Martina's recent cinematographic choices and disasters

THE READER

(for clip click here)

I almost died and went to heaven when I saw poster for this. The reader is my all time ever favourite book. It is beautifully written and has poignant romance (also the kind I love the most, as most women...) which is complex and deep and inadvertently ends painfully and scars for life. This, along with deeper issue which is weaved into the film, makes a riveting read and the film didn’t disappoint. I was never a fan of Ralph Fiennes, there is just something so unfanciable about him but he has that sad quality I love so much and I always fall for films he is in such as Constant gardener or English patient.

This film is no exception, the score for the film is stunning and the mood is set. Young Michael is portrayed excellently and the only thing I had a problem with was Kate Winslet as Hannah. I don’t remember her as so strict and stern...she was but without over theatrical mannerisms that Kate uses to portray ‘matter of factness’. Besides....whole film is shot around not actually showing Kate’s boobies too much as they are past sell by date. Germans would actually make this film way better...they would probably choose someone who can freely show warts and all. I felt young Michael was naked way too much to compensate for Kate’s boobs. It could have been shot without so much nudity and it would still be fine but if you choose nudity then do it Betty Blue style, without inhibitions and strategic shots. Anyway...I regress...film is rather nicely done and captures book’s mood perfectly. Some details are somewhat over dramatized but none the less...great movie.

BLINDNESS

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I hated this film. Whoever made it should go see psychoanalyst and talk about his learned helplessness. I had several problems with how it developed. The dutiful wife taking on whole blind colony of people just so that she can feel important...you get snippets of her being someone without life, living with her doctor husband who is obviously not connecting with her so this becomes her forte...she is the only one that sees.

Second...when the ward 3 starts taking food meant for everyone in wards 1 and 2 and demanding, first valuables and then women to rape, ward 1 agrees with some debating chucked in. First they give their valuables without thinking that next week they will have nothing to give so this is clearly not a solution and then they agree that women should go sleep with ward 3 men in exchange for food. Women proceed like martyrs and get raped and beaten and one dies, which spurs the wife who can see to murder ward 3 leader. Hello!!!! I mean...first thing normal people would do is perhaps unite against ward 3 with ward 2, yet nobody went to talk to ward 2. The lack of projection and thought in their decision making was something that stayed with me for ages.

I remember something a psychoanalyst once said to me: “One always has choice”. When I see people give into stupidity without fighting for their rights, it doesn’t evoke empathy but instead I just get this feeling that at least this may be a lesson which will let them make a choice next time.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE

What is that all about? When did it become OK for James Bond, British secret agent, to look, talk and behaves like an Essex plumber?????

What upsets me the most about degradation of Bond movies is not even the fact that they have nothing of a plot, the humour is lost, all that is there are fight scenes that make no sense....but the fact that Bond, someone who stands for educated, smart, cunning, able, spy...is replaced by, what majority considers to be a good-looking, muscular common chap.

As a child, my father took me to all the Bond movies...my favourite being Roger Moore. It was more about his charm than his looks; he was slim and physically incapable of lifting 200lbs but instead used his charm and wit to get out of situations he found himself in. I tolerated Pierce Brosnan for the fact that at least he oozes private schoolboy charm but now I am just crushed. Daniel Craig makes me cringe, the way he portrays emotion, he is always angry and unable to control anger and forever in trouble. I guess nowadays...they settled for realistic portrayal of MI5. Next Bond will feature Daniel leaving his briefcase in a cab, which will lead to Britain’s Ministry of defence being wiped out by a silent assassin. No doubt, M will suspend him for a week and then it is back to work....

Truly disappointing. I stopped watching after 30 minutes as it made no sense.