A. Dissonant. Approach. To. The. Schizophrenic.
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This is a beautiful, beautiful film.
Unsentimental. Extreme. Distant.
******
CLEAN, SHAVEN [1993] NAIL SCENE...
... and more
A. Dissonant. Approach. To. The. Schizophrenic.
This is a beautiful, beautiful film.
Unsentimental. Extreme. Distant.
******
A. Dissonant. Approach. To. The. Schizophrenic.
This is a beautiful, beautiful film.
Unsentimental. Extreme. Distant.
******
Sunday Morning Madness
hodgepodge
a scene from Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven [1993]
It's Sunday morning, I couldn't sleep nor i couldn't talk that much. I have just watched a disturbing but beautiful film Clean, Shaven (1993) by Lodge Kerrigan. It throws me out of my seat and locked my jaw like a zombie, if that is the best way to put it.
(READ Dennis Lim's analysis)
***
Ipil Residence Hall, my dormitory, just finished celebrating its semester ender with a cocktail party. I managed to consume six glasses of Vodka concentrated pineapple juice (or Pineapple juice concentrated Vodka whichever you put it) It's alcohol so i blogged about it.
***
Fable [link], a computer RPG, is taking over my life. I had been planning to watch films for the whole weekend but i did not. I should have watched...
1) Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
2) Chunking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)
3) M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
4) Michael (Charles Th. Dreyer, 1929) - (I still haven't got hold of this. It's my first silent film)
What i have watched recently:
1) Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997)
2) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
3) Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1993)
4) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
5) Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
6) El Orfanato (Guillermo del Toro, 2007)
7) Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, 2004)
8) Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
In any case i would still watched the film that i mentioned above today. Gosh! it's 3 PM and Manuel is dozing off at my bed.
***
Lec said awhile ago: "Movies are a good investment." and i don't know what he really meant by that.
***
March 29, 2009 - Say goodbye to the Dormitory LAN internet. Say hello to WIFI-at-the-lobby internet. Such a pain in the ass!
Good night!
zzzzzzzzzzz
***
a scene from Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven [1993]
It's Sunday morning, I couldn't sleep nor i couldn't talk that much. I have just watched a disturbing but beautiful film Clean, Shaven (1993) by Lodge Kerrigan. It throws me out of my seat and locked my jaw like a zombie, if that is the best way to put it.
(READ Dennis Lim's analysis)
***
Ipil Residence Hall, my dormitory, just finished celebrating its semester ender with a cocktail party. I managed to consume six glasses of Vodka concentrated pineapple juice (or Pineapple juice concentrated Vodka whichever you put it) It's alcohol so i blogged about it.
***
Fable [link], a computer RPG, is taking over my life. I had been planning to watch films for the whole weekend but i did not. I should have watched...
1) Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
2) Chunking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)
3) M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
4) Michael (Charles Th. Dreyer, 1929) - (I still haven't got hold of this. It's my first silent film)
What i have watched recently:
1) Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997)
2) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
3) Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1993)
4) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
5) Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
6) El Orfanato (Guillermo del Toro, 2007)
7) Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, 2004)
8) Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
In any case i would still watched the film that i mentioned above today. Gosh! it's 3 PM and Manuel is dozing off at my bed.
***
Lec said awhile ago: "Movies are a good investment." and i don't know what he really meant by that.
***
March 29, 2009 - Say goodbye to the Dormitory LAN internet. Say hello to WIFI-at-the-lobby internet. Such a pain in the ass!
Good night!
zzzzzzzzzzz
***
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN [2008]
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)
Tomas Alfredson
Sweden circa 2008
114 minutes
Colored
2.35:1
Swedish
------------------------------
Essential critical thoughts:
Richard's take on the film:
READ Richard's Review
Arbogast's exceptional review:
READ Arbogast's Review
------------------------------
Comment: Unforgettable! The narrative is almost perfect.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
LIFE: To the Lighthouse
an extract from a book
This is the most unforgettable lines i have ever read in my life. It is a wonderful excerpt about Life in the eyes of the book's main character Mrs. Ramsay. I dropped the book after reading it and sent a text message to both my parent to know if they are okay. I also sent a text message to my friend Keith who is still suffering Chicken Pox to know if he was okay.
Reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is life changing. Although I am still at page 65 anticipating chapter 12, I consider it as one of the most unforgettable experiences I have ever had. The book is so absorbing you can feel it eating you word by word. It has a power to transform you, to pierce into you with its clarity and clairvoyant depiction of the characters.
It has been four years since I attempted to read one of Mrs. Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway. At first it was hard. Very hard, really to read a stream of consciousness. Maybe because i am used to reading fully defined plots, especially those Russian plots of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky that i certainly love and adored. Anna Karenina, that voluminous piece of writing by Leo Tolstoy is breakaway. It connects the realist mode of writing to that of Woolf's stream of consciousness. It's an essential book to read, and should be read first, before attempting to read that of Woolf's or Joyce's or Faulker's perhaps. It is reading to highest of all levels.
How should one read To the Lighthouse?
Well take my advice and loose yourself, free yourself to be absorbed into the thoughts of characters. Be a willing participant. You have to read as if you are swimming into a deep wide lake. You have all the oxygen but you need a full concentration when you plunge into it. It seeks into the deepest of your emotions, it breaks you away from the world, it gobbles you up. I certainly cannot measure how deeply it affected me, reading is a leisure but Virginia Woolf took it as an introspection, an investigation of ones soul, very much like meditation.
It is a beautiful, beautiful book!
"Only she thought life --- and a little strip of time presented itself to her eyes --- her fifty years. There it was before her --- life. Life, she thought --- but she did not finish her thought. She took a look at life, for she had a clear sense of it there, something real, something private, which she shared neither with her children nor with her husband. A sort of transaction went on between them, in which she was on one side, and life was on another, and she always trying to get the better of it, as it was of her; and sometimes they parleyed (when she sat alone); there were, she remembered, great reconciliation scenes; but for the most part, oddly enough, she must admit that she felt this thing that she called life terrible, hostile, and quick to pounce on you if you gave it a chance. There were the eternal problems: suffering; death; the poor. There was always a woman dying of cancer even here. And yet she had said to all these children, You shall go through it all. To eight people she had said relentlessly that (and the bill for the greenhouse would be fifty pounds). For that reason, knowing what was before them --- love and ambition and being wretched alone in dreary places --- she had often the feeling, Why must they grow up and lose it all? And then she said to herself, brandishing her sword at life, Nonsense. They will be perfectly happy. And here she was, she reflected, feeling life rather sinister again, making Minta marry Paul Rayley; because whatever she might feel about her own transaction, she had had experiences which need not happen to everyone (she did not name them to herself); she was driven on, too quickly she knew, almost as if it were an escape for her too, to say that people must marry; people must have children." (Woolf 60)
- an excerpt from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.
This is the most unforgettable lines i have ever read in my life. It is a wonderful excerpt about Life in the eyes of the book's main character Mrs. Ramsay. I dropped the book after reading it and sent a text message to both my parent to know if they are okay. I also sent a text message to my friend Keith who is still suffering Chicken Pox to know if he was okay.
Reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is life changing. Although I am still at page 65 anticipating chapter 12, I consider it as one of the most unforgettable experiences I have ever had. The book is so absorbing you can feel it eating you word by word. It has a power to transform you, to pierce into you with its clarity and clairvoyant depiction of the characters.
It has been four years since I attempted to read one of Mrs. Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway. At first it was hard. Very hard, really to read a stream of consciousness. Maybe because i am used to reading fully defined plots, especially those Russian plots of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky that i certainly love and adored. Anna Karenina, that voluminous piece of writing by Leo Tolstoy is breakaway. It connects the realist mode of writing to that of Woolf's stream of consciousness. It's an essential book to read, and should be read first, before attempting to read that of Woolf's or Joyce's or Faulker's perhaps. It is reading to highest of all levels.
How should one read To the Lighthouse?
Well take my advice and loose yourself, free yourself to be absorbed into the thoughts of characters. Be a willing participant. You have to read as if you are swimming into a deep wide lake. You have all the oxygen but you need a full concentration when you plunge into it. It seeks into the deepest of your emotions, it breaks you away from the world, it gobbles you up. I certainly cannot measure how deeply it affected me, reading is a leisure but Virginia Woolf took it as an introspection, an investigation of ones soul, very much like meditation.
