A Weekend in the Country

Meredith for the Cinema Set

So, the other night I trundled off to see my friends on the big screen. Sure, they weren't actually on the big screen (except H - Hi H! Glad to know the blinds match the drapes! I'm never shaking your hand again!) but they were credited on the big screen as being, y'know, integral to the whole process of bringing the big screen entertainment to us, the devout fans of Meredith.

If you've never been to Meredith you obviously:

1) Do not Live in Melbourne

2) Live on the Other Side Of the Yarra (you know who you are)

So for all you poor suckers out there - clearly I am talking about The Meredith Music Festival which happens once a year on a farm just outside of Meredith blah blah blah.

Just for something completely different, I'm not going to critique the film, A Weekend In The Country (which screened at MIFF, people - MIFF! They don't even pay you it's so prestigious).

Instead I offer a salute, ashtanga yoga style, to all the hundreds of people in the cinema who smuggled booze in. Seriously, it nearly brought a tear to my eye.

Here is a picture of all the people in the audience, thinking about booze:



The Age can talk all it wants about the rise in binge drinking and dangerous drinking and YooF Out of CONtroL etc but - the number of people at ACMI who had spent so much time and effort smuggling all sorts of types of booze in.... Well, it was just outstanding.

I particularly liked that the director attributed much of his insipration for the doco at hand to time spent smuggling booze into ACMI with his friend when they were younger. This was touchingly responded to by said friend brandishing forth his very own, recently smuggled in, illicit bottle of liquor

Ah, plus ca change, non?

For the record - I was sitting next to the bestie of the dude who wore the watermelon on his head last year. His cleanliness was unnerving.