About Chocolate Parfaits

Das Leben der Anderen

I have to admit that it’s a really bad habit not to watch films in their entirety, but stop here and there. Somehow it destroys the flow of the film and unfortunately I had to do this for this great film *_*

Honestly I have been a little bit surprised that Shii said he’s not interested in this, mainly because he doesn’t know anything about the DDR back then. But I don’t know much about the DDR either, however I’m kind of interested because I have lived in East-Berlin near the Karl-Marx-Allee after the downfall of the wall, and everything was still heavily influenced by that time. In my opinion, the atmosphere is still there.

Admittedly, I think this film has the weakness of being slightly unrealistic – it doesn’t really make clear why exactly the protagonist has changed. Listening to a piano sonata definitely is not enough to convince me really. The second thing that bugged me a little bit was the talk about ‘good people’. It’s probably a personal thing, but I simply do not like the talk about ‘good’ and ‘bad’, as most people who talk about that are horrible hypocrites.

Aside from that, the film is plain gorgeous: It has an exceptionary atmosphere thanks to the soundtrack and a marvelous Ulrich Mühe. At the beginning, I was seriously scared by that look of his and the way he talked. It makes the naive me to realize that the Stasi back then was really scary.

Another striking characteristic of this film is that I have not felt bored at all. Usually, german films have always had this kind of boring and sad atmosphere. This film, far from being lively, is suspenseful and at the same time touching and scary enough to keep me interest all the way. Especially the end of the film is rather slow-paced, I suppose, but I haven’t thought of it as slow at all. And despite the lack of realism I have already mentioned, I found it the end very moving.

L’auberge espagnole

I am so sold. This film came on TV by chance today and it’s been ages that I’ve heard about it. Actually I only watched this because I’m on a roll with films right now – these last months, I haven’t seen lots and lots of nice films because I didn’t feel like watching something.

Luckily, this choice was fabulous. I was actually at Pochi’s place and we wanted to record the film, instead we ended up watching the whole thing while it was recording *ahaha* The scene that clicked with us was obviously the one where Xavier ran from office to office to get all his Erasmus forms together. Also, I have heard that french people are even more bureaucratic than germans…

Even though it was just a few hours ago that I’ve watched this film, I’ve already forgotten what I wanted to say about it exactly. Actually it’s just way too much – the characters are great (in their way, even that annoying british brother), all the little episodes in the story are so utterly funny and the subject Erasmus exchange year fits me like a glove right now. I am wondering how my exchange year will be. Great of course, but how exactly? After all, the film is very positive and optimistic (hey, maybe I like this one and Volver so much because they were so utterly optimistic?): The people are chaotic but nice, the city is beautiful, parties are all fun and the fact that people usually get scammed really badly when they go away for an exchange year is totally forgotten… Also, everybody always has enough money. Well, but aside from that, the get-together of people of different nationalities is really nicely done. However, it struck me as interesting that the only two guys in the story who were not particularily likeable were british and american. I mean, it’s a french film *ggg*

The very best was the scene with Wendy’s boyfriend coming over, of course *ahaha* It was the most memorable scene, but there just were so many lines where we had to laugh so badly. However, I think that this film is somehow like American Pie – American Pie is only funny when you’re a stupid, virgin teenager. Just like that, L’auberge espagnole is only funny when you’re an college student about to do an exchange year.

In the end, I had lots of fun watching this film – except for the end, even though I actually loved how he fled from his first work day. And I also liked how he left his stupid girl friend (oh poor Audrey Tautou, why did you take this dumb role?), but the cheesiness of those flashbacks and his monologue really pushed me away. Nevertheless, this film is highly recommended despite, or because its quirky humour!

PS. Nowadays, it’s so easy to spot popular and better mainstream films: They always have sequels, just like this one.

Volver

Since the nearest videotheque is shit after all, we weren’t able to watch either Charade, Science of Sleep, Amores Perros or 2001. So in the end, we unwillingly decided for Volver, but oh, what a great surprise it was! I remember very well how Shii described the film as “woman-friendly” and not all that great, so I wasn’t really looking forward watching that film. Almodóvar is getting old and I feared that you can see it in the film (just like I didn’t really like “Broken Flowers” because it kind of lacked Jim Jarmusch’s freshness from his earlier films). However, I was totally wrong.

Sure, Volver is kind of different from his other films – we have a prostitute, but she’s not all that important, and especially we don’t have any transvestites at all (how unusual! XD). Basically all of Almodóvar’s typical aspects are missing except for Penélope Cruz, maybe. And even though I love his transvestites, this film has brought in other great and fresh elements, which are an optimistic end, humour and family relationships. Also, this film was just much more cliché-ish spanish than the others (all those neighbours *ahaha*)
The funniest scenes were still the ones with la russa… “Raimunda!” *HAHAHA* The humour was a very simple one, but oh so great! I don’t recall having ever laughed at Almodóvar’s films and I think he does well on this.

