Category: Movies

Los lunes al sol

I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed by this movie. It is good, sweet and really sad, but I have expected a better movie from one that has beaten Almodovár’s Hable con ella at an important film festival. Especially since this movie is about unemployed people. I have forgotten which festival it was though ^^;;; All in all, I preferred Hable con ella over this movie – although I understand what makes this movie so special.

The melancholy of this movie definitely is beautiful. I didn’t found it as touching as John Steinbeck’s books, but in some ways it’s similar, especially the degree of desperation of these people. The soundtrack is also wonderfully emphasizes this atmosphere… this generally is something I like in spanish movies – the atmosphere and the soundtrack.
(I like the theme of this movie a lot *g*)

It also is the little details in the movie that are touching. I especially liked this scene:
Santa lying in bed with a woman:
– I like you, Rosa.
– Monica.
– Ah, Monica.
It was the one of the very few funny scenes in the movie though ^^;;;

But! The movie gets better and better to the end (or rather, the second half)… It begins slowly, but then the dialogues become more agitated and absorbing. Santa’s obviously my favourite character… his way of speech, especially his way to talk with women, he just brings his and everyone’s situation to the point. I like that. The highlight of the movie, right before the end, was incredibly gorgeous as well… Awwww~! I don’t want to spoil, but it was just too touching. *____*

I’m sorry for this catastrophic post… I still don’t know what to think about this movie.

Hm, I admit that this movie actually is better than Blanc, but I personally enjoyed Blanc more. Not only because somehow I like Julie Delphy, not only by looks but also how she plays, while I pretty much dislike the protagonist of this story. I found the old man interesting though, that saved the movie.
A second thing might be that I’m not particularily interested in Geneva whatsoever… while I love Paris – and I recognize everything parisian…

I also don’t have that much to say about this movie – just like Blanc, the story progresses very slowly (basically there isn’t much of a story), there isn’t much complexity either, but the whole thing is focused on direction and mood. I especially liked the end which was a gorgeous wrap-up of the whole trilogy. I was really surprised to see the characters of the 2 other movies re-appearing. I should have guessed it *hrm!*

Since I am a completist, I really should watch the last (or rather: the first) one of the trilogy…

Trois Couleurs: Blanc

… au moins dans ce filme. And that’s kinda disturbing… basically you don’t really *see* anything either of Poland or France. A weird atmosphere since I don’t think you ‘see’ much of the characters either – I wonder what I think I see in this movie, but oh well, it’s cute <3
In fact, this reminds me a little bit of old theatre plays: There really isn’t much happening in them, the whole story is dramatic, but simple. The characters aren’t shown that deeply and the atmosphere is so subtle that it’s basically non-existent. Nevertheless, people love the plays… and they are able to do in-depth interpretations about the play, especially into the characters. (I’m especially thinking about Britannicus by Racine right now, by the way.) This is how it feels with this movie XD

In fact, I was thinking a lot while watching the movie… and I enjoyed all the french in it *hrr* But I was surprised that they didn’t even attempt to translate the french at all! It reminded me of Avanti! but in that case, it probably wasn’t that important to understand what they said. In fact, I understand that the translators wanted to give the impression of their difficulty to communicate with each other – but still, I think the stuff she said was important. Anyways.

One thing I liked about the movie was the motif of birds (although they rather stand for freedom rather than egality)… Especially the first scene where the director destroyed the slightly sappy atmosphere of Karol lifting his head to see birds flying away – and then one bird shits on him. (By the way, “Karol” is a nice name… hrm)

And oh, I didn’t understand the end, honestly… she wanted him to take her out and elope with her or what? O.o That’s bad. Second thing that didn’t make much sense for me was the (supposedly very meaningful) “Où est l’égalité?” Or does it just explain why he wants revenge?

Irma la Douce

Okay, I decided not to watch the end yesterday… but now, I kind of want to know what happened at the end. Grmbl. Anybody willing to tell me or find a site with the full summary? *blink*

Oh well, but I enjoyed the rest of the movie. It was enjoyable, although not as funny as “Avanti!” and not as lovely as “Love in the Afternoon”. I also disliked the fact that the whole story played in Paris: the parisian flair just didn’t convey in this movie (very much unlike “Love in the Afternoon” which played in Paris as well). On the other hand, I love stories about prostitutes – which I, by the way, consider as something pretty much french: Think about Émile Zola’s Nana, du Sade’s Juliette, Dumas’ Marguerite (in “The Lady of the Camellias” who you might also know as Violetta in “La Traviata”), the girls in the Moulin Rouge – there are no women which are more interesting as a ‘social symbol’ than prostitutes, and France seems to be the most comfortable and natural place for them.

