Appreciation for The Royal Tenenbaums.

I'm not a 'sport person', and as the girlfriend of someone who is, I thought I'd be spending the Olympic fortnight fighting my way to watch any television. Turns out, that Moon is just as sick of it as I am, and we've been spending the last couple of evenings opting for films over anything that's been on, as the selection as either been Olympics-related, dire or repeats.


Last night we went for one of my favourites that I don't think I'd ever shared with him before and some how he'd never seen, The Royal Tenenbaums. I adore it, I love Wes Anderson films anyway as they're easy watching as well as being beautiful to look at.

The Royal Tenenbaums is no exception, you could pause it on any scene and create a perfectly composed photograph. There are subtle looks and lighting tricks, Wes Anderson is an amazing photographer, and I think the same can be said of his other films too, but The Royal Tenenbaums is exceptional.


If you haven't heard of it, the film follows the Tenenbaum family upon the deceptive re-entry of patriarch, Royal into the family home after he discovers he's broke. There's romance, absurdity and a bit of fighting. It also features some of my favourite actors and actresses, possibly before they were as well known as the film is now 11 years old. I wanted to share some stills with you because I think they're pretty, and I hope you'll like them too, it's a must-watch.














Related to this, have you seen some of the crazy things Bill Murray does in his spare time? Have a read of Ranker's The 7 Greatest Real Bill Murray Stories Ever Told, they're quite something.
Also, my friend Izzy has done a couple of great Royal Tenenbaums illustrations, have a look at her website.

Tuesday Tabs. #4

What a morning it's been, I've applied for five jobs and arranged two interviews for next week, all before I've even begun my internship with Shortlist tomorrow, bit crazy. I'm a little bit desperate for a bit of a life-change soon though, so it's really exciting. Both the interviews are for things that I'd really like to do too, so that's a real bonus, so chuffed!

Anyway, enough blabbing about jobs, this is a safe haven, free from stress etc.
Here are some great things I've found this week, some I even only found this morning.

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(via A Beautiful Mess)

Isn't this dress awesome? I don't think it's very practical but it's certainly a lovely way to recycle a map. Made by Annex as part of their Travel Wardrobe collection, each dress is unique and handmade from a vintage map

(via A Beautiful Mess)

Cheese! Satchel, Jump from Paper, $80

This is a real life satchel from handbag designers Jump from Paper, their whole shop is full of similar neat designs that mess with your eyes.

(via Lost At E Minor)

Second impractical dress of the day, this time by artist Joy Kampia. Sadly this dress is a one-off and has now been sold but Joy is still taking commissions.

(via Eye Contact)

I kind of really love that HelloGiggles lets things like this happen.

(via WAH Nails)

I've given this a go and it actually hasn't come out as badly as I thought, takes a lot of patience though, wouldn't recommend doing these if you're in a rush.

Dap Bros. - Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski and Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski (1998) by Henry the Worst

(via HelloYou Creatives)

I actually thought this was a much better advert than the full-length Superbowl version. I wouldn't go as far as to say the full-length one is bad, as many others have, I just wouldn't say it has as much 'Ferris magic', although some of the references are 'so choice'. Who really cares if Matthew Broderick is milking a cash cow anyway? He was the coolest teenager to ever exist.

Giorgio 1982 & 2011 Paris. Back to the Future, Irina Werning (2010 onwards)

Part of an on-going series putting subjects back in the shoes of their past. Some of the images are spookily similar, others beautifully poignant.

I think it's very important that I put at least one cat-related thing on here. This is from Cat Versus Human and is available on a nice t-shirt.

Link Love: ♥

Timeline Movie Maker — This pretty much does what it says, but it's a lot more impressive than you might think. Here's the link to my one to give you an idea. It's not hard to do anyway and another good way to procrastinate, plus you can pick theme music!

A Beautiful Mess — A lovely Typepad blog which posts all sorts of lovely craft ideas, including how to make floral boots, and DIY salad dressing.

Polyvore — This is for my own reference more than anyone else's. I have known about Polyvore for a long time but keep losing it, I probably won't even use it, but it's nice to know that now I can find it if I need to. If you don't know what it is, it's basically an incredibly easy way to make up clothes wish-lists/look-books from your favourite shops and designers, it's quite clever.

Hi My Name is Elliot Hasse — Sometimes job-hunting turns into a full-blown career, and it's no wonder when witty, creative people like Elliot Hasse are the people that graduates have to compete against. I wouldn't even know where to start if I made a CV like this.

Anxiety Cat — As I've mentioned a few times, my nerves aren't great right now but Anxiety Cat really puts things into perspective, and reminds me how ridiculous humans can be. I do find it strange that there are a couple of unrelated posts offering discount depression medication but I would hope that people are just looking for a fun meme rather than the former.

Eye Contact — A great collection of film stills of actors 'breaking the fourth wall', and generally making unintentionally pretty pictures. Naturally you can only find this kind of stuff on Tumblr.

