"little children" (2006) 还是有些让人失望。为什么美国的许多indie films都这么爱憎分明的。爱憎分明没有什么不好，可是非要拍的让观众觉得每件事的发生，每个人的癖好，都有原因, 未免有点无趣。。。 不过，对恋童癖的刻画还是很不错大

 

本周推荐还是要数1998年的片子“他们微笑的样子”Così ridevano

Babel果然厉害。。没错，我最终还是忍不住把它给看了. 本片的idea和kieslowski的decalogue很相似，但是much more straightforward, 和a bit judgemental. It makes its point so clear and play it so smartly, to a point, a bit pretentious. 不过也许正如此，才可以以强大阵容大面积上映。 太难的片子，据说不会被通过。不过，整体感觉功力还是满深， 音乐，画面，尤其是camera work - great!

 

last king of scotland and babel are my favorites this month!

 

"Babel"正在上映中，还要再忍3天，觉得心都在疼

写论文的日子，欲望最简单

最想做的事是在寄出申请之后，发呆一周！

中午照镜子，才发现眼睛里有一根睫毛，大概住了很久了吧。

自从带了隐形眼镜后，眼睛的抗沙能力越来越强了，常常异物住了很久都不觉得。

大概人的身体和情感一样，都是极具张力和适应性的。

以前容不得一粒沙的，现在都释然了。

People say the three elements leading to happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.  So in some sense, it's very easy to be happy. No? for example, keep yourself busy + have a pet (if can't find a partner) + have your favorite food in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow morning, then you have the 3 keys. But on a grander level, it's rather hard to acheive any of them. what if the something to do currently is something you hate, what if indulging youself to really love someone is irrational, what if you don't know what you really want, so you don't really have something to look forward to?  Things can be small and insignificant, but makes you satisfied enough. So it's big. Things can seem to be close, but when you think harder or look at it more truthfully, it's not that clear to you any more. So it's distant.

三番的Castro Theatre 这周末即将放映 Asia Argento - the Italian " master of macabre" Dario Argento's daughter 的 debut -"the heart is deceitful above all things"。据说Asia 多才多艺，而且很是 hot :).(不可错过！！！）. 然后是期待已久的 "L'intrus (the intruder)". 当然期待的理由很是shallow,因为喜欢的Gregoire Colin 在其中。“如果爱”也将在近期放映。。。 开心

 

"I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema of the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested n anything in between"

 

 

Watched two movies about obsession in a roll tonight - Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, der Zon Gottes" (1972) and Francois Truffaut's "L' Historie d'Adele H." (1975) .  The first one is about Aguirre's mad obsession with conquering new continent and the story of finding Mexico, which only destroys him and his men eventually. The very end of the movie is unbearably sad, with Aguirre left alone on the rift in the dreadful river, accompanied by dead bodies and wild monkeys, while he is still obsessed with being "the wrath of God"... After the movie, I couldn't wait to get the autobiography book by Klause Kinski. "the story of Adele H."  is a good one too.  The passionate Adele ( daugher of the famous french poet Victor Hugo) is driven crazy by an unreciprocal love. Her obsession of marrying him turns her into a stalker, a liar and sadly a phsycho in the end. But at the same time, she is a strong-willed woman who guards and leads her own genuine desire and that is ithe only thing matters and accompanies her in her life. Although those obsessions are insane, destructive, suffering, I can not deny that I find it extremely beautiful and pure as well.  That is when one  is strongest and weakest at the same time, noble and insane at the same time. mixture of complication and intensity.

