Literature Network Forums - Blogs - A Mirror Floating in Water by DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?62108-A-Mirror-Floating-in-Water The largest classic literature discussion forum on the Internet. Read Write Teach Share. en Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:46:17 GMT vBulletin 10 https://www.online-literature.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg Literature Network Forums - Blogs - A Mirror Floating in Water by DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?62108-A-Mirror-Floating-in-Water To whomever it may concern https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11238-To-whomever-it-may-concern Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:20:18 GMT It seems that I have been gone for a long time and in my laziness I wrote off a short and ambiguous post upon my return. Maybe it was just a little... It seems that I have been gone for a long time and in my laziness I wrote off a short and ambiguous post upon my return. Maybe it was just a little bit of smirky cleverness that I was so brief, it also had to do with my being busy that day. Well here's an explanation of where I've been:

Nowhere. My computer merely crashed on me Halloween night and I had to wait a few months before I could buy one. In the mean time I utilized my school's computer which blocked every-other website including literature network.

I hope to catch up soon with everybody, though I've been quite busy and being away has distanced myself from this wonderful community.

Anyway, throughout the last two months I've had the deep pleasure of reading Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby, among others. Most notably I re-read two of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and thus two of my favorite works of literature, King Lear and Henry IV. After reading the former I've become more and more convinced that there is nothing in world literature as powerful and painful, and in the case of the latter, I don't think Shakespeare ever wrote a play (or rather plays) more perfect nor made a more joyous character than Falstaff.

As for films, I've finally become a converted fan of Jean-Luc Godard's later films, most of which I used to hate. I had this epiphany after seeing Passion, which I think is his masterwork to date.

I also had the infinite pleasure of seeing for the first time two of the greatest of the greatest films I've ever seen; one, a Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi Sansho the Bailiff, indeed one of the most powerful and almost unbearably painful experiences I've ever had at the movies. The other, Werner Herzog's exquisitely moving documentary on the deaf-blind community The Land of Silence and Darkness. Both would easily make my top ten films of all time.

I also saw Bela Tarr's great seven-hour masterpiece Satantango for the first time, which is even better than the great Werckmeister Harmonies and is most likely the best film of the 90's.

Now that is all. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11238-To-whomever-it-may-concern Here and There abouts https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11234-Here-and-There-abouts Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:06:20 GMT Hey I'm back. For any who missed me a belated Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving and an early Happy Holidays.

That is all. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11234-Here-and-There-abouts Untitled https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11127-Untitled Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:35:40 GMT The mark of past tense verb
Tis' a scar that affects our life-line verse
And even the trite small-talk under blue skies.

When everything is under-sea
Painted with a white landscape
Of non-time, non-memory
Those moments we forget
Become the futures neglect.

So silent a lake-pond spring is
In the summer it is almost rancid
But in winter it is frozen deep into tedium
And atoms hibernate in stillness.
An easy way to leave,—

But time is our father's present
And our mother is our memory
While you yourself are empty space.

Is there a way for spring to swing the seasons
So that it need no frost of winters bite nor
Uncivil clutter of summer's stifling disease?

May we pray to the skies so that they leave us no sign of sun
Or smell or rain?

Or the mathematical formula of the gods is too apocryphal for the skin of mortals to soak into?
May the rest be silence. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11127-Untitled Interview and Reading List https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10942-Interview-and-Reading-List Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:57:42 GMT Hello out there. Just figured I would say hello to the blogging world out there as I have been absent for quite some time. I finally got a call... Hello out there. Just figured I would say hello to the blogging world out there as I have been absent for quite some time.

I finally got a call back from a store I applied to and I'm getting an interview tomorrow. I'm nervous but confident, and most of all, I am looking forward to the $$

As of late I've been listening to quite a lot of music. Classical mostly. I have come across a truly transcendent epiphany in discovering the great Reinissance composer Gesualdo, thanks to the delightful Classical Listening thread, whose works have has moved my very soul, something only a very few works of art and music have done.

Tormented by guilt with an almost uncontrollable yearning for atonement, Gesualdo's musical works are almost uncanny in how cannily human they are. (Please read his biography in the wiki page in order to get a really good sense of his music.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbgZbbQZG_U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S395O1YJD0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVW8GCnr9-I


On the cinematic side: I've been going on a "movies of epic length" binge and have recently watched two masterpieces, both seven hours, one a French silent from 1915 Les Vampires and the other a German experimental film called Hitler: A Film from Germany.

