“I can’t imagine a worse thing than getting old”

Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries is (somewhat correctly) noted as being one of his most optimistic films, yet, as with much of the great Swedish director’s body of work, its themes are not entirely clear-cut. Wild Strawberries is, in this regard, one of Bergman’s more simplistic films, but it’s also one of the greatest works of his career.

The film follows Isak, a stubborn 78 year old doctor, as he travels across country to be given an honorary doctorate to mark his fifty year contribution to medicine. Along the way, he is confronted by the mistakes he made with his family and strives to change his ways.  

Wild Strawberries is a film set up much like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It follows the reaffirmation of a man who is respected but not loved. But the difference is that Bergman never explicitly shows Isak’s mistakes and flaws like Dickens does Ebenezer Scrooge. His parental failures are mentioned in passing, but only the good sides of his personality are placed on the screen, and this biased depiction of the character allows us to sympathise more with his plight.

It is this simple fact that makes Wild Strawberries a very different film to, say, The Seventh Seal, Bergman’s other film from 1957. Wild Strawberries opens with a man shrouded in bitterness, loneliness and resignation, and documents his reaffirmation of life; The Seventh Seal, on the other hand, opens with disillusioned yet shrewd man who believes he can save his own life by beating Death in a game of chess, which he cannot do. 

This is not to say that Wild Strawberries is a better film - both are extraordinary - but it is a film that shows Bergman in unusually optimistic spirits, and one that cements his status as one of cinema’s truest artists. 

Simultaneously depressing and uplifting, Wild Strawberries is not just an existential road movie, but the existential road movie, and justifiably one of Bergman’s most celebrated cinematic achievements. 

“You wanna get out of here? I can take you somewhere”

It starts with a wait on a cold subway platform in New York. A well dressed, attractive man boards a train. He makes and sustains eye contact with an attractive young woman – the wedding ring on her finger making no difference to his approach. As she gets up to leave, he leaves, and he chases her through a crowded station as the music swells. This is Brandon, and he’s a sex addict.

And this is Shame, Steve McQueen’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut, Hunger. Much like his debut, Shameis an intensive character study of a man on the edge, this time setting the story in New York City rather than a prison in Northern Ireland, and studying a well adjusted sex addict instead of a hunger striking political activist.

McQueen paints Brandon as a seemingly well-rounded citizen: he has a great job, an apartment, and looks to be a relatively nice guy, yet in private he’s a cold, mechanical man with one thing on his mind; sex. His computer at work is “filthy”, as is his home computer, he has a stash of dirty magazines strewn around his apartment, and he masturbates at work. But, interestingly, while doing so he seems distant, ghosting through his various encounters as if they’ve become second nature to him.

It’s this ghosting that McQueen seems to focus on in his direction, placing Brandon in an eerily evocative environment. The impersonal nature of New York and the colourless walls of his apartment all reflect his passive lifestyle. By carefully choosing everything from the colour of his clothes to the colour of the walls, McQueen is able to build upon the languid and hypnotic quality he sets up so diligently in the film’s beautiful style - lingering camerawork, ironically romantic music and a Haneke style disconnect from the character.

Haneke’sThe Piano Teacher seems an obvious reference point for Shame, as it deals with sexuality in a similarly detached way. Isabelle Huppert’s Erika explores the deviant sides of her sexuality in a way reminiscent of Michael Fassbender’s Brandon. The only difference is that The Piano Teacher looks at sex as something to be feared; Erika’s complex, abusive relationship with her mother fuels her repression and subsequent anarchic sexual exploration, while Brandon functions in a world where sex is the norm. This is where the film’s problem lies: A film about a sex addict immersed in a world of sex simply cannot deliver a cathartic resolution; only an intense yet unfulfilled observation, and this is true of Shame.

AsThe Piano Teacher is about an insatiable desire for sex in a sexless environment, it leaves the audience with some kind of catharsis, whereas Shame simply does not. Brandon’s routine is not hindered by the actions of those around him, particularly his sister, whose possibly abusive childhood has left her emotionally unstable and dependant on others, for a second, and even when he shows signs of change, it never arrives.

It’s isn’t until the final scene that we see that his routine isn't even a routine at all, but rather a cycle, and his addiction is so entrenched within his personality that not even his sister’s desperate cries for help register in his hypersexualised mind. He simply continues as he did before; discreetly and mechanically, and we are left with the realisation that, in spite of everything, nothing has changed at all. 

