مجله کیانوش

The Final Countdown

The fundamentalist candidate, Ahmadinejad, won the Islamic Iran's presidency. Since he looks like a real fundamentalist, I put this picture of Kate Beckinsale instead of his, so the search-engines show something beautiful!

She looks like a girl that I used to date years ago in Iran, and I don't know if it was because of Kate Beckinsale that I loved my date, or it was because of my date that I loved Kate Beckinsale!
Any how, both my dating, and the reform in Iran had unfortunate fates.

About Kate Beckinsale, if you have not watched Serendipity, you are definitely missing something. The movie is a sort of life vertigo, with a mild satire, but not a very realistic ending. Serendipity is one of my most favorite movies; I have watched it more than 30 times, and still love to watch it.

Demon Trilogy

Since last Friday that I watched The Devil's Advocate on HBO, this idea has come to my mind that all my assumptions about Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut are wrong!

It was 5 years ago that I first saw Eyes Wide Shut. Despite of negative comments, I really enjoyed the movie, or in better words, I was stunned by the movie. Eyes Wide Shut touches curiosity, fear and sexual instincts of the viewers (it is a rated R movie, kids under 18 should not see it).  However I was always thinking those people in Kubrick's strange costume party, in suburb New York City, are only extremely wealthy men and women from around the world, and that party was one of their usual but finest games. I had no idea about the ritual in the beginning of the party, and also the origin of some unjustifiable happening such as the scary nightmare of Alice, Dr. Harford's wife (played by Nicole Kidman), when she says that in her nightmare she was being raped over and over in a place exactly similar to the party that Dr. Hartford (Tom Cruise) had attended that night.

Three years later, in a Saturday midnight, by chance an unusual classic movie on TCM caught my attention. The movie was 1968 blockbuster Rosemary's Baby, directed by Roman Polanski. A newly-wed couple in their search of a place to live in Manhattan, end up in an old and strange apartment. After a sequence of strange happenings and bad nightmares, the young wife becomes pregnant. The movie goes along by describing her deteriorating mental condition and the climax is when she delivers a baby, but others start denying that her baby was alive. Finally she discovers a hidden walkway in the building, and finds her husband and neighbors gathered in a room around her baby, whose father is very different.

The Devils Advocate tells the story of a very successful young lawyer, Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves), who is joining a law firm in Manhattan. All the lawyers of the firm live in a tower where the penthouse belongs to the boss. Everything is normal up to the middle of the movie, when Lomax's wife (Charlize Theron) starts having nightmares and seeing unusual things. She finally commits suicide, and soon after Lomax realizes that he is son of his boss, and moreover, his boss is nobody but Lucifer.

All these three movies are about stories in Manhattan. The connection of the Devil advocate and Rosemary's baby is quite obvious: both are about Lucifer in Manhattan, where he rapes and makes babies; but what about Eyes wide shut? The story of Eyes wide shut is strange but yet not disconnect form ordinary life. The original story was written by Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931), and  due to the author's zeitgeist, it is not irrational to assume that the story may be about demons and devil. By thinking again about the costume party with its special ritual and its connection to Alice's nightmare, and all other strange happenings in Eyes wide shut, it wont be a bad guess to assume that the costume party was related to Lucifer. However if it was mentioned explicitly in the movie, I doubt it would be as exciting as it is now.

Unfortunately Kubrick passed away before screening Eyes Wide Shut, and left few clues about the story; but I greatly admire him for making this movie so proficiently that at least after five years I still think about the movie and guess about its thrilling story.

OSCAR 2005

It is sad that you watch more than 20 new movies, and only one of them can be nominated for the best picture award. And also contrary to my prediction, Tom Hanks is not in the best actor list! and what happened to Kill Bill?

But, these missed nominee may indicate that 2004 was a great year in making good movies which are now nominated for the best picture award and etc.

