Sydney Comedy Festival: DeAnne Smith, The Sweet Life

A Canadian stand-up routine about being white, liberal, Lesbian – mostly Lesbian. And young: she indicated our section of the audience and said she was reminded of her parents, and some of this stuff you didn't want to talk about in front of your parents. Very funny, but if you go don't be late and don't sit in the front row unless you're prepared to contribute.

My Father's Moon (Elizabeth Jolley 1989)

All I've read of Elizabeth Jolley is one unimpressive short story. I saw the movie of The Well,  and was similarly unimpressed. Someone (Kerryn Goldsworthy, perhaps) had this on her very short list of most memorable Aust Lit works, so here goes.

DVD: Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein 1925)

I've seen this once before, 40 years ago. It's like mediaeval artists painting St Sebastian as a way to paint a nude: here we've got a revolutionary uprising as a pretext for fabulous crowd scenes, stylish silhouettes, spectacular montage etc.

The Hunger Games (Gary Ross 2012)

I thought this was terrific. It handles the appalling moral ambiguities very well. There's a moment when we're being drawn into the romance of young love and the camera draws back to show that the people who are ruthlessly exploiting these young people for their own entertainment are just as dewy eyed as we are. I know Rear Window etc turn on the audience, but time I felt it happening, as opposed to recognising it in a cerebral kind of way.

Overland 206 (ed Jeff Sparrow, Autumn 2012)

According to the back cover blurb, still a pit bull from the loony left.

Slings and Arrows, Season 1 (Susan Coyne and others 2003)

A Canadian series about a theatre company. This first series is built around a production of Hamlet. I don't think it's been shown on TV in Australia, but it seems like classic Sunday night ABC material. Only six episodes, and we watched eps 3 to 6 in one sitting.

Snuff (Terry Pratchett 2011)

After years of giving my younger son the latest Terry Pratchett as a Christmas Present, last Christmas I received this one from him.

This Must Be the Place (Paolo Sorrentino 2011)

An Italian-irish-French
movie disguised as a US bizarrerie. I loved it. It's Sean Penn's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Asia Literary Review, Winter 2011

This issue the Review has yet another new editor.

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki 2011)

A deadpan Finnish film in French. Astonishingly we both remembered the same director's Drifting Clouds from an ancient film festival. I enjoyed it a lot; my companion not so much.

Maralinga: The Anangu Story (Yalata, Oak Valley Communities with Christobel Mattingley 2010)

Christobel Mattingley was recently honoured by the Sydney chapter of IBBY (The International Board on Books for Young People).

The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes 2011)

It's short. It won the Booker. What can go wrong?

People Are Legends (Kevin Gilbert 1978)

I went and bought this because of the controversy over End of Dream-Time.

End of Dream-Time (Kevin Gilbert 1971)

I was reminded of this by some of the controversy over Australian Poetry Since 1788.

A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg 2012)

The actors were brilliant. My companions who knew nothing about Freud and Jung came out of this knowing very little more. Christopher Hampton (who wrote the screenplay) has just gone on my Life's Too Short list: I really couldn't tell why I was supposed to be interested in these people. And incidentally, I had no idea sado-masochism could be so dull.