Twin Peaks

               Once in a blue moon a film or a TV series appear and it is an instant success, which continues as such although the times passes. Ten or twenty years change nothing in that respect. Such productions change our perception of television or cinema and they set new path for film and series makers. Such a TV series is undoubtedly "Twin Peaks" created by David Lynch and Mark Frost.

I don't want to describe the whole action of the series. It is better to see it of course. I just have to say that I first saw it around 20 years ago. I was just a kid then and I remembered certain characters and scenes but nothing much. And I didn't really understand what was going on. Even then though, I was very much impressed by the story. And so, a few months ago I decided to watch the series with my friend, who, by some miracle, didn't see it yet.

I don't really understand why this series is so great but the first seven episodes simply blew my away :). There is everyting you would like to see in the cult TV series. A small, nice town which slowly and painfully reveals its dark secrets. The characters we meet when the action unfolds become darker and darker. The main character - Laura - who is considered to be a sweet and innocent girl turns out to be quite opposite. And of course we have a big city boy, Dale Cooper, who is a bit strange himself and who falls in love with the town (and mostly with coffee and pie) almost instantly. He becomes friends with the local sheriff and together they try to untangle the misterious death. It all seems to be fairly uncomplicated. However, as we find out later, there are some strange things happening in Twin Peaks and the murder is the least strange one.

The series explore dark human nature. We all have something bad inside us and some of us try to fight it and some give in to it. Cooper seems to be pure and good, but his soul will have to undergo many trials during his stay in the town. And the question is what will happen to him after the case is over.

David Linch is simply this director, whom you have to know if you consider yourself "movie lover". There is no other choice. He has his own, very distinguished and singular style. He made some great movies and a TV series which people even in fifty years will watch and learn from. I sometimes have difficulties in understanding the message of Linch's movies, but I still appreciate and admire his unique style and the atmosphere, which he can create in his pictures.

The beggining 

Spectacular Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper

The most famous dead girl of all times - Laura Palmer



Audrey

The Log Lady

Donna and James

Bobby and Shelly

BOB



The famous bird

The Diary of a Young Girl

               A truly remarkable book written by a remarkable girl. The Diary of a Young Girl is a "must read" for everyone.

Anna, a girl who dreams about maybe some day becoming a writer or a journalist, is given a diary for her 13th birthday. She decides to call the notebook Kitty and all the time while writing in it, it feels like she is talking with her best friend. She tells the diary all her secrets and all the troubles, she tells about her father, whom she loves very much. And about her mother, who is very different from her, and with whom Anna feels no connection. She also writes about her sister Margot, who is very sweet and smart accroding to Anna.

And there would be nothing extraordinary about the story, apart from the fact that she was writing her diary while hiding with her whole family and a few friends for two years during the second World War. They were living in the attic in an office building where her father worked. For all this time they could not go out, talk to anyone apart from themselves and some close friends who helped them. They couldn't even open the curtains in the windows.

Anna writes about many things in her diary. About the attic, people who live with her, her parents, her sister, about her character, her dreams, her fears, the war, Hitler and the Nazi and all the cruelties, which the Jews had to face during that horrible times. She shares everything as it is with Kitty, a thus with us - the readers.

 By reading this book we have a unique opportunity to get an insight into the time of war. We can read the account of a person who knows it from her own experience. And while reading it we have to learn and remember.

Eden Lake

              I usually don't watch horror movies because in recent years, instead of being scary, they are just disgusting. But because for some time I have been following the career of Michael Fassbender I decided to see "Eden Lake" despite my previous reservations.

A young couple wants to run away from a big city for a weekend and so they go to a beautiful lake somewhere in England. They take a tent, some food, blankets and bathing suits :) and enjoy themselves, sunbathing and swimming in the lake. On some point, however, a group of kids wanders to the beach and starts to play loud music. Jenny (Kelly Reilly) asks Steve (Michael Fassbender) to tell them to turn the music down. Steve does, but the kids don't feel like listening to him it seems. The next day they all meet again, an argument breaks and while a struggle Steve accidently stabs and kills a dog. Brett (excellent and very convincing Jack O'Connell) - the apparent leader of the gang and the owner of the dog - orders a hunt. And what a hunt that is.

The movie itself didn't scare me that much. There was blood and a lot of violence of course (otherwise it wouldn't be a horror movie). The more scary and very disturbing was the end of the film together with its message.

