Weekend!!! and "The Last King of Scotland"
Weekend
This was a fabulous and eventful weekend. We went to my father-in-law's 70s birthday on Sunday. It was a very special event for a special person. He is always full of energy, optimism and love for life. Everyone had a nice time -his children organised a "surprise" party for him and invited all his friends. We made some nice pictures, Sasha took the majority of them. He-he! She is really interested in photography!
Shoes!!
I was reminded of this by elspethsheir's post of shoe goodness: last week I bought new shoes from Clarks! Shoes+me= endless obsession and this new pair is particularly comfy. Also it has that cute buckle on a side that (I think) looks very interesting. I don't want to take them off my feet when I go to bed. :D
Cosy Cellar
And this is my den: Last summer we cleared our cellar, painted it and made into our computer/DVD room. This is my heaven, a place where I hide away from the world. :D
"The Last King of Scotland" is an awesome film. I watched it on Saturday, but some of it's harrowing images and ideas are still standing before my eyes every time I get them closed.
The story is told from the POV of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) ,a fictional personal physician of one of Uganda's most bloody dictators, Idi Admin. Something that Idi Admin tells Nicholas Garrigan at the end of the film sums it all up for me: "You came to Africa to play the white man. But we aren't a game. We're real. This room is real." This is what I often feel when I talk to my friends who are refugees from Uganda, Angola or other countries. The reality of their lives is so far from ours…
The meaning of reality is explored in the film in the portrait of Idi Admin. Who is the real Idi Admin? It is very easy just sign him off as a terrible dictator, a cardboard figure of a maniac because he was all that. But he wasn't only that, he had some magnetic animal charm and big personality, he was very loved in Uganda at the beginning of his "presidency". Forest Whitaker received an Oscar for this role and he absolutely deserved it. He shown something very interesting about Idi Amin, something I often feel must be true about many of the dictators: the fact that Idi Amin didn't view himself as a crazy murderer. He honestly believed that he is hearing voices from above and that he is the best thing that had happened to Uganda. But during the cause of the film these layers of his views about himself fall one by one in the front of our eyes and all that we are left at the end is a mutilated, rotten core.
I felt that James McAvoy made a very strong performance as Idi Amin's personal doctor, Nicholas Garrigan. Nicholas starts as a young man, idealistic and spoiled by his privileged life. At first he comes across as someone who has pink glasses permanently glued to his face to the extent that he doesn't see reality around him. As the film progress these glasses are taken off his face and at the end Garrigan emerges as a brave and honest man, even with all his imperfections.
But of course I was very distracted by the fact that James McAvoy's eyes are a very deep shade of blue. :D
Gillian Anderson had a small role in this film. This actress is shining in everything she does:
This was a fabulous and eventful weekend. We went to my father-in-law's 70s birthday on Sunday. It was a very special event for a special person. He is always full of energy, optimism and love for life. Everyone had a nice time -his children organised a "surprise" party for him and invited all his friends. We made some nice pictures, Sasha took the majority of them. He-he! She is really interested in photography!
Shoes!!
I was reminded of this by elspethsheir's post of shoe goodness: last week I bought new shoes from Clarks! Shoes+me= endless obsession and this new pair is particularly comfy. Also it has that cute buckle on a side that (I think) looks very interesting. I don't want to take them off my feet when I go to bed. :D
Cosy Cellar
And this is my den: Last summer we cleared our cellar, painted it and made into our computer/DVD room. This is my heaven, a place where I hide away from the world. :D
"The Last King of Scotland" is an awesome film. I watched it on Saturday, but some of it's harrowing images and ideas are still standing before my eyes every time I get them closed.
The story is told from the POV of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) ,a fictional personal physician of one of Uganda's most bloody dictators, Idi Admin. Something that Idi Admin tells Nicholas Garrigan at the end of the film sums it all up for me: "You came to Africa to play the white man. But we aren't a game. We're real. This room is real." This is what I often feel when I talk to my friends who are refugees from Uganda, Angola or other countries. The reality of their lives is so far from ours…
The meaning of reality is explored in the film in the portrait of Idi Admin. Who is the real Idi Admin? It is very easy just sign him off as a terrible dictator, a cardboard figure of a maniac because he was all that. But he wasn't only that, he had some magnetic animal charm and big personality, he was very loved in Uganda at the beginning of his "presidency". Forest Whitaker received an Oscar for this role and he absolutely deserved it. He shown something very interesting about Idi Amin, something I often feel must be true about many of the dictators: the fact that Idi Amin didn't view himself as a crazy murderer. He honestly believed that he is hearing voices from above and that he is the best thing that had happened to Uganda. But during the cause of the film these layers of his views about himself fall one by one in the front of our eyes and all that we are left at the end is a mutilated, rotten core.
I felt that James McAvoy made a very strong performance as Idi Amin's personal doctor, Nicholas Garrigan. Nicholas starts as a young man, idealistic and spoiled by his privileged life. At first he comes across as someone who has pink glasses permanently glued to his face to the extent that he doesn't see reality around him. As the film progress these glasses are taken off his face and at the end Garrigan emerges as a brave and honest man, even with all his imperfections.
But of course I was very distracted by the fact that James McAvoy's eyes are a very deep shade of blue. :D
Gillian Anderson had a small role in this film. This actress is shining in everything she does: