Not another film blog!

Greetings, film fans!!
I'm joining the ever-expanding blogosphere to put my mini-thoughts on film out there in cyberspace.
By mini I mean I am setting myself strict rules:

• Short and sweet comments upon each film, not taking me more than five minutes to prepare! 
• No obligation to review every or even any film - just as I see them and feel like reporting in
• If I am physically absent there will be a major gap in up-to-date reviews

Anyone wanting to read more detailed reviews of any film I or my colleagues have written can head off to www.cinephilia.net.au. This is in no way in competition to that site to which I have contributed for more than a decade.  - just an outlet for my rants on current, or even very old films I may have stumbled across.

Iris

Director: Albert Maysles (USA 2014)

Length: 73 mins

Iris, a short and sweet documentary, is a fitting start to a blog with a “mission statement” (don’t you hate that expression??) to be short and sweet!

Iris Apfel is a 94 year old personality of the New York fashion scene. The entertaining doco captures her flamboyance, eccentricity and extraordinary enthusiasm for life. The clothes and accessories she sports may shock or impress you, but her attitude to life demonstrates that you are never too old to have fun.

Docks of New York

Director: Josef von Sternberg (USA 1928)

Length: 76 mins

While doing a fascinating online short course about Hollywood sound and colour in film, I was introduced to this fabulous old movie. Never one for trawling through old films, least of all silent ones, I was greatly impressed by every aspect of this film, and enlightened to see just how much can be conveyed with no dialogue.

A ship’s stoker on leave for the night instantly marries the good-time gal he falls for. What to do the next morning?

I loved this atmospheric movie, one of the last in the silent era. Its evocative cinematography and subtle performances make it a memorable movie experience.