Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Movie time
Besides going climbing (initially thought as walking) in the Alps, I had a a long weekend where I enjoyed the sinful pleasures of staying home and being lazy. Sue me, I am an information worker, I need my time off. Not to make it sound so bad I cleaned and watched some movies that made an impression.
The 1st one is a an old black and white Italian classics called "Il Sorpasso"("The Easy Life") starring the famous Italian actor Vittorio Gassman . The plot of the movies centres around the two main characters - the assertive, talkative and adventurous Bruno(Gassman) and the shy and insecure law student Roberto(Jean-Louis Trintignant). In a rather comic and suspicious way they meet and they start a journey with a Lancia Aurelia convertible (a funky thing at the time) throughout Italy inspired by the pushy Bruno. If you check the film in Wikipedia it says "It is poignant portrait of Italy in the early 60s when the economic miracle" was starting to transform the country from a traditionally family-centered society into an individualistic, consumeristic and shallower one". What it struck me with was the fact that Italy in 1962 is not so different from the one I know 46 years later. With risks of insulting my Italian friends, there is a contradiction that lives in the Italian spirit - the desire to be famous, interesting, successful in the eyes of others and at the same time the inability to overcome your background, the problems you have created in life and deep-rooted prejudices. I warmly recommend this movie to all Bulgarians as well because this is something that happened to us in the last years...
The other two movies I saw are in the "sick, pervert and kinky" section and you if are pregnant, conservative or a lost soul that came across my blog, you can stop reading NOW...
"Savage grace" is a film about a spoiled, rich American family that tries to hide its problems by travelling in fancy vacation places in Europe. The Mom (Julianne Moore), the son and the dad indulge themselves in all kinds of sexual practices including bisexuality, incest, adultery and partner swaps. Besides being strikingly aesthetic, the movie is actually sad and depressing making you think about the importance and priorities of life - that often behind glamour, success and beauty there is loneliness, cruelty and alienation.
And actually the sickest of the sick is the film called "The Piano Teacher" . The mid-age piano professor Erika spends her life between her students that she secretly detests and her obsessive and dominant mother with whom she sill lives with. She is unable to express emotions and demonstrates her formidable intelligence through the music of Schubert and Schumann. But behind her cold mask there is a deeply sexually disturbed and confused woman that has an obs session with being beaten and humiliated. The movie reaches some high extremes when her student Walter falls in love with her and tries to win her love. At first Erika intimidates him with her sick fantasies but then she falls in the web that she has created becoming both a physical and an emotional victim. A rarely disturbing film that aims to show you that being too smart, often means you are the one with the biggest delusions.
P.S. I am getting my movie critics degree soon so vote for me :)
The 1st one is a an old black and white Italian classics called "Il Sorpasso"("The Easy Life") starring the famous Italian actor Vittorio Gassman . The plot of the movies centres around the two main characters - the assertive, talkative and adventurous Bruno(Gassman) and the shy and insecure law student Roberto(Jean-Louis Trintignant). In a rather comic and suspicious way they meet and they start a journey with a Lancia Aurelia convertible (a funky thing at the time) throughout Italy inspired by the pushy Bruno. If you check the film in Wikipedia it says "It is poignant portrait of Italy in the early 60s when the economic miracle" was starting to transform the country from a traditionally family-centered society into an individualistic, consumeristic and shallower one". What it struck me with was the fact that Italy in 1962 is not so different from the one I know 46 years later. With risks of insulting my Italian friends, there is a contradiction that lives in the Italian spirit - the desire to be famous, interesting, successful in the eyes of others and at the same time the inability to overcome your background, the problems you have created in life and deep-rooted prejudices. I warmly recommend this movie to all Bulgarians as well because this is something that happened to us in the last years...The other two movies I saw are in the "sick, pervert and kinky" section and you if are pregnant, conservative or a lost soul that came across my blog, you can stop reading NOW...
"Savage grace" is a film about a spoiled, rich American family that tries to hide its problems by travelling in fancy vacation places in Europe. The Mom (Julianne Moore), the son and the dad indulge themselves in all kinds of sexual practices including bisexuality, incest, adultery and partner swaps. Besides being strikingly aesthetic, the movie is actually sad and depressing making you think about the importance and priorities of life - that often behind glamour, success and beauty there is loneliness, cruelty and alienation.
And actually the sickest of the sick is the film called "The Piano Teacher" . The mid-age piano professor Erika spends her life between her students that she secretly detests and her obsessive and dominant mother with whom she sill lives with. She is unable to express emotions and demonstrates her formidable intelligence through the music of Schubert and Schumann. But behind her cold mask there is a deeply sexually disturbed and confused woman that has an obs session with being beaten and humiliated. The movie reaches some high extremes when her student Walter falls in love with her and tries to win her love. At first Erika intimidates him with her sick fantasies but then she falls in the web that she has created becoming both a physical and an emotional victim. A rarely disturbing film that aims to show you that being too smart, often means you are the one with the biggest delusions.P.S. I am getting my movie critics degree soon so vote for me :)
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