More HIFF, Bunty aur Babli
This entry was written during the weekend, but this is the first chance I've had of posting it.
Saturday
After some thinking, I decided to go completely crazy and decided to try the extreme movie festival experience, i.e. I bought another 11 movie Festival Pass on Friday.
I also bought tickets to the films I wanted to see in addition to those I'd already chosen. My original "looks interesting" list was well over 20 films, and I had a hard time deciding on what films would fit on my top 11, so it was pretty easy to decide what films I would try to add to my schedule.
The schedule isn't at all impossible, since I concentrated a lot of the films for the opening weekend, and will see 3 films on Friday and Saturday and 4 films on Sunday. On weekdays, I'll be seeing only 2 films per night, so I don't think I'll be too tired even with work during the day and films in the evening. And the festival only lasts little week - I'll be able to sleep after it ends :).
The new additions on my viewing list are:
Le Petit Lieutenant (French realistic crime film)
Renaissance (French animated crime film)
Three Times (France/Taiwan, three stories set in three different time periods)
Little Miss Sunshine (A US parody on the children's beauty pageant phenomenon)
The Host (South Korean tentacle monster-action movie that was a huge blockbuster in it's homeland)
Princesses (Spanish movie about a friendship between prostitutes)
Climates (Turkish film about relationships)
Formula 17 (Taiwanese gay comedy)
I still have two tickets to use on the closing weekend, but that schedule won't be announced until next week's Tuesday. I think I'll probably go see Nana if there is an extra showing of it, but the other film is still completely open.
Sunday
Tonight, after a long time, I'm moving into a Bollywood phase again. sassiefin is coming here soon and together we will watch Bunty aur Babli. I'm making us Boeuf Bourguignon with minor modifications.
Now I'm off to check out the Farmers' Market they are holding today on the parking lot of the nearby supermarket.
Later: the market was pretty crowded, but it's no surprise, since the weather was lovely. I bought a loaf of garlic/olive/feta bread, a litre of lingonberries, a couple of second hand books (R. A. MacAvoy: The Grey Horse, Margery Allingham: The Fashion in Shrouds and Mika Waltari: Komisario Palmun erehdys), and a cart of freshly fried whitefish for my lunch. Mmm, they were delicious!
When I got home, I got an unpleasant surprise when my kitchen's water tap thingy (the top part in this picture) got left in my hand. Luckily, the water wasn't running at the time and the repairman could come here promptly. In the end, he was able to fix it in a few minutes. What a huge relief!
Even later: Bunty aur Babli was great fun! Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji were great as small-time hustlers and the Big B was extremely cool as the cop chasing them - of course, helped by the very James-Bondesque music that started every time he was on screen :D. Both of us greatly enjoyed this film.
I think the funniest caper was the sale of Taj Mahal, especially with the buyer commenting that how was anyone going to be stupid enough to sell Taj Mahal and Bunty replying that he couldn't believe anyone was stupid enough to buy it :D.
I've liked the music for quite a long time now, and can't decide whether Dhadak Dhadak, Chup Chupke or Nach Baliye is my favourite. I had completely forgotten that Aishwarya Rai had a special appearance in the film, so I was pleasantly surprised by Kajra Re. I really enjoy watching her dancing, because all her movements are so crisp and fluent.
Still, if you compare her with, for example, Rani, she is technically more accomplished, but Rani has much more energy and always looks like she's having great fun. I guess this is exactly the same comparison that I once expressed when comparing Hrithik Roshan and Shahrukh Khan's dances. The former is technically more accomplished, but the latter makes it all look so much more fun.
Saturday
After some thinking, I decided to go completely crazy and decided to try the extreme movie festival experience, i.e. I bought another 11 movie Festival Pass on Friday.
I also bought tickets to the films I wanted to see in addition to those I'd already chosen. My original "looks interesting" list was well over 20 films, and I had a hard time deciding on what films would fit on my top 11, so it was pretty easy to decide what films I would try to add to my schedule.
The schedule isn't at all impossible, since I concentrated a lot of the films for the opening weekend, and will see 3 films on Friday and Saturday and 4 films on Sunday. On weekdays, I'll be seeing only 2 films per night, so I don't think I'll be too tired even with work during the day and films in the evening. And the festival only lasts little week - I'll be able to sleep after it ends :).
The new additions on my viewing list are:
I still have two tickets to use on the closing weekend, but that schedule won't be announced until next week's Tuesday. I think I'll probably go see Nana if there is an extra showing of it, but the other film is still completely open.
Sunday
Tonight, after a long time, I'm moving into a Bollywood phase again. sassiefin is coming here soon and together we will watch Bunty aur Babli. I'm making us Boeuf Bourguignon with minor modifications.
Now I'm off to check out the Farmers' Market they are holding today on the parking lot of the nearby supermarket.
Later: the market was pretty crowded, but it's no surprise, since the weather was lovely. I bought a loaf of garlic/olive/feta bread, a litre of lingonberries, a couple of second hand books (R. A. MacAvoy: The Grey Horse, Margery Allingham: The Fashion in Shrouds and Mika Waltari: Komisario Palmun erehdys), and a cart of freshly fried whitefish for my lunch. Mmm, they were delicious!
When I got home, I got an unpleasant surprise when my kitchen's water tap thingy (the top part in this picture) got left in my hand. Luckily, the water wasn't running at the time and the repairman could come here promptly. In the end, he was able to fix it in a few minutes. What a huge relief!
Even later: Bunty aur Babli was great fun! Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji were great as small-time hustlers and the Big B was extremely cool as the cop chasing them - of course, helped by the very James-Bondesque music that started every time he was on screen :D. Both of us greatly enjoyed this film.
I think the funniest caper was the sale of Taj Mahal, especially with the buyer commenting that how was anyone going to be stupid enough to sell Taj Mahal and Bunty replying that he couldn't believe anyone was stupid enough to buy it :D.
I've liked the music for quite a long time now, and can't decide whether Dhadak Dhadak, Chup Chupke or Nach Baliye is my favourite. I had completely forgotten that Aishwarya Rai had a special appearance in the film, so I was pleasantly surprised by Kajra Re. I really enjoy watching her dancing, because all her movements are so crisp and fluent.
Still, if you compare her with, for example, Rani, she is technically more accomplished, but Rani has much more energy and always looks like she's having great fun. I guess this is exactly the same comparison that I once expressed when comparing Hrithik Roshan and Shahrukh Khan's dances. The former is technically more accomplished, but the latter makes it all look so much more fun.