الجمعة، 29 مارس 2013

85th Oscar Film Reviews - Part 2


Nominated for five Oscar awards including best picture, actress, editing & original screenplay while it got an Oscar for sound editing jointly with "Skyfall".

True drama about the operation executed on May 2nd, 2011 half an hour after midnight (ZDT) by Marines Special Forces (SEAL) to kill El Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden (UBL) based on information gathered by a CIA female agent over several years due to her persistence to find his hideout.

This is the second cooperation between director Kathryn Bigelow & screenwriter Mark Boal after "The Hurt Locker" (also a military movie) that got them Oscars three years ago.
The screenplay is in the form of a reportage where Mark Boal used his journalistic background & information sources, while the scenes depicting the military operation take the documentary form that has been used previously by other directors such as Brian DePalma in "Redacted" & Paul Greengrass in "The Green Zone".

The film caused controversy for showing that the information leading to the operation was obtained thru torture.

It's worth noting that the lead character (great performance by Jessica Chastain) as well as the director are women for a subject that presumably belongs to men!
One of 2012 best films if not the best.
Grade : 7.5 out of 10


Nominated for three Oscar awards including best cinematography & best music score while it got the costumes award.

Historical drama taking place in late 19th century Russia about a love affair between an aristocratic married woman & a handsome young count and its impact on her life.
The film is based on Leo Tolstoi's well known novel but in a new look.

English director Joe Wright & screenwriter Tom Stoppard chose the theatrical showy approach relying on the familiarity of the story but with no success as well as miscasting the two lead characters.

Exquisite costumes, music score, and some memorable scenes, such as the palace ball or the show in a governmental bureau, were not enough to make a hit.           
Joe Wright is still struggling since the masterpiece "Atonement".
Grade : 6.5 out of 10

Nominated for best actor & best original screenplay and ended with none.

Drama about an addicted pilot who manages to save the lives of his passengers, when his plane faces a sudden crisis, but is condemned because of his addiction.

The film deserves its nominations & comes in a genre that director Robert Zemeckis hasn't tackled before.

The elaborate screenplay doesn't limit the debate that goes on after such incidents to whether the reason is technical or human error but adds another dimension being a religious reason for the accident & questions whether an addict deserves conviction just because of his addiction in spite of sqaving lives.

The film includes some notable scenes such as the plane's landing & choice of its location as well as the threesome encounter on the stairs in the hospital.

Denzel Washington shines, in the role of the addict led to absolution & inner peace by the accident, but not enough to earn the award.
Grade : 7 out of 10

Nominated for best actress award & didn't get it.
True drama about a Spanish family who spends 2004 Christmas vacation in Thailand and faces along with the residents of the coastal city a natural disaster.

Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, in his second film after the success of his first one "The Orphanage", presents a realistic image of the tsunami phenomenon & its consequences, and executes brilliantly the underwater scenes.

Naomi Watts gives a great performance as well as the English newcomer Tom Holland in the role of the family's elder son.

The script leans towards the melodrama & gives hope thru chosen sample by looking at the bright side of the event!
The film got several Spanish "Goya" film awards including best director.
Grade : 7 out of 10

By Daniel Tanielian 
Alexandrian fan of cinema and arts

85th Oscar Films Reviews - Part 1


Nominated for five Oscar awards including best picture, director, original screenplay but ended up with just best foreign language picture.

Human drama about a wife in her eighties who suffers paralysis on one side due to a clot and is taken care of by her old husband at their home.

The film won the "Palme d'Or" at last Cannes film festival as well as several awards from the European Film Festival and was written & directed by austrian Michael Haneke who presents here one of his least obscure films.

Carefully written script showing with accuracy & realism the involved case & its development familiar to persons who went thru similar experience, reflecting the great love of the husband towards his wife and exposing the controversial case of Euthanasia.

As for the pigeon, it could be the symbol of the wife's soul.
The director managed thru diverse scenes & shooting angles as well as amazing performances, in breaking the boredom that could result from slow pace & limited location.

As usual in the ending of his films, Haneke drives the spectator to wonder about its meaning, however the scene of the daughter returning to the now empty flat should have been longer to express the new situation and convey the feeling to the audience.
 Grade : 7.5 out of 10
    
Nominated for five Oscar awards including best picture and got Oscars for original screenplay & supporting actor.
A western with its action taking place just before the american civil war about the slave Django who is liberated by a german bounty hunter so that he assists him in finding the wanted men and in return he helps him free his enslaved wife from a southern plantation.

An "explosive" movie written & directed by Quentin Tarantino (a cinema passionate) who blows up racism, violence in the american society and, why not, himself (i.e. the character he personifies in the film). He also pays tribute to italian spaghetti westerns specially to Sergio Corbucci, maker of "Django" (1966) and its star Franco Nero who appears in one of the scenes.

Great script, although suffering from some longueur & slow pace in its first part but a handshake (possibly to become one of the most famous handshakes in the cinema) causes the film to overturn into a cinema that we don't see often.
The film leans towards black comedy & too much violence even after the removal by Tarantino of some of the more violent scenes.

Great performances from most of the cast specially Christoph Waltz & Leonardo DiCaprio (who wasn't nominated). This film will appeal to every cinema fan and will be Tarantino"s most successful film so far.
Grade : 7.5 out of 10

Nominated for eight Oscar awards including best picture, costumes, actor, production design & song and got Oscars for best supporting actress, make-up & sound mixing.

