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My friends have been begging me to watch it for they said it was the best film they’ve seen this year. I took a chance on it and watched it. One must confess how powerful the idea behind the movie is and how touching it is. It is indeed extremely powerful and a must be seen piece.

It shows the differences between the man and the animal, and of course reminds people that there is an animal that is close to humanity, the chimpanzees. The movie starts with finding a cure to Alzheimer by some experiment on a female chimpanzee and her brain. The rest of the movie evolves around one chimpanzee that learns faster than human and smarter for sure.

It reminds us what is the real difference between a human and a chimpanzee. What is power and what is weakness.

The movie is directed by Woody Allen, whom I love him as a director, not much as an actor, and starring Owen Wilson Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, and of course Marion Cotillard. It’s a story about a Hollywood writer who desperately in a need for nostalgia in his life, his dream is to be a novelist residing in Paris. Surely he goes on a vacation with his fiance to Paris, and as he enjoys walking in the streets of the city every midnight he goes back to the 20s and meets his idols, the artists he is always inspired by.

I liked the story and the movie. I liked the idea and the characters, and mostly I liked the nostalgia. The movie is practically a magical journey to the things that inspire us to work the way we want and do what we only want, and that’s how we succeed. Falling in love comes on the way, and no, we cannot escape it.

According to Wikipedia: “ It is a dual narrative story about a Nigerian asylum-seeker and a British magazine editor, who meet during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta, and are re-united in England several years later.” link

I have been touched by this book because it gives another approach of realism. For one it is set in the 21st century, and discusses the relationship between England as a civilized country and Nigeria as a country pretending to be civilized, while people there still struggle for inner peace.

The first two chapters of the book are pointless, but then each chapter that follows becomes inspirational and sensational. It becomes captivating and shocking.

It is about two brave women, that put men to shame, and show that girls can all be brave and powerful. No matter how hard they struggle they remain powerful, and become inspiration to all women, all ages to hold up to reality and fight.

It somehow reminds me of the books we used to study in the 2oth century English literature. It is as good as literature can be.

I have to confess it took me a while to finish this novel, for I had a lot of reading material in the same period (the last few months).

For  a start this book deals with books and literature, also history, as the title shows. The main history dealt with in this book is the legend of Dracula, yes Dracula, the vampire. Actually, the legend of Dracula is based upon a prince from Romania, Vlad the Implaer or Vlad Tepes. Here is more on him from Wikipedia.

Reading the book was a complete pleasure, starting from the earliest pages and reading from a girl’s POV about books and about her father as a scholar, and then imagining about the whole accuracy of the legend of Dracula. Then there are the letters of the girl’s father. The whole novel seems like epistolary novel with too many letters from different characters narrating a story.  It’s pretty amazing for those who like reading about legends. And of course the whole novel takes the reader on a tour around Europe; there are places like Amsterdam, London, France, Istanbul, Hungaria, Bulgaria and of course Romania.

The story takes the reader into another realm of history, not the boring crap we used to study at school but history about a famous legends. It reminds me of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, a man and a woman in Europe looking for codes, but instead of codes we get historical evidence of the legend, instead of Mary Magdalene’s Tomb we get the Dracula’s Tomb. Practically similar, but of course different and has its own kind of beauty.

In short, I don’t want to force anyone to read this book, but must say that is book is profound and thrilling, rich with language and legends. I have enjoyed and I’m sure any fan of Mystery book would enjoy it the same. It’s such a shame that it doesn’t have the recognition it deserves.

The webiste

It’s quite similar to the 1st part, but this one starts with action. The whole plot of the 2nd part is set in one night, describing a battle. while all the students at Hogwarts fight to protect the castle, Harry and his friends goo destroy the Horcruxes. Snape of course shows up as predicted in the book, in a very emotional kind of scene that left us crying in the theatre. But I must say, This movie is an adaptation, while the books were sensational phenomenon. S o don’t expect too much, and if you don’t get too emotional with the tragedies, don’t blame yourself for being heartless, for we know we all cried in the book, while in the movies they made sure everything happens too fast… there is no time.

But in all you can see great performance by the great actors that I admired all my life.

Alan Rickman for a start, he’s just God.

Helena Bonham Carter, she’s so awkward, and that’s what we love about her.

Ralph Finnes, hey there? how is your nose doing? He’s just wonderful being a villain.

The rest unfortunately didn’t appear very often, except Michael Gambon which is great by just standing there looking like Gandalf.

The Trio were good, I never really thought Daniel Radcliffe can really act, but he was OK. Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were superb as usual.

Matthew Lewis, a good actor and surprisingly HOT in reality (just look for his new photos… I congratulate him on his dashingly handsome face and hot body).

Finally I have to disagree with the subtitle of the film, It DOESN’T END AT ALL

The movie is by the way nominated to 12 Academy Award this season and only won one Golden Globes for Best Actor, Colin Firth, whom happens to be my favorite actor. The rest of the cast, all of them, not only Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush were amazing. I just loved all of them, I wasn’t at all disappointed with them. But Colin, I had very high expectation before watching the movie and after I’ve seen his breathtaking performance I’ve realized that he has exceeded my expectations and I could never be more proud. The chance that Colin wont take the Oscar is only 1% I swear.

The movie was flawless. I’m trying to look for flaws in this movie as I always look for some flaws in some other movies and I have found that this movie lacks nothing, it’s actually perfect the way it is. When it comes to the plot it is perfect that there’s nothing dramatic, after all, it’s based on a real story, and dramatic plot is out of the question. As for Dramatic scenes, there were some real strong scenes, specially those between Bertie (King George VI, played by Colin Firth) and Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush). It was very important to see the relationship that grows between them, and how they develop their friendship through dealing with the stammer of the king.

