Evening

The movie screening invites were flying in the last couple weeks of my job, I only had time for a few.  The movie "Evening" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765447/ was one of them. I saw it in one of those lovely new stadium seating theaters, and although they did the spiel about no recording devices, they weren't cell phone nazis like at some screenings. 

Its about dying and death, but its a very warm hearted film about dying and death. There are parts that are a bit sad, my companion was teary eyed. My companion said something about thinking it was going to be a "chick flick"  but it really wasn't.  Having never seen Beaches I am not quite sure what a chick flick is, but anyway.
It was a great film, fantastic actors, not so sure about the costumes but it was a Hungarian director shooting a US based filmed.  Hugh Darcy was fantastic!!!  Mamie Gummer did a great job! 

There was a very interesting Q &A with the director, Lajos Koltai afterwards. His message he said was "Don't forget to ask the questions before its too late." He told us his history, he had been a cinematographer for 35 yrs and it certainly shows in the film.  He did a great job of using flash backs to float between time in the story.  At one point in the story there is this moth that a character follows, and he explained the trails of finding the right moth and then animating it. When talking about various characters perceptions he said he understood it well as he has an older sister who has completely different memory for the same things as he does.

I asked the director the time line in making the film and he said from Feb.-June 2007. 2 months prep work, 40 days filming, 3 months editing, fixing and music. It is an amazingly good film especially considering the time line. It sounded like it was a love fest on the set. At times they would listen to music like Chopin, think feelings and then read the scene.  The director did lots of nice things, hugs, eat with everyone, tell them how happy he was they were in his movie (and he really seemed to be thrilled that everyone was), he also gave individual notes instead of public ones. It sounded like he really tried to make working on the film a pleasant experience.  I have gone to quite a few Q&A's with directors and 2 of them really stand out- Lajos Koltai, and Wim Wenders as being great directors and cool people in general.

When I went to see this movie I wasn't sure I was up to it, lots of people around me have cancer, the company bit the dust, I am was so tired and soon to be unemployed, but I really enjoyed it. It made me smile and took me away from all that for a while.