Again

it's raining and raining and raining!
Worse, it's cold!

My 2eme take

Okay. This can be boring. But this is my 2eme take with Gimp and photo shoot of shoes.

Into the Wild

Into the Wild, 2007, Sean Penn

I am going to keep it brief, so I can write something on every film I watch (esp. with my brilliant UGC card).
This is one of the best films I have seen recently. This owes a lot to the story. After graduating, Christopher McCandless went on a soul searching trip in United States and ended up spending the rest of his days in Alaska before he died at the age of 24, in 1992.

What strikes me most was his death in the film. I always thought he would have made it, after all his adventures and he was such a bright and great kid. Johan and I had a discussion. I was not sad but calm. After the initial surprise, I soon realized that even if he did not actively commit suicide, he chose to go on this trip of solitude and even arguably he could have better prepared himself, it just somehow ended consistent with what he had being trying to do. I do not know him or the whole story (who would? probably not even himself), but what would he have become if he made it out to the society which he despise so much? I do not know.

At the end of the film, the character wrote 'Happiness is only real when shared'. That must have upset a lot of people, seeing his death as tragic. But to some people, his death could just be a matter of naiveness, because all sane people would have brought a map before going to the wild in Alaska (I read about this on wikipedia, so this is completely not for sure). They may think that he simply commited suicide.

No matter what, this film makes me think, and it probably makes a lot of people think: what does society do to us? What are we, human?

Brilliant, inspiring and mind-blowing (5, if possible 6)

The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo (2008, Woody Allen)


Johan kindly reminded me that there are other films being shown other than Woody Allen's. The wonderful La Filmothèque du Quartier Latin is doing a retrospective on Woody, and it is now ending. I really want to see Annie Hall on the big screen, but I am afraid with this kind of weather and the dark, I would not want to go out at 20h.

So this film is new to me. And it is funny, sad, and pretty much crazy. That's the true Woody Allen, I suppose. Only he will come up with things like this: ulterly crazy, silly but harmless: one of the characters from the film The Purple Rose of Cairo walked out of the screen because he fell in love with Cecilia, a disappointed housewife who's obsessed with the cinema so as a way to get away from her unloving husband and unfulfilling waittress job.

The film ended on a rather sad note: Cecilia being deceived by the actor Gil and sent Tom, the perfect lover, back into the screen, while she later realized that she has lost everything. Was she to be blamed? She started off as a very naive woman, romanticizing about perfect love in the films, and lacked the courage to leave her husband who obviously no longer loved her. She was quite an annoying character actually. And then she met this perfect guy, walked out straight from the screen, and was completely devoted to her. But she actually fell for the real actor Gil, because he is 'real'. In the final confront, when she had to choose between Gil or Tom, the actress from The Purple Rose of Cairo (it's very complicated, you will have to watch the film to understand) told her that Tom is perfect, and she shouldn't choose 'reality' to 'perfection'. But Cecilia picked Gil, and told Tom that she has to be practical and realistic. I would have chosen Gil too, but then right after, I remembered that this was a trap: I actually did not realize this until Tom walked back onto the screen, that Gil was talking about finding a 'strategy' to make Tom go back to the film before Gil comicly, coincidentally also fell in love with Cecila.

So Gil was a good actor. He played it well and deceived Cecilia. But wait a minute: isn't this just a film anyway? With this film-within-film, this film is nonetheless a film as well. And to make it even funnier, Woody used the same name for both of the 'films'; what are they to talk about being fictional or realistic, when the characters in the film are merely talking about some other characters in another film-within-film? And who am I to judge, because I am merely talking to the characters of another film I happen to see last night?

It is all very bizzare, if you really think about it. The film is making fun of us! And Woody Allen is of course laughing when we respond and so on, even when he is making it so obvious, we (or at least me) still get tricked.

Fun little Woody (3.5)

My take

Got a bit inspired from the photo exhibition. I cannot seem to find the name of the photographer now, but I will keep looking.
First time using Gimp with RAW files. Will learn more.

Rain

Rain has stopped. But it will come back.

Darkness

What do you want in a dark winter night? (not winter yet, i'm sorry).
Light.
and
Warmth.

and...

Ipod: Easy. Compact. Broken.

continue...

Compat Disc: sharp. Light. Not stylish.

A study on music

Vinyl: Smooth. Soft. Classic.

Not a wedding ring..

but it's pretty nonetheless. We still have not bought our wedding ring but it is something you don't want to hurry about--even though we had found our 'dream' rings, we think. But when should we buy it?

What if...

That I know how to play a violin? This is actually a piano shop, tucked away on the same rue where the cute booked store is on. I peeped into the store and took a picture of the violin...which is just lying there. I thought about the film 'The Red Violin' which was not too good of a film actually; but a cursed violin...mmm.....the idea is still quite fascinating...

Keep reading...

This is a book store in my neighourhood. It is on a very cute street and they have a lot of old 'Cahier du cinema' magazines. I remember these from my film studies books and had thought about getting one for myself one day...one day when I can read some french, and this one day may have come already---why wait? Maybe I should go and get one tomorrow!

The dark mark

This has nothing to do with Harry Potter, even though I'm a big fan of the book.
This is just something which catches my eyes all the time when I go to Rue Dauphine. What have happened to this place? Was it burn marks? Or was it just ashes and dust? I do not know. The dark mark of something unfortunate, or just simply a mark of time? Or actually rien?
I let my imagination fly.

Yesterday, when I went out to take pictures for my little photo project 'my paris', I stood under a few trees for 10 minutes. Pour quoi? Because I wanted to capture the falling of a leaf, I want to capture a moment of autumn, a mark of time. Of course, leaves fell but I failed to capture any one of them.

When I look in you eyes...

I see tenderness...

The difficult way

The charm about Paris: tiny cramped staircases. I love them, as much as I enjoy seeing people hiring people to 'lift' their new bought sofa in from the window.

Sunny days

It's cold this morning, only 12 degrees. But then the sun came, and these apartments which I see all the time got 'lit up', as cute as toy houses.

His hand...

My husband is sick (again). Took a picture of his face out-focused, but maybe a hand focused is better. Je ne sais pas. I like this bracelet which he wears all the time.

Ashes of Time: bird cage view

If you have seen Wong Ka Wai's 'Ashes of Time' (東邪西毒), you may remember this famous 'bird cage' perspective; but this is actually just an excuse, coz I just want to take a picture of the back of my chair with light going through.

Drunken eyes...

The wine is not good, but the view is pas mal!

Photo Diary Project (flashback)

Dear all, I have somehow stopped posting in here, because I have opened another blog in yahoo HK and also I have been away for awhile.
Now that i'm back, I am going to manage two blogs, and thus, live two different lives; I wish to start a photo diary project after getting inspired by a photography fellow.

This one is almost like cheating because I got this photo like 5 days ago and I made it look like I posted it on Saturday. Anyway, it doesn't hurt, does it?


I got these from two friends visiting from Hong Kong. Honestly, I am not such a snack person and I never thought I would have missed snacks in HK so much. I was really happy to see these, not that I really miss them so much or that I cannot buy them in Paris. It is just fun to see them, like this! And the funnier thing is that, Vitasoy has always been my favorite, and I was planning on saving it for some 'special occassion' (coz there's only one box). But I drank it and realized that it tastes better in my fantasy than in reality.

Should have kept it and prolong my anticipation...or just keep it going......