Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz "Our Grand Despair"

"Our Grand Despair" is the second movie -after "Kaybedenler Kulübü"- I went to the theater with high hopes but returned home with small impressions. The movie was first screened in Berlin Film Festival and then won awards in Nürnberg Film Festival. The producers are names we are familiar from the movie magazine Altyazı Nadir Öperli and Yamaç Okur.

The trend in the latest independant movies is the lives of trios that are in the fringe of friendship and love. In this movie, what was new was that the love-friendship of the men were not shaded by any other relationship. And the theme "love" was not drawn with its usual borders.
However the scenes where they walk with their eyes closed or where Ender shows Nihal "Catcher in the Rye" as the book he reads over and over are very standart.

Although the story is appealing the movie does not present anthing inspiring.

I found acting of Nihal weak as well. She was very artificial in some scenes for instance in her almost-intimate scenes with Ender or when she is suprised with his stories.

Although the movie is supposed to be a high rhythm one with humorous scenes when you look at the story, it is rather slow. It is a movie which is nice to watch and where sometimes it makes you laugh with the irony of the characters.

Nine Types of Light

TV on the Radio has its new album about! Nine Types of Light.

Not so sure if it has the musical richness it had in its previous albums.

Last Night

The movie was a GALA in the Istanbul Film Festival. It well deserves it as it pushes you to think about what is trust, what is deceiving, to what extend you can resist. Two questions that came to my mind after the movie: Whose story is more appealing or irresistable? Who cheated more heavily?

Drei

Drei("Three") is a movie of a love triangle all connected to one another, (spoiler!) which in the end finds the best solution possible in theoratical terms. The notions that there is always an alternative way and cheating is not always a handicap find its place in this movie.

The strongest character is Adam. Although in one point, the viewer thinks "Ok, now he is left alone because both of his lovers have a partner" he does not seem to expect much romance from his relationships, in contrast to the other two characters who already had a romantic, sound relationship. Although it is not a bad movie, I should say after the first half, the movie focuses too much on the sexual relationships of each character and is far from giving any original impulse to the viewers.

Hayali Aşıklar

The Canadian movie, Les Amours Imaginaires, excited me so much that I thought it would be the hittest for me however it turned out to be a big disappointment.There was no scenario in the first place. I don't think the trio even shared anything... Only the costumes of the girl kept me entertained since she dressed really retro and reminded me of girls on the streets of Montmarte, Paris. The director Xavier Dolan tries to fill the gap of the lack of the story by slow motion shots but that makes the movie even slower. The close-ups he uses extensively are finds their place well, though. And so, I do not think it is a movie which is more than any experimental-trying-to-be-independant one.

Animal Kingdom

(spoiler!) In this movie of the kingdom, each animal falls off one by one like a leaf. The personalities are

complex, it's hard to sympathize with any of the characters and get ready

to be baffled, although they do not show, some people change.. As I feel that I will spoil ore, the more I tell more about the movie, go and see for yourself. It is defnititely an absorbing movie with complex characters.

Inside Jobs

The documentary "Inside Jobs" does not tell anyting surprising about the 2001 financial crises.

Everybody knows the crisis helped "some people" to be wealthier than before. However

a regular person, not in the field of finance, can well get a good grasp of how things relate technically among the mortgages, the banks, the investment banks and specultors. So, the documentary is more like a course, one should not expect the humor Michael Moore puts in his movies.

As a person who studied Economics, to me, it was a bit scary that all the theorists and -as they are shown to us in the university classes- "the big guys" of Economics such as Mishkin, Roubini are all consultants to the giant companies. It becomes so easy to see that what they recommended in the "modern" economic textbooks are actually what the demand of their clients are. Decisions and theoratical resolutions in favor of the managers of the companies. It is a pity how these people have literally no answer to justify their recommendations.

Well... everyone gets in the cycle, one way or another..