“I want you to help me catch a killer of women”

Cold and calculated; two words that could be used to label American director David Fincher, the man who made two of the great films of the past ten years, in ZodiacandThe Social Network, and the man who made Fight Club, one of the best films of all time. His latest project, an adaptation of Steig Larsson’s best-selling novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, however, marks his first mis-step since 2008 – albeit a very slight one.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo follows Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist, as he investigates the murder of a Swedish businessman’s grand-niece with Lisbeth Salander, a prodigious computer hacker and investigator whose traumatic childhood has made her hostile to society. As the two investigate the murder, they stumble upon something far more sinister than they could have imagined.

If there’s a flaw in the film it’s in the character of Lisbeth Salander, a wildly exaggerated caricature of an outsider. Her black clothes, dramatic hairstyles, fuck you attitude and love for tattoos all make for a very stereotypical perception of what disillusioned youth looks like, and embodies everything that the middle aged middle class fear about young people. This is something that was unavoidable due to the heavy-handed nature of the character in Larsson’s novel, and is no reflection on Rooney Mara’s depiction of the character – she’s only doing what’s required and she does so very well – but Fincher seems to exaggerate it further, making Lisbeth wear a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “fuck you you fucking fuck”, for example. It’s unusually heavy-handed for Fincher, and something that occurs sporadically throughout the film. The rape scenes, for example, are unnecessary and gratuitous, and serve no other purpose than to hammer home what we already know - Lisbeth hates society as much as society hates her.

Still, it’s not all bad, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is far better than its flaws suggest. The mystery at its centre is always fascinating, and Fincher’s meticulous visual style works wonderfully when transposed to snowbound Sweden. Of course, there are certainly going to be comparisons to the Swedish original as it’s so fresh in the mind, and, admittedly, much of the film feels familiar, but Fincher’s film feels more streamlined that Niels Arden Oplev’s original, and is certainly a far more rewarding experience.

It stands as testament to Fincher that even when he’s off his game he can make something so great, and, even in spite of its many flaws, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is an elegant, ferocious film that only enhances David Fincher’s reputation as one of Hollywood’s best working directors.

“Nothing is what it seems”

For a film often touted as one of the best British movies of all time, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is, at least on paper, a relatively surprising choice – just look at the towering achievement of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes, or the grandeur and scale of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia; a huge number of films pale in comparison to two of the best films ever made.So what is it about Roeg’s film that on the same level as the best of British cinema?

Firstly, and quite simply, there aren’t many films that can claim to be as meticulously crafted as Don’t Look Now, and, in terms of technical skill, Roeg’s film is something of a masterclass. Squeezing tension from even the most mundane situations, such as the eerily prescient toy soldier Christine is playing with before her tragic death (“fall in”), Roeg manages to keep a deeply unsettling atmosphere running throughout the film from the opening sequence to the final credits. And what an opening it is, too. Roeg kicks the story off in dramatic style (an opening that Lars Von Trier surely drew influence from for Antichrist) with the tragic death of a little girl in a vivid red plastic coat.

This coat will be seen sporadically later on as John, the young girl’s father, is plagued by visions of his late daughter while working in overcast Venice. Are his wife’s obsessive attempts to speak to their daughter through a psychic eating away at his sanity? Or does he have psychic abilities himself? Either way, he’s not sure what’s going on in Venice, and he wants to know – and this inquisitive self-doubt is imbued in the audience; we want to know what’s going on as much as John does. But even the most invested of audiences would struggle to predict the grizzly outcome of this beautifully made story.

Don’t Look Now is a ghost story where even the ghosts aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem, as well as a film driven towards its devastating conclusion by a combination of smoke, mirrors, and a vivid red plastic coat. It truly is one of the greats.

“You speak to me in words and I look at you with feelings”

There was a period in the mid-1960’s in which some of the biggest names in European cinema began to experiment with colour in their films – Antonioni, Fellini, and Demy all produced some of the finest work of their careers in this time. But none of these arthouse icons used colour as flamboyantly as Jean-Luc Godard did in his 1965 film, Pierrot le Fou.