I start my review of the list with Leonardo DiCaprio, who is nominated for the best actor award for his performance in the Aviator. I liked the Aviator, not because I like the late Discovery Wings channel; Of course my interest in the Wing stories was the major motive to watch the movie, but the Aviator is more than a Wing movie. It is a focus on a very interesting character in a very changing era. I did not know anything about Howard Hughes before, and DiCaprio performance is perfect, specially when he gets crazy and imprisons himself in the auditorium. But I doubt that he wins the award.
For the best supporting actor, same as the best actor nominees, I have only watched Allen Alda acting in the Aviator, and he was great. One of the best parts of the Aviator is when Alda and DiCaprio are arguing during the Senate hearing. That section was fantastic, and unforgettable. I believe Alda truly deserves to be the best supporting actor.
I have not watched the movies in which the nominees of the best actress staring, but I wonder why Cate Blanchett is nominated for the best supporting actress, and not best actress! Was she supporting herself?
Shrek 2 is a beautiful animation, but I don't like to watch it again! Probably the Incredibles are the main rival of the Shrek family.
I have no idea about the best picture nominees and the best directing, except those of the Aviator, which I enjoyed them.
Spider-man is the king of visual effects. Harry Potter's was nice too, but the award will be trapped in the Spidy web.
And last but least, one of my favorite movies is nominated for the best adapted screenplay. Before Sunset is a very strange movie. It has no action, but speaking! In fact you can only listen to the movie and enjoy it, but you will enjoy more when you watch Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke walking through the streets of Paris and continuing their interesting and nostalgic conversation.

Spider-man 2 & Oscar for Tom Hanks

Last night for the first time in my life I watched a movie on its premiere night. I was lucky to get the Spider-man ticket before it completely got sold out, although the salon never got full. Maybe I was one of the oldest guys there!

The movie was not disappointing as Matrix Reloaded, but it was not my very favorite either. The story revolves around the normal life of Peter Parker and it describes the effect of his spidey tasks. Since this time I had visited New York before, it was fun to watch Spider-man swinging over Manhattan.

There were also some very obvious scientific ignorances, but it is a kid movie and who cares! it was just better to make kids think a bit harder. For example presence of a whirlpool when the fusion core was under water, or showing the attraction of Doc Ock's wife's earring to the fusion core, would make the movie more interesting to watch and faithful to the same laws that govern the occurrence of events in the movie.

Also I watched The Terminal on Sunday. The movie is partially based on a true story, but in general it is very simple and sometimes it goes very long; however Tom Hanks was great; I believe his performance is going to give him another Oscar. He was fantastic!

Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2

Today I had this chance to watch Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 together. First I watched Kill Bill vol. 1 on GTCN 21 and then Kill Bill vol. 2 in a movie theater. That was a very good experience, at least I can judge both parts without being biased about the earlier volume! and Kill Bill vol. 2 was more fun to watch. I like Uma Thurman's characters in Tarantino's movies, and although probably she is the cruelest character in Kill Bill, I love to watch her and wishing her to survive. Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies. He has chosen almost the same narrative technique in Kill Bill: The story goes back and forth and creates a splendid maze. The movie is not as serious as Pulp Fiction, and sometimes gets closer to fantasy, as for example in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There are also plenty of referral to other movies in dialogues, soundtracks, scenery and cinematography; Specially to the Hong Kong martial art genre.

I think this can be a rule about Kill Bill: if you like Pulp Fiction, but not Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you will probably like Kill Bill; if you like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but not Pulp Fiction, you will like Kill Bill; if you like both Pulp Fiction and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you will love Kill Bill.

My favorite nominees in the 76th Oscar

In the eve of the 76th Annual Academy Award ceremony, I hope these nominees receive the golden statue:

Actor in a leading role: Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog)
who can doubt about ex-Colonel Behrani's identity, an Iranian refugee to Malibu. Behrani is as true as any other ex-colonels I have ever met.

Actress in a supporting role: Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog)
a consolation for despaired Iranians, specially these days.

Music (song): "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" (A Mighty Wind)
a highly-memorable piece of folk music specially when you watch the beautiful movie and learn more about the story behind the song.

Review: House of Sand and Fog

House of sand and fog has a story inside a story. You may watch the story of a conflict between two persons who are fighting to regain their past which is another story. The movie does not go much in details about Kathy's (Jennifer Connelly), but it introduces Behranis with a flash back of cutting trees on the southern Caspian coast. It again reveals the family history when Esmail asks his dad, Colonel Behrani (Ben Kingsley), if he was in SAVAK (notorious secret police of pre-revolution Iran) or when Nadi talks about their garden in Isfahan - an absolutely correct analogy- or by showing the picture of Behrani sitting at the same table with Shah (the king of Persia) - Ben Kingsley and Shah at a same table, hahaha I love it!