See The Sun

I’ve fallen in love with the film Onegin. The visuals and Liv Tyler are simply breath-taking. And I even liked Ralph Fiennes in this. I know when the film was coming out in the US I read everything about it I could find online and I had bought the original novel by Pushkin with movie stills. However, at that time I wasn’t that fond of tragic stories so I forgot about it again, and I must have also disposed of the book because I can’t seem to find it anymore. But now, being older (ha, ha…) I appreciate the story of the film much more. I think I’ll have to get my own copy of the DVD, renting it doesn’t seem to be enough.

I absolutely loved Maggie O’Farrell’s first novel After you’d gone. I was simply amazed at how layered her storytelling was. I was slightly disappointed by the 2nd but again adored her 3rd one The Distance between us, but still none was quite as amazing. Now I’ve read her latest The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - and I felt this was finally holding its own opposite her debut novel. It’s simply stunning how she gets the thoughts of all these characters across, each having their own mind pattern. And how perfectly the 2 stories of different periods are interwoven! And we can certainly be grateful for the many achievements in psychological treatments that have been made in the last decades – even though there’s still space for progress!

Hilary Swank is one of those actresses I like but am not closely following. However, when I first heard she was going to play Holly in the adaptation of Cecelia Ahern’s excellent novel P.S., I Love You I was very excited. There are some pictures up at Hilary Swank Fan and Hilary’s looking great. Can’t wait to see the actual movie - but that’ll need some waiting.

It’s been a very long time since I last had been to the cinema. So I decided to go and see Paris je t’aime. I wouldn’t want to see only films of this kind, but I loved it. Almost all segments were great. The only ones I was really disappointed in were ‘Quartier des Enfants Rouges’ (sorry Maggie Gyllenhaal) and ‘Porte de Choisy’.

My favourite segments:
Quais de Seine by Gurinder Chadha: sweet
Père-Lachaise by Wes Craven: funny & real. Featuring Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell, need I say more?
Faubourg Saint-Denis by Tom Tykwer: energetic & perfect. Natalie Portman is great.
14e arrondissement by Alexander Payne: honest

I also liked ‘Loin du 16ème’ (with the lovely Catalina Sandino Moreno), ‘Bastille’ (red trench coat), and ‘Place des Fêtes’ (sad).