Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions

What I Loved About My Third Oscar Night

2012-02-27T13:59:00.003+01:00

Keeping myself awake with a bottle of coke and some cake, I stayed up the second half of the German night to watch some "millionaires giving each other golden statues", as Billy Crystal put it (I think that's what he said). Interestingly, it gets easier each year.

With a huge lot of Oscar-comments coming up (or already published), there's little chance that anybody actually happens to be reading my modest little post - but if you are, I promise you won't get any negative vibes from me.

We already know what went wrong, which films didn't get nominated or didn't win what they deserved, still my overall impression of this years' awards remains very good.

Because of that, I have decided to put of a list of...

All the things I loved about the 84th Annual Academy Awards:

1. Watching clips from the few films that I have already been able to see, and being reminded of the wonderful cinematic experiences that last year presented to us.

And how cool was Best Original Script for Midnight in Paris?!

2. The old-school-ness: decoration, hosting, winners - even many of the dresses!

Billy Crystal was wonderful too, even though I don't know him very well.

3. The five seconds' glimpse I caught of squeak-Rahman-squeak. Why did there have to be ads right after that?

4. Jason Segel on the red carpet: extremely sympathetic and incredibly sweet.

(Sorry, had to make fun of that film title - confused it with a review-title when I first read it).

5. Getting excited for the wonderful 2011 films that I haven't seen yet - most famously The Artist, which I will be able to see in two weeks.

6. Jessica Chastain's look after they played her nomination video - so very charming.

7. Rango actually won - what a welcome surprise!

8. The "Man or Muppet"-clip made me want to watch the movie badly.

9. Its celebration of the thing we all love so dearly - makes me feel sentimental every time.

What did you love about this year's Oscars?

PS: I would appreciate it very much if you would take the time to give your feedback on this blog, to help improve it - just a tiny comment would be enough.

It's time for your FEEDBACK

2012-02-26T17:43:00.004+01:00

Being a platform for discussion and exchange of views and opinions, a blog is something that should be influenced by not only its author, but also - and especially - by its readers.

Every time I take the time to brainstorm and think of new ideas for this establishment, I am often strongly influenced by my readers, who in fact are the essence of this blog. Without you, I would soon loose interest in the sometimes not so easy work of blogging - that has become an important part of my everyday life.

However, now is the time to be completely open, and make room for your ideas and opinions of any sort - it is time for your concrete feedback.

Don't be afraid of sharing negative criticism, which is the most helpful kind; speak your mind and tell me and the world, what you think of Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions.

Be it fisticuffs or applause, any comment is appreciated and much wanted.

I hereby declare this bazar open!

One Night, One Cinema - Two Films

2012-02-24T17:19:00.000+01:00

There's a first time for everything, isn't there?

Hysteria (2011) & Intouchables (2011)

Watching two films after each other in the cinema was an unthinkable thing to do for me - until quite recently, when me and two friends decided that we had to see the two films that were running in the repertory the next week. So yesterday we went, and I tell you: it was fun.

This might be due to the films we saw, which were comedies (the first one especially), but really: it didn't feel odd in the slightest. It was more like a DVD-night in public, to a certain point.

As mostly in the repertory, the films were current indies, and as mostly I felt utterly happy to be able to see them. While there has been a lot of talking about Intouchables (which was also released in our multiplex, that's why), I'd probably never seen Hysteria if it weren't for our awesome little cinema.

Why has nobody made a film about the invention of the vibrator before? That is one of the best ideas for a comedy I have ever heard of. Certainly, there were some holes in the script and a few odd scenes, but in a nutshell it was pure fun - I haven't laughed that much for a long time. My risible muscles were truly sore.

Intouchables however, played on a totally different level. Firstly, it was much more emotional than the previous, more realistic and also profounder. Secondly: Omar Sy is a man you ought to keep an eye on. His performance had many layers and facial expressions and body language were impressively unique. The film on a whole was a very fitting mixture of realism and vision or inspiration, there were scenes where the audience laughed its hearts out, and others were it kept the tissues near. All of this, I realize, sounds like the description of a fairly original film, but there is something quite special about Intouchables. It is a film that might inspire you to do things you've never done, but also one that might make you feel very content about your life and being. It shows what wonderful people live "beneath" and "above" the middle class - us, if I'm allowed to say that - and... well, some other great philosophic stuff. You know what I'm trying to say - it just sounds so worn out when I'm putting it into words.

Conclusion:

Watching a double feature in cinema is great.
If you need a light and extremely funny comedy, watch Hysteria.
If you need a great current film, watch Intouchables.
If you have the possibility, watch both films in the same cinema, the same night.

Have you been to a double feature in cinema? What are your experiences?

Why Does Shit Always Happen To Us?

2012-02-18T20:11:00.000+01:00

A comedy about friendship, Burqa-snogging and... shit.

Delhi Belly (2011)

Directed by Abhinay Deo | India

Written by Akshat Verma

★ Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapur

Aamir Khan can today be called one of the trailblazers of the Hindi comedy film landscape. After the immediate and huge success of 3 Idiots (my very first post on this blog), Aamir decided to produce an even blacker comedy, this time starring his nephew Imran, among others.

What sets Delhi Belly apart from 3 Idiots is its degree of controversy. While the 2009-blockbuster followed just as many Hindi-film formulas as it didn't, Delhi Belly is much more inspired by European and American satires and black comedies such as Borat and others. Even though this very much suits my personal taste, others - especially Indian adults or farmers - might not approve of it.

As the title suggests, the film is set in India's capitol New Delhi, where the three friends and room-mates Tashi (Imran), Arup (Vir) and Nitin (Kunaal) get into a lot of trouble; Nitin has been suffering from the "Delhi Belly", which is a strong diarrhea caused by eating street food, while Tashi is on the edge of marrying a girl that he doesn't know if he loves - and Arup, a graphic designer, is getting harassed by his boss, who can't decide whether the banana should look happy because it is about to get eaten – or sad.

On top of all this, the three amigos eventually get involved into some mafia business, and Tashi falls in love with his co-worker Menaka.

Happy... sad... happy...?

Even before its release, there was a lot of trouble about Delhi Belly, caused by the song "Bhaag D.K. Bose", which turns into a popular expletive when you sing it fast. Furthermore, the film was rated "A" (18+) for "adult language and content" - the characters say "fuck" a few times, and there are some very harmless sex scenes. I'm happy not to be an Indian film maker - even though I would have liked to be an Indian teenager for the release of the film. After all, what you don't get is what you want - and it must have been funny to sneak into the theater and get it.

"Bhaag D.K. Bose" is indeed a groovy song, but the absolute sensation of the soundtrack definitely is "I Hate You Like I Love You" and its video at the end of the film - we like you that way, Aamir.

Another treat is Imran Khan, who changed his patented cute-shy-boy into hot-confused-trouble-guy for the movie. We also like you that way, Imran.

The other two fellas were played by more or less newcomers Kunaal Roy Kapur and Vir Das, who both showed some comedic talent. Most convincing was Vir Das, whom I would certainly like to hear more from in the future.

Of course, Delhi Belly can't compare to Borat (to get back to my initial example), but this is an unfair comparison. The film is not an all-through black comedy or satire, but more a light and partly silly comedy with black strokes, whose most important attribute is to be different from the common slapstick features Mumbai produces every year.

I won't deny that the genre is currently evolving – there have been some wonderful comedies in the past 1-2 years, such as Tere Bin Laden, Well Done Abba and Peepli Live. Even among these, Delhi Belly is one of my favorites.

Another thing that I liked about the film is the way it deals with female characters and female sexuality – a hot topic at the time, even before The Dirty Picture came out. The two females in the film are very different from each other: there's Sonia (played by a woman called Shenaz Treasurywala (!)), Tashi's fiancée, who is a loud and spirited shopping-addict from a rich family, and Tashi's co-worker Menaka (Poorna Jagannathan), a boyish modern hippie.

These two characters have something important in common: they're sexually liberated women - at least by my definition. There was one particular scene in the movie, which I believe has never before been shown in an Indian film like that.

All these elements sum up to a very entertaining and funny film that might not feel like something exceptionally new, but something nice and rememberable with strong overseas-potential.

Rating: 8.3

Valentine's Day Movie Meme

2012-02-14T17:04:00.003+01:00

Meredith, a fellow blogger from Forever Classics, a blog I just recently stumbled upon, created a wonderful meme to celebrate Valentine's Day...

Valentine's Day is actually one of the few holidays I don't truly participate in, except I'm going to prepare a nice dinner for my family tonight - but it is one of my favorite holidays. People say that it was invented to make money, but honestly: you can say that about every other holiday too.
I don't mean to hurt anyone, this is just my opinion, but: do you really believe Jesus (if he ever existed) would want us to spent thousand of Euros (or Dollars) on easter eggs and christmas candles?

I like Christmas, but for me Valentine's Day is by no means inferior to the "holy holidays", because just like them, it's a celebration of love. And that's the end of my little advocacy of Valentine's Day, the most hated holiday in Germany.

Let's start with the meme:

Q: What is your favorite romantic comedy?

A: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

Even though it get's quite dramatic at the end, this will forever by my favorite rom-com. The dream couple Shahkajol in the sweetest candyfloss-prodcution of Yash Raj Films.

Q: What is your favorite romantic drama?

A: Dil Se.. (1998)

Explanation: read here.

Of course, I don't consider this to be a romantic drama only, also because there's not that much "romance" in it, but it is my favorite film, and you could say that it's a romantic drama.

Q: Worst romance film you've seen?

A: Deewana (1992)

Shah Rukh, you may be the King of Hearts, but your first movie was the worst romance film I've ever seen. Well, let's say you were young and needed the money.

Q: How do you feel about the majority of romantic films being labeled "chick flicks"?

A: Not happy, because there are many good romantic films. But let's face it: the majority of them, as is the majority of all films, is rather poor. And watched by many "chicks", which is a term not equal to "women" (people tend to forget that).

Q: Favorite on-screen couple?

A: Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol (Mukherjee) Devgan

Did you notice that Shah Rukh has been in all of my answers... I didn't expect myself to be that un-avantgarde regarding romantic films. Anyhow, this is - as I said - the dream couple.

Q: Favorite off-screen couple?

A: No idea. I don't read many gossip magazines. (Ahem, I meant: ROBERTKRISTEN!!! xD LOL <3... ROFL)

Q: Best kiss in a movie?

A: You're kidding! - Atonement (2007)

Sorry for not finding a better image. But you get the idea. Magical.

Q: Favorite romantic scene?

A: Dil Se.. (1998)

Read the whole scene and see more caps here.

Q: Who are 2 film characters you wished had gotten together, but never did?

A: Obviously, Devdas and Paro... even though the film would have been less powerful.

The ending has to be tragic - I liked Dev.D for revolutionizing the original story, but it's not the same overall feeling at all.

Q: Two actors you think would have great chemistry, but have never done a film together?

A: Oh, I'm to uninspired to answer that.

Q: Favorite romantic song in a film (doesn't have to be from a musical)?

A: It's very hard to decide, and I think I have various favorites - this is one of them:

Roshni Se (Asoka, 2001)

Q: Best score from a romance film?

A: Dil Se, dil se, dil se.

Q: Most romantic film quote?

A: "Sirf yeh, ki main tumhe chahta hoon. Dil Se."

(Just that I love you. From the heart).

- Dil Se.. (1998)

Q: A film you'd recommend to watch on Valentine's Day?

A: Anari (1959)

As most of my favorite movies are dramas, I think they're too heavy to be recommended for this day. Therefore, I recommend to you one of my favorite romantic comedies, which is a quite unusual one - and still fresh after so many years. After all, Valentine's Day is also a "classic" day to me.

--------------------

PS: Sorry Hollywood, India is still the best regarding romance.

No, just kidding, but these are the answers I've chosen, and apparently the only thing the western world can do is let James McAvoy kiss some more girls (in movies).

PPS: While Meredith asks, how many times she used the word "romantic", I ask myself how many times I chose an answer including "Shah Rukh Khan". As we say in German: "Cliché, come out". Well, it's an interesting revelation - I'm not as snobby as I thought.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Current Treasure: Kun Faya Kun

2012-02-13T16:05:00.000+01:00

If God sent a song to us, then his messenger was A. R. Rahman.

Kun Faya Kun/ Kun Fayakun/ Kun Faaya Kun

CLASSIFICATION: MUSIC

Album: Rockstar (soundtrack)

Composed by A. R. Rahman

Lyrics by Irshad Kamil

Artists: A. R. Rahman, Javed Ali, Mohit Chauhan

Length: 7:53

LISTEN HERE | LYRICS AND TRANSLATION

Dear Allah Rakha Rahman,

already your song Khwaja Mere Khwaja made me feel that you might have seen something that I have not. Not with your eyes, but with your heart. And that you want to show it to as many people as possible, with the help of instruments, voices and music sheets.

Mr. Rahman, I caught a glimpse of this something through all of your songs, even the disco song Fanaa – which is so much more than that – but it was never as clear as in the work/ creation/ gift from heaven you sent to us in 2011.

The song Kun Faya Kun is, and I feel that I'm understating it, the most beautiful song I have heard in my life, with the exception of The Sound of Silence.

I can not believe that I found my two favorite songs in the same year, I simply can't. How did this happen, and why? Is it true that 16 is the magic age?

By any means, there has never before been a year where I learnt and saw as much as I did this previous year.

As I thought about your magic song, and the letter I was going to write about it, I realized that I didn't even know what "Kun Faya Kun" means. I found a wonderful website; rahman360.com, which has the most poetic english translations of your songs, and it said:

Kun Faaya Kun... (refrain):

„Verily, when He intends a thing, His command is, "Be", and it is!“

You didn't write the lyrics of the song, I know, but it is clear to see, that Kun Faya Kun is a song about the belief in God. As this letter is going to published online, I will not write too much about religion, because this is one of the few subjects I find very private.

...I am not a muslim, that is for sure, but on the other hand, maybe I am. Because I believe that all religions are the same. And to say it shortly: yes, I do believe in God, even though it is not a person in my eyes.

In an interview, you said that God is everywhere and that you too believe in religious equality. Thank you for speaking my mind. Maybe this is too personal for my readers, but I hope they stay with me and this rather philosophic letter.

A Qawwali is a religious islamic song, and Kun Faya Kun is a Qawwali. Yet it speaks to me on every level, and I can listen to it every day, all the time. However, the most beautiful thing is always, to listen to your favorite song, when you haven't listened to it for a long time.

I don't know why I am writing this to you, if there's one person who knows everything about music, it must be you.

There also not much more I can write, to be honest, because I know that my words will never measure up to your incredible music, and because all these thoughts are getting mixed up in my head.

In the end, "thank you" is not enough to describe what I feel for your, let's call it song, but it is all I can say. Thank you.

Haiku-Poems About Six 2011-films I Watched Recently

2012-02-11T16:13:00.000+01:00

Inspired by the Limerick Reviews Stevee did on a few films she recently saw, I decided to try out some filmic poetry, too. As I caught up with some 2011 hits or non-hits last week, I thought it was fitting to select these and show my reflections in the Haiku poems, because we learned about Haiku poems in school...

Haiku: Haiku is a japanese poem, consisting of three lines (in japanese, there have to be 5-7-5 syllables). The poems are concrete and do not show exact feelings.

Anyway, here we go, before I change my mind:

Carnage

„After the show

it must

go on“

Shor in the City

„In the end

there is

no excuse“

Elle s'appelait Sarah

„At the sea

I do

not find them“

The Dirty Picture

„A silky lotus

floats on

its own“

Limitless

„The balcony,

where your feet

no longer stand“

Delhi Belly

„A car

crashes against

a dustbin“

I hope you liked the poetry; I'm afraid it's not as concrete as genuine Haikus are supposed to be, because I tend to be more of a dreamy poet.

Different language, same film - or is it?

2012-02-05T14:17:00.003+01:00

Read also: Raavan - A Wet Experience (review)

In 2010, Mani Ratnam was the first director to use the Shahrukh-Darr-phenomena* in a filmatization of the holy Ramayana. But why did he make the same film two times?

Raavanan (2010)

Directed by Mani Ratnam | India

Written by Mani Ratnam & Suhasini

★ Aishwarya Rai, Prithviraj, Vikram

Mani Ratnam is what you may call an offbeat film maker, whose films sometimes happen to gain commercial success. Hearing the word "offbeat" scares a vast amount of people, which is why they are called the main stream, while others feel interested only when they hear this word.
There is one more group of people however, who think that the word offbeat is a label for many good films, but not a guarantee for that.

I belong to the latter group of people, and maybe that is the reason why Mani Ratnam is one of my favorite directors. His intention seems to be not to make offbeat films, but to make good films that are "difficult" and thought-awakening, and on the other hand comparatively easy to understand and get in to. Ratnam's latest two films, Raavan and Raavanan happen to be a fusion of all these factors. While the first one didn't do that well at neither box-office nor critics, the latter had quite some success and has been praised by many writers. If you remember my review of Raavan, you might now that I - unlike many others - very much liked Ratnam's new interpretation of the Ramayana.

People told me that the Tamil-version was much better, because it had Vikram as the main lead, and already then the thought crossed my mind that: why has Ratnam made two versions of this film, instead of just letting one be dubbed? I was about to find out...

Vikram as Veera

The problem, perhaps, is Bollywood itself. The industry is moving away from the old times when there was only a handful of stars, and Yash Raj films are no longer necessarily superhits. But you must admit that certain names still have an influence, as they have in every other big film industry of the world.
Besides, why not cast the off-screen dream couple of Abhi-warya, even though it didn't work out that well in Umrao Jaan – then we have three big names: Abhishek, Aishwarya and well... the mixture of both.

Mani, Mani, Mani... you've got yourself in big trouble with many of your fans. - But I'm not one of them. On the contrary, I think I'll get myself in big trouble with some of the people who think that Raavanan was so much better than Raavan. Because, I almost dare not say it, I liked Raavan better. The most important point of the Raavanan-disciples is that Vikram is best as Veera/ Beera - and it's true, that medal is clearly his.

