Late-ish 2013 Retrospective: Top 10 Directors

Again, I don't have a huge disclaimer to put here. I know it's May, I know it's late, but hey, it is never too late to honour some pretty awesome directors, is it?

Honourable Mentions: Steven Soderbergh - Side Effects, The Coen Brothers - Inside Llewyn Davis, David Lowery - Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Abdellatif Kechiche - Blue is the Warmest Colour, Ron Howard - Rush, Lake Bell - In a World..., Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Don Jon, Ryan Coogler - Fruitvale Station, Asghar Farhadi - The Past, Richard Linklater - Before Midnight, Harmony Korine - Spring Breakers.

10. Spike Jonze - Her
Her is an incredibly brave film. Take it from one of the film's pivotal lines about love: "it's like a socially acceptable form of insanity." The way that the film ruminates on love is so beautiful, as opposed to sugar coating everything and having couples running of into sunsets and that kind of gooey stuff. Perhaps that's all because this is a film about a man having a relationship with his computer. Which is quite strange (it's quite hard to sell this movie to my friends), but Jonze does it in such a way that it feels completely natural. Not to mention, the futuristic world he creates is definitely a world that I could see actually happening, thanks to Jonze not over-saturating the film with ludicrous visions of the future. Even though the movie left me feeling extremely empty for a little while, this is a unique kind of beauty that I wish we could see more of.

9. Denis Villeneuve - Prisoners
Fun fact: throughout many lines of ancestry, it's possible that in some way I'm related to this guy (I would have even had his last name once upon a time, which would have been nice). If that somehow means that I have an ounce of his talent, that would be fantastic. Even though I haven't seen Incendies since it first came out about two and a half years ago, it is still engrained in my brain - it's so hard to shake the deliberately cold, striking way the film was made. It's the same with Prisoners, which Villeneuve could make with a bigger budget, bigger names, and the magic touch of Roger Deakins behind the camera. Prisoners is a masterful, slow burning thriller that mixes the suspense of detective work with the emotional trauma created within the families. It's a puzzle that doesn't seem willing to be solved, but it is made in such a way that I wasn't sure if I ever did want it to be solved. Villeneuve is always in control of his material. I haven't seen Enemy yet (because who knows if it will even get a release here), but how crazy is it that he managed to make those two films in the same year? And here comes my trademark saying: I want to be him.

Boats Against the Current: Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

I've seen Baz Luhrmann's version of The Great Gatsby five times now. I'm not even ashamed to admit it. If I were to somehow become Alien out of Spring Breakers, it wouldn't be Scarface I'd have on repeat, it would be The Great Gatsby. Anything remotely Gatsby I snap up - whether it be reblogging my 100th gif of Jordan Baker or changing my cover photo on Facebook or finding something pretty to adorn my bedroom walls with.

Despite all this, I don't actually like The Great Gatsby as a film all that much. Let's put all of this into context: last term I did this huge research project about modern adaptations of classic films. Now, I won't bore you with the gory details since that thing ended up being like, 40 pages long, but The Great Gatsby was my main focus. This was because I had never seen so many people around my age go absolutely nuts for this one movie. Admittedly, this was mainly because of the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is descended from angels and we're all materialistic magpies that will swoop in on anything that glitters (so you can imagine the field day we had with this). Let's just say, I wasn't the only one reblogging, cover photo-ing or adorning everything Gatsby.

Update on Life as Head Girl Part 2 - the Stage Challenge Edition

Hey guys, sorry for deserting you for two months, but needless to say, I've been a busy wee lass. Last Friday, my school competed in Stage Challenge, which closed out the busiest four months I've ever experienced. So before I tell you about everything, I'll let you know what stage challenge is: an eight minute performance, usually done through dance, where you convey a message. Our performance this year was based around the idea of the dark side of money. The main character (played by my best friend and amazingly talented Cassie) is introduced to a materialistic world, and sees the downfalls of consumerism, losing everything to a world she wanted so much to be a part of. We didn't place in the competition (I may be biased, but we were robbed - we got beaten by dancing kiwi fruit and meningitis dancing to Skyfall of all songs, but oh well), but we got seven awards of excellence for Drama, Concept, Stage Use, Performance Skill, Costuming Character, Choreography and Set Design & Function (we were the only school to win that one so yay!).

