'If you don't go when you want to go, when you do go, you'll find you've gone.'
As for the new batch of tv shows that cropped up lately, none of the newcomers yet managed to blow my socks off. 'The Tudors' win easily in the man-candy department but are somewhat lacking in, well, all other departments. 'Painkiller Jane' is sorta ok, but the main plot arch is pretty ridiculous. 'The Drive', after the one episode I've seen, I found quite watchable and even a bit intriguing, but I've just heard some rumors that this particular show is already a goner. 'The Riches'-- oh, 'The Riches' I haven't got around to just yet. Overall, the midseason new shinies appear to be less exciting that expected. Who knows, though? One of them might actually end up as a permanent addition to my tv dance card. I live on hope.
Jan Jukub Kolski's 'Jasminum'
'Jasminum' is actually only the second post-2000 Polish movie I've ever seen. The seventh one, I think, if you count from 1990 onward (I don't count the obligatory school-trips to the cinema to admire the newest adaptation of the yet another Great Polish Novel from hundreds of years ago, because these particular outings were usually so traumatizing, some of them hurt even now, years and years later). It shouldn't be this way. I really shouldn't be this unforgiving towards the cinema of my own bloody country. Especially that such bias it's starting to be seriously unfair. Modern Polish cinema might not be the pinnacle of the movie world - gods, far from it - but it's not all crap, either. It's true that the era of cinematic masterpieces of yore is long gone - paradoxically, it ended along with the communistic regime - but there are some promising new artists that truly deserve to be given the chance. The potential is there. Or so I'm told, because, as it's been established, I'm prejudiced towards Polish movies and only watch them if presented with no other choice.
I watched my first post-2000 Polish movie the last summer, at a movie festival, when I suddenly felt quite rotten about the fact that I had 51 screenings-to-attend all nicely planned out, but none of them was actually far a movie in Polish. So I decided to heed that little feeble voice coming from my almost atrophied sense of patriotism and actually went to one. 'Kochankowie z Marony', if I remember correctly (of course I do). A pretty ok movie, but reminding me very strongly of the dreadful period of Romanticism that ruled the whole Europe with steel arm in the late 18 century, otherwise known as The One With The Unfortunate Fixation On Tragic Love. Oh, how I hated that part of my Literature education. Anyway, I'll say that this movie was a tad over-emotional, but, really, that is just me being nice. So, in other words, my feelings towards 21 century Polish cinema didn't get any warmer.
'Jasminum' was a part of a movie night marathon and I'm pretty sure I would never ever get around watching it otherwise. Which would be a shame because the movie was quite disarmingly charming. It suffers from the maladie that, to my knowledge, no Polish movie of recent years truly managed to escape, and that is the tendency to drop around chunks of dialog so unwieldy that I doubt it could ever work on paper, not to mention actually said out-loud onscreen. This little drawback aside, 'Jasminum' is genuinely enchanting. It's a captivating tale about miracles and scents and about how they can be one and the same thing sometimes, set in a small-town monastery, where Brother Sweetcherry, Brother Wildcherry and Brother Plum, each smelling mysteriously, yet very distinctly, of their tree namesakes, lead their humble lives, watched over by the ever-kind and ever-levelheaded monastery cook and the somewhat loftily thinking, but endearing abbot. Kolski has a wonderful grasp on magical realism, always keeping it subtle, never pushing too hard. And he totally made me believe that there's still hope for Polish cinema (I mean, I theoretically knew it before, but now that I've actually seen it with my own eyes, it's finally real). However, I really think he shouldn't cast Grażyna Błęcka-Kolska in practically every single picture he makes. I know she's his wife and all, but she's hardly Poland's best actress. Fortunately she shared at least some of her scenes with Janusz Gajos and he's so freaking good that he almost make her good, too, probably by osmosis.