Both are major works of cinema whom I would recommend to hardened film-buffs, while I would only recommend the former to the common movie-going audience, as it is certainly the least boring seven hours you will ever spend at the movies.

I've also recently been going on with my almost religious love of Ozu's works. His films which are so humane and powerful feel truly like little bits of banal life in which we discover the profound. I love him more and more every time I see his films, and more and more I am convinced that he is the greatest cinematic master of all time. If there were ever a film I would recommend to all of humanity, it would be Tokyo Story. Minimalistic in every way (as with all of his works) this Japanese classic is an extremely simple tale about a parents visit to their now grown-up children. It is such a profound and yet simple film that it seems altogether universal (do not let the word "Japanese" scare you), and despite the mannerisms being uniquely Japanese, this is a film for all people. Please please please see it. (I contain my enthusiasm for Ozu's technique and withhold it, for I have more to say and I am certainly afraid of boring you with film jargon.)

In other news, I've been reading the first books of the Torah, which as always are mighty in their narrative and literary power. Yahweh is certainly one of the most uncanniest figures in Western literature.

As a way to provide myself some organization, I shall now include a reading and viewing list for the sake of my own peace of mind and schedule:

To Read:

1. As You Like It by Shakespeare
2. Measure for Measure by Shakespeare
3. Hadji Murat by Tolstoy
4. The Misanthrope by Moliere
5. Leaves of Grass by Whitman
6. Peer Gynt by Ibsen (translation recommendations anyone?)
7. The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy
8. The Bridge by Crane
9. Don Quioxte by Cervantes
10. The Four Zoas by Blake
11. The Book of Exodus
12 The Divine Comedy by Dante
etc.

To Watch:

1. Early Summer - Ozu
2. In Praise of Love - Godard
3. Les Vampires - Feuillade (again)
4. Platform - Zhangke
5. Shoah - Lanzmann
6. The Magnificent Ambersons - Welles
7. The Other Half - Li
8. The Dekalog - Kieslowski
9. Ti Xie Qu - Bing
10. Kind Hearts and Coronets - Hamer
11. Pickpocket - Bresson
12. Fengming, A Chinese Memoir - Bing

Plays/Operas to watch from youtube/netflix

1. Krapp's Last Tape - Beckett
2. Agamenmon - Aeschylus
3. The Libation Bearers - Aeschylus
4. The Eumendites - Aeschylus
5. Hedda Gabler - Ibsen
6. Parsifal - Wagner
7. Endgame - Beckett
8. Oedipus Triology - Sophocles
9. Aida - Verdi
10. The Marriage of Figaro - Mozart ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10942-Interview-and-Reading-List Untitled Haiku https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10940-Untitled-Haiku Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:08:48 GMT Late summer wheezing A bike on a garden path Sun soaked sweaty back. Got a call for a Job interview; tomorrow Got hit by a car. Hair needs... Late summer wheezing
A bike on a garden path
Sun soaked sweaty back.

Got a call for a
Job interview; tomorrow
Got hit by a car.

Hair needs some trimming.
For my job, my back, my days
Autumn better bless. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10940-Untitled-Haiku The Best of Contemporary Cinema https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10839-The-Best-of-Contemporary-Cinema Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:50:29 GMT Cinema as it seems has been regarded by some film critics as a lost art, in its prime once but now sold-out to endless Hollywood blockbusters and... Cinema as it seems has been regarded by some film critics as a lost art, in its prime once but now sold-out to endless Hollywood blockbusters and mindless rom-coms. But this is excessive cynicism for the film art has not died out and in a sense it has even been getting better at what it does, though only in small hidden layers of the film world, with a good deal of the talent coming from non-Hollywood sources. In order to acknowledge some of the best art the cinema has produced in the past 25 years, here is a list of the masterpieces of contemporary cinema:

Coincidently enough, my top two films were made exactly 25 years ago, in 1985.

1. Come and See (1985)- Elem Klimov

An utterly despairing look at war seen through the eyes of a 14-year old boy in the Russian army, who despite only aging a few weeks in the film by the end looks as if he has lived a lifetime. Along with Apocalypse Now, this is the greatest war film I have ever seen, and undoubtedly the most devastating, making Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan seem fleetingly optimistic.



Never has war been more terrifyingly depicted and never has there been a more frightening depiction of evil than the village scene near the end. But what makes this movie one of the greatest ever made is that unsentimental but deeply profound final scene in which we discover that there still is a human face buried under absolute evil.


2. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) - Paul Schrader

Based on the life of the controversial and charismatic Japanese militant Yukio Mishima, director Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver) gives us one of the most unconventional and greatest biopics ever made. Mishima was clearly mildly crazy, his beliefs even crazier (his lifelong political dedication lied in "restoring" Japan to it traditional empire) and Schrader depicts him with not a hint of pathos; instead he gives us a detached and yet profoundly beautiful insight into the man's thought and life, without moralizing or demoralizing him.



Split up into three interweaving sections; scenes in the present on the final days of Mishima's life, scenes from his life (which are in black-and-white), and three adaptations of his short stories filmed with lush Brechtian theatricality (as seen in the picture above). The films masterful minimalist score by Phillip Glass and elegant cinematography is enough to see this film. But the most fascinating thing above all is observing the man himself with his sado-masochistic obsession with his own death, a theme which dominated his works, beliefs, and the film.


3. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)- Bela Tarr

I have said quite a lot about Bela Tarr's film, calling it the best film of the past decade, but not enough can truly be said about this enigmatic and dream-like masterwork, and yet words always fail me. Running at 140 minutes and comprising of only 39 languidly paced shots, this is a meditative and hypnotic experience.



But more than just an exercise in style (as with all of Tarr's films) it is an allegory on Hungarian politics, and even more so, an atmospheric environment of coldness, dread and fear, examining the chaotic nature of man in a universe in which God has all but disappeared.

4. The Seventh Continent (1989) - Michael Haneke

The most painful and realistic portrait of suicide ever put on film, this Baudrillian examination of modern consumerist society is based on the true story of an Austrian family (a mother, father and daughter) who all commited suicide in home after systematically destroying everything they owned.



And this is what this movie is about. It is a nihilistic deconstruction of all our capitalist materialist values and ends with a quivering image of the modern man's dream, which is in itself, quite empty.

5. Hoop Dreams (1994) - Steve James

Just as Haneke's film is a ode to death, this uniquely American documentary is an ode to life and the American dream. Few films, fiction or non-fiction ever are able to display the wonderful rhythms, surprises, failures and character of life itself, this four-hour documentary does just that. This film has some of the greatest characters in recent cinema, and they are all real!



Basketball is the main subject of this documentary, as two African-American high school students try to make it to the NBA. Beneath the surface is a remarkable study about ambition, competition, race and class in our society.*

*Final sentence taken from Ebert's review.


6. Schindler's List (1993)- Steven Speilberg



7. Pulp Fiction (1994) - Quentin Tarantino



8. Tarnation (2003) - Jonathan Caouette



9. Synecdoche, New York (2008) - Charlie Kauffman



10. Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee



11. The Thin Red Line - Terrence Malick



12. Mulholland Drive (2002) - David Lynch



13. Crumb (1995)- Terry Zwigoff



14. Fargo(1996) - Joel and Ethan Coen



15. Goodfellas (1990) - Martin Scorsese



16. In the Mood for Love (2000) - Wong Kar-Wai



17. Drugstore Cowboy (1989) - Gus van Sant



18. The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Wes Anderson



19. City of God (2002) - Fernando Meirelles



20. Le Fils (2002) - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne



EDIT: This list was edited. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10839-The-Best-of-Contemporary-Cinema August 6 https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10841-August-6 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:36:45 GMT Amaterasu, Never again burst the sun. Ruinous alley. The dulcet Virgin Ascending through cloudy sky Arms stretched, outreaching. It was a... Amaterasu,
Never again burst the sun.
Ruinous alley.

The dulcet Virgin
Ascending through cloudy sky
Arms stretched, outreaching.

