do something different
In celebration of the fact that it's the Cannes Festival, but mostly because we've been having pretty terrible weather, I've been taking in a lot of movies lately. A couple of nights ago Sasha and I checked out Zodiac, the movie about the Zodiac killer told from the point of view of Robert Graysmith, who worked at the San Francisco Chronicle at the time that the murders (and creepy letters and cryptograms) started. I had pretty high expectations for this movie, because I enjoyed David Fincher's previous stuff (Se7en, The Game, Fight Club...), but I wasn't overly impressed this time around. To be fair, it can't be easy to make a film about one of the most famous unsolved murder cases ever - I mean, the audience already knows how the story ends. Yes, the acting was great, and I was entertained for most of the 2 1/2 hours, but had I read up about the Zodiac murders beforehand, I would have probably been bored as hell.
I also watched Scarface for the third time. But more importantly, I discovered Lord of War. Where was I when this movie came out and why did it not even register on my radar? The only possible explanation for this oversight is that I saw Nicolas Cage on the movie poster and immediately decided it wasn't worth my time - which I realize is a little unfair since I was very pleasantly surprised by his performances in Adaptation and Matchstick Men. This movie was recommended by one of my professors when we were studying the demilitarization of societies after the fall of the Soviet Union. Cage's character in the movie is said to be losely based on the life of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is suspected to have supplied arms to most of the African continent. Name any armed conflict of the 1990s, and there's a good chance Bout supplied arms for either side, sometimes both. Several warrants have been issued for his arrest, but he has managed to build such a solid network of business partners that he is protected by friends in very high places.
Perhaps I enjoyed this movie so much because it's directly related to what I study. I also liked it because it spoke to the realist in me. Instead of taking a moralistic approach, in which the arms dealer is portrayed as a heartless bastard who takes pleasure in knowing that his goods are used to decimate entire populations, the main message of the film is that the people who work in this business are despicable yet necessary. How else do you think our governments supply friendly rebel movements when they don't want the world to know about it? And in the grand scheme of things, they're making peanuts compared to what the US, the UK, China, France and Russia make on a daily basis in the arms trade.
I didn't spend my whole weekend in front of a movie screen. Last night we ventured further than I've ever been before without a car, into Zone 5 of the regional transport network, for a pool party. It's always scary to leave the comfort of Paris' fantastic night bus and metro system, especially when you're going to a house party where you know no one. There was a moment of panic when we turned onto the street the party was supposedly on and heard only the chirping of crickets... but in the end we had a pretty good time. And we discovered that when you're that far out of Paris, the normal night bus is actually a cushy Greyhound.
This weekend I also became addicted to two songs; the Boys Noize's remix of Feist's My Moon My Man, and this:
I also watched Scarface for the third time. But more importantly, I discovered Lord of War. Where was I when this movie came out and why did it not even register on my radar? The only possible explanation for this oversight is that I saw Nicolas Cage on the movie poster and immediately decided it wasn't worth my time - which I realize is a little unfair since I was very pleasantly surprised by his performances in Adaptation and Matchstick Men. This movie was recommended by one of my professors when we were studying the demilitarization of societies after the fall of the Soviet Union. Cage's character in the movie is said to be losely based on the life of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is suspected to have supplied arms to most of the African continent. Name any armed conflict of the 1990s, and there's a good chance Bout supplied arms for either side, sometimes both. Several warrants have been issued for his arrest, but he has managed to build such a solid network of business partners that he is protected by friends in very high places.
Perhaps I enjoyed this movie so much because it's directly related to what I study. I also liked it because it spoke to the realist in me. Instead of taking a moralistic approach, in which the arms dealer is portrayed as a heartless bastard who takes pleasure in knowing that his goods are used to decimate entire populations, the main message of the film is that the people who work in this business are despicable yet necessary. How else do you think our governments supply friendly rebel movements when they don't want the world to know about it? And in the grand scheme of things, they're making peanuts compared to what the US, the UK, China, France and Russia make on a daily basis in the arms trade.
I didn't spend my whole weekend in front of a movie screen. Last night we ventured further than I've ever been before without a car, into Zone 5 of the regional transport network, for a pool party. It's always scary to leave the comfort of Paris' fantastic night bus and metro system, especially when you're going to a house party where you know no one. There was a moment of panic when we turned onto the street the party was supposedly on and heard only the chirping of crickets... but in the end we had a pretty good time. And we discovered that when you're that far out of Paris, the normal night bus is actually a cushy Greyhound.
This weekend I also became addicted to two songs; the Boys Noize's remix of Feist's My Moon My Man, and this:
posted by Anne at 7:28 PM
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