A new season is coming up, and this week we had our first urban shoot in Hemsedal, Norway. Hemsedal is (at the moment) one of the few places were we actually got a lot of snow, and good conditions for urban skiing. We found this wallride we decided to hit, as you can see on the picture.

Picture: The setup.

A pretty nice looking building actually, and the shots ended up very nice! Oskar, who was the only skier at the shoot, got 4 sick shots before we went home.

Picture: Oskar is getting ready.

We also got the opportunity to test some new equipment, like the new dolly!

Picture: Eivind with the brand new dolly.

Stay tuned for more updates!

*spoilers imminent

Book:  Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Movie: Let the Right One In (2008), by Tomas Alfredson (Director), John Ajvide Lindqvist (Screenplay)

With 56 wins & 16 movie nominations under its belt, Let the Right One In, a Swedish horror-fiction novel and film, has become an international success.

The story takes place in Sweden, 1982.  The story mainly revolves around a 12-year-old boy, Oskar, and his new vampire friend Eli.  There are several sub stories happening throughout the movie/book which deals with dark issues and forbidden romance.  The book and the movie are almost one in the same.  There are lines from the book that translate to the movie without ever skipping a beat.  Although the movie hits on all major points, there are of course differences in the book.

OSKAR (Kare Hedebrant)

• Oskar’s bullies refer to him as “piggy.”  In the book, Oskar is a husky kid, hence the nickname “piggy.”  For screen purposes, I am assuming Hedebrant was casted because he was creepy good at playing Oskar and had the right face for the role.

ELI (Lina Leandersson)

• The movie beats to a dark rhythm, so there is hardly any room to make Eli more appealing.  In the book, Eli is and acts like a 12-year-old child.  There is a scene in the book where she blatantly makes fun of the guy in the candy booth and plays childish games with Oskar.
• Since the movie didnt go in-depth with Hakan’s character, Eli’s caretaker, you did not see Eli’s willingness to do what she needed to do in order to survive.
• Theres a shot in the movie where Eli is sleeping in a bathtub bed, let me be the first to tell you, she sleeps somewhere a lot more horrific than that cozy little setup she has going on.
• She has wings.
• Eli is a hardcore fighter and can take hard hits.
• In the movie, Eli shows Oskar the consequences of what happens when you dont invite a vampire in.  Right after that scene, Oskar is sitting on a couch and Eli is telling him, “be me, for a little while.”  The frames get all crazy and all of a sudden, he’s just sitting there.  What should have happened there is Oskar gets flooded with the memories of Eli’s vampire change through her eyes.
• Warning: Kissing Eli can also induce even more visions of her past, with or without your consent.
• The movie doesn’t delve into Eli’s sexuality.  It throws you off because she says she’s not a girl, but it’s never explained.  The book goes into how she got to be where she is and why she’s been stripped of any gender.
• Eli stands for Elijah.

HAKAN (Per Ragnar)

• Pedophile to the grossest degree.  They showed little cheek strokes, but in the book he is completely disgusting.
• There is this internal war waging when he kills for her.  Since they dont develop him in the movie, you just assume he does it and he doesnt think twice about it.
• As Hakan is prepping his kill in the bathroom in the movie, the book tells a completely different story. The acid-to-face happened, but the whole scene was brushed over in order to get him out of the story as soon as possible.
• Hakan doesnt just die after Eli feeds from him.  If you noticed, Eli had to break Jocke’s neck in order for him not to rise up as a vampire.  Virginia on the other hand was fed off of but was never disposed of properly.  Lets just say Eli was negligent in taking Hakan out all the way.
• In the book, he plays a MAJOR role in the ending.  He turns into something like a zombie though.  Regardless, hes still as sick in the head alive as he is as a zombie.
• Hakan likes boy-Eli.

There are more differences, but the movie hit all of the main points and tied them nicely together.  The book is really something else.  Although, the end scene when Eli becomes Oskar’s angel of death is so much cooler to watch than too read.

Revin la o idee pe care am folosit-o si intr-un post anterior si o sa mai scriu  putin despre gemeni (zodia mea). Despre gemeni se stie ca ar fi “copii zodiacului”  si da, recunosc… sunt un copil si n-as vrea sa cresc. Asemeni lui Oskar Matzerath din Toba de Tinichea a lui Günter Grass, refuz sa vad realitatea zilnica ca fiind singura varianta posibila. Apropo, recomand Toba de Tinichea a lui Günter Grass fie filmul sau cartea. Recunosc, cartea n-am citit-o am auzit ca e destul de greu de urmarit aventura micului tobosar in cele 470 sau 640 de pagini (depinde de editura) si desi e un best-seller si un roman care ar trebui citit de fiecare filolog, eu m-am multumit si numai cu vizionarea filmului. Iti ajunge sa-l vezi o data si cu siguranta nu-l uiti. Nu mai zic nimic despre el, deviez de la subiectul pe care l-am inceput si, daca va zic mai multe, nu mai sunteti curiosi sa descoperiti capodopera lui Günter.

