(no subject)
On Saturday, I was babysitting my sister's children, as my sister and her husband wanted some adult time together and went to a hockey match (HIFK-Blues) and dinner with some friends. I stayed the night so that they could also sleep late next morning.
As my sister noted, I guess it's a mark of trust that the children were themselves, occasionally cranky, sometimes mischievous, joyous, etc. They didn't even miss their parents too much which surprised my sister a bit - I guess I've stayed with them often enough that I'm sort of familiar territory and safe enough. It was also fun to mark the differences in their characters: whenever Ronja gets tired she gets overly theatrical (Everybody teases me, and I hate everybody! pronounced loudly :)) and sulky (stuttering underlip and all), whereas Eemeli is much more calm in general, but very mischievous in nature. Ronja clearly resembles her father's family, while Eemeli is more like my family :).
On Sunday, I saw my last films on the Helsinki Film Festival. Instead of 3-4 films, I decided, in the end, to see only two. The first film was Heading South (Vers la Sud), which, a bit surprisingly, was shown with Swedish texts only.
The film is about sex tourism. It's set in 1970's Haiti where wealthy American women travel to have fun with local boys/men. The story centres around three of these women and one Haitian male. It was quite uncomfortable watching at times (though I guess that was the intention), with the women's petty jealousies and fights juxtaposed with the poverty and miserableness of the normal life in the area.
The main actors all (Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal, Ménothy Cesar) were very good, but I guess the story could have been even sharper, if the director really wanted to make a political comment with this movie, as he proclaimed in an interview with one Finnish newspaper.
Sunday's second film was Nana, which was so sweet and cute that I decided to end my festival experience with it (I was also pretty tired), though I had one more ticket left. I understand the film is based on a manga about two girls who are both named Nana. They are complete opposites, but as they share a rental falt, they slowly become friends and help each other in their joys & sorrows. Now I must find the manga...
This was just the kind of film that can make me cry like a fountain. I guess it's all the sweetness - that tends to be one of my weepy-triggers. Luckily, I was only a bit misty-eyed in the end, and didn't completely embarrass myself in the theatre.
I'm still browsing through my bookshelves in order to find stuff to add to my BookMooch account. Lot of it's romance, because, though I do enjoy reading romance, quite a lot of it's pretty forgettable after one read. I do have my favourite authors whose books I'm not giving away, but then there are plenty of those others that just weren't good enough to keep.
As my sister noted, I guess it's a mark of trust that the children were themselves, occasionally cranky, sometimes mischievous, joyous, etc. They didn't even miss their parents too much which surprised my sister a bit - I guess I've stayed with them often enough that I'm sort of familiar territory and safe enough. It was also fun to mark the differences in their characters: whenever Ronja gets tired she gets overly theatrical (Everybody teases me, and I hate everybody! pronounced loudly :)) and sulky (stuttering underlip and all), whereas Eemeli is much more calm in general, but very mischievous in nature. Ronja clearly resembles her father's family, while Eemeli is more like my family :).
On Sunday, I saw my last films on the Helsinki Film Festival. Instead of 3-4 films, I decided, in the end, to see only two. The first film was Heading South (Vers la Sud), which, a bit surprisingly, was shown with Swedish texts only.
The film is about sex tourism. It's set in 1970's Haiti where wealthy American women travel to have fun with local boys/men. The story centres around three of these women and one Haitian male. It was quite uncomfortable watching at times (though I guess that was the intention), with the women's petty jealousies and fights juxtaposed with the poverty and miserableness of the normal life in the area.
The main actors all (Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal, Ménothy Cesar) were very good, but I guess the story could have been even sharper, if the director really wanted to make a political comment with this movie, as he proclaimed in an interview with one Finnish newspaper.
Sunday's second film was Nana, which was so sweet and cute that I decided to end my festival experience with it (I was also pretty tired), though I had one more ticket left. I understand the film is based on a manga about two girls who are both named Nana. They are complete opposites, but as they share a rental falt, they slowly become friends and help each other in their joys & sorrows. Now I must find the manga...
This was just the kind of film that can make me cry like a fountain. I guess it's all the sweetness - that tends to be one of my weepy-triggers. Luckily, I was only a bit misty-eyed in the end, and didn't completely embarrass myself in the theatre.
I'm still browsing through my bookshelves in order to find stuff to add to my BookMooch account. Lot of it's romance, because, though I do enjoy reading romance, quite a lot of it's pretty forgettable after one read. I do have my favourite authors whose books I'm not giving away, but then there are plenty of those others that just weren't good enough to keep.