Before Sunrise & Before Sunset & Nina Simone's song

My friends and I used to have this movie night - once in a month we gather to watch films and talk all night long, even though we pretty much talk & ignore the film most of the time. lol. But last year we've seen these two films - Before Sunrise & Before Sunset, both starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. I loved them. I may be a helpless romantic (and I don't consider myself one), but I loved these two films. If you're not familiar with the story, it's pretty much about two strangers - a French chick (Celine) and an American fella (Jesse), who meet on a train in Europe. They develop a strange bond over the course of a conversation and once they arrive in Vienna, Jesse has this weird idea that they could spend the day (and the night) together in Vienna, until he takes his flight back to the US in the morning. All they do all night long is talking and sharing some intimate things and at the end of the film, they decide that they'd meet in six months in Vienna to see if the emotion is still there. They don't exchange phone numbers, addresses, nothing. Just the promise to meet in six months. And it's where the film ends. For some people and for most of my friends, who're studying all possible things - from psychology to arts - it was a nice forgettable film. I loved it. It's possibly the most romantic thing I've ever seen, because it just felt honest and unpretencious. The acting was natural and very down-to-Earth. And I loved the chemistry between the two leads. But anyway, it was this open ending, which I loved the most. Will they meet in six months? What happens? I really wanted to know, even though I didn't like the idea of a sequel.... Anyway. I was the sole person who wanted to watch the sequel right away, so I just waited for everybody to fall asleep to watch it. In Before Sunset - the sequel, Jesse and Celina meet again (ten or eleven years later). Their lives are totally different from what they were the first time they met. Nothing's the same except for the emotion. Which is still there. And this time they kind try to repress it, even though they share intimate things and talk and talk and talk. About everything. It's pretty much a talkie. But then there are these two or three really silent scenes at the end of the movie, which are really my favorites. And then there's this song Celina sings (her own) for Jesse (who still gotta go catch a flight and is terribly late; he's in Paris this time to promote the book he wrote about their one night affair). And this song is really catchy.
But then Celina talks about a singer- Nina Simone.
In the film Celine shares some memories about a concert of Nina Simone she attended, while she and Jesse listen to a song of Nina. Yesterday I finally found the CD of Nina Simone & bought it, so I can't stop listening to her songs. Just get a copy yourself! Really jazzy. And she has this amazing voice! Very characteristic. And every song makes me think of Jesse & Celine. Don't know why. ;-) I may really be romantic. Just love these films!





This here is a video of Celine performing her own song. Cute video.

I couldn't find a video of the Nina Simone song. There was one terrible video with Italian dubbing. But anyway, check her songs out!

Meryl's SAG Award

Last night the Screen Actors Guild presented its awards in both film & TV. And the best actress in a leading role SAG went to ... my favorite, my girl - Meryl! I was so happy and it definitely boosts her Oscar chances! I think she's the one to get the Oscar on Feb. 22nd. Come on, Meryl got a standing ovation from fellow actors and there were cheers and lots of love for her. Kate Winslet got only a mere applause. So, Meryl! Congratulations! Love ya!

(And I must point out I'm really happy that the SAG nominated Mellisa Leo in the best actress category. She's no star, but she's a real, real actor. Her performance in Frozen River was painfully realistic and she deserves to finally break into the Oscar line-up. Leo is an actor I've admired for some years now and her performance in Frozen River may be too naturalistic for awards' bodies, but still, she deserves people to be aware of her great performance. The same about Richard Jenkins. And no matter what I think about Milk being a solid film with some really good acting, I can't say I think Sean Penn deserved this award. To me Frank Langella did.)

But anyway! Once again - actors LOVE Meryl! (Somebody pointed out that when Life Achievement Award recipient James Earl Jones compared actors to gods, the camera focused on Meryl! Of course! :-) That's like a cliche already. Once again: Meryl, love ya! And of course, congrats on your 15th Oscar nod!

Dustin Lance Black's WGA article

This is just a short entry.

Go to the Writers Guild of America website & take a look at this short article by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Black's the screenwriter behind the HBO series Big Love (about the world of a Mormon man, I've seen only parts of it, so I can't recommend it) & Gus Van Sant's latest film Milk (starring Sean Penn & Josh Brolin), which I can recommend. It's a film, which showcases some really good acting, even though I find it a bit conventional in terms of storytelling & it could have been far more experimental and moody. My point. It's just me. Anyway, great performances.

Mr. Black is an openly gay writer and this article focuses on him growing up as a gay Mormon & is related to the political situation in the USA.

http://wga.org/writtenby/writtenbysub.aspx?id=3354

Read it! It's an interesting piece of journalism, in which he invests some real emotion.

