Some days you just kind of get flustered. I mean, I may be 62 years of age, have been through a lot, seen a great deal, and at my advanced age there should probably not be much that would contribute to a sense of disorientation in my life, cause me to become flustered. But today, a good day, I am a flustered. What that means for this post, we’ll just have to see.
Where to start? Oh, I know. How about with VIFF?
One of my very favourite documentary films to screen at this year’s 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival was Mirjam von Arx’s extraordinarily moving and, for me, entirely entrancing, new film, Virgin Tales. Who knew while VIFF was in full swing that the fine folks at the public broadcasting corporation, our very own and often transcendently wonderful CBC, would — through the auspices of The Passionate Eye — broadcast Virgin Tales, just after VIFF ended, Sunday, October 21st? But they did.
And you know what? CBC’s News’ The Passionate Eye will re-broadcast Virgin Tales — a must-see television broadcast it there ever was one — on Saturday and Sunday, November 3rd and 4th, at 10pm ET/PT. Can’t wait to see Virgin Tales when it’s re-broadcast next month? Have I got news for you. CBC is streaming Virgin Tales (full version available in Canada only).
Great doc. Broadcast on the people’s network. Recordable on your PVR if you’re out for the evening. A can’t miss, absolute must-see non-fiction film, in the comfort of your own home. Does life get any better than that?
You know what one of the great thing about getting old is? Reflecting on your life, healing rifts, not getting too excited by those slings and arrows of poor misfortune that sometimes invade the quiet enjoyment of our lives. Perhaps the prematurely mature get there early on in their lives, but aside from those preternaturally few, for most of us, it’s a process.
Director Steven Spielberg has had a process, a process of reconciliation — thanks in large measure to the insistent demand of his wife, Kate Capshaw.
On Sunday, Mr. Spielberg was featured on CBS’ 60 Minutes (above). You’d think he’d appear on the venerable programme to promote his new, Oscar-bound film, Lincoln. You’d be only partially right in assuming so. Instead, much of the interview, and the focus of the segment, is given over to the recovery of Spielberg’s estranged relationship — 30 years and no contact — and reconciliation, with his father Arnold, a workaholic engineer. Definitely worth watching. And instructive, too. Sort of in the same vein as Sarah’s Polley’s ground-breaking, truth-telling new film, Stories We Tell.
There’s more we could write about today. Like about how much we were disoriented by Paul Thomas Anderson’s smashing new pic, The Master, and of how much the camera loves Joaquin Phoenix, recording every crag in his weathered face, recording too all of the insanity that lays within a clearly troubled, artistic soul. We understand why Joaquin Phoenix thinks the whole Oscar merry-go-round is “bullshit, total utter bullshit, and I don’t want to be part of it. I don’t believe in it. It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I don’t want this carrot.”
For Phoenix to go on the Harvey Weinstein, glad-handing Oscar promotion tour would be to deny what he and Paul Thomas Anderson have created in The Master: a work of art, an undeniable, unassailable work of art.
Or we could write about Kris Tapley and Anne Thompson’s film podcast, Oscar Talk, currently the only informed, close-to-passionate, certainly erudite film podcast remaining. We’ll be writing an open letter to Jeffrey Wells and Sasha Stone about reconciling, in order that they might continue on with the best, the most original, always provocative, political, feminist, out there, curmudgeonly, argumentative and downright lovely podcast. Jeff and Sasha think their days with Oscar Poker are over. We think differently.
Until Jeff and Sasha come to their senses, Kris Tapley and Anne Thompson are the only close-to-listenable ‘authorities‘ on film, and the coming Oscar season. So, not only do I suggest that you make a perusing of Thompson on Hollywood and In Contention a daily must activity, I would also insist that you listen to the podcast. You’ve got iTunes, right? Easily accessible. You’ll thank me for it later, believe me. Oscar Talk. For any serious movie aficionado, Oscar Talk, each autumn and early new year, is a must-listen.
