Visual Parallels: Rosemary's Baby + Repulsion

Rosemary's Baby along with Repulsion and The Tenant create Roman Polanski's Apartment Trilogy about the horrors and psychosis that lurk in the ordinary walls, in peepholes, under the carpets and behind the furniture. While The Tenant has a male protagonist who moves in the new apartment and has to deal with bizarre neighbors and creepy occurrences - like finding tooth in the wall - both Rosemary's Baby and Repulsion have delicate, timid blondes as their heroines.

While Rosemary struggles with her pregnancy after she moves in to new building and grows increasingly worried of new neighbors and distant from her husband, Carol is left alone in her apartment after her sister leaves for holiday with her boyfriend. Young repressed girl's sanity starts to collapse in the face of her solitude. Both films are very creepy and subjective - you constantly wonder what is real and what is a hallucination, what's a threat and what's just a distorted perception of the troubled heroine.

Lawless

There were many movies this year that were worse than Lawless, but out of the ones I've seen none had worse pacing. It's a shame too, because there are many great moments in this movie but overall it bored the hell out of me. The film has few really amazing sequences only to turn into misguided snooze fest for several following scenes. The third act is a complete mess and all in all the only thing that keeps you watching is the lovely cinematography and the talented ensemble of actors. I shouldn't be that surprised, though - John Hillcoat's movies aren't exactly gripping. While his sullen and apocalyptic The Road was a fascinating watch, getting through this movie was a real challenge.

But let's get back to Lawless - based on real events the film tells the story of three brothers - Howard (Jason Clarke), Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Jack (Shia Labeouf) Bondurants, famous for running bootlegging operation during the depression. Howard is a drunk and a muscle, Forrest is the quintessential strong but silent type and Jack, the youngest brother, is a loser and a wannabe gangster. Guess which one of them is protagonist?

Rust and Bone

Rust and Bone is one of those movies that tell the story of two wounded people who find each other. She trains killer whales at the aquarium and performs shows with them. He is an amateur boxer who is a single father without any money, forced to move in with his estranged sister. He takes a job as a bouncer in the bar and one night a woman is punched in the face - it is Stephanie. He offers to drive her to house, on the way there being rude to her, saying that she is dressed like a slut. They get to her house, where her boyfriend argues with her in front of him, after which he leaves, having left his phone number.

Some time after that Stephanie suffers a terrible accident, when the platform at the aquarium collapses - the result is the loss of both of her legs. Helpless and vulnerable, she calls Ali and invites him over. That is how their peculiar relationship begins, as gradually Stephanie learns how to live her life after the terrible loss and Ali becomes more human and aware of other people's feelings. Well, a little bit more human, but still not good enough for me.

Scene of the Week - The Dark Knight Rises

Deshi Basara

directed by Christopher Nolan

The scene: In my absolute favorite moment from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce Wayne attempts to climb out of pit - the jail he was thrown into by Bane - without the rope supporting him. He made many attempts to get out before, always with the rope attached to him to save his life in case he failed, but that changes when another inmate tells him the story of a child who managed to escape - while climbing without the rope, the fear of falling and dying made it possible to escape.

Wanting to get out and protect Gotham, Bruce does the same, as fellow inmates chant, encouraging him. At one point Bruce stops as the swarm of bats emerges, which oddly only gives him confidence. He makes the jump and as Hans Zimmer's triumphant "Why do we fall?" stops for a moment we see the inmates freezing in silence too. As the music starts again we see that Bruce managed to make the jump and he gets out of pit, just as Batman theme starts playing in the background.

Saturday TV Special - American Horror Story: Asylum - 2x03, 2x04, 2x05.

Nor'easter, I am Anne Frank part 1, I am Anne Frank part 2

In the last three weeks on American Horror Story: Asylum we had a lot of craziness - in fact, it seems like with each episode Ryan Murphy is raising the bar of messed up shit - just when you thought things can't possible go worse for the characters, they do. In episode 2x03, which aired just as hurricane Sandy was hitting on Halloween, big storm hit Briarcliff. The very same night it was a movie night in Asylum and Shelley, Lana, Kit and Grace tried to escape.Of course, they failed. And Shelley got the worse of it.

