The Fire Within

Director: Louis Malle
Writer: Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (novel)
Stars: Maurice Ronet, Léna Skerla, Jeanne Moreau and Yvonne Clech
Music: Erik Satie 
Year: 1963 (France)
IMDB

My Rating: 9.5/10

Based on the same novel as Oslo, August 31, I prefer this version. The impossibility to touch, to love, to understand the very life I'm living in. Suicide is not an option for me, but I understand his agony and devastation very well. We're all struggling to get through life, aren't we?

I Trawl The Megahertz

My favourite audiobook. I think everyone should listen to this incredible 20-mins track with hauntingly beautiful music and poetic words. It's like a lullaby, a dream, a movie script, a transitional conscious state between reality and fiction that exists only in the soundscape of "I Trawl The Megahertz".

'Your daddy loves you,' I said
'Your daddy loves you very much,
He doesn't want to live with us anymore.'
I am telling myself the story of my life

Lord you gave me nothing, then you took it all away


Repeat after me: happiness is only a habit
I'm listening to the face in the mirror
but I don't think I believe what she's telling me

And these are the footsteps you follow
The tracks of impossible love

They may help us make sense of who we are and where we came from
And, as a compassionate side effect
Teach us that nothing is ever lost

Nick Drake: The Biography

About a month ago, I somehow got bored with fiction books. I felt like reading something real, then I found this book. Perfect, biography, as real as it gets. Also, what intrigues me to read is that I don't know anything about Nick Drake, other than his three albums and the fact that he died young.

After finished reading this book, I still don't know anything about Nick Drake. Nobody really knows him. However, the author try to put all the pieces of his life together, families, friends, producers, girlfriend, acquaintance, musicians, critics... everyone contributes their thoughts about Nick Drake. So, you get the vague picture of this really tall pale man, a man with very few words, a man who plays wonderful guitar, but also a man who distant himself from everyone else... that leads to his severe depression, which more or less kills him (technically, he died of anti-depressant overdose). His whole life is a mystery, even his death is a mystery (was overdose intentional, or unintentional?). But that's what I like most. I wouldn't want to read the biography of The Rolling Stones, or U2... there's no mysteries behind their success. With Nick Drake, there's a lot of mystery behind... why he hated live performance? why was he depressed? why wasn't he successful during his time? Let these mysteries remain in the clouds of unknown, and let his sweet melodies flow into our ears.

Andrei Rublev

Director:Andrey Tarkovskiy
Writers: Andrey Tarkovskiy, Andrey Konchalovskiy
Stars: Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov and Nikolay Grinko
Year: 1966 (Soviet Union)
IMDB

My Rating: 10/10

No words could describe the emotions I have been going through while watching this...

Open

Somehow, I feel this video is very appropriate for the song.
Your body is my temporary home, I don't mean to stay long.
So stay open, and let me in, by the time you wake up, I will be gone.

who are Rhye?

Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads in this movie are what I'd call "in the zone". They are ecstatic at playing music and enjoying themselves. I really appreciate that. Sometimes, I think musicians are whores, they repeat themselves just to earn more money and keep customers happy. But, not for Talking Heads, they play because they really enjoy it. Rarely, I see a performance like this, recorded and edited so well. It is quite incredible. No doubt, Byrne is a genius at performing, but what really hooked me up is his genius of songwriting. And Tina? So adorable when she dances ♥! For rock documentary, this is kind of perfect for me, you don't get much better than this.

Lisbon Story

Director/Writer: Wim Wenders
Stars: Rüdiger Vogler, Patrick Bauchau and Vasco Sequeira
Music: Madredeus
Year: 1994 (Germany)
IMDB

My Rating: 10/10

How should I begin? Probably from the movie itself... It's a very enjoyable movie, even if you don't know Pessoa and Lisbon, don't know anything about films, and don't know anything about Wim Wenders. Let's put it this way, this is a human and humorous film that I believe most people would enjoy. I mean, just look at how the sounds were made back in those days without digital sound system is pretty awesome already.

Harvest Time (Is The Best Time)

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The Leopard

Director: Luchino Visconti
Writers: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (novel), Suso Cecchi d'Amico (screenplay)
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale
Cinematographer: Giuseppe Rotunno
Music: Nino Rota
Year: 1963 (Italy)
IMDB

My Rating: 10/10

This is really one of the rare films in history, that looks after every little detail in every frame, for nearly 3 hours! Yes, you have heard of expression like every frame is like a beautiful picture, but for this film, you can study the details of beautiful pictures frame by frame. Stunning and epic cinematography. I think the fact that Criterion Collection restored it, makes it even more grandeur and extraordinary.

The story fascinates me too. It's a profound study of a man in a position of power facing the changing times, and seeing his culture and fortune wane in the face of new generations. Burt Lancaster did an absolutely amazing job as "The Leopard". Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale are both great at their supporting roles. This is seriously an awesome film, you don't often see that everything in a film (script, actors, art, editing, music...) come together so well.

Things will have to change in order that they remain the same.

The Adventures of Augie March

What a masterpiece!

This book actually took me quite a while to finish, and I enjoyed very much. Saul Bellow has become one of my favourite novelists, his writing always gets me. He discusses things like fate, death, family, love, power, sense of belonging, all the topics that I'm interested in. Interestingly, the story he told about brothers, more or less happen to me in my life, I feel like I'm reading my fate. I guess history has a funny way of repeating itself, only when you look back on it, you see how little difference you're entitled to make. True, a man's character is his fate.

“Everyone tries to create a world he can live in, and what he can't use he often can't see. But the real world is already created, and if your fabrication doesn't correspond, then even if you feel noble and insist on there being something better than what people call reality, that better something needn't try to exceed what, in its actuality, since we know it so little, may be very surprising. If a happy state of things, surprising; if miserable or tragic, no worse than what we invent.”

