thursday 19/11/09: stupid pinky toes.

woke up at 9am. alarm was set for 9:15. got up and ready and went for a walk. listened to hell or high water which went for 28 minutes, perfect length. shame the shoes i borrowed were worn away at the edges inside so my stupid wide feet made my pinky toes get insane blisters. ridiculously large. came back, conference call which was alright. gary is legit. we didn't do much after that really.

in the afternoon jord laid down some electric guitar on spell my name while i sat in. after that i watched flags of our fathers.

it's impressive how frequently clint eastwood makes such complicated productions and pulls them off. every film he's made in the 2000's so far has been a challenge for him to make, the audience to watch or both. i think he's entering his best years, and considering he's 80 next year that's pretty remarkable. gran torino made 270 mil worldwide! who does that at 79? clint, that's who.

anyway, flags of our fathers was pretty good. the scenes i found the most impacting were the battle scenes but i suppose that's a given. barry pepper rules. the visual effects were great. eastwood shoots in 2.35:1 which is my favourite format and he really uses it well. shoots simple, shoots strongly. he knows what to show you and what not to show you. the scene where ryan phillipe's character enters a bunker to find a fellow soldier killed in a particularly gruesome way, eastwood stays on phillipe's face and uses the flashlight to indicate his reaction. it's much stronger than just showing...it's like he wants you to feel it instead of be assaulted by the image. seems like an elementary observation of an elementary technique but sometimes that's all that's needed, and it moved me.

next up: letter from iwo jima. i think the general consensus - and i think i agree - is that this is the superior of the two companion films. perhaps it's the language (the film is spoken entirely in japanese) or the operatic and earnest acting style all the japanese actors employ. the story is more raw emotionally and there's more interesting things going on underneath the surface. the involvement of the japanese's intense honour system (till and into death) and how this extends into their military tactics makes everything more heightened and the cultural differences become massive. these are two very different films.

then we had a practice. learned western a bit more. finally, i watched candy.

candy is a hell of an australian film. uncompromising. both leads firing on all cylinders. this is what australian film wants to be like but 8 times out of 10 doesn't even approach. there's not much to say about it except that you need to be in the mood...it's a rough ride. i'll be watching this director closely, and i wish heath ledger was still alive.

until tomorrow, bye.