"Crazy Stupid Love" with Ryan Gosling

Film directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, written by Dan Fogelman, and starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon. The film was released on July 29, 2011

Would you ever take the advice of your thirteen-year-old self?  Would you look back to your days as a batch of hormones and angst and say, “I was so wise back then.  What happened?”  Crazy, Stupid, Love. takes an “out of the mouths of babes” approach to serious romantic relationships and as a result an honest but funny relationship dramedy gets a saccharine sheen that completely overwhelms the film in the final act.  Ultimately, great performances and cute humor.

Playing off of Carell allows Gosling to explore a comic side we’ve rarely seen from him before.  Gosling seems to be having a blast as the smooth-talking, completely confident Jacob.  It’s an incredibly smart performance because Gosling tinges everything with a little bit of innocence and softness so that Jacob never comes off as sleazy or insecure.

So much of Crazy, Stupid, Love. is working against its cloying script.  The entire adult cast turns in great performances that are sweet without being sappy, emotional without being manipulative, and funny without being obvious.

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is a 2011 American drama with experimental elements written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Sean Penn (he will appear a lot this year :), Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain (the promise of the moment, you can also see her in "The Debt"). Malick's film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth. After decades in development and missed 2009 and 2010 release dates, the film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews for its technical and artistic merits, but there were also polarizing reactions in response to Malick's directorial style and, in particular, the film's fragmented non-linear narrative. But also because of making a difference in the time line it is interesting to see the film. 

MUST Watch of the season "Drive"

A long time ago, as a young filmmaker besotted with the hard-boiled pleasures of classic Hollywood, Jean-Luc Godard claimed that all anyone needed to make a film was a girl and a gun. In his new movie, “Drive,” Nicolas Winding Refn, in thrall to a later Hollywood tradition, tests out a slightly different formula. In this case all you need is a guy and a car (late-model silver Chevy Impala). An incredible film, emotional and crazy, a bit impossible because the main character seems a bit bipolar but def. a must see of this year. Also should say that the B.S.O. makes it even better, music that at least I already downloaded and will listen a lot this days. I think i had a strange sensation after watching the film because it combines action, blood and romance. It's like a bloody thriller romance. The softness of Mr. Gosling’s face and his curiously high-pitched, nasal voice make him an unusually sweet-seeming avenger, even when he is stomping bad guys into bloody pulp. I also really liked the postproduction and the frames. As we can see the title is in pink, and it reminds me of the neon 80's. 

 

Julianne Moore in Savage Grace

Savage Grace is a 2007 film directed by Tom Kalin and written by Howard Rodman, based on the book Savage Grace by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson. The story is based on the dysfunctional, allegedly incestuous relationship between heiress and socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland and her son, Antony. Julianne Moore makes an incredible interpretation. She is distant and close to us at the same time, and she transmits her lonelyness and sadness and at the same time keep us wondering about who is she in reality.

Barbara Baekeland's former lover, Sam Green, wrote an article pointing out events in the film that did not match reality. Referring in particular to the scene of Barbara, her son Antony, and Sam having a ménage à trois, he wrote, "it is true that almost 40 years ago I did have an affair with Barbara, but I certainly never slept with her son, and nor did she, to the best of my knowledge. Nor am I bisexual... She started telling people she had had an incestuous relationship with her son as a way of 'curing' him of homosexuality ... But I don't believe she had sex with Tony. I think she simply enjoyed shocking people."

It was an official selection at the 2007 London Film Festival, the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

This Must Be the Place and more Sean Penn

This Must Be the Place is a 2011 drama film directed by Paolo Sorrentino. The film was an Italian majority production with co-producers in France and Ireland. Principal photography began in August 2010. Filming took place in Ireland, Italy, as well as the states of Michigan, New Mexico and New York. The film played in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

The Tree of Life is a 2011 American drama with experimental elements written and directed by Terrence Malick. After decades in development and missed 2009 and 2010 release dates, the film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews for its technical and artistic merits, but there were also polarizing reactions in response to Malick's directorial style and, in particular, the film's fragmented non-linear narrative.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon is a 2004 American film, directed by Niells Mueller. It is based on the story of would-be assassin Samuel Byck, who plotted to kill Richard Nixon in 1974. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

And those are only some films where Sean Penn makes spending two hours of our day time on watching a movie just amazing.