But I say: Raavan was better. Because of Vikram. You think this is illogical? Let me explain:

Raavan:

(Abhishek + Aishwarya + Vikram)

= (good actor + superb actor + superb actor)

= Very good film.

Raavanan:

(Vikram + Aishwarya + Prithviraj)

= (superb actor + superb actor (dubbed) + bland actor)

= Good film.

As you can see, the problem lays with Prithviraj, who overtakes Vikram's old part as the police inspector in the Tamil version. And that, Mani Ratnam, was a big fault. In Raavan, the police inspector is unsympathetic, but Vikram delivers a wonderful performance.

In Raavanan, you hate the police inspector, and Prithviraj's bad performance doesn't improve the situation at all. Plus, Aishwarya was dubbed, even though she speaks Tamil. That, Mani Ratnam, was your second big fault.

Prithviraj

One thing that was... well, not better, but it had the "exotic-bonus", was that the songs were in Tamil, and as with every language I don't speak I was fascinated by it. Also, according to the subtitles, the lyrics were slightly different from the Hindi songs - they felt a bit more poetical, if that's even possible. However, I didn't feel that Aishwarya had more chemistry with Vikram than with Abhishek, but in the Tamil version Veera's feelings for the girl were just much clearer than in the Hindi version. Which I believe was Abhishek's fault.

We could go on analyzing the tiny differences between the films, but personally this is enough for me. Raavan is my personal favorite, but my rating for both films is the same. What I liked most in the Hindi version ("art, magic, great music, entertainment and new-wave-flair"), I found again in the Tamil one, so even though I don't fully understand Ratnam's decision yet, I do not disapprove of it.

Maybe, just as he has ten faces, and various names – Beera, Veera, Raavan, Raavanan, Abhishek, Vikram... – there cannot be one single version only, of the film that sheds a different light on the former classic villain, either.

Rating: 7.5

* Shahrukh-Darr-phenomena, the: In a film including the S-D-phenomea, there are two leading characters in a film, a classical hero and a classical villain. Even though the audience is expected to sympathize with the hero, the villain is the one we care about most in the end. Concerning the S-D-phenomena, there are two categories: the ordinary and the modern. In an ordinary S-D-phenomena, the director and producer do not intend to create a villain-hero, while a modern S-D-phenomena is created on purpose. Raavan makes use of a modern S-D-phenomena.

Which version did you like best - Raavan or Raavanan?

A little thank-you note

2012-02-05T12:16:00.001+01:00

Many wonderful things have happened since new year, and that's why I would like to thank everyone who made these things possible today. So I wrote this little thank you note:

Most of you already know that I am officially a freelance writer for the ISHQ-magazine, but I want to thank Vera and the others once more for making this possible.

Also many thanks to all my readers - you have climbed a new top in January with more pageviews than ever before!

The peak to the right side is January.

There were also some new followers and commenters, which I want to welcome at this point.

Also, just today I got an email saying that paperblog selected me as the Blogger of the Day on Friday - something I would have never expected. Thank you so much!

I feel very bigheaded, writing all this stuff, which is why I keep thanking all of you in every second sentence.

Sometimes I think of the day when I started this blog out of holiday-boredom and curiosity, and I can't believe what happened to the project. Even though, sometimes you have to do what is called "cut your darlings"; my weekly feature about new Indian and other releases will finally be shut down, because I don't feel it's very interesting or unusual. Well, it's all for the greater good, every ending is another beginning.

So again, thank you, all of you, I'm looking forward to the future while being one of the happiest persons on the planet today.

(Very, very) Happy New Month: Films of January 2012

2012-02-03T16:51:00.001+01:00

Another month has gone by, and I am proud to tell you that...

website

...this is one of the happiest days of my life, because I just got to know that I'm going to write for the ISHQ-magazine, which is the most-read Bollywood magazine in Germany!

So I'll spend the rest of the afternoon singing and dancing around in my room.

Anyhow, I've managed to watch one movie a day, at an average! At least one new years resolution that I've managed to obey.
Of the films I've watched, 9 were 2011-films that I caught up with (some of them I wish I hadn't), but I also managed to watch quite a few classics, which I'm proud of.

It feels like I say this every time, but sadly I haven't watched too many Indian films. I'm not going to promise anything, but hopefully this is going to change next month.

I'm also partly looking forward to the month of the Oscars (even though I'm not that into the award season), while I'm crying over the fact that Drive did not have a release in my home town, as promised by our theaters home page (which, by the way, has lied to me a few times now).

Watched for the very first time:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick - UK/ USA
One word: mind-blowing.
And in my opinion not boring at all. Actually reminded me of last year's Melancholia and The Tree of Life.Very beautiful and technically ahead of its time, I couldn't believe it's from 1968 until I saw some very 60-ish characters on one of the computer screens.
Rating: 9.3

Andaz Apna Apna (1994) Rajkumar Santoshi - India
This 90's Bollywood blockbuster comedy failed to impress me. There was too much slapstick for my taste, though I admit it wasn't humiliating. The best thing about it was the cast. Who would've thought that Aamir has made films like that.
Rating: 6.0

Awakenings (1990) Penny Marshall - USA
My first Robert de Niro film was quite intriguing, though a bit formula-based too. But a good film indeed - and I still like Robin Williams, no matter what I read about him anywhere.
Rating: 7.8

Beastly (2011) Daniel Barnz - USA
I can't believe I watched the film of 2011 I wanted to see the least - and didn't hate it! It really isn't as bad as everybody thinks. But it isn't good either.
Rating: 4.6

Cycle Kick (2011) Shashi Sudigala - India
Didn't have any money at the start of the month, so I watched some of the legal youtube streams. Nothing overwhelming, but an interesting try at a low-budget Indian film.
Rating: 6.1

Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) Marc Lawrence - USA
There are worse films. And there are worse Hugh Grant films. And worse Sarah Jessica Parker films.
Rating: 6.3

E-Love (2011) Anne Villacéque - France
Good idea, good leading actress - bad realization, even worse title. Felt a bit like soft porn. But maybe I'm to sensitive.
Rating: 4.2

In Time (2011) Andrew Niccol - USA
Sometimes, a movie you think is good gets a bad reception. But you still have to see it, even though it might not be as good as you think. In Time has loads of unused potential (for example, Cillian Murphy, who is rather unattractive in this one... oh, and the whole idea, of course) - but also a lot of well-used potential. Let's just hope they don't make a sequel.
Rating: 6.5

La Strada (1954) Frederico Fellini - Italy
If you feel like watching a certain movie you know nothing about: do it. Your intuition is mostly right.
Black and white art-house still makes me depressive in the end, but if I watch only a little of it (like one or two a month), I'm able to survive.
Rating: 7.8

Lord of the Dance in 3D (2011) Marcus Viner - Ireland

I am amazed by Flatley's talent - as a film... well, not so much.

Rating: 7.0

Payanam (2011) Radha Mohan - India
My third or fourth Tamil film. You don't see flight films that often in India, so it was interesting - and never boring - but the actors were not the best. And the terrorists were Pakistani, so... thumbs down for that.
Rating: 6.4

Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock - USA
A huge burden has fallen from my shoulders after I've finally, finally watched this film. Phew.
And it was good, by the way. I was a bit disappointed by the shower scene, though. But after reading about it I understood why it's so famous. By the way, the trailer of this film is one of the coolest I've ever seen.
Rating: 7.6

Rashômon (1950) Akira Kurosawa - Japan
Luckily I gave Kurosawa a second chance after not liking Seven Samurai as much as I had expected. This incredibly ingenious crime film still fascinates me when I think of it. Fabulous.
Rating: 9.3

Rio (2011) Carlos Saldanha - USA
Can anybody please explain to me, why I watched this film? A complete waste of time. Come on, a blue bird that is called "Blu"?
Rating: 5.4

Soundtrack (2011) Neerav Ghosh - India
Had one of the coolest posters of last year, but I feel like I'm the only person on earth who actually watched it. The start is a bit tough, but as the story develops you get more and more in to the film - and in the end, it's quite a good one. Rajeev Khandelwal, the man with the blue, blue eyes surely has got a future in Bollywood.
Rating: 7.5

Stand By Me (1986) Rob Reiner - USA
I am absolutely surprised by how great this film is, and how much I already love it.
Now, I'm a bit older than the protagonists, but the thing with growing up, and along the way losing some of your old friends touched me a lot, because it's something I often think of.
Stand By Me is one of the best "children's movies" I've ever seen - actually I wouldn't even call it a children's' movie.
Rating: 9.5

Survival of the Dead (2009) George A. Romero - USA
Yes, I did watch this film. And it wasn't that bad for a horror film. Well, compared to Psycho it definitely was. But it's a decent time-filler.
Rating: 5.0

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) Scott Derickson - USA
Interesting composition for a horror film. Even though it's not that scary, it definitely stimulates your thoughts.
Rating: 7.0

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) David Fincher - USA | review
"It is both small and the big details that make it an overall better film than the original: the style, the opportunity to identify with the characters, and its inclusion of some of the book's key scenes - most importantly the ending."
Rating: 8.2

The Great Gatsby (1974) Jack Clayton - USA
While waiting for the 2012-remake, I decided to watch this most famous filmatization of the novel. Turns out Robert Redford was a hottie (sorry for this teenage expression) when he was younger. A bit too melodramatic for my taste (the film, I mean), but still decent.
Rating: 7.2

The Name of the Rose (1986) Jean-Jacques Annaud - France/ Italy/ Germany
We watched this in history class, but only the first 20 minutes, and the last 60 minutes. Which I hope you understand that I was extremely mad about. So I finished it at home.
I already told you I'm a sucker for history films (and novels), so...
Rating: 7.5

The Nanny Diaries (2007) Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini - USA
I would like Scarlett Johansson in anything, and this was by far not the worst. At least I don't want to be richie-rich now.
Rating: 7.0

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Frank Darabont - USA | review
Good film for a IMDB Top List #1 to be.
Rating: 8.3

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) Ken Loach - Ireland
Finally! Ever since Jack L.'s Irish Film Marathon, I've been wanting to see this film, and I finally did. And it wasn't just good because of Cillian Murphy's blue, blue eyes.
Rating: 8.2

The X-Files (1998) Rob Bowman - USA
Sorry for not having been older in the 90s, but I will never understand the success of The X-Files. Come on people, the acting is as wooden as the script is holey.
Rating: 6.0

The Young Victoria (2009/10) Jean-Marc Vallée - UK/ USA
In my opinion a rather underrated film, you don't/ didn't hear enough about. This was the first time I saw Emily Blunt in a serious role, and she has potential to make it to my favorite actresses list.
Of course this is not a film for everyone, but if you're a sucker for historical films (like me, admittedly), then I think you'll like this.
Rating: 7.7

Útlaginn (1981) Ágúst Guðmundsson - Iceland
Another new year's resolution was watching more films from "unknown" film industries. Iceland - checked. We watched it in school, because in Danish schools you have to learn about Nordic literature, obviously. Not bad, but not really good either.

Rating. 6.0

Verfolgt (2006) Angelina Maccarone - Germany
The title of the film means "hunted/ traced", and it's a perfect title for me - because I have been and still am hunted by this film. I first read about it and thought I had to watch it (black and white/ interesting theme/ good German actors). The next day I find it in the library. And after having watched it, I often think about it. There are many parts I don't like, mainly because I can't really... relate to sado-masochism. And because black and white art-house films tend to depress you. But on a whole I'm happy I watched it because.. I had to.
Rating: 6.9

Re-watched with the purpose of intense examination:

Dil Se.. (1998) Film of the Month
See: Why is Dil Se.. my favorite movie? or All the Things I Love About Dil Se..
Rating: 10

Water for Elephants (2011) Francis Lawrence
I still like it and Christoph Waltz is still awesome. That's it.
Rating: 7.3

Shorts:
The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983) Terry Gilliam - UK
Puts a smile on your face, nothing more, nothing less.
6.4

Amount of films I've watched this month: 31

30 feature films, 1 short

Lime's Sunday Supplement, 29.01.2012

2012-01-30T16:54:00.000+01:00

Let's just pretend it's still Sunday...

By the way - how do you like this picture? Is it nice, or too amateur/ wannabe?

The snow is falling - temperatures too. Yes, winter has finally arrived in my home town, and I'm just about the only one happy about this. I finally have the very best excuse to stay inside with a cup of tea and enjoy my first Induna-order with some of 2011's most promising haven't-seen-yets (The Dirty Picture, Delhi Belly and Shor in the City).
It's also time for some improvement on this blog, for instance I've created a page called "LINKS", so that the right bar looks a bit better. I'm not going to change the layout yet, though... that's always a stressful thing to do.

Tomorrow I'll make my second visit to the theaters this year - Carnage. I can't wait for it.

NEW RELEASES

Home, India and elsewhere.

last week, India: Agneepath | trailer
Trailers and posters can be misleading.
This one has too be good, it simply has to. Please.

next week, Home: Carnage
Trailers and posters can also be awesome.
And films can have an awesome... aura.

next week, Elsewhere: The Woman in Black | trailer

Looks like a fresh new horror film is on its way.

Goodbye Harry - hello Daniel.

READING

Books, magazines, blogs.

So happy that my favorite Manga, Sailor Moon, is finally getting re-published in Germany. I sold my collection about a year ago, thought it's too childish. Then re-discovered reading Manga.

The old cover-design was a bit better, but it's still a wonderful thing, because you have to pay a lot to buy the old books, which are not available in stores.

We're currently reading this book in school - and it's fantastic! If you normally read 1000+ pages with tiny letters and no illustrations, and you pretend to be an intellectual (yes, I'm talking about myself) - then you will love this. Because it's intellectual and childish at the same time. (And there are many illustrations).

I'm sorry I didn't comment on other blogs a lot last week, I hope I'll catch up on that soon!

MUSIC

Thoughts and new discoveries.

Blue Danube by Strauss from the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Can't get it out of my head.

--------------

Did you discover anything new or beautiful last week?

More men who hate women

2012-01-29T14:31:00.003+01:00

But still just one cyber-punk who hates men. Fincher is bringing Lisbeth back.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Directed by David Fincher | USA

Written by Steven Zaillian & Stieg Larsson (novel)

★ Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig

When I first heard that Hollywood had plans about producing its own version of the Swedish surprise hit, like many people my only thought was: "Why?". Is this about money, do they want to exploit the fame of the books and previous books? There is nothing you can improve, is there?
Moreover, I could not in the slightest imagine an other actress playing Lisbeth Salander than Noomi Rapace.

I then found out that it was Fincher, the creator of some of my favorite films of the past few years, who was going to direct the remake. Not fully convinced, I watched the leaked trailer some weeks later - and at that point I was finally hooked. Hooked by an unexpected amount of style, cool music and most surprisingly (seeming) originality. I was sure then, that I was going to love the film.

For those who have neither read the books nor seen any of the films: the trilogy revolves around Lisbeth Salander, a hacker and researcher that has been a minor of the state since she tried to kill her father when she was 12 years old. In the first part of the series, she has to clear up a 50 year old murder case with the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. However, the case is much more current than they initially think.
In reality, the film is more about the human psyche, their feelings and their errors.

What I like most about Finchers version of the film is, that it sticks more to the books than its Swedish precedent. For instance does it cast more light on Mikael's long-lasting affair with a married woman, and on the relationships between Mikael and respectively his daughter and Lisbeth. I felt that these human relations got overlooked a little in the original films, where one is never a hundred percent sure about the feelings the characters have for each other. As the story is quite brutal, I think it's important to focus on the characters' vulnerability, their fear and humanity, too.

The most eye-catching element of the film is its style, which is rather simple, but highly intensive and effective. Already the abstract, dark introductory sequence, underlined by Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", fascinates and puzzles the audience. Fincher's experience with creating music videos is plain to see: the visuals are a true treat.
I must warn you though, that one has to be somewhat hardened to be able to watch this movie, as many scenes are quite dreadful, especially on the silver screen.
Actually, I was rather surprised by the sex-scenes, which might even be described as boundless for an American "commercial" production. Maybe that's one of the reasons for its failure at the American box-office? (Despite its success among bloggers and film enthusiasts).

So how did it go with my beloved protagonist: in Finchers version, the cyber-punk is portrayed by newcomer Rooney Mara - and I must say that she outranged all my expectations. Her interpretation of Lisbeth is quite different from Noomi's, but nevertheless her performance was just as close to perfection as the Swede's. Daniel Craig, too, surprises with a distinctive portrayal of Mikael Blomkvist - his best of the ones I've seen. All supporting characters have been casted with great actors, particularly Robin Wright in the role of Mikael's long-lasting affair impressed me.

Summarized I must say that I prefer The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo over the Män som hatar kvinnor, if only a little. It is both small and the big details that make it an overall better film than the original: the style, the opportunity to identify with the characters, and its inclusion of some of the book's key scenes - most importantly the ending. Nonetheless, I can also highly recommend the Swedish films.

Rating: 8.2

This is my original article for the Flensborg Avis (click to enlarge):

Lime's Sunday Supplement, 22.01.2012

2012-01-22T15:59:00.000+01:00

I know, I know. My weekly write-up has already changed name and form two times - from "The Weekual Thursday PP" to "Thank God It's Thursday", where I included other new releases than just Indian ones.
My problem is that Thursday is a very busy day for me - I have 7 hours of school, two hours at home, 1 1/2 hours of ballet, and maybe a visit to the cinema at night.

That's why I decided to move this feature to my (normally) least stressful day of the week. This means that I won't just be able to talk new releases, but also new soundtracks, trailers... whatever I can think of.

I hereby declare Lime's "Sunday Supplement" open!

NEW RELEASES

Home, India and elsewhere.

India: 5 Chantey Mein 5 Crore

Looks like a horror-telenovela come alive/ to the silver screen.

Home: The Muppets

Bonjour childhood! I'll wait for the DVD, but this looks like something I'll love.

Home: J. Edgar

Why does this trailer bore me to death? Honestly, it looks like somethings that's been made dozens of times already.

Elsewhere: Underworld: Awakening

The most ridiculous trailer I've seen at the cinema for a long time. No, thank you.

