Kinovember

From 7th until 18th November there was a film festival in Ljubljana. It happens every year, but this was the first time when we really let our love for films shine. We watched twelve (12) films together, therefore the majority of time in the past week was spent in different cinema halls, where the stories and characters took us to distant places which were sometimes filled with emotions unknown to us, but represented so beautifully we were easily affected.

Of course, not all the films were amazing and exhilarating, yet there was not a single one which would make us leave the projection before its end and no one even came close to the agony we went through last year, while watching Bela Tarr's The Turin Horse.

It was very nice (and probably not so smart) to put our studies at hold for a while and pretend we are not two busy students, but just two ordinary filmophiles who have all the time in the world to watch films all day and who wish from the bottom of their hearts smoking would again be allowed in dusty, old cinematheques.

Anyway, here's what we saw in order of preference:

Leos Carax: Strangulation Blues + Boy Meets Girl

Benh Zeitlin: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Denis Hopper: Easy Rider

Hartmut Bitomsky: Highway 40 West-Reise in Amerika

Aida Begić: Djeca (Children of Sarajevo)

Alejandro Brugués: Juan de los Muertos

Benoit Jacquot: Les adieux a la Reine

Cate Shortland: Lore

Babis Makridis: L

Quentin Dupieux: Wrong

Jonathan Demme: Something Wild

Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs

This is the look I've been giving to people at uni this whole week. It's student council election time, which means you cannot walk freely around the halls, without a crazy person following you and shoving propaganda leaflets into your face. There is a tough competition between three parties and I have trouble deciding which one annoys me the most. Probably the one who has a picture of its president on a leaflet. He is sitting in a library (because he is so so smart and hard working) but then if you look closely you can see that he has an iPad on his table (instead of a pile of books) and you can see his Facebook profile pic on it. Great success.

Also, I've finally realized something:

Socializing is not my thing. Or maybe this is just an excuse I tell myself to feel better, because I don't seem to be capable of making new acquaintances.

Surprisingly, good things are happening as well. For example, I watched a film Empire Records. Record store + good music + a bunch of crazy people + a girl shaves her head = literally the best thing ever.

With love,

Pie

Permanent Vacation

Today I watched a film Permanent Vacation directed by Jim Jarmusch and I loved it! The main character is a 20-year-old Allie (Chris Parker), who lives in New York with his girlfriend Leila, well, 'girlfriend' is maybe not the best term to describe the relationship they have, we don't actually learn much about her. She is just there, beautiful and serious, smoking and sitting in a graceful position by the window in their apartment.

Basically the whole film is about Allie who wanders around the backstreets of New York, searching for answers, trying to find out what life is about. He meets a bunch of crazy people and has short, insignificant conversations with them. His mother is in a mental hospital, father is dead and house where he was born was bombed. It does not seem he has anything or anyone to lean on, that's why he drifts.

This is an extremely slow paced film, so I might not recommend it to impatient viewers, but it has to be this way to represent Allie's mood successfully. He is lost, but in the end he finds his way out of this situation. He leaves New York and goes to Paris, although he knows things are probably not going to be any different there.

You cannot escape from yourself, but being on permanent vacation-a life tourist does the trick at least for a while.

Permanent Vacation: Allie dancing

I have my dreams when I'm awake

Leila. She does not say much, nor does Allie.

Leaving, but looking back on Manhattan

Leila: I'm tired of being alone.
Allie: Everyone is alone. That's why I just drift you know. People think it's crazy. But it's better to think you are not alone, you know, when you are drifting, even though you are, instead of just knowing you are alone all the time. Some people, you know, they can distract themselves with ambitions and motivation to work, you know, but not me...

I am starting to realise how very right he is. Moving around from one place to another without settling at least gives you an excuse that you feel alienated  because you don't spend enough time anywhere. It's a good trick. At least you don't have to deal with harsh reality of eternal loneliness.

With Love,
Pie

Boys We Love: Ryan Gosling

I just watched Drive again. And if it weren't so late, I'd watch it again. I just love everything about the movie, and I don't even know whether it's critically acclaimed or said to be crap, but who cares?
The Driver is one of my favourite movie characters ever (next to Margot, Enid, Jim Stark and Sailor, to list a few). Everything he says (and it's really not much) is so dramatic and intense and misterious yet soft and quiet and polite. I think I didn't breathe during the elevator scene at all. I won't post a link because you absolutely have to see it in the context of the whole movie if you haven't already. I'm seriously considering buying a jacket with an embroidered golden scorpion on the back.

Drive is not the only reason I've been obsessing over Mr. Gosling. It's also his feminist sensibilities that are (probably) all made up, but he seems convincing enough to me.
I even liked him in Crazy, Stupid, Love. It was the kind of movie that makes me depressed after watching it, but, still, Ryan.

He also has a band, called Dead Man's Bones which reminds me a bit of Mumford&Sons, and in this video they're performing live on a cemetery.

He (supposedly) says he had no friends until he was 14 or 15, and was in a special-needs class because of an attention deficit disorder.

It's not even my thing to have celebrity crushes and I'm 19 so according to social conventions I should already be past this phase, I think. But no one is going to tell me what to do and I like Ryan Gosling. I just think he's not a douchebag (although I like douchebags as well so I'm not making a relevant point here).

Oh and I forgot to mention his performance with Justin Timberlake on Mickey Mouse Club in 1993. 

Need I say more?

 

Sincerely, Rapunzel