Movie Buzz : The Tourist
I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Tourist‘ which is a remake of this 2005 French Film ‘Anthony Zimmer‘. It gives me the impression of a reminiscent of an old Hitchcock film with Angelina Jolie with this ‘Audrey Hepburn glow’ – beautiful gowns, elegant looking with not a single hair out of place. Classy but I thought it was ridiculous to have the camera lingering on her for a good 10-15 seconds too long at every other shot. Perhaps Jolie’s fans will appreciate it more.
Johnny Depp stars as maths teacher Frank Tupelo, an American tourist who meets a beautiful British woman, Elise (Angelina Jolie) on a train to Venice and finds himself being pursued by Interpol agent (Paul Bettany) and a badass gangster (Steven Berkoff). Elise is acting under the orders of Alexander Pearce, her mysterious fugitive lover, who instructed her to board the train and pick someone bearing resemblances in order to throw Interpol off. However, as the pair fall unexpectedly in love with each other…..and you get the drift.
Depp is without a doubt the sexy man extraordinaire. Terrific performance despite the fact that this is not his usual eccentric on-screen characters. I love how he can portray subtle emotions across his facial expression, though his character seems to be alil over-infatuated with Angelina Jolie, that makes him look as though he has never seen a woman before in his life. You might observe the peculiar side of him as he runs across the roofs at one of the chase, in his pyjamas. Rather refreshing to see him in his ‘normal’ state I must say (and oh so charming in his suits!)
Top notch actors though I’m actually alil surprised that this film gave them the Golden Globe nods. The secondary characters in the story was well casted too. Beautiful scenery – How to resist the charm of France and Venice ? Gentle romance with elements of humor and intrigue thrown in despite the rather implausible plot and weak script. Satisfying ending that is a pleasant well-written twist (perhaps predictable to some but I loved how it ended).
Not nearly as clever or sexy as I wished it would be but enjoyable. I’ll give it a 4/5 since I’m biased and that extra +1 is for Johnny Depp solely. (Why would I say no to watching 103 minutes of Johnny Depp?!) Win-win situation if you’re a fan of Johnny Depp like me or in love with the views of France/Venice. Guilty Pleasures - Just don’t expect too much from this underwhelmed blockbuster.
Top 10 Francophone Websites To Share
As many of you who will know via following my updates, I have been taking French in school this term. One of my assignment is to come up with a list of Top 10 French Websites and explain why it is a good site to visit. After looking at my word document,I was thinking to myself – why not I just post it as a blog entry with pictures so that more people can know about the French culture too ? So here we go !
This is a French music blog that features bands and artists in the French music scene. The site is regularly updated with interviews and the latest gigs in town. They have an interesting podcast segment ‘CONCERT À EMPORTER‘ (Take Away?) whereby they will film a session with an artist or band.
2. SkyRock
One of the top 10 social networking sites in France. With a high penetration rate in France, Skyrock is like the French-Facebook. It allows people to post blog entries, exchange messages with other members and a specific space that show cases original music compositions. It is said to be the most popular French social networking site.
3. Chronic Art
Chronicart.com is a web magazine that talks about the Arts and Culture as well as latest happenings – ranging from movies to music to books. It also has its own Chro.TV which is mostly band interviews conducted in Paris.
4. Not exactly a French website per se but it helps alot if you’re stuck at the language or trying to get your message across to a French. Just type in whatever you want to say and Voilà!
5. Le Notepad
As you know, there are several accented letters while writing in French. This website saves alot of trouble from switching the codes on your computer. Simply just type and paste the text into your word processors. Easy as A-B-C. Definitely a must-visit site for students learning French with a troublesome keyboard problem like me!
6. Voila
Think Voila as your Google/Yahoo/MSN or any other search engines, but in French. It provides similar services like searching on the entire www or wikipedia or getting the latest news updates. ‘Nuff said.
7.Le Point
Le Point is one of the weekly local news magazine in France. Pretty much like the French version of Time Magazine and Newsweek. You can find them on iPad too!
8. Aufeminin
As suggested by its name, this is a French portal dedicated to women. It consists of forums and blogs and articles that is targeted at the female population. Curious males are welcome to browse and there’s a “Nos hommes” (Our Men) section too!
9. Something French every other day. They have podcast and interesting pictures of daily French life. Makes you feel like a local French while reading the blog (provided I actually understand most of it…haha)
10If you’re a geeky person or a HWZ/tech65 fan, you’ll love this in French. A website featuring gadgets and geeky things. Pretty neat stuff though I have to say, our local product launches seem to be quicker than them ?
