Moliére (Film 2007)

Directed by Laurent Tirard, the film is a French production which was released in Europe in January 2007 and USA july 2007. It is a work of fiction although supposedly Moliere is in it but what is conveyed throughout the film is his works coming into life within this fictional biography. The story takes place in France 1645 when Moliére is released from the prison, by an extremely talentless and mind numbingly idiotic aristocrat who hopes to gain the affection of a young Marquees. The rest as we call it is pure comedy!

The role acting is superb as are the setting and direction. The comedy of condition blends so well with physical comedy in the embodiment of the plot but of course the director owes that greatly to the humor of Moliere himself and the talents of his actors.

The video below is a great scene between the aristocrat and Moliére while he tries to teach him a thing or two about acting. Watch it for sure and you will not regret it:

And below I attach the trailer. If you would like to have a pleasant night, after a hard day's work, in order to release some tension through the genre of comedy then Moliére is going to do just that for you. I strongly recommend it.

 

STAR WARS

Episodes: I,II,III,IV,V,VI

Now that there is a new Star Wars movie blooming somewhere in the horizon, it occurred to me: “Hey, I have never watched Star Wars. Let’s do that!”

 

So that’s what I did…One movie after the other. I had a good trainer though, by whom I was instructed to watch the old trilogy first, which are the epsidoes IV, V and VI; only then was I cautiously permitted to commence to I,II,III; which I did.

Before that my knowledge of Star Wars movies, was restricted to the first episode I had seen in the cinema but did not pay attention because of a boyfriend factor and the glimpses of Master Yoda, I appeared to catch every time there was Star Wars airing on tv channels, whom I used to call “The Green Creature”.

I was so sure that after having watched Star Wars I was going to trash it here!

Funny…as it turns out, after all the blood and gore and sex I, inevitably, keep watching in contemporary works and series, the naivety of Star Wars was like a breath of fresh air. Everything in it is so naïve that it makes it almost childish. It was a nice change of pace to be able to watch a "grown up movie" with my 4 year old son and then have light-saber fights with each other (Of course he is Luke and I am Princess Leia). It was nice to watch the Return of the Quest Romance for a change! Lately there is a new fashion of making everything grey, “no good guys and no bad guys!” since it is claimed that life isn’t like that. Excuse me but I can point out some villains of the history and even some villains of our times that can make Lord Sidius and Darth Vader wear their shoes reversed! If one claims that there are no villains in real life then I suggest one reads more newspapers and history books.It is true that in real life the villain doesnt always lose and sometimes the bad guy wins. Well this is where fantasy comes to rescue offering you a nice warm corner called escapism. After all...this is not supposed to be real life and real world...

I do admit though, the direction is minimal and the transitions between the scenes are the effects of old Windows Movie Maker which I don’t even use for my slideshows anymore. The Green Creature aka Master Yoda is still ridiculous to my eyes and the cute koala bears, parading under the name of Ewoks giving a nice beating to Storm Troopers is in fact laughable. Some of the plots are cheesy and rushed, the mistaken identity tradition was not employed as it should have been, but, and this is a big BUT, I will watch those major flaws and fails, and take it any time of the day over works which lately sneak into our screens, under the name of fantasy when in fact they have got nothing to do with it at all.

This is fantasy, this is the genre of quest romance with futuristic, sci-fi elements, and if you think the plots are cheesy and action guided, and you don’t like the fight between the good and the evil then you are absolutely free not to watch it. Throwing a bunch of dragons and magic into blatant sensationalism does not a fantasy make. And in this supposedly sci-fi work I have found more fantasy fiction then I could have imagined.

Finally in concluding this post I will adhere to the tradition of Star Wars and liST the movies I found enjoyable from best to worst.

-Episode III

I think in this latest production, the world of Star Wars had really matured in both movie direction and plot. I simply loved one specific scene with the impending mask on Anakin’s face. Ewan McGregor had excelled in the role of Obi-Wan. The biggest technical fail in my opinion was the computer generated storm troopers.

