Movies

Warning: although I tried to avoid spoilers, there might be some information you would like to be ignorant of, if you plan to watch some of the movies listed here.

Match Point, 2005.
There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn't and you lose. This movie is about a man torn between two women (one which is excessively rich and the other, outrageously attractive) and how he deals with this… er… complex situation. It is a story that shows how complex life can be, how crucial our decisions are and how unexpected the consequences our decisions may result in. This movie shows how much our lives are driven by blind chance, regardless of moral whatsoever. In this sense, despite the extreme ending, this is fiction is very close to the reality. A good movie, indeed. [Sunday, 2nd June 2007]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, director Garth Jennings, 2005.
Arthur Gent, an typical Briton, escapes from the Earth—before Earth gets destroyed—thanks to his friend, Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who is contributor to the eponymous book. They begin to wander through the Universe trying to find the Question to the Ultimate Answer, which one knowns to be… forty-two. Don't panic!, the book says, as it covers most of the problems that hitchhikers may come across during their trip through the intergalactic space (sometimes providing hardly useful advises). A hilarious comedy with brilliant characters amongst which: Marvin the Paranoid Android, a depressed robot, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the egocentristic, selfish, stupid, extravagant Galactic President. Brilliant humour… I quite liked the idea:
— Earthman, you must realise that the planet you lived on was commissioned, paid for and run by… mice.
See Wikipedia's page for more information. The Guide on the BBC web site. [Saturday, 1st June 2007]
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, 1995.
Two English cartographers come to a Welsh village, on behalf of Her Majesty, to measure the local mountain. To the villagers' great disappointment, the alleged mountain doesn't even exceed one thousand feet (about three hundred metres)… which makes it officially a hill. The villagers decide to rectify this outrage… Whence the name. A lovely comedy. See Wikipedia's page. [May 2007]
The Island, 2005.
Earth has been contaminated, and the survivors live in very strict conditions, confined to a very modern, isolated building. There still exist one place on Earth clear from contamination, the Island. But obviously not everyone can go to this (utopian, as we shall see) paradise. Thus, a lottery is organised every day to elect the Island's inhabitants. But Lincoln Six Echo, a bizarrely curious element of this society, discovers that, in fact, they are clones kept into illusion by a heartless company and that the Island is only a pretext to kill the clones to provide organs to their alter egos, who, by the way, are uninformed of the amoral method used by the company. Lincoln Six Echo tries to inform the world of the unacceptable trade practice of the cloning company. This is a breathtaking movie. See Wikipedia's page. [May 2007]
The Chronicles of Narnia—The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2005.
After C. S. Lewis's book. See Wikipedia's page. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy discover a passage to another world, the world of Narnia, through a magic wardrobe. There, they realise that they are actors of a prophecy that should eventually free Narnia from a dreadful Witch's reign. A nice story, although one could be bothered by the childly and religious inspiration (the book is even more childly). [April 2007]