An Emma Overdose

Similarly to February 2011 and 2016, I was craving some Jane Austen this month, but it looks like I went completely overboard this year! ;-P

When I finally got to see Little Women in the theater last month I was thrilled to see the new Emma preview!
So, of course, I needed to prepare for this new film that seems to be perfection itself!

I re-read the novel over a couple of days two weeks ago. Then, I was determined to see the BBC/ WGBH series that I had completely missed back in 2009, I don't know why or how, considering I wrote several posts about PBS airing "The Complete Jane Austen"  back then (I lived blogged some of the adaptations). I must have missed it due to my crazy life cyber-schooling the boys last year. It features the delightful Romola Garai:

 I had to start a Hulu free trial to see it, and although I hated the stupid commercials, I went to bed 2 am last Monday night to see it. It didn't disappoint, and was quite delightful.

This afternoon, I saw Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma, and that was pretty ok too, but I still like the miniseries better. The film is a bit too rushed/ compressed and Mr. Frank Churchill (a very bad Ewan McGregor) is nothing, really. I must own that Mrs. Weston (Miss Taylor) is 100% better in the film, though.

I can't wait for the new Emma! March 5 cannot arrive soon enough! I will try to " force"  my husband and my son to see it with me! ;-)

MARVELous Movie Marathon

First part written on 6/22/17, second part written on 1/9/18, but retroactively dated from 12/31/17. 

It used to be our tradition -- after the school year was over during graduate school or, when we were still in Brazil, mostly during the "winter break" in July, we would rent lots of VHS tapes of movies and watch them for several days in a row.

We still did that when we had our first baby, back when we lived in Massachusetts and there was this great video/DVD rental place that let you rent 5 DVDs or VHS tapes for 5 days for 5 dollars, that was so great!

After the second baby came, it became harder and harder and even though we had Netflix (one DVD at a time) we would only watch movies sporadically. There was one year in particular, 2007, I think, that we kept a Netflix DVD for THREE MONTHS and wouldn't stop and watch it. We could have BOUGHT two or three copies of that DVD, that's how much money we wasted.

So several years ago I stopped our Netflix subscription. I NEVER EVER liked their streaming services because there are very few good movies in it. Same thing with Amazon prime streaming, which we've used since it became available -- once in a while we find a film we like there and stream it. I'm not into TV shows or original series.

Here is a list of films I've seen in the past 3 weeks (before 6/22), the Marvel movies (which my son insist I see, in order, so I can go to see the new releases with him in the theater) have an M:

Anna Karenina (DVD from the library) by myself
Imitation Game (DVD from the library) -with hubby
Hidden Figures -- blu-ray with husband and youngest son
Bright Light (had already seen it, but saw it again, by myself, DVD from the library) - the special features are awesome
M - Iron Man (streaming from Amazon)
The BFG - blu-ray from Netflix - special features are excellent. I saw it with my youngest son.
M - Iron Man 2 - blu-ray from Netflix (DVD.com) - watched part of it again (second half) with director comments -- it's great to hear their comments
M - Thor - got it from the library. Liked it OK, until now, my least favorite Marvel character.
       (until 6/22) Rest of the summer (all movies listed were blu-rays from "DVD.com"):
M - Guardians of the Galaxy (I saw this one out of order, Kelvin watched it with me, then we saw #2 in the theater)
Moonlight - I liked it, my husband liked the other Oscar favorite more.
M - Captain America: The First Avenger (my son may have seen part of it with me) (He watched National Treasure and the sequel on DVD, I didn't)
M - The Avengers (I'd seen it in an airplane years ago and loved it, now, with the context, I liked it even more)
M - Iron Man 3
M - Thor: The Dark World (I liked it OK)
M - Captain American: The Winter Soldier (I liked this one)
M - Avengers: Age of Ultron - my son had said it was his least favorite, but I liked it. It's pretty dark and a good criticism of the emphasis on militarization in this country.
La-la-Land  - my husband LOVED it, I didn't care for it that much. I think my husband loves the very realistic fight scene & the ending. Sigh... I kind of hated the music. BLAH.
M - Ant Man (this was fun!)
Hacksaw Ridge - saw with my husband (the true guy belonged to our church and lived pretty close to where we live -- I was very impressed by this true story. In spite of Mel Gibson, sigh...)
M - Captain America: Civil War -- I think we saw this streaming from Netflix. I had seen it in the theater with my son last year and enjoyed it, but hadn't fully understood it, obviously. I liked it a lot.
M - Dr. Strange (I thought I wouldn't like it, but I did)
Loving - wow, what a nicely done film! I think I've never seen a movie with so little dialogue, seriously! Great film, and very close to "home" too. ;-)
Queen of Katwe - I saw this on my own and I really liked it. Special features are good.
The Theory of Everything - fascinating! My husband the physicist obviously watched it with me.

