Gotta Love Christopher Plummer.

I saw Beginners earlier this year on the closing night of the Sydney Film Festival.. I quite enjoyed it.. It's a sweet film with subtle humour about father and son, Hal and Oliver, who are both finding themselves in different ways. Ewan McGregor acts well, but Plummer is the stand-out as he is just so good as Oliver's, freshly out of the closet, gay father. This is a really touching story drawn from the life of writer/director Mike Mills that you should definitely take some time out to watch.

The trailer:

Quickly quickly quickly..

Just gonna quickly leave you with another short animation, Space Alone by Ilias Sounas.. this one's kinda sad.. a story about our constant search for friendship...

J'aimerais être à Paris à minuit...

Maybe I'm just a sucker for this type of film.... I was so wrapped up in the beauty and romance of Paris when watching this that my new goal is to get myself on a plane there within the next year. It stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard, with cameos from many other well knowns, including a hilarious Adrien Brody. I really don't think I can explain the plot of this gorgeous film without giving too much away so I guess you'll just have to see it for yourself.. but believe me - it's a must see!

Here's the trailer - which has also been really well done:

Monkey Spoon

Cause I'm feeling like upbeat movies at the moment, I thought I'd talk about another short animation, Monkey Spoon.. Made by recent College Of Fine Arts graduate, John Turello, this film reminds me of the kind of short films they played before Pixar features. It's set in Africa and follows the story of a monkey who gets a spoon stuck up his nose.

Very funny and cute - have a watch:

Back in the day...

Ahh I have not posted for agesss... this very bad form on my part.. uni has been crayzayy. But it's all ok - you can now breath easy because.. here I am - back again!

I thought I'd bring to your attention another film from my childhood. Camp Nowhere (1994) is great fun.. maybe it's just my own personal nostalgic memories at work here but watching this film again gave me copious amounts of joy. It stars Christopher Lloyd as an ex-drama teacher who decides to make (what he thinks is) a quick buck by agreeing to help four pre-teens get out of summer camp through creating their own camp. No, it may not be Academy Award material but hey, I'm all about how a film makes you feel and this one makes me happy - that's all that's important!

Today I've decided, instead of the trailer, I'd just leave you with the beginning of the movie - eat up that 90s goodness:

Zero

Just quickly going to leave you with another short film! It's called Zero and made by Australian writer/director, Christopher Kezelos and his company Zealous Creative. I just really like the whole atmosphere that has been created through animation and sound. The concept is great and I love the little characters made of string/yarn that have been brought to life with stop-motion animation. Zero has won many awards since 2010, including Best Animation at the LA Shorts Festival.

The attention to detail is amazing - you'll notice that the higher the number, the neater the wrapping of the string is.

À bout de souffle

I always think of À bout de souffle (Breathless in English) as the film where everyone is named Jean. The two lead actors are Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, and the director is Jean-Luc Godard. Along with his films, Godard was also known for his writing in Cahiers du Cinema, a French film magazine, and coining the term 'auteur' with other significant new wave filmmakers of the time, such as Truffaut. The title 'auteur' would traditionally be given to a filmmaker who's own personal style was clearly evident in all the films they made. these filmmakers were reacting against the very studio controlled film industry of the the 20s through to the early 60s.

Godard's personal style can be seen as he breaks the 'fourth wall' through the use of jump-cuts and characters talking and looking straight into the camera. There's also a scene I love towards the end of the film where the main characters are walking around this apartment, both talking over one another for a few straight minutes. I 'm assuming Godard was one of first to do this and influenced many later films with this and other techniques and scenes.

For me, À bout de souffle is ironically like a breath of fresh air amongst the many films I have watched this year.