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La vie d'Adèle (2013)
Regretting a love gone
This has been rated as one of the top french movies and i finally watched it. I enjoyed it. The very natural acting, gentle and passionate sex scenes and a few intense moments... when emma threw her out the house, when they met again yet it couldn't be. The final scene was when she went to visit her art exhibition, to see paintings of her on the walls as ex-muse but the artist has moved on with her life already.
A mistake made...slept a few times with a man, then losing the love of her life. Emma said to her when they met again: she will always have a tenderness for her in her whole life. There was a scene where all her artistic friends gathered and she clearly felt out of place - cooked and served them food and she works as a nursery school teacher, that led to her feeling alone and being initimate with a fellow school teacher who meant nothing.
This is a story of missed love and regret, due to a mistake. Very good acting.
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Brillant conceptual film
A conceptual and clever movie which I thoroughly enjoyed. The plot is about this mundane couple - the wife lotte has pet chimps and lizards and Craig "works" as a failed puppeteer because he can be other characters. Then he found a job in a filing company, gets attracted to Maxine and discovered a secret door that he can go down and immediately see the world through an acclaimed actor John Malkovich for 15 minutes before being spit out onto the side of the road, and they start to profit of this discovery with tons of people paying to experience being JM. 1. The idea that it is so much more comfortable and confident being someone else, maybe because it is for a mere 15minute as a passive viewer, the excitement of living another persons life, the experience without the responsibility, a small piece of escapism. Somehow, I can relate to that in the identity of an aspie, the more you play it, the more it becomes a part of your existence and comfort. I find this an interesting concept that if we can adopt different personas to our advantages. Of course in the film, only craig and lotte manipulated JM, and im assuming the rest of the queue were just passive observers in his body.
2. There was a scene where John Malkovich himself went into the tunnel and became John Malkovich and everywhere he looked were different versions of JM doing different things and he was frightened and ran. To me, this is perhaps the fear of facing up to our own different personas and not knowing what to do, and running from ourselves. Its a poignant scene to reveal the discomfort in being ourselves vs the thrill of being another character.
3. Maxine was always and ultimately only attracted to JM's body when lotte is in it. The idea that it will always be the core and soul of the person one is attracted to. Craig invaded his body, fucked and married Maxine and had a successful puppeteer career using the fame of JM...he was afraid to leave JMs body because then who is he? In the end, he did. Maxine revealed to lotte that she was pregnant by her - sex while she was in JMs body and they raised a JM daughter together.
4. The group of old people continue to use the vessel of the malkovich line (in the daughter) to continue living and not die.....I take this to mean that everyone of us is a sum of other people in us.
5. I like that the title uses the actors real name John Malkovich as he is playing himself and it is a successful film vs his character Craig who is always trying to be someone else through his puppeting efforts or living JM's life and it was not a good ending.
Blue Valentine (2010)
drift along to the very real depiction of the moods of marriage
One of those films where the mood and intensity takes center stage, and I cannot remember much else despite having watched it last evening. Past scenes intertwine with the present. The resentment (on her part) between a married couple with a kid, further manifest itself on their weekend away to a hotel room aptly named future. She rejected him repeatedly in the shower scenes and in the end, he rejected having sex with just her body. It was as if alcohol was necessary to remove the distance between them, to stand being alone with him. Their happier times in the past have faded into this, the audience do not know how, it just had happened. A very real movie. Back from the weekend, it finally escalated to a full blown outbursts by him at her workplace and she screaming for a divorce. With a vague ending of her needing space. The acting was not particularly memorable...the actress could be better casted as some moody and antsy teenager with mental demons. It is a movie to drift along to its mood, not one for plot nor characters.
Blue Jasmine (2013)
Hanging onto the shadow of a former self and life she adored
This is the second Woody Allen film I have watched, after Annie Hall. I like his style of neurotic characters, dialogues, very relaxed pace and humor. Cate Blachett was excellent here. She is this glamorous and immaculately dressed-chanel-hermes-character whose exterior/past is a juxtaposition from her current state of mind/present. She never lets go of this throughout the film, hanging onto this inflated ego and snobbery based on the former self she adores and still desires to return back to "when Hal was....when we were living in...." Such is the irony that she looks down on her sister and her choice of boyfriend while continuing with the delusion of grandeur and self deception and nearly marrying the rich and handsome guy. She was so near to getting back to that lifestyle - what could have been and what is. The portrayal is often nervous, anxious, hilarious and I never once felt sad or sorry for the character. There is such resilience, strength (going for computer class with the aim to take an online interior designer course) and humour in her desperation and disdain for her present. Very likable and not an ounce of self pity. In some ways, reminded me of Samantha from Sex in the City.