It is a beautiful, beautiful book!
ULYSSES
a reminiscence
The female 'Yes'
Yes, I remember quite well how i started to love writing. I wanted to write his words, his sentences, i thirst every punctuation there is of what some considered as one of greatest novels of all time, his greatest work, ULYSSES.
Yes, this would be a better comeback post, I figure. This is a new beginning. I shed away my body and have awoken from my reveries. I wanted a fresh eye to scope not only the beauty of films but the beauty of literature. So i started: I opened the books of James Joyce and the fruitful Virginia Woolf to imagine a new life.
A few days ago, I realized: is this what makes a life? To be crossed upon by mishaps and tribulations, or to be reminded by the arrival of one's extinction, to be pleased by death, death as we know it for what it is, for how it will be, to be visited by splitting atom of the mind, to be restrained from the daily life you always live: to be sick. How calm this morning! When i woke up, when i started my own ritual to open a book and read a line or two and shut it up, and i heard the morning breeze banging through my window shaking my own life, waking me up, lifting me up, up towards that fine old morning beside the sea. I jumped. I plunged into my day, into the hours that i counted, and sighed, and blushed, and fled, and hopped. There is this sense of possibility, the breaking of the waves, the toiling of my reveries, and all i wanted to do is write, write up there on the wooded branch, on the concrete bay window, on the sea with the waters rushing towards you, and you could hear immensely the beating of my heart, the waves as you know it, the floating and singing jellyfish flying through the shoals, the wind, my heart and you together.
I would love to continue this stream of consciousness, but i have to break it. I used to write good ones when i was young at heart. Now i couldn't. I don't have the power to write beautiful, free flowing thoughts, to flesh out characters and stories. Four years ago I started this large project, a novel that, according to my diary last March 2005, would be 'one of the greatest of all time equivalent to that of Ulysses.' It is shaped and structured by thoughts from character to character. I never imagined myself writing that. But i did. I am still at Chapter five.
Anyway, im still in remission from the Sickness which ate up a week of my life.
The clip above is from the film Bloom (2005). It is a soliloquy by Molly Bloom and it marked the the ending of Ulysses. I quote from Joyce:
Yes, this would be a better comeback post, I figure. This is a new beginning. I shed away my body and have awoken from my reveries. I wanted a fresh eye to scope not only the beauty of films but the beauty of literature. So i started: I opened the books of James Joyce and the fruitful Virginia Woolf to imagine a new life.
A few days ago, I realized: is this what makes a life? To be crossed upon by mishaps and tribulations, or to be reminded by the arrival of one's extinction, to be pleased by death, death as we know it for what it is, for how it will be, to be visited by splitting atom of the mind, to be restrained from the daily life you always live: to be sick. How calm this morning! When i woke up, when i started my own ritual to open a book and read a line or two and shut it up, and i heard the morning breeze banging through my window shaking my own life, waking me up, lifting me up, up towards that fine old morning beside the sea. I jumped. I plunged into my day, into the hours that i counted, and sighed, and blushed, and fled, and hopped. There is this sense of possibility, the breaking of the waves, the toiling of my reveries, and all i wanted to do is write, write up there on the wooded branch, on the concrete bay window, on the sea with the waters rushing towards you, and you could hear immensely the beating of my heart, the waves as you know it, the floating and singing jellyfish flying through the shoals, the wind, my heart and you together.
I would love to continue this stream of consciousness, but i have to break it. I used to write good ones when i was young at heart. Now i couldn't. I don't have the power to write beautiful, free flowing thoughts, to flesh out characters and stories. Four years ago I started this large project, a novel that, according to my diary last March 2005, would be 'one of the greatest of all time equivalent to that of Ulysses.' It is shaped and structured by thoughts from character to character. I never imagined myself writing that. But i did. I am still at Chapter five.
Anyway, im still in remission from the Sickness which ate up a week of my life.
