the amazing wonders of the film AVITAR

THIS IS WHY I AM DOING THIS COARSE.

FOR ME THIS FILM WAS PURE ESCAPISM !

Ok so i have to tell you that James Cameron does have a very special place in my heart from the word go as it was his masterpiece Titanic that made me want to make films. And today seeing yet another masterpiece that old feeling was brought spiraling back to me in the most beautiful neon glowing colors. ones that you cant quite fathom, it seems almost that someone managed to encapsulate the rainbow :) ah this film left me dizzy with excitement after watching it ( so much so that when sam asked me to keep a hold of his gloves i just sat them down and walked away with out them! ) Pure escapism, not for one minute was i aware that we were watching a film , no , we were just there in that world that he created for us. And i don't no much about technology and all this editing stuff but wow those eyes : and if you don't notice them its the last shot in the film, beaming back at you with emotion pouring out. amazing. William Langly of the telegraph asks - " is james Cameron's Avatar the future of movies" in his beaming article about the film. i would say yes and also no.

you may think this odd after my heavy use of emotive language but after watching this and then calming down all i wanted to do was watch the films that after the ignition of titanic kept my desire to create films alive. i watched in quick succession "wasp" by andrea arnold one of my favorite british female directors then i watched "last resort" a film filmed on kodak , and spectacular at that! no use of 3D technology here.

It wasn't the 3D special effects that got me it was the escape, the beauty and the magic of it even though it had very basic human themes running through it. And i think thats what inspires me because the films i watched afterwards are real life Avatar's. there gritty and yet expose that perfect everyday magic you can see if you just look - or the challenge for us is to create it capture it in a believable story.

i have no dreams of being some blockbuster making millionaire , but even then this film reminds me why i am here , to create little pieces of magic and wonder that occurs in everyday life.

Im so glad i went to see this :)

thank you James again

peace xxx

the cabinet of doctor caligari

Sorry this is late, very late.

however, i remember my first impression very well, it was that the film seemed very advanced in idea for it's time, it was edgy and cooky .

i really liked it in all its artsy wonder.

And thats it, it was a joy to watch and it made me want to watch other films of a similar type to compare and see if i enjoy to a similar extent.

peace xx

corrie

Ah this made my eyes bleeeeeeeddd...... OK so maybe it wasn't THAT bad but i think to begin with i tried to intellectualize it to much so on my first viewing i didn't enjoy it at all .
By the third time i watched it i think i had mellowed out and was just watching it, so i kind of liked it better.

these are the notes i took when watching Coranation street for the first time :

i just put on the latest episode of corrie on iplayer and started to watch it. i had to watch it three times, it opens with an old man taking to his nephew this is important because it goes back to that at the end , there is a seemingly newish character who has been introduced in previous episodes and his appearance seems to be reiterating the fact in this episode- at the start and then in the longer scene in the bookies. obviouse set ups for story lines are being arranged left right and center and its really easy to follow which character likes and dislikes who with use of camera angles and scrip etc.

there are a few different we things that happen in the episode and it works on a yo yo like effect, you see something and it is resolved or half resolved later on after you have seen the other bits and pieces. there seemed to be about four of these things.


so after watching it i made some more notes: the notion of real time means that the cliffhanger hook is always more of a moral dilemma. Exposition is a bad thing when thinking about writing scripts. You can have temporary resolution: weddings funerals etc were harmony is stressed but
are perfect for creating new story lines and because of the harmony small squabbles are intensified. There is defiantly an art to this type of story lining and script writing as there is such a massive archive of history for all the characters.

I am looking forward to getting to know corrie better and i do think it is an art form: however, i am going to have to get over my parents dislike for it as from a young age they banned me from watching it as they thought it was trashy and in bad taste.

peace xxx

thirteen a response for lucy :)

I watched this film when i first moved to Annan the town i went to my second high school in. in my previous high school by the time of entering second year i had already been offered cocaine at lunch time and witnessed my friend being held back a year for lack of turning up to school due to her alcoholic mother and druggy sister, i don't actually no how she's doing now but all these things made thirteen a personal experience and some sort of therapy for me.

