Considering how much we liked the Three Colors trilogy as a whole, it was inevitable that we would watch this earlier film by Krzysztof Kieślowski. This is especially true since it also stars Irène Jacob who is probably our favorite of the three leading ladies from the trilogy. Less obviously, like Bleu, it also showcases music by composer Zbigniew Preisner as a major element of the plot, in this case ascribing it to a fictional Dutch composer named Van den Budenmayer.
Predestination is one of those science-fiction films that is all about one single, shocking twist. As such, anyone writing about it must decide whether or not to reveal the twist. Here, I’ve opted on a compromise of sorts. I won’t write down exactly what happens, but I’ll leave enough clues that readers should probably be able to make reasonable guesses. The first such giveaway is that it’s based on a 1958 short story by Robert Heinlein called All You Zombies. I haven’t read this story myself but those who have are certain to know what the twist I’m talking about it. But then I didn’t need to have read that story to see the twist coming a mile away anyway.
Five articles this month, with an emphasis on the softer sciences.
Continue reading Recent Interesting Science Articles (May 2015)
After finding that the brand of humor practiced by the Marx Brothers didn’t really work for us, I thought we might try something from the silent era. Charlie Chaplin would be the obvious choice but everyone has watched something by Chaplin. However I’ve never seen anything by Buster Keaton and he seems criminally under-known in Asia, so Keaton it is.
I must have watched the Mel Gibson Mad Max movies at some point but I have no clear recollection of them. That’s why I wasn’t planning to watch this one at all even if its trailer did impress me. But when it hit the theaters, the overwhelmingly positive consensus on places like Broken Forum was impossible to ignore. The clincher was us however is when it managed to piss off the MRA types. This meant my wife and myself just had to watch it if only to show solidarity.
When my cinephile friend saw this one on my list of films to watch, he was surprised. “You mean you haven’t seen this already?” he asked. I guess that’s as good an indication as any of how much this is considered required watching for any fans of cinema. Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro had previously collaborated on Mean Streets in 1973, the film that put both of them on the map. De Niro had also landed the pivotal role of a young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II in 1974. But it was Taxi Driver that would come to be regarded as one of the greatest American films of all time and solidify Scorcese’s reputation as a great auteur.
When Marnie Was There is supposedly Studio Ghibli’s final film, or at least it is until such time as Hayao Miyazaki decides to un-retire again or someone else decides to resurrect the studio. This one was actually directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, perhaps best known for The Secret World of Arrietty. Like Arrietty, it’s also based on a children’s book by a British author, in this case one originally published in 1967. I don’t know about you but I always feel that it’s kind of sad when authors don’t live long enough to see their work reach a far wider audience than they’d ever imagined.