The Fox Blog

After a long time of blogging abstention, I bring you this short movie called “It’s About Time” (Sar El Waet) about the Lebanese war. An original perspective of what Lebanon has become today and what some people just don’t want us not to talk about.
This movie was directed by Pierre Dawaliby, a Lebanese movie director, I never heard of before. Still, this short movie, by the subject it deals with, will certainly increase his popularity among Lebanese people.
This short documentary is in Arabic but its subtitled in English, so you won’t have trouble understanding what it’s all about.

Memoirs of a Geisha is based on the best selling novel by Arthur Golden, this movie, produced by Rob Marshall, is an excellent piece of work. Japan in the first part of the 20th century, with it’s houses, industries and everything that comes along… is very well portrayed. The music score by John Williams completes the visual elements, an issue that makes that movie an aesthetic piece of art.

You won’t find all star actors, but still you can recognize Ken Watanabe (in the role of the Chairman) from The Last Samurai, Michelle Yeoh (in the role of Mameha) from Tomorrow Never Dies and Zhang Ziyi (in the role of Chiyo/Sayuri) from Hero. Two-thumbs up for Suzuka Ohgo (in the role of young Chiyo), a Japanese actress with eyes so blue – just in the movie - you might get sea-sick just by looking at them.

The plot: Chiyo, a 7-year old girl from the fishing village of Yoroido, is sold and sent away, with her sister, by her penniless family to a geisha house in the city of Kyoto. At first, her sole goal is to find her sister, Satsu, from whom she has been separated during her travel to Kyoto. After an attempted escape, she resigns herself to become a Geisha, a “moving work of art” who sells her skills and not her body. Adopting the name of Sayuri, she faces ferocious competition from Hatsumoto, the house’s most prominent earner, and must frays her way to become the most prominent Geisha of Japan and attract the looks of The Chairman, the man she falls in love with.

Although the production and cast mixture is successful, something is missing in the movie. I would call it lack of emotional scenes, at some points the movie seems to be so mute. I was expecting more romance and heart-breaking parts; too bad, it could have hit the Oscars… Still, the movie is a very good alternative for the book. More information on the Official Memoirs of a Geisha Web Site.

This movie, based on a true story, was only produced for TV. Luckily, it was broadcasted last week; I had never heard of the cast, the director or the title of the movie before. But still, after watching it, I must recognize that it’s a nice movie, nothing special about the realization but I greatly admire the story-line, the interpretation and the numerous country side views of Australia!

“Never Tell Me Never” is based on an autobiographical book by the same name written by Janine Shepherd, a woman whose life falls upside down in one day following a severe accident. Two thumbs up for Claudia Karvan in her role of Janine Shepherd; Claudia is an achieved Australian actress who contributed to dozens of movies and TV series in her country. She also plays a small role in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

The plot: After several months of hard-work, Janine succeeds in joining the Australian Cross-Country Skiing Team and is on her way to grab a medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. During her extensive training, she is hit by a car and severely injured. According to doctors, her chances of surviving are slight; however, she survives and stands partially paralyzed in a hospital where she knows that she’ll never be able to ski again. Some doctors even doubt her chances of walking again or ever having children. Janine wants to get back on her feet and refuses the facts, just as she did before the accident, never acknowledging to give-up in a skiing competition, up to the stage of stubbornness and against the advice of her coach. Thus, she decides not to use her wheel chair anymore. In the process of rehabilitation, she meets wonderful people that help her in her recovery; people like Uncle Darryl, a nurse at the hospital, and a doctor that contributed to the rescue operation, Dr. Adrian Cohen, not to forget the constant support of her parents. Weeks after she’s out of the hospital, she launches a new challenge on herself: learning to fly light planes…

The story of Janine Shepherd is a source as inspiration as I see it. Her achievements as a skiing champion and later on as a distinguished flying pilot and public speaker proved that armed with strong-will, someone can achieve anything. Today, Janine lives in Sydney, married and mother of three children – doctors were wrong here too!

Unless you live in Australia, you’ll have a hard time finding a TV station broadcasting the movie. So you should think about getting the DVD or else buying the book somewhere online. You could also content yourself with the few screenshots below I was able to collect.

Official Web Site of Janine Shepherd

Just another horror movie you would think… Possibly, but since it’s based on a true story, according to director Scott Derrickson (Urban Legends: Final Cut), there’s supposed to be more to it than just imagination. It turns out that the movie is partially based on a true story. The place, the characters and a part of the plot were actually modified to contribute in forming a suitable film environment, and most importantly to remove the shock effect some people might experience while watching; it was rated PG-13 for “thematic material including frightening sequences and disturbing images”. The Exorcist (1973), was the latest major release about the subject, and still shown on TV today.

