Heartbreaker

Watching Beautiful Lies somehow made me recall this other French romantic comedy, L'arnacœur, which I caught last November. Didn't get down to blogging about it (intended to) as other things got in the way. 

In the story, Alex (Romain Duris), his sister (Julie Ferrier) and her husband (François Damiens), operate a business designed to break up relationships, but only where the woman is "not knowingly unhappy." They are usually hired by the women's brother(s) or father(s) who know the men are not good for them but are so blinded by love at that time. Alex, being the young and suave man, is of course the "heartbreaker" or "seducer" in these jobs. At the end of each job, he will cook up an excuse to let the women go find their true love after discovering what they look for in a relationship. They are quite a sophisticated team, with cutting edge equipment (for surveillance) and the "props" for the job.

They receive a job from a very wealthy man (a gangster) who wants them to break up his daughter, Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) and her fiance, a successful Englishman. However, the couple seemed perfect, as both are perfectly in love and they could find no flaw in the man or the relationship, which seems the most compatible match, which is not really what their company wants to break up. However, Alex, who is heavily in debt from a loanshark (as a result of overspending on-the-job) takes it up anyway and is assigned as "bodyguard" to Juliette. So in standard romantic comedy flow, he really falls in love with her and she too falls for him. And they finally get together. (you can read more from the link above lah).

The twist comes at the end when the closing scene shows that the loanshark was actually working for Juliette's father! So it was a win-win for him. Technically, he didn't spend a single cent to hire Alex.

Anyway, I wouldn't say the love story is super unique, but sometimes, you don't really need to have too many frills to just enjoy a simple romantic comedy for what it is. 

Beautiful Lies (De vrais mensonges)

By J's recommendation, I caught this film over the weekend, with a girl friend who likes Audrey Tautou. Having watched some of Audrey's films on and off, I must say she is really a versatile actress. Too bad I missed Coco Avant Chanel. Missed Priceless too which came and went before I knew it, but good thing it's gonna be screened at Alliance Française de Singapour in September. Hope I remember! I think I missed the Coco Chanel screening already.

Anyway, this is a light-hearted romantic comedy spun from an anonymous love letter which leads to a slew of misunderstandings.
I enjoyed the most part of the show which was quite funny as matters kept getting from bad to worse by the hand of Emilie (Audrey Tautou). But I felt things developed rather sloppily from the point the mother decided to take revenge or continue pretending the lie was still on, just for one night, even though she regretted it later. That event felt jarring to me and kind of "crushed" my feel of the show, which left me a little "unsettled". Maybe because I kind of lost faith in the 'good' Jean. Hence, I couldn't give it a 4 out of 5, as much as I enjoyed the front part.

For me, some of the memorable parts included the silly reason of why Emilie decided to stop talking to Jean as she felt "stupid" now in front of him after finding out he wasn't an ordinary odd-job man, and the scene when he confronted her about it.
The part when her mother followed Jean all the way was quite funny too.

A rather "beautiful" scene was the part when Emilie tells Jean that she will come clean with her mother so he doesn't need to play along anymore. The whole conversation was overheard by her mother who was just behind a screen they were standing in front of. That image felt rather artistically done to me, as if she were watching a film. The subtlety yet drama of that scene kind of caught my attention. Haha...maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

It was nice that it started with an anonymous letter, and ended with another that brought the "original couple" together.

Who should make the coffee?

Haha, I don't know who wrote this, but it made me laugh.

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.

The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee".

The husband said, " You are in charge of the cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."

Wife replies, "No you should do it, and besides it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee."

Husband replies, " I can't believe that, show me."

So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and shows him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says:

"HEBREWS"

Papa Can You Hear Me

I was catching up on my Glee S2 recordings and I liked this song from episode 3 "Grilled Cheesus" (yup, that's how slow I am in catching up).

Glee Glee Papa, Can You Hear Me Music Videos

It was originally sung by Barbara Streisand in Yentl.

Pen Against Time: 24-hr Playwriting Competition 2011

Yes, this was it, my challenge of the year. Encouraged by a friend (who signed up too), I decided to apply for this, and managed to enrol for it despite a last minute application. And there, one new year resolution out of the way.