WOW, 24 films, 13 Marvel.

I then saw a couple of missing episodes of Masterpiece's Victoria and cancelled my plan.

I saw the other two Marvel movies in the theater with my son: Spider-Man: Homecoming (pretty great) & Thor: Ragnarock -- so much fun! We've decided to see Infinity Wars on IMAX. I already put it on my calendar!

Yeah, this was MY YEAR for becoming a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, wasn't it? It may be the year I've seen more films in my whole life. Definitely the summer!

To Walk Invisible

This was beautiful! I'm buying the blu-ray. You can see it for free for five more days in the PBS Masterpiece website. So sad as well, but so beautifully done. Their lives must have been even harder. Somehow the way it ends so unexpectedly made me cry more than I thought I would! I just had to stay up until past 4 am to see it. So gorgeous and moving. I need to go to Haworth now to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Bucket list item!

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence -- how I remember David Bowie

Everyone was talking about David Bowie on Facebook yesterday, about his music, things he said, and the movie Labyrinth, but nobody mentioned my strongest memory of him, his role in the 1983 British-Japanese film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (also known as Furyo in Europe). This WW2 movie introduced him to me and to Ryuichi Sakamoto's music (I had no idea it was his very first film score and also his debut as an actor, thanks Wikipedia! Ha, and I just found out he scored The Revenant).

Here's the trailer, a great role for Bowie:

Binge Watching

Thanks to Amazon Prime & sleeping in this morning I just watched all of Downton Abbey's season 5 today. ;-)

Last night I watched the "Premiere" of Season 6 on PBS in spite of the fact that I had only watched the first episode of the previous season. I couldn't resist watching it for the very first time on our TV since we now have a few channels of cable.

I thought I'd watched more episodes of season 5, but it had been just one -- I was way too busy last year in January to do it). I'm looking forward to watching the season to the end on TV, for the most part. (except for the Oscars night ;-)

I don't watch any TV, so it's fun to be enthralled by it once in a while... too bad a lot of things were spoiled by having watched last night. I sure want to visit Highclare Castle someday!

Mockingjay Part 2 - Awesome!

This is the first time in my life I've seen a movie on the opening week! And I loved it, it was such a great adaptation! 

Of course there are some small changes, buy they didn't really interfere with the story. I was also happy that the movie was ok even though Philip Seymour Hoffman couldn't finish filming it. I wonder how they actually did it (I'll look for stuff online).

I guess this won't be the last time I'll watch a movie in the opening week or weekend!

SuperGirl

I kind of liked it, but I don't know if I'll be watching again.

I just don't do TV. But I'm sure glad that we have about 9 channels now, including PBS! I'll be watching Downton Abbey when it airs here!

This was the upside of our new & better internet. If only it weren't so expensive! Boooh :-(

Brazilian Movie to be Released in 2016 - O Grande Circo Místico

(this post is a note to myself more than anything)

O Grande Circo Místico movie is based on a ballet and its music (with lyrics, so it's more like a musical) which is, in turn, based on a really strange poem by Jorge de Lima inspired by the origin of the Knie circus in Switzerland (I saw signs while I was there!!!) (Wikipedia entry). The musical contains my "most favorite" song, Beatriz, which is the song that plays in the first part of the trailer. I think it'll be a beautiful movie:

O GRANDE CIRCO MÍSTICO, um filme de Cacá Diegues from Fado Filmes on Vimeo.

