We are all guilty of some crime. Weren't you fantasizing about your teachers from the safe space of you class desk? Haven't you stolen someone's friend, boyfriend or girlfriend, turning this person later on into your best friend or the love of your life? Haven't you been in a relationship that was disapproved by your family, community, and your closest friends? Didn't you even once commit a sin of falling desperately in love with someone despite the fear of consequences? The taste of forbidden fruit let many into despair, unhappiness, and madness. All theory of your strong will and education can be helpless when faced with a need to love, desire and be loved in return. Even if this love comes from an underage nymphet. Based on Vladimir Nabokov's novel, a story about a man who lost the battle with desire. Lolita.
Kids are very often wittier and more responsible than their parents. They can also notice things that adults are too blinded to pay attention to. Adults are lured by the respect, they don't suspect that someone who has a good job and is known for years in the social circles of acceptance can engage in terrible crimes. And then grown-ups are likely to be surprised when the worst is exposed in newspaper headlines. Children are less prejudiced. They don't know the value of money, the importance of prestige. They intuitively know who is right and who is wrong. But can you follow the plan of a child, who is no longer there? Can you believe in the words of a child over the statement of an adult? The Book of Henry.
What makes a perfect villain? Why all of a sudden you hate so much that you want to destroy everybody else? Why years of humiliation bring about the worst in people and deprive them of their conscience? My two favorite villain characters: Catwoman: an assistant not appreciated by the bossy dishonest boss and the Penguin: a child rejected by his parents for appalling looks. The first one turning from a helpless spinster into sexy, indestructible power woman, the second switching from a hideous underground creature into a seemingly respectable and popular man. An epitome of unappreciated women who finally find their strength to rebel and burst the bubble of not being noticed, and successful outcasts who overcome the years of high school and family humiliation. Does it matter that they are a little bit evil? A nineties' classic and a part in the whole series of Batman enterprise. Enjoy.
Is love just an illusion? Does it allow you to be blinded, to not see what can be easily seen by others? Is it just a game which makes you besotted with the concept and far away from seeing the truth? In the oriental world of Chinese changing policy, in the realm of businesses and goods exchange, there was a man who fell in love with art, music, culture, tradition, and a woman. When you fall for the timbre of one's voice, the softness of skin, the color of the eyes, it's not really that strange. Love's deception can fool the smartest of men. With a twist, M. Butterfly.
You know with these monster creatures, they have been known for centuries and you cannot be really sure if they are real or just a figment of someone's imagination. Possibly they appeared in your dreams, were part of your complex doll and Lego blocks games, or were the characters of horror books and gothic tales which you read holding a torch under a duvet. Would you swear, though, that they aren't a part of the real world? Maybe a video footage will help you believe in what you tend to doubt. Maybe a trip to far-flung Transylvania will be of use? Maybe a face to face encounter with the above-mentioned monster will help you understand. But can you, in modern times, believe in Frankenstein, vampires, werewolves, and other mysterious creatures or is it a scheme of a wicked mind? Transylvania 6-5000.
Imagine you wake up one day without your daily dose of entertainment, you have no clothes to compare with your friends, there's no fast food restaurant that you can pop in and satisfy your cravings. Imagine that you opposed the rules of civilization, the temptations of money and the change of culture. Imagine that you are a part of the tribe. Can pristine traditions and old rules survive for the sake of preserving the unspoiled paradise that has slowly been eradicated from the surface? Can you, in the 21st century, still hunt, gather and obey the elderly against your will? Or is it time to oppose and move forward, leaving the tradition behind? An amazing cinematic adventure for those you don't find the inventions of last centuries indispensable. A love story: Tanna.
When I was growing up it was Gemma Ward, Lily Cole and Natalia Vodianova whom we admired for beauty and figure. All of them grew up, some devoted their lives to motherhood others can be still seen in the spotlight. The next generation came with Instagram sensations: Gigi and Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, plus size beauties and Disney stars. Let's wait ten years and see what other young beautiful women we will admire and what type of beauty will be in fashion. Even Calvin Klein decided to reuse the image of blissfully young Kate Moss for his perfume campaign as if her youth was eternal and current Kate Moss was just an older sister of her previous self. We are all obsessed with beauty and youth. Yet, we will all grow old, have our faces covered in wrinkles, have our asses and breasts drop a few inches, have our teeth fall and, even having all the money in the world, we won't stop the passing of time. But if there was a magic potion for stopping time and aging process? Can something go wrong once you want to live forever? A still relevant film with so much younger Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis. Isn't it a little bit ridiculous to be young at all cost and shouldn't we grow old with grace? Death Becomes Her.
