The Culture Enthusiast

I don't consider myself a Bill Murray fan but he's such an indie icon these days. I don't even know if he's still considered a comedian. He developed this sad and melancholic aura which made me stay clear of his more recent movies such as Moonrise Kingdom.

But whether I like it or not, he is setting himself apart. His career path is so different from the ones of Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase or Eddie Murphy. And I'm not saying this just because of his many collaborations with Wes Anderson but because of things like these Bill Murray Paper Dolls:

 Watching the video really made me smile. And it also made me compile impromptu lists about Bill Murray.

Top 5 Bill Murray movies

Broken Flowers

The life aquatic with Steve Zissou

Lost in translation

Quick change

Hamlet

BONUS: (movies where he's not really the main character)

Darjeeeling Limited

The Rutles

Bill Murray movies I wanted to watch, but then I saw the trailer and completely gave up:

Caddyshack

What about Bob?

Bill Murray movies I need to watch again because maybe, who knows, I'll like them this time:

The Royal Tenenbaums

Rushmore

Little shop of horrors

Bill Murray classics I shamelessly haven't watched but that I'm not planning to watch now:

Groundhod day

Ghostbusters

(Bill wearing socks image and video via Niege Borges. You should really check her website out, she's a Brazilian designer who's doing very creative work.)

What are your favorite and not so favorite movies with Bill Murray?

Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, MO-NEY!

I rented It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world because I just realized I watched many parts of this movie but I had never really seen all of it. Then I remembered why. The movie is over two and half hours.

The dialogues are really funny and make it worth while though. The physical comedy and the endless car crashes, on the other hand, do get a bit tiring.

Because of this, It's a mad... won't have that much appeal to modern audiences. Compare those phony fights, with Will Ferrell punching a baby in his new movie (around 2:40). Actually, compare the whole two hours of  It's a mad... with the two excruciating minutes of that trailer - am I the only one deeply disgusted by it?

This is exactly why we've got to give it to  It's a mad... - it is incredibly ambitious. It's more than two hours. It has 10 main characters. It has a lot of special effects*. All possible comedy stars alive are in it. (According to IMDB, it became known the director was hiring every comedian he could think of. Some famous stars even contacted him to volunteer for the movie, or to ask why they had not been contacted). 

How did they pull this last one off, by the way?  There were no ego trips. Meanwhile, Eddie Murphy, Mike Meyers and Adam Sandler went on to play more than one character (if not all) in a movie.

But the most unique aspect of the movie is the plot. Several people are ready to do what it takes - really, whatever it takes - to get their hands in some easy money (and screw others in the process).

There's so much potential for drama here. Do you remember that Woody Allen movie, Melinda and Melinda, where he tells the same story as a comedy and as a drama?

It's a mad... has a lot of potentially dramatic scenes. Like the one where Melville, the dentist, is trying to convince his wife to get in a 1916 plane just to get ahead of the others. He lies and basically risks his life and that of his wife for money. In how many dramas do we see characters risking their families lives for money?

Or the scene where Cap. Culpepper is devastated because of his money and family problems and just stares at Mexico in the map. He embodies that idea that money is an escape of all your problems, which is probably shared by all the characters in this movie and the audience. After all, we never get to know what they will do with the money or why they wanted it so badly.

We only know the motivations of two characters, Cap. Culpepper and Emeline, but it seems that everybody's motivation is the same. They think money will solve their problems. Don't we see that constantly in dramas too?



The theme of what people would do for money is very universal and one that has been explored constantly in dramas. It's a mad... could have easily turned into a tragedy, but it didn't. Why?

Take a look at the ending. Spoiler alert, baby. (Sylvester rules).


I read in IMDB that the end disappointed many, but it's still an excellent one. They get caught and no one gets the money. This is perfect because it's realistic (plus, enough with the movies where the bad guys get away with things).

In a similar and more recent movie, Rat Race, the people who spend the whole movie running around after money end up giving the money away to charity - just like that.

Can we possibly believe that people who were ready to do anything to get that prize would give it up so quickly, without resisting or rationalizing it? In It's a mad..., one of the characters in the end says they deserve the money because they "suffered a lot" for it.

Rat Race's end is politically correct and unreal. It's just the writers wishfully thinking: "maybe they will magically copy the characters' generous behavior just like we magically turned petty characters into generous ones".

