| Posted by Bel | The time is 4.04pm here in Wellington NZ |

A film that makes you sad

Three films that make me cry every time:

Aaah, Two Cars One Night. Simple, funny, poignant. So much about this short film cracks me up - and yet by the end of it I still feel the tears welling.

Amelie. Oh Amelie! Obviously I don't mean the whole film here, how could that be, when it is one of the most joyous and uplifting films to watch??

I just mean one scene in particular, which will have me sniffing and snivelling every time - despite the fact that I've watched this film so many times over.

It's the bit when Amelie sets things up so the owner (Bre - to - deau!) of the time capsule she's discovered comes across it seemingly randomly.

He is amazed to see once again all these relics of his childhood and we enter a beautiful swirl of flashbacks. ("La pince! La piiiiiince!")

Amelie is slyly watching this carthatic moment, revelling in her good deed. They then cross paths in a bar, Amelie not revealing her identity as he muses aloud and talks of the childhood he is missing out on by not connecting with his grandson. (Amelie then does this super cute hiccup thing.)

The anticipation and nostalgia of this scene is overwhelming, and beautifully acted and shot. For me, it is the highlight of a film which reigns supreme in my opinions.

HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS THERE"S A GIF:

!!!!!!!!!!!
EMOTIONAL!!

My third example is Dancer In The Dark. I assume this is a film that would make me cry every time - except that I will never watch it again.

Have I blogged about this before?? Oh well, gather round while nana retells it.

I had gotten my wires crossed with this film - I'd heard it was a musical and then for some reason thought that the music video for Bjork's It's Oh So Quiet was from in the movie. So I was expecting something in the vein of Hollywood golden age song and dance Singing In The Rain type thing.

SPOILER: totally not like that.

I restarted the DVD twice because I thought that I had accidentally put on a behind-the-scenes feature. Then I realised that this gritty, underplayed cinema veritie style was the actual movie. And then I spent the next two hours getting my emotions pummelled right in the face.

I was home alone with no flatmates around and when it finished (I was sobbing by then), I called a friend and managed to choke out: "I... (cry cry) just watched... Dancer In The Dark... (cry cry) by myself!". My friend was aghast. "You did what?! Why?? Where are you? Stay there! I'm coming round!" And I was then taken out for a restorative hot chocolate and warned thoroughly about the dangers of Lars Von Trier.

(Gasp! I just realised I re-watched Good Will Hunting the other night and THAT made me cry! Evil Lars Von Trier.)

Posted by Lou The time is 10.00am here in London UK

A film that makes you sad


I once watched Dancer in the Dark. By myself.

I cried hysterically for about half an hour.

The next day at work Bel had to give me a hug because I was still upset.

As Bel describes it, it is "emotional porn".

I would recommend not watching alone.

As a film by Lars von Trier should probably be disqualified, I am going to include an Irish pair as well.

Films about Irish Independence issues always engage me and get the blood pumping, but these two additionally gave me such a weight of personal sadness for the characters.

In The Name Of The Father because it is true, so when ... you know ... I just feel so sad that he didn't ... you know ... to see his son ... you know ...


Plus watching it recently was especially sad now that the great Pete Postslethwaite is no longer with us. In fact, knowing the storyline I started crying a bit in advance.

And The Wind That Shakes The Barley... my goodness. Um, don't scroll down if you haven't seen it. And definitely don't look at the picture.

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Okay, so you know how some films give their characters a false happy ending and you're like "this sucks!!"?

Well, at the end of this one I felt like standing up and shouting (through my sobs) "No!! Rewind!!! Make it a happy ending!! I wanna haaaapppppy eeennnnnndddiinnnng!!!"

| Posted by Bel | The time is 12.17pm here in Wellington NZ |

I get so mad at people who refer to things' time period incorrectly.

EXAMPLES:

• "Ooh, I love your hair, so retro and 70s!" when hair is CLEARLY in a 60s-influenced back-combed bouffant.
• "Great dress, very 1960s looking!" when dress is OBVIOUSLY a tribute to Dior's New Look of the 1940s.
• "I like those T-bar sandals, they look so World War II ish" when T-bar style shoes are a 1920s throwback as EVERYONE SURELY KNOWS.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:

Just this morning I overheard a colleague on the phone:
"Yeah, they've just opened it, over in Miramar. The cinema's been done up completely. It's all in, um, it's in that, ahh - 1940s, 1950s style. Looks great!"

I was resisting the urge to writhe on the floor howling as this went on, as I knew that this person was referring to the Roxy Cinema.

I will borrow a few gorgeous pics from Alice's Niceties blog to demonstrate just how "1940s, 1950s style" this place is. (NOT AT ALL. IT IS 1930s YOU FOOL. AND HOW COULD SOMETHING BE THE STYLE OF BOTH THE 40s AND THE 50s I ASK YOU?)

 

I mean COME ON!!

| Posted by Bel | The time is 11.32am here in Wellington NZ |

A film that makes you really happy

I recently re-watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Yes, I realise this film doesn't have (SPOILER!!) a happy ending, but I enjoyed watching it so much.

When this film came out in 1996, I was pretty much the same age that Shakespeare first intended his heroine to be. And I was just as malleable, impetuous and giddy as your average young teen - be she living in Verona, Verona Beach or small town NZ.

Re-watching the film was such a pleasure. It was slightly worrying how much of the script was sitting verbatim in my head after so many years. And not just the Shakespearean quotations, but the specific delivery and intonations by this version's actors.

Miriam Margolyes tottering about as the Nurse, crying out "Hhhhhuuulieet!".

Claire Danes actually managing to make the "wherefore" in "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" like a "why" and not a "where".

The police chief Prince growling out "All... are... BANISH-ED!!" in the final scenes.

And, of course, Leo doing the same donkey-like gasping bray of a cry you can trace back to The Basketball Diaries and even saw recently in Shutter Island.

It can be a dangerous territory, going back and re-watching the films that influenced those tender years. And yet so many favourites from the 90s are still standing strong: Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Mallrats, Wayne's World.

Any word on Heathers? Can't Hardly Wait? Empire Records? Have you re-watched something lately and found it just made you so so happy, regardless of the content?

| Posted by Lou | The time is 9.15pm here in London UK |

Posh chips*.

Specifically variations of salt 'n' vinegar:




Don't fix what ain't broke - salt 'n' vinegar is perfect without the sea, and certainly without the balsamic, malt or Suffolk bloody cider!

Today I actually couldn't even find a single decent sized packet of plain old salt 'n' vinegar.

It's madness!!

And don't even get me started on having seen a glimpse of a packet that I swear to god was flavoured "roasted fox"...



*UK translation: crisps