MUSIC

Thoughts and new discoveries.

- The soundtrack of next week's Agneepath is promising. I especially like Chikni Chameli.

- Rahman's Ekk Deewana Tha soundtrack, not so much. At least judging from Hosanna.

- Milow is still awesome. Every time I listen to his lyrics, I discover new meanings.

- I want to listen to music more than I've been doing lately.

READING

Books, magazines, blogs.

- I hate reading so little, but there's a lot on my mind - school, movies etc.

- I'm currently reading "Film Art", a wonderful book about... the art of film.

- Discovered some new blogs, but forgot which ones.

- Maybe I should update my surf board.

OTHER THOUGHTS

- Did you notice I changed the right bar layout a little? I think it's much better this way.

- I'm thinking about a strategy to get to see more of the latest Indian DVDs... will tell you when I'm done.

- Forgot to save some of my favorite blog posts this week, but I'll do that next week.

"But what's it about?"

2012-01-22T14:30:00.003+01:00

My latest rentals/ borrowings. Thought the Great Gatsby is a mafia-film.

I often wonder how people decide which movie they're going to watch. It's much of a coincidence I think, considering what a vast amount of "must-sees", "classics" and blockbusters there already is - increasing each year.

So what we watch is more or less destiny - even though, of course, in the end we decide. But what do we decide from?

The ways to get to see movies can be counted on one hand:

TV
library/ rental store/ borrowing from friends or acquaintances
shopping DVDs/ BluRay etc.
online-watching (legally or illegally)

There is an important difference between these four:

1) The range of films on TV is very limited (even when you have Pay-TV).

2) Also your friends or favorite rental store may not have every movie you'd like to watch.

3) Shopping vs. internet is a bit more complicated. Theoretically, you can buy any movie in a store. But some movies have never been converted to DVD, or have been destroyed over time etc. You can also find almost any movie on the internet. But some may not have been uploaded, and most offers are illegal.

Anyhow, even while zapping through your non-pay TV channels, you will find at least two feature films at prime time. Which one are you going to watch?

Say you're a fan of Woody Allen. If one of the films is from Woody Allen, you're probably going to watch it. But what if you don't know any of the actors or directors, or maybe just don't really care about them? Now this is the point I was trying to get to: the story.

Most people will take a look at their TV guide or the teletext and read the plot synopsis. They will also do this in a rental store. And in a DVD shop. And before going to cinema.

Or, well, they will watch the trailer.

I'm not denying that I've ever done this before. In fact I love movie trailers, I just mostly forget to watch them before going to the cinema.

But what's it with the plot?

An example: SUPER 8 (2011)

Super 8 was one of my most anticipated films of 2011, and I was determined to watch it one the flight to Mexico. However, there were so many films to chose from, that I forgot this particular one.

When in Mexico, my sister and I had the opportunity to borrow some movies, including Super 8.

This is how our conversation went:

Me: „OH MY GOD! They've got Super 8!! Squeeeeak... have to borrow and watch!“

Sister: „Hm... don't know? What's it about?“

Me: „ ... Spielberg... the trailer looked good... everybody loves it... must-see...“

Sister: „Yeah, but what's it about?“

Me: „Ahm... aliens? Or just supernatural things... kids who make films... No idea. The trailer was mysterious.“

Sister: „But how do you know it's good?“

Me: „I just know. I might be wrong though.“

Sister: „But I don't think it looks interesting.“

Me: „SHUT UP AND LET'S WATCH THE TRAILER!“ (should've said that)

We ended up watching the trailer (which she thought looked interesting) and watching the film (which she loved).

Appetizer vs. plot summary

I recently read an article in a magazine about an experiment: two groups of people read a story. One group read a summary about it first, the other didn't. The group that read the summary ended up liking the story better.

The article implied that humans love predictability and therefore enjoy movies and books more, if they learn something about them before.

I kind of agree. But actually I don't.

Let's take a look at my recent rentals, and why I borrowed them/ what I can predict about them.

Rio - Best example. I knew just about nothing about Rio, I hadn't read a review, nothing. What I could predict is that it would be "funny" and a bit childish. Rented because it's 2011.

Young Victoria - Period drama. Love. Rented because of... hm... I like Emily Blunt... don't know. Just out of curiosity I guess.

Psycho - There are certain films you have to watch. I think I read something about a shower scene one time...?

2001: A Space Odyssey & The Great Gatsby - Many people's favorites. One is sci-fi, the other is about... the 20s(?).

La Strada - The DVD-Box said "Arthouse classics". I'm a bit snobby, so...

Verfolgt - Had read about it, and I felt I just had to see it. Black and white... one of my favorite young German actors in a SM-affair with a 52-year-old woman... = intriguing.

My message

I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes, of course you will always know something about a film before you watch it, if not just by looking at its cover.
Pop culture is everywhere, and especially if you're a movie blogger or enthusiast, you will always hear about this and that film, watch some trailers, read some reviews. But I never read the plot summaries that some people write in their reviews. It just bores me.

Have you ever read the 1-3 liners on the IMDB page of a movie? I sometimes do. But they don't give me anything, they can't tell me whether I will like or dislike the film.

Actually, you will never know that. You never know if you'll like Citizen Kane, or if your best friends favorite rom-com is going to please you. I lied to my sister. I didn't know whether I would like Super 8.
But I knew I was likely to like it, because of the themes, the cast and credits, and the overall look that the trailer presented to me.

Maybe this is going nowhere, but the quintessence of this essay/ ramble is supposed to be: to hell with the plot. "X kills y, goes to jail and becomes another person" could be the plot summary of a B-movie, a blockbuster or an arthousy winner of the Palme d'Or.
Not even the genre is able to tell you if you'll like the movie, except you're a hardcore lover of rom-coms or horror films and are determined to like every film of the genre, no matter what.
Trailers can be misleading, too. Most of them are created after a very certain pattern, and it's hard to sense the right balance between what to show and what not to show.

And even though you're a film snob, you can't actually make yourself like Seven Samurai. I know that from personal experience.

The best thing is to listen to your instincts, watch what you feel like watching and don't waste your time reading plot summaries. No matter how hard you try - "you never know what you gonna get".

Do you agree with me, or are you of a complete different opinion? How do you choose your movies?

Why is Dil Se my favorite movie? or All the things I love about Dil Se..

2012-01-17T18:51:00.000+01:00

"Philosophy is not about finding the answers, it's about asking the questions".

- My philosophy class book.

Dir. Mani Ratnam | India
★ Shah Rukh Khan - Manisha Koirala - Preity Zinta

Any great movie could be my favorite one, a thought that made me shiver of fear when I first tried to put together my 100 Favorite Films list. But it happened to not just be any movie, but a movie that had followed me through many years and that has never stopped intriguing me every time I watch it.

Having finished the list, there was suddenly no other movie I could imagine, that could be my favorite. The thought surprised, even unsettled me - after all, I hadn't actually seen Dil Se.. for about two years. It was time to finally re-watch it with eyes that are quite different from the ones of my 13-year old predecessor.

I was scared but also excited. And you know what? I feel I admire and love this film even more than I did before. Dil Se.. is not flawless, objectively speaking - so what makes it so special to me?

That's what I want to find out in this post, namely by listing all the things I love about this film. Of course I won't be able to fully understand and explain the greatness of this film, I know that - but it's an attempt that I have to do. And an excuse to make a lot of screencaps.

ALL THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT DIL SE..

1. Manisha's mysterious implication of a smile. Who wouldn't get crazy about her?

2. The intro-song. Can't understand it's not on the soundtrack. I think it's Ladakhi.

3. This interpretation I just read:
„Dil Se is said to be a journey through the 7 shades of love that are defined in ancient Arabic literature. Those shades are defined as attraction, infatuation, love, reverence, worship, obsession, and death.“ - read more

4. Shah Rukh's youthful and natural performance - I miss that.

5. The sexiness. I remembered a lot of good things about the film, but I never realized how sexy it is. Mostly in the songs, but not only.

6. Amars beautiful declaration of love:

Meghna: Tum bata tumhe kya pasand hai.
Tell me what you love.

Amar: Mm. Paihle main yeh bataaunga ki mujhse sabse zyaada naa pasand kya hai. Hum dono ke biich mein yeh doorii hai. Yeh mujhe bahut naa pasand hai. Tumhaari andar jo yeh bahut kuch chupa hota hai. Aur sabse buurii lagti hai mujhe tumhari aankhen. Kitna bhi main inmen dekhna chaahoon... mujhe kuch dekhta hi nahin. Ab bataaoon mujhe kya pasand hai.
No. First I will tell you what I hate the most. This distance between us. I hate it... So many things are hidden inside you. And most of all, I hate you eyes. No matter how much I want to see something in them... I can't. Now I will tell you, what I love.

Meghna: Hm?

Amar: Mujhe sabse zyaada pasand hai tumhaari yeh aankhen. Kyunki main jitna bhi inmen dekhna chaahuun... mujhe kuch dekhta hi nahin. Tumhaari andar itna kuch chupaa huaa hai. Mujhe woh bahut pasand hai. Aur sabse zyaada pasand mujhe yeh doorii hai... Kyunki agar yeh doorii naa ho... to tumhaare kariib aane ka bahaana naa mile...
The thing I love the most are these eyes of yours. Because, no matter how much I want to see something in them... I can't. Everything that's hidden inside you... I love all of that. And most of all I love this distance. Because if it wouldn't exist... there would be no reason to get closer...

I love the way Manisha's expression alters in the scene

7. Rahman's soundtrack in its entirety - might even be his best.

8. The 90s-style that isn't embarrassing. Haven't experienced that in any other film.

9. The fact that I never know how to describe and "classify" it. You can see that from the amount of genres above.

10. It's rather unknown and unloved by the masses, kind of an insider tip. My filmic taste is exciting and rebellious.

11. Preity's debut. Fresh and bubbly, you can see how excited she is.

12. I don't care that the kids call her character "Hitler".

13. Amar's radio broadcasts - that guy would be a hit in todays podcasting world.

14. Its audacity. I think even today it would flop and cause demonstrations in India.

15. The Ladakh-setting in the first half.

16. The beautiful, beautiful, incredible work of cinematographer Santosh Sivan.

17. All the songs are total are partly dream sequences (except for one), and they are awesome.

Or as I would write in a proper review: they have great artistic and visual value.

18. The choreography, setting and look of "Satrangi Re" is awesome:

19. And daringly sexy without being vulgar:

20. This is true:

„Elleke Boehmer and Stephen Morton argue that the songs and locations in the film fill a sexual void with their exoticism.“ -wikipedia

21. You get an earwig of the word "All-India-Radio".

"I'm Amar, All-India-Radio".

22. Shahrukh's voice. Reminds me of mine. Nasal and youthful.

23. Manisha's voice. Mysterious and soft.

24. Preity voice. Always loved it, it's very... bubbly.

(Too much of these reasons, right?).

25. This gaze and the appendant quote:

Meghna: Aakhir tum jaante ho mere baare mein?

After all, what do you know about me?

Amar: Kuch nahin. Sirf yeh ki main tumhe chahta hoon. Dil Se.

Nothing, except that I love you. From the heart.

26. The fact that the quote doesn't seem kitschy.

27. Dancing to the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" at the beginning. By the way, that's the exotic song from Inside Man. Legendary.

28. Reading the name Mani Ratnam in the opening titles.

29. That rawness, everything seems so raw... even the title font is raw.

30. Dil Se Re is an un-romantic, romantic song.

31. It's the first film to enter the Top 10 in the UK box office charts.

32. It played at the Era New Horizons Film Festival and at the Helsinki International Film Festival. Oh, and at the Berlinale (Biennale). My taste is even more rebellious and exciting.

33. It's disturbing. But you don't want to put a gun at your head after watching it. You want to... applause.

34. The blood-thirsty, cloying last 30 minutes don't get the film down at all.

35. The end is perfect.

36. The amazing script written by now respected director Tigmanshu Dhulia, Mr. Best Indian Director Mani Ratnam and - interesting, I never knew - a seemingly fantastic tamil writer and novelist, the late Sujatha Rangarajan.

What's up, just tinkerin' a bomb.

37. A terrorist has never been easier to sympathize with.

38. The lyrics of Ae Ajnabi - shockingly close to perfection.

39. This guy. I just can't find out what his name is.

40. The fact that I'm giving away precious leisure time to list up everything I love about this film.

41. The beautiful colors, even in the saddest, most brutal scenes.

42. Only two points after the title, instead of three.

43. The yellow earphones. And what she's listening to.

44. No kiss. Never.

I often watch films for the kisses, if a film has a good kiss it's better than a film with a bad kiss. But Dil Se.. is perfect without a kiss. Perfect.

45. The weird choreography of Jiya Jale is kind of cool, I don't know why.

46. Amitabh Bachchan sings Jiya Jale in Nishabd. He says it's the only songs he knows. If I knew only one song, I would be glad if it was this one.

47. The poetry of the film. Everything has a meaning, every shot, word, song... and the result is perfection.

48. No other Indian actress would've been able to deliver this performance.

49. I don't know what the "re" in Dil Se Re means. And I don't care.

50. I learned my first Hindi sentences from the film, by learning some of the quotes by heart and reading the lyric translations.

51. I just found out that the song Satrangi Re also shows the 7 stages of love from arabic poetry, which is why Amar looks like he is dying at the end of the song. That would also explain the arabic look of the song.

52. The more I find out about the film, and the more I think about it, the more I love it.

53. Shah Rukh won Filmfare Awards for films like Deewana, Mohabbatein and Chak De India. I like his performances in those, but it's ironic.

Wondering why I this is one of the things I love about the film?

Well, it's not. I was trying to express how great his performance is in Dil Se.. And I failed.

Anyhow, Manisha still gets my biggest applause.

54. The locations. Read more.

55. „Kabhi ladki nahin dekha, kya?“

„Never seen a girl before?“

56. True love is said to be kitschy, non-existent and many other things. But after watching Dil Se.. I feel it is at least one thing: true.

57. All of this wouldn't have happened if Amar didn't smoke.

"Hey, uncle, got some matches?". Forgive him, for he knew not what he was doing.

58. The smell of spring reminds me of this film, because I bought it in spring.

Oh, those times when buying a DVD was such a seldom thing that you got obsessed about any movie... Not that this is just any movie.

59. This was the first R-16 I watched. I was 10... did it clandestinely.

60. Manisha only wears make-up in the songs. And she still looks stunning.

61. Meghna: I'm with him.

Amar: What did you say? My wife, huh? (To other people): This is my wife. We've been married for 15 years. Right? Congratulations, Honey.

62. The film was released 50 years after the independence of India.

63. I was alive when the film was released.

64. „HOYE!“

65. Politics. An interesting topic that is often uninteresting.

Well, Dil Se.. certainly had some comments to it.

66. The way Meghna turns the radio on and off.

67. The contrast between the two film-halves.

68. No "Intermission".

69. The kids in Dil Se Re are wearing Gryffindor-uniforms. Or at least they look like it.

70. The female station-director. Kick-ass! (At least at the farmer's market).

71. Terrorist-leader to Amar: When you're done with this radio business, you can come and join us.

72. The Terrorist-leader says he won't speak Hindi, and then speaks Hindi.

73. "AAAAUU! ... Maine Kuch Nahin Dekha. I swear maine kuch nahin dekha."

(Didn't see a thing, I swear).

74. The monk in the Ladakhi convent. Every time I see the scene I wonder what he must be thinking. "These crazy young people", or something like that.

75. "Bom-bom-bo-bom-bom-bom... Marching tunes."

76. After Meghna's "brothers" battered Amar, the first thing he tells Shukla is that she's not married.

77. The result of all the words from this list of positive words put together would come close to describing my feelings for Dil Se.. "Kissable", "graceful", "splendid"... and of course "Take the biscuit".

78. It's been 78 months since I bought and first saw the film, and today I love it so much more than I did back then.

There is no other way to say it:

I LOVE YOU, DIL SE..!

... Dil Se (from the heart)!

And if you don't love Dil Se.. yet, then watch it. Now.

The Lime is on Facebook

2012-01-13T21:40:00.003+01:00

And this is our awesome profile picture.

Dear fellow bloggers, readers and visitors,

it's been a few months now since I joined the Twitter-tree and some other plugins to use for this blog and my own pleasure. Facebook was always the first option, because it's so widely known and surely effective. But even though I love The Social Network, I've never been a true fan of social networking sites. Not because I don't use them - facebook, as I said, is quite effective.
No, it's because of the way (I dare say) most people use them, and that has affected the picture of facebook that I have in my mind. It's a picture of narcissism and low-brow-ness.

So I didn't launch a site on facebook for this blog before today. Why today, then? Because we can be different. I don't personally put a post on facebook every time I go to bed or eat breakfast or whatever, and I don't put embarrassing pictures or statements on there. I like my facebook. And I want you to like the facebook of Lime Reviews & Strawberry Confessions.
Sounds innovative and rebellious, actually it isn't. It'll be like most blog-sites out there... I'll post what's on here and maybe some pictures and thoughts. But the point is: that's great. That's all I want.

And as I know from personal experience, facebook is the #1 page of most people, I mean... many people are on there a lot. So you don't have to go to your blogger account every time you want to know what's going on here, you can just go on facebook.
Another thought of mine, which is quite selfish, is that maybe you could tell your friends about it, you know... kind of show them the site and then they'll kind of click on the link and then this community will kind of get even bigger and more interesting.

Let's keep it this way and not add more words, this was really what I wanted to say.
Oh, and before I forget:

Mette's 2011 Retrospect - The Music

2012-01-09T17:30:00.001+01:00

The retrospect series continue... this time, we've come to the world of melodies and stuff like quints that I neither understand nor want to understand.

It's true: even though I love music, I don't know much about it, and I have never studied it as intensely as movies, fashion or the solar system.

There are many people that know more about this, we conclude, and people who have found all the great tracks of 2011 that I haven't heard yet. I don't listen to a lot of new music.

