La Daronne ***

 La Daronne ***

The book is much better than the movie due to the form, we could have a much more detailed understanding of the background of the stories.

The book is written by someone who truly worked in the police service, she explained the turmoil of working at such a job.

In the movie, Isabelle Huppert who plays the haggered interpreter is too cool.  Her expressions are that of a down graded life style of a white bourgeoise woman.  Things are oh, no problem.  No tension in her face.  Like the cool woman who is playing at big time dealing.  

Good actrice, but no sweat acting.

All the rich details of Asian population in a large building, the holdups at Asian weddings etc its all there, just a swift mention and the story moves onto the next step.

I liked it, as a catalogue of scenes.

The movie if treated with less entertainment oriented goals who have done the story justice.

But the author of the book also has written it as a polar - as a whodunnit book.

Its not about turmoil of anybody, its about entertainment.

Les Apparences 2019 ***

 Les Apparences  dir Marc Fitoussi ***  2019

Movie with Karin Viard, a show case of what priviledged class people do, they gossip, sleep in nice pj outfits, could throw on a coat and go across the street for a glass of wine with nothing in their pocket so they sign for the drink.

The wife, a library head, wife of a famous conductor, both French expats in Vienna, found out hes got a lover in the person of their childs teacher!  This fling involves the teacher had some kind of lawsuit for having murdered her child.  The librarian goes across the street to have a drink and attracts a nice looking yg man; so they spent the night together at a hotel.  He has hole in his socks and electronic bracelet at his ankle (but we dont know if she saw that) they didnt make love or anything.  But the yg man is stalking her afterwards.

The wife finds out who the lover of the husband is, sends out massive damaging email to try to get rid of the teacher, but unsuccessful.

The stalker gets the librarian to go to a remote riverside restaurant, and they had a fight.  The husband was trailing the wife comes to the rescue and accidentally they killed the yg man together.

So lawsuit, gossip, no friends, everybody fled from this scandalous couple.

When the case is cleared, the husband announces that he went to a lover solution because hes bored of his very proper appearance perfect wife.  Now that they are both out of the scandal and he is still at the starting point, boring life!  So he proposed that they begin new again - each one their own way - and then she had this primal screamed which is like the summation of the whole movie, and they split.  

And then she feels free, free of her burden of keeping up appearances.

End of story.

Well, fancy coating of chic environment, but quick paced.  Thats all.  Good actress but not more than that.

I just dont believe that you could kill somebody , thats just a simple stalker - no real commitment from the wife, why would the husband be so upset?

The teacher lover, we dont know what her charms are, its not shown in the movie, I cannot believe that she could lure any man just like that.

The wife, wife shows no interior life, just all on the surface, she could have been a simple bourgeois woman, no sign of interior feelings.  Just jealousy.  Not sympathetic.

The man, such eyes, why would you want to be w a man like that?  

Maybe a polar film is just that, a polar, move the story along finished.

We just want to know what happened and how it ends.

Portrait Service. Color pencils. A4 size

Portrait Service.  Color pencils.  A4 size 

Please contact me : swannjiejie@gmail.com

family, friends, pets, flowers, architecture, love objects, toys, animals

scientific insects, plants, all subjects 

all welcome!

Promotional offer immediately effective :

100 eur / 125 $us / 1000 hk$  

50% down payment

50% completion, before delivery

samples

A mother

Bee Scientist

Canadian Walter G  (details)

Politician 1

Politician 2

Poet

Guqin Scholar 

Business man

Designer creator

Somebody 6 - a mother in the memory of the artist 

Somebody 5 - rich man's wife

Photographer

Black and White Ink Portraits

Youth

Doctor

Cats from the book

 "88 Cats - not a coloring book for beginners"

Sphinx Cat

chocolate cat

sphinx cat

Viking Cat

Mean Cat

Wild Cat  

Somebody 6 - a mother. Somebody 5 - not a mother (Mona Lisa portraits as mother or as wife of a rich man)

 

portraits : 2020 Scientist of Bees, Egyptian Cat, KN, Franke B, J

Scientist of Bees, Mr.Xia

Scientist of Bees 2, Mr.Xia

Egyptian Cat

Franke B

KN

mini camper for self quarantine

 

The Smallest Camper In The World

By Gerard @presurfer

The 'Bufalino' by German industrial designer Cornelius Comanns is a small camper which is equipped to meet the basic needs of one person. The concept behind the project is to offer absolute flexibility during periods of travel. The minimalist construction is based on the existing Piaggio three wheeled light transport vehicle.The Presurfer

CBC Literary Prizes Gibson by Brenda Damen

 https://www.cbc.ca/books/literaryprizes/gibson-by-brenda-damen-1.5522971

Just read the winning story from last year. I like the setting the overall care to set up the scenario - the mountain, wilderness, snow, nature. All this is v vivid. Too bad the sound track is kind of v low-fi. I tried to listen to the audio 3 times, impossible. Reading the printed text reveals the story. Audio does not do justice to the printed story.

"The Climb" 2020 movie **half

 "The Climb" 2020  movie  **half

director Michael Angelo Covino

"The Climb" 2020 movie **half

director Michael Angelo Covino

won prize cannes film festival, Un Certain Regard, Coup de coeur du Jury

The presentation says, its a sort of Woody Allen-ish movie.

As I watch on, one basic problem with this movie is that, all the actors do not inspire interest from the viewer. There is a general lack of charm, the problems they encounter is silly. The characters do not inspire sympathy. They are in hot water, but as a viewer, i don't really care.

Woody Allen movies are often sumptuous in their settings. Here, its so totally everyday, we don't need to see this. Their problems are not big, just small little irritating people in a group w rough edges. Who wants to see that?

And then, the movie has some french language mixed w American English - I don't understand why? The movie is set somewhere in a small town, but why do we hear French and the doctor is also French? Very strange. Maybe there exist such a town in France, i just did not know about this. But the homes, the streets are not French; all v middle class american wood house. All the actors seem to be ordinary people. or playing ordinary people without much room to express their human uniqueness.

It looks like a retro 70s movie with brown orange tones, but the bikes used in the movie are quite racy sleek type.

Why would a good friend, maybe an adopted member of family like a brother come and break up a marriage? First time, it might be blunder, but doing it a second time, that is impossible. People would run away from such a brother after the first time. Accepting this and having it happen a second time?

Story is not convincing, actors not attractive, its a mix of American+French story. But i dont know how the French component came to insert itself into this mainly American set up.

Sound tracks are interesting, but sometimes v abrupt and too loud. Still interesting w retro sounds, familiar tunes.

I have never seen such an unsympathetic movie about brotherly friendship forever.