Matthew’s Blog

I just stumbled upon this unusual site called http://www.freerice.com/

The site provides an opportunity to help the hungry and covertly to expand your vocabulary.  For every word you correctly identify 10 grains of rice are donated.  Each time you get a word wrong it tells you the correct answer and lowers the difficulty.  As you get more write the difficulty goes up.

So for all those wordsmith social activists this is the site for you.

A new internet friend  of mine Peep Laja, an Estonian who found himself in the United Arab Emerates and is now galavanting around the world creating interesting websites.  The latest is for all the catlovers out there.  Catpert!  http://www.catpert.comикони

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Milwaukee International Film Festival.

http://www.MilwaukeeFilmFest.org

For the past seven years my folks and I have made a pilgrimage every September to the Toronto International Film Festival and had a blast. This year we opted to stay local and try out the MIFF. Much to our surprise we were quite impressed. It was well run, efficient, and high quality in choice of movies to show.

Downside to the MIFF - theatres are too spread out as Milwaukee has lost a lot of the down town movie theatres. The upside: the majority of the films are shown in three great art houses and next year if the Avalon chooses to join they’ll have four.

The majority of the films are shown at The Downer (2 screens), The Oriental (3 screens), and the Times Cinema. The Oriental is Milwaukee’s jewel of a theatre, a movie palace of old in an East Indian theme with bejeweled giant Buddhas, elephants and panthers.

I have a feeling we will be going back to Toronto next year as we discovered that our annual pilgrimage was more than about just seeing cool new movies and movies not likely to play in the Midwest. We found that being local, we were unable to escape our lives and daily responsibilities and truly enjoy each other’s company, the restaurants, culture, and the fabulous host city. MIFF might provide an opportunity to see films that we missed in Toronto as it is a month later.

Tell No One (French 2006 “Ne le dis à personne”)
http://www.tellno-one.com

Synopses from film website:

Pediatric Alec Beck (Francois Cluzet), still devastated by the savage murder of his wife Margot (Marie Josee-Croze) in the early days of their marriage eight years ago, receives and anonymous email.   When he clicks on the link he finds a woman’s face standing in a crowd and being filmed real time - Margot’s face.  Is she still alive? And why does she instruct him to “tell no one”?

Review: Gripping suspense that spins and winds, thrills and startles, and gets more and more complicated the further into the film you go.  Good luck guessing at what is going on. Layer upon layer.  Fantastic story.  Great cast.  Worthy watch.

Film: ++++1/2 (4.5/5) I felt one section needed a little tightening up, but overall outstanding.  (one of the best “Frogger” scenes I’ve ever seen - watch the film and you’ll see what I mean).
Movie: +++++ (5/5 )  caution film contains violence.

Irina Palm (UK 2007)
http://www.irinapalm-themovie.com/home.htm

Delightful serious, playful, irreverent, and unusual film about the lengths a person will go to to help a child.    Loved this film.  It was charming and well done and tastefully done.   How far would you go to help your child? Really.

trailer available at the website, but it does include some spoilers.

Film: ++++ (4/5) A little too dark at times (lighting wise)
Movie: ++++ (4/5) entertaining, but be warned this a movie meant for adults

The Banquet (China 2006 original title “Yeyan”)

If you have seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and/or Hero - you’ve seen this before.

Of the three Hero in my opinion is the best of the three.  This film was in fact produced by the same production team as Crouching Tiger.   I kept having the sensation of “haven’t I seen this before.” To those who have not seen either of the above films this will be a novel experience for you.    This is the new age of Chinese cinema.   Big, bold, beautiful and full of outlandishly incredible martial arts moves.    It is visually stunning as all in this genre are.
They try to woo audiences with the claim of this being akin to loose interpretation of Hamlet.  loose is the operative word.   At 131 minutes at least 30 minutes could have been removed without damaging the film.   I was surprised to find that this was the final edit and has been in release for over a year.

Film: +++ (3/5) too long, been there done that cinemagraphically
Movie: +++ (3/5) too long, non hollywood ending (but neither is hamlet), been there done that

Four Minutes (German 2007 original title “Vier Minuten”)

This movie stole the show for me. The best film of the fest.

“Brilliant Relationship Drama and 4 minutes you will not forget.”

Story: (Yahoo Movies had such a great synopses, why reinvent the wheel)

Schubert, Mozart, Chopin and a bunch of killers. That’s life for 80-year-old piano teacher Traude Krueger. The old lady has been teaching music at the women’s prison for ages. But she has never met an inmate like Jenny: a killer who beats everything around her to a pulp just to amuse herself. However, she used to be a great talent. A piano prodigy even. And beneath her fierce facade, she still is. With Traude’s help, she could manage to win a prestigious piano contest. But a contest is no challenge to those who want their lives to stand still.

Review: Powerful, evocative, and mesmerizing film.   I don’t know where they found this actress/artist who plays Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung) but she is phenomenal.   If she wasn’t actually playing the piano, she did an absolutely award winning performance of someone playing.   Highly complicated maneuvers and passion.     Monica Bleibtreu is also amazing as an almost monastic spinster of a piano teacher with a huge secret.    The movie is gripping from the start and ends with spectacular performance that I challenge you to forget.

Film:+++++ 5/5 - outstanding cinema
Movie: +++++ 5/5 - outstanding drama and performances