Oskar Roehler's 'Elementarteilchen'
It seems like practically every German movie I see is about extremely fucked-up people. And I don't mean amusingly, benevolently fucked-up here. I mean seriously dysfunctional. Perhaps it's just my luck, perhaps the Germans are just really fond of the subject, but the only recent movie about relatively normal people was 'Das Leben der Anderen'. And that one was about the Stasi.
It's a so-so movie. I respect its audacity, even though some scenes were pushed so far that they actually made me cringe. I certainly liked the general idea of two half-brothers that maintain a close, friendly relationship with each other, despite the fact that they are dramatically different, especially when it comes to their outlook on sex - one doggedly, if not particularly successfully, pursuing it and finally falling in love with a fellow sex-starved swinger (before she becomes quadriplegic and commits suicide, because there just can't be enough drama), the other banishing it from his life completely, committing his whole brilliant scientific career to the cause of actually completely removing sex from the reproduction process. However, I think it all came out somewhat messy. Some parts are genuinely good, some just felt senseless. All in all, not a must-see.
Roger Donaldson's 'The World's Fastest Indian'
A very endearing underdog movie. Following all the standard moves, with the hero getting through every of the numerous obstacles that life keeps throwing his way with disarming charm and grace and finally achieving his great dream. The movie doesn't really offer anything original or new (ok, I give, the fact that the underdog in question is in his seventies was a bit refreshing) but it's still great pleasure to watch. The story might be entirely predictable but, strangely, it doesn't actually matter that much, because the movie is alive with Burt Munro's (whom Anthony Hopkins plays with great relish) guileless enthusiasm, undefeatable joy for life and endearing sincerity. It's a tribute to the man and a very well-done one, too.
There are some faults, naturally. The movie runs too long, with especially the Bonneville scenes dragging a bit. And the lead character is so nice, so lovable, so unpretentious and so earnest that, while always a delight to observe, sometimes he strains the limits of credulity. Still, the movie is a great spirit-lifter, with no big fireworks, but with genuine heart.
The final movie quote quiz score is 7 points to my flist, 8 points to me. Meaning, 8 quotes left unguessed. Which proves that I'm a crappy quote quiz maker, but fear not. I shall improve. Practice makes perfect and, in this case, practice is fun, so I'll probably hit you with another try sometime next week. Or the next next week. Or a bit later. Anyway, in the foreseeable future.
1. - 'I've never heard of half of these guys and the ones I do know are way past their prime.'
- 'Most of these guys never had a prime.' 'Major League'
2. 'What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change. It's the currency of the world.' 'Closer'
3. 'There are only two times you know you're real - pleasure and pain. The rest is just breathing.' 'Buffalo Soldiers'
4. - 'Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies. It's called triage.'
- 'Kept calling it murder when I did it.' 'Pitch Black'
5. - 'Why?'
- 'I don't interest myself in "why". I think more in terms of "when". Sometimes "where". Always "how much".' 'Three Days of the Condor'
6. 'I liked her so much better when she was an alcoholic crack addict. She gets in one little car wreck and suddenly she's Little Miss Perfect.' 'Ghost World', guessed by strifechaos
7. 'Seeing death, really seeing it, making dreaming about it fucking ridiculous'. 'Girl Interrupted', guessed by roguem
8. 'You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?' 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl', guessed by romine
9. 'It would be nice working with proper villains again.' 'Ocean's Eleven', guessed by sockich
10. 'All you had to do was call me and talk to me. I'm understanding. I'd have said no, but you'd have felt honest.' 'Manhattan'
11. 'I said NO camels. That's FIVE camels. Can't you count?' 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', guessed by roguem
12. 'Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have got about as bad as they can reasonably get.' 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'
13. - 'If you play your cards right, you could have my body.'
- 'Wouldn't you rather leave it to science?' 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'
14. 'You want money? What kind of terrorists are you?' 'Die Hard', guessed by roguem
15. - 'Are you trying to look unattractive?'
- 'Yes.'
