Barrie Pattison in (the fleshpots of) Paris (3) - Gaspar Noe, Youssef Chahine & Omar Sharif, Marco Bellocchio

In amongst all the ambiance spiced by Greek sandwiches eaten on the bank of the Seine, I saw  Gaspar Noe's  LOVE which is the most explicit movie to get mainstream showing that I know. If you like close ups of penises coming in 3D, it's certainly better than LAST TANGO on which it's clearly modeled and not without interest. Interesting to see if it gets any action in Oz.*

Youssef Chahine

Omar Sharif - Youseff Chahine retro at the Insitute of Arab studies. They pass you through metal detectors. The films were so so but that's an important gap filled.

Marco Bellocchio

Marco Bellochio introduced his new SANGUE DEL MIO SANGUE (Blood of My Blood) in person ("not a motion picture") and I understand it even less well after he explained it. Great Caravaggio-styled images, a deliberately disorienting change of tone, terrific performances (Alba Rohrwacher does a walk on - just to be perverse). Attention grabbing stuff, but ultimately frustrating as all this significance loaded material proves to mean something only to Marco and his mates. I was tempted to be one of the people he went on talking to outside the Lumina but I figured I'd look doubly dumb not understanding the movie and not understanding the language.

Victor Fleming at Pordenone is only days away. The Curtiz book looks like arriving just in time. Sometimes it all gets more interesting than others.

(The film has been given a certificate by the Australian censor and recently screened at the Sydney Underground Film Festival prior to, one assumes, commercial theatrical screenings in whatever cinemas are game enough to show it. - ED)