Boo!

Though I wasn't exactly feeling the Halloween spirit this year, Aviva convinced me to put my best ghoul face on for the holiday. Getting the snakes to stay in my hair was quite difficult, as was locating snakes as it seems that there's no longer much demand for such mundane toys.

Aviva considered dressing as Perseus but she didn't want to be responsible for killing me. Instead, she went for Icarus so she could be responsible for her own demise. The only problem with her costume was the considerable odor that resulted from the burning feathers. But with a little Chanel to mask the smell, we were good to go. Tonight, we'll have to contend with the hundreds of children that descend on the neighbourhood on Halloween. Last year, we went through about a dozen small bags of chocolate bars and still had to rush out to the local drugstore to buy more on Halloween night. This year, we bought four huge bags of candy with more than 2000 pieces in total. That should keep the ghouls from stringing toilet paper from our trees.

Wish they could send me some pumpkin pie too!

Although I wasn't able to visit my family over Thanksgiving, my aunt Judy sent me some fabulous photos that let me share in the Turkey Day festivities. My brother and his family just moved into a new house so they spent a good part of the weekend cleaning, unpacking, and organizing the new place, and from what I've seen in the photos, the place looks fabulous. What I really enjoyed, however, was seeing the shots of my niece and nephews, though it scared me a little to see how much they've grown!

John Wayne? Really?

So, after finishing the "Classic Dames" test, I had to try out the "Leading Man" quiz. Much to my surprise, I turned out to be John Wayne, which inspired some speculating about what it would be like to create a cinematic pairing up John Wayne and Bette Davis. In the end, I just can't seem to see it happening. Maybe in Davis's often neglected The Petrified Forest. I could see John Wayne entering into the picture there, as long as he didn't try to treat Davis like a damsel in distress.

John Wayne
You scored 35% Tough, 14% Roguish, 28% Friendly, and 23% Charming!
You, my friend, are a man's man, the original true grit, one tough talking, swaggering son of a bitch. You're not a bad guy, on the contrary, you're the ultimate good guy, but you're one tough character, rough and tumble, ready for anything. You call the shots and go your own way, and if some screwy dame is willing to accept your terms, that's just fine by you. Otherwise, you'll just hit the open trail and stay true to yourself. You stand up for what you believe and can handle any situation, usually by rushing into the thick of the action. You're not polished and you're not overly warm, but you're a straight shooter and a real stand up guy. Co-stars include Lauren Bacall and Maureen O'Hara, tough broads who can take care of themselves.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.

My test tracked 4 variables. Here's how you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 62% on Toughness
You scored higher than 40% on Roguish
You scored higher than 51% on Friendly
You scored higher than 35% on Charming

Classic Dames

I couldn't resist this particular quiz, and taking it taught me a little internet quiz lesson. The first time I took it, I tried to guess what answers Bette Davis might give and ended up being Katherine Hepburn. Go figure. So, I took it again and played fair. Guess who was my "classic dame" foil? Bette Davis. What I love most about her description and mine is our total lack of class. I always think of Davis as very classy but perhaps I have a skewed notion of class!

Bette Davis
You scored 33% grit, 38% wit, 42% flair, and 2% class!

You're one smart cookie, and you know it. You also know how to let everyone else know it. You are in charge and keep everyone in line with your biting wit and cutting remarks. You're charming when you need to be, and the light sparkles behind your eyes. But when cornered, you can act, but quick, and you'll do anything necessary. You're always ready with just the right come-back, and you can be wilting. You go your own way and have your own, unique way of tackling life, which sometimes includes illegal activity. It's not a great idea to cross you; you can cut down the competition with one well-chosen line, although that's not all you have in your arsenal. Your leading mean include Errol Flynn and Paul Henreid, men who like a feisty gal.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 86% on grit

You scored higher than 77% on wit

You scored higher than 63% on flair

You scored higher than 0% on class

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes

Image Out Comes to an End

At 9:30pm last night Aviva and I went to our seventh and final film of Rochester's Image Out film festival, Saving Face, a movie that explores the workings of a tight-knit Chinese-American community and one family's fiercely guarded secrets: the daughter, Wil, is a lesbian, the 48-year-old mother is pregnant by an unknown father, and the grandfather sees both women as disgraces to the family name. Directed and written by Alice Wu, Saving Face proved to be a great way to end this year's festival. Part of my motivation for going to see this film stemmed from a brief encounter I had with the director about two years ago when I attended a July 4th barbecue in Brooklyn. Her excitement about the film, which hadn't yet gone into production, was positively contagious and I thought it'd be fun to check out the finished product. I wasn't disappointed. The frequent laughter, audible clucks and sighs coming from the large crowd testified to the film's ability to elicit a complex range of emotions from its spectators, no small feet for a film that's been billed as a "heart-warming romantic comedy."