I will say something: I've never been so proud of anything in my life. And while I don't like tooting my own horn, I've done a lot to be proud of, but this one takes the top spot. This year, I got to direct the performance and I've been busy sorting everything out for the past four months. I was lucky to have an amazing group of choreographers who came up with the performance, and their dances were far beyond than anything I could have ever imagined. On the night, I sat in the audience crying my eyes out from the moment the performance started. While I've always loved the exhilarating feeling of performing, seeing something you've worked on so hard for so long was the best feeling in the world. Honestly. When we came to the end of the performance - where Cassie commits suicide by falling off the back of the platform (kind of a downer, but that's Dannevirke High School for you, we never do happy, cute endings where the whole cast comes on stage), I just cried and cried and cried. There was an overwhelming feeling of proudness that I'd never felt before, because everything came together so well: the dances were perfect, the costumes were amazing, and the lights finished everything off wonderfully. I also don't think I've ever hugged so many people - or embarrassed myself so much by crying in front of every important figure in the school (the principal, the teachers, the board members). They're probably wondering how I ever got Head Girl now.

When it came to results time, I admit to being guttered about not being placed, but I started crying again because I was just so proud. It may sound cheesy, yet what I learned during this journey was far more valuable than any prizes. Because I've totally lost my good writing talents, I'll just list everything that I learned:

• That time management is the best skill anyone could ever have, and luckily I have that skill pretty downpat. There were lots of rehearsals (we had 18 hours worth of rehearsals over four days, and me and a couple of others worked on the set/performance for 50+ hours in one of the school holiday weeks), but being Head Girl and also working at a place that was extremely understaffed, my life wasn't put on hold for Stage Challenge. Let's just say, I actually did lots of work in all my free periods and school, and even took homework to work to do during my night shifts. Somehow, through all this mess I managed to get an Excellence for a Biology assessment, which is great because Bio is my worst subject. Mind you, I haven't quite caught up on my sleep yet - probably need to go into a coma for a month to do that. The bags under my eyes speak wonders for how much work I've been doing lately.
• Being calm is also a great quality. We had a huge committee with a lot of strong minds, and while I had several down days because of some of the friction caused, when it came down to it, I thought I handled the major problems pretty well. There was one day that was particularly horrible, but we managed getting through it and everything went well in the end. Being able to count to ten and not jump to conclusions was probably the thing that got us all through.
• Stage Challenge is probably the best fitness plan you'll get - even if you're not performing. On the day before the performance, we had a full day of rehearsals, and I don't think I've ever run around so much in my life. Looking back through the photos of that day, all you could see me doing was running through the frame
• I drank too much coffee and bought a lot of food to get me through. Turns out that whole coffee was the best thing ever, I went the last two days without caffeine and I felt perfect. Still, stage challenge started my coffee addiction.
• I've never felt so much gratitude in my life. My co-director Emma was amazing. My choreographers were amazing. My dancers were amazing. My set guys were amazing. Cassie was amazingly amazing. But especially the people who saw all my mental breakdowns behind the scenes - sorry, but thank you. I'm especially proud of our achievements as we did this with no teacher assistance. Which is very different from previous years.

• Most of all - I love directing. I really do. Since I wasn't performing, these pictures of me 'in action' are as close as you're gonna get to seeing me participate in the production. I look like Steven Spielberg. Someone hand me an Oscar.

