5 February, 2014

   Happy New Year FFF!!! Well, it's been well over a month, but we've watched some good movies since the holiday festivities. Speaking of which, our German contingent kindly shared a holiday tradition held in Deutschland: it's a comedic short titled Dinner for One and is about 10 min. I post it here for your viewing pleasure:

   Another less known German tradition, which our good friend Jakob deOscar Mayer Weiner Schnitzel shared, is depicted in the film Top Secret, starring Val Kilmer... who also loves New Mexico.

Apparently, German's love their guns and babes more than good ol' 'Merica.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Ok now for the movie options. I have three options picked out for tonight: a chilean one, a brazilian one, and a french-canadian one.

Chile: Nostalgia de la luz (Nostalgia for the Light) 81 min

   The Atacama Desert is driest place on Earth, with some of the clearest night skies. It is in this impossible environment that two unexpected neighbors spend their days searching: astronomers hunting for new stars and life beyond our planet, and those left behind from the chilean dictadura looking for the desiccated remains of their beloved desaparecidos.

Brazil: O Som ao Redor (Neighboring Sounds) 131 min

   The aim of this film is not so much about telling a story as it is exposing social norms and conflicts through the lens of a few characters's quotidian interactions. I don't think much actually happens in the story line, but we get some great insights into modern Brazil.

French-Canadian: En Terrains Connus (Familiar Grounds) 88 min

   A coming of age story for an adolescent 20/30 something. The plot and acting are intentionally flat, perhaps dull, but the dry humor and drama are supposed to be much more palpable.

Hope to see ya'll tonight! Much love,

                                                                                 ---FFF

19 November, 2013

Hello friends!

    Here's the movie option for tomorrow night. It's the Danish film Jagten (The Hunt). It's a 2012 film with Mads Mikkelsen, the bad guy from Casino Royale and the dude from After the Wedding. The Hunt is a drama which follows the resulting hysteria around a man (Mads) who is falsely accused of molesting a child. Should be awesome sauce.

          

Hope to see ya'll tomorrow evening! Much love,


                                                                                                         ---FFF

Philip Glass and Elena

Friends, there comes a time in every man's life when he must admit to having made a mistake. And here's mine: I'm suddenly OK with Philip Glass. You see, two movie nights ago, I made a snide remark about the film Elena using his score. I even doubted the movie selection because of it. I was wrong….

My first experience with Philip glass was during my freshman year in college. At the time, I was still going through my Hindustani music phase. It didn't help that one of my roommates was from the UAE / India (I love you, Aditya Shashi!). Yes, I was taking sitar lessons… but they were free thanks to my generous guru, Srinivas Komondouri. If I find a picture of myself playing the sitar from that epoch, I'll post it. And it will be slightly embarrassing. In any case, I vividly remember discovering a collaborative piece between Ravi Shankar and Glass. I loved it. Naturally, I sought out more Glass, so I torrented all I could find. It was disappointing: tens of minutes of boorish ostinato supporting a complete lack of overarching melodic structure or nervously extended intervals of repetitive open strings really set the mood for an overly-hyphenated-one-man-all-alone-in-his-dorm-room-studying-physics psycho-thriller. I must have tried for hours to find something I could enjoy, but I guess I just couldn't handle the monumental minimalism (writing this, I simultaneously thought of a Spanish version of this alliteration: manantial de minimalismo).

This guy…Philip Glass.

Fast forward to present day. Rather, 13 days ago: Elena and her husband Vladimir are condemned to their own personal cycles of repetition. We see in the encounter between Vladimir and his estranged daughter, Katerina, that they in fact are very close and loving. Despite her multiple relapses with substance abuse, Vladimir is mostly forgiving of his daughter's squandering the opportunities he provided. Katerina brushes off her father's criticisms, resulting in a warm interaction between father and daughter. Similarly, Elena seeks to provide for her son, and more importantly her grandson, no matter his motivation or lack thereof. Indeed, Elena knows no bounds to 'by any means necessary' when she impedes Vladimir's plans for his inheritance. Of course, she (and we) already knows that Vladimir wishes to leave the majority of his estate to Katerina knowing well she may simply squander it entirely. Thus are the hellacious cycles: fighting and reconciliation without progress; perpetuating dependencies without consequences; and of course, life and death.

This is precisely why the Philip Glass symphony was a great choice for this movie's theme. His directionless tendencies perfectly mirrored the narrative component of Elena. The characters are doomed to stagnation in one form or another. Musically, in Symphony #3 Mov. #3 (found in the grooveshark album for Elena), Glass creates the sense of a constant force, albeit around a fixed locus. Melodically static, the theme doesn't really go anywhere: there is no climax or apex, no goal. Instead, Glass sets up a perpetual motion machine reflecting the cycles we see in Elena. I've listened to the movement a number of times now, and can feel exactly what Andrey Zvyagintsev wanted to show us in the film! Hold your horses. I'm not saying that I can listen to the majority of Glass's work just for 'fun'. I would hesitate to say I 'love' it, but I will say that my nascent appreciation for his music requires some more statistics. But at least I can give him a chance given the right setting: paired with a story based on repetitive cycles, Philip Glass possibly can be enjoyed. Maybe he should have written the score to The Lion King! :P 
Love to all,

  --FFF

November 6, 2013

Hello again FFF!

