Ang Lee
"Selecting the ingredients is like the pre-production work and the filming, and actually cooking the food is like the editing” - Ang Lee
Ang
Lee's story is a love story. A love story with his family, a love
story with his wife and of course a love story with his films. One of
the stories is about dumpling. When "The Wedding Banquet" which was
Oscars nominated
for best foreign-language film, the night before he was to fly off to
Los
Angeles, Ang made 200 dumplings and
kept them in the refrigerator so his children won’t starve.
Ang Lee is a good man and a good father, he understands struggle and
that's why his film is filled with compassion, "Brokeback Mountain" is
not just a film about romance of gay cowboys in love but is about the true feeling of human being and pain. We can see ourselves in his film.
"There's a private feeling to the movie, an intimate feeling. I think eventually everybody has a Brokeback Mountain in them. Someone you want to come back to. And, of course, some people don't come back."
After he finished film school, he was down and out unemployed
for six years. During this time, he was a stay at home full-time house-husband, but with his wife’s support and understanding, Lee did not
abandon his dream to be a film director but continued to generate new ideas and wrote several screenplays during this time. Ang is not a traditional man, can you imagine
this now world famous director, was the same man years ago, cooking in the
kitchen, doing laundry and making dumplings for six years at home? At the same time, this Struggle of him also
became his inspiration that became his films, without his persistence and
devotion today "The Life of Pi" won’t exist. Time and time again Ang says that he would never have succeeded without his wife - Jane's
love and trust, but Jane said "I did not support him, I just left him alone".
At one time, Ang wanted to find a job
quickly, but Jane disagreed. She simply would not her
husband go out and find just any job, because Jane trusted Ang and believed he
was made to be a genius film director - only his time had not yet come. Jane is right of course.
Meryl Streep
“Every single decision I make about what material I do, what I'm putting out in the world, is because of my children.”
"I have a very good life - I'm lucky enough not to be deprived."
"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy."
Michael Jackson
No one has been judged by others as Michael been judged. Time and time again he tried to tell us that he is only human, he has feelings and he feels hurt and he also has his fair share of faults and mistakes as we all have. If you watch his interviews or listen to his music, you will actually find that Michael had a loving and pure soul, he was a strong person and trying to do his best sharing his kindness and love, giving millions of dollars to charities and visiting many poor countries and opening his home Never Land ranch to children who are least fortunate. You might not approve his music, his image or even his behavior, but comparing to many he was an extraordinary human being and an amazing entertainer with great talent who gave us Billie Jeans, Moonwalk and “hehe" shamone" girl.
She has the same name as William Shakespeare's wife, with
the blood of Irish, French, German to native American, a daughter of a stage
actress. Anne Hathaway got a unique
look, a perfect DNA led her the first movie role as a princess in a
fairy tale. She was young and her acting was like a comic cartoon with a pair
of incredibly big eyes. No skills required
only need to be cute. Critics thought it was it for her, just like many family
film stars. And then 5 years later, she was topless in Havoc, a film about affluent suburban girls who clash with the
Latino gang. Many people think it was a miscast, but I do think it was necessary
otherwise she couldn’t give us the
remarkable performance in Brokeback
Mountain, she tried her best
to distance herself from her princess image by choosing a role where she was
sexual as often as possible, what else a princess surly won’t do?
After playing against
Meryl Streep and attempt to becoming Jane Austen, she surprised
us all again with a Best actress Oscar
nominated as Kym in Rachel Got Married,
an unlikeable almost self destructive character, even tougher role than the cowboy’s wife
Lureen. We are convinced, Anne is not just a pretty princess with big eyes, she
is a hard working Actress and always taking risk.
Garry Marshall, the director of The Princess Diaries said
"The multi-talented Hathaway is a combination Julia Roberts, Audrey
Hepburn and Judy Garland." For the
last 20 years, we witness her improvement and involvement with different things,
she hosted the 83rd Academy Awards, she voice –over for The Simpsons, Family
Guy and Rio.
