Klara Jagovit: career

The Father/Fear of Falling

aging 05:02:00

No one prepares you for this. You have been familiar with keywords, which circulated around your childhood when someone mentioned ancestors. To you, they were like a third leg - equally unexplainable and mysterious. But you were far from them, with your life ahead of you and your parents still young.
But once you reach adulthood, you get closer and closer to encyclopedia entrances, able to name diseases, recognize symptoms, and find your way in the complex labyrinth or corridors of one or two hospitals.
No one prepares you for your parents' aging process and mental deterioration. No one tells you that the ones who take care of you, the responsible and trustworthy, will once require your presence, support, and push you to the limits. No one tells you that it can destroy your personal life and career. No one prepares that it will be just beyond your strength and patience. No one explains that you won't be able to save your own mum or dad, despite the money you earn and the responsibilities you take on yourself.
At the same time, it seems that it will be the path of the majority of us, and then our children or institutions we are willing to pay for.
Two stories about two fathers, two pictures of disease, loneliness, and pain, the majority of us can or will relate to.
2011 Fear of Falling and 2020 The Father

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The Remains of the Day

Anthony Hopkins 03:37:00

Political and personal situations require us to make major life decisions. Who to support in times of conflict? Who to be loyal and devote years of service to? Is your personal life more important than financial stability? Or will you, against reason, make the same mistake as many before you and sacrifice your career for the sake of budding feelings of affection, when the outcome is so uncertain? Can you work for someone who approves of the actions of the aggressor and how will this loyalty affect your future, if these actions are condemned by the whole world?

So many questions that are valid for contemporary times, especially during Russian aggression in Ukraine. Personal fears, financial gains, and high-level decisions forced many companies to stay in Russia, despite the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers fulfilling Putin's commands. So many individuals of the free world supported Hitler despite what he was doing to civilians of Jewish or Polish descent, blinding everyone by his ideology. Years that passed don't make a difference.

Here one loyal butler decided to work for a lord who made a wrong political choice. Still accurate, unforgettable Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, The Remains of the Day.

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The Great Gatsby

accident 06:16:00

Old money and new money. Getting inside the circles of the super-rich is equally strange as immigrating into a new country with a different language and culture. You want to fit in. You want to be respected. But will having enough guarantee you the love of a woman spoilt by her upbringing? Or will you find yourself inside a messy affair and an even messier marriage? The 20s with their abundance of women, alcohol, and parties and one Francis Scott Fitzgerald enabling a reunion of lost lovers. One of the greatest love stories of our times and a spectacle to watch. You choose, Robert Redford and Mia Farrow from 1974 or Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan from 2013. Two different takes on one love. Enjoy.

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A Good Year

career 05:25:00

The definition of success is different for everyone. Swimming in the sea of financial sharks, owning a great apartment, and enjoying the pleasures of a big city is considered a great achievement for some but, possibly, you need to redefine things in life. Going back to your roots gives you an opportunity to climb not the career ladder but expand your own personal space which is way more horizontal. Beautiful Italy in the background, a house to renovate, a few friendships to build, and a romance to start. Yes, you can have a good money year, but also A Good Year, and the latter is far more worthy. Enjoy.

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Bohemian Rhapsody

career 12:20:00

It's a challenge to play someone well-known and characteristic without the cringe effect. Freddy Mercury was such a person for sure. But having an unsurpassed music gift calls for an unsurpassed acting talent, and then the story just clicks. Queen's music enchanted us with this brilliant feeling of unity and power against the world's injustice. Bohemian Rhapsody reminds you about that magic and brings you closer to the person whom it all wouldn't be possible without. Painful self-discovery, disease, and the world at one's feet for one brilliant musician and his band that changed the music industry and moved generations.

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Late Night/ Morning Glory

career 08:48:00

You can't be successful forever and in any profession, there will come younger, more talented and eager. But giving them a chance, might change your outlook on your career and allow you to go with the time dynamics. The values of each generation won't stand the test of time for the younger, just as video casettes were replaced by on demand streaming platforms. But wouldn't it be great to merge experience and reputation with the fresh perspective? Maybe this is what a true cooperation should look like in the changing times, allowing the young to learn and the old to get to know the new exciting stuff. Television is a great example of how experience supports novelty. What if two young women at the beginning of their careers were to face very stubborn established TV personalities and win their hearts? Late Night and Morning Glory. Enjoy.