I read somewhere that the production was widely criticized for being unfair to the working class and for putting lower class in a very bad light. Well, I don't know about those accusations. For me the film was mostly about crazy, violent, bored kids who will stop at nothing, even murder. Kids who will torture somebody, who will force their friends to watch and do the same, and who will kill just because somebody dared to disagree with them. But what can we expect when, at the end of the film, we have a chance to meet their lovely parents.

The most horrific thing is the fact that such people exist everywhere. Doesn't matter the country or the background or the class. And the scariest thing is that it can happen to anyone if you have the misfortune to be in a wrong place at a wrong time.

For the compelling to "stop and think" ending of the film, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

One of the most disturbing films I have seen in years

Little Britain

               I am not a big fan of TV series and apart from maybe three I have not seen a whole series ever. However, after seeing bits and pieces of Little Britain I decided to watch everything just to find out if all of them were good and as funny as the pieces I saw. I must say that most of them were.

                Even when you don't appresiate the humor and all the skits which David Walliams and Matt Lucas do you have to appreciate the nerve they have. If I try to imagine such series in my country about my country man I samohow doubt it would work. Maybe British people have more distance to themselves or better sense of humor. 

               Over the years many characters appeared on the show:

Andy and Lue

Anne 

Vicky

Hipnotist Kenny Craig

Emily and Florance

Majrorie Dawes

Bubbles De Verve

Sebastian and the Prime Minister

Carol

Davith

                  and many more. Lucas and Walliams do all the characters themselves. Their transformations are amasing and fun. I know that the show has been accused of being racist and homophobic but I don't think so. We have to remember that the characters have to be colored in order to make them more memorable and noticable. Enjoy !!!

Girl, Interrupted

   When you're alone and life is making you lonely

You can always go - downtown ...

or you can watch a beautiful but also disturbing movie "Girl, Interrupted".

The film was made in 1999 and is an adaptation of a book written by Susana Kaysen by the same title. The book is a detailed account of Susana's stay in a mental hospital called Claymore.

We meet Susana (Winona Ryder) for the first time when she decides to admit herself in Claymore. She does it voluntarily, however, she constantly denies the fact that she was trying to kill herself. She claims that she had a severe headache and she was trying to make it go away.

In the hospital she meets a few girls who are old residents there. Her new roommate is Georgina (Clea DuVall), quite a nice girl who is friendly to Susana and tells her a bit about other girls. Later, however, Susana finds out that Georgina is a pathological liar. On the same day she makes friends with Daisy (a truly perfect Brittany Murphy), who never eats in a canteen and loves only the chicken her father makes. She hides a whole pile of it under her bad. The next girl is Polly (Elisabeth Moss) a victim of a terrible accident where, according to Georgina, she poured gasoline on herself and set herself on fire. She also befriends Janet (Angela Bettis), who is suffering from anorexia and Cynthia (Jillian Armenante), who is a lesbian. The one who supervises the ward is RN Valerie (great Whoopi Goldberg), who sees Susana as a spoiled girl who drives herself crazy, but later helps her in the time of need.

However, the most important acquaintance is made later when Susana encounters Lisa Rowe (an Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie), a sociopath, who likes to push people's buttons. She is an unquestionable leader in the ward and likes to cause chaos and rebellion. She is very often a ringleader and an instigator of events. Girls try to interact with each other while battling their own deamons and sickness.

I really liked the movie and all the characters. Each girl was different, had different reactions to situations, different problems, and also different mechanisms to cope with them. Such movies, which explore human nature, are always interesting to me. I truly enjoyed the performace of Brittany Murphy and Angelina Jolie. I read somewhere that the movie was supposed to be Ryder's "come back film". She was supposed to be a star. And she is, but Murphy and Jolie outshine her for sure.

Battle Royale - バトル・ロワイアル

              Imagine a beautiful island with tall, lush, green trees. Blue sky, birds and the ocean breaking on the rocks. And kids running around killing each other. And NO ... I'm not writing about "The Hunger Games" - although I will next time :).

I'm writing about "Battle Royale" or バトル・ロワイアル (Batoru Rowaiaru) a Japanese blockbuster movie from year 2000 made by a famous Japanese director - Kinji Fukasaku. The film is based on an equally famous and acclaimed novel of the same title written by Koushun Takami.

Few words about the plot. We have a high-school bus full of kids going on a field trip. To their horror, however, during the bus ride they are gassed and transported to a misterious island where their former teacher - with a help of a cheerful and cute instructor - tells them that they were chosen for the annual Battle Royale game. They will receive a bag with supplies, some kind of weapon (which vary from fire arms to binoculars) and a collar, which will transmit their location. Their only job is to kill one another untill only one of them stays alive at the end of the third day. If they enter a danger zone their head will explode - another usage of the collar. As simple as that :)

Throughout the movie we observe how the students struggle with the situation. Some cannot accept the new reality and they choose suicide, some try to hide, others try to ally with friends hoping that it will be possible to survive without killing anyone. There are those, however, who quite like that game and are very eager to follow the rules.