On 2009 Oscar Award night, Shirley McClaine said to Anne “I think you’re an amazing example for young actress in this business. Because you’re not afraid, you’re not afraid to show both your dark and your bright side. This is your first nomination I feel there will be many more after this.” Pausing briefly again she said “and by the way, I think you have an extraordinary voice. Keep singing too”. Again Hathaway gave a perfect response 3 years later singing I Dreamed a Dream as a tragic heroine Fantine in Les Miserables. This Cat woman is full of surprises and knows how to “ meow”.
Haruki Murakami and Music
Haruki Murakami’s life could not escape the music, his pen is his instrument to jam and to create the same tune into his words, the ink became his note, he is like a pianist, when he pressed the key, something happened, same wave but sounded different, he writes his novels, like a jazz player, he improvises, he floats, he is Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk. Whiskey and coffee mixed with insomnia, classical music and cat dancing to the Beatles, pin ball machine and the lost sheep riding in a bar, the scenes of alienation, icy scenes, the fictional world flooded into his coffee shop, the wall is moving with the music, the sound of rock, we are in his 1Q48, everything is unsure but real. His novels are like the track of time with melancholy, tripped the light of the complex emotions. We follow him and let him take us to Norwegian Wood at South of the Border, West of the Sun, we witness an elephant trying to build a dream house on the shore with Kafka after dark, we hear the Wind Sing and then vanish.
In Murakami’s novels, the main character never understands the
world and trying to maintain a certain distance, exhausted to figure it
out but wants to pursuit a mysterious
goal. He can not stop looking for something, like a man in a fog has to continue
to go on, it’s strange but that is why his novels are charming and stylish to
us. In his world we are lost and confused , everything he wrote is familiar to
us, we know the music and the places he described, we have been there.
Chet Baker
"One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It's the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat". – Chet Baker
Chet Baker was a cool cat and he is what James Dean always wanted to be. The flair for his trumpet coupled with his beautifully sad soft voice are seductive. Baker possesses charisma that is uniquely his own. He was a musical genius never had to work hard, music came to him like magic, never saved any money from any gigs for 40 years and what ever money he got he spent it on women and drugs, his talent and fame became his curse.
Martin Scorsese
The fast talking, thick eye brows, black horn-rimmed glasses
Martin Scorsese loves movies, he likes them so much he dedicated his life making
them, to name a few: Mean Street, Good Fallers, After Hours, Ragging Bull, The Temptation of Christ, The Age of Innocence, The Departed, Shutter Island and
of course – Taxi Driver.
Everything about Martin involves film, from music short film with Michael Jackson to overseen the restoration of Peeping Tom, The Red Shoes, Rashomon and The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp. Martin is obsessed with films and the character in his films like Boxcar Bertha, Jake LaMotta, Newland Archer, Rupert Pupkin, Henry Hill, Travis Travis Bickle, Howard Hughes are filled with personal struggle and obsession, as Martin is calling them all “God’s lonely man”. Almost every film is a confession of sin and insanity, and you are the witness. Weather the role is played by Robert de Niro or Leonardo DiCaprio or Ellen Burstyn, they have the same soul, they are disturbed lunatic in need of redemption, a lost child in search for salvation.
The relationship between man and woman in Martin’s film is always destructive, as you can see in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, New York, New York, Casino.
In March 1976 a Roger Ebert interview with Scorsese and Paul Schrader the writer of Taxi driver -
Ebert: In a lot of your movies, there's this ambivalent attitude toward women. The men are fascinated by women, but they don't quite know how to relate to them . . .
Scorsese: The goddess-whore complex. You're raised to
worship women, but you don't know how to approach them on a human level, on a
sexual level. That's the thing with Travis, the DeNiro character - the taxi
driver. The girl he falls for, the Cybill Shepherd character - it's really important
that she's blond, a blue-eyed goddess.
Schrader: He goes from a goddess to a child godsdess. The 12 year-old prostitute he's trying to rescue - she's unapproachable, too, for him.
