The answer is 4 months...

yep, looking back at my last post, seems like it took me over four months to come back and post something here, which is just not acceptable! I have been contemplating on putting a "closed until further notice" kind of sign on this blog, but I'm too attached to it to let go, not yet! At the same time, it is obvious with my heartbroken-ness issues at rest for now, and the PhD thesis in focus once more, the chances of me actually posting anything here is not getting any higher either... so I've decided to try and post about movies and TV again, and hopefully more regularly... we'll see if that keeps me (and you, dear reader) motivated. If not, I'll just call it quits and we'll be done!

So, during the past three weeks I have seen a bunch of movies in the VIFF, some of which I absolutely loved. Here they are:

1) Barney's version: AWESOME! I loved loved loved this movie. There is no way to describe the movie since the story sounds so simple: a politically incorrect man goes through a couple of decades of his life, dealing with his personal and social life issues, love, hate, marriage, friendship, and so on. It is based on a Canadian Novel by Mordecai Richler which apparently was loved by many Canadians over the years. I had absolutely no idea what the story was going to be about and was pleasantly surprised. The characters are easy to relate to, and it doesn't hurt either that the acting is absolutely amazing. There are crazy funny scenes and there are extremely emotional ones as well. And somehow it felt like it wasn't made for a certain type of audience, it wasn't too abstract, or too commercial, or too tragic... I think it was the sense of balance in the movie that made it so realistic and relatable. Anyway, see this movie when it comes out, you won't regret it.

2)Certified Copy: Kiarostami's latest movie definitely surpassed my expectations, mainly because I was getting ready to fall asleep midway through the film and I didn't... I can't say I followed exactly what was happening, but I definitely enjoyed it, and Juliette Binoche sure deserved the best actress prize in the Cannes film festival for her role. The movie basically spans over a few hours that a french art collector spends with an English author who has just written a book about the value of unoriginal art pieces (copies). I really enjoyed the dialogues, and also the film location which was somewhere around Tuscany, Italy. I recommend this movie if you can sit through two hours of dialogue (in 3 languages with English subtitles, of course) and not get bored.

3)Biutiful: This is Inarritu's latest movie and as much as I loved Javier Bardem in it, I can't say I was impressed. The film has a very dark mood to it, and tries to manipulate the viewer's emotions too much which sometimes doesn't work. The whole intertwined story lines is getting kind of repetitive in my opinion and this movie in particular was trying to cram too many stories in one package. Of course, you'll have to see this one just to see why Bardem got the best actor prize in the Cannes, but don't expect too much of it.

4) The illusionist: an animation from the director of "The Triplets of Belleville". It of course did not even come close to his previous film. I liked "the illusionist" mostly because it was happening in Edinburgh and the setting was beautiful and a little bit magical. The story however was slow and dragged on for a while longer than it should have. It felt more like a tribute to magicians, clowns, acrobats, and others from those lines of professions which are becoming obsolete. You probably want to rent it and watch it on a slow night.

5) Gold and Copper: a good Iranian movie by Homayoon Asadian, not excellent though, with some heart breaking moments. (no imdb link as far as I know)

6) One movie I don't recommend from the VIFF is: the neighbor, urghghgh, so unprofessional, and a lame story anyway. The only good thing it had going was the original score by Namjoo which I still have not found anywhere online.

I have also watched "the social network" and really really enjoyed it. The truthfulness of the story aside, everything else was perfect from acting to cinematography, editing, and the soundtrack. I couldn't help but admire the brilliance of the awkward hero. I think especially for people that have active facebook profiles (hmmmm, virtually everyone!) it is really interesting to see how it all started from a raw idea. Wait for the DVD but watch it for sure!

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Coppola, Almadovar, and other tales from VIFF

So here I am again, writing about Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). For me, VIFF is a big part of fall in Vancouver... I look forward to it every year and although I only manage to watch five or six movies, it still lightens up my October.

anyway, I have watched five movies so far, and have got two more to go. Here's what I thought about them:

Pandora's box: erhhhh... that's all I can say about it. I watch a Turkish movies every year and this year it didn't pay off at all! The film is about an old woman who gets Alzheimer and her dysfunctional family will have to face this among all their other issues. It mainly played with the viewers' sentiments and basically just made me cry without leaving any feeling behind.

