Overheard at CIFF (Updated)
Favorite Exchange (in the audience for Mother):
Older WOMAN, paging through the festival program:
A-ha! Police, Adjective. I found it.
That's why I wanted to see that, because I like Romanian films.
Older MAN, not reading the program:
Is it about oppression?
WOMAN:
Yes.
MAN, very earnest, still not reading:
Oooh, sounds good!
WOMAN, after two beats:
It says it "does a lot by only doing a little."
I think I have to see that!
Favorite Non-Sequitur (in the audience for Red Riding: 1974):
MAN, to his viewing partner:
I have a friend, and he is adamantly Croatian.
I mean, he went to prison.
Favorite Refusal to Budge (in the audience for Face):
MAN, to his viewing partner:
Daniel Day-Lewis is French.
WOMAN, after an incredulous beat:
Of course he's not French. He's English.
MAN:
No, Daniel Day-Lewis is French.
WOMAN, after two beats:
Listen to the name. "Daniel Day-Lewis." There's no way he's French.
MAN, unflappable:
He is French.
WOMAN pulls out her iPhone. Tip-taps. Eventually:
"Daniel Day-Lewis, born 1957, in London, England."
MAN:
But he is French.
(Note: Day-Lewis has had Irish citizenship for years, but I wasn't about to cut in.)
By Far, the Most Tortured Word:
Vincere, aka VIN-SEER. VEE-VUH-RAY. VINKER. VINCER, like "pincer." VEEN-SAYR. VINKERY. Quite memorably, Vuh-RENTZ. Save a thought for the poor Italians at the screening: moaning, wounded. VEEN-chayray, they yelled, to no avail. Hell hath no monolith like a Chicago accent doing whatever the hell it wants.
But anyway, back to Precious: keep those comments going!
Older WOMAN, paging through the festival program:
A-ha! Police, Adjective. I found it.
That's why I wanted to see that, because I like Romanian films.
Older MAN, not reading the program:
Is it about oppression?
WOMAN:
Yes.
MAN, very earnest, still not reading:
Oooh, sounds good!
WOMAN, after two beats:
It says it "does a lot by only doing a little."
I think I have to see that!
Favorite Non-Sequitur (in the audience for Red Riding: 1974):
MAN, to his viewing partner:
I have a friend, and he is adamantly Croatian.
I mean, he went to prison.
Favorite Refusal to Budge (in the audience for Face):
MAN, to his viewing partner:
Daniel Day-Lewis is French.
WOMAN, after an incredulous beat:
Of course he's not French. He's English.
MAN:
No, Daniel Day-Lewis is French.
WOMAN, after two beats:
Listen to the name. "Daniel Day-Lewis." There's no way he's French.
MAN, unflappable:
He is French.
WOMAN pulls out her iPhone. Tip-taps. Eventually:
"Daniel Day-Lewis, born 1957, in London, England."
MAN:
But he is French.
(Note: Day-Lewis has had Irish citizenship for years, but I wasn't about to cut in.)
By Far, the Most Tortured Word:
Vincere, aka VIN-SEER. VEE-VUH-RAY. VINKER. VINCER, like "pincer." VEEN-SAYR. VINKERY. Quite memorably, Vuh-RENTZ. Save a thought for the poor Italians at the screening: moaning, wounded. VEEN-chayray, they yelled, to no avail. Hell hath no monolith like a Chicago accent doing whatever the hell it wants.
But anyway, back to Precious: keep those comments going!
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 10:00 AM
15 Comments:
Priceless. Let me throw in this gem that I heard on Friday, between two men who actually appeared to be accredited press members:
MAN 1: Did you see "A Single Man?"
MAN 2: No, I suppose I should, but ...
MAN 1: It's really quite good, actually. I was very surprised.
MAN 2: So I keep hearing, but ... I don't know. I hate debut films.
MAN 1: (to his credit, slightly incredulous) You hate debut films.
MAN 2: They're always so ... rough.
Yikes. "Rough" is not a word I think we could ever throw at Tom Ford's filmmaking. It suggests friction.
Does that merit some kind of Catwoman noise?
Somewhere, on one side of the Atlantic or the other, a snap-queen just got a big ol' pair of wings.
And we wonder why Hollywood keeps dumbing down mainstream movies...
Well, I guess, Robert, but the audiences at these movies are barely recognizable as "mainstream audiences." There's plenty of dumbing-down going on all over, I suppose, but let's be honest, too: we've all had conversations that would similarly horrify a bystander with a notepad at one time or another.
Was the DDL comment by the Russian guy with a lisp sitting to your right who likes to use Q&As to explain the movie to the director/lecturer?
In other news, I liked a movie that isn't Face or About Elly. Claustrophobia by Ivy Ho. Don't know if you still have access to screeners, but it somehow manages to be pleasantly oblique to the very end despite having a structural gimmick. Mundane yet vivid, thanks to Kar Yan Lam, Mark Lee Ping-Bin, and the extended length of scenes.
How does one pronounce "Vincere". I've been reading it to myself as "vin-seer" although if I wanna sound posh I could pronounce it as "vince-yeah" (but with more polish than the writing makes it appear).
@Glenn: Just like the Italians in the blurb: VEEN-chayray, although those last two vowels are more clipped than the transcription implies: like saying "Che" Guevara, and then "Re" the same way. Roll that R a little bit for extra accuracy and sass.
Wow, you're really not digging the "man" films, are you? I'm partially with you on the Coen, even though I don't think it's anywhere near a D+. I have it somewhere around a B-/C+. Overpraised certainly.
And I haven't seen Ford's so I can't comment but a D+ seems much harsher than I was expecting.
I assume we'll be hearing more from you on both.
Ooh, a B+ for "Fish Tank." We're back on the same page after that unfortunate discrepancy over "A Single Man," which I see you've even demoted from your original ranking!
Can't wait to hear/read your thoughts on both.
@Guy: Actually, D+ was the original ranking, then it bobbed up a bit, and then I yanked it back down. Plaguing, that one. Comments forthwith, once I recover the reins on those parts of my life that I dropped entirely in deference to CIFF.
Wow, I see the festival jury was clearly a tad more enamored of "Vincere" than you were ... four awards? Maybe I'll like the film next week, but seems like overkill in any light.
Strange that there seem (from your festival missives, at least) to have been multiple worthwhile efforts, yet they divvied up all their prizes between a mere three films.
Still, yay for Michael Fassbender.
Yay indeed.
You actually still have both Single Man grades on the sidebar... and sooner or later I may have to reinstate the minus on mine. That movie evaporates like bad aftershave.
Missed The White Ribbon yesterday because I was bogged down with other work, gallingly, so I'll have to wait a few weeks to see it now. Someone told me yesterday it was "funny", which was unexpected...
"Funny" is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion. The bigger surprise is that one section of it is actually romantic.
Ow, both the A S- Men didn't fly? And I'd been so looking forward to them. Well, at least they still boast the best trailers of the year.
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