Scorsese: She has the candles burning in her bedroom, she's like a saint to him. He can't imagine these pimps treating her the way they do. Before he goes to avenge her, it's almost like he cleanses himself…
In
1977, a film almost finished Scorsese, New York, New York with De Niro
and Minnelli, as the critics called" maddeningly uneven 'coke movie"
leaving the
director in a spiral of drugs and depression because of the failing to
cover
its $14m production. This film, which I still
think was a personal note of Martin, a letter of his sadness and lost of
his marriage
with Isabella Rossellini.
Maybe he is insane, maybe John Ford, Capra, Welles, Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Coppola
are all insane. But Scorsese is always my favourite.
“Which would be worse - to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?” ----- Teddy, Shutter Island.
Bruce Lee
"Selecting the ingredients is like the pre-production work and the filming, and actually cooking the food is like the editing” - Ang Lee
Ang
Lee's story is a love story. A love story with his family, a love
story with his wife and of course a love story with his films. One of
the stories is about dumpling. When "The Wedding Banquet" which was
Oscars nominated
for best foreign-language film, the night before he was to fly off to
Los
Angeles, Ang made 200 dumplings and
kept them in the refrigerator so his children won’t starve.
Ang Lee is a good man and a good father, he understands struggle and
that's why his film is filled with compassion, "Brokeback Mountain" is
not just a film about romance of gay cowboys in love but is about the true feeling of human being and pain. We can see ourselves in his film."There's a private feeling to the movie, an intimate feeling. I think eventually everybody has a Brokeback Mountain in them. Someone you want to come back to. And, of course, some people don't come back."
In Ang Lee’s film, you can also find that his
characters are persistence or even stubborn, rather it is Chu in "Eat Drink Man Woman", Elinor
Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility", Li Mu Bai in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon",
Bruce Banner in "Hulk", Jack Twist in "Brokeback Mountain" , Wong Chia Chi in
"Lust, Caution", Pi In "The life of Pi". They take risk and devote and Ang trying to
show us that our believe and the sense
of crisis is part of adventure and challenge, it could be a
marriage, sexuality, love, taste, identity, tiger or just a stolen sword.
"Nothing stands still. That's important in my movies. People want to believe in something, want to hang on to something to get security and want to trust each other. But things change. Given enough time, nothing stands still. I think seeking for security and lack of security is another thing in my movies."
Some
say his movies have strong father figure, but i see his movie is even
more about a Child, finding his way, the impact and the conflicts
between old and young, east and west, animal and men, believe and
disbeleive, you can see that they always want to find a home, somewhere
they belong and developing their inner self during the process and
discover the "new" identity, rather this identity is good or bad but it
is something "belonging" to oneself. You can notice his development in
"Lust, Caution" or "The Life of Pi" even "Sense and Sensibility".
"Nothing stands still. That's important in my movies. People want to believe in something, want to hang on to something to get security and want to trust each other. But things change. Given enough time, nothing stands still. I think seeking for security and lack of security is another thing in my movies."
Some
say his movies have strong father figure, but i see his movie is even
more about a Child, finding his way, the impact and the conflicts
between old and young, east and west, animal and men, believe and
disbeleive, you can see that they always want to find a home, somewhere
they belong and developing their inner self during the process and
discover the "new" identity, rather this identity is good or bad but it
is something "belonging" to oneself. You can notice his development in
"Lust, Caution" or "The Life of Pi" even "Sense and Sensibility".
After he finished film school, he was down and out unemployed
for six years. During this time, he was a stay at home full-time house-husband, but with his wife’s support and understanding, Lee did not
abandon his dream to be a film director but continued to generate new ideas and wrote several screenplays during this time. Ang is not a traditional man, can you imagine
this now world famous director, was the same man years ago, cooking in the
kitchen, doing laundry and making dumplings for six years at home? At the same time, this Struggle of him also
became his inspiration that became his films, without his persistence and
devotion today "The Life of Pi" won’t exist. Time and time again Ang says that he would never have succeeded without his wife - Jane's
love and trust, but Jane said "I did not support him, I just left him alone".
At one time, Ang wanted to find a job
quickly, but Jane disagreed. She simply would not her
husband go out and find just any job, because Jane trusted Ang and believed he
was made to be a genius film director - only his time had not yet come. Jane is right of course.
