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The Broad Wing of Time

When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.
-- I. F. Stone

Friday, May 30, 1997

My birthday today! Because of the film festival, I didn't have a big party, but we did celebrate a bit between movies. The weather has been terribly humid, which isn't typical for around here. It isn't uncomfortable -- as long as you remain perfectly still. If you have to hustle between buses, or hurry across the street into the theater, as I did, you really feel it.

At Full Gallop
A very nice movie from Poland, set after WWII, about a boy send to live with an older woman, a mysterious, lively character who lives for riding. But horses may be counter-revolutionary, and what about those books the boy's mother had to remove from the local library? This is the third movie in the festival where the death of Stalin is a significant plot point, an example of the unintended themes that appear when one sees movies in the festival setting.

Then we adjourned to the lobby of the Broadway Performance Hall. R--- had visited the Seattle Central Community College Culinary School and had picked up some treats for us: sliced poached pears with whipped cream, and some very nice gingerbread. Yum! A--- gave me a book which looks good, Dancing in the Dark by Janet Hobhouse. "Exquisitely written, insightful and poetically concise" says The Village Voice.

Fistful of Flies
Another dark Australian film. Semi-surreal, dreamlike drama with abuse issues and humor, which may seem like a weird mix. It works in the movie, though! Thank heaven my Catholic upbringing didn't resemble the ones I see in the movies! First feature written and directed by Monica Pellizzari. This is one where I wish the director had been there, though I doubt I'd have been bold enough to ask whether the story was directly autobiographical or just inspired by her family.

Hu-du-men
From Hong Kong, a story about a woman who is a star playing pants roles in Cantonese opera, and how the incidents in her off-stage life parallel and interact with the onstage life. Brilliant! Very funny. Somehow all these melodramas don't come off like a soap opera; there is a light touch throughout. I really liked Josephine Siao as the lead.

As long as I choose to attend the festival this way, I won't be celebrating my birthday the way I did growing up. But that's OK, as Stuart Smalley says.

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