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Sunday, May 9, 2010

Marie Antoinette


“Marie Antoinette” is a movie based on a biography written by Antonia Fraser. Marie Antoinette is a young girl; she has married Luis XVI but she doesn’t feel uncomfortable because she is alone and lost in France. She is a very young queen and has many responsibilities and the country is concerned about how she rules.
I think that “Marie Antoinette” is a breath of fresh air because Sofia Coppola could mix modern elements with elements of that time, however, the movie doesn´t lose its’ essence. For example, the songs that appear in the movie are new wave or post-punk. With these types of music the movie has a different atmosphere. It is much more interesting and attractive. Also the costumes are extravagant. There is everything from big dresses and wonderful shoes to amazing make up. The setting is up to date with the real story because many of the scenes were filmed in Vienna at the Belvedere Palace.
In the movie we can feel what the protagonist is feeling in every moment. Marie Antoinette was too young and had a lot of responsibilities and sometimes she was alone. The only thing that she wanted to do was to run away. For example, when the monarchy said the Marie Antoinette was to blame because she did not have a “real” marriage . She did many things to have a “real” marriage but nothing worked and her husband did not do anything to help her so Marie Antoinette felt very frustrated.
Some critics say that the movie didn´t achieve the expectations that it had. For example, Leah Rozen in People Magazine “The absence of political context, however, upset most critics of Marie Antoinette, director Sofia Coppola's featherweight follow-up to Lost in Translation. Her historical biopic plays like a pop video, with Kirsten Dunst as the doomed 18th century French queen acting like a teenage flibbertigibbet intent on being the leader of the cool kids' club.” Roger Ebert, another critic from Chicago Sun-Times wrote in the newspaper and in his own web page “every criticism I have read of this film would alter its fragile magic and reduce its romantic and tragic poignancy to the level of an instructional film. This is Sofia Coppola's third film centering on the loneliness of being female and surrounded by a world that knows how to use you but not how to value and understand you.” There are different opinions about this movie but I think that to see Marie Antoinette is a good option because it is a modern version of an old story with amazing setting, costumes, make up and wonderful soundtracks.



Lick the star



This is the first movie that Sofia Coppola directed and produced. This film shows us what the girls between the ages of 12 and 14 years old are thinking and the problems that they have. For example, in the movie there is a scene that shows the different personalities in a class. There are the shy classmates, the unruly classmates, and the girls that came from the high society. Usually at that age girls and boys are easily influenced. If we want to see an example from the real world, we can see how the boys and girls are at the school.

The movie reminded me of when my sister was in school. When she was 15, she started at a new school with different classmates and teachers. The education in that school was extremely different and strict. My sister wanted something different so she started to drink alcohol and smoke. Sometimes she didn’t go to school and was getting bad grades. Unfortunately as a consequence of her actions she failed many of her classes. My parents were afraid and they didn´t know what to do with my sister.

With this background information we can conclude that we can use this kind of a movie to realize how young people are act and why. Maybe the teacher in a class can show this film and then the students work on an exercise commenting about their own experiences and if they are reflected in the movie. The exercise can be very useful to the teacher and parents because this allows both parties to understand and know the problems that the students are going through.






Lost in Translation


Why does the movie have this name? This would be because the movie takes place in Tokyo and the main characters, Bob and Charlotte, are American. Bob is an actor and Charlotte is the wife of a famous photographer. They meet at a bar in a hotel and then they realize that they have a lot of things in common such as the fact that they don’t know the language or the culture. They are also going through different situations in life; Charlotte is looking at her place in life and Bob is going through a crisis in his life . They spend a lot of time together in Tokyo. They don’t feel alone because they are together and they don’t need to know the language or the customs.

I think that the setting in this movie is very important because Tokyo creates a special atmosphere and the main characters don’t know the culture or the language. They felt very uncomfortable and that is what led to them meeting one another. If the setting had been in another place like the U.S.A. they wouldn´t have realized that they had so many things in common and probably wouldn’t have met eachother.

We are able to tell that the Chinese and American culture have many things in common. For example; at the beginning of the movie Bob arrived to Tokyo very late at night and the city was crowded just like it is during the day. The film industry or T.V. industry is big like U.S.A. because people in Tokyo make commercials with big name products and companies. Also the TV shows are made on big sets. Tokyo is a country with new technology so they can produce amazing movies and TV shows.

The movie also shows some stereo typical characters. For example; John, Charlotte’s husband, is a selfish person because he is always thinking about himself and is materialistic. An example of this is when Charlotte was alone in the hotel and she had to go out alone too. She then realized that she had no idea who she was married to.



