National Gallery 3 stars. Interesting to compare to The Great Museum. Very similar, but I think this was a little better. More focused. I really enjoyed the lectures on particular paintings. And seeing the actual conservation techniques and hearing about the issues involved. All these experts! An early debate about the Gallery’s accessibility was not followed through which was disappointing. And a ballet interlude at the end was unnecessary and distracted from the whole.
Rohmer’s Paris 2 stars. I enjoyed this primarily because of another film on Rohmer that I’ve seen at an earlier MIFF. I haven’t actually seen any of his films but he is very interesting. It was fun seeing bits of his films and bits of Paris. Including his grave which we had looked for unsuccessfully when we were there recently. Otherwise it was a bit of self indulgent twaddle.
Ping Pong Summer 3 stars. Good hearted teenage romp. Disappointed Susan Sarandon wasn’t in it more but it was great seeing her. All of the performances were great.
Salt Of The Earth 4 stars. A film about the life and work of the Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. He was wonderful and so very articulate. A lot of him just talking to the camera with archival footage of the terrible world events he recorded – Ethiopia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Congo, Sudan. And pictures of the beautiful stark photographs of terrible suffering that he is famous for. Sometimes difficult to watch. He was a progressive – had started out as an economist at the World Bank. Seeing so much human suffering finally took its toll and he moved on to environmental photography. Taking amazing pictures of the natural world – tribes in New Guinea and South America, reindeer herds people in the Arctic Circle, walruses in Siberia. Concluding with a nice story about reclamation of the forest on his family farm. Quite wonderful.
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