Monday, August 14, 2006
Dinner and a Shot
The reunion Dinner yesterday was pretty good, heaps of food (which I will put up a picture of soon) like abalone, huge fishes, crayfishes(my fave!), curry chicken, roast duck and I lose track.
Went on a French movie binge lately, well, foreign movie anyway. Caught Love me if you dare, which has great visuals and a wonderful storytelling technique, though the concept is deliciously twisted (yet)in a subtle way. Reflects very much on how humanity really is, brutal and selfish yet still searching for beauty, meaning and order.
Goodbye Lenin was more funny than thought provoking, but is still a very good watch in that it talked about how reality is only what you create and now even I don't know to what extent I want to believe that the truth is what I really want.Maybe it only matters to me in principle.
The Return was Russian so I had fun listening to it but the ending was non satisfying. For me at least. I felt two hours closer to death (the movie was around that long and what i got out of that was only ironic role reversal) without having gained much enlightenment in the process. Amelie and A la Folie pas du tout were very well done, the visuals are similar and the liveliness of the film in general was very lovely.
Some films are alive that way, when you watch them, you feel like you're breathing, which is something I realised I haven't done in a long time. I've been tense 24/7 like my shoulders being up to my ears and I've been holding my breath. Somehow lately in life I just feel, physically and in more ways than one, that I've been holding my breath for a very long time. (which is especially strange when you play the cello). Maybe the next real breath I take will be that of chilled and winter air.
Watched The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté)at the Cathay PictureHouse today. First time I've been there, but the layout is really lovely, and hearing the guy play Toccata in E minor (former exam piece) and his teacher play the Brahms Rhapsody in G has really inspired me to start practicing again...did the Toccata the minute I got back:)The lead, particularly, was passionate and intense. in general the film was intense, passionate and violent. And I can't help thinking that should be the way I live life. (violence as a romantic artistic and aesthetic notion not real dirty bloodshed). It's very interesting how so many things are similar between a French gangster and a Singaporean child pianist, like the wiping of the piano keys using a small 7.5 by 7.5 piece of cloth from left to right to left and then replacing in pocket. But I suppose someone is just going to pop up and tell me its the same everywhere and spoil my well constructed sense of coincidence.
Well constructed movie also, with the tension building and the proverbial open end, but then I wont spoil it for those who haven't seen it. Once again I see myself reflected in the situation of wanting something perfect and having it conflict with something that seems to give you the most at that moment, but as they said in Nip/Tuck (great show!)today, if you stop striving for Perfection, you might as well kill yourself.
belle epoque at 12:02 PM