Netsurfing (.)(.)

Today I found some interesting webs and I want to share them with you, some photography, design, etc. They are pretty cool, so I think you will like them too!

http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/home/

http://www.neromagazine.it/n/

http://yatzer.com/

http://www.parkandcube.com/

Love and kisses, everybody need it, come on it's MONDAY! :)

Saturday/Sunday

In one of Murakami's books it says something like: "...we don't choose our destiny, the destiny choose us". I want to believe that it's not true, that we can always change our life like we want to, it is just the matter of the efford. Why am I the way I am today, what are my memories and who would I be without them, how much my life would change if only one day in my life would be different? Would something be different if I wouldn't meet X but Y instead. Sometimes I think about if I would like to delite some "files" from my brain like if it would be my pc, I wish I could erase some memories, but we can't. The film "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" talks about our mind and our memories, about how would it be if we could erase them. 

Biking with MacKenzie

Those are part of my memories of the last year that I spend in Germany, this memories are so surrealistic now and seem so far away. Tonight I saw four different films at the same time, just changing the channel. "Lions for Lambs" of Robert Redford, "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" of Peter Greenaway, "Delicatessen" of  Jean Pierre Jeunet. My choice is "Delicatessen" and it's great black humour, also fans of Amelie and Mr.Jeunet will like this smart and funny film. If after this one you still want to watch another movie, my second choice would be "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover" in the same surrealistic line that my mood tonight. The film directed by Redford is not bad, but not good either.

Pina Bausch von Wim Wenders

This film was presented at the Berlinale 2011 Festival.  "Pina"is a perfect combination of dance, theater and cinema. It is scened dance and a staged movie, strange and explosive combination that makes your sences work at maximum. I am a big fan of expressing feelings without words and I think nowadays words are overrated. For me this audiovisual production is the best as a combination of movement and sound because it makes you feel the whole 1h39min; it makes you sad and happy, it makes you lonely or in love, but you don't have even a second to be bored. I can't say what I love more than Dance, Theater and Cinema; only the three of them together. And to make a film putting theater and dance inside is hard. It is difficult to accomplish without making the final result a parody, a musical or something in between. But this production is serious, notorious and human performance, where everything is in perfect harmony. If somebody doesn't know who is Pina Bausch it's better if you check it in wikipedia cause I will not have space enough to explain everything about her brilliant career and personality :)

Find some time to enjoy it! 

One day

Today is the hispanity day so since I live in Spain there's no classes and no work for me today. I wanted to watch some easy movie to occupy my day with something that don't let your brain think about serious issues. So I opened my laptop and chose "One day" a film directed by Lone Scherfig, with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. I wouldn't expect that it will be a touching film. I would like to recommend it even knowing that the film critics don't have a good opinion of this film. At the end of the film I remembered that I started the book on which the film is based but i didn't like the book and I only red 20 pages. I should tell you that I watched the film twice, maybe because it reminded me how many times we forget about the only important thing in this life: the people we love and who love us. 


Have a nice evening, hopefully in a nice company!

Shadows

Analog photography, great image, nice shadows. Let your imagination play a bit and this picture will tell you a lot of stories. Remind me a setting from an old black and white film.                                                              

                                                                                                                                            Artist Qp Zhang, Canada 

Welcome cinema and art friends!

Good evening,

Tonight I will introduce myself and the contents I would like to present in this space. I am very interested in visual art; mostly in cinema but also in photography and painting. I will try to recommend you good films, cinema directors, photography curiosities and art expositions my dear fellows.

In this first post I will start with Yasujirō Ozu 小津安二郎 ' a famous japanese film director. For those who never heard about him I would say that he's a classic in cinema world. His movies have a special oriental touch and he shows the intimicy of japanese way of life and family structure. I think a good monday movie would be "Tokyo Story".

Hope you will enjoy it and looking forward for your comments! 

Black Fingers