3D-zamăgire.

Săptămâna trecută s-a nimerit să merg la două filme 3D, la Cinema City (Timișoara). Spun „s-a nimerit” pentru că nu am mers din proprie inițiativă, dar nici luată cu forța. Adică m-am alăturat dorințelor altora fără nicio reținere. A ieși la film, până la urmă, reprezintă un mijloc (tolerabil/ plăcut/ foarte plăcut) de a petrece timp cu prietenii sau familia. Trebuie să fii un caz (mai) special dacă mergi la film singur: un adevărat iubitor de cinematografie, sau un om foarte plictisit de companie, sau amândouă la un loc…
În fine, dacă tot merg la film într-un context social, ar trebui măcar să merite „efortul”. Dar cred că am ajuns să nu mai suport filmele 3D. Ori am eu probleme cu ochii, ori ochelarii au defecte, ori calitatea ecranului e proastă… Nu știu care e motivul, dar nu mi se pare că merită să dau 19 lei ca să mă chiorăsc la un ecran timp de două ore. Bine, nu au fost banii mei, dar nu asta e important (!)… Mi se pare ciudat când cineva povestește despre un film 3D, și îl ridică în slăvi de parcă mai bine de atât nu se poate, de parcă a avut parte de adevărata experiență a cinematografiei moderne.
Și eu am simțit asta, o dată. Când aveam 10 ani, părinții mei ne-au dus cu cortul în Europa. Am petrecut două zile la Paris, prima vizitând Turnul Eiffel, și a doua la Disneyland. Atunci a fost prima oară când am văzut un film 3D, și într-adevăr a fost incredibil, mai ales pentru acea vârstă. Ok, știu că nu pot compara Cinema City cu Disneyland, dar conceptul de 3D e cam același, sau ar trebui să fie același. Un film 3D ar trebui să mă facă să mă dau la o parte din fața obiectelor plutitoare sau măcar să tresar când vine un pumn spre mine… Asta cred eu că este diferența dintre 3D și 2D, impresia puternică de participare la acțiune. Dar până acum, la acest cinematograf, singura diferență pe care am simțit-o a fost nevoia de a-mi da jos ochelarii de câteva ori în timpul filmului, pentru a-mi putea odihni ochii.
Ei bine, cred că m-am plâns destul, în niciun caz nu vreau să descurajez mersul la cinema. Vroiam doar să-mi exprim dezamăgirea în legătură cu experiența mea de aici. Presupun că așteptările mele au fost mult prea mari…

Un Profet.

Putere. Moralitate. Supraviețuire.

Filmul prezintă povestea unui tânăr de 19 ani, Malik El Djebena, jumătate arab, jumătate corsican, care s-a înstrăinat de comunitatea musulmană. După ce a fost condamnat la 6 ani de închisoare, Malik este ales de Cesar Luciani, șeful bandei de Corsicani care făcea legea prin închisoare, să ucidă un prizonier. Malik comite crima, și astfel câstigă încrederea lui Cesar. Promovat la rangul de locotenent, tânărul ajunge să controleze aproape toate afacerile murdare din închisoare… iar mai târziu, propriile lui afaceri.

“Un Prophete” a fost ultima ecranizare de la Festivalul de Film Francez, și cu toate că a trebuit să stau două ore jumate într-o sală fără pic de căldură, a f0st probabil cel mai bun film pe care l-am văzut anul acesta.

If I could be any book charater…

… I’d be Fanny, from Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park”.

Besides the fact that Jane Austen is one of my favorite writers, her main character in Mansfield Park is just the kind of woman I’ve always wanted to be.

Faithful, honest, generous, prudent, selfless, respectful… and with so much love in her heart. A shadow in her own home, someone few members of her family show interest in, taken for granted so many times… and yet she does not complain, she does not judge… keeping her pain well hidden and her love a secret for so many years.

I admired her patience, her strong will, her hopes, her loyalty, her moral back bone. If I could be any character it would be Fanny… for though she was fragile… she did not break.

Severe Clear.

