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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Antares


Hello There My Little Biscuits !

So, I got a lot to say. For starters, I bought my plane ticket to Europe for September. Paris and Amsterdam to be exact, and in Amsterdam I should be hanging out with Porkstar, my bestest blogfriend in the whole world.

I remember when he came out to visit Ashleigh and I in December. My favorite moment of the day was when we were all on the escalator going down to the train. We were all hugging and I screamed "BFFs coming through !".

Anyway, above is Antares, an Austrian film that I recently finished watching. I love foreign films because they are not like Hollywood films. The pace of the film is more like that of normal daily life. Usually in a Hollywood film, you have the main problem in the film, and at the end it must be resolved, and usually it is even if it is completely unbelievable. And usually the endings are so happy. We are programmed to expect a good outcome. There is pressure to reach a good ending.

In a foreign film, there isn't really a soundtrack, it's not about tricks or stunts and life goes on. I watch foreign films because it's like a snapshot into normal life in other parts of the world. And if there is a problem in the film, it usually isn't resolved by the end, rather you are usually left guessing about the future.

Anyway, I love Antares mainly because I got to watch normal everyday Austrian life on screen again, and bonus points since the director is from where I lived. Finally a film where I can hear German in the dialect I learned it in. Austrian German is different, and finally the characters sound like my family. When I saw the mother come in and make salad, pay the cleaning lady and talk to her daughter, it was like I was living with my aunt all over again. You see so many foreign films from Germany or Eastern Europe, but never really any from Austria. I was thrilled that the director is from the same town I used to live in.

The film takes place in a high-rise apartment complex that used to be nice back in the day, but now is inhabited by immigrants and people on lower incomes. Kind of like my aunt's apartment that I lived in back in 1990. My aunt and uncle built a nice house and moved out a few years back. The neighborhood of that apartment complex has changed a lot since then. I felt saddened when the nice bakery I used to go to as a child was turned into a lower grade internet cafe, when there are so many internet cafes, or locutorios already, and it had to be where the old bakery used to be.

The film was about three couples in the high-rise apartment complex that each had their own problems, but end up crossing paths. Basically, the film starts out with a man getting into a car wreck, and then shows the lives of each of the three couples leading up to that event.

Basically the three couples featured are having relationship problems:  1.) A night-shift nurse is so bored with her husband that she has a torrid affair. 2.) A store clerk fakes a pregnancy to keep her Yugoslavian boyfriend 3.) A single mom who kicked her deadbeat ex husband to the curb and is sleeping with the Yugoslavian boyfriend.

I liked the film because I felt these issues are so close to real life. How many people out there seem to have a nice routine life, but inside are really miserable ? I wonder about that all the time. That is why I fear a routine life. I don't want my life to be peaceful and uneventful. I want a happy life, but I don't want it to be predictable. One of my biggest fears in life is simply existing and living a predictable life. My life may be full of drama or I may get a lot of monkey wrenches thrown in that constantly mess up my plans, but the flip side is at least I am not bored. At least I can wake up and know that anything could happen. And great things have happened to me unexpectedly as well.


You see how miserable these people are in the film and you feel for them. The married night-shift nurse was so bored with her married life that she took up a heated affair and really let loose. I felt bad for her, it was so obvious that she just wanted to feel alive again. Anything to feel passion. That's where the sex scenes in the film came from. She and her married lover were definitely uninhibited. I don't condone her cheating as cheating is never the answer to solve your problems, but I definitely understood why she did it and how people fall into routine traps, life passes them by so quickly and one day they decide to wake up and wonder where all the time went.

Anyway, that is all for now. Check it out sometime of you want.

Time to get ready for bed.

Besitos !



15 comments:

LL Cool Joe said...

I'm not sure there really is such a thing as a nice routine life. We may give that look on the outside, but there's always a great deal going on underneath the surface that isn't routine at all. ;)

Anonymous said...

Alas! it's being quite a while i commented, though being reading all your posts...simply couldn't resist commenting on this one..*grinning*..
first, save journey & have a fun-filled vacation in few weeks time...NIGERIANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO RELAX & HAVE FUN BECOX OF OUR POOR ECONOMY....only the corrupt govt officials & politicians do!..
Am a big fan of hollywood films especially love-comedy films & cartoons.Don't like our Nigerian films named after hollywood; NOLLYWOOD!..hehehe...they are great copy cats i tell you! I do tell my friends to watch it as a way to treat anger management!lol
So senorita, since you like foreign films, can I DARE YOU TO WATCH ANY OF NIGERIAN FILMS?..hehehe..have a nice day.

Ileana said...

I like foreign films (or the ones on Sundance) for the same reason...less predictable and more like real-life drama. You never know where a foreign film will take you...and the on location shots are always cool.

The film you reviewed sounds like a good one. I may check it out on Netflix.

I hope you and Porkstar have a great time in Amsterdam! He sounds like a fungi.

Anonymous said...

LL has said it so very good...

nothing is as it appears..

even in Amsterdam

Pesto Sauce said...

Ever seen an Indian movie? Chances are you may like them

Many films here too have this theme of bored housewives venturing out but don't they all regret it later? I know ennui and excitement are parallels but isn't steadiness better than crashing too soon?

KrippledWarrior said...

I have a couple foreign film favorites. 8 1/2, Train Spotting, Let the Right One In, Yojimbo, and anything with Chow Young Fat in it.

When you go to Paris, visit the catacombs...

Holland said...

Sounds like an interesting movie. I just saw "The Lives of Others" a German movie about Communist Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain. Very intense but such a beautiful movie.

If you like spicy food, check out Indonesian restaurant "Speciaal" in Amsterdam... a real treat.

Riot Kitty said...

Thanks for the movie recommendation. Sounds like a great, fun trip!

Joey: That is very profound and true, actually.

mac said...

Wow, that sounds like an exciting trip !
The film looks quite good too.

dadshouse said...

Foreign films are great!!!! I agree that Hollywood films are a bit formulaic. It's all Hero's Journey. And life isn't always like that.

Fireblossom said...

"Svetlana, turn on the lamp."

"Lars, what's the use?" (exhales smoke from her cigarette.) "Lars...make love to me!"

"Svetalana, love is a construct of the middle class. I've got these political fliers to distribute in the morning."

Svetlana sighs and looks out the window at the factory smokestacks. "Then at least buy me a Vespa. And some Gauloises."

"Elitist trash."

"Lars, you've become a bore."

"It doesn't matter."

Svetlana takes a bottle of pills. "What's the use?"

FIN

Okay, NOW can we watch Rocky 17?

Irredento Urbanita said...

It would be nice to listen some songs of the soundtrack of your life.

Regards and enjoy your european trips.

Valery

Zsuzsi said...

Thanks for the tip: I'll definitely check if I can find this film anywhere :)
I love "foreign" (i.e. non-Hollyowood) films too!

Red Shoes said...

WOW! Your trip sounds GREAT!! I have some friends who have gone to Amsterdam and they've LOVED it!!!!

I was watching something last night on TV... and it was about people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes... and I thought of you doing that!

Unfortunately, our lives are a GREAT deal like the three couples in the movie that you mention... Life, more often than not, tends to be difficult and not pretty... but we are to enjoy our journey through Life, and stay as true to our standards that we set for ourselves as we can. Life is full of challenges almost everday!!!

I'm so excited about your trip!!!

~shoes~

SweetAngelAsh17 said...

Hey bff! When is your next day off?