01. A weekend stay at Skenes Creek on the Great Ocean Road. Highlights – afternoon swim at Apollo Bay, and a 10km hike from Blanket Bay to Cape Otway Lighthouse, which is part of the Great Ocean Walk. Crayfish Bay (below) was very pretty.
02. We also popped into Apollo Bay Distillery for a gin flight. The standout was the Speculant, with its grapefruit botanticals.
03. Europa Film Festival this week: Waves – a gripping account of an international news radio station that became the last bastion against the authoritarianism that threatened to envelop Czechoslovakia during the 1968 Russian invasion. A reminder of the power of the media… particularly pertinent now.
04. Watching: In Memoriam (SBS). God. So distressing.
05. Australia’s Eurovision entry this year (Milkshake Man by Go-Jo) is…. interesting. It obviously has the necessary Eurovision tongue-in-cheek factor, and ample opportunity for some spectacular staging.
06. New sandwich venue! Barry’s Garage – tried a few things but the winner was the Chopped Club sandwich.
I’ve seen three films at the EFF at the Classic in Elsternwick. The Flood, which was a bit slow but otherwise well worth watching; Latin for All, which made me laugh out loud because I ‘got’ the Latin jokes; and Anna which was awful. Handheld camera cinematography, bouncing up and down between light and dark so I was either dazzled or couldn’t see anything, and a heard-it-all-before not-very-convincing plot: a fierce, shouty, nasty-to-everybody central character winning both the heart of the lawyer she abuses and the David and Goliath anti-development battle on the basis of something that will be chucked out on appeal in the sequel. I had a headache at the end of it.
Plus, I finally got to try Hungarian patisserie from Kurtosh next to the cinema. I have wanted to do that ever since I read The Interpretation of Cakes by Allan Tegg!
I’m seeing The Flood this weekend. Thank you for saving me from Anna (I had it on my list to check out if I had time).
I usually go to international film festivals with one particular friend and we often managed lots at the Scandinavian, German and British festivals. This year we’ve decided to do fewer films at more festivals – will see how that goes!
I’ve only been to one at the SFF, but it memorable – about two brothers and some sheep!
I usually do a few from the French and the Brits, occasionally from the German, but never the EFF before… which is strange because it was European film that shaped my taste long, long ago when I worked at the State Film Centre and had free tickets to the MFF. (This is why I tend to be scornful about Hollywood. So banal! Except for those gorgeous old B&W movies from the Golden Age.)
I must say that for us, any film at the Classic has the bonus of very tempting eateries for afterwards!