nikxatz

So,Agnes Verda is considered a legend of filmmaking and I guess after enjoying Fces Places quite a lot... her films shall be interesting. So, I watched "La Bonheur" and I have to say that there a lot of things that are beautiful in this one. At first, the story is really interesting and it's theme is clear, its about craving happiness and feeling happy and when you do... more happy. How can we difine we are happy?Isn't happyness just a state of mind that goes away after a while?How much happyness can we get till we fall into sadness.

At first, we view the family's every day life. It's gorgeous, almost ideal, seems like The American Dream coming true. Children, nice house, good work, beautiful town and trips in the countryside, cinema nights and dance clubs. We start as plain observers of this family and I started wondering if it's about thec whole family or if it will give emphasis on one person, if it will have a main character to follow. And it did, the father of the family, is a happy, with capital h, working man who enjoys living, nature, his wive's love and his children's chreerfulness. He looks like a complete man and he might be, if anyone has ever reached perfection or completion of the soul. But, his happiness turns double when he meets another woman and instantly falls into her arms without even questioning the ethical choice behind it or his wive's emotions. It sounds mean, I know. But, there's the cool part about it. The whole film makes the character really fun and nice and kind of reletable.

The actor is charming and his sympathetical and joyful presence is enough to make us avoid critisism about his bold choices. Also, it's not that he is extremelly reckless or mean or evil or dump or anything. The story establishes that he just view life from his one, tiny window of thought. To him happyness is all we want and all we ever ask for. We want a perosn to love and be loved by, a tasty meal, a life with nature and peace, children to give as life and joy, a job to make us forget and provide us a steady life and then we are complete. That is a human and undresndable thought. The thing about the character though, is that this idea about happiness is the only one he believes in and even if he manages to have it, he wants more of it. Because if he can be more happy, why shouldn't he?

It is a pretty pleasant and simple way to live life, but underneath it lies an unctrollable ego, one that blinds the man and makes him ignore thec ethos in his acts. He never really thinks abour others, but only about his sole enjoyment and if others are happy too, he just keeps doing what he does. To him his life is a simple and big quest to personal happiness.

He also makes no total discrete between his love's. Yes, he loves them in different ways, the one is more passionate and new and exciting and sexy and the other is more pure nad understanable and common, it's like a love he always had been feeling and never faded. His love and care is of equal amount and that makes him kind of more of a nice guy.

Verda also hinges on sex rights and how interchangable women were. Their lives might be happy and full of life and people, but their chances in life and the space to express themselves and show themselves was minimum. A woman couldn't love a lot of men, she had to be devoted and Verda never loses her feminstic character.

The look of the film gives it another layer. The colors attack the screen and fill it with emotion and tone. We get lush greens, minimal and moody blues, flaming reds, sweet yellows and they give the film a life of its own. It really looked like a happy life.

Also, Verda pays attention to keeping clear that humans and nature share both a story of joy and bitterness and are entwined in this vast quest. From the huge and dream-like countryside that the family casually visits to ease, to the consant shots showing colorful flowers in pots, natue is everywhere in reality. The best example would be the dance sequence where our hero shares a dance with both of his love's and and the camera moves fastly from one side to the other to show the romantic moments they all share, while a tree trank splits the two dance groups into two sides.

Another great touch is Verda's desire to match the colour's of nature and flowers and trees and seasons with the character's clothes and by extension to their mood and emotions.

Verda also loves fade outs fade ins and with them she resonates dream-like quality, like the film blends the reality of loving and living everyday life with the immersive and ephemeral feeling of a memory or view fading away in time... It is true but it has a farytale's viewpoint too anf that makes it a film too good for its time.

Some of the edtiting, especially those really fast edits in the apartment, seem way too much and kind of weird for no reason and i would prefer a more clear portrayal of the main character in the last act, although he is still a greatly developed one. This film might often feel like it's going nowwhere, but it really knows what it's doing. Also, how many times do they mention the word happyness in them movie? Need to do a countdown now.