I also really like Penélope Cruz’ performance in this film; she seems much more mature and much more believable as independent and spirited woman than in her other roles, even though the little innocent girl matches her face perfectly. She also stayed very likeable through the whole story and I hope she will get together with that guy from the film crew. But then again, that would have distracted from the focus on her mother and it’s good that they left it like that :]
In the moment she suddenly started to sing, I really feared that it would kill the mood (on a sidenote, I usually hate singing in films, except for “Singin’ in the Rain”), but it didn’t! It was nice to include the title into the song and it actually had an emotional impact on me.

I guess I don’t need to mention how much I love the poster for Volver – it’s cliché and all, yeah, but so damn sexy. Also, I love the red which goes so well with Raimunda’s character that I’m wondering why we never see her in a dark red dress. To come back to the aspect of “woman-friendliness” – it didn’t bother me at all. It was not like “All women are good, all men are bad”, it was just that the whole story revolved around women. So it’s more “woman-centered” than “woman-friendly” in my eyes and I ended up liking all the characters (except for Agustina maybe). In the end, it seems like I’m having a totally other opinion about this film than everybody else *heh*

Now the next thing I should do is to watch this film with the commentaries by Almodóvar and Cruz. I did this for “Hable con ella” and it was really enlightening. I really thought that I’ve understood much more about the film by seeing the commentaries. Especially the dancing scene at the beginning gained meaning for me after his explanation.

The Hole

Yesterday, while watching “The Crimson Rivers”, I suddenly remembered that I have watched this movie without blogging about this. That’s rather weird because in fact, it had a similar emotional impact on me like Election. Both films are not supposed to be all that serious, but I could not help but taking them really serious. Maybe it’s the high school setting, who knows. In fact, I was the most emotional during my high school years, so a little bit more depth has a lot more impact on me than the greatest story in an office environment, such as Hataraki Man.

I was not really scared about the darkness of the film and I didn’t really take her love for serious, but I still had this feeling that I would have done the same thing in her place, and that’s scary. The whole film had this atmosphere of realism (same goes for Election) with these well-portrayed, strong characters. And I also liked how she ended up well in the end (even though I hated her), after actually confessing to that psychologist – somehow I think she has deserved it.

And now I wonder whether short- and dark-haired high school girls are all emo. Thora Birch is such a great actress though, much better than Keira Knightley (but then again, Keira Knightley was 15 at that time O.o).

The Crimson Rivers

I’ve got 1,7 in a class where I really have expected something like 2,3; my god XD One of those I was in a team with has recommended this movie to me, and now that I plan to improve my french, I thought watching a french movie from time to time should not be bad. I actually expect myself to do better in understanding this than english movies *sets off the subtitles*

By the way, this guy has also told me that it was interesting to see how this elite school looks like. As expected, the library is absolutely marvelous – truly is a match-making paradise. I wonder if I would want to live in such an elitist, intellectual environment; for some years, it does sound very intriguing, but I would be unable to make “science” my life.

It took me awhile to understand that this Matthieu Kassovitz is really the same guy who played the dumb, romantic significant other of Amélie Poulain… This is so incredibly different.

But whatever, after 10 minutes, I was sold – the murder case is interesting and the music of the movie is extremely atmospheric and good. I actually have expected this atmosphere to last, but for some reason I kind of lost interest very quickly when I understood what the whole thing was about and that the school itself was not important anymore. I have expected a little more interaction in the school itself – basically everybody only talked about it, but it was not shown.
The scene from when I started to lose interest actually was the point where Max had his little kung-fu intermission with those “skinheads”. I found it rather out of place, just like the rushed ending.
I ended up feeling that this movie, despite all its suspense, ended up rather meaningless. Besides the suspense, I would have wished for a little bit more background information.

By the way, I am quite satisfied with the bonus material of the DVD: I love seeing storyboards of movies and it’s interesting to see them. The Brick DVD had some storyboards with commentaries of the directors – very funny and enlightening actually, especially because he draws like a 4-year-old. Also, somebody posted some storyboard pages of the Mushishi anime. Damn, they looked so good… I wonder if there are websites about them.
I was too lazy to watch the making-of though *ehehe*

Now the big question is: Do I want to watch the sequel? Okay, it’s a Luc Besson, but as we know, even a Luc Besson can do bad films, like “Danny the Dog”.

Marie Antoinette

This is the last movie I will be writing about. In fact, I wanted to watch Marie Antoinette much earlier, because I wanted to write a review with the title “Dunst im Schloss” XD – it’s a nickname that Milkmaster gave this movie since the beginning of its release.

Even though I would place this movie far behind Zodiac and Scoop, I must admit that Marie Antoinette actually made a certain impact on me: After all, I have always been interested in her as a person and the french revolution. Aside from that, I am a huge fan of the costumes of the Ancien Régime and I love the looks of the movie; that’s also why I didn’t feel bored at all while watching it even though the pace was horribly slow actually – 1 3/4 hours and nothing really happened until the revolution dropped on everybody’s head, argh XD I can’t get those beautiful scenes out of my head (and the lovely candies either!)

In fact, the movie was quite funny in some ways. I remember us laughing at the scene where she had a whole ship on her hairstyle; or another one where Léonard (who the hell is that?) makes her hair and a second later you see that the hairstyle is like 50cm high. The (unintentionally) funniest scene however was Fersen on his horse making that Napoleon pose. Oh my god, that is so laughable.

