The best movie I saw during Christmas was Kon Tiki. Based on the true story of Thor Heyerdahl’s travels from Peru to Polynesia. In the late 40’s he came up with the theory that the Polynesians originated from South-America, and to prove it he decided to sail from Peru on a raft made of balsa wood. The thing was that only one of the 6 crew members was a sailor and Thor himself could not even swim. Despite this, and without testing the ship’s durability, he set sails for a 100 day long journey on the Pacific.
Crazy, crazy scary movie and so well made.
Some main characters in the movie were the sharks circling around the raft. When I told my colleague Milena about it she showed me this film:
Well, I would still prefer to swim with dolphins.
I was so inspired by the movie that I had to go to the library and borrow a book on another one of Heyerdahl’s little trips – Tigris. Here he tries to see how the Sumerians could sail to Africa. I’ve only read a few pages so far but the story seems just as crazy as Kon Tiki. For one, the boat is made of a form of reed (vass) that absorbs water…
This has become a very nerdy day. First off I went to find some new glasses. I still don’t know which ones to pick. And yes, they are different.
Then I sat down with my lemon-ginger tea to watch all the reasons why we shouldn’t trust Billy Bob Thornton with our lives (I personally still trust Bruce Willis).
And my day will end with a documentary on Jean Giraud, who gave inspiration to my favourite genre; cyber punk (documentary shown on YleTeema at 9pm).
Sitter och ser på Karin när hon pratar finska och det är så trevligt när hon säger saker som mööbeli och liideri – hennes blog är faktiskt en favorit! Och om du missade programmet finns det på yle areena 🙂
I had nine out of ten of hullut päivät movie-tickets left this morning. Now I have eight. Eight to be used before the 31st of May. Are there that many good movies. I think not.
A proof of this is the one I went to see this morning – at 12.30. I have never been at a movie theatre that early before.
It was La Délicatesse with Audrey Tautou.
A French movie. A French movie that was 50% about allowing yourself to find love in the most unlikely places and 50% about dissing the Swedes.
Here is what the French think of Swedes:
1. They only eat Krisprolls and herring
2. They are tall and blond (not necessarily good-looking, which was a surprise to me)
3. They are depressed and listen to depressing music
4. And IKEA sucks
This is also all I got from this movie – it was not romantic, it was not enlightening, it did not give me any kind of emotion or though (except for “Why do Frenchmen hate Swedes?”)
I guess my point is this: don’t feel bad if you don’t get to see this movie.
And here is the trailer.
PS. You might wonder what other movies I’ll be forced to watch during the next month, the list is looking quite bleak:
One of the Snow White movies, one superhero movie, a cartoon, Hungergames, Men in Black III and (the only one I’m actually looking forward to) Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
That makes six movies… and eight tickets, would someone please stoop so low as to come with me to MIBIII – please!
Sitter och läser bloggar med inno på i bakgrunden. Det måste vara världens bästa bakgrundsljud, två människor som viskpratar med varandra och som nu som då hummar lite förnöjt “Jooo…”
That you can get a whole bag of Kiss-Kiss. A Whole Bag! Buy it for you kids, for your friends, for yourself – I think Fazer has created world peace – you just eliminate all the bad alternatives.
Gooseberry-carrot (krusbär-morot) jam. Bought from a church fair. Next year – homemade!
Work of art. I never thought you could make a reality show where artists compete against each other but this is just amazing. Like Project Runway only without the boring middle part. Airs on AVA Wednesdays at 8pm (season 1). This week they have to make something shocking – can’t wait!
As I was free this weekend I decided to just sit in front of the TV. A great idea since Jonas had been so nice as to give me some new series. (It was also nice of him to spare my brother from the inconvenience)
And I was a happy potato indeed since he knows my taste so well. Shameless was the series I watched. And watched. And watched some more. So now I’ve almost finished the first season.
But I’m a bit embarrassed to say that it took me about three episodes and reading the acknowledgements in the beginning to realize that this was just an American version of my favorite British series. It has the exact same name, plus the characters also have the exact same names, but still…
I take it as a sign of the excellence with which the series is made. And of how much they have managed to Americanize it.
As I always like to blame others for my faults I can also say that the reason why I didn’t realize the connection was that I’ve never managed to see an entire episode of the British version. It was aired at around 11pm on the Finn-Swede channel 5 on Saturdays. Not the best of times…
Quite fantastic, no matter which version you prefer. Me, I’m going to watch both!
This weekend I got to watch three really good movies. And non of them was from the US! (and as always, don’t watch the trailers if you intend on watching the actual movie)
On Friday I went hunting for Emma – the one with Gwyneth Paltrow. But unfortunately the people at Makuuni don’t consider this a classic (not so hard to understand since Sea Biscuit could be found on every shelf…). But this was quite lucky as I got to rent the French movie Micmacs instead.
Storyline: A man gets shot by accident and looses his apartment, job and clothes in the process. Already dealing with the death of his father, killed at work when disarming a landmine, he now faces a life on the streets. This is the final straw, and with the bullet still lodged in his brain he decides to bring down the weapons industry who caused him all this pain.
Even though the subject seems somewhat dark the movie is all but. The characters that the man meets and who become his companions in his quest, are so sweet. I only wish I knew more French as the dialogue would be much better in the original language. But all in all, a very lovely movie.
On Saturday I had the privilege to go to Henrica’s and watch a German movie, The Lives of Others. Henrica lives with a real movie buff and I found all my favourites in her shelfs. So it was a hard pick between Leon, Kill Bill I and the previously mentioned. But I’m so happy that we got to watch that particular movie – the only one I hadn’t already seen.
Storyline: East Germany, one of Stasi’s most devoted men gets a new mission. To spy on a famous play-writer and his actress girlfriend. The mission is to bring the man down, and it shouldn’t be that hard since you’ll always find something if you look hard enough. But then he starts to have doubts.
A story about being a good man. Truly beautiful, and scary.
On Sunday I remembered that I had the movie Wild Target on my computer. This is a British one.
Storyline: An assassin is hired to kill a young girl, a born thief who gets everything for free; clothes, food and men. But when he hesitates someone else tries to beat him to it and he finds himself protecting his own target.
Funny, quirky and a bit fingers in throat gammal gubbe sjuka (but you can live with that).
Went out this Saturday. Not in the evening though (30.4) as I avoid moving through the minefield that is hundreds of drunken Finns. But during the day to find the most amazing candy shop, Sweet Shop, and Turku’s cutest design store Polkka Jam.
Bought a pillow with a print inspired by some of Turku’s older houses.
Went home, but the shopping spree didn’t end there – the internet and a visa card is not a good combination. Did some multitasking, watching an interview with Tina Fey while buying her book “Bossypants”. But Tina is a hero of mine, so it was well worth it. This is one of the reasons:
Found a link to this wonderful post about how movie titles have evolved. It was based on a site where they have collected an impressive number of movie title stills, ranging from the 20s to today’s block busters.
And it made me think of the actual intro to movies, not just the title/font used.
Ever since someone came up with the brilliant idea of putting a camera-man into a helicopter we’ve had to watch the same movie intro over and over again.
I’m talking about the one that starts with water. It can be evening, morning, noon, doesn’t matter. But there we are flying over what seems like an endless ocean. And then the camera angle changes, it swoops up and across the water you suddenly see it. The City with a big C. And by some heavenly power, all cities seem to lie next to water. And by some unexplained lack of imagination all movie directors seem to think that this is what we want to watch.
Please stop doing this! These kind of intros make me want to leave the movie theatre without even knowing who the third biggest actor/actress is – you know, the name that comes right after the film title.
Idathé 