the review of The Black Swan in five things to say

Overture:
I've seen it. Actually I've seen it twice. Honestly I've seen it twice just so far.

First thing to say:
Natalie Portman became an actress many years ago in order to play this particular role right now. I have no doubts about it. Nothing else matters and will be when it comes to her emploi. At least when I'm thinking about it now, still contemplating my first, quite powerful impression.

The movie definitely let her show totally her craftsmanship (beauty ballerina-like face, little voice, body measurements and her natural innocence visible in her every move and heard in her every syllable) and she's grabbing her chance resolutely and steadily. Everyone (even the critics who are somehow grumbling about the movie as overloaded, over-over-the-top and generally overdone) says that in a month from now she will be holding the Oscar. It could be the biggest disappointment of the year if she isn't.

Second thing to say:
This movie drags you into from the very first scene. But there is nothing magical about it (usually isn't inspite of what people are tempted to say in such case) - it's simply thanks to quite clever tricks. The main trick is the one of using loud (sometimes louder than music) sounds - growing feathers, tapping ballet shoes and great variety of body sounds;-) An extraordinary work of the camera has its own input there as well.


Third thing to say:
The Swan Lake as a great (probably the greatest) ballet spectacle (full of glace kitsch) has been waiting long enough for being used to tell a nice story about filth, perversion and psycho. Mission completed.

Fourth thing to say:
The movie can be understood as a picture of the ballet's world but it works as one only partially. Many aspects were exaggerated and it's typical for the movies which try to deal with this world - no one can resist the temptation of presenting ballet dancers as fragile little girls who are heading for perfection through blood, sweat and tears.

Fifth thing to say: I want to watch it again.

it will come out in the wash;-)

my favourite bow tie

The bow tie was my Christmas gift for myself and it made my New Year's Eve Party. I bought it through the website www.beautiesltd.com which I highly recommend for everyone who wants to look bold within classic elegance.

wariacje na temat broszki

Ktoś na Gwiazdkę dostał coś. Jeśli jakiś inny ktoś chciałby sprawić sobie albo komuś takie samo lub podobne coś, to zapraszam gdzieś.

babbling about figure skating

A couple years ago someone said to me that if something is a question of systematic training (even possibly hard) it is fairly likely that Japanese people will go for it and among them there will be the one who will eventually achieve the goal. Since then I haven't been thinking too much about what kind of origins this theory might have and why it was presented to me in a first place. Actually I don't know any Japanese people in person to somehow verify this theory but observing Mao Asada's career I have started truly to believe in it.

For those who haven't heard about Mao Asada, she is a Japanese figure skater (an incredibly accomplished one, considering her age), the reigning World Champion, who holds a Guinness World Record for "the most triple axels performed in a competition". Currently she is the only female skater who performs a triple axel jump (the most difficult triple jump, which requires three and a half rotations in the air) on a regular basis.

However this season it appears that she is somewhere halfway to what she's heading for. She decided to completely change the technique of her jumps in order to carry them out in an error-free way and thanks to that getting full credit for executing every single one of them.  Changing the technique of jumps, as a mature figure skater, is like learning how to skate from scratch basically. And it really looked like that at the beginning of this season. Her two appearances in Grand Prix Series - I was eyewitness of one of them in Paris in November - were tiresome to watch. She kept falling with almost the same consistency as she had previously nailed the jumps. In consequence she was being ranked far below her usual placement. It's hard to imagine how difficult it was (or at least should have been) for her. Nevertheless she acted all the time like someone fixing on a certain point in the future (probably the next Olympics) with a great belief that what's happening now is what's needed to reach the spot. What is also very important in her case is that she never plays safely and certainly she never plays conservatively either in the sense she does not calculate always trying to deliver her best performance.

Now we are just after the Japan Nationals - the competition which has (at least when it comes to the ladies) probably the highest technical level among all figure skating competitions throughout the year (including the World Championships) giving each year lately up to five names of competitors who can be easily medaled at any international event. But the rules are fair and harsh at the same time because each country is allowed to send up to three skaters to that kind of event, which means that there is no room for all Japanese talents.

Under the circumstances Mao Asada was being considered as the one to stay at home this year whereas in spite of all expectations she executed two solid performances good enough to get one of three spots for Worlds. And this is definitely not the end of the story because she is definitely still on her self-improvement track. What a great mixture of determination and motivation mixed in a "golden proportions" (hopefully;-) I wonder if the Japanese diet has something to do with it;-)

I'm attaching the video with her long programme from the last Worlds that somehow shows the power of the mixture I've mentioned in the article. The performance has a really great and suitable music as the background but she would be well advised to change her costume designer as well:-P

What will the New Year bring for us?

A story which has the "Swan Lake" ballet as a background sounds so over the top that I'm so looking forward to seeing it.