- 'Well, congratulations. You've succeeded admirably.' 'American Beauty', guessed by twolefts
Ok, I admit, some of them aren't really from all that well-known pictures, so you are excused (though I was a bit surprised that no one sniffed out at least one of the Woody Allen quotes). I got a bit carried away. However, let's make my message clear. If on the list above there are some movies you haven't seen, go and change that sad state of affairs as soon as possible. They are really quite fantastic. And they have terrific lines.
.
Jan Jukub Kolski's 'Jasminum'
'Jasminum' is actually only the second post-2000 Polish movie I've ever seen. The seventh one, I think, if you count from 1990 onward (I don't count the obligatory school-trips to the cinema to admire the newest adaptation of the yet another Great Polish Novel from hundreds of years ago, because these particular outings were usually so traumatizing, some of them hurt even now, years and years later). It shouldn't be this way. I really shouldn't be this unforgiving towards the cinema of my own bloody country. Especially that such bias it's starting to be seriously unfair. Modern Polish cinema might not be the pinnacle of the movie world - gods, far from it - but it's not all crap, either. It's true that the era of cinematic masterpieces of yore is long gone - paradoxically, it ended along with the communistic regime - but there are some promising new artists that truly deserve to be given the chance. The potential is there. Or so I'm told, because, as it's been established, I'm prejudiced towards Polish movies and only watch them if presented with no other choice.
I watched my first post-2000 Polish movie the last summer, at a movie festival, when I suddenly felt quite rotten about the fact that I had 51 screenings-to-attend all nicely planned out, but none of them was actually far a movie in Polish. So I decided to heed that little feeble voice coming from my almost atrophied sense of patriotism and actually went to one. 'Kochankowie z Marony', if I remember correctly (of course I do). A pretty ok movie, but reminding me very strongly of the dreadful period of Romanticism that ruled the whole Europe with steel arm in the late 18 century, otherwise known as The One With The Unfortunate Fixation On Tragic Love. Oh, how I hated that part of my Literature education. Anyway, I'll say that this movie was a tad over-emotional, but, really, that is just me being nice. So, in other words, my feelings towards 21 century Polish cinema didn't get any warmer.
'Jasminum' was a part of a movie night marathon and I'm pretty sure I would never ever get around watching it otherwise. Which would be a shame because the movie was quite disarmingly charming. It suffers from the maladie that, to my knowledge, no Polish movie of recent years truly managed to escape, and that is the tendency to drop around chunks of dialog so unwieldy that I doubt it could ever work on paper, not to mention actually said out-loud onscreen. This little drawback aside, 'Jasminum' is genuinely enchanting. It's a captivating tale about miracles and scents and about how they can be one and the same thing sometimes, set in a small-town monastery, where Brother Sweetcherry, Brother Wildcherry and Brother Plum, each smelling mysteriously, yet very distinctly, of their tree namesakes, lead their humble lives, watched over by the ever-kind and ever-levelheaded monastery cook and the somewhat loftily thinking, but endearing abbot. Kolski has a wonderful grasp on magical realism, always keeping it subtle, never pushing too hard. And he totally made me believe that there's still hope for Polish cinema (I mean, I theoretically knew it before, but now that I've actually seen it with my own eyes, it's finally real). However, I really think he shouldn't cast Grażyna Błęcka-Kolska in practically every single picture he makes. I know she's his wife and all, but she's hardly Poland's best actress. Fortunately she shared at least some of her scenes with Janusz Gajos and he's so freaking good that he almost make her good, too, probably by osmosis.
Oskar Roehler's 'Elementarteilchen'
It seems like practically every German movie I see is about extremely fucked-up people. And I don't mean amusingly, benevolently fucked-up here. I mean seriously dysfunctional. Perhaps it's just my luck, perhaps the Germans are just really fond of the subject, but the only recent movie about relatively normal people was 'Das Leben der Anderen'. And that one was about the Stasi.
