Across the Universe Podcast: Episode 10

Episode 10: I Want Candy

Hi guys! We apologise for being slightly late with our newest episode, but heyyy look! It's our 10th episode!! How quickly does time fly etc.? I'm kidding of course. This little podcast has taken a lot of effort and scheduling and whatnot but my fellow chicks with accents, Mette and Sofia, and all the support from the blogging community have made it an immensely fun and rewarding ride so far.

To celebrate, we discuss the career of one of our most favourite directors, the gorgeous Sofia Coppola. It's a bit long and messy, but it won't be Across the Universe Podcast without it! Enjoy!

Content:
00:27- Chick Chatter
02:45- Trailer
03:19- Interesting Movie of the Fortnight
21:37- Coppola Time
1:16:27- Plus and Goodbyes

Music: 

Bow Wow Wow "I Want Candy"
Azealia Banks feat. Lazy Jay "212"
Cilla Black "Across The Universe"

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MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS

        I had been thinking of making this for a while now and Alex's fantastic list provided me with the impetus that I needed. Some characters just blow you away from their introduction themselves. Brilliant intros often leave an indelible mark in our minds and here are ten such picks that did so for me.

Honourable mentions- Everyone in Alex's list, Marla Singer in Fight Club, Earnest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris, Gilda in Gilda and Isabelle in The Dreamers.

10.

Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs

After having been warned by her superior Jack Crawford and the director of the Baltimore sanitarium about Lecter, the latter describing him as a monster and a pure psychopath, Clarice Starling goes to meet this man in his cell. She walks past the other inmates there, especially the loathsome Multiple Miggs, and finally comes Lecter who is just standing there in his glass cell, and we know, just know, that he is the craziest and most dangerous of them all. The music, Anthony Hopkins's eerie-tastic smile, Jodie Foster's subtle fear, everything  just sets this scene to be one of the most memorable introductions and first meetings in cinematic history.

9.

The Plastics in Mean Girls

I would call this scene a piece of pop culture history. Here we see for the first time, the Plastics, the reigning queens of a high school, the mean girls of all time. Also how they are described to new student Cady by the dry-witted duo of Janice and Damian is priceless. Karen Smith- "She asked me how to spell orange", Gretchen Wieners- "That's why her hair is so big, it's full of secrets" and finally, "Evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she's so much more than that."

8.

The Joker in The Dark Knight

If this scene isn't the best way for a director to set up his villain, I don't know what is. I have often said that I watch the Batman films for the villains, and the moment Heath Ledger's unparalleled incarnation of the Joker took off his joker mask, I just knew that I will love this film forever. A bank heist that keeps you at the edge of your seat, followed by that face- ah, Christmas. 

7.

Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette

Love Sofia Coppola's cheek in this scene. With Gang of Four's "Natural's Not In" blaring, our first look at Marie Antoinette is exactly how we have always imagined it would be. Grand clothes, excessive feathers, servants, boredom, and obviously cake! It is a perfect set-up for this movie and character, because it is unconventional as hell, yet an honest look at this young, naive, fashionable girl who just happens to be the queen of France.

6.

The Tenenbaums in The Royal Tenenbaums

Even though I am not the biggest fan of this film, I just adore its opening that introduces us to Royal and Etheline Tenenbaum and their three gifted children. It sets the film up excellently as we already know what kind of people they are, especially the kids, and then we can understand them better as their grown-up troubled selves. Plus the tune of "Hey Jude" and Wes Anderson's unique quirks make this scene quite unforgettable.

5.

Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange

The first shot we see is of Malcolm MacDowell's face, with his trademark eye-makeup, bowler hat, and an expression that is both disturbing and enthralling. Then the camera starts to zoom out and his narration begins and we see him with his droogs, his drencrom, the impossible Korova milkbar- this whole world where ultraviolence is the way, and no one revels in it more than Alex. 

4.

Romeo Montague in Romeo + Juliet

Wasn't Leonardo DiCaprio the prettiest thing ever? I say this because this scene does owe a lot to that. This brooding, lonely, beautiful Romeo, writing down his thoughts, "Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create. Heavy lightness. Serious vanity. Misshapen chaos of well seeming forms" with the music from possibly Radiohead's sexiest song, "Talk Show Host" playing in the background. And then he turns and looks, and my heart swoons every time. How can it not? He is Romeo.