The rise of the world population is now a fact. There are going to be more and more people. Remember this year and count us in twenty, thirty or fifty years from now. Will there be enough food to feed each and every mouth, will we have enough resources to heat our houses, start cars and public transport, and finally will there be enough places to house all of us, especially when some big cities are even now undergoing a big housing crisis? In China, there was a one child policy when the government tried to keep control over the number of people. Will it be our fate or the fate of our families to be reduced to only one offspring? Now, when you'd rather get social benefits for extra children, is it possible that some time from now you will be punished for wanting to have a bigger family? A probable concept in a hostile world when someone was brave enough to break the rules. What Happened to Monday.
Death is inevitable. Is sure like taxes. She will meet all of us one special day, whether unexpected or long awaited. And the thin line between the known and the unknown will be crossed to welcome us to a different reality. Will it be heaven or hell? Maybe there will be emptiness, nothingness, and void. Maybe there will be another life, another possibility and an endless number of configurations between space, time, race, and religion. Or maybe we will stay here until our unfinished business is finished and we can finally let go of those whom we loved, and those who we loved will say their last goodbyes to us. There was once a little boy who was able to see more than just the world of the living. But, is it that great to be forced into having The Sixth Sense? Are dead more alive than the living and can you really be sure on which side of the line you happen to be?
It's really difficult sometimes to distinguish a victim from a villain. You're not so much of a criminal when your status changes, when there is money involved, when you accomplish something in your life, when you have a career to lose or when you live in a civilized country as a representative of its civilized society. It seems, then, that using someone less experienced and naive for your pleasure is not such a big deal. Are you any better than those who brutally kill and rape? Should you feel guilty for taking advantage of your situation if you're a boss, a husband or a friend and you suddenly feel uninhibited pangs of lust? What should be the punishment for one of the most brutal crimes and why in so many countries men get away with the guilt and punishment, and the woman is to blame? And why years of slavery and apartheid bite back in a different form of segregation, hatred, and brutality? Katie Melua sang:
If a black man is racist, is it okay? When it's the white man's racism that made him that way,
Why people hate for being less privileged and are not afraid to take what was once taken from them? And what if your crime was more or less the same as the one committed by those who you wholeheartedly despise? Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner, John Maxwell Coeztee, Disgrace.
There was once a pair of unbelievably different characters who could cooperate surprisingly well together. One: short, funny and witty. The other one: tall, muscular and naive. This duo starred in two films, which fell into the history of entertainment, making it difficult for anybody to repeat the act. Let's imagine a medical experiment, which in some ways got wrong and produced a perfect baby and a baby less ideal. Is it possible to build a family with someone, whom we meet after years of total separation? Let's imagine the same duo in a not yet fulfilled concept of a man being pregnant with a baby. Possible only with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a whole bowl of popcorn.
Racial inequality hasn't disappeared overnight. It was a long process and it required years of suppressed anger, the outbursts of which changed the ways of things. It was hard to oppose the ruling power, it was life-threatening to act according to one's conscience and against the norms. It also took years and unity to build a reasonable and consequent front against inequality, discrimination, and fear. The fact that we all now travel in the same buses, can eat in the same restaurant and have the same voting rights wasn't just a gift from fate. It was a long journey of sacrifice and determination. But let's be honest, in all aspects of equality (when it comes to race, sex, class, and religion) we are in the middle of the journey. A film about a man, whose life imprisonment changed the history of Africa. South African revolutionary: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Families. We usually look better together in the pictures if we look good at all. Try to have a family business and you will feel deceived, robbed and used by your sweet, reliable relatives. Try to have any kind of relationship and you are going to be judged: a younger man? an older woman? a different religion? God forbid, a different race! All your life choices are going to be subjected to criticism, all professional and personal failures reminded you now and again over endless systematic get-togethers. Who will make you ashamed as deeply as your family members only can, criticizing your clothes, figure, lifestyle, children, the lack of children, your fears, phobias, and traumas? Well, nothing better than to meet at the same table to reopen old wounds and make yourself feel miserable once again. For those with screwed-up families, full of unspoken grudges and hurt feelings: August: Osage County. For others, just enjoy your pictures and warm memories.
