La felicità porta fortuna è un film del 2008, una commedia britannica scritta e diretta da Mike Leigh. La sceneggiatura si concentra su una insegnante allegra e ottimista e delle sue relazioni con le persone intorno a lei.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Mike Leigh | Sally Hawkins | Alexis Zegerman

So I’m writing a post from work today because I was going to write it yesterday at home but actually did stuff like clean out my fridge and wash towels instead. I had a really good weekend. Anyway – today I’m going to talk movies that have stuck in my head for the past however long, and I’ll start with the more recent that I’ve watched.

So let it begin.

The Saturday just gone my sister and I watched How To Be because we are total dorks and Robert Pattinson fans (I swear it’s the only thing me and the world agree on). As for the movie, I liked it but found it a little bit painful to watch. Not painful as poor acting, I didn’t mind the acting at all. It hit a little close to home and reminded me of a point of life I feel like I’ve only just come out of and don’t particularly want to run back to. My take on the film was that it was about that point in life where you’re really confused and beginning to finally understand what being an adult is.  I remember talking to my Dad with similar questions to Art with his, and hitting similar realisations. It was a bit Seinfeld and a movie about nothing while also being about everything. I loved the lack of high note it ended on. I loved the character Nikki – that guy made me forget that the movie had Robert Pattinson in it and I couldn’t help but think that guy (that stereotype) is always in Irish Pubs in Brisbane. I thought the friends would have made a really good BBC TV show. I understand why it wasn’t pushed in theatres everywhere and why it was hard to categorise. It’s a strange film that leaves you feeling a little strange. It in part reminded me of I Heart Huckabees with those really strange moments the self help writer would appear under a light that turned on. And when dealing with the mother character in the movie it felt a little bit theatre and less film. I think I liked the pub scene the most, especially when the new boyfriend is nice and starts to list off his awesomeness. I thought the movie really understood the ‘loser’ without really putting judgement on it by making a miraculous recovery into coolness – there was no ‘he got a hair cut and wrote a good song and all was right in the world when you become cool’ ending. And that is all I’m going to say.

Next. Something I watched recently and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about was Happy Go Lucky. I didn’t watch it from the beginning and I missed the end because I had to pick up the husband but what I did see of it I LOVED and can’t stop thinking about it. Again it’s one of those strange movies that are about nothing as far as events go, and I’m not even sure of the message of the movie. All I know is that the driving teacher was spot on – although mine was Scottish so on top of being a little angry about things I couldn’t understand a word he said. I loved the lead character and how she did very odd things, like following that homeless guy (this is the last part I really got to see) to see if she could help because sometimes I find myself following someone to see where things lead too. I like how the lead character giggled all the time and watching her relationships with family and friends – it left me feeling happy. Now when I see Sally Hawkins in other films I always think of her as Poppy in Happy Go Lucky. I really want to see it again, all the way through.

Ok. Next. Away We Go is one of the movies I saw at BIFF this year and again with being stuck in my head, every now and then themes from this movie sneak into my head and I can’t stop thinking about it. I have to say that I really loved this film. If there was a type of film that got made over and over it would be like this. I love real space, real emotion conveyed. I like actors/directors that at least try to be authentic with their stories. I’m not saying being entertained is fun, I love to be entertained too. But I think these films are just as important as books. One thing I found with Away We Go is that it parallels a little bit of how I feel in my life since I’ve have CP with the Husband. We moved here to Brisbane a few years ago but without the intention of settling, so what we have is a life that needs to be settled without the means to do so yet – so I liked that they found theirs. Another thing I loved about Away We Go is that it didn’t feel over styled. You didn’t feel like they were selling a doona cover or wall lamp to you through it, and movies often don’t really offer you that anymore. And like with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (the train hi-jack scene with the light through the trees – the beauty of the movie haunts), the images from the film flick in my head – like the end scene where they look outside from the house, it was beautiful. I hope we see more films explore lifestyles that are different.

Action. Star Trek was really fun and it got my entertained double thumbs up fonz style. I have trouble with time travel films because it gets you thinking about alternative realities and what’s improbable, and because lately I’m feeling very answerless I find those kind of questions a little too much (not to mention I don’t have any education/understanding of those concepts). But the action was great, the cross cultural representation was quite pleasant and could they have picked a better person to play Scotty? I love Simon Pegg. Friends came back from London with Spaced, which was funny but then when his movies started to flood us I was lost to Mr Pegg forever. Back to Star Trek, it was great, cheesy and fun, my only complaint was that it was such an introduction to do a series of films. And Bana as a bad guy was hard for me to deal with after seeing a lot of his butt in the Time Travellers Wife.

Which reminds me. A movie I rented a little while ago and fell in love with was Charlie Bartlett (the lead actor also in Star Trek). I loved this movie so much. I mean it had so many things to comment on but I can’t really think of much right now. Mr Jr. as a principal, hello – best looking principal of all time. Would have totally fantasised about my principal if he’d be anything on Mr Jr., but we had a guy named Fuller who we couldn’t help but draw parallels with Skinner (Australians are the reason the Simpsons still exists I swear, it’s like a religion to us – House of the Simpsons where we pray in ‘Doh’s). I thought the honestly the Mr Jr. brought to his characters’ alcoholism is in part why the man can have such a huge “comeback” (because he has skills – honest to god compelling to watch him skills) and I look forward to buying my tickets and renting his films. My favourite scene in the film had to be when Charlie Bartlett freaked out on Ritalin and played piano in his undies. I totally googled that actor after falling in complete love with the character. I loved Kat Dennings in the film, but I think she’s quite a loveable actor for me. I quite like the girl who represents a girl a little different and I think she held up as Mr Jr’s daughter, there was some honesty to a relationship there without an incestuous vibe (incest vibe: see Heroes and the chemistry between cousins Claire and Peter). Charlie’s house was amazing (love a good house in a film) and the old car he was driven around in reminded me of Wes Anderson stuff. I did find myself drawing comparison between Rushmore and Charlie Bartlett, although they are different. Man I loved Rushmore. Jason Schwartzman is sort of my ideal guy, apart from the fact that he would be way too cool for me to ever know, even when he’s not cool. I mean his family is reason enough of being too cool. His sense of humour is dreamy. I could go with being with a guy that was like him, but the real him would make me feel like a rock next to a mountain. I think I friended him on myspace which is weird. I don’t know why I do that. I like to use myspace to bookmark bands I like but I also seem to have added people like Ashton Kuchter etc. as myspace friends.

And now I’m trying to match myself to famous people I’ll never meet but add (on a strange impulse I can’t explain) to my myspace friends although I’m happily married with a young child and if said actors were standing in a line up with my husband I would always pick the husband because even though sometimes he makes me want to smash him in the head, I passionately love the guy.  So because of the change from poor movie review to devotion of love – I’m going to end my blog before it becomes a fan letter to Jason Schwartzman begging him to never change and lobby for Wes Anderson to make Rushmore 2.

An Education (Lone Scherfig, 2009)

I wonder what it is about contemporary British films. Does familiarity breed contempt? Is there any rational grounding for my preference for European cinema or is it mere orientalism? Even when British cinema is done really well -and it’s seldom done better than it is here- there’s something about it that annoys me. The Tasteful music, the same old faces (Richard Griffiths doing his 226th Uncle Monty), the overly literary script, the middlebrow sensibilities, the general lack of audacity. Maybe it’s just me. 

This film has enjoyed enough gushing reviews to get me out to the local Odeon, but my inner snob was still dubious about anything with a Nick Hornby screenplay, even if has been handed to a Danish dogme director. The former’s presence is more keenly felt than the latter, Scherfig opting to keep her cover with subdued, simple direction and pretty photography; the family house is a dull bottle green, the outside world a little more showy and intoxicating.