Top 10 Business Card Designs

5 Simple Ways to Get Your Work Out There

Another Graphic Design Graduate — The details of how I found this blog are a bit vague but I was feeling pretty low on the job from last week and this anonymous guy/girl took the words right out of my month. It's pretty interesting and talks about the highs and lows of being an seemingly eternal intern.

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You may or may not have noticed that I've given in on the '30 day challenge' at the halfway hurdle, mainly because on further investigation the challenge was stupid and I don't have enough different friends that range from being 'shoulders to cry on' through to 'people who have always been there', it was lame. I'm an adult, I want to try and find one that involves taking photos of specific things for a set time period, if anyone could help me out that would be nice. :)

Film #8

In which Ruth lets you know that she's keeping a film diary this year and that the eight film she's seen is the American remake of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.




The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2011. Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer. (Dir. David Fincher)
So, I think that this is a first for me, I can't remember the last time I watched a re-make having not previously seen the original film and I had a major case of the skeptics about this one. This uncertainty was not just because it was a re-make a film that is less than five years old, but also because it was an adaptation of a book that is less than ten years old, I am a bit overwhelmed by the lack of original material within the film industry, since when do you write books to make films?

However, saying all that, I am just little ol' me after all, this film was a bloody cracker. Perhaps I was also unsure because although I am a fan of many of David Fincher's films, I have not enjoyed his most recent previous efforts, The Social Network or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, they just weren't my cup of tea.
However, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, contains the key elements that fundamentally make up a good film; stunning visuals, brilliant casting and a great soundtrack.
I have not read the book either, but have heard that both versions, despite already being well-received, vary greatly from the original story.

For most of the film, there are two separate narratives, seeing disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) working towards uncovering a forty-year family secret of wealthy entrepreneur Henrik Vanger (Plummer) and troubled, highly intelligent ward of the state, Lisbeth Salander (Mara) struggle with money and her newly instated power-mad social worker. The two come together due to a Lisbeth's work as a private investigator and her involvement vetting Mikael before he began work for Henrik. The film is a thrill and delight to watch, with twists and action throughout.

Mara is excellent as Lisbeth, and committed entirely to the role by getting real piercings specifically for this character. A very different role to those she had done previously; Mara made her debut as a teen victim in the 2010 re-make of A Nightmare of Elm Street, hardly empowering. Lisbeth is incredibly different, anti-social and aggressive, but some how vulnerable and sexy, added to her genius, she is, in my opinion, a perfect (if there is such a thing) female lead. Daniel Craig also adds a depth to this film and very much not James Bond, which is brilliant, I read he even put on weight to make sure we remember he's an actor, in case we forgot...




I loved it and would recommend to anyone, maybe the trailer doesn't give enough away but something about it didn't inspire me to see it, but I'm glad I did, it's probably my favourite film I've seen so far this year.

If it had been bad, at least Moon and I wouldn't have paid to see it, thanks to the Cineworld voucher my Gran got him for Christmas. It's a weird place, Cineworld, at least the Crawley one is, the biggest building yet practically all balcony with everything hidden in the walls.

Anyway, get on this film if you can, I'm usually right about this kind of thing.

What bothers me about 'The Human Centipede 2'.

Last night, the bad film crew (Moon, Chris and I) were back in full force and the first film of choice was The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) - we later found our minds and settled into the much better and funny yet dark 'Back-cancer comedy', 50/50, but I have nothing to say about it because even if it hadn't been as good and as enjoyable a watch as it was, it still would have made up for the horrific visuals we were subjected to by the film we watched prior to it, plus it was likely I was going to like it whatever, because Seth Rogen's in it and I even like Funny People.

Before I officially begin, I just want to say that this is purely my opinion of the film and I've tried my hardest to find stills that aren't graphic or offensive, firstly because I like having a clean blog, and secondly because I found it grotesque myself so I wouldn't feel right inflicting it on others.

My curiosity over the Human Centipede follow-up has really bothered me since learning of it's impending release. The first film to me seemed to be disgusting for the sake of it, with the risk of sounding like a horrified parent. Please bare in mind that I'm actually not, and that I do enjoy horror films, I would never call my self a huge gore fan but the psychology behind it can be fascinating and I maintain the knowledge that in some genres, violence can be necessary.
Saying this, I don't feel that whatever violence was featured in the 'First Sequence' was that shocking, the whole premise merely lacks a point and for me the '100% medically accurate' tagline sells the film as bad from the off, rather than clever or interesting, because who cares if it is, really though? The first film did leave myself and those I watched it with with a dull ache in our stomach, after feeling uneasy throughout the film all that resulted was our questioning of what we had just watched and why. The former being the main reason we were willing to sit though the 'Full Sequence', as I mentioned at the beginning we were curious as to what Tom Six could do to us next, turns out quite a lot.

