not so funny games

my sister lent me the movie "funny games" and erk and i watched it last week. half way through i started to call and text her frantically. WHY did she recommend this movie to me?! i found it so disturbing and upsetting.

this is one of those movies that is considered brilliant (at least by my sister, whose opinion i greatly value) because of the "idea" of the movie. not the movie itself. what i mean is, you will not enjoy watching this movie. that is the point. it is torture to watch, but the director acknowledges this, pokes fun at the fact that as the director he can address you, the audience, and that you are captive-ly his.

there are a couple of those "breaking the fourth wall" or whatever moments, and without them you would be convinced that haneke (also director of amour) is just a twisted man. and maybe he is, but he's twisted and smart/talented.

and i will admit that the more time that passes from having watched that movie, the more i can acknowledge his talent; if nothing else, it is a movie that you do not easily forget. however, just like any other art, i want to be able to somehow enjoy a movie...while i'm watching it. like experimental music that may be brilliant, but hard to listen to, i think for now i would rather read about such artistic endeavors and save myself from the full two-hour experience.

the diving bell and the butterfly

i watched this movie a couple of nights ago after having read the book a couple of years ago. and even though i knew the story, i was struck by it all over again.

it is an incredibly sad and inspirational true story.  the film is shot beautifully, highlighting life joys by accentuating them and providing the perspective to glimpse into what living becomes without them.

both the book and the movie are an ode to the power of imagination, determination and gratitude.

shut up, little man

if you want to watch a film present very interesting ideas born from a not so interesting story - i recommend this film.

if you want my sister to say the words "little man" just prompt her with the words "shut up..."

i think i liked hearing her say the title over and over again and cracking herself up more than watching the movie. but i'm glad i saw it. the ideas and questions it puts forth are worth thinking about.

oscar

my acceptance speech haiku 

thanks for the award

cue the crying, props to my

fellow nominees

caught my eye

actually the story caught my ear on the radio. interesting what your looks can do.
check out the project here 

but if you haven't heard the "this american life" on ortiz, check that out first. 

an artist

i went to see this movie last weekend. 

i liked it

not as much as other people did, but it was definitely sweet, nostalgic, and at times, very clever. 

their were several pieces that resonated. 

one was simply how much it reminded me of singin' in the rain; a movie that i religiously watched with my grandmother and we would re-watch certain scenes over and over and choke on laughing so hard (scenes such as this one below). 

the artist takes place during the same time period as singin'; when "talkies" were coming out. there is something very sweet about this old-school style film; its humor, its charm. images such as the one below are so simple and so compelling. 

 

it is indeed the times that we take away certain tools that we are forced to be more creative with what we have (in this instance the absence of voice/sound to tell a story/express a feeling)

what also struck me was the bigger theme of technology changing our world, and what could potentially happen to those not able/willing to change with the times. those changes are also opportunities to reinvent oneself - an uplifting possibility/ending/realization for an artist.

bing!

a couple of weeks ago i was giving a group of 13 year olds some advice that only last week i realized i could take for myself. i like to think of those moments as "bing!" moments.  when a little light bulb goes off in my brain, or i suddenly discover something that was staring me in the face all along. BING!

12 angry men

i just saw this movie for the first time.
i remember my sister having said that it should be an obligatory movie to watch before serving jury duty.
like so many other things - she is right about that.

the robber

I just came back from seeing another NYFF flick with my two favorite movie critics. Based on a true story, the robber is about a champion marathon runner who happens to also rob banks.

when the movie started i was very tired and restless. i couldn't stop fidgeting and yawning until i gave in - took a mini nap during a quiet scene. i woke up two minutes later refreshed. (sometimes you just need to take the edge off).

perhaps it was due to the fact that there isn't that much dialogue in the movie that my mind had room to wander - because i ended up thinking about a lot of things over the course of my viewing (once i woke up).

i thought about running and how much it has, in the past, served me in symbolic ways - the lessons it teaches me about myself, about the power of endurance, the ability to push your own limits and the benefits of hard work and perseverance. the protagonist of the film is nothing if not a dedicated runner - even trains when he is in prison. then again, what else is he going to do in prison?

