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When green is all there is to be It could make you wonder why But why wonder why wonder I am green, and it’ll do fine It’s beautiful, and I think it’s what I want to be 

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In three months “Forrest Gump” will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

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In memory of the Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died today at 87, a look back at Jon Lee Anderson’s 1999 Profile of the writer: http://nyr.kr/QrWlKv

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We mourn the passing of Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel Prize winning Colombian author, who beautifully led a Creative Writing Workshop for the Institute in 1989.  García Márquez also attended the 1989 Sundance Film Festival for the Dangerous Loves premiere, a program of films based on his stories portraying his glorious obsession with love and death.  Gabriel García Márquez was instrumental in Sundance Institute’s extensive work in Latin America which spanned ten years and included partnerships supporting filmmakers throughout the continent.  Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute Archives

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Lincoln

Directed by Steven Spielburg

stars: Daniel Day Lewis ;  Sally Fields; David Strathaim

running time: 150 mins

16th president final months in office, climax of civil war and the constitutional change of freedom for all people.  

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Acting was the strength of the movie, strong characterization of such prominate history, the smoky old staging: of war - I felt like i was looking in a window rather than at a movie  screen . Tight camera view and peering into dim light rather than stepping into civil war USA. I felt a little isolated from the characters as a viewer. Lincoln being such an iconic person any portrayals up for criticism. To see his family more within the story was a great positive, the emotional angels of war upon family and loss. Lincoln is such a political icon and so controversial in his life time, simple acts like leaving his gloves but wearing his top hat, very controversial in the day. You would have been not dressed.

BIg screen viewing best option to see the detail within the staging. 

Directing: Not a film that I would say is on my best  filmed and sound lists via spielburg.

pushing the story was positive and little details were very clever. Lincoln  is the telling of a fuller story of such a prominant President. The Costumes were detailed and keeping with everything I have ever been shown with a very documented and well acted era in American history. Not an easy subject to have another perspective upon and one still to this day has such a hold on constitutional america, and is still so relevant. Proof in the bielf of the people and strength of there fight to vote. 

I was lost within the politics, i needed a broader shot of usa to give more context. As although everyone learns american history at school (states side that is!) The civil war and the pilgrames are such iconic status to us in present day that to them in presence tense;  they may like all history(the pilgrams themselves) see a very different tale to the one of reality to them. Hence the possitive of a look into the life within the politics.

How hard it is to be the person effecting change wasn’t shown to the extent to the level i know still exists, even in modern times the entire country was fighting, although shown in the field, he seemed to  be diplomatically just talking."hence the gap in viewers knowledge" ( he did just talk quietly in war zone and inspired the change in america, no microphones in his day. Imagine our current Presidents walking through a war zone no cameras just saying hello would that make a difference )

SOUND is the key to the punch thats not quiet right in this movie. I needed the sound track to have more to the intensity of such a HUGE country encompassing change. Seems a strange comment for a speilburge movie.

Im familiar with the story, outside USA there was also a large viewing audience who was lost within the political talk. too long within the conversations that without the flag flying i was drifting in the story. on the positive my lack of interterest in dialogue was taken by details. Where the budgets cost i noticed the lace on her collar and the fire place. Ladies in the movie actually received more attention, as did what buckels were on your shoes.

In normal comments from me Directors receive the most attention. They are the story tellers and if we step into the story and come out with wow!!!  it is from their creative teams hands.

Cameras.... liked the camera work, I actually felt like changing the lens to wide angel in the sitting room scene as i just needed more light to see them and look at more details.

Too dark to see on a small screen, large screen it was encompassing but i still felt like I had been surrounded in coal dust.  

Acting: strength of main characters and their proffessional research and detail to the story and history. i felt like there was too many characters and hence got lost in the politics.( again a gap in viewer information) Felt like the characters were real not just pictures.

My Interpretation,looked at actual pictures, actual places, actual politics, actual confusion, and thats how I felt watching it.

Sound:  wasn’t to its normal quality, if real life was the aim, then I needed to see a different way of stepping into the movie.... instead i was looking into a picture.  Family stills and allot of talking, voice work was fluid but lacked the quiet strength that Lincoln holds. Anxiety of loss and the stress of a country at war was within the characters but not hitting me as viewer. Acting held what the Lincoln's were going through but it lost some of cinamatic impact via so much vocabulary: although if politcs was ever in a movie it hit the box.!

A comment a non american may understand ( I call the 5th! If you have ever seen American in trouble they stand fast of the 5th amendment, its were all their spark as a country comes from :Four scores all is well. Bell tolls - enter Lincoln. A tall very controversial man in world governed by the church who changed America history forever,Black and white and fighting for freedom. Changing slavery. We have the right to bare arms: its almost on the scale of the bible in USA: to put the topic in context for those not up on civil wars and american history."

