I've attended a number of sessions at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival in past years, though not recent ones. Perhaps I didn't research sufficiently and got put off by some of the fairly camp or grotesque excesses. I never liked the caricature that TV's Melrose Place became, nor the gay somewhat equivalent, Queer as Folk. It's not the sexual orientation that bothers me, but what I might snobbishly call the quality of what's on offer.
Now, I noticed that last year MQFF screened François Ozon's A Time to Leave, about a gay photographer who has a terminal disease and finds his own way to say goodbye to those he loves. For me, this is universal cinema, and the sort of film I'm happy to see at MQFF. I had a look at this year's extensive program - I believe there's 100 sessions - and there's no way I can properly research that volume of films. I've tried to make it easier by only looking at sessions that I can fit into my schedule and eliminating the genres that don't interest me in the slightest. The difficult part now is to separate the wheat from the chaff of those remaining.
My question is, are you going to MQFF? And if you are, have you looked at the programme and have any suggestions? If so, I'd love to see them.
1 comment:
I've seen The Fish Child, and I enjoyed it. The atmosphere the film creates was quite alluring.
However, it's all slightly spoiled by half-baked dialogue and an uninspired storyline, although the two main girls deliver very good performances. I especially didn't mind the way the film mixes reality with fantasy.
Well worth watching, certainly.
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