Meryl Streep
She is one of the greatest actor in the 21st century and the most nominated Actress in Academy Award history. She's not afraid to take on challenging roles, from a lesbian to Italian house wife, then turn into the PM of Great Britain. She is well known for doing different accents, in her latest movie The Iron Lady she ......., ok, it’s hard to write about Meryl Steep. Not because there is nothing to write about her but because most things about her career are already on internet and magazines, there are no gossip about her and no scandal, she doesn’t take drugs, she is still married to the same man after 36 years, she’s often talking about her family and how she does her own ironing and not being spoiled and she will tell you that she likes to being a mother...
“Every single decision I make about what material I do, what I'm putting out in the world, is because of my children.”
“Sometimes with my children, I remember exactly how I felt as the child in this situation, not just how it feels to be me.”
She will tell you how to live with honour and dignity and how to make your parents proud, she said she is a great pretender and an expert to pretend to be an expert to be a pretender and how woman are natural born actors -
“Women are better at acting then men. Why? Because we have to be. If successfully convincing someone bigger than you are of something he doesn't want to know is a survival skill, this is how women have survived through the millennia”
She is educated and talented. Meryl worked with many great actors and directors and friend with many of them and you know she is a very positive person who is down to earth,-
"I have a very good life - I'm lucky enough not to be deprived."
"Expensive clothes are a waste of money."
"I get nervous calling myself an artist. I feel I'm more like an interpreter or a violinist, you know."
She is incredibly intelligent and her beauty is not just her look but as a human being and often has wise advices, -
"Listening is everything. Listening is the whole deal. That's what I think. And I mean that in terms of before you work, after you work, in between work, with your children, with your husband, with your friends, with your mother, with your father. It's everything. And it's where you learn everything."
"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy."
"There's no road map on how to raise a family: it's always an
enormous negotiation."
She has her own point of view and not afraid to express them with gentle comment, -
“I love Chinese movies and don't get enough of them in the United States and that's why people hold film festivals to make others aware of films in other countries,”
"It would be nice to have a woman President. I think half the Senate should be women, half of Parliament, half the ruling mullahs. But that will never happen, darling!"
I wish someday I can talk to her in person, I will keep telling her jokes because I like her smile and laughs but if she don’t like my joke then I hope she won’t give me the look as she is in The Devil Wears Prada or The Manchurian Candidate and the Doubt, those aren’t very nice faces and almost scary, I do hope that she will give me a smile like the one she gives to De Nino in Falling in Love or let me wash her hair as we are in Africa, I want to tell her that I think she could make Evita a better movie like she makes Julia Child come alive again, if she is my violin teacher than I am sure now I could play it very well like she did in Music of the Heart and I want to tell her how great she is to be Lindy Chamberlain, I want to talk more about her but just in case she is reading this right now, she will say:
Enough people write about me every day without even interviewing me.
Dear Meryl Streep, I better shut up about you now.
Like many others over 30’s and knowing of US culture, I grew up with Michael Jackson's songs, I got Off the Wall on LP and played it over and over, Don’t stop till you get enough, Working day and night and Rock with you and the touching She’s out of my life, “And I don't know whether to laugh or cry, I don't know whether to live or die, And it cuts like a knife”, even tho I didn’t understand the lyrics very well because I was still very young back then but I did feel that it was something really quite sad and his voice is filled with emotions and it moved me but not until Thriller, he gave us human nature and wanna be starting something, a crossover between contemporary adults music and rock, it didn’t just change the landscape of pop music but also changed the way what music sounds like. Before Thriller rock guitarists just didn’t work with R’n’B or Soul, but he gave us Beat it and then I saw the amazing Moonwalk on TV. How can anyone dance like that? Before the pre-moonwalk time there was no such thing, there wasn’t anything even close and the video Beat it, Thriller, Black and white and Smooth criminal was mind blowing, and that was 30 years ago and today we can still see his dance and listen to his music but he is gone.
