luca's house of mirrors

Read the script for "Henry's Crime" a few days ago.
People, I'm hooked, salted and canned.
Okay, so maybe the script has got its faults, maybe this Carson guy is right.  We'll see after the film is done and released.
But I love the script for one reason : I am Henry. at least the Henry in the first eight pages.
Would I take the same way out ? Don't know.  What I know is that, deep down inside, I'm waiting for life to present me a similar choice. And too coward to make it happen.
It takes a certain kind courage to commit Henry's crime. Maybe that's what Carson missed when reading the script.
... and it's frightening to read something and find yourself staring into a mirror ; see it revealing aspects of yourself you're avoiding to think about...  to have a movie or a book or a song put the finger on a sore spot you kept ignoring...

Afraid this blog is getting a bit too personal. But then, it IS a mirror...

Watched 'Constantine' again. In my defense, it was on TV . 

... love that ending rooftop scene.  The way they out-stare each other. His almost imperceptible reaction when she breaks eye contact... The way the camera pans and rotates around Constantine, and not the other way around.

attention to the details, people.

or, as a certain someone said once, "the simple fact of paying attention can take you a long way (in life)"  ;)

I wonder ... why is it that I can't write reviews for the movies I really like ? Mumbling and err-ing and waving my hands and ending with "just watch it, really watch it" is not a proper review. Not quite.

What can I say about this movie ? Hellblazer it ain't. not even close. But couldn't have said that if it wasn't for the movie itself. Because this is the movie which made me read comics. It added the final straw on what Sin City and 300 started. And when the first comic book one ever picks up is Hellblazer... the world suddenly seems a totally different place. Especially if one reads 234 comics issues in three weeks...
It's also the only movie I watched four times in twenty-four hours. You decide whether it's magic or addiction- or both.

I repeat, the movie is not Hellblazer. It's mostly a watered-down loose adaptation of it. Of the story, I mean.
But Constantine's essence is there. The sarcasm, the cynicism, the guilt, the anger, the knowledge, the attitude. And the cigarette, of course.
what 'they' added is the holy shotgun. and funny enough, it works. even the chewing-gum joke works. Because they got the atmosphere right.

The comics were one thing, and the movie adds a new dimension to it. Can't help but notice the differences between the two mediums, and how the story works in both of them... while in the comics the story is usually a first-person narration, what Lawrence and Keanu gave us was an apparently silent character, whose inner thoughts could be at best guessed, but never known.
Apparently a blank page, on which each member of the audience could project something else, depending on one's own background... that's sort of magic ;)
And in the same time, a complex character who will go his own way regardless of everyone's projections.
I like that ;)
And then, the subtleties, the slightly different tone in each scene... Constantine is quite a puzzle, and each of the other characters gets to see only one facet of him. It's only us, the audience, who get to see them all. which is one of the oldest tricks of storytelling, and yet it works just fine. or maybe it's just because of that ? ;)

And the fanboys are right, this is not 'their' Constantine. Not exactly the one in the comics. It's rather an alternate version of the character. But while his back story is less grittier than the one given to him by Jamie Delano, he can be even more noble than how Paul Jenkins wrote him... and for whomever read the comics, that says a lot. "that" Constantine would scheme and plan and plot. "this" Constantine , when faced with the inevitable, literally says "to hell with it", and makes his death really count. was it an elaborate con? was it an altruistic impulse ? take your bets ;)

And that's the beauty of it.


( review posted also at WINM)

... if the Foo Fighters didn't exist, they'd had to be invented.
can't imagine a world without "Miracle" or "Still" or "Everlong" or "Best of You" or the whole "Echoes" album.
or all the others.
actually, I can , but it would be a much poorer world.

... if I ever hear again something along the lines of 'trust me, I'm a doctor', I'm... I'm... I'm gonna punch someone in the face.
really.
really.
don't trust any representative of the species anymore.
not even Dr.Jack ( Shepherd - editor's note)

in translation, my leg hurts and looks funny and If I'm able to drive ever again, I'll be extremely happy.
doesn't look like it, though.

...someone should turn Pratchett's "Moving Pictures" into a ... moving picture. with sound.
seriously.
really, really seriously .
;) :D

...long live his legacy.

He was the reason I started paying attention in English class - so that I could understand the lyrics of "Man in the Mirror". He taught us a valuable lesson there, and yet, how many of us really stopped to listen ?
He showed us music videos can be stories in themselves.
He changed forever the entertainment world.
He was the first artist to hold a concert in my country, in 1992, and for two hours I sang and I cried and the world was a better place.
And then time passed and I moved on to a different kind of music and I took the posters off the wall... but never forgot.
And then there were the scandals and the media circus and the acquittal and so on.
And now it's over.
And everybody and their mother is crying and the 'net is flooding with RIP and farewell messages and I can't help but screaming "where the heck were all you people when the media was hunting him ? when the DA's office took on his 'case' as if it were their personal vendetta? where were you when he needed your support?"

He was a soft-talking, high-pitch singing, moonwalking contradiction.
A huge talent. A product and a victim of the American star system.
An America  - and a world- which was fascinated by his 'otherness', but could never forgive him for being different.

What is it with us, people ? Why can't we appreciate artists while they're alive ? Why do we have to put them down during their lifetimes and then build them shrines when they're dead?
What is it that we're afraid of ?

I'm watching the movie and I think 'darn, this guy (Snyder) really has an eye for translating graphic novels onto the screen ! he just makes the drawn panels come to life... ... and then I think better about it and realize I'm somehow disappointed. What he did with 300 and Watchmen was to film the drawings, frame by frame... guess I wanted more than that. guess I wanted a re-telling of the story, not just a translation... But it works. it catches the essence of the comics. Maybe Moore should watch the movie. Don't know what he'd think of it, but he should at least watch it.

And the sound editing is just brilliant!

oh, and people, get over the use of the "Hallelujah" song, it was a joke ;) :))

Driving someone else's car - or, in different terms, driving another car than the one I'm used to - can be quite an experience. The difference's in the details. Even with the same type and model of a car. The first thing I notice is the smell. Then the hum of the engine. Different tone. And so on. The buttons and commands are basically the same, but the reactions could be a bit unpredictable. Unexpected. Intriguing.
In a sense, it's like going to bed with a stranger ;)

It's one of the few movies I've postponed watching, over and over again. and there weren't many. Maybe it was because of all the publicity and discussions and articles and all that. Maybe I waited for the dust to settle.  Maybe it's because I've read the novel years ago and wasn't really sure it can be adapted for the screen. Don't know exactly.
Then I tried watching it.  Managed to stay through the whole movie only the third time.
It's a visual experience, I'll give it that. But I have the feeling they've put too much accent on the visuals, in the detriment of the story. Oh yes, there are the English gardens, and the green evening gown, and the Dunkirk beach... The images spoke to me. Sadly, the characters didn't. I saw their lips moving, I heard the lines, but couldn't feel anything for them.
The movie was the postcard, but to get the undertones of the story, one needs to read the novel.
At least I did.
Maybe it's because McEvan's novels, just like Kundera's, cannot be adapted for the screen. Not fully. Not without stripping them of their soul.
Or maybe it's just me.
*shrugs*