Tetro: Francis Ford Coppola's latest movie was definitely a treat to watch. The story turned a bit Bollywood towards the end, but the images were absolutely amazing and except maybe for the last 15 minutes, I really enjoyed the movie. The whole movie is shot in black and white, except for flashbacks which are in color! cool, isn't it? anyway, I definitely recommend this movie, but beware of the length.

A prophet: OH MY GOD! Could this movie be any better?! I don't think so... the movie tells the story of a young French/Arab man (movie is French by the way) who goes to jail for six years and during this time goes up the ladders of prison mafia. I can't say how great the lead actor was! and the story was interesting on so many levels and nothing was done half-ass, and I can go on like this for hours. Apparently this was one of the main competitors for White Ribbon in this year's Cannes festival, although it didn't win in the end.anyway, watch it, watch it, watch it... you won't even notice it's 2.5 hours long!

My Tehran for sale : another errhhhh... why do Iranian directors insist on showing the "underground" life in Tehran when they are so limited by regulations that the end result is a mess of a movie that's got no taste of reality (or artistic value, for that matter) to it. The first half of the movie was so artificial and below average that I thought about leaving the theater, however it got better towards the end and in the end it was good if you missed Tehran and wanted to watch images of the city while listening to Namjou! not recommending it though.

Broken Embraces: last night I watched the latest movie from Pedro Almadovar, and although it wasn't a masterpiece like some of his older films, I liked the movie. It was light and funny and sometimes romantic. It had some "dark" elements but even they seemed comic somehow. Penelope Cruz was hot as usual, and some of the familiar faces from Almadovar's previous films were in it as well. This is a movie to watch as light entertainment or if you like to follow Almadovar's work, otherwise you won't miss much if you pass on it.

On a side note: I watched "Roman Holiday" again since it was on TV and enjoyed it as much as the first time. Honestly, how great is the last 5 minutes of this movie?!

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Airport babblings

So here I am sitting in Amsterdam Airport, travelling to Iran once again, and realizing I'm a true internet addict since I'm willing to pay 12 freakin' Euros for 90 minutes of wireless internet!

Amsterdam airport is nice and big and has lots of seating which makes it a heaven compared to Frankfurt airport. but I don't really feel like writing about the airport. let's talk movies, shall we? :D

I watched Gomorrah and 3 women as my last two movies in the film festival. Well, Gomorrah totally disappointed me! I probably didn't get the point of teh movie, but to me it was long, boring, and ...well, pointless! maybe if the movie wasn't so long and the show wasn't so late I would have enjoyed it more, but anyway not a favorite at all!

As for 3 women, I liked the story, although there were some serious logical goofs in it, and the acting wasn't exactly the best. The film is about a workoholic, successful woman who somehow loses her young daughter and her mother in one day. As she searches to find them she starts to learn more about them and herself. A lot of emphasis is placed on the value of history and ancient artifacts of Iran (especially Persian carpets), even if sometimes it seems forced. In the end I think we see that they are all bound together not just by blood, but by this history, the land, and the life itself. I recommend seeing this movie, do not expect too much from it, but it's worth watching once.

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Movies, movies, movies

VIFF is back once again and I'm enjoying it so far. I've watched only 3 movies so far, and here they are:

Waltz with Bashir: it was an Israeli animated documentary of the massacre in Sabra and Shatila and was absolutely amazing! It was strong and interesting and kind of reminded me of Persepolis in a remote way (Persepolis is still better in my opinion though). The main character of the movie actually is the director himself and the movie is his quest to remember what happened in the massacre, when he was a 19 year old soldier in the Israeli forces present in Lebanon. It's disturbing but not too exaggerated in my opinion. A must-see for you serious animation lovers.

three monkeys: This Turkish movie was unfortunately not as interesting to me as I had hoped. Three monkeys is a reference to a proverb that says: "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" and basically tells the story of a family that decides to close their eyes on the truth and stick together in a very messy situation. Don't get me wrong, it's not a sweet tale of family love, it's actually very dark and dramatic and kind of depressing with no background music and not a lot of dialogue. I could see why some people might actually like it, the cinematography was very good and acting was good too... but I didn't exactly love the plot. anyway, this is not a good choice if you get easily bored, I was ready to enjoy the movie but fell asleep during the first 15 minutes!!!

