If you are by any chance in Istanbul, Turkey the following few days, it is advisable to go and check out aspiring artist Irem Tok's exhibition "Fade Away". She took the time to sit down with me for a reportage for Hürriyet Daily News and really set a new path of art in Turkey. Her art which can be described as Plastic Art, includes a variety of mediums and Tok is fearless when it comes to trying new things. Be sure to hear from her more in the future.
If you are interested to read more about her art, than check out the whole article of the reportage on Hürriyet Daily News's City Brief: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=plastic-art-in-motion-2011-02-21
9. Costume Design Winner: ALICE IN WONDERLAND Will: Alice in Wonderland Wish: Alice in Wonderland
10. Directing Winner: TOM HOOPER <3 Will: David Fincher Wish: Tom Hooper
11. Documentary Feature: Winner: INSIDE JOB Will: Inside Job Wish: Exit through the Gift Shop
12. Film Editing Winner: THE SOCIAL NETWORK Will: Black Swan/The Social Network WIsh: Black Swan
13. Foreign Language Film Winner: IN A BETTER WORLD Will: Dogtooth Wish: Incendies
14. MakeUp Winner: THE WOLFMAN Will: The Way Back Wish: The Way Back
15. Music (Original Score) Winner: TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSS "THE SOCIAL NETWORK" Will: Alexandre Desplat The King's Speech Wish: The King's Speech + How to Train Your Dragon
16. Music (Original Song) Winner: Randy Newman - "We Belong Together" TOY STORY 3 Will:"Coming Home" - Country Strong Wish: "Coming Home"
20. Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Winner: AARON SORKIN "THE SOCIAL NETWORK" Will: Aaron Sorkin "The Social Network" Wish: Aaron Sorkin "The Social Network"
21. Writing (Original Screenplay) Winner: DAVID SEIDLER "THE KING'S SPEECH" Will: Inception (Christopher Nolan) Wish: The King's Speech(David Seidler)
22. Short Film (Animated) Winner: THE LOST THING
Will: Day & Night
Wish: The Lost Thing
23. Documentary Short Subject Winner: STRANGER'S NO MORE
Here comes the previously mentioned second movie article I wrote, about the Coen Brothers movie "True Grit"that was published last week .
"Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, the movie tells the story of a 14-year-old girl Mattie Ross, played by rising star Hailee Steinfeld, who sets out to avenge the death of her father. Stubborn Mattie, hires the worn down and drunk U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a man with “true grit,” to help her find the villain Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), who by then has made his way into the Indian Nation. Mattie joins Rooster on his journey, against his wish, not fully trusting him and hoping to have things her way, saying to herself in the movie: “When I have bought and paid for something, I will have my way. Why do you think I am paying you if not to have my way?” With Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) on their side, who seeks Chaney for his own purposes, they set out on a journey that will truly test their “grit...”"
"Deutschland sucht den Superstar" the German version of "American Idol" faces a scandal that is interesting yet not surprising.
Starlounge.de reports of a former candidate Vidina Popic, that claims that nothing at "Superstar" is as it seems: "It's nothing more then a perfectly well prepared script", she claimes. According to her its not the jury that really decides who stays and who goes, but the producer decide that in an unofficial casting before the casting that millions get to watch on screen.
Further accusations have been for example the elimination of a candidate, because she did not want to wear a bikini. Whether that is true can be doubted, since there are girls that don't wear a bikini on the Maldives.
However it might be possible that later on after this scandals hit the media the producers decided not to put everyone in bikini's, as a proof that the candidates are not forced to wear one if they don't want to.
Unless more candidates come forth with similar accusations, it makes it hard to really decide whether its true or not, yet in the starlounge.de, 83% of the 46380 readers that voted chose, "its true the whole show is fake".
Well on one instance of course its fake, its a show and not a reality show that claims to show true occurrences. With that in mind it really is not such a heavy accusation. After all a magician also does not do real magic puts on a show to entertain us and amaze us. Moreover no one goes and blames the magician for faking magic.
One could go ahead accuse almost every show on TV with similar allegations, we the audience will never really know how close to reality the things are that we get to see and how much planning beforehand really goes on as well as, whether the telephone voting is calculated justly or if tricks are used.
The positive aspect about the complaints might have a positive effect on the audience, they make us reconsider things and help us to watch programs with a critical eye, this way it will become harder for producers to pull our legs.
At the end, the producers only make certain decisions, because we the audience want it that way. In this case it seems, the audience wants to see young talented girls in bikinis and participants that come across interesting.
Link to the article in German:
http://starlounge.unterhaltung.msn.de/index.cfm?objectid=107496
People criticizes everything that is considered art; paintings, music, opera, movies and the likes, but never have we read criticism of music videos, if there are they certainly don't dominate the domain. But they should be counted as art as well and just as much be criticized like movies and paintings, after all there are outstanding video clips and there are lousy one's.
One should first set criteria's that make a music clip good and make one bad. After that is establish we can distinguish a good music clip from the bad one.
