Movie review - Black Swan

Am I missing something by thinking it's not as brilliant as everyone else seems to think? I finally watched Black Swan - a movie about how the rivalries and the psychological pressures of *inhabiting* a role can cause psychological problems. Or at least, that's what the movie attempts. Don't get me wrong, the movie is well acted and well directed but anyone with a bit of knowledge about ballet knows that the core of the movie is incorrect and I couldn't help thinking that many times while watching the movie.  

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is an up-and-coming dancer in a ballet company who is still quite childish and lives with her controlling mother (Barbara Hershey). Selected to audition for the dual roles of Odile/Odette (bizarrely referred to as The Swan Queen) in the upcoming production of Swan Lake, she is criticised by the artistic director of the company, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassell) as being extremely technically proficient but lacking the passion of her rival, newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis). As Nina attempts to get in touch with her adult side and sexuality to tap the darkness required to inhabit the role and witnessing the callous treatment of the company's former star (Winona Ryder), she starts to psychologically unravel.


I'll say that the movie is definitely well acted and well directed, but I think it is overall let down by the writing. I know the movie is supposed to be about a controlled dancer driven to insanity in the search for artistic perfection, however I would say instead that what is written is watching an already fragile person crack under pressure. At several points in the movie, Nina is easily cowed by her mother, the director, the other dancers, etc. In fact, even when she's being *strong*, it is done as a reaction to people in Nina's life. She is not a strong character to begin with and so there's no tension watching her descent into madness.  

But my main problem with the movie was my knowing that some things they showed us were outright wrong. For one, Nina freaks out is when she discovers Lily has been assigned her understudy quite late in rehearsals. No major ballet company would cast a single dancer for a major role, and definitely NOT the lead. It's too physically demanding - a role is usually taken by 3 or so dancers who rotate...which pretty much puts to hell the basic premise of the story. And okay, I know it's meant to be artistic and the majority of people won't care but a little bit of basic research goes a long way.

I'm not going to weigh into the use of body double arguments. It doesn't matter how good an actress you are - I never believed that training for a year could make Natalie Portman dance like a professional. And having said that, there aren't that many actual scenes of dancing. Perhaps the most memorable one was when Nina literally turns into a black swan as she triumphantly dances but I couldn't help thinking I would have preferred a scene like this one to be shown, which is the real moment of the Black Swan's triumph in the ballet...

Although I guess no amount of special effects would make Natalie Portman dance like Svetlana Zakharova.


Anyway, it's alright but poor writing makes it definitely not a masterpiece.

6-6.5/10 

Not much to report.

The title of this post pretty much says it all. Now that I've been living here for just under 4 (!!!) months, I'm pretty much in a routine and nothing particularly exciting has been happening and I'm aware it's not helped by the fact I'm spending most of my spare time in German class. In addition, because I'm yet to know where is a good place to eat and find someone to who is able to eat with me at the drop of a hat (as I had in Melbs), I can't write any restaurant reviews. 


However, I did manage to watch How to Train Your Dragon and Black Swan during my hangover video binge so hopefully I'll review them....at some point in time. Hopefully I'll be more exciting soon. Or I'll just start talking about doing PCRs - I don't even have pretty work photos to put up!

International Food Challenge - Redux

Due to a massive hangover I didn't really feel like cooking my own lunch today. But then I had the problem - if I didn't want to cook and I couldn't call anyone to have a 3pm lunch with me, what was I going to do about food? Seasoned drinkers will know that the answer is fast food - so I decided to combine my desire for something fried with following up on the International Food Challenge. Because I felt I needed the fresh air and the coolness of the rain was kinda soothing, I walked the 3km to KFC to try their fries. I must now report that while they indeed hit the spot, they did  lack chicken salt and so KFC Germany is therefore not the same as KFC Australia. 


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to curl up in bed and watch some videos. 

Quote of the week

"Why are you asking me this?"

Pawan (with pained expression) in German class 
 to Ivan when Ivan asked Pawan to expand on what he did over the weekend.

Regensburg

I spent this past weekend with Juliane in her native little Bavarian village and in the cute lil' university town of Regensburg. According to that wikipedia link, settlement in Regensburg dates back to the Stone Age and there are lots of really old things around the town, to the extent that when I pointed out some old things near the Autobahn exit and asked what they were, Juliane replied, "Oh, that's some old stuff, we have lots of it lying around." !!! She clarified this answer by saying given the long history of people inhabiting this area, it's difficult to know what all the old stuff is.

And there really is a lot of old stuff lying around! Regensburg survived WWII relatively intact and needless to say, I spent a lot of time amazed at how old and cute everything is! For someone who comes from somewhere that has standing buildings less than 200 years old and is a bit of history junkie, it was damn awesome (but maybe boring for others). 


Here are the photos.

Regensburg is one of those old cities that incorporates old things into newer things (as they should). I was pretty impressed with this old wall that looks like it used to be part of some sort of mediaeval battlement. Juliane told me not to be so because....

...here I am walking under the Castra Regina, a fort built by the ROMANS during the reign of Marcus Aurelius!