And last but definitely not least is the song of sparrows: Majid Majidi has once again created a story about real people with real connections that's moving but sweet at the same time. He tells the story of a guy who tries to be a part of the big cruel world of a big city, but realizes that his happiness lies in his own small community. The love between a father and his children is pictured beautifully. I had expected to see a very sad movie, but although there were some sad moments, the movie was filled with hope and optimism. I think Majidi would be a perfect nemesis to Von-Trier in that regard! :) everyone should watch this movie, it deserves all the good reviews it's got!

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VIFF schedule is out...

life is good again, and although I probably won't watch more than 4 or 5 movies, I can't help feeling excited about it.

view schedule here

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More from VIFF

This'll be my last VIFF post, hopefully. Unless I go watch a movie tomorrow, of course! :)

I watched a few good movies in only two days and I'm all excited, my head still filled with images from the last one I watched only a few hours ago, Bliss. It was a Turkish movie about a young village girl that gets raped. Village's "Agha" decides that she has sinned and only death will erase this dishonor (you can imagine how I felt throughout the movie I guess!). So they send a guy to kill her and he's not happy about it and the two disappear. It was filmed so beautifully, with amazing scenery, and great acting from the lead actress (she was so cute!) that I was shocked! I think that this movie must be a commercially successful one in Turkey, not one of those artsy independent ones. Anyway, it's screened again next Monday in Vancity theater in Vancouver, if anyone's interested. I liked the movements of the camera in the movie and also the score, it was so sad that I cried at the final credits, even though nothing was showing on the screen! (I'm a woos when it comes to the movies though!)

I also watched Persepolis...need I say anything? It was all I expected and more! I thought the book was pretty awesome, but seeing those figures in action was a totally different experience and I absolutely loved it. Eevery Iranian that has a chance should watch it and feel proud (and force their non-Iranian friends to watch it too!) :) Reading the two books will help too.

Another superb movie was "the diving bell and the butterfly"... it told the true story of a man that got affected by the "locked-in syndrome"... so basically, he was paralyzed from head to toe, and the only part working in his body was one eye! (and his brain, of course). And then this guy went on and wrote a book (!!!)- through a very cool communicating system that one of his doctors created - about his experience. It was greatly made, and felt really strange. It has won the best director award in Cannes, so it should be pretty easy to find on DVD later on, a must see for all you movie fans out there!

And finally, a relatively good movie - but not great - was Jellyfish, a movie from Israel. It's the first feature film from the director and it was definitely a good first movie. I didn't exactly love it though!

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A dream-like movie

You're gonna have to cope with my movie posts until the festival ends. Last night I went to watch "en la ciudad de Sylvia"(in the city of Sylvia) and "Unas fotos en la ciudad del Sylvia" (photos in the city of Sylvia) , two back to back movies from Spanish director, Jose Luis Guerin.

"en la ciudad..." shows us this young man (super good looking!) that sits in a street cafe and watches women. We don't know why (and we won't find out for a long time).. but that's not the point. The way he looks at these women and makes sketches in his notebook is what's interesting. The way he notices little things and movements. Then he starts following this one woman and the chasing scene is just absolutely beautiful... I can't describe it, you have to watch it for yourself.

The movie felt like a dream... it had an amazing quality to it... for one thing there was almost no dialog in it... there were a lot of different sounds though (and they did a superb job of sound recording and editing I thought), you could hear the wind, the street musicians, people walking and talking, everything. But what blew my mind was the imagery... every frame could be a perfect photo... the camera shot each location from many different angles... of course, it really helped that the movie was shot in Strasbourg, the old streets and buildings introduced so much character into the movie.

the second movie, that was screening for the first time, was actually a slide show of these old photos that the director had taken in Strasbourg before making the film and had used to get ideas. You could instantly see how he had translated the images into the movie and if you enjoy photography, you'll enjoy this slide show as well. It is absolutely silent though, I could hear the theater seats creaking and people whispering and all!

