Floating Leaf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
floatingleaf) wrote2005-11-12 09:47 pm
floatingleaf) wrote2005-11-12 09:47 pm
Entry tags:
movie rec
Wasn't planning on posting again today, but I just saw the best movie ever. Seriously, it's gonna be on my private Top Ten list - if there ever was one. Okay, maybe it would be Top Twenty or something... not that it matters anyway - some movies just make my heart stop with the overwhelming truth and beauty of them, and this one certainly did. I just picked it at random at the nearest Blockbuster's, because I felt like watching something I haven't seen before... I never expected it to be a masterpiece. I am still shaken from the sheer amount of squealing with laughter AND bawling my eyes out - occasionally at the same time. Just... there are no words. *dies*
Okay. Now the details - just in case anyone else wants to see it too.;) It's called His Secret Life, and it's an Italian movie by a Turkish director, Ferzan Ozpetek. Anyway, it takes place in Italy and most of the cast is Italian, but there are Turkish accents as well. And the plot is seemingly cliche: a wife loses a husband in a car accident, then finds out he had a lover. A male lover. Of course there are a hundred different ways to deal with such a premise, but I certainly never expected the film to be so deep. So profoundly touching. So crazy, and yet so totally believable. In the way that life is UNbelievable sometimes... if you know what I mean.;) It has some hot slashy action in it as well - but I almost feel like not mentioning that at all, because that's not what really matters, and it's not what the movie is about. Just a bonus.;) Oh, and if you want a clearer idea of how this movie feels, think All About My Mother by Almodovar. Just the same amount of comedy AND tragedy, pain and joy, death and life, weaved seamlessly together (not to mention that it has all sorts of lovely "freaks" in it as well ;). I never thought it was actually possible to outdo Almodovar at that... but this film almost does.:)
Okay. Now the details - just in case anyone else wants to see it too.;) It's called His Secret Life, and it's an Italian movie by a Turkish director, Ferzan Ozpetek. Anyway, it takes place in Italy and most of the cast is Italian, but there are Turkish accents as well. And the plot is seemingly cliche: a wife loses a husband in a car accident, then finds out he had a lover. A male lover. Of course there are a hundred different ways to deal with such a premise, but I certainly never expected the film to be so deep. So profoundly touching. So crazy, and yet so totally believable. In the way that life is UNbelievable sometimes... if you know what I mean.;) It has some hot slashy action in it as well - but I almost feel like not mentioning that at all, because that's not what really matters, and it's not what the movie is about. Just a bonus.;) Oh, and if you want a clearer idea of how this movie feels, think All About My Mother by Almodovar. Just the same amount of comedy AND tragedy, pain and joy, death and life, weaved seamlessly together (not to mention that it has all sorts of lovely "freaks" in it as well ;). I never thought it was actually possible to outdo Almodovar at that... but this film almost does.:)
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Then you are among a lucky minority on a global scale, I'm afraid. It's amazing to what extent we are shaped by what was put into our heads when we were young and impressionable. It makes me so angry at religious leaders for authorizing all kinds of brainwashing techniques.:/ I may not have been directly affected myself, but let me just give you an example of how I still managed to 'get some'. When I was in the final years of elementary school, we had a visit from a 'sexuologist', who gave a talk to the students, warning them of the dangers of premarital sex (among other things). He even went as far as to say that girls who masturbated had more painful periods!!! What sad and disgusting bullshit that was - but how was I to know the untruth of it?... My periods had barely started at the time, and I had been masturbating before that - so of course I worried that I was making things worse for myself. It almost made me stop... for a week or two, lol. I mean - how do you stop a healthy teenager from masturbating?... And, more importantly, WHY would you do it???... Especially if you tell them that having any sexual contact with others at that age is very wrong. All this pent-up horniness has to go SOMEWHERE, for heaven's sake. Stifling it makes young people grow up seriously fucked in the brain and possibly a threat to society. But at least they're not filthy SINNERS, right?... *headdesk*
to me life somehow seems more vivid there, or more intense or something. I get that impression that people kind of LIVE a little more
Exactly. There is a huge contrast between the South and the North of Europe in this respect... and don't even get me started on the US. People here don't LIVE, they just work and pay their bills, buy loads of useless shit for their hard-earned money, get into debt, slave away to pay off their loans and then die.:/
Where in Greece were you? When was this? Were you living there or travelling around?
Just two little sight-seeing trips, in 1996 and 1999. I think I covered most of the standard tourist attractions in mainland Greece, plus some little islands close to the shore. Oh, and the second trip included a cruise trough the eastern part of the Mediterranean, with stops in Rodos and Cyprus and two days in Israel (which were really a blur, because the organizers were trying to cover all the major historic places within that ridiculously short time). I would have preferred a much more leisurely approach, but both those trips were a bargain, money-wise, and really all I could afford. *sigh*
One of my many favourite parts is when Antonia tells her mother about Massimo´s affair and her mother instead of pitying Antonia feels sorry for "the other".
Oh yes, Antonia's mother was priceless.:)