Users of the student community schneckenhof.de, which is a local party community in Mannheim, have produced their own movie. In six episodes the team around director and writer Niels Reinhard created a satirical homage about student life. The motto: “Sex, Drugs & Rock'n' Roll in the year 2007”.
The movie has its premier on November 14th at the Cinemaxx movie theatre in Mannheim. Starting November 15th the episodes will be released online on schneckenhof.de. The creators say, it is the first movie project produced exclusively by users of a specific online community. I'm quite curios to see there work
The last time I’ve had the chance to watch “the Oscars” live was 10 years ago! Today I’m finally able to repeat this. Unluckily I’m home alone, and the Prosecco has to stay closed due to a lack of a corkscrew, but it still has some flair for me. So I’m sitting here in front of the TV
sipping a decent local beer
covered by a few blankets
enjoying tortilla chips with salsa dip
while the Hollywood honours its best! With Jack black in stage at the moment, the show looks very promising
Did I tell you that I like films like Magnolia, Bin ich schön? or Pulp Fiction? Somehow the narrative style with many stories which are related more or less to each other fascinates me. I couldn't find an adequate term to describe this type of film but currently "Love Actually" is running on RTL and - although it is kinda soppy - I like it
I'll write a view words about the story after the movie is over.
The new James Bond movie is a very controversial topic. An old problem did divide the public opinion once more – The actor of James Bond has to be exchanged from time to time where each actor has his personal strengths and weaknesses. The second problem seems to be that in Ian Flemmings original novels the character of James Bond himself undergoes some developments. Casino Royal is not the most current book of this series but actually the first! It tells a lot of the story why James Bond is the character he is in the later movies. For this purpose a cut – and the change of the actor was a good idea. I couldn’t imagine Pierce Brosnan acting with the emotional depth.. Of course some will say now – this is not our James Bond – he’d rather be detached and invulnerable. But the James Bond in Casino Royal is just more the man from Ian Flemming’s original novels than the smart, invulnerable hero he was during the last movies. It is a more human Bond.
I visited the movie yesterday accompanied by Grützekraftwerk’s personnel watching the original version in English. There are a few reasons why you should watch the movie:
After a lot of doubts whether Daniel Craig would contribute to a great movie I think the public opinion has changed – currently the movie rates 8.1 on Imdb where most of the older Bond movies rate between 6 and 7 points. (Of course the rating will drop a little, since currently mainly Band-enthusiasts visited the movie, but I think it will still be higher than the last movies:
The whole August my friend Katrin and I waited to see this movie. Simply the imagination of a person being a really successful lobbyist for the tobacco industry stirred up our curiosity. Finally on Wednesday we managed to see this movie – and where delighted.
Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today’s neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots and an opportunistic senator, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes, but he begins to think about how his work makes him look in the eyes of his young son Joey.
This short plot outline by Fox Searchlight Pictures outlines the plot of that movie. But it is more but just that story - the dialogues are sharp and funny – and (even without making a clear statement against or in favor) the movie has a message:
It’s important to have the chance to decide – and not being patronized!
A contrary few in context of the education of children has a German educator Bernhard Bueb, who was manager of "Schloss Salem" a German elite boarding school.. In my opinion he has some very gross views. Just have a look at the SPON-article (German). But I might get back to this discussion in tome other topics.. I was talking about that extraordinary movie!
Katrin and I enjoyed the movie very much and had many chances to laugh, although some of the jokes were almost to fast to recognize. to get all of the jokes I’m really looking forward to see this movie in English!
Raimunda lives in Madrid with her daughter Paula and her husband Paco who's always drunk. Her sister Sole is separated and work clandestinely as a hairstylist for women. The two sisters lost their parents in a fire in La Mancha their birth village years ago. In the village remains only their aunt Paula that continue to speak about her sister Irene, mother of the two, like if she is still alive. When the old aunt die the situation change and the past come back (Volver) again, in a twist of mystery and suspense.
I hadn’t made it to watch one of Pedro Almadovar’s movies until yesterday, now I’m somehow delighted of his style of film making. Unusual camera ankles, sometimes strange/funny dialogues (Mother asking her daughter did you ever have such huge boobs? You didn’t have soemthign done to them? Daughter: No, they are that size since I’m born) – lots of stuff you just won’t get watching a mainstream-movie. Katrin and I really enjoyed that movie and had a great time. It runs at the Odeon cinema throughout August – just give it a try – you won’t regret it!
Initially I was up for some useless action movie – to get some distraction. But school holidays wrecked my plans.. There wasn’t a single acceptable seat. So I decided that an alternative movie might also be a good choice. Luckily having the Lichtspiel and the Odeon there is plenty of choice for such movies in Bamberg. So it didn’t take too long to find a suitable movie for paule and me:
Breakfast on Pluto follows the exploits of Patrick "Kitten" Braden, an endearing but deceptively tough young man. Abandoned as a baby in his small Irish hometown, and aware from a very early age that he is different, Patrick survives a harsh environment with the aid of his wit and charm, plus a sweet refusal to let anyone or anything change who he is.
I like the above description also it is only a description of the movie on a meta level. The movie itself has far more facettes that could be described here. It shows a young man going HIS way. the movie illustrates this with great pictures and a lovely soundtrack.
Since this movie is shown open air tomorrow at my university and I bought the DVD some weeks ago, I’m going to write a short review. From the outside it is an insignificant movie. No big actors and a quite simple story – two guys on their way through California’s wine country. But that is only a shallow view of the movie sideways. If you look a little deeper you can see that the director Alexander pain already has some experience with movies were the actors lead the story. It surely didn’t win the Oscar for best Screenplay in 2004 for nothing. IMDB writes: “Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment, embark on a week long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.”
The two main characters don’t just go an a funny trip, they struggle for their future life. Of course this movie is no shallow entertainment, but if you allow to get involved into the characters a little bit, you will most probable find the movie very entertaining.