Mockingbird/ Mockingjay

Well, it didn't work out very well to watch the Mockinjay Part I movie almost back to back with To Kill a Mockingbird (the movie with Gregory Peck)! ;-)

Not only are the books and movie styles completely different, but movies made so many decades apart (half a century, in fact!) have incredibly different paces and techniques. So, yeah, it was almost a joke to do something like this, but it's not often that I go to the university library's Media Center to borrow DVDs (this time they had Bluray for Mockinjay, yay!!), so I got those two plus the documentary Hey, Boo which I don't know if I will finish. [Hey, if you're interested it will air again on July 10 on PBS to "honor" the July 14  release of the prequel Go Set a Watchman!].

It seems that the To Kill a Mockingird screenplay was hailed as one of the best adapted screenplays of all time and I think it's OK, but I was truly pleasantly surprised by how great and how "faithful"  to the book Mockinjay Part I was! It didn't end exactly where I'd thought and said it would end (I think that would have been way too much suspense!), but almost. It was so faithful that they even showed the lake and certain areas of District 12 that had not been shown in the previous two movies. I really really liked it!

Of course I hadn't read the Suzanne Collins book as recently as I had when I watched the first two movies, which I basically didn't like at all, particularly the first one, The Hunger Games. They cut too much of the book (in the words of my 13 year old son who has read them all and watched the films with us, in the first movie, it feels as if the games themselves last for a few days, not over two excruciating weeks). Catching Fire was slightly better, but still not that great -- too little time was spent showing the Capitol, among other faults. Their portrayal of how they controlled the Arena with a model was cool, though, as was having a view of the background of what's going on. After watching Mockingjay (on Tuesday night), I re-read the ending of the book again and I think it's pretty great. I hope the last film won't disappoint!

My husband worked on reading the trilogy over many months (maybe close to 6 months) and he finished a bit over a month ago and thought the author did a fantastic job, particularly in portraying post-traumatic stress disorder. Not a lot of time in the movie(s) shows that, even because the films don't have a first person narrator, but we get to see the effects on Katniss. Jennifer Lawrence is a great actress. Phillips Seymour Hoffman is splendid and I don't know exactly how they'll get around not having him in the sequel. He only appears at the end, so I guess they'll have Haymith say his lines.

As for To Kill a Mockinbird it also cuts most of the novel, no scenes in the school, barely any relationship with the neighbor ladies, no aunt Alexandra, but it keeps the main scenes and Peck and the girl actress who plays Scout are splendid. I think we're spoiled by the way movies are made nowadays, though. Thankfully, great books transcend the passage of time and the novel moved me greatly.

Next, I'll blog about Lois Lowry's books which I read last week (The Giver & companion books).

The Chilling Super Bowl Ad (& the one I liked)

I had already seen references to it in M's facebook feed, but I didn't see the until today.

I couldn't help it. I had silent tears running down my face as I watched it, being aware that it was a real call for help.

We watched very little of the Super Bowl (only the second half, after the show) because had guests for dinner last night. My husband's uncle and aunt (who had last been at our house maybe 8 years ago, shortly before they went to Africa -- they came back to the U.S. two years ago) stopped by as they drove non-stop from San Antonio, TX to Maryland.

The only ad I actually saw was the Dodge one, and I loved it:

I don't know if I'll waste my time watching any other ads (unless someone recommends them).

P.S. you know we went to school in MA & my kids were born there. We were happy with the result of the game. ;-)

Downton Abbey Season 5 Opening

I love Downton Abbey and for once I will watch when it's being broadcast. Unfortunately our antenna doesn't catch PBS (yes, we do have an antenna, the Mohu Leaf), but thankfully PBS does make the episodes available on its website!