Mai am putin si trec din stadiul de adolescent la cel de matur.  In adolescenta tanarul se afla in permanenta cautare a popriei identitati, in incercarea de a intelege noile trairi ce au pus stapanire pe el. Adolescenta se incheie la varsta de 25 de ani, mai sunt trei ani si atunci o sa trec in lumea celor maturi. Nu e o regula anume, sau ceva care ni-i se impune dar vine o perioada cand e bine sa te aduni, sa stii cu siguranta ce vrei in viitor; meaning  job and family (in mare parte). Vine perioada cand vin pe lume proprii copii si apoi alte dureri de cap, apoi esti in alt film.

Vreau si sunt apoape sigura ca o sa raman in continuare un copil. Desi, in unele situatii dau dovada de o maturitate precoce, in altele ma comport ca un copil care ar plange daca si-ar pierde jucaria. Jucaria ar putea fi foarte bine o rupere de o obisnuiala, o reincepere a unei etape, o reincercare de a face lucrurile sa fie bine. Plansul apare imediat ce realizez ca ceva nu mi-a iesit din prima.

Ador sa ma uit la unele desene si sa ma “prostesc”in anumite situatii.  Vreau sa raman copil si sa am dreptul sa visez in continuare la o zi de maine mai buna decat ceea pe care mi-o ofera sistemul si viata in genere.

This Is A Must See !!!

]]> http://alanashley.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/do-you-know-where-you%e2%80%99re-going-to-the-teaching-of-guru-garth/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:42:26 +0000 Alan Ashley http://alanashley.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/do-you-know-where-you%e2%80%99re-going-to-the-teaching-of-guru-garth/

There is a profound teaching in the movie Wayne’s World. When asked by the evil Benjamin “How do you feel about making a change?”, Wayne’s friend and side-kick Garth responds in a deadpan voice “We fear change.” It’s a popular part of the movie, with thousands of references to it online, and like many jokes it has a significant truth at its heart.

We really do fear change. We don’t know what change may bring us, and for many people that fear of the unknown is so strong that it not only stifles their growth and development, it keeps them in abusive relationships or jobs that they hate. For many people the security of the familiar, however unpleasant, appears preferable to the uncertainty of change.

I recently took part in some training on the Solution Focus coaching methodology OSKAR, and I was very struck by the way that this approach is particularly effective in working to overcome our innate fear of the unknown.

As you’ve probably guessed, OSKAR is an acronym, and the O stands for Outcome. (I don’t intend to explore the whole methodology here, you can follow the links if you’d like to know what the other letters stand for.) In OSKAR, Outcome has two aspects:

• clarification of what the client wants to achieve, both overall and within the context of the particular coaching session (known as Building the Platform)

• imagining a Future Perfect, in which a miracle has taken place and the desired outcome has been fully achieved (in Solution Focus this is known as the Miracle Question)

In demonstrations of the OSKAR approach I was struck by the way a whole session could focus almost exclusively on clarifying what the client wanted to achieve. Sometimes we’re so hung up on what we don’t want in our current situation, that it’s hard to see through to what we do want instead. Just gaining this clarity about the desired goal can be all that we need – a strategy and the imperative to act seems to naturally emerge from it.

Of course different people have different responses to the idea of change, and different responses to life itself. In Buddhist psychology a simple distinction is made between what are traditionally known as ‘greed types’ and ‘hate types’. I usually explain this by asking people to imagine a buffet table at a party or event. A greed type will approach the table and have an internal discourse along the lines of “Ooh look, mushroom vol-au-vents, I like those … and there’s some nice looking samosas … oh, and look at the puddings!” because he (or she) pays attention to the aspects of their situation that they find attractive.

In contrast, a hate type’s inner discourse will be much more along the lines of “I hate eating standing up … and I can’t eat chicken wings … and look they’ve put celery in the salad, I can’t stand celery … and those puddings are really fattening”, because they pay attention to the aspects of the situation that they dislike.