3.

Eve Harrington in All About Eve

If you are like me and did not know a thing about this film before watching it except that it stars Bette Davis and has the line "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" the introduction of Eve Harrington, as the film is all about her, was quite interesting. We see how all the other characters react to her name, how her happiness brings joy to few yet she is said to be a great star and we already want to know all about this woman.

2.

Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction

Just like quite a few entries in this list, by the time we actually do meet Mia Wallace, we have formed an opinion of hers in our head. She's the mob boss's wife because of whom a man got thrown down four stories onto a glasshouse, just for giving her a foot massage. And then she is introduced. I love the way she talks to her date Vincent over the intercom, her voice, her cocaine snorting and the way she says "Disco", Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man", and this first meeting of theirs that ends with a shot of those very feet. What's amazing is that don't actually see Mia Wallace during her introduction, but we have already been put under her spell.

1.

Trip Fontaine in The Virgin Suicides

This is one of my favourite scenes period. Why? Because there is a Trip Fontaine in every school, and there always will be- that one guy who is dreamier than the rest, who makes the hearts of his female peers flutter and who all the girls gush over, and this scene captures all of that. So he isn't a big character in the film, but he is a character that has been there in every girl's life. This intro makes me giddy with an odd sense of nostalgia, especially with Heart's ever appropriate "Magic Man" accompanying it. Love Josh Hartnett's 70s hair and swag. 

So there you have it. Disco!

The Ultimate Sofia Coppola List

         
           It's Sofia Coppola's 41st birthday today. She is one of my most favourite directors, and definitely my favourite female director. Her films have this wonderfully romantic and lost aspect to them that make them endlessly dreamy. I just love it. The girls and women depicted in her films are exactly like that too, which is why I've always believed that no female can look prettier than in a Sofia Coppola movie.

            I was going to do a mini-reviews post on her films, but have now decided to do a sort of list with all of her directorial work, including short films, advertisements and music videos. This also makes it more interesting since a list with only the movies becomes redundant with a Favourite 100 Movies List like mine. I couldn't find her first short film Bed, Bath and Beyond anywhere. Also the music videos to "City Girl" by Kevin Shields and "Playground Love" by Air are basically just clips from the movies they were in- Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides respectively. The latter does include singing pieces of chewing gum, but yeah, I'm not considering that.

11) Shine by Walt Mink

This was all the way back in 1993. The video quality isn't very good, but one can see the theme of rich, bored, beautiful people that will be unique to her films later on. It was edited by her ex-husband Spike Jonze, who was apparently the basis for the Giovanni Ribisi's highly annoying character in Lost in Translation.

10) This Here Giraffe by The Flaming Lips

I'm not that well-acquainted with the music of The Flaming Lips, but I like the idea of these monochrome-clad rockstars visiting the zoo on a nice sunny day. Also the bed looks like it belongs to a very young girl. Also it has Leslie Hayman, who plays the Therese Lisbon in The Virgin Suicides- arguably the sister with the smallest role.

9) City of Light fragrance by Christian Dior, starring Natalie Portman

This has a kind of Audrey Hepburn-ish aura about it. Miss Portman looks gorgeous and I think Alden Ehrenreich is adorable, but still, the whole product ends up being a little bland.

8) Marni for H&M starring Imogene Poots

It is set in the beautiful Marrakesh, Morocco. I love the colours in this ad. Imogene Poots looks lovely.

7) Lick the Star

To explain this, I will use a set of quotes from another of Sofia's films- "What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets. - Obviously doctor, you've never been a thirteen year-old girl." While I've never experienced the "clique" system of an American high school, there are things even I find relatable in this short film. Also, I love the badassery of the lead character when we first see her. The second part is here.

6) I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself by the White Stripes

I'm not a Kate Moss fan, but even I can't deny the pure sexiness she exudes here. However it's not perverse... I think it's kind of sad. With the title of the song and how it is sung, it really feels like a lost soul trying to figure out her life in a most free sort of way. I really love it.

5) Somewhere

Many say this is the film that all of her other films were leading up to. As a star-child herself, Sofia's first-hand experience with all the loneliness and pointlessness that a Hollywood celebrity and their children face is an obvious basis for this film. It is a critical look at such a life, but her films ultimately look so gorgeous that it takes a while to get to that. Still, the malaise that her films are known for is most pronounced in this. I love Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning in it.