   It's been quite a while since the last post, but we've had so much success picking awesome movies on the spot that I didn't provide trailers for options. In these past few months, there have been quite a few spanish language films (Santa Sangre, Bendito Infierno (has Javier Bardem for Arelys, and Gael Garcia Bernal for Larissa :) ), maybe a frenchy (I think), and the South Korean I'm a Cyborg, But that's OK. Also, for the Halloween special we watched The Brain from Planet Arous, found on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFSeNed7mbU. If anyone can recall the others from after No please let me know. I can't seem to remember them all. Gracias.

   For tomorrow's movie night, I've picked out a couple of dramas:

I. Elena, by Andrey Zvyagintsev, is a Russian drama about an old-fashioned couple's struggles to provide inheritance to children from previous relationships. The wife (Elena) has 'married up' in class but her wealthy husband, Vladimir, refuses to support her son's education, which would keep him from compulsory military service. Vladimir, plans to give everything to his estranged wild-child daughter. Music by Phillip Glass. I think that says it all….


        


II. The Piano in a Factory is a Chinese (Mandarin) drama which also deals with a strained relationship (a divorce, in fact), but focuses on the couple's custody battle. The musician daughter decides that she will stay with whichever parent provides her with a piano. When the desperate father, Chen, fails to gather enough money to purchase one, he comes up with a plan: to build a piano for his daughter. Music by awesome classical composers, I assume. Being not Russian, it will probably be less dark too :)

                        


Hope to see you tomorrow night friends! Abrazos,

                                                                                   ---FFF

4 September, 2013

Good morning FFF!

    Here is today's film choice: No. Based on an unpublished play (El Plebiscito), No follows the Chilean presidential election in 1988. Still in power since 1974, dictator Augusto Pinochet is up for re-election when a group of ad professionals uses advertising tactics as a counter to Pinochet's political campaign.


        


     The dictatorship itself is wrought with controversy. On the one hand, Pinochet is credited with boosting a declining Chilean economy via currency stabilization and opening Chile's markets to the global trade networks; however, this came at the price of disappearances, killings, and torturings numbering in the 10,000s. Pinochet finally stepped down in 1990... yeah, that long.


    During these decades, there was a dramatic flight of the minds not just in Chile, but in all of Latin America. Many academics and artists fled the Southern Cone fearing being identified (and dealt with) as 'radicals' or 'communists', etc. The family of Ana Tijoux, whose song 1977 I've posted below, fled to France for most of her childhood. Returning to Chile in the early 80's, she has since developed a powerful presence in the hip-hop scene, using her music to address social issues: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/11/146694189/ana-tijoux-addressing-global-unrest-in-rhyme

I added most of Ana Tijoux's discography to a playlist in the grooveshark account. And in case anyone was wondering, I heard this song first during a Breaking Bad binge a couple of weeks ago (Season 4 Episode 5). I watched all 4 1/2 seasons in 1 and 1/2 weeks. I have no shame.

Enjoy and see you tonight!


                               

                                                                                                         ---FFF

Wednesday 10 July, 2013

Hello FFF,

    We will be having our weekly movie night this evening at 8 pm, or a little later for the stragglers from Concert on the Square. Personally, I will be there for the first piece, Hoedown from Rodeo by Aaron Copland. It's a fun movement so I hope you all get to hear it! I'll leave after Rodeo to prepare some Greek salad at home. Feel free to call me if you'd like to meet up on the square.

   On to the possible movie selection....

   The first option is Tambien la Lluvia (Also the Rain). This is a Spanish historical drama depicting a film crew attempting to re-tell the story of Christopher Columbus's conquering of the indigenous peoples of America. The crew comes prepared to shoot some powerful imagery, however, it isn't ready for the struggle they are about to witness (the 2000 Cochabamba protests), the legacy of Columbus's conquests. (2011, 99 Min)


        


   A more light-hearted option is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. There's no way to introduce this movie if you haven't seen it before. (1964, 94 min)


                    


   I also have Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A 1969 classic.

       


Any other requests? Preferably if you have it on DVD or we can stream it online with subtitles....

Hope to see you all tonight! Chaito,
                                                                     -FFF

26 June, 2013

Good morning FFF!

   Remember that tonight is the first Concert on the Square. I will be enjoying the music then heading home just before movie time at 8pm. I don't mind if we wait for those who want to stay for the whole concert, no problem there. Just let me know if you're attending and will show up a little late.

   Here are the movie choices for tonight:

Head-On (Gegen die Wand), a Turkish-German drama exploring the assimilation of Turkish culture into modern German society. The list of accolades for this film is quite impressive.




5 Broken Cameras is a powerful Palestinian documentary about life on the West Bank.





I don't have my movie list from home, but I would like to throw a lighter-hearted film in the selection mix for tonight. If anyone has any suggestions for a slightly less drama filled movie, please let me know!

Hope to see you tonight,

                                                                                                   ---FFF