It’s a punchy script with lots of barbed dialogue but the satires of period suburban attitudes can get a bit too Abigail’s Party. At one point, Emma Thompson’s icy headmistress actually asks, “Are you aware that the Jews killed our Lord? We’re all very sorry about what went on in the war, but there’s no excuse for that sort of thing”. Alfred Molina’s hapless dad is the butt of most of these jokes; an excellent turn from an underrated character actor. 

The setup is that in 1961, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a 16-year-old from Richmond taking her A-levels. Her domineering parents have their hearts set on getting her into Oxford and she is forbidden a life outside study. When grown-up David (Peter Sarsgaard) sets his sights on her, everything changes, even though we gradually deduce that he’s a gangster of some description.

The main thing to be said for the film is that it gives us a new star in Mulligan, and a very, very watchable one at that. Knowing and vivacious, there’s something of Genevieve Bujold in the way she can juggle the duality of her young girl/young woman part. Her eyes have a most mischievous twinkle to them. At times she’s a pretentious wannabe (waffling about Meursault and dropping French phrases into conversation), at times she’s a mature and assertive young woman (wanting everything to be just right on the occasion of her deflowering, she firmly forbids David from baby talk or pet names).

As her counterpart, I found the smug Sarsgaard eminently punchable upon first sight. He charms everyone (including Jenny’s hitherto controlling parents, who apparently are suddenly happy for their little girl to go off on dirty weekends), but his permanent fishy pout and Colin Firth-with-smallpox-scars features irritated me and he didn’t even have the good grace to sing ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely’ at any point.

We begin at school, where semi-animated titles set to perky music show schoolgirls balancing books on their heads, playing lacrosse and learning Latin. Jenny is shown to be the class swot, and her father Jack a suffocating grotesque (“Oxford don’t want people who think for themselves”). She likes Graham, a nervous boy from the school orchestra, but when he comes home for tea the parents savage him. Good attention to detail as he accepts a slice of battenberg, and the corner he picks up breaks off- nothing goes right for the lad. Jack and Marjorie have given Jenny a very sheltered childhood. As we see her lying on her back and singing along to Juliette Greco, she confides that her wildest fantasies are to “watch French films and look at paintings”.

David presents himself as a “music lover” when he spots Jenny standing in the rain and offers to give her cello a lift home. Flowers follow, and Jenny’s friends are agog when the two meet in the street and he invites her to a Ravel concert and “supper”. Parental opposition is predictable but what isn’t is how easily David charms them; they are wrongfooted when he walks in at the exact moment Jack is shouting “I’ve got nothing against the Jews…”.

At the concert we meet David’s friends, Danny and Helen (a vacant bimbo played by Rosamund Pike). For all her vapidity, Helen is good at pinpricking Jenny’s teenage pretensions; “You have a French conversation teacher? Is that why you keep speaking in French for no apparent reason?”. Over a bottle of champagne in an opulent jazz club, Jenny is persuaded to play truant so she can join the three at an auction of Pre-Raphaelite paintings next week. When she finally gets home her mum is waiting up, pretending to scrub a stubborn casserole dish. The emotional constipation is a little touching.

After the first date and first truancy, the next frontier is a dirty weekend in Oxford- suggested whilst the four are in Danny’s flat, filled with objets d’art. Meanwhile Jenny has started flunking her mock exams and Molina throws a very spiteful, yet curiously controlled and passionless, tantrum. When Jenny dares to venture downstairs, she is as surprised as we are to find her parents getting drunk with David (“Why are you drinking? It’s not Christmas”). David tells a bullshit story about C.S. Lewis being his university tutor and the dirty weekend is in the bag.

It’s all cod-Brideshead scenes as the boys play badminton in Danny’s front room, waiting for Helen to show Jenny the art of silken undergarments. Once in Oxford the boys drive on past the touristy college shots and head for the nearest pub, where they eye up the old ladies and snigger that there is “lots of business here”; our confirmation, if it takes Jenny a while to catch on, that they’re crooked. In the B&B Jenny tells David she wants to remain a virgin until her 17th birthday and he is an absolute gent, merely asking for a glimpse of her tits.

Le lendemain matin, Jenny sees the boys at work and doesn’t like it. In Blues Brothers dark glasses, they make her wait in the car and emerge from a little old lady’s house with a painting under their coat. “You’re so bourgeois”, David tells her when she storms off in tears. His following speech wins her around although we’re struck by how much he’s starting to sound like Jack (“these restaurants and concerts don’t grow on trees”).

After Oxford, Paris. Jenny takes a shopping list from her schoolfriends (Chanel, Gauloises) and her indiscretion earns her a stern warning from Emma Thompson. Her birthday is grim, the parents and Graham both giving her Latin dictionaries, under David turns up with armfuls of flowers, gifts and the news about Paris. Poor Graham slips out and no-one notices.

Paris is cod-new wave shots of the Eiffel, bookstalls, the steps of Montamartre and Jenny is in her element. Again, she is assertive when David makes the weird suggestion breaking her hymen with a banana (“I’m not losing my virginity to a piece of fruit”). She stands away from him, looking down at their view of the Seine, for the post-coital fag.

At school the English teacher declines to accept her gift from Paris (“because I know where it came from”) and pleads with Jenny to go to Oxford, provoking a tirade against establishment values. “I’m sorry you think I’m dead”, replies the teacher, and we cut to the four partygoers at Walthamstow dog track; Oxford is starting to look distinctly distant. The boys meet a gangster, David is jealous when Danny pays attention to Jenny. He drags her outside and proposes.

Jenny’s teacher is devastated to spot the ring on her finger (“It’ll ruin your life”) but Jack chortles that “you won’t need university now”. Time passes, Jenny leaves school without taking her exams, and then a coincidence reveals to Jenny the dark secret that David has been guarding. When required to face the music, he behaves rather badly. The wedding’s off.

Molina makes a fumbling confessional apology to Jenny’s closed bedroom door, a cup of tea and plate of biscuits in his hand. “All my life I’ve been scared, and I didn’t want you to be scared. That’s why I wanted you to go to Oxford.” It’s touching, it made me weep and while it lasted the film had won me over.

Jenny goes back to Emma Thompson; ready to play the contrite fallen woman, in a wrap-around cardigan and an ankle-length tartan dress. The head enjoys her moment of vindication as she tells Jenny a second chance “would be wasted on you”. In her poky flat, the English teacher agrees to give Jenny private tuition and at this point the film jumps the shark.

A montage of Jenny studying like a demon, with sentimental music, culminates in the offer from Oxford sitting on the breakfast table. Jenny cycles round Oxford in blue jeans as a voiceover tells us she went to university after all and dated boys her own age, before going on to presumably have a wonderful and successful life. But if she gets off scot free and goes to Oxford as if nothing happened, why did this story need to be told? Was there any consequence to anyone’s actions?

“This whole country is bored. There’s no life, colour or fun”, Jenny tells her headmistress at one point. A few private lives are put under the microscope to show the tensions bubbling under Western society before the swinging sixties. An Education is a well crafted film with fine acting, lots to look at and some entertaining dialogue. I just feel that the British cinema of that actual time -Richardson, Schlesinger- already said all of this better (and so does Mad Men for that matter). Worth it for Mulligan and Molina though, and if you liked films like The History Boys you’ll aboslutely eat this one up.

I had a teacher that once said that drama is for feelings and comedy is for thought. At first I dismissed this idea because how can a movie like Little Nicky or Dickie Roberts: Child Star be thoughtful. But if you think about it, although they are horrible movies, they are indeed thoughtful. The former deals with living up to your father’s expectations, while the latter is about the effects stardom have on a child.