Anyway, the town is dominated by the twin towers of the Dom, 

which your classic Gothic Cathedral, although I noted it didn't have a rose window.

There is also an old stone bridge (Die Alte Brucke) which was used by CRUSADERS to cross the Danube (according to wiki)

According to Juliane, the bridge was only recently closed to traffic due to the damage it was getting from the cars and buses, so here I am taking a classic tourist shot (with Dom in background).

A view of the Dom and Die Alte Brucke from a beer garden - which was open despite the weather being very cold!

And the classic postcard shot of the bridge and Dom over the Danube. 

The Mediaeval church or St. Emmeran's, now part of the palace of the Princely family of Thurn und Taxis.

The Altstadt (old town) of Regensburg is UNESCO heritage listed but the town itself is not a museum piece - this mediaeval building used to the homes for merchants but are now student apartments!?!

Another old house that's clearly still lived in.

Mediaeval ramparts incorporated into modern housing.

Oh look, this playground is also built like a castle!!!

Walking through the streets, it was like turning back 500 years.

The old alleys are so little, I could almost touch them arm to arm!

But it's not all mediaeval streets, this Platz has some Baroque buildings

And this church (I can't remember which one it was, sorry Juliane!) has the classic Baroque/Rococo interior. There was also a pastel pink Marian chapel attached! 

But returning to modern times, Pete Doherty is apparently now a resident of Regensburg.

And this is the window he smashed in an attempt to get a guitar that was in the window. Thumbs up, Pete. Thumbs up. 

So for people who want to pretend that they walked through a magic portal and ended up somewhere in the Middle Ages, Regensburg is for you! Juliane was mildly disappointed that we didn't bump into a tour group where the guides are dressed in period clothing. I'm not so disappointed - I'm going to come back in the summer to see it all when the weather gets better!

Eating Bavarian Food

One of the great puzzles of life is how I moved to Bavaria and somehow managed to drop a clothes size. Juliane told her parents and it was jointly decided that I needed to be fattened up. And so, I spent this past weekend in Juliane's home village and in Regensburg where she went to uni as an undergrad, smack bang in the Bavarian heartland. Basically I spent this past weekend sight-eating, with a bit of sight seeing :D

Pooey kept asking me to eat dampfnudel and Juliane said she knew exactly where I could get the best dampfnudel, Uli!

 Take a close look, it's the Original Bayerischer Dampfnudeln place!

And the walls were duly decorated with Bavarian things (photos of politicians, flags, fuβballspielers, proverbs...). The vaulting indicates that Uli is situated in what used to be the chapel for an old palace. 

I can't remember what this drink was called but it was an awesome combination of apple, pear, and I think redcurrant juice with mineral water. Hausschorle?

We ordered some Wurst mit Sauerkraut und Reiberkuchen. 

Which was then followed up by the Dampfnudel!

It was doughy, vanilla custardy goodness and led me and Juliane to institute the *Can't talk, eating* rule. 

Another place we visited but didn't get to eat in was the Historische Wurstkueche. As the name implies (and which Hero Thomas found absolutely hilarious), this place is a historical wurst kitchen.

The tiny and OLD building!

Oh look, the kitchen is historic and the staff dressed to match!

I'll come back to eat here when I return to Regensburg in the Summer :D. 

Im Deutschkurs

I had just over a month between when I decided to accept the job offer to when I actually arrived in Munich. During that time, I did attempt to learn the language and took 8 hours of lessons with the Goethe Institute with my awesome tutor, Carolin. Awesome as she was and hardcore as we went, 8 hours was surprisingly not enough to give me fluency :P. Anyway, after months of promises from my Institute that I could take lessons with the in-house course and finding myself imprisoned where the nurses couldn't speak English, I finally cracked the shits and enrolled at the Deutschakademie to finally learn how to communicate properly in the language of this country. 


And so now four days a week, after a whole day of work, I am spending three hours learning German with fellow non-German speaking Riccardo, Ivan, Pawan, Eleonora, Ruben, Jing, Dana, Eva und unsere Lehrerin Stephanie. It is really tiring but is it working? Keine Ahnung but I think my main problem is the lack of time to go over the Vokabular and learn the grammar rules because people at work are beginning to speak to me in German and I'm usually pretty good at guessing what they're saying even if I can't reply in Germs. Also, it's nice to spend time with people with different accents all asking how Germany could have acquired such a reputation for being logical when they're using a language that has three genders (funny, I thought only two existed!) and many exceptions to their many rules. 

Bleu de Chanel

Psycho Hot Gaspard Ulliel resurfaces!!!! 

I started seeing the posters for Bleu de Chanel sometime last year and thinking *Hey, that looks like Gaspard...ooh yeah!* but at the same time, the photoshopping kinda made him not look like himself?

 Then I saw the ad on TV and stopped caring!!!

(Image source)

Patri's going away - booooooooo

In my short time here, I feel I have already made some pretty good friends. One of these is Patri. As I once observed, we have the same taste in clothes, shoes, and men. In her words, "Why did it take you so long to get here!!!" Anyway, this weekend was also Patri's going away party at the same place we took Boodle, The Martini Club. 


