On Teachers, a very simple little film I have just watched over the weekend from Quebec, Monsieur Lazhar (a nominee for best foreign language film Oscars 2012), It is about grief, when Bashir Lazhar volunteers to step in and become the substitute teacher for a class of elementary students whose teacher has committed suicide in the class room, he becomes the most effective ear for the students to express their grief. He himself if getting over the grief of losing his family at the hands of terrorists in Algeria. The film deals with the craziness of the PC driven world of today's classroom. Teachers are faced with the dilemma of comforting students when they absolutely cannot touch a student, let alone the problems of reprimanding unruly classroom antics.
Next up, a trip to latest in series "Books on Film" at TIFF with the fantastic host Eleanor Wachtel (sp?). The Book to film this time was "Jane Eyre" one of my all time favourite books, which I reread every few years and always get something new from it. This was the latest film adaptation from 2010 and stars Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender as Jane and Mrs Rochester respectively. This is the third time I have seen this adaptation and it is by far my favourite. Eleanor's guest was Molly Haskell an American Feminist writer who talked at length after the film about Jane's character and the very forward feminist writing of Charlotte Bronte. I am not a huge fan of people spouting on about feminism usually but Molly Haskell is mostly interested in women and their roles in film so that does interest me. Her latest book, is "Frankly, my dear" and of deals with Scarlett O'Hara and GWTW. I am going to put that on my list to get to!
A trip to the McMichael gallery in Kleinberg was fun. There is an interesting exhibition on at the moment (Until April 22) called The Tree:Form and substance. It goes beautifully with the setting which of course is in the lovely wooded area around the property surrounded by lovely walking trails through the trees. The exhibition has a collection of all forms of media devoted to the tree, my favourite were of course the photographs.
The final film I saw at the weekend, was "Melancholia" by Lars Von Trier, starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsburgh and Kiefer Sutherland. I really loved this film, but, I started out hating it and did not think I would get through it. It is in two parts, from the vantage point of two sisters. It has a dark, ominous feel to it, because of course everyone is aware that a huge undiscovered planet, Melancholia is encroaching on earth on its collision course to end life here. However, this is not a film about panic or avoidance, there is just the feeling of acceptance and sadness. This film is about a family that has obviously had issues to deal with, but we are never let in on any of the facts, we just make do with what we have right now and each of the characters has to come to terms with their own mortality in their own manner. This is one of those films that stays with me for some days after and I find myself thinking about it from time to time, and that is something I always like from a film.
No comments:
Post a Comment