How have I managed to get through 50 years without seeing this classic Christmas film? I don’t know. The Deniliquin Film Society screened it this month and so, with mince pies clutched in our hands, my whole family and several friends reclined on the sofas at the front of the venue and submitted to a good dose of Frank Capra wit and sentimentality. It’s a cracker of a film and much less saccharine than I was expecting. Continue reading
Tag Archives: B&W
The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) (2009)
StandardHere’s a bit of insight into living on a farm. We get our internet via satellite, which has never been as good as ADSL but it has been the only broadband option for us other than Telstra mobile. We were offered NBN satellite a couple of years ago which upped our monthly limit from 6GB to 60GB and guaranteed a speed increase over several years to rival city access. Then the government changed. About a year ago we got a letter from our ISP saying NBN satellite was oversubscribed and so they were being forced to restrict speeds and limits. Now we are down to 20GB and speeds are so slow that websites take forever and we don’t bother with videos. So what does that have to do with The White Ribbon, I hear you ask? Continue reading
In the Crosswind (Risttuules) (2014)
StandardHold the phone, Simone, and shut the front door, Lenore. I have seen my film of the festival. The one that blew me away and I would have started watching again if I could. In the Crosswind is an Estonian drama unlike anything I have seen before.
It tells the story of the forced removal of half a million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians from their homelands by Stalin, to be ‘resettled’ in Siberia and prison and forced labour camps. The only dialogue in the film is the reading out of the actual letters and diary entries of an Estonian woman, Erna, to her husband Heldur. She has been taken with other women and children to Siberia and lives in dire poverty and deprivation, he has been sent to a gulag. Continue reading
The Ground We Won (2015)
StandardI admit that I booked this film because it was filmed in black and white and from New Zealand. I knew it was about rugby in a rural town but that was about all. When it began I thought, “Oh Lordy, what have I done. I’m watching a film about sport.” I’m so glad I booked it. Continue reading
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