Book (loot)

This post exists to cheer myself up. (I typed 'cheet' by mistake. Make of that what you will).

A couple of weeks ago, a second hand bookshop here that I haunt from time to time, was selling books by the kg for a limited time. I was worried. I assumed they were going out of business (like AA Hussain a few months before) and were clearing their stock. 

Turned out I was wrong and they were doing this just for fun.

So went and I won't bore you with the details or even how much the loot weighed. Here it is. There are some books missing, notable among them a Joan Aiken (Wolves 1) and perhaps other things that have already scattered to different bookshelves in the house.

I am especially thrilled with the Ugresic, because I stupidly gave away a book by her some years ago. By mistake.

I should mention that only all the books from the Kingsolver on are part of the loot. Mimus was a gift.


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It's list time. Soon, just to reverse the cheering up I'm doing, I will post a mini recap of this year. Until then, at least there were good books. 

Off the top of my head - because I really don't keep a Books Read list like I ought to - there's: Elena Ferrante, NK Jemisin's Broken Earth Parts 1 & 2, Sean Borodale's Bee Journal, Lisa Suhair Majaj's Geographies of Light, le Carre's Pigeon Tunnel, Eric Kastner's Emil books.

(These aren't all the books I read; just the ones I'll remember as having made a difference to me).

There must be more, but if I can't remember them, they're either doing their work in silence or they've fallen on fallow ground.

*

(Checks self to monitor level of cheered-up-ness. Detects no appreciable difference. 

Exit, pursued by the other list wanting to be made.)

year end lists

(this is not a post; just a sort-of observation with no links attached)

All these best of the decade posts - notice how most of what's called 'the best' tends to fall within the last year or so? Either we have short memories (that they're unreliable goes without saying) or every day, in every way, the world is getting better and better.

Bah.

Pink Thoughts in a Pink Shade

Since the year-end list making time is upon us, I thought I'd avoid books and films in favour of flowers. Pink ones. All from, or near, our garden.

So, in order of appearance (I shouldn't have centered them. Sorry about that.): Tabibia, Balsam, what I used to think of as Periwinkle but now I know it isn't, Bauhunia, I don't know, Bougainvillea, ditto, a variety of Hibiscus that turns pink(er) as evening comes, Geranium, Tabibia (close up), Roses, Bougainvillea, Coleus, Frangipani, Rose, Tacoma, something with pink leaves, Coleus, Anthurium, Penta, Rose, Hibiscus, that thorny cactus like plant but hybridised for bigger flowers, Hibiscus, more pink leaves, Bouganvillea, a kind of Orchid, Impatiens, Bouganivillea.

Phew!

Oh - click for larger image.

Update: I find that it's tabibuia and tecoma. Who knew I had to have a Telugu accent to say the names of (some) flowers?

Intentions and Schedules

The IFFK has their list of films up. Films I intend to watch include the Weerasethakul, Hsien, Ratanaruang, Tarr, Menzel, Sokhurov, Kawase, Kitano, Sang-soo, in addition to the usual Winterbottom, von Triers, Mungiu and stuff.

I'm upset there's no Opera Jawa or I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (I know you said it was crap, Cheshire Cat, but I still want to watch it.)

Rumour has it that this year's Jury for the Competition section includes Jiri Menzel and Vera Chitylova, and Miguel Littin (whose Jackal of Nahueltoro was, frankly, a bit of a yawn). Menzel I can believe; he's going to deliver the Aravindan Memorial Lecture this year.

*

Rashid usually books all of us into a hotel in time for the Fest. This time, with memories of rats in the table drawer, tatty sheets and a suspicion that there might be a camera in our cupboard, we decided to avoid the place where we usually stay. So having found a new place, Rashid very kindly offered to do the booking as usual. However, the hotel doesn't do block/group bookings, he was told, so he passed around a number so that all of could book our own rooms for the Fest.

So yesterday, I call the number Rashid sent.

"Hello, I'd like ot book a single room, non-AC, please, for the 6th of December."

"Yes, madam. How many days?"

"9 nights starting the 6th."

"But I can't book you for so long."

"What?! Why not?"

"We don't do such long bookings, ma'am."

"I'm coming for the Film Festival. Others have booked rooms for the same duration and you've given them a booking. What's the problem?"

"Ma'am you are all cheating."

"Cheating?"

"First you all want to do block booking, we don't do block booking, ma'am."

"I know. That's why I'm calling to book separately."

"But it's a block booking only ma'am. So many of you are calling. I can't give you a room for such a long time."

