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I just re-watched Des Hommes et des Dieux which was showed on French tv tonight. I had not watched that film since I saw it at the cinema in September 2010 (and consequently wrote this review on that old blog of mine I haven't updated for 13 months!).

A beautiful film whose awards were well-deserved. The monks' last supper scene still moved me to tears.

I enjoyed Anna Karenina tonight, despite having little patience for Keira Knightley's overacting and simpering airs (and don't get me started on her skinnyness, that is painful to watch!) , because the mise-en-scène was interesting and bold, because Jude Law had gravitas and was a convincing Karenine, and because Kostia was played by this incredibly beautiful redhaired Irishman named Domhnall Gleeson!

Vronski mostly looked ridiculous, as if to point out how crazy first Kitty and, above all, Anna were, but Kostia was beautiful, especially in the countryside scenes.

I mean, really, this redhead is a treat on the eyes!




Rowrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is an old question in art and literature. Are we what we think we are or are we being fooled and actually living a farce?

Do we really exist just because we are aware of our own existence? Are we sentient beings or the figments of someone else's imagination?

My favourite author, Jorge Luis Borges, once wrote a short story that deals with the issue. The title is "Las Ruinas Circulares" and if you don't know it you can read it online in English HERE.

I remember an old episode from The Twilight Zone in which the characters thought they were real but turned out to be toys "living" within a dollhouse. Not "real people" but the playthings of a giant and merciless child-god.

Borrowing a lot from previous films but also from books, especially Lewis Carroll's wonderful Alice In Wonderland, The Matrix told us that although people think they are living they might be asleep and used as batteries while the world they think they live in is a mere simulation generated by machines. The illusion is perfect, except for a few déjà-vu moments that give away glitches.

Battlestar Galactica, the miniseries, started with a Six asking a human "are you real?" and later Caprica showed us that there are many ways of being real, including the one in the V-world or in the game New Caprica City when you put the holoband on.

And now, a scientist, a NASA guy, is about to release a book based on the idea that we might be living in a simulated world that some future person would have built thanks to future super-computers...out of boredom. Interview with Rich Terrile, here. In the end, he says:

"And our simulated beings could also create simulations. What I find intriguing is, if there is a creator, and there will be a creator in the future and it will be us, this also means if there’s a creator for our world, here, it’s also us. This means we are both God and servants of God, and that we made it all. What I find inspiring is that, even if we are in a simulation or many orders of magnitude down in levels of simulation, somewhere along the line something escaped the primordial ooze to become us and to result in simulations that made us. And that’s cool."

Borges, who was blind and a poet, saw it all, before science men even started dreaming of it.

Cannes festival is coming to an end, we'll know tomorrow which film gets the Palme d'Or.

A few weeks ago, one of my friends, inspired by the Presidential candidates, made a list of her favourite films, and asked me mine. I couldn't come up with a top 5 so I gave her my top 20...actually I provided two lists, my top 20 favourite films and my top 20 best movies (not the same!).

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( My top 20 favourite films )

As for my top 20 of best films:

- Oc

( Read more... )

 

 

Apparently, according to British researcher both Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman are the best male voices, almost perfect voices, and Irons actually came the closest to the ideal voice.

And a few years ago a woman was diganosed with a very rare pathology that made her unable to recognize any voice but Sean Connery's!!!!!

James Earl Jones who is one of the most memorable voices in movies thought that indeed, the thing with Sean was his "tremendous voice"(among other tremendous things, to which I'd add a tremendous body and tremendous eyes, smile and dimples too!):


Of course in Sean Connery's case it's everything in him that is best male!

Even when he plays a monk:

A French movies website has asked our 10 candidates their top 5 movies, their take on Hadopi (a bill against downloading) and their program concerning culture

The film choices are interesting. Some of them might be genuine, others probably belong to political calculation regarding to what their voters like, what the candidates themselves are supposed to like (and in some case it's an opportunity to shatter an image), or what they would like the citizens to think they enjoy!

Some of you may remember that in 2007 I decided to post and parse the candidates' official campaign poster. I won't do that for this election, but I think that the top 5 movies list is interesting to study.

Their picks and my analysis, under the cut.

( Ten politicians and their favourite movies )

On Friday, before the Césars evening, I went to the movies and saw a low-budget Russian film, Twilight Portrait,  Portret v sumerkakh , directed (and co-written) by Angelina Nikonova. It's the kind of films that probably very few people will see (it was showed in only 4 theatres in Paris) either here or in Russia, although it received several awards in various festivals, and it's a shame because it's very good.

