The Adventures of Tintin world premiere in Brussels

A Single Man

This is the best movie I have seen this year. Nothing really happens in it. The beauty of the movie lies in the way it is directed and filmed, the 1960's period styling and the fantastic actors. A Single Man is Tom Ford's, who is best known for his work in the fashion industry, first movie. I hope there are more to come.

John Forsythe 29.1.1918 – 01.04.2010

Picture from 20th Century Fox

The story of Hypatia

I saw today an excellent movie, Agora. It may not be completely precise with the flow of history, but it still draws an interesting portrait of Hypatia, a female philosopher well ahead of her time. What happens to Hypatia, is considered end of what is traditionally known as Classical antiquity. And what is not important, but refreshing, is that there is not a single sex scene in the movie. The movie is now showing in Singapore.

Avatar

There has been much ado about the movie Avatar lately. I went to see it yesterday. I liked it. The story might be predictable, but the movie is visually amazing. Although the scenes have been mainly created with computer, they look stunning. Only thing is they look too good to be true, but who cares, this is fantasy.

While watching the movie, I could not help thinking of New Zealand and its out-of-this-world sceneries. Perhaps the animators have used NZ landscapes as source of inspiration?

Photo from www.avatarmovie.com

Mountain top view from Ben Lomond, Queenstown.

Valentino: The Last Emperor

Pictures time.com

I watched a very good documentary about haute couture fashion designer Valentino last Friday. Actually it was a documentary about two men, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. Almost everyone knows Valentino by name, but there could not be Valentino without Giancarlo, who his Valentino's lifelong business partner and lover. They have been together over 40 years and it is touching to see how they still work together every single day. As Valentino puts it, 'It was the best thing to me to make dresses, I am a disaster in everything else' and Giancarlo takes care of everything else. Valentino: The Last Emperor is now on dvd. Catch it while you can!

The Blue Mansion

Picture from www.thebluemansion.com

I saw today my first Singaporean movie. It was called The Blue Mansion and it is about a rich Singaporean family, whose patriarch has died unexpectedly. His funeral is getting messy when the family's secrets start to roll out. I will not reveal more than that, you should see it. Or should you?

The film is very well made, I like especially the setting. The blue mansion is beautiful, I did not know such places exist in Singapore. The filming, lighting, colors and music are good, too. But the story... Well, it is very Singaporean, a bit of everything. Most surprising parts of the movie were racism against Indians (based on the audience reactions), swearing and gay issues which are banned from other media.

The September Issue

It is October now and September issue is so last season, but still The September Issue is extremely interesting document about making the bible of fashion world. Anna Wintour plays the leading role in her inimitable way. Vogue's creative director Grace Coddington plays the second violin. See it while you can!