Wednesday, May 15, 2013

My Spooky Valentine



I watched The Talented Mr Ripley at a time when I had the biggest Gwyneth crush. I was probably 14. It was also about two years after I had visited Italy with my mother and aunt. My first time abroad. We went to Rome, Florence, Piza (for an hour) and Venice. Also, I'm gay and watching it for the second time some days ago I realized I have kind of been Mr Ripley for a period in my life.
So I guess this movie should mean more to me than it does (did, actually) but until the more recent viewing it just didn't have any special place in my heart. I barely even thought of it.
But after rewatching it I fell in love with it.  Not because of Italy, not because of Gwyneth and not because I felt connected to the story (though these things matter at least slightly) but because I thought it was a great movie. Well-made on every level. So glad I revisited it!

The reason I rewatched it was the Hit Me With Your Best Shot episode which has this movie as its subject.
I picked this particular image because I liked how subtly Ripley's crazy anger manifests itself here. Philip Seymour Hoffman's character keeps pressing harshly the piano keys despite Tom's suggestion to stop and it's like we're having an "Imma kill you some day" moment a la Birth's opera scene. It's kind of an inside joke between the movie and its audience.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

A gondola named desire

This was the first time I watched Summertime. I didn't love it but it was perfectly fine and I was moved in the end.
The reason I watched it was that I wanted to participate in the Hit Me With Your Best Shot series once again.

There are many pretty images in the film and it wasn't easy for me to pick my favorite (for whatever reason I would pick it) so I chose one that I just liked in a special way.





In a way, it's stupid to choose an image that is too dark to show the beauty of Venice or Hepburn's beautifully expressive face but this one makes me think of high-school romance in Venice.