In the end, I feel like it is a movie thst tells us to love life with what is given and if we want more, we might lose a lot in the end, even if we manage to rise again. You can't have everything in life, it's too short and hard to manage to live it at its fullest. I don't know something like that.

Watch it ,hope you enjoy it and please don't cheat your love's unless the paramour is waaaay too hot.

byeeeeeee!

Our teachers organized a school trip to TIFF (Thessaloniki International Film Fesitval) and I was already visiting it every afternoon ... so going in the morning too did not sound bad at all. We got the chance to watch "Marona's Fantastic Tale" ,a sweet story about a dog that recalls her owners and their shared experiences, I already new about htis film and looked interesting enough to watch, especially from an animation standpoint.

And yes... the animation is gorgeous. So many different styles and colors and ideas in one film and it never feels dizzy or lame. Every person or building or enviroment felt detailed and creative and expressed a certain emotion. It It is a feast for the eyes and I bet the animators were really creative and vivid people, because as a visual journey the film definately did it for me.

The story is fine...it offered a critique of the society and times we live in, with the joy and biterness, the tough working life, the bizzare human relationships, the strange quarels and fights, there were happy people, dad people, men of greed and women without a heart and amongst them a dog searching for compassion, love and acceptance, a place to belong, a hug, a reason to exist. It is a story that never felt really new or deeply moving, but it formed a certain connection and in the end I cared for the characters so even if I was not overwhelmed by it's thematic or message (i do not really get why every animation film has to have an emotional massage, but whatever).

Overall, this film is far more mature than what DIsney is doing right now with the sequels and meta stuff ( it is so dissapointing )... and it deserves a watch. The music is also sweet and charming as far as I can recollect, although it's been some months since I watched it, so I really am not sure what it sounded like. Great, mesmerizing visuals and presentation, an okay story and lots of FUURRRRRR!!!!!

I took a break while being in the TIFF (Thessaloniki International Film Festival) and went to watch this movie because I was really excited. Sure it looked realistic and sad and bitter and it would probably ruin me, but who cares. And yeah, it was kind of heart-breaking and it is the most raw film of the year. It's realism is just beyond compare.

The film is a look at a family struggling to make a living in an England of taxes, generic working enviroments and inhumane job conditions. It is about financial struggle, humanity and the industriliziation of our era and about labour exploitation and how ideas like love and the values of democracy have faded out.

The family members feel like real people and their struggles and problems are so understandable because we also have to face them everyday and everything about this film is so grounded and righteous. It never tries to produce a certain emotion, it is just there and it hits because of its presence, the struggles feel ral and the sotry is so organic and even if it is such a sad story, it never made me feel totally devasted - maybe i should have.

Even its look does not have a cinematic quality,. It really feels like the most true way of documenting reality and everyday struggles between this family. The camera is like a human eye, an observer, it does not want to look stylish or make a movie to show off and that's why this film has a really bold and interesting cinematic trait of portraying things in a way so honest it does not look like cinema but like life itself.

And I still do not get how people manage to live their lives under such an unfair and mechanical way of working. It is like we have become souless and have no further purpose except of serving as workers. There is no space for feeling tideous or taking a step back to think or choose to be ethical instead of practical. Life is like you are running in a labyrinth because you are chased by a beast and if you pause for a second to rest or enjoy the view or have a chat- you're gone. NAd it's sad and bitter and it hurts, but it's true and human and I appreciate this movie a lot.

Great job and please let's start to feel the other people around us and undrstand that some things like family, love,togethereness and the human life is more important than completing a lame delivery. We are not robots- we have souls and we feel pain and sadness and that's why our working enviromntens as well as our family members should be more compassionate and show a level of respect and try to help.

Wake up

As Charlie Chaplin once said in The Great Dictator : " We live in a world that thinks too much and feels too little!"

Think Less. Feel More. That's what we Miss.