'Tis Pity She's a Whore
bbook: Oslo, August 31st is an adaptation based on an adaptation. As a modern-day reworking of Louis Malle’s The Fire Within or Le feu follet, Trier moves the story from 1960s Paris to contemporary Oslo, giving the film a relevance and nostalgic atmosphere. Malle’s film was based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s novella of the same title, a story about suicide, named after a naturally occurring phenomena which is “believed to arise from a chemical combination of methane and hydrogen phosphate and takes the shape of a small, flickering flame appearing just above the ground, then burning itself out.” Rochelle saw the main character of the film, Alain, “as a dying flame on the cusp of extinction.” But unlike the two previous adaptations, Trier’s film is more meditative than its predecessors. It speaks to us through mis-en-scene and tone rather than direct verbalization of the character’s psychology. It’s formalistic in structure and does not romanticize the act of suicide, but speaks to one man’s resolute decision to end his life. Having always been fascinated by Malle’s film, Trier says, “Sometimes while you’re listening to a piece of music you start to recollect some emotions. When you are watching a movie or looking at a photo, you learn how to accept some of the experiences you have had. All my life I was watching a lot of movies yet nothing was so important The Fire Within.” And forOslo, he wanted to focus on translating motifs from the book into modern-day narration, allowing the film and its portrait of solitude and insular emotion to better help us understand our own selves and our own isolated feelings.  Cinematic Panic: The Quiet Allure of Joachim Trier’s ‘Oslo, August 31st’

bbook:

Oslo, August 31st is an adaptation based on an adaptation. As a modern-day reworking of Louis Malle’s The Fire Within or Le feu follet, Trier moves the story from 1960s Paris to contemporary Oslo, giving the film a relevance and nostalgic atmosphere. Malle’s film was based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s novella of the same title, a story about suicide, named after a naturally occurring phenomena which is “believed to arise from a chemical combination of methane and hydrogen phosphate and takes the shape of a small, flickering flame appearing just above the ground, then burning itself out.” Rochelle saw the main character of the film, Alain, “as a dying flame on the cusp of extinction.” But unlike the two previous adaptations, Trier’s film is more meditative than its predecessors. It speaks to us through mis-en-scene and tone rather than direct verbalization of the character’s psychology. It’s formalistic in structure and does not romanticize the act of suicide, but speaks to one man’s resolute decision to end his life.

Having always been fascinated by Malle’s film, Trier says, “Sometimes while you’re listening to a piece of music you start to recollect some emotions. When you are watching a movie or looking at a photo, you learn how to accept some of the experiences you have had. All my life I was watching a lot of movies yet nothing was so important The Fire Within.” And forOslo, he wanted to focus on translating motifs from the book into modern-day narration, allowing the film and its portrait of solitude and insular emotion to better help us understand our own selves and our own isolated feelings. 

Cinematic Panic: The Quiet Allure of Joachim Trier’s ‘Oslo, August 31st’

(via acrobat-at-six)

jaysandwich: 75/365 - Dekalog V (A.K.K. A Short Film About Killing) by Krzysztof Kieślowski A young man relentlessly murders an innocent taxi driver, with no motive. A criminal lawyer takes his case, and does his best to defend the man. You don’t feel any sympathy at the beginning for the young man, and assume he’s just a terrible human being with no remorse for what he does. It isn’t until during interview’s with his lawyer’s you begin to sympathize with him, and when he is sent to his death, you begin to have mixed feelings. It reminds me when I had seen Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss, and showed you a story revolving around the idea of sending murderers to the death, without exactly putting in a bias to what the director believes to be the right decision. Of course by making the film about the subject, he has a view but mostly leaves it up to the viewer to decide what to think.

jaysandwich:

75/365 - Dekalog V (A.K.K. A Short Film About Killing) by Krzysztof Kieślowski 

A young man relentlessly murders an innocent taxi driver, with no motive. A criminal lawyer takes his case, and does his best to defend the man. You don’t feel any sympathy at the beginning for the young man, and assume he’s just a terrible human being with no remorse for what he does. It isn’t until during interview’s with his lawyer’s you begin to sympathize with him, and when he is sent to his death, you begin to have mixed feelings. It reminds me when I had seen Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss, and showed you a story revolving around the idea of sending murderers to the death, without exactly putting in a bias to what the director believes to be the right decision. Of course by making the film about the subject, he has a view but mostly leaves it up to the viewer to decide what to think.

books0977: My Letter to the World and Other Poems. Emily Dickinson. Isabelle Arsenault (Illustrator). Kids Can Press, Limited, 2008. Arsenault’s interpretation displays a rich understanding of Dickinson’s poetry, which is known for its economy, unexpected imagery and hauntingly personal point of view. Arsenault has created a subtle meditation on Dickinson’s life and its intersection with her verse. In the dream-like illustrations, the poet — sometimes serene, often sad and always enigmatic — is an omnipresent figure in her ghostly white dress. 

books0977:

My Letter to the World and Other Poems. Emily Dickinson. Isabelle Arsenault (Illustrator). Kids Can Press, Limited, 2008.

Arsenault’s interpretation displays a rich understanding of Dickinson’s poetry, which is known for its economy, unexpected imagery and hauntingly personal point of view. Arsenault has created a subtle meditation on Dickinson’s life and its intersection with her verse. In the dream-like illustrations, the poet — sometimes serene, often sad and always enigmatic — is an omnipresent figure in her ghostly white dress.