yum productions – yum wrap

We are screening yum’s project MIFFtales throughout the Melbourne International Film Festival so managed to wrangle some tickets to Melbourne night of nights…. MIFF Opening Night. Red carpet, celebs, champagne, after party, weather issues, transport, likely queue….

So the major question was obviously… what to wear… I’d been thinking about it for weeks…. Hell I’d been thinking about it for months… I’m not what you would call an avid shopper but when I have a ‘thing’ I’m a Sherlock.

I’d thought ‘DRESS’ for ages… Dress code called for “Black Tie”… Seemed obvious enough… I spotted a vintage 50′s full length gold and black frock with red velvet accents, to die for…

Perfect fit, pricey, but worth it? I sought help from Aunty Darling (my sister Colleen), who promptly went to the shop described it to the ‘shopgirl’ and tried it on…

“just to see if it would look good on you!”

“Huh?”

“Well if it looked good on me, then it MUST look good on you, then, you could buy it and we could share it.”

At that point I decided to save the cash (and the sisterly sharing sit.) and spend it on a pair of shoes (which I never got), or maybe a new coat (which I never got), or a new bag (which I got but which was a handbag not an evening bag hence ‘event unsuitable’), or simply a new pair of slinky black tights (which I got, and wore, and which turned out to be chocolate brown under the lights on red carpet…). My Sherlock sense had clearly left me…

However I couldn’t have cared less… Mick and I were there with so many fabulous people to look at, and talk to, all pumped for the opening night film and party. Huge search lights lit up the sky over the Greater Union Theatre, paparazzi flashing and clicking, the theatre aglitter with new paintwork, curtains, mood lighting, and the buzzy-buzz of excited cinephiles.

Ushered into the theatres, the crowd hush was slow, too much excitement, then the opening night film begins. It’s THE FAIRY (dir. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon & Bruno Romy, France/Belgium, 2011). A so-called french farce, but all I could think of was the best ever French farce of Jaques Tati, films from an earlier era, so much wittier, more urbane, more beautifully shot, more complex and simple, more interesting and honest. The Fairy was amusing, I heard it called charming… It was okay.

Mick and I shared a laugh of recognition in the dark flickering light of the screen at some pretentious moment, yep… it was only ok.. Such a light film for such an important occasion, setting the scene for the next 17 days of MIFF. It had already premiered in Cannes and other film festas, MIFF could have taken a chance with a more polarizing film, but maybe that was the point?

Then off to the Melbourne Town Hall for the after party, thumping music, more cinephiles than you could poke a stick at…. And five bars (I think… Couldn’t get round them all… Am I losing my touch?).