It isn't an easy film, it's even rather disturbing, as it explores the most violent and unpleasant sides of modern day Russia, but it has more subtletly and generosity than darkness. The lead is a posh woman from the upper middle-class, unhappily married to a businessman, who starts the film being unable to connect to people around her but goes on  a journey after a traumatizing event, but the film also shows how corrupted the police is, how two worlds meet and clash, how the lumpen people live...and how love might save people, even those who firstly looked like feelingless monsters. It's the story of a woman who could have sought revenge but instead bring a man back to humanity, saving herself in doing so.

It's very Russian and yet it made me think of films directed by other women: Courtney Hunt's Frozen River, Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank , Keily Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff, or Debra Grabik's Winter's Bones.

Those women don't rely on formula and dare to go where male filmamkers don't seem to go anymore.

Maybe the future of cinema lies in the women's eye.

PS: No Oscars post from me, too many films on the list I didn't see, and some of them I heard were terrible (The Help, The War Horse) and as for those I actually saw, I didn't find them that good, except for The Artist – and I am not saying that because it's a French film. Many critics commented on the mediocrity of the Oscars batch this year and I think they are right...Yet there were some good films (American or not) this year but the Oscars people left them out.

I rewatched Jules et Jim that was shown on ARTE tonight. I hadn't seen in ages and it's funny but I had forgotten about the first half of the film, before the actual ménage-à-trois happens, and yet it's easily the best half.

Watching it tonight, I had several thoughts.

- the film aged well because it was so unrealistic and because it was in white & black which always makes stunning visuals.
- the voice-over narration was sometimes a bit too much but it fits in the literary side of the whole thing. It was a book before being a movie after all.
- if Jules et Jim were released nowadays, everybody would be talking about the slash!

The ceremony will take place on the 24th of February but here's my take on the main categories(and those for which I saw several movies).

Under the lj-cut, the nominations and my pick if I were to vote:
 

( And the winner is... )

Still waiting for the bloody parcel! It'd better arrive soon for I'm off to the library in the afternoon.

This holiday is going to be very sudious. I have to, otherwise my thesis will never progress. I rested for the last two days because I was truly exhausted. Also went to the opera on Saturday evening and saw Verdi's La Forza del Destino. The production was rather average and the singers weren't great, but Philippe Jordan was, as usual, terrific at directing the orchestra. He is an amazing conductor.

I have some free cable channels until January 7, including TCM, so apart from my Deadwood sessions I also watched or re-watched a few films.

I re-watched Cold Hand Luke, It's A Wonderful Life and Mr Smith Goes to Washington (they're having a Capra week!), and watched two French films that I didn't bother to see at the cinema when they were released: Demain Dès L'Aube and Le Concert. The latter was a big success in France at the time. It's one of those popular feel-good movies  that aren't actually very good.

I'm also catching up on Downton Abbey's second series (only the first one has been showed on French tv). The strings are obvious and it's super melodramatical, but it's well-filmed, the dialogues are well done and the actors are good...I must admit that the characters have grown on me(I'm quite fond of his Lordship and Mr Bates). It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, like Merlin (well to be fair, it's better written than Merlin). By the way I can't wait for the finale of Merlin on Sunday!!!!! :- )

I've given up on Hell on Wheels (AMC has been so disappointing when it comes to new shows *sigh*) and I'm dropping Dexter for good. this season was an ordeal. I watched until the last episode because I hate to quit, but it was just awful. I don't think I have felt that embarrassed for the writers and the actors, especially during terrible episodes like "Get Gellar" (worst episode ever!!) or "Talk to the Hand". It's a sad thing to see a promising show (in its first two seasons at least, after that it mostly relied on the lead's acting skills and good villains played by great actors) turn into something so ridiculous, badly executed and poorly written (the supposed twist that everybody and their uncle saw coming from the first episode! *eyes roll*). It's actually become worse than House yet House jumped the shark a while back!

So now I'm waiting for the third season of Justified, Sherlock's second series and the return of The Good Wife and FRINGE. Not really looking forward to watching any other show (except for the final season of Breaking Bad of course, but there's still a long wait until that) but I know myself, I will probably watch The Waking Dead when it comes back (because you know...Daryl!) and, mostly out of curiosity, Game of Thrones' second season.

I realise that I haven't tried or liked many "new shows", but yes I'm picky, watching tv shows online isn't as easier as turning the telly on and using the remote control and I usually can guess what I will like or not. My best "finds" in 2011 were definitely Justified (thanks to shadowkat67), Boardwalk Empire and The Shadow Line (thanks to elisi ).

Still mourning Caprica, Terriers and Rubicon....