TUESDAY 5/21
10AM -- QUITTING -- Wondering what's being quit? I did. This ain't no Trainspotting. A Chinese reality (almost) show. All actors play themselves, even the nuts in the nuthouse (they were great). According to Ray I slept for 10-15 minutes; don't think I missed much. I do recommend this for Sinophiles.

And that's all for me until Thursday.

MONDAY 5/20
10 AM -- Mad Love -- Poor, tragic Juana La Loca, the early 16th century was tough on everyone -- was she mad or just obsessive/compulsive? Delightful costumes, music and all the things one expects from an historical drama. If you like this sort of thing it is definitely worth seeing.

12PM -- Sunshine State -- an above average, yet typical John Sayles view of life on the west coast of Florida. Some very fine acting and not just from Angela Basset (who is as good as can be).

First scheduling error -- missed Happy Times

FRIDAY (at the Rendezvous) 5/17

10:00 am -- Door to Door William Macy was excellent in the role of a salesman with cerebrial palsy. A very sweet movie, but clear-eyed and not saccharine at all. Helen Mirren (forgive me darling) needs to work on her American accent.

12:00 pm -- Soft for Digging -- this sucked, but was not as bad as...

2:00 pm -- Shag Carpet Sunset -- which really sucked.

Fortunately for me the quarters were very crowded at the rendezvous and I was forced to sit between the two most attractive men at the press screenings, if not the festival. I had all kinds of naughty thoughts I'll not bore you with, but that certainly helped me through those two Friday afternoon movies.

THURSDAY 5/16

12:00 pm -- Family Fundamentals -- I'm so glad I was raised Unitarian --this guy really knows how to make a documentary -- very memorable.

2:00 pm -- Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner -- you have NEVER seen a movie like this before -- The subtitles were in excellent idiomatic English. The plot has everything; love, betrayal, jealousy, revenge, forgiveness, redemption, etc. And just when I was expecting a Hollywood-style 'hero takes revenge on the bad guys' ending, they totally surprised me. This movie is worth it, if you have any interest in indigenous cultures, or universal human themes.
Rather slow at first, don't give up, it really gets going after a while. Where else can you see three bad guys chasing a naked man for miles across the ice? But all the raw meat they ate was certainly more authentic than I needed. Of course, it was difficult to tell some of the characters apart. Just looking at the credits was mind boggling. All the names of the actors and characters overlapped and seemed so similar. GO SEE THIS MOVIE Sorry to be so incoherent.

WEDNESDAY 5/15

10:00 am -- The Mirror of Maya Deren -- I am a fan of hers and have read her book "Divine Horsemen" so I found this very informative -- don't know if folks who don't know her would like it as well as I did.

12:15 pm -- The Trip -- not my favorite movie -- but ok and pleasant enough -- the all important relationships, what the movie was supposedly about, didn't seem that real to me.

2:00 pm -- 13 Coversations About One Thing -- slept through this one (my fault) I think I will see it during the regular screenings. Everyone who remained awake seemed to like it.

TUESDAY 5/14

10:00 am -- Khaled -- sweet, sad boys life, well done, cute kid and i guess life is like that sometimes, but talk about depressing -- only the ending made it bearable -- carolyn i think we saw something similar at secret one year with dirk bogard.

12:00 pm -- Versus -- couldn't face the gory splatterfest -- ate my book and read my lunch, explored MOHI, the noisy movie sounded horrible from outside the theater (after all it was a horror movie) -- people left, if in not droves, in large groups, didn't hear any positive comments.

2:00 pm -- Take Care of my Cat -- an incomprehensible slice of twenty-something-Korean-girls life. They seemed only to have fun when together in restaurants ... and the cat wasn't that cute, or smart or anything.

I also heard that Sweet Dreams are Made of These was very good. Das Experiment was very good but hard to take. Last Wedding (title?) was so-so
from Friday's press screenings.

MONDAY 5/13

10:00 am -- Tecknolust -- the science made no sense but who cares, Tilda was fabulous as geeky scientist, Rosetta Stone and her three glamorous clones Ruby, Marina and Olive who give new meaning to the term monochromatic. I liked the men in the movie and Karen Black's role was mercifully small. Great fun all in all!

12:00 pm -- Cherish -- Good, fairly standard plot, kept me interested, but the soundtrack drove me insane. The heroine listened to the greatest hits of all time (60s, 70s, 80) radio. My friend Melissa, one or two years younger than me said it was the best thing about the movie. The title of the movie is the first song on the soundtrack . . .

2:00 pm -- Lovely and Amazing -- The review said, easygoing, low-key, subtle -- all codewords for 'SNOOZER" Well developed characters that some people might find interesting. #