It was a radiant day
And all the cuckoos cried. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10841-August-6 <![CDATA[Set of haiku's for today]]> https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10800-Set-of-haiku-s-for-today Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:20:48 GMT natsu The grass on its way To midsummer festival With the winds of June. natsu kinu You beaming flower natsu

The grass on its way
To midsummer festival
With the winds of June.


natsu kinu

You beaming flower
In the sky. Warn us next time
Of the day you come.


natsu yasumi

Children out for play
“Oh freedom let be!” they say.
Smiling, I look off.


ayame

Walking down the beat
Passing a set of irises,
Embracing in case.


tsuyu

Mists of rain droplets
Clatter upon my window
As I think of palms.


sakura

Spring comes late upon these rocks
Wett'd, the sun casts
Its ire upon the spring. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10800-Set-of-haiku-s-for-today My Response to Responders on How are Your Feeling Today? (aka; caffine post) https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10779-My-Response-to-Responders-on-How-are-Your-Feeling-Today-(aka-caffine-post) Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:29:41 GMT *How are you feeling today? - Scher* Like I just talked to two friends for a few hours, laughed at a thread, ate a burger, drank a latte, watched... How are you feeling today? - Scher

Like I just talked to two friends for a few hours, laughed at a thread, ate a burger, drank a latte, watched a silent film, went to the bookstore and read Chaucer and Shakespeare criticism for seven or so hours, ate a double fudge chocolate cupcake and vanilla latte, just in time enough to get home and write this all down as my body sings caffeine electric. Now just follow the bouncing ball:

ASCENT

When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!

DESCENT

When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl:
Tu-who;
Tu-whit, tu-who—a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl:
Tu-who;
Tu-whit, to-who—a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.



Quote Originally Posted by Maryd. View Post
I'm an on such a high... I haven't been this happy in years.... I love my kids.
Wohoo! Let's dance! Chanteuse sing!



Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray,
To the best bride-bed will we,
Which by us shall blessed be;
And the issue there create
Ever shall be fortunate.
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;
And the blots of Nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand:
Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,
Shall upon their children be.—
With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gate;
And each several chamber bless,
Through this palace, with sweet peace;
E'er shall it in safety rest,
And the owner of it blest.
Trip away:
Make no stay:
Meet me all by break of day.


Quote Originally Posted by dafydd manton View Post
The best I can come up with is "moderately average". Been told to cut out the booze altogether, because of medication. Permanently. Not a big drinker, but.....
God has given us a dark wine so potent that,
drinking it, we leave the two worlds.

God has put into the form of hashish a power
to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.

God has made sleep so
that it erases every thought.

God made Majnun love Layla so much that
just her dog would cause confusion in him.

There are thousands of wines
that can take over our minds.

Don't think all ecstacies
are the same!

Jesus was lost in his love for God.
His donkey was drunk with barley.

Drink from the presence of saints,
not from those other jars.

Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.

Be a conoisseur,
and taste with caution.

Any wine will get you high.
Judge like a king, and choose the purest,

the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about "what's needed."

Drink the wine that moves you
as a camel moves when it's been untied,

and is just ambling about.



Quote Originally Posted by Scheherazade View Post
Oh, someone actually reads my posts!
Yet Edmund was read.

(*laugh track*)

(*studio applause*) ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10779-My-Response-to-Responders-on-How-are-Your-Feeling-Today-(aka-caffine-post) Cage Fighter Rips Heart Out (no seriously) https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10477-Cage-Fighter-Rips-Heart-Out-(no-seriously) Tue, 01 Jun 2010 05:03:22 GMT This transcends Kafkaesque, Lynchian, whatever you want to call it. This is probably the most ****ed up story I've heard since the Fritzl story back in 2008.

Oh, and now to the main event:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...sed-devil.html ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10477-Cage-Fighter-Rips-Heart-Out-(no-seriously) Facebook, blehhh https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10474-Facebook-blehhh Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:06:05 GMT I use facebook. Though the only reason why I use it is so that I can get updates from friends and have a useful event planner. That's about it. I do also idiosyncratically adjust my 'Top 100' movie list on my account (which is provided by Flixter). Usually just for the hell of it I always keep a facebook tab open. Kinda a habit.

Well, it looks like I've broken the rules. My facebook account has been disabled. Maybe it was because I once posted an update in Chinese characters and the authorities mistook it for spam. (No, they're not that stupid.)

