Joachim's Travel Blog
Friday, January 27, 2006
I would have started this entry yesterday but I was really zonked. But I know how desperately you, gentle reader, have been waiting for news from the festival. You are wondering whether ordinary attendees like myself truly live the fabulous star-studded life you've read about or seen on TV. Well, the short answer is, yes we do.
After watching Somebodies and buying an alarming amount of food (we'll never finish it) at the grocery store, we returned to the condo to rest and recover our wits prior to attending our first Sundance party. This was technically in honor of some kind of film school organization, but really it was in honor of people who know the host, or people, like me, that know those people. So there I was, surrounded by beautiful people, sipping a red bull and vodka and grooving to a smooth beat provided by the DJ. I met some people and promised to work on a guy's karaoke for the blind project. We'll see about that.
That was Wednesday. Thursday started early. With about four hours of sleep, Glen and I leapt out of bed and rushed out to see Stephanie Daley, a movie about a teenager who gives birth and possibly kills her baby. It was really good. Tilda Swinton was excellent as a therapist who had herself recently had a miscarriage.
From there we went immediately into Flannel Pajamas, another excellent film that explored a romantic relationship between two people with extraordinary poignancy and depth. Really great stuff, though amazingly, it was somewhat more depressing than the baby-killer movie.
We then went straight into In Between Days, in the same theater. This was a low-budget movie about a couple of teenage Korean-American kids in love. It was a little slow but made the best of a small budget and simple equipment.
Post-movie, we proceeded downtown to meet my buddy Betty! Yay, Betty has arrived! From there we headed to 350 Main with the entire condo gang to eat dinner. That included me and Glen, Russ and Jason, Sparky and Erinne, Betty and her two friends Stacy and Adrian. Dinner was fantastic - I mean, really, seriously good. Sparky picked up the tab for all nine of us, which was a major bonus seeing as I was grimacing at paying just my own bill. Thanks, Sparky!
After dinner we barely had time to stop at the Liquor store before hitting the last movie. Kiss Me Not on the Eyes is an Egyptian film about a woman who wants to explore desire and sensual love in a society that represses them. A little hard to follow, maybe, for us foreigners, plus we were sleepy, but I basically enjoyed it.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Today is my second day at Sundance. It's not really over yet, but I figure people might be interested in hearing how things have gone this far.
I went snowboarding today. Honestly, I thought it would be better. Utah is famous for its amazing snow, but Park City hasn't really had much lately. Without a lot of snow I wasn't as excited as I'd hoped to be. It was still fun, though. The board I rented had some kind of new super-wax on it that made it completely frictionless; my first half hour was basically continuous torment for me and my skiing friend Glen. Until I actually got strapped in the scene looked like something from the Keystone cops. Once we actually started going downhill, I did all right most of the time, but getting off the lift was still a tricky operation for much of the day. The slow detached lifts weren't so bad, but when we tied to get off the first regular lift, just as I was getting my balance, the lift chair jumped me from behind! I was flipped and tossed onto my back. Everyone laughed, but my right arm still doesn't work right. Well, who needs a right arm to watch movies.
Apres ski we had a quick hot tub and headed out. I was completely exhausted and barely able to walk. We headed downtown where I picked up my prepurchased tickets. Glen got his weekend pass. We then continued on to the theater to watch "Somebodies". It was incredibly funny but somewhat haphazardly assembled. I'm not sure anyone will pick it up without a little more editing. After that we took Sparky's rented Hummer and went grocery shopping. And after that, dear reader, I came back here and typed this message in for you.
Aaaaaaaaand we're back! I am travelling once again, so the travel blog, once again, is on! As I write this, I am relaxing in my condominium on Empire street in Park City, Utah, discussing with my friends the films we've seen so far at the Sundance Film Festival. I just arrived this afternoon so I haven't seen much but I'll report anyway.
The condo is quite pretty (pictures to follow when I'm less sleepy), with lots of exposed wood, a firelplace, and a hot tub. We're quite close to main street, the downtown area, many of the film veues, and the Park City ski area. It's a great spot.
So far we have watched Shorts Program 6 and Puccini for Beginners. The shorts program, unusually in my experience, was all good! Each of the six or seven films was enjoyable, and a couple of them were really excellent. You Came Back and Held My Hand was one such, a moving and insightful investigation of the difference between sexual intimacy and emotional closeness. With beautiful lighting and camera work, the film incongruously presents the images of a sexual liasion at the same time as the sound of the day after telephone conversation. Another film shows the unexpected relationship between a young man in London, his hip-hop friends, and his emphysemic father.
The first full-length film I saw was a real winner, and will almost certainly make it to theaters eventually. Puccini for Beginners is a romantic comedy of errors. A young lesbian woman is dumped by her girlfriend, and starts simultaneously dating a man and a woman - who, it turns out, have just broken up themselves! Well, hilarity ensues as you might expect. The film is very well edited, the characters are likeable, and the comedy just clicks. It's the kind of film that makes you want to live in New York.