Too much political speak for me the general viewer so in translation:

(viewer information : bill of indapendance: confedarcy inregards to civil war) without enough context of landscape for those of us not surround by the flag history in short:

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis—the American Civil War"

"The U.S. Congress began a decade-long process known as Reconstruction which some scholars treat as an extension of the Civil War. It lasted throughout the administrations of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Grant and saw the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to free the slaves, the Fourteenth to guarantee dual U.S. and state citizenship to all, and the Fifteenth to guarantee the right to vote in states. The war left the South economically devastated by military action, ruined infrastructure, and exhausted resources. The region remained well below national levels of prosperity until after World War II.[7]" - wiki

The movie was Deserving of its nominations - great strength of people and presence of time. 

Steven where’s your missing piece????  Such a perfectionist who’s your bounce point, feel like a picture made with areal reason and purpose, not quiet sure where its aimed. Lincoln holds all the core structures that defines our work to such scope of cinema via such an experienced hand. Of course it won an oscar but It could have been even more.... where's your missing piece?

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WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

photographs

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Read David Samuels’s piece on the Pink Panthers, an inventive and elusive gang of international jewel thieves, now unlocked: http://nyr.kr/aXrVEL

Illustration by R. Kikuo Johnson.

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The balloon Explorer II is launched in 1935 in South Dakota.Photograph by Richard Hewitt Stewart, National Geographic

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red licorice

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An armed thief broke into the prestigious Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France. He stole $53 million dollars of jewels, targeting a diamond exhibition by designer Leviev.

The media has drawn attention to the Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch A Thief (1955, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly) that features the hotel and takes place in the French riviera.

At Fresh Air, we thought of something else:

That same year (1955) a low budget French Film Noir called Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes (often shortened to Rififi) directed by Jules Dassin tells the story of a has-been criminal that hires a team of charismatic thieves and safe-breakers to pull of a jewelry heist at a famous Parisian boutique. The film is said to be the archetypal heist film that inspired the Ocean’s Eleven series. The cinematography is stunning, implementing Noir’s key characteristic: dramatic lighting.  Rififi is captivating from beginning to end, especially its iconic 30 minute silent break-in sequence that will have you sweating. 

Check it out under the Criterion Collection.

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NBC Univeral INC

IVOR awards UK - Won for movie score Anna Karenia

Sensationally well done guys!!! BIg deal haven't seen a IVOR with a movie link in YEARS!

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Anna Korenia

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Nomination at the oscars 2013 was warented - set and design were beautifully visualised as past productions by Joe Write - Atonement

Costuming and story retelling in visual form was for a purist of the story a harder version to see but for a movie buffs vision it was a script a very well done and great visual ( directors) creative interpretation. It felt like two tales woven together and the Music and the editing were partically tight and this movie looked the big budget with extra care attached, the little details were all ticked off and watching the movies they have presented this year they pushed a boundary that hasn't been hit within commercial big budgets even within thier international section.

This years 2013 nominations all pushed movie making and the basis of story, not a normal interaction between viewer and production. Well done, seems like a simple statement; to have a hit within the boundary of big studio even within its international branches but it still has to reach the viewing audience.  If I was to pull it apart, the leads would be unknowns not big names that via Universal branding is not their style. Looking at the movie; the artistic tightness was the possitive. Purest of the story "anxiety" was what missing although the cast potrayed the "passion" of the pain within life then again within her life (Anna) . Still it didn't hold the PAIN that the book holds within its pages. However it have a creative interpretation that hasn't been seen before within a drama. The book says to me lengthy pages of visual pain, this movie said to me, I ve researched the characters and put more than thier pain to the viewer, we are not trying to be the aclaim of written word but an invention of a passion with pain to a story of old. Which to me as a viewer it achieved. I think the prodcution of entire studio grew this years offerings within Unversial branches as it is usually synonomious with speilburg only and his excellence of large budget story telling, big jump not to hold to his formulla only.... then there is his masterpiece LINCOLN.

Lincoln is a 2012 American epic historical drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President

Despicable me 2 .......................... 

Quirky characters, great story line, charaters had good strength and the animation was well conceived.

Watch the movie on a wet cold sunday and the cinema was full of families. Entire movie giggling away.  The movie kept my attention and had me laughing. 

Who knew a yellow quish ball could have so much scope and turn into a full length feature film. Really liked it. !!!

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© Erika Durdle Photography

Gershwin Theatre, NYC

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George Gershwin

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Judy Garland singing “Liza,” by George and Ira Gershwin