For this reason comedy is my favorite genre. Can you make a drama about a girl trying infiltrate a clique of popular girls to bring them down, and eventually becoming one of them? Yes you can, but it does not have the same effect as a comedy. So, I was quite excited about compiling a list of my favorite comedies of the decade, but it turned out to be harder than I thought. I’m sure I left out a few good ones, but I feel happy with the way it turned out.

Here’s my list for the 10 best comedies of the decade:

10. Shrek

Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson | 2001

I saw this without having seen any sort of promotional material for it (how I managed to do that, I don’t know), so imagine my surprise when the movie started. Shrek is a clever take on fairy tales that has jokes coming in very often, and they never get old. Will the movie age well? Probably not because of all the pop culture references, but I will always have fond memories of it.

9. I Love You, Man

John Hamburg | 2009

A great story about friendship sewn together by great chemistry between Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Together, they make some poorly written lines and situations work. The rest of the cast also does a pretty good job of making this work, among them the always reliable JK Simmons, Andy Samberg, and Rashinda Jones.

8. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Adam McKay | 2004

This movie came out at the peak of Will Ferrell’s popularity, that is when he used to do the things he still does, but with good scripts. The story is inpired and a perfect fit for Ferrell’s comedic abilities. The sight gag are great and the dialogue (which is rather good) is delivered perfectly by the cast. And I believe that this is still Ferrell’s best performance.

7. Ratatouille

Brad Bird | 2007

This movie is full of sophisticated and innocent humor. Prior to this it had been a while that I had not seen a non-Pixar animated movie that was hilarious and had clean humor. Yes, there is a poop joke, but that fits the personality of the character that is involved in the joke. Ratatouille made once again made the messy kitchen, the food to the face, slapstick feel fresh once again.

6. School of Rock

Richard Linklater | 2003

Jack Black gives his best and funniest performance here. Yes, the plot has been done before, but the way the story is told, and the earnest performances from the young cast, makes this stand above the rest of other movies with the same plot. Plus, the ending is pure magic.

5. Mean Girls

Mark Waters | 2004

Before “30 Rock” and Sarah Palin made Tina Fey a house-hold name, and before Linday Lohan started doing drugs and ruined her career, they made this movie. Lohan, along with Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfriend, and Lacy Chabert, make Fey’s creations come to life in a great way. The movie is full of your typical Fey dialogue, and that alone makes it stand above other comedies.

4. Hot Fuzz

Edgar Wright | 2007

The love that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have for bad action movies shows here. And only them could they make an intentionally hilarious action movie like this. The biggest laugh, however, don’t come from the spoofing, but rather from the small moments, like the old man being stabbed in the foot, or the crossword puzzle dialogue exchange. Just great stuff all around.

3. Happy-Go-Lucky

Mike Leigh | 2008

Some do not think that this is a comedy, and I can see why they think that however, since this made me cry because of all the laughter, it definitely qualifies as a comedy. No other movie made me laugh this hard this decade. This is all thanks to Mike Leigh’s great writing and direction, which fleshed out every single character, even those who are on-screen for only a few minutes. The movie also works as a comedy thanks to Sally Hawkins’ amazing performance.

2. Knocked Up

Judd Appatow | 2007

One would think that it would be hard to find comedy in an uncomfortable situation such as an unwanted pregnancy. However, Judd Appatow did, not in the actual situation, but in the fall out from it. Seeing these two people and their families trying either help them or trying to tear them apart is funny as well as seeing them trying to make things work when they are clearly not meant for each other. While his direction may not be the best, Appatow’s script makes the movie work, and one of the best comedies of the decade.

1. In Bruges

Martin McDonagh | 2008

Like Knocked Up, In Bruges finds comedy in a situation that would not necessarily require it. This time it is two killers hiding out after a job goes wrong. The comedy here is mixed in with the anguish that the main characters are feeling, and it works. On one hand we have Ray (Collin Farrell) feeling bad about what he did, and on the other we have him, and his partner Ken (Brendan Gleeson), getting into all sorts of trouble with their boss, a local drug dealer, Canadians, Americans, thieves and a midget. Even when things get awfully dark, the movie keeps it’s sense of humor, and that’s why it is the best comedy of the decade.

Honorable mentions: The 40-year-old Virgin, Role Models, Superbad, WALL-E, Amelie, Cheaper by the Dozen, Shrek 2, Blades of Glory, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Shaun of the Dead, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment about this list.

Eight and a half Stars out of Ten Stars (********½/**********)

An Education tells the story of Jenny, a sixteen year old girl in the 1960s, whom up until we meet her has had a pretty standard upbringing, and for someone so thoroughly intelligent and charmingly beautiful, she is unsurprisingly very bored because of it. Peter Sarsgaard plays Peter, a much older gentleman who enters her life at random, only to turn it completely upside down, as he presents the young schoolgirl with an alternative lifestyle she had hitherto only imagined.

The film is based on the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber, and adapted for screen exquisitely by Nick Hornby. It has a real authentic touch and feel for the period, which proves a treat. But on top of this Hornby anchors the film through Mulligan’s Jenny; her voice is loud and strong and the character effortlessly evokes the misplaced defiance and cocksureness of youth. Occasionally I wondered whether a sixteen year old girl would actually behave with such poise and assurance in these circumstances, but not to the point of distraction.

The wit and humour of the performances and dialogue are sublime. I simply relished this film, as did the audience I saw it with. It’s funny and charming, and quite remarkably real and emotional at the same time. A rare combination. You sit quite happily, lapping up the comedy and sparkle of the whole thing, but before you know it the performances have latched on to you and drawn you in more deeply. The two performances I’m thinking of here are of course Carey Mulligan and Alfred Molina. As daughter and father this is some of the finest acting I’ve seen this year. One scene towards the end, where Molina brings Mulligan some tea and biscuits is so utterly poignant and affecting.

The joy of this film is that it captures the excitement and uncertainty of being young, praised, beautiful; yet with your whole life ahead of you, as yet unwritten. As a boy who ended up (quite miraculously) getting in to Oxford myself, and spending three quite happy years there, a lot of the film resonated quite personally, and I must say, brought back those nervous buzzes of excitement. Peter Sarsgaard never did offer me a lift in the rain, though.

If I had slight reservations they would be only that I feel the film could have delved slightly deeper in places. At some points it felt as if Jenny’s choice boiled down simply to going to Oxford and being a bit bored, or living a hollow life of excitement instead. I know for myself that this is a choice one can be presented with, but I also know that it is never the full picture. What else did Jenny feel? I would have loved to see a further exploration of her character. I felt there was more there. This, I’m sure, is in full part down to the exquisite portrayal by Mulligan. She was, as reported, quite remarkable, and clearly left me wanting more. An Oscar winner? I’m not quite sure yet. That’s perhaps stretching it just a bit for an actress so young. But it’s a performance that you can bet will be remembered for some time, regardless of what happens in February.

One last note – watch out for Rosamund Pike in a quite superb and undervalued comedic role. She was absolutely hilarious!

Un film del 2009, regia di Sherry Horman, con Liya Kebede / Sally Hawkins / Craig Parkinson / Meera Syal. Prodotto da (120min)

Drammatico

La straordinaria vita di Waris Dirie, ragazza nomade nel deserto somalo, top model braccata dal successo, ambasciatrice all’Onu per i diritti delle donne.

In the post-war, pre-Beatles London suburbs, a bright schoolgirl is torn between studying for a place at Oxford and the rather more exciting alternative offered to her by a charismatic older man.

