I'm back.

The Tui that likes to sing early in the morning in the Puriri tree outside our house is also back. So we can expect early morning wake up calls for months to come... lucky us :)

The International Film Festival has started. I am not sure how many films I will get to this year. But I sure am going to try and get to a few. I think I have marked about 30 films I want to see!

Yesterday was Bastille Day. So it's a great time to celebrate all things French, including French film directors, such as Agnès Varda. Agnès has two films in the festival line-up this year and later in the year NZ Film Society is screening some of her short films. She is known as a revolutionary film maker, feminist and was one of the few women associated with the New Wave film movement (La Nouvelle Vague). Very strong use of cities in film (appeals to me because I like cities).

I found this interesting article about her in the New York Times. And a review of Cléo from 5 to 7 and The Beaches of Agnès on the Lumière Reader (this is a good site by the way).

Source: Agnès Varda MySpace

Also I really like the name Agnès at the moment. If I had a daughter I might pick this name, even though no one else has come round to the idea yet!