Holidays. Working as much as I can though. Saturday night I went with Duy and Pete do eat all that we could at 'Volcano Joes'. It seemed like a good idea at the beginning but by the end I think we were all having second thoughts. After that, with full bellies, trekked into the city for a very brief stint at the Belgian Beer Garden to meet up with Benno and co and then ventured to Yellow Bird for a solitary beer. Watched a few movies too this week. I expect my movie intake to increase a fair amount now that I'm on holidays.

'Unforgiven' (1992) directed by Clint Eastwood

A classic western movie with Clint Eastwood at his brooding, menacing best. I quite enjoyed this film but one thing that I really noticed whilst watching it was the way that the story is structured. Clearly, a lot of care has been taken in the writing of the screenplay, especially in the way that the story dramatically unfolds. Information is revealed to certain characters, but not others, ensuring that some information is also often withheld from the audience, creating suspense and drama. It's quite a dark film, in the sense of the way that it is shot. It is definitely a film where shadows are used to great effect. Worth a look.

'The Party' (1968) directed by Blake Edwards

An interesting film. Peter Sellers plays a bumbling Indian actor, Hrundi V. Bakshi, who has been accidentally invited to a Hollywood party. The film takes place almost entirely at this party and Bakshi is kind of a combination of Mr. Bean and Borat, I reckon. Much of the humour derives from slapstick and from Bakshi's politeness throughout. Sellers is excellent and much of the comedy of the film is quite understated, despite the audacious nature of many of the comic set pieces. The tone of the film is quite light, it sort of just breezes along, with the action being driven largely from Sellers' performance.