Poppy from Happy-Go-Lucky by educatedpony featuring Rick Owens

this is my very first polyvore collage, please don’t make fun of me. i only recently discovered www.polyvore.com which is pretty much exactly like playing grown-up paper dolls, only with high fashion. so i obviously became obsessed with it.

polyvore is a little intimidating, there are so many options (you can seriously find almost anything on there) and a lot of beautiful collages posted by long time users that look like they could be clipped right out of vogue. plus, as i am not as tech savvy as many of these up-and-coming fahsionistas, so it took me a few mos to figure out how it all worked. but i think it’s great! really, really fun. and i will totally be using it in the future, hopefully with increasing dexterity.

i chose for my first polyvore collages, sally hawkins from happy-go-lucky, which is one of my favorite movies in the past few years. i loved it because the movie made me actually feel happy and hopeful. funny because it was kind of pitched as “oh there’s this obnoxious woman who is always in high spirits and she drives everyone around her crazy” and when i watched it, i really saw poppy (the character played by sally hawkins) as a kind of lighthouse for some of the sad people around her. i saw her as the type of person who didn’t compromise her own joy and who didn’t feel ashamed of living life on her own terms. and i found that incredibly uplifting. i can’t reccomend this movie enough.

and i loved how poppy dressed! she was such a free spirit! shawls and big clunky boots and crazy patterned tights and vibrant colors. i wanted to do a blog post on poppy’s fashion a while ago but could never find the right pictures. but polyvore provided me with a platform to convey what i liked about her style.

Poppy from Happy-Go-Lucky in Blue by educatedpony featuring Rick Owens Lilies tops

of course it’s her style through my eyes so it’s a little more fitted and a little more conservative (…grey somehow found it’s way in there…can’t imagine how!). like if i went out shopping to look like poppy what i might buy. if you click on the links below each image set, you’ll be taken to my polyvore page where everything in the collage is listed in a neat little side bar with designer and price.

here is a link to a girl whose movie collages for polyvore make mine look verrryyyy amateur, but that is okay, you will be really inspired to make some on your own after checking her out and that is really the point of this whole darn blog so here you go:

http://www.polyvore.com/movies/collection?id=243845

Falsas Aparências é uma adaptação do livro Fingersmith da escritora Sarah Waters. Dividida em três partes, é assinada por Aisling Walsh, cujos trabalhos são quase todos para TV, inclusive este.

Como o próprio nome sugere, nesta história, nem tudo o que vemos representa a verdade ou, pelo menos, toda a verdade. O roteiro nos dá várias sugestões da verdade ao apresentar diferentes versões do que aconteceu e depois desconstruí-las e nos apresentar a última.

Isso sim é interessante porque fica a sensação de que muitos episódios poderiam ter sido feitos a partir da perspectiva e do conhecimento, ou falta dele, que cada personagem tinha do que estava realmente acontecendo.

A história se passa em 1862, na Inglaterra. Susan Trinder(Sally Hawkins) é uma órfã criada em meio a um grupo de ladrões que planejam fraudar a inocente Maud Lilly(Elaine Cassidy). E Susan é peça importante no embuste. Levada por Richard/Gentleman(Rupert Evans) à casa de Maud para passar-se por sua criada, Susan logo pensa que será fácil enganar uma garota tão ingênua. No entanto, as coisas ficam complicadas quando Susan se apaixona por Maud.

Se você não ficar surpreso com o desfecho dos acontecimentos, achará, no mínimo, interessante a forma como as ações vão se desenrolando. Fingersmith é repleto de reviravoltas e quando você pensa que está tudo muito claro é que as coisas começam a ser, de fato, explicadas.

O elenco ainda conta com nomes de peso como Charles Dance, que interpreta o tio de Maud.

PS: Post dedicado especialmente a Srtª Scarlet que me indicou a série e insistiu para que eu a assistisse. E a Jen, que me pediu que dissesse o que achava quando terminasse de ver. =]

]]> http://afjimenez.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/happy-go-lucky/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:31:41 +0000 afjimenez http://afjimenez.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/happy-go-lucky/

Dirección y guión: Mike Leigh.
País: Reino Unido.
Año: 2008.
Duración: 118 min.
Género: Comedia dramática.
Interpretación: Sally Hawkins (Poppy), Alexis Zegerman (Zoe), Andrea Riseborough (Dawn), Samuel Roukin (Tim), Sinéad Matthews (Alice), Kate O’Flynn (Suzy), Sarah Niles (Tash), Eddie Marsan (Scott), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Heather), Nonso Anozie (Ezra), Jack MacGeachin (Nick).
Producción: Simon Channing Williams.
Música: Gary Yershon.
Fotografía: Dick Pope.
Montaje: Jim Clark.
Diseño de producción: Mark Tildesley.
Vestuario: Jacqueline Durran.

Esta historia narra las andanzas de una mujer de treinta años (Poppy), que ha desarrollado la gran habilidad de la imperturbabilidad. Durante toda la película se la ve riendo, y es que casi nada la saca de su visión del mundo, ni siquiera un niño perturbado.

Esta película fue nominada en varios festivales y ha sido muy bien valorada. Por esta razón no quiero hacer una crítica objetiva.  Pero si quiero expresar mi opinión.

Creo que el personaje de este film, es muy repetitivo, siempre está riendo y ni si quiera le molesta que le roben. Durante el transcurso de la película Poppy no cambia ni evoluciona, y en mi parecer podría ser inhumano. No siento que sea real, es demasiado optimista y a veces raya en la irresponsabilidad. Claramente se puede ver cuando habla con un vagabundo con problemas mentales, es decir ni siquiera su integridad le preocupa.

Puedo decir que esta película me deja desazón, porque si pienso en alguna persona como Poppy no encontraría a ninguna en este mundo. Ahora bien, si existiera creo que nunca se podría acomodar a nuestra sociedad. Es decir lo que caracteriza a los seres humanos es la capacidad de sentir diferentes emociones, y Poppy lastimosamente carece de muchos. Por ahí he oído que hay que llorar para después reír.

Bueno, no recomiendo ver esta película si antes no se han visto otras del mismo director. Creo que todas sus nominaciones se debieron a que esta película pareciese la visión de otro.

La recomiendo para las personas súper optimistas y  con pensamientos utópicos que creen que todo es felicidad en el mundo, pero para personas un poco más razonables puede resultar irritante.

“An Education” (BBC Films)

1. If you’re a cute, confused and conflicted 16-year-old girl looking for a lying, thieving, pedophilic old man, this is the love story for you.

2. See #2 from this review.

3. First, let me say that I’m probably gonna get some shit for this next statement. Originally written as a memoir by Lynn Barber, the screenplay was adapted by English author Nick Hornby. This made me remember something: I just don’t like Nick Hornby. I know people love him, and I’m sorry, Hornby lovers, but I thought High Fidelity was boring.

4. Even though I wasn’t big on the movie overall, the cast had some superb talent. Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson are always great, but Carey Mulligan (who played Jenny in the lead role) and Olivia Williams (who played Jenny’s teacher, Miss Stubbs) are two actresses I will definitely keep an eye out for in the future. Also, a brief cameo by an almost unrecognizable Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) was a nice surprise. For me, the problem with “An Eduation” wasn’t its cast, but the story that they were thrown into.

5. A song was used in the middle of the movie that I instantly fell in love with. Not sure of what it was or who it was by, I quickly pulled a marker out of my pocket and scribbled down the chorus on my arm. When I got home, I Googled the lyrics and found out it was a funky little number called “Comin’ Home Baby” by, of all people, Mel Tormé. And so I leave you with The Velvet Fog himself.

Another movie starring the Dread Pirate Sarsgaard,

-Shady

La Dulce Vida, Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh, 200

¿De qué trata?: Poppy (Sally Hawkins) es una joven profesora de primaria divertida, abierta y generosa, una muchacha inmune a la amargura que viste como vive, a todo color. Es un espíritu libre que se toma la vida tal y como viene, pero siempre con actitud positiva.