4) Lost in Translation

This is the most celebrated of all her films yet, and rightly so. I don't think the meeting of two kindred spirits has never been shown more beautifully than in this film. The performances by both the leads is excellent, though just the little subtleties in everything that Bill Murray does leave me speechless. He should have won that Oscar. Scarlett Johannson's Charlotte is the character most of us connect with the best. Also that inaudible whisper... sigh.

3) Miss Dior Chérie fragrance by Christian Dior, starring Maryna Linchuck

This is my most favourite commercial ever. I want to live in it, for real. It's so pretty and girly! I love the liveliness in it, and everything the enchanting Maryna Linchuck does.

2) The Virgin Suicides

Ugh the Lisbon sisters and their eternal mystery that will never cease to baffle and entice the narrators or us. It's a very ambiguous, dreamy film, but there is a certain magic to it. I wish I could make something like this. I also wish Sofia revisits this kind of a film, one that has a certain amount of enigma and cheekiness to it.

1) Marie Antoinette

My very unique opinion, but I can't help it. With all the grandeur and the anachronistic pop tunes and American accents and everything that is oh so pretty, I absolutely adore this film. Kirsten Dunst embodies the lavishness and the confusion of the young and doomed monarch. People say it is too shallow- it can be, but only because it was expected of someone like the titular character. Also one of my most favourite endings ever. I think every director does one film like this- plain ambitious and well, selfish in a way. This is Sofia Coppola's and I love every minute of it.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed it. 
Also, A Very Happy Birthday to Sofia Coppola. 
Can't wait for Bling Ring!

“I’d like to grow up and be beautiful. I know it doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t hurt.” ~Kirsten Dunst

So I've been a fan of Kirsten Dunst for a very long time. Many of my friends don't like her for that wretched Mary Jane Watson role, but they barely look past it. I think the first film of hers that I saw was the fantasy-film Jumanji. She was so sweet in it, a typical older sister, who had because of the game been released into this world of surprising horrors and insane jungle-stuff. Prior to Jumanji, she had been in a few other films, most notably Interview with the Vampire and Little Women. Both adaptations of famous books; in the first she played Claudia- a young vampire who lives with fellow-vampires Lestat and Louis, played by Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt respectively. It was a very interesting role, certainly a predecessor to the young vampires we see everywhere now. I remember feeling very bad for her, never being able to grow up along with growing old, along with that strange relationship she had with both men. I though she was particularly powerful because she did demand my attentions in her scenes more than her much more accomplished co-stars. She played the younger Amy in Little Women, who is my least favourite March sister, but she was absolutely adorable in the role. From her nose-worries, to being a total brat, to having that very special relationship with Laurie (a very young Christian Bale).

I think Kiki was the quintessential teen-star, something that many of her successors have tried to be, but unfortunately failed. I think it's her blonde locks, and joyful face and sweet voice. This worked behind many of her late 90s-early 2000 films like Strike, Bring it On, Drop Dead Gorgous and The Virgin Suicides. The first two are much lighter roles like the cheerleader Torrance in Bring it On. She's funny and preppy and just plain contagious. I mean how can one not know all the cheers by rote, right? The latter two are much darker roles. I think as Amber Atkins in Drop Dead Gorgeous, she perfected the bright-eyed, beautiful, smart teenager-look that a teen-film like this needs as its protagonist. In all the craziness of the film, her character remains the only sane one. Now Virgin Suicides, which was done much before these, is one of her darkest roles to date. She played one of the younger Lisbon sisters, whose lives are doomed as shown by the title of the film itself. She's the main one, without doubt, just the kind of beauty that all the boys in the film are after... with darker undertones. 

After all of these, she did her most famous role to date- Mary Jane Watson, the love-interest of Peter Parker and his alter ego Spiderman. She was not that annoying in the first one, but as the films kept coming, the more and more I found myself hating this character. Infact, it's number 2 on my most annoying film-characters list, preceded by Bella Swan and followed by Frodo Baggins. While it did what she wanted it to do for her career, that is make her well-known all over the world, it did become one of the most stereotypical damsel-in-distress roles ever.

