One of the things I knew I would miss a lot about living in Vancouver is the VIFF.
(To give you an idea of how much we love it, early in 2008 when we were contemplating our move over here, a friend of ours who lives in Victoria tried to convince us: "But guys! Victoria has a film festival too!!")
Last year, even though we were already living here, we took a couple of days off work and went to Vancouver to see a few movies. Normally we see around 8-10 films, but because of scheduling, we were only able to see three.
Unfortunately one of the three movies we chose last year was the worst. movie. ever.
So, the VFF is on now, we've seen two movies already and have two more lined up for this week. We would have gone to a few more, but scheduling (those trips into Vancouver!) and finances (that ever nagging recession) got in the way.
The two movies we've seen already were great:
The Auteur (hilarious mockumentary about a porn director)
The Delta Rising (great movie about the history of blues music)
The two that we are looking forward to are:The Tiger's Tail
1000 Journals
One other difference I've noticed is that it's not nearly so busy as the VIFF - at least outside of the Granville theatres anyway. There aren't hundreds of confused people milling about, there's only one line - it's all very civilized.
My only complaint with the Victoria Film Festival is that they don't have enough German films. This year they only had one - by a Canadian director that was filmed in Germany. I heard a woman in the theatre say it sucked big time. Sorry, it couldn't be worse than Birdsong. There is no way.
4 comments:
Victoria sounds more civilized all the time. The way you described the driving and now the VIFF. Do I detect a bit of fondness for your new city?
Yea it sounds like yo may be on to something there. Four movies is a lot in my books.
IG - I'm allowing Victoria to grow on me, which might not have been in my agenda when I got here.
Rawbean - Well, after that bizarre German film we saw together last year....4 would be a lot!
Film buffs in Victoria should know about Pic-a-Flic video in Cook Street Village. In addition to the usual Blockbuster dreck they've got tons of classic/foreign/old/offbeat films and staff that are knowledgeable. Lots of Bergman, Truffaut, de Sica, Miike, Kitano, etc.
http://picaflic.net/index.htm
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