Before I get into a little photo gallery of the performance, I'll give you an update on me and the movies. To be honest, I've lost interest in movies quite a bit lately since I've been so busy. I only watched 13 movies last month (down from the usual 30), and most of those were rewatches because I can't focus on new movies at the moment. I've just about cancelled my Fatso account because I can't keep up with the two movies I get a month. However, I've been getting quite sentimental over some movies - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Django Unchained and Silver Linings Playbook recently came out on DVD so I've been recommending them left right and centre. I saw Anna Karenina, which I actually really liked. Joe Wright was very inventive - and it was achingly beautiful. But the movie that is currently my everything is Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Yes, I loved it. It was near perfect. The soundtrack is my life. Leonardo DiCaprio was the perfect Gatsby. Elizabeth Debicki was the perfect Jordan Baker. And Baz Luhrmann...wow. If I were to ever be a filmmaker, I'd be pretty much exactly like him. Which is kinda why our stage challenge took after extravagance and such. And probably why I decided that it would be a good idea to put one dance group in bobbed wigs and feather headbands. Yeah, it wasn't inspired by The Great Gatsby at all...

Anyway, here's a gallery of the performance. Thanks to Maxine for being our amazing photographer on the day:

This is our opening scene - three working girls hating life. All set to the tune of 'Money, Money, Money'. Just imagine the lyrics playing out on stage.

The main character gets the idea that the rich life is just what she needs.

This is our 'business dance', which is still set to Money, Money, Money. They basically lure Cassie into the 'rich life', and give her some money so she can go on her way.

With the money she's given from the business people, she's introduced to the materialistic world of excessive consumerism. And yeah, you see the bobs and the headbands...hmmmm, thanks for that, F. Scott Fitzgerald/the perfection of the 1920s. (this scene is set to Money Honey by Lady Gaga)

This is probably one of the biggest reasons as to why we won the only Set Design and Function award - our vault opens, some people come out of it, and then it closes by itself. Well, as far as the audience knows...but man, we did well with that one! Special thanks to Seth and Jared for making that piece of magic.

Yeah hey, my name is Baz Luhrmann.

This is when consumerism kinda bits back. The mannequins are all quite serious and all hate Cassie now, but she's totally oblivious.

This is the business world gone wrong - everyone who has been chewed up and spat out by the demons of consumerism and have learned the hard way that money doesn't buy happiness. This is set to Lux Aeterna from the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack...yeah, I was going for the most depressing song I could find.

This dance - set to Carmen by Lana Del Rey - is the last scene, showing the desolation and loneliness that valuing money over things like family and friends can do.

Not only is this picture perfect, but this was easily my favourite part of our performance - I cried so much because the whole movement went so perfectly.

DHS: bringing you happy endings at Stage Challenge since never.

Now that it's all over, I will say that while I don't miss having to go up to school for 10 hours a day and stuff like that, there's plenty of memories that I miss from Stage Challenge. Like eating Chinese on the set after spending something like nine hours making it, or all the coffee runs, or just being around an awesome group of kids for a few hours. I'd like to say that now Stage Challenge is over, I can get back to blogging - but alas, my life has not stopped being busy yet. If you want to read a blog describing every fabulous facet of The Great Gatsby though, maybe I can help you there?

Anyway - another public thank you to everyone involved with this project - and a public thank you to you guys for making me pass 600,000 hits even though I'm not a regular poster! What's been going on with you guys in the cinematic world these days? How was Man of Steel? How bad was After Earth? How are all the 2013 movies going - because I sure as hell don't know! Let me know in the comments!

Underrated Showcase Sundays - Strictly Ballroom

Ah, weekly features. I figured that the blog needs some more of those (with a bit of luck, you shall see the return of a weekly feature that y'all loved sometime soon). This weekly feature, the Underrated Showcase Sundays, is pretty straight-forward: every Sunday I'll shed some light on a film which I think doesn't get enough love. The showcase will be largely unstructured (well, compared to my other reviews) and will often just be random thoughts. It doesn't matter if I've seen it before or not. For example, I'm starting with Strictly Ballroom, which I first watched three years ago and has had it's place in my DVD collection for two of those years. Let's get into it, shall we?