In between, she tried to let go of her teenage image by choosing more adult, or rather young adult roles. She was there in Michel Gondry-Charlie Kaufman modern classic- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Her character Mary was this naive girl who is infatuated with her much older employer. he starred in the ensemble female-drama Mona Lisa Smile, a film set in the early 50s, which questioned the role of women in society then. She played a very traditionalist, headstrong character Betty, who is found often sparring with her free-minded teacher, played by Julia Roberts. While it's one of her least-likeable roles, she does adopt the look of a Stepford-ish housewife really well. She was also there in romantic films like Elizabethtown and Wimbledon, the latter being a particular favourite of mine. I liked her relationships with her heroes in these films- Orlando Bloom in the first and one very fit Paul Bettany in the second. 

After these came Marie Antoinette, which is the last film that I've seen of her, save Spiderman 3. I've written time and again about how much I love this film, and how much I love her in it. She got back together with her Virgin Suicides-director, Sofia Coppola and made one of the most unique period films ever. She's just transplendent in it. She looks uncommonly beautiful- a sort of decadence with the freshness of youth, and ofcourse those marvelous clothes and jewelery and hair. She plays the ill-fated monarch from her blooming early teens till her death in her twenties, which is a major part of any girl's life. In that time she has to get her prince to impregnate her, get love from her country, get respect from her mother, and have lots and lots of fun (and candy =P). Of course things do not go that way, and Kiki in the end is just so impactful, that atleast I felt like saving her.

Now the reason why I am writing this whole ode to Kirsten Dunst is because she has won the Best Actress award in Cannes for her upcoming film Melancholia! I am so happy that she is going to finally get the critical appreciation that she has worked so long to get. I thought that this looked bleak after the ban put on it's director Lars Von Trier, for his "Pro-Nazi" comments, but she did it. I will definitely be watching this film, which looks very intriguing from the trailer, and for her ofcourse. She also will be playing Camille in Walter Salles's adaptation of Beat-epic On The Road. I just can't wait!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MS. DUNST FOR BEING SUCH A WONDERFUL ACTRESS!

The Eternal Romantic

Okay...so I had an angry breakout. My plan was to post my favourite romcom list today but as it takes ages to type and I really have to concentrate on my studies, I will post it sometime later this month. I'll also try and post a favourite male characters list.

Valentine's Day for me is just really good-looking sweet-stuff. The day it means more...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

-Love, Mrs. Andrew Garfield

"When she jumped, she probably thought she could fly" ~ The Virgin Suicides

SOFIA COPPOLA FILMS

What I would give to be in a Sofia Coppola film...



1) Just so Beautiful- MARIE ANTOINETTE versus A SINGLE MAN

So I have decided to write blogs comparing two or more films which are inter-related. When the idea came into my head, it was only because of two films. However as I thought more about it, hundreds of comparisons popped into my brain (okay not hundreds but enough to make a really long post). So I decided to post 1 comparison at a time.

Now to be truthful, I had not thought about this topic at all, forget making it my very first one. I just finished watching A Single Man, a film I watched on an impulse. And it was just breathtakingly beautiful. Before this the only other really beautiful film I had seen was Marie Antoinette. I called it the most beautiful film ever. However after A Single Man, I have a slight doubt about this title.

So basic facts about both- One’s made by Sofia Coppola, daughter of the legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. The other is made by the ex-designer of Prada, the quite dapper Tom Ford. The former is based on one of the most famous or rather most infamous queens in history. The latter is based on a homosexual English professor recovering from the death of his soulmate. The first is set just before and during the French Revolution, in Versailles, while the second is set in early 60s in Los Angeles.

Both films are actually quite different from each other. The only way they are similar is their cinematography. Marie Antoinette starts out in soft colours, like the character itself who is a blooming girl of fourteen, full of innocence and hopes as she is sent from Austria to France to get married and bring about a political courtship between the two countries. Then, as she starts her partying days to fill the void in her marriage, the film becomes bright and colorful and delicious. In the end of her life and happiness, the film becomes grey and pale. Almost similarly in A Single Man, the protagonist George is always in a dullish light, except when he notices the beauty in people and things magically become vivid and warm.