Hay que reconocer el mérito de Sally Hawkins a la hora de encarnar a Poppy (de hecho ya se lo tuvieron en cuenta concediéndole el último Oso de oro de Berlín a la mejor actriz y el Globo de oro a la mejor actriz de comedia). No debe resultar nada fácil interpretar el papel de una persona que puede generar tanto agrado y asco a la  vez. Al histrionismo y la gesticulación más propios de Mr. Bean, con todo lo bueno y lo malo que eso puede implicar, Poppy le añade una verborrea agotadora capaz de sacar de las casillas al más paciente de los mortales.

Sin embargo, tras un personaje tan descaradamente feliz como el de Poppy, el director de la película, Mike Leigh, ha querido camuflar algunas reflexiones sobre nuestra sociedad occidental, cada vez más plagada de seres alicaídos y anodinos. Cuando el filme se centra en el mundo de una chica tan extravagante y tan fuera de lo común, uno termina cuestionando al resto de personas supuestamente normales. ¿Es normal evitar un saludo? ¿Ignorar a la persona que tenemos a escasos metros en la sala de espera de una consulta? ¿Someterse a la esclavitud de la vida cotidiana?

Recomendable las escenas de la clase de manejo

La hermana de Poppy, su antítesis, es la que mejor refleja esa idea de que la estabilidad equivale a rutina y equivale a sumisión. Embarazada, con un marido sometido y acobardado y una hipoteca a sus espaldas, tiene la osadía de acusar a su alegre hermana de ser una infeliz. Mientras ella se obsesiona con las plantas de su jardín y con que nadie le manche el suelo de parquet, a Poppy parece ilusionarle mucho más convertir las bolsas de papel en disfraz de pájaro para sus alumnos.

Con independencia del personaje, Happy. Un cuento sobre la felicidad’ esconde algunas perlas muy recomendables. Comenzando por una interesante reflexión entre varias profesoras sobre el papel de los padres (y de las videoconsolas) en la educación de los hijos y terminando con una fantástica clase de flamenco. Es probable que para algunos Happy no sea precisamente un cuento y les termine provocando el efecto contrario a la felicidad, pero en todo caso se trata de una arriesgada radiografía, por momentos desequilibrada, por momentos lúcida, de una extraña en su propio hogar.

Al grano: Interesante crítica al británico cuadrado (y a la sociedad en general) sobre esepragmatismo cotidiano y la privación de la felicidad.

* * * * / 5

Por Bruno Pongas

Se todos nós tivéssemos um pouco da alegria embutida na personalidade de Poppy estariamos feitos. Ela, que leva sua vidinha simples em meio aos problemas do cotidiano, jamais deixa de ser uma pessoa alegre, bonita e encantadora. A personagem faz o que muitos de nós deixamos passar batido em nosso dia-a-dia: encara as coisas com naturalidade, sempre sorrindo e tentando achar o lado bom da vida. Mesmo que tal alegria possa soar artificial e irritante em alguns momentos, a excelente Sally Hawkins consegue nos brindar com um ótimo papel – uma verdadeira fábula indicada, sobretudo, aos mal-humorados.

Na história, Poppy é uma professora de escola primária, que, como já dito, procura ver o lado bom da vida em tudo. No dia em que sua bicicleta é roubada, ao invés de ficar furiosa como qualquer ser humano ‘normal’, ela simplesmente sorri, e vai atrás de uma auto-escola para aprender a dirigir. Seu instrutor, o carrancudo Scott (Eddie Marsan), é completamente o oposto dela… sempre mal-humorado, irritado e de mal com a vida. No entanto, ao conhecer a garota as coisas mudam, e é a partir daí que vemos a trama ganhar seu colorido especial.

Sob a batuta de um diretor qualquer, Simplesmente Feliz fatidicamente cairia no senso comum das comédias românticas: personagens estúpidos, roteiro fraco e final altamente previsível. A habilidade e experiência de Mike Leigh, contudo, faz do filme um pequeno achado dentro de 2008. Os personagens, quando em cena, aparecem de forma genial. Leigh os construíu com cuidado, com destaque especial, é claro, para Poppy, que goza de uma profundidade extrema. O introspectivo instrutor é outra grande figura, e nos remete a pensamentos mais pessoais: “será que também somos assim? até que ponto levamos a vida com seriedade exagerada?”. Scott é como um reflexo do nosso cotidiano… um pouco caricato, é claro, mas com atitudes que nos instiga a refletir.

É por essas e por outras que Mike Leigh é um cineasta respeitadíssimo. Mesmo com uma obra que custou pouco - praticamente um trabalho secundário em sua carreira - ele nos condecora com uma história divertida e tocante… sempre à sua maneira. O roteiro, que também é assinado por ele, se diferencia bastante do que temos costumeiramente no gênero. Além dos ótimos diálogos, Leigh compensa a certa previsibilidade do argumento com um trabalho firme, maduro e gostoso de assistir. Uma pena que os personagens secundários tenham ficado um pouco limitados… eles mereciam um tempinho a mais em cena. Falando neles, talvez seja esse o grande mérito do diretor: criar pessoas extremamente interessantes e verossímeis, daquelas que podemos tranquilamente encontrar em nosso cotidiano, no trabalho, na faculdade… onde quer que seja.

Simplesmente Feliz, assim como sua personagem principal, se destaca pela simplicidade. Sem grandes maneirismos, efeitos mirabolantes ou coisas de outro mundo… muito pelo contrário! Vemos aqui a arte em estado puro, de uma maneira que é difícil encontrar no cinema hoje em dia. Mike Leigh, juntamente com Sally Hawkins, merecem todos os créditos. Vale se ligar também na trilha sonora, que se encaixa como luva no colorido mundo da simpática Poppy.

Minha Nota: 7.5

Direção: Mike Leigh
Gênero: Comédia/Drama
Duração: 118 minutos
Elenco: Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman, Andrea Riseborough, Samuel Roukin, Sinead Matthews, Kate O’Flynn, Sarah Niles e Eddie Marsan.

Sally Hawkins as Poppy in "Happy-Go-Lucky"

Unrelenting sunniness can be very irritating. At first glance, it can come off as unnatural, most likely forced, and given closer scrutiny, it can be much worse. For some who insist upon acting in a state of perpetual cheeriness, it can feel smug – an enforced disconnect with the rest of the world, self-serving in the way it fosters one’s own gratification without engaging others beyond a superficial level.

The great beauty of this film is how Poppy is none of these things. Characters like her court disaster, especially when they comprise an entire picture, but Sally Hawkins and filmmaker Mike Leigh have created someone that’s bright and engaging as she is rich and complex.

Eddie Marsan and Sally Hawkins in "Happy-Go-Lucky"

The film has certainly drawn its share of detractors, but I don’t think they’re giving Poppy enough credit. There’s nothing insular about her nature – her blissful disposition is marked by a deep curiousity towards others, one devoid of condescension. It’s especially clear in key private moments, when there’s no one else but her and someone she doesn’t easily relate to. She puts up no walls and rarely treats anyone like a peripheral figure merely passing through her life.

In what’s possibly the oddest, most memorable scene of the whole film, a rambling vagrant is neither the subject of open amusement or something to be avoided. Her curiousity towards him becomes as much about caring as anything else. It’s these people, the “difficult” ones, that she ultimately connects with, or at least tries to with absolute sincerity, and the same quality in her gives full weight to the picture’s climax, when a complete lout’s heartache is actually felt as real tragedy.

Happy-Go-Lucky may seem atypical of Mike Leigh, better-known for dark, brutal masterpieces like Naked and Secrets & Lies, but the harsh lessons in those films make this one possible. Real happiness doesn’t exist in a vacuum, nor does it get forced into being. Its realization is a road marked by pain, not just one’s own but others’ as well. For Poppy to acknowledge that and, in her kindest moments, to reach out to those lost in darkness is a remarkable display of compassion, the kind that’s always in need but rarely asked for.

