KEY POINTS:
The 39th Auckland International Film Festival is on now, meaning hundreds of movies and hundreds of hours of watching.
We will be running your views and reviews over the course of the two week festival, along with expert coverage from the Herald's entertainment staff.
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your say? Send us a review of a movie you have seen. >>Send us your reviews
Our resident Blonde at the Bar, Joanna Hunkin, now becomes Blonde at the Movies. Joanna will be spending up to 12 hours a day in the dark, bringing you her thoughts on what its like spending an entire week watching movies. She will review the films she's seen as well as talking to festival-goers and eating her weight in popcorn.
So make sure you check back for the best coverage of what will be a great week for movie buffs.
Here is a selection of Your Reviews:
Venus (reviewed by Jocelyn)
We went to see the film Venus which starred Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips. It was a standout performance by both of them. They are both old now but just watching them in this film brings back memories of them as younger men. The story line was great and very entertaining. It is not a long film but it felt like it was way too short for me. I could have watched them for hours.
Run Granny Run (reviewed by Film fan of Parnell)
I had an open mind about seeing "Run Granny Run", but within 5 mins of the cameras rolling, I had fallen in love with the 90+-year-old's attitude to life. Her gustiness, fearless determination and her kindness and love for others. Every person 60+ should be made to see this movie so they can see for themselves what incredible achievements seniors can make to our communities and our country! Run Granny Run rolls laughter, sadness, admiration and excitement into a wonderful movie experience, and you cannot help but falling love with this wonderful woman! 11/10 rating
Manufactured Landscapes (reviewed by Harry L of Waitakere City)
One of the most harrowing films imaginable from an environmentalists point of view. Manufactured Landscapes follows the work of a Canadian photographer as he looks at the ways industry has altered (destroyed) landscapes in China (and a little at a Bangladesh ship-stripping operation). If you have heard about the way the environment is being threatened in China, once you see the full reality of this in pictures you realise how bad the situation actually is. Cities and towns containing more than 1.2million people destroyed and flooded for the new Three Gorges Dam, the water tables of whole towns contaminated by mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals leeching into the ground from electronic waste operations, views of huge open-cast coal mines that have turned vast areas of land into slag heaps and coal piles. Through it all the photographer, Edward Burtynsky, just presents what he sees, refusing to make any judgements on the man-made wastelands he sees. Great filmmaking.
Red Road (reviewed by Miguel Benoit)
The first film of the 2007 fest and it is stunning, stunning, stunning. After a truly magnificent short (WASP), a truly magnificent feature debut from Andrea Arnold. Serious, disturbing, lung-drainingly intense, surprisingly redemptive. Shot on HD, the perfect griminess of the images show that a great film doesn't need to be shot on film. Stunning.