Currently reading / watching / listening to...

Reading:

Animal Wise: The Thoughts And Emotions Of Our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell. Random House sent me this book for review and I'm so glad they did. Without falling into the trap of antropomorphism, it focuses in-depth on several scientific studies of the emotional and cognitive abilities of animals. Did you know that rats laugh when they're tickled, that parrots count and distinguish between colors and materials, that ants teach, and that some dogs have a vocabulary of more than one thousand words? I didn't. Animal Wise is full of those fun facts and it also shows us how scientists have come to these conclusions. A fascinating read.

Watching:

Because I spent the last two weeks at the Offscreen film festival, there are only movies in this list that I watched whilst there. You can see photos from the first Offscreen week and reviews of those films here.  More photos will follow soon.

The Final Member (2012). A documentary about the phallus museum in Iceland where the only missing member is a human one. As soon as the museum’s need is announced, two possible donors present themselves, both ambitious to become the ‘first penis superstar’. Funny.

Vampyres (1974). There’s much to be said about the flaws and plot holes in this movie, but there’s something about the atmosphere, about the misty woods, the mysterious castle and the ferocious female leads, that make Vampyres highly watchable and memorable.

Las mariposas de Sadourni (2012). This inventively shot movie in black and white reminded me of Marcel Carné's Les enfants du paradis. In other words: brilliant.

On Vampyres And Other Symptoms (2011). Documentary about the life and work of José Ramón Larraz (the director of Vampyres). Original in style (part of the narrative is told through animation), but boring.

Branded To Kill (1967). Hilarious, over-the-top and yet very dark gangster film that was so cutting-edge in the sixties that director Seijun Suzuki lost his job at the Nikkatsu studio. Branded To Kill is considered a classic in Japanese cinema.

The Girl Can't Help It (1956). Cute romantic comedy with an unforgettable Jayne Mansfield. Seeing this movie as a Sunday afternoon matinee screening complete with movie trailers from that era and hostesses in fifties clothing, definitely added to the experience. More oldies, please.

Bullet Collector (2011).  Extremely bleak, violent and experimental Russian film that you will either love or hate.

Gate Of Flesh (1964). Hmm, I know some of you think this is a masterpiece, but I just couldn’t get into it. Blame it on the annoying characters.

Room 237 (2012). Those of you who have read my novel Drowned Sorrow know that I love symbolism and hidden messages, but the theories presented in this documentary about the secret themes in Kubrick’s The Shining are so far out they’re hilarious.

Also watched a surprising collection of short films at Offscreen: The Importance Of Sweet And Salt by Benoit De Clerck (simple, but touching), Death Of A Shadow by Tom Van Avermaet (deserving of its Oscar nomination), De Wake by Pieter Coudyzer (visually interesting), Rumoer by Jan Doense (funny) and Perfect Drug by Toon Aerts (reminiscent of Takashi Miike).

Listening to:

The live soundtrack of the experimental Buharov’s movie Rudderless, based on the poem by István Domonkos.

What have you been reading, watching and listening to lately? And in case you've been to Offscreen, what were your favorites there?

Feature in Het Nieuwsblad

 

Purchase

Amazon (ENG) * Smashwords (FR)

Un homme bien - Official movie trailer

Check out the official movie trailer for Un homme bien, the French film adaptation of my story A Good Man. You can read and download the original screenplay from Amazon (ENG) and Smashwords (FR).

Rooftop parties, movies, champagne and dinner with John Waters

I spent the majority of last week at the Offscreen film festival which my boyfriend organizes. Here's what those days looked like:

Wednesday: The festival started with a reception party at the Cinema Nova followed by the screening of Berberian Sound Studio in the presence of director Peter Strickland and voice-artist Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg. The movie was exquisitely directed with perfect visuals and sound design. Only the last ten minutes were a bit disappointing.

The evening ended with a rooftop party at Hotel NH Atlanta and lots of champagne.

Thursday: At noon, I attended the press conference of another film festival and had lunch with Jack Stevenson (an American film curator and author).

In the evening, dinner again with Jack Stevenson, this time in the company of visual artists Martha Colburn and Lotte Van Den Audenaeren. I went to the screening of a few of Martha's short films afterwards and they were very much like the woman herself: different and intense.

Friday: After a day spent writing from home, I  enjoyed Jack Stevenson's Trash From Hell show, a presentation of mainly unknown and never before seen (found) footage. The most remarkable of those films was 2069 A Spacy Odyssy, a short film Jack Stevenson made from damaged educational films, a children's Christmas film from the 40s, and porn. The film starts in black and white with two children going to bed the day before Christmas. They have strange dreams about pornography, monsters and getting lost in space. On Christmas morning, they wake up and all is well. Brilliant.