The episode was very good from start to finish - we got to see a glimpse of possessed sister Mary Eunice, who killed a patient with scissors and tried to seduce Dr Arden. Mad and distraught after innocent sister Mary acted like a "whore," Arden wrecked a statue of sister Mary. As all of this was going on, Sister Jude fell of the wagon and got drunk, overwhelmed by everything that was happening in the Asylum. Then, completely drunk she introduced the movie in one of the finest scenes Jessica Lange has given us in the show yet.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

What would you do if you knew that the world will be over in 21 days? Would you have crazy parties where you would do drugs and have a lot of sex? Would you finally go to the places you wanted to see? Would you try to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones? Seeking a Friend for the End of the World shows us the world which is about to end - asteroid Matilda is heading for collision with Earth and it will hit in 21 days.

Soundtrack Wednesday - Skyfall

Track: Komodo Dragon

Artist: Thomas Newman

Movie: Skyfall

Anne Hathaway Appreciation

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway

12 November 1982 (Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA)

"A man told me that for a woman, I was very opinionated. I said, ‘for a man you’re kind of ignorant’"

Today is 30th birthday of the lovely and talented Anne Hathaway. I have only recently became a fan of hers, after seeing her incredible work in The Dark Knight Rises, but she appeared in many memorable films and even went on to achieve her well deserved Academy Award nomination for her work in Rachel Getting Married.

Anne was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Gerald Thomas Hathaway, is a lawyer, and her mother, Kathleen Ann is an actress who inspired Hathaway to follow in her footsteps. The family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, when she was six years old. Hathaway has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. She is of mostly Irish and French ancestry, with distant Native American and German roots.

Argo

In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries - 56 Americans were taken hostage. Six others managed to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA is ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) devises a daring plan: to create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez creates the ruse and proceeds to Iran as its associate producer. However, time is running out with the Iranian security forces closing in on the truth while both his charges and the White House have grave doubts about the operation themselves.

My Movie Alphabet

"It all started with a little comment under my celebration post and suddenly, I had no other obligations in my head except this idea of actually starting a blogathon. If all goes as planned, the one hosted at the moment, My Movie Alphabet, won’t be the last and I really hope that many of you will participate in making this blogathon into something really amazing – I’m extremely curious to find out what movie, director or actor becomes letter B, M, P, O, V and Z in particular (you’ll see why, probably)." - Mettel Rey

To participate in the blogathon all you need to do is create your own movie alphabet and go to Mettel Ray's site - just click the picture above and you'll there!

Movie of the Month - November - The King's Speech

Most of the time I feel ashamed for being a part of human race. The shit we do each other on daily basis, people to other people, simultaneously shocks me, freighters me and disturbs me. We kill our animals, we kill others, we kill ourselves. Not so long ago there was a blogathon - which movies would you show to aliens who visited our planet to best demonstrate the qualities of human race. While I'm sure if the aliens hang out long enough they would make a correct decision of killing us all and leaving the place to animals, I must say sometimes people surprise me. Sometimes as I watch others and their acts of kindness I have a fleeting sensation of hope. Sometimes even I surprise myself in positive way. Sometimes I read about ordinary people or historical figures and their big sacrifices or quite battles. Or I simply happen to watch a movie about them. And that gives me more hope, seeing that we can be good too..

Tilda Swinton Apprectiation

Katherine Matilda Swinton 

(November 5, 1960 in London, England, UK)

There is something insane about a lack of doubt. Doubt, to me anyway, is what makes you human, and without doubt even the righteous lose their grip not only on reality but also on their humanity.

Sam Rockwell Appreciation

Sam Rockwell

(November 5, 1968 in Daly City, California, USA)

I feel a little strange all the time, a little bit off-center. I never feel that people are as nutty as me.

Skyfall

James Bond - probably the most famous secret agent in cinema, womanizer, fan of fancy cars and shaken martinis. The series is 50 years old and Skyfall is 23rd movie in it. James Bond movies have become an iconic series - sequels happen, prequels happen, different franchises appear, but for decades now there was one certainty - that there will be new 007 movie. Hugely successful series, where gigantic amount of money comes not only from movies but also from commercials, contracts and the appeal of the things 007 uses on screen has had its ups and downs. Skyfall belongs in later category.