Pleasure Reading Ch. 90-108

Liz couldn’t  deal with herself. Ian made her constantly think about her previous affairs with David and Felipe.   

Gilbert has dinner with Felipe, the handsome Brazilian, nearly every night of the week and spends the majority of the chapter commenting on things she likes about him: the way he listens, the fact that he was faithfully married for some twenty years, etc. 

Liz raised money for her new friend Wayan, who couldn’t afford to keep her shop any more.  But this sum of money is not enough to deal with all difficulties.

Finally, one day, after dinner Liz and Felipe slept together.Gilbert celebrated her 35th birthday Balinese style.

Felipe confesses his love for Gilbert, but asks for nothing in return.  He says he feels it is his job to love her; she can respond any way she chooses.  His biggest concern is what kind of life he can offer her in Bali. Wayan has finally found a property she likes, but the deal fell through. 

Finally travelling to all these countries, to all these plays helped Elizabeth Gilbert to find herself and to understand that love is the most important thing in the world.  

Film review (Ellie Parker)

Ellie Parker (2005)

Cast:

• Naomi Watts
•  Rebecca Rigg
• Scott Coffey
• Mark Pellegrino

Ellie Parker is a 2005 American comedy film, written and directed by Scott Coffey. The title character, played by Naomi Watts, is a young woman struggling as an actress in Los Angeles.

Ellie Parker began as a short that was screened at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Using a handheld digital camera, writer-director Scott Coffey expanded it into a feature-length film over the next four years. It was released in 2005.

Review:

Ellie was a young actress who wanted to be famous all around the world. She tried to find work in Hollywood, but failed every time when she tried this or that role. She lives with her vacuous musician boyfriend (Mark Pellegrino), who leaves her just about as dissatisfied as any other part of her life, and has a loose definition of the word "fidelity". But her boyfriend had an affair with another woman and Ellie broke with him their relationship. By chance she made friends with Kris with whom she fell in love.  First of all Kris introduced himself as a filmmaker. IN the end of film she read her role in a new film, and just went away.

As for me I liked this movie. This film attracted me by its suddenness and liveliness. It is really interesting to watch and it worth this. 

Pleasure Reading Ch. 73-90

BOOK THREE: INDONESIA (or Even in My Underpants I Feel Different or 36 Tales about the Pursuit of Balance)

Liz arrived in Bali and decided to go to the medicine man. But first of all she decided to stay in the hotel in Ubud, which was in the center of Bali. Then she drove to Ketut. But he didn’t remember her from the first sight, but then he recognized the woman who had been supposed to teach him English. Ketut’s wife had always been very skeptical of Gilbert, until Liss took Ketut’s disintegrating medical notebooks and made photocopies of them all, to protect and preserve the information.  This act finally won over the heart of Nyomo, Ketut’s wife.

Liz also made friends with Yudi. He was an Indonasian, who ended up marrying an American and living in the states when the twin towers were attacked.  The resulting Patriot Act and tightened immigration laws were largely focused on Islamic nations, (which included Indonesia).  He went to register, as he was told to do, and was promptly arrested and eventually sent back to Indonesia.  Now he and his wife are forced to be separated and he doesn’t know where he belongs any more.

Pleasure Reading Ch.54-72

Liz found a new form of meditation called Vipassana.  You sit perfectly still for several hours at a time, not allowed to shift or move or scratch…nothing for the duration.  Furthermore, you don’t get a mantra to focus on, for that is considered cheating. “Vipassana meditation teaches that grief and nuisance are inevitable in this life, but if you can plant yourself in stillness long enough, you will, in time, experience the truth that everything (both uncomfortable and lovely) does eventually pass.”  “There isn’t even any talk about “God” in Vipassana, since the notion of God is considered by some Buddhists to be the final object of dependency, the ultimate fuzzy security blanket, the last thing to be abandoned on the path to pure detachment.”  

Liz talks about faith.  She says that you pursue God by prayer, self mastery, improving your virtues, etc. in the hopes that you will get something in return that is greater than what you sacrificed.  There is no guarantee of return for your good (and hard) works, but that is faith.  This unknowing is what makes humanity courageous.  She writes that if we had guarantees about God and life we wouldn’t have faith but an insurance policy.  “I’m not interested in the insurance industry. I’m tired of being a skeptic, I’m irritated by spiritual prudence and I feel bored and parched by empirical debate.  I don’t want to hear it anymore.  I couldn’t care less about evidence and proof and assurances.  I just want God.  I want God inside me.  I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water.”