Well, it turns out I'm not the only one facebook is screwing over, there are dozens and dozens of hits on Google with confused facebook-users asking the same thing: "Why the hell was my account disabled?"

As it turns out, facebook has seemed to take on a somewhat Gestapo agenda on spammers and has over-protected its precious website.

http://contactdubai.com/tips/why-you...ll-be-disabled

Maybe this will give me a good chance for me to get a myspace (*hint*facebook admins*hint*) ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10474-Facebook-blehhh You think Lit-Net is bad? https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10458-You-think-Lit-Net-is-bad Thu, 27 May 2010 20:41:05 GMT In light of some recent debates on this thread, a few of them which have been quite heated and one which I regret participating in, I would like to... In light of some recent debates on this thread, a few of them which have been quite heated and one which I regret participating in, I would like to take a moment for all of us to recognize how pinchy-pinchy cute we are, even at our worst when compared to. . . . . .Youtube.

We all are aware of the rigorous intellectual debate found on the youtube comments section:

mattbootry: you could sell oil to the arabs with an ad like that

frilloz4: the arabs are the ones with the oil stupid


"this song is photoshopped"


"you nut, the Earth is flat and there is plenty of evidence to back this up. I'll start by refuting the concept of gravity. Gravity has never been proven Yes we see an apple fall Mr. Newton, but this does not mean an unseen force is dropping it down. E"

"Umm... wasn't that disproved in like the 1200's?"


"You are a Too headed billeygoat body & im not talking about miley im talking about you ya you the one who posted that i HATE YOU!that's rite enjoy you'r life now because you'r not ganna enjoy it after you meat me cause you'r not ganna have? it soon.YOU'R"


" Hey!,check me and my friends video's out!,we lyke do sketch videos lollol,there really funni tho!"



The not-so-funny comments (WARNING: some VERY offensive content):

"**** YOU WETBACK.. IF YOU LIKE MEXICO
SO MUCH .. TAKE YOU AND THE REST OF THE WETBACKS BACK TO MEXICO"

"Oh look, the nigger loving Taliban mother****er is BACK! So sorry ****head, no trailers here, unlike the mud hut your *** comes from back in Ham, Chicken , Turkey, wherever the **** your whole mother was turning tricks at.
Face it, you halfbreed nigger piece of ****, you are just some filthy immigrant piece of ****, your probably illegal, now shut the **** up before INS deports your nigger ***."

"If you want to save whites from extinction you must follow this recipe..
Take back your media and education system, so they can't brainwash your children anymore.
Kick liberals and commies out forever. They are sick people who always work against our race.
Return non-Whites to their homelands, before they out number us and attempt genocide like they are doing in South Africa."

"ristian people are so dumb pleaz cant somebody nuke america and those cristian people how go to church 4 times a week becuz they think they go to heaven
reality check there is no heaven there is no hell its all an exuse for people who are mentally retarded and an iq below 80 (60 procent of america by the way has an iq below 80) i dont believe because the only things religion gave us is crusades, wars (israel) and jew prosecution in ww2. the earth exists no **** cristian superdumb whore"

"the uk is a pile of filth"

"gay is a form of terrorist inside our borderes ."


Even when I tried to engage in intelligent discussion I got this reply:

"You obviously don't know the National of Islam is a black supremacy group. If you want to talk about bigotry, you should start complaining about the fact all whites are labeled as evil because of slavery when in fact fewer than 1% owned slaves. Moreover, other races also owned them."

How's that to loose your faith in humanity? ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10458-You-think-Lit-Net-is-bad Kids, Vertigo, Tsunamis: A Dream https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10451-Kids-Vertigo-Tsunamis-A-Dream Wed, 26 May 2010 15:00:02 GMT I had a dream that dozens of family members that I didn't know at all had visited with ten or eleven prepubescent nine-year olds running around and screaming. Then the adults decided that we should make food for the picnic, so all of the kids got out their blenders and put in whatever food they liked and blended it. I was a bit worried about the one which had mixed meat and milk together.

Suddenly, I found myself in a movie theatre with all of the same obnoxious kids, and we were about to watch Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (which always seems to appear in my dreams). At the opening titles (which were quite different from what they really were) the kids started laughing uncontrollably, and I whispered to my mother (who seemed to be next to me) how I felt that I could strangle them.

