Rear view mirror #9
It's a been a while since my last update ... this is becoming a pattern, so here is attempt #5960.
In the last week ...
I watched Agnes Varda's Visages Villages (aka Faces Places) and Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country at the ANU Film Group. Both films have foundations in their provocateur's social justice hearts, and both wander through the landscapes of modern France and 1920s Australia respectively. But what a difference in style for each! One is a gentle travelogue about the importance of art and memory, a tribute to the eyes and faces of ordinary people, and the stories behind such visages. The other is an angry meditation about the foundations of the modern Australia, built on the 'black's back' rather than the sheep's back. Both films start from the same place, take divergent paths before circling back to the same end point: an audience overwhelmed by the art they have just experiences. My thoughts in greater detail will follow for both.
Our walking group ambled towards a book club, which is really just an excuse for brunch without the physical exercise. Well, our mouths certainly got a workout! (No, not like that). The subject of our cultural stimulation was Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians. The consensus was that it was a light easy read, but there were some difficulties whether it followed through with the 'satire', or actually had its cake and ate it too. Outside of the predicable love story and surface level purported satire on wealth, the novel did succeed in laying the groundwork for questions of Singaporean identity. I doubt that the film adaptation will explore any of this in greater depth (or any depth at all), but it would be interesting to see how the actors flesh out these characters, some of whom are paper thin.
Finally, the 2017-2018 Financial Year ended with the usual rush of invoices, finalising advices, and performance reporting. Everyone was just a bit crazy, and the rush felt a bit like Christmas/New Year , just without the week long break. Come Monday, the whole debacle starts again and the ferrets will go back to running on the endless wheel of fortune.
In the last week ...
I watched Agnes Varda's Visages Villages (aka Faces Places) and Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country at the ANU Film Group. Both films have foundations in their provocateur's social justice hearts, and both wander through the landscapes of modern France and 1920s Australia respectively. But what a difference in style for each! One is a gentle travelogue about the importance of art and memory, a tribute to the eyes and faces of ordinary people, and the stories behind such visages. The other is an angry meditation about the foundations of the modern Australia, built on the 'black's back' rather than the sheep's back. Both films start from the same place, take divergent paths before circling back to the same end point: an audience overwhelmed by the art they have just experiences. My thoughts in greater detail will follow for both.
Our walking group ambled towards a book club, which is really just an excuse for brunch without the physical exercise. Well, our mouths certainly got a workout! (No, not like that). The subject of our cultural stimulation was Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians. The consensus was that it was a light easy read, but there were some difficulties whether it followed through with the 'satire', or actually had its cake and ate it too. Outside of the predicable love story and surface level purported satire on wealth, the novel did succeed in laying the groundwork for questions of Singaporean identity. I doubt that the film adaptation will explore any of this in greater depth (or any depth at all), but it would be interesting to see how the actors flesh out these characters, some of whom are paper thin.
Finally, the 2017-2018 Financial Year ended with the usual rush of invoices, finalising advices, and performance reporting. Everyone was just a bit crazy, and the rush felt a bit like Christmas/New Year , just without the week long break. Come Monday, the whole debacle starts again and the ferrets will go back to running on the endless wheel of fortune.
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