Michael Jackson was a very different individual, his life was unique, we might never understand his behaviour using the standard we have. Tabloids and media called him “wacko” or worse name they can call anyone. During his trials, the media presumed he is guilty and no one believed he was innocent, they said he was a monster. They pointed their fingers toward his skin colour and said he is bleaching his skin trying to be white and ignored the fact that he could be a victim of Vitiligo and Lupus; they said his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley was a publicity stunt, and not approved that Michael too can be in love; his 2001 album Invincible sold 13 million copies and was the fastest selling album of the year yet can still be called a “failure”; his relationship with his children? are they his real children or not? why the mask? maybe he is gay?
No one has been judged by others as Michael been judged. Time and time again he tried to tell us that he is only human, he has feelings and he feels hurt and he also has his fair share of faults and mistakes as we all have. If you watch his interviews or listen to his music, you will actually find that Michael had a loving and pure soul, he was a strong person and trying to do his best sharing his kindness and love, giving millions of dollars to charities and visiting many poor countries and opening his home Never Land ranch to children who are least fortunate. You might not approve his music, his image or even his behavior, but comparing to many he was an extraordinary human being and an amazing entertainer with great talent who gave us Billie Jeans, Moonwalk and “hehe" shamone" girl.
“In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe". ― Michael Jackson
Anne Hathaway
A few days ago, on December 10th, while attending the premier of Les Miserable, Hathaway stepped out of a limo and accidently
exposed more than her legs. A reporter Lauer was address the incident “You had
a little wardrobe malfunction. What is the lesson learnt from something like
that?” he asked. She acknowledged the incident, offered a short observation
about it, Anne Hathaway: “It was obviously an unfortunate incident. It
kind of made me sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of
another person in a vulnerable moment and, rather than delete it, sells it. I’m
sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality upon unwilling
participants. Which brings us back to Les Mis because that’s who my character
is. She is someone who is forced to sell sex to benefit her child because she
has nothing. So let’s get back to Les Mis.”
Hathaway gave the perfect response.
She has the same name as William Shakespeare's wife, with
the blood of Irish, French, German to native American, a daughter of a stage
actress. Anne Hathaway got a unique
look, a perfect DNA led her the first movie role as a princess in a
fairy tale. She was young and her acting was like a comic cartoon with a pair
of incredibly big eyes. No skills required
only need to be cute. Critics thought it was it for her, just like many family
film stars. And then 5 years later, she was topless in Havoc, a film about affluent suburban girls who clash with the
Latino gang. Many people think it was a miscast, but I do think it was necessary
otherwise she couldn’t give us the
remarkable performance in Brokeback
Mountain, she tried her best
to distance herself from her princess image by choosing a role where she was
sexual as often as possible, what else a princess surly won’t do? 
After playing against
Meryl Streep and attempt to becoming Jane Austen, she surprised
us all again with a Best actress Oscar
nominated as Kym in Rachel Got Married,
an unlikeable almost self destructive character, even tougher role than the cowboy’s wife
Lureen. We are convinced, Anne is not just a pretty princess with big eyes, she
is a hard working Actress and always taking risk.
Garry Marshall, the director of The Princess Diaries said
"The multi-talented Hathaway is a combination Julia Roberts, Audrey
Hepburn and Judy Garland." For the
last 20 years, we witness her improvement and involvement with different things,
she hosted the 83rd Academy Awards, she voice –over for The Simpsons, Family
Guy and Rio. On 2009 Oscar Award night, Shirley McClaine said to Anne “I think you’re an amazing example for young actress in this business. Because you’re not afraid, you’re not afraid to show both your dark and your bright side. This is your first nomination I feel there will be many more after this.” Pausing briefly again she said “and by the way, I think you have an extraordinary voice. Keep singing too”. Again Hathaway gave a perfect response 3 years later singing I Dreamed a Dream as a tragic heroine Fantine in Les Miserables. This Cat woman is full of surprises and knows how to “ meow”.
