h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK guys, the reports start here! Scroll on by if you're not interested in film.

Have seen three (and a half) films so far, number four coming up this evening.

1. Opening film of the festival was Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars (English title The Last Mitterand). About the last months of Mitterand's life, and his relationship with a young journalist who was writing a book about him. The actor playing Mitterand looked extraordinarily like him. Very interesting, quite a lot of gentle humour, rather inconclusive. The journalist basically wanted to find out if rumours of M's involvement with the Vichy regime were true and M refused to tell him.

2. Hollow City (Na Cidade Vazia) - one of the first feature films to be made in Angola since the end of the civil war in 1991, by a woman director. The story of a young boy who is brought to the capital from another part of the country, where his parents have been killed. He runs away from the nun who is looking after the group of children and most of the film is about the people he meets and who help him out in various ways. Sudden, shocking ending. Very atmospheric - reminded me a lot of the time I spent living in Nicaragua, in terms of people's attitude of just getting on with life in a difficult situation.

3. Rocky Road to Dublin (1967) + The Making of ... (2004) (that's the half!). Presented by Peter Lennon, director of Rocky Road, and Paul Duane, who made the short 'Making of ...' film. They also did a Q and A session afterwards. I found this extremely interesting, and would be even more interested to hear the views of Eilis, or anybody else in Ireland or with Irish connections, if they have seen it. Peter Lennon was working for The Guardian and based in Paris when they sent him on an assignment to Ireland. He decided to make a film on the basic theme of 'What do you do with your revolution once you've got it?' and persuaded Raoul Coutard, a 'nouvelle vague' cameraman who was a frequent collaborator of Godard, to shoot it. It's a kind of snapshot of many aspects of life in Ireland in the 60s - illustrating the continuing power of censorship and the clergy, despite claims that all that had changed.

The film was accepted for the Cannes Festival in 1968 and was the last film to be shown before Godard and others demanded the closing down of the festival, in support of the students and workers in Paris. Rocky Road was then adopted by the students and shown in the Sorbonne. Reactions in Ireland were very mixed - while some reviewers championed it, others regarded it as insulting to Ireland, and it was hardly seen there until comparatively recently.

OK - that's enough about films today. Have been out for a pub lunch in Grantchester with my sister and 80+ year-old aunt who is visiting from New Zealand. Lovely sunny day.

Heya, Annie, am following your progress on the cinematic front with interest. Too long away from the cutting edge of culture, I missed all sorts of recent gems. Caught up with the "Motorcycle Diaries" on vid. but wish, wish I'd seen it on the large screen. Can't seem to find Heimat III within about 400 miles, and do not subscribe to bbcs3&4*, so may not see it for years. Hoping you will mediate on the best stuff. Perhaps a star rating system?

yours

petal jam

*I expect my licence fee to ensure that my "minority" culture has equal access to mainstream channels.

ps Should readers of this column offer to share the cost of your entrance tickets?

Congratulations on having a 80+ New Zealand aunt ready to travel so far!

I would be very interested in your critical review of Rocky Road. I don't remember that it made such a splash at the time. Typical of the French nouvelle vague set (I except a few films) to feel that they could tackle the Irish question... Personally I have little time for the utter bore that is JL Godard. I walked out in the middle of one of his movies , the one with The Rolling Stones: the bogusness! Or perhaps I didn't get the point.

So we're all counting on your critical eye, Annie.

For Martine:

Rocky Road - the director, Peter Lennon is Irish. He was based in Paris and was sent to Ireland on a journalistic assignment by the Guardian, when he got the idea of making a film. As he had no experience, he thought he'd better get a good cameraman, and had some contacts who knew Coutard, who agreed to do it. The print shown at the CFF was black and white, although a colour print exists, and the photography was beautiful.

It's not really about 'the Irish question' as we understand it today. He was trying to show that although many people he interviewed claimed that Ireland had changed a lot since independence, in fact there had been very little change in the influence of the Church, censorship etc. In the question and answer session after the screening, Lennon implied that there hadn't been a lot of editing, but of course you can't judge that without seeing all the footage which was left on the cutting room floor.

There was little 'editorial' comment in the film - mostly it was people speaking for themselves. Here's just one example: boys in a Christian Brothers school, filmed in a lesson talking about original sin. One of them explains to camera that because of Adam's sin, we are stupid; doctors are unable to cure all diseases, whereas if Adam had done what he was told, they would be able to do this. The director presumably wants us to understand that this argument would meet with approval from the teacher, but the scene is cut at that point and moves on to another topic.

Lennon said that he'd noticed that when the film is shown at festivals now, to British and other audiences, they tend to laugh at points like the one above, whereas at screenings in Ireland, there is silence.

Sorry this is a bit disorganised, not a proper critical review, but I'm about to rush off to the next film!

Just out of curiousity, does the 'last supper of ortolans' story make it into the Mitterand film?

Douglas

Oh! Martine! Aberdeen Univeristy Library has a LARGE Goddard collection on DVD but not one Tati! (This said, I do kinda like Alphaville).

Re. the one with The Rolling Stones - it looked forward longingly to the sort of society depicted in Themroc, and which became a reality with Cambodia's Year One.

Douglas

Annie

I love reading about the film festival. One of the saddest things is the rise of the multiplex cinema killing off the smaller ones that showed a cross section of films from blockbusters to foreign language etc. I live in East London but have nothing like that nearby and mourn the Broadway cinema in Nottingham where I've spent many happy hours.

Might look out for some of the films on DVD (I do the online rental thing) but some films have to be seen on the big screen and with your full concentration.

Douglas:

There is a 'last supper', but it's not specified what they are eating - although I think there was a platter of oysters on the table at the beginning.

Hi Jane

I always try and see films at the festival which may not come back or be shown at the bigger cinemas.

This year the CFF has expanded even more (it's the 25th anniversary year) and is showing some of the films at the new multiplex - which is where I saw a rather weird film tonight (to be reported on in due course). If it drew in any of the multi-screen's usual audiences, they were probably slightly bemused.

Hi petaljam!

I *loved* The Motorcycle Diaries and came out of the cinema saying "I must go to Chile"!

Not sure about the suggestion of star ratings, as taste in films is so personal. I have a good friend with whom I quite often go to the cinema and we rarely like the same things.

But I'm happy to go on reporting ... look out for the next batch of films in a day or two.

< I have a good friend with whom I quite often go to the cinema and we rarely like the same things. >

I too have a friend with whom I often go to the cinema. It's amazing how we can sit next to each other and come out having seen very different films at times There is also an element of compromise involved in that we will occasionally go to a film that one is us is highly likely to love and the other hate (she'll love anything with Pierce Brosnan in it for example).

Mitterand's last supper is quite famous - I read the story of it a few years back (New Yorker/Spectator/Guardian Review? - one of 'em). Mitterant dined on a tiny wild song bird called an ortolan, which you catch, blind (i.e., poke its eyes out), keep in a box for several days whilst forcefeeding it millet, grapes and figs, then drown in cognac. It is important to ensure that the lungs are filled with cognac. The bird is then roast and you eat it whole, unboned, with a cloth over your face to hide your shame from God (seriously). One bites off the bird's head then inhales the fat and juices. You then crunch up what's left. There were 30 guests at his last supper, with bird for each. Mitterand ate two. I believe that it is illegal to hunt/serve up ortolan, but where there's a will...

One for VEGAN HEART, eh?


Douglas

Yes, I've heard that too (about Mitterand), but the dinner in the film may not have been the same one, as there were only about half a dozen people present, and I didn't see any of them with cloths over their heads!

You're right, VEGAN HEART would love it!