I didn't know that Russian TV was THAT dangerous!

For more live TV accidents, check out these search results on YouTube.

I supose I shouldn't find this amusing, though it's hard not to laugh even at stupid things like this accident as well - and then you feel embarrassed and even concerned. Was it real? Was she seriously injured? The most horrific thing I ever saw was amateur footage of a wedding reception disaster in Israel - nothing funny about that, with multiple deaths and injuries.

And yet, there's a fine line between this stuff and Australia's Funniest Videos. How many kids have been put up to stupid behaviour just because their parents wanted them on TV?

Live TV Bloopers

Less violent than the previous ones:

And I rather liked the ones here as well. Maybe that new sitcom with Kelsey Grammer - Back to You - isn't that far from the truth!

Elephant

I watched Gus Van Sant's Elephant yesterday. It was a strange experience.

The film follows the lives of several high school students. The blurb on the back of the DVD describes it as:

Elephant unfolds on an ordinary day, filled with class work, football, gossip and socialising. The film observes the comings and goings of its characters from a gentle remove, allowing us to see them as they are. For each of the students we meet, high school is a different experience: stimulating, friendly, traumatic, lonely, hard.

Um, er yes - accurate, as far as it goes.

In fact the filming technique used has the camera tracking behind featured characters in an "over the shoulder" shots (some of which last over minutes and reminded me of playing Second Life). This is both intense and boring at the same time, because it's not like "standard" film practice, where you have an expected story, focussed characters and supporting musical score just to set your emotions up for what comes next. There was a score, but it wasn't orchestrated in the same way that say, a typical horror film tends to be.

Oh, and the last 1/3 of this film scared the shit out of me. That's all I'll say about it.