Haruki Murakami and Music
Haruki Murakami’s life could not escape the music, his pen is his instrument to jam and to create the same tune into his words, the ink became his note, he is like a pianist, when he pressed the key, something happened, same wave but sounded different, he writes his novels, like a jazz player, he improvises, he floats, he is Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk. Whiskey and coffee mixed with insomnia, classical music and cat dancing to the Beatles, pin ball machine and the lost sheep riding in a bar, the scenes of alienation, icy scenes, the fictional world flooded into his coffee shop, the wall is moving with the music, the sound of rock, we are in his 1Q48, everything is unsure but real. His novels are like the track of time with melancholy, tripped the light of the complex emotions. We follow him and let him take us to Norwegian Wood at South of the Border, West of the Sun, we witness an elephant trying to build a dream house on the shore with Kafka after dark, we hear the Wind Sing and then vanish.
In Murakami’s novels, the main character never understands the
world and trying to maintain a certain distance, exhausted to figure it
out but wants to pursuit a mysterious
goal. He can not stop looking for something, like a man in a fog has to continue
to go on, it’s strange but that is why his novels are charming and stylish to
us. In his world we are lost and confused , everything he wrote is familiar to
us, we know the music and the places he described, we have been there.
We
refuse to grow up, refused to make sense of reality, he provoked
perhaps the most stubborn subconscious, a logical subconscious that we
are trying to
protect but at the same time we are connected and deeply moved by it and
we
don’t know why, the mini person walked
out from a TV, a sheep man, The Bird-Catcher, Johnnie Walker and
Fuka-Eri.
Everything is so freakish attractive and we all accepted it.
Murakami speaks to our mind and skips the rejection of our defence conscious,
we can not resist, we are like the character in wild sheep chase. We
understand the life, the fantasy and dreams that he created. We are confused by
the description, the attitude and the unrealistic world but the sandwiches,
the whiskey , the coffee, Mozart’s magic flute, Miles Davis ,Beethoven’s Third
Piano Concerto, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan are so real to us. Murakami is using music to contact our soul, using
it as a weapon to invade our heart. No matter what happens. When we read his
words we hear the same music and all of the sudden we see the same vision as Watanabe
or Aomame, we see his characters are
suffering and being tested, we want to
help them, to save them from difficulties and struggling, we want them back to live in their simple life,
we hear the music, we know how they feel when they are listen to Nat king Coles, it felt like déjà
vu and we just can’t escape the music and Murakami, we are surrounded and we’ re
just dance, dance , dance with John Greenwood in Hard-boiled Wonderland.
Chet Baker
"One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It's the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat". – Chet Baker
Jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker had fallen out from a Amsterdam hotel window on Friday the 13 of May 1988. He was 58.
Chet Baker was a cool cat and he is what James Dean always wanted to be. The flair for his trumpet coupled with his beautifully sad soft voice are seductive. Baker possesses charisma that is uniquely his own. He was a musical genius never had to work hard, music came to him like magic, never saved any money from any gigs for 40 years and what ever money he got he spent it on women and drugs, his talent and fame became his curse.
Baker was born in Yale, Oklahoma, began his musical career in San Francisco jazz clubs in the early 50’s. He played with many great jazz icon such as Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis. He became famous with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1952. My funny valentine became the beginning of cool jazz classic and he made this song his own. Because of his good look, Baker appeared in a few low-budget movies, including Hell's Horizon and at the same time Chet recorded with many musicians in different countries in Europe. If not because of his fast women and hard drugs problems, he might have become even bigger star.
"Chet cons people, he has the ability to elicit sympathy - and it's all a big act". Baker left a lot of pain and heartbreak, his ex wife and past girlfriends speak unkind of him, but you can also see their love for him in a documentary directed by Bruce Weber Let’s Get Lost. Evident of Chet’s melancholic beauty, the film noir black and white style with shots of Baker sitting in the back of a convertible, he closed his eyes and sat between two women and let his hair dancing in the wind.
“I Fall in Love Too Easily, I fall in love too fast ” - Baker lived the songs with a painful intensity, a jazz Elvis, a deep in dream junkie, a lover, a manipulator, the faded pretty boy of the West Coast 'cool school', the glasses, the voice, the cigarette, the gals, the trumpet ... Fallen out from a hotel window of Room 210.
