Time for number three, the top three is to be completed now.
I remember vaguely me seeing the notebook just when it was released on networks over Sweden. One channel aired it and I thought it was pretty good. The first time I really got to see Ryan Gosling act was Crazy, Stupid, Love. A movie I am very fond of and one that might appear on this very list.
But time to shift focus back, we are talking about drive. And it follows in the footsteps of Lost in Translation. We are just observing life’s as the pass by, and what people do when they are cornered.
I remember the music caught me first, something that most people will agree on. Kavinsky’s Nightcall set’s the tone very early in the movie and the fact that I have seen him live just added to the experience.
After that it is just pure acting, a lot of thought through camera angles and a killer soundtrack. Why would this surprise anyone today though, most hollywood blockbuster have this. But you see, it is NOT a hollywood blockbuster. I am not neglecting that a movie with a budget of 15 million dollars is a big production, probably bigger than most Swedish ones. The fact that they still made it this good with that “little” cash, is what surprises me.
On top of this I just have to say that both screenplay and directing is amazing, I would argue that Ryan Gosling’s “lost for words”-character makes this movie work. He makes us see love without it needing screentime. And emotions and drama, that is what makes it all perfect. It is almost like the movie is about the feelings that are never said, but you can always feel. Looking at this as an action/love movie as general public would, I maybe would say it is decent. For us that tend to read into signs, camera angles or lines read, we just love it.
I am not even sure this should be place number three, maybe even sharing with Lost in translation.
Concluding, Drive is a movie that needs a certain amount of interest and focus (and a kickass soundsystem). But if you can spare that for such a short moment of your life, you will be rewarded. That this movie did not get an Oscar is still to this day, a great shame.
Time to get on with next member on the list, the second to first, silver and almost winner.
Groundhog day, or wednesday all week as us swedes call it, was the first encounter for me with Bill Murray. Thanks to the witty destroying subtitles the movie was for me something that went away in a blink of an eye. I must have been around ten or eleven.
Then years later when I started writing about videogames as a spare hobby, I got to hear a lot about a certain movie. Or rather a certain country and how the movie finally had caught the essential feelings all travellers have when they arrive. Being who I am, I deliberately had to oppose to the information stated and consisted to trash both movie and country.
I mean whats soooo special about Japan?
My body and knowledge grew, maybe being stubborn wasn’t the best idea, maybe I actually should watch the movie to see what they were all on about. So a year later, at age 18 I managed to rent a copy of Lost in Translation, seeing it on a thick old resolution TV.
104 minutes later I was enchanted by Japan, and still am to this day. Bill Murray was decribing the lost soul of an actor, caught in between a mediocre has-been life and the confusion of being in a culture he can’t understand. Scarlett Johansson, pretty unknown at the time, does her best part ever, telling the story of the newly wedded wife that are bound to stay in her hotel, despite a lively world outside.
They meet.
And that is just it. There is no fuss, no cheesy lines, nothing that actually feels fake. It feels like something that has happened, and got recorded. It is hard to really nail down the feeling to this day I would say. But most I would compare it to falling in love maybe, seeing as you learn so much about each character.
Tokyo, Japan, is also being beautifully displayed with stunning visuals and incredible venues. I have never lived in Tokyo, but I know I want to, when and where, I do not know. But I want to.
So finally I have gotten myself together and discussed this with, myself. I have been enchanted by the worlds of film for years, and I have studied it for a few too. Why don’t I have a top ten yet?
Well, here it is then, friends and family gather around. This is the list. But unlike most, I start with number one.
The tale of Rick Deckard is something I got in touch with at a fairly young age. I must have been around 11 when 4 compact disc’s showed me the life in the future dystopian Los Angeles. My eye’s were overlooking the interactive world in the best point and click game of all time. Or at least that is my personal opinion, knowing that it not only included a detective story, but action and story twisting that would have made Quentin Tarantino run for the hills. On top of this the game gave the player a possibility to end it, thirteen different ways, something that to this day still is quite unique.
But that was a game, not the movie, or should I say movies.
My first real encounter with the movie was a badly done rip of the theatrical version, downloaded and seen a copy of the video disc. A format that I wonder why anyone bothered really. But I basically started watching and never got the story.