Imagine, there are over 7 billion people in the world, each and everyone has a story to tell, having experienced pain and limited by inhibitions of fear, whether it is a fear of the past, people in general, travel or forming a relationship. Sometimes you need a piece of magic to take individuals out of their comfort zones and push them beyond their limits. Imagine Paris with its collection of old and new, imagine a little charming cafe where people flirt under the cover of indifference, imagine Montmartre with its views and imagine people who need a helping hand to forget about their inhibitions and finally start living. A French classic: Amélie.
Sometimes you just have had enough. Your husband mistreats you, you're tired of being a slave for your family. That's it. You've had it up to here. Being born a woman always meant that you're being somewhat abused: by your partner, by all those guys in the street who treat you as a piece of meat, by years of lower salaries and infuriatingly lower status on the scale of human respect. You just want to have fun. Fun, however, can be quite unpredictable. You wouldn't picture it as getting into serious trouble, involving weapons, murder, and theft. You wouldn't picture it as losing everything and having nothing to lose. An epitome of feminism and a really good film, which generations of women will remember for decades, Thelma&Louise.
Having the best of all worlds doesn't always guarantee the best life. Having money, access to the most prestigious schools, expensive fashionable clothes, and gourmet restaurant food does not mean that you are a better parent, a better partner and a better person. Wealth taught us to reevaluate things. To perceive ourselves better than others and to have a lifestyle which is just the second version of life we used to live. You used to go for a walk, now you do yoga. You used to eat rice, corn, and potatoes, now it's chia seeds and kale in your avocado salad. Money takes your time from being the best possible version of yourself, making you engage in a variety of bizarre activities and teach your children that material things and physical appearance are more important than trust, love, and sense of security. From the perspective of a newcomer (a working immigrant and a nanny) comes the portrait of two a little bit disturbed families, which somewhere along the way got lost. A barrage of criticism for the American culture, Western lifestyle and middle-class upbringing. And two really warm and funny movies. The Nanny Diaries and Spanglish.
Do you believe in fate? Were you in the right place at the right time to get a job, find the love of your life or win the lottery ticket? Or maybe there were circumstances which prevented you from receiving what should be rightly yours in the first place? Have you missed something in life? Was it a date that you weren't able to arrive at? Was it a secret crush that was stolen from you by a more brave, more quick man and it was all lost before you noticed? Was it the whole life, future, and family happiness? It's easy to hate those who deprived us of our happiness but is it easy to deal with the happiness of those you love? The heart-breaking story of three people in love. Three Hearts.
The problem with serial killers, rapists and robbers is that they can be someone you love and trust, they may be your friend's relative and they might actually pop up in your house whenever they want, making you the victim of circumstances. Be careful. Look around. Add sounds, notes, and coincidences. Put all the little insignificant pieces to the puzzle and discover who is responsible. Some people have secrets which are difficult to eradicate and once you start committing crimes it may be impossible to stop. One woman engagement in quite a complicated love affair shows you that no family relations are really that easy. Plus, the humor of Pedro Almodovar makes it the whole package.
Sometimes you cannot fall any lower. In the hierarchy of social downfall, there are states that place you in a total moral degeneration. Alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, homelessness. Do you hit rock bottom to jump back to rescue yourself? Or do you fall, slowly deteriorating into the abyss of darkness and pain? Can two people: an alcoholic with the blind aim of killing himself and a prostitute, who cannot see life away from the business, build something beautiful? Can you change because of love or does love mean that you are accepted the way you are? In times when rich and glamorous are on the covers of magazines, making us forget about world pain, poverty and dirt, there were two people who found themselves at the right moment. Leaving Las Vegas.
Schools for girls seem to follow a very similar pattern. Institutions are run by women who have long forgotten that they were girls themselves. There are inspiring and friendly teachers and teachers who want to follow the rules of conduct. Girls want to have fun, dream about a great love story, are passionate about poetry and music. In this environment of innocence and beauty, some unexplained higher power has it easy to stretch its greedy arms and play. It makes people disappear and causes mass loss of consciousness. Two different epochs, two mysterious events and unexplained forces. Unsuspecting students are thrown into the consequences of loss, death, and grief. What a difference it makes to be a student back in the beginning of the twentieth century and now. Can you find a reasonable explanation for all things beyond the reason? Picnic at Hanging Rock/The Falling.






