When I saw the movie it was a very different cinema from other movies I have seen. Firstly, it's not American and the Japanese style of making movies is quite distinct. Secondly, the emotions shown on the screen (as well as the emotions themselves) are different because Japanese culture is so different from my culture or the European culture at large. In Polish television there aren't many opportunities to watch Asian movies, so I was very curious how the cinema looks there, how they make their films :). It was a new experience not only from the "movie watching" point of view, but also in terms of learning something about different cultures. No to mention that Japanese language sounds beautifully :)

An important point is that the movie has some big names in it or that it made some actors famous. I would like to hint at few of my favorites:

Tatsuya Fujiwara (Shuya Nanahara) a main male character in the film. He doesn't want to kill his friends and he allies with Noriko to protect her. Fujiwara is quite a recognized actor for his film and theater roles. His biggest movies are: Battle Royale, Death Note films and The Incite Mill. I reccomend Moonlight Jellyfish as well :)
Aki Maeda (Noriko Nakagawa) a main female character, who allies with Nanahara and wants to run away from the island.
Masanobu Ando (Kiriyama Kazuo) a sociopath killer who murders the biggest number of students. Due to a car accident he is unable to feel any emotions and it is rumored that he entered the competition voluntarily. I absolutely love this actor, whose character was superbly done. He was very scary. I reccomend: A Juvenile Big Bang Love, 69, Sukiyaki Western Django (co-operation with Quentin Tarantino), Kids Return, and Nightmare Detective. All and all - an actor worth remembering.
Kou Shibasaki (Mitsuko Souma) as deadly as Kiriyama, said to be the most beautiful and sexy girl in school. She uses her looks to win the game. Shibasaki is a very diverse actress. From a killer to a mute violinist - she can become anyone on the screen. Other movies to see: Dororo, Shaolin Girl, 47 Ronin and J-drama Orange Days. 
Chiaki Kuriyama (Takako Chigusa) the fastest runner in the class and a very clever girl. She was noticed and eventually casted in Kill Bill as O-Ren Ishii's (Lucy Liu) personal bodyguard.
Takeshi Kitano (Kitano) is the former teacher, who becomes a sort of host of the new Battle Royale game. Takeshi Kitano - or Beat Takeshi - is a multi-talented person. He is an actor, film director, singer, comedian, film screenwriter, film producer, poet, painter and many more. An absolute icon in Japan and well known in the States.

Battle Royale's official seal

The competitors



After watching "Battle Royale" I became more interested in Japanese movies. Their cinema and world perception are unique and like a breath of fresh air in the American dominated cinema. For those who are searching for something new :)

Soulmates

                I don’t know. Maybe the death brings something on us or maybe you desperately try to win some time but back then everything was meaningful. There was no wasting of time. All made sense and everything I did seemed complete. I focused on one thing – to make it better. To be there. Only that mattered to me at that time. All else was just put to the minimum. I don’t think I’ve ever been with anyone before or after that. I know he felt the same. We spend endless hours talking. First at home when it was still possible and later in the hospital. Talking about anything. Some stupid things like weather or commercials and some important and sometimes painful things. Like my family, his life before we met, endless hospital visits, hopes, disappointments. I’ve never been so honest in my life, I’ve never been so free to say what I really wanted or thought. I wasn’t scared to hurt him and he wasn’t afraid to do something that would hurt me. Absolutely free. There was no point hiding anything. I could say whatever I wanted and if something wasn’t clear or if he understood it differently we had all the time in the world to discuss it. I could explain my every word or thought million times over, until he knew exactly what I meant. No one has ever been so patient with me. Or I with anyone.

Have you ever felt something like this? Have you ever felt that somebody is really listening to what you say? That he cares and will listen to anything you say and not only that, but he will also be genuinely interested in it? That he cares? And you don’t have to edit anything or change it. And you can say everything and he’ll not interrupt. And he’ll give you the same, and tell you all from the bottom of his soul. And you find the will and strength to really listen to somebody. To really her the words. And you don’t even have to try to do it because it seems so naturally. Like breathing. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to come back to the world where no one cares? It took me months. No one was looking at me anymore. I felt abandoned and lost in this world of constant questioning and fear that something I do or say will be taken bad by others. I felt so lonely.