Last night we had our (heretofore) annual Swiss Chalet festive special. We watched Love Actually but not Die Hard as there’s some debate as to whether or not it’s a valid Christmas movie. We had many chocolates and other such delicacies. After everyone left I wound down the evening by watching the recorded Canadiens game (they won again) until about 2 AM and went to bed. Unfortunately, how late I went to bed seems to have little to do with when I wake up, and I was out of bed by 8 AM. Just as well; I have a ton to do today.

.:.

Over the weekend we managed to squeeze in a long film (though not so long as its predecessor): Manderlay (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It didn’t have the same impact as Dogville, since the set was neither as stark nor as surprising as in the original, and the Iraq metaphor was a little too blunt to be as clever as I think Von Trier wanted it to be.

Ultimately it’s hard to compare the two films fairly as I saw them under such different circumstances (film festival crowd at the Elgin theatre vs. my living room) but I don’t feel Manderlay had the same punch that Dogville did.

[tags]xmas party, manderlay[/tags]