we need to talk about kevin-engl

This is a tough movie!
As this is an authentic tragedy. Yet it is not Love Story.

You won't cry tears at Kevin, and if you do,
it will be because the thought of what happens is just too painful to contemplate.
You'll cry as this film has a lot of truth in it,
as well as one of the most dazzling performances.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, a travel writer married to Franklin (John C. Reilly).
In the early scenes, we can see that many people in her town hate her,
and that she seemingly hates herself.
The reasons for this are not initially clear,
although it seems to have something to do with her son Kevin.

Then the film flashes back to his early childhood.
Eva, perhaps somehow not in possession of the motherhood gene, couldn't stand her newborn crying baby. His constant crying drove her mad.

Then, as a toddler, Kevin refused to respond to her.
In frustration, she distanced herself.

As a teen, Kevin stands openly hostile to her, often irritating. He has deeply anti-social tendencies.

Franklin doesn't see it, which leads to conflict with Eva.

At the end, the exact nature of Kevin's issue is revealed...

We Need to Talk About Kevin asks a very uncomfortable question:
What would you do if you honestly didn't like your own child?

That idea may sound inconceivable to you.
It does to me as well.
However, I know people who feel that way about their kids.
You probably do too.
It happens.

Perhaps due to some personality issues of her own,
Eva was never able to bond with her son.

The film tracks the isolation
and regret she feels.

Eva is in a perpetual state of confusion:
she really thinks Kevin has grown up to be a jerk,
yet she also feels the burden of responsibility for the person he's become. 

 Watching the story unfold is a devastating experience.
It made me very aware of my own parenthood;
it made me recognize that my mistakes will directly impact my child,
setting the course he'll take for the rest of his life.

Few movies have ever suggested exactly how much hangs in the balance during childhood...

Tilda Swinton is magnificent,a very expressive actress.
Her eyes haunt a world of emptiness and hurt,
as her character realizes that Kevin's lack of empathy 
is a reflection of her own.

Kevin is played by several actors at different ages,
but Ezra Miller (as the teenage) is totally chilling.
There's an unspoken yet palpable battle between the mother and son. Miller is a solid adversary for Swinton,
that gives the film its most disturbing edge.

Director Lynne Ramsay uses fractured time narrative
to create a sense of unease. Kevin's growth is intertwined with present-day scenes of Eva struggling to cope.
This approach gives the movie a really nightmarish feel.
Ramsay does a brilliant job evoking a tragic tone
in a movie loaded
with ambiguity.

 Most movies present parenthood as a triumph or,
at worst,
a learning experience.

This one shows the darker side of things, t
he side in which mistakes
lead to horrible consequences.

Eva was not a good mother to her son.
She figures that out way too late.

This powerful,
provocative movie
breaks your heart
and sends chills up your spine...

by Giulia Ghica Dobre

     

mathematiques: ce depaysement!

Exposition Mathématiques, un dépaysement soudain, Fondation Cartier, Paris 2011 - Création Tadanori Yokoo (Dessin : David Lynch. Photos : ESO ; © Sebastian Kaulitzki/Fotolia.com)

Avec l’exposition Mathématiques, un dépaysement soudain, la Fondation Cartier propose une création intégrale et originale, conçue en collaboration avec l’Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS) et présentée sous le patronage de l’UNESCO. À partir du 21 octobre 2011, elle ouvre ses portes à la communauté des mathématiciens et sollicite des artistes de renommée internationale pour les accompagner, afin qu’ensemble ils donnent à voir, à écouter, à faire, à penser, à découvrir les mathématiques. L’exposition entend ainsi dévoiler les paysages mentaux, les horizons infinis, les mystères invisibles d’une pensée qui se nourrit de rêve, d’intuition et de création.