There aren’t many characters presented in movies that are seemingly eternally optimistic and inspirational to others, while also not being in some way “special”. There’s characters like Benjamin Button, Forrest Gump and Chauncey Gardener, who are all seemingly able to have a positive or non-cynical outlook on life. So, that’s what makes the main character of the movie HAPPY-GO-LUCKY so refreshing. Sallly Hawkins performance as “Poppy”, is a funny, eternally cheery and still completely realistic depiction of a person that’s not special, really, in any other way.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY starts with Poppy riding her bicycle through the streets of London, and parking it outside a book store. She goes inside, is ignored by the clerk – while continually trying to get some kind response from him. When she eventually leaves, she walks up to see her bicycle has been stolen. It’s her response here, that gives us an indication of who this person is. She laughs, smiles and says, “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

The movie follows Poppy through a number of different places. We see her at work – as a primary school teacher, who has to deal with a little boy that’s started hitting other kids. At home, we see her with her flatmate – Zoe, played by Alexis Zegerman – and her sister, Suzy (played by Kate O’Flynn) as they drink, talk naughty to each other and drink. Poppy taking Flamenco dance lessons, with a co-worker and finally Poppy’s experiences with her driving instructor, Scott (played by Eddie Marsan). Scott, who presents himself as a fascist instructor who strives to embed his mantra (used in the title of this post) and talking conspiracy and religious nut-baggery.

The movie, written and directed by Mike Leigh, is not as positive as the title might suggest it to be. There are familial problems, there’s the hints of child abuse, and Scott’s own inflammatory temper and as the movie goes on, his seeming obsession with Poppy. Leigh never gives Poppy an easy out, but she is also never really put through the paces. There’s one scene in particular, where it really just seemed kind of weird that Poppy would stay, and even as the situation gets very odd and looks like it could be going in a bad direction, in the end Poppy comes out unscathed. Which, there’s something to maybe the positivity of Poppy to inspire the good in others – even if they’re a crazy, homeless guy – or maybe just this one time she got lucky, instead of the worse happening.

And it is the other performers, and characters, that help to keep this movie from being over the top and syrupy sweet. We see Poppy’s sister Suzy, in a spat with her boyfriend. We meet Poppy’s other sister – who is married, pregnant and has a new house in the suburbs. There’s a moment where the sister starts scolding Poppy for not having a pension, a mortgage and not having had kids yet. This is seen through by the younger sister, as just the unhappiness of the sister that seemingly “has it all”. Zoe, who has been Poppy’s roommate for a decade, we don’t get to see much of her life apart from Poppy; but we get that she’s not quite as happy with her life and romantic prospects, as Poppy is. Even the Flamenco instructor seems to be focussing her energies into dance, instead of trying to cope with her own problems – which reveal themselves, hilariously.

But, the breakout character – and performance, other than Hawkins’ – is Eddie Marsan’s Scott. There is a repression and loneliness to Scott. He’s someone that seems to like what he’s doing, but at the same time has a high – if not unreasonable – standards for his students. He continually gets very upset by the fact that Poppy wears boots with heels when driving. He emphatically repeats his mantra of, “en-ra-ha, en-ra-ha,” and in a moment that left me (and Poppy) taken-aback; while stopped at an intersection two black men ride past on bicycles and Scott says, “lock your doors”. Poppy looks at him and says, “I can’t believe you said that.” To which Scott tells her that there’s more than one, so lock the doors. Then there’s their final confrontation. Scott, reveals that he’s been trying to impress Poppy and feels that she’s been flaunting her body to him (by wearing the boots) and his misinterpretation in things that she said.

The final moment of the movie, we see that there’s not been any real change to our main character. She didn’t learn that she can’t be funny all the time, or that sometimes optimism is a pain in the ass, or even that her fashion sense is pretty awful. Instead, she’s rowing a boat in the middle of a pond with her roommate, and cracking jokes and just happy with life. And yeah, by the end of the movie, she’s even got a love life…

So, while it’s not a message movie, or even a slap-stick comedy, I have to say I really liked HAPPY-GO-LUCKY and the character that it introduced me to. Poppy is a fun girl that loves life, can see the upside to just about anything and is generally someone that we could all use in our lives, to show us it’s not all serious or as important as we can make things out to be.

Ayer escribí una crítica (a mí manera) para una película que me gustó mucho. Se trata de Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), que en España se tradujo como Happy: Un cuento sobre la felicidad.

Como mi comentario apenas contiene datos técnicos os dejo un enlace con esa información por si lo queréis consultar. Para los que se fijan en el tema premios, estos son los que se ha llevado:

• En 2008: Festival de Berlín: Mejor actriz (Sally Hawkins)
• En 2009, Globos de Oro: Mejor actriz – comedia/musical (Sally Hawkins).

Solo diré que se trata de una película británica de las buenas (y muchas lo son), realizada en clave de humor (hasta cierto punto) por Mike Leigh, el brillante director (en la foto de abajo) de las memorables Secretos y mentiras (1996) y El secreto de Vera Drake (2004) entre otras.

Sally Hawkins ejerce a las mil maravillas de optimista incombustible y Eddie Marsan de  desquiciado y amargado.
Al principio os resultará chocante (casi absurda), dadle una oportunidad y, si sois del 50 por 100 que ve el vaso medio lleno, no os arrepentiréis.

Y si sois del otro 50 por 100, mejor no la veáis ni sigáis leyendo…

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Empatía es la clave

Happy no es para todo el mundo. Esta claro que los amargados recalcitrantes deberían abstenerse, a no ser que quieran verse tan retratados que terminen con una úlcera de estómago.

Que la película no está del todo estructurada y tiene altibajos, ya lo han dicho muchos y con razón.
Que la Hawkins y el profe de la autoescuela están genial… qué duda cabe…

Aparte de esto…
Veo unas mujeres nuevas que saben asumir nuevos roles con naturalidad y alegría.
Veo gente que sufre porque su infancia no es o no fue feliz.
Veo gente que sufre porque hizo como que creía en un modelo de vida, para al final darse cuenta de que todo fue una mentira… una mentira de las que más duelen.. de esas que nos decimos a nosotros mismos…

Por cierto, también veo a un vagabundo al que los espectadores no parecen comprender. Se trata de un personaje que ya conocemos… solo que tiene otra edad y se encuentra en una ‘etapa’ distinta de su miseria.
El niño pelirrojo, a la vez maltratado y maltratador, el profesor de autoescuela, cobarde y resentido, y el viejo loco son, efectivamente, el mismo personaje.

La protagonista y su compañera de piso demuestran que la alegría no está reñida con la responsabilidad, ni la responsabilidad con la diversión, ni la diversión con la solidaridad o la empatía…

Por cierto, empatía es la palabra clave.
Sí… Esa capacidad para ponerse en la piel de los demás…. La protagonista tiene mucha, especialmente con los sufridores y amargados…

Y es la misma empatía que necesitarían muchos de los que odian a Poppy (dentro y fuera de la pantalla).

En 2008, le meilleur film de l’année selon les Oscars:

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Pourquoi ça a gagné: Parce qu’une bonne vieille tambouille hollywoodienne bien dégoulinante, avec des ficelles grosses comme des câbles de télévision, lorsqu’elle est saupoudrée de curry exotico-stylisant, donne aux touristes la sensation de goûter un plat révolutionnaire. Et c’est parti pour l’hystérie collective. Parce que so cute, les baby basmatis!

Mon choix:

WALL•E

Pourquoi: Parce que c’est le cinéma d’animation porté à son point culminant. Parce qu’oser le muet en 2008, et dans un film destiné avant tout aux enfants, c’est fort. Parce que ça continuera à faire rêver dans 50 ans. Parce que susciter autant d’émotions avec des héros qui ressemblent à un grille pain rouillé et un ipod relève du génie. Parce que Pixar est le dernier bastion du cinéma de divertissement de qualité, tu sais, celui qui ne te prend pas, toi le spectateur, pour le dernier des débiles.