The film follows Ferdinand, a recently unemployed man bored with his bourgeois lifestyle. A few years after meeting Marianne, a babysitter, he runs away with her to lead a nomadic life of crime and free living.

Pierrot le Fou is essentially a cinematic work of pop-art: bold, garish colours, free-form storytelling, absurd subject matter, and a complete disregard for convention and cliche. Of course, this kind of cinematic anarchy has always been Godard’s prerogative, but never has it been delivered so boldly and abrasively as in Pierrot le Fou.

The colour is, predictably, the most obvious point of entry to the anarchy of Godard’s film. It’s not his first colour film (A Woman is a Woman was his first, four years earlier) but it’s certainly the film in which the colour is used so blatantly. He shoots Pierrot le Fou in cartoonish shades of red and blue, symbolic of the farcical Bonnie and Clyde style storyline underneath it all, lending it a wildly absurd tone. Godard gives the impression that this is a film not to be taken too seriously, when, in reality, we should be doing the exact opposite.

The comical tone and primary colours are masking what is a rather violent criminal story. Marianne and Ferdinand are on the run after committing a string of murders and robberies, and they live an exciting, dangerous life. But the vibrant colours and many of their crazy actions (Marianne punches a man in the same way as she saw in Laurel and Hardy, for example) go a long way to contradict the violence.

IsPierrot le Fou Godard’s comment on desensitisation? Is it a parody of commercialism and pop culture? It could easily be a number of things, or, just as easily, none of them. The only thing that’s definite here is that this is a completely ridiculous and utterly wonderful film, and one that is more than deserving of your attention.

“You must close your eyes, otherwise you won’t see anything”

Alice in Wonderland is often considered a story for children, especially considering its most famous film adaptation was made at the height of Disney’s powers. Czech animator Jan Svankmajer’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s novel, Alice, however, is far from child friendly.

Alice isn’t a by-the-numbers adaptation of Carroll’s novel; far from it. What it is, however, is Carroll’s world painted in Svankmajer’s sinister way, and what it lacks in faithfulness, it more than makes up for in inventiveness. Alice is a radically different take on the source material, with Svankmajer instead using the novel as a springboard to explore the nightmarish world contained within its pages. He focuses on developing scenes rather than narrative drive and imagery instead of dialogue, leaving Alice’s wonderland as something far more interesting than previous adaptations; a world of explicit chaos, illogicality, and fear - evocative of Alice’s own mind while she’s trapped in wonderland. 

Svankmajer’sAlice is the most substantial adaptation of Carroll’s story yet. 

“Computer, define dancing”

Andrew Stanton’s WALL-E is undoubtedly Pixar’s boldest film to date. It has virtually no dialogue, and its main character is a robot stranded on a post-apocalyptic Earth. That’s a hell of a sell. But Pixar always seem to make it work, and, with WALL-E, the studio have created their greatest film to date – at least half of one.

The silent Earth sequences of the film are fantastic, fleshing out the charisma of WALL-E through a series of actions – keeping a cockroach as a pet, watching old romantic movies on an iPod, finding a diamond ring and being more impressed with the box. Every one of these moments add to his likeability, and helps set WALL-E up as a character to root for. Of course, we do, and this makes the central relationship of the film, between WALL-E and EVE, all the more satisfying – in fact, it’s one of the great modern romances, animated or otherwise, and this is surely down to the character of the little robot.

Sadly, once the characters leave Earth, WALL-E succumbs to the need to be accessible to children. Although it doesn’t go as far as, say, Up in this regard, the genericism of the film’s second half, particularly the “return to Earth” storyline, gets in the way of the great romance between the two leads. It is addressed (the “fire extinguisher spacewalk” is one of cinema’s most romantic animated sequences) but never with the same consistency or virtuosity as in the beginning. It’s a shame, but the bad never outweighs the good, and WALL-E is a consistently entertaining and highly imaginative film – it’s not Pixar’s best, but it’s certainly one of their better works.

It’s hard to deny that, given a free-rein, Pixar are capable of true greatness. But, for now, with the directors tightly reined in , we’ll just have to settle for films like WALL-E. And considering how good a film WALL-E is, that isn’t too much of an issue, is it?

Livin’ like Neo

SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT. Hearing these words repeat ominously as I watched my glorious replay after completing a level in SUPERHOT gave me a strange sense of power and satisfaction. SUPERHOTmade me feel like an unstoppable badass by the end of its levels which were both challenging and interesting to play through. It’s too bad then that the game ends far too soon and never really…

View On WordPress

littlespacereviews:

Problem!