(NOTE: If this doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, bear with me. World War 3 is going on in my head right now and I feel like if anyone touches it, it might fall to pieces. It's probably not doing me a lot of good to be staring at a computer screen, but I'm determined to do this.)

Back when I was 13, I had a huge Baz Luhrmann phase. I'm not sure how it started - if my memory serves me correctly, it may have been the million watches of Romeo + Juliet I went through, because back then, I'd never seen anything like it. But between the stylish modernism of Shakespeare's romance, the lavish and spectacular musical Moulin Rouge! and the slightly disappointing and over-ambitious Australia, people tend to forget Luhrmann's first effort, Strictly Ballroom. In saying that, back in it's day (in which I was not alive to see), the film was a huge hit in Australia and it even scored a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy, losing out to Mrs. Doubtfire. Yet, while Luhrmann has had bigger fish to fry in Hollywood - including his up-coming 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby - his smaller roots are not to be ignored.

Top 10 Favourite (modern/classic) Directors

You remember how like, a month a go, I listed my favourite modern actors and actresses, along with my faaourite classic ones? I did promise at the end of the classic one that I'd list my favourite directors. But the Classic Movie Marathon got in the way and last weekend I completely forgot about it, so here it is...my favourite directors from any era:

Honourable Mentions: Martin Scorsese, Elia Kazan, John Hughes, Sam Mendes, Edgar Wright, Robert Zemeckis, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Roman Polanski, Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, Kathryn Bigelow, Judd Apatow, Matthew Vaughn, Sidney Lumet, Greg Mottola, Duncan Jones, Rian Johnson.

10. Danny Boyle (on the set of 127 Hours)

When I came to the end of making my 100 Favourite Films list I got really angry because I missed a lot of films (I need to extend the list to 150), but I got especially angry over the fact that no Danny Boyle movies made the list. Now, that is nothing against him - or his films - because every work I've seen of his is absolutely brilliant. It's just one of those things when it comes to making a list like that. Danny Boyle's films have been both revolutionary and visually stunning, with the cool editing techniques he uses, the high saturation he uses with the camera and the always awesome soundtrack music he chooses. What he can do with a film is absolutely amazing. And pretty much half of the music I listen to comes from a Danny Boyle movie, so he gets extra props there.
Favourite film: 28 Days Later...

9. Jason Reitman (on the set of Up in the Air)

I know that Jason Reitman has only made three films. But he is one of those people who just became great after their first feature. I believe that the guy just continues to get better and better, even though he is so consistently great. His films, Thank You For Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air have all been tremendously well-received, which is exactly what he deserves. Add in the fact that he already has 4 Oscar nominations to his name (three for Up in the Air - Picture, Screenplay and Direction, one for Direction in Juno), I'd say that Reitman is well past the 'up-and-coming' stage...and I'd hate to have him let me down.
Favourite film: Juno

8. Frank Capra (left, on set of It Happened One Night)

Frank Capra films are the best. For anyone who is slightly snarky towards those classic films, I'd definitely put forward Capra movies to them first, because his movies are always so happy, funny and all-round enjoyable fares. It Happened One Night and It's a Wonderful Life, particularly, are two of my favourite films. The former because it is probably the funniest film I have ever seen and the latter because it's probably the most beautiful film I have ever seen. Plus, I never feel as uplifted as I do after I've seen a Capra movie.
Favourite film: It Happened One Night

7. Darren Aronofsky (on the set of The Wrestler)

As some may know, I'm a huge fan of lots of editing and 'different' camera techniques. And no-oe gives me that more than Darren Aronofsky. I'm pretty new to being a fan of him, since I only really started taking notice of him after I saw Black Swan and then trhe big life fuck-up Requiem for a Dream a mere two days later. I've been meaning to rewatch The Wrestler since I bought it like three months ago, but I still haven't gotten around to it. I see Aronofsky's work as an art form; he and his cinematographer Matthew Libatique like creating films that have so many different fragments that they all spin out to be a beautiful masterpiece. And I also like how the first word I say at the end of any Aronofsky movie is "fuck". I mean that in the best possible way.
Favourite film: Requiem for a Dream