I think the thing that works for me about the film is its kind of like watching a version of my own life, and because the themes are universal it doesn't matter what your poison is, for me it was never drugs but the themes still work and are very recognizable for allot of teenage girls. It looks at obsessive relationships, the ones were you are like oh she's my sister best friends for life etc. I don't think that either girl is wrong to be honest, Evan Rachel Woods character welcomes with open arms the new life she went looking for, extremely naive but also just real, what you do when your thirteen and want to change. To your point Lucy about not knowing girls like this at that age, this is the exact age that people are most likely to have a problem getting over there changes physically and mentally as the body goes through these every seven years being 13/14 is the time as a teenager you would be making the biggest mental and physical changes. We see this in the film , even with the small roles of her other friends who stay on the 'right' path of school work and don't do drugs or have sex, you can see the pain they are going through at the loss of there friend. you could make a film about them and there problems however opposite they would be and it would still work. Simply because each would look at the theme which runs through every teenagers life of : acceptance, belonging and friendship.

I really enjoy watching this film and even though the new equilibrium at the end of the film is no better than the one at the start you can see that in herself she has learnt some uncomfortable truths and has made herself a stronger person by coming out the other end even if its screaming :)

i have allot of love for this film and the director ( even if she went on to make twilight )
and i agree totally that the actors performances - from the whole cast - were a very high standard.

peace xx

ideas and thoughts about the past term, :)

it really doesn't seem like we have had a hole term it kinda feels like this should be half term brea or something, its flown by that quick!

so much has happened socially and on the learning front!!

Getting here was a party, i went through Edinburgh freshers and stopped of in stirling for a few nights of parties and then got my ticket to glasgow in time for our 3 day induction !

I really enjoyed that week , although

to begin with i thought i was

the only one in the whole of my halls, until i met D. that was a bit of an adventure in-itself , i don't think i have met anyone like D and our first night out at BUFF was interesting to say the least :)

By the time freshers week came along i felt happy in the class dynamic we quickly established , everyone is similar in many ways but then we all have things that make us different so it worked really well from the beginning and as that was one of my

big worries before i came here i'm really glad it worked so well so quickly. As a class we must have gone to the cinema nearly everyday in the early days we soon established it was an expensive game so we all got cineworld cards which enabled us to go to the cinema several times a day without the worry of being skinted by the experience.

in that first we period i went to see : Away we go , sorority row, 500 days of summer, toy story 3d, district 9 , surrogates , fame , dorian grey. that was in the time i came to glasgow and the 05/10 :) so you can see how busy we were. the first lesson i have notes for was on the 8th of october, it begins with the title " what does tv mean to me? " my answer was a personal response and i remember being embarrassed reading it out when i heard others had a more academic approach to answering but i have soon learned that the personal response is a good thing. I had answers like , childhood, saturday night with Sher etc, i think i would answer this one differently if asked now the lessons have defiantly de-personalized the television experience for me and i now find it very hard to sit down and watch television, in fact i have probably only watched 5 or 6 hours since i have been here. This you may think is a bad thing but i don't think it is, i'm always tuned in to things as if they might help me with future ideas, i pull things apart that i watch trying to think why it was made like that , script and theme etc.

its a new way of watching tv . Classes were painfully easy at the beginning of the term i think thats the reason for my early blogging being done so often, as the classes got more in-depth and challenging i felt i had less time and concentration at the end of the day . Blogging felt like a fun thing, to be able to not have a structure like in english and history felt like a heaven sent for me, as i was never good at this at school. Our first piece of written work to be handed in was the short story for Richard's class, i love creative writing and i felt that i flourished at that task , i even felt confident in reading my story to several members of the class. screen writing was ever emotionally challenging and i feel that i probably could have been more open, sharing personal thoughts has never been something i can do easily and by the end that class began to annoy me in that i felt some people were using it as a personal therapy maybe that was the whole idea but i don't think i got as much out of that class as others. i am however exited about working on writing in my own time now richard is away to la. The post secret task however was so interesting and extremely tense in the class , the discussions over our beliefs was particularly difficult for me as i couldn't help feel personally offended when someone said religion was disgusting! But from the beginning that was a clear favorite class i think that Richard's teaching style was really effective and his lessons were always eagerly anticipated. As friendships really flourished in the class i found myself settling in really quickly and beginning to feel at home in Glasgow. One of the best nights i had out was when me and Julia went to see Tommy Reily: we didn't have tickets but bought some in the line for cheaper than the asking price :) it was one of the best gigs i have been to and it

