The Culture Enthusiast

10 films game

Batman 8:30 AM

I found this great 10 films game on The Owl Club. The questions were very intriguing and thought provoking. Plus, I just love questionnaires. Here're my answers:

1. A film you saw as a child (if you never saw any one until the brink of adulthood leave this space blank): The Lion King.

I don't know how many times I've seen this movie. I knew, and maybe I still do, most dialogues by heart. I have goosebumps just by thinking in the stampede scene (or perhaps it's the strong air conditioning in this room). Then I grow up and it gets better: I realize it's based on Hamlet.

2. A film you haven't seen but anticipate very highly and positively: Why?

You guys so know my answer already: The Dark Knight Rises. Sorry if it's too predictable but I haven't been going to the movies, so this is the only movie I'm antecipating. (It opens today, let's all watch right now at 10 am!)

The reason I'm antecipating is that a) it's Batman, the only superhero I care about. Ok, that's a bit harsh. He's the one I most care about. Sure, I'd marry Captain America, but I'm not going to watch The Avengers for it, but I digress. b) the amazing sequel The Dark Knight c) Killer supporting cast.

3. A film a friend turned you onto or gave you as a blind gift not sure whether you would like it or not, or something you were invited to in a similar sense and felt gravely disappointed. What impression, if any, has it left?: To Kill a Mocking Bird.

I know, I know, it's such a huge classic but this movie was such a bad experience. There are some things that just didn't convince me, the story is long and seems to go nowhere. Plus, Peck's voice is so boring.

4. A film you stumbled onto without knowing what it was about and the impression it left on you: Stay

I caught this one day half way through on Tv and it blew my mind. It has everything I like disturbed painters, mysterious plots with a lot of elements to interpret and analyse and hotties like Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling.

5. The kind of film you would be willing to subject a child to, be it your own or somebody else’s, on the idea that they ought to be opened up to that kind of experience: Jumanji

I loved this movie as a child and even now. A lot of people take Jumanji for granted but they forget that their modern adaptation/sequel with Tim Robbins sucked. Moreover, many new children movies don’t keep you interested from beginning to end. I think this is a really successful movie because unlike other movies from my childhood (like Honey I shrunk the kids and Home Alone) I can still watch this today. On a different note, this movie also has a stampede.

6. The kind of film your father and/or mother would like. If they have separate tastes, feel free to put in two entries on this number.

My parents have more or less a similar taste. I guess the difference is that my dad likes 80’s comedies such as The Blues Brothers and my mother movies that make you think such as The Machinist. But one I believe they both would like is Appaloosa. It’s a modern western with a slow pace but amazing actors.

7. The kind of film you would fear may someday be banned in your own country. Why? For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada.

This movie is just an example of the type of movie that I fear it would be - not banned per se - but poorly advertised, you know? It's the type of movie it would go straight to Dvd if it ever came out at all.

8. A film that strikes you as honest and genuine, something that is at the top of its form or without comparison: Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood really thought of everything in this movie. There’s amazing characters, true and genuine drama without poser-type acting or politically correct agendas. There’s a bit of comedy sometimes, amazing commentary on current times and Christian symbolism. Oh yeah, and this greatsong by Jamie Cullum and…Clint Eastwood.

9. A film that has tried to strike the same chord in you as number 8 but ended up being something lowly and pathetically predictable by the end: Shutter Island.

Just like Stay, Shutter Island seems to demand a lot of the viewer but for nothing. It also deals with crazy people and you don’t really know what’s happening. The thing is in the end there’s no possible logical interpretation – Scorsese decided to pull a David Lynch and fool us.

10. If there’s one film that was to be sent off to a distant life-inhabited planet somewhere or perhaps to an uncharted and unexplored island or nation somewhere whose people never knew anything of film, what would you send them?
Oh my, that's such a big imaginary responsibility. I'd say Three Colors: Blue.

This movie has so much poetry in it and it's beautifully shot. (I didn't like the other movies of this trilogy though).

Images via 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10

I'd love to read your answers! Let me know if you participate. See you all on the Batman premiere!

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Change of taste, change of heart

Books 10:31 AM

The other day I was cleaning my book shelf, sorting through all the titles, cleaning the books, setting aside the ones that were too old and needed to be restored.

Three of the books that were falling apart called my attention: The Stranger and Madame Bovary

These copies were all worn out of all the many times I’ve read and re-read these stories. Many notes filled the small blank space on the bottom and the sides of their pages. That means these are my favorite books right? While I was holding them, I suddenly realized: I could give these books away and not care.

