MICF- So You Think You Can Drag?

After getting cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is back this year with a program primarily made up of Australian acts due to international travel restrictions. After an Earth Hour dinner by candlelight at Mamasita Sean and I headed down to the Forum Melbourne for So You Think You Can Drag? as part of The Festival Club. The show featured a range of drag performances and was hosted by the hilarious Tina Del Twist, who sang, drank and joked her way through the evening. 

 

There were some great numbers throughout the night. Highlights for me were Dazza and Keif dancing to the Beastie Boys “Intergalactic,” Sabrina Baby Slut’s lip sync themed around a girl addicted to air freshener, Lou Wall’s song about the patriarchy dedicated to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Kali Forni-Kate’s bee-themed number complete with a section where she lip synced to an ASMR track. My favorite performance of the evening though was the closing act Ruby Slippers & Egson Ham. They came out in a colorful horse costume to Daryl Braithwaite’s “The Horses” and segued into Cardi B’s “WAP." The performance had elements of dance and burlesque in it and was absolutely brilliant.

French Film Festival 2021

After being interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic last year, the Alliance French Film Festival was able to go ahead in person this year. Once again I bought myself a five film pass and have attended the following films over the past couple weeks:

 

Summer of 85 by François Ozon is an adaptation of Aidan Chambers' novel Dance on My Grave. The story is told in flashbacks about a summer romance between teenagers Alexis (Félix Lefebvre) and David (Benjamin Voisin) and the tragedy that ultimately occurs. While it had a good 1980s soundtrack, the movie was a bit melodramatic and all over the shop.

 

Miss is a feel-good film by Ruben Alves about Alex's (Alexandre Wetter) dream of entering the Miss France beauty pageant and challenging the traditional gender binary. It's a heart warming film about chosen families supporting each other and a bit of a satire on the televised elements of beauty pageants.

 

De Gaulle is a biopic by Gabriel Le Bomin focused on General Charles de Gaulle (Lambert Wilson) during World War II as he met with Winston Churchill after Hitler seized Paris and led the French resistance. While de Gaulle is in exile the film also follows his wife (Isabelle Carré) and children as they travel around France trying to stay ahead of the German armed forces. It is a gripping war drama that covers some key moments for France in during World War II.

 

Eiffel is a biopic about Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) and what inspired him to design and build the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. The film shows the issues Eiffel dealt with during the building of the tower, including engineering innovations, protests and financial challenges.

 

Delicious is a historical comedy by Eric Besnard set in 1789 France prior to the French Revolution. Manceron (Grégory Gadebois) is a cook for the Duke of Chamfort, but gets fired when he cooks an inventive dish that is criticized by the Duke's guests. He goes to stay in a regional inn, where he takes on a female apprentice (Isabelle Carré) and ends up creating France's first restaurant to feed travellers coming through the area.

The Alliance French Film Festival runs in Melbourne until 31 March 2021.

Brunswick Music Festival- Joelistics and Loretta & Her Boyfriends

It was around this time last year that the coronavirus pandemic started to hit Australia and a number of shows at the Brunswick Music Festival were cancelled. Thankfully this year the festival has been able to go ahead despite a short five-day lockdown in Melbourne in mid-February. 

 

On Saturday night I met up with Belinda at Howler to see the sold out Joelistics Presents Film School album launch. As with other recent gigs we sat in chairs set up on the floor of the bandroom. The opening acts were DJ Paso Bionic and Beatrice (Haiku Hands/Kardajala Kirridarra), who did a set of ethereal sounding electronic music along with some great visuals behind her. When Joel came out on stage he told us to sit back and relax into the show, which was a collaboration with other musicians and artists. The members of the band jammed and improvised with each other as film clips played behind them and contemporary dancers performed on the floor and stage. It was a really interesting and special show and we both felt it was almost something you would expect to see at the Arts Centre.

Tonight Ash and I headed to the recently opened Brunswick Artists' Bar (downstairs from the Brunswick Ballroom) on Sydney Road to see Loretta & Her Boyfriends. We managed to grab a couple chairs to cram into the small, intimate space. Loretta Miller (Jazz Party) and her bandmates played two sets of songs from some of her favorite female jazz and blues singers, including Peggy Lee, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Julia Lee and Patsy Cline. They appropriately finished the evening with the song "Last Call (For Alcohol)." It was an entertaining night and nice to be able to check out the renovations to the venue.