Martin Scorsese
Everything about Martin involves film, from music short film with Michael Jackson to overseen the restoration of Peeping Tom, The Red Shoes, Rashomon and The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp. Martin is obsessed with films and the character in his films like Boxcar Bertha, Jake LaMotta, Newland Archer, Rupert Pupkin, Henry Hill, Travis Travis Bickle, Howard Hughes are filled with personal struggle and obsession, as Martin is calling them all “God’s lonely man”. Almost every film is a confession of sin and insanity, and you are the witness. Weather the role is played by Robert de Niro or Leonardo DiCaprio or Ellen Burstyn, they have the same soul, they are disturbed lunatic in need of redemption, a lost child in search for salvation.
The relationship between man and woman in Martin’s film is always destructive, as you can see in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, New York, New York, Casino.
In March 1976 a Roger Ebert interview with Scorsese and Paul Schrader the writer of Taxi driver -
Ebert: In a lot of your movies, there's this ambivalent attitude toward women. The men are fascinated by women, but they don't quite know how to relate to them . . .
Scorsese: The goddess-whore complex. You're raised to
worship women, but you don't know how to approach them on a human level, on a
sexual level. That's the thing with Travis, the DeNiro character - the taxi
driver. The girl he falls for, the Cybill Shepherd character - it's really important
that she's blond, a blue-eyed goddess.Schrader: He goes from a goddess to a child godsdess. The 12 year-old prostitute he's trying to rescue - she's unapproachable, too, for him.
Scorsese: She has the candles burning in her bedroom, she's like a saint to him. He can't imagine these pimps treating her the way they do. Before he goes to avenge her, it's almost like he cleanses himself…
There are many articles about Scorsese, we know he was born in
little Italy in New York and wanted to be a priest then turned his love to
movies and music, we know that he produced a successful TV series Boardwalk Empire, and his best friend and favourite actor
is Robert de Niro, like Hitchcock he likes to have a cameo in his own film, but
to understand him you can’t read about him but to watch his film, his struggle
and his passion, his film is personal, full of emotion and guilt, love and
nightmare.
“When you make a film... there are times in your life when
you're burning with a passion and it's very, very strong. It's almost like a
pathology of cinema where you want to possess the people on film. You want to
live through them. You want to possess their spirits, their souls, in a way.
And ultimately you can't stop. It has to be done until you get to the bitter
end.” ----- Scorsese.
“When you make a film... there are times in your life when
you're burning with a passion and it's very, very strong. It's almost like a
pathology of cinema where you want to possess the people on film. You want to
live through them. You want to possess their spirits, their souls, in a way.
And ultimately you can't stop. It has to be done until you get to the bitter
end.” ----- Scorsese.“Which would be worse - to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?” ----- Teddy, Shutter Island.
Bruce Lee, an international super star, a
method actor, a master of martial art, a film maker, a writer, a
teacher, a philosopher, even a Cha Cha dance champion.
Time Magazine named Lee one of
the most influential person of the 20th century, somewhere in between Einstein
and Gandhi. He was an mixture of poise, charisma and intellect and he can
surely kick some asses. Bruce Lee had a concern for the oriental poor,
knowing martial arts as one way to restore the dignity, maybe because Bruce lee
studied philosophy, therefore he always used his film to expressed his “emotional
point of view”. His film was more than just kung fu movie but a demonstration on
how “Chinese” should fight back, but his philosophy wasn’t only for Chinese but a universal one.
Maybe no one knows a real reason for his
death, but we all know what he has done when he was alive.
“The key to immortality is first living a
life worth remembering “ - Bruce Lee
Hitchcock
In his 60, Hitchcock forced to gamble his Bel-Air home to make “Psycho", a film which he believed in and willing to take a risk . A film that
the studio excecutive and his agent in that time called “ A cheap horror movie” but his wife Alma,
supported him all the way. If you are going to see the new film “ Hitchcock” then
you will know about this story.
Alfred Hitchcock. One of the greatest film
director. Every film fan will agreed with it. He pioneered many
film making techniques – the dolly zoom – you can see this camera movement in a a few classic Hitchcock
movies like Vertigo and many Steven Spielberg's and Brian de Palma’s films. He
also been called the master of suspense, he was a talented director of
psychological thriller genres. If you are Hitchcock fan then you will know
about his interview with François Truffaut, and you will know his obession for blondes and his film is almost always about an innocent person gets involved with trouble. There are
so many things I want to write about Him and because I want to make a thriller , so
I am trying to understand what drove him, what is his visions and how he
works with actors? Hitchcock once said:
I never
said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like
cattle.