-Episode V

This was all the way a very pleasant movie to watch. There were a lot of parts where I was impressed when considering that this movie is two years older than I am! I agree with Princess Leia’s sentiments when she tells Han Solo that she loves him. She has got my blessing in her choice. Jokes aside I find Han Solo to be one of the best charming scoundrel characterizations.

- Episode IV

Considering that it was filmed back in 1977 I find it completely inspired. I am going to choose to excuse the pitiful sword fight (if you can call it that) taking place between Vader and Obi-Wan.  

-Episode II

Apart from the seriously lame scene with Padme and Anakin rolling on the grass I find the overall quality of the movie well enough.

-Episode VI

The worst spot was harder to choose than the best. I find both the sixth episode and the first equally good and bad. First I went for the sixth because of the koala bears and then I remembered that the first episode had the mutant giraffe Jar jar.The sixth offered closure but the first offered the Sith. So I went for the older movie for the fifth spot because of its age and placed episode one in the sixth place of my list. There we go:

-Episode I

In my opinion it had very little to offer and they were all Liam Neeson.

So I think, that is all there is to say about Star Wars for me. Would I watch them again? Well I guess I would…every three years, in case the Empire wins. I wouldn’t watch it in the sickly way I do with The Lord of the Rings with all my neck hair standing up when I see the Shire but still…this is as far as it goes for me with sci-fi since I am a hard-core fantasy fan.

May the Force be with you!!!

Phonebloks

Finally an idea worth keeping!!

I have very recently come across this bit of information on the internet. Now I did not have a lot of time to read about it but what I have read so far really makes me like this vision already. The video below really says it all but if I had to sum it up here is the idea:

You get a phone which is built on changeable, hence upgradable blocks. You can build it according to your needs and upgrade it when you feel it is getting old. The idea behind it all is to prevent fast-growing technological waste. I so far like it very much indeed. I hear they have already signed up with a specific phone company in order to bring this project into production and I would like to follow their progress quite closely.

You can find more info on their official site .

www.coursera.org

Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative

Mission accomplished!

I recently have come across this incredibly entertaining and instructive outlet of self-development: Coursera. It offers a wide-range of Universities from all around the world as well as some classes in multiple languages; But if you would like to give it a try English is a must since the best and the most courses are offered in English.

 

It works pretty easily, you go visit the page, sign up for the site and then choose the class you would like to roll and you are good to go. There is a wide range of courses, some of them requiring a specific previous knowledge, some of them, just for beginners. In any case if you wish to acquire a plain Coursera certificate it is completely free but if you would like to receive a completion certificate from the University of the class itself then you are supposed to pay for it.

Either way it is a great way for self development with or without a certificate. I have rolled for several classes, some of which I follow closely by doing the quizzes and the assignments and some of which I simply put on the watch list because although I do not care about the certificate I would like to follow them still in order to gain knowledge.

In all the courses you take you can either download the class videos in order to watch them on your tv later on or you can follow them on your computer.

I myself have just completed my first course in distinction track. As the sub-heading suggests it was of course about gaming but it beautifully and thoroughly evaluated games' narratives in various forms and how books and poems are remediated. I have to say; I enjoyed every minute of this course and learned so much on a topic which I already knew well. But this course helped me go to the roots of the specific genre of fantasy fiction. We have evaluated and discussed various works including a part of Spencer's Faerie Queene. 

But the class's main focus was on The Lord of the Rings. We have discussed and prepared assignments on how Tolkien's work was remediated into films and games. Since I had a fine grasp on the subject already, as many on the course also did, we were able to appreciate it on another level. 

If you have got time, please spare 15 minutes to watch the video I have created for an assignment. We were supposed to make our way to Weathertop and compare and contrast how the three medias (the book, the film, the online game) handled it in their own ways. We had to primarily focus on only one aspect and I had chosen to compare and contrast  the setting / mise en scène / gamespace. We were instructed not to include any videos from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings so I had to find other ways to illustrate the points I was making concerning the movie. I hope you will enjoy it.

In concluding this post I would like to say thanks to the main instructor of this course along with his TAs who made the class discussion videos so completely enjoyable. 

