Beginners

Beginners (Mike Mills, 2010). Why an elderly man who suffers from cancer, his 38-years old son and a 30ish actress are beginners? Are not they supposed to be amateurs in life by now?


Hal Fields (Christopher Plummer) is an elderly man who suffers from cancer. He's gay but he has declared his sexuality just some months ago. 

The narration is very interesting. It takes place in 3 different moments. Hal's childhood, the time when his father knew he had cancer and the actual time. It is curious how Hal sees his world, he expresses it through art, painting.

Never let me go

Gema would like Never let me go (Mark Romanek, 2010). It is a dystopian film about three children and how their relation develops as they grow up.
First, we are shown, by a flashback, the daily life at the boarding school. It is not only by the kiss in the photo, but by Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) sweet little gestures that we learn they love each other.

Time passes, and things get complicated. But it is through acting that we know there is still something between Kathy and Tommy. Even if Tommy does not seem to be interested in her, he is.

There is another interesting aspect in this film. They are not normal people, they have an special purpose. And that purpose does not let them live what we think a "normal life" is.
It is easy to like Never let me go. The locations, the dystopian story, the cast.. Impeccable in every detail.

Les petit mouchoirs

Little White Lies (Guillaime Canet, 2010) is a film about the ins and outs of friendship. The action that sets off of the film is the Ludo's (Jean Dujardin) traffic accident. Despite he must stay at the hospital for a long time, his friends decide to go on holidays to the beach, leaving him alone. 

They live together for 2 weeks, so conflicts soon appear and we realize that maybe this friendship and these two couples are no perfect.

There are a lot of moments in which nothing happens, and often, these are kind of "transition" scenes, in which the protagonist is the music. It plays an important role in the film, since it gives unity. I think the feeling that so many music gives is this  is shared by all these friends. Even if these looooong scenes may have a purpose, I think Little white lies is a too long film. 

With regard to the end of the film, I find it cynical. A group of friends that lie themselves and sometimes do not put up with each other is suddenly united again by someone they did not care when they should. I wish I could think in other way, but this is a clear reflection of society.

The Social Network

The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) is not only a film about who is the real founder of Facebook, but also an elaborate portrait of Mark Zuckerberg.

First scene: A normal conversation between a young couple. Really? Mark is always challenging Erica, and it can be seen in editing. The shots are really short in order to let the spectator know how Erica is feeling: surprised, stunned, she does not even have time to think a correct answer.


The story takes place when Mark has been sued twice, and his portrait is made by flashbacks. They are used in order to show both defendant and claimant version, and they last most of the film. We are not given only a version but all of them, and we can put in everyone's place.


When this film opened I rode about the similarity this portrait has to the one done in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941), where a journalist tries to find an acceptable explanation or answer to Jedediah Leland's mysterious life.
 In The Social Network, we get the answer in the very beginning of the film: Erica (Rooney Mara) brokes up with Mark (Jesse Eisenberg), and he is so angry he decides to take revenge on her. 
The beginning and the end in Citizen Kane are connected, and so they are in The Social Network. Mark's "reason" (Erica) is still present in his life years later, when he adds her as a friend in Facebook.

The last song

The Last Song (Julie Anne Robinson, 2010) is a very predictable film. Once again, "boy meets girl", they fall in love, then something happens but love triumphs over any problem.

I am surprised by the scene when Ronnie (Miley Cyrus) is looking for a dress for the wedding. I do not mean that this scene is shoking or innovate, but trit. It appears in a large number of films, as in Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990)

The soundtrack has a great importance. It is used in some scenes to emphasize emotions, and in others, simply to the viewer to keep on attention. Almost all the time a song is in the air.

Blog

Blog (Elena Trapé, 2010) is a film about a group of classmates. They are insecure about their bodies, studies, boys.. In short, they are teenagers. They make a decission: To get pregnant at the same time.

The most of the film appears like recorded by the girls themselves, there are a lot of abrupt camera movements. This increases the feeling of being witness of something real, and not a film. In my opinion, this is also because in this way we get the impression that these girls maybe do not really know what effects can their plan has.

I liked the interpretations very much, I think they are very natural. Specially, in the confessions they do to their webcams.