That's why this post will not deal with say, the best albums or songs of 2011, but the wonderful songs that I discovered in 2011.

iTunes Top 25:

1. The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel - The Graduate | post
Remember my summer obsession with The Graduate and this song? It's not gone.
Sadly, I haven't found it on youtube yet, but it's on iTunes.

2. Beera - Vijay Prakash, Mustafa Kutoane & Keerthi Sagathia - Raavan | post
My other summer obsession hasn't gone either. I'm still fascinated by this song.

3. Lose Yourself - Eminem - 8 Mile | post
My favorite rap song ever - legendary. I feel really cool when I listen to it. Yo.

4. Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelly - Singin' in the Rain
Doo-dee-doo-doo... Every time it rains and I'm down, I think of this song.

5. Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine - Twilight
You can say what you want about Twilight, but this song is amazing and I'm so glad I discovered it.

6. Behene De - Karthik & Mohamed Irafan - Raavan
Never heard anything like this before. Rocking and profound at the same time.

7. The Sound of Silence II - Simon & Garfunkel - The Graduate
Almost as good as version two, just a bit pop-ier.

8. Kun Faya Kun - A. R. Rahman, Javed Ali, Mohit Chauhan - Rockstar (not seen)
I seriously start believing Rahman is a God.

9. Rehna Tu - A. R. Rahman, Benny Dayal, Tanvi Shah - Delhi-6
Yes, he is.

10. Meter Down - Adnan Sami - Taxi No. 9211 (not seen)
Rrrrrocking. I don't even know how I found this song some years ago.

11. Suno Aisha - Amit Trivedi, Aditt, Nakash Aziz, Ash King - Aisha
My happy-go-lucky song. Always lifts me up.

12. Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
Hm, must be my favorite song by The Beatles. Nice I finally found out.

13. It's Now or Never - Elvis Presley
This is definitely not my favorite Elvis-song. Don't know how it landed here.

14. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
Always loved it as a child, but never knew what it was called. I can always listen to it.

15. New Tomorrow - A Friend in London (not a favorite, but we had to learn it for music class)

16. If You Want Me - Marketa Irglova - Once
My favorite song from Once. So very beautiful.

17. Selfmachine - I Blame Coco
Ever since a friend introduced me, I'm crazy about I Blame Coco. Her voice is unreal.

18. In Spirit Golden - I Blame Coco
Dito. This is just rocking.

19. Lipstick - Jedward (haha, oh my God)
But it's kinda cool. Two gay twins on crack. Sorry if I'm too straightforward.

20. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
My favorite Michael Jackson song. Awesome (a word I don't use often)!

21. Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson
Same here. I'm addicted to these two songs.

22. House By the Creek - Milow
Most people don't know Milow's really great songs, sadly.

23. Ayo Technology - Milow
This one is more known, but I'm still amazed how he could turn that song into this song.

24. Ranjha Ranjha - Rekha Bharadwaj, Javed Ali & Anuradha Sriram - Raavan
Don't even like it that much... but. Yeah.

25. April Come She Will - Simon & Garfunkel - The Graduate
This song should be ranked much higher, I absolutely love it. The lyrics, the melody, the calmness...

Favorite Soundtracks of 2011:

Actually this is one award, but these two were both great.

Rockstar

Rahman, Rahman... when will you stop producing your best soundtrack ever each year?

The Tree of Life

I had forgotten all about The Moldau, that I listened to as a child. It was perfect, combined with the magnificent and enchanting images.

Honorable mentions: Submarine, Hangover 2, Hanna, Shaitan

Sadly, the soundtrack of Indian Soundtrack (2011) wasn't as great as expected.

Did you discover some great music in 2011? What were your favorite soundtracks?

Mette's 2011 Retrospect - The Films

2012-01-08T00:45:00.007+01:00

Like me, you might already have read many lists about the year that went by.

Books, things that happened, people that died/ got married/ were born. And of course, lists of favored films.

These lists, at least the film-based ones, often consist of ten motion pictures. I feel that listing my ten favorite films of the year is something I want to do, however I would also like to highlight the films that won't get the chance to be included in the list.

Therefore, my retrospect will look a little different than most. The list of my top 10 films of 2011 can be found at the end of this post, before that I will present you to all the films that I liked.

Moreover, this retrospect includes eight "officially" 2010 films that I had no legal opportunity to watch in the year of their official release. Many of them are well-known, successful films, but I hope you still understand why I want to include them. The films are in the order I've seen them in.

That was it then, let's go.

Stats

All feature films watched: 246

All short films watched: 53

Indian films watched: 94

Re-watches: 29

2011 films watched, official and non-offical ones: 40

The dream come true

Black Swan
Ballet, horror, endless levels of interpretation and great style. It was too good to be true.

The teenage dream

127 Hours

I'm talking about James Franco of course - the next James in the famous list.

The typical surprise

The King's Speech

Everbody's seen it, most people before me, and I thought I knew everything about it. It surprised me.

The most exotic

Hanyo

Visually topped by The Tree of Life only, this film was at least one thing: different. And off-putting.

The happiest

Happythankyoumoreplease

Put a smile on my face that lasted for a long time.

"Booooooring!" - No?

The Fighter & Senna

I thought boxing and formula one were some of the most boring things in the world. Then these two came along.

The one that set the standards

No One Killed Jessica

The first Indian film of 2011 I saw was just as good as everyone had claimed. Rani rocks!

Female power part II

7 Khoon Maaf

Speaking female power, Rani soon became concurrence. Superb film that spans over various genres and emotions.

The good German

Almanya - Wilkommen in Deutschland

It wasn't a good year for German film, but this heart-warming comedy about Turkish immigrants was top-notch!

Kick-ass

Hanna

Joe Wright never let's me down - Hanna kicks more ass than anybody this year. And she's my age!

The hyped and feared

Never Let Me Go

I read the novel this year, by chance, and was mesmerized. Feared a bad adaption, but it looked good - and it was good, even much better than expected.

Most pleasant surprise

Water for Elephants

I had absolutely no expectations. And it wasn't just good because of this man here. Always knew there was more to Pattinson.

Speechless

Dhobi Ghat | review

I was so blown away by this one, there was not a single word I could write about it. Almost.

Speechless inverted

The Tree of Life | review

I was so blown away by this one that I wrote the longest review I'd ever written.

The one that broke up

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

There will never be a franchise as big and as wonderful as Harry Potter. R.I.P.

Devilish

Shaitan | review

It was different, it was sick and crazy... it was good. Not just because of the shock-factor, I really think it was a good film with many levels.

The open secret

Jodaeiye Nader az Simin

Within few months, this film went from insider tip to acclaimed masterpiece. Well-deserved.

Nostalgia-geekism

Midnight in Paris

I would describe myself as geeky. And a bit nostalgic too, definitely. So it's no surprise I am absolutely in love with this exceptional filmic demonstration of nostalgia-geekism.

Lonely lizard

Rango | review

Not a superb movie, it had some of the best animation I've see and some super cool details. And it was far better than the second animated feature of 2011 I've seen, Cars 2.

Mind-broadening depression

Melancholia

Hated by many, loved by just as many. In my opinion a perfect world's-end-movie, and so much more than that.

Fluke

La Guerre est Declarée

The only film of 2011 I watched without knowing anything about it turned out to be one of the best. Not only because that guy is so hot (had to say that, sorry).

The funniest

Horrible Bosses

The best performance of Jennifer Aniston until now - at least from what I've seen. And so funny.

Neither boyish nor boring

Super 8

Sci-fi is not my favorite genre, but Spielberg is clearly one of its masters. Surprisingly thrilling.

What I've been waiting for

The Help

There are not enough films like these - serious and acclaimed films in which, for a change, men play the second fiddle.

Last but not least

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Not the worst film to watch as a dessert (of the year, if you get me). There is still hope for the romantic comedy.

So now you've seen a lot of pictures and read a lot of things and the thought might've crossed your mind that... is this girl insane? Didn't she watch any bad films, films she didn't like?

The fact is that I only left 13 films out, and I didn't even hate all of them. The only three films come closest to thumbs-down are the German Sommer in Orange, and the Indian silly-comedies Yamla Pagla Deewana and Pyaar Ka Punchnama.

Having said this, I feel it is the time to announce the biggest winners of this race...

It was not as easy as I had thought, but I'm proud I did it, because this is my debut.

May I present to you:

Mette's Top 10 Favorite Films of 2011

(Only official 2011 films)

10. Super 8

9. Hanna

8. 7 Khoon Maaf

7. Shaitan

6. The Help

5. La Guerre est Declarée

4. Jodaeiye Nader az Simin

3. Midnight in Paris

2. Melancholia

1. Dhobi Ghat & The Tree of Life

The former is ranked highest in my Top 100, but after so many months I don't remember which I like the most. Both are very special and trailblazing, and they've launched many discussions, both among people and among my various personalities. Therefore, these are my two favorite films of 2011.

Conclusion

Many people say that 2011 was a poor year for films. I don't agree. I've seen many wonderful new releases this year, which happens to be the first of its kind; I dived deeper into the filmic world than ever before, discovering many new and old films that became favorites and more and more learning to appreciate film as an art form.

This blog has also grown and transformed so much from what it was initially. I would like to thank everybody who made this possible.

I hope to still discover new great films that were released during these 365 days, and climb further in the crooked mountains of cinema. May highs and lows come, for I do not fear neither.

To a happy new year of cinema!

The IMDB Tops: 10 thoughts on The Shawshank Redemption

2012-01-06T01:29:00.006+01:00

This post is part of the Climbing the Tops series.

Dir. Frank Darabont | USA

★ Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bon Gunton

Current IMDB rank - rating - votes

1. Who would have thought that the currently most popular film would be such a softie? I'm not a frequent cineweeper, but the final sequence touched something very deep down - as corny as that sounds.

It was nothing I had expected, not even a few seconds before the tears started falling. It was like somebody had suddenly turned on some magnificent music that you hadn't heard before, but that still sounded familiar (sounds corny again).

2. Speaking of familiar, The Shawshank Redemption is a very good film, but there was something familiar, well-known about each and every scene. It was like all the good "mainstream" films put together, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering its cinematic position.

Watching this film, I feel, has helped me understand cinema and cinematic taste more, and how hard it is to hit the right notes for the audience in fusion with your own artistic standards... and what an example of that can look like.

3. So Tim Robbins... Never heard of the man.

A look at his filmography feels like reading Chinese. Some expressions seem familiar: The Green Lantern (this is not starting out well)... bla bla bla... oh, High Fidelity! Still need to see that one... And yeah, that's kinda it. And, well, Top Gun.

I liked him in this film though. But there's a big but. Morgan Freeman was better, I love this guy in anything.

4. Morgan Freeman... loved him in this one. Loved his accent, actually loved all the accents in this film, I guess it's the same one for everybody. It sounds rural, but you can still understand everything.

It wakes (not existing) memories of the times when... yeah, I don't know, when... there were no computers, no DVDs or video cassettes for that matter. No movie blogs. War. Inhuman prisons, except for Guantanamo and those.

Okay, maybe not the best time to live.

5. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm trying to be funny today. Hope you don't mind.

Anyhow, there's a wonderful dry humor and somewhat ironic humor to The Shawshank Redemption, that delivers us some really cool quotes too. Like:

„Get busy living or get busy dying“.

Later re-interpreted by a certain musician into "Get rich or die trying". Maybe. Or maybe that has nothing to do with it, probably that's from some much older Hitchcock film or something.

6. An interesting fact concerning the "popularity" and thereby also "fame" of this particular motion picture: before I really developed a more intellectual interest [addiction] in films, I had never ever heard of this film. Event though my mum had a copy of it, which by the way is why I happened to watch it. Thought it was some cool Stephen King horror flick (the German title is not the original one, that's why). And even when I heard about it here and there in the blogosphere and all that, I wasn't really interested in watching it, and I had no idea what the name meant.

Shawshank? And what's a "redemption". Hm, must be some western with Indians, kind of like Dancing with Wolves, I mean Shawshank sounds Indian.

7. It has weaknesses too, one of the strongest being that once more, this is a very well-known and popular film without female characters! A huge mistake, that probably wouldn't be that important if I hadn't just seen 7 Samurai and Das Boot. Two films kind of these had excuses for not including women, but I was really mad at Kurosawa.

Of course, this one did not leave much room for females, and I accept that, also because the non-presence of them makes them seem like magnificent, angel-like creatures that man is in awe of.
But what hurts me is that a remarkable amount of popular and critically acclaimed films are one-gender-shows, and as much as I love The Hangover, I feel that women-centered films are too often considered second class "chick-flicks". It doesn't help that many of them actually are second class... films that most men wouldn't take a big interest in, even though they can be fun.

The Help is one of the films that have made me hope again, though.

8. Honestly, Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe were so much prettier than the later poster ladies. Sometimes, old really is gold. I loved the cinema scene too - cinema or film-watching sequences in a film are a film geek's dream come true, aren't they? I should make a list of my favorites.
And something else that is gold, and that I don't indulge in often enough (just like pre-90s movies, you've got me): opera. The scene I'm talking about is pure magic.

9. Now that I think about it, The Shawshank Redemption really is a formula film in some ways, don't you think? There's this one formula that I find most popular films, books and stories follow, in a way, though only the more creative ones win the race. You know this... "you have to crawl through a tunnel of shit to reach nirvana", kind of. Know what I mean? This is everywhere, I tell you, probably even in the most experimental films - even though their interpretation often is: "you think there's light at the end of the tunnel of shit, but there isn't".

10. We can discuss how original, or how creative and artistic The Shawshank Redemption is, and whether it deserves its rank on top of the IMDB Top 250.

But I don't think many persons are able to not like it, and somehow this does make it a "perfect" film that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Now that's all I have to say for now.

Rating: 8.3

Introducing two brand-new features...

2012-01-05T00:28:00.001+01:00

It was somewhat a coincidence, that the first two films I would watch this year are the currently most popular film (according to the IMDB), and the film that is currently on top of my 100 Favorite Films list.

My first thought was: I have to write about these two.

Slowly, an idea began taking shape in my mind... why not re-watch all of my current favorite films? It has been so hard to put the list together, and I'm still not a 100% sure if I really rated the films the way I would rate them if I had seen them recently. Because, as we all know, tastes change during time.

And why not... why not try to watch and re-watch the current most popular films of all time? It's only 250 pieces, not as overwhelming as the famous 1001 I'm working on too. And most certainly, a lot of the most popular films must also be included in the Bible of Films, don't they?

I know I won't be able to do this in one year, except if I stop watching any new releases and other unknown films. This is a project that will take time, but I'm willing to try.

Challenge accepted, as Barney would say (what, you don't know who Barney is?! ...well, this is neither the time nor the place).

By the way, don't expect (or fear) over-long ramblings about current or new favorites, or films that I can't believe people would like. Most of the posts will be of a rather short length, considering the quantity of films I will be writing about - I need to have time to watch, too. Oh, and leisure time of course. Which is the time when I watch movies. Okay, then... time when my friends, family or teachers would like to either see me or see me doing something that is important.

I think I will write a lot of "x thoughts on..." sort of posts. I can also already tell you that I probably won't be able to properly review my nr. 1 favorite, but I'll think of something.

Another thing that is more or less luckily related to my Discovery of 100 Favorite Films, is that I'll try buying a lot of the DVDs that I don't own yet. Lucky, because I will have more good DVDs, and the makers of my favorite films will earn money... unlucky because I'll have to spend money on it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new features, and are ready to come with me on this journey.

PS: Some kind of 2011 retrospect post or post series is also coming up, so keep an eye out.

Happy New Month: Films of December 2011

2012-01-01T22:02:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year, guys! I wish all of you the best for 2012, cheers to a bunch of good new films, the upcoming award season, joy and happiness - and everything else!

Before I start looking at the film-year as a whole, I put some words together on the surprisingly not-so-few film experiences I've had last December.

Sadly, there's only one Indian film on the list, but I'm planning on catching up with the 2011-releases as soon as possible. More to that later.