Rendering 11

The article published on the website http://www.telegraph.co.uk/on 11 April 2013, is headlined “Oblivion, review”.  The author of the article is Tim Robey. The article reports us about  the new film with Tom Cruise.

The author gives us a detailed review, beginning from the summary of the film.  Earth, in the visually resplendent 2077 of Oblivion, is one abandoned battlefield – a windswept, ochre-grey desert from whose sands a few weathered and lonely relics protrude. There’s the crumbling amphitheatre of a football stadium, the forlorn spire of the Empire State Building. Oh, and Tom Cruise. Rendered all-but-uninhabitable after a Pyrrhic victory against alien invaders called Scavengers, it’s a planet which our entire race has essentially given up on, except Tom. He plays an ex-Marine commander called Jack Harper, whose Wall·E-esque job is to scoot around on a bubblecraft repairing drones, and fending off Scavenger attacks while the last of our geological resources are squeezed out. The rest of humanity is biding its time, wholly unseen, inside a vast upside-down triangle of a space station. Jack isn’t entirely on his own: he has a partner called Victoria, played by an eerily immaculate Andrea Riseborough, who co-ordinates his daily maintenance tasks from the top deck of their nifty minimalist command centre. The Frank Lloyd Wright sexiness of this thing – there’s even a glass-walled swimming pool for seductive night dips – looks to be a considerable perk if you’re considering a future career in post-apocalyptic mop-up. In general, the movie’s design is by far its biggest draw, but there’s only so long you can spend admiring snazzy reflections, perfectly harmonious colour balance and Riseborough’s naked rear before the mind starts to crave a more pressing agenda. Such was also the case with Tron: Legacy, the previous movie by whizzkid auteur Joseph Kosinski, which polished the hues and sounds of its environment so pristinely the banal storytelling seemed to clatter around inside. Daft Punk’s surging electro-geek score was an astonishment there; the one for this by M83 (aka Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez) is a paler imitation, but it still eggs the movie on to fulfil its promise and take us on a properly mind-bending ride.

As I could understand, the author was rather impressed by the film. But Personally I,  don’t share his point of view. Despite the fact that Tom Cruise is my favorite actor, I think that the film is too long and rather commonplace.

Rendering 10

The article published on the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/ on 23 April 2013, is headlined “Barbra Streisand filmcareer honoured by Lincoln Center’.  The article reports us the fact that US singer Barbra Streisand has been honoured for her film career with the 40th annual Chaplin Award from the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

The author of the article reports that among those paying tribute to the actress - who turns 71 tomorrow - were former president Bill Clinton, Liza Minnelli and singer Tony Bennett.  She is one of just a few to have won all four major US awards - an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and an honorary Tony.  The event raised $2m (£1.3m) to help the centre promote independent cinema.

The author also described the career of Barbara. Streisand won a second Oscar in 1997 for Evergreen, the theme song from A Star is Born. She has won four Emmy awards and 10 Grammy awards. Former US President Bill Clinton said: "Every great person is driven," the former president said. "But if that person has massive talent, big brains and a bigger heart, you want to go along for the ride." Also appearing onstage were Michael Douglas, Pierce Brosnan, Kris Kristofferson and Meet The Fockers co-stars Blythe Danner and Ben Stiller. Streisand was serenaded by Bennett, who closed the show with the song, Smile, written by Charlie Chaplin.

The author of the article doesn’t express his opinion about Barbara. As for me, I can’t  tell that I am fond of her personality, or something like that, but I think she deserves this nomination !

Rendering 9 (cinema)

The article published on the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21570004 on 23 February 2013, is headlined “Oscars 2013: Daniel Day-Lewis makesHollywood history’. The article is written by Jasper Rees. He describes Daniel Day-Lewis who has made Oscars history by becoming the first man to win the best actor prize three times.

The author makes special emphasize on the fact that Daniel Day-Lewis, who holds UK-Irish citizenship, previously won best actor for My Left Foot (in 1990) and There Will Be Blood (2008) and has a reputation for immersing himself in his roles.This year's victory puts Day-Lewis ahead of Hollywood legends Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks - who all have two best actor wins to their names.

The author notes that Jennifer Lawrence won best actress for her role as a troubled young widow in Silver Linings Playbook. The 22-year-old, who stumbled over her dress on her way to the stage, joked: "You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell over and that's embarrassing."Surveying the audience in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, she added: "This is nuts." It was the first Oscar win for Lawrence, who was previously nominated for best actress in 2011 for her performance in Winter's Bone. Anne Hathaway won best supporting actress for her role as tragic factory worker Fantine in movie musical Les Miserables. With her cropped hair and gaunt face, Hathaway's teary version of I Dreamed a Dream had made her an Oscar favourite. "It came true," the actress said when she collected her statuette.

