A SERIOUS MAN - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (2009)

A serious man is “a story told from the perspective of the place that Joel & Ethan Coen knew when they were growing up.” (executive producer Robert Graf)

It´s an amazing combination of  drama and black comedy. This movie is about big themes as the meaning of life, knowledge, fate, love - but also about oddball moments in a human life. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is high-school physics professor for whom the weight of the world has crashed on his shoulders. A Korean-born student Clive (David Kang) is just about fail his class - he understand stories like Schrödinger's cat, but he doesn´t understand maths. After he left Larry´s office, Larry found a thick envelope with great amount of money. When Larry came home, his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) informed him that they have to divorce, because she wants to marry Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Sy Ableman is a funny character - a huge man who is speaking like a mother who works as psychiatrist.
And as a father of the family he has to solve his kids problems. His son Danny (Aaron Wolff) lives in a fear of his classmate Mike Fagle (Jon Kaminski Jr.) to whom he owes twenty dollars for marijuana. And his teacher confiscates his portable radio. His sister Sarah (Jessica McManus) is fighting with him because he stole these twenty dollars from her wallet. Sarah is avarage teen girl - who is not satisfied with her body - and she tenanciously wants nose job. She is also desperate because of her uncle who is all the time in the bathroom and she cannot wash her hair.
Uncle, Larry´s brother Arthut (Richard Kind) is living with them for a long time, he is sleeping on couch and obsessively writing in a notebook. He calls it The Mentaculus - determining the fundamental mathematical relationships that tie all natural laws together.
There is almost simultaneous situation of the car accidents of Larry and Sy, nevertheless they are few miles far - only one thing differs - Larry is alive but Sy is dead. Larry has to solve an absurd moment, because his wife wants him to pay for the funeral. The thing is that he has no money, because Judith took all money from their shared acounts.
He tries to find help in three rabbis, but none of them is helpful.
On the day of bar mitzvah Danny is high on marijuana and is struggling through the ceremony, but he overcomes his haze and is able to perform. Danny is lead into the senior rabbi´s office. The rabbi returns his radio to him with words "be a good boy".
He obtained a bill from the lawyer and decided to change Clive´s mark. After that his doctor calls him to make an appointment because of results of a chest X-ray. At the same time a massive tornado is approaching Danny´s school.

                                                           
The film takes place in 1967 among a Jewish community in an unnamed Midwestern suburb. Midwest is the place where they grew up - so we can find similarity with their childhood. Locations are very important part of the picture. They decided to film in Minnesota. They were looking for an orginal - looking suburban houses as they would have appeared in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in 1960´s- Finally they have found suitable locations in Bloominghton. The look of the film is also partly based on a collection of photographs of Bloominghton in the 1950s and 1960s - Brad Zellar book: Suburban World: The Norling Photographs. Other locations: Normandale Community College (Bloomington), B´Nai Emet Synagogue in St. Louis Park, St Olaf College, Cooper´s grocery (St. Paul, Minnesota). It took 44 days to shoot this film.
As cinematographer worked Roger Deakins and it was his 10th film in collaboration with Coen brothers). Mary Zophers - the costume designer - worked one nine films with directors.
Music has been composed by one of my favourite film composer Cartel Burwell. You can see and listen his work on his website: www.carterburwell.com.

(5OO) DAYS OF SUMMER - Marc Webb (2009)

This film is loyal to its genre - it´s a romance. The main difference between 500 days of summer and other romantic films is in the script, the story isn´t about happy love, it´s about unrequited love. Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon - Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) were lovers for a while. She doesn´t believe in a real love, for her their relationship was fun - but nothing more. She didn´t want to say that it´s a relationship. At the beginning I thought that it will be good film, but then when she found her husband (husband!!!!) any more. Somebody can tell me why husband? She had a character till that, after this twist I don´t believe anything and the film is starting to shift to unbeliavable bad movie. The final sceen was a disaster - nothing more than cliché. "Ugly" Autumn appeared - as Hollywood in its rules. And I regretted that I watched this film. The wardrobe was confusing - old clothes weren´t bad, but in the contrast with others, it wasn´t compact. It´s classical hollywood film - nothing special, even if lots of people have different opinion, as I have read.

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS - Terry Gilliam (2009)

They were obsessed by visualization of the world of imagination. I didn't find really nothing more then a fairy tale. The world of imagination is so artificial that I didn't enjoy it. Some parts and ideas were really great, but like a whole film nothing what I'll remember. That visual mass caused that I don't know what they wanted to say (eventually show).. and makes me feel that it was skin-deep and cliche. I actually like Terry Gilliam' s films so much, but this one is a regret. If it will stay in today's London and that Vicorian-styled travelling theatre, without these unbelievable parts of amarican vision of imagination, it will be much more better. Nevertheless I think I admire Lily Cole - this small lovely creature was really like from imagination - a fairy (it was strongest then any animation because she was real). Imaginarium of doctor Parnassus is the last film of Heath Ledger who died in the middle of the shooting. At first they thought that they won´t finish this film but finally three great actors (Johnny Depp, Jude Law a Colin Farrell) decided that they will finish the film in honour of Heath Ledger.

SURROGATES - Jonathan Mostow (2009)

Science fiction film based on the 2005–2006 comic book series of the same name. The idea of robots which are doing everything for us and we are only staying in our flats and never going out. The actors look really artificially. I like the visuality of this film. Surrogates are sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of people. It's an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don't exist. When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Greer (Bruce Willis) discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery.

THE CONVARSATION - Francis Ford Coppola (1974)

Monitore and be monitored... Slowly gradating and dragging into the plot, but much more intensifying and suggestive. At first very banal monitoring of an uninteresting conversation of two persons in the park slowly changes to proper thriller. Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) has to choose between ethics and job and he tries to solve this situation.  Gene Hackman is as famous as Francis Ford Coppola as director. It´s a portrait of the character and the era which are connected by absolute lost of freedom, the fragility of personal life. Harry Caul is listening lives of others, but he is denying his own life, in a fear that he could be listened and betrayed. He is like a chameleon in a flat full of impersonal stuff, with a mistress who knows nothing about him, with a colleague who can´t establish friendly relationship between them, with a telephone number nobody knows. Nevertheless he cannot escape the paradox hunter - prey in the moment when he tries to behave like a human and prevents a tragedy. The conversation is a particular and abstract metaphor of modern civilization as an era, when everybody can listen and manipulate, but everybody is fragile and vulnerable. Coppola uses visually sophisticated form of full shapes, he works complexly with narrator (different angles of retrospects) and fantastic sound track.

 

PUBLIC ENEMIES - Michael Mann (2009)

Adaptation of Bryana Burrough´s book: PUBLIC ENEMIES: AMERICA'S GREATEST CRIME WAVE & THE BIRTH OF THE FBI, is talking about the hardest time of economic depression, and about the world-known gangster Johna Dillingera (Johnny Depp) and his group, part of his group was John "Red" Hamilton (Jason Clarke), Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff) a Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi). We meet them in the year 1993, when John is already known gangster. His robberies are perfectly scheduled and all of them are working like they should. Nobody is injured and Dillinger is very popular for public. He is very charismatic and handsome gentleman who is nice to civilians. He wants only money of the bank not theirs. He is like recent Robin Hood. Federal agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) has to stop Dillinger with any instruments. Dillinger has been arrested few times, but he always escaped or tricked justice. He realizes he cannot escaping forever. His situation is also more complicated when he  felt in love with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). Bank robberies aren´t so gainful, he has less friends, and Purvis wants Dillinger better death than alive. Red-blooded gun battles, high-quality set design and costumes, great dialogues between Depp and Cotillard. Mann depicts the atmospere of the period brilliantly, it reminds me film noir and golden age of Hollywood. 

COCO AVANT CHANEL - Anne Fontaine (2009)

I expected pretty much because of the previous films with Audrey Tautou like A Very Long Engagement or Amelie from Montmartre, but also because of the theme - Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel is a great person from french history. This biographical film could be better - Maybe I have this feeling because I knew the story of Chanel, so there was nothing what could me surprise.

I estimate costumes and the setting - they are precious. The woman fashion before 1910 was fussy and overdecorated - Chanel started to produce dateless fashion. At first she used men´s clothes and transformed them to women´s fashion. She was supported by her rich lovers. The costumes are beautifully made.

Why they have chosen Audrey Tautou for the main character? She is wellknown adorable actress who attract audience to cinema and she also looks like Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.