On a side note, The French Corner is a lovely read for people interested in the language and France (It’s in English) but it seems to me that it’s no longer updated. If you have any more recommendations, do drop a comment ! =)
Movie Buzz : Robin Hood
Robin Hood – You would imagine a hero who struts his stuff in green tights, leaps around with his bow and arrows, robbing the riches for the poor, being cheeky and witty in his speech….Or at least I strolled into the cinema thinking of that ! Will talk about it later but straight to the film first.
Beautiful settings with vast halls, huge castles, deep wandering forest with a great eye for lighting. Robin Hood is your typical film in historical times, think ‘King Arthur’ or ‘Joan of Arc’ with more combat and of course the rain of arrows during those scenes.
Russell Crowe is without a doubt one of the sexiest man around and very suitable for the role, but there were moments when the ‘Gladiator’ side of him surfaces. I find his sidekicks alil more entertaining and they actually reflected the more lively side of Robin Hood’s story with the leaping around etc. Russell Crowe is probably the most serious Robin Hood I’d imagine…he could have passed off as Spartan with more clothes on.
In summary, we see the history of Robin Hood BEFORE he was actually ‘Robin Hood’. It was more like the history lesson of how he became Robin Hood whereby he must push across the countryside to settle score between the King of England and King of France, meet up with comrades, and eventually restore order in the country while discovering his own past. If you’re not a fan of history, you’ll be bored to death. To me, it was just way too draggy – to think it was just a 141 minutes film..I almost thought I sat there for 4 hours !
So back to the story of how my friend and I were questioning nonstop during the movie – ”where is the climax ?’, ‘ I
think we’re not even half way through the movie !’, ‘ Why is Robin Hood holding a hammer (or whatever that’s called) instead of bow and arrows ?’ – mainly because the images on our minds were based on the cartoon version of Robin Hood that we grew up with. It was until the end of the movie then we realized the words on the top left corner of the banner that says ‘The Untold Story Of The Man Behind The Legend.’ Silly us.
From the movie we had several conclusions :
1) Englishman are really horny bastards.
2) Robin Hood steals basically everything right from the start, mainly from the dead – the horse, his attire, his wife.
3) Everyone (the characters) wants sex in the film but never get to the action so that the film can be rated PG.
Robin Hood breaks zero new ground in terms of film in my opinion but it certainly provides a good back story to Robin Hood 2 (if any, I’m guessing yes). If you have a couple of hours to kill, this is entertainment but don’t expect your heart to be stolen by Robin Hood.
I’ll give it a 2.5/5. But the ending credits is worth staying for, stunning graphics so for that I’ll give another 0.5 !
Bravo,Christian Lacroix the Costumier !
Ping, the boyfriend and I headed over to the National Museum of Singapore to check out the Christian Lacroix the Costumier exhibition. The museum was rather empty, probably due to the H1N1 outbreak or the fact that the museum closes at 6pm. We got our complimentary tickets at around 5.30pm (on the dot for last entry) and we had the whole exhibition hall to ourselves ! 
I was really looking forward to immerse myself in this whole charming French fashion history – the amazing costumes and sketches by the genius designer Christian Lacroix (which the boyfriend laughed and called me a “Fake French” because I have no idea how to pronounce his last name properly. haha) The exhibition was alot smaller than I imagined it would be but the decor sets the mood and I have to admit (randomly) that I really liked the chairs in that display hall. I wish I have one of those at home ! If I’m not wrong, the museum decorated the display to look as though you’re in a theatre blackbox with the red lighting and moving mannequins.
Design wise, you will definitely be impressed by the details and depth of his work. His sketches were stunning to begin with and I love his dramatic use of color and fabric. In case you have no idea, he first began with ready-to-wear designs to the displays you see in National Museum which are his works for operas, theatre and dance. For example, you will probably know “Carmen” and Shakespeare’s “Othello”. I think it is quite a rare opportunity for Singaporeans to be in touch with this aspect of the Arts since Opera is not a very “hip” thing in town.
It was quite spectacular if you enjoy fashion or you’re someone like me, who thinks “anything French is awesome” (HAHA). I had fun at the hands-on area where the museum provided paper (of really good quality, to my surprise) for sketches and paper dolls for dress-up games. There are 4 wooden dolls for you to place fabric over and create your own masterpieces as well ! The boyfriend and I had a go at it and there’s a reason why we’re both from a management university ! (hur)
So what do you think ? Who do you think have a better sense of fashion (HAHA) ! If you think you can do a better job, go down to the gallery and snap a picture of your magnificent costume for me to see ! 
This gotta be one of the biggest fashion event of the year, so don’t miss it ! The ticket is priced at $8 but you get to enter FREE if you’re wearing RED from 9-10th May ! 