"But I'm paying for it! Do you already have a booking? Is that what you're saying?"

"No, but I can't block the room for so long. Suppose some visitor wants it?"

By this time, I've given up trying to figure out where the guy learnt logic.

"How many days can you give me the room for?"

and before he can tell me,

"How do you expect me to find another room after a few days in the middle of a festival?!"

This went on for a while longer, until a phone began to ring in the background. Possibly, visions arose in the man's head of all the bookings he would lose just by continuing to talk to me.

"Ok, ma'am, I will give you this room, but please tell your friends not to call. I won't give booking for such a long time."

"This is a confirmed booking?" I asked. I was, not unnaturally, suspicious.

"Yes, yes, it is confirmed."

"Do I need to pay an advance?"

"No need. Just give your name and phone number. And time of arrival. And please, ma'am, tell your friends not to ask for a booking here. There is no place."

Sigh. "Ok. Thank you very much."

*

I am, of course, haunted by the thought that I will land up there and find I cannot stay for more than two days and then will either have to bum it on an extra bed in someone else's room, or trudge back to the ratty hotel and the guy at the reception who is unable to drop a bunch of keys in your hand without touching it.

*

Oh, and in the middle of this - or rather, at the beginning of all this - there will be a reading. I was hoping to have done with it on the 7th but that appears to be impossible. I only hope the reading doesn't clash with some important film, because if it does, and there's no repeat screening, I'm not going and that's final!

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Update: The film list I'm talking about is, of course, the regular programme. It does not include, as yet, the special packages, homages, retrospectives and perspectives that are usual.

The Edward Yang tribute is confirmed. There's almost certainly going to be at least one film each of Antonioni's and Bergman's. And I hope to heaven someone's remembered to pick a few Ousmane Sembene films.

This means that I would need to perfect the art of splitting myself into several people so I can watch all the films I want to. Until I do, I need to work on getting myself on to a selection committee. Oh, wait. That would mean watching a lot of chaff to get to the wheat. Nah...I'll just drive myself crazy trying to decide what to watch. That's nearly one half of the fun of going to film festivals. (Another large part is deciding where to eat.)

the obligatory response to the foreign language film posts

Alok started it all (though he took his cue from here. And then Jai went and expanded the list (while cheating dreadfully - including several extras, like a DVD crammed with goodies by calling them "Honourable Mentions'. HMs forsooth. He only wanted to include all directors' oevres.)

But worse than these guys are the people who comment, and lazily use the space to make lists a mile long.

Now here's the challenge I'm setting myself. I'm naming 25 films that these two haven't mentioned (commenters' favourites don't count. They should have done a post on their blogs). I'm excluding Copeland's list because it's a list of nominees and not his personal favourites. It appears to have had a nominating committee and other complex procedures, including votes and things.

So here goes. Excluding only English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films, the top 25 in no particular order:

Viridiana - LUis Bunuel

Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky

Ashik Kerib - Sergei Paradjanov

Night Train - Jerzy Kawalerowicz

Man of Marble - Anrdezej Wajda

Fireman's Ball - Milos Forman

Nine Months - Marta Meszaros

Elektra - Miklos Jansco

Love Film - Istvan Szabo

Dark Habits - Pedro Almodavar

Triumph of the Will - Leni Riefensthal

Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog

Alice In The City - Wim Wenders

Winter Light- Ingmar Bergman

Notre Musique- Jean-Luc Godard

Last Year At Marienbad - Alain Resnais

A Man Escaped - Robert Bresson

Lucia - Humberto Solas

Memories of Underdevelopment - Tomas Guttierez Alea

Flowers of Shanghai - Hou Hsiao-Hsien

In The Mood For Love - Wong Kar-Wai

Hana-bi - Takeshi Kitano

Autumn Afternoon - Yasujiro Ozu

Take Care Of Your Scarf Tatyana - Aki Kaurismaki

Red Desert - Michaelangelo Antonioni


Dammit! That's 25 and there's still more to go.

I hadn't even begun India: Subarnarekha, Titash, Goopy Gyne, Tukaram, Amma Ariyan, Firingoti.

Haven't mentioned so many directors, even, so many countries (Iran, and Kiarostami, without whom any list is pretty meaningless.)

I also note how few comtemporary directors' work I've chosen, which either means their worth is not yet certain, or that I'm conditioned by a text book idea of cinema's top films.

Sigh.

The trouble with such exercises is, it always leaves you feeling you've done no one justice.