Armed with my laptop (and barang barang), it was off to Ubin for an intensive 24-hour brain-wrecking, playwriting "bootcamp" organised by Theatreworks. Part of The Writers' Lab, this competition has been running for 14 years already, and counting. We used the OBS campsite for the competition.

OBS, Ubin has changed a lot since I went there more than 10 years ago in secondary school. Then, in my vague memory, it was really run-down. Now, it has been totally revamped with clean and new facilities, almost, as my friend puts it, like those resorts with outdoor activities sites (think maybe Club Med). But of course, it's not so luxurious and the bunks were not like resorts lah. And no hot water for showers. But I was just glad it was clean and not like what I had expected or prepared for. Seeing the obstacle courses and next-to-nature surroundings brought back memories of my ODAC days. Anyway, we were given a nice air-con room (yes, got air-con!) as the writing venue, so we were kind of "locked up" to complete our writing within 24 hours. We could move around or go sleep, but not too far and should be back for the releases of the stimuli. The stimuli (specific and non-specific) were words/phrases or experiences that we must incorporate into the script.

So, what did I write? I used the "squirrel" as my motif/theme. Why "squirrel"? I believe I have a small affinity with squirrels given that I have taken a few good shots on different occasions. This is my current fave, from my recent Korea trip, which is also my current PC wallpaper.

Staring at it so often got me "lamenting" (ok, not that serious, but for want of a better word) about the fact that we hardly get to see squirrels much these days in our bustling city-state, probably caused mainly by all the increasing build-up we have. I recall the time in secondary school where squirrels do pop up occasionally (probably because we were located near Shangri-La). So there, a title for a new play came about - "You Don't See Squirrels Anymore". (I often come up with ideas starting with a title)

Even though I came up with this during the week, I didn't actually intend to use this for the competition, but maybe for a later time in future, because I felt there wasn't enough time for me to brainstorm about how to use this. Too fuzzy and abstract. I actually started with 2 storylines during the competition, one being a mystery/thriller (nothing to do with squirrels). However, given the short time (mystery/thriller too challenging) and having a blank mind for the first few hours, I decided to build on my squirrel motif anyway.

Squirrels give people the perception of playfulness and energy, but they are also known for prudence and practicality as they save up on food, sometimes over-stocking. I could play on these 2 ideas, but decided to put more focus on the latter. (I could probably have wrote a murder or romance or based on the 1st, but never mind). So there, squirrels are symbolic in my play. I could have gone the environmental way, but that would be too challenging for me.

This sounds all so deep and creative but what did I come up with? A super cliché melodrama. Well, that was the only thing I could come up with in that time. Not very original, but it was worth a try. I did attempt to leave some open-ended conclusions for reflection, if anyone picks it up. I also hope people can make some correlation about certain things that were said and happened. Anyway, I just hope on reading, one can reflect a bit on life. Maybe sometimes you don't need to plan too much and could instead use the time to show more love and be loved, with no regrets. Squirrels disappear when habitats are lost. I hope we don't lose ours.

A year of capability testing

Things are getting really busy at work...finally. Not that I've been lazing around lah, but the bulk of materials I'm supposed to handle are finally starting to come in. Lots of preparation is underway, like training of vendors, planning, etc. Also, with a colleague who left and now with another colleague who's gone on maternity leave, some of their work has been re-assigned to me.

Having transferred to this department last year, I believe this year is really a year of testing for me. A year to prove myself if I can really work this new job scope and adapt, a test if I can cope with what's on my plate. The favour shown to me so far will be put to the test (well, I think my boss is quite ok with me, although I'm still lagging in certain areas).

Time to work harder and manage  my time!

Missing the violin

If my fingers could touch ye resonating fibres,

of a metallic strain familiar.

To hear the rich voice of song from your depths,

Ah...the violin power.

Thor

This is a little overdue, but thought I should write it nevertheless since I enjoyed it. (Actually it's been in draft for some time)

It begins with an almost Lord of the Rings beginning, like the battle when Isildur cuts off Sauron's hand with the ring. And then it seemed to transport us to what Atlantis might have been, which was the land of the gods in the show. There are 9 realms (9 planets?) and Thor comes from the Asgard, one of the most powerful and advanced realm. Earth is one of the 9 realms.