And his point is so true: we need more gay characters which make sense. Real sense. Gay characters shouldn't be a ghetto in films and on TV & a gay kiss shouldn't be the big news. Good luck, Mr. Black!

* Having read the article, I just feel kind of happy that a film like Brokeback Mountain was filmed (I read somewhere it has been in production since 1997 and got made in 2005, which is a really sad story, given how much emotional potential the story has). I've read Annie Proulx's short story the film is based on and I was impressed. And I'm happy that the film & the story itself got that huge attention.

Just some news

My professor at the Academy will direct A Doll's House this semester and I'm playing Torvald, which - I think - is a huge challenge to me and I hope I'll manage to do it. I'm working on my portfolio for the UCD theatre directing programme. I'm going to direct fragments from Miss Julie (by Strindberg) with a very close friend of mine, who's already a working actress and a few days ago got a nomination for the Theatre Guild's award (for best supporting actress, congrats!) & I'm looking forward the chance to work with her and I'm hoping it'll be a rewarding experience. I'm going to a ski vacation in the beginning of February - for just a couple of days, because after that our semester starts. :-) But I'm glad my friends came up with this idea, so I'll have the shot to visit Bansko (which is a winter resort in Bulgaria) & have some fun.

I've been thinking about working on a Harold Pinter play as well, so it could be a really busy semester with lots of things to do. I just started researching A Doll's House on my own (you know, there's always a way to impress the people you're working with! no, i'm no go-getter!, I simply wanna give my best, lol) and that's all. Just yesterday I watched a very interesting film from Israel called Walk on Water. I recommend it highly to everyone. It's just about a subject, which is typically German, but I think the film is very human and entertaining as well.

And Oscar nominations are tba in 48 hours. You know, everybody interested in making a career in film and theatre is obsessed with things like that. I know the Oscars usually go the wrong way, but the excitement is a big part of the whole experience, so I'll enjoy myself.

All these books

You know all these books people are telling you about - there are so many articles like The 100 books you have to read before you die (yeah, I really successful attempt to make somebody excited about something, lol), there are the books the folks at the Academy are talking 'bout all the time & of course, there are the books your friends have read & the books your Ma thinks you should read. And right now there is a campaign in Bulgaria (with a show on TV) - Bulgaria's favorite book. And I've been thinking these days - fuck, I've never read David Copperfield. And I even felt kind of ashamed because of it, because it's the way things are supposed to be. You have to read some books no matter if you care about them or not, which I think is the main reason for young people to not enjoy reading that much. I enjoy reading actually and I've read some books - I'm a big Salinger freak, I told ya already! - but I have no interest in reading some books, no matter how great they may be. I started Master and Margarita at least twice and I lost the interest after the first fifty pages. It just doesn't speak to me. (And I'm the guy who couldn't stop reading The Catcher in the Rye!) My point is that if society wants people to read, it shouldn't actually make people feel stupid because they haven't read a certain novel or if they happen to dislike it. There was a film I've seen last year - The Squid and the Whale (a great film by the way!) - in which the father (a writer, a total snob and a pain in the ass as well) said to his son: "Don't read that novel! It's minor Dickens!" It just felt stupid. But it reminded me of the way some people speak. I'm usually surprised that people I used to admire are such blind followers. One of my professors would say anything is great just because it's written by a writer who's a big name and must read. He pretends it without having read the book at all. He just pretends that on name recognition alone. And he wouldn't read a young immigrant writer just because he ruins the language. He has never read something he's written, not even a page, but he pretends that with such confidence, that it's simply impossible to not get angry at him. Unlike him, I don't pretend The Master and Margarita is something unworthy. I'm just saying it doesn't appeal to me. It's not my kind of a read. But he rejects even the idea of reading something & then pretends that he cares a lot about reading and about the young people not reading at all. And of course, his tirade ends with something like: "It's sad that a society of illiterates is coming to rule this country in some twenty years." That's absurd. No - not absurd. Absurds are at least charming. That's hypocrisy, which scares me even more. It's just sad that reading became something snobbish and people who accuse other people of not reading don't care.

Anyway, we could be doing some Harold Pinter the coming semester, so I'll check some of his plays tonight. I really loved a play I read some years ago. Old Times. Now I'm checking and I finally, finally got a copy of The French Lieutenant's Woman - a film Pinter penned and I've been recommended to watch. It's Meryl Streep, of course! I'll watch it tonight and could write something about it tomorrow. Another insomniac night of films! Great! Love it!