So unfortunately I have to push back the order for the winners of my giveaway as my paycheck was very small this week due to my bills.

Please visit my patreon to avoid such problems in the future. I don’t ask for a lot, only a single dollar. Remember this money goes back into rewards and things for you guys!! I’m trying to do my best for people in this lifestyle!

Please visit my patreon, LittleSpaceReviews, to donate for great rewards. These donations go straight to my review blog to help with paying for the rewards for giveaways as well as reviewing things. I only ask for a single dollar, but you can always donate more!

Ardie’s2020

I just bought the cookies n cream flavor… It’s too sweet for my taste it feels like I’m cheating lol Next time I’m gonna use more spinach to balance the flavor, as i said too sweet for me. I’m not buying it again, I was using the chocolate flavor and it was fine , less sweet, sometime i felt like adding more fruit. Have you tried other flavors ? what’s your favorite? I’m gonna use it anyways lol I can’t afford to trow away 52€ Don’t get me wrong it tasted great, i have a sweet tooth but i’m afraid it will rise my insulin levels even tho it’s artificially sweetened , but still. I’m not an expert not even close, I’ll finish it and than I’ll get a rest from Whey protein. Newt time I’ll try other brand more natural, I’m trying yo regulate my crazy ass hormones while getting fit & beating binging eating habit of mine.

pardon my grammar blah blah blah ( don’t judge)

KylieSkin Lip Oil Review

My very first Kylieskin product! Yay!

The KylieSkin Lip Oil looks like a gloss, applies like a gloss and, unlike many other Lip Oils and related lip products, doesn’t feel sticky at all. Personally, I think that’s a big plus, since I really don’t like big, glossy, sticky lips. The wind, blowing your hair against your sticky lips when going outside is so annoying!

This Lip Oil has a subtle and pleasant but slightly chemical coconut scent and comes in a small, beautifully designed glass tube. The applicator is soft, fluffy and big. On the downside, it’s actually a bit too big, taking up almost the entire inside space of the tube, not exactly giving you value for your money that way. Plus, it isn’t really convenient to get the applicator out of the tube. The applicator does feel pleasant and soft on the lips while applying the oil though. The large size of the applicator does make it easy to apply and spread the oil, but also comes with quite a bit of excess product, while you don’t really need that much.

I usually use this Lip Oil in the evening, before going to bed, to give the oil enough time to fully absorb and to optimally care for my lips, giving me the ability to start my day with soft, cared and hydrated lips in the morning, but since the oil also gives a nice shine, it sure can be used like a lip gloss during the daytime hours too. After applying this Lip Oil, my lips feel soft, hydrated and intensely nourished, without feeling sticky. I’m rocking a subtle shine and dry lips and flaky skin are a thing of the past. I personally didn’t experience the promised plumping effect, but I already have fairly full lips and I’m not exactly looking for that Kardashian pout right now!

I am satisfied with the KylieSkin Lip Oil, which is vegan and contains Vitamin E in addition to coconut oil, but I do believe that there are balms and oils that do the same job while being cheaper. That, in combination with the enormous applicator and the small amount of product inside the very small tube, gains this lip oil 4 stars for now. It’s definitely not bad, but not the very best either.

Question:

What’s your favorite lip product?

Biotherm Blue Therapy Uplift Day Review

Hi guys,

As a Pafumado tester, I was sent a sample of the Biotherm Blue Therapy Uplift Day and I can’t wait to share my results with you!

The Blue Therapy Uplift Day Cream, containing ingredients like Red Algae and Collagen Peptide, promises to make fine lines and wrinkles less visible, while lifting and firming the skin.

This rose colored cream applies easily and smooth, thanks to the pleasant gel like texture and absorbs quickly, without leaving a greasy feeling.

During application, the cream feels not greasy at all and after application, my skin feels really soft, firm and hydrated. Any fine lines and wrinkles around my eyes area are looking slightly less visible and I’m rocking this healthy looking glow all day.

My skin wasn’t feeling irritated and I didn’t get any outbreaks after using it.

For a really optimal result you have to use this cream for longer, but even during my short testing period, I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

The cream smells pleasant and not too powdery. It is quite a subtle fragrance which is not too present or too heavy. Also, the scent fades away quite fast.

