Day 72: A Good Year

Following the death of his uncle, Max (Russell Crowe) finds that he has inherited a glorious estate in France. He’s an arrogant, English bond trader (Possibly? I’m going with IMDb’s word on that one, I don’t understand all that stock market malarkey) and he plans to sell the estate for as much money as he can. However, once he goes out there, his memories of the place are awakened and he finds it difficult to let go.

I have to just spend a paragraph gushing about how beautiful it all is, my god. The house is brilliant, it’s a sensational mix of gorgeous and dishevelled, I love it. And all around it just seems ideal for exploring, I was just picturing myself there discovering things. Vineyards always look lovely, such a beautiful thing to have next to your house. How could he even consider selling it? It will definitely be the setting for my happy place from now on. The film itself is beautifully shot, too. Excellent use of light, really made it seem magical.

Is it ever more obvious what’s going to happen than when someone says that a person will never love again? As soon as Francis (Didier Bourdon) told Max that Fanny Chenal (Marion Cotillard) would never again let a man near her heart, I said out loud, ‘She will definitely love him then’. I like when it’s so obvious. And how could Max do anything but love her? She is fantastic, and feisty (nobody uses that word enough) is always a hit. She tells him that she only spent the night with him because she knows they don’t have a future and it seems that may be the way of it, as he is adamant that he is selling the place and going back to England. But after selling he has a change of heart and returns to France, and goes to see her. She asks him if he’s sure he knows what he wants and he says, perhaps the most winning line I’ve heard in a while: “I would like a lifetime spent with an irrational and suspicious goddess. With some short-tempered jealousy on the side. And a bottle of wine that tastes like you, and a glass that’s never empty.”  Excellent!

Is it possible to feel like you’re in love just from watching a film? That’s the only way to describe this feeling that I am experiencing. I’m going to give it the highest marks because I feel all aglow.

10/10

Day 51: Inception

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team are employed by very rich people to spend their time in the dreams of others in order to steal valuable secrets. Their newest employer, Saito (Ken Watanabe), is a little different. He wants them to go into the mind of a business competitor and plant an idea. That is so difficult and in order to do so the team risk ending up spending the rest of their lives in limbo. Cobb’s projection of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), threatens to destroy their mission at every step and it puts the whole team in constant danger.

To be able to see into someone’s mind, to be able to walk through their memories and their experiences and their thoughts, just seems like such a beautiful thing. It’s not about being nosy but more because people rarely tell you exactly what they’re thinking, or if they do, they filter it so it’s better for you to listen to. The ideal for me would just be unadulterated honesty at all times. Truly knowing someone seems close to an impossibility because the distance between who they are and who they project themselves to be is massive. In order to know someone, they have to close the gap. That is it for me, I don’t know a lot of things about me or anyone for that matter but I know that: I want to close the gap.

You know, I thought it would be amazing to be able to dream so well that you could actually have a whole life with someone. Or maybe not even a whole life, but to imagine someone so clearly that it’s almost as if they are there with you. But it clearly would never even touch on how wonderful it would be to actually have it in reality. Like is said in the film, you can never imagine a person completely. People are so complex and their every thought and action is influenced by a myriad of different and sometimes contradictory forces. How could you ever hope to dream of that person in their entirety? Sure, you could make an adequate copy and maybe you’d be happy enough. But it would never be them, not really. Imagination is powerful but it can’t be everything.

In the hotel room, Mal accuses Ariadne (Ellen Page) of not understanding what is going on because she has never felt what it’s like to be a lover, “to be half of a whole”. For me, I don’t believe anyone you are with should be seen as your other half. I think you should be complete yourself so that anyone who is with you gets to share in who you are, not make you who you are. If they leave, does that make you incomplete again? It’s all so fragile, I just refuse to believe that it should be the right way of things. You are not defined by the people in your life, you are defined by you. By being the truest version of yourself. I just can’t believe that people are incomplete and it’s only through being with someone else that they can be whole. That seems so sad.

It must just be the hardest thing when someone you love kills themselves. Especially when they do it right in front of you. Mal completely believes that this world is not her reality and she needs to die in order to get back to where she and Cobb built their lives together. And Cobb put the idea in her head without meaning for it to cause this much destruction and so he feels guilty forever after. He keeps going back into his dreams in order to be with her but he can never get past his guilt, and he does know that she isn’t real and it breaks his heart that he can’t go back and fix what he did. But he does get to return to his home and his children. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a dream or not because he gets to finally be with them again and that’s what he has wanted for so long. This is his reality now.

Leonardo DiCaprio is such a brilliant actor. His eyes just slay me in every film, they are so believable. When I was watching the film, I was utterly convinced he was Dom Cobb and that he loved Mal with a passion I can’t even imagine. You just get lost in his portrayal of his characters and it’s lovely to be a part of.

I always forget how much I love this film. It’s just so beautiful. I love when the café and the street are exploding around Cobb and Ariadne, it’s such a great scene. The whole film is just lovely to watch.

9/10

Day 45: Love Me If You Dare

Right, so, I know I asked for suggestions for lovey films to watch today and then asked for one to be picked from the suggestions but I’m going to ignore that and go with the one I wanted to watch anyway. Notting Hill is too nicey nice for the mood I’m in, I need destructive and overwhelming, thankyouverymuch. I’m also very drunk but I’m typing like a CHAMP.

A little boy and a little girl fall instantly in love. Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard) dare each other in ever more extravagant ways with the reward always being the carousel box that Julien’s dying mother gave him. They do love each other but they can’t trust each other, which makes it impossible for them to be happy. Realising they cannot survive with this distrust but knowing that they cannot exist without the other, they drown together in cement.

He is always happy to see her but he won’t let her share in the sadness of his life. She’s jealous of Julien flirting with some girl in her class and it affects her so much she can’t even complete her exam properly. He admits to having sex with this girl and so she tells him she had sex with the gym coach. Both are trying to get to each other and it’s working well. Everyone knows how destructive they are for each other and they try to split them up. Julien’s Dad offers Sophie money to stay away from him but she won’t accept. She just wants Julien to love her but she can’t believe that he would love her outside the game. “Tell me you love me. Tell me because, if I tell you first, I’m afraid you’ll think it’s a game.” They decide not to see each other for a year and you can see she wants him to be honest with her about how he feels but he just can’t do it. He does chase after the bus shouting that he loves her, but if you can’t say it when she’s there then does it even count?

When they eventually start talking again, he tricks her into thinking he’s asking her to marry him. He’s trying to hurt her on purpose and he succeeds, she looks absolutely heartbroken. I always think loving someone should mean you don’t hurt them at all but love is different for everyone and people interact with each other in different ways so maybe hurting each other is one way of showing it, for some people. Anyway, she shows up to his wedding to remind him of the dare he accepted as a child (that he would say no at his wedding) and makes his now-wife upset. He almost lets Sophie get hit by a train. Their relationship is so destructive and dangerous.

They decide not to see each other for 10 years. Both get married in that time, and Julien has children. But all he’s thinking about is Sophie at all times. She seems absolutely impossible, like loving her would be just the most difficult thing. But clearly worth it since Julien cannot get her out of his head. Eventually she contacts him and while his wife wants him not to go off, he can’t help but go when Sophie calls for him. He pretends that he has ended up badly hurt after a car wreck and she is devastated. But she realises he is playing a game at the same time he realises he shouldn’t have done it. They reunite and realise that they cannot live without the other and that if they were to go on living then it would be impossible to distinguish game from reality, so they decide to kill themselves.

For some reason I think this is love. So unhealthy and ultimately the most destructive. But I love it.

9/10