SIFF always starts with Opening Night on a Thursday, where lots of mostly well-dressed people go see a semi-mainstream movie at (recently) McCaw Hall and then spill into a party afterwards to eat and drink and dance. I am not one of those people. I have never seen an Opening Night film, and I have only shown up for the evening when volunteering. As much as I wanted to simulate the experience by dressing up in black and standing for 3 hours, I decided instead to start my SIFF@Home experience on Friday.
SIFF@Home Day 2
Now for Friday... what a big day. Probably the most I've packed in since the quarantine started. It's in no way sustainable, but because it's a nice change of pace, I'm totally energized. It started out with a 6:30am session of Wild Writing with Lauren Fleshman because Oiselle was having a number of fun Zoom sessions today. I also attended an arm/core workout with Kara Goucher (did the arms, stopped the core after the first set of side planks), a fashion show with the Oiselle store ladies, and a sneak peek & story time with Sally. There was also a bit of yin yoga in between and a bike ride across the 520 bridge because it's Bike Month. All of this was made possible by my employer, who kindly gave us today off as a mental health day.
In the afternoon, the watching started. Before getting to my SIFF@Home programming, I watched an hour of the Northwest Film Forum's Children's Film Festival. This is the third program I've watched from it this year, and I've found most of it to be charming and refreshing. After a few years in a row of watching Oscar-nominated short programs, I've gotten used to shorts being about dark and serious topics, and this is a fantastic antidote for that.
I was starting my first movie when my upstairs neighbor started hammering things. I could hear it even through noise cancelling headphones, so I tried moving outside on my laptop, but the viewing experience on that screen was particularly subpar for what I was watching, so I went back inside. He eventually stopped. I miss the theater.
Not my typical genre, but what better time than SIFF to see this sort of thing? Honestly, I'm a little sad that I watched this at home in a non-dark room with sunlight spoiling the scenes at some points. It's an aesthetically gorgeous film, with the color so desaturated that it feels like its title. Moody mountain backdrops, layers and layers of translucent cloth and calligraphy banners, stylized battles... it was all a feast for the eyes. I also liked the setup, with a kingdom hurting to reclaim a beloved city and a royal court filled with mystery and unknown loyalties. I was even willing to overlook the ridiculous fighting techniques and accept that it was worth it for the looks. But the balance tipped to being too over the top, and by the end, I didn't really care what happened and just wanted it to all be over.
I've always been excited when I find out that a SIFF film I'm going to see has a short film before it (mixed with some anxiety about whether or not I'm going to make it to my next film on time because I didn't factor that into the runtime), but it seems like it hasn't happened much in the last few years. So I'm changing that with SIFF@Home and programming short films before any film with a short enough runtime! This one made me laugh but also had some serious stuff in it too. It's about a woman with one arm who doesn't appreciate how people treat her differently because of it.
I gave Deerskin the same rating as Shadow, but my reaction to these two movies was actually very different. I felt like Shadow fit the mold of the beautiful Chinese martial arts period piece, but Deerskin was... I don't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. There's certainly more to think about, and I do want there to be some depths to mine under the absurdity, but I'm not sure how much there actually is. A very different Jean Dujardin than in The Artist, for sure. I am a huge Adèle Haenel fan, and she's nice to see here, but her character didn't really give her space to shine.
SIFF@Home Day 2
Now for Friday... what a big day. Probably the most I've packed in since the quarantine started. It's in no way sustainable, but because it's a nice change of pace, I'm totally energized. It started out with a 6:30am session of Wild Writing with Lauren Fleshman because Oiselle was having a number of fun Zoom sessions today. I also attended an arm/core workout with Kara Goucher (did the arms, stopped the core after the first set of side planks), a fashion show with the Oiselle store ladies, and a sneak peek & story time with Sally. There was also a bit of yin yoga in between and a bike ride across the 520 bridge because it's Bike Month. All of this was made possible by my employer, who kindly gave us today off as a mental health day.
In the afternoon, the watching started. Before getting to my SIFF@Home programming, I watched an hour of the Northwest Film Forum's Children's Film Festival. This is the third program I've watched from it this year, and I've found most of it to be charming and refreshing. After a few years in a row of watching Oscar-nominated short programs, I've gotten used to shorts being about dark and serious topics, and this is a fantastic antidote for that.
I was starting my first movie when my upstairs neighbor started hammering things. I could hear it even through noise cancelling headphones, so I tried moving outside on my laptop, but the viewing experience on that screen was particularly subpar for what I was watching, so I went back inside. He eventually stopped. I miss the theater.
China, 2018
Ballot vote: 4
Letterboxd rating: 3.5
Not my typical genre, but what better time than SIFF to see this sort of thing? Honestly, I'm a little sad that I watched this at home in a non-dark room with sunlight spoiling the scenes at some points. It's an aesthetically gorgeous film, with the color so desaturated that it feels like its title. Moody mountain backdrops, layers and layers of translucent cloth and calligraphy banners, stylized battles... it was all a feast for the eyes. I also liked the setup, with a kingdom hurting to reclaim a beloved city and a royal court filled with mystery and unknown loyalties. I was even willing to overlook the ridiculous fighting techniques and accept that it was worth it for the looks. But the balance tipped to being too over the top, and by the end, I didn't really care what happened and just wanted it to all be over.
Short Film: Single
I've always been excited when I find out that a SIFF film I'm going to see has a short film before it (mixed with some anxiety about whether or not I'm going to make it to my next film on time because I didn't factor that into the runtime), but it seems like it hasn't happened much in the last few years. So I'm changing that with SIFF@Home and programming short films before any film with a short enough runtime! This one made me laugh but also had some serious stuff in it too. It's about a woman with one arm who doesn't appreciate how people treat her differently because of it.
France, 2019
Ballot vote: 4
Letterboxd rating: 3.5
I gave Deerskin the same rating as Shadow, but my reaction to these two movies was actually very different. I felt like Shadow fit the mold of the beautiful Chinese martial arts period piece, but Deerskin was... I don't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. There's certainly more to think about, and I do want there to be some depths to mine under the absurdity, but I'm not sure how much there actually is. A very different Jean Dujardin than in The Artist, for sure. I am a huge Adèle Haenel fan, and she's nice to see here, but her character didn't really give her space to shine.
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