The clip above is from the film Bloom (2005). It is a soliloquy by Molly Bloom and it marked the the ending of Ulysses. I quote from Joyce:
"...and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes"xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sick and Immobile
A short commentary
I'm sick. I wish this would go away. my antibiotic is way too expensive. I am resting in my bed now though i'm still rushing school requirements for next week. I feel dizzy. And couldn't concentrate much. I haven't eaten a proper meal. I rely on fruits and noodles. I really need to get back in shape.
Anyway, i saw three films lately:
1) Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
2) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
3) Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, 2004)
All of them portray different cinematic experiences. Alfredson's Let the Right One In is explosively shocking for the violent scenes. The shock value is comparable to Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003). It was really good.
Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love blown me away with its precision for grace. the story unfolds in a gradual and meticulously graceful manner. It's a great film, aesthetically brilliant.
Motorcycle Diaries might be the strongest of the three. I particularly admire how Salles depicted Che with such humanity and sensitivity. Of course i commend Gael Garcia Bernal for his precision. I never saw an actor so talented as him.
I will leave you with a wonderful song from Motorcyle Diaries, Al ontro lado del rio by J. Drexler. This won best song at the Oscars last 2004.
Anyway, i saw three films lately:
1) Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
2) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
3) Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, 2004)
All of them portray different cinematic experiences. Alfredson's Let the Right One In is explosively shocking for the violent scenes. The shock value is comparable to Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003). It was really good.
Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love blown me away with its precision for grace. the story unfolds in a gradual and meticulously graceful manner. It's a great film, aesthetically brilliant.
Motorcycle Diaries might be the strongest of the three. I particularly admire how Salles depicted Che with such humanity and sensitivity. Of course i commend Gael Garcia Bernal for his precision. I never saw an actor so talented as him.
I will leave you with a wonderful song from Motorcyle Diaries, Al ontro lado del rio by J. Drexler. This won best song at the Oscars last 2004.
Al ontro lado del rio by J. Drexler.
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
Sound of Music [1965] - EDELWEISS
recollection of my youth
Edelweiss
Edelweiss
My grandmother, during Christmas Eves back home when I was just a toddler, would rerun a classic, Sound of Music, after we arrived from the evening mass. We would feast together, family and friends, while Julie Andrews and the rest of the von Trapp family sang and danced.
After listening to the song Edelweiss I could not explain the feeling. Its like all of Christmas Eves came back to life. This was my favorite song from my favorite musical when i was a kid.
I just hate Pauline Kael when she said:
I'm resting now from my academic work.
I'm sick. I hope i get well soon. Soon.
xxxxxxxxxxx
After listening to the song Edelweiss I could not explain the feeling. Its like all of Christmas Eves came back to life. This was my favorite song from my favorite musical when i was a kid.
I just hate Pauline Kael when she said:
"the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat,"and
"we have been turned into emotional and aesthetic imbeciles when we hear ourselves humming the sickly, goody-goody songs"Anyway, her review on Sound of Music allegedly dismissed her from McCall's Magazine. Too bad!
I'm resting now from my academic work.
I'm sick. I hope i get well soon. Soon.
xxxxxxxxxxx
FILM BLOGS EARN ONLINE
opening-the-package post
Yesterday, my father sent me a JRS package from our town in Bicol. Enclosed are my parent's ITR (Income tax return) for my dorm application and.... tsadan.... MY FIRST EVER Google Mailer.
So let's open the mail.
JRS-Express, for me, is the most convenient delivery system in the Philippines.
Our family have been using their services for decades since they
started their company last 1961. They haven't failed us ever
So there it is. I put my hometown address there so the mail
took about 6 six weeks from California, USA.
But it came! haha!
I love Google.
This is the inside of the mailer. It contains the PIN number to
activate my payment. I can't tell you how much, but it's a sufficient
amount for a small party, haha!
So let's open the mail.
JRS-Express, for me, is the most convenient delivery system in the Philippines.Our family have been using their services for decades since they
started their company last 1961. They haven't failed us ever
So there it is. I put my hometown address there so the mail
took about 6 six weeks from California, USA.
But it came! haha!
I love Google.