Meilleur Réalisateur:

Danny Boyle
pour Slumdog Millionaire

Pourquoi il a gagné: Parce que peu importe les caractérisations sommaires, la lourdeur pachydermique de la structure et l’indigestion de clichés au tandoori, quand c’est empaqueté par des centaines de saris multicolores filmés caméra à l’épaule et montés au hachoir, puis enrubanné par un final dansé à la Bollywood complètement plaqué, c’est FORCEMENT du grand cinéma.

Mon choix:

Pourquoi: Parce que chaque plan de WALL•E respire l’envie de faire du cinéma, et en contient plus que la totalité des cinq films nommés en 2008. Parce que Nemo.

Meilleur Acteur:

Sean Penn
dans Milk

Pourquoi il a gagné: Parce que BIOPIC! Personnage célèbre! Homosexuel! (le courage!) Le contre emploi! (SEAN PENN pédé???) Parce qu’Harvey Milk, le vrai, a été assassiné (snif), que sa cause est toujours d’actualité, et qu’un Oscar, c’est une façon de la soutenir (cf. l’Oscar du scénario également). Parce que Sean est aussi incroyablement bon, et que malgré tout ce qu’il a accompli, il est encore capable de nous surprendre.

Mon choix:

Mickey Rourke
dans The Wrestler

Pourquoi: Parce que parfois, un acteur rencontre LE rôle pour lequel il est né, et une magie incomparable opère (Gloria Swanson dans Sunset Blvd., anyone?). Parce que sa composition est à la fois brutalement instinctive et merveilleusement détaillée. Parce qu’il joue, sans forcer le pathos, avec un humour surprenant et un courage qui force l’admiration, des similitudes peu reluisantes entre son personnage et lui-même. Parce qu’il a toujours été un grand acteur, même quand il était beau.

Meilleure actrice:

Kate Winslet
dans The Reader

Pourquoi elle a gagné: Parce que c’est Kate Winslet, la plus grande actrice de sa génération. Parce qu’après 6 nominations (!) à seulement 33 ans (!), et zero victoires, ça commençait à devenir franchement ridicule. Parce que Shoah, accent, vieillissement, maquillage, scènes de procès, bref, cette fois-ci, elle le voulait vraiment. Parce que le contre-emploi est saisissant. Parce que Revolutionary Road.

Mon choix:

Sally Hawkins
dans Happy-Go-Lucky (Be Happy)

Pourquoi: Parce que, comme souvent dans les films de Mike Leigh, l’actrice EST le film. Parce que Poppy est moins un personnage que la représentation théorique d’une idée, et qu’elle parvient, par sa sincérité inébranlable et son jeu subtilement dégradé, à en faire un être débordant d’humanité. Parce qu’à force de bonne humeur inoxydable, elle pourrait être totalement irritante, mais que son intelligence, son humour et sa lucidité savamment dosés la rendent complètement attachante et inoubliable.

Meilleur second rôle masculin:

Heath Ledger
dans The Dark Knight

Pourquoi il a gagné: Parce qu’il est mort. Parce que le film a eu un succès phénoménal, et que sa composition déjantée n’y est pas pour rien. Parce qu’elle est de taille, la surprise de voir dans ce rôle de fou furieux un acteur qui avait auparavant brillé pas son intériorité minérale. Parce que Brokeback Mountain.

Mon Choix:

Heath Ledger
dans The Dark Knight

Pourquoi: Parce qu’arriver à faire presque oublier Jack Nicholson, c’est du lourd.

Meilleur second rôle féminin:

Penélope Cruz
dans Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Pourquoi elle a gagné: Parce que Volver l’a définitivement imposée comme une grande actrice, que sa collaboration avec Almodovar est en train de la faire entrer dans l’histoire du cinéma, et qu’elle est au somment de sa carrière et de sa beauté. Parce qu’à la seconde ou elle déboule dans le film telle un furie, la pellicule entre en combustion. Parce que sa sensualité animale, son savoureux télescopage d’espagnol et d’anglais et son timing comique aiguisé font décoller Woody et réduisent Scarlett Johansson au rang de salade niçoise mal assaisonnée.

Mon choix:

Penélope Cruz
dans Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Pourquoi: Tout pareil.

Two movies are coming out that feature, to varying degrees of prominence, girl musicians. The first is Bandslam, a movie that opened earlier this month and Nikki Finke noted is plagued with misguided marketing decisions. While the material’s quirky charm seems to line up more closely with Juno, the movie is being marketed as an extension of the Disney machine.

No doubt this is cruel irony for leads Vanessa Hudgens and Aly Michalka who, along with Demi Lovato, are trying to distance themselves from the mouse as they get older. I’m not bowled over by the trailer, but am interested in it and hope it finds an audience despite its botched marketing campaign. I saw Juno with a lot of 13-year-olds. I think they’d see this movie too.

Next up, we have An Education, which is British novelist Nick Horby’s first screenplay about a cello-playing British schoolgirl falling for an older man in the Swingin’ Sixties. While I wouldn’t necessarily take a junior high kid to this movie, I know I would’ve loved this movie in high school and made my girlfriends go with me to see it.

In fact, 26-year-old me is still plenty interested, despite a very “for your consideration” trailer that brings to mind The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a stodgy coming-of-age British drama from the 1960s that was saved for me only by Maggie Smith’s performance and wardrobe. To review.

1. Cello-playing precocious schoolgirl, played by Carey Mulligan.
2. Peter Sarsgaard being in the movie (though I have more of a couple crush on him and his wife Maggie Gyllenhaal than a stand-alone crush).
3. A bunch of bad-ass British actresses (Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, Cara Seymour, Sally Hawkins) are together in one movie based on a woman’s memoirs and directed by a lady, ya’ll.
4. Many of the aforementioned British actresses are playing characters who don’t want the girl with potential to give up herself for a dude. Some may be worried about scandal, but others (like Williams, who is also smashing on Dollhouse) are hoping she chooses her talents and goals over his interests.

Most importantly, I wanna see how music figures into these girls’ lives, as musicians and as fans.

El otro día miraba a una chica que conversaba con una pareja. De pronto soltó una sonrisa grande, amplia. Era una carcajada. En esos instantes, sin duda, ella fue feliz.

Una sonrisa puede tener muchos significados. Muchos sonríen de contentos. Otros de nervios. Algunos de cólera. Pero casi siempre una sonrisa tiene consigo una dosis de felicidad, aunque sea pequeña.

La sonrisa puede curarlo todo. O casi todo. Este no es un manifiesto de positivismo al extremo. Para nada. Es solo una reflexión que nace a partir de una película.  

El film británico “Happy go lucky” (La felicidad trae suerte, del director Mike Leigh) se paseó por las salas de Lima hace poco. El personaje principal de este largometraje, “Poppy”, magistralmente interpretado por Sally Hawkins, se ríe de todo: de sí misma, de los problemas cotidianos y pretende solucionar con una sonrisa los inconvenientes que se le cruzan en el camino.

Esto, desde luego, es imposible. Los problemas del mundo no pueden arreglarse con una sonrisa, ni siquiera con la de Julia Roberts (una de las más bellas del planeta). Es más, la felicidad que invade a Poppy, parece, por momentos, ser el elemento que compensa sus carencias.

Algunos de los personajes que se topan con Poppy (su hermana casada, un vendedor de libros y desde luego el profesor de manejo –vea la foto que acompaña esta nota-) parecen ser víctimas de la felicidad de la protagonista y esta situación le da vida a una figura que pretende ser crítica con la realidad de una sociedad malhumorada.