was fun sharing the experience with a new friend. Going to gigs has been a staple since then although getting tickets for cheap has not!! Green day set me back £60! ouch :)

anyway all that was fun for the night time but during the day was fun to, Rays class is probably the most interesting for me because everything is new and i think that overall it has come quite easily to me so i'm glad and thankful about that. I found his assessment to be relaxing and that is a first for anything of that nature, so far the camera seems a logical step forward for me from photography and i cant wait to start going out on shoots. ( that is when we get our health and safety induction !) Im proud of my note taking for this class as well because they are concise and really helpful for me, which was the whole idea. i have bought a new leather journal for keeping them all together stylishly.

As for Rays class..... oh my , the one class i cannot and have not got my head around! my note probably make sense if you no what editing is but i just cant make sense of it and the whole things is very stressful even his room is claustrophobic and far to hot!> much worst even than agos9!

on the subject of agos 9 i don't think its a great learning environment , i like sitting in a horse shoe shape its good to be able to see everyone and when someone is talking you can focus on them, the room is just to low sealing and not enough windows or natural light.

what can be done about that i don't no but anyway agos nine is not my favorite.

one lesson i found particularly fun was the one were we had to make up a game show i thought my teams idea of 'get your man back' was quite funny and people seemed to think it was a good idea. i like working with people to create ideas and in every class i feel my ability to work with others in a collaborative way had been positive and i have found these situations enjoyable.

To be honest this really isn't what i was expecting at all! i thought it would be hard graft reading , shooting footage, editing etc.... however, next term i'll probably regret taking this term for granted! its been FUN overall :) and the best thing is i feel at home here now and have a new DFTV FAMILY WOOO :)

peace xx

the shawshank redemption

i chose to write about this film because i enjoyed watching this one the most in class.

i had seen the film once properly before and had never truly loved it untill i watched it again in class. i think the reason it was better the second time was that in a group environment together you can get behind characters and feel for characters, on my own i felt the same but had no one backing me up so it was a really good together atmosphere i felt that day in class and i think i enjoyed the film more for this.

The film is very warm and this i feel is due to many factors, morgan freemans voice is very warm in tone and soothing, the colours of the film is subtly positive i feel giving the underlying hope that andy has through out the film , his goal in the film is to escape to a life near the mexican Pacific ocean ,

"They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory"

even in this quote you can tell that this is not your average dreary prison movie which depresses and leaves you a little deflated, this movie is an uplifter , a joy bringer :) i think i can say this in confidence as well . the scene which i feel is the best example of this is the one were andy turns on the classical music over the tannoid , he knows that the rare piece of joy would be enough to bring some raw human emotions: hope and happiness to the me in the prison grounds, they could be free men in there emotions for that short period of time, even the theme of the movie shows this

" hope can set you free, salvation lies within."

i guess thats going to give you a good feeling no matter what, but its not really what in my opinion makes this film a classic, i feel that the ingredients working together, good acting , lovely cinematography and colours, and most importantly an amazing script. your drawn in from the word go and don't loose concentration until you see the Pacific ocean and end credits! I got into the film in a big way and at no point was thinking that i was watching a film.

i enjoyed this film the most out of the ones we watched as i feel it is the one which made me the most happy :) this is an important asspect in watching a film for me, i would like to see the film again but only with a large group of people because i think that really helped, 8/10

peace xxx

Jenifer’s body blog

A comedy horror? If there is such a thing!

About a beautiful girl who after a slight slip up with her being sacrificed to the devil becomes reliant on eating humans , but at the same time capable of leading her normal life. I have seen this film three times, the first I watched on my computer when I first arrived at the academy, how it was already on line and ready to stream in high definition I do not know , but it was and I watched it.