This is the inside of the mailer. It contains the PIN number to activate my payment. I can't tell you how much, but it's a sufficient
amount for a small party, haha!
So there you have it, me, all plumped up and the Google mailer. Wee!
My blog do earn online.
So why not start a blog.
So why not start a blog.
Coffee Talk: ONLINE FILM CULTURE updates
what's happening around?
[photo credits to filmint.com]
Sergei Eisenstein mimicking Albert Einstein. [failed! *laughs*]
II. UPDATES from the FILM Blogosphere:
1.) David Bordwell has a new article on his site. [link here]
TITLE: Showing what can't be filmed
WHAT about it? Bordwell discusses the nuances of The Documentary genre.
2.) Girish Shambu has a new post. [link here]
TITLE: André Bazin & caboose
What about it? Great news! Andre Bazin's new collection of essays is out at caboose
3.) Zach Campbell has a new post also. [link here]
TITLE: I'm still Predictable
What about it? Zach's view on the writer-director James Gray.
4.) Arbogast has a new post. [link here]
TITLE: Stay Scared
What about it? Arbogast fried the horror film 1408 (2007) starring John Cussack. [haha! too bad, 1408 didn't work for arbogast]
5.) The sexy Self-Style Siren has a new post. [link here]
TITLE: Foreign Film Resolution, Cont. (Weeks 4-7)
What about it? The siren discusses more foreign films, a great great diversion.
6.) Richard has a new critique. [link here]
TITLE: Brutus, Ang Paglalakbay (Tara Illenberger, 2008)
What about it? Richard offers an insightful criticism on the Filipino indie film.
7.) Jonathan Rosenbaum has a new article [link here]
TITLE: Jena Renoir's Trilogy of Spectacle
What about it? Discusses the importance of Jean Renoir's Trilogy: The Golden Coach (1953), French Cancan (1955), and Eléna et les hommes (1956)
III. Another Find
[entralled by Zach's post on James Gray, I found this]
CIAO!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[photo credits to filmint.com]
Sergei Eisenstein mimicking Albert Einstein. [failed! *laughs*]
I would love to have a coffee with this guy. Well, basically, we'll discuss about the notions of film form, how it functions, its purpose, the nuances of such art and how it historically evolved and contributed to both artistic, political and social paradigms of the world at large. I wonder how the talk would turn out, and he permits me to blog about it.
I came to an understanding a few days ago about the notion of culture and art, and how the dynamics of such interconnection creates a so-called 'progress' which economist ridiculed by calling it development. With my report in my college writing class on femininity as a social construct, I realized:
1) The social construct of femininity is perhaps more prone to socio-historical change than any other gender-based concepts. This is perhaps because postmodern society, flagged by the decline of the traditional working class in the late 1890s (incidentally signaled by the woman's suffrage) and the growth of white collar jobs, allows to nurture the tendency of femininity to be ritualistic. Feminism is both a postmodern concept and a product of post modernization in society.
2) Film, like femininity, is also more prone to socio-historical changes. This can be withdrawn from the quoted sentence i had in my notebook: "The first cultural fact about film is that it is film."
3) MOST Filipino mainstream films today do not substantiate our culture. It highly glamorizes the star-system that has been eating the film industry for decades. Philippine mainstream cinema is culturally DEAD!
I. New find
(Adrian Martin considered it as one of the best films of the 21st century)
I came to an understanding a few days ago about the notion of culture and art, and how the dynamics of such interconnection creates a so-called 'progress' which economist ridiculed by calling it development. With my report in my college writing class on femininity as a social construct, I realized:
1) The social construct of femininity is perhaps more prone to socio-historical change than any other gender-based concepts. This is perhaps because postmodern society, flagged by the decline of the traditional working class in the late 1890s (incidentally signaled by the woman's suffrage) and the growth of white collar jobs, allows to nurture the tendency of femininity to be ritualistic. Feminism is both a postmodern concept and a product of post modernization in society.
2) Film, like femininity, is also more prone to socio-historical changes. This can be withdrawn from the quoted sentence i had in my notebook: "The first cultural fact about film is that it is film."
3) MOST Filipino mainstream films today do not substantiate our culture. It highly glamorizes the star-system that has been eating the film industry for decades. Philippine mainstream cinema is culturally DEAD!
I. New find
(Adrian Martin considered it as one of the best films of the 21st century)
Un Lac by Philippie Grandieux
[listen how the character whispers,
absolute stillness, I can't wait to watch it]
[listen how the character whispers,
absolute stillness, I can't wait to watch it]
xxxxxxxxxxx
II. UPDATES from the FILM Blogosphere:
1.) David Bordwell has a new article on his site. [link here]
TITLE: Showing what can't be filmed
WHAT about it? Bordwell discusses the nuances of The Documentary genre.
2.) Girish Shambu has a new post. [link here]
TITLE: André Bazin & caboose
What about it? Great news! Andre Bazin's new collection of essays is out at caboose
3.) Zach Campbell has a new post also. [link here]
TITLE: I'm still Predictable
What about it? Zach's view on the writer-director James Gray.
4.) Arbogast has a new post. [link here]
TITLE: Stay Scared
What about it? Arbogast fried the horror film 1408 (2007) starring John Cussack. [haha! too bad, 1408 didn't work for arbogast]
5.) The sexy Self-Style Siren has a new post. [link here]
TITLE: Foreign Film Resolution, Cont. (Weeks 4-7)
What about it? The siren discusses more foreign films, a great great diversion.
6.) Richard has a new critique. [link here]
TITLE: Brutus, Ang Paglalakbay (Tara Illenberger, 2008)
What about it? Richard offers an insightful criticism on the Filipino indie film.
7.) Jonathan Rosenbaum has a new article [link here]
TITLE: Jena Renoir's Trilogy of Spectacle
What about it? Discusses the importance of Jean Renoir's Trilogy: The Golden Coach (1953), French Cancan (1955), and Eléna et les hommes (1956)
xxxxxxxxxx
III. Another Find
[entralled by Zach's post on James Gray, I found this]
Little Odessa writed/directed by James Gray
[Silence is deafening. I also recalled how Takahata
exploited the silence scene on Grave of the Fireflies (1988)]
[Silence is deafening. I also recalled how Takahata
exploited the silence scene on Grave of the Fireflies (1988)]
CIAO!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
A Note on Serious Writing
a short commentary
A clip from 'The Hours' depicting the power of writing.
I submitted myself to critique a short animated film, Drux Flux (2008) by Theordore Ushev. This is, ladies and gentlemen, my first attempt to criticize a film by heart, though my first criticism was submitted to my English teacher last January as a reaction paper requirement. It's been days now since i started talking about postmodernism and the avant-gardism in my critique, and now, after reading the article "Film and Postmodernism" by John Jill, I started to think that my arguments failed.
Mainly because i committed the most stupid mistake of all: CATEGORY ERROR. It seems a bit odd to term this as 'the most stupid mistake of all' but actually, for any serious writer, mixing categories is not a good way to handle one's arguments. Plainly, the fact when one reads your article or essay, let us say a young film studies major who do not exactly know the difference between Lacan's interpretation of semiotics to that of Saussure, it should be 'a-must' that it follows a simple, well-planned structure to let the reader know what he should think and how should he think about it.
One thing to avoid is a category mistake. Category mistake, proposed by Gilbert Ryle to attack Descartes' concept of mind and body, is committed when 'we talk of something in terms appropriate only to something of a radically different kind.' [link]
Let me give you an example:
Simple ones:
"Every apple is a pig."
"Adrian Mendizabal is a scientific knowledge."
Compound ones:
"Adrian is a dormer. Manuel is also a dormer. Ms. Tirona is the dorm manager. But where is the dormitory?"
"A postmodern society is characterize by intertextuality (a principle which denies the existence of grand absolute universal truths)." ----- [this is my very obvious mistake that i wrote on my criticism and on a post at Jan's Blog, by the way, thank you so much Jan for posting my comment as a guest post]
Why is the last example a categorical mistake?
When one talks about a society, it ascribes a property characteristic of a society. It prompts a discussion about society, sociological issues, culture, etc. It may discuss social philosophy but this requires a sufficient analysis on the philosophy attributed to that society. Let us say we are talking about the 'postmodern society'. It cannot be characterized as being 'intertexual' because they are totally and radically different categories. Intertextuality is a philosophical principle, a product of a Lyotard's attempt to define the 'postmodern condition' of thought.
However, when one says about the 'postmodern society' it follows that the writer must give descriptions like a postmodern society should be media-driven, indicative of a fast-paced lifestyle, technologically advance, etc. It cannot be mentioned in terms of philosophy because philosophy is different category. The term follows a different formulaic structure of thoughts .
haha! this is really a high-end type of clarifying a mistake, i really apologize for that.
But this is what i want you to understand:
1) Do not commit a categorical mistake when writing. It's atrocious. Although the famous Descartes committed one, it should be avoided.
2) Serious writing requires a good way to carry arguments, not just blubber out words and connecting ideas with others.
3) Film criticism, for me, is a form of serious writing which requires dedication and time.
Yeah! i admit it, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to writing. Well, i consider writing as an art. The way one puts sentences in a paragraph to add effects to the readers is an art. I mostly think that sentences are like blocks of wood with shapes which can arranged into many forms to depict different moods or effects. To look at it a fundamental level, punctuation works similar to sentence placement as well.
Creative writing works differently. A creative writer manipulates each element: words, sentences, paragraphs, punctuations etc. to create an imagery or an idea. every move is crucial.
Anyway i just want to wrap this insanely philosophical view on writing by giving away this music video. It is a conglomeration of my favorite song 'Breathe me' by Sia and one of my favorite scenes in 'The Hours'.
Enjoy. Write well.
Mainly because i committed the most stupid mistake of all: CATEGORY ERROR. It seems a bit odd to term this as 'the most stupid mistake of all' but actually, for any serious writer, mixing categories is not a good way to handle one's arguments. Plainly, the fact when one reads your article or essay, let us say a young film studies major who do not exactly know the difference between Lacan's interpretation of semiotics to that of Saussure, it should be 'a-must' that it follows a simple, well-planned structure to let the reader know what he should think and how should he think about it.
One thing to avoid is a category mistake. Category mistake, proposed by Gilbert Ryle to attack Descartes' concept of mind and body, is committed when 'we talk of something in terms appropriate only to something of a radically different kind.' [link]
Let me give you an example:
Simple ones:
"Every apple is a pig."
"Adrian Mendizabal is a scientific knowledge."
Compound ones:
"Adrian is a dormer. Manuel is also a dormer. Ms. Tirona is the dorm manager. But where is the dormitory?"
"A postmodern society is characterize by intertextuality (a principle which denies the existence of grand absolute universal truths)." ----- [this is my very obvious mistake that i wrote on my criticism and on a post at Jan's Blog, by the way, thank you so much Jan for posting my comment as a guest post]
Why is the last example a categorical mistake?
When one talks about a society, it ascribes a property characteristic of a society. It prompts a discussion about society, sociological issues, culture, etc. It may discuss social philosophy but this requires a sufficient analysis on the philosophy attributed to that society. Let us say we are talking about the 'postmodern society'. It cannot be characterized as being 'intertexual' because they are totally and radically different categories. Intertextuality is a philosophical principle, a product of a Lyotard's attempt to define the 'postmodern condition' of thought.
However, when one says about the 'postmodern society' it follows that the writer must give descriptions like a postmodern society should be media-driven, indicative of a fast-paced lifestyle, technologically advance, etc. It cannot be mentioned in terms of philosophy because philosophy is different category. The term follows a different formulaic structure of thoughts .
haha! this is really a high-end type of clarifying a mistake, i really apologize for that.
But this is what i want you to understand:
1) Do not commit a categorical mistake when writing. It's atrocious. Although the famous Descartes committed one, it should be avoided.
2) Serious writing requires a good way to carry arguments, not just blubber out words and connecting ideas with others.
3) Film criticism, for me, is a form of serious writing which requires dedication and time.
Yeah! i admit it, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to writing. Well, i consider writing as an art. The way one puts sentences in a paragraph to add effects to the readers is an art. I mostly think that sentences are like blocks of wood with shapes which can arranged into many forms to depict different moods or effects. To look at it a fundamental level, punctuation works similar to sentence placement as well.
Creative writing works differently. A creative writer manipulates each element: words, sentences, paragraphs, punctuations etc. to create an imagery or an idea. every move is crucial.
Anyway i just want to wrap this insanely philosophical view on writing by giving away this music video. It is a conglomeration of my favorite song 'Breathe me' by Sia and one of my favorite scenes in 'The Hours'.
Enjoy. Write well.
A great mix!
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NEW FILMS
a short notice
As you know, I am both a struggling film critic and an undergraduate student. Balancing my Chemical Engineering studies with my segue-type Film Studies is a hard job, but it gets really exciting especially when, as you move along the lobby of the Arts and Letter building at a decrepit pace, you suddenly stopped at a DVD stall. Forget about nuclear rods and diffusion of gases, or fluids in turbulent flow!
I picked four films almost at random because i was running late for my speech class. I just want to share these with you.
NEW FILMS
1.) Shitsurakuen (Lost Paradise, Yoshimitsu Morita, 1997)
Too bad! I mistaken this to be Unagi (The Eel, Akiro Yoshimura, 1997), Palme d'Or winner tied with Kiarostami's A Taste of Cherry (1997) last Cannes Film Fest '97.
2.) Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1994)
It's a Criterion Collection DVD. I can't wait to watch this one.
3.) M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
The only classic that I grabbed, probably because of the lack of time. I didn't browse thourougly the collection. It's a Criterion and comes in two discs! This is a controversial film. It's classified midway between the end of German Expressionism and the rise of Film Noir.
4) The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, 2006)
A Palme d'Or at Cannes (notice how i really treasure Palme d'Or works), it's a war film. What more can I say? I always felt i'm doing a favor to my father when i watch war films. My father is a war film addict.
One minute late for my class, Ciao!
xxxxxxxxxxxx
As you know, I am both a struggling film critic and an undergraduate student. Balancing my Chemical Engineering studies with my segue-type Film Studies is a hard job, but it gets really exciting especially when, as you move along the lobby of the Arts and Letter building at a decrepit pace, you suddenly stopped at a DVD stall. Forget about nuclear rods and diffusion of gases, or fluids in turbulent flow!
I picked four films almost at random because i was running late for my speech class. I just want to share these with you.
NEW FILMS
1.) Shitsurakuen (Lost Paradise, Yoshimitsu Morita, 1997)
Too bad! I mistaken this to be Unagi (The Eel, Akiro Yoshimura, 1997), Palme d'Or winner tied with Kiarostami's A Taste of Cherry (1997) last Cannes Film Fest '97.
2.) Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1994)
It's a Criterion Collection DVD. I can't wait to watch this one.
3.) M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
The only classic that I grabbed, probably because of the lack of time. I didn't browse thourougly the collection. It's a Criterion and comes in two discs! This is a controversial film. It's classified midway between the end of German Expressionism and the rise of Film Noir.
4) The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, 2006)
A Palme d'Or at Cannes (notice how i really treasure Palme d'Or works), it's a war film. What more can I say? I always felt i'm doing a favor to my father when i watch war films. My father is a war film addict.
One minute late for my class, Ciao!
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Viridiana [1961]
Viridiana
Luis Buñuel
Spain
1961
90 minutes
Black and White
1.66:1
Spanish
This is a unique experience, my first plunge into Bunuel, and a possible look at censorship.
I quote the synopsis from Criterion Collection Website:
"Banned in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Luis Buñuel’s irreverent vision of life as a beggar’s banquet is regarded by many as his masterpiece. In it, novice nun Viridiana does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism. Winner of the Palme d’or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, Viridiana is as audacious today as ever."
This is by far the strongest film that I have seen since Rashomon (1950) last year. A beautiful, beautiful film!
MORE Screen Shots Posts...
MEMENTO (2000) by Christopher Nolan
UGETSU (1954) by Kenji Mizoguchi
A Man Asleep (1974) by Georges Perec & Bernard Queysanne
Knife in the Water (1962) by Roman Polanski
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