When they look at the future, greed types and hates types imagine very different things: greed types get excited and enthusiastic about all the things they’re looking forward to, and hate types worry about how everything might go wrong! Greed types are natural optimists and hate types are inveterate pessimists, and as the pioneer of positive psychology Martin Seligman points out in Learned Optimism, optimists live longer, healthier, happier lives – albeit with an occasional tendency to naivety and seeing life through overly ‘rose-coloured spectacles’.

Of course I’m exaggerating the differences here to emphasise a point. We are all greed types and hate types to different degrees at different times, depending on circumstances and how well-resourced we are. Nevertheless this simple model can be one of many useful lenses to look at our habits and help to address our resistances to change.

Useful though the OSKAR methodology can be, the importance of clarifying your goal is fundamental to change of any kind. It’s not a new observation, but we seem to need reminding of it again and again. Back in the 1940s the Hindu teacher Swami Ramdas was unequivocal: although many embark on a path of spiritual development few make progress because most lack a clear idea of the goal they wish to reach, and they also lack a clear idea of how to get there.

If you don’t like where you are now, then be careful to clarify where you’re trying to go at the very start of the journey, otherwise fear of the unknown may undermine your ability to get anywhere at all.

Wenn es um die Glaubwürdigkeit linker Politiker geht, kommt man nicht an Oskar Lafontaine vorbei, dem linken Rumpelstilzchen unserer SED-Fortsetzungspartei, der es sich zur Lebensaufgabe gemacht hat, eben jenen Kapitalismus zu bekämpfen, der ihn zu dem gemacht hat, was er jetzt ist: einen Luxuslinken.

Lafontaine leistete sich nämlich jüngst die Ungezogenheit, einen Privatjet zu verlangen, um rechtzeitig von seiner Luxusvilla auf Mallorca, die nebenbei einen zwölf Meter langen Swimmingpool hat, zu einem Leserforum nach Deutschland zu gelangen. Zudem outete er sich im so genannten „Roten Kochbuch“ -  einem Kochbuch über die Essgewohnheiten linker Politiker – dass er ein leidenschaftlicher Liebhaber teuerer Weine ist.

Doch wir sollten ihm die Möglichkeiten nicht absprechen, sich selbst gegen diese ungeheuren Vorwürfe, unglaubwürdige Politik zu machen, zu verteidigen:

Gegen seinen ausschweifenden Lebensstil sei also nichts einzuwenden, solange er für sein Vermögen treu die Steuer zahlt, um sozial benachteiligten Menschen ein besseres Leben zu ermöglichen. Man käme fast in die Versuchung, dies als Ausrede zu akzeptieren, wenn da nicht diese „Pensionsaffäre“ im Jahr 1992 wäre. Da hat er es schließlich selbst einmal verspürt, was seine Forderung „Millionäre zur Kasse bitten“ bedeuten kann. Darüber, dass er zu einer Rückzahlung von mehreren hundert tausend DM aufgefordert wurde, war er offensichtlich nicht sonderlich begeistert. Sonst hätte er sich ja nicht mit Händen und Füßen dagegen gewehrt.

Lenny and Oskar (from Osklen)

Lenny Niemeyer was the winner of the Best Designer of Swimwear award last night in the fashion event that happened in São Paulo.

More than deserved, my super boss really is the best of brazilian swimwear!!!

Naja, der Titel ist unpassend. Der kleine Matzerath hatte nur eine Blechtrommel, WIR haben ein ganzes Drum-Kit. Und zwar ganz und gar online. Ein lustiges Spielzeug hat Ken Brashear auf seiner Website für verhinderte und Möchtegern-Drummer bereitgestellt. Also ich hatte gerade geschlagene 30 Minuten Spaß damit. Denselben wünsche ich Euch auch.

O que faz um filme sueco, da temporada passada virar febre entre os cinéfilos blogueiros? A resposta é simples: Deixa Ela Entrar é simplesmente bom. E o que isso quer dizer? Quer dizer que Deixe Ela Entrar é bem dirigido, fotografia criativa ao privilegiar a claridade e o branco num filme que fala sobre vampiros, onde subentende-se que o tom deva ser mais sombrio e as atuações muito interessantes, principalmente das duas crianças que compõem a trama principal.

O diretor Tomas Alfredson resgata mais uma vez a ideia do menino sozinho, que vive paralelo ao seu meio, com os amigos zombando com agressões moral e física. Oskar parece não se importar com nada, não acha graça nenhuma da vida, afinal nada de interessante lhe acontece. Até que em uma noite, em frente à sua casa, conhece Eli, a menina que vai transformar sua vida.