It wasn’t until one day when my dad randomly had invested in the dvd director’s cut, that I actually saw the complete movie. And honestly, I was a bit hard to impress, I felt the movie was slow and story were plotless. Looking back at it, I blame that I was still young.
When I turned nineteen though, yet again my dad did something odd. He invested in the complete box-set. He informed me that the version he was brought up with, was contained within that paperback box.
So one day I took out the theatrical version, and saw it. And despite the opinions of Mr Ridley Scott, I was in love. Maybe not head over heels, but definitely a movie that I enjoyed seeing beginning to end. Unlike my mixed opinion of the newer cut. Later seeing the newer cuts I yet again had to review my opinions to make them climb to the top of this list.
Why then is Blade Runner my first choice?
First of all, it is not only movie. For the lighter minded, the people that maybe don’t like those Ingmar Bergman movies on a friday night, the theatrical cut is absolutely fantastic. I might have overstated that, but it is not a bad movie at all, rather a great one climbing a few steps over “good”. Rick Deckard is telling us his story with the bad voice over and explaining things, that most other versions leave ambiguous.
Then we have the second version, which really is two of them but really just take your pick. Final cut or director’s cut, doesn’t really matter to me, giving an answer with a gun to my head I would probably say final cut though. These movies were not made to be forgotten, they are artwork, similar to Picasso or Rembrandt. Hand on my heart I can promise you, that any frame of both movies, would make an excellent print to put on the wall. Just promise me to see this in high definition, with stunning art direction, beautiful music and great story, it can’t really get better. Last but not least, the brands. Back in the 80’s when this was made, no one expected the famous Pan American World Airway’s would go bankrupt it even makes you nostalgic.
A story about such a complex idea is told in such a simple and comprehensive way. It is up to the viewer to either make an assessment, or just wave it off.
That is why I picked this movie to be here, I don’t rewatch it often, but when I do a am enjoying it from the minute I pop the disc in.
Hannah, from tonight.
This is where film still makes me shiver. I can really feel her eyes.
Yes.
Step one of the iPod reviving scenario. iPod 3G goes iPod CF-edition.
Sometimes I know I have miles to learn
#Kjell Erling Kjellman
(via ihatethelettuce)
The contrast
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Every day, I drink one glass of lemon juice. (Taken with Instagram)
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Hells yeah. Living the dream. #sunshine #greengrass #lawnmower (Taken with Instagram)
My life is a movie I realised. Not recently, this has. Always been one of those truths boiling in my loins. Or rather like a teenage hit series.
Problem is, I am not the lead. I’m the neurotic sidekick that always want to shift focus back to myself. The one that gets destructive for no reason, telling lies to avoid confrontation.
The audience can emphasise, but that is it. I will never date the lead, will never affect the story. I am that man that blame things.
Recently I have thought a lot about death. That my parents are not immortal, even if the childish part of me wants to think so. This still haven’t affected any of my beliefs. I still that when you die, you poo, puke and then that is it. 7 grams of life leaving our body but nothing more.
What we burn or put in the ground is a dry shell, similar to those watches bought at a Hong Kong wet market. It looks the same but doesn’t work the same.
And we stress through life trying to live for those few seconds, overworking, just to live a little. Why don’t we live all time?
And how can we all look ourselves in the mirror, knowing that people in the world are suffering. I feel that capitalist don’t understand that prerequisites affect so much, and the ones that doesn’t have them, will never get as far.
I hate a lot it seems. The tv-series about my life I feel is about to get cancelled, previous seasons were great, now characters has no depth, no intrigues and no goal. And why would anyone watch that?
Last. Racism, homophobia and discrimination.
Why would a person from a different country do worse than you? Why do swedes hate change? And why would you want to change the new country you came to, would you take a bath at a persons place first time you meet?
So yes, we make fun of everything, retards, idiots, Germans, gay people, Asians, parents. Grow up, nothing is sacred to joke about. Not even religion.
That said, being gay is not a illness and just because you don’t understand it don’t judge it. Everyone love different, man or woman, why would it matter?
Yes. Women and men have not equal muscle mass. Otherwise they would compete together in Olympics. But aside from that we have to give equal rights. And as for professions ask same from men and women, if not we are not equal.
Frankencamera is complete. #hasselblad #503cw #sinarback43 #120mm (Taken with Instagram)