Just found out from Adia's blog, I was called on to answer the following questions back in Feb.  Hope it's not too late, Adia. 虽然还是有些觉得是小孩子喜欢做的问题，但是觉得这种点名的方式很有趣。   ------------------- 遊戲規則:寫在自己的SPACES上,回答完如下十題之後,刪除其中自己最不喜歡的一條,再添加自己的問題一條,然後另點6人.也就是你需要如实回答其中的9个问题,再问一个问题。   1.你会为了最适合你的人一直等待吗? 会吧，但是可能是一边等一边玩我的 ---oops, does this mean it contradicts with the definition of waiting: :p. 好吧，真实的答案是，我不相信有单纯的“最合适的人”，i believe in interaciton and dynamics.   2.下一个目标是什么? write a great paper and get a real job!     3.另一半如果出轨的话,你会怎么做? It depends. 有些情况下可能会原谅，但是还是会选择离开。   4.目前的生活是你想要的吗? 目前的生活是我目前想要的，因为每天都在选择作自己像做的事。     5.如果你爱上了你的好朋友,你会怎么办? 什么怎么办？当然是和他在一起了。。     6.如果你要找bf or gf, 是要找个可以管住自己的还是的? 千万不要“管住我的” “对自己百依百顺“ 我会觉得boring. Better be with someone with a bit resistence, who can push back a bit, of coz, OCCASIONALLY :p。   7.如果发现和自己的好朋友爱上同一人，你会怎么办？ uh...不会这么寸吧，天下那么多男人。当然还是视情况而定 - 我们三个人的感情。大家一起在一起也许不错，haha     8.你认为喜欢和爱的区别是什么? 喜欢一个人的时候还可能会喜欢其他人，爱一个人的时候，心里没有其他人的位置。 喜欢一个人的时候，我是清醒的，爱一个人的时候，他变得powerful. 喜欢是chemistry,爱是commitment.     9.你知不知道自己想要的究竟是什么？ freedom   10.相不相信一见钟情？ nope!     去掉第6题 增加一题   你认为感动可以最终变为爱情吗？ --觉得自己问了比较烂的问题，没办法，好想睡。   点名: HC, Edu,Chuan， Yangyang, Yuanzhi, Xinxin, Jason,quanquan,Rui,Laocai,Xuanxuan,Peng

"There is no solitude greater than a samurai's unless perhaps it is that of a tiger in the jungle.'' - Openning quote in Le Samurai (1967).  If you find this opening comment COOL, then you should see this one, which is the"embodiment of COOL". I find the style of the film interesting. The "samurai"/hitman is  a cold, calm and COOL guy, who doesn't talk much, or show any emotions, no damatic action, even when killing or under interogation. He is more like a calculator that plans everything precisely, and most importantly - he is supposed to be so COOL. The reason I'm emphasizng this C word so much is simply because everything is so stylized in this rather old movie, that I can't help cracking out through out the movie. But... still it's fun to watch! Oh, and btw, you can see Frech people are not too fond of police.

吃了10个草莓，竟然有8个是空心的，而且越是大的草莓，越容易是空心的。原来草莓也会徒有其表，内心空虚。。。不喜欢虚伪的草莓

 

Adia发给我一个好可爱的msn emotion icon - 一只扭屁股的小海豚. 于是欢喜的每每有机会就会用。。

 

可爱的妈妈又发明了一个新的理论。当我想她complain肚子上日渐增长的肥肉名信誓旦旦的发誓要游泳减肥时，不但没有得到鼓励，反而得到一个有趣的理论“游泳不会减肚子，你看我们家养的那些鱼，整天游来游去，肚子还是大大的。”   我语塞。。但是鉴于科学严谨的精神，我觉得应该有control variable才好，所以决定说服妈妈让我们家的鱼每天看电视，说不定肚子会更大大的！！

 

和Edu一起看电影好棒， 目前work on 的是 one of my favorite director's - Kieslowski 's "The Decalogue". 然后应该是 Werner Herzog 的"the wrath of god"　－可以看到klaus kinski的表演. 在接下来，应该是我孤独但是快乐的回顾 Francois Truffaut 的片子。Edu 的另一大好处是买了新的电影的书，可以让我抢来先读，开心。

 

HC介绍的Jazz都好和我的口味 - Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, Charlie Byrd. 另外Laurence Juber 的古典吉他很好听。

 

突然意识到，今天晚上我格外的grateful, huh huh..

 

 

This time, it's "Emir Kusturica mania"

1.Crna macka, beli macor ( Black Cat White Cat) (1998) 

2. Underground (1997)

3. Zivot je cudo (Life is a Miracle ) (2004)

4.Arizona Dream (1993)

 

Send me an email, if you want to join! Movie company is always welcome.

