V for Vendetta (2005)

The V movie

This post contain spoilers.

Oh, a revolution! In a world post-war, the government uses its power of creating fear to control the population, therefore leaving the gov’s leader with much power concentrated on himself. The comes this misterious man, known as V, and threatens to blow up the parliament as a signal of a revolution, of a new age.

A few things have caught my attention.

First, as the movie shows, governments’ powers aren’t so intense as one may think. It was relatively easy for V to engage people. It’s very easy for an establishment to go down if the people are engaged to the idea, if people are dissatisfied with the way politics is conducted by that establishment.

Second, it seemed to me that the movie might’ve given a different tone from the original story (I haven’t read it, but had the feeling), not that this is bad or anything, but it came clear to me that, with this plot, so much could’ve been discussed. It was interesting the personal touch the directors and screen writers put to the story, making it less of a revolution and more like a bit of a personal revenge.

The V character is very much theatrical, the whole movie indeed looks more like a play itself. I felt I was in a theater. The kind of artistic drama was fantastic, I think.

Anyway, a great movie to watch and reflect on.

 

The Theory of Everything (2014)

The Fourth Movie

This post may contain spoilers.

The Theory of Everything hit a spot on me, I have to say. First, I am scientist and very much of a fan of Professor Hawking. Second, in the near future, I’ll be getting assessed for a disability, as I have been showing simptoms since I was born and now have the chance to know whether I may have it or not. So watching this movie was very special to me.

It showed Professor Hawking’s story from a family point of view and it made me think about certain aspects of my own life:

1. How my relationship with science develops. I have a strong passion for what I do, but push myself too hard because I think I have to be right all the time. I admire how Professor Hawking’s approach is so mature to science, as he deals with the value of discovery and understading and not whether he is absolutely right or wrong. A great lesson to me.
2. My relationship with my (possible) disability, or, saying it in a better way, my relationship with the struggles I face (that are present regardless of what one may call them).
3. My family’s relationship with my struggles. I’ve never really thought so much about it until I saw this movie. I’d never considered that my struggles may be affecting those around me that much, but they do.

The Theory of Everything reminded me that we are all human, that we all have flaws and qualities, we all feel afraid and embarassed. We share vulnerability and that’s a good thing. An amazing movie!

Limitless (2011)

The Third Movie

This post might contain spoilers

What would you do if someone offered you a chance to be “your best self”? A chance to transform yourself into a person with no limitations, a chance to erase all of your flaws and make you a perfect human machine, would you take it? If this meant you’d have to consume a certain product that you currently have no idea how works or if it has any side effects, would you take it?

That’s what Limitless it about.

I have to say I’d be very much tempted. Imagining a world where I am in total control, where I have a certain power, that makes me special and unique and limitless, is extremely tempting. Having all access to all of my abilities, all my most valuable memories without any effort whatsoever… It seems like a dream possibility. Being able to learn anything in almost no time. I would be so much tempted.

But would I take it?

If one makes all their flaws and struggles disappear, what is next in life? Is that person the same person from before? What makes us us? Do our struggles help define who we are, help define the narrative we build for ourselves? Or do we need something – anything – to make ourselves powerful enough? And if anything does it, what if other people take it and become just as powerful as we are, doesn’t it make this whole thing less special, less important? If everyone had superpowers, they wouldn’t be super, they’d be normal. They wouldn’t even be powers, they’d be characteristics.

Would I take it?

In the end, I guess no, I would not. But seeing how the movie talks about it is very interesting. Seeing this person, this character, change so much it is hard to recognize, seeing how he reacts to the dream, made me reflect on how can our own narratives change so much as we change, as we go from victims to heroes to villains to anything within, I don’t know, a year.

Very interesting.

Limitless is a great movie to observe that.

Fight Club (1999)

The Second Movie

This text may have spoilers.

How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?, asks Tyler Durden.

This movie has surprised me in a way I did not expect. Despite the “Fight Club” title, the movie is much less about physical violence and much more about the internal fight each person has inside themselves that they refuse to let out. About the moment we might realize our lives might be empty, meaningless, just a breeze in the world’s windstorm, when we know we might be just a character for the eyes of our peers, while inside we struggle just to be. Just to exist.

Tyler Durden calls for a primal instinct to help the narrator gain personality, gain meaning in his own eyes. To show him he’s more than the character who survives, who goes through life unnamed, unimportant. Or maybe to show him it is ok to be just that – but we can’t let the world erase us minute by minute. We have to fight back.

Extraordinary, I have to say. I had so many thoughts as watched it – I think it might’ve been the first time I actually paid attention to every second, caught every movement. A movie that doesn’t sell itself to a simple message in the end. The whole movie is a message, a subliminar text in the surface, ready for you to see it. The viewer doesn’t need to spend a lot of energy to capture things and, at the same time, it is possible to see it in a total different way.

A great movie, I have to say.

 

 

Les Misérables (2012)

The First Movie

Don’t worry if you haven’t seen it – I’ll warn you about spoilers if there are any.

So, my first movie of 2016 was Les Misérables, from director Tom Hooper, based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo.

You can check the trailer here if you want.

I chose this movie because, at the time it was released, and I clearly remember, it was nominated and won many important awards. I guess I just wanted to start with something fancy, with a piece that made me reflect and learn a lot. I got what I asked for.

Les Misérables made me reflect on how we, as a society, like to forget an economic past of brutal inequality and a present that is not that far from bringing back this kind of societal arrangement.

We seem to be addicted to the existence of a middle class, of a considerable proportion of our people who are significantly richer than the poor, but have no idea of how much poorer than the rich they are. We embrance this idea so badly that most of us don’t even imagine what it’s like to be in the top 1% of income, for instance.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is incredible that this has happened, but it blinds us to many problems countries have faced for as long as they exist.

It made me think about how our place in this distribution of wealth makes our lives, how it can help set our destinies and at the same time, how these same destinies can suddenly change and change ourselves with it.

On a psycological perspective, this movie made me notice how much a person can be haunted by their past. As much as one can run, they can’t escape themselves, they can’t escape their memories.

As I don’t want to give any spoilers, I stop here.

And if you have seen it, what are your thoughts about it? (Remember to warn people if you’re about to give spoilers).

 

 

One hundred movies this year!

Hello, everyone!

Call me MO. I’m a twenty-something from Brazil who didn’t really care a lot about movies, but not has set this challenge of watching at least a hundred different movies this year. (I don’t know if this challenge has been made before, I just want to have fun and learn  at the same time.)

On this blog, I plan to talk about my thoughts on each movie I watch. So far, I’ve watched three movies, which I plan to write about this upcoming week.

So, welcome to my journey into cinematography.