A look at the Oscar race

So, I thought, why not make some predictions for the Oscars? Yeah, sometimes you ask yourself things like that.


I'd like to share my thoughts on the Best Picture race so I'll predict the nominees in the Director category. Yes, that's the true top 5 movies for me :p

Director

Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

David Fincher, The Social Network

Danny Boyle, 127 Hours

John Cameron's Mitchelle, Rabbit Hole

The Coen Bros, True Grit



That's it for now. I wanted to predict the Actress and Supporting Actress categories as well but I don't have any interesting insights. I mean, in the Actress category I agree with what most people say and in the Supp Actress category I have no idea what will happen.

But I do think Bening (The Kids Are All Right) and Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech) are locked in the Actress and the Supp Actress categories respectively.

H apoliti (the ultimate one)

So, in case tou didn't know, and why would you, I adore Anna Vissi. Born in Cyprus, she moved to Greece with her family to pursue a career as a singer. Well, she kinda made it. For many years now she is considered the number one star in Greece. I haven't been a fan for as long as many others have, but I'm a big one and here is why:


This is one of her most famous ballads. The title means "I don't want tou to know" and perhaps you, as well, don't want to know. Well, the lyrics aren't supposed to make you smile :p




Let's visit a more recent performance. The title means "The pain of love". Yep, I prefer the sad ones but it's mostly because they let her show her range and power.





Not wanting to change the mood, here is one more "Love is hard so let's all embrace the sadness" song. At least I changed the era again! Title: Whatever you ask of me.





These two songs (more like "parts of the songs") were sang the one next to the other but the video is cut in two. Titles: "Things" and "I paralyse"




(Sorry about the tasteless ending of the second one!)


This is one of the first live performances of Anna I fell in love with! Title: Gas (Not the one we use for cars but the one.. whatever)




(That's right, they're getting bigger, just like your enthusiasm for her. I hope..)


And now, her signature song. The one she always sings whenever she is on a stage, a table, a chair, a camel etc Title: "12" (aka midnight)





Thank you Anna for everything!

(I hope these videos will not be down after a while..)

I didn't fall in love after all but at least the kids are indeed fine

No introduction.. (unless that counts as one)


I Am Love

I don't think I have something to say about this film (or any film?) that hasn't been said before but just so you know, I'm with the people who thought that the movie is beautiful but quite soulless. I mean, I just didn't care much. Nothing really wrong but nothing really captivating. The characters did things that others have done in the past and there wasn't something in the script original enough to make me appreciate the photography or the music or the art direction or...
It did, however, please my senses and that's something but it wasn't enough. Tilda was good but I much prefer her in Julia mode.

6/10




The Kids Are All Right


I'm too lazy to post all my thoughts on this one but the fact alone that it made me think many things is to its credit. Most of the jokes were forced and predictable but the universal truths this seemingly anorthodox family made me think about, were a pretty rewarding element. The characters felt real and that's why I cared a lot about what would happen to them. There was room for more digging in the relationships territory but this movie didn't care to explore much more than the similarities between a gay family and a straight one which is far from a crime.
Bening and Wasikowska were excellent. The rest were pretty good, too.


7/10

You give me my time back!

Well, if you needed a reason not to think it's almost impossible for me to like a movie, I'm afraid I won't give you one right now.

Please Give is a failure. It raises some questions, yes. But that's not that hard, is it? It has no depth, its wit is limited if not mostly absent and any good idea there is in Miss Holofcener's mind that needs to get to us, just loses its way resulting in awkward scenes.

There is always something that doesn't work and it's kind of frustrating to feel that "this" or "that" could have had an impact if handled more carefully.

Rebecca Hall gives an excellent performance but she deserved a much better film.

It's sad, because the film belongs to a genre that I really admire.

5/10 (almost a 4/10)

Laura and her boring aura

I am starting to believe I should watch films randomly. Because, just because a film is loved by a billion of smart movie lovers, it doesn't mean I'll like it.

That is the case with Laura.

Allow me this way of explaining my feelings on the film:

* I liked the mood (though the music was too much at times when I didn't feel there was a reason)

* Many good/great lines

* Some good performances

* Intriguing mystery

* Nice to look at

-----

* Gene Tierney's performance: Mediocre

* At the end, I didn't care about what would happen



Are we supposed to buy that all these men couldn't resist to falling for Laura? Why? Because she is pretty and naive? And what about the detective? How did he know that? And how did she know from the beginning that he had fallen for her? She's naive after all!

But it's not just that. Is she supposed to be a symbol of "pure good"? I mean, she is an emotional slut. She falls and rises for and from anyone.