My first reaction to it was that I was a little scared and a little board. I felt that I needed to see it on a larger screen to get the full scared feeling , the story felt lacking to me on my first viewing and I didn’t really rave about it to anyone. However, there was something pulling me towards the cinema to see it.

So i went along quite excited to see it again after waiting the month and a half for it to come to the cinema, i think the wait had heightened my liking of the film and i went in with high hopes of being scared and for it to be more of a laugh than a boar! Yes , it was more scary – only marginally – at the cinema but i noticed that they panned away from the gore allot and the scares in the film were more suspense driven than gore , which i liked because it took the emphasis away from the horror to focus more on the comedy. I felt that it was more satirical comedy than laugh out loud gags. ( although the sex scene did make me lol )

Named for the Roman satirist, Horace, this type of satire is meant to be playful. It seeks to criticize some vice in society (oftentimes identified as foolish rather than evil) through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humor. Tools employed in this form are wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humor. This form is often sympathetic in tone. Horatian satire is far more common in modern society.

I think this explanation does explain the idea behind Jenifer’s Body- on a personal level for me anyway i found myself relating to both Jenifer and Needy the protagonist in the film . They both represent the emotions you feel as a teenage girl and i think that if you take away the “demon” and replace it with “bitch” your half way there to realising Jenifer’s body is just another metaphor for teenage life. Mean girls with a harder sexier edge maybe but still sticking to the Gide lines and following the similar themes which pull the teenage girl audience in ! The fatal flaws is not that she is a demon it is that she is so self loathing that Jenifer feels the need to crush and break everyone around her to make herself feel better, and was there not a girl like her in every school , someone that if you got close to them you would find they were really just as insecure as you were. The opening line of the film is “hell is a teenage girl “ and for anyone who has ever been bullied I think they would agree. or am i looking into this to much ? however, can we not expect there to be some underlying "teen themes" coming from the writer of Juno ?

i must say the film was very simple in plot and the story line like many comedy horror's was very straight forward and predictable - this being i think a comedic thing in itself and it worked really well this way and with the easy to follow story we could get to no the characters allot better .

i think the advertising for this film was some of the best i have seen: it mostly appealed to teenagers yes but this film which if advertised wrongly could probably have flopped completely is drawing in a teenage boy audience and allot of older males as well ! The trailers varied to lend them selves more to the genre of film that was going to be on , for example when i went to see saw they showed the trailer that made it look like a gory, sexy horror and when i went to see zombieland they showed a trailer that made it appear to be hilarious and full on slapstick teenage comedy. All the while reminding the girls that it was the makers of Juno and look another female protagonist you can all relate to . i think this was genius advertising especially and the hype around it seems to be working as everyone was really exited to see it at the cinema this week !

overall i think this film is a really good idea and has really played to its strengths, the acting is that of a teen drama and tat is all it needs to be , the direction is like that of juno and i think that the familiarity is a good link because i enjoyed it a similar amount that i did of Juno . I think three times is enough but to be honest i wouldnt say no if everyone was going to se it again its a good fun movie :) 7/10 peace xx

48 hour tv thingbob

ok so i dont watch much tv but decided to make an effort for this little task :)

going from sunday night to tonight , think thats 48 ...... anyway sunday night was my big tv night and i watched: 3 episodes of sienfeld ( box set ) , the X factor results , 2 episodes of never mind the buzzcocks .

It was the first time for watching the american hit tv program of the 90's about the continuing misadventures of neurotic New York stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York friends. Elliot can't stop talking about it so i decided to give in and let him show me the three he thought were the best, given one won an Emy i was quite eager to see why.

Given they were quite funny , at times, overall though i didn't really get involved with the characters, possibly because it was mostly male cast, friends for example worked better for me because there was a better mix of characters that i could relate to on levels, with Sienfeld i didn't quite get this, and like most things i felt quite stupid when i didn't laugh,

"was that a joke" i felt a little like a was wasting my time while i was watching this, i don't think i will watch it again!

