Beee Italian....

NINE

On Wednesday I saw NINE, I'd seen the trailer and some of the adverts and I just had to go and see it. The film is just beautiful, the lighting, direction styling. Set it Italy is the glamorous golden era the story line begins with the glamour and the excitement of the celebrity life, the cars, the women, the power and as the film develops everything unravels through current events which flashback to Guido's (The main characters) early life. A mans journey to find his inspiration, through all the beautiful women in his life.
The musical turned movie starred an unbelievable cast, all who delivered strong performances and believable characters. At times it was very frustrating to see Guido dig his own grave. Toward the end Guido gave-up directing and left the film business entirely, mainly because his heart wasn't in it. However in true creative style he realised his gift (thanks to a little encouragement from our Judi) and returned to directing in the end to finish the film with a humbling and bittersweet ending.

For me Marion Cotillard outshone them all, perhaps because she played the part of the wife I really sympathized with her. She played the loyal wife who'd sacrificed everything for him, her acting was brilliant.


With a reminiscence of Chicago (both directed by rob marshall) the scenes are spectacular and dramatic, one of my favorites being the the performance by Fergie in which the dance was performed with sand.

Låt den rätte komma in....

I saw 'Let the right one in' in April whilst I was in Brisbane. I'd heard all of the reviews about this Sweedish vampire film and was intrigued.

I thought the actors who played Oskar and Eli were amazing. Eli's eyes were incredible and haunting, I couldn't get them out of my head after seeing the film.
I thought the cinematography of this film was beautiful and the story was appropriately told. The strangest of friendships overcomes a cold and lonely world confused with right and wrong, strength and weakness. So must is said between them in the silence. The pairs relationship is sometimes strangely mature and more intimate than two normal twelve year-olds. The beautiful snow scenes emphasize the isolation and the irrelevant passing of time for the remarkably old Eli.

I thought this recent film was a brilliant choice for everyone to see for Halloween.

The Fantastic Mr.Fox!

Oh my god, I was so lucky to go to the opening night of The Fantastic Mr. Fox!! I worked with Mackinnon & Saunders back in 2008 starting off with just one day a week whilst I was at Uni. I did that for a few months and once we finished Uni they kindly took me on full time! I loved being part of the Mackinnon and Saunders family! Mackinnon and Saunders have worked on so many films and animations, the puppets they are incredible! They've done Corpse Bride, FiFi and the Flowerpots, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Mars Attack and Frankensteins Cat!
Seeing all our hard work up there, on screen god I love the feeling I've been part of something so big! If anyone manages to see it, please tell me what you thought of the film...??

I was employed as a costume department assistant and my main jobs involved dying fabrics to match an exact pantone! which is a very long process and taught me a lot about patience! I also helped with a lot of the screenprinting (like Mrs. Fox's yellow dress with the strawberries and Beavers son's number 8 top) I helped with odd jobs such as painting buttons, making headscarves, belts, painting patterns etc. Its great to see it all up there. The one big thing I helped with was the knitting of Ash's cardigan which you can see below. It was such a detailed process. We had to order special wool which was probably the finest, thinnest wool ever! I machine knitted pieces and then this was shrunk and then Michele would knit these pannels into the minute white cardigan! So proud!

" One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place "

If....

Firstly I would like to say that I believe Malcolm McDowell was the only actor able to carry the role of Mick Travis. His large, cold eyes communicated a world of unspoken thoughts.

Would I go and see the film again, probably not. I felt there was one or two scenes which defined the movie, they were rightly slow and full of connotations. Such as the scene where Mick is whipped and the preceding scene. The other scene was where the young homosexual boy watched the older boy on the bars, whilst putting on his sweater. I thought this was really well done. Whilst I watched the film I was anticipating a sudden violent eruption. The film lacked some pacing and build-up. I felt the ending was going to involve more of a physical retaliation rather than shooting from a distance. I felt the ending could have been longer I felt the film ended abruptly.

For me the metaphorical scenes made me believe these were illusions and a realization of Micks fantasy. I did not believe the girl truly existed. I cannot now say whether I thought the film was realistic or surrealistic - If the switching of monochrome and colour was used to identify the two I think I would have made the distinction. But the worlds together tainted my believability of the scenes.

I found it interesting seeing what life was like at a boys private boarding school during that period. I thought the young boy Jute acted his part well. I enjoyed the scene during the shooting practice where the boys had to practice their shouts of hate, very good.

".....Its love, not Santa Claus"

Ok....so! Sydney Film festival kicked off this week. I managed to squeeze in two screenings one was a British film 'Bronson'(by Nicolas Winding Refn.) Its about 'Britans most violent prisoner' who apparently has spent 30 (of his 34 years in prison) in solitary confinement! It was done in a very stylized way and it was very reminiscent of Clockwork Orange. The writer stayed to take questions from the audience which was really interesting too.


















The second film was '500 Days of Summer' which is a totally unconventional rom-com! Pretty funny and creatively Directed. We all came out of that one feeling very inspired!




Hopefully I'll be able to get a few more films in later this week!