Sea como fuere, ver sonreír a Poppy resulta gratificante. Quizá no para todos, pero estoy casi seguro que para la mayoría sí (el cálculo que fundamenta mi irresponsable afirmación es producto de lo que percibí en los espectadores el día en que vi la película).

No sé si la felicidad trae suerte. Pero pienso que sonreír sí rinde sus frutos: trae felicidad. Pruébelo.

“I am happy. I love my life. I have a great job, amazing friends. Yeah, it can be tough at times, but that’s part of it. I am one lucky lady, and I know that.”

Sally Hawkins

I’ve mentioned the film Happy Go Lucky here before, and I can’t help but talk about it again. When I find something I like, I tend to embody the phrase “go big or go home.” When I discovered knitting, for example, I knit an insane number of scarves and socks in too-bright colors and gave them to people who may or may not have wanted them. In a similar vain, I’m going to talk about Happy Go Lucky again because I love it and its star Sally Hawkins. A lot of you love Amelie; I think this is my Amelie.

Happy Go Lucky is one of those rare cinematic gems: a movie about a happy, interesting person. A character whose happiness indicates depth rather than shallowness and whose presence in a movie is inspiring rather than irritating. It’s about a teacher named Poppy for whom happiness is a brave & conscious choice. She reserves the right to be ridiculous and intelligent while being deeply kind to those around her (characteristics often portrayed as mutually exclusive in other movies). Whenever I watch this movie, I feel a tad more upbeat about things. And it always strikes me as powerful that any medium can have that effect on its audience, no matter how temporary. Here are a few photos of Happy Go Lucky’s lovely and fashionable star Sally Hawkins. If you’ve got the rainy day blues, I’m pretty sure this film is the ticket to feeling a little bit better. xo, m

Michelle and I made bird masks and flapped around like this.

I'm pretty into that hat

I want a map like this in my future classroom

PS- Here are the bird masks Michelle and I made. We look like freaks. I guess that’s not entirely inaccurate.

I recently watched Persuasion 1995, starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, for the first time a few days ago, and I was having a hankering for the 2007 version, directed by Adrian Shergold, and starring Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot and Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Frederick Wentworth.

Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen work, and my esteem for the novel only grows each time I pick it up. The premise is simple: boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love; girl is persuaded to reject boy; boy and girl part brokenhearted. Only Austen picks up the story 8 years later, when, after a lengthy separation, boy and girl cross paths by chance again. Of all Austen’s heroines, Anne’s situation appears the most hopeless; tormented with grief over her decision, she now, at 27 years old, has few prospects and no hope at all of ever seeing Captain Wentworth again—and when she does, it is only to be teased by his flirtation with Louisa and Henrietta and his declarations that above all he wants a woman of firm mind who is not easily persuaded. In the weeks that follow, the reader watches Anne, always in the background, it seems, easily forgotten by all but one, as her chances of happiness seems to ebb and wane, steadily like the tide, however, growing more and more hopeful. The 2007 adaptation was the first I saw of this story, and I immediately fell in love—and it was the first Austen adaptation that succeeded in producing a few tears from me. I watched it this time with a more critical eye, but was still very pleased with what I saw.

It is that emotional see-saw, that ebbing of the tides of hope, that I believe the 2007 film captures beautifully. Those moments when Captain Wentworth glances at Anne or eyes her over take the breath right out of you as much as they do for Anne. The Croft carriage scene is the moment I first felt wholeheartedly that Wentworth still cared deeply for Anne; when he inconspicuously leans into the carriage to encourage his sister to take Anne home, my heart melted. The sense that he is always in the background—thinking, calculating, deciphering, working—pervades through this film, just as Anne’s quiet presence in the shadows of scenes emphasize her attentive, desperately curious state.

The location shots of Bath and the Cobb at Lyme are gorgeous, though it one would almost have to try to visually screw those sort of scenes up. The 1995 version did a slightly better job of including more of Bath and Lyme, giving one the feeling that one is standing in these Georgian cities as they would have appeared to contemporary visitors, not merely how film producers like to portray them in costume dramas, in their pristine, almost painfully modern state, free of common folk and signs of average life. The extreme cleanliness of this film has a certain appeal to it, but I also found that I enjoyed the “ruggedness” of the 1995 adaptation.

Persuasion 2007 has its share of flaws, but by far they concern technicalities rather than deficits in acting. Oddly enough, as much as I love her role (as I mentioned in the birthday post, if I was given the opportunity to star in any costume drama role, past or present, I would chose Anne Elliot from Persuasion 2007), I feel that Sally Hawkins’s Anne may be the weakest character in the movie. It is Sir Walter with whom Jane Austen chose to open her final novel, and Anthony Head’s portrayal screams “vanity”; the scene he makes when greeting Lady Dalrymple at the Pump Rooms was perfect, as were his embarrassing reactions to the news of Admiral Croft and Anne’s visit to Mrs. Smith. Whereas Head’s performance is humorous, Amanda Hale’s as Mary Elliot is supremely annoying. I wondered what Louisa Musgrove could have meant when she said that Mary had a few good qualities—I could see none. Her nonsense was most trying. Julia Davis played Elizabeth Elliot, the quintessential favored eldest daughter, with ease, and her soreness at Mr. Elliot’s attentions to Anne smacks of the “Elliot Pride”—though why she should expect Mr. Elliot should care for her a lick with her unnatural hair is beyond me. Charles, Louisa, and Henrietta were all good, especially Charles, who embodies the outdoorsy, congenial Englishman. I love Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth—there’s just something about him that says “I’m a sailor.” (I do wish they had a shot of him in his uniform!) Jane Austen’s Wentworth is a little more lighthearted, I think, but Penry-Jones does a good job of keeping with the more morose feel of the film, balancing agreeableness and charm with quiet contemplation and subdued conversation. I loved the tete-a-tetes between Harville and Wentworth that gave insight into Wentworth’s reasoning and heartache that the novel does not allow for—they might be my favorite scenes. Admiral and Mrs. Croft were a delight, and the Admiral’s amusement at the surfeit of looking glasses is perfect.

All that said, I felt Anne was the most unstable character. After watching the movie again, I may have to recant the statement I made in my review of Persuasion 1995 in which I said I preferred Sally Hawkins’s portrayal over Amanda Root’s. Let’s just say they each have their good qualities. 2007’s Anne has the meekness I prefer, save for the final scene in Bath where it appears she wants to devour Captain Wentworth. I’m not entirely certain of what I thought of it before, but that final kiss may just be the most painful in the Austen adaptation cannon. It must have been something more than minerals in that Bath water that give Anne such audacity, both in speech and action.

In general, the film’s greatest weakness is the the final Bath escapade—it’s a little too dramatic, even for a modern UK Austen adaptation. It is as if the producers realized that after wasting so much time with those awkward stare-into-the-camera shots from Anne, they now had two minutes to wrap up the Bath scenes and decided having her run about the streets like a loon was the only way to finish on time. And there was no way they could calmly and accurately divulge Mr. Elliot’s secrets with such a compressed schedule, so they had Nurse Rook perform a hallelujah miracle on the invalid Mrs. Smith so she could chase down the frantic Anne and warn her about the rake herself. Thankfully, someone with an iota of sense added in that charming final scene at Kellynch, wrapping up the previous crummy five minutes and salvaging the ending.

Also, they had the Elliot’s staying at No. 1 Royal Crescent, which isn’t even close to where Camden Place (now Camden Crescent) stands.

As with most adaptations, this one is too short. But for a 90 minute production, Persuasion 2007 does a very nice job with the story. It’s a film I will never tire of watching Oh, and the music is splendid! I so wish there was a soundtrack one could purchase from this film; it compliments the emotional atmosphere of the movie perfectly. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.