August 2009

Review: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

legacy/nausicaa.jpg

I’m a very new fan of Hayao Miyazaki—in fact, I’ve only seen two of his films to date (though I have two more borrowed at the moment waiting to be watched). My first experience was with My Neighbor Totoro, and while it was cute enough, I wasn’t very interested in seeing any others after that.

However, after viewing Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, I’m certain that I want to see more. The tale of environmentalism and a strong and fearless princess who will do anything to protect her people, it’s really a fantastic film that depicts what could happen if humans destroyed the earth. Unlike many of today’s post-apocalyptic films, however, it was made over twenty-five years ago.

Famous Bollywood Stars from the 1970s


legacy/silsila9.jpg

A recent embarrassing gaffe at the airport revealed that a lot of folks are not quite familiar with Bollywood stars. To be fair, James Hetfield had the same problem at Heathrow which goes to show that you can be an unknown face in the most unexpected places. But this whole affair got me thinking ... there will of course be parts of the population who are unaware of the big names in the Bollywood movie industry. What if some of these folk wanted to learn more? Maybe watch a bit more Indian flicks and tally up their knowledge of this industry? For those who are interested, here is a quick and easy description of some of the top male stars in Bollywood. Do keep in mind that I will be focusing on legends as opposed to the chocolate-faced newbies of the industry.

Temecula International Film + Music Festival

legacy/header_02.gif

This is the first time I have ever volunteered to be a writer for a film festival and having just moved to southern California- I am writing about movies for the Temecula International Film and Music Festival just a few weeks away, Septemer 9-13th. Let me tell you, there are a lot of fabulous independent movies being shown- American, Australian, Spanish, Italian, French. And to top it off, local wineries Kenya and La Cereza, as well as Latis Import's Palm Brewery, Belgium's largest independent brewery, will also be present with lots of fabulous wine and beer. Enjoy the opening night parade of uniformed Marines in their dress blues and antique cars of rrrrare beauty! And there will be over 50 bands, from all over the world, playing in between the movies.