A beautiful love story with the abundance of sex scenes. Sometimes you have to fill your work with eye-catching images which will guarantee that people would watch. But apart from explicit eroticism, it is the story of love and affection. A loving relationship can exceed the limits set by historical norms. And when in more and more countries same-sex marriage is being legalized, why should this love story be any different than our Cinderella fairy tale? Class, age, sex, and profession are not obstacles in taking care of each other and mutual devotion. With a pinch of spice and France in the background, a story about two women who fell in love.
Dreams. The elements that make us wake up in the morning and pursue the most extravagant life paths. The windy road to the realization of dreams often requires standing up to your family, friends, and lovers. Sometimes your vocation is stronger than physical love. Sometimes your dream means abandoning the life you're so used to, abandoning the ones who have been with you since you were born. But dreams are also so deeply inherent in our idea of happiness that it is almost impossible to leave them altogether in a forgotten box of never-to-be. Let's have the courage to dream and lead our lives according to those dreams.
Marriage. You'd wish it would be that easy as shown in the fairy tale. After some months of complications, you wear your white wedding dress, put on a wedding ring and hope for the best. Fairy tales rarely happen. There's life. Children. Diseases. Problems. Sometimes your husband leaves you for a younger woman. Sometimes you're being cheated for years, not having the slightest idea, living in this bubble of trust and security. Yet sometimes you can't stand someone faults. Flaws which seemed not important at the beginning prove to be a nuisance in the middle of your trip. Sometimes you devote your life to a person who doesn't appreciate your devotion. Sometimes you are in the shade of a career-oriented individual, whose life purpose is to be successful, known, respected but you lack this respect at home. For me, this is a film about marriage. Not about a genius. Few of us can invent complicated mathematical theories. But all of us wish they had a happy family/single/straight/gay/traditional/extravagant/simple/luxurious life. And it often relies on whom you're willing to spend the rest of your life with.
There's a bond that connects mothers and daughters. A bond very few understand. Years of conversations, memories shared, experiences bestowed trigger something deeper than comparisons and jealousy that in time might arise. And once isolated at the end of the world they have each other, despite bad relationships, despite traumas and stresses of everyday life. Piano is a film about a mother and a daughter. But its sensuality, colonial background, and a difficult but ecstatic romance make it always a film worth our attention. In times when a woman was a commodity, purchased and transferred, mute against her husband's consent, could she have a chance for the true love? Could she win against small-mindedness of her neighbours, harshness of the surroundings, and find passion and fullfillment with another man? Unforgettable Holly Hunter as a woman finally getting back her voice. Enjoy.
What I love about films is the fact that they are about people, made by people and serve the people. Films are like bread. Entertaining, without barriers, prejudices, divisions. You don't have to be educated to fall in love with a film. You don't have to be rich to make your dreams come true, to see Paris when you cannot afford the ticket, to kiss a beautiful woman, even though in real life you wouldn't have the chance. To experience an adventure which for you might be unreachable.
Cinema Paradiso is about people for whom life proved to be a dream-like fairy tale thanks to one little cinema. Even though life is far from reality, we create our paradise on earth, don't we?
If you're fond of little princess story of how it is difficult to be a teenager, how tormenting is the life surrounded by mean comments and rude boys, if your life circulates around looks, perfumes, and cosmetics, silly TV shows which are there only for entertainment, this is probably not a film for you. There are, however, girls whose lives are real, whose problems are dead serious and whose dreams might not be dreams of little beauty pageant girls. Fish Tank.
Sometimes filmmakers selflessly deal with real problems and real people. They touch upon subjects which might be politically improper, which can meddle with money invested and earned by huge corporations. Africa is an ocean of mistreated tribes, incurable diseases, tragic exploitation of children, injustice, and poverty. And the colonial countries, instead of helping, seem to be worsening the conditions of the poorest. This is a film which deals with yet another aspect of faulty politics and portrays the few who want to help. And if help means revealing the truth, coming up to certain conclusions might be our brick in supporting those who need this help the most.
