SIFF - 6/9/2006

Films Today: 1
Running Total: 27

I forgot to mention in the entry on The Puffy Chair that there was a short preceding it that was very good called I Am (Not) Van Gogh by David Russo. It was largely filmed at Bumbershoot last year, and it contains some really cool and fascinating stop motion animation done in the midst of a moving crowd. The setups were, I’m sure, enormously complex. The whole thing plays to a voiceover of him trying to sell the concept of the film we’re watching to some kind of arts funding organization. This voiceover is really the film’s only weak point, as it plays somewhat like a gag and is a little distracting. Still this is probably my second favorite short this year (behind My Dad Is 100 Years Old.) I just discovered in my Googling that Russo has been tapped for a Start To Finish grant from Northwest Film Forum, and I look forward to seeing what he produces.

I actually took the 7th and 8th off. I had two films scheduled (Factotum and Road To Guantanamo) and blew them both off for varying reasons. I’m really bummed about missing the Winterbottom, however it is coming to Pacific Place on July 7th, so I can catch it then.

On this day I saw the Tsui Hark action epic Seven Swords. I had never seen any of Hark’s other films, and although I’m not a huge fan of this film it made me interested enough to check out some more. Seven Swords is predictably enough heavily influenced by The Seven Samurai although there is plenty that is different enough to avoid it being a straight remake ala The Magnificent Seven. My biggest problem with it is that the fight scenes were poorly choreographed, with the exception of the final swordfight between the villain and the hero which was a ton of fun. Once you’ve seen a few films Yuen Woo-ping choreographed, you don’t put up with fights where you can’t follow the action. Other than that, not a lot of comments. A little long. There was this sort of goth-samurai chick in some scenes which was really weird. Half-shaved head with the rest hanging straight down in front of her face, heavy black eyeliner, full armor but all black, bigass leather boots. I’m sure someone is going to rent this based on that description alone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 11:35 am and is filed under Movies, SIFF 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.