Les mathématiques sont partout, des frontières finies de la réalité sensible à l’infini des univers conceptuels. Parce qu’elles embrassent le monde réel et celui des idées, elles sont affaire d’auteurs, portées par des êtres doués d’intuition et nourris de rêve, à l’image des découvreurs ou des créateurs. Pour rendre compte de la richesse de la pensée mathématique, de la subtilité et de la profondeur de ses développements récents, la Fondation Cartier a interrogé de nombreux mathématiciens et scientifiques, et invité six d’entre eux à se faire les maîtres d’oeuvre de l’exposition : Sir Michael Atiyah, Alain Connes, Nicole El Karoui, Mikhaïl Gromov, Cédric Villani et Don Zagier. D’origines géographiques et de champs mathématiques variés, ils comptent parmi les chercheurs les plus en vue aujourd’hui, dans des domaines comme la théorie des nombres, la géométrie algébrique, la géométrie différentielle, la topologie, les équations aux dérivées partielles, les probabilités, l’application des mathématiques à la biologie…

Afin d’énoncer les mathématiques dans les espaces de la Fondation Cartier, de rendre perceptibles ces univers mentaux, d’animer l’image de cette pensée en perpétuel mouvement, il était nécessaire d’opérer une transformation de cette discipline, qui mêle ses aspects esthétique, scientifique et pédagogique en une expérience sensible. Matrice de cette transformation, un groupe de personnalités reconnues dans le monde de l’art et du cinéma – parmi lesquelles Raymond Depardon et Claudine Nougaret, David Lynch, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Patti Smith… – a été invité à accompagner les mathématiciens dans cette aventure. Choisis pour leur exceptionnelle capacité d’écoute et d’observation, ces artistes sont tous familiers du lieu pour y avoir déjà exposé par le passé. Aujourd’hui, ce sont eux qui accueillent les mathématiciens pour se faire les passeurs de leurs idées, et ensemble exprimer la pensée mathématique, se saisir de l’image des mathématiques et donner à voir le reflet de cette réalité incommensurable. Parallèlement, la Fondation Cartier propose de prolonger le parcours de l’exposition par une série d’événements, les Nuits de l’incertitude, destinés à ouvrir le débat autour du projet.

 

En engageant mathématiciens et artistes à dialoguer et à créer de concert, en les invitant à ressentir et vivre un dépaysement réciproque, la Fondation Cartier propose une aventure unique avec des personnalités uniques. Car il s’agit d’un pari. Le pari que de ces rencontres naîtra une émotion esthétique d’un ordre encore inexploré. Comme obéissant à une intuition, la Fondation Cartier entend distribuer à tous des fragments de splendeur mathématique, à la faveur d’une conjonction géométrique, algébrique, artistique et cinématographique visant à provoquer, pour reprendre l’expression du mathématicien Alexandre Grothendieck, un « dépaysement soudain ».

Save the date : les 30 et 31 janvier 2012, l’UNESCO, en collaboration avec la Fondation Cartier et l’IHÉS, organise un colloque intitulé "Mathématiques pour tous ?" consacré à la place des mathématiques dans notre environnement quotidien, abordant des questions comme l’enseignement, l’écologie, la science du vivant. Il prendra pour point de départ l’exposition comme une expérience possible de transmission de la discipline.

 

Exposition "Mathématiques, un dépaysement soudain", Fondation Cartier, Paris, 2011 :

Pour rendre compte de la richesse de la pensée mathématique, de la subtilité et de la profondeur de ses développements récents, la Fondation Cartier a interrogé de nombreux mathématiciens et scientifiques, et invité six d’entre eux à se faire les maîtres d’oeuvre de l’exposition : Sir Michael Atiyah, Alain Connes, Nicole El Karoui, Mikhaïl Gromov, Cédric Villani et Don Zagier. Lire la suite sur Moreeuw.com : Exposition Mathématiques Fondation Cartier.

