sfiff '06 day 5

after taking tuesday off for a snow day at kirkwood (a SNOW DAY!! april 25th and still lots of snow up there. ok, it was a little slushy, but still!), back to the film festival for a couple more on wednesday night:

werner herzog & the wild blue yonder:
at the sold-out castro, it was a live interview with the nutty werner herzog to talk about his film career and all the things that he’s done. it was wonderful and wildly hilarious, with him recounting tales of getting shot with an air rifle, and painting eleven thousand rats black and then having to blow-dry them all. who knows how much of it is true or exaggerated? much like his documentaries, the truth can be manipulated and amplified for dramatic effect. he pretty much said that he didn’t like to categorize his films as fiction or documentary, but they’re all cinema in one version or another. as for the new film, it almost seemed like he cobbled together leftover footage from some other projects and then made some silly story around them. lots of underwater shots, lots of nasa footage, and then brad dourif, the creepy doctor from dune & alien resurrection. i must admit i took a nap, as much as i like pretending to be underwater.

drawing restraint 9:
i think the comment on my ballot read, “what the hell? seriously.” but the more i think about this, the more i liked it. it was certainly super weird, vaguely telling the story of a whaling ship being launched and the making of this large sculpture out of petroleum jelly and ambergris. but then there’s this whole other thread with matthew barney and bjork as these occidentals who come onto the ship, participate in this big tea ceremony, and then they become the tea ceremony, and then slowly and ceremonially carve each other’s legs off. which wasn’t creepy or gross, but just weird. regardless, the visuals were really wonderful and pheonomenal and just beautiful. hmc said i liked it because of the japaneseness of it all, and i have to agree.

(side note: the best part of the festival so far for me is being able to lay in bed at the end of the night and talk about these films with hmc. that rocks.)

Posted at April 27, 2006 12:25 PM