Then again, suddenly I find myself on my bed crying because Radiohead had come to Green Bay, and as a result has caused a mega-tsunami the size of skyscrapers. I pictured it in my head with the most unbearable dread. The thoughts became so real, that I in fact drowned right there in my bed.

(It is good to note that at the same time this blonde girl whom I happen to know was laying right beside me with a feather in her hands.)

After drowning I found myself on a ship, traveling across the Bay and I was somehow the captain because some much shorter guy kept on coming up to me, asking me what to do. Strangely enough, I was in complete and total control of the ship, and somehow just couldn't get across these little ripples created by the water.

I eventually picked up speed and the ship crashed right into a hotel on mainland (it is worth noting that the hotel had Victorian design and was quite old). I had deliberately done that in order to "end with a bang" and upon emerging from the oddly unscratched ship, the few people who were at the hotel bar (which I had crashed into) cheered for me with tequilas in their hands.

I then was transported back the the theater in which we were watching Vertigo, with those damned kids talking out loud and laughing. I still wanted to strangle them. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10451-Kids-Vertigo-Tsunamis-A-Dream 2010 Cannes Results https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10442-2010-Cannes-Results Sun, 23 May 2010 20:34:41 GMT This year at Cannes film festival, Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d'Or. It was directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk-EoUb0nvg

Judging from the trailer it looks like a calm surrealist film shrouded in ambiguity and the supernatural but with a meditative and steady style not dissimilar to Weerasethakul's other work.

The synopsis from Wikipedia: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives centers on the last days in the life of its title character. Together with his loved ones – including the ghost of his dead wife and his lost son who has returned in a non-human form – Boonmee explores his past lives while contemplating the reasons for his illness


Winner in the Un Certain Regard section was South Korean director Hong Sang-soo's comedy appropriately titled Hahaha. Judging by the one clip I found it appears to be filled with a subtle and quircky humor that so many Eastern filmmakers are talented at conveying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JzmKm0q4bU


French film Of God's and Men directed by Xavier Beauvois won the Grand Pix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tsnPmmVYx4

Synopsis from Wikipedia: It centers around an actual event in 1996, when seven French Trappist monks were kidnapped and beheaded in Algeria.

Winner of the directors award was Mathieu Amalric who directed and starred in the raunchy comedy On Tour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLwN4H2ac5E (WARNING: trailer not for kiddies)

Synopsis from Wikipedia: In a road movie narrative, the plot follows the troupe as they tour French port cities with their show, which was performed for actual audiences during the production.


This years film festival somewhat inappropriately opened with the world premire of Ridley Scott's newest multi-million dollar blockbuster Robin Hood; a strange choice considering the fact that the works of filmmakers like Godard, Kiraiostami and Weerasethakul are also being shown.


Probably the most anticipated film of the entire festival was the premire of what legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard has considered to be his last film, Film Socialisme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhqOFWdtDdY

There's about an equal amount of people who hate Godard as there are those who love him. Love him or hate him, he has been France's most influencial filmmaker for half-a-century and has probably been the most endlessly innovative director in the history of cinema since Orson Welles. With his retirement at 80, the cinema will have lost one of her greatest posterboys.

Synopsis from Wikipedia: According to an official synopsis[3], a large part of the film will be set on a cruise ship sailing around the Mediterranean Sea. During the film, the ship visits Egypt, Israel, Odessa, Greece, Naples and Barcelona. There is also a second storyline involving a politically-involved family with two young children. Characters will include an aging war criminal, a former United Nations official and a Russian detective.


Mike Leigh's Another Year garnered quite a lot of praise at the festival and was expected by many to win the Palme d'Or. Leigh has always been one of those beautifully humane directors from the likes of Renoir and has always found a way to present both the human tragedy and comedy of everyday middle-class life. I really look forward to seeing this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scCz6Qcw3d8

Synopsis from Cannes website: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Family and friendship. Love and warmth. Joy and sadness. Hope and despair. Companionship. Loneliness. A birth. A death. Time passes.....