It's a mad...  doesn't spare the characters but it spares us. The characters will probably go to prison but we don't have to. During the movie we (more or less) sympathized with the characters or at least cheered for some of them. I particularly liked (and pitied) Cap. Culpepper.

In the end they don't get the money and end up seriously hurting themselves. None of their previous problems is solved. The only break they get is laughter. Their ultimate consolation is comedy.

This is why It's a mad... didn't turn into a drama. The director and all those comedy starts share the idea that ultimately it's better to laugh it off. I imagine that's the reason why all those stars wanted to be a part of this movie in the first place, because they all think the same way, they agree with what the movie is saying.

A lot of people have the wrong impression that comedians are easy going people that see the world through rose colored glasses. Quite the opposite. Many times, comedians are very pessimistic, troubled people. (There are many examples to this, but you can see a fictional one in the character of the comedy producer in Melinda and Melinda, or a real one in Woody Allen and his nihilistic outlook on life).

A person doesn't become happy go lucky once he becomes a comedian. It's just that he chooses to see life differently. Melinda and Melinda's tagline is: "life can be a comedy or a tragedy, it all depends how you look at it."

It's a Mad... recognizes that we do live in a mad world full of greedy people, but it reminds us that ultimately there are things we can laugh at.

Did you like It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world? What are your favorite lines and characters? 

* Some extra info via IMDB:

The scene where Melville accidentally knocks the blowtorch into the stairs with the sledge hammer took 86 takes to get it just right.

For the intermission of the premiere engagement at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, the filmmakers recorded messages supposedly sent over police radios describing what was happening to various characters. These messages were played not only in the auditorium during the intermission, but out at the concession stand and even in the bathrooms. 

A Coen Brother's western with Jeff Bridges wearing an eye patch - what else do we need?

What called my attention the most about True Grit was the things that called Imdb user's attention about True Grit. I couldn't believe the topics of discussion in the movie's page. It sums up to: the movie was too violent, the language used by the characters was unrealistic and the performance of 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld was either underrated or overrated.

None of that even crossed my mind while watching the movie. I didn't think the movie was that violent. I'm usually very sensitive when it comes to violence, especially unnecessary violence, and I wasn't bothered or shocked by True Grit. As a matter of fact, despite having a very westerny story ("After a drifter murders her father, 14-year-old Mattie hires an alcoholic US Marshal  to help her exact revenge") the movie is also a compelling drama and a little bit of an action movie. I sure recommend this for people who, like me, are not western fans. 

Secondly, the whole deal about the language - are we all History buffs all of a sudden? During the movie, I only noticed that it was difficult to understand what Jeff Bridges was saying, but I put on the subtitles and moved on. If we feel a bunch of uneducated criminals were talking too eloquently, well, shame on us. 

Lastly, there's Hailee Steinfled. People have this thing when it comes to young actors. Let's face it, it gets us and them nowhere. Take a look at another young actor with a similar name: Haley Joel Osment from The Sixth Sense.  People were all over him after The Sixth Sense and where is he now? That movie was more than 10 years ago, can you name other good movies he's done? So, Hailee did a great job in True Grit, let's leave it at that.

Actually, I was expecting more talk about her character, Mattie. This is what really made the movie interesting for me. Unlike most westerns, this had a great female character who kept me intrigued. 

Think about it. What does she have going for her? Her father has just been killed. She is a 14 year old girl in a world filled with men with guns. Nobody gives her credit. And yet, she is brave and persistent. I'm not just talking about the fact that she is willing to spend time with a US Marshal and a Texas Ranger looking out for a criminal (and all that entails). But even before that, she is smart and brave. She had me on that negotiation scene. 

She handled that situation perfectly and got what she wanted. Yes, I envy her. I don't have the guts to bargain (plus, I think it's a little cheap, but the main reason is the non-guts thing). 

Then there's the scene where Cogburn and La Boeuf decide to leave without her and she just doesn't accept it. She is the perfect example of a person who puts her money where her mouth is. She faces a great deal of hardship ranging from sleeping with corpses, to sleeping next to an old lady who pulls the blankets to sleeping in the wilderness with snakes and God knows what.

But, most importantly, she has a real sense of justice and duty.

Her character is so unique and amazing because movies are so ready to thrown in historical inaccuracies and plainly forget common sense just for the sake of pleasing feminists. 

I'm sure you can think of plenty of examples, but take the last version of The Three Musketeers. Milady de Winter was a seductive woman and a spy for Cardinal Richelieu. This 2011 version portrays her as a ninja. (You needn't see the movie, to get the gist of it check the trailer, around 1:00).