I will be coming back to coursera , that is, if I ever leave it at all...    

  

The God of Small Things

Should write shorter novels...

  Written by Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things did look like a promising book when I lifted it off the shelf. It was written back in 1997 and so far it is the only novel of the mentioned author. The main theme implies how the small things change your life forever whereas every life changing event which leads to a series of catastrophes is in fact the opposite of small and unimportant. 

The setting is quite strong with detailed descriptions of not just the spaces but of characters as well. So visioning the book and directing your own movie in your head while reading it is quite the easy task. 

What is not an easy task is reading through a story which feels stretched after a while. 

In general I am in great favor of a mystery, which is to be revealed later on or at the end. Especially if it includes a O.Henry style twist. But if the author reveals too much and lets the reader guess it through the mid-book then it is completely ruined. And no amount of repetitive staccato sentences lifted off from "Waiting for Godot" is going to save it. 

Despite the wrong technique employed in the book, the story is interesting and even informative when it comes to reading about a culture which is so wholly unconnected to that of your own. The non-sequential narrative is a must when there is a mystery to be revealed. Going back and forth in the story is always refreshing and it is even something I adore since I've read my first Jose Vasconcelos book.

Looking at the book from every angle I can see its misused potential. Much like the characters within it, the book refuses to transcend and instead stretches itself to its limits, up to a point where you sit back and say: "Just get to the point please.". The third person narration used in the story resembles a chatty 90 year-old who has to talk about her childhood for an hour beforehand in order to explain why the wine she bought yesterday was tasty. 

In concluding this post I have to say that the book was not bad. It could have been a masterpiece had it been shorter and if the writer had not succumbed to some cliche techniques such as repetitions and staccato sentences which really only work for short stories and plays. As it is now however I can only call it mediocre.

Concerning Freedom of Speech

Apparently there is none where I live...

Because when you try to speak up, when you try to stand up for what you believe is right you have to be prepared for tear gas, police assault and be subjected to unbelievable brutality. A story which ends in broken bones and hospitals. Some stories end in life-long effects of the various chemicals which are being used by the police which hides his helmet's numbers so that he cannot be traced or acted legally upon.

Apparently where I live even if you resist without harming anything or anyone ploys will be thrown in your way so that you will look like an anarchist rather than a civilian. Police will act a seriously lousy theatrical play for sold out media to shoot images which are far from the truth itself.

Apparently where I live the PM is so insecure, so mentally disturbed, so far from capable of running a cart let alone a country that instead of soothing the hundreds of thousands people, he provokes and polarizes them further almost in a manner as if he is deliberately making a way for a civil war. Apparently where I live the PM threatens his own people and his ministers go one step further to tweet: "We would drown you in a spoonful of water".

Apparently where I live police assaults and arrests lawyers by dragging them on the ground, by punching and beating them while they try to speak up in a most civilized manner.

Apparently where I live democracy, freedom of speech, human rights, in short everything that is civil and valid is a huge joke and our own government laughs out loud at the moment.

BUT....

He who laughs last, laughs longest.

And we are far from being done with speaking up. 

Letter of support from Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)

To all my friends in Turkey

I am with you! We are with you! You are so right to resist the forces of autocracy and repression. It doesn't matter who they are.
If I read the Internet right, in your case, you are resisting autocratic religious zealots.
Turkey is your country and we support you and yearn for your freedom, but also, you and your struggle are so important to the rest of the world.
Every time a man or woman or child takes to the streets, and stands up for human rights, for self determination, for democracy, for Mistress Liberty, the rest of the world is in debt.
We are not physically with you in the water cannon's fire, in the tear gas clouds, but we are with you in spirit.
We applaud your stand for we know it is not easy.
Your great country stands at the gateway between east and west. Constantinople is legend in the history of civilization. Your resistance today may well be a turning point between all of us and a return to the dark ages.

THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT YOU ARE DOING TODAY:

With love, and tears, and huge respect,

Roger Waters

You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/eatps/posts/566018526754462