Small towns. Your birth places, motherlands, points of departure. You move to a big city, you develop your career, forget about past problems and all the people you knew. And then something happens that you come back home. Small towns. Every scandal leaked and analyzed by all around you. Unhappy marriages. Lives devoted to the cheating husbands. Teenagers driven by imaginary romances. Rural countryside. Aspiring writers. Past loves. Sometimes it is worth to come back. Tamara Drew is everything but dull.
When civilization and career-oriented environment starts to be unbearable. When you want to scream from frustration and the fact that your life has no meaning. When living a lie of the western world seems to be futile... There are always countries which can inspire you by their completely different culture of life, work and climate. Sometimes a heavenly landscape can turn into a political hell. At times you appreciate what you have and you learn that so many have it much more difficult. Sometimes you need a culture shock, a different perspective, a critical adventure. And then you're happy that you're still alive.
There's an aura of suspicion hanging over institutions such as government, church, and school. We tend to disbelieve whether priests are the ones with a vocation or is it a safe and secure job that they're choosing (or a shelter where they can fulfill their sexual fantasies). A politician, a priest and a teacher are difficult jobs: demanding, responsible, burdened by hundreds of years of rules, tradition, and history. There are a lot of good people in all of these professions: full of vocation and good will. At the same time, there are hundreds of flawed individuals who only want to succeed in this tricky environment. And once put to a doubt can you convince the institution that you are innocent? Whose words matter? Yours, the victim's or the witnesses'? And can you really be trusted after you committed an unforgivable sin?
Motherhood is not a fairy tale. Those who fully understand its turmoils seem to be better mothers. A big percentage of mothers-to-be are not best prepared. We all learn from mistakes. Sometimes you're tricked into it by cute images of little kids and you hear all the encouraging voices of aunts, grandmothers, and mothers. Then you realize that pregnancy can be traumatic, the pain of the childbirth - unbearable, and the consequences of raising a human being - difficult and long-lasting. A child is hard work. No one talks much of stillbirth. Not many husbands discuss with you the post-birth depression. Not all realize that child might be born sick, deformed or disabled. For those who realize the ups and downs of motherhood, for those who cannot deal with trauma on their own. Hotell. It's great to forget who we are just for a moment or two.
What if English roughness mixes with Lithuanian Slavic rural simplicity? What if a dangerous situation in your English-speaking environment turns into an even more treacherous one way-way further east? If you think you used up all your laughs, you might be wrong. And me being Polish myself, I do appreciate when a typical Slavic Village is shown in an English-speaking film. It's great when you have to fight not only with Mafia but also with a wedding prospect with a rural nightmare of a woman. My type of craziness, I suppose. Redirected.
Made in China. This is what I saw when I turned my trainer upside down. The sole had an inscription so vivid that it couldn't be ignored. Have you ever considered the number of items you own which are made at a place so distant from your lifetime accommodation that you don't even think about it minding your own business? Have you counted your cheap T-shirts, pricey electronic equipment and have you thought about the conditions in which they are produced? Have you wondered about the impact of our existence on the environment? How we change and shape the world? How we completely reshaped it during the past decades and how the landscapes manufactured are equally awe-inspiring as the natural wonders of the universe? If yes, this is a film for you.
Your family life might be fucked up. We don't choose our families. We cannot be blamed if our parents don't understand us, if they want to disinherit us, if they don't approve our life choices. But what to do when you have real problems with which you cannot deal with on your own? Where to seek help? How to find support? And even if you feel like the weirdest freaks of all, there are always those who are a little bit madder. A positive inspiration for those who feel insecure and lost. You are not alone. And you always need a good laugh.
What if a parent-devoid family is left to their own devices? How to manage a house and pay the bills? How to reverse the roles from the immature to responsible and trustworthy? It's a classic comedy for those who already have problems with growing up. Sometimes a bunch of kids can create a better family than we could have expected. The inspiration for all of us. And a great reminder of slightly different times, however, not entirely so long ago.