Panorama

Here is the final version of my panorama. Looking forward to seeing everyones’ prints in class!

(Just click the image to see the larger version)

Guldbaggen

Guldbaggen is the name of the Swedish cinema prize, similar to the Academy Awards in a certain way. This is not an event I have ever been interested in to be honest, my opinion of Swedish film lately has been: dull, uninteresting, lack of quality and quite frankly just plain bad in some cases. This is absolutely not something I feel generally of Swedish film, historically we have had great success with many, many great works up until the 21th century. I feel that since the millennium shift there has been a lot of quantity in the business, with a very low rate of quality. The one (of the few) responsible for that little bit of quality in my opinion is Roy Andersson. His latest movie, Du Levande or You, the Living brought home the most prestigious awards, including best movie, best screenplay as well as best directing. I’m extremely happy he got these awards, it is so good that quality film is really being awarded. The honorary prize went to Gösta Ekman who without doubt deserves it. A true entertainer indeed (you probably need to be Swedish to know who he is).

Annie Hall

Studying in a creative field, such as film, I find it very important not to forget what kind of work that inspired me and made me choose this field. To keep my interest up I need to go back to these works once in a while. For me, many of Woody Allen’s movies have definitely inspired me to want to make my own movies. This weekend I watched Annie Hall (made in 1977), one of his best, and of course most famous films. Maybe what is most notably about it is his way of storytelling; scenes jump in different directions, we move between his mind and the film’s reality, all of a sudden Alvy (Allen’s character) turns to the camera and asks or complains to the audience. Alvy even manages to make situations maybe all of us has wished to participate in, such as the time he argues with a man in the line to the cinema about Marshall McLuhan; the man obnoxiously claims he knows a lot about McLuhan’s theories because he teaches a course in media, Alvy questions him and then brings out the real McLuhan from behind one of the posters, McLuhan then tells the man he has no idea about his theories (here is a clip of it). It is scenes like these that make this movie such a masterpiece. It shows the extreme control Woody Allen has over the medium. No wonder it won four Oscars, and has been such an important film for comedies, or romantic films, even made today.

If anyone would like, please post a comment about some work that has inspired you to choose your program or field of interest. That would be very interesting.

Requiem for a Dream

I have been telling myself that this year I have to watch more movies. I actually feel ashame that I don’t watch enough movies, and still it’s what my major is in. I also want to watch more variety of  movies. I’m going to try and write about everything I have seen on this blog. So please, if there haven’t been an update for a while about movies, send me a comment and push me.
So, a movie I just saw is Requiem for a Dream, and of all the depressing movies I have seen in my life, this movie goes to the top. It’s great. It is a very stylistic movie, director Daren Aronofsky experiments and takes many chances, the result is a lot of scenes that feel very entertaining to watch, there is a lot of effects in everyday settings that represents the character’s emotions. I can recommend this movie to everyone who enjoys alternative and artistic movies, but if watching a movie is just to make you feel good this should be avoided.

Kultur 2007

When I look back to last year. I realize it was a great year. Culturally.

In the summer I went back to Sweden. On a trip to Stockholm I went to the most memorable exhibition of the year; Speed For Life. It was an exhibition by fashion photographer Mikael Jansson. But instead of exhibiting fashion photographs, Jansson showed the result of a three year long project where he has followed the Formula 1 race all over the world documenting it his own style. The photographs were beautiful, and amazing.

Back in Vancouver I finally got to see my favourite painter’s Georgia O’Keeffe’s work. In a great exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery her work was presented along with some famous photographs of her by her husband Alfred Steiglitz. The exhibition was very satisfying. I did miss a little bit some of her city paintings, which I find her most interesting work, but what was shown was inspiring enough.

Music hasn’t hit me as hard. Although I have discovered great artists such as Juana Molina and Lt Fisk. The best album I bought was probably Nouvelle Vague’s Bande À Part.

Many great films have come out from last year, and I have many to catch up with. Films I have seen and enjoyed has been Death Proof, Lust, Caution and The Darjeeling Limited, but the best one is Roy Andersson’s You, The Living, a movie that just won’t leave my head.

To finish it off, the best trip for me 2007 was to the Scottish island Islay, a little island in the Atlantic ocean that is full of single malt Whisky distilleries such as Laphroaig, Bowmore and Lagavulin. This is where I also made the discovery of the year; Caol Ila 12 year old single malt, my favourite whisky so far.

There. Now I can move on and appreciate what has to come in the new year.

Coal Ila Whisky Distillery