Sketches of Frank Gehry

The story features the works of a famous architect, Frank Gehry, and explains how he conceptualises his ideas together with his team. The film also interviewed his friends, fellow architects and his clients.

Interesting how an idea gets transformed to something concrete for everybody to see and walk around! Liked the nice weird buildings shown and Frank's innovative spirit! His design is unique, pretty and keeps in mind the functional objective at the same time!

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The Princess and the Warrior

The story is about how a couple met each other through pure coincidence. The guy, Bodo, is an ex-army guy who has psychological problems while the girl, Simone, works in the mental hospital. They met underneath a truck due to a series of events!

Liked the part of the soundtrack with the bell ringing in the background! Sounds very nice! Also liked the depiction of Simone at work and how she managed to find out who Bodo was and where he lived. The ending is very nicely done and it showed in an innovative way how Bodo was able to forget about his past and move forward.

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Time

The story describes the social impact of plastic surgery through the ups and downs of a couple's relationship. The girl disappears for a few months to undergo plastic surgery without the boyfriend's knowledge and suddenly reappears with a new face. Some twists and turns occur after that.

Interesting look at how plastic surgery is looked upon as a solution to all sorts of problems as one erases the past and starts a new life with a new face! Time comes to a freeze during the 5 months when a person recovers from the face change operation and the relationship is tested through the passage of time. Time's cyclical nature is also revealed through the opening and closing scenes. A good social commentary on current society!

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Digicon 6+2 Showcase 1

Attended this free screening of 20 animation shorts as part of the "Animation Nation" at the National Library.

The list of shorts are:

The Legend of Shangri-la, The Bad Egg, Kioku, Oasis, Hunting, After Blue, Robota, Graffiti, Nioh, Lotus, No. 5768, Tsumiki ningyou, Miniascape Mix, tough guy! 2005, The Four Seasons, The Running Man, The Naked Ape, Hana, Kungfu Gecko, Hunters

Great action and humour in "Oasis", "tough guy! 2005" and "Kungfu Gecko"! I also liked "Graffiti" which is like watching an animated game being played on the blackboard and "The Running Man" for its story about an overweight man running to keep fit.

Contempt

The story is about how a couple's love for one another could suddenly dwindle for no reason at all. This is interspersed with comments on the movie industry through the husband who is writing a script for an arrogant producer and a famous director.

Great acting by the leading actress played by Brigitte Bardot! I also liked the fluid camera work within the house and the nice scenery at the sea! The conversations are intellectually interesting too!

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Casino Royale

The story is about James Bond who is a spy from England, tracking down the identity of a bad guy who finances terrorists around the world.

Very exciting chase sequence at the start! The small fry bad guy is really good at jumping from one place to another! A bit disappointed with the lack of new gadgets though. Seems like the handphone, the notebook and the car are sufficient for any spy's needs. The leading lady looks not too bad and the poker action at the casino is reasonably exciting!

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Rhythm Is It!

This is a documentary about how the Berlin Philharmonic collaborated with 250 youngsters from the ages of eight to early twenties to perform the classical piece, "Rite of Spring", by Stravinsky together. The Berlin Philharmonic played the music while the youngsters danced to the rhythm.

Interesting to see the youngsters at the dance rehearsals! They were taught by two very experienced artistes who knew how exactly to bring out the best of these young people who are distracted at times. As a result of their coaching, they became more disciplined and were motivated to test themselves beyond their limits! Their original teachers on the other hand were clearly not as good motivators and would give in when they see their students struggling.

Nice music by Stravinsky! Good that the conductor explained the background story to the music! I finally understood what it meant after hearing it several years ago in the library. It was a piece that I randomly picked that I thought would be relaxing as it contained the word "Spring" in it. The final music and dance performance also blended very well together!

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49 Up

This is a documentary about the lives of a group of 49-year old English men and women that started 42 years ago in 1964 when they were 7 years old. The director would produce one documentary every seven years and call it the 7x Up (where x = 1 to 7).

Interesting to see how the lives of these people change over time! We cheer for them when they do well and feel sad for them when they do not so well. I especially like the black and white footages of the time when they were seven years old. They look cute and their comments were humorous!

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