Watched for the very first time:

Sita Sings the Blues (2008) Nina Paley - USA
The Ramayana how I would've made it. Without having read the whole original text, I hope I have the right to say that in my opinion, Nina Paley included a remarkable variety of aspects of this ancient holy text - and that seemingly effortless, with a lot of humor and especially a lot of creativity.
The songs that surprisingly turned out to be Old Hollywood style, were just my thing, too, even though after a while they all sounded the same.
This movie can be seen for free legally - check it out whenever you have the time: link.
Rating: 8.0

Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008) Woody Allen - USA/ Spain
I have a hope that I'm not the only crazy person out there who buys loads of DVDs and then watches the oldest buys last? However, I had this Woody-Allen DVD-Box that I got really cheap, and I felt the time had come to finally watch this (I have a friend who is totally in love with it... mostly due to Javier Bardem though).
And what is my conclusion? Well... it's nice. Nothing more, nothing less. Flirty, light, entertaining - and it has a dash of philosophy.
Rating: 7.4

Cassandra's Dream (2007) Woody Allen - USA/ UK
Obviously the second DVD in that Box, which turned out to be disappointing by most means. Too much dialogue, too little music (you've got to admit it; a good movie needs a good soundtrack... or at least a soundtrack at all), and the actors weren't the best, really. I did like Hayley Atwell, as always, but especially Ewan McGregor did not live up to my expectations. The plot, however, was intriguing and would've deserved a better outcome.
Rating: 5.8

Efter Brylluppet (2006) Susanne Bier - Denmark
The last of my "old" DVDs was actually the best - and the saddest, too. I'd never even dreamed of hearing Mads Mikkelsen speak Hindi. It came as a pleasant surprise.
Everything in this film is top-notch, and my admiration of Susanne Bier is growing.
Rating: 8.4

Shichinin No Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa - Japan
Considered to be one of the best films ever made by a majority of film-lovers, the Seven Samurais somehow failed to truly impress me.
It was ahead of its time, a trend-setter that includes a gripping soundtrack, great performances and impressive technical achievements for its time, all of this has surely been said and written before. I agree with all of this. However, I do not understand why one would exclude not just important female characters, but also almost ignore the entire sex, except for one essential "beauty". Or let's put it differently; I understand that at the time women weren't "important" and... you didn't/ don't need female characters to produce an entertaining and possibly "good" film. But that's only theoretically speaking. Unless you have a situation that really cannot include female characters, as is the case with Das Boot, I don't think there are any excuses to exclude them - there is always a way.
And furthermore I think the film was too long. You are allowed to judge me - "nowadays people don't have the patience anymore", "everybody just wants action all the time" and so on. I just want to say that I have enjoyed 3h+ films, but you have to know where the limit is. Some films are able to pull of more than 3, or let's say 2,5 hours, others aren't.
Rating: 7.2

Pyaar Ka Punchnama (2011) Luv Ranjan - India
Remember my weekly post in which I mentioned this one? I just re-read it.
It's funny, but what I wrote was actually spot-on! This film is neither truly funny, nor truly embarrassing. Both the men and the women are kind of horrible. But it's still fun, in a way.
If it wouldn't have been the only Hindi film (except for Double Dhamaal) available to watch on the overseas flight, I wouldn't have watched it, I guess.
Rating: 6.5

La Guerre est Déclarée (2011) Valérie Donzelli - France
A situation that occurs far too rarely, and that I truly love: eventually deciding to watch a film that you know nothing about, just because it "kinda looks good" - and in the end finding it to good to be true.
I am so happy that I watched this film, and as far as I can judge, this is already a sure-to-be Oscar nominee. Well, if anybody has seen it. I hope you're getting my hint.
Rating: 8.4

Submarine (2010/11) Richard Ayoade - UK/ USA
Better than some other people had made me expect it to be. Many claimed that it was just a remix of various classic coming-of-age films, which may be true, because I haven't seen many of those yet.
I liked it.
Rating: 7.2 (Yes, it looks like this one gets the same rating as Seven Samurai... please don't kill me!)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) Rupert Wyatt - USA
Even though it had James Franco (who isn't that attractive in this one though, I wonder why), Freida Pinto and Tom Felton (extremely disappointing performance), and most people loved it, I wasn't that impressed. Actually, I fell asleep at the end, and my sister almost killed me for that. Why didn't I love this film? I really don't know. Maybe the reason is simply because I had already watched four films and traveled for about 7-8 hours. I should re-watch it.
Rating: 7.1

John Tucker Must Die (2006) Betty Thomas - USA
A surprisingly good teenage comedy, I mean for the genre it was better than I had expected. We don't get films like this one that often anymore, I feel.
Rating: 6.4

The Bucket List (2007) Rob Reiner - USA
Interesting; the director appeared in both the Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place Disney series. Well, most of you probably don't know them anyway, and I shouldn't either, but... I think that's interesting.
Anyhow... half way through the movie I realized I had seen it already some years ago. Still, it's very sweet.
Rating: 7.5

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) Peter Sollett - USA
WHAT THE H... F... ahm...
What??? For one year or more now, I have been thinking that Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg are the same person! Hahha... hahahahaha... I'm the most stupid person on this earth... Oh my God. This is so embarrassing. Well, now I have two actors I like instead of one. That's nice.
Yeah... getting over the shock...
I liked this film. Really liked it. It's a very nice love story, that is incredibly youthful and even though unrealistic at parts, it is also strongly authentic in others. I loved the chemistry between the two leads - and, of course, the soundtrack.
Rating: 8.4

Happythankyoumoreplease (2010) Josh Radnor - USA
Now, I know that I really wanted to like this film, and that the possibility I wouldn't like it was tiny. Let's face it: Josh Radnor directed it, and if you like How I Met Your Mother you will know what I'm talking about. That guy is just too sympathetic.
His movie too. Technically, there are too many stories in it and one might say he's trying too hard, but I just love this film as much as I had expected. After finishing it, this was exactly what I though: "Happy - thank you - more please!"
Rating: 8.2

Horrible Bosses (2011) Seth Gordon - USA
Better than I'd thought, reminded me of The Hangover. At least it was much better than that sequel.
Rating: 7.3

Super 8 (2011) J. J. Abrams - USA
People can tell you how much they love something, but until you watch it (mostly) it doesn't really matter - you don't know whether you'll love it or hate it in the end.
People told me that Super 8 was good, and even more convincingly, other ones told me that Elle Fanning is amazing. Both things are true, and even though you think you know now, you do not except you've seen it - so everyone who hasn't; get up and do it.
Rating: 7.6

The Help (2011) Tate Taylor - USA
There were two films I absolutely had to watch on the plane before falling into the sleep I needed so bad - this one, and the following. Especially this one, a frequent 2011-favorite already.
Even though I she deserved a better hair-do, Emma Stone was wonderful, just like everyone else in this witty tale of race equality. My favorite though, was Jessica Chastain - I just love that woman. Actually I never realized it was her, until I saw the credits - one must keep in mind though, how tired I was.
What I really love about this film is that it's not depressing but very amusing, and nevertheless shocking and inspiring.
Rating: 8.4

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) Glenn Ficarra & John Requa - USA
Remember what I just said about Super 8 and Elle Fanning? It also applies to Ryan Gosling.
My God, nobody could ever explain to you just how attractive this man is... and how good an actor! At the beginning, I just thought well, this is a typical role, right? And a typical "sexy" but boring actor-type. But he did surprise me - as did the film. We all know about the difficulties of the genre, so kudos to the makers of the latest white hope for romantic comedies.
Rating: 7.4

Re-watched with the purpose of intense examination:

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) Jack Gold - UK
I don't know if this is a true Christmas classic, but in our family we watch it every year, it's a true tradition. And I love it every time. Kind of.
Rating: 7.0

Amount of films I've watched this month: 18

Thank God It's Thursday, 08.12.2011 - Because I'm leaving

2011-12-08T16:45:00.000+01:00

And with this I'd like also to announce that my 100 Favourite Films have now been published.
If you're not occupied buying Christmas presents or freezing to death in this cold winter, you might want to have a look at it - I would really appreciate that. I'm so proud of it!

So, about leaving... Well, I'm leaving. Tomorrow I'll jump on a plane and wave goodbye to the cruel darkness of the North-European winter and fly away to the heat of Mexico. Which is also going to be a little weird, because I've never been anywhere else than in my home town for Christmas, but it's an adventure, right? And Mexico is so great - if you forget about the poverty and corruption, which obviously you shouldn't, but... well, you know what I'm trying to say. I love the people.
And I'm looking forward to see my grandparents again.

Funnily, Google today honoured the birthday of Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

So I hope you'll all have a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. As for me, I'll be returning home on the 31st, so... that's going to be weird too.
Anyhow, I'm excited for all the films I'll be able to watch on the 12-hours flight... there are usually a lot of new films and even Indian films you can watch.

See you next year, and as always...

Happy New Month: Films of November 2011

2011-12-02T21:19:00.002+01:00

I am able to announce at this point, that the list of my top 100 favorite films has been created by now. All I need to do is write a few words on each of the films.
Moving on to the films I've seen this month...

Seen for the first time:

Männer ticken, Frauen anders (2011, TV) Rolf Silber - Germany
(= It's hard to translate, sorry...)
So boring, I turned it off after 15 minutes. It sounded good.
Rating: 1.5

Den kroniske uskyld (1985) Edward Fleming - Denmark

(= "Chronical Innocence")

I can't believe they made such a disappointing film from that book... One of the main actors seemed as if he had never acted before, the music was terrible and important parts were left out. The book is a Danish must-read from the sixties.

Rating: 2.8

Konferenz der Tiere (2010) Reihard Klooss & Holger Tappe - Germany

(= "Conference of the animals")

I didn't completely dislike this film, there were some funny ideas in it, but in the end it didn't really have a soul. Plus I've read that there were quite a few factual errors in it, for example the kangaroo in the film is a male, even though it has a pouch.

Rating: 3.6

L'arnacoeur (2010) Pascal Chaumeil - France

("Heartbreaker")

Finally another fresh and different romantic comedy. Vanessa Paradis is a better actress than I'd thought and Romain Duris was the perfect cast for the Heartbreaker. And due to my passion for DIRTY DANCING, how could I not like this film?

Rating: 7.3

Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998) Priyadarshan - India

(quote from a famous Hindi film song)

An Indian shopkeeper from Hamburg recommended this to me, he said it's the best love story ever. I won't visit that shop again (also, I have the feeling I incidentally bought some pirate copies there...).

It was boring to bits, the only interesting parts where the few flirt scenes, everything else was filled with unnecessary, predictable family drama.

I didn't finish the film.

Rating: 1.3

Barn af Irak (2011) Ala'a Mohsen - Denmark

("Child of Irak")

A gripping debut documentary of a young son of refugees from Iraq, who returns to his "home country" to try to deal with his roots. Quite unpredictable. I would've like a more finished camera work though.
Rating: 7.0

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) Mike Leigh - UK
I was sure I was going to like this film, but me and the friend I watched it with were badly disappointed. It was funny to start with, but the main character Poppy grew more and more annoying.
Rating: 4.8

Endhiran (2010) S. Shankar - India
("Robot")
After the two Mani Ratnam films ROJA and BUMBAI, this wasn't the best Tamil film to watch next. Although I had read that it was overlong and incredibly exaggerated, many people also said it was fun. It wasn't, except for 1 or 2 minutes. I'm not proud of it, but I couldn't take more after 40 minutes. Sadly, this was my last Indian DVD, so until next year I'll have to stick with the legal youtube releases or re-watching.
Rating: 1.5

Gandhi, My Father (2007) Feroz Abbas Khan - India
I rented this one from the library, and it's true what the few people who have seen it say: it's a must-watch for people interested in India and Gandhi. Akshaye Khanna, not one of my favorite actors, delivers his possibly best performance ever, reminding me of Andy Garcia somehow. I knew nothing about Gandhi's children, so it was also historically interesting. The camera work is beautiful and there are a few scenes I thought about for a long time.
Rating: 7.7

Das Boot (1981) Wolfgang Petersen - Germany
("The Boat")
I'm glad I read about this in one of Jack's End of the Week Posts some weeks ago, it's apparently very famous as it has been dubbed English and is included in the 1001 book. And my parents had seen it, they say it was extremely famous when it released.
Even though there is just one single woman (a stripper or something) in it, this is now one of my favorite films. An amazing character study with a fabulous soundtrack.
Rating: 9.4

Melancholia (2011) Lars von Trier - Denmark
SPOILERS!
Wow. I know you're all waiting for my opinion, but I'm having some trouble phrasing it. First of all, this is by far the best world's end film I've ever seen. Unlike other films of that kind who focus on the explosions and lowbrow drama, MELANCHOLIA was the first film that really came near to letting me feel what it would be like if the world was about to be destroyed. It is helpful that there are no large crowds of people concerning this, as the feelings are demonstrated perfectly by the two amazing leading actresses. Also the few special effects are mind-blowing, as I said you can feel what it would be like, it's almost real.
On the other hand it's a great film about depression that I could actually relate to. Not that I'm suffering from depression, but we all know that feeling - and it's also a wonderful film about two different sisters.
... The world gets absorbed in melancholia. What a beautiful yet sad thought. A melancholic thought.
Melancholia used to be my favorite word once, I read it somewhere but didn't know what it meant. I think I learned it from TITANIC.
Both the opening scene and particularly the ending scene are of an aesthetic and emotional perfection that almost makes you cry, and the more I think and write about it the more I realize that I love this film. I'll therefore rate it one point higher than originally intended.
By the way, I didn't write a full review because everyone else has already written one, and it's impossible to do without spoilers. I'm also sad I won't be able to include this in my Top 100 until next time I update it.
Rating: 9.4

Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011) Bill Condon - USA
As I've already written in several comments, I know that this film isn't of much cinematic value, but it's a good adoption of the book and in my eyes the best Twilight film yet. Even though the first one has a special charm because it was so new then, without all the hype.
Rating: 6.7

Senna (2010) Asif Kapadia - UK
Who would've thought that formula one is interesting? (Or that this Senna was so hot! - Sorry). One of the best documentaries and biographical films I've seen, this film lingered on me for a long time.
Rating: 7.9

Frühlings Erwachen (2009, TV) Nuran Calis - Germany
(= "The awakening of spring")
Not that I liked the play, but this modern interpretation had a lot of potential that it didn't use very well. I've also never liked Wilson Gonzales, obviously (the son of famous German actor Uwe Ochsenknecht).
Rating: 2.8

Rango (2011) Gore Verbinski - USA
What I said: "In a few years, few people will remember RANGO, for it's neither mainstream nor childish nor ingenious enough to fully satisfy anyone".
Rating: 6.85

Dogville (2003) Lars von Trier - Denmark
What I said: "... I might just as well tell you, how much I am in awe of this film, and how much I want you to watch it".
Rating: 9.8

Re-watched with the purpose of intense examination:

New Moon (2009) Chris Weitz - USA

Maybe you remember that I re-watched TWILIGHT last month with my sister and my best friend? Well, we decided to re-watch all first three parts of the Saga to be all ready for the release of BREAKING DAWN. NEW MOON is my least favorite film, but Kristen Stewart looks much more natural than in part 1 and 3.

Rating: 4.9

Eclipse (2010) David Slade - USA

No wonder the quality of the films changes all the time with all these directors. ECLIPSE wasn't as good as I had remembered it... It was much more fun in cinema. I was quite bored, actually.

Rating: 5.6

Scream 3 (2000) Wes Craven - USA

Who ever decides to watch the third (not particularly good) part of a movie series at a DVD night?

Rating: 5.0

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) Larry Charles - USA

That's more something I like. Honestly, BORAT was even better the second time - I'd never thought I would end up liking it that much.

Rating: 8.2

---------------------------

I also watched the IMDB Top 50 shorts of last week this month,

but I'll make a separate post on that soon.

Amount of films watched this month (excl. shorts): 20

Thank God It's Thursday, 01.12.2011

2011-11-30T18:57:00.001+01:00

I'm sorry that I didn't post anything last tuesday; I was very busy with school and other things.

Indian Releases

I Am Singh - Bollywood seems to have an affection for producing seemingly poor 9/11-films at the time. I also wonder how smart it is to name a film that is situated in New York and that revolves around survival etc. "I Am Singh". I think people will rather re-watch the Will Smith version of that.

Land Gold Women - This is a film with high ambitions, though judging from the trailer it doesn't look like a masterpiece. Nevertheless, it won the Nation Film Award, which is known to be the only truly trustworthy award in India, so that should be reason enough to see it.

The Dirty Picture - Starring Vidya Balan, produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor... run to the theaters as fast as you can! (PS: Trailer and posters look good, too).
I have the feeling that many men are going to see this, for obvious reasons, but it seems it's going to bring Bollywood one step further to gender equality. That being said, Bollywood is very close to it, in my opinion - at least partly.

Mentionable German releases

In Time - A very rotten film according to RT. I do find the plot interesting though... it reminds me of one of my favorite child books, it's called "Momo".

Jane Eyre - Unbelievable that I haven't read the book yet, even though I'm such a sucker for books and films from or about the 19th century. Neither have I seen any of the films, but I've had an eye on this one for a long time (literally, I mean this took a long time to come here)... I really like Jamie Bell and Mia Wasikowska was all right in ALICE IN WONDERLAND, too.

Releases at the local repertory

(By the way, Melancholia played last week, and I was in to watch it. You can read my opinion in the next Happy Next Month post).

Certified Copy - Already entitled (one of) the best film(s) of the year, I'm eager to watch this film - but there's no time at all with school and everything else... sadly. Well, we'll see.

Whore's Glory - A documentary about prositution. Surely informative and shocking. Not what I need right now.

Evil can arise anywhere...

2011-11-22T20:15:00.001+01:00

... as long as the situation is right - is what Lars von Trier said as he was asked to explain his film DOGVILLE.

Dogville (2003)

Dir./ Writer: Lars von Trier

★ Nicole Kidman, Nicole Bacall, Chloe Sevigny, Paul Bettany

Before I saw DOGVILLE, I knew what minimalism looked like in paintings and pictures, in architecture, furniture and fashion. But minimalism in films I hadn't fully understood yet. How can you make a minimalistic film? Cut all side plots, cut most of the dialogue, reduce it to one or two characters? I had seen the second suggestion in VALHALLA RISING, the only Mads Mikkelsen film I haven't been able to like – which, let me tell you, is very uncommon. I don't know if that film was minimalistic, though, and I didn't know that DOGVILLE was. Until I watched it. Already in the first minutes I realized it was different, and a few minutes later I knew how it was different. It was minimalistic, and I was crazy about it.

Telling the story of ever-fighting good and evil and everything in between on hand of a small American village, DOGVILLE is a blend of not only countless genres but also the three most important arts of story-telling; literature, theatre and film.
The first is the most subtle one in this film, however this is where much of its humour is hidden and also much of its brilliancy. Much like a novel, the film is divided into chapters, 9 of the kind, and a prologue. The time spans of the chapters vary, and each chapter is announced along with one short “in which...”-sentence that reveals just a tiny bit of the following sequence, so that your curiosity is constantly renewed. This must be one of the reasons why the running time of 178 minutes didn't bother me at all. To be able to novel-ize a film, one needs of course a narrator, which already brings us closer to the theatre-level, and the choice of the narrator has been nothing less but perfect. He really sounds like one of those Irish or Scottish story tellers with the rolling 'r' and that beautiful language melody. He wouldn't be anywhere as good, though, without the wonderful dialogue that is also kept fluffily old-fashioned, if that expression makes any sense.

Also most of the minimalism has to do with the theatre-level. Like in a theatre, there's only one big room, and a few theatre-lights, though of course the film-”room” wouldn't fit into a theatre as it includes a whole village. The special thing about this room is, that there are no walls. Yes, nada, niente, no walls, a village of a dozen houses without walls. And that is so ingenious for countless reasons. The most obvious reason I can think of is that you can see into the houses which is extremely interesting in many scenes, and that you can overlook the whole village in one shot from above. It must also have kept the production cost extremely low – the only thing that might have been expensive in this film are some of the actors. Wonderful and very interesting is also, how after 15 minutes or so, you start imagining the surroundings yourself, which proves that: no, you don't need locations, you don't even need walls to make a decent film. Or a great one, as it turns out. Everything it takes is a story that double fries your brains combined with performances that double fry your brain, and a team that is determined to double fry your brains.
I think you get the point that my brains felt very warm after watching DOGVILLE.
The minimalism also has some funny aspects to it by the way, but again: I don't want to spoil it for you.

