Finally I've got a little time to catch up on probably my very favorite pastime, watching movies.  I've got a list of 20-30 movies I've been wanting to see for the last year or so.  And now I can.

I just got done watching Tulpan.  It's certainly not for everyone.  It's so much slower and more "foreign" than 99.9% of American movies, it's almost like watching a different medium.  It's also one of those movies that really raises the bar.  Some of the takes must be close to ten minutes long.  And I'm not talking static frame, Hou Hsiao-hsien takes.  The camera is moving all around in some of the most complex handheld work I've ever seen.  The more I do this, the more I realize directing or making movies is about bringing the fictional alive, making it seem as real and believable as possible.  Sergei Dvortsevoy makes this story seem so real that I can only watch and realize how much further I can take things in my own work.

I loved it.   And I'm not sure I've seen two more harrowing scenes this year than the two here with the pregnant sheep.

Human, ambitious, formal, and deep.  I'm humbled.