Due to his arrogant and brash nature (and almost causing a war and loss of friends), Thor (the god of thunder) is banished from Asgard and relegated to being a normal person without powers on Earth. Although, not exactly normal for he still possesses great physical strength. While banished, his brother Loki (who turns out to be not his real brother) commits treachery (almost...there's a twist!) and Thor is reinstated in time, but not before dying first (as a normal human being). In the duration of his banishment, he learns patience, love and becomes wiser, willing to sacrifice his own interests - his mortal life for the lives of others, and to destroy the bridge to return to Earth to reunite with his love (Natalie Portman) as the situation required.

I liked this version of Thor, as he was kingly and gentlemanly, not the uncouth, barbaric god that was previously portrayed in other shows. Though he was "ferocious" at war, he maintained his kingly manner outside it. After all, he's someone who does the old-fashion greeting to a lady by kissing the girl's hand. There was also the scene when he was leaving to fight Loki and had to part with Jane (his love). We were all waiting for him to kiss her as he looked into her eyes, but instead, he did the gentlemanly thing to kiss her hand.
The only more lame part was the way his mortal self died, but I reminded myself that we've got to remember he was mortal at that point of time. Anyway, the soon-resurrection and battle after redeemed everything.

And I discovered why the actor (Chris Hemsworth) was so familiar. He acted as George Kirk, the father of James Kirk in Star Trek. He appeared only a short while (and was captain for only 12 minutes to save lives).

Will there be a sequel? Not sure, although there is news of The Avengers.  However, Chris Hemsworth's toned bod (only shown once) was something worth seeing for the ladies out there. *guilty*

Weird dream

I had a really weird dream a couple of nights ago that puzzled me. I see no relation to any event in the past, nor whether if it has any meaning at all, and can't help but pen it down here.

I dreamt that a group of us had come together to celebrate an old friend/classmate's birthday. In real life, I have not seen this friend of mine for a really long time (I didn't even know that he got married and now has a kid till recently via facebook). And his birthday isn't till September! That later point seem to be one of the points that I questioned myself in the dream.
Anyway, in the group of friends, I was also wondering how come some of my other friends knew him too. Well, that wasn't the strange part of the dream. We actually had a birthday cake, and did the usual birthday stuff and each settled down to a piece of birthday cake round a small table. And somehow, I didn't know why we were out in the open, or in some un-sheltered premises and...I ended up with some "bird bombs" on my head!

I know that sounds rather funny, gross even, if not weird. Kind of "huh?". I'm totally clueless as to what it all means, or if it even means anything. Was it some warning to have an umbrella over my head? Or something else? One of the strangest dreams I ever had. Someone enlighten me.

Pas Perdus

"Calm...Calm...Calm" announced the PA system and so 4 people seemingly captive (in an asylum?) brings you to a place of wooden walls of infinite possibilities and amazing skill of juggling, balancing, music, precision...one could not keep his/her eyes off the "tricks" they were doing.

Translated from French as "Not Lost" (from an online translator), Pas Perdus is Les Argonautes' latest creation.

The amazing thing was that they could juggle most anything cuboid blocks, balls, etc. And imagine manipulating balls, stilts, wooden wall blocks that balances on only 1 corner. They even played pool using themselves. They had to be really be precise and have a good feel of the materials as well as good calculations of how to balance humans as well as huge objects. There was one part when 1 of them "climbed" to balance his whole body on stilts. This was very dangerous because any wrong move and he'll fall and hurt himself, or even be poked by the stilts. And they are multi-talented. They could play various instruments, like the violin, saxophone, trumpet and drums. And the way they were played, like hitting the drum from 2-3 metres away. etc. And if you've heard of piano four-hands, well, here you have violin four-hands! It's the 1st time I'm seeing something like that. Having learnt the violin when I was small, this left 1 of the deepest impressions for me during the show. Amazing. It's a bit difficult to describe everything. You've got to see it to know what I'm talking about.

(Pas Perdus was one of the programme curated by Esplanade for 'Flipside 2011', in conjunction with the Singapore Arts Festival.)