Few films I've seen have been as unpredictable as DOGVILLE. In many films, especially horror films and B-movies, the characters undergo an extreme change from good to evil or inverted, but I've never seen it as well-made and as realistic and subtle, as in DOGVILLE. It is shocking, just shocking and I actually found myself crying in one scene, which really surprised me because it was so unexpected. Now, Kidman's character is the one that is developed least, but somehow it still does develop, even though it's hard to say in what way, especially without spoiling the film for you. She's the “good” one, the heroine, the one we have to feel pity for, yet at times I was mad at her, because she tried to feel pity for the villagers – and at the same time I did feel pity for those monsters.

There are so many things I want to tell you about this film – how much I loved the music, every actor from Paul Bettany to Chloe Sevigny, how much it enchanted me, how much it made me suffer...
But in the end, I might just as well tell you, how much I am in awe of this film, and how much I want you to watch it.

Rating: 9.8

(Yes, it's that good).

The Famous 1001

2011-11-20T19:25:00.011+01:00

Last updated February 23, 2012.

Last Film watched: RIO GRANDE (1950)

"The Cinephiles Bible Of Film", they call it. And indeed, if there's one book deserving that title, it must be the yearly updated collection of precious films, consisting of reviews from one paragraph to full or double pages.

The films in this book vary in terms of fame, acclamation and, off course, content, but as far as I can judge, every one of them truly deserves their place.

It has confused me though, that every year some titles have to make room for the newly released ones, some of them returning in later editions. But that's a question of marketing and brand, I guess. To fully honour the book and the precious films, I have decided to list every title that has ever been in it though - you can see which films have been removed in which edition on filmsquish, and this is also the place where I'd like to thank the author for publishing a list of all films that have been in the book.

I know that Tyler from Southern Vision has a page like this one, but I don't think I'm a copy cat just because I decided to do this too - I heard there are a lot of people who write reviews on films. Thank you for inspiring me though, if you read this, Tyler.

My reason for making this is not very different from his, either: I want my readers to get to know me better and get some more insight in what I watch - or what I haven't managed to watch yet, for that matter (PS: a lot). I guess I'm making this list for myself also... it's easier to keep track of the films I've seen from the book, and not just the ones included in my edition.
By the way, I made this a post-page because... well I don't feel it's "important" enough to be a real page, if you know what I mean. I will update this often though.

Ones I've seen are bold.
Ones I haven't finished or similar will tell you in italic.
Ones I've written about will feature a link. You can click on them.
The list is ordered by decades. Because I like to have things in a certain order. That's almost as satisfying as making lists of things.
Most films are listed by English/ international title.

Enjoy...

1900's
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)

1910's
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Les Vampires (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
Broken Blossoms (1919)

1920's
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Way Down East (1920)
Within Our Gates (1920)
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922)
Dr. Mabuse Parts 1 and 2 (1922)
Nanook of the North (1922)
Nosferatu (1922)
Haxan (1923)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Our Hospitality (1923)
The Wheel (1923)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Strike (1924)
Greed (1924)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
The Last Laugh (1924)
Seven Chances (1925)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Sunrise (1927)
The General (1927)
The Unknown (1927)
October (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Napoleon (1927)
The Kid Brother (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
An Andalusian Dog (1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Storm over Asia (1928)
Blackmail (1929)
The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
Pandora's Box (1929)

1930's
The Blue Angel (1930)
L'Age D'Or (1930)
Earth (1930)
Little Caesar (1930)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
À Nous la Liberté (1931)
Le Million (1931)
Tabu (1931)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931) I don't remember if I've seen this.
City Lights (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
M (1931)
La Chienne (1931)
Vampyr (1932)
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Scarface (1932)
Shanghai Express (1932)
Freaks (1932)
Me and My Gal (1932)
Zero for Conduct (1933)
42nd Street (1933)
Footlight Parade (1933)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Duck Soup (1933)
Queen Christina (1933)
Las Hurdes (1933)
King Kong (1933)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
It's a Gift (1934)
Triumph of the Will (1934)
L'Atalante (1934)
The Black Cat (1934)
Judge Priest (1934)
It Happened One Night (1934)
The Thin Man (1934)
Captain Blood (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) I don't remember much of this.
Top Hat (1935)
A Day in the Country (1936)
Modern Times (1936)
Swing Time (1936)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Camille (1936)
Sabotage (1936)
Dodsworth (1936)
Things to Come (1936)
The Story of a Cheat (1936)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Song At Midnight (1937)
Grand Illusion (1937)
Stella Dallas (1937)
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Pepe Le Moko (1937)
Jezebel (1938)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Olympia (1938)
The Baker's Wife (1938)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Stagecoach (1939)
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (1939)
Babes in Arms (1939)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Daybreak (1939)
Gunga Din (1939)
Ninotchka (1939)
The Rules of the Game (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)

1940's
His Girl Friday (1940)
Rebecca (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Pinocchio (1940)
The Mortal Storm (1940)
The Bank Dick (1940)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Wolf Man (1941)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Sergeant York (1941)
Dumbo (1941)
High Sierra (1941)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Casablanca (1942)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Cat People (1942)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Fires Were Started (1943)
The Man in Grey (1943)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Ossessione (1943)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Laura (1944)
Gaslight (1944)
Henry V (1944)
Ivan the Terrible (1944) Parts 1 and 2
Double Indemnity (1944)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
Spellbound (1945)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Children of Paradise (1945)
Open City (1945)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Detour (1945)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Brief Encounter (1946)
Paisan (1946)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Stranger (1946)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Killers (1946)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Great Expectations (1946)
Notorious (1946)
Black Narcissus (1946)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Gilda (1946)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Out of the Past (1947)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Odd Man Out (1947)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
Force of Evil (1948)
Spring in a Small Town (1948)
Red River (1948)
Rope (1948)
The Snake Pit (1948)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
Paleface (1948)
The Red Shoes (1948)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Louisiana Story (1948)
The Heiress (1949)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
Gun Crazy (1949)
Adam's Rib (1949)
Whiskey Galore! (1949)
White Heat (1949)
The Reckless Moment (1949)
The Third Man (1949)
On the Town (1949)
Orpheus (1949)

1950's
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Rashômon (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950)
Rio Grande (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Los Olvidados (1950)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
The Big Carnival (1951)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
The African Queen (1951)
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
An American in Paris (1951)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Forbidden Games (1952)
Angel Face (1952)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Ikiru (1952)
Europa '51 (1952)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Big Sky (1952)
High Noon (1952)
Umberto D (1952)
The Golden Coach (1952)
The Bigamist (1953)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Madame De… (1953)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Wages of Fear (1953)
The Naked Spur (1953)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
The Big Heat (1953)
M. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Voyage in Italy (1953)
Ugetsu (1953)
Shane (1953)
Beat the Devil (1953)
Johnny Guitar (1954)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Les Diaboliques (1954)
Animal Farm (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
A Star Is Born (1954)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
La Strada (1954)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Senso (1954)
Silver Lode (1954)
Carmen Jones (1954)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Salt of the Earth (1954)
Artists and Models (1955)
Guys and Dolls (1955)
Pather Panchali (1955)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
The Mad Masters (1955)
Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955)
The Ladykillers (1955)
Marty (1955)
Ordet (1955)
Bob Le Flambeur (1955)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Man from Laramie (1955)
Rebel without a Cause (1955)
The Phenix City Story (1955)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Night and Fog (1955)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Lola Montes (1955)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Burmese Harp (1956)
The Searchers (1956)
A Man Escaped (1956)
Written on the Wind (1956)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Giant (1956)
All That Heaven Allows (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)
Bigger Than Life (1956)
High Society (1956)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
The Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Throne of Blood (1957)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Aparajito (1957)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Mother India (1957) | review
The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Man of the West (1958)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Cairo Station (1958)
Gigi (1958)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
Mon Oncle (1958)
The Music Room (1958)
The 400 Blows (1959)
North by Northwest (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Eyes without a Face (1959)
Ride Lonesome (1959)
Black Orpheus (1959)
Shadows (1959)
The World of Apu (1959)
Breathless (1959)
Ben-Hur (1959)
Pickpocket (1959)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Rio Bravo (1959)
The Hole (1959)
Floating Weeds (1959)

1960's
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
L'Avventura (1960)
La Joven (1960)
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)
The Housemaid (1960)
Psycho (1960)
Black Sunday (1960)
Peeping Tom (1960)
The Apartment (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
La Jetée (1961)
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Lola (1961)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Only watched the beginning.
La Notte (1961)
Jules and Jim (1961)
Viridiana (1961)
The Ladies Man (1961)
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Chronicle of a Summer (1961)
The Hustler (1961)
West Side Story (1961)
Mondo Cane (1962)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Dog Star Man (1962)
An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
L'Eclisse (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Lolita (1962)
Keeper of Promises (1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
My Life to Live (1962)
Heaven and Earth Magic (1962)
The Birds (1963)
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Blonde Cobra (1963)
The Cool World (1963)
8 1/2 (1963)
Passenger (1963)
Contempt (1963)
Hud (1963)
Winter Light (1963)
Flaming Creatures (1963)
The Great Escape (1963)
Shock Corridor (1963)
The Leopard (1963)
Barren Lives (1963)
Mediteranee (1963)
The House is Black (1963)
The Haunting (1963)
An Actor's Revenge (1963)
The Servant (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Marnie (1964)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Red Desert (1964)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Before the Revolution (1964)
Gertrud (1964)
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Black God, White Devil (1964)
The Demon (1964)
Vinyl (1965)
The Shop on Main Street (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The War Game (1965)
Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
The Battle of Algiers (1965)
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Sargossa Manuscript (1965)
Alphaville (1965)
Chimes at Midnight (1965)
Repulsion (1965)
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Golden River (1965)
The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965)
Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966)
Blow-Up (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Daisies (1966)
Come Drink with Me (1966)
Seconds (1966)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Persona (1966)
Masculin-Feminin (1966)
Au Hazard Balthazar (1966)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967)
The Graduate (1967)
Playtime (1967)
Report (1967)
Hombre (1967)
Belle de Jour (1967)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Week End (1967)
The Godson (1967)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
Wavelength (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The Red and the White (1967)
Marketta Lazarova (1967)
The Jungle Book (1967)
The Fireman's Ball (1967)
Earth Entranced (1967)
Closely Watched Trains (1967)
Vij (1967)
The Cow (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Faces (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
If... (1968)
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)
The Producers (1968)
David Holzman's Diary (1968)
Shame (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Targets (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
My Night at Maud's (1969)
Lucia (1969)
A Touch of Zen (1969)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Satyricon (1969)
Z (1969)
The Conformist (1969)
Easy Rider (1969)
High School (1969)
In the Year of the Pig (1969)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Andrei Rublev (1969)
Le Boucher (1969)
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Kes (1969)

1970's
Tristana (1970)
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
El Topo (1970)
Woodstock (1970)
Deep End (1970)
The Spider's Stratagem (1970)
Little Big Man (1970)
The Ear (1970)
Patton (1970)
M*A*S*H (1970)
Performance (1970)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
The Bird with The Crystal Plumage (1970)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
Wanda (1971)
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Sorrow and the Pity (1971)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Walkabout (1971)
Klute (1971)
Harold and Maude (1971)
Red Psalm (1971)
Get Carter (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
Shaft (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971) Don't remember a lot of this.
Murmur of the Heart (1971)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Straw Dogs (1971)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Cabaret (1972)
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
High Plains Drifter (1972)
Sleuth (1972)
Deliverance (1972)
Solaris (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
Cries and Whispers (1972)
Fat City (1972)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972)
Frenzy (1972)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Superfly (1972)
The Sting (1973)
The Mother and the Whore (1973)
Badlands (1973)
American Graffiti (1973)
Papillon (1973)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Day for Night (1973)
Don't Look Now (1973)
Sleeper (1973)
Serpico (1973)
The Exorcist (1973) Don't remember much of this either. But love it.
Turkish Delight (1973)
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Amarcord (1973)
The Harder They Come (1973)
Pat Garret and Billy the Kid (1973)
Dersu Uzala (1974)
The Conversation (1974)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Mirror (1974)
A Woman under the Influence (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Chinatown (1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Wall (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Fox and His Friends (1975)
India Song (1975)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Manila in the Claws of Brightness (1975)
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Nashville (1975)
Cria! (1975)
The Traveling Players (1975)
Jaws (1975)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Carrie (1976)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
All the President's Men (1976)
Rocky (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Network (1976)
Ascent (1976)
In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
1900 (1976)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Last Wave (1977)
Annie Hall (1977)
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977)
Storszek (1977)
Man of Marble (1977)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Eraserhead (1977)
Ceddo (1977)
The American Friend (1977)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Soldier of Orange (1977)
Suspiria (1977)
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)
Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Grease (1978)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Shaolin Master Killer (1978)
Up in Smoke (1978)
Halloween (1978)
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Real Life (1979)
My Brilliant Career (1979)
Stalker (1979)
Alien (1979)
Breaking Away (1979)
The Tin Drum (1979)
All That Jazz (1979)
Being There (1979)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Life of Brian (1979)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Jerk (1979)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Manhattan (1979)
Mad Max (1979)
Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979)

1980's
Ordinary People (1980)
Atlantic City (1980)
The Last Metro (1980)
The Shining (1980)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Elephant Man (1980)
The Big Red One (1980)
Loulou (1980)
Airplane! (1980)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Das Boot (1981)
Gallipoli (1981)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
Body Heat (1981)
Reds (1981)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Three Brothers (1981)
Man of Iron (1981)
Too Early, Too Late (1981)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1981)
E.T. The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
The Thing (1982)
Poltergeist (1982)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Evil Dead (1982)
Tootsie (1982)
Yol (1982)
Diner (1982)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Gandhi (1982)
The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)
A Question of Silence (1982)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
A Christmas Story (1983)
El Norte (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Big Chill (1983)
Sans Soleil (1983)
The Last Battle (1983)
L'Argent (1983)
Utu (1983)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
The Fourth Man (1983)
The King of Comedy (1983)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Once Upon a Time in America (1983)
Scarface (1983)
The Battle of Narayama (1983)
Amadeus (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
Paris, Texas (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
A Passage to India (1984)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
The Killing Fields (1984)
The Natural (1984)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Ran (1985)
Come and See (1985)
The Official Story (1985)
Out of Africa (1985)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985)
Brazil (1985)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
The Quiet Earth (1985)
Mishima (1985)
Prizzi's Honor (1985)
Vagabond (1985)
Shoah (1985)
The Color Purple (1985)
Manhunter (1986)
Stand By Me (1986)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
She's Gotta Have It (1986)
The Decline of the American Empire (1986)
The Fly (1986)
Aliens (1986)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Down by Law (1986)
A Room with a View (1986)
Children Of A Lesser God (1986)
Platoon (1986)
Caravaggio (1986)
Tampopo (1986)
Peking Opera Blues (1986)
Salvador (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
Sherman's March (1986)
The Horse Thief (1986)
Yeelen (1987)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Project A, Part II (1987)
Babette's Feast (1987)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Withnail and I (1987)
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)
Broadcast News (1987)
Housekeeping (1987)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Moonstruck (1987)
The Untouchables (1987)
Red Sorghum (1987)
The Dead (1987)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
The Vanishing (1988)
Bull Durham (1988)
Ariel (1988)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Akira (1988)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
The Naked Gun (1988)
Big (1988)
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Landscape in the Mist (1988)
The Decalogue (1988)
Die Hard (1988) Don't remember much...
A Tale of the Wind (1988)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Rain Man (1988)
The Story of Women (1988)
The Accidental Tourist (1988)†
Alice (1988)
Drowning by Numbers (1988)
Batman (1989) Same here.
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
My Left Foot (1989)
The Killer (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Roger & Me (1989)
Glory (1989)
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
Sex, Lies & Videotape (1989)
Say Anything... (1989)
The Unbelievable Truth (1989)
A City of Sadness (1989)

1990's
No Fear, No Die (1990)
Reversal of Fortune (1990)
Goodfellas (1990)
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
King of New York (1990)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Europa Europa (1990)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Archangel (1990)
Trust (1990)
Close-Up (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)
Total Recall (1990)
Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
Boyz 'n the Hood (1991)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Delicatessen (1991)
A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Naked Lunch (1991)
La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
The Rapture (1991)
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
JFK (1991)
Slacker (1991)
Tongues Untied (1991)
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
The Player (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Romper Stomper (1992)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Candy Man (1992)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992)
The Crying Game (1992)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
The Actress (1992)
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Short Cuts (1993)
Philadelphia (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
The Puppetmaster (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
Blue (1993)
The Piano (1993)
The Blue Kite (1993)
The Wedding Banquet (1993)
Red (1994)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Clerks (1994)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
The Lion King (1994)
Satantango (1994)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
The Last Seduction (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) | review
The Wild Reeds (1994)
Chungking Express (1994)
Crumb (1994)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Through the Olive Trees (1994)
Riget (1994)
Dear Diary (1994)
Muriel's Wedding (1994)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Casino (1995)
Deseret (1995)
Babe (1995)
Toy Story (1995) Believe it or not, I almost don't remember this one.
Strange Days (1995)
Braveheart (1995) Nor this one.
Safe (1995)
Clueless (1995)
Heat (1995)
Zero Kelvin (1995)
Seven (1995)
Smoke (1995)
The White Balloon (1995)
Xixch Lo (1995)
Underground (1995)
The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride (1995)
Dead Man (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Pillow Book (1996)
Three Lives and Only One Death (1996)
Fargo (1996)
Independence Day (1996)
Secrets and Lies (1996)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
The English Patient (1996)
Gabbeh (1996)
Lone Star (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Scream (1996)
Shine (1996)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Happy Together (1997)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997)
The Butcher Boy (1997)
The Ice Storm (1997)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Kundun (1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Funny Games (1997)
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Open Your Eyes (1997)
Mother and Son (1997)
Titanic (1997)
Tetsuo (1998)
The Celebration (1998)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Buffalo 66 (1998)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Run Lola Run (1998)
Rushmore (1998)
Pi (1998)
Happiness (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Idiots (1998)
Sombre (1998)
Ringu (1998)
There's Something About Mary (1998)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Magnolia (1999)
Beau Travail (1999)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Taboo (1999)
Rosetta (1999)
All About My Mother (1999)
Three Kings (1999)
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Audition (1999)
Time Regained (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
Attack the Gas Station (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)†
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Matrix (1999)

