Movies That I Really Like

As a cinema student, I have watched a lot of movies during my life. Some to forget, some to remember, some to just pass time time. But even when I have liked a lot of movies during my entire life, I only have a selected list of movies that I consider as my favourites.

To be fair, most of my favourites movies aren't masterpieces. Some of them are pretty bad actually. But there is something in them that caught my attention every time I see them, and made me think that I'm really watching something special. 

One of these movies is “Eyes without a face” which is a French movie of the 1960s and tells the story of a mad surgeon, who is constantly killing young girls to remove their facial skin and transplant them to her daughters face, that he ruined at a failed experiment. Altrought the movie has its mistakes (mostly in the script) the construction of the character arc of the vulnerable and mysterious surgeon's daughter (who always had to use a white mask to hide her face) is rather tragic and very emotional.

“Suspiria” (1977) and “Santa Sangre” (1989) are also movies that I don't really think that they are very good, but the way that they tell a rather bizarre and violent story, mixed with the music, acting, and especially the art direction made them a very unique experience to watch.

Finally, “Cabaret” (1972) and “Cría Cuervos” (1975) are probably the best movies on my list. Even when they are very different (one is a musical and the other one is a drama) I like them because they set apart of other movies of their genres using unique characters and styles. For example, in Cabaret, all of the musical numbers are part of the story and in Cría Cuervos, the drama of a death is at the eyes of a young girl who lost her parents.

A Photograph I Like

This is a photograph of the 1920s actress Louise Brooks taken by Eugene Robert Richee in the year 1928, when she was one of Hollywood's most famous silent actress. 

I really like this picture because it have two elements that I really admire: the use of black and White, and Brooks herself. Not only that, the photo itself was very advanced for its time. The white skin and pearls of Brooks' make a delightful contrast with the blackness of her dress, hair, and of course, the background of the set. 

Her gestures are what completes the picture, with one hand at the top, like she was trying to stop something bad (i'd like to think that she was trying to stop the ravages of time) and the other one just lying around, like she really knows that she doesn't have a chance of stopping this menace. 

By the time that the sound era of films began, Brooks' fame already was fading. But her iconic appearance and method of acting in the movies that she starred, was a model for actresses such as Liza Minnelli.

A Skill I Admire

Of the many skills that I admire and don't have, being able to play piano is one of my most desired ones.

Ever since Iwas a child, I had the dream of being able to play an instrument in an advanced way, but specially piano or violin. I think the way that those instruments make sounds is very dramatic, soft, and wild at the same time. But obviously, only if you can master them.

If I had to choose between the two, I would probably choose piano rather than the violin, but only because piano is more flexible in its delivery: if you screwed up one note on the piano, probably passes unnoticed. Violin, on the other hand, doesn't forgive your stupidity.

Even knowing that, I never had the experience of play even the simplest melody on a real piano. Even less had the chance of taking classes.

If I had the opportunity to have the talent and skill of someone (because I would have sold my soul to the devil or something like that), I would probably chose Vika Yermoleva. She is a Ukranian pianist and YouTube star, and the way that she magisterially plays classical renditions of famous songs (mostly rock and metal) is always an inspiration for me. She even manages to make amazing versions of terrible songs! I think that a good pianist always sounds good, no matter what it's playing. And Vika is of course one of them.

My Dream Job

Currently I'm studying Cinema and Television, but it is very clear to me that those studies aren't going to give me my dream job.

When I was a child, my mother took me to the dentist. It was very common to see children terrified of going to the dentist in cartoons or movies, and I was very aware of it. But for some reason, I wasn't afraid of it. The dentist checked me, filled my mouth with stale water, and put a mirror to my throat. Now I understood why most kids did not like to go to the dentist.

The dentist led me to a room and told my mother that I would need amalgams, since I had some cavities. I didn't like the guy, so I followed his movements with my eyes. Suddenly, he turned on a little white machine that started to buzz: it was an amalgamator.

The way that he carefully crafted the shiny metal thing that he would later put right into my grinders caught my attention in an inexplicable way. He noticed that I was looking at him, and said “don't worry, this is made of resistant and painless materials, like mercury and zinc, so it won't hurt you”, probably misunderstanding my curiosity with fear.

When we went back home, I told my mother that when I grow up I wanted to be the one who created amalgams. She looked at me and replied “So you want to be a dentist? They make a lot of money!”.

I didn't answer it. I was very sure that I didn't want to be a dentist. All I wanted was make amalgams. Be always in that tiny room. Have that dream little amalgamator machine very clean and gleam, hearing that darling buzzing sound and have the smell of molten mercury filling my lungs all day long. But it just wasn't posible, so i got on with that idea on a couple of days and then forgot it.

Friends

I'd rather talk about the TV show...

People usually say that I'm a bad friend. And I can understand why they say that.

For me, a friend is someone that you can share time, things, thoughts or feels. But other than that, nothing else more important.

The friends that I had achieved over the years had always been related to school, job or university. And I had enjoyed their friendship, we had go to cinemas, we eat together, go to parties, lend some money. But when the school was over, I didn't have the need to see them anymore, at least not on a regular basis. Maybe once upon a year

For example, my best friend in high school moved to America (I think) and he made a goodbye party and invited me and other guys from the class. I thanked the offer and give him my best wishes, but I said that I was very busy that day to go to the party. I was not.

Maybe I sound a little coldhearted, but that is the way that i treat friendship. If a friend is with me right now, I can be a very good friend, but if he goes away, don't expect me to follow him (because I don't know what to do with his friendship anymore).

Favorite Technology

Since I was a child, I had a weird connection with old technology. My family wasn't very rich, so the technology that we had, stuck with us for many years, even when it was already considered obsolete. For example, in our house we only had analog TVs until 2015. Same thing with audio cassettes, we've still using it until 2008, even when CDs had at least 20 years old at the time.

One of these obsolete technologies that we had, was the VHS. For me, was such a weird and amazing product at the same time: when I was a child, I was kinda scared of it, because I always thought that the system could break itself, or the tape inside, so I was very careful whenever I watched a movie. The sounds that the machine did, didn't help me at all.

We didn't have a lot of movies either I remember at least 10 titles, which were obviously children movies. So i watched the same cassettes a lot of times, to the point that the tape was starting to worn out. I was sort of scared by the effect on the image on these corrupted tapes, but also very interested in how the system work.

My Best Concert

The best concert I've been to was in September of the last year, at the Teatro Caupolicán. I went to see a Chilean Blondie tribute band called Rapture, just like one of Blondie's greatest hits. I had never heard of them before, but obviously, I know very well the original band. While I’m not a huge fan, I love the rock-pop-punk-new wave style of their songs, and Debbie Harry's powerful voice.

 Although it was a tribute band, the place was full, probably because the tickets were not very expensive. There were many people of all ages, and they seemed to enjoy the show, even when at the first couple of songs wasn't that great due to bad equalization of the instruments. After the fifth or sixth song, the audio was fixed and the band delivered a great show of all Blondie's greatest hits.

I really liked Rapture, even when I'm not a big fan of tribute bands. I especially liked that they were not trying to play the songs as close as they could to the originals, but rather adding an original spin to the songs.

The show ended really late at night, so I went along with my then girlfriend to her house, which it was closer compared to mine. She was a very big fan of Blondie, and in fact, she invited me to the concert. When she asked me if I wanted to go, she had already bought the tickets.