    The thing is that both the films are extremely beautiful in their own way. Marie Antoinette changes one’s perceptions on films about monarchs. It’s fresh and lovely. It is about a princess, who is played just stunningly by the equally stunning Kirsten Dunst- her life, her struggles, her clothes, her hair, her desserts, her lovers, her family. The resplendent French castles and gardens and rooms, the gorgeous dresses, shoes, materials and jewelry, and the scrumptious food and wine, all in a laid-back, fun-filled atmosphere with post-punk music playing in the air- ah the life that never was. But even with all that, one feels for the ill-fated monarch more than ever in this film. Marie in this film isn’t someone who ordered to have cakes given to the poor. She is a lonely young girl who just wants to make everyone happy. She is a teenager and goes through similar problems like many of us today but obviously on a much larger scale. She wants her husband to want her, her mother to respect her, and her country to love her. She is a caring mother and wife by the end of it. I have written it before, and I repeat- this film is a film in which I would spend my entire life.

    A Single Man on the other hand, is a film that shows the fascinating world of exquisite, sensitive men. Colin Firth in his best role ever, quite challenges Dauphine Marie herself, as it is too about his dream-like house, his handsome suits and dazzlingly divine love-interests. His misery, only heightened by afore mentioned lighting and also the chilling and alluring music, is touching and poignant. His relationship with Jim, played by the ravishingly sexy Matthew Goode, is that full of true love and oneness. There is no doubt that they were made for each other and though it was slightly heartbreaking to see the two hunky British men kissing and flirting, it was very sweet. But his relationship with Julianne Moore’s character Charley, the only main female character of the film, is what (according to me) makes the film awesome. She looks incredible, her make-up and clothes and hair. While all women, including the little neighbor girl, looked extremely pretty in the film- Charley was the most bewitching. She is the quintessential lonely woman of the sixties. She drank and smoked and danced. She was brilliant, and her friendship with George is enjoyable and provoking. George’s next relationship is with that of Nicholas Hoult’s character Kenny. Kenny is the confused, good-looking boy who develops an interest in his professor George. Theirs is a more suggestive affair. Though I did not really like Nicholas Hoult’s sweater or hair or accent or the tan a lot, he has one hot body. And his eyes are just enchanting. Lastly, George has a brief meeting with a Spanish male prostitute Carlos, played by Jon Kartajarena, with whom he shares a cigarette or two. Now he was someone I wasn’t aware of and the sheer magnetic beauty of Carlos took me by surprise. With all these people, the emptiness of his life and the brightness of his vision, the one day in his life makes one captivating movie. All I can say is that never before did I want to be a gay man this bad.

    So my final verdict is that there are technically no winners in this category, but Marie Antoinette is the bigger favourite of the two. Still, I repeat that they are both beautiful in their own ways and salutes to Sofia Coppola and Tom Ford for making these beauties.

Marie Antoinette: Every criticism I have read of this film would alter is fragile magic and reduce its romantic and tragic poignancy to the level of an instructional film

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061019/REVIEWS/610190303

THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO

       Cecilia went to the Cinema ever so often, with the popcorn in her hands and a glow in her eyes as she saw perfection played out onscreen. Oh how beautiful it was to see glamour and beauty and heroes and Jazz and happy endings.

Real life was quite the opposite. In the real world, she was an unhappy, nervous waitress with an unemployed, abusive husband during the Great Depression who lived in New Jersey. The Movies for Cecilia provided the only escape from her sad excuse of a life. She would keep trying to leave her pathetic, unappreciative, alcoholic, gambling, beating bum that was her husband, Monk, but he was always right when he said she’d come back.

However, one day, this new movie called The Purple Rose of Cairo came to town. She went the first night alone and again the second night with her fellow-waitress sister. She felt more than lost in the movie with the dashing Gil Sheperd playing Tom Baxter- of the Chicago Baxters, explorer, and adventurer. The third day unfortunately, when she was all sad about not being able to leave her husband again and extra nervous in the restaurant, she dropped her third plate and got fired. As real world became way too horrible and well, real for her she went to her usual Utopia- the Cinema to watch The Purple Rose of Cairo again, and again, and again. Except the fifth time something very unusual happened.

Tom Baxter looked at her and spoke to her right through the screen. She and the rest of the audience were shocked! As were the other characters in the movie. And then the most amazing thing happened when he walked right through the screen...into the real world for our Cecilia.