2000's
Nine Queens (2000)
The Captive (2000)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Ali Zaoua, Prince of the Streets (2000)
Gladiator (2000) Have I actually seen this?
Kippur (2000)
Yi Yi (2000)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Amores Perros (2000)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Review
Traffic (2000)
The Gleaners and I (2000)
Memento (2000)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Amélie (2001)
What Time Is It There? (2001)
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
Kandahar (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Piano Teacher (2001)
The Son's Room (2001)
No Man's Land (2001)
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Fat Girl (2001)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Lantana (2001)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Gangs of New York (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
Talk to Her (2002)
City of God (2002)
Russian Ark (2002)
Far From Heaven (2002)
Adaptation. (2002)
Chicago (2002)
Hero (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Uzak (2002)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Irreversible (2002)
Bus 174 (2002)
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Oldboy (2003)
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)
The Best of Youth (2003)
Lost In Translation (2003)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
Collateral (2004)
The Aviator (2004)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Head-On (2004)
3-Iron (2004)
Crash (2004)
Downfall (2004)
Sideways (2004)
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Go, See, and Become (2005)
Paradise Now (2005)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Tsotsi (2005)
Caché (2005)
The Constant Gardner (2005)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Apocalypto (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan (2006)
The Lives of Others (2006)
Once (2006)
The Queen (2006)
The Host (2006)
The Prestige (2006)
Children of Men (2006)
United 93 (2006)
The Last King Of Scotland (2006)
Babel (2006)
Volver (2006)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
La Vie En Rose (2007)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Into the Wild (2007)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Atonement (2007)
Surfwise (2007)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Wall-E (2008)
The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Wrestler (2008)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Gomorra (2008)
The Class (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)
Let The Right One In (2008)
The Hurt Locker (2009)
An Education (2009)
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009)
Avatar (2009)
District 9 (2009)
The Hangover (2009) Love it but: really??
In the Loop (2009)
The White Ribbon (2009)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Fish Tank (2009)
Monsters (2010) What? This is in here?
Of Gods and Men (2010)
Black Swan (2010)
Four Lions (2010)
The Social Network (2010)
Inception (2010)
The King's Speech (2010)
True Grit (2010) Well, I watched the first 30 minutes.

Amount of films on the list: 1089
Amount of films I've seen: 111

I know that I haven't seen many of the older films, but I'm planning on completing this list some time before I die. So, which films have you seen, anything I just have to see right now? Anything I should re-watch and re-member? Any thoughts?

The name's Rango

2011-11-19T17:40:00.020+01:00

Rango (2011)

Dir. Gore Verbinski

★ Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant

After the release of Jackson and Spielberg's TIN TIN, the odds that RANGO, like many cinegoers have previously predicted, is going to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature are descending. I haven't seen TIN TIN yet, for reasons that many of you know and that I want to overcome, but I can say that much: RANGO does not deserve an Oscar.

This year won't go down in history as belonging to the golden age of animated features (if there is one yet) – if that's Pixars fault is a question I don't want to discuss here. As both RANGO and TIN TIN are not part of the Disney/ Pixar group that has somewhat held a monopoly on the animated film sector, though, this year is very likely to down in history as the one in which Pixar didn't produce a winner.
Getting back to RANGO. The story of a lonely lizard who gets thrown into an unfamiliar, rural environment, where people don't like strangers, and realizes the opportunity to invent a new life for himself and be popular for a change. Except for a few adjurations, nothing new here. Applying human emotions, values and behaving onto animals is nothing new either, but most previous animated fables haven't pushed it as far as RANGO does – which, believe it or not, is one of this films biggest strengths. Furthermore, the animation is fabulous, every little detail being perfect to bits. This is especially seen on hand of the clothing, and the single scene in which a human appears (“the spirit of the west” to be precise, but let's call him a human). Only after a mentionable amount of seconds had passed, I realized that this wasn't a real actor but an animation, and it took me some time to convince my sister too: “Look there, you can see it's animated from that tiny detail...”. If there's anything Pixar can learn from here, this must be it.

There is a lot of situation comedy in RANGO, and I remember laughing out loud a few times. Mostly I was just smiling though, so you shouldn't expect a proper comedy. If you don't expect more than a little entertainment, you won't be disappointed, and maybe you'll be shocked by some of the scenes that are actually funny, because they're hilarious to be honest. And that's where Johnny Depp steps in. I know that many people say he's become a parody of himself lately, and I can understand why they feel that, but in my opinion all he needs is to play some more serious roles. Let's face it, he's great at comedy, but if he continues this way, his career is slowly going to drop down – even though, as I said, RANGO wouldn't be near as good without him.
A big weakness of the film is the development of the story and the final showdown/ ending. I don't want to spoil anything here, so let me just say: predictable and poor. I found myself slowly drifting away, and when I found my way back to the film again, I could tell what would happen so I drifted away again. Also, and I know Americans and people who watch the dubbed versions won't consider this a problem, but I found it extremely hard to understand Beans. That accent was really extreme – if I ever watch it a second time, I'll turn the subtitles on. And that's what I would recommend others like me to do.

Very authentic by the way... I've been to Mexico a few times.

So what is left to say, and what can I conclude about RANGO?Well, I think that RANGO is a decent film, but the only reason it got that much praise must be this years poor choice of animated features. Compared to the other animated films I've seen, RANGO does have strengths and improvisations that others can learn from, but the amount of things it can learn from other films is much larger. It won't hurt watching it, but it won't hurt not watching it either. In a few years, few people will remember RANGO, for it's neither mainstream nor childish nor ingenious enough to fully satisfy anyone.

Rating: 6.85

Thank God It's Thursday, 17.11.2011

2011-11-17T20:53:00.001+01:00

Mentionable German Releases

Arthur Christmas - Mentionable only because of James McAvoy (who made out an important part of my previous post discussing my currently-in-production Top 100 list). The trailer looks rotten. Not even really cute... I'll stick with THE POLAR EXPRESS, HOME ALONE 1 & 2 and LITTLE LORD FOUNDLEROY, like every christmas. Anyhow, I'd bet my LOTR 6 Disc collector's Edition that this is going to be the family-christmas-fun-in-cinema 2011.

The Thing - Had expected more since the reviews have been quite positive. Apparently this is a film that has been remade various times, or at least various films have had this name. The trailer doens't promise anything new.

Submarine - Typical - the only film I like of these is the one not releasing at our apparently very bad-taste multiplex... Many people recommended it, but I was still surprised by the trailer. Looks like a good coming-of age film for a change (I'm thinking of NOWHERE BOY right now). I'm sure it's going to release at the repertory some time next year though.

Hindi Releases in India

Na Jaane Kabse... - Déjà vu! This was supposed to release two weeks ago, wasn't it? Well, the trailer can't have improved since then.

Who's There? - I'm smelling a very B(!) horror film. If you need a good laugh, watch the trailer.

Shakal Pe Mat Ja - No. No, no, no. No! ... That's... so tasteless. A film that makes fun out of 9/11, I mean the accident itself (not like in Tere Bin Laden, which was about the consequences)? Mixed with bad music, weird actors (including a B-Shahrukh-lookalike) and a fart joke?! Please.

Releases at the local repertory

Baikonur - Looks funny, but a bit over-the-top too. Also, the German dub isn't very good in the trailer (couldn't find any original trailer).

Le Havre - There is definitely some potential here... I just don't like it when trailers include quotes from critics' reviews. Even though I do understand why they do that.

A task that is killing me

2011-11-15T17:00:00.001+01:00

As you may know, I'm currently working at a Top 100 list of my favorite films. Many blogs have one, some others refuse to create one... I decided to give it a try.
But right now I feel like digging myself a nice and warm little hole and stay there until december 9th when we're going to Mexico - this is so hard! How can I rank one film higher than another one, if I love both of them? And how often am I going to change this list? - Probably every month, as my previous watching habits have been so bad that I'm not even sure I've seen 1% of the favorite-film-material (not to speak of the classic, must-watch etc. material) out there. It's been almost one year since I've started watching many films, and especially trying to focus on good films - not just anything I can get my hands on.

You're making this very tough for me, Mister...

Another problem is that there are films I know I love and have called my "favorite film" for some time, but now I don't remember how much I love them... Would I like them if I re-watched them today? And how much?
Nikhat's comment on one of her favorite films (and mine too) ATONEMENT made me wonder... how high would I rank that film? High, that's what I'd say a few weeks ago. But maybe it's not that good a film, maybe what I found so great about it are James McAvoy's blue, blue eyes... Or DIl SE - once my favorite film of all time, I start thinking... wasn't there a lot of violence? And how much did I like that?

Or THE LITTLE MERMAID. Sure, I love that film, but how high can I rank a childish Disney film?

Facing this and many other dilemmas, I remembered Stevees wonderful post on selecting your Top 100, in which she said you shouldn't make a difference between favorite films and favorite film material (at least that's what she concludes in the end). I want to be honest with myself in this list, I want it to be 100% me, 100% Mette's favorite films. So maybe that's what I should start doing now - being honest. Well, I'll let you know the next time I fail.

Sorry if I rambled you to the ground, I don't usually write many ramble posts, but I want to blog more regularly and this was all I can think of today. Well, except that I'm excited to watch some more short films tonight - I'm currently working my way through IMDBs Top 50 short films. There was a short film festival last week here, but I'm saving all my money for our trip, so I decided to make my own kind of short film festival for the next few days. Plus I'll watch RANGO; highly acclaimed (for an animated feature) and situated in Mexico (judging from the trailer). By the way, do you know any good Mexican films?

Timeless: Feed the Kitty (1952)

2011-11-12T15:11:00.001+01:00

Watch "Feed the Kitty"

While the feature film still is the padrino of cinema, Warner Bros, Disney and countless independent directors have more than one time proved that there's not much you need to make an ingenious film with everything in it. Like FEED THE KITTY. With a duration of 7 minutes and 23 seconds, this film outlines some of manhoods most discussed and thought-about issues and eternal questions.

I don't remember when I saw FEED THE KITTY for the first time - surely, my brain wasn't full-grown yet - but I remember the last time I watched it, after a long time. And it struck me, the brilliancy of this film struck me like a lightning. It is honest, understandable and entertaining for persons of any age and a wonderful reflexion of our society - today, more than 50 years after it was made. My parents have seen this film when they were children, and so do the children I babysit.

But what exactly is this "everything", the film reflects on and includes, and what makes it so timeless? A few suggestions.

Society and Prejudice

At the start of the film, the dog Marc Anthony walks around startling everything that comes in his way, including the little kitten Pussyfoot. He expects it to be scared of him, but no - it isn't. Marc Anthony starts reflecting: Why is he doing this? The cat isn't scared, so maybe he's not what he seems to be either? Did he terrify animals and people because he thought nobody liked him?

You know this type, we all know him (or her, for that matter). Of course, life's not a Warner Bros Merry Melody, and the Marc Anthony of our world might rape the cat or strangle it or something. But you can apply this to various other types and situations than just the pure Marc Anthony/ bad guy. It might be someone in your class, or at work. Actually sometimes, we can all be a Marc Anthony... I can, if I don't like people, or think I don't like them. I'm often right about it, but sometimes a little Pussyfoot comes along, and I realize I was being unfair. Snobby, that is. Don't bark at the people who have a "bad taste of films" (= smaller people), at least give them a chance.

I did - I thought that serious films are pretentious and snobby, without ever seeing one of those (well yes, I did watch serious films, but more the mainstream kind of). Parallel Cinema? Worse. And now I'm not any better - I'm extremely prejudiced against the people who don't like subtitles, who think many films I like are pretentious and snobby... the people who remind me of an old version of myself.

Give it a go - don't be a Marc Anthony. And, for that matter, don't be a Pussyfoot all the time, either.

Death

The worst fear of all kinds of animals, death is the fundament for all of our basic instincts. We eat, drink (water), sleep and don't-kill-ourselves, because we want to survive, we don't want to die - we're afraid of death. I believe that the fear is worst when you're in your middle-ages, because as a young person you don't think you could die every moment - you don't want to die, but you don't think about it. You don't know what it means. As an old person, you've had many years of thinking about and finally accepting the fact that nothing ever lasts.

But there's something worse than dying, and that is the fear of being left alone - the fear that your beloved ones die. Because what is life without them - nothing. This is why we are afraid of getting old, even as teenagers. FEED THE KITTY, too, takes up that subject; Marc Anthony now has a friend, and his whole life has changed - he can't go back to where he was at the beginning. But just when he has found that friend, life seems to be wanting to take her back again.

Despairingly, Marc Anthony tries what he can to prevent this from happening, even if it includes piquing his mistress, but in the end there's nothing he can do. We all know what has really happened, and therefore, the following scene is more amusing than sorrowful...

It's a children's cartoon, after all. But the matter is clear-cut, and it is a serious, eternal matter.

Coming of Age

More of a side matter in this film, one might think, but I believe that coming of age is an important part of it. Why else would it be called "Feed the Kitty", a direct link to the last scene of the film, in which the mistress tells Marc Anthony: "You can keep that dear little kitten, if you want to. But remember: you've got to take care of it (...)". Coming of age is about taking responsibility for your life (symbolized by Pussyfoot in the film), making your own decisions that you have to stand up for. Belgian singer-songwriter Jonathan Vandenbroeck, known as Milow, wrote that "If each shot of happy/ Comes with only two shots of sad/ Then coming of age is not so bad" in one of my favorite songs, and in my opinion, these three lines might be the eternal truth about coming of age. That's what it is: ironic, happy and sad at the same time. Like this cartoon.

Friendship

Friendship has always been a mystical thing for humans - (almost) everyone has at least one true friend, but what is it that make us be friends with someone? How does friendship work, are there rules for how to make friends, and with whom? Psychologists, philosophers, the boy and girl next door - everyone has wondered about this one time or another.

If two people meet, and seem to like each other, there's mostly one person who takes the first step, an initiator. In the case of Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot, the latter initiates the friendship in a very childish, naive way, expecting anyone to be as nice to her as she is to others. Children don't have the restrictions adults have, they just go up to someone and ask "Shall we be friends?". Many adults admire this, wishing life could be as easy as back in kindergarten. And the makers of FEED THE KITTY agree with that - there's also a connection to the first section here.

Now, even though Pussyfoot is the initiator of the friendship, Marc Anthony is the one who keeps it going and ends up caring so much for his new friend, that he would do anything for her, and couldn't live without her.

Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot are very different from each other, but they're friends, and that's their strength. They exchange love and protection - almost as if friendship was a countertrade. Indeed, that is part of a friendship, but not everything.

Friendship is what we see in the very last picture: shelter and warmth.

Thank God It's Thursday, 09.11.2011

2011-11-10T16:45:00.001+01:00

Indian Hindi Releases

Project 11 - It was hard to find anything about this film, indiafm has almost nothing about it. One of the most interesting experiments in film I've heard of this year, so look out. I don't get the "Coming to a computer near you", though. Is it going to be released online? However, you should read the facebook site, it's pretty interesting... There's also a short trailer.

Rockstar - Woooooow! I am so excited for this film, even though I don't think it's going to reach the level of Devdas 2002 and Dev.D... especially the first half of the trailer is a bit too fluffy for me. But who knows... That new girl looks promising, definitely. And is it me, or does Ranbir get hotter with the time? At first I thought he wasn't really hot, just a good actor, but I don't know... there's something about that rockstar-thing, maybe. My problem with this film is just that I'm afraid of having too big expectations. Yes, Jab We Met is one of the best rom-coms of the past century, and Socha Na Tha was an all right debut. But Love Aaj Kal?

Anyways, there's always Rahman. Is what I said before I watched Saawariya...

No, this is good. This is rocking. This HAS to be good.

Mentionable German Releases

A Dangerous Method - What a cast, top-notch! The trailer is intriguing, even though there are a few indicators of boringness, but I just hope that's the fault of the trailer-editor. I'll definitely watch this, hopefully in cinema.

Anonymous - Roland Emmerich goes from end-of-the-world to... to what? It's not a historic epic. Whatever it is, I must say it looks extremely pretentious to me, even though I like Radiohead. But really? A film about that question? Meh.

Lion King 3D - I'd love to see this childhood classic on the silver screen, but not if the price is 3D-head ache and an even more expensive ticket.

Releases at the local repertory

The 11th Flensburg Short Film Days - An event I wanted to participate in, but I'm currently saving money for our trip to Mexico, so that wasn't possible.

Taste the Waste - German documentary about the food we throw away. Interesting and important, but... I still have that copy of Rango laying around, you know...

Soundtrack of the Month - November '11

2011-11-06T18:31:00.005+01:00

The wonderful French romantic comedy I saw yesterday convinced me to have a soundtrack of the month this time, instead of just a song - a very special soundtrack, that is.

DIRTY DANCING. A film about music and coming-of-age, including a dash of 60s-nostalgia (those old enough to remember watching it on the silver screen might also say 80s-nostalgia). Countless teenage girls must have been introduced to it by their mothers when "the time was right" and fallen in love with not only the film, I'm sure. As for me, I didn't fall in love with Patrick Swayze for that matter, but the film initiated my chronic crush on dancing and the 60s - style, films, and especially music from that decade (or music inspired by it).

DIRTY DANCING raised the bars for every future dance film I would see, concerning pretty much everything. And no, I don't count Hindi films for dance films, except dancing itself is an important topic in the film (e.g. UMRAO JAAN).

