New Year's Day TV Shows

uSBS is showing Train of Life on NYE. Too bad I can't stay at home and watch. Now that I think about it, I could've watched it on my mobile as SBS channel is available on Optus Zoo Live TV as streaming video, instead of inhaling second-hand smoke while waiting for the fireworks.

The first time I watched Train of Life is during a film festival back in Manila a few years ago. Story is about this village idiot who comes up with a brilliant idea on how to save the Jewish town from being sent to the concentration camps during the Holocaust. His plan is to buy a locomotive, train some of the villagers to be Nazi officers, then head for Palestine. It's a bit far-fetched, but it does allow for some very funny situations, until you get to the surprise ending. That's when you realize what the movie is really about.

For New Year's Day, SBS is showing part three of Midnight Circus, The New Year's Day Concert 2005 live from Vienna, and the best of Eat Carpet 2004.

Midnight Circus is a compilation of short arts and entertainment segments from arts companies from around the world. I caught only the latter part of the show. Hong Kong is represented by Symphony of Lights. It's basically a 14-minute lights-and-sound show incorporating architectural lighting, laser effects and pyrotechnics on selected building fronting the Victoria Harbour. Then, we have a seductive tango number with a bit of electronica from Argentina. From Samoa, we have a high-powered percussion, dance, and fire show. As usual, China did some acrobatic ballet number. From Finland, we have an outdoor synchronized ice-skating program called "Jekyll and Hyde on Ice". From Slovakia is another kinetic group dance number involving sticks and axes with some shouting from the dancers.

Next up is the New Year's Day Concert telecast live from Vienna's Musikverein. With Lorin Maazel conducting, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs classical works by Strauss (Johann and Josef) and some other composers whose names I forgot already. The conductor is obviously is having fun - sometimes acting bored, sometimes animated, always closing the piece with a flourish. The waltzes and polkas were so soothing, I actually dropped off to sleep. When I woke up, it's the Best of Eat Carpet 2004 - a collection of short dramas, documentaries, and experimental films from all around the world. I'll mention a few good ones below:

Gridlock from Belgium - A guy is caught in traffic, so he calls home using his new Motorola mobile. A little girl picks up the phone and says that Mommy is in the bedroom with Uncle Wim. The guy thinks, "What Uncle Wim?!" So he tells his daughter to knock on the bedroom door and tell Mommy that he's already home. The grunting and panting inside stops, and a naked lady runs out into the bathroom, slips on the tiles, and knocks herself dead. Uncle Wim crashes out of the 2nd-floor window into the frozen swimming pool outside. All this the little girl reported over the phone. And the guy realizes his house doesn't have a swimming pool. Can't say whether the Internet joke came first or this short.

Violin from Australia - This is an animation using pencil sketches showing a nude pregnant woman traveling on a ship, a baby wearing a loose suit, and a violin floating around. No dialogue, just violin music in the background. I didn't get what this is trying to say, but I hope his/her Mom gets it because the short was dedicated to her.

La Femme Ballon from USA - A parody done in the French noir style. A man is left by his wife, but he later finds love with a blowup sex doll. They make passionate love, take baths together, ride bikes, go to parks, have nice dinners, etc. Things were going great. As time went by, the man felt that something is amiss. There's a distance in her eyes, a coldness to her touch. She starts ignoring him. One day, the man comes home to find clothes strewn in the living room. Driven by jealousy and rage, he bursts into the bedroom to find his blowup doll having sex with a black man - another sex toy. He chops off his head, then stabs his doll, air blowing everywhere. He takes her limp lifeless body to the beach, and commits suicide. So sad.