6. George Cukor (right, on the set of The Philadelphia Story)

 First thing you should know about George Cukor: he was originally the director for Gone with the Wind. That's before he got into several arguements with David O. Selznick and Clark Gable didn't like his very feminine approach to the movie. One of the scenes he shot that remained in the film was the scene where Rhett and Scarlett have their first dance together. Here is a morsel of the considerable talent Cukor had: he could direct a dancing sequence unlike any other. Cukor was known as a ladies director, since he often directed movies with very strong female characters (including The Women, a film which doesn't have one man in the cast!). The people who direct chick flicks today need to take a note or two off him. Oh, and by the way, he directed 20 different actors to an Oscar nomination...good track record, huh?
Favourite film: Gone with the Wind...but since he was uncredited for that, I'll choose The Philadelphia Story.

5. Baz Luhrmann (on the set of Australia)

I'm quite the Baz Luhrmann obsessor. I own each of his movies, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge! being the special edition 'red curtain trilogy' copies, and I also own Australia. I've seen each of his films at least three times and I love them all to little bits. I'm actually considering going to stalk the set of The Great Gatsby because I am so excited for that. I've spent too long without a new Luhrmann movie. His movies are great, lavish spectacles, with some great visuals and they always bring a tear to my eye. The fact that the guy is also very musically talented just adds so much pizazz to his films. I need a new Luhrmann film, and I need one now.
Favourite film: Moulin Rouge!

4. Alfred Hitchcock (on the set of The Man Who Knew Too Much)

 Does this man really need that much of an introduction? I know it. We all know it. Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense, and he is probably the greatest director who ever lived. His films are all fantastic, and probably twice as scary as they would have been because he had something to do with it. A lot of his films were instant 'must haves' on my 100 favourite films...every collaboration between he and his favourite blonde Grace Kelly got a spot, along with a few others. Psycho is one film which I will never forget. Thank you, Mum, for introducing me to him at the tender age of 11. I simply love his films.
Favourite film: Psycho

3. David Fincher (on the set of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

When making my Top 100, I was surprised at the big mound of David Fincher films got into the very top part of my list. You can't dismiss Fight Club. That movie pretty much changed my life. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has always been a favourite of mine, even though I still can't get over the act that Fincher directed it. And The Social Network. Y'all know how I feel about that one. I don't care what anyone says, that is one of the best movies I have ever seen and I could watch it 100 times in a row if I wanted to. His other films Zodiac and Se7en are both masterpieces. I just wish, that in a perfect world, I would have as much talent as Fincher. He just never stops being fucking awesome, you know?
Favourite film: The Social Network

2. Quentin Tarantino (on the set of Inglourious Basterds)

You know what I like most? When a director directs his own stuff. That's why I absolutely love Quentin Tarantino. Most of what he has directed has come from his own brain, and it takes skill to make that so effing awesome. I live for Tarantino films. When I find out he is making a new one, my stomach does a million backflips. His films are just totally boss, alright? I can't say anything more than that otherwise I might come across as a little crazy.
Favourite film: Inglourious Basterds

1. Christopher Nolan (on the set of Inception)


Wholey shit. What a surprise. I know that no one saw that coming. You know what (in fact, you probably already know this)? Every time I see a picture of Christopher Nolan, I feel so inspired. He's just a normal man, who lives a normal life, but he just so happens to direct some of the greatest modern films. And yet, he's just so cool with it. I mean, The Dark Knight went straight to #1 on the IMDb Top 250 within two days of it's release, and he's just like "cool, people like my movie, onto the next one..." I just happen to think that he is a God-like figure...and probably the greatest idol I have ever had.
Favourite film: Memento

Who are your favourite directors?