The soundtrack is a deeply important part of the film, and it's hard to say "The time of my life", no matter in which context, without thinking of that last scene.

Therefore, let's celebrate the magic of DIRTY DANCING, the best girls-just-wanna-have-fun film of all time! (Read a great article on the term "chick-flick" here). Even though... hm, maybe this isn't a totally pure girls-just-wanna-have-fun film. Actually, I think it's not, I think there's more to it. Think about it...

Anyhow, we were talking about the soundtrack, so let's listen to some actual music now.

(I wasn't able to embed the videos from youtube, I hope you can all watch these. Also, this is not the complete soundtrack, just the songs I remember and like).

(I've Had) The Time of My Life (Billy Medley & Jennifer Warnes)

Surely the most iconic song of the whole soundtrack... I can't listen to it often enough. By the way, has anyone of you stumbled upon that horrible re-mix from The Black Eyed Peas? I never knew one could rape a piece of music, but it seems to be possible for them.

Be My Baby (The Ronettes)

Sorry for the bad quality. Not my favorite song of the soundtrack, but very sixties. And very good choice for the film, because of the name.

She's Like the Wind (Patrick Swayze)

Not a song I normally listen to, except when it's on the radio. A bit too 80s-ballade-y for me. But he wasn't the worst singer.

Hungry Eyes (Eric Carmen)

My second favorite song from the film. I'm one of those people who almost always have a tune in their heads, even while dreaming and right when I wake up. This is one that I very often find myself humming - either just inside my head or, well, outside.

Stay (Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs)

And this is my #1. Love, love, love this song and I won't ever get sick or bored of it. Why can't today's popular music be this good?

Hey Baby (Bruce Channel)

Another typical 60s song - so catchy!

So, I don't know how many males have read this, or how many males actually like DIRTY DANCING, but I'm sure some of them must like its music, or parts of it. Maybe this is a film specifically for women, however it's definitely not just a film about an inhibited girl falling in love with a hot guy. Like Vanessa Paradis says in L'ARNACOEUR; the special something about it is "that animalistic attraction" and wildness.

...Je suis d'accord.

Thank God It's Thursday - Both sides of the medal

2011-11-03T16:45:00.000+01:00

Yes, it's still Thursday where I am.

Mentionable German releases

Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Werner Herzog is one of the finest German directors, and this latest project of his surely sounds intriguing. I'm not that much of a 3D-fan, so I hope it'll come in 2D as well.

One Day - I haven't seen AN EDUCATION yet, but it's very high on my watch-list, especially because Scherfig is a Danish director. I don't know about this one though, I mean, it doesn't look very special to me.

Paranormal Activity 3 - A friend of mine went to watch the preview of this one and said it was really good. I'm going to watch the first parts before this one, though.

Indian Hindi Releases

Loot - I'm not even going to watch the trailer... a look at the cast and the poster is enough.

Miley Naa Miley Hum - Looks a little better (also the cast), but still... I wouldn't have high expectations for this one.

Na Jaane Kabse... - Director of MUMMY PUNJABI...? No thanks, that trailer was enough of the good.

Tension Doooor - Really? Nothing better this Friday? Thank God I'm not in India.

Releases at the local repertory

Über uns das All - The trailer looks funny and sad at the same time, a mixture that pleases me. It's supposed to be a true insider tip from the Berlinale.

The Guard - Haven't seen the trailer or read the synopsis, but I've read some very positive opinions on this one. If only I had some money left...

Happy New Month: Films of October 2011

2011-11-02T17:53:00.003+01:00

Before we start, here's a short notification: please vote for my submission for the 7th LAMB Photoshop event here. Or vote for any of the other ones, if you think they're better - just vote.

Seen on Silver Screen

Sommer in Orange (2011) Marcus H. Rosenmüller - Germany

I wrote about this one in another post already. To quote myself: "I saw a movie with great potential yesterday - SOMMER IN ORANGE - that had an awful end. It was quite realistic with a funny note all the time (it's about some German Bhagwan-followers who lived in the 1980's and the problems their children have to deal with, and how the outside world rejects them), until some time the producers must have thought "yeah, let's make an unrealistic happy-end now". Or something similar. Anyway, I was vastly disappointed.

Rating: 5.9

Midnight in Paris (2011) Woody Allen - USA

Just as good is I had expected, this latest Woody-product is a light, romantic comedy with a great love for details and intellectual amusement (even though it makes fun of snobbism). It is true that Owen Wilson has never been better, and maybe never will be better - it's a surprise he even got this chance to show off his decent skills in a film of this caliber. Even if I have been to Paris, and remember some of it's very dark sides, this film made me re-discover the beauty and magic about it. A wonderful end to the (more or less) warm season - they call it summer, I believe - so Bonjour cold, German winter.

Rating: 8.1

Seen for the first time

I Am Legend (2007) Francis Lawrence - USA

Better and profounder than I had thought, though pretty mainstream, plus I didn't like the end. It was like an old chewing gum - absolutely nothing new about it. The film should've stopped when he tells them to enter that thing (that's not a spoiler, right?). Best scene: Will Smith talking along with SHREK. You know what I mean if you've seen it.

Rating: 7.0

Kissenschlacht (2011) (TV-film) Peter Stauch - Germany

Not a very good film, in fact a very bad film that you'll forget just after watching it. Annika Blendl seems promising though.

Rating: 1.7

Wo Hu Cang Long (2000) Ang Lee - China/ Taiwan

"A beautiful, majestic epic of a film that will stay in your memory for all time." - Read more

Rating: 9.2

Volver (2006) Pedro Almodóvar - Spain

"One of those fascinating films that blend a serious message into filmic entertainment without exaggerating neither of the two. Light but satiable." - Read more

Rating: 9.1

Mirch (2010) Vinay Shukla - India (Hindi)

"MIRCH is not as good as it could have been." - Read more

Rating: 6.5

Well Done Abba! (2010) Shyam Benegal - India (Hindi)

A well-done film with an important message, and without too much heavy drama and... heaviness. Boman Irani is splendid as always and also Minissha Lamba shines, even though she is clearly too old for her role. Ila Arun proves that CHAK DE! wasn't just a lucky role for her.

Rating: 7.3

Horsemen (2009) Jonas Åkerlund - USA

Good idea, bad script and direction. The film doesn't even suck, it's too boring for that. I was confused to see Ziyi Zhang in it, after being introduced to her by seeing WO HU CANG LONG a few days earlier.

Rating: 4.5

Monsters (2010) Gareth Edwards - UK

I was surprised to find that this film has a huge fan base amongst cinegoers, plus that it was made in Britain. I mean, it plays in Mexico/ USA. And even though the idea and the actors (except for Scoot McNairy) are better than those from HORSEMEN, the film is just as boring. The end made me very angry, because I felt: "I sat through this for about 2 hours, just to see that!?"

I think I'll watch DISTRICT 9 very soon, instead, to see if it's any better.

Rating: 5.0

Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009) Shimit Amin - India (Hindi)

Interesting and boring at the same time. Interesting to see something new, I mean an Indian film about an office and the people working there, boring to see a film about an office and the people working there. Ranbir Kapoor has played better roles, too, even though he proves his flexibility in this one. I didn't see Ranbir Kapoor with a Sikh-turban, I saw the Sikh Harpreet Singh. Who has a lot of turbans in every colour of the rainbow.

Rating: 6.9

Splinter (2008) Toby Wilkins - USA

More entertaining than HORSEMEN and MONSTERS, that is, though I don't think it's entertaining in the way it wants to be. There are some really funny scenes in it. I also liked the characters, and the actors were ok.

Rating: 6.0

Dinner for Schmucks (2010) Jay Roach - USA

Now that I've seen both the Indian re-make and this one, I'm quite curious for the French original. While the Indian one was far better than this recent American one, it didn't make me laugh just as much, which is weird... but also logical. I mean, there are scenes in this one that are so... ridiculous, that you can't do anything else but laugh your brains out.

Rating: 3.3

Patiala House (2011) Nikhil Advani - India (Hindi)

Nikhil Advani, I don't know what to do about you. How can it be that I'm so deeply in love with your first film KAL HO NAA HO, and that you just get worse and worse. I turned this one off after 20 minutes or so, and by that point I knew what is was all about: family, tradition, sports and love. The main person is Gattu, played by Akshay Kumar. He does anything his father wants - at the age of... what, 40?, and is soooo sad about that, but he can't do anything, and then this woman walks into his life, who is loud and unorganized and wild (Anushka's worst performance yet - how could you?) and he falls in love and realizes he should live his life. Then there will be some secret cricket playing bla, bla, the father will find out, get angry, but the son will stand up and he will win over the father, and at the end everyone is happy. CREEPIEST FILM OF 2011 I'VE SEEN UNTIL NOW. Definitely the new WTF, I mean, WE ARE FAMILY. Much worse, even.

Rating: 1.0

The Replacement Killers (1998) Antoine Fuqua - USA

A good film to fill out an evening with family and friends, but nothing of much cinematic value. Chow Yun-Fat (or Yun-Fat Chow, whatever you like most) is always a guarantee for entertainment - much like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, and I must say he looks at least 10 years younger than in WO HU CANG LONG. It was interesting to see him in these two very different films, he handles both sides of the industry well.

Rating: 5. 4

Salaam Bombay! (1988) Mira Nair

Dedicated to the children of the streets of Bombay, this film didn't just succeed in helping to give these children a voice, but was also highly acclaimed by critics and film-lovers all over the world. It won various awards at film festivals, the only "true" (seemingly not influenced by box-office results and famous names) Indian award, the Nation Film Award, and it was the second Indian film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Knowing all this, and having seen three other Mira Nair films before, that had left a great impression on me, my expectations for SALAAM BOMBAY! were sky-high. And even though this was the first film that truly made me want to put a bullet in my head, it was also one of the most candid and best films I've seen. I was surprised to read that none of the child actors (many of them actual street kids) had pursued an acting career, as they were one of the best parts of the film, especially main actor Shafiq Syed. He repairs auto-rickshaws today.

If you still think Indian cinema is all about either kitschy romance or trashy action-masala (or both) - and I hope you don't, if you're a frequent visitor - watch this film. Or watch it whatsoever.

Rating: 9.7

Just Friends (2005) Roger Kumble - USA

Diverting fun, but ridiculous and horrible at the same time. Funniest scene is at the end: watch here.

Rating: 2.6

The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick - USA

Read my piece on horror films (including my top 5 horror films), where I mention this film a few times. Hint: it's my #2.

Rating: 8.5

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) Rawson Marshall Thurber - USA

Had it's [fun] moments, but in a whole pretty forgettable and bland. And pervert. I'm thinking about a certain scene featuring Ben Stiller and a pizza.

Rating: 3.5

Phool Aur Kaante (1991) Sandesh Kohli - India (Hindi)

Baaaaaaad! Almost so bad it's good, but only certain scenes. Off course, Amrish Puri is in it, as in every really bad 90s film. It was also the debut for Ajay Devgn, a very cool debut I must say. Filmi Girl has documented it with a lot of screencaps - check it out.

About that Madhoo... please don't make any more movies.

Rating: 1.5

Roja (1992) Mani Ratnam - India (Tamil)

Second Tamil film I've ever seen and the third South Indian film I've seen this year... can we call this a passed New Year's Resolution?

... Okay, I watched the Hindi-dubbed version, and I can't recommend doing that to anyone, as it's pretty confusing. I mean, why can't Roja read a Hindi newspaper when she speaks Hindi? And why can't the people in Kashmir understand her, if she speaks Hindi just like them? Took me a while to figure it out. ROJA is no masterpiece, and my favorite Indian director has made much better films, but its strong female lead, the beautiful songs and settings, plus some interesting side plots make it a pleasure to watch. What I didn't like was the strong patriotic feeling about it, that always scares me off as a German. We don't like patriotism, it smells of war and things you'll be ashamed of later on. There's different ways to translate the story, each with a different rate of patriotism, and I think the last thing Ratnam is, is overly patriotic and un-critical, but still... this could've been better.

Rating: 7.7

Re-watched with the purpose of intense examination

Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) Shawn Levy - USA
... Not really. I was forced to re-watch this, because it was the only thing my guest family felt like watching, and their taste isn't as snobby as mine. So we chose this one. It could've been worse, like was the case with HORSEMEN and JUST FRIENDS. This I knew. It's fun, in a universal, American way.
Rating: 5.8

Amélie (2001) Jean-Pierre Jeunet - France
Not as good as watching it for the first time, but this time was in class, and I was really tired too. I still adore Audrey Tatou and the theme music.
Rating: 7.5

Twilight (2008) Catherine Hardwicke - USA
I never knew the first part was directed by a woman. Maybe it's the best part, because it wasn't spoiled by all that hype around the actors and the whole series. It was definitely the one with the lowest budget. Not really a good film, but I'm still a fan of the books, and watching a film goes faster than reading a book. Plus you can do it with your friends - which I did.
Rating: 6.8

Amount of films watched this month: 24

By the way, I'm going to Mexico from 9. - 31. december, so my "Favorites of the Year" lists and stuff will have to wait because I won't be watching many films then. But more about that later.

Right now I'm happy because I found out that MELANCHOLIA is coming to our repertory at the end of November. (And BREAKING DAWN Part 1 is releasing soon!!! <3... Just kidding).

Post #100: My Top 5 Horror Films

2011-10-31T16:28:00.001+01:00

Watching one of the most praised horror films ever, Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, for the first time, I started wondering why some people, including me, just can't get enough of this genre. As a die-hard fan of the filmic horror genre, I've eventually come to see some of the trashiest films on earth, and also some of the better ones - mostly the latter though, which leads me to believe that making a good horror film is a hard thing to do.
Most directors and actors have had something to do with comedies at least once in their career, and they will very often tell you (in those propaganda-esque, short making of features that you often see on TV) that making people laugh is "like the hardest thing in film business" and "so much harder than making people cry" bla, bla. Professional writers tend to come up with something similar in interviews.
However, in my opinion, it is so much harder to scare an audience in a way that is actually physically exhausting, to make them shed tears of fear, not joy or amusement. If you don't believe me, you should try and watch SPLINTER. Hilarious - but not in the slightest scary.

If I watch a bunch of "comedies" - the term doesn't always prove to be fitting - years of practical research tell me that I will like at least 50% of them; most comedies get a rating around 6.0 from me, and a rating above 5.5 means I at least like parts of a film. Now, if I watch a bunch of "horror films" - producers are not being very canny with this term either - I reckon I'll like, say 20% of them, and maybe another 9% of them I will consider to be decent comedies.
So what makes me - and I believe I'm not the only one - sit through these hours of boredom?

It's hope. The undying hope for an adrenaline nirvana. We don't know if anyone has ever underwent it, nor do we know what waits at the end of that experience. Eternal invincibleness, infinite wisdom... or maybe just a never-ending paranoia. Chances are small one of us will ever live to see.
But: we can come close to it, sense its divine being, if only we sacrifice a tiny portion of our time on
this earth.

Take me as an example: I'm only 16 years old, still I've had the [horror] time of my life just recently, trembling and cringing on the sofa, scrunching a bunch of pillows and the hand of my guest mom. Which reminds me of another thing: unless you're completely out-of-your-mind/ insane/ extremely hard-boiled, you should never watch a horror film on your own. Not even if it's rather un-scary - trust me, I watched RAGINI MMS alone without a single light on. Another tip: Indian horror films are, generally speaking, bad. I haven't seen a very good one yet, neither have my sources, however there is one film I just have to watch, namely BHOOT BUNGLA from 1965. You won't believe it, but they say there's a song in it with skeletons dancing. Must-watch.

All of this being said, you might be asking yourself whether there really is no way of narrowing down your search for the perfect horror film, a question I have often found myself brooding over. You'll easily get a few lists of cult-classic horror films from the internet or (the fortunate ones) from your fellow film-loving friends. There will also always be over-hyped newer releases like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and similar, you won't be able to miss those. As for insider tips and unknown pearls... I'm not the best one to ask. Watch TV at night once a month or something, that's something I can recommend. You might stumble upon a really nice horror gem between the late-night pornos. Of course, you can also try and find other bloggers and/ or friends that are in to horror films and can recommend you some films.
This, for instance, is a great site for horror film addicts: www.best-horror-movies.com

Last but not least, I'd like to tell you that even though I call myself a die-hard fan of horror films, they only represent a tiny percentage of all the films I watch, mainly due to my rule #1 about not watching a horror film all by myself. Sadly, most of my friends and family are scaredy-cats. This is probably not important to you, but I want to be honest with myself - and you, so... don't think I'm a horror film expert or anything.

Finally, my Top 5 Horror Films.
NB: Sweeney Todd, one of my favorite films, wasn't included because I don't consider it a horror film.

5. Scream (1996) Wes Craven
Very close to the comedy/horror boundary, but as far as I remember, it was scary enough to scare me. And hilarious at the same time. I've seen the first three in a row when I was 13, but I'm not sure if I want to watch the latest one, even though it's supposed to be all right.

4. Dawn of the Dead (1978) George A. Romero
The idea/ question of what happens to a bunch of more or less random people who are forced to be together in a certain area for a long time, has always fascinated me. Which is why I enjoyed THE KILLING ROOM, for example. But even those who are not as much a philosopher as I am, will surely enjoy this feast of blood fountains and creepy zombies.

3. Poltergeist (1982) Tobe Hooper
The good ol' ghost living in the closet - invented by Germans by the way (as you can hear). Scared the hell out of me as a kid.

2. The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick
After watching OF MICE AND MEN, in which Jack Nicholson plays a retarded, in school, I thought I'd never be able to take him seriously again. That proved to be true, until I watched THE SHINING. Like all my choices, this is a good film even beneath the horror-surface, and there's much more to it than some blood and some thrills. I also know now, where Peter Jackson got his inspiration for the character of Gollum/Smeagol - Shelley Duvall?

1. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin
The horror film above them all. Once you've seen it, it will never leave you. And your expectations for a horror film will sky-dive. But it's definitely worth it.

Happy Halloween and...