Some Trivia:
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose may be the first court room horror movie.
- The Vatican has updated in 1999, the guide to exorcism in the Roman Catholic Church
- Requiem, a movie by German director Hans-Christian Schmid and to be released late 2005, tells the original story of the Anneliese Michel, the girl in question, keeping the story closer to reality than to a horror movie.

The plot: a 19-year old girl, Emily Rose, believes she’s possessed by an extraordinary spirit after experiencing several abnormal activities (what science recognized as a mix of epilepsy and psychoses). She talks languages she never supposedly learned and sees demons everywhere. The archdiocese concludes she’s possessed by a demon and approves an exorcism ritual on the girl, performed by Father Moore, the parish priest. The girl is killed in the process, the father charged with attempted murder. His lawyer, Erin Bruner, career-targeted and assigned by the parish, must defend him and prevent a conviction.

The cast: it’s not an all-star movie that’s for sure, but the cast performs well enough. I recognized Laura Linney (in the role of Erin Bruner) from Mystic River and Tom Wilkinson (in the role of Father Moore) from The Patriot. As for the rest of the cast, well mostly unknown; I note that Jennifer Carpenter (in the role Emily Rose) performs extremely well for a first major appearance that is… Well I never heard of her before.

Duality between science and faith is what the movie is all about: some would believe that the girl was a victim of demonic possession, others support the scientific approach stating that she refused to follow a proper medical treatment which could have cured her. More info on The Official Web Site

No one needs to introduce Adolf Hitler, Germany’s World War II Fuhrer and founder of the National Socialist Party which headed Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Countless movies about the war were produced ever since the late 1940s up to nowadays, the legacy doesn’t seem to be stopping. Just think about the number of box office movies you saw about WWII: Enemy at The Gates, Shindler’s List, Life is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line…
Americans, Russians, British or French were the heroes, fighting the common enemy: the Nazis. Rare are the movies where you could watch a version of the war from the opposite perspective, from Hitler’s own perspective, an issue movie director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, was able to achieve majestically.

Critics viewed “Der Untergang” (German original title of the movie) as an attempt to humanize Adolf Hitler, a person who has mood swings in the movie when he learns about high ranking officers’ treasons and direct orders that were not carried out. Regardless of the inevitable defeat, he remains Fuhrer until he shoots himself and orders his soldiers to burns his corpse. The story is based on testimonies of people who actually served under Hitler – which include his personal secretary, Traudl Junge - and didn’t unleash the secrets that tied them with the Fuhrer until recently (when they reached the last couple of years of their life). With the release of this movie, the last political taboo in Germany falls.

The plot: Downfall relates the last 10 days of Hitler’s life, retreated in a claustrophobic bunker in Berlin with his loyal Generals, his mistress Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels - chief of Propaganda – and the personnel. He faces his final defeat against the Russian Army marching fiercely in direction of the city. The situation seems so chaotic, the enemy is getting closer and there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it this time. Human madness reaches its apogee with the Fuhrer executing people runners, Magda Goebbels killing her children for them not to live in a country where National Socialism has collapsed, Eva Braun partying and “having a walk” under Russian artillery. In the middle of it all, Traudle Junge is living a dream which doesn’t seem to be stopping…

The cast:
Adolf Hitler: Bruno Ganz, played in similar historical box office movies such as The Manchurian Candidate and Luther
Traudl Junge: Alexandra Maria Lara, played in several German movies and TV series.

The movie received Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, it’s a must-see. Europeans have once again proved themselves as being able to match American movies especially when it comes to narrating their own history.

I first saw the movie premier when the movie was released in 2003, then saw it a couple of times of TV – including a couple of days ago. I even bought the DVD. I must say I never get bored of the movie; the story is just amazing and the production great.

The movie, written by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neal, two famous comic books authors, features all-time favorite adventure, fantasy and horror characters:
- Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), the hunter
- Tom Sawyer (Shane West) , the adventurer
- Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), pirate and captain of the ocean jewel the Nautilus
- Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), surviving victim of Dracula
- Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), the invisible man
- Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), the ageless
- Dr. Henry Jekyll and his brutish ego Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng)

At first sight, all those characters fitting in one movie can seem too crowded, but actually the mixture makes the movie a success. The least we could say is that the production was able to define a plausible storyline where everyone can fit without making the movie too crowded or too boring.