Eli é estranha. Tem profundas olheiras, anda na neve densa sem muita proteção contra o frio. Não quer papo com Oskar. Mas, a solidão parece ser o ponto comum. Não demora muito e logo uma afinidade surge entre os dois. Juntos, ambos se protegerão contra um mundo que parece hostil aos dois.

Deixa Ela Entrar não precisou exibir sequer um dente canino avantajado para ser um dos melhores filmes sobre vampiros dessa nova onda que atualmente assola a produção audiovisual. Outra detalhe que chamou a atenção é as imagens que aparecem algumas vezes no filme do close na porta fechada, se abrindo, parece subliminar ao título do filme.

Deixa Ela Entrar é mais uma grata surpresa nórdica deste ano (a outra é Anticristo) que simplesmente desconsiderei há um ano, quando vi seu cartaz na Mostra SP de Cinema de 2008, mas que agora devido a esse modismo todo em torno dos vampiros, ganhou força e fãs entre os cinéfilos. Eu sou um deles.

Nota: 9,0/10.

“Isso sim é adaptação, isso sim é romance vampírico, isso sim é Cinema”

Oskar tem 12 anos, pais divorciados, colegas maldosos e uma melancolica solidão. Eli tem 12 anos há algum tempo, sede de sangue e uma eterna solidão.

Em uma gelada noite de inverno na Estocolmo dos anos 70, menino e menina se conhecem, resistem um pouco e acabam se envolvendo. O sentimento que nutrem um pelo outro não é amor ou paixão, é algo que além de complexo é muito mais sincero e puro que qualquer sentimento pré-fabricado em Hollywood. Um se enxerga no outro.

Isso é o terror sueco Deixa Ela Entrar, que estreia com muito atraso nas salas do país. Digo “isso” porque a relação entre os dois é a base de toda a trama e o que move a mesma.

É um terror vampírico assim como um romance sútil e um drama pesado. E tudo ao mesmo tempo.

O roteiro escrito pelo autor do livro em que o filme se baseia, John Ajvide Lindqvist, exclui todo tipo de clichê, não deixando a densidade dar lugar a algo superficial (Alô, Crepúsculo?). O texto exigia pleno entendimento por parte do diretor, há muito a ser respeitado e traduzido com fidelidade para as telas. Felizmente, caiu nas mãos de Tomas Alfredson, diretor com uma filmografia relativamente extensa mas que nunca havia sido reconhecido antes. Dificil de entender porque. Sua direção eleva o filme a nível de excêlencia, projetando toda a genialidade contida no roteiro sem explicitar nada, conferindo um só tom aos distintos eventos que pipocam ao longo dos 110 minutos filmados. Quase que contemplativo, Alfredson busca algo genuíno e conta com a ajuda dos dois protagonistas mirins, Lina Leandersson e Kåre Hedebrant. Ambos dão um show, ainda que a menina roube muitas das cenas.

Algo recorrente no cinema nórdico é essa busca pela captura de algo real, cru e tangível, onde os atores são peça fundamental para tanto. Alfredson realiza essa captura com dois elementos que seriam agravantes para qualquer diretor: uma premissa fantástica e crianças no elenco.

Além disso, o diretor se mostra um esteta de mão cheia, um verdadeiro mestre da linguagem visual. Prova disso é o take da piscina no final do filme: inenarrável.

Assim, direção aliada as pretensões do roteiro, temos, como Oskar tem, apenas uma noção dos atos de Eli, jamais presenciando um ataque da menina como algo animalesco. É Alfredson pincelando Eli na tela da forma mais romantizada e sútil possível, a partir da visão repleta de encanto de Oskar. O que não significa que o menino não a aceite como realmente é. O que também não significa que não haja gore, sanguinolência e sequencias apavorantes, pelo contrário.

Deixa Ela Entrar é carregado de pontos tão sensíveis em sua estrutura que por vezes tem-se a impressão de que houve um deslize – quando na verdade os realizadores só estavam tecendo algo maior e reservando isso, com coragem, para o final. O ponto de intersecção da infância para a vida adulta de Oskar encontra na menina, congelada no tempo, um último afago. E é a partir desse evento que Alfredson faz da brilhante obra literária de Lindqvist, uma brilhante obra de Cinema. Isso sim é adaptação, isso sim é romance vampírico, isso sim é Cinema. O resto é no máximo malhação com caninos afiados.

Ficha do filme com informações, trailers, críticas, curiosidades e etc : www.xcine.com.br/filme_deixaelaentrar.html

 
(Obra Prima)