Movies are too hasty in selling us this idealized version of the past where everything is as modern as the present. One of the many problems with doing this is that you make it seem there was no way for women to be heroines in the past.

Women's bravery does not necessarily have to do with physical skills. Mattie is a true role model because she doesn't go after Tom Chaney by herself - she goes with two other guys whose jobs was to persecute criminals. She is extremely independent and smart but there is nothing unrealistic about her. She makes the most out of the resources she has: her intelligence and her endurance (plus some legal knowledge).

She reminds me of the two female leads from Gone with the Wind, Scarlett and Melanie. All of these  three women were ready to suffer and sacrifice for their families. Their strength is in the ability to struggle and to survive and not in the ability to be a high heeled ninja - with make up on.

As far as I could tell, Rooster Cogburn was not the only one who had true grit.

A post where I over-analyse Addams Family Values and ask a whole lot of questions.


When I was a child, I used to love the Addams family. They seemed so strange and at the same time so cool. I was strange and wanted to be cool, so it was the perfect movie for me. The cast was amazing and the jokes were dark and funny.

Gomez's mustache, Morticia's glowing eyes, Pugsley striped shirt... it was all fun and games until I watched Addams Family Values with a more critical eye. I didn't mean to do it, it just happened. Suddenly, I'm scared of the Addams. While I was watching this sequel I was shocked and it wasn't at the fact that the beautiful blond nanny is actually Joan Cusack.

So, we need to talk about the Addams. First off: why are they rich? The characters are different but they a) seem to accept that difference in themselves and b) not care if others don't accept it. But the producers want us to accept them too. Why not make them poor or middle class? It's like the producers thought we'd might be more responsive to them in case they were rich. Apparently, the Addams need validation.

It's like that saying: "Rich people aren't crazy, they are eccentric." Does this apply to the Addams clan? Are we willing to accept and overlook strange behaviour as long as it comes from rich people?

Notice that this is not a mere detail. The plot of both Addams Family movies revolves around people trying to get their money (first their sleazy lawyer, then a gold digger psycho).

Since we mentioned Pugsley, why does he exist? He has few lines and does nothing. He only does what Wednesday tells him to. Even in camp he seems to be in the same room as she is.


Who are the boys in this movie? Joel Glicker is a shy boy who's allergic to everything and who is despised by Wednesday in the end. How are boys supposed to react to this movie if there isn't one interesting, confident boy in it?

Anyway, it's difficult to watch and enjoy Addams Family movies now. It seems that their agendas are too out there for me to overlook them. You have jokes concerning killing other people (be them your annoying camp conselours, your camp mates, your parents, your husbands etc), jokes about the devil, a glamorization of all things criminal.

Wednesday did prove her point - she is scaring me to death.

In an episode of Seinfeld, Elaine tells Jerry: "It is so sad. All your knowledge of high culture comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons." 

What's even sadder is that all my knowledge of high culture comes from pop culture, from Tv shows just like Seinfeld.

For some years I've been trying to listen to classical music. It has been somewhat difficult to appreciate it, you know, after years of exposure to every new pop band and song that ever existed. (Yes, this means I know What makes you beautiful by heart. Please don't judge me, it's an addiction.)

Anyway, one of the issues of beginning to listen classical music is exactly what happened with Seinfeld. You already know some of the songs, so you feel happy because hey, suddenly I'm not so dumb, but them it's like yeah, this is from Tom and Jerry.

Here's some pieces that made me happy to recognize them only to realize it was from a movie. See if you can guess from which movie they are (answers in the end):

1) Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro

2) Bocherinni: String Quintet in E, Op. 11 No. 5 

3) Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1st and 2nd movement

4) Poulenc: Mouvements Perpétuels No. 1

5) Listz: Liebesträume, S 541 

From the movies:

1) Trading Places (opening scene).

2) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (I'm Abbey Froman scene). 

3) The Truman Show (I never stopped believing scene).

4) Rope (Philip plays it in the piano). 

5) All about Eve (it's the only song Margo wants to listen at her party).

Do you remember any other movies that used classical music?

(Before I begin I'd just like to say I was extremely shocked by the news of what happened in Aurora, CO. To everyone involved: my deepest sympathies, we're praying for you all.)