The plot: London 1899 - A criminal mastermind, only known as “The Phantom”, plots to start a world war on the planet. The British Empire forms a group of seven individuals (mentioned above), each one characterized by unique skills, known as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen whose goal is to stop “The Phantom”, unveil his criminal plans and rescue the world from a total annihilation war – well I’m exaggerating a bit.

Some free ebooks (or etexts) related to the movie I found (on Project Gutenberg, an amazing e-library of free ebooks) along the way:
- King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
- The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

If you think that only blockbuster movies are worth seeing, then think again. A couple of days ago, while zapping on my 250 channels – well only about 20 channels are plausible to be seen – TV, I got to Cine Cinema, a French channel, on which a movie called “Fucking Amal” was just starting.

It’s a Swedish movie directed by Lukas Moodysson. Although it was produced on a small budget, about 22,000 dollars, it reached record attendance in Sweden – more viewers than the “Titanic” movie - and was distributed and appreciated worldwide. The English title for the movie is “Show me Love”, so if you were waiting for a teenage porn movie, sorry to disappoint you. What makes “Fucking Amal” so special is that its structure is similar to a documentary with such a realistic attitude, simultaneously a magnificent storyline is evolving with every minute that passes. The movie deals with teenagers relations among each other and with their environment (their parents, town, and society in general); it has a lesbian theme in it but it’s not exclusive. The action takes place in a small town in Sweden called Amal (that’s where the title comes from).

The plot: The least popular girl in school, Agnes (Rebecca Liljeberg), falls in love with the most popular girl in school, Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) practically waited in line by boys. Both characters suffer from several problems mainly related to their psyche: Agnes is so lonely, almost no one joins her in her anniversary party, and she even tries to get over with life at some point. Elin on the other hand, is very popular but she’s bored with life, boys and the lost hole she lives in, that is her town Amal, where popular trends become unpopular by the time they reaches the town trends (according to her words); she wants to fully enjoy her life. On one night, they exchange a kiss and this is where the feelings each other have become complementary…

I won’t say anymore about the story, but what I can assure is that it’s really an excellent cult movie. Don’t know how I didn’t notice it earlier (movie was released in 1998) on some channel or in a DVD store. In a nut shell, “Fucking Amal” is a must see-movie, you might just love it the way I did. In the mean time, you should probably watch the movie trailer or content yourself with the screenshots below.

Fucking Amal Fan Site

Almost everyone knows Star Trek, the famous television series, where humans and extraterrestrial creatures – other humans wearing funny looking costumes - face each other with laser swords and ultra sophisticated space ships. The several movies were a huge success in Cinemas and the series continues endlessly to broadcast on our TV screens. When I say “almost everyone”, you probably understood that some people know nothing about the subject, among those you find me, or should I rather say “found me”.

Until yesterday, I wasn’t aware what Star Trek was all about, the few little things I knew about Star Trek was that it was a science fiction series - well you don’t need to be a wise guy to guess it – and that there’s a weird-looking guy with night-elves ears (Warcraft style) – he turned out to be the so-called Captain Spock - on board of a space ship exploring space and kicking some alien butt.

What I’m getting to is that I watched a Star Trek movie (Star Trek VI – The Undiscovered Country) and I was the least surprised about how good it was. Although you might get lost at first, especially if you’re a Star Trek illiterate, you’ll soon see that the story is coherent and that the movie is not just about superb special effects (well superb for the year the movie was produced in, 1991 that is).

The plot, shortly: After a rough explosion on a moon belonging to the Klingons (the other side), the United Federation of Planets (the side on which the Star Trek heroes are) decide to finally put in place a peace process with the Klingons. The U.S.S. enterprise, an incredible federation spaceship, is commanded by James T. Kirk (William Shatner), a highly decorated officer of the federation haunted by a hatred of the Klingons ever since his son was killed on their hands. He is assisted by his side-kick Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a Vulcan (not a human), supporting the establishment of piece between the two parties. The ship’s misson is to escort the spaceship of the Klingon’s chief, Chancellor Gorkon, to the place where the peace process is too be decided and signed. During the escort period, an incident occurs on the Klingon spaceship and the Chancellor is killed. Every proof seems to be accusing the Federation of betrayal thus threatening the upcoming planned peace. Kirk finds himself in the hand of the Klingons and this is where all the problems start: Traitors are to be discovered on both sides!!

Read the full plot of the movie

In 1991, the U.S.S.R. has just collapsed and the world was living in a new era where some people were afraid of change, moving from the cold war to a peaceful period. Analyzing the movie, you would come to compare Chancellor Gorkon, the leader killed by the supporters of a continuing war, to Mikhail Gorbachev who sacrificed his presidency, his vast territory and his diplomatic influence in order to make the world a better place to live in.