Here are some pics of the night.

Patri had expressed her intention to go buy one of the catalogues from the exhibition for herself. We silently hoped she wouldn't do it before Sunday!

Tearing off the plastic...

and showing the large page she got in the catalogue!

We also got her some earrings which she's seriously working in this pic :D

The packed bar looking like something out of magazine - you meet a lot of people over the duration of a 4 year Phd!

I met this couple on the night and they're very nice but I can't remember their names. Anyway, I included this pic because of what Trung's doing in the background.

One of their legendary Chocolate Martinis.

Caro lays into a Melon Martini while Silke looks on

Johanna, Juliane, and Thomas

Me and Jennifer

With Silke, Anna, Sebastian, and Caro

And finally with the Goodbye Girl herself :(

I'm gonna try and visit, Patri! Whether it be Bilbao, Seattle, or Hawaii, I'll try to make it!

Art purchase

Another good thing about Gnoudesavane's visit is that he has opinions about things (many things) including art. Other than the Kunstreal, Maxvorstadt is filled with little antique stores and galleries and looking at the stuff in the windows and commenting on them put both of us in the mind to buy stuff.


We passed on the antique store selling Art Deco furniture and Gnoudesavanes resisted the Art Nouveau glassware due to price but eventually I saw something so fitting (and moderately cheap) that I had to purchase it!

OH YES INDEED!!!

Inspired by the Keep Calm And Carry On posters, I found this screen print on wood to be so me that it was duly purchased and given pride of place next to the flatscreen and Ikea Fruit Basket in my room!

Admiring my placement 

A visit from Gnoudesavanes

Native European Gnoudesavanes was happy to hear that I'd finally taken the great leap to move to Euroland, and he was even happier to hear that I wasn't moving to Paris. Mostly because as a Lyon native, he hates Paris. *cough* Anyway, armed with a list of things he wanted to see, he came to visit me this weekend. High on the list and with numerous repeats was *boire beaucoup de biere allemand* as well as *visiter le Hofbrauhaus* so the two were duly combined.

The Menu for The Hofbrauhaus am Platzl (Lowenbrau)

Enjoying his 1L stein with my Weissbier in the foreground.

We followed up lunch by walking around Platzl and then admired all the Porsches on Maximilianstr. 

We had a lot of fun in a specialist salt and spice shop down the street from the Hofbrauhaus. I'm sure we weren't supposed to taste the stuff but oh well! They sold Murray River Salt!!!

And on the topic of Australia....DAYLESFORD ORGANIC?!?!

It was a nice day so we walked all the way back to Marienplatz, got some Apfelstrudel from Wimmer and then later had some more Weissbier near the Staatsoper for afternoon tea. This time we had Franziskaner which I didn't photograph but it was pretty good. 


Gnoudesavanes made a number of observations during our trip around the city. Firstly, the city doesn't look the way he anticipated (Gothic), and that all the houses seems to look the same with the yellow, grey, pink colour scheme. Secondly, everywhere we walked (including my area of Maxvorstadt) seemed to be quite affluent and he asked where in Munich poor people lived. My reply, "They don't. I AM a poor citizen of Munich." And finally, he admires a city where it's perfectly acceptable to drink beer at breakfast, lunch, and in public at all hours of the day without condemnation. He's decided that would be worth moving here for.

Paper dress model.

One of the first things I did when I moved to Germany was, believe it or not, was agree to pose as a model for an artist. One of the girls in the lab had read about Elvira Rodriguez Puerto's call for models for her project - Singles on Tour Bachelor Party (Novias en Pergamino), in which she was going to dress 1010 women in wedding dresses made from paper. It seemed interesting and harmless enough - plus we'd get a copy of the photos she'd take of us! 

On a chilly and snowstorming Tuesday in December, Bettina and I went to Elvira's studio near the Ostbahnhof to be photographed. It was an experience. A before photo was taken of us and if I recall correctly, Elvira took a quick look at us and deciding how we were going to be *dressed*. We would then proceed to the photography room, strip down to our undies, and then Elvira and an assistant would garb us up. Other than a slight mishap where my paper dress would move to the side and my undies would show necessitating the construction of a paper miniskirt, I had a pretty good and easy time! 

Elvira finally had the grand opening of the exhibition this week and so we headed over to check it out!

Some of the pics

Some more pics

The opening was quite crowded!

With the artist, Elvira in her own paper dress!

Juliane with her photo

Patri with her action shot

Bettina (central photo) said she felt uncomfortable during the shoot because she was constantly worried that her headpiece would fall off. Can't tell that from the final pic!

And here I am with mine!

Is it art or just a crazy idea? I don't know. What I particularly liked was the different effects brought about by the use of paper and how it could be made to look so much like different fabrics. Personally I don't think art can be judged by its contemporaries unless it's something so outstanding you can't deny its genius. Would I do it again? Definitely - I going to get the catalogue to remember! Also, I can now add 'model' to my CV :P