Hi all,
- Inception
Saw it yesterday and I really wasn’t as impressed as I feel I should have been. It wasn’t complicated, it’s about levels of consciousness. Anyone who’s ever played a multi-level video game or experimented with drugs will get it. I found the non-stop soundtrack and constant drama kind of irritating. Beautiful, but irritating. Like a part-time-modelling film student boyfriend with a lisp.
As for the end, that was just (highlight following text for spoiler:) silly. You have one of two possibilities that were pretty much a given from the first 10 minutes: Either the whole thing is a dream or it isn’t. End of. You want proper beautiful complexity? Read some Baudrillard.
Maybe I missed the point of the film, I’d love it if someone could try to enlighten me without just telling me it’s amazing because they saw it and it was amazing. Granted, it was enjoyable (especially the bits with Jason Phwoardon-Levitt) but amazing? Unless by “amazing” they mean it had a lot of mazes in it. That doesn’t even make any sense. - Am trying to take a break from serious blogging, as a woman in a shop told me off the other day for being too Westernised and I bought a weird book about African diaspora and am now insanely confused about a lot of things. Basically, I’m trying to listen a bit more in the hope that maybe I’ll learn something. Problem is, people have been telling me how great I am recently and it’s totally going to my head. For this and other reasons, I’m moving back in with my grandparents to gain some wisdom from my wonderful Grandad, who tells it like it is, whether I look like a cow’s arse or not (true story). The man is a legend. Plus it means Granny’s cooking. Epic win!
- Can anyone recommend any decent introductory books to Indian History btw? It’s starting to annoy me that I don’t know anything about it other than my family’s history. I’d love to be able to put that into perspective and actually see why it is important that my great grandfather was awarded the Victoria Cross, or why India is one of the world’s emerging superpowers yet has no welfare system in place to prevent millions living in extreme poverty.
- My hair has now grown to that annoying level of being slightly too short to tie back, but long enough to get in my eyes. Gah! Luckily, in a few week’s time it’ll be long enough to cut into a sharp little bob. I’ll look like Mathilda from Leon but grown up. But I’ll still dress like her, don’t worry.
Cx
Interestingly “disapora” is also the name of a new social network being developed as a decentralised platform that would allow us all to keep our data on servers wherever we wanted and have proper control over it instead of handing it all over to some benevolent-until-they’re-not overlord. I really hope it works because it’s something it’s the sort of thing I’ve been harping on about for years but never had the skill to code.
On Inception, I will write a proper review shortly but here’s the short version. I loved it and throughout it kept my head wrapped up exploring ideas and possibilities while I watched. I doubt I will enjoy so much on repeat viewings. I certainly agree that it’s utterly straightforward (not least because it’s entirely chronological) and I was massively perplexed by audience reaction at the closing shot which was inevitable from about 1/3 of the way through. It’s complexity is in its themes re the subconscious which leave much to mull over. Particularly impressive were the changing camera work and choreography in action sequences between the real world and levels of dream sequence (particularly the rolling gravity fight sequence while the van flipped). The big let-down for me was the misleading opening scene which was unnecessary, signposted what would happen later removing tension and suggested there would be a future payoff when we reached that moment, which there wasn’t, because Limbo was left largely unexplored.
Agree on the weird gravity fight. Very cool effects. It just didn’t make me think very hard about things in the same way other people seem to have done. I genuinely left the cinema feeling like I’d been spoonfed something that could otherwise have been brilliant. Like a blended roast dinner, it has all the right ingredients but wasn’t quite right.
A non-chronological narrative might have totally done it for me. I had to watch 12 Monkeys two or three times before I understood it, and even watching it years later I still find things to marvel at that I didn’t notice before.
Diaspora sounds fun. Someone made a very good point about Facebook on another blog I write, which has forced me to question the convenience and ease of use that Facebook offers versus the personal information implications. It wouldn’t take much imagination to find a way around privacy laws. Isn’t there the same problem with Google as well?
Back to Inception and limbo, I really loved how What Dreams May Come interpreted limbo/hell. Not the best or most original film ever but striking, and thought provoking when I first saw it. I think I’d probably have liked Inception a lot more if I hadn’t seen some of the ideas done better elsewhere.
Except that scene in the hotel bouncing off the walls. That was awesome. And that bit when he kissed Ariadne, I was very jealous.
Cx
Try A History of India by Herman Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund.
It’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt! And yes, he is rather fine.
Well he looks like a Jason
Cheers, will google.
Cx
500 Days of Summer forever changed my view of young Joseph. Grumbles all round
*Like*
Cx