Oscars

 Not many surprises at the nominees for the 84th Academy Award. I'm happy to see Jessica Chastain nominated for the best actress in a supporting role in "The Help" She was fabulous!
 For the directing i keep my thumps up for Michel Hazanavicius. He is in a though crowd thou.. with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick and Alexander Payne.

 Check out all the movies and nominees at http://www.oscars.org/

Wes Anderson

 There are film makers who make movies with the same recipe over and over again and then there are film makers like Wes Anderson who still can keep his fans interested.

 Check out the trailer of hes new movie Moonrise Kingdom. With Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton!

 

  Wes Anderson´s films are known for very dry humor, awkward situations and often dislikeble characters like obnoxious Steve Zissou played by Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic. Although i loved the crazy family of Tenenbaum´s my favourite Wes Anderson movie is Fantastic Mr. Fox. It is a stop motion animation based on the novel by Roald Dahl. I often escape reality to the cinema. Wes Anderson´s movies helped me to crawl threw many gloomy days. When life kicks you on the head eat some chocolate and watch Fantastic Mr. Fox and you will feel better!

Filmography

Moonrise kingdom (2012)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
The Darjeeling Limited  (2007)
Hotel Chevalier (2007)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Rushmore (1998)
Bottle Rocket (1996)

Spaghetti Westerns

 

 For me spaghetti westerns are "The Dollars Thrilogy" directed by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood as the man with no name. A Fistfull of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good , the Bad and the Ugly. With Ennio Morricones film music the films are unforgettable.

 Film trivia: Sergio Leone used extreme close-ups and techniscope which was considered as "the low budget format" but gave wide screen picture and worked beautifully with wide depth field scenes. 

 Best choice for a film marathon!

My Favourite Horror Movies

Ringu(1998) Directed by Hideo Nakata. Yes the Japanese original version! Specially i love the the scene with the horses on the boat. Just beautiful and scary at the same time. Much better than the American remake.

 M. Night Shyamalan have made lot of interesting movies including The Sixth Sense, Signs and The Happening but my favourite is The Village(2004). It is packed with good actors like Adrien Brody, Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver and Bryce Dallas Howard. I specially love the use of color red which is the symbol of blood, passion and life.

 Psycho(1960), Alfred Hitchcock´s masterpiece. Absolutely thrilling.

 The Shining(1980), Jack Nicholson is going crazy in an isolated hotel. Based on novel by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick this classic will creep you out year after year and it never gets boring.

 The most horrible horror movie i ever saw was Silent Hill(2006). Based on the video game this film just freaked me out. Pure nightmare thriller. Do not watch it with Kidd's!

3D

 

 3D came and rocked the movies. Or not. I don't like 3D. Call me old fashioned! With the new technology it would be able to make amazing 3D effects but we get only fast made movies for fast made money. This year we get 3D remakes from Titanic and from Star Wars Episode 1. OK. I confess.. i could never watch Titanic whole. Never. So i don't think i will go and watch it in 3D ether. I hope that the gigantic 3D iceberg will sink that movie for good. In the future we will get loads of remakes and that smells like making money to me! Like whats wrong with 2 D? I'm missing the good old Disney style from the 60s and 70s.
  So i think 3D could do much better. From the 3D films i saw so far were the animations and the stop motions the best. I have my hopes up for Tim Burtons Frankenweenie!

 


 Any favourite 3D movies?

Magical movies

There is only one word to  describe Hayao Miyazaki´s animation films: Magical.
Spirited Away is a good example. The story is kind of Japanese Alice in wonderland. The movie is filled with strange characters not only divided in good or bad and that's refreshing. kaleidoscope of colors and story with different subtexts make me wanna watch the movie over and over again. It never gets boring.
 I wish that we could see more films from all around the world and not only American and European movies. Miyazaki´s movies are not only emphatic and touching but all so art on the screen. Digital animations haven't even came near of that kind of beauty that old fashioned hand drew picture's can provide.

 My favourite Hayao Miyazaki´s films are: Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl´s Moving Castle and Kiki´s Delivery Service.

Film Music

 Nothing brings the movie alive like film music. Good film music you can feel. It can make you scared or to cry and even to laugh. Normally film music stays in the back ground like in a basic action film but sometimes you are surprised by it. At least i was when i saw Tom Ford´s A Single Man. Abel Korzeniowski´s Music amazed me. Stillness of the Mind from A Single Man soundtrack:

 Yann Tiersen´s music made the movie Amelie live. I listen the soundtrack very often because its just brilliant!

 What about Paul Buckmasters 12 Monkeys Theme? Based on Suita Punta del Este from Astor piazzolla.

 

 I love The God Father. I enjoyed the books and adored the films and film music from Nino Rota.

 
 Movies from childhood have a special place in our hearts. Have you ever heard about Richard and Robert Sherman? Let me refresh your memory..

 
 Sherman brothers composed music to The Aristocats, Mary Poppings, The Jungle Book and many others Disney movies. Everybody wants to be a cat!