Site officiel de l'exposition Mathématiques : Fondation Cartier

the girl with the dragooooon tattoo

Le générique en est sans discussion  l’un des plus beaux que David Fincher ait jamais realise. Un noir fluide(petrole? encre? sang?) peu à peu recouvre chaque chose: c’est toute la boue du monde.  Elle s’agglutine là, sous nos yeux, pour former un être composite, un ange noir et vengeur portant le plus délicieux des noms : Lisbeth Salander. Car  David Fincher pose d’emblée les enjeux de son film, indique fièrement que la seule chose qui l’intéresse dans cette adaptation du roman culte de Stieg Larsson, c’est la fille, la fille du titre original : The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Le reste, les crimes, l’enquête, l’enquêteur, ça fait partie de la commande. Bien sûr, il le traitera, sérieusement, comme toujours. Mais le cœur battant de son Millénium, la vraie raison qui l’a poussé à accepter ce nouveau film de serial-killer – après les pourtant définitifs Seven et Zodiac, et après une première adaptation, suédoise, pas honteuse, d’un livre que tout le monde (sauf l’auteur de ces lignes) a visiblement lu –, la seule raison, donc, c’est Lisbeth et l’actrice qu’il a choisie pour l’interpréter, Rooney Mara. Vénéneuse, surpuissante, insaisissable, machine désirante (et désirable), fantasme de geek fait chair.

Fincher, cinéaste de mecs, n’a que rarement donné le premier rôle à des femmes, et le reproche lui en fut d’ailleurs souvent fait .

 Cette fille, ici, est la reine des hackeuses, une espèce de détective privée connectée que des firmes engagent pour espionner la vie privée de leurs concurrents ou futurs employés.

Par ricochets, elle est amenée à collaborer avec Mikael Blomkvist, un brillant journaliste d’investigation (Daniel Craig, qui ramène un peu de son James Bond), sur une vieille affaire de meurtre rituel au sein de la haute bourgeoisie suédoise.

La première moitié du film  nous présente les deux personnages en montage parallèle, occupés à leurs affaires, chacun de son côté.

Le whodunit glacial côtoie la chronique d’un quotidien suffocant. La déliquescence du vieux monde résonne avec la pourriture du système d’exploitation (au deux sens du terme, social et informatique).

Et puis, soudain, l’étincelle jaillit : la réunion des deux personnages dans le même plan. Dès lors, le film accélère, s’emballe, aussi sûrement que le chat Blomkvist fait défiler les photos-indices sur son Mac (comme un remake de Blow up sponsorisé par Steve Jobs), tandis que la panthère Lisbeth, pure créature numérique, ingurgite du data nuit et jour.

Les notes désaccordées s’accordent, l'analogique se cale sur la vitesse folle des réseaux, l’alchimie entre les deux corps se produit! Et c’est sublime, prodigieusement beau et intelligent!

Mais cela ne dure qu’un temps. Car, très vite, à l’issue d’un épilogue hitchcockien trace en quelques plans tragiques, chacun retourne dans son monde, la mine fatiguee...

La nuit bat son plein. La rue est vide. That’s no country for young girls.

photographers Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamsweerde

Heath Ledger

Since beginning their collaboration in the late 1980s, photographers Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamsweerde have become known for their edgy and creative photography which blurs the line between art and fashion. Three decades later, they're still pushing artistic boundaries( Lanvin campaign, all the V front covers, etc).

 

A photograph by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin is almost always instantly identifiable. Be it an image from the duo's longstanding collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent or their beautiful nude-portraits series, the Dutch pair consistently inject their work with a slightly surreal, subversive twist. "There’s a duality and ambiguity in every image," says Van Lamsweerde. "There’s always a dichotomy — whether it’s the tension between the beautiful and the grotesque, the spiritual and the mundane, high-fashion and low-fashion — there’s this in-between moment." To commemorate over 30 years of being the industry's most in-demand couple (who have a son, Charles), Taschen’s  released book, Pretty Much Everything, contains, well, pretty much everything over the span of their career.

My favorite photos are the ones where they shoot celebrities in black and white. The celebs almost seem like they're distressed, breathing death underneath their most vivid apparences!

Michelle Williams

Jude Law

Natalie Portman

Reese Witherspoon

Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow

Benicio del Toro

Penelope Cruz

Kate Winslet

video suie moartea boxelor

http://youtu.be/43beuzU6ux4

suie paparude live coooooooooool

http://youtu.be/ldQ9GUHTe78

suie paparude live coooooooooool

http://youtu.be/ldQ9GUHTe78

in the mood-english

"In the Mood for Love"

by Wong Kar Wai.

