Day Four

Today I decided to sleep in a bit, sitting in a perpetually dark room all day starts to get to you after a while, so I missed my first film which meant that I didn't have a film until 6.30 and could only fit two in for the day, and they were both Australian.

First up was 33 Postcards which I booked in purely based on the fact that I saw very few Australian films at last year's festival and I wanted to remedy that, and also it starred Guy Pierce and I love me a bit a Guy. The film was a sweetly dark tale of the nature of redemption and what, if anything, can you do to make up for crimes committed. A co-production between Australia and Japan the screening was attended by star Guy Pierce, who gave an outstanding performance. The film was a beautiful tale of the simplicity of human connection and the complicity of love. The films director was supposed to come to the screening too but was stuck in a hospital bed in New York after tripping down some stairs and breaking her neck. She sent an email through however thanking the film festival and apologising that the only thing that would keep her from coming did. The film was pleasantly surprising and just simply wonderful.

I can't say the same of the next film. Swerve was preceded by a rousing speech from some of the films stars and the director, leading me to believe we were in for an action packed outback thriller along the same lines as Wake in Fright or Road Games but instead what I viewed was a shambolic mess of plot, terrible acting and more and more ridiculous outcomes to simple problems. The characters were terrible, the premise was fine enough but the plot just completely lost it in the middle. I liked the twist at the end but that didn't make up for everything that happening in between. The film would have done well to take itself a little less seriously, but after the directors introduction it actually became embarrassing and I would have loved nothing more than to just leave. The film was laughable but with cast and crew in attendance it didn't seem appropriate. There is no more perfect word to describe this film with than 'lame'. A friend of mine attended a different screening without the intro and enjoyed it thoroughly as the audience was in bouts of rapturous laughter the whole time. If you see this film please do not take it seriously.

Pick of the day
33 Postcards was the best of the two, as you can tell. It is a beautiful film and definitely worth while.
Surprise of the day
My not being able to get out of bed. What a lazy git I am, and I think that the film I missed would have been really good.
Film total so far
17