Previous winners of the Palme d'Or

2009: The White Ribbon - Michael Haneke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUj9gDtA9HQ

2008: The Class - Laurent Cantent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8HWJqgMAhU

2007: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Cristian Mungui http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NwJzdPIJPA

2006: The Wind that Shakes Barley - Ken Loach http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2n...y-tra_creation

2005: L'enfant - Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nbBpVo9_pg


2004: Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFwz...ext=1&index=20

2003: Elephant - Gus Van Sant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXjWS79Sp4o

2002: The Pianist - Roman Polanski http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itR0-I9idXk

2001: The Son's Room - Nanni Moretti

2000: Dancer in the Dark - Lars von Trier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Oc3Oe_LpQ ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10442-2010-Cannes-Results 50 Greatest Movie Moments of all Time https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10296-50-Greatest-Movie-Moments-of-all-Time Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:58:34 GMT I was bored so I decided to pay tribute by making a list of what I find to be the greatest moments in the history of cinema. Most of this list is... I was bored so I decided to pay tribute by making a list of what I find to be the greatest moments in the history of cinema. Most of this list is just off the top of my head, but I have strong convictions about it lol.

The greatest cinema is a series of great moments or scenes, this is the greatest of cinema. Be aware, there may be some spoilers! (in order to make this list as spoiler-free as possible, I sometimes use euphemisms or suggestions of what scene or moment I am talking about.)

Here we go:

50. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Primates learn to use tools.

49. Persona (1966) - Opening



48. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1962) - Riding the bomb.

47. Citizen Kane (1940) - Kane trying to convince Susan not to go.

46. My Dinner with Andre (1981) - George recollects memories in taxi cab.

45. Amnacord (1973) - Peacock in the snow.

44. Psycho (1960) - Shower Scene.

43. October (1929) - Machine-gun fire into a crowd.

42. The Godfather Part II (1974) - Michael embraces Fredo.

41. Tarnation (2003) - Jonathan meets his father for the first time.



40. Schindler's List (1993) - Little girl in the red jacket.

39. The General (1928) - Keaton realizes that the front of the train has disappeared.

38. On the Waterfront (1954) - "I coulda been a contender!"

37. Midnight Cowboy (1969) - "I'm scared."

36. 8 1/2 (1960) - Dream of childhood.



35. Some Like it Hot (1959) -"Nobody's perfect"

34. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) - Hal won't open the door.

33.Taxi Driver (1976) - Travis Bickle after the massacre.

32. The Godfather (1973) - Baptism scene.

31. The Birth of a Nation (1915) - Battle charge.

30. Chimes at Midnight (1966) - Long shot of Falstaff when he hears the news of Henry's crowning.

29. Raging Bull (1980) - LaMotta hits the wall.

28. 8 1/2 (1960) - Brothel dream.

27. The Night of the Hunter (1950) - Riverboat scene.

26. Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) - Final shot.

25. Vertigo (1959) - Neon-lit hotel scene.

24. Through a Glass Darkly (1961) - Spider monologue.

23. The 400 Blows (1959) - Freeze frame



22. Apocolaypse Now (1979) - "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

21. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Ending.

20. 8 1/2 (1960) - Ending.

19. Gone with the Wind (1939) - "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn."

18. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - Hospital riot.

17. Killer of Sheep (1977) - A friend is pregnant.

16. Citizen Kane (1940) - Ending.

15. Cries and Whispers (1975) - Karin and Maria after dinner.

14. Casablanca (1941) - Ending.

13. Singin' in the Rain (1954) - Gene Kelly singing in the rain.

12. The Third Man (1946) - Cukoo Clock speech.

11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) - Spaceships floating above earth.



10. Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) - House falling.

9. Cries and Whispers (1975) - Anna holds Agnes against her breast.

8. Jules et Jim (1962) - Catherine sings Le Tourbillon.



7. Ikiru (1952) - Watanabe on the snowy swing singing.

6. Hamlet (1946) - Graveyard scene.

5. Casablanca (1941) - Sam singing As Time Goes By.

4. It Happened One Night (1934) - Peter describes his dream-island.

3. City Lights (1931) - Final scene.

2. The Third Man (1946) - Orson Welles' enterance.



1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - When Joan recollects who taught her the Lord's prayer. ]]> DanielBenoit https://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?10296-50-Greatest-Movie-Moments-of-all-Time