        The spectator's idea of High Love, all over the world, has been insulted, in the past years, by the "Reality shows". The discourse of this new type of television is idiotistic and frustrating. It evolves around boys and girls barely wearing any  underwear, walking uncombed between bedrooms and bathrooms, having sex or pretending to, among faked furniture and probably in the smell of perspiration... The result: characters and spectators are deprived of full moon summer nights, of exotic perfumes, of priestesses in long silk gowns that have provoked, or at least suggested so many delicious sins!...

        If Cinema didn't exist, if a chinese movie didn't come by every now and then, if television was our only master of life, we would become a world of impotents, with slothful and inhibited sexual practices, perfect for the confessional, but deadly for those determined to dream at the troubles, the longing, the madness of Love!

Here is though the film of Wong Kar Wai:"In the Mood for Love", on our screens, dvd-s and souls. A movie that should be screened in high and elementary schools as a secure remedy against the  horror beyond human of the reality shows...

        The characters of this surprisingly asian movie seem pure products of the celluloid, artificial and stylized. Until the second when we find ourselves burnt by their untamed passion.

Of an almost physical beauty and deep sadness, this film is the story of a crossed betrayal, happening in the Hong Kong of the 60ies. The main characters are both married and neighbors. They both suffer from their legal half' absence, until they uncover their unfaithfulness. Follows a movie built on a refined "pas de deux" where  self-imposed restriction fills up each scene in an almost claustrophobic manner.

        Here is a woman of great beauty, in each moment of her life. She appears, in her eyes and in the others', in the sophisticated simplicity of several chinese dresses, adherent and monastic with their high necks, with  small openings just exact for her small and feminine steps.

But it is precisely the chastity of this posture that pulses a maximized attraction. Maggie Cheung has long legs. She walks like an egret on her high heels which fatally contract her ankles. Fatally, like a call for help. She never laughs, she speaks minimally, she generates renunciation, compassion and passion... Her sanctuary is, like in a "mise en abime", the cinema theatre...

        The companion of her drama is a gentleman of a gracious fragility, may be with the most sensual nape ever seen in Cinema. He is a sad and painful figure, prisoner of who knows what... He is Tony Leung- the Prize for the Best Actor at Cannes.

These two noble creatures evolve in a wretched Hong Kong, under the desolating, but vivid gray of the rain (that the anemic people of "Big Brother" can't even suppose), in tiny offices; they live next to each other in two archaic mini-apartments, certainly less horrendous than the atoned rooms of the reality tv transmissions... They meet by chance, here and there, and they want to meet again, without ever mentioning it other than by their looks. They become closer, living with the fear of having their relationship discovered by the landlady.

        The virtuoso director retains, though, any impulse between the two, in order to further analyze the mechanics of desire, of loss and of regret, with an almost theological seriousness...The artist isolates their bodies by precise camera movements, by  hand gestures, surrounding them with the smoke curls of endless cigarettes. Wong narrows the space repeatedly, as a perfect representation of their such unusual relationship.

        The film is an interior piece of work. It is built like a visual texture: with a velvety dark tone, with nuances of crystal or deep red, with a fluffy blue...The camera swallows with one look the small chambers where the characters move. One minute later we become amazed of how well a pulled curtain becomes the bisector of our look. It is a narcotic and tactile world, where even the wallpaper breaths...

        The omnipresent rain, the dark interiors of cabs, the illiberal spaces where they live only emphasize their need of love and the frustration of living in unfulfilling couples. This is the solitude and the darkness of "the mood of love" that Wong Kar Wai wanted to create.

        Christopher Doyle’s and Mark Lin Ping’s images evolve like a dance, like a revery, opposing their physical bodies, like a meditation on lust and attraction.

Maggie Cheung is angular and metallic in the restriction of her costumes of a typical middle class wife in the sixties' Hong Kong. Leung, at his turn, is invested by the camera with a liquid sensuality and an immaculate beauty. Between the two grows an amorous tension, never expressed, a wish that cannot or does not want to be achieved. Mister Chow will discover he has talent for drawing comics, having Misses Li-Zhen as his muse. Together they start to create, but also to masochistically rehearse their future. The rehearsal scenes are extremely painful: Li-Zhen faces the adultery of her husband, and she concludes with an apparently wise(?) phrase: "We shall not be like them"...