When an
actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the
script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'
There are many Actors out there, they
think they are good actors, I have no doubt about it but I think the best
actors are the actors who can do what ever the director need, they can cry and
laugh or be angry or sad or all at the same time and let the director to
choose the one expression he wants.
Actors
are like a emotion supermarket and the best
actor is the one that accepted by the audience. Being film director is a difficult
job, one must deal with everything about the film and also has to worry
about
his own sanity. Will the audience like my movie? what to do to stay on
the budget ? how to make a cheap horror movie into a classic thriller? I
think we should go back to watch all Hitchcock movies, either you are the actors or the directors, we should learn a thing or two. To me I think the
best
thing that Hitchcock really did well is his timing, when it should be
slow he
made it slow and intimate, when it needed to be exciting he edited the
film
tight enough to captured all your attention. Unlike most movie these days, the director always
thinks quick editing means excitement but audience saw nothing but flash. I think
we should blame it on Music Video.
Hitchcock: If it's a
good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a
perfectly clear idea of what was going on.
If you
like a Hitchcock movie, you will also fall in love with "The Third
man".
The director is Carol Reed, shot in 1949 - And this is a must see for Black and white lover, the photography staggered light and shadow , influenced the history of cinema, and the director also boldly used only one musical instrumentent "Zither" for the entire film.
The director is Carol Reed, shot in 1949 - And this is a must see for Black and white lover, the photography staggered light and shadow , influenced the history of cinema, and the director also boldly used only one musical instrumentent "Zither" for the entire film.
Barcelona - Sagrada Família- Gaudi
If possible, everyone
should pay a visit to Sagrada Familia, at least once in a life time. This is
not just a building or a church but it represents our dream and to make it come
true and yes, even if it has to take 100 years.
If you have a
chance to come, you will be amazed with Gaudi’s imagination and vision. No
matter he was crazy or not. He was a man ahead of our time. He was living
outside the square and dare to challenge the limitation of human mind .
Gaudi's designed the Lanterns and lamps in Plaza Reial, Passeig
de Gràcia and some part of Las Ramblas , he also designed the fountains
and gates for Cuitadella Park, "the garden of Barcelona" and don’t
forget “ La Pedrera” - Casa Mila. Many of his works has became a part of Barcelona
and also changed how this city looks. Some of them were funded by his friend Guell,
included the famous Parc Guell. His style is unique and easy to recognized,
such as the blue lizard. I always think the Catalan people are more cultural
and romantic than the Spainish because of Gaudi.
Ok , I don’t want to write a report about
Gaudi and I am sure everyone can google it. What I want to say is what if I invite
him for dinner. What will he want to eat? seafood? Since he was a Catalan…Seafood
paella? Imagine having dinner with him and listen to him to talk about his
work? Do you think he will ever work in the movie as a set designer? Did he
talked about women? But I am sure that he had no interest in fashion and I will
not mention Tram to him.
Gaudi set in front of me and looking at the
glass of wine I poured for him
Gaudi: You should know that I do not drink.
Me: I am sorry I can’t believe everything
that Google said about you , Do you like your paella?
Gaudi: The seafood in my day tasted much better
and this muscles reminds me of my design..
Me: I know this sounds a bit strange but do
you know the color of the taxi in Barcelona is black and yellow because they
are grieving for you?
Gaudi: If they are grieving, then why there
weren’t any taxi stop for me still?
I looked at his old clothes and think he
must wearing the same thing since 1926.
If you visited Palau Guell, you must
noticed that Gaudi loves details, everything from a door handle to a rooftop.
Me: Can you design my new home? I know you
did it for Guell, I don’t need anything fancy just a few touch of you and I will
be very happy.
Gaudi: Jajaj, ok , just let me finish
Sagarda Familia first, then I will help you to do yours.
Melody Gardot
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