BWAH!

I have seen the future and the future is me.

But have you ever been to you?

OK, I finally watched Phantom of the Opera last night.

The costumes were great. The sets were opulent. And, uh . . . . the singing SUCKED. I swear. It was so bad my wife actually went to bed partway through, unable to listen to the travesty any more.

From IMDB:

British indie film director Shane Meadows has tried his hand at creating a short film using only a video cell phone. The London daily Sun reported today (Thursday) that the 15-second film was produced to draw attention to the Nokia Shorts competition, which hopes to attract entries from people using Nokia's video phone. In an interview with the Sun, Meadows remarked, "Films like the Blair Witch Project showed for the first time just what could be achieved using digital camcorders. With the quality of camera phones improving at such a rapid pace, I expect to see a feature film made using a mobile phone before long."

I'd be skeptical, but I spent this morning wishing for a TiVo/iPod hybrid, so who the fuck knows what technology will allow?

a TiVo/iPod hybrid

Dude. I would so buy this.

DH and I saw Mangal Pandey last night, which was very good if you like Bollywood war epics. It's only 150 minutes, and the music is very well integrated into the story -- all of the songs are either village celebration type things, or performances by the local prostitutes in the context of them performing for their potential clients. And the story's very moving and well-told. (And for the slash-minded among us, there's a wrestling scene between Amir Kahn and his hot Scottish soldier friend that's...nice.)

One thing that was distracting was that everything that happens in English (which is a fair amount, since the East India Company is a major part of the film) is immediately repeated back to the audience (almost verbatim) in Hindi narration. (My guess is that the English isn't subtitled when it's released in India, but just in case the local audience doesn't speak English that well, the narration ensures that they won't be lost.)

The disclaimer at the beginning was quite impressive too. Where an American film would have said Inspired by true events, this movie had a full paragraph of text explaining that some of the events and characters in the movie were based on real people and events, but some of the events and characterizations have been fictionalized, and some of it we just totally made up but then, some of it really happened, etc etc etc. It was very thorough.

Ooh, thanks for the rec, Jessica. Didn't you say upthread it was directed by the same person who did Lagaan? (I know Aamir Khan starred in Lagaan too.) I'll be keeping an eye out for this one.

Didn't you say upthread it was directed by the same person who did Lagaan?

I did, but I was mistaken. The only connection between them is that Amir Kahn stars as the local guy who leads his people to kick British ass.

Ouch! Lisa Schwazbaum REALLY hates Pretty Persuasion.

I'm not sure I've EVER seen her give a grade that low.

The only connection between them is that Amir Kahn stars as the local guy who leads his people to kick British ass.

See, that's really all I need, though. So no problem!