It's a so-so movie. I respect its audacity, even though some scenes were pushed so far that they actually made me cringe. I certainly liked the general idea of two half-brothers that maintain a close, friendly relationship with each other, despite the fact that they are dramatically different, especially when it comes to their outlook on sex - one doggedly, if not particularly successfully, pursuing it and finally falling in love with a fellow sex-starved swinger (before she becomes quadriplegic and commits suicide, because there just can't be enough drama), the other banishing it from his life completely, committing his whole brilliant scientific career to the cause of actually completely removing sex from the reproduction process. However, I think it all came out somewhat messy. Some parts are genuinely good, some just felt senseless. All in all, not a must-see.
Roger Donaldson's 'The World's Fastest Indian'
A very endearing underdog movie. Following all the standard moves, with the hero getting through every of the numerous obstacles that life keeps throwing his way with disarming charm and grace and finally achieving his great dream. The movie doesn't really offer anything original or new (ok, I give, the fact that the underdog in question is in his seventies was a bit refreshing) but it's still great pleasure to watch. The story might be entirely predictable but, strangely, it doesn't actually matter that much, because the movie is alive with Burt Munro's (whom Anthony Hopkins plays with great relish) guileless enthusiasm, undefeatable joy for life and endearing sincerity. It's a tribute to the man and a very well-done one, too.
There are some faults, naturally. The movie runs too long, with especially the Bonneville scenes dragging a bit. And the lead character is so nice, so lovable, so unpretentious and so earnest that, while always a delight to observe, sometimes he strains the limits of credulity. Still, the movie is a great spirit-lifter, with no big fireworks, but with genuine heart.
The final movie quote quiz score is 7 points to my flist, 8 points to me. Meaning, 8 quotes left unguessed. Which proves that I'm a crappy quote quiz maker, but fear not. I shall improve. Practice makes perfect and, in this case, practice is fun, so I'll probably hit you with another try sometime next week. Or the next next week. Or a bit later. Anyway, in the foreseeable future.
1. - 'I've never heard of half of these guys and the ones I do know are way past their prime.'
- 'Most of these guys never had a prime.' 'Major League'
2. 'What's so great about the truth? Try lying for a change. It's the currency of the world.' 'Closer'
3. 'There are only two times you know you're real - pleasure and pain. The rest is just breathing.' 'Buffalo Soldiers'
4. - 'Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies. It's called triage.'
- 'Kept calling it murder when I did it.' 'Pitch Black'
5. - 'Why?'
- 'I don't interest myself in "why". I think more in terms of "when". Sometimes "where". Always "how much".' 'Three Days of the Condor'
6. 'I liked her so much better when she was an alcoholic crack addict. She gets in one little car wreck and suddenly she's Little Miss Perfect.' 'Ghost World', guessed by strifechaos
7. 'Seeing death, really seeing it, making dreaming about it fucking ridiculous'. 'Girl Interrupted', guessed by roguem
8. 'You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?' 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl', guessed by romine
9. 'It would be nice working with proper villains again.' 'Ocean's Eleven', guessed by sockich
10. 'All you had to do was call me and talk to me. I'm understanding. I'd have said no, but you'd have felt honest.' 'Manhattan'
11. 'I said NO camels. That's FIVE camels. Can't you count?' 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade', guessed by roguem
12. 'Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have got about as bad as they can reasonably get.' 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'
13. - 'If you play your cards right, you could have my body.'
- 'Wouldn't you rather leave it to science?' 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'
14. 'You want money? What kind of terrorists are you?' 'Die Hard', guessed by roguem
15. - 'Are you trying to look unattractive?'
- 'Yes.'
- 'Well, congratulations. You've succeeded admirably.' 'American Beauty', guessed by twolefts
Ok, I admit, some of them aren't really from all that well-known pictures, so you are excused (though I was a bit surprised that no one sniffed out at least one of the Woody Allen quotes). I got a bit carried away. However, let's make my message clear. If on the list above there are some movies you haven't seen, go and change that sad state of affairs as soon as possible. They are really quite fantastic. And they have terrific lines.
.