Judith Anderson's character, at some point, tells Laura that Shelby is weak and that's why he doesn't belong with Laura, who is... not? I'm sorry but, how is she not weak?

And yes, a naive, pretty girl can be a magnet. But not when it's portayed in a way as uninteresting as in this case.

Ultimately, I think, my problem was that I would be more interested in the film only if all these guys were nuts for a (naive or not, pretty or not) girl that had something that yelled "you don't see me everyday".

Maybe the girl is irrelevant. Maybe the point is to observe these men. Just believe that they had their reasons to feel the way they did. It was rewarding to watch them but I really needed to see a strong motive and I didn't. Waldo's world was rocked because of that girl??

He might disagree with me but she was a dame. I guess that is a bad word. I wouldn't use it if it created any connection between her and La Dench.


6/10

(I'm open to debate and I didn't want to sound a snob. I really wanted to love the movie. OK, I couldn't resist to my idea for the title :p)

Inception review (Spoilers)

So, is Inception the pretentious version of Avatar? I think so. I also think it's a little better because pretentiousness can be interesting.

The reason I'm making the comparison is that both movies, for me, are trying to be epics with a heart. I didn't feel the heart beating and the "epic" nature isn't really my thing most of the time.

What makes Inception more pretentious is that it stives for sophistication but ending up achieving nothing more than complication. Nolan didn't bother touching the world of dreams. He was fine with just playing with it.

Cobb's Personal Tragedy was just too hollow to make me care since I didn't see how it was anything more than "I lost my wife. I blame myself. I punish myself. I have now found the strength to Let Go." Yeah.. so? Did it have to be surrounded by "cute" rules and "dreamy" worlds? Was the context of the relationship supposed to make the feeling deeper or the experience more fun and less depressing?

By the way, I really like DiCaprio but I was frustrated by him in this movie. Just show some raw emotion for god's sake! Make me feel you're in pain!

The attempts for laughs should have just not been attempted.

It wasn't as bad as I make it seem but really, it needed improvement in every aspect.

I was about to give it a 6/10 but I don't think I want to. Take a 5/10 and go to (a dreamless) sleep. You don't even get a tag.

Not all jewels are made equal

The Earrings of Madame de... (SPOILERS)

A warning to all you spoiled, beautiful, rich, adored ladies and gentlemen out there who think life is a walk in the park: Bad things can happen in a park!

Madame de.. (The character. I'll call her Madame from now on) has an expression on her face that shows she never had to worry about anything in her life. She is everything I described in the above paragraph and the only problem in her life at the beginning of the movie is that she has to sell something to deal with a debt her "hungry for buying stuff" self created. Her lies will make her pay much more later.

So, she chooses her least favorite item. A pair of earrings her husband bought her on the second (I think) day of their marriage. The earrings are diamond ones but so what? She has things she loves more. Only things.

I actually have no idea why I'm wasting time with describing the plot since this post is for people who've seen it but anyway.

Nothing in the lightness of the first 10 seconds prepares you for the tragedy in the last 10 seconds (don't take the numbers literally). The woman we meet is nothing like the woman we say goodbye to at the end. What changed her? The earrings changed and that change was passed to her. At first, they didn't matter just like nothing really mattered for Madame. But at some point the earrings got a meaning and Madame found a meaning too. OK, OK I'll remind you. She fell in love. Yes, the old divine and possibly catastrophic little thing called Love.

But her husband just didn't want to make it easy for her. Not that his actions were pure nastiness. It's not cute to feel like you are totally insignificant to the person you're married to. Not that he was in love. Still, give him a break. Weren't you ever a bit annoyed when one of your friends started paying less attention to you because of a new boyfriend/girlfriend?

I don't really like the idea of religion but at least it gives movies more possibilities. For instance, I really liked the contrast between the two "pray at church" scenes. At the first one, she acts as if she were watering her plants. She didn't care about the fact that she was supposedly talking to the mother of Jesus. At the second one, however, not only was she begging for a favour, she went on to offer the most important item she possessed in order to save the most important person in her life.

The earrings made me think of things in my life (a street, a square, a song, a phrase etc) that for many years were just what they were but because of some events, they later felt like keys for the doors of my memories and feelings.

If I have a problem with the movie, is its simplicity. I'm not sure about my feelings but I think it's too safely made. That doesn't mean that it's not powerful, moving and beautiful. Charles Boyer was excellent and Danielle Darrieux amazing.

I admit that I don't get the title. Does it mean that we don't know who she is, whose she is or something else?

8/10