i thought about the lovely contrast between all the quiet/slow scenes and the fast/loud/running from the cops complete-with-drumming-soundtrack scenes. it made me think about dance and how much i miss making it.

i also gave a lot of consideration to the leading character. despite being a bank robber and eventually even killing at least one person, i found myself liking him quite a bit (or at least rooting for him some how). he (seemingly) had no real reason to behave the way he did - he just couldn't help the compulsion. i felt a great deal of empathy/sympathy (don't really understand the difference) for him. he didn't know how to stop what he had started. he also didn't know how to express any emotions (didn't smile once throughout the film - even during the love scenes). and yet, i trusted that he did have feelings, they just weren't readily accessible to him. i believe this was confirmed in the final scene of the movie - which was nothing short of beautiful.

facebook

i went to the opening of the new york film festival on friday and saw the social network. i'm aware that it is a dramatization - merely based on a true story, but it supported a lot of the fears that i had about facebook.

the main one being that it is a space that indulges some of our more pathetic, darker sides (picture someone wasting hours by themselves looking people up and feeling in some way social by doing so...i've done it). don't get me wrong - facebook has plenty of wonderful benefits, allowing for a lot of healthy connections, but it also fosters a morbid interaction among us- a false one.

my thoughts about the movie and a lot of the issues it raises are best expressed by two of my favorite people, at this link.

what i wanted to share, were my personal feelings of disgust - with the system and with my participation in it. have i committed facebook suicide? not yet. part of me is wondering if i can learn to use it responsibly. another part of me is wondering what the hell that means.

emotionally female

many of the pictures i post are not mine, but rather, ones i find on the internet. just type in a couple of key words and poof! a collection of images appear. this one came up on someone else's blog. I was compelled to read what was attached (what else is there to do when a moron wakes you up at 3:30 in the morning and you can't go back to sleep?)

this woman was blogging at length about how emotional she felt. how she cried even when her tamagotchi died (that's right, the little electronic toy pet from the 90's). and i thought, "why do people write so much?" i am a fan of the short film, short story, short blog post. i also thought, "is that how stupidly emotional i sound?"

don't get me wrong, i love being a woman and i understand first-hand how feelings can build quickly and in all kinds of misdirections but.... there is something seriously wrong with us.

hitchcock's birds

i just came back from a showing of "the birds" at symphony space. i had seen this film dozens of times as a kid, but never in a theater.

there is something special about seeing a movie in a big dark room full of strangers (apart from the "special" prospect of acquiring bedbugs). the shared experience is a unique one. discovering how your tastes and sensibilities are similar to, or vary from, those of your neighbors when a laugh or sob (either yours or anothers') becomes audible.

the experience can also, unfortunately, be marked by someone in the front row standing up to go to the bathroom, leaving their silhouette on the screen, or talking, or texting etc etc

but one of the best experiences, and perhaps what hitchcock is best known for, is creating moments of suspense for us to share. no one has mastered it like alfred. it's what he shows you, how he shows it to you, but more importantly, what he doesn't show you that so brilliantly grips us, the viewers.

i'm surprised i didn't have nightmares about birds as a child, because even as an adult, and even recognizing that this movie is as old as it is, with it's limited (but pretty amazing for it's time) technology, and even though i knew what was going to take place in every scene before it started, i was still geniunely scared.

thanks dad for introducing me to hitchock - even if i was waaaay too young to see most of his movies at the time... i still remember them all fondly.

and thanks vio for inviting me to the screening. if you are interested in hearing what she had to say check out skip rip or play. here's vio's review.

some of us live in public

i finally saw the movie that my sister has been telling me about for months (maybe a year?) and after tony reviewed it on skip rip or play i put it on my netflix queue. what an interesting man that josh harris. he seems totally insane; an egomaniac, who, despite being somewhat despicable, is also sort of brilliant in his own way. he saw and understood things about our society before we were willing or able to see them for ourselves. why is it that so often remarkably smart people are simultaneously nutcases? this movie will make you think a lot about our society in this computer-age and possibly about your part in its chaos. i recommend this film.