Just finished Laughter, the last of my CUFF films, and I'll be honest. I almost didn't watch it because I was afraid it would turn out to be a humourless preachy tirade on war.
And wow, it is not that. It's a surreal, dreamlike, beautiful, funny, and lovely film about mortality and how life exists to be enjoyed in the moments, even though it has a sad ending for everyone.
The first 15 minutes featuring a terrible massacere are almost exhaustingly awful to watch, and then...as the movie goes on, we are haunted by that scene, but it fades from memory as we find new joys in the rest of the film.
And that's life in a microcosm, for better and for worse. The past drifts away, memories haunt us, but life continues and changes and presents us new things until it stops.
And it's a terrible shame it has to end. But it does.
Which is also how I felt about the movie.
I saw a lot of good films this year, but lord, this one was special.