Wednesday 27 June 2012

Happy Endings [2005]


Don't be fooled by the poster! It's not an erotic movie, for sure. Erotic movies don't have any value in this blog.


The movie shows three different lives, there are multiple stories around the characters and these characters meet the other characters from another set of life in some scenes and then they connect somehow.

There are homosexual relationships; Gill and Charley, two lesbian couple. They do not irritate you, which is a nice presentation for the director. There being homosexual people around us, people who can't stand the idea of being homosexual had better watch soft movies like "Happy Endings". The movie makes you respect their relationship before you notice as you do for the heterosexual ones.

And there are parents having problems with their children: Frank is generally upset and worried about his son Otis for being a gay or not and Mamie is feeling remorse for letting her child be adopted when she is teeange mother. However, you don't feel pity for them and start to cry. You just watch it and understand the situation as it is. Very objective.



Tuesday 26 June 2012

Morning Glory

Can someone tell Becky to take off her dull suits, please? They're killing me!


It is really amusing to see how a mother can describe her daughter's dreams or creativity in different ages. Becky's mother says "Your dreams were adorable when you were eight, inspiring when you were eighteen but they are embarrassing when you are twenty eight." I thought it was unfair to hear them from one's mother's mouth. However, the character Becky irritates me. It is fine that she has dreams and utterly excited about them, but she doesn't have self-confidence when she wears, talks and walks. She shows us how miserable a person can be.

There being other women who don't wear suits, I think there isn't a dress code in IBS, down there. Then why does she wear those dull suits all the time? The only time she wears something pretty is when she goes to NBS for an interview. She is wearing a beige dress, pink heels, a blue scarf and nice-soft make-up. It is the last scene where she finds herself. I am sure if the movie went on after that scene, we would see her in more colorful and elegant clothes.

However, I have to confess that I admire her determination to save "Daybreak". Well, she succeeds in the end.

Monday 25 June 2012

Evita


"The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, a B-picture Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina." [taken from www.imdb.com]

It is a well-made decision to shoot the movie as a musical since it is the most aesthetic way to present someone's life which is filled with noise, violence, anger, masculinity and love. Otherwise, I wouldn't bear the see the scenes of the riots between the public and military forces. The musical way takes out all the possible ugliness of the political issues of the movie.

Eva Peron has relationships with men. In each time, the next one is better than the former one in the sense of power and monetary value. She eventually marries Argentinean president Juan Peron and gets her ultimate power thanks to him. During the movie, the masculinity voice repeats the following " She should not get out of the bed, she mustn't forget she is paid because she is good in the bed.", which is bothering and irritating. They find the right to repeat that again and again just because she doesn't have a wealthy family and a father - meaning power - and a very decent job. Isn't it possible that a woman can be smart? Can't a woman be accepted and admired by the public just because she is smart? Has the success of a female to be connected to sexuality every time? The quote above smells very masculine and isn't fair.


Saturday 23 June 2012

Sex and the City II [2010]


It is all about black&white.

It starts with a gay wedding. It is the first time I have ever seen an aesthetic, beautiful, romantic and black&white - I mean the decoration and the black&white movie at Carrie and John's bedroom - gay wedding. There are swans at the wedding as if ballet dancers would come from somewhere to perform The Swan Lake Ballet. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

At the wedding, the couple who don't understand why Carrie and John don't want to have children and get the biased face right away are utterly irritating. There are  a lot of these irritating  people around us. If you are a young woman and over 25, they push you to get married as soon as possible. When you get married, they push you to have children before you are 30. And the pressure continues on different matters according to your age and the phase of your life. In these moments, I want to scream " It is non of your business!" Would they hear me? I don't think so.

Carrie and John celebrate their second wedding anniversary with a delicious dinner and sipping red wine. Carrie's present for him is a watch by Rolex and John's present for her is TV in bedroom, which is a horrible idea. Carrie doesn't like it too because she doesn't want to be one of the couples who lie down and watch television and don't talk. If you are married, are you one of them? I hope you aren't and won't be.

One day, Carrie goes to her own apartment to work in peace. Although they are quite independent spouses with no children, she still needs that kind of privacy. Then John puts forward the idea of taking two days off to do what they want to in peace, which is a bit weird. I don't mean John's idea but do you have privacy in your marriage? Are you bored of each other? The need of privacy is inevitable for every individual. Well, if you say "It's isn't for me!", it must be. It could solve any probable problem which could arise in your marriage and life.