From what I’ve seen from the packaging online, the cream typically comes in a gorgeous and luxurious looking red colored glass jar but I obviously received the sample version, which is a small white tube with a red cap. But the full size packaging is looking really nice and will definitely earn it’s spot in your bathroom or on top of your vanity table.

I highly recommend the Biotherm Blue Therapy Uplift Day Cream!

A huge thanks to Biotherm and Parfumado! ❤️

Nutraskin Collagen Drink review

Hi guys,

Another year has passed! And a new year has started, yet again! This is the last year I willl be celebrating my thirties because next year, I will be a women in her forties! Can you imagine? Anyway, that made me wonder, what’s your age? I know, I can check my statistics, but that’s quite general. It’s more fun to be able to add an age to your face!

Talking about age, my fine lines and wrinkles are getting more visible every day, so it’s about time to put a hold to that! In addition to my new anti-aging skincare routine (more on that later!), I also started to take the Nutraskin Collagen Drink, to help my skin to maintain a more youthful look.

Collagen is a substance produced by the body itself, found in our hair, nails, muscles and skin. When we get older, the collagen production decreases, resulting in less elasticity, causing wrinkles and lines. Taking collagen supplements doesn’t just improves the skin, it also improves the condition of hair and nails and can help you to minimize the visibility of cellulitis.

NutraSkin contains 7,5 gr Verisol and Vitamin C and the collagen powder arrives in easy to use individually packed sachets. One sachet a day, dissolved in a glass of water, tea or juice, is all you need to maintain a youthful and healthy, plump looking skin. The powder doesn’t have any scent or taste and it’s easy to use and drink. You just have to make sure to use room temperatured drinks because in cold drinks, the powder doesn’t dissolve that easily. When using room temperatured liquids, the powder does dissolve quickly and completely.

After using NutraSkin for a few weeks now, I don’t really notice much changes in the lines and wrinkles departement, but I do notice that my skin is feeling more plump and firm and looks healthy. My skin feels really soft and hydrated too. Any changes in lines and wrinkles should be visible after a month or two. The only downside is the fact that NutraSkin isn’t vegan friendly, since the collagen powder is derived from bovines. But other than that, I’m really satisfied and definitely will keep taking my daily sachet! ❤

Question:

What do you prefer to use to keep and maintain your youthful and healthy glow?

Get your own box of Collagen Drink by clicking the link below!

Nutraskin shop

A huge thanks to NutraSkin for giving me this opportunity! ❤️

Max Factor Facefinity All Day Flawless 3-in-1 Foundation Review

Hi guys,

I was able to test and review the Max Factor Facefinity All Day Flawless 3-in-1 Foundation in the shade 35, Pearl Beige, known for the television ad with Priyanka Chapra, and I’m ready to share my thoughts with you!

This 3-in-1 foundation works as a foundation, a concealer and a primer and has SPF20, so it’s quite a multifunctional product which is perfect for very busy ladies. It’s quite liquid and has a very lightwheighted texture that provides a licht coverage. I absolutely don’t mind the liquid texture and light coverage because it makes it easy to apply and blend in and it almost feels like you’re not wearing make up at all. You just have to make sure to shake the bottle well before using it.

After applying it, small blemishes, enlarged pores and red spots are less visible and my skin looks nicely matte and flawless but still natural. The only thing I don’t like is how it makes my skin feel. It does make my skin feel very dry which doesn’t really contributes to the “not wearing any make up at all” feeling I mentioned earlier. Too bad because if it didn’t make my skin feel that dry, it would be the perfect product!

It has that typical, slightly powdery foundation scent, not bad but no roses and flowers either! The scent isn’t that longlasting though so it definitely is not irritating. The foundation itself does have a longlasting effect and it doesn’t looks cakey, which is a huge pro!

This foundation is vegan and the glass bottle and gold details give it a luxurious look.

I’m really happy with the results and definitely recommend this product to everyone who’s looking for a foundation with light coverage and a natural result!

Join me in testing and reviewing products and giving your honest opinions at We Are Eves now! Click the link below!

We Are Eves. Lees 100% eerlijke cosmetica reviews.

Thanks to We Are Eves and Max Factor for giving me this opportunity! ❤