Next i watched the X Factor results, this was better, i love how cheesy it is and i really got involved and was on the edge of my seat with probably half the country when they were reading out the people who got through to the next round. JLS were really good and i think are a credit to the X Factor because they didn't win but are still reasonably successful .

i Didn't feel like the right person went out but the whole thing was very addictive and im sure ill be searching for the nearest telly next saturday sunday night to see who will be the next ones out !

As for Never Mind the Buzzcocks a comedy panel game which really just consists of Simon Amstel slagging of contestants and grumbling stylishly about things. I have for a long time had a weird fascination about mr Amstell , who however cheeky and rude he is manages to keep the show on air and has only ever had one guest walk of, this being one of the best episodes i think :) So this was a kinda background thing with conversation over it , you dont really need to concentrate on it lets be honest its not very intellectually stimulating! however, this did get more laughs from me than Sienfeld did.

Over all i felt a little board and dumbed down from this night of television watching, i felt lazy and sluggish, as if i needed a work out and some fresh air, i wonder if i had watched something different if i would have felt so guilty for watching so much !!

So i haven't watched tv monday or tuesday , which feels a lot better for me , over all i do like watching tv and when there is something i like , Gossip Girl , Skins or a documentary that looks particularly interesting i will make the time to sit down and watch it for the most part im more of a film goer :)

peace xxx

An Education

this film was lovely:)

the first thing i said to Dilara when we left the cinema was what good acting there was in the film. From start to finish the delivery was convincing and subtle. We often talk about remembering we are in the cinema and watching a film, i can say throughout this film that happened not once.

Even the smaller roles of her giggly friends and Emma Thompson as the headmistress were played with great skill and the cast worked brilliantly as a whole. the father giving a very emotional performance as-well.

The film is not slow to get going as the insighting incident happens very neer the beginning of the film. i enjoyed this as i knew that an older man was to be a major part i was waiting for his apperance and i was not left waiting long as he rolled up in his big fancy car all swauv and handsom.

Jenny is Picked up by the very charming older man in his car who takes her home and soon sends her flowers and begins wooing her and her family away from her studies. Jenny is exceptionally bright and is planning on going to Oxford, personally i enjoyed this about the film because her preparation reminded me of my friend meg who is away to oxford this year and i felt sympathy for her as a character i was comparing her to my friend. I was suprised that most of the audience were older ladies but then i realised that they must have been the same age as Jenny when the film is set which is brilliant because it has timeless themes which younger girls like i can relate to but also has the sentementalitie and the nastagic effect for the older ladies who can remember being that age in that time. To begin with it is not certain what the antagonistic forces is, it is clear that Jenny needs to studie if she wants to go to Oxford but the audience isnt informed if this will be a possitive for Jenny untill neerer the end, i feel that even though as the plot thickens and it is clear that the handsom gentleman is the antagonist that her nievity towards emotions and lack of wisdom are really the antagonistic forces in the film , alass her parents condem her further by being no moral grounds or good advise. there is a clear turning point when she goes to her teacher and asks for her help , this part in the film really touched me as by this point in the film i was emotionally envolved with the characters.

i have recommended this film to my mum sister and aunty i think its brilliant and a great feel good , film with a cheeky we ending which you will have to watch the film to find out :)

lovely 7/10

Wes Anderson i finally understand you

Ok so i've seen two quite different Wes Anderson films this week and i really enjoyed them both , this I think is a bit of a personal / emotional achievement for me because i think only very happy people can enjoy the weird off beat humor of a Wes Anderson film , in the past i have not. However, this week i laughed along with everyone watching the Fantastic Mr Fox and was very moved a tickled by his first major feature The Royal Tenanbaums. previously i have been board to sleep by Life Aquatic and turned of The Darjeeling Limited half way through!! i cant wait to watch them again , with a happier disposition.

to begin with The Fantastic Mr fox was very very funny, this is what you would hope from a children's Roald Dahl story! not usually into this kinda of animation i went into the film with very low hopes and no expectation's for it to be a good film, however i was very much impressed , the animation gave it a quirky edge and an almost vintage and organic feel compared to the big Pixar movies like UP! which was refreshing and the feeling worked really well with the dry wit of the script.