They were indeed favorite books, but now they don’t appear so appealing anymore. I actually haven’t re-read them lately.

I opened them, read a few lines and noticed how similar the three main characters are to each other, in the sense that they are people that suffer too much, while making others miserable as well. Most importantle what they all have in common is: they were all my past selves. I used to be Emma and Mersault. I'm not anymore - at least I don't want to be.

Two of them were discovered at the same age even: around 2007 I read both Madame Bovary and The Stranger and became quite obsessed over them. About the first I wrote papers in college, read critical books about it and kept saying to others that Madame Bovary, c’est moi.

In The Stranger there was Mersault whose cold detachment from others I envied. I didn’t consider him misanthropic or bad but blasé and cool. I kept quoting those infamous first lines with enormous excitement: Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t really know.

However, I don't feel that connection now. I considered just giving the books away and not restoring them. On one hand, it's pretty sad to say goodbye to my old crowd. On the other, it's like I'm ready to befriend a completely different group of people - and that's exciting.

Images via 1, 2

Do you change tastes often? Is there a book you once loved and now you can't stand?

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Romantic realism: Danielle Richards

Art 9:00 AM

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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Movies 8:30 AM

You call this archeology?

When I was a kid I used to hate Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That first scene always annoyed me. We don’t need a logical and detailed explanation for every little detail of his previous movies (where his scar came from, why he is afraid of snakes, why he wears a hat etc). Isn’t it possible he just liked hats?

However, if you think about it, this is one of the most realistic movies of the Indiana Jones saga.

Claiming Indiana Jones is realistic is something rather tricky. The movie tries really hard (and succeeds) to make him a hero, but not a super hero.

Indiana doesn’t have any super powers. He is strong, but not in the same way Batman is strong. He is not young, he has a job – as a university professor and not a professional adventurer, mind you. He is afraid of snakes, he doesn’t know how to ride a plane. Spielberg stated that his main character could make audiences feel that “with a little more exercise and a little more courage, they could be just like him.” But could we?

Despite Spilberg’s well constructed character and great, plausible stories, there is great amount of suspension of disbelief involved here.

Indy is still incredibly handsome. He gets most of the women he wants. He doesn’t go to prison or gets killed, because he can deal with nearly anything that comes his way – be that a giant boulder or a pack of annoying students.

It took me years to give up being an archeologist, because I seriously believed that was the kind of live an archeologist lead. Even Indiana himself admits to his students that “seventy per cent of archeology is done in a library.” The reality is the other 30 per cent is spent on a dirty excavation, not going on exciting adventures.

This is where the third Indiana Jones movie comes to play. It is probably the Indiana Jones movie that balances real archeology with fantastic adventures in the most convincing way. This was done mostly through two supporting characters: Henry Jones - Indiana’s father and their friend Marcus Brody.

After that long explanation on the first scene, Indiana is requested to follow a lead on the Holy Grail – the cup used by Christ during the Last Supper. He must do that not because this is his own field of research, but because his father went missing while looking for the Grail.

Suddenly, the movie sounds less like a fantasy. Henry Jones is a real scholar. He spent the last 40 years studying (and obsessing) over the Holy Grail. His work might have cost him his relationship with his son and wife, which he is aware of and doesn’t seem to care much.

The scene where he gets as excited as a child when Indiana describes the tomb of Saint Richard… anyone who’s a researcher knows that’s exactly how excited you get when you make the smallest discovery.

What comes after in this scene is even better: he congratulates Indy for his discoveries and Indy recognizes that his father did most of the work. Such displays of true humility are unfortunately not that common in the academic area.

And what about his diary?

An old leather bound journal filled with notes on perfect penmanship, amazingly realistic copies of medieval works of art, maps, discoveries. People keep sending it in parcels by mail all over the globe. It’s vintage, it’s cool. That’s the stuff nerds are made of.

And can we please talk about Marcus? I know he’s portrayed as this goofy character, but think about it: he’s hanging around in universities and medieval libraries in Venice (while doing little work himself). Ok, he once got lost in his own museum, but that means he has a museum.

Indiana makes fun of Marcus saying that he was only bluffing when he said Marcus could speak a dozen languages. We are supposed to laugh at him when we see him on the next scene looking totally out of place in Iskenderun asking “Does anyone speak English? Or Ancient Greek?”

That is funny, but I wouldn’t mind Indiana’s cracks about me, if it meant he’s lost in a nazi bunker somewhere and I’m chilling on my museum. Plus, let’s face it, who knows ancient Greek?