For some reason, I like Jack Lemmon… Actually I don’t really think he looks good – I didn’t notice him in “Short Cuts”, I didn’t even notice him in “Some like it hot”. But his way to move, his way to talk, everything is so special, funny and interesting *hehe* This makes me want to watch the Apartment even more now…

*sigh* I ended up not talking much about the movie, but always about other stuff -.-

This title is just too good XXXD I just can’t come up with a better title for this blog entry.

Well, I taped it yesterday and since I felt a little bit tired when I woke up this morning, I immediately wanted to watch this movie. Fortunately my father went away, but my mother stayed. Ahahaha! That was an experience =.= Well, actually she ended up laughing a lot and finding the whole movie funny and – original! Even saying stuff like “Oh my, this director has so much fantasy!” *hrrr* On the other hand, the titles of the episodes were blended in – which resulted in my mother asking me to explain her the words “sodomy”, “perversion”, “transvestite” and “ejaculation” – aaaaaah!

Oh well, but it was fun to watch and I’m glad that this movie was so short (/me likes that a lot). All in all, I’d recommend this movie for its truly hilarious satire – but I wouldn’t say this is a “masterpiece”. Besides Celebrity (which was crap), this is the only Woody Allen movie I have ever watched… oh, and that reminds me that I should watch Match Point *g*

Love in the Afternoon

No, in fact my idol is not Billy Wilder although you all must know by now how much I love his movies. This movie was funny as well – especially the story is very cute, but it definitely does not reach the incredible hilarity of “Some like it hot”.
I’m rather talking about Audrey Hepburn.

She looks innocent, but not exactly moe, not to talk about loli. On the other hand, she’s far from being a ‘sex symbol’… Her clothes are classy, but not cute – she basically has no breasts and thus never shows her dekolleté. Arrrr, me likes X3

Actually I mainly liked this movie because of Audrey Hepburn. I’m sad I didn’t dragged my parents into seeing Avanti!, because in the end, I have to admit that I liked it better. I also disliked the end… it was so pointless, ugh ^^;;; But nevertheless, I’m glad to finally have seen this movie. Let’s see which one the REC movies I still have to watch (movies with asterisks are the ones I have):
#1 – Roman Holiday
#2 – Sabrina *
#3 – Wait until dark *
#4 – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
#5 – Love in the Afternoon
#6 – The Children’s Hour
#7 – War and Peace *
#8 – My Fair Lady
#9 – Two for the Road

I have never hated a Ghibli character as much as this girl! Oh my gosh! I was hoping for a nice love story, but it turns out that the girls is horribly annoying. I mentioned that I hate ‘bitchy’ girls, right? Rikako is the same. And i hate the guy for not being able to stand against her. Get some balls, boy!

Crying, slapping boys, always thinking about herself… oh my. How can every single person who reviewed this anime not notice the bad character of this girl. Ah well… I skipped through the movie and most probably will never watch it again.
I don’t even want to imagine how bad the sequel would be which is a live drama!

Avanti!

I don’t understand why this short and original title was “translated” into Avanti, Avanti in german while nobody ever says “avanti” 2 times in a row in the movie, oh well. I should learn to enjoy things without paying attention to such small and inane matters. (Arr, I love the expression “inane” *g*)

Whether I buy a DVD or not mainly depends on the question whether I would want to watch the movie/the series again. With “Some like it hot”, it’s definitely the case. With “One, two, three”, it’s definitely not the case (although it is a very good movie!). But with Avanti, I’m not sure. I had to laugh out loud several times – the protagonists are just too hilarious *__* On the other hand, the (in my eyes unfortunately unattractive) woman was pretty annoying at the beginning – but it is the only flaw of the whole movie, if you ask me (to me, her constant complains about being too fat just wasn’t funny enough to play such an important role in the movie). Other than that, everything was right – just what you’d expect from Billy Wilder. The whole italian feeling (and in contrast, the 2 americans) was depicted with such an indescribable humour… not to mention Carlucci, my favourite character, who incorporates this feeling and has SO many gorgeously funny lines. The highlight of the movie obviously was THE love scene with Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills *arrrr*

I would watch this movie again in order to show it people who didn’t watch it yet. I prefer not to watch comedies alone, because laughing alone isn’t that much fun *g* For a so-called movie evening (several people sitting together, crunching fast food and watching movies) I’d totally recommend this movie.

