February 2010

February 27th

Ana has written a review of a delightful independent film, Once, directed by John Carney:

Something as accidental as a broken down vacuum cleaner is the excuse for an absolutely marvellous story set in a wonderful city: Dublin.
A vacuum-fixer who plays the guitar in the streets in his free time meets a Czech girl who also adores music. Their two lives merge through their songs. In fact, it’s the story of two sincere musicians who are required to relegate their passion by their harsh lives, specially hers.
If I have to choose what the idea of the film is, it’s MUSIC no doubt; yes, with capital letters: music lets you achieve your most secret dreams, or at least, live your mundane existence with benevolence.
This movie makes me wonder what exists behind every simple life that we come across with. The plot is so daily that makes it deeply credible, but not exempt from sweetness, tenderness and bitterness in a way that can tear the seams of your soul.
That said, I’m pretty sure all of you will want to watch this film; otherwise it would be a tremendous mistake.

Then Lourdes has also watched the film, and duly sends her review:

This is the story of a chance meeting of two lonely people in one street of Dublin. Despite their different lives (he is Irish and she is Czech) they share an interest in music. So, through their songs, we manage to get inside their dreams, dissapointments, emotions, doubts, etc. This moving film wouldn´t be so brilliant without its powerful soundtrack. It is remarkable how he plays the guitar and sings with a lot of feeling; sometimes his voice is so strong that it turns out to be heartbreaking while the Czech girl´s voice is full of sweetness. But when they sing a duet, the result is so amazing that they won the Oscar in 2008 for the best original song with FALLING SLOWLY.

Once is an uplifting film and, without making concessions to sentimentality, a love story but far from the hackneyed soppy stories with a happy ending that we are used to watching.

As I see it, perhaps the ending is bittersweet but actually one of its incentives, which makes the film more realistic.

I recommend it to you, specially if you like music or if you believe that dreams can come true; and if you want to have a great time with a feel-good film and learn English, of course, it´s easy to follow.

Ana, Lourdes, thanks a million for your reviews, I couldn't agree more with them. Once is a great little film, one that doesn't need a big budget or lush special effects (Hum, you know which one I mean, don't you!) As the caption on the trailer below reads, which summarizes the film to perfection, “Once has enough heart, verve, wit and song writing genius to ensure you’ll see it far more times than its title suggests”. Well, judge for yourselves, this is the movie trailer:

As Lourdes reminds us, "Falling Slowly" deservedly won an Oscar last year. When Glen and Marketa had to deliver their acceptance speech (I can't embed the clip here due to copyright restrictions, sorry), something funny happened. Watch. By the way, boy do I love Glen's lovely Dublin accent!

Glen and Marketa had, prior to the Oscars ceremony, performed the song at the David Letterman show so I thought I should embed the clip and the lyrics scroller. Such a moving song!

February 11th

Hi guys! We're back safe and sound after a lovely trip to the fine Irish capital. It has been five days packed with English, beer and craic. I haven't got much time to tell you about the details, and I'd rather Ana, Concha and Almu did the job in class anyway (actually Ana has already added a brief comment at the end of this entry). But I thought I should embed a little something on our blog, and as the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words, so how about a photo gallery of day 1: there's the happy bunch at Barajas airport before the flight and then the first pint at the famous Temple Bar-based pub, Oliver St. John Gogarty's, where we were treated to some live folk music. Plus an audio clip of some Irish music down below from the world-renowned show Riverdance, which fits in nicely with the fantastic dancing show we saw at the Arlington Hotel. Enjoy!

February 6th

Lourdes says:

A friend of mine has just sent me this interesting speech by Isabel Allende about passion, women and feminism. I really enjoyed it not only for the things she says but also the extraordinary sense of humor that she intelligently uses in specific moments. So we can either smile or laugh and life becomes less terrible for a moment. Obviously I agree with most of the things she strongly believes in; otherwise I would be an insensitive, deaf and blind human being who doesn´t care about anything except herself. However, I must confess that, a few years ago, I gave up reading her novels because the main characters were too similar to each other and I got fed up with that, but now, after listening to her explanations, I wonder if I misjudged her, thinking she had found out the way to sell her books, all of them bestsellers . As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing is that people have to know the truth about the lack of human rights, especially for women and children all over the world. Because this is the first step to open our minds and change our behaviour for a better future to everyone.

February 2nd

Welcome to a new entry of our blog!

Love him or hate him. Quentin Tarantino, the enfant terrible of American cinema, had never been my cup of tea, but I have to admit that there's something about his latest movie, Inglorious Basterds (yes, spelt with an "e"), that I cannot help being fascinated by. Whether it's the humorous approach to an otherwise utterly tragic human event, the Nazi Holocaust, or, as a former student of mine once put it when talking about the Kill Bill series, the almost poetic violence he depicts on some scenes through some extraordinary cinematography and haunting music, or even the superb performances of the cast led by a convincing Bradd Pitt, with a special mention to Austrian actor Cristoph Waltz in the role of the murderous Nazi officer, I completely loved this gory yet thoroughly entertaining Tarantino's story of vengeance, which I saw last Sunday. Needless to say you can borrow the DVD from today. Besides, I love the mix of languages, English, German and French (and ocassionally Italian) throughout the film. More than ever, this is a flick to be enjoyed in original version.
Listen guys, I'm too busy (and lazy!) these days for a personal review, so I thought I could embed, not also the movie's trailer but also an expert's opinion (Ty Burr, that's his weird name) on the Boston Globe website in the form of a videoclip.
So, has anyone else seen IG so you would to agree or disagree with my views? This is the place, folks!