The author concludes the article telling the fact that during the section of the show that pays tribute to those who died in 2012, Barbra Streisand sang the late Marvin Hamlisch's The Way We Were, from the 1973 romantic drama in which she starred with Robert Redford. It was Streisand's first Oscars performance for 36 years.

As for me, I think that Oscar is a great invention in the World of cinema! It gives us an ability of rewarding the best actors in different nominations. 

Pleasure Read. Ch. 37-54

Gilbert arrives in India at the Ashram at 3:30 AM, just in time to join the morning prayers.  They are singing what Gilbert calls “The Amazing Grace of Sanskrit”: “I adore the cause of the universe…I adore the one whose eyes are the sun, the moon and fire…you are everything to me, O god of gods… This is perfect, that is perfect, if you take the perfect from the perfect, the perfect remains.”

She started going to Ashram. She also said her Guru was not present while she was at the Ashram, but that wasn’t a problem, because “sometimes you will find that it is easier to communicate with your teacher from within these private meditations than to push your way through crowds of eager students and get a word in edgewise in person.”Gilbert described her beautiful New Year’s night, spent chanting with the others at the Ashram.  Here in India she met  Richard from Texas, a new arrival at the Ashram whose opening line to her was, “Man, they got mosquitoes ‘round this place big enough to rape a chicken.” Richard started to call her “Groceries”, because of her habit of eating much.

She spent much time meditating. She tried not to remember her past time. And one morning she realized how uninteresting and repetitive her thoughts really were.  The was a religious song she loved most of all – The Geet

Pleasure Read. Ch. 18-36

Liz explained what God meant to her. She started to pray after her divorce with her husband. Gilbert describes in detail some of her new Italian friends. Gilbert try to find only pleasure in Italy but she decided to forget about sex for 1 year for variety of personal reasons. She continued to learn Italian, the language of pleasure, and even attended a college. Attraversiamo, a pedestrian term meaning “let’s cross over” is her favorite new Italian word. She also visited Augusteum and enjoyed travelling here. Gilbert and her friend Sophie take a day trip to Naples—the city responsible for giving the world pizza and ice cream.

In Italy she discovered that she could be happy without David, and that was why she wrote him a good buy- letter. Catherine, Gilbert’s older, practical, organized, fearless sister, comes to visit her in Italy. Despite the fact that they were sisters, they were completely different.

In her last week in Italy, she travels to Sicily.  Finally, she noted that Italy was not a country for her. “I do know that I have collected myself of late—through the enjoyment of harmless pleasures—into somebody much more intact.  The easiest…way to say it is that I have put on weight.  I exist more now than I did four months ago.  I will leave Italy noticeably bigger than when I arrived here.  And I will leave with the hope that the expansion of one person—the magnification of one life—is indeed an act of worth in this world.”

Film Review 2

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Cast:

·        Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare

·        Gwyneth Paltrow as Viola de Lesseps

·        Geoffrey Rush as Philip Henslowe

·        Colin Firth as Lord Wessex

·        Ben Affleck as Ned Alleyn

·        Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I

Synopsis: Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British romantic comedy-drama film directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard. The film depicts a love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) while he was writing the play Romeo and Juliet. The story is fiction, though several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, many of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays.

Review:

William Shakespeare wrote plays for Philip Henslowe. One day he had to see the man who was supposed to play Romeo. William was impressed by his talent. But finally it turned out that this was not a man, it was a woman. And they had a secret affair. Inspirited by her, he had a great success with his plays, however they couldn’t be together. He was married. The Queen, who enjoys Shakespeare's plays, agrees to witness the wager. Shakespeare decided to play  the lead role of Romeo, with a boy actor, playing Juliet. On that day Viola had a wedding, and after it she went to see the play. She played the role of Juliette instead oа this boy.  They were exposed. Viola and Shakespeare parted. William started to write Twelfth Night, Or What You Will.

As for the actor’s performances, as the film starts, the actor and playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is suffering from writer's block - he is unable to devise a story out of his new play, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter." Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), the owner of the prestigious theatre, the Rose, is threatened by slimy creditors into bringing in profits, and pleads for William to quickly deliver his play.

As for me I liked this movie because of the atmosphere and mood it leaves.  It was interesting to fell into the atmosphere of Shakespeare’s theatre. The story of William and Viola touched me very much.