La Femme Nikita

This film I found to be strange and bizarre. The movie begins with Nikita, a drug-dependent teenager, attempting to rob a pharmacy. The plan goes wrong and her friends get shot by the local police. Nikita fires back by shooting and killing one of the officers. She is pt on trial and convicted of murder. She is sentenced to jail and feeds her addiction to heroin more. In prison she is injected with a drug and seems to die. When she gains consciousness she realizes that she is in the custody of the French intelligence agency. They inform her that the injection they gave her made it look like she had committed suicide and in papers it is written that she is dead and buried. They then proceed to give her the option of working for them or to die. She is to work as an assassin for the government or to be killed.

She decided to do the job. She is sent through training and proves to be an asset to the government. She eliminated foreign dignitaries. She becomes a talented assassin. Throughout the movie you see how skilled she becomes, She is molded by the government into what they need. After using her for what they needed she is allowed to leave training. She falls in love with her boyfriend, Marco, and moves out of the city into suburbia. Marco doesn’t know that Nikita works for the government as an assassin. He tries to get to know her better by asking her questions of her past and family and friends. Marco doesn’t find out the truth about Nikita until the end of the movie. She and Marco are sent to Italy for an operation. Only Nikita knows this. Marco thinks it is a gift for their engagement. Gun fight breaks out when she finds out the man she is to kill is an impostor. She realizes that she doesn’t want to kill and she would rather love.

Towards the end of the movie Marco learns of who Nikita really is and learns of her training and work. I enjoyed this movie. It started off a little strange but become more interested as new conflicts arose.

Amelie

This movie is about a girl named Amelie Poulain. Her father is a doctor and a man who keeps to himself. He and her mother are neurotic people. Amelie never got hugged growing up. The only physical contact she every received from her father was when he did medical check-ups. As a result her heart rate would speed up. Her father was convinced that she had a heart problem. Amelie was home-schooled by her mother because they thought it was not safe for her to be in school with a heart problem,

She grew up without any friends. To amuse herself she developed an active imagination. Her mother died when Amelie was young. She died in a freak accident when a suicidal girl jumped off The Notre Dame Cathedral and landed on her. The death caused Amelie’s father to be even more distant. He began to build a shrine in their yard for his late wife’s ashes.

When Amelie grew up and moved out of her father’s house she began working in a café called The Two Windmills. The café is filled with very interesting and eccentric people. The owner is a former circus performer and the counter girl is a hypochondriac. The customers match the staff with an over jealous ex-boyfriend and an unsuccessful writer.

Amelie leads a simple life. She has had past boyfriends but non successful. She enjoys doing simple pleasures such as sticking her fingers in grain and cracking crème brulee. She also enjoys walks in the park and skipping rocks on water. She seems to be a very sincere and sweet girl.

One day while she was watching tv and about to brush her teeth she saw on the news that Princess Diana had died in a car accident. In shock she dropped the cap to the toothpaste and it rolled to the wall and a tile cracked in the wall. She removed the tile and in the wall found a little box filled with pictures and toys that a young boy must have hid. She decided to try to find the boy and give him the box. If he was happy to get the box back, then she would try to help other people.

While trying to find who lived in her apartment before her she meets the rest of the tenants living in the same building. She meets Magdalene who tells Amelie about how her husband used to write her love letters and then one day ran off with another woman. She also meets the bully owner of the vegetable stand and his employee. She meets her neighbor Raymond, a painter, who helps her find