My new favourite movie

Last night I finally got around to watching the amazing Fitzcarraldo. Most of what I'd read about it concerned the act of film-making itself. This is fair enough given that the shoot involved a violently antagonistic star and director, a long shoot in a Peruvian rainforest and the shifting of a 340 ton steamship over a mountain. What I wasn't so prepared for is the emotional power of the film, and the fact that you end up sharing the crazy, ecstatic vision of the title character of bringing opera to the jungle.

I also watched The Fireman's Ball, a highly entertaining satire of communism disguised as a small-town comedy. Apparently the cast were selected because they resembled Czechoslovakian leaders, giving their petty bungling a political charge for contemporary audiences.

Not only that, but I took in my all-time favourite Python sketch and all. I think it's the Greek guys' socks that do it for me.