It has Begun

The Spring 2010 Dykstra Hall Film Festival! Just like Cannes and Sundance but better. Early word of mouth reports that the quality of this year’s line-up of films is superb. Directors on show include such modern visionaries as Alfred Hitchcock, Wong Kar Wai and Woody Allen. Amongst the stars reportedly in attendance, Ingrid Bergman, Marlon Brando and Paul Newman have all been sighted. Viewership levels are at an all-time high (1: me).

(Oh wow, lame opening. Sorry. You try writing a cool, punchy post after a 3500 word essay on synesthesia, Canadian poetry and epistemological skepticism (yes, that crap again).)

I finished my last paper today (ugh, ‘twas pretty much a piece of shit). It’s finally Spring Break and I don’t have school ‘til the 29th! That means that, besides all that mandatory boring life-business (exploring Hearst Castle, shopping at Santa Monica, getting Veronica to take me to Hollywood, visiting Brooke in San Diego, blah blah) I’ll have to do, I’m dedicating the rest of my time to movie-watching! I just started my 2 week free trial of Netflix – a beautiful thing. It costs 9 bucks per month to subscribe, and you can rent an unlimited amount of movies (either streamed online, or they mail it to you in one business day). Of course 9 bucks is a paltry sum to pay for unlimited movie-watching possibilities, but yknow what, I’m cheap, so I aim to make this 2 week free trial really pay off. And it will. I’ve got my schedule down to a science. I know what I’m doing.

So, a universe of cinema at my fingertips; quite daunting, really. Netflix has everything! Where does one begin? With a BBC teenage lesbian drama, obviously.



1. My Summer of Love, 2004, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

In an unnamed little British village in the 1980s, two girls from completely different backgrounds meet and begin a relationship over the course of a summer. Great acting, some lovely photography and I liked how economical the story was. And that Emily Blunt, ooh she’s a sneaky one, she is. That face, what depth! Those eyes, what coldness, what vulnerability! She’s good.



Next up: classic Hitchcock! And then tomorrow afternoon I'm being bussed to Solvang and Heart Castle for a weekend trip with the UCLA International Center. Pretty excited!.. if not for all the free movies I could be watching with that time.