Month: August 2017

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Ex Machina (2014)

I watched Ex Machina for the first time last night. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it but someow I never got around to watching it.

It was amazing!

It’s a film about a programmer who have managed to build an AI and now wants to know if it has a conscience mind like a human being.

Alicia Vikander plays her character Ava beautifully, and throughout the film I was amazed by her facial expressions. She has her character completely under control. During the entire film I was so convinced about her intensions. I apparently only believe in the good in people, on the other hand Ava – the AI – is not human.

The excentric Nathan who has developed Ava is constantly a person whom you adore and hate, because of his ability to involve Caleb and his drunk periods. And as in many films I belived every now and then that he actually is the bad guy.

Caleb is very convincing as well as the talented programmer who is there to do the Turing test on Ava to see if she has her own conscience. His youth and innoscence toward Avas flirting is like watching a first love. He falls in love with her the moment he sees her.

Go watch it. It’s an amazing film!

 

Deus Ex Machina is latin for God from the machine. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

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La femme Nikita

The french film back from 1990 written and directed by Luc Besson is a film about a convicted – Nikita –  and the choice she is given to be an assassin for the french government. She chooses to accept the offer and during her training she is molded into a pretty and perfect assassin designed for killing at command.

Soon after she is releashed back into the world she mets a man and they fall in love and they enjoy life together, until she gets the first call …Josephine?.. It becomes increasingly more difficult their relationship as he wants to know her better and she cannot give him any answers about her previous life.

However the person that she was before cannot seem to let her go, and the assassin life is not for her, and she disapears.

You see a woman who desparetly trying to get a hold of her life and yet it crumbles right in front of her. The scene where Josephine is to shot the woman through the bathroom window and Marco talks to her through the door, is absolutely heartbreaking. She was Josephine and Marie at the same time, professional and the woman in love.

No one in the film comes out of the story without serious scars, she leaves her love Marco, Marco is left behind alone, Bob is left a tortured man from his unreturned feelings for Nikita and she is gone.

La femme Nikita is not an action movie, so if you expect that you will be dissapointed. There are action scenes but it’s not the essence of the film.

Jean Reno – whom I adore and admire  – has a role as the cleaner. I have never ever watched a film with him where he disappoints me. He always always does a brilliant job and so also in this film.

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Jaws

This is one of my alltime favourites!

I don’t know exactly what it is, but this is close to a perfect film. The casting is good, the music fits, that 70’s vibe, the sounds..

Everybody (red. a lot of filminterested people) knows where that dadadada sounds comes from. You just know the shark is somewhere near. And the bell ringing on the buoy as the only sound with the waves silently lapping against the buoy.

The scene where they sit at the table after dinner and Quint start singing “Spanish ladies” and Quint and Hooper tell stories about the war and broken hearts. Each one having scars to tell their story.

Roy Schneider may just have been one of my first film actor crushes. He played in Cheif Martin Brody this strong and silent type. If he said it, it was done, he showed the loving father side and he faced his fears and went on a ship eventhough he was terrifed of water. And he managed to pull off these large 70s glasses, you gotta love that.

Yes, I know the shark wasn’t super fantastic made, I think they did a mighty fine job thinking of that the film was made in the 1975. But the film generate a feeling as if you standing right on the beach of Amity Island. You feel the anxiety of the people, you can feel the panic and sudden relief when you believe the shark has been caught in the beginning of the film. You feel for the shark or at least I did.

It’s just one of those films I can watch again and again.

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My first book to read “The prophet”

The first book I’ll write about is “The prophet” by Khalil Gibran.

Actually I haven’t read it yet, but.. It was recommended to me by a stranger last year on my summer vacation, and I bought it 6 months ago. Now I’m on my way for another summer vacation and I’m bringing “The prophet”.

I believe that it’s a book that needs to be read slowly and without stress and disturbance from the everyday life. So with my feet in perfect blue water, sun warming my body, I will block out the noices of the other people on the beach and enjoy the thrill of living a new and unexplored (for me) book.

…. Vacation!!….

Well rested and back from vacation, I have as promised read “The prophet”. The book is about Almustafa and the day where he is about to leave from his 12 year long stay in the city of Orphalese. I don’t know if there is any meaning to the wordplay towards “orphan”, does he regard himself as an orphan or the people of Orphalese as orphans? Well this is the day the ships comes to take him home to his isle of birth.

Khalil Gibran writes quit beautifully and has some wonderful ways to say things or emotions. I will mention some of them here:

“Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face”

What a brilliant way for the elder of the city to express they feel about his departure. It is so simply and yet the sentence says all there is to say.

The book brings a very philosofic view on mans view of the world: Filled with questions most people have asked at some point of their lives. The people of Orphalese ask Almustafa in hope that he can answer them for them. Khalil writes short and precise, he doesn’t need 10 sentences to get to his point, he can do it in 1 sentence. And he’s done it so well that the book that is almost a hundred years old is still a very popular book to read.

All in all the book has a somewhat religious view on things and at the same time mixes beautifully with philosofical thoughts and spirituality. The book is for everyone who thinks and wonders about humans relationship with each other and nature and the universe.

It also makes you wonder. Why is Almustafa at Orphalese? Why does it take 12 years for a ship to arrive to take him home? Why does he still feel like a stranger after so many years? Has he really lived in his 12 years in Orphalese?

You can take as much as you feel like from this book. It is beautifully written and it is absolutely worth a read.

Enjoy 🙂

 

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Hello all!

My name is Pernille and I want to write about books and films. I’ve been reading for as long I can remember. I read anything (almost) and still I read a broad varity of books.

Films has been a big part of my life as well. It’ is just wonderful when you get that sensation of being in the story, just like the books but watching the story instead of reading it.

This is my very first blog on anything and I’ve chosen to share my 2 passions with you.

Books and films.

I’m truly excited about this, and I have so many books that I would like to talk about and almost as many films. Some are classics, some are new, some are barely worth speaking of and some take your breath away.

Stay tuned for more to come…

Sometimes I will write in danish. Alt efter humør og hvilket sprog jeg har læst bogen på vil der engang imellem komme et indlæg på dansk.

🙂