The movie had a very simple plot, and according to what the director said at the screening, he intended for the viewers to enjoy this simplicity. I know I did.

Here's a very short clip from the movie:

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free woman and modern life

So today, on an impulse, I went to watch a documentary in the Vancouver International Film Festival. It was called "Flying: confessions of a free woman". It's actually a six hour documentary that is split in two and there are two 3 hour shows. I only watched the first part tonight and hopefully will get a chance to see the second part next week.

This movie totally made up for the bad weekend! It's kind of interesting that both "10 + 4" and "flying..." were documentaries about the life of the director, filmed by handheld cameras, and still the latter was so much more dynamic, interesting, and enjoyable. The movie has this interesting style of "passing the camera around".

So basically all through the movie, Jennifer Fox (the director) and her friends film each other while talking about relationships, traditions, sexuality, freedom, and lives of modern women. You can relate to so much of what's being said, and the interesting point is that the interviews are with women from all over the world: USA, Europe, South Africa, and India. It's amazing how similar the issues are for the so-called modern women, women that are educated, have careers and are not following the paths of their mothers. It kind of makes you rethink what is "natural" and what is not. Why do all these traditions haunt us although we keep telling ourselves we're free? Just like in day to day lives of women, you see anything in this movie from pregnancy to infertility, from marriage to divorce, cancer to brain tumor, and so on, and that's why it feels so real.

I can write pages and pages about "Flying...", but you should watch it for yourself. I know that it has been sold to some TV channels (like BBC, Arte, and so on) and it'll also be out on DVD next spring. I encourage everyone to watch it, man or woman. In fact, in the Q & A session after the movie, a man (Iranian, I guessed from his accent) made a pretty long speech just to thank Jennifer Fox for the sacrifices she has made in her personal life to make this movie.

Here's the movie's website: www.flyingconfessions.com check it out!

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Bad weekend at the movies!

So I had some bad luck with the movies this weekend. First, I went to watch In the valley of Elah, and was totally disappointed! I don't understand why I need to feel sorry for a soldier that runs an Iraqi child over! Poor American guy, he must have suffered a lot, not being able to sleep at night! And then, what's with the pride at the end of the movie? so, let's hang our flag high up and send more troops to kill more people?! anyway, wait for the dvd so you can fast forward!

Then there was the VIFF which I was so excited about. My first movie was today at 12:00, but guess what? I slept in and missed that! I was soooo pissed off! I almost decided against watching the next movie but then changed my mind, and now I kind of wish that I had not! 10 + 4 was not even one step further from Mania Akbari's previous movie and although I admire her courage and strength in the fight against cancer, I didn't enjoy the movie at all!

So here I am, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, bitching about my movie experience! sorry! I have been busy with my research and my committee meeting is approaching fast, a bit stressed out here!

PS - I did enjoy Kiosk's concert very much though. They were awesome, even if the sound system wasn't!

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Bear with me and movie reviews

You'll probably think I'm totally lame, but I just couldn't resist the temptation to write about "Away from her". I watched it yesterday in Vancouver International Film Festival and I have to say it was astonishing. I can't believe it was Sarah Polley's first feature film as a director. Having strong actors definitely helped, and the movie was based on a short story by Alice Munro, but still, you couldn't be a bad director and get away with making such a movie easily.

As much as I like watching movies about young lovers who get to (or in some cases not get to) be with each other, I couldn't help but admire the love that was shown between Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant (Gordon Pinsent)after all the years they had lived together. I don't know which one's stronger? a love that burns when you're 26, or a love that comforts when you're 66. I loved everything about this movie. Go, Canada! and I am very interested to see what Sarah Polley's gonna come up with next! (by the way, for those of you who used to watch "GHESSEHAY E JAZEEREH" in Iran, she's the girl who played Sarah in that series! she's definitely grown up!)

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