gsc holland film festival 2007

watched `blue bird' on 26th april thursday, courtesy of some free tickets collected earlier.

this focuses on a 12 year-young girl who is perfect in every way. merel is good in her studies, loves to read, takes care of her handicapped brother, is a good daughter to her parents, swims and dives as well as she sings and so on, the list is endless. she is however bullied by her classmates, this and a few other situations lead her to behave strangely.

good acting, with very good expressions and a pretty simple storyline. for a 12 year-old, a pretty tough role but performed excellently. loved the movie.

did a movie marathon on the 28th april saturday with mariken, eric in the land of insects and paradise now.

`mariken', another good performance by a child actor, is also a very pleasant film with a good story line. it had a fairy tale set up to it and of course the ending was a good and happy one just like all fairy tales.

mariken is found by a priest/monk/medicine man/magician who is banned from town. he takes care of her and teaches her to read in a place where reading is frowned upon for women. her search for her mother and a goat that she wants to buy from the market leads her to an adventure she will not forget, along with some good people she meets who are actually related to this monk.

loved this one too.

`eric in the land of insects', i think is mainly for kids, but then who am i to complain?

another child actor, this time a male, who has to prepare a paper and a talk for his school. he chooses to speak on insects. so the night before the talk, something magical happens to erik and he enters a world of insects. he experiences a wild adventure with different kinds of butterflies, moths and bees and comes back to his world in the morning. he reaches school and gives an excellent and entertaining talk on his experience.

enjoyed it, would have wanted to see something more adultish though.

`paradise now', nominated for the oscars, had a strong cast and great acting. the language used is arabic throughout the film. it is about two friends who are recruited for a suicide bombing in tel aviv. it did not end well, perhaps because it was cut. i am not exactly sure what happened. but perhaps there were some scenes of violence or whatever, much of it was cut. the rest that we could watch were of excellent quality.

another one up for the dutch movies. and down for the malaysian censorship board.

as soon as i came out of the movies, a girl gave me a survey form to fill, there were some questions there about holland etc. so completed that, gave it in and came back home.

on sunday, they called me up to tell me i won two more free tickets and i had to collect it that day itself. so took the lrt, reached there, collected the tickets and watched two movies, fighting fish and do not disturb.

`fighting fish' was in chinese. a full action movie with an okay story line. but since i have seen too many chinese action flicks...this did not compare well.
certain parts were almost deliberately silly, but overall, an okay entertainment.

came out of the hall only to rush in for the next one, `do not disturb', the script being in english, was easier to watch. an easy flow. william hurt is one of the characters, but the main character is again a child, this time one that is dumb and since she has a wild imagination, they almost do not beleive her when she says she witnessed a murder. very funny and a great laugh...a comedy and tragedy? hmm.

good one.

2nd may...watched `guernsey', a very badly reported and commented on dutch movie, but i thought it was pretty cool. again, there were a few blanks, too many intimate scenes which we were not allowed to watch. lacked action, a slow and very silent movie, one had to guess alot in their silences but things unfolded eventually.

its about this woman who finds a dead body in her bathroom and soon after that, she is suspicious of her husband cheating on her, so she follows him everywhere he goes on a daily basis. the film is about her and her family, their depression and happiness, their lies and honesty etc.

it ends abruptly, but pretty alright to watch.

the only movie i did not get to watch in this festival was schnitzel paradise, was not too keen on watching it anyways, the story line seemed like some shakespearen spoof or something.

hmm...dont think anyone watched these many movies in a festival for free at one go...this was a first for me too. ;-)