Later on this scene, Sallah tells Marcus twice to run but he just stays there, baffled. I can’t really say I would act differently in this situation but I guess his inability to act matches his personality – the one of a person who spends most of his time studying.

Indy is a decision maker. He sees a nazi entering his zeppelin and what does he do? He hits a zeppelin employee, takes his clothes off, put them on and walks around with a perfect pretext: asking for people’s tickets - the same pretext which will be useful to kick the nazi out of the zeppelin, by the way.

It’s difficult to imagine that a person who spends his time reading, thinking and analysing would be able to make split second decisions like that – all the time. Not impossible, but I think most nerds, including me, would react just like Marcus: “What? Run? Where to? Is that viable?”

When Henry tries to rescue Marcus, he doesn’t do it fast. He first scares Marcus and then they spend an inordinate amount of time singing and dancing to an old toast from the University club (“Genius of the restoration… aid our own resuscitation!”)

I used to prefer Indiana Jones and the Templeof Doom, but who am I in that movie? Sorry Spielberg, but the days I thought I could be Indiana are over. I can’t be Willy Scott – as a matter of fact I can totally be a whinning girly girl like Willy, but who wants to admit that? I also can't be Short Round (girly girls can’t be ninjas).

Now I’m older and nerdier and would love to be like Marcus and Henry in real life. I actually have a close resemblance to them, the only thing that’s lacking is to have a son/friend like Indiana. Suddenly, a hint of realism in the person of two old nerds pleases me more than Indy’s handsome awesomeness.

What's your favorite Indiana Jones movie? What about Marcus - the cat's pijamas or hipster doofus?

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Top 10 Tuesday: Childhood Favorites

Books 7:47 AM

I'm posting one day in advance of my regular schedule in order to participate on the weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is "freebie" so I chose childhood favorites.

As a matter of fact, I still own all of the books in the list so that means they are still interesting for adults. Here are my top 10 childhood (and current!) favorites:

Robin Hood by Louis Rhead: I can't remember how many times I've read this. I took out my old copy to see if I found any interesting notes on the margins, but I could only find passages underlined. Almost all of them are character descriptions. Maybe I had a bad memory as a child.

Alice's adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: I was a bit of an escapist as a child, so Alice's entrance in a misterious, scary and crazy world was right up little Paula's alley. The caterpillar was one of my favorite characters.

InkHeart by Cornelia Funke: the first book of this trilogy was released in 2003, so you can guess I discovered it as an adult. But I'm not ashamed of it. I mean, there's a book binder who can bring characters to life when he reads a book out loud, there's a story within a story, an incredibly smart villain and the movie adaptation has Brendan Fraser in it - how could I not like that? How could anyone not like that?

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: A must read. So many magic lines!

Marcovaldo or the seasons in the city by Italo Calvino: I had to read two of Italo Calvino's books for school, but they aren't exactly children's books. Somehow I've never read any books by this Italian author as an adult so his books are stuck as a part of my childhood.

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson: I know these are comic strips and not a book per se, but boy was I crazy about Calvin. I used to cut the comic strips out of the Sunday newspaper and collect them. I thought I was really similar to Calvin which means I must have given my parents a lot of trouble.

Tistou of the green thumbs by Maurice Druon: Many people compare this book with The Little Prince and I agree that both are very poetical and delicate. It tells the story of a sensitive boy who could grow plants just by touching the ground with his finger. He will go on to try to help others live a more beautiful life.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter: I won't lie - I discovered Beatrix Potter's works as an adult through Renée Zellweger's movie. I became enchanted by her life, her books, her sweet characters and drawings.

The Yellow Bag by Lygia Bojunga: Unfortunately not even the Spanish translation of this book is available at Amazon. I hate recommending books people can get at, but I had to include at least one Brazilian book here! This book tells the story of Raquel, a girl who puts her unfulfilled wishes into a yellow bag: her desire of being born a boy, of being an adult and a writer. One day the novel she wrote becomes true and one of the characters of her story - a rooster - appears inside her bag. This book reflects so much of my childhood: I also had this bag where I kept a souvenir from each family member.

The Paul Street Boys by Ferenc Molnar: I read this book when I was in 6th grade and everybody in my class was crazy about the story. It's about a bunch of boys who need to defend their playground from another group of boys who want to take it from them.

It was a great experience remembering all these amazing stories while I wrote this post. I'd love to hear what your childhood favorites are!