just got to know this author - Iain Pears. his books look interesting, kind of mystery/suspense... I don't really know, but I'm interested in the one called The Dream of Scipio.
watched Becoming Jane the other day, and I'm suddenly interested in her novels again. Used to read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but maybe I was too young at that time (around 12) and seriously as a non-native english speaker I don't really know what Austen's writing about. but now I somehow grasp her words, there's certainly a subtle force in it that makes her novels one of the top books of all time. I'm going to read Bronte's Jane Eyre after the exam too... lots of books unread.
going to finish off Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, the Dreamer... don't really like the plot and background of On Chesil Beach.
haven't finished Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette as well... and I'm planning to reread Left Bank. and I'm going to get Oscar Wilde's complete works, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned and This Side of Paradise. just love his books and the decadence of Jazz Age.
will probably update after the exam.
bonne nuit
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
guilt and pressure make a fine couple
watched a few movies these days since my whole day is occupied by revision, watching movies on hbo is quite a luxury to my entertainment deprived life.
- Stepmom (8/10)
- To Catch a Thief (9/10)
- Stranger than Fiction (fell asleep halfway through the movie)
- Love and other Disasters (8.5/10)
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (9/10) watched it a few times, but apparently still like it very much
- watching the Royal Tenenbaums now.
there will be Material Girls, Music and Lyrics and A History of Violence. WHY ARE THEY SHOWING ALL THE MOVIES THAT I HAVE WANTED TO WATCH NOW??? there's the Fountain too...argh...
quite tired now... but had to make up for the hours that I used up for sleeping this morning. I pressed the snooze button at 8.30 n' fell asleep again... until like 10.30 when my sis' phone call woke me... she forgot to bring her keys, so had to wait for her to get home so i could get out n' grab my lunch.
hectic days ahead.
13 days to go for the first subject.
then there will be one more week until the most nerve wrecking subject (economics) really i'm not good at it. just wish i could get a C for that. can't get lower than that... or i wouldn't be admitted into law schools everywhere.
bonne nuit
- Stepmom (8/10)
- To Catch a Thief (9/10)
- Stranger than Fiction (fell asleep halfway through the movie)
- Love and other Disasters (8.5/10)
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (9/10) watched it a few times, but apparently still like it very much
- watching the Royal Tenenbaums now.
there will be Material Girls, Music and Lyrics and A History of Violence. WHY ARE THEY SHOWING ALL THE MOVIES THAT I HAVE WANTED TO WATCH NOW??? there's the Fountain too...argh...
quite tired now... but had to make up for the hours that I used up for sleeping this morning. I pressed the snooze button at 8.30 n' fell asleep again... until like 10.30 when my sis' phone call woke me... she forgot to bring her keys, so had to wait for her to get home so i could get out n' grab my lunch.
hectic days ahead.
13 days to go for the first subject.
then there will be one more week until the most nerve wrecking subject (economics) really i'm not good at it. just wish i could get a C for that. can't get lower than that... or i wouldn't be admitted into law schools everywhere.
bonne nuit
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Love and Other Disasters
a light-hearted and adorable romantic comedy. kind of British with a hint of Breakfast at Tiffany's (my favourite movie) and the Devil Wears Prada. It reminds me of those 90s romantic comedies, they are seriously the best and they can't make it like those nowadays. When I watched all those comedies in the 90s (Notting Hill, Pretty Woman, the Runaway Bride...) I was just around 8 or 9, but they made a big impact on me, movies, apart from those tear jerking ones, can be once in a while funny, poignant and warm.
Brittany Murphy is definitely in her best form, playing the UK Vogue intern who tries to help her friends find love. and the cameo appearance of Orlando and Gwyneth is really nice and sweet, especially when the film is ironic in a way to show the stereotypical hollywood movie everyone yearns to watch - a happily-ever-after romance with a blonde heroine.
and life is always not like a movie. but coming across a familiar scene would be interesting enough.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Martin Scorsese's "most violent" film.
it's mentally violent, which is different from his usual physical violence.
A romance with inner turmoil of its protagonist between conformity and emancipation. What is real and what is fake? To what extent would we give up our reputation, family, fortune for love? or is it lust?
"Newland Archer: You gave me a glimpse of a real life. Then you asked me to go on with a false one. No one can endure that.
Countess Olenska: I am enduring it."
"He could feel her dropping back to inexpressive girlishness. Her conscience had been eased of its burden. It was wonderful, he thought, how such depths of feeling could co-exist with such an absense of imagination."
Edith Wharton's words are fascinating, subtle and inspiring.
it's mentally violent, which is different from his usual physical violence.
A romance with inner turmoil of its protagonist between conformity and emancipation. What is real and what is fake? To what extent would we give up our reputation, family, fortune for love? or is it lust?
"Newland Archer: You gave me a glimpse of a real life. Then you asked me to go on with a false one. No one can endure that.
Countess Olenska: I am enduring it."
"No one could ever be jealous of May's triumphs. She managed to give the feeling that she would have been just as serene as without them. But what if all her calm, her niceness, were just a negation, a curtain dropped in front of an emptiness? Archer felt he had never yet lifted that curtain."
"He could feel her dropping back to inexpressive girlishness. Her conscience had been eased of its burden. It was wonderful, he thought, how such depths of feeling could co-exist with such an absense of imagination."
Edith Wharton's words are fascinating, subtle and inspiring.
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