Which brings me to a discussion Aviva and I had yesterday. I made some disparaging remark about comedy and Aviva asked whether I thought comedies could ever be truly brilliant. "Of course they can," I protested. I explained my tendency to disparage comedy in this manner: when it comes to comedy, there seems to be a much lower standard and, because the reams of mediocre comedy on film and television have set the bar so low, I've stopped thinking about the genre in genuinely critical terms. Why bother? Just enjoy it for what it is--entertainment with about as much substance as cotton candy. If I try to think about it critically, I'll only end up annoyed and disappointed.

Though I entered the theatre expecting a breezy comedy that would leave me with a smile on my face, Wu's film did give me plenty to think about critically. In fact, it contained many genuinely brilliant moments, and only a few disappointing ones. And even these "failures" might have gone unnoticed in a lesser film. Certainly, the ending of the film is too idyllic and stretches the boundaries of believability with it's tidy and universally happy series of resolutions. The young lesbians are reunited after a short separation that allows Wil to become more comfortable with her sexual orientation; the mother learns to stop trying to please her father, regains the respect of her community and establishes her independence from her lover; the crotchety grandfather continues to be crotchety but will at least eat a meal with his lesbian granddaughter and her lover, and his pregnant middle-aged daughter and her twenty-something lover. Although these conclusions did gloss over the intricate complexities the film had worked very hard to establish. Yet, I expected, and couldn't help but want, this emotionally satisfying conclusion. Saving Face employs skillful cinematography, particularly where it explores the city and the distinct borough of Queens. The film's tendency to pan slowly across New York's distinctive architecture supplements Wil's emotional and physical diminutiveness, while contrasting sharply with her nervousness. Other characters' varying moods, particularly Ma's, come across loud and clear though a strong combination of colours and off-kilter camera angles that read like revealing, and often surprising, personality traits. Although having Joan Chen in the cast certainly helped elevate the quality of the acting, I was also impressed by the film's many relatively inexperienced actors. Perhaps I found Saving Face's conclusion particularly satisfying given that it helped alleviate some of the residual pain from the film we'd seen earlier in the day--Unveiled, an incredible Iranian-German production that left me feeling quite despondent and angry. A little bit of levity was exactly what I needed to round out my Saturday night.

Rochester Film Festivals

One of the things I enjoy about Rochester is it's obvious love of good cinema. Not only is it home to the George Eastman Archive of photography and film (one of the factors that motivated my decision to study here), but it also plays host to a couple of really solid film festivals. Sure, they're not the New York Film Festival or the Toronto Film Festival, but they do present some excellent film-going opportunities. Later this fall, there will be the High Falls Film Festival, which showcases exceptional work by women in film and video. Right now, the city is in the midst of Image Out, the Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival. So far, we've been to see Butterfly (Yan Yan Mak), a Hong Kong film, and Floored by Love (Desiree Lim), a film produced in Vancouver. I enjoyed Floored for what it is--a light-hearted, romantic comedy. It includes many endearing scenes that show mothers and fathers coming to terms with their children's sexual orientation. It insists that families can take diverse forms and still be productive, healthy and loving. It celebrates Canada's decision to protect the rights of its gay and lesbian citizens. How can you not like all that? Just don't expect the acting to be brilliant or the script to blow you away with its subtlety or originality.

Butterfly, on the other hand, was really quite stunning, with its beautiful cinematography, engaging characters, and strong acting, particularly by Josie Ho, who plays Flavia, and Eric Kot, who plays her husband. It's a narrative about a seemingly-happy married woman with a one-year old daughter, who falls in love with Yip, a woman she meets in the aisles of a grocery story. This new relationship revives memories of her college lover, the political-activist-turned-nun, Jin. And try as she might to surpress these memories, Flavia can't get Jin or Yip out of her mind. O. K. I'm going to stop right there because I've just made this rather lovely film sound like a cliched soap opera. What does that say about my purported skills as a film scholar? Mmmm. You'll have to either take my word for it when I say it's worth the price of admission, or better yet, go see the film for yourself. I'm quite certain you won't be disappointed. My only real criticism: it runs a bit long and would have benefited from tighter editing; some of the scenes from Flavia's childhood and her present-day encounters with her parents seemed superfluous and distracting.

Tonight, Aviva and I are heading to our third film, The Aggressives, a documentary that explores a New York City community of dykes who identify as "Aggressives," meaning they see themselves as women, want to remain women, but feel most comfortable when acting "like men." According to the festival program, The Aggressives is in the spirit of Paris is Burning, a 1990 film about the Harlem drag balls thrown by predominantly inner city black and Latino gay men in the mid-1980s, a movement that inspired Madonna's song, "vogue."