Directed by Sofia Coppola

Produced by Ross Kats

Sofia Coppola

Written by Sofia Coppola

Starring Bill Murray

Scarlett Johansson

Giovanni Ribisi

Anna Faris

Fumihiro Hayashi

Music by Brian Reitzell

Kevin Shields

Roger Joseph Manning Jr.

Air

Cinematography Lance Acord

Editing by Sarah Flack

Studio American Zoetrope

Distributed by Focus Features

Running time 102 minutes

Country United States

Language English

Japanese

Budget $4 million

Gross revenue $119,723,856

From: wikipedia.com









Sofia Coppola

Her real name is Sofia Carmina Coppola. She was born on May 14, 1971 in The United States in New York City. Her father is the famous director and producer Francis Ford Coppola. He made “The Godfather” and “The Godfather II”. Her mother’s name is Eleanor Coppola.

Sofia started her career as an actress very young in movies such as “The Godfather”. The most famous character she played was Mary Corleone in “The Godfather III”. Her acting performance received terrible ratings and it was the end of her career as an actress. Following her downfall she began playing smaller roles in movies and music videos.

Now a days Sofia is recognized in her career as a director. Her first movie was a short film called “Lick the Star”. She also made “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation”. This movie won an Academy Award for her original screen-play. Sofia also made others films. Some include music videos such as “I just don’t know what to do with myself” by the band White Stripes and “Playground Love” by the band Air. She has also directed commercials for Dior.


Thirteen



The film is an autobiography because the story is about Nikki's life when she was thirteen and about others teenagers. The script was written in six days. The film deals with sex, alcohol, and drugs. The story is about Tracy, who is a young thirteen year old girl. She is very educated and responsible. She always keeps up with her studies and she has two friends just like her. Her father hardly ever goes to visit her and for this reason sometimes she is very sad. Her mother "Mel" allows friends and her ex boyfriend to live in their house without paying rent. Tracy is really upset about family's problems and she begins to hurt herself by cutting her wrists. At her school, some girls tease for her way of dressing saying that she wears little girls’ clothes. However, she wants to be like the popular girls, led by leader Evie Zamora. Tracy wants to grasp Evie's attention, so she tries to be friends with the girls by changing her style and begins to drift away from her real friends. She begins to be rebel and be disrespectful. She even begins to steal to impress to Evie. Finally Trace invites her new friend Evie to live with her and Mel. Everything was fine for them because Tracy had fun with Evie, they went out together, they drank alcohol, consumed drugs and had sex with differents guys. Evie's cousin discovered that Evie had drugs and wento to Tracy's home but Evie lied and invented that those drugs were Tracy’s. As a result, Evie left the city with her cousin and Mel discovered that Tracy had some cuts on her wrists.



Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

Produced by Jeff Levy-Hinte

Michael London


Written by Catherine Hardwicke

Nikki Reed
Starring Evan Rachel Wood

Holly Hunter

Nikki Reed

Jeremy Sisto

Cinematography Elliot David

Editing by Nancy Richardson

From: wikipedia.com




Twilight


It is a young-adult vampire-romance story.
The main character is a young girl, Isabella Marie Swan, who arrives to Forks, Washington. Her mother decided to get re-marry to a baseball player named Phil, so Isabella made the choice to go and live with her father Charlie in Forks.
At her new school she meets Eric, Mike, Tyler, Jessica and Angela. On her first day at the new school she observes five other students. They were brothers; Cullen, Edward, Emmett, Jasper, Alice and Rosalie. Actually they weren't brothers, they were adopted by a doctor named Carlisle Cullen and his
wife Esme Cullen.
At the lunch Bella was sitting with her new friends, when suddenly she saw to Edward and she asked them about him, so her friends they told her about the brother's story and where the came from. Bella was so interesting about the five brothers because they were strange.
On day in science's class Bella and Edward had to do an experiment together, so Bella realised that something was strange with Edward, because she asked somthing to him, and he never answered.
On day in the school she discovered about Edward's powers. Because he was very fast and strong.
Bella and Edward fell in love and finally she concluded that Edward was a vampire. Then they began a relationship but he knew that Bella was in danger if she stays with him.
In the end Bella wanted to be a vampire too, so she asked to Edward bit her neck for have the eternal life but he didn't, because for him was a bad thing in his life.


Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

Carter Burwell

Mark Morgan


Produced by Greg MooradiaWyck Godfrey


Written by Melissa Rosenberg

(Screenplay)

Stephenie Meyer

(Novel)

Starring Kristen Stewart

Robert Pattinson


Cinematography Elliot Davis


Editing by Nancy Richardson


Distributed by Summit Entertainment


Running time 121 minutes


Country United States

Language English


Budget $7,3000,000

From: Wikipedia.com