noted there was a Q&A with the director after the show, but I didn’t bother to stay for it, as I’m certain a lot of what I would be interested in about the movie relates to my own cultural “values” (or more accurately, those programmed into us by our society).

There is also a theme in the movie (btw, yeah, sure its a ballet school, but that has little to do with it) that there is a certain maximum innocence you enter the world with.

The other cultural value about the movie was that it spoke freely and civily and cleanly about some minor topics that are *not* considered innocent in North American society. I do not know enough about the culture from which it comes to tell if this is just the usual uptight nature of North American society on these points or what, it might just be a European thing. Which brings me to another point, all of the film festivals’ shows are rated R. I’d have no problem showing this movie to my 8 year old [well, other than that I would be arrested and riduculed for doing so]

The tiniest parts of their education which are shown to us are the only parts you won’t find in the education of students in the outside world in North America.

It’s marvelous too in the use of the [censored] to go from the ballet school to [censored] or whatever the heck it was at the end. And it is for *THAT* reason that the adult did not answer her question about where they were going.

Hm, it’s late. If you’re interested in an uncensored full-spoiler interpretation of the 3 levels in the movie of life/schooling and an innocent path through life, just let me know.

You may need to unlink yourself from the plight of the characters if you’re going to grok Goddard too.

Which reminds me, the story does not move away from Iris per se, the story is an accelerated linear track through the various levels at the school.

The coffins were very important. They were out of place becasuse of the secondary theme about entry and exit from the world.

Anyway, I should do like any good prole and call for a ban on this movie for some ridiculous adult theme somewhere since it’s one of those dangerously enlightening type movies. Actually, it’s loaded with dangerous ideas… they’re just too subtle for the movie to be banned. It’s True Art. (And remember, I am but one critic)

-jok

“In a mysterious establishment where they teach dance and natural sciences, three young girls will discover the strange laws which govern this school.”

That the first reviewer called it an alternate universe (and I love movies that do this to people) without realizing that it is *he* who lives in the alternate universe[1]. Not all of it is about the real world however. IMHO, a few movie cliches were used here and there to steer the viewer towads an examination of his expectations.

1. Maybe I should explain myself. Once you discover a suitable allegory and follow it along you will find kinks in the way the allegory fits the movie and the way the movie fits the consensus reality in the context of the allegory. Let’s take something like the impending doom aspect. You follow the movie cliche along using conventional expectations and the movie takes a twist. What does that mean? Was the cliche out of place? Was it allegorical? (maybe, maybe not…) Were we justified in expecting the impending doom? Since the cliche does look to be out of place, the first reaction I think is “I don’t get this movie”. The question though remains, if the movie is not misfilmed (which it’s not) what could it possibly mean? It means you have to re-examine either the allegory or the status quo. Science, especially the natural sciences are supposed to be open to further research and understanding (despite the fact that the average joe treats it as a religion without realizing it, IMHO). So if the allegory is the natural sciences, or perhaps even a social science, there is reason to question the status quo, and that works here even though the movie goes MUCH further, giving you the tools to quesiton the consensus reality itself, but I’ll leave that for another time.

Now, I went in expecting a single allegory about education, but I quickly had to start tracking 2 other allegories to find the best fit. If I had read the 1 line summary from the French site, I probably wouldn’t have had to switch allegories in mid-movie, so I recommend a deep examination of that one sentence prior to viewing this movie.

For Craigfans out there, I’ve posted photos of Craig’s filmfest schedule this week and of Craig writing this very column at:

http://www.blatherings.com/archives/002368.html