The Theory of Everything

Bring your tissues!

If you approach the film without expecting to learn anything about how time works and what theories Prof. Hawking has given the world, you'll be just fine. As romances go, it is rather special. Of course it is. Nothing like a hardship shared with a loved one and the deterioration of a brilliant man, who nonetheless defies the odds given him to make you ball your eyes out.

Eddie Redmayne is brilliant. Oscar-worthy? Absolutely.

My heart goes out the the equally brilliant Michael Keaton in Birdman. He pulled off quite the astonishing feat himself, but (alas!) what chance can he possibly have against someone portraying a real live person of high standing that has a disability to boot. Now that is a role to sink your teeth in and however great you are in any fiction film, you should have picked a different year to be great in.

As for the film itself, well it is quite the kitsch fest and can't hold a candle to some of the Oscar nominated films it is up against, BAFTA for best British film of the year or no (not that The Imitation Game is that much better). But I am sure there is an audience for it. Granted, I'm not it.

My overall score takes into account the sheer greatness of Eddie Redmayne's performance.

6/10

Which brings me to my overview of this year's Oscar crop. At this point I have watched all but one of the best picture nominees and the one missing is American Sniper, which I have currently no interest in watching at all (I may yet, but....). I will probably get to the others in this here blog, eventually, and give a more detailed reasoning. (Yes, I am fully aware of what the rest of the world thinks of Boyhood. I simply believe people are blinded by the effort and time that went into it and want to like it much more than they would if they were to ignore that. And there are other, better films about 'ordinary life' that did not get the attention, because they were made more conventionally.) Anyway, here is my list of favorite to least favorite...

Whiplash
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Selma
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Boyhood

See, Boyhood is not a bad film per se, it is just that I liked the others better.

L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad)

Here is a film that has divided cineasts since it came out.

Some hate it. It has been included in Harry Medved's 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of all Time (and How They Got that Way), but that book also lists the likes of The Omen, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia or Valley of the Dolls (so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt).

Some love it. Those who do (this includes me), do so passionately, it seems. Roger Ebert gave it a coveted four star review. And while I'm linking to other pages and many an article has been written about Marienbad, here is another one. You're welcome.

The story is quickly told. At a luxurious hotel in Marienbad, a man approaches a woman and tells her that they have met and fell in love the previous year at the hotel and he wants her to run away with him now. The woman, however, does not seem to recall the meeting of the year before. What complicates matters is that she is there with her husband. In the end, we don't know if the first meeting ever happened.

That is really all of the story. There are several theories of what it all means. The most common one is that the narrative is based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which the man has to convince the woman to come with him (out of the underwold) and to do so on her own account.

What we are shown is a series of breathtaking images. In wide shots the shadows do not match. The people are decked out in Chanel clothing. The pose like mannequins for a long while before they start moving. Heard words do not match moving lips.

Seeing this, to me, was utterly fascinating. And I am not usually a fan of French cinema of the 1960's and 1970's like so many others, unexplicaply, appear to be.

Love it or hate it, the film is unique and you have never seen anything like it.

10/10

I Give It a Year

Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) get married after a 7-month romance and a short time later realize that they are not really made for each other. Determined to make it through their first year (at least), they work on their marriage with the help of what is possible the most ill-equipped marriage counselor ever.

Anyway, Josh is really still into his former girlfriend Chloe (an unfortunate looking Anna Farris) and Nat falls for Guy (Simon Baker), who she flirts with, mostly to get his account for her company. (If you know Simon Baker's Patrick Jane, he appears weirdly under dressed in just regular suits...I'm used to seeing him in three-piece ones.)

It doesn't help that Nat and Josh are surrounded by less-than-helpful friends and family, like Nat's sister Naomi (Minnie Driver), who is predicting that they will never last and is constantly annoyed by her own husband, or Josh's best friend Danny (Stephen Merchant), who is one of those people that says the most improper thing at the worst possible moment.

Through all this amusingly weird things are happening in the background and slightly out of frame.

Love, Actually... this is not, but still amusing.

5/10