The movie doesn’t evolve around the war and the relationship of the king with the nation and other nations, it’s not about the life of the king, but it’s all about the stammer of the king and how he overcomes it. It’s brilliant, one can compare it to the movie “The Queen” (starring Helen Mirren), for there the story is about the relationship with the queen and Tony Blaire. And the same in “The King’s Speech” it’s about the King and his stammer and his relationship with Lionel Logue.

The movie is very well made, it has the perfect direction, the perfect editing and score. Yes, indeed it looks like a BBC TV drama, and some critics turn not to like this fact, but I think it’s amazing. For me the movie was flawless… Perhaps not the best movie of the decade, but at least very much worth it, perhaps the best movie of the year.

There is something very special about this book that makes it seem much more interesting than The Shadow of the Wind. I have to say before I start that the Shadow of the Wind was one hell of a book, and if I could only have one week free I would read this book all over again and enjoy it till the end once again. A friend of my mine said he prefers the Shadow of the Wind over the Angel’s Game, so I wasn’t really excited or planning to read the book any time soon. Another person said, however that the angel’s Game is much more interesting than the Shadow of the Wind, and I immediately went on reading it.

I must confess while reading I’ve noticed that the plot seems much more interesting and is twists in more than one direction, and the characters are much more sophisticated. The Protagonist for example, David Martin, isn’t exactly a guy you would want to develop a friendship with.

OK, now I feel wrong comparing two books written by the same author, but each one has its own magic to recommend it and I highly recommend reading both, as the writer is God and his writing is perfection. He raises a lot of issues that always concern so many people for a hundred year, for the Angel’s Game was set around the beginning of the 20th century. It’s amazing how he related to a character living in that century that is so accurate to that time and can be considered in the last century we all live in.

The plot was interesting and goes into different directions, as I mentioned before, and even though it took me a while to finish the book, I couldn’t rest till I finish it and see what has happened. To this, I have to express  my disappointment as when I reached the end I didn’t have the answers and the mysteries solved, instead I had more raised up questions and mysteries. I wanted to know more and more and felt sorry that the author had to part from narrating this story in that way of keeping us, the readers in total confusion. I think there should have been a chapter where the narrator at least explains what really happens at the end, that is all.

But mainly, I have to confess I have been touched by this book, and the whole concept of writing and literature. It also raises so many issues I love reading about like religion (even though I’m not a believer). i must say, I have lived with this book, and became very attached to the protagonist.

Meanwhile, here’s the soundtrack for the book that is composed by the author himself.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

My friend has lend me this book after my request as I have heard about it, maybe not as much as I’ve heard about other books, but I certainly was interested to start reading it.

I have surely heard of the story of Jacob and his 12 sons, but I have never really knew more about that, and I certainly needed some biblical information as a background knowledge before starting with the book. And yes, I recommend everybody to google Jacob and learn few things about this biblical story. But not read so much, as the book provides more information than needed.

As I’ve learned, the Bible (I’m referring to the old testament here) mentions a little chapter of Jacob’s only (as far as mentioned in the bible) daughter, Dinah. Again’ google Dina and you’ll find about her in the wikipedia, I’m sorry but I can;t talk about it here too much, as I can;t really explain what I have learned from other websites.

The story in the novel, The Red Tent, is narrated by Dinah herself, starts from the story of her mothers, then her childhood, her adulthood, marriage, and future. It’s an amazing story that you can’t put down, and you want to know more and more and see what happens. I personally enjoyed every single chapter and longed to know more, and despite being busy I tried not to put it down, as I enjoyed it. It’s completely seducing; suddenly you feel you are swapped into another era, of thousands of years ago, complete different world, I felt connected to the story and the characters.

Maybe at the beginning you lose interest with knowing too many things about the wives of Jacob and others, as the beginning seems to be an introduction to the story, but I read them with spirit.

After reading the book, I felt all knowing about the story of Jacob and wanted to read more and more. I almost cried at some chapter and I was touched by the magic of the story. I imagined it to be a film, oh, how I long to see an adapted movie for this wonderful story.

First of all I wanted to watch this movie for Marion Cotillard, she’s one of my favorites actresses, even though I haven’t seen all her movies yet. And because I’ve heard a good review about this movie. When I read the plot-line (summary) however, I didn’t really understand it, I just had an idea what it was about, a guy who steals ideas…But it is a bout a guy (DiCaprio) who is gifted by stealing ideas from the sub-conscience of the people while they are dreaming. He has lost his family and everything, but he is offered to gain everything back by doing one mission, to plant an idea into someone’s sub-conscience. Which isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

The Film was written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman/Dark Knight, remember?) you can see some similarities between this movie and the Batman one; action with some sort of a complicated story that might take a while for you to understand… but still, you get amazed by it. He brings some serious issue you have to consider them. Even if the movie is considered fantasy or sci-fi, it still reflects something real.

I loved this movie and I’m dying to watch it again, perhaps so I can understand it better and look for the little details I’ve missed. I loved the actors, of course Marion Cotillard is my favorite among the cast, but the rest were as brilliant as she was. Ellen Page was cool too, I always liked her, and in this movie she was as amazing. I’ve stopped being a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, for some unknown reasons, but I loved his performance in this film. And the song that kept playing in the film ‘Rien De Rien’ or ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’ by Edith Piaf, which came ironically in this movie (the main character has something to regret). And Marion Cotillard once played the part of Edith Piaf in the movie “La Vie in Rose” to which she received the Academy Awards.

In brief, I highly recommend this movie, even though it’s not the best I’ve ever seen for this decade, but probably one of the best for this year, and surely the best for this summer.

posted on August 4th on my previous blog