I just wanted to make a few comments about Downton Abbey's most recent episode/season.

First, I think that the pace is much faster than it was in previous seasons, did anybody notice that too or maybe I'm wrong?

I wrote that sentence after watching only the first half of the episode, now after I finished watching it, I do think that the pace is pretty vertiginous, but I suppose that it's necessary in the first episode to capture the viewers and make them come back week after week, season after season...

That's what's so annoying about these kinds of works (and it's the same in book series), they "trap" you so you become addicted and keep on watching. Oh well... I wonder how many more seasons this show is going to have! It is so popular that maybe it will take years until it finally ends. And I guess that the actual owners of that magnificent house are delighted that they can have more income to keep the place in the family. ;-)

Well, maybe someday I'll add to their income in a more direct manner by visiting Highclare Castle! I'll do that only after I visit all the Jane Austen sites and more, though. ;-)

Interstellar -- pretty Interesting! :-)

(pun intended)

So we saw Interstellar yesterday in an IMAX theater (that's why we had to drive an hour there and back) because K really wanted to see it.

I had read nothing about it before going, so it was fascinating and at the same time utterly frustrating to go into a movie not having the least idea of what it is about -- except for the title and the name of some actors.

It's not at all my kind of movie, so I was underwhelmed at times (especially with the storytelling in the beginning), but the images of space are stunning! The sound in the theater felt way too loud a lot of the time, but the contrast between the loudness of the action and the silence of space is AMAZING.

The organ (and orchestral) music was masterfully done, I must say, and while the plot seems weak and full of holes in the beginning, later on it becomes complex and full of layers, so much so that we so many unanswered questions that we had to spend quite a bit of time online reading about the plot twists and possibilities. (I do think it was less complex than Inception, also by Christopher Nolan and which I totally loved).

I think it was worth seeing it in IMAX -- the first feature film I've seen in IMAX! I did see all of the original IMAX documentaries in the Air & Space Museum back in 1993 and then over the years (e.g. Everest, Louis & Clark) and this summer all of the IMAX features currently playing in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 Here is the first trailer:
And the third:

Wow, The Movie is Better than the Book? (Ah, Baz Luhrmann!)

I never, ever thought I was going to say this (literature "purist" that I am) but I like Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby way better than the book! It helps that I don't much like the book, I suppose, but I still think it's very well written and a "classic."

I re-read it late last year, hoping to see the movie in the theater (something I do extremely rarely), but that never happened, and now I will have to re-read it again! Sigh... I first read it for my 20th  century American lit class in college (I was an English major, after all!) and I thought it was such a depressing book, full of hopeless characters, which I guess it is.

The movie does a brilliant job with the story, though! It takes a few liberties -- Nick in a Sanatorium doing therapy sessions with a psychiatrist and writing the story as therapy was... I don't know... an interesting ploy to introduce the narrator, a bit forced, perhaps -- but I suppose it's a minor detail. The plentiful use of words on the screen (as well as the writing done by Nick) emphasize the literary character of the work and I obviously love that.

Like in Luhrmann's previous movies, the art direction, the cinematography, costume & set design as well as the soundtrack (20th & 21st century music mixed to convey the roaring 20s!) are 100% over the top, which fits this particular story amazingly well! And the inventive language Luhrmann uses is also fascinating.

I'm sure I could go on and on, but it's 2 am (and I'm fudging on the time of the post for NaBloPoMo's sake once more, hello!) and I still need to cook some before I can sleep. Maybe more later?!

Have you seen the movie? What did you think?

Boyhood: Delightfully Brilliant, yet Riddled with Stereotypes...

... or should I say brilliantly delightful? And... are some of the stereotypes slightly mysoginistic?

I don't know, but I wonder...

Well, after a summer of constantly wishing to watch movies, but not having time, I finally got to see Boyhood last Sunday with my husband in the small local theater!