Anyway, just about my Tina Fey! I loved her speech at the Globes. She was the highlight of an incredibly dull night (for me). Anyway, she said something like that:

But I want you to know that I really know how very lucky I am to have the year I had this year and if you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet. And you can find a lot of people there who don't like you. I like to address some of them now. Diane Fan, you can suck it! C.Letter, you can really suck it! All year you've been after me!

That got me really laughing! Well, now I'm going to watch The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Writing

Learning the craft of acting & directing is so much different than most people could even imagine. Above all, it's hard work, because the so called inspiration thing actually happens, but most of the time it just happens in the wrong moment & disappears as quicky and unexpectedly as it came to you. Anyway, acting to me has always been like a tool to express emotions, but it just made me aware of some other impulses inside of me. Without the acting, I wouldn't have been able to start writing & directing and these two are so much more a way to express myself than the acting. And there you can really feel the inspiration and you're really dependent on it. And I've been happy enough to have lots of people who are supportive and believe in me - not only friends, but some people, whose work I respect as well. And I've learned my lesson - don't give up. Not easily! Because it's what I used to do until recently - I just started a story and at the beginning I just felt passionate about it & confident about that I was writing, really mattered somehow, but then I just lost the interest & this emotion & I gave up on this story & started another one. I finished only a few. Anyway, now I have these weeks off (we have a break) and I'm home, far away from friends and coffee calls (I hate them, because I just can't say No, even when I want to!) & I have some time just sit down & write. I'm working on a story I happen to live & to believe in and that's something. The images & the characters just happen & I enjoy it. And what's even more satisfying is that I have a clear idea of what it's going to be. What the story is going to be about. So I'm not afraid of it taking shape. And having the instincts of an actor is just helpful here. It helps me find the character within the story. Maybe some people really start from acting and then really have careers as writers & directors - like Emma Thompson and George Clooney (whom I respect as a director much more than I do as an actor), Romen Polanski & even Clint Eastwood (I happen to love Unforgiven & Mystic River). The new story just starts to take shape, but I feel I'm in full command of it. I hope I don't give up! Please, don't let me!

The interesting shot

I'm into film (very much!) and I'm into photography. So here are a few film shots, which I happen to love. Over at Incontention.com, Kris Tapley selects his ten favorite shots of the year and even though this year's list looks quite disappointing, last year's selection is impressive. The There Will Be Blood shot alone (the hand shot) is amazing. And Atonement reality vs. celluloid (film) shot is amazing. Here are some of my favorite shots.


This one is from Quiet City and is the story of two strangers who meet & spend some time together (in the park, at parties, at art shows etc etc). It's a very poetic shot & I love that about it. The two charactrs running against the sun just feels so fresh and hot and kind of liberating, but at the same time it just feels surreal and like a part from some action packed sci-fi film. The composition is pretty simple, but working. It just feels like somebody captured this happy accident on film. I'm not really familiar with lenses and stuff like that, but I have some friends, who's DP (director of photography) undergraduates & we had a long talk about this one. Anyway, it's really poetic.


The Atonement shot. It's from a scene at the end of the movie. Robbie (James McAvoy's character - I still feel obligated to point out that James's performance was to the cast standout & he gave such an honest and beautifully nuanced performance, that it's a shame he didn't get enough attention from his peers, but he's not yet 30, so I believe he'll have enough shots at being recognized in the future). In this scene his character Robbie - who's a soldier in WWII enters a deserted theater and in his depression & weak physical condition he just walks around & when he gets in front of the screen, he just gets overwhelmed by emotion. It's actually a scene, which is open to interpretation & James delivers a performance which happens to be both haunting & ambivalent enough to raise these questions. I love it. And the composition is pretty amazing. These days I'm reading a lot about compositon (with all the Susan Sontag photography stuff & reading about acting & the physical presence on stage and on screen) and I have to say that this shot delivers, because it's a shot, which points out contrasts - color & b/w, the big & small figures & the excitement of the lovers onscreen & the pain of the man off screen / in front of the screen. And it's beautiful, ain't it? I read somewhere that its director Joe Wright uses classic paintings as influence for many of his shots and I think it's a good idea. Stealing from the masters isn't stealing, right? ;-)


My favorite shot - from There Will Be Blood. Anyone who has not seen this film, go and see it! It's amazing! It's so much unlike other films, that after it, I felt like I've read a big epic novel. And Daniel Day-Lewis is an actors' actor & even though I think he went over-the-top, I think it just worked in this particular film. There was the need for a performance, which is strong and commanding enough to get the film working as a metaphor. But I loved it. And this shot - among many others - is amazing. It's this hand - covered with oil - against the light. There's the greedy nuance in there, there's the feeling of a human being becoming powerful & feeling superior. It's like a quest for a victory and at the same time it feels pretty empty. I love it.