A Bug's Life

For those that are interested (i.e. sphyg), the films I've booked for the festival:

An unseemly display of enthusiasm, perhaps, but it's the first time I've managed to get to the festival in the four years I've been living here!

Bridget's Pre-reviews. They could be wrong!

Wed 17: La Vie Nouvelle/Laid Down. Part of the Cinema/Psychoanalysis stream, this will probably be an emotionally challenging 102 minutes of the dehumanising side of the sex trade, plus a short about how a newborn's personality starts to be shaped by experiences.

Thur 18: Love Letters and Live Wires: Highlights from the GPO Film Unit. Historical 1930s public information and entertainment, including a short film about the post code. How could I resist! May contain bakelite (I hope). At any rate, it'll be a great transport back to the era.

Fri 19: Life For Sale (Luftbusiness). Looks like a quirky take on the old soul-selling story, with Web 2.0 stylings. This never works out quite as you'd expect it to.
and...
European Shorts. A smorsgasbord, a buffet - it's great to have the opportunity to see a mixture of new things that you'd not likely see elsewhere. A soupçon of this, try the tastes of the tapas.

Sat 20: Frankenstein/The Mummy. All Karloff all of the time. Classic 30s horror. What will it evoke in the bugshaw of 2008? Will I be nostalgically swept away in the films' embrace? Or will my 21st century, middle-aged self be too sophisticated to appreciate its young steps in cinema?
and...
The Lark. A tiny budget, a family hiding (from what?), the film might use the claustrophobic, confusing physical environment to reveal the psychological fears beneath with elements of the supernatural. Or my assumptions could be wrong. If the film is how I imagine it, it will be great :-)

I'm also interested in Dog Days, I feel I ought to see some of the Seidl, but suspect two films a day will be my limit. If I'm bouncy I can try to buy a ticket on the day.

Sun 21: UK Shorts 1. More shorts. Tide looks fun, playing with narrative and time's flow.
and...
Machinima: Dreams and Shadows. One of half a dozen machinima films and events, this one piqued my interest. I'm a newcomer not well-versed in the game-playing aspects of the Sims, Second Life etc, and this instead showcases some of the fantastical elements and evocatives images that can be created. I expect to contrast this with the products of traditional animation techniques, and think about the possibilities this new technology presents.
and...
Preserve. In fiction, a photographer takes candid shots of a Warsaw neighbourhood, and shows some back street realism/humanism. Film festival audiences like this one. I hope to, too.

Mon 22: The Garden/A Piece of My Sky is Missing. Derek Jarman is another featured artist of the festival. This uses famous gardens of The Bible to explore aspects of life. I'm going in order to be worthy, but will probably get quite a bit out of it if it does have lush layered nuances. It might be pretentious tripe. But I'm probably getting Jarman confused with Peter Greenaway.
and...
UK Shorts 3. A paper bag of Woolworth's Pick'n'Mix, picked by someone else. Their taste is usually good, but the fear that there might be the odd chocolate-coated coconut and aniseed baton rends me uneasy.

Tues 23: The Black Cat/Bride of Frankenstein. More Karloff more of the time. Classic horror, classic 30s, classic deco. I so hope I still love it.

Wed 24: International Shorts 2. Contains hamster.
and...
Fear(s) of the Dark (Peur(s) du noir). Animation by various artists, with striking graphic styles. Creepy stuff and hiding horrors I expect to have the following effect. A hand plunges into your chest cavity - will it grab your spleen and squeeze till it bursts? or extend a finger and tickle the back of your heart, and you laugh so corpulently but you're not sure whether from humour or relief that it hasn't just burst your spleen? This will give me Ideas.

Thur 25: She Should Have Gone to the Moon/Faceless. I'm more interested in Faceless, a future where people have their faces erased and one woman starts to refind humanity. Uses real CCTV camera footage. Neat, eh? The other is a documentary about one of NASA's secret early astronauts. She never did get to go to the Moon.
and...
Time Crimes. Time travel for a witness of a murder. How? Why him? Is it connected? What's he going to do?
and...
Jarman's Blue/Ostia if I'm up to it and there are tickets available on the day.

Fri/Sat: Taking a couple of days off. I'd like to see Simon Pegg in How To Lose Friends And Alienate People but I'm sure it'll make the rounds of the cinemas later.

Sun 28: Fermat's Room. Boffins in peril! Like Cube, they have to solve puzzles or get horribly crushed to death like in the Star Wars garbage compactor. Will this be a new twist or more of the same?
and...
surprise movie. Can you tell what it is yet? There have been some treats in the past, it should certainly be worth the entry price and might have huge bragging potential.
and...
Encounters at the End of the World. Werner Herzog, beautiful, beautiful Antarctic photography, and documentary of the many perfectly ordinary support staff doing perfectly ordinary jobs but in Antarctica. The end of the festival, a last chance to go to some other world, except it's ours, at once so close and far, so alien and so mundane. I'm rather partial to it.