So Anderson brings along some of the old favorites including a small part for his bessie Owen Wilson. the fimiliar voices for me worked well with the script, even though it was commented that George Clooney's voice is emotionless it seemed very appropriate for this sleek fox.

The plot which stayed very true to the book with little embellishment ( like it needed any ! )

follows the main character Mr Fox and his family Mrs Fox and son Ash and visiting nephew Kristopherson , along with a host of animal friends who all find themselves facing termination from the horrible farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean! they are determined to capture mr fox whatever the cost and are driven quite mad by it.

its not the plot that really made me enjoy it although the film clearly needs a skeleton to hold it together :)

it was the script and the dry humor!! " you made a bad song " when Jarvis Cocker is singing round the camp fire , really epitomizes the jokes in the film , unexpected , sarcastic and just really funny :)

i felt a little gutted that the film was mainly aimed at children because i feel a more adult audience would really appreciate the film as well . i left the cinema feeling a little lighter and possibly a little nostalgic to the childhood joy of laughing at a film for all the right reasons.

Ok so moving onto The Royal Tenanbaums which i decided to watch after the success of Fantastic Mr fox, nominated for an oscar for the best writing screen play you would expect something a little special and thats what you get :)

the film is based around the family Tenanbaum, it opens with a book cover and the chapters of the book create the structure of the film. each time a new chapter/turning point occurs there is a shot of a page of a book including chapter header and a writing which says a bit about setting.

this really works because the film does have a child like story telling sort of feel, from the beginning with the exaggerated ideas of the Tenanbaum's genius this is followed through as an idea in the film with the narrator pointing out things that are obvious to the audience .

Another thing which shows the idea of a simple story telling prospectus is the characters in the film being introduced all at the beginning so the audience no who everyone is going to be . i found that really cute and even though it is done allot in children's films and books it really worked well here , and this fearlessness to be simple but yet sort of ingenious is probably why the screen play and writing won so much critical appreciation.

the story follows the lives of the family when they are grown up, their father who has become estranged from them decided when he heres of his wife's plans to re-marry to tell the family he is dying and as a outcome of that news their adult children and he move back into there childhood home which the mother still lives.

so with that you get a great ensamble peice with the wacky control/saftey obssesed eldest son and the deppresive adopted child, owen wilson plays the big shot writer who was a very close childhood friend and his brother plays the youngest Tenanbaum who was a Tennis pro until a slight mental colapse - this being one of the laugh out loud moments of the film for me, when he goes for the ball and just throws his bat away i was pretty much on the floor!

ok so the unexplainable twisty script just works so well with the mix of odd characters, the colours and brights but never shiny , so like Tim Burton but never artificial looking always natural textures like bright pink cotton and wood ect . this works well with the almost pop art look of the cinematography. Because of the beight colours it adds to the comedy, i think if it was a gothic looking film the whole ideas would be far to melancoly to work but the bright colours manage to keep it on the farcial side of things rather than deppressing. especially when the tennis pro decides enough is enough and tries to kill himself by slitting his wrists the red blood looks so bright that what could have been a very sad scene becomes quite beautiful .

hope this diddnt get to un-organised in thought , just my thoughts seem to be allover the place with this film, overall i think - "WOW" "this looks good and im laughing out loud!"

7.5/10

love xxx

district 9

Ok so this isn't the last film i went to see but it has made an impression on me and a good one at that so i thought i would blog about it and tell you all what i think .....

i hadn't really heard allot about this film before i went to see it so i had no expectations other than it was a film about aliens and a big ship, because the poster showed this. what i got was totally different, and thank god!!

the film is basically a movie which looks at the issue of apartheid, it also delves into the physiology of loyalty on several levels and from different view points which i liked allot.