(this viewing was preceded by a Richard Linklater "Before" movies marathon the weekend/week before, but I'll blog about that later! Can't wait!)

First of all, Boyhood, filmed over twelve years, is a groundbreaking film-making experiment/experience. It is incredible to see the characters age, particularly Ellar Coltrane, the boy, and his sister, played by Linklater's daughter Lorelei. Trailer:


Apart from Rebecca Woolf's commentary on the movie (and her previous post), I avoided reading reviews or criticism of the movie online, but I knew not to have too high expectations, so I wasn't disappointed.

The film is pretty moving and funny and I loved how (and I'd read about that ahead of time) Linklater chose to use music from the different years the action was taking place. I particularly loved the opening scene with Coldplay's Yellow!

I think -- although I haven't grown up in this country, so I wouldn't be able to really evaluate that! -- the movie accurately portrays American families (particularly with divorced parents) and the way American kids are raised. I loved that I have family in Texas and that I'd already been to most of the locations and I could recognize the landscape, which is very similar to where my sister-in-law's family lives. The NYT had an article about this in July, titled "Texas Gets Love Letter in 'Boyhood.'"

I was looking at my students today and thinking that I better understand their elementary/high school experience and their worldview after watching this movie (I felt that way particularly when I was looking at one of my female students who has lots of earrings in one of her ears, kind of quirky like boyhood's Mason) -- Brazilian kids' upbringing seems to me to be so different (of course in my generation, I haven't lived in Brazil and taught kids there for the past 18 years, but I still think it's different).

I liked the movie, but I think it's very hard to give it much depth and really develop the characters when you're filming over a twelve year span and that is the film's weakness. Filming like that is also very conducive to reducing the characters' lives to countless stereotypes. The single-mom who keeps finding abusive partners, the misfit high-school kid, the way boys/men see women.

I don't know... maybe I'm being too picky and academic here in being annoyed with the stereotypes and the way women/girls are portrayed. The sister seems to fade away so much towards the end of the movie, since the focus has to be on the boy(hood) of her brother.

And maybe my viewing was colored by this having read this tweet by Joyce Carol Oates:

Now for a film titled "Girlhood"--that lingers as lovingly on the understated, the mundane, & the transcendent in a girl's life.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) September 8, 2014

(tweet was looking great, but then it became text only when I deleted a comment I had here before, I hope it works again! YAY, it is working!)

In any case, women, particularly the mother, seem to be viewed as victims of men (maybe that's a good thing? To show how women can be strong and overcome abuse?) and since it's a movie about a boy growing up, we also have stereotypes of the way young men see women. I like the girlfriend and what happens seems realistic, but I don't know if I like the girl at the end.

I don't really know exactly what/how I feel, but as a girl/woman, I wish there was another movie like Joyce wrote. Sometimes this whole being-a-feminist-thing and seeking gender equality is exhausting to me... I wish I could just move on, but it's not possible, not with depressing statistics about the gender gap (particularly one I can't find now about how mothers make even less money than other women). The fight has to continue... sigh... and the awareness of gender stereotyping really did take some of the "magic" from this movie for me.

Last, but not least, I kept wondering if his mom wasn't just an adjunct and probably not really a tenure-track professor (like her second husband -- what a piece of work! And then they also totally make fun of this crazy supposed UT Austin professor who talks to himself in a diner, yikes!). She obviously seems to have a full-time position, but she's also pretty broke (and she clearly only got a master's degree not a doctorate). Well... it doesn't matter, but that part really resonated with me (obviously!).

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and I loved Ethan Hawke, though I prefer him in the Before trilogy much more. Ellar Coltrane was superb, I want to read the interviews and articles about him and also view Q&A's with him and Linklater that are available on YouTube. I liked Lorelei Linklater's performance a lot and Patricia Arquette was OK as the mom. Now I can go read some reviews and I may come back to edit this with some links to my favorites (or not!).