The other laughable thing was, well, the music. Oh god, is it even possible to combine even more awful music to the beauty of those costumes? If I had watched it in the cinema (which I luckily didn’t), I guess I would have been forced to shut my ears. I don’t like that kind of music and I especially find them offending in that kind of unfitting context. It literally hurts my ears.

Usually, I really like Kirsten Dunst. She’s the kind of pretty girl who looks different than others and cannot be marked as truly ‘beautiful’. But in this movie, I actually noticed that she is a really crappy actor. She probably will never get a better role than Spiderman’s girlfriend, because she can’t play anything else. In Marie Antoinette, the only thing she does is smile expressionlessly; and even her crying doesn’t feel real. Maybe it’s only my impression, but even though I think she looks good, I think somebody else might have incorporated Marie Antoinette better than her. Naomi Watts maybe? Julia Stiles? (But she looks too smart.) I don’t know.

The last thing I would like to comment on is the french revolution and the lack of criticism whatsoever: Yes, the movie lacks it and I do have the impression that Sofia Coppola is quite ignorant of it. On the one hand, I do think that sociocriticism would have killed the beauty of the movie, on the other hand, it hurts me to see the history being torn so much. At the beginning, I tried to understand that it’s difficult for a Hollywood director to handle to subject of the french revolution and I didn’t really mind an image of a naive and innocent Marie Antoinette (the Marie Antoinette of Lady Oscar is very innocent and warm-hearted too). But after an hour, it actually annoyed me a little bit how positive everything looked like, and how there are homeopathic doses of historical background given. It’s not like the french people only starved because they sent troops to America. And it’s not like Mme de Polignac was merely a playful friend, in fact, she was a scheming, rude woman who betrayed Marie Antoinette in the end.

Oh, whatever. I want a Marie Antoinette costume too… and a body shape like Kirsten Dunst. XD By the way, the japanese version of the DVD is the most amazing: “A limited edition special Japanese boxed set will contain the two disc DVD set, a jewelery box, a Swarovski high-heeled shoe brooch, a hand mirror, and a lace handkerchief.” (Quote from Wikipedia, like always.) Isn’t that… premium? XD

PS. I couldn’t decide for which poster to use, so I decided for both french ones.

Zodiac

He’s still incredibly cute though (and he does play the kind of character who has to be defined by “cute” in this movie). Basically, the two reasons for us to watch Zodiac were Jake Gyllenhaal and David Fincher. Therefore, our expectations were quite high too, even though we didn’t know what the movie was about at all: Because of Jake Gyllenhaal, the whole thing had to be meaningful, and because of David Fincher, it had to be suspenseful. In the end, it was neither meaningful nor truly suspenseful (at least if you compare it to “Seven”, for instance). And the end, which actually didn’t say anything at all, was a little bit disappointing. (For some reason, I have expected some shocking revelation, just like Fincher’s other movies. Hm.) So what was good about Zodiac?

First, the fact that we went to the cinema multiplied the enjoyment of watching Zodiac by 10. When you go to bigger cinemas, there are always those “That’s what cinemas are for” ads and I can only say: It’s so true. You don’t go to movie theatres just to watch a movie, you go there to enjoy the feel of it. It’s the impressive sound, the great image and last but not least, the people you go with and the others who are there. It’s especially a great experience to hear the whole auditorium laughing. (Of course, there are always those annoying people who tell you to shut up even though the opening credits haven’t even finished.) Not to forget that going to the movies for a date is much difficult than going home and watching something on TV or even on the computer. In our case, we spent an hour at Burger King afterwards, which was delightful too. *~*

Then, of course, the movie was incredibly well executed: Direction, cinematography, backgrounds… the movie looked really good. Next are the little details and the dialogues which we thought were quite witty. My personal favourite are the “I am not Paul Avery” buttons *hrr* Maybe this movie really is only something for people who enjoy the atmosphere of a movie, not caring that much about whether the story really makes a point. Or for people who are Jake Gyllenhaal fangirls, like me.

Scoop

It’s been more than a week that we’ve watched this movie, and I still didn’t come around writing about it. It was very nice, we got my Macbook running finally and watched it in the garden. At the end of the movie, it was basically pitch dark XD

At the beginning, I was rather reluctant to watch Scoop: Match Point was too good so the possibility of Scoop falling behind it is very high. Even though I haven’t seen many Woody Allen movies, I already have the impression that Match Point is his best work.
Luckily, Scoop is just as funny as Match Point, but without its great ending and the ‘message’ behind it. The quotes in imdb reflect about 80% of the greatness of the movie. The rest of the 20% have to be split up into 10% of other great quotes that are unfortunately not mentioned on imdb (see the title of this post) and 10% for the duo Scarlett Johansson and Woody Allen. They both truly are great actors and match together so well *hrr hrr* Even though I didn’t really like Scarlett Johansson’s stupid girl role in this movie, but it actually contributed to the funniness and she was not annoying, so I forgive her.

In the end, Scoop is another evidence for the fact that among all genres, I like comedies the most – but would I watch “Scoop” another time, I wonder?