This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Having now watched the short film, it seems the most natural of combinations, but prior to viewing, I would have never in my life imagined seeing something that was so quintessentially Disney while simultaneously bearing Dali so brilliantly in its essence. The surrealism of Fantasia delivered no form of preparation for such a visual and symbolically emotional onslaught.
Though I bought the movie quite a while ago, I only finally watched it today and I adored it. Such an immersive and beautiful film that further delighted me personally as a lover of Paris who hopes to one day return and see all that I didn't see (the first short by Bruno Podalydès reminded me right off the bat that I have yet to visit Montmartre). Each story was touching and well executed (yes, even the oddball vampire love story between Elijah Wood and Olga Kurylenko, certainly the most bizarre of the lot, though I daresay it still fit) and I was pretty well entranced from start to finish.
This, however, is particularly due to my absolute favourite out of all the segments - 14e arrondissement (linked above). I lovethis one. Alexander Payne, what a lovely and simple way to bring the movie to its close. Beautifully shot, as were all the rest, and Margo Martindale, superbly bad French accent and all, was absolutely perfect in it.
I loved every little bit - from the notion of this sweet mail carrier from Denver taking French classes so she can go and have an adventure in Paris, to her relishing in her independence and thus skipping on a tour group, to her elegantly insightful ruminations about dictators, love and Paris itself - all exquisitely tied up by her poorly accented but nevertheless moving narration as she reads about her love affair with Paris to her French class. In fact, that touch only made her and her story just that much more adorable. Bravo to whosoever decided to go with it.
The rest of the stories are also quietly compelling in their swift simplicity and I particularly enjoyed Quais de Seine (lovely job, Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges), Loin du 16e (a quiet gut puncher about a mother who for income's sake has to sacrifice her time with her own child in order to take care of another), Tour Eiffel (entertaining as hell mime love story) and Quartier des Enfants Rouges (excellent tale twist and Maggie Gyllenhaal, yet another reason to love her).
Honestly, cheers to all the directors for such a lovely piece of cinema. C'était vraiment incroyable.
I literally just found out about this website and I am in love. These are my people.
A choice picture - (linked but unembedded out of respect to Ourit Ben-Haim of whom I am now officially a fan) a commuter reading the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, a copy of which I will hopefully soon acquire.
The movie based on the story and the illustrations is incredible and quite spellbinding. I highly recommend it, not just for Marjane's story, but also if you know nothing of Iran's recent past history and how completely different it was from the country it is now.
Also spotted amongst the underground that I hope to add to my reading list/library:
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling On The Road by Jack Kerouac Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Most pleasant surprise?
Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery - one of the books from my favourite childhood series.
(and rather desperate to finish so I may finally part company with Patrick Bateman and his obsessive 80s New York materialism and brutally depraved psychopathy):
Upcoming:
Must purchase/borrow/steal/otherwise gain the ability to read (apart from those seen on unypl above):
Recently Finished:
The Woman in White, apparently considered a 'sensationalist' novel in its time was an unexpected and exciting read. You wouldn't imagine that such old fashioned and therefore elegantly dense and descriptive prose could keep you so well suspended by the story, but Wilkie Collins did just that. I was hooked from beginning to end and almost sad to be done with the world and the characters. The multiple character narrative especially made for an unconventionally richer journey through events and the voices of each character were distinctly interesting and appealing. As the copy I had was borrowed, it is now cemented on my purchase list. Pure story, through and through.
Gone Girl began as a slow burn for me. Sure, I wanted to know what had happened and how the story would eventually twist, but my initial reactions to the 'Gone Girl' and to the writing were somewhat unimpressed - although this could partly be blamed on the hype leading up to my finally reading. A few chapters further finally dug themselves in and in revealing what she does of our missing heroine, Gillian Flynn makes some sharply insightful commentary about the modern world and how our characters have ultimately been shaped, nay produced, by the saturation of our lives by the media. Flynn's background as an entertainment writer shows up often, but depending on your tastes (or whether or not you were just reading a 19th Century Mystery novel *cough*), this only more effectively throws us into that world of modern make-believe melding with the turmoil of being an adult and trying to figure out how to grow the fuck up. A surprisingly helpful pre-cursor to my reading American Psycho immediately after (but still nowhere in its league - a good thing), I do recommend it and I dare say, you will either really enjoy it or you will find it utterly ridiculous. Both viewpoints are obviously completely valid.
I love me some book art. Look, I love books, wannabe writer
and all, lover of stories, make-believe and all things so truthfully telling of
the wondrous world in which we live.
This deep love in mind, once upon a time, I would have never
dreamed of physically destroying a book
so. To this day, I can’t even dog-ear a book (although a friend did make a
compelling case for dog-ears acting as miniature tales in themselves about a
book’s previous owner… wait, which of us is the writer?).
But now, what I once saw as destruction, I now see as
reconstruction and recreation of something new and most certainly beautiful in
its own right. My sister’s artwork only enforced this as I watched her turn a
stack of old encyclopaedias into some insanely interesting and eye-catching
sculptures.
And now, I love books even more for showing me just how
limited was my view of their real potential.
This
work is from an on-going series based around the loose idea of gambling,
whether it be with one’s life, money, career or simply in the day-to-day
decisions we all make.
The
actual idea for this painting came to me after meeting an old man at my local
bus stop who told me he travels into a city leagues club every Saturday to
drink and bet on the horses with some old friends. His wife had died and he
lived a very solitary life apart from his Saturday social engagements.
In the
painting I’ve tried to capture a kind of social loneliness. The word STOW is a
reference to the late Australian writer Randolph Stow who wrote about fear and
paranoia and how emotions seem to grip small, isolated communities in his novel
The suburbs of hell. His name seemed apt for this painting as it creates a
sense of mystery. - Nigel
Milsom, 2012
***
I
could stare at this painting for hours.
I am
no art critic and my knowledge of style and history and significance pretty
much covers the base of a teacup… but I know what locks my gaze and my attention.
I can figure out the rest later. For now, all I can say is that for someone to
be able to make my heart stop a moment with brushstrokes? Paint? No… there’s
nothing but pure emotion in this picture - the artist took that moment with
that old man and turned it into something not only beautiful, but tangible and
entrancing.
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