Day 215: ‘Mildura 10th Day’ + Chungking Express 1994 + Ten Films That Changed My Life (Recently)

‘Mildura 10th Day’

Tonight I’m staying at the Mildura Villas. It’s a beautiful apartment and the service was exemplary and it was my favourite overnight of the whole twelve-day journey to Broken Hill and back. It was the best place and it had the most flexible check-in and check-out of any place.

Arriving late because of my setback in Broken Hill – Bridgestone putting my rear tyres on the front and vice versa and replacing the front left which had a bubble in the wall (now the spare) and doing a wheel alignment – wasn’t a problem for my hosts.

Chungking Express 1994

I knew, instinctively, that I had to watch something tonight that wasn’t like conventional Japanese or European movies.

A film I’d heard of from many sources, popped into my mind – the title – and I remember hearing that it was generally well thought of.

I think, if my memory is accurate, that TIME Magazine’s critics put it in the Top 100 films – ever.

It was interesting, then amazing, then fabulous and subsequently fantastic and I can’t find words to explain why, because it is a completely foreign film despite its immediate connection with anyone from anywhere.

The first story was good and very sad, but the second story was funny and sweet and sad.

This was an unconventional mind making this film and writing these stories. They were weirdly out of kilter.

Ten Films That Changed My Life (Recently)

1 July 2017-1 Feb. 2018

The 400 Blows (1959) Francois Truffaut

Nuit et brouillard (1956) Alain Resnais

The Silence (1963) Ingmar Bergman

Close-Up (1990) Abbas Kiarostami

Zabriskie Point (1970) Michaelangelo Antonioni

La bete humaine (1938) Jean Renoir

Tokyo Story (1953) YasujiroOzu

Au hasard Balthazar (1966) Robert Bresson

Pickpocket (1959) Robert Bresson

Mulholland Drive (2001) David Lynch