Well, today is the last day of being "officially" sick. Since last wed, I have had this perfect excuse to totally relax and not to do any serious work, and watch movies :-).  This week, I finished 5 movies. Besides the two HK movies borrowed from great friend - HC, there are 3 other really interesting ones : The dreamlife of Angels, Behind the Sun and Capote. The "dreamlife" is really stunning. It's about the friendship and conflict between these two quite different young girls, and their persuits of dreamlife and acceptance of what they have. While the complications are in between two distinct indiviuals, I can not get my mind off from imagining the inner-struggle of a single person with the splited two personalities. Imagine her go through the double life of the two girls, while struggling with herself. She could be warmhearted and optimistic as part of her nature, but bitter and self-centered when irritated or offended. She could be carefree and rational, but insane and crazy when falling hard for someone. It'll be interesting.. The "Behind" is quite stylized and the performances by non-professionals are extraordinary. "Capote" is heavy, but great!  The long shots of dreadful scenes, the tempo of the movie, the minimalistic music, ... quite an emotionally demanding one. A smart movie, I have to say in the end. Oh, and really impressive acting by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

这几天生病，便整日里昏睡，偶尔睁开眼，上网，练吉他，添点东西在腹中。白色的杜鹃花，很奇怪的几个花蕾竟然在没有开出来之前就发了黄色。 狠心把他们摘除，整个花束就又呈现纯净的白 -- 自欺欺人，我心里更狠狠地念。想起2年前的一个片子 - goldfish memory, 虽然至今还没有看。据说goldfish has only 3 second memory. 也就是说，当它从鱼缸的一端游到另一端在回转来的时候，就已经开始他另外一次新的旅行了- 他已经不记得上一次的旅行中发生了什么。所以，它可以总是保持着新鲜的心情，欢天喜地的重复曾经的错误。。。 可是转念一想，大概对goldfish 来说，这个世界也不存在什么错误吧。如果记忆只有3秒钟，对错误的记忆应该更短。 可是如果对伤害的感受持续的比记忆久，就会比较麻烦。有一天，它可能会自言自语-“我觉得还是很痛，但是就是怎么也记不起来到底发生了什么。。。”   我就正好相反，很多事情都记得，但是突然没有什么感觉了。。。（ 不知道是不是应该庆贺一下）

It's funny that now I start to have my own wish-list too, maybe under the influence of HC. I used to put wishes immediately into actions, but now I'm learning to be more patient :-).

My wish-list of foreign movies want to see next two weeks:

1. La Vie Revee des Anges (The dreamlife of angles) (1999)

2. Gegen die Wand (Head on) (2004)

3. Tillsammans (Together)(2001)

4. Lilja 4ever (Lilya 4-ever) (2002)

5. Vozvrashcheniye (the return) (2004)

A few things I discover lately:

1. There are always big or small shocks come out of nowhere, sorta substantially disturb my life and switch it to some unexpected track. Sometimes, I'm too lazy to think of why and put it as if it's the destiny. Some destinies are pleasant sweet surprises, others can be very disappointing. This week, I was turned down by a photography class lottery first, then another film study class got cancelled. J said it's a pretty strong act of fate that I'm not supposed to do them and focus on research. Maybe that is right...

2. People need to examine and possibly understand themselves better. And choose what can make them happy and stop living in a conflicted world. A girl who keeps falling in love with bad guys should realize that is possibly the type of guys that can make her happy. Then she should try to care less when he is not faithful. - a pessive suggestion for a friend's friend.  Human beings are wonderfully, well, also sadly, complicated. It's hard also unfair to discipline others. Work on yourself.

3. M recommends Imogen Heap. Since I like her band Frou Frou. Now I really enjoy "Speak For Yourself".

4. Opinionate people can be amusing.

5. I tend to get really serious whenever I like something very much. Otherwise, feel not respectful. Friends ask about travelling to Europe again. Decide to wait until I will have a chance to live there for a while. Being a tourist is not a very respectful act for a place I fancy so much. - if I care about it, I would want it all, or nothing.

6. I like Wang Kai-wei's early movies better: Fallen Angel, Chongqing Express, Days of Being Wild.

 

 

 

I was rereading Tarkovsky's "sculpting in Time" yesterday. When he talks about people's goal of going to film schools in Russia, he mentioned that many film makers believe in order to have enough energy and funding to make their ideal films, they have to make movies that give them great profit first. He further argues that "... Someone steals things maybe for the sake of no stealing in the future, but he is always a thief. Nobody who betrays his own principle can maintain a pure relationship with his later life..."  How much has everyone of us compromised in our life? Everyone seems to have a dream, which by definition, seems hard to be realized. At one point in our life, we feel idealistic. But on the second thoughts, we get used to tell ourselves - I'll just compromise for the time being, and later on, I'll be able to do whatever I really have passion for. But under that thoughts, there is vagualy another feeling that - it's a lie, yes, i know it is. Doesn't it sound familiar? And when is the end of compromising. And if one keeps doing that, what can be left for him to defend his principle and guard his belief? I'm just wondering...