( father/son wife/husband ) i loved that it wasn't set in the places you would think an alien movie would be , like new york or la for example it was set in Johannesburg which was weird because it turned the race issue on its head as well because it is in south africa .

the film worked so well because the graphics were amazing by the end you just saw the aliens as characters and personally i didn't really notice the physical differences as being important by the end which I'm sure is what they wanted.

there is allot of character development and improvement this is always a good thing for a strong plot. So from the beginning the script and plot was interesting developing and convincing even thought it is high concept which is key to this film working on all the different levels and still working as a whole . on-top of that there's some pretty impressive graphics work which at the moment i cannot even comprehend how they did ! the directing is amazing , even if the director is somewhat overlooked by publicity peter jackson the producer brought to the film . the violence is quite shocking and the bloody gore is almost reminiscent of Jackson's brain-dead days as it is in some parts a little over done blood splatering wise :)

i was very impressed with this film and went twice to see it the second time being able to appreciate the emotional side allot more :) i would give it 7/10

love xx

triangle ...... triangle......triangle.......

!!!!!! this was scary !!!!!!!

not in that cut you up and spit you out kinda scary it got you hooked from the start and had you sitting on the edge of seat your bitting your nails till the end!!

with two of the most disturbing scenes i could probably imagine this film really went above and beyond the horror movie genre.

stylish a bit sexy and very intense this film really ticked allot of boxes for me, it follows the character of jess who from the start seems a little weird and distant, she is on a day out a a small yacht with her friends , they come across a freak storm and are stranded on the upturned yacht.

help seemingly is at hand when a large ocean liner comes into view but this is when the real horror and chills become apparent as the boat is completely deserted and very very creepy and eery.

this film gets you on so many levels there is the shocking moments which are purely horrible to see and then there a moments of sheer physiological scariness which leave you contemplating all night, you really are wanting jess to survive and be ok, but at the end you realize that she in herself is not a good person ..... ( hope thats not to much of a spoiler )

which opens the floor to the question is this a punishment for her ?

you leave brain buzzing with questions, still in a state of shock and for me admiration that a horror has gone above and beyond the call of duty in delivering to the audience.

admiration and maybe a bit of patriotism as the director is british.

this was a very well thought out plot even where it has flaws because the story is so complex and uncertain it can allow for things that don't quite make sense.

best horror film iv seen since the shining :)

8.5/10

the soloist :) good job

well i didn't think i would love this film but i was pleasantly surprised!

some of the scenes especially the one were foxx punches R>D>J are really moving .

the idea of the film is only enhanced by its truth.

the film is about a man who is a writer for the la times a big news paper. he is a popular writer but his life has had a downward turn and he appears all though it is never 100% clear to have lost his son and is getting divorced from his wife.

one day after falling of his bike and really badly hurting himself he finds himself listening to a charming yet very weird character playing a two string violin.

He befriends the man and the story follows the ups and downs of him trying to help the man , it also as a sub story tells the tale of how the man came to be on the streets.

there is a scene very reminiscent of 'punch drunk love' were you see music through colours i LOVED that scene!!! it was just a little different and quirky in a good way i think it was quite brave as well to put that in the middle of a big budget type, were the audience might have been momentarily confused i think it worked really well and everyone got into it by the end of the short 'sequence' .

it was a very slow paced film , driven more by the character emotions than events.

the whole cast worked really well, the wife who doesn't come in allot worked really well to show the audience sides of R.D.J character, there moments together were subtle and it even told you a bit about her character and her emotions through the strength of her acting and probably very good direction, i liked that allot because you could see how the actions of the main characters were effecting everyone and it didn't skimp n the information it just integrated it nicely!

i think thats the basis of why i liked the film so much , the characters are really well developed and brought in slowly but in depth and with a certain preciseness which i could really appreciate.

above all else this film was beautiful to watch , my senses were visually stimulated the whole way through by long shots of city scape and wide shots looking down onto the city it was creative , art and still fitted nicely into the film .

really good job/ this film was a good mix of artiness and big budget Hollywood'ness.

not loving 500 days of summer

well , i think this movie was trying way to hard to be cool and unique!

for the most part i thought that it was predictable and boring.

my reasons for this are : the character depth was extremely lacking

the cinematography was poor and uninspiring.

it was hyped up to be different and it really wasn't.

so basically there's a guy who really likes a girl who we don't ever find much out about apart from she had in the past bad experiences through home life connected to love and relationships so she couldn't really 'love' easily. any way ... they have a 'quirky' relationship with ups and downs and eventually brake up.

if we focus of the female lead; i know it is a comedy but the costume department were way way of , the outfits she wares are soft and feminine and really old fashioned they could be from a 60's period movie. they don't reflect her character or help us understand her at all . as a character she holds no depth and you really don't get to see or understand her character at all, she isn't very likable and not very believable either . I'm not sure if that is down to bad script and or acting or directing.

