Kpjas here and now

A lately watched film has taken list of my favourite films by storm - “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (French: “Le Scaphandre et le Papillon”) by Julian Schnabel, with brilliant cinematography by Janusz Kamiński.

The screenplay is based on the memoir by French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby, aged 42, an editor of the fashion magazine “Elle” sustained a massive stroke, which left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome.

This is a moving and beautiful picture about a man whose perfectly clear conscious mind and energetic, lively personality have unexpectedly been imprisoned in his completely paralysed and disabled body that the author likened to the mentioned in the title diving bell. It is a disquieting thought that anyone of us could face a similar fate. The film portrays humanity put to one of the most extreme tests and Jean-Dominique Bauby coming to terms his tormented existence with which he was condemned for the rest of his life. Out of the darkest horror optimistic streaks of dawn emerge when he painstakingly manages to communicate with about 200,000 eyelid blinks his personal message to the world and his loved ones. The published book and the following film in a tremendously artistic way add something very valuable to our understanding of conditio humana.

Butterflies have flown away… but will return next summer.

See also: Metacritic.com and Rottentomatoes.com

Yesterday evening I watched Roland Joffe’s 1986 film The Mission. The film is like a parable to me not very realistic rather about mankind and the world we are living. Is there a place for love, justice and harmony in our world ?

Hontar: We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus.
Altamirano: No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world… 

A few days ago I saw Steven Spielberg’s Munich. Although I don’t like political films very much I must say Munich is a great one. My perception of the film was influenced by the fact I had previously seen a documentary about the Israeli response to the 1972 Munich massacre and  comprehensively described it.

I liked Spielberg’s film because it showed multiple layers of the matter and didn’t try to give easy answers. Vengence that at first seems to be completely justified when executed turns sour. Personal perspective was truly delineated in Avner and Robert’s characters. Politics has always abrasive or damaging effect on straightforward people’s personalites.

March 13, 2006, marks the 10th anniversary of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s death. Kieślowski is well-known Polish film director.

He is best known for his television series The Decalogue  (1988) as well as  a feature film  trilogy Three Colors.

I haven’t seen all Kieślowski’s film yet but the first of his films that I liked was Bez końca (No End, 1985).

It’s worth to take a look at his profile in the imdb.com