Here is a brief list of points for a good music video:
1. The music video shown should be in entity with the lyrics, if not that would not make any sense.
2. The artist should at least be seen once, so the voice has a face.
3. The music video should possess artistic quality, like good editing, a creative theme, good cinematography or a nice mise-en-scène.
4. The acting skills of the actor in a music video clip should be good or the choreography, depending what the artist settles with.
5. The directors of the video's should also get credit for their art and not only the band or singer.
6. The characteristic of the artist should come forward.
7. If a music video wants to be outstanding it should be unique.
A bad music clip is the opposite to the 7 points mentioned. A further one is, if its not fun to watch and gets boring after the second time.
A recent music video that was quiet good was the clip for "Closer to the Edge" by 30 Second to Mars. The video was directed by Bartholomew Cubbins, Jared Letos director pan name. This of course is the perfect fit for point 6. It could not get more personal, since the band member himself directed the clip. The clip start with a close up of different people talking about faith, moments and life, sending people an important message and cuts to a a shot of Jared Letos side face, where his face is moving towards the microphone. The dark background with the mystifying lightning gives the beginning a surreal effect, cutting back and forth between each member of the band preparing for the show and regular people talking directly into the camera about life. The last guys quote is at the same time the introduction the the beginning of the song, "...don't regret anything you do, cause in the end it makes you who you are." We here the roaring of the audience, see three faces in a fast cut and the stage where a huge cover falls off and the band all together on the stage start with their song. Beautiful introduction with further outlining and details throughout the whole song. The ending is a closing frame. It ends the same was it started with speeches by young people about life, after which like in the movies an end credit follows. The middle section throughout the whole song contains concert footage of their tour, with titles that tell us where the present show took place. The whole scenes are accompanied by writings that documents the scenes shown, like a diary, turning this video into personal diary of the band. When a solo follows we can see and here people talk again. This gives the video not only emotional value but also authenticity. The video clip not only documents the band, but also functions as a message box from people like us to people like us. One could almost say the music video is better then the song, but this might not be the case, after all they are both an item. To sum up this is a wonderful, touching, creative and personal music video.
"The King's Speech", directed by Tom Hopper , is less about the life of King George VI/Bertie (Colin Firth) and more about the friendship between him and his speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). A boy that was often neglected in his upbringing and weakened through mean comments throughout his life amongst his family members and nannies, decides through the help of his strong and supportive wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) to take speech therapy, due to his stammering. Going through embarrassing procedures by certain doctors, the last try to better his speech leads him to the office of Lionel Logue. With no diploma and title Lionel finds a way through knowledge and heart to help Bertie with his stammering, before he becomes king and also while he is a king. He helps the king to find his own voice and throughout the speech challenges the King faces during the war.
Though the movie concentrates on the two characters and their relationship to each other, historical facts are not left out, like the death of King George V (Michael Gambon), the reign and abdication of Bernie's brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), the great depression and the start of the 2nd World War. However, these happenings occur in order to deepen the friendship between Bertie and Lionel. The therapist who at the beginning seemed quiet arrogant becomes more settled throughout time and Bernie less tempered and open. Lionel at some point, becomes more than a therapist who tries to fix Bertie speech, he becomes a true friend/psychologist. Feelings the king of England has and problems he faces and faced are only revealed to us through this friendship to Lionel.
Though Hopper insisted on being as historically accurate as possible, some doubt his accuracy, due to the order of some happenings, others because of the belief that the movie has some emotional exaggerations.
The movie is not a biography of the kings life, its a historical drama, it takes real characters and real happenings and puts them it into a movie context, after all the movie does not go further than the speech King George VI gives, on the war entrance of the UK. Movies are made to exaggerate a little no matter how much the director wants to hold on to real happenings. Aesthetics as well as narrative changes have to be included at times. If we wanted to see real life, a look at our own one is sufficient. At certain points even the greatest among us have boring moments, but depicting them in a movie would simply not make sense. Editing and the elimination of certain scenes and moments of a persons life already exclude historical accuracy. For that not a movie, but a documentary has to be made. However the events and the relationship between King George VI and Lionel is a true historical fact. The drama and emotional moments we encounter are only a further joy for us viewers and should be judged accordingly.
Everyone who wants to watch a movie that combines all trades a good Oscar movie should possess, has to go and watch "The King's Speech". It offers historic accuracy, emotions, great acting, great scenery, great wardrobe, great dialogues, great score and great direction. Colin Firth was at his best just as Geoffrey Rush, both of them match so well on screen that the deep friendship between the characters can not be doubted one moment, and Helena Bonham Carter has more of a quiet color this time, after playing many eccentric characters the last few years, though her quirkiness still shines through at times, which we would not want to have any other way.
It makes sense that the movie was named "The King's Speech", after all that's the part the movie aim at from the beginning. After all this one speech that makes all the difference. The others are the same procedure over and over.