The Magni-feist-ant

In the documentary "Look at What the Light Did Now", you see that Feist is on top of everything, and the way everybody else is describing her indicated that her crew is fond of her, happy with her. Feist (or "Les" as she is called by the crew) is consistent and determined about what she wants, however not obstinate, carefully examines every suggestion, as she says , she likes to form the art work through sharing her ideas with other artists. She does not like being exposed on stage, so the lights are dim. And she starts working with a light performer - which I thought was very creative. The artist and the idea itself is novel. And she does not want to be on the cover of her album, so she and the photographer finds the middle in putting her siloutte on the album. And although one of the musicians says he can play all the instruments for her and although he thinks this is the easiest way, she does not change her mind about making up a group of musicians who all contribute. They all live in the same studio for quite some time, which can be seen as a bit of a craze.

The documentary shows clearly how the musicians, producers, graphic artists, directors work together to put up all the art behind every music project. I dont think every artist spends so much time on innovating something new, by challenging the limits of creation as Feist does. She seems truly in the idea of art, production and creation.

She was able to take me all the way to her own world of creation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYF0qU5WSew&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=MLGxdCwVVULXewO_w_gBpdoRNA9hLpajKq

The king of all times

Radiohead's new album 'The King of Limbs' does not present anything novel when you think back to their last two albums 'In Rainbows' and 'Hail to the Thief'. However still their sound is 'sound' and lyrics are intriguing.

Well we had been waiting for it for long.. Here is a tip to reach to the full album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV4xhsYvU2g

Frida & Diego at Pera Museum

I had seen my first Frida Kahlo painting in Moma, NY however it fascinates more when you see an artist from a retrospective view, especially if you can trace her relationship and her engagement in art together with her engagement in her relationship to her husband in the same exhibition. I think the exhibition in Pera Museum, Istanbul was especially unique than Kahlo's other exhibitions in the sense that it shows how her art is nested in Diego Rivera's art and personality. Frida comes to a point where she paints Rivera as a phenomenon to worship. Although Rivera is one of the main influences in her art, in my opinion it is again the power of movie art, that Frida is known more widely by the public as a result of the movie "Frida".

Although the exhibition is small, it gives a good overview and feeling of their art and approach.

The Hidden Orchestra

Having Joe Achison, a highly creative musician with a solid background, as their core value in the band, The Hidden Orchestra undersigns jazzy chill out music pieces with electronic and sometimes folk tunes. Not having any lyrics, it makes it easier to listen to it without getting distracted easily. I am attracted to their tunes especially as a result of their jazz rhythms they add to their music without suppressing the other elements in their tunes.

On January 11, they will be playing in Babylon, Istanbul.

To get a sense of what I am describing: http://www.myspace.com/hiddenorchestra

"Loch Lomond"

In 2007, in Botanique (Brussels), I have seen "the Decemberist's" playing with "My Brightest Diamond" and "My Brightest Diamond" was dreadfully painful. The good news is that "Decemberist" found "Loch Lomond" afterwards because they toured with "the Decemberists" in late 2008.

Well, Loch Lomond describes its music as "sounding like birds, bears, blood banks, ticks, volcanoes, mountains, scabs, and lots of singing", which i find a description to be as close to reality as possible. A video of them for you to decide yourself "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuAWPLdV3H8".

Their latest album is yet to come next month in February.

True Panther Sounds

Glasser's sound of the second album does not really match the feeling its name, True Panther Sounds, suggests. Rather the beat is closer to being more monotone. Though the vocals have capturing twists in some parts. It suits me well when I have to focus on work I tend to avoid for some time, the monotone beat gets me to concentrate while the unexpected vocals keep me awake. "Apply" is somewhat ambitious, and is my favorite in the album, has versions for people who likes to listen to variations.

biutiful...

the most dramatic story I have watched in quite a long time. Makes you wonder what else could go wrong in Uxbal's life... (spoiler!) experiences death of the refugees, gets close to his father's corpse at the time he knows he will experience the same soon. still he does not want to leave behind his life, his son and daughter are the only strings that attach him to life, but they are so strong he still has a case to fight in his life. Inarritu has not been this tragic and has not shown the poverty in such a naked way in other movies. And no need to say Bardem displays a great act in this movie.

the only recommendation I would give would be, go and see the movie when you feel you can take up some misery on yourself..