Historical drama taking place in France during first half of 19th century that witnessed several revolutions, where an ex-convict dedicates his life to raise an orphan & provide her with a decent life while being pursued by his ex-jailor for violating probation.

The film is based on the musical play inspired by the novel written by great French poet & writer Victor Hugo who lived thru that period and opens with a great scene.

The English director Tom Hooper who won an Oscar two years ago for "The King's Speech" succeeded in transforming the musical play into a film & ensured, while doing that, that the actors sing live while shooting the scenes with lots of close-ups and using several cameras simultaneously to add credibility but adding at the same time the burden on the actors although Anne Hathaway succeeds superbly. He manages to present an innovating (and sometimes experimental) look that doesn't match the drama of the novel.

The script emphasizes too much the love story while some of the songs are not up to the level and the film carries some bad cinematography (by hand held camera) & some bad editing.

Deserves however to be seen specially that it deals with the hard times that led the French people to revolt.
Grade : 7 out of 10

Nominated for twelve Oscar awards including best picture, director, actor, adapted screenplay and  got Oscars for best actor & production design.

Historical film on the circumstances of passing a constitution amendment that abolishes slavery in use in southern states of Americaat that time and reason behind the civil war (1861-1865) during the rule of America's 16th president Abraham Lincoln.

Unfortunately the film is weaker than the event it treats
maybe because the script focuses, more than needed, on the human side of Lincoln and very little on opposing views & racism during that period, and maybe because Spielberg wasn't at his best form specially that the film is a slow paced little action one, or maybe because Daniel Day-Lewis set an example of a great acting not serving the film's subject by choosing the tone of a sick man & being overly calm.

If it wasn't for the brilliant set decoration, shooting frames & performances of most of the cast (specially Tommy Lee Jones) the film would not have been worthwhile watching.
Grade : 7 out of 10

By Daniel Tanielian 
Alexandrian fan of cinema and arts
       
     

الاثنين، 25 مارس 2013

هل تحتاج مصر وسيط دولي؟












حصار وضرب مولوتوف، إلقاء حجارة،  إطلاق رصاص من أعلى الأسطح،  طعن بالسكاكين في الزحمة، تراب وغبار ودخان، قتلى وضحايا ومسحولين، رجالاً ونساءًا، شبابًا وكبارًا، كل يوم جمعة وأحيانًا في أيام الأسبوع. بعد أن ينتهى مسلسل العنف يبدأ مسلسل مُكمل، إلقاء اللوم، والتهديد برد عنيف. لم يخرج أي سيناريو عن هذا التوالي من الأحداث. أنسَدَت تمامًا أبواب التفاهم، لم يعد مطروحًا، ولو من باب برو العتب!











مصر في كارثة، سكانها يتكلمون نفس اللغة لكن لا يتعاملون بها، لا يتحاورون إنما متكارهون، الكل على صواب، الكل يمتلك الحقيقة، بلا أخطاء، ملائكة في مواجهة شياطين، من هم الملائكة ومن هم الشياطين؟! النتيجة انهيار في كل شئ، لا أمن ولا اقتصاد، لا سياحة ولا تجارة، الجنيه يساوي مليم. القضاء مشغول في البلاغات المتبادلة، تحريض، تعدي، سباب، تكدير أمن، كسب غير مشروع. الأمن ضاع في الزحمة، لا يعرف أين يصوب وضد من، تلويش. أي قناة إعلامية لا تخلو من سباب متبادل وصوت عال، الحقيقة ضائعة، مَلوية.











وأخرتها، الشعب المصري الحقيقي مكتئب، حزين، يائس، بائس. المرتزقة والمتلونون في نعيم،  أكل عيشهم في أي  أنجر، من طَبَخه ومن عبأه، مش مهم، المهم شَبَع البطون والجيوب. الحل يبدو بعيدًا جدًا، الدنيا ظلام في ظلام، هل يصحو المصريون على صباح بلا مرتبات ولا طعام ولا شراب؟ مش بعيد. 












عندما تستحكم الأزمات يتدخل العقلاء، من تلقاء أنفسهم أو بناء على طلب من المتخانقين، حتى الآن لا يوجد بمصر عقلاء، على الأقل موثوقٌ بهم. الأمريكان يتكلمون، الاتحاد الأوروبي يطلب، المنظمات الدولية تحاسب، ثم؟ هل يرسلون وسيطاً دولياً لتقريب أطراف النزاع في مصر؟ وارد ومخططاتهم جاهزة،،

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ألوان الوجوه



هذا هو إسم المعرض الذى نظمه مؤخرآ مركز الحرية للإبداع بالإسكندرية للفنانة السكندرية مها حسنىتقدم الفنانة فيه وجه المرأة فى أوضاع وألوان وامزجة مختلفة ومعبرة ولا تنسى كإمرأة أن تضيف الأكسسوار المناسب أو تصفيف الشعر الملائم لتؤكد أن للمرأة وجوه عديدة لكن كلها جميلة.






























قام بإفتتاح المعرض الفنان السكندرى عصمت داوستاشى وتأثيره واضح على أعمال الفنانة.

مهندس / دانيال تانيليان - سكندرى عاشق للسينما ومحب للفنون