Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Source of inspiration 268: Jeux d'enfants
I really like the film 'Jeux d'enfants' ('Love Me if You Dare'), by Yann Samuell. The main roles are played by Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet who are my favourites actors.
The story is about two childhood friends, Julien and Sophie. Their friendship is linked by a box and a challenge game which they never stop playing, even when they grow up: "truth or dare" ("cap ou pas cap?"). Both are "cap" every time, except to say they love each other. They live with these bets, for these bets, by these bets! The film shows us their life, from the beginning of their friendship until their deaths. It will take them a lifetime to say "I love you"...
And what is the box all about? In fact, when Julien and Sophie play the game, they give each other a lovely box. Whoever owns the box gives the other a challenge, and when it is done, the other wins the box and can gives a challenge in turn to his friend.
It is Julien's mother who gave him the box before her death. Sophie is Polish and people laugh about her. So for both of them, the game is a way to forget their problems. As time goes by, the game becomes essential, more beautiful and important in their lives.
Julien and Sophie, with this story, show us that we can stay child-like all our lives. This film is funny, touching, a little sad, very realistic, and it makes me dream!
A very good friend, Damien, gave me this film and I saw it, for the first time, with Mathilde and Margaux, my room mates at boarding school. We really enjoyed it! I thought it was important to say what this film represents for us. It makes me ask questions about the meaning of my life, my way of thinking and how I live every day.
And is it really a problem to stay a bit like a child all one's life? We must be serious, responsible, but we only have one life! So I think it is essential to be positive, and not to be so stressed like the adults!
Now, with my friends, we have found a box, and we sometime play "cap ou pas cap" to have fun. So, find a beautiful box and have fun in your life too!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Source of inspiration 244 (click on this title!): Theremin, etc.
The Theremin is one of the earliest electric instruments. It was created by Lev Sergeïevitch Termen (who looks and speaks like a cousin of Count Dracula, cf. the link!).
It is made up of two antennas anchored into a box. Two tubes inside the box combine to create a beat which forms an audible signal between 20 and 20000 Hz. One hand controls the volume, the other the pitch. The musician waves his hands in the air as if he were conducting. It is funny and strange to watch, especially as Theremin players seem to take their instrument very seriously… The sound really is from another dimension.
The Theremin was created during the Russian Revolution. Lenin really liked it and he even found time to take Theremin classes! He ordered six hundred to be distributed throughout the USSR. It was a symbol of the intellectual and artistic revolution of the 20s. It was also a success in Europe and the United-States.
The Theremin has mostly been used in contemporary music. It has also been used by, among others: the Bee Gees, Muse, Radiohead, and the Rolling Stones.
It was used for the soundtrack of many spooky 50s movies. See the links below for two films which pay tribute to that period of cinema history, Ed Wood and Mars Attacks (in which the Theremin is the unexpected weapon that makes the ghastly little green men’s heads explode!):
http://www.indavideo.hu/video/THE_END_-_1996_-_MARS_ATTACKS
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4c6gw_ed-wood-generique-keoxprod_shortfilms
The Theremin is a futuristic box from the past… There are other bizarre instruments of the same kind, notably the Ondes Martenot:
Here's an obvious creative idea: make your own Theremin!
Click on this:
Article by Florent Bourgain
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Source of inspiration 221 (click on this title!): Tativille!
These photos are stills taken from Playtime, a movie by Jacques Tati:
Comment on the last photo:
In the background, there are numerous grey cubicles, work boxes where people are confined. Everything seems well ordered; nothing unexpected can probably happen in their lives. It’s an image of a society where everything has to be perfectly organized and tidy. The fact that these people are closed up in boxes suggests they are strongly influenced by a society which dehumanizes them and prevents them from thinking for themselves or from communicating with each other. All these people, locked up in their geometric environment, seem trapped in an insane ideology.
Metallic grey is the dominant colour in this picture. It symbolizes the boring conformity of the characters.
The man in the foreground is Mr. Hulot, the main character of the film. He’s dressed conventionally in a grey coat and hat, and he’s holding a black umbrella.
Hulot does not seem to understand what is happening. He seems unsure of where he has to go. He appears to be an observer, alone, hesitating at the top of the escalator. He stands out from the mass of office workers by his behaviour.
Is he conscious of the absurdity of a world based on senseless work and order?
Article by Julie Botet
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Source of inspiration 219 (click on this title!): Wardrobe
This is no ordinary piece of furniture! It is through this wardrobe that children enter Narnia!
Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, was born on the 29th November 1898 in Belfast (Ireland) and died in Oxford (England) on the 22nd November 1963. He was a writer, and also a don at the University of Belfast. He worked on Medieval literature, was a literary critic, and a devout Christian. He is famous for writing the Narnia chronicles published in the 1950s.
What is the significance of the wardrobe in the Narnia stories? C.S. Lewis never explained it... Does it have something to do with his childhood or a particular event? Lewis was full of secrets... His perhaps excessive love of God sometimes made him write strange things; he sometimes made use of heavenly creatures as important characters in his stories.
The Narnia books have been adapted for the stage and film (the first, by Disney, in 2005), and there are video games based on the stories too.
A big wardrobe is impressive, especially for children (are there just clothes in there, or are there "skeletons in the cupboard"?!). It intrigues curiose kids... It can also be a refuge (that's the case in the Narnia story when the children are hiding from each other and then from a menacing adult). It is also the doorway to a better world, one of fabulous adventures in which children are no longer victims but become heros.
By Laura Caumel
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Source of inspiration 211 (click on this title!) : He's in the box!
Why is this girl looking inside this box ? Because there is a boy hiding in there…
Martian child is a movie by Menno Meyjes. It’s the comic story of a science fiction writer, David Gordon, who wants to adopt Dennis, an orphan who thinks that he comes from Mars…
I recommend this movie about this strange little boy who learns to "come out of his box" thanks to David. I really like this film because it says that love can overcome all differences.
Article by Camille Martinez.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Source of inspiration 198 (click on this title!)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52577406
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/30/BAGDTEFA3G1.DTL
http://www.alternativedepressiontherapy.com/art-therapy-for-depression.html
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi575537945/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-W9Tm1Clas&NR=1
Source of inspiration 195 (click on this title!): Vichy Sweet boxes
Vichy sweet boxes contain the famous "pastilles de Vichy". These pastils are made from sugar and from mineral salts found in the water of Vichy (a town in the Auvergne region of France). They were created in 1825.
I think these boxes are very beautiful. I think it is very interesting to imagine history through objects of the past.
Post by Anne-Sophie Belbezet.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Source of inspiration 143 (click on this title!): Monolith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE2K71R2Ps&feature=relatedhttp://
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Next
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Next
This box-like thing is actually more of a monolith. The boys we see are members of the Rock group The Who. This photo (it's an album cover) mocks the film 2001, A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick (at the start of the film a big black monolith lands on earth and becomes the cause of Man's evolution...).
The group had asked Kubrick to make the cover of their album, but he was not interested; as The Who were a little peeved about it, they made their own cover, which shows them urinating on a monolith. I find this picture humorous, especially when you know the story of its making!
Article by Marie Serre
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)