Iraq War Documentary

Marine Corps Times – “This is Real”

You can find this article here: http://severeclearthemovie.com/wordpress/

A truly amazing story. I don’t like war footage, I can barely watch war movies, but this, this is real, and it’s worth watching. To see how a war really looks like is something we don’t get to see very often. The pain and confusion, the feeling of duty towards a country, the mess, the chaos.. the ugliness of it all, seen through the eyes of a marine. I want to watch this movie. Until then, I’ll just enjoy the article and trailers.

“Armed with a Camcorder, a Marine penetrates the fog of war.” By Jon R. Anderson – Staff writer

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, visibility in the skies over New York City was unlimited — what some pilots call “severe clear.” It’s why the images of that day are so sharp.

Filmmaker Kristian Fraga took this historical footnote and turned it into the title of his new grunt’s-eye view of war as seen through the camcorder of Marine 1st Lt. Mike Scotti.

“Severe Clear” is a fitting title, Scotti says.

“It’s why the terrorists were able to line up on the towers from so far away,” says Scotti, who lost a high school friend that day.

Scotti went to war with a similar kind of stark clarity. A forward observer with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, he was set on vengeance.

He had a box full of blank videotapes to capture it all in living color.

Scotti returned from war with hours of vivid video, but his certainty was replaced with a fog of confusion. After seeing so much, he felt unseen by the civilian world around him and unsure of the war itself.

“I went there with such clarity and came home in a dust storm,” he says. Turns out, on severe clear days, the horizon can melt away — the sky and ocean blurring together, leaving pilots unsure if they’re going up or down.

“Yeah, I was mad,” he says. No weapons of mass destruction. No link to 9/11. And good Marines were dying. “I was mad for about a year, and then I just got over it.”

The movie captures Scotti’s journey in jerky, gritty, yet often all-too-clear detail. Fraga’s editing weaves the Marine’s raw footage and plain-spoken narration into a 93-minute immersion into war that has already garnered acclaim at film festivals, even as it opened in limited release around the country.

It’s a cliche to call documentaries “unflinching,” but Scotti’s story will make many squirm. In war, sometimes you see too much, and Scotti wants the viewer to see too much, as well.

“This isn’t ‘The Blair Witch Project’ — this is real,” he says. “If we didn’t include the harsh stuff, it wouldn’t have been real.”

More than that, though, he hopes civilians come away from “Severe Clear” understanding the reality of war and warriors, as opposed to the P.R.-like public portrayals so common today.

“If we’re going to be sent to the other side of the world to kill or be killed, people should get a chance to see us for who we really are.”

And what they really see when they’re getting shot at. And what it looks like when people die. When the brain of a little girl falls out of her skull. Or a man bleeds to death. Or when the simple act of stepping onto an airplane can become the most surreal of moments.

The purpose is not to shock, but to bring understanding.

“Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult,” wrote fabled military strategist Carl von Clausewitz. “The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war.”

That’s a quote familiar to every Marine, but Scotti says he hopes the unremitting clarity of a movie that pulls no punches might make the inconceivable just a bit more comprehendible.

“I wanted to create a shared experience,” he says. “I didn’t want to do this for people who have served in war. We already know what it’s like. I did this for those who haven’t been to war. I wanted to be able to show my parents, my brothers, my girlfriend and say look, this is what we went through.”

It was the idea of shared experience that helped Scotti find his way through the fog that came after war.

“It helped me bridge the isolation gap,” he says. He hopes it can do the same for other veterans who may struggle with finding the words for their own experiences.

“You’ve got to fight through that fog,” he says. “I encourage everyone to find a creative outlet, whether it’s writing, painting, poems, photography or whatever. You have to find ways to get that stuff out and tell your story.”

Real clarity has come in reaching out to other vets. Although he got a high-paying job on Wall Street after leaving the Corps in 2007, last year Scotti helped launch Reserve Aid, a nonprofit organization that so far has raised more than $3 million for reservists struggling to pay bills.

“I want to spend some time fighting for the right thing,” he says. “I’ve seen the power in helping out other people in need. Now, I’m trying to use my energy for good.”