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Maggie's Plan

career 03:12:00

It's funny how as teenagers we dream about our ideal future and as young adults, we tend to plan our lives, marriages, children, careers, but these dreams and plans turn up to have little to do with reality. But can you really plan these things? When all your friends are dating guys their own age can you expect to fall in love with a much older man? Can you dream about being someone's stepmother? Do you picture yourself as a second or third wife? Do you take into account that fairy tales happen usually only in fairy tales and the prince is just a regular guy with a lot of kingdom-related problems and a wandering eye for ladies of the court? What if you (realistically assessing your personal life) decided on single motherhood, but life got in a way? And if you aren't happy with the result, can you really plan a way out? Maggie's Plan.

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The Hater/ Sala Samobójców. Hejter

career 03:53:00

The most frustrating thing in life is to run into a stumbling block of your ambition. But some things are just so difficult to overcome. Money, class, background, education - these things you won't easily acquire and there are no shortcuts. But if once rejected, you badly needed to be accepted back? What can you resort to in order to make your plan work and the girl of your dreams like and trust you back? Is there a limit to your scruples or Machiavelli was right and "The end justifies the means"? How a boy with no money and prospects tried to make it in the city of Warsaw. The Hater.

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Restoration

career 06:07:00

It takes time to learn your true vocation. You might get in the trap of money, sex, and idleness and be too blind to learn the value of work and love. But time is a great teacher. What comes easily to you, can be as easily taken away. True skills, however, will stay and help you recover from the greatest misfortunes. The loss will teach you the value of friendship, love, parenthood, and profession. And then - you're changed. And people do change, once they suffered enough, learned a lot or got bored with the same things over and over again. How did it happen to a young, arrogant medic who happened to find himself at the king's court? Great costumes, palaces, and rituals of the epoch and one lost young man prone to sin, Restoration.

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Fighting with My Family

brothers 05:16:00

At times, you rebel against your family's vocation, deciding to become a baker in a clan of actors or an actor in a family of dentists. Occasionally, having no better idea for yourself, you step into your parents' shoes, inherit the family business, or climb the career ladder competing against your family members. Blood is thicker than water, you know it. And very rarely it gives you great opportunities to grow and cultivate your talent. It gives you strength, being set up against tough competition impersonated by your siblings from a young age. If prepares you for a lifestyle. What sacrifices do you have to make to succeed, why not everybody is bound to be the top of the top, why family's support is crucial and why failure can be a heartbreaking journey of lost dreams? One story of success, based on a real family: Fighting with My Family. Enjoy.

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Gattaca

brothers 04:19:00

Imagine a world where your genes determine what kind of profession and lifestyle you are going to have. There are no job interviews, no doubts, no dreams. A simple blood test outlines your professional path and there's nothing to discuss. Either you're a champion or you're a loser. You can design your perfect child and this perfect child can be put on the road to success. You can see that nature is full of flaws and in comparison with genetic modifications, it fails to create perfection. But what if your dreams surpassed your inborn abilities and you wanted a better life for yourself? What if there was a plan to deceive the system? Why talent and predispositions are not enough and to achieve what you dream about you need a very strong will, luck, and one or two lies? Gattaca.

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Working Girl

business 03:27:00

What still seems to be difficult in the business world, is having a career by a woman. We are flooded with stereotypes that women are more emotional than men and less suitable for business. Women still have to cover their brains behind the curtain of pretty faces and sexualized bodies. Female workers also prove to be their greatest enemies, as a competition of a good job, a great man by the side, and other personal achievements seems to overshadow simple solidarity between them. And still, very few ladies are consequent enough to pursue a career in their dream field, resigning from achievements and devoting their lives to family. Personal failures are still accepted less than professional ones. But what if you have brains to follow your dream and circumstances prove that you have nothing to lose? The late eighties very much remind us of contemporary times and the struggles of contemporary women. Haircuts might have changed, but can't we all identify? Working Girl.

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Proxima

career 09:31:00

It wasn't a long time ago when women were only a possession; their fathers', husbands', brothers', and sons' property to take care of or cruelly dispose of. Having the right to vote or engaging in typically male activities was unthinkable. Great World Wars changed it all, they pushed men from workplaces to the frontline and women from households to fields, plants, and services. And (oh Lord what a surprise!) they managed. Women succeeded in each and every area previously occupied by men and restoring the old order proved to be as difficult as restoring aristocracy.

Years have passed and still, a woman with a certain ambition has to devote as much as a man with the same dreams, but also face the social criticism of men, women (who pushed their ambition aside for the sake of cooking and cleaning), and society as such. Regardless, she is not willing to resign. One hundred years ago, a thought about a woman exploring the space would be laughed at. Now it's a fact. A professional struggle of one dreamer and a very realistic portrayal of a mother who wants to be something more than a parent and partner. Inspirational for many girls, Proxima.