        "In the Mood for Love" is also a fragranced movie. Not only by the noodles and chinese dumplings which abound, but also by the smell of clothes drying, after having been caught by rain...

        We do not know if they end by making love...Everyone could bid for the conclusion they wish for: repudiation, or fusion.

By the end of the film we expect the two melancholiacs to consume their love in a very cinematic manner...

At the climax of their passion, we only see two hands barely touching, filled with desire, but also with renunciation... But hasn't always High Love been that way?

by Giulia Ghica Dobre

chef de...

O Iubire Imposibila / In the Mood for Love

Un film de Wong Kar-wai. Cu Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Lai Chen, Gong Li. Gen: Drama, color, 98 minute, Hong Kong, 2000.

              Daca n-ar exista din cand in cand un film chinezesc, daca televizorul ar fi unicul nostru maestru de viata, am deveni o lume de impotenti, cu practici sexuale lenese si exhibitorii, mortale pentru cei ce se incapataneaza sa viseze la langoarea si  la nebuniile Iubirii! Filmul lui Wong Kar-Wai:"In the Mood for Love" este un antidot sigur la oroarea dezumanizanta a emisiunior "Din dragoste"...

       Filmul este povestea unei tradari incrucisate in Hong Kongul anilor 60. Ambii casatoriti si vecini, protagonistii sufera de absenta jumatatii legale, pana cand descopera ca sunt amandoi tradati. Urmeaza  restrictia auto-impusa de fiecare dintre ei, care umple fiecare scena claustrofobic.

       Femeia este de o adanca frumusete, cu simplitatea sofisticata a unor tunici  aderente, cu guler  monahal, si un slit exact necesar unui mic pas feminin. Dar tocmai castitatea acestei tinute este de o maxima impudoare. Maggie Cheung are picioare lungi, merge ca o barza pe tocuri foarte inalte care ii incordeaza fatal gleznele. Fatal ca un strigat de ajutor. Nu surade niciodata, vorbeste minimal, genereaza renuntare, compasiune si pasiune...   Companionul dramei ei este un domn de o gratie fragila, cu cea mai senzuala ceafa vazuta vreodata in Cinema: trist, dureros, prizonier a cine stie ce...

 Aceste doua creaturi nobile se agita sub ploaia continua din Hong Kong, prin birouri inguste, locuiesc in doua mini-apartamente  vetuste.  Se intalnesc din intamplare, din cand in cand, si doresc sa se revada, fara sa si-o spuna altfel decat prin priviri.

       Regizorul retine insa orice impuls intre cei doi pentru a putea analiza adanc mecanismele iubirii, ale pierderii si ale regretului, cu o seriozitate teologica. Artistul le izoleaza corpurile prin miscari precise de camera, prin gesturi ale mainilor, invaluindu-i in buclele de fum ale interminabilelor tigari.

       Filmul este o lucrare camerala, cu intuneric de catifea, cu nuante de rosu, cu albastru diafan...Suntem uluiti de cat de bine o perdea care se trage devine bisectoarea privirii noastre. Este o lume narcotica si tactila, in care pana si tapetul respira...Ploaia omniprezenta, interioarele intunecate ale taxiurilor, spatiile inguste ale camarutelor in care locuiesc nu fac decat sa sublinieze dorinta lor de iubire si frustrarea de a trai in cupluri incomplete. Aceasta este singuratatea si intunecimea starii de iubire- the mood for love- pe care Wong Kar Wai a vrut sa o creeze.

        Imaginea lui  Cristopher Doyle se dezvolta ca un dans, in contra-punct cu trupurile lor fizice, ca o meditatie despre dorinta si atractie. Maggie Cheung este angulara si metalica, Tony Leung este investit de camera cu o senzualitate lichida si imaculata. Intre cei doi creste o tensiune amoroasa, un proiect care nu poate, sau nu vrea sa fie indeplinit.

             Nu stim daca sfarsesc prin a face dragoste...Fiecare poate da legaturii lor concluzia pe care si-o doreste:

...renuntarea..., sau fuziunea…

                                        de Giulia  Dobre.