Tom and Cecilia ran to a closed-down amusement park where Tom declared his love for her. Cecilia couldn’t believe how perfect he was! They went dancing later that night after Cecilia made an excuse to Monk to get out. He gave her the most perfect kiss in the world.

But the real world and the reel world shouldn’t meet. While Cecilia and Tom were frisking in the pros of such a rendezvous, the other characters, the cinema owner, the producer and Gil Sheperd were facing a lot of problem. They all came to New Jersey, that is the real people, to find a solution. It is then that Cecilia meets Gil the next morning.

She was totally spellbound. He was her favourite actor and she couldn’t believe her luck. Gil is very flattered by her and begs her to take him to Tom. Cecilia reluctantly agrees and then when both men meet, they start fighting as Tom declares that he wants to be a free man in the real world and live with his love Cecilia and Gil tells him that he is fictional and cannot do so because, “You can’t learn to be real, it’s like learning to be a midget. It’s not a thing you can learn.” But Tom still doesn’t want to leave. So he and Cecilia go walking around the town. Tom learns about child-birth and God and how God was like the writers Irvine Sachs and R.H. Levine. At the Church Monk confronts them and Tom and he get into a fight in which Tom loses only because the ‘real’ Monk plays unfair. Cecilia stands up to Monk and saves Tom, who doesn’t have a scratch or a single hair out of place, as those are the advantages of being imaginary.

When Cecilia gets back home, she sees Gil over there. They talk even more and she woos him completely, unintentionally of course. They go by a music store where he buys her a ukulele and sings to her music. Then they recite out lines from his musical after which he kisses her but she leaves him because according to her, “I met a wonderful new man. He’s fictional but you can’t have everything.”

When she returns to Tom, he takes her back to the Cinema where they both enter the screen and go to the Copacabana and introduce the concept of ‘free world’. Then they hit New York as they go to all the clubs and all the shows and dance the night away, completely in black and white and love. But then Gil comes to the Cinema and asks Cecilia to come with him to Hollywood. Tom tries to stop her and tell her how he is honest, dependable, courageous, and romantic and a great kisser but Gil wins the argument by saying that he is real. Cecilia chooses the real guy over the fictional one as she explains to Tom how “in his world, things have a way of always working out.” Tom feels crushed, goes back into the screen, and watches on as Cecilia leaves with Gil.

She rushes home and packs up her bag to leave as Monk tries to stop her but then screams out that she’ll be back as she leaves. And as she reaches the Cinema where Gil had promised to meet her, she finds out he left with everyone else as soon as Tom went back into the screen. She walks into the Cinema to watch the next movie, Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Gigi Rogers singing “Dancing Cheek to Cheek” as she forgets her blues and the real world and how she too danced cheek to cheek with Tom, and gets mesmerised by the Movies all-over again.

The Purple Rose of Cairo is made by the brilliant Woody Allen, who is rapidly becoming my favourite filmmaker. The gorgeous Mia Farrow plays the woeful and lovely Cecilia and Jeff Daniels plays the perfect Tom (though fictional) and the heartbreaking actor Gil.

This movie was so very special. It reminded me of all those films during the course of which we want to live and die. Marie Antoinette for example- the complete beauty and atmosphere and setting and music and clothes and food was so mesmerising that one cannot hope enough for life to be like that. Even Twilight, when I saw it first and knew nothing of it and what it will turn into, was so unrealistic and desirable with the unnatural blueness, and the romance and everything. Obviously now I find it revolting but it was almost magical in the beginning. Also Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist- the incredibly pretty Kat Dennings and oh so cute Michael Cera and the entire brilliance of the one night was what makes one want to live for.

However, the sad and real ending of The Purple Rose of Cairo was more heart wrenching than most of the films I have ever seen. I loathed and loved it at the same time as it shows the unrealistic feel of the real world and the perfect life-like appeal of the reel world. When it was over all I could think of was this sort-of speech of Andy Warhol’s after he had been shot and truly understood what he meant.

“Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there. I always suspected that I was watching television instead of real life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it’s the way things happen in life that’s unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it’s like watching television-you don’t feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew I was watching television. The channels switch but it’s all television.”

- Andy Warhol