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Bombshell

abuse 10:55:00

In any business, for a woman to climb up the career ladder is difficult not only because she has to work twice as hard to prove that she's as good as men. She has to deal with the obstacles impersonated by mean colleagues from work, family's remarks, ticking biological clock, and a husband to juggle. To have it all seems almost impossible and very few are willing to devote the lifetime for professional work, being still labeled unscrupulous, greedy, and self-obsessed. Times haven't changed that much for the better as shows the selection of politicians, heads of the country, and people given the right to speak publicly. This is a men's world, indeed. Add to this omnipresent sexual harassment and it turns into a woman's hell. But don't you think that enough is enough, and those who sinned must be finally punished? What if one woman's voice triggered an avalanche of confessions? #metoo in the world of television, Bombshell.

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Big Eyes

abuse 03:08:00

There are few things you cannot buy, among them youth, love, and talent. The last one is rare, it happens once in hundreds of thousands. You cannot learn it, attend courses of creativity, singing classes, painting workshops. You can delude yourself that you will surpass your masters, but only those who have it have a chance for a career. The world, however, is paved with bad intentions and people borrow what does not belong to them. What if the person whom you trusted the most happened to use your talent to their advantage? Is it easy to break the circle of lies and find your own voice? Why is it so difficult for a sensitive soul to stand by her art and why so many obedient wives are easily deceived? Based on facts, a story about a marriage. Big Eyes.

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

action 08:46:00

Almost all of us fell for it. The magic of Hollywood, the purchase of the illusion, the dream. I used to kiss farewell the screen of a TV set after each memorable film ended, hoping to see it again, a five-year-old's tribute to the hard work of fantasy makers. But the film is not just the 2-hour story cut by advertisements for us to watch, devouring on popcorn. It's the outcome of hundreds of hours of work, rehearsals, break-downs, tabloid registered ups and downs, scandals, the pain of being forgotten and a whole lot of personal drama going on in the meantime.

In 1969 the wife of our Polish Roman Polanski, the actress Sharon Tate, and her friends were murdered by Charles Manson's gang, creating for eternity a trauma in Hollywood's history, a myth equaled with Marylin Monroe's death. This is the compilation of events that led to this tragedy. Or is it? Hilarious, action-filled, and entertaining on so many levels. Can it get any better? Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

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Ghost

career 03:45:00

The lifeline on the palm of your hand can have its breaks, forks or sudden dead ends. You can never tell whether your life will be long or surprisingly short due to disease, accident, or tragedy. Sudden death is something which no one wishes for themselves, but it happens despite the wishful thinking and hopes for the best. Do you believe in life after death? Or is it the end of your journey, blank darkness without sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings? But what if your out-of-the-blue departure was a part of a bigger plot and you remained among the living to finish one more unfinished business? One of a kind Patrick Swayze as Ghost. Enjoy.

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The Wife

career 10:12:00

Behind every strong man stands a woman of double strength. It is her role to take care of the family and her husband's success. She stands politely in the shadow when her partner gets standing ovations, receives awards, and puts a mark behind his name in the pages of history. Doesn't she have the right to be a little bit frustrated, being omitted in this praising process and pushed into the insignificance? Or maybe her devotion reaches way further than ironing shirts and laying the table? And what if her husband receives The Nobel Prize for the lifetime work and her only role is to be there and watch? The Wife.

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French Women/Sous les jupes des filles

accident 11:16:00

In Jane Austen's times the fate of a woman was pretty direct: either to get married to a man with a suitable income or "enjoy" the pleasures of spinsterhood, being a burden for parents. Nowadays options are pretty infinite. You can be a business mogul, a wife, and a mother, a lover, or someone who finally discovered their true desires and has the guts to turn passion into a reality. It's also a great time to question choices made, relationships entered into, and despite the age and life stage, start something new. And which women to admire when it comes to sexual liberation and self-fulfillment? French Women. Enjoy.

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Isn't It Romantic

accident 11:13:00

For decades we have been watching the prettiest girl falling in love with the most handsome man. We have been spoilt by the story of Cinderella, we blindly believed that Prince is the best possible option, we got enchanted by the promise of eternal love and a happy ending. And then, we were left distraught when this handsome, intelligent, popular man turned out to be an idiot and we were left with another of his illegitimate child, another loan to pay, and another self-esteem to build from the ashes of a failed relationship. We invested in the glitter and missed the gold. How to get rid of the fairy tale and appreciate the reality? How to write your own happy ending and, instead of a fairy godmother, be the master of your own fate? Isn't It Romantic. Enjoy.