Tim Burton

  Tim Burton started his career in the early 80s at Disney company. He has kept his style and originality from Vincent till Alice in Wonderland. Even when he is little bit scary dark world is not so mainstream. Characters of hes films are often strange but emphatic and he fatefully casts same actors in his films like Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.


 Tim Burton´s Frankenweenie comes out this year! I have only seen the short film Frankenweenie from 1984. So I'm very excited how it will work as 3D.
 I'm a huge fan of Tim Burtons magical world. First Tim Burton movie i saw was Edward Scissorhands with Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder. As a teen my favourite movies were Brain Dead, Star Wars and Terminator 2 so Tim Burtons fairytale like of films just fascinated me and they still do. I celebrated Steve Buscemis birthday last month by watching Big Fish. Because the best character in the film is the weird poet Norther Winslow. Just brilliant!

Best Day Is Monday

If you think that going to the cinema is expensive then you have been there in a wrong day! Normally you get cheaper tickets on the beginning of the week. Try Monday or Tuesday and avoid weekends and holidays. Best time to go to the cinema is in the afternoon if you don't enjoy of sitting in a full room. Lot of cinemas give discount to students and senior citizen!
 Total filmjunkys like me don't hesitate to go to the cinema in every day of the week:)

Next Week

Two new movies to see in the next week.
I'm excited about the movie Cheyenne-This Must Be the Place. Sean Penn looks like Robert Smith! The trailer will tell you what it is about:

 

 Who film lover wouldn't like French films? Next weeks choice is  Intouchables.

 If you don't like trailers don't watch them! There are trailers that make you really want to see the movie and then there are trailers that just have all the cool jokes and action in few minutes and there is no content left to the film. That's just boring.
 In the good old times the trailers used to look completely different than the modern ones. Check out this Pink Panther trailer from 1963! Its fifty years old so be gentle.

Hero or Villain?

 Dividing characters in to good or bad is an ancient theme. Good guys are always pure, beautiful and heroes while bad guys are just evil. Same theme goes on and on in religion, mythologies, books, story's and  films. I find it very tiresome! World is not only black and white. It has many colors and shapes too. You can not divide people in to only good or bad. Thats not realistic at all. In the real world we have a choice. Choice to be good or to be bad and that makes life interesting!
 Its so easy to dislike truly evil character like Lord Voldemort but theres nothing interesting about that. Hes just evil.
 I prefer that the movie makes me wonder what is behind the characters.
 For example in Sergio Leone´s masterpiece The Good The Bad And The Ugly the characters are not purely good or bad or even ugly. My personal favourite is the evil Angel Eyes played by Lee Van Cleef.

But who is then my all time favourite movie villain? Dr. Evil from Austin Powers! 

My Cinema

 For a film lover working in the cinema is the best. You get minimum wage but who cares when all you want to do with your time is to see movies. I work in a little cinema with only two rooms. We play mostly children movies, Hollywood movies and some German  and Austrian movies too. And yes they are all dubbed in German. We try to get English originals too! For me watching movies in German was first a horror but i have got used to it.
 The building it self is very old. If I'm not completely wrong it was build in 1930s. So it has lot of charisma that new shiny 15 room cinema complex doesn't have. I just love the building! In the old books we found in the cinema was written that the cinema was closed because of the war. Those books were all most hundred years old! That's history!

   We moved to digital time over a year ago. I still miss the old film projectors and the huge film rolls. But 3D needs new technology and the customers want the best.

 Work itself in the cinema is not glamorous at all. Its lot of cleaning and making popcorn. But to see the people really enjoyng the time and loving the films make me happy.

Holiday movies

 On my Christmas Holiday i went to see three movies in the cinema. Puss In Boots, Sherlock Holmes and Rubbeldiekatz. Sherlock Holmes was specially entertaining mostly because of Robert Downey Jr. I like Guy Ritchie´s Sherlock Holmes even when its more darker and full of action scenes than the original books from Arthur Conan Doyle.
 Rubblediekatz a German movie from director Detlev Buck hitted the laughing nerve. The story is about an actor who pretends to be a woman with a bunch of funny German characters and a love story. Definitely a movie to see after few beers with your best friend. Sehr gut!

 Yesterday i went out to see Carnage the new film from Roman Polanski. Not a romantic choice for a date night movie but truly interesting one. Originally a theater piece played in one room turned out to be a genious movie with Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C Reilly and wonderful Christoph Waltz!

Film year 2012

 It seems like this year will be great film year at the cinema! Christopher Nolans third part of batman The Dark Knight Rises is something that i have been waiting for. And off course The Hobbit from Peter Jackson. And no, it will NOT be a splatter version. Joseph Gordon-Levitt fans will be happy to hear that hes in five different movies that come out this year! Including The Dark Night Rises and in Django Unchained from Quentin Tarantino! Awesome!
 I was surprised to find out that Baz Luhrmann is working on The Great Gatsby. After Romeo and Juliet and fantastic Moulin Rouge. Australia was a horrible flop. The Great Gatsby will be in 3D and its starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan.

These are  my TOP 5 favourite movies to wait for: The Dark Night Rises
                                                                                  The Hobbit
                                                                                   Django Unchained
                                                                                  The Great Gatsby
                                                                                  Frankenweenie