Chicken with early cinema.The Abu Dhabi Film Festival is wrapping up today. The event is always highly anticipated. During the 10 days of the festival, movie-goers can view interesting and independent films from around the world. The usual cinema offerings are typically the major blockbusters from home (and sometimes edited).
This year I saw seven films and I thought it would be fun to share a few clips or trailers from each one.
1. Chicken with Plums (2011)
Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Premise: After his tar is ruined, acclaimed muscian Nasser Ali loses his will to live. He retires to his bed and decides to die. Over the next 8 days the story of his life unfolds, revealing the real significance of his tar and musical career. It sounds like a downer and it is pretty sad. However, the film was very fun to watch and included humorous elements. It is based on Satrapi’s graphic novel of the same name. If you liked Persepolis, you’ll probably like this although the two are very different.
Presented by Serge Bromberg
Premise: This was a special early cinema feature of the festival. Bromberg, a film historian, put together a series of films that narrowly escaped destruction. He explained that most cinemas used to throw out old movies in the same way we toss out newspapers today. Therefore, sadly, many important early films are lost. Some of the more interesting films and clips he showed included the earliest film from the Middle East (1903), a travel film from India (190?), and a previously forgotten Buster Keaton film, Love Nest (1923). The highlight of the presentation was a viewing of the recently restored in color, A Trip to the Moon (1902).As you can imagine, most of these films are not available on the internet, but here’s the first part of Love Nest with Buster Keaton.
xo, jill
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