As for the main male lead he is such a wet rag of a character that i felt no emotional connection to him and i didn't really care by the end of the film what happened to him.

At least his acting was a little more restrained and his friends did add a good dry comedy aspect into the film .

i think for me this film fell from a high expectation i had for it .

maybe it was the hype that made it seem so bad for me but i think overall it was a film for people to watch and feel cool and indy when in-fact for me AWAY WE GO should have had much more praise and hype .

feel free to disagree with me on this one i no my opinion probably wont be that popular but ... heh :)

over and out

THE GRADUATE by Mike Nichols- immediate response

WOW i love this little 60's gem :)

the film is so funny and very 'of the period'

after seeing toy story today in 3D which hurt my head this was very refreshing and entertaining and much more to my taste.

the thing which struck me first about the film is how timeless it is, the costume is very 'now' and the use of music throughout the film is very subtle even though it is a very important factor in the film you never feel the music over shadows the acting even thought it almost takes a character form itself ! you would hope that would be the case as simon and garfunkle were especially commissioned to write the music for this film .

i enjoyed the fact that it didn't take its self seriously and there were moments which made me genuinely laugh out loud.

:) what a lovely film 7.5/10

response to JE T'AIME JOHN WAYNE by Toby Macdonald

so as a treat last night i watched this short film by Toby Macdonald.

one of my all time favorite shorts .

even if you cant tell by the title it is a very british film , that is the genies of the thing because its for the most part in french!

the film is about ten minuets long and filmed on black and white film which gives it a really authentic old fashioned feel . ( the only thing that gives it away to be modern is the use of a young Kris Marshal - my families Nick. )

the thing that i love most about this film is the comedy in it, the music is reminiscent of the new wave film scene of the 1960's as is the cinematography, its a funny film at heart making fun of the cinema gower who think himself very sophisticated for seeing arty films ect ect.

it is very short and follows a london wannabe 'arty artist type' he only speaks in french and chain smokes through his morning routine which is comic gold :)

his mother calls reminding him to take his little sister to the cinema, they go to see a french film and there he meets the girl of his dreams with nothing more than a 'goodbye baybie!' to his little sister he chases after his dream girl and in another smoking related chain of events we follow very quickly the events after him meeting the girl. him telling her a joke, them playing table football , all whilst smoking ... of course...

WATCH THIS FILM

its really good:)

yay i managed to steel this of my old blog :) AWAY WE GO :)

SATURDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2009

Away we GO

the film was beautifully shot the camera work was very fluent which was great because you felt like you were watching there lives apposed to watching a movie about there lives.

there were moments were the cinematography blew me away and was very breath taking in its utter simplicity and ordinariness :)

the film seemed to have been made very intricately, the very smallest of details perfect and nothing seemed rushed or left suffering for the more important scenes. every shot seemed very beautifully composed and thought out.

the actors gave solid believable performances and were only excelled by the excellent script which was full of tender moments mixed in with comic moments. saying this the acting was never forced onto the audience , it was very understated and very very believable.

another thing i thought added to the film greatly was its well chosen sound track.

after watching it i was straight onto itunes downloading albums f=from the artist's who performed in the film.

over all i loved the fact that the audience were fully able to feel the emotion the characters were feeling and we got engrossed in there struggles and took joy from there's.

there was nothing cold or contrived about the direction or script and i would give this little work of art 8 out of 10!!!

getting started ....again

oh my god this thing is driving me crazy all ready!!!!!!!!!!

i'v done three blogs and what happens it all changes and i have to make another blog :(

grrrr

anyway im not going to let it hinder me.....

roll on blogging ....as long as it works!!!!

over and out :) Xx