TOMMY LEE JONES

"YOU ARE MORE REPTAAAILE THAN MAN, GEORGE. SO LOW AND FLAT THAT THE FOOT OF MAN IS INCAPABLE OF CRUSHING YOU."

Swell line well delivered, Tommy Lee Jones. Batman, Men in Black, No Country for Old Men - I've literally been watching his movies for all my life. He is the man.

'Why did Anakin cross the road? To get to the Dark Side.'

— Darth Vader (@DepressedDarth) December 25, 2012

This Guy embodies everything I love about the online Star Wars fan-base. I have been religiously following his account since a long time ago (from a galaxy far, far away...) and this is essentially where I get all my fabulous and lame Star Wars jokes.

Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered. Some people think it’s an insult to the glory of their sickness to get well. But the time poultice is no respecter of glories. Everyone gets well if he waits around.

There exists a DIRECT CORRELATION between the name 'James' and a human being's attractiveness level. Refer to above images for conclusive evidence. By the way - I am working on a review for East of Eden - just got a tad sidetracked.

Amour

THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS 

AH, so, yesterday I decided to watch a French movie (must keep in touch with la langue), and what better option was there than the Oscar-nominated, Michael Haneke-directed AMOUR?

*The last scene of this trailer is equally chilling/incroyable in the movie
Brief plot introduction: Anne and Georges Laurent are an old married couple, and both retired music teachers. They live their quiet lives in peace, attending the occasional music concert, until ONE EVENTFUL DAY they are having a regular conversation and all of a sudden Anne completely zones out - she later ends up doing a surgery but it goes dreadfully wrong and she is rendered completely paralyzed on her right side. The rest of the movie revolves around Georges's efforts to take care of Anne, embellished by the occasional visits from their daughter, and one of Anne's previous pupils (Alexandre Tharaud playing himself!!).

This movie is called Amour (LOVE). Several different types of love are portrayed in this movie - husband-wife love, parent-child love, teacher-pupil love, not-quite-fulfilled young love, and merciful-killing love (euthanasia). Example of euthanasia in literature: George killing Lennie in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (speaking of Steinbeck, yes, I am nearly done with East of Eden and my mind was blown upon realizing that some of the characters were named after Steinbeck's parents).

Back to euthanasia - How does Anne die? Georges suffocates her. He dies soon after.

The first major question that popped into my head after I finished this movie - and one reiterated many times in the movie - was, "qu'est-ce qui s'est passé?" Because, what did happen?

This film was incredibly slow, SILENT (albeit minor piano snippets), yet exquisitely filmed. And although I have stated simply that Georges "dies soon after," it was not so plainly expressed in the film. After suffocating Anne, he walks around the house very silently for about 5 minutes and then walks back into the kitchen and ANNE IS THERE just calmly washing the dishes and then she leads him out of the house and apparently that represents Georges's death (Anne returning as an angel to lead him into darkness).

Honestly though, this film was so, so silent at times it was unbearable. I mean, there would be 5-second still shots of different paintings (WHY?!), without so much as a tinkle of sound. En revanche, sometimes Anne would be screeching 'MAL!!'

I suppose the slowness of the film contributes to the whole old-age vibe. There was one scene where Georges was halfway through brushing his teeth when suddenly the doorbell rang, and in all the movies I've ever watched where one is interrupted while brushing his teeth, one pauses - which is what Georges did - and then the camera CUTS to one's opening of the door - but nooooooo the camera followed Georges' continuation of spitting out the toothpaste, wiping his mouth on the towel, and THEN his procession to get the door...  this film is so delicately and carefully filmed. If it were a parcel, 'handle with care' would be stamped across it in large bold letters.

Haneke definitely knew what he was doing though, because look at all the Oscars this film is nominated for! Not saying Oscar nominations = awesome movie, but... actually, no, that is what I am saying. Plus Roger Ebert liked it, donc...

This movie is very French. There is 1) cussing 2) exposure of skin, if you know what I mean (but très mild) and 3) death.

Had to cross that out for fear of being slammed for being stereotypical. But really, if you are up for the challenge of dedicating 2 hours to watching this poignant film, GO DO IT! You will get points for sophistication. Besides, anything sounds elegant in French, so consider it a treat for thine ears.

“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person” “The blood of love welled up in my heart with a slow pain. ” “How frail the human heart must be -- a mirrored pool of thought.”

I see my Chinese New Year break going down 3 main routes:
the stalk-james-franco-tumblr path,
the rewatch-the-same-lotr-scenes road
and the work-work-work hike.

(just to kick things off)

Besides, I feel like route (1) is rather imperative because I don't know what James Franco is doing with his life right now apart from directing a Charles Bukowski biopic, planning more porno-esque films, and sitting at home waiting for Spring Breakers to come out (or is that really all he is doing? Because sticking to only 3 things at a time is rare for Mr. Overachiever).

On another note, East of Eden is getting INTENSE and oh goodness, I'm halfway-ish and Adam's sons are growing up and uncomfortably (I actually cringed innerly when this happened), VERY UNCOMFORTABLY, have un un-seeable parallels drawn between them and Cain and Abel...

Names are a great mystery. I’ve never known whether the name is molded by the child or the child changed to fit the name. But you can be sure of this—whenever a human has a nickname it is a proof that the name given him was wrong.

I mean, I haven't even read the Bible but all these correlations are so brilliantly carried through (props to you, Steinbeck) that the whole evil/love/prospects vs reality  theme is shining through on every page.

In my previous post, I briefly (albeit weakly) mentioned the cat motif I kept seeing - IT'S NOT GOING AWAY - I googled 'East of Eden John Steinbeck Cat" for some reassurance that I am not alone in observing this, but O, I am alone (at least until my googling skills improve).

Or perhaps 'Cat' is a sporadic (understatement, though) reminder to readers of Cathy/Kate's existence + danger?

I'm off to read more of it now (and hopefully finish it). I'm reading Great Expectations too and have been neglecting it in terms of blog posts, so hopefully I'll get an opportunity soon to write about it (not for school).