We’re a little more than halfway through Fantasia by any measure. I’ve seen more than half of the movies I’ve got scheduled, it’s the sixth day of a ten day trip, and my ass has been in semi-comfortable lecture hall seats for an awfully high percentage of the day. So far so good.
The trip feels a bit longer because I’m really used to flying out here on the first Saturday of the festival, given work constraints. This year we arrived on a Thursday night in order to make sure we could catch Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma so my mental clock is off. Well worth the mental disruption; it was the best thing we’ve seen so far this year and I don’t think anything else will supplant it. It’s a daring exploration of the slasher genre, it’s funny as hell, and Gillian Anderson is great. As is Hannah Einbinder.
Otherwise… well, one Letterboxd mutual has taken to calling this year Midtasia. I think that’s a bit much. I cannot deny that I haven’t seen many films that really excite me, though; in fact, I’ve only seen three releases that I’d rate as high as three and a half stars. Most years I’ve been more excited. I’m having an absolute ball, just maybe not as much because of the movies.
It is kind of just about being here at this point. This is the sixth time I’ve attended and the aisles of De Sève are as familar to me as any movie theater I’ve ever spent time in. I know the blocks surrounding the theaters. Fantasia is kind of comfort food and always will be. That’s soothing.
What else? We’re staying in an AirBnB on Rue Crescent this year, with the demise of our beloved convenient Sonder right across from the theaters. It’s about as convenient but insanely noisy, since this is the big student party street. And you know how some AirBnBs are just cheap rentals with an intermediary taking a cut between the building owners and people like us? This is that. We won’t make this mistake again.
There’s a new table service dumpling place, Maison Bao, right by the theaters. It’s quick and easily as good as Din Tai Fung while being like half the price. Thumbs up to the curry pork soup dumplings. We’ve eaten there a few times now and they can get you in and out in fifteen minutes if you’re in a hurry.
The burger joint on Rue Crescent wasn’t just good in memory, it’s good in actuality. Nice! We’re not eating there probably more than the once, given health and all, but it was tasty.
For touristy stuff, we’ve been spending time in Old Montreal this time. This morning we spent a couple of hours wandering through Pointe-à-Callière, an archeological museum down by the river. It’s quite good. A little bit glossy in places but the museum is a shell built on top of much older structures, so there are all these places where they’ve cut away floors and such to show off the old walls. Really neat.
We learned there about Montreal’s Great Peace of 1701, which they do not teach you about in New England schools although it’d be pretty relevant. At the moment, they’re displaying the actual signed treaty, which is on loan from France. Intensely cool. You don’t have a chance to see all that many Revolutionary War era documents these days.
Their bistro has a lovely view of Habitat 67, satisfying my retrofuturist urges to see something related to Expo 67. And then earlier in the week we saw the ridiculously grandiose Notre-Dame Basilica. I couldn’t be happier.
More to come when we get home, sometime after Sunday.