'Full Sequence' sees mentally-challenged and abused loner, Martin, plunge into sick fantasy after becoming obsessed over the original film. Immediately there is an element of satire and self-parody. In fact, it was Little White Lies' review on HC2 that made me wonder whether it could be taken more seriously as a real film, it can't. While there is an incredible amount of dark humour running throughout, the fact that it is now being shown in black and white rather than full colour is the only thing that allows this to be noticeable. I think that although this is essentially a censored version, it is also how it should be; as a visually educated person, fully for freedom of speech, there does come a time when it can be said that there is no place for certain images, and arguably no point.

There are two things that completely throw me when it comes to 'The Human Centipede (Full Sequence)'. Firstly, how did they get the 'middle' actress from the first film to return - this time playing herself - to do the second one, surely this poor girls acting career is over before it started, then again, she was probably only in porn before anyway.
Secondly, from a photographic perspective, each shot of the film is so well-considered and thought out. Tom Six is clearly someone who actually knows how to make a film and what angles and lighting to use, but why is he wasting this talent on such unnecessary, appalling content. The use of black and white perhaps adds to the depth of the films visuals as well as providing a slight David Lynch/Eraserhead-esque edge but the overall storyline and actual imagery encapsulate the needlessness of this films existence. I don't even know why I felt so compelled to talk about it, but maybe that's what Tom Six wants, even if people are watching this and are disgusted, at least they're watching it and for lack of better cliché, any publicity is good publicity.

I would not advise that you watch this film but if you do wonder what all the fuss is about, by all means do. Just remember that you know what the story line is and that it's going to be fucked up and while it doesn't disappoint, you'll probably end up being disappointed in yourself.

The Fall (2006)

I watched 'The Fall' last night by Tarsem Singh, and it has to be one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen. The use of scale and colour is phenomenal, I haven't seen a film like it. There was some involvement from the well known Spike Jonze and although I am not overly familiar with his work if I base what I know on this piece, the recent film 'Where the Wild Things Are' takes some heavy influence in its use of space in numerous scenes.



I thoroughly enjoyed the film, I won't give away what it's about because I feel that would spoil it, but I will say that the mixing together of fantasy, storytelling and reality work really well and the surreal setting of each narrative is particularly engaging. I can't believe I never heard of the film before stumbling upon some beautiful stills, it deserves a lot more credit than it seems to have been given, there are even a few familiar faces that pop up throughout. I'll definitely be adding it to my favourite films.

3D is awesome.

Just come back from seeing Avatar, which undoubtedly everyone has heard of.

It's as brilliant as everyone says. I can't really say much about it without ruining it but the 2h42m is definitely worth the bum-numbing.
There is great integration of 3D technology and the storyline, unlike previous 3D movies I've seen which often substitute storyline with obvious 3D effects. It does sneak one obvious one in there but by that point, everything is so mind-blowing that it's just a minor reference to bygone tacky 3D.
I recommend it to everyone and it's a deserved film of the decade - too bad it's come out right at the very end. But I don't think it's going anywhere obscure for a while.

It's just a shame that when it comes out on DVD that everyone will have to watch it with those horrible red-and-blue specs, although who knows, there could be an exception on the horizon - I hope so, this is the film that 3D came back into vogue for.
I wish that someone could explain the difference in technology to me. All I see without the 3D glasses in the cinema is blurry lines, not the usual red-blue-green that you get at home. I guess I'll just sit in anticipation for that one.
Surely with the emergence of 3D SkyTV, the crappy glasses are gone for good?

On top of how good that Avatar actually was, it also relates to my Issues in Contemporary Media essay. Was happy when it did, it was interesting how my brain processed it all, now I've informed myself so much about disability in the media. It does have a restrictive - in terms of disability - ending, but unless it's an issue that is particularly close to home, I doubt many people would see it as that significant. It is also slightly perturbing that the lead actor is able-bodied when his character isn't, but again unless you are part of a disability activist movement, it won't be that important to you.
I can't say much else without giving anything away, but I definitely give it a 10 out of 10 - even letting go that the reason for the action in the film is the substance 'unobtainium'.

I'm feeling happy.

My research & development folder for Project Management 2 is looking much better than it was. Due to it having to be in PDF format (I'm doing it digitally), I've decided to split it into three separate files for ease of reading - otherwise everything just get's squashed into one massive file together and it makes it very unenjoyable to read.I've written all my seminar notes into it, now all I have to do is actual research, which won't be too difficult, although I've seen a lot of people around who seem to have done LOADS.

I'm going through the Pixar shorts back catalogue. (1984-2009)
They're quite enjoyable but the early stuff is unbearable, it's amazing how far everything's come though. If you can guess what these stills are from I will look upon you fondly.



Back to work I think.

"Out or die"

This is one of the best films I've seen this year.



We got 2for1 for Part two, which is a pretty good way to make us watching, although because it was so good, I would anyway.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259014/

I also watched Let The Right One In. It's so romantically haunting.



I finally get to watch Slumdog Millionaire tonight, thank you SLOW Lovefilm. This better be good.

I got quite wasted last night, luckily I didn't have my camera on me.. ho ho ho.