Though Natalie Portman playing professional ballet dancer without any support from a professional ballet dancer sounds a bit scary - with all due respect to Natalie Portman who has the pure beauty of a prima ballerina she just can't convincingly replace professionally trained dancer no matter how hard she (or the director) would try (especially when it comes to such an intricate and sophisticated role as Odette/Odile from Swan Lake) - I'm still quite curious what kind of emotions this movie will be able to deliver.

As befits an over the top movie its promotion is over the top as well (probably at least twice as much as the movie itself). Nevertheless I can't wait.

Christmas stuff's just arrived

There's no better place to show off

Back to the roots

I saw Tilda Swinton’s latest movie with quite some time ago, at least considering how many movies I've seen since (including some really nice and remarkable ones). That's why my emotions about it are probably not there at the moment – and this creates certain pros and cons for writing about it now. Being aware of that fact I don't want to write strictly about the movie (there was so much noise about it - see here and here for some of the different views).

I just want to write something about a tendency, for want of a better word, in cinema which became clearer for me right after watching this film. I happened to see the film in one of Warsaw’s wanna-be upper class cinemas - places visited usually by people with certain expectations of what they come to see which means (bluntly speaking without going into detalis) cinemas not for “common people”. I'm underlining this fact so eagerly not to present myself as a snobbish person (for once!) but because the fact is relevant. Because this totally uncommon audience was totally unable to cope with this film reacting to the most serious scenes with nervous giggles. Since then I have kept asking myself about the reasons. And somehow I think that I have finally come up with a possible explanation.

It is fairly easy to observe that for the last few years people simply got used to the kind of cinema which constantly tries to pull their leg. It is somehow very trendy to talk ironically about touching or moving things - implying that you feel silly if they have touched or moved you. I don't have problems with that - very often such irony can give incredibly interesting results. However its overwhelming dominance means that some people can no longer appreciate such films like "I Am Love", where everything is serious because it is meant to be serious, and it's not going to stop being serious through some witty trick.

Meanwhile people are seriously determined to show specific self-defence (strongly built up through these last few years) and they try to start laughing just in case, somehow in advance, to prevent themselves from being silly - because when it appears that their emotions were not adequate and because of that even tacky, it will be too late.

And this is really sad since the movie is lushly beautiful – with great photography and music, as well as a great performance by Tilda (wearing Fendi and Jil Sander by Raf Simons) - indeed a spectacle which touches and moves (as far as I remember) and there is really nothing wrong with that.

"I Am Love" is a movie that goes back to the roots of cinema, when it comes to the philosophy of making a film with a truly intricate story.

Here you can watch adorable Tilda talking not only about the movie and here you can have a closer look at one of the frocks she is wearing in the movie. Pure simplicity created by refined details and this colour.

And I want to go to Milan again ;-)

P.S. Great thanks to Ruben for editorial work on this article.

"Pasolini is me"

W końcu widziałem T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T Grzegorza Jarzyny, a zaraz potem obejrzałem Teorema Pasoliniego - film, na podstawie którego spektakl został zrealizowany. Film w oryginalnej, włoskiej wersji językowej z hiszpańskimi napisami dostępny jest tutaj - nawet jeśli nie zna się żadnego z tych języków, warto obejrzeć - tekstu jest niewiele, a najważniejsze sceny rozgrywają się między słowami - ja tak zrobiłem. Zarówno film jak i spektakl uważam za rzeczy absolutnie zjawiskowe w zakresie formy i zastosowanych montażowo-scenograficznych rozwiązań. Plus genialna muzyka. Dodatkowo paralela obydwu tych obrazów pokazuje jak bardzo teatralny jest film Pasoliniego i jednocześnie jak bardzo filmowy jest spektakl Jarzyny. Jeśli chodzi o samą fabułę, to oczywiście odczytanie wszystkich znaczeń nie jest możliwe bez dobrej znajomości sporych rozmiarów dorobku Pasoliniego a także jego biografii, która w tym dorobku odgrywa niemałą rolę. Główna myśl jest jednak bardzo czytelna i przez wspomniany sposób przedstawienia niezwykle poruszająca. Szczerze polecam.

ekh;-)

Generally I think that pointy-toed shoes are hideous and impractical - and for the record I have nothing against impractical shoes of course but they must have something to cover their lack of practicality - if they are hideous there is no point in standing up for them. As always there are a few exceptions - well, only one this time because it is truly hopeless matter. I mean these gorgeous Balenciaga stilettos which come from Fall 2008.





Actually to be honest I really don't know why I'm so powerfully affected since they seem to have all annoying features which are characteristic for pointy footwear. But probably the difference is made by the construction which uses remarkable colour block effect and exposing only the best parts of the shoes (it's huge difference I can tell). Also a little platform underneath causes that the point is not so pointed and of course the heels have extremely beautiful shapes considering the fact that they are still only stiletto heels. Apart from that I think these shoes are not so easy to wear and require quite special treatment and kinda respect, but they definitely deserve for it.

Picuture in the midlle comes from Harper's Bazaar website, rest come from Jak & Jil Blog