Saturday: On Saturday evening John Waters came to Offscreen for his standup show This Filthy World. I'm quite the demanding girl when it comes to comedy, but this had me laughing out loud.

The show was followed by a screening of John Waters' Polyester in Odorama, complete with the famous scratch and sniff cards. Never thought those cards could smell so bad.

Sunday: Hung out with John Waters all day. We accompanied him to his masterclass at the Cinematek in the afternoon, had a drink and went for dinner in the evening. He's a sweet man and one of the funniest people I have ever met. It surprised me how much he notices and remembers his fans. There are quite a few bizarre ones too. He talked about a fan named Asshole, and a few others who had his autograph or his screenplays tattooed on their bodies.

I also had the chance to see John's movie Pink Flamingos for the first time. This film is still amongst the filthiest after so many years (and probably will be forever). In case you're wondering just how filthy Pink Flamingos really is, think eating real dog poop, a mother felating her son, strangling and crushing chickens during sex, masturbation close-ups... Do you want me to go on?

What was your week like? Any fans of John Waters here?

Favorite moments from the past few weeks

I'm sure you already heard, but if you didn't, Un homme bien (the French film adaptation of my screenplay A Good Man) is finally moving forward. But not quite in the way I'd expected. Seems that there's not going to be just one film, but... two. The production of the feature film had come temporarily to a halt after a couple of shooting days and the director has now turned the existing footage into a short film. I haven't seen the result just yet, but the film will premiere at the prestigious Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on April 12 and will then be shown at Cannes. If you're curious about the story, you can read the screenplay on Amazon (ENG) and Smashwords (FR).

It's been snowing here in Belgium over the past few weeks and my way of dealing with the cold is going to a coffee shop to write and blog. One of my favorites is Or in Brussels. It's always warm in there, not too crowded and their chai tea latte is out of this world good.

Even though I love to work from coffee shops, most of my days were still spent writing and blogging from home, covered in a blanket, my cat Avalon close to me, vanilla candles and hot drinks for the mood... I'm a lucky girl.

A movie date followed by an Italian dinner...

This place serves the most delicious gingerbread latte. My love and I have been going there every Sunday over the past few weeks to treat ourselves to this deliciousness.

I'll be spending the rest of the month at the Offscreen film festival in Brussels. Come by and say hello if you have the chance ;-)

What were the highlights of your life lately?

Currently reading / watching / listening to...

 Reading:

* Chi's Sweet Home volume 7 by Konami Kanata. This was my Valentine's gift. Actually, my boyfriend gives me a Chi book for every romantic occasion.

* Don't Eat Cat by Jess Walter. Ok, I admit. It's the word 'cat' in the title that got me reading this. But this is actually a zombie story. And a very funny one for that matter. I mean, where else can you find cat eating zombies (we should call them people with hypo-endocrinal thyro-encephalitis) that work for Starbucks?


Watching:

* The Take (2009). This British mini-series is hardly seen outside of Britain, but it was sooooo good. Brilliant performances (especially Tom Hardy), criminals that are both terrifying and touching and a shocking surprise at the end of each episode. Loved it.

* Antiviral (2012). David Cronenberg's son imitates his father with this one: extremely clinical, both in style and theme (it's a futuristic story about people who infect themselves with celebrities' diseases). 

* Brainstorm (1983). Fascinating cult classic about two scientists who have developed a system of recording and playing back actual experiences of people.

* Surveillance (2008). What to say about a movie that depends solely on unexpected twists, but is completely predictable?

* The Bait (2012). This shark in a flooded supermarket film isn't exactly as entertaining as I wanted it to be. Let's hope that Spiders 3D and Big Ass Spider will make up for this.

* Chariots Of The Gods (1970). Nostalgia. I used to love Erich Von Däniken's documentary and books as a kid. Funny how much it resembles the recent Ancient Aliens documentaries.

* Ancient Aliens Debunked (2012). Talking about Ancient Aliens... This is a three hour long follow-up of the series that debunks most of the 'facts' and theories that are presented in Ancient Aliens. Interesting.

*  The Master (2012). Well-made, but the movie repeats itself too much. Good performances though.


Listening to:

Some of the music I've been listening to lately include Alex Gopher and Xavier Jamaux' soundtrack for the Hong Kong movie Motorway, the soundtrack of Cat People and Wunderkammer from The Dead Brothers. Chances are we'll be using their song Am I To Be The One for the end credits of GPS With Benefits. You have to admit that both the lyrics and sound of that song are PERFECT for the story.

What are you currently reading, watching and listening to?