senseofdetachment

[senseofdetachment]

ITALIAN MOVIE REVIEWS

Life is Beautiful

This film takes a different view of the Holocaust during WWII. Roberto Benigni uses his humor to show the human spirit of life. When the Nazis take Jewish Italian Guido Orefice along with his wife Dora and son Giosue to a concentration camp, Oferice does anything possible to keep his son happy and safe. He makes it seem like they are part of a game and the winner gets a big tank as a reward. The movies manage to make you laugh and at the same time to make you feel for the character’s suffering. It is hard to watch a man whose spirit cannot be broken for the love of his son, even though he is in pain. Near the end of the movie, the prisoners are set free, but unfortunately, Guido is killed. Giosue still believes that they’re still in the game, so it is beautiful to see that one father could cause so much joy and happiness to his child despite all odds. Some believe that this movie is quite controversial for using humor to deliver such serious events, but it does it flawlessly and it is easy to feel the love that the characters have for one another.

Cinema Paradiso

This film tells the story of an unusual pair of friends that share the same love for cinema. Eight-year-old Salvatore befriends projectionist Alfredo and spends most of his time with him at the cinema house where Alfredo works. Throughout the film many important events happen; Alfredo loses his vision, Salvatore is the new projectionist, and he eventually moves out of his town to become a filmmaker. Blasco Giurato’s cinematography is vivid and it makes you feel the love that the characters have for cinema. Even though our main characters go through many difficult motions their friendship only becomes stronger. When Alfredo tells Salvatore, now a young adult, to pursue his dream you can see that he has his best interest at heart. It makes you think, how amazing it must be to have that type of support from those closest to you, even if it meant you never get to see them again.

Malèna

This film tells the story of a young boy named Renato whos is in love, and in lust, with the town’s most beautiful woman Malèna. Malèna’s husband was fighting for the British during WWII. Because of her beauty and the fact that she lives alone, Malèna is often seen as a threat to the other women in her town. Renato becomes obsessed with Malèna, and can’t stop thinking about her. When Malèna learns that her husband dies she turns to prostitution and is even more slut-shamed than she was before, because of this Renato was willing to protect her at all costs. Malèna’s husband eventually returns and he tries to find her with the anonymous help of Renato. After a year Malèna is a completely changed woman, simple and plain, Renato wishes her good luck, which is the only time he spoke to her throughout the movie. The story has bizarre character developments for both Renato and Malèna. Renato finally matures and grows out of his obsession with Malèna, even near the end of the story he was starting to realize the things that matter, like helping Malèna’s husband find her. Malèna is harassed, humiliated, isolated, and raped throughout the movie. She goes through the motion of being hated, because of her beauty to being respected because of how reserved she was forced to be. It makes you think about how women are expected to look and behave.

Slam

This movie tells the story of Samuel, an aspiring skateboarder who dreams of living in California and follow the footsteps of Tony Hawk. He falls in love with a beautiful girl named Alice who gets pregnant by him. Alice decides to keep the baby and Samuel sees his hopes and dreams go down the drain. This is a funny, heartfelt coming of age story. It really emphasizes all the hopes and dreams we all once had as teenagers, and its really easy to relate to Samuel when he believes his life is over. It is fear and a sense of loneliness and failure that makes everyone learn from their mistakes and grow as a person. Slam is surprisingly very relatable to today’s teenagers; it has big ambitions that could seem a bit unrealistic, the fear of teen pregnancy, the fear of disappointing your parents, and the fear of losing your dreams.

My Mother

This story follows Margherita, a very successful film director whose life seems quite difficult to handle. Her newest film is not turning out the way she wants it to, she just broke up with her boyfriend, and she's divorced from the father of her daughter.  Margherita’s brother often goes to visit their mother, which makes her feel guilty since she doesn’t connect with her mother anymore.  Margherita then realizes how dry and emotionless her relationships with the people around her really are. This movie felt really long, and it felt like it kept going in circles, personally, it was very hard to stay attentive during this movie. I feel like the moral of the story is an obvious one, and it took too long to get there. The moral is to not lose yourself and to appreciate the things you have because once they’re gone, you’re going to want them back.

Two Women

This film follows the story of a mother and a daughter during WWII. Cesira is a widowed shopkeeper, mother of twelve-year-old Rosetta. Back in her native rural town, Cesira falls in love with Michele, a communist intellectual, and Rosetta finds a father figure in him. When Michele is captured by German soldiers, the two women flee back to the city where they came from. On the way there they are both raped and experience lots of suffering and trauma. This movie shows a very strange relationship between all the characters. Rosetta is portrayed as a youthful innocent young girl, but after she is raped, she becomes more promiscuous by going out with an older boy and receiving silk stockings. It feels wrong the way the made it seem like the rape made her feel like an adult when going through something like that is traumatic and heartbreaking. Trauma finally kicks in when she finds out that Michele has died. The scenery of the movie was amazing and it really showcases the beauty of rural Italy.

La Dolce Vita

The film follows Marcello, a journalist who writes for gossip magazines over seven nights in Rome. The film is divided into seven episodes, a prologue, an intermezzo, and an epilogue. Marcello’s purpose in the movie is the pursuit of love and happiness. He is engaged to Emma but he cannot accept her maternal and smothering love, and because of this he s constantly having affairs. He looks up to a man who ends up killing his children and himself, so Marcello is constantly in a lost state of mind. Marcello never seems to be satisfied with his love life and is often looking for more from the women around him. The plot is a bit hard to follow since it is three hours long. The relationship between Steiner, the man Marcello admires, and Marcello is often lost and is a bit disinteresting. Otello Martelli’s cinematography is absolutely outstanding and aesthetically pleasing, especially the scene with Marcello and Sylvia at the Trevi Fountain.

Bicycle Thieves

Italy was devastated after WWII and BicycleThieves showcases that flawlessly. The movie follows Antonio a poor man trying to provide for his family along with his son Bruno. Antonio is able to find a job which was very rare for that time, the only requirement is that he must have a bicycle. On the first day on the job his bicycle is stolen, so he and his son go on a quest to find the bicycle. The movie uses non-professional actors, and it contains scenes showcasing real-life locations of Rome after the war. Poverty was very common and people were usually tired and hungry. Watching this movie almost felt like watching a documentary about the effects of war and the harshness of being poor. Italy was never the same after the war, and many Italians were heavily impacted. It is emotional and heart-wrenching to see how relevant this movie is to today’s society.

[senseofdetachment]

Inside Everyday Media

Over the past week I have been recording the media I use on a daily basis. The types of devices vary from an iPhone, a television, a radio, and a laptop. All of these devices are things that I use regularly and they are the main source of my social media, music, news, and my outlets to doing most of my homework assignments for school. During this week I learned how these media outlets make me feel emotionally and physically.

The following is a chart, which keeps track of all the media outlets I use, how much time I spend on them, and how they make me feel.

When I used my social media such as Instagram, Twitter, ect. I felt very relaxed, as if I was getting a closer look into people’s lives, and hobbies. However once I started looking through my social media I could not stop, and when I was not on my phone I always felt the urge to check what was happening on all of those outlets. I also found myself very distracted at night while looking through my phone; on Friday night I stayed up until 4am going through my phone, comparing myself to all the people I saw online. I felt under pressure when I spent five hours or more on social media, I felt like I needed to constantly check my phone in order to not feel left out. A study conducted by Christopher T. Barry, Chloe L. Sidoti, and others shows that most adolescents tend to experience FOMO, which is a constant anxiety of something interesting happening elsewhere and not being a part of it. (Barry, Sidoti)

Whenever I was not on social media I would usually watch TV, which did not make me feel many things, but satisfied and relaxed; watching the news felt like a break from all the things going on in social media. When doing my homework I felt extremely stressed, even though there was no reason for me to be stressed. Melissa Cohen, a licensed clinical social worker refers to the American Psychological Association in her article. It states there are three types of stress: acute, episodic acute and chronic. Acute is the most common one, it could be positive or negative, but they don't occur often and don't last for long periods of time. Episodic acute is when stress happens frequently and usually in a pattern. Chronic is when stress is a constant state, you feel there is no way out of situations and feel suffocated. (Cohen). When doing my homework I feel episodic acute stress, it always comes frequently when I do my school work even though it’s work that I know how to do, it still feels like I am not doing something right. Music has been a very important part of my life, it is a must in my day. If I don't listen to music for at least an hour, I feel like the whole day was a waste of time; I am my happiest when I am listening to music. Kimberly Sena Moore PhD, referenced in her article “Why Listening to Music Makes Us Feel Good” a study done by researchers at McGill University in Canada, where a group of individuals responded in the same way when listening to music. They all experienced a positive feeling due to dopamine being released as they listened to music no matter what the environment around them was. (Moore)

Media has a way of impacting everyone’s lives differently, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Feeling the pressure of social media on my shoulders is something that I do not need to experience, yet I still choose to out of the fear of being left out. Stress is something that comes to me when I worry about my academics, however that is something that every student struggles with. Finding a sweet release from all the craziness of school and social media through music is something that I would encourage others to do. Media is something that I use on a daily basis, and something that we as a society use to survive. We learn and teach through media, the world would not be the same without it.

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

Paul Jacoulet

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

Artist Alert: Nguyen Vu Xuan Lan

“A bird may love a fish but where would they build a home together?” 

- Fiddler on the Roof

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1486) & William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1879)

[senseofdetachment]

Inside Florence Welch’s home - via NOWNESS

[senseofdetachment]

[senseofdetachment]

Amongst the best flowers

[senseofdetachment]

TODAY’S THE DAY!! TO ALL MY CALIFORNIANS, IF YOU NEED HELP WITH FINDING YOUR POLLING PLACE YOU CAN DO SO HERE BY FOLLOW THIS LINK: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/polling-place/