Movies at Dawn

LAURA: It's awfully easy to lie when you know that you're trusted implicitly. So very easy, and so very degrading. Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great week! Mine went better than usual,  I've finally gotten used to the busy routine of school, so that's an improvement. I'm so happy to be back to the blog again, especially since this movie has been on my watchlist for a long time!  This week I decided to go a little more back in time and explore a film from the 1940's (another first for this blog!), Brief Encounter which I loved a lot. Let's give a little background about the film and explore its characters. I hope you enjoy reading the post! Brief Encounter is a romance movie adapted by a play of Noel Coward and directed by David Lean. The story revolves around Laura and Dr. Alec -both of whom are married- who meet at a railway station and gradually fall in love as they keep seeing each other every Thursday in the same spot. The romance built between t...

MIMA KIRIGOE: I don't know anything about myself anymore. ERI OCHIAI: Well... How do you think you know that person you were a second ago is the same person you are now? A continuous stream of memories. Given only that, we all create illusions within ourselves, saying that we each have only one fixed persona. Hello everyone! After a busy week (I really should get used to those!), this time I'm back with an anime for the first time in this blog! Even though it's a different concept, I loved everything about Perfect Blue, it was a film that seems relevant even today. Thanks for being here and I hope you enjoy reading the post! Perfect Blue is the directorial debut of the talented animator Satoshi Kon. Kon is known for successfully depicting the blurry lines between imagination and reality in his films, which is also one of my favourite themes ever established in cinema. After watching Perfect Blue, I immediately added Kon's other films to my list, so be sure to see more f...

SIMIN: Your daughter's future isn't important to you? JUDGE: There are a lot of children who live in this country. You say none of them have a future? SIMIN: I prefer my child doesn't grow up in this situation. I have the right as a mother. JUDGE: Which situation? [ Simin doesn't reply to him.] Hello everyone! I'm back later than usual once again, but now that another academic term has started (oof), I can continue posting regularly to relieve any stress caused by school! In times like these I really appreciate the presence of this blog, it's one of the few things that genuinely makes me happy. Let's start our post of this week, A Separation by the brilliant Asghar Farhadi! Thanks for being here and I hope you enjoy reading the post! A Separation is both written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and is his fifth feature. By successfully depicting a realistic portrait of the sociopolitical texture of his country, Farhadi has become one of the notable directors o...

MARION: I'm already thinking of you. Hello everyone! Welcome to this week's post about Celine Sciamma's latest feature, Petite Maman! I'm particularly excited about this one because I got to see the film earlier than most of the viewers. Although not as grand as her previous feature Portrait of a Lady on Fire , this time  Sciamma tells a minimalistic story that can easily resonate with the audience . The film tells the story of Nelly (8), who has recently lost her grandma and is staying at her mother's childhood home to help her clean out. Petite Maman is, in essence, a time travel movie. As Nelly wanders around the forest and seeks company, one day she befriends a girl at her age, Marion, who will later turn out to be her mom at the age of eight.  Instead of focusing on the touristic aspects  like most of the other time travel movies, Petite Maman follows a different path that urges the audience to question how would we get along if we were to meet our parents as a...

ALEXANDRE: Why, mother, does nothing happen as we wish? Why? Why does one have to rot in silence torn between pain and desire? Why did I live my life in exile? Tell me mother, why can't one learn to love? Hello everyone! I'm back this week (at a regular time, finally) with a  Theo Angelopoulos film, Eternity and a Day. Films of Angelopoulos have been on my list for a long time as he's known to be one of the greatest auteurs of cinema. To my delight, Eternity and a Day never disappointed me, and it pulled me into the story so much that some scenes replayed in my mind long after I finished the movie. Before I start, I'd like to thank you for being here and I hope you enjoy reading the post! Eternity and a Day is part three of the series "The Trilogy of Borders". Each film in the series tells about a certain voyage the main character goes through. In Eternity and a Day, we see our protagonist Alexandre taking a journey filled with his past regrets, memories, and ...

DELPHINE: I'm not normal, like you. I make an effort to try to listen, to talk to people. I watch what's going on. If people don't come to me it's because I'm worthless and... if I had something to show, people would see it, that's all.  Hello everyone! Summer has been quite busy for me with travelling  (which is something I haven't done in 1.5 years!)  and constantly packing stuff, so I couldn't find time to update the blog. I'm really back this time though, and for this post, I chose a beautiful summer classic called Le Rayon Vert! This is my first Eric Rohmer film and it definitely won't be the last as I loved his style.  Let's give a little background about the film and explore its characters. Thanks for being here and I hope you enjoy reading the post! Le Rayon Vert is Eric Rohmer's fifth movie of his series called Comedies et Proverbes. The series consists of six movies and each movie starts with a quotation: "Ah, for the days/...

HUBERT: Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good... so far so good... How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land! Hello everyone! Welcome to this week's unusually early post: La Haine by the brilliant Mathieu Kassovitz! This film is especially important because I finally watched it in a movie theater! It felt great to laugh with a room of people and shed some tears in the end. Thanks for being here and I hope you enjoy reading the post! Mathieu Kassovitz is originally an actor that is most famous for his film Amelié (2001). He started writing this film following the accidental shooting of an immigrant by police - which I'll mention more in a bit. La Haine, similarly, tells the daily lives of  " black-blanc-beur" (black-white-Arab) boys living in the Parisian ghetto. The main conflict of the film is built between the minority groups and the police. Despite taking a ser...