I'm glad I finally got to do something I'd been really looking forward to! We do make it a point not too watch too many (if any!) movies, but this was one I wanted to see very badly. Hopefully this post doesn't have too many spoilers for you if you still haven't seen it!

P.S. As a mom of two boys I also got to think about my sons and my mothering of them, but they're still too young for me to identify with the teenage years that were a large part of the movie. In addition, their upbringing is/will be just very different from the boy in this film. Oh, and I thought that including stereotypical views of religious people was fine, almost funny. And the guns in a Texas ranch detail. I just thought that the dad's marriage came out of the blue and was left completely unexplained... but the movie wasn't about him. The mother is always closer to the boy, so she's portrayed in more depth.

Accidental 'World Premiere' Viewing - "The Pool Master"

Last Saturday night I wanted to watch "World Cup Tonight" and the compact version of that day's soccer games and while I waited for ESPN to start showing soccer, I started watching "The Pool Master" in the Discovery Channel (it's actually produced by Animal Planet). It was fascinating to watch this eccentric British man "talk" to boulders and have them removed in order to make a natural looking pool.

What I had no idea whatsoever is that I was watching the show's premiere! I decided to google it tonight and couldn't believe when I found that out! Another show I enjoyed last Saturday was Tree House Master. Here's a preview:
Too bad in a month we'll cancel cable and I won't be wasting precious hours watching a bunch of contractors led by a crazy visionary building pools for other people anymore! ;-)

Why we don't have cable or why I won't watch TV

I suppose tonight is the night to write blog posts that explain the reasons why... as briefly as possible! ;-)

We got cable installed today for the first time in the three years we've lived in this house. We did that because of the World Cup that will take place in Brazil and that begins on Thursday, we decided we wanted to watch in HD, instead of streaming online. (and we're actually glad to be watching the cup from afar, not only because we wouldn't be able to afford to travel to Brazil this summer, but also because it would be too crazy).

Anyway, I cannot have or watch TV because it's like crack for me, I'd be hopelessly addicted, particularly to HGTV! (watched almost two "flipping" shows this afternoon).

That's it. I'd rather spend my time reading about real people in blogs (while they still exist, right?).

Jo(e), thanks for the supportive comment, we'll be the "last two standing" in blogland, OK? Promise!!

May the Fo[u]rth be with you? ;-)

Hahahaha, I had no idea that today was Star Wars day, or something...

Cool, I became an extremely late "adopter" when I finally watched the six DVDs (in the order of release) back in 2008 when we went on a trip to Florida to our friends' house (our friend Wally is a big fan, his wife is not. ;-)

I don't really have time to watch movies (and maybe never will), but I want to own the Bluray discs someday. Or maybe I can just get them at the local library, like most old movies. :-) I wonder if libraries are ever going to carry bluray* discs, though.

*spell check doesn't like "bluray"-- it wants to make it into blurry!

Gotta love Jimmy!

& I think he'll be very successful. Good thing I don't have to teach tomorrow at 9 like my poor hubby (and that I'm not sleepy). 'Cause I wanna watch the whole show tonight. ;-)

But I will sure miss Seth in SNL.

Should I "live blog" the show? Nah... I'll just enjoy it (the Spike Lee directed first act thingy just started).

Chilean Film "No"

I'm so glad that I'll be able to watch "No" on the plane! They don't have a wide selection, but I really wanted to watch that film, so I'm happy. I hope I'll stay awake for it. I have to sleep on the second flight, so I may as well watch now! ;-)

P.S. one of my students is on the same flight, it was so surreal to see her! She's so tired, poor thing! (Not because of my class! :-)

SNL Tonight is just so GREAT!

edited to embed clips
Especially "Shaquille O'Neall" in Weekend Update!

And how they made fun of themselves by diffusing the uncomfortable  situation of never having had an African American woman in their cast.

But I feel like I could go to bed now. ;-)

Edited to add: but we ended up going to bed 2:30 am (actually, 1:30 with the fall back) just talking about the day & our friends.