Abu Dhabi part of the movie smells nothing but luxury. These women don't stop wearing high heels even if they are in the middle of the desert.

Sex and the City [2008]



Sex and the City is another movie shot after the serials broadcast on TV between 1998-2004. It is like a longer version of a normal episode, so it could have been broadcast on TV as four or five episodes.

When I think about it as the movie, the soundtrack in the beginning is a disappointment for me. It could be something better than that.

It is about four wonderful friends Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York Goldenblatt and Miranda Hobbes and their differing ideas on friendships and relationships.

In the movie, Mr. Big buys an apartment with very high ceiling - which is my favorite - and builds a huge closet - which is another favorite of mine - After Carrie and his friends attend an auction in which the jewels of a lady jilted after ten years' relationship are sold, Carrie puts forward the
subject of marriage. Then Mr. Big and she decide to marry in the kitchen while he is cooking as if it was a matter of business. Totally no romance! After that, Mr. Big and Carrie get prepared for
the wedding. Well, Carrie gets prepared mostly for the wedding in an old library - what a great
place to get married - In the end Mr. Big can't stand the pressure of marrying in a fabulous and
hyperbolic way of marrying and get out of the car to hold the bride's hand.

Before the probable wedding, Carrie reads a letter by Ludwig Van Beethoven to Mr. Big in bed,   
which I can't go on without including that marvelous letter below:


Good morning, on 7th July.
While still in bed my thoughts turn towards you my Immortal Beloved, now and then happy, then sad again, waiting whether fate might answer us - I can only live either wholly with you or not at all, yes I have resolved to stray about in the distance, until I can fly into your arms, and send my soul embraced by you into the realm of the Spirits - yes unfortunately it must be - you will compose yourself all the more since you know my faithfulness to you, never can another own my heart, never – never – O God why do I have to separate from someone whom I love so much, and yet my life in V[ienna] as it is now is a miserable life - Your love makes me at once most happy and most unhappy - at my age I would now need some conformity[,] regularity of my life – can this exist in our relationship? – Angel, I have just heard that the mail coach goes every day – and thus I must finish so that you may receive the letter immediately. – be patient – only through quiet contemplation of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together – Be calm; for only by calmly considering our lives can we achieve our purpose of living together.- be calm - love me - today - yesterday - What yearning with tears for you - you - you my life – my everything - farewell - oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your Beloved



L.


Forever thine
forever mine
forever us.

Isn't it beautiful?

After the no-wedding, Carrie falls in a huge depression, looks at the mirror in the Mexican resort which she arranges for the honeymoon and realizes how devastated she is. However, she isn't alone; she's got three perfect friends who will console her. In there, she asks the dramatic question of a person who is jilted: "Will I ever laugh again?" And she laughs when Charlotte "poughkeepsied" in her pants.

Yes, the movie and the serials are about sexuality, promiscuity and femininity. However, the movie is beyond them: pure friendship of four women. While they are celebrating Samantha's fifth birthday in the end of the movie, don't you think of your own friendships? Well, I do.




Sunday 17 June 2012

Coffee and Cigarettes

Could a black&white movie be colourful? Absolutely yes! 

I had been kind of biased against black&white movies until I watched Coffee and Cigarettes and The Artist. I used to think that it would be a waste of time if I couldn't see any colour in the movie. However, the shapes  and images were extremely vivid in this movie. Especially the chess board like tables in the cafes.

"Coffee and cigarettes" is like "Tea and cigarettes" in our culture. We have "tea" instead of "coffee"; we also have the conversation which goes with it, though. Cousins, brothers and sisters, friends and old friend chat around a chess board like table sipping their coffee (In some vignettes, it is tea) and smoking. This conversation scene seems like universal.

Each vignette includes a different piece of human feelings and situations: arrogance, weakness, friendship, pity, anger, silliness, nonsenses, scepticism, brotherhood, and so on.

Notes on a Scandal

Adultery is definitely something delicate to talk about and think about. One may have sufficient reasons to be faithless and the other may have other reasons to be faithful. The thing is that the spouses had better be mature enough to listen to each other.

To me, women aren’t supposed to get married to men who are much older than them. And those men are supposed to acknowledge their wife could seek something more in life.  It could seem OK in the beginning, but ten years later it may not be the case.
While watching the movie, you feel like something terrible is going to happen. I think this feeling comes from the fact that you are a heterosexual. It is sort of irritating to follow what Barbara writes about Sheba in her diary day by day.