March movie playlist

- The Seven Samurai
- The Magnificent Seven
- Lawn Dogs
- Marebito
- 2000 Maniacs
- The Quick & The Dead
- The Omen
- Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (PCC)
- Last House On The Left (1972)
- Ratcatcher
- The Hurt Locker
- The Big Lebowski
- The Brave One
- Moon (Jameson Cult Film)
- Outland
- Starship Troopers
- No Country For Old Men
- Footprints (Le Orme)
- Night Train Murders
- Zombieland
- Rio Bravo
- Shutter Island
- The Living & The Dead
- They Live (OFC)
- David Holzman’s Diary
- Hairspray (John Waters, at BFI)
- True Romance
- Cabin Fever
- Things Behind The Sun
- The House Of The Devil

nightmare

Holy smokes. Sleep has been kind of fucked this year - baaaaad insomnia coupled with painfully vivid (and often scary) dreams - but, blimey. That was interesting. Usually if I wake from a bad dream there's that moment or two when you're still not quite awake when it stays with you, then I'm back to reality and able to review the dream with some interest, attempt to analyse where the hell bits of it came from. But that was a heart-pounding, sweat-drenched full on nightmare. The kind where I've actually had to make myself get up, turn on the light, get out of bed and do other things to take my mind off it.

So, the story. It's already starting to fade and is losing its coherence, but here's what I've got:

We're on a housing estate that brings to mind the Barbican or the Brunswick Centre - i.e. architecturally unusual (and seeing as I live 30 seconds away from the Brunswick Centre, it's not that odd that it should appear in a dream). There's a group of thuggish boys - I recall someone next to me wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, and feeling quite intimidated by it - standing in a group, talking (planning? plotting?), and I'm somehow mixed up with them, but I'm not sure whether I'm there voluntarily, or perhaps am just an omniscient (and invisible) viewer as can sometimes happen in dreams.

There's an overriding feeling of terror, torture and intimidation. There's something to do with chainsaws - one moment of light relief as one of the bad guys, revving chainsaw in hand, comments to his victim "You're a Republican? Vvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr [insert own chainsaw noise, if preferred]".

Then somehow I've escaped the situation along with a partner (a boyfriend, I think). We're hiding in some kind of barn or garage or outhouse type building, and there's a pile of dead bodies and sacks. I'm trying to see if I can see where the bad people are; go back to check on the boyfriend and realise he's dead - just then the doors get pulled open and I get a glimpse of some of the people we've been with before - friends or acquaintances, people we thought we could trust - before a Guantanamo-style hood is pulled over my head and my hands are roughly tied behind my back and I'm dragged off, hearing someone whisper roughly "Take the money and run..."

Which is when I wake up, heart thumping; the betrayal of trust, the hood, the intimidation and the knowledge of impending torture/death feeling like they're strangling me and for a moment I'm scared to even reach out of bed to turn on the light.

Good times.

to coincide nicely with International Women's Day

Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director last night at the Oscars. Just amazing.

There has naturally been a ton of coverage about it, but I think this is one of my favourite moments, from W&H's Women Directors React To The Win piece:

"Kathryn was a role model and inspiration several years before I directed my first movie. And after I first met her, she became a warm beacon and comrade and big sister. Now, with this Oscar, and the DGA win, she restored all the dreams I didn’t even realize I had allowed to get sidetracked over the years. My happiness for her is complete, because she worked so very hard for it. She never whined, even though she is privately well aware of our struggle as women in the industry. She never became a victim, she did her best, always.

What has been incredible to me about Kathryn’s Oscar win is that women who are not even filmmakers, not in the industry at all, feel her victory is one for all of us. And true to her nature, I knew she would not acknowledge her gender in her acceptance speech, but it was there, she was fully aware of how momentous her win was for all of us. I love her and could not be happier for her. And for every little girl and old girl who was watching with that same dream."

Allison Anders

And while you're still here:
The Rights Of Woman: How far have they advanced?