On Your Mark

It was a merely coincidence. As you probably now, I watched “Whisper of the Heart” yesterday and “On Your Mark” actually came out at the same time. But I actually didn’t know that I had it at all! I just saw it by chance on my DVD of Ocean Waves *lucky!*

Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto ahoi? Hrrr… Like the title suggests, this music video is extremely beautiful and it reminds me a lot of it. Not only a slightly science-fiction-looking world (with especially designed airplanes and stuff), but it’s also a story about rescueing a girl. (Well, okay, in the other case, it’s rescueing the whole band.) The atmosphere is totally different and more down-to-earth, of course, but not less impressive. I’m so glad to have been able to watch it! *_*

The song itself is the most awful one I have ever heard… it also destroys the whole atmosphere of the video *snifsnif*

By the way, there was also a little animation at the end… It looked like a children’s picture and is about a house that starts extremely small but then grows bigger and bigger… pretty cute O.o Ah, I found it. It was this and this.

Now that I have watched so much Ghibli stuff, I wonder if I should try to be a completist and also watch “The Ghiblies” and the like… basically the few things I don’t have yet *hrr*

Mimi wa Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)

Okay, my japanese is crap, I know. I hope that this title is still okay *hrr* It does make sense for me though. This movie is centered around the lovely Shizuku (which is a totally different Shizuku than the one from Hunter x Hunter), just like Fushigi no Umi no Nadia is totally focused on Nadia and Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä focused on Nausicaä. Besides Shizuku, Ghibli’s movies are not only about atmosphere… they create a complete ‘world’ in their movies. *____* Somehow I also think that those “…no…no…” titles are cool *hrr* I also love the name “Shizuku” (I bet this is because I like HxH’s Shizuku so much *g*) Sorry for this ranting, I hope it makes sense.

I like this movie, obviously, since it’s a Ghibli. Well, in fact, it didn’t exceed my expectations, but I was far from being deceived by it :] This movie has so incredibly beautiful colours and sceneries *___* Just like you’d expect from a rather recent Ghibli.

I also like the fact that this movie was not directed by Miyazawa. It’s still Ghibli style though.

It’s so cute to see that the house in Whisper of the Heart looks exactly like the one in Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns) *__* And it’s so great to see the cats again as well *arr*

I have always hated “Country Road”. There were too many bad covers of the song, I couldn’t stand it. But that’s not only it… I just disliked it. But Whisper of the Heart made it possible that I’ve come to like it O_o It’s so beautiful in this movie *hrr*

The imaginary Ghibli world is even more beautiful than in Neko no Ongaeshi, I think *___* (Of course the latter is better animated, but this one conveys a more beautiful atmosphere despite the shortness of the scenes, I think.) Actually the only Ghibli movie I really like that does not feature these fantastic pictures is “Porco Rosso” – which is because of its gorgeous story. Either it’s gorgeous characters (Nausicaä, Porco, Chihiro) and/or the beautiful imaginary scenery (Mimi wa Sumaseba, Howl, Chihiro, Neko no Ongaeshi) that makes Ghibli movies so great and special.

Shiho’s annoying in this movie. There was no such person in the manga where everybody was pretty nice. The father is cool though, luckily, while Shiho’s just the best example of an horribly bad education. “She won’t listen to me!” So what? When a child is as old as Shizuku, it’s not about “listening” anymore.

I should be talking about the realistic problems and Ghibli’s character’s barely nonexistant fear of future… but that doesn’t bother me that much actually. For some reaosn, I like the characters, and I like that they kind of have their own head and put “important” stuff like school aside.

But oh my, the end of the story was pretty weird. Honestly. Somehow the atmosphere of the anime totally changed to me. But the credits, where they showed Harada and “what was his name again?” was so cute! I wanted them to get together…

PS. I have so many movies I want to watch now… Billy Wilder’s 100th birthday will be soon so that there are lots of his movies in the TV that I haven’t watched yet. If I really manage to watch them, I’ll blog about them, of course :] (I think the only movie I didn’t write about in this blog while it existed is “One, Two, Three”. I actually didn’t finish watching it *hrrr*)