I wrote a rather lengthy post on The Dark Knight Rises but I felt it was difficult to talk about it without giving away the end. Therefore, I made a video about it! This way nobody can arrive at the post because of a Google Images search and read the ending. So, just to make sure: spoilers ahead.

This is my first video post ever, I had a lot of fun doing it, hope you enjoy it! Please forgive my English and my poor video making skills...

Let me know what you think!

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

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.

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

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.

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!

I’m very lucky to live in a house where I can use movie lines in a conversation. Sure, it would be nice if we quoted Shakespeare during dinner, but the reality is that we are a much more pop culture oriented family. Here are some of the movie quotes we use in our house:

I have this weird pattern when it comes to trilogies and I suspect most people do too. It seems impossible to like all three movies in the same way. I usually have no interest in the first movie, then I absolutely love and obsess about the second one, and when the third one comes out I end up having a luke warm reaction to it. It was like this with Indiana Jones, The Lord of the Rings, and X-Men. I'm pretty sure it will happen again with Batman.

I'm afraid I'll be totally indifferent to The Dark Knight Rises despite being super anxious to watch it. Seriously, if I didn't have a job that's all I would think about.

Unable to wait for the next Batman, I decided to give Batman Begins another chance. Maybe I could still save this trilogy before Gotham is ashes. So I watched it again. It turned out to be not so bad. There were many things that bombed in Begins that Christopher Nolan  improved on Dark Knight.

The first one was the miscasting. I believe there were three big miscasting in Batman Begins: Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul and Tom Wilkinson as Falcone.

Don't get me wrong, I like these three actors and think the last two are actually amazing ones. Let's start with Katie Holmes. I still see her as Joey, not as Batman's love interest. Heck, I don't even see her as an adult yet. I was surprised to learn Christian Bale and her are only four years apart  because she looks so much younger than him!

Fortunately, Maggie Gyllenhaall substitutes her in The Dark Knight. To be quite frank, I'm not so crazy about Maggie Gyllenhaall either, but I believe she did a much better job. At least she looks like a district attorney.

She even looks good next to Aaron Eckhart. Katie Holmes, in that movie about cigarettes, didn't.

Secondly, there's Liam Nesson. When you think of Liam Neeson the words classy, smooth, intellectual, scarves come to mind. The words criminal master mind and ninja do not come to mind.

During this second watch I paid more attention. I actually cared. So I could follow Bruce's background and motivation. But still - young heir goes to China to become a criminal and is picked up in prison by a secret ninja organization whose mastermind is called Ra's al Ghul. Talk about suspension of disbelief.

The last thing that bothered me was Scarecrow. When is he going to have his big break? He is given a fair amount of on-screen time in Batman Begins and only slightly appears in the beginning of The Dark Knight. Will he be on The Dark Knight Rises? Probably not, which is a shame because I would like to see his character become more developed. The scene where he goes all crazy - on his horse, mind you - and Joey, I mean Rachel, scares him away with an eletroshock weapon was just pathethic. This town does deserve a better class of criminals. Nolan (and of course Heath Ledger) sure gave it to us.

This is yet another point where The Dark Knight Rises worries me. Will we have great villains? No one will ever surpass Heath Ledger's Joker, but Bane just seems creepy and I can't really make out what he says sometimes. So, we have Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, a guy with a breathing mask and nothing to say and... Liam Neeson again.

However, I can rest assured that I learned how to like Batman Begins and overlook what bothers me about it - it gets better in the sequel. Morevoer, Nolan did something none of the previous Batman directors seemed to do: think of the Batman movies as whole.

When you watch both movies in sequence you can see the continuity of  supporting characters, of the plot, the development of Batman and Gotham. I would venture to say Nolan knew what he was doing when he began the first of his Batmans. If he didn't, he at least managed to make them cohesive.



Besides, Nolan made the movies not totally dark (Burton's Batmans) and not totally comic (Schumacher's Batmans). He used elements of our own current historic period. In Begins we have a terrorist organization who thinks Gotham has reached total decadence and, therefore, must be destroyed. In Dark Knight, we have Batman abusing people's privacy when he uses their cellphones to locate the Joker. In Rises there are traces of Occupy Wall Street and (the same?) terrorist organizations.

Maybe the last movie of the trilogy won't bomb. All we can do is wait for The Dark Night Rises and stop worrying about Liam Neeson.

Have you seen Batman Begins? Which is your favorite Batman?


Images via  1, 3, 6