Norwegian Wood The movie!

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite books,  I am excited because right now the movie adaptation by Tran Anh Hung is competing at this year’s Venice Film Festival (September 1-11).

Here it’s the teaser:

and here it’s my book review. It’s a perfect coming-of-age novel, if it was an american book it would belong here (banned books reading challenge hosted by Stephen Su). It’s beautiful, heartbreaking, hopeful. Read this book.

I can’t wait!

Em

Once by John Carney

A movie review, I only wrote one of those and it was about Annie Hall, one of my favorite comedy.

Once is a 2006 Irish musical film written and directed by John Carney, it won an academy award in 2008 (Best Original Song),  in those last few weeks I realized that most of my friends haven’t seen it (and they are living in Dublin where the movie is set) so I thought I would write a post about it:

Here it’s an unpretentious  comedy about two struggling musicians, a beautiful love story among kindred spirits that filled my  heart with tenderness.

Poetic, exquisite, a perfect example that what really makes a movie work is a combination  of screenplay, dialogues, pictures, songs, details rather than popular over paid actors.

An irish  guy (Glen Hansard, real life frontman of The Frames) and a czech girl (Marketa Irglova) meet in Grafton Street in Dublin, he earns a living as a street musician, she sells magazines titled “issues”.

He lives with his dad, she lives with her son. He just broke up with her girlfriend, she is a in long-distance relationships with her husband but their marriage is falling apart.

They become a musical duo, they build a songbook and together start a new phase of their life.

This movie features one of the best original soundtrack  I ever came across to,  Once by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova which is now one of my favorite songs:

It’ sentimental but it would be unfair to simply define this as “romantic comedy”, above everything else is about two people who find the courage to seek out their dreams.

Magic, simply enchanting.

My grade: 5/5

Em

One day by David Nicholls

I was recommended One Day by a friend who told me “it’s a chick lit with a twist” which is true but this is a story that deserves a bit more consideration than your average romantic novel (and be ready because it’s a pretty big twist that will hit you like a bullet).

I cannot say that this novel it’s an instant classic (it’s written on the cover), there are many stereotypes and situations that I’ve seen before but it worked for me and I found myself absorbed in the story of Dexter and Emma.

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation and almost sleep together, we might say that nothing really happens and yet everything happens because Em and Dex experience one of those it-happens-once-in-a-lifetime connection and don’t let  go of each other, they become friends.

“This is me.’” He handed her the precious scrap of paper. ‘Call me or I’ll call you, but one of us will call, yes? What I mean is it’s not a competition. You don’t lose if you phone first”

Each chapter covers the same day, 15th July,  from 1988 until 2007, by the end of the story Em and Dex become friends of yours, I feel like if I have known them for twenty years.

Nicholls  pays homage to Fitzgerald (Dexter’s character) without achieving quite the same beautiful and damned quality as Dex is more obnoxious than charming but he does have a good side and I enjoyed his character.

Dex is a very handsome lazy young man who turns into an arrogant ambitious tv presenter and slowly falls into alcoholism and drugs, self-absorbed and sex-addicted he reaches that point in which not even his natural charm and good humor can make up for his awful behavior.

Em starts as a self-deprecating, artsy, smart girl who is wasting her talent away until she starts teaching and writing finally conquering the gift of confidence. Emma has a crush on Dexter but she won’t act on it (she has a self-esteem, she wants everything or nothing).

WEDNESDAY, 15 JULY 1992 (The Dodecanese Islands, Greece)

‘I take it that’s a no then,’ he said eventually, pinching the sea-water from his nose.
‘I think so. I think our moment passed some time ago.’
‘Oh. Really. Are you sure? Because I think we’d feel much better if we got it out of the way.’
‘Got it out of the way?’
‘I just think we’d feel closer. As friends.’
‘You’re worried that not sleeping together could spoil our friendship?’
‘I’m not expressing myself very well—’
‘Dexter, I understand you perfectly, that’s the problem—’
‘If you’re scared of Ingrid—’
‘I’m not scared of her, I’m just not going to do it so that we can say that we’ve done it. And I’m not going to do it if the first thing you say afterwards is “please don’t tell anyone” or “let’s forget it ever happened”.If you have to keep something secret it’s because you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place!’

Dex vs Em:

* doesn’t care for politics vs a radical activist

* not a very brilliant student vs honors

* extremely good looking vs pretty girl (she is a redhead) with spectacles

* wealthy family vs working class

* an ass vs a girl who cares

I only like Dex when he is around Em, I love the dynamic of their friendship and I became really fond of this pair.

What I liked about this book:

* the witty bantering, dialogues, conversation

* Emma, she is precious. I adored her sense of humor, her clever observations, her fear of skinny-dipping

* quotes  (some of them are truly brilliant, ‘They spoke very little of their mutual feelings: pretty phrases and warm attentions being probably unnecessary between such tried friend.’ – Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd)

What I didn’t like about this book is how Nicholls focuses exclusively  on characters and dialogues but wastes an opportunity when it comes to creating a strong background social contest, this is a story that covers twenty years and yet I didn’t realize time was passing, there are no references to what happens out there around Em and Dex.

To progress further I should probably give away a big spoiler but it wouldn’t be fair to do so, I will just say that the ending left me with a smile on my face and a tight not in my stomach. A bittersweet taste that really got me thinking about life, love, bad-timing.

This novel would make a brilliant movie and apparently Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are being recruited those days, I really don’t see how Hathaway can play Emma, she is far too pretty and she is not a redhead.

If I only had one song for this book:

Unfinished sympathy by Massive Attack
I know that I’ve been mad in love before
And how it could be with you
Really hurt me baby, really cut me baby
How can you have a day without a night
You’re the book that I have opened
And now I’ve got to know much more
The curiousness of your potential kiss
Has got my mind and body aching
Really hurt me baby, really cut me baby
How can you have a day without a night
You’re the book that I have opened
And now I’ve got to know much more
Like a soul without a mind
In a body without a heart
I’m missing every part

I hope you’ll put it in your TBR list for the summer (let me know what you think).

Other reviews:

Lit Snit

Write Meg

My grade: 4/5

Em

Annie Hall by Woody Allen

Here in Dublin the Irish Film Institute is organizing a retrospective on Woody Allen ,as much as I like the “new” Allen, I never get tired of Annie Hall , brilliant on so many levels. A must see.

Annie Hall was released in 1977 and won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Story is about Alvy Singer  (Woody Allen) ,  a successful neurotic Jewish television comedian, and Annie Hall ( Dianne Keaton) ,  a Midwestern  who recently moved to Manhattan and is trying her best to develop a singing career. They meet, fall in love with each other, fail each other:

“Annie and I broke up. And, and I, I still can’t get my mind around that, you know, I, I keep sifting the pieces of the relationship through my mind, and, and examining my life and trying to figure out where did the screw-up come. You know, and, and a year ago we were, in love, you know. And, and, and, I’m not a, I’m not a morose type, I’m not a depressed character. I, I, I uh, you know, I was a reasonably happy kid, I guess. I was brought up in Brooklyn during World War Two…”

I love this movie because:

* New York City  is on the background, Annie’s wardrobe is the coolest , it’s  honest and touching,  it makes me laugh;

* it’s experimental and mixes together different styles : mini-sketches (whenever there is a conflict with Annie, Alvy turns to the audience  to give his commentary about the situation), long uninterrupted shots, animation;

* Some sequences are simply hilarious, my favorite is the one in the movie theater where a  pretentious guy (aka men in line) rambles about Fellini while Annie and Alvy are queueing:

ANNIE

And you know something else?  You know, you’re so egocentric that if I miss my therapy you can think of it in terms of how it affects you!

MAN IN LINE (Lighting a cigarette while he talks)

Gal gun-shy is what it is.

ALVY (Reacting again to the man in line)

Probably on their first date, right?

MAN IN LINE (Still going on)

It’s a narrow view.

ALVY

Probably met by answering an ad in the New York Review of Books.  “Thirtyish academic wishes to meet woman who’s interested in Mozart, James Joyce and sodomy.”

(He sighs; then to Annie)

Whatta you mean, our sexual problem?

*jokes :  “I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member” or “thrown out of New York University in my freshman year for cheating on my metaphysics exam — I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me”

Annie Hall is a witty slightly melancholic romantic comedy, Annie and Alvy are a mix of awkwardness and neurosism…on a personal level Woody Allen makes being lousy seems charming, I can relate to his insouciance and  self – deprecating sense of humor.

Em

Nodame Cantabile by Tomoko Ninomiya

Even if I am pretty much over my japanese phase, with a few significant exceptions,  I constantly think about Nodame Cantabile and I check the web daily just to make sure nothing new has been published.

Nodame Cantabile is a shōjo manga written by Tomolo Ninomiya (shōjo could be an equivalent for romantic), it was also made into three anime series (that I watched entirely on crunchyroll) and two different television series. Nodame Cantabile Anime Season 3 recently  aired in eleven episodes  between Jan 14 2010 and  Mar 25, 2010.

Plenty of materials to get addicted to.

The plot is fairly typical:

1) Boy meets girl: Shinichi Chiaki (twenty-one years old and a 3rd-year piano student at Momogaoka Music Academy at the start of the series. He is an accomplished pianist and violinist, but is also known to be a perfectionist and highly critical of himself ) meets Megumi Noda (aka Nodame, a twenty-year-old free-spirited second-year music student. She is complete slob: her cooking and cleaning skills are atrocious. She  is possibly the less ambitious student in the Academy, goofy and awkward)

2) Chiaki and Nodame are opposites personalities (a favourite theme of mine), they have almost nothing in common. He comes from a wealthy family of musician and  she has an hilarious family (in the countryside), he is pure ambition and  she is pure sloppyness, he is quite successful when it comes to his love life and she is sincerely hopeless;

3) Outside forces continuously conspire to make boy and girl cooperate. Boy and girl finally realize they like each other (it takes a long time to have a significant romantic hint). I love when a friendship  slowly develops into something more;

4) more adventures in Paris;

The execution is  impressive. The initial part of the manga/anime is based in Japan, second and third parts of the manga( 2° and 3° seasons Anime) are based in Paris.

I actually prefer the Anime simply because music play a key role in this story and when you watch the anime you can appreciate the soundtrack in real time, plus I love this  animation’s style.

Highlights:

* the way Nodame and Chiaki develop artistically and emotionally from the first to the last episode;

* supporting characters are significant, well developed and adorable;

* the music (one of the Nodame Cantabile soundtracks — Nodame Cantabile LIVE! — broke a record by becoming the highest ranked classical music album ever on the Oricon charts) ;

* the fact that this story  is about artistic geniality (think juilliard school): passion, failures and discipline play a very important role;

* it’s only slightly romantic (it’s not your average cheesy, obvious romantic comedy);

I you haven’t seen it I hope you’ll give it a try (I recommend the anime not the live action).

My grade: 5/5

Em

‘Something Borrowed’ Movie Adaptation Has Found It’s Ethan: John Krasinski

Check this out : http://twitter.com/emilygiffin (Emily Giffin twitter page)

“Not official-official yet…. but… fingers crossed. Hope you all love John Krasinski as Ethan! I know I do! http://bit.ly/cZobuf”

What do you think? I am having confictual emotions.

Em