Hello,

It has been a while since I last wrote. The reason is that I've moved to Sweden to study and there has been a lot of things going on. But, meanwhile I've managed to see a couple of films that I'll write short posts about soon.

Ninon

The Mozart Brothers (1986)

This is a wonderful, lovely and crazy Swedish comedy by Suzanne Osten, and it is among my most beloved film. It has great performances and hilariously comic situations.
The whole film is about Walter, a director who is going to stage Mozart's opera Don Giovanni but he wants to do the opera in his own way and due to his controversial ideas he receives much resistance and even hostility from the people involved in the project.

It's a great film. See it anytime you can!

My first Woody Allen-film

Yesterday I say my first Woody Allen-film, Annie Hall (1977) and I really enjoyed it. Okay, to be precise, I think I saw Scoop one or two years ago, but I didn't really like it, I suppose that's not the first film that comes to mind when somebody mentions Woody Allen's name. But Annie Hall was great, funny situations, great lines, funny & quirky characters - just as I like it! Love the scene when the main characters Alvie and Annie are trying to get the lobsters into the hot water and Alvie has to do it, because Annie says she can't put a living thing into hot water!

Here's the trailer;

Sans toi

Here is a clip with the beautiful and melancholy song 'Sans toi' from the film Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962). It's about a French singer who is waiting for a test answer from the doctor and she's afraid that she has cancer. So we are following her during the time she's waiting for the answer. I saw this film yesterday when it was aired in the television very late at night, so I'll have to re-watch it some time as I'm afraid I wasn't able to fully grasp it this first time, with very sleepy eyes & brain!

Anyhow, this scene was very moving:

Ordinary People

Thanks to Fellini's Casanova, Donald Sutherland is now one of my favourite actors and I've checked out which films he have been in and I've found some really good ones. One is Ordinary People (1980) by Robert Redford. Donald Sutherland plays a father in a family that's dealing with the loss of a son, who drowned in an accident and left behind him mother, father and younger brother. It's the younger brother Conrad who has the main part in this film and the actor Timothy Hutton is giving an amazing performance. I don't know if I've ever seen a teenager/young adult act better. And then, as mentioned, we have the great Donald Sutherland and great Mary Tyler Moore, who's playing the emotionally distant mother who finds it hard to express any affection towards the son alive. She is also a classic 'keeping up appearances'-person, she wants everything to look good in front of other people.
Sutherland gives a great performance as the sympathetic father who tries to help his son and understand his feelings, and who's the one who tries to hold the family together.

Enough text! See it. Apart from minor cliches it's a great film which draw me in.

Here's a scene:

Fellini's Casanova

The newest film among my favourites is Fellini's Casanova. I think I saw this film on August 2 and has been infatuated with it ever since. I was completely mesmerized, although after the first viewing I had mixed feelings towards it. I felt that this was the most bizarre and at the same time magical film I had ever seen. I had to re-watch it on the same day, and it was even better the second time. Then, one or two days later, I watched it a third time, and I've watched it a fourth time since I purchased it. I just can't get enough of it. It's a fantastic, unusual film.

I've been kind of against Blu-ray, because I just can't get why you have to make up something new when you already have something that works fine (DVD). But after I've seen Mr Bongo's edition of this film I'm longing to see it in even better colour and quality. So I guess this will be the first film I'll buy on Blu-ray.

And the full movie can be seen here. Wouldn't it be for this site, I would never have discovered this film, I would still be longing after it and re-watch the trailer all the time, not daring to buy it... (I only buy films I've already seen).

Also, this was my first Fellini film. I have now also watched 8 1/2, which I liked (must be the best movie about escapism!), and I really want to see all his other films too!

***

Here's a wonderfully breathtaking and eerie scene from the film (unfortunately, the video is a bit too dark);

One of the most beautiful scenes in Barry Lyndon