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Port of Shadows (1938)
Port of Shadows (1938)
1938 | Crime, Drama, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It seems I’ve been watching Children of Paradise all my life. I remember taking my son to see it when he was seven. When I was trying to convince Brando to play Garrett in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, he told me that, along with the master swordsman in Seven Samurai, the thief in Children of Paradise was the greatest performance on film. I came to Port of Shadows much later in my life, and the Criterion transfer really enhanced its beauty. Jean Gabin became a prototype for me of a kind of actor difficult to find today. And the dialogue inspired me to attempt to re-create its poetic realism."

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Alice Rohrwacher recommended Viridiana (1961) in Movies (curated)

 
Viridiana (1961)
Viridiana (1961)
1961 | International, Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Buñuel’s work is very important to me because it made me understand how far you can go with imagination and still be so close to reality. For me, The Exterminating Angel is so real—maybe Buñuel wouldn’t be happy to hear me say that because he’s not famous for his realism. But even if it’s a surrealistic parable, I’ve been so many places where I felt like I was living inside the feeling of this movie. It’s like a documentary about society. When I was making my movie Happy as Lazzaro, I surveyed movies that all talk about how to be good, because Lazzaro is a good man. Viridiana came up as something to watch."

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Dana (24 KP) rated Beloved in Books

Mar 23, 2018  
Beloved
Beloved
A.S. Byatt, Toni Morrison | 2006 | Fiction & Poetry
8
6.9 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
I had to read this book for my craft of fiction class. This was my first time reading it, but we were able to look at it as more than just plot, and more about how it was written and why it was written that way.

There are spoilers, so read at your own risk.

I very much enjoyed this book. I loved this view into a post slavery world filled of women who have to deal with the grief that has followed them throughout their lives. Sethe, though she has made her mistakes in her life, is still a sympathetic character who relies on her grief to survive through what she has done. Her daughters are strong women in their own rights. Beloved, being childlike and taking out her rage of her death on her mother and her family through stealing the attention and food for herself. She isolates, makes it so the others feel death hanging over themselves to understand her pain.

The format, being more stream of consciousness and not a cohesive, linear narrative, lends itself well to the magical realism of this book. This is nothing like a Harry Potter type of magical realism though. This is steeped in the tradition of former slaves, magical in their beliefs of the world and the afterlife. Not the people being able to control magic, but allowing it to be a real thing in their lives either way.

I really liked this book. If you want to understand why, check it out for yourself.
  
Cruel Beauty
Cruel Beauty
Rosamund Hodge | 2014 | Young Adult (YA)
10
8.5 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
Romance (2 more)
Pacing
Strong Female Character
Character inconsistencies (0 more)
Love story
Nyx is honestly my favorite female book character. She has such a realism to her that I want to wrap around me. She isn't this hero who is going to her death great full for a chance to save her world, she is angry and full of poison and it's so refreshing. She isn't a perfect martyr. Not to mention the book takes its time and the time frame isn't a few days and Boom! She's in love. She has the opportunity to learn something about her husband and he has the opportunity to show he loves her for who she is. I reread the book constantly and I highly recommend it as a love story.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Them! (1954) in Movies

Feb 19, 2018 (Updated Feb 19, 2018)  
Them! (1954)
Them! (1954)
1954 | Classics, Horror, Sci-Fi
8
7.1 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Granddaddy of atomic bug movies works incredibly hard to stay credible as a drama; mostly succeeds. Government agents discover giant mutant ants on the rampage; can they contain the threat and keep the secret until the ants can be destroyed? Not quite documentary-style realism, but close enough; hard edged, takes itself impressively seriously.

Notable for featuring some relatively famous faces early in their careers - also for its use of full-scale ant puppets rather than animation or trick photography. Atom-fear angle is underplayed for the most part; this still stands up well as an SF thriller. The climax, with machine guns and flamethrowers battling snapping mandibles and exoskeletal monsters in the sewers under Los Angeles, was surely an influence on Aliens.
  
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
2017 | Action
Far fetched
The Fast and the Furious has always been one of my favorite series... but to be honest they should have stopped after number 5 or even 6....

The story has become so washed out. It used to be about basic street racing with some crime mixed in. It was a tale of family, and loyalty.

This series has become so far fetched it's crazy. The realism is what people liked in the beginning, and they have all but obliterated that. There is so much unrealistic crashing, and maneuvers that is becomes unbelievable. They went from small time, to big time in a huge way. From being about family, to being about betrayal.

It could just be me, but it's just not a movie for me.
  
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AmyBee (4 KP) rated The Satanic Verses in Books

Nov 23, 2018  
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Engaging, historically important, controversial, (0 more)
A long read, requires thought and concentration, can be upsetting to people of a certain faith (0 more)
The best known novel that people have never read.
Contains spoilers, click to show
This is the number one work of literature (except from the Christian Bible) that people have heard of but never read. This is due to the controversy it caused when it was published, which resulted in the author receiving death threats (or a fatwa) by the Muslim community for depicting the prophet Muhammad as a paedophile.

Full of magic realism and fantasy elements, The Satanic Verses is a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions. An absolute must read for the secular and religious communities because it makes one think deeply about religious matters.