The Week in Review

It's been a busy week and I haven't had time to scratch myself. I've resumed my French classes at Alliance Française (B4), and not having studied during the summer break and missed the first class of the term, I'm struggling a little and have to work hard to catch up. I have been doing some additional conversational classes with Stéphanie on le week-end, so that redeems me a little in that department.

I only saw two films on the big screen during the week, but gee, what films they were! Both are Oscar contenders (best film) and I loved them both in spite of their flaws. I will have more to say about them when I find the time. They are both well worth seeing. I'm not big on the Oscars and predicting winners (my opinion is they largely reward mediocrity). But I do think that No Country For Old Men will comfortably win best film. No other film in contention comes close.

I have French classes tomorrow night and Melbourne Cinémathèque has opening night on Wednesday (come and see Dracula) so it's going to have to wait until the later part of the week.

Autumn is clearly here, the summer vacuum of films is behind us and my film calendar is starting to get exciting. The Focus on Gus Van Sant starts Thursday week (I still haven't written about Paranoid Park, but I loved it and will see it at least one more time). Before that ends, there's a Latin American Film Festival at the Nova, followed by the French Film Festival and the Queer Film Festival. It's a pity these last two screen at the same time. I give preference to the French Film Festival (I'm expecting to see 14 films there this year, and I'll post my selections when I get around to finalising my research).

FILMS:

• Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel, France, 2007)
• There Will Be Blood (PT Anderson, USA, 2007)

DVD:

• Basquiat (Julian Schnabel, USA, 1996)