霸王別姬

導演：陳凱歌
編劇：李碧華(小說)，蘆葦
主演：張國榮，張豐毅，葛優，鞏俐
攝影：顧長衛
年份：1993 (中國)
IMDB

我的評分：10/10

實在是他媽的經典。絕對是華語影史上的前三名！

這部電影裡的情感實在是太強了，加上幾位主演的表演，戲劇張力實在是太驚人了。張國榮，他的一生和這部電影之間的聯繫，早就聽過了。現在我更信服了。很難說是電影影響了他，還是他本來就和角色裡很像，這個討論是沒有結果的。主要的是他很幸運有機會能詮釋這樣的角色，並完完全全的投入。成了他一生的巔峰之作。

時空橫越中國最動盪的年代，討論一門藝術如何經歷不同年代的高低起伏。現在回去看文革時期，還是真為中國人感到悲哀。在對應現在的中國，不斷的鼓催中國文化，能騙的了外國人騙不了自己人，都還些共產黨的把戲。就如程蝶衣在戲裡所說的，中國文化已死。現在賣弄的只是文化的殘殼屍體，為的是甚麼？不就是資本主義。景點能賺錢，古蹟能賺錢，文化當然能賺錢。現在的社會，不就是為了賺錢？共產或民主有差嗎？就像鄧小平說的，「不管黑貓白貓，捉到老鼠就是好貓」。

Big Boi + Theophilus London

The most effortless, natural flow rapper who takes it up another level...

Absolute class, and absolute entertainment. What an amazing night it was.

The Beautiful and Damned

My God, the first half of the story was the story of my life... I was in a relationship just like what Fitzgerald have written, except that she's not as beautiful as Gloria in the book, but her personalities and thinking are very much alike with Gloria. After I've read some critical essays, some people find that this novel lacks of unity. True, the first half of the story is quite different to the second half, but who cares! He has written this book with heart and soul (obviously, there are a lot of input from his personal life), and told the tragic romance with fierce poignancy. The joy and hardship of being in a relationship. It also questions the big question, "what's the use of doing anything when nothing is worth doing?" This is a wonderful masterpiece. Maybe because I'm a hopeless romantic, and a hopeless pessimistic... 

二十四の瞳

監督：木下惠介
脚本：木下惠介
原作：壺井栄
出演：高峰秀子，天本英世，笠智衆，田村高広
音楽：木下忠司
撮影：楠田浩之
年間：1954
IMDB

My Rating: 11/10

Twenty-Four Eyes... completely sweep over me. Maybe I have a thing for sentimentalism, but how could I help it? The way the film does is like a tidal wave, washes me over and over again. There were many things I have thought about when I was watching this film, now they don't want to come to mind. Well, I... highly strongly recommend this film, if you're feeling like a big cry, or feeling a bit nostalgic, or just simply wanting to see a great film. I don't give out 11 for no reason, trust me.

Herzog

Saul Bellow has just become one of my favourite writers of all-time. I, "am" Herzog, in many ways. This is another novel that has dug deep into a character's psychological mind, apart from Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground, which is another novel of "me". I have taken something like 20 to 30 pages of notes from Herzog. I don't even know how to describe the book to you. It's too personal.

Here, I throw this question, because I have been thinking about it,
"What is good literature? "

For me, good literature isn't about the smartness of wording, it definitely isn't about good storyline or awards or sales figure, and it's not so much about style. I guess for me, it's more to do with the deep understanding of characters and the universe (this, I mean everything, family, lovers, society, culture, ideology, you name them) surrounding them, the deeper the better. Is that it? No, but words always fail me, and I'll let myself fail.

Shabazz Palaces

After hearing many different types of music, my taste isn't becoming more receptive, rather harder to please. Catchy tunes don't always catch my ears anymore. It's gotta be something new, something radical. Shabazz Palaces' new LP is definitely one of them. The musical production is just astounding. The throbbing bass and the ice-cold percussion are all too overwhelming. Put on your headphone, the music becomes a beast, it lives, breaths, and runs wild in the darkness of your mind. Yes, this album is quite an experience.

An Echo from the Hosts that Profess Infinitum


Swerve the Reeping of All that is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)

Kaputt

I don't remember when's the last time I heard such a carefree album.
This might be the first one. I don't know, who cares?
I wanna live in this album, and write a clever song for America, who knew?

The Man Who Loved Children

More people should read this book.
This is just a magnificent book, the scope, the details, the characters, the plot, the ending... really, it is a unique book like no others.

If you are going to read this book, don't read any introduction or essays about this book. Just let the book carries you... the book is quite long, and the joy of reading this book is getting to know each characters and the stories of their life through their everyday conversation.

Everything's Getting Older

One of the best albums this year.

Big Fish

Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Daniel Wallace (novel), John August (screenplay)
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Billy Crudup, Helena Bonham Carter, Marion Cotillard, and Steve Buscemi
Year: 2003
IMDB
My Rating: 10/10

There are three things in the movie that I just can't resist - myths, family and true love.

Myths, or hyper-reality is what our generation is missing. We scientific people no longer believe in myths, instead we believe in real people, real things, reality. Reality is overrated, it is no fun. Maybe that's why we love stories at the first place, something that carries us away from the boring reality. There was a brief period when I just hated movies, because movies just use whatever techniques that would move us. Maybe, we're all more than happy to be moved by a movie.

Family, has and always will be my favourite subject.

True love, is not something we have everyday. And that makes true love more intriguing in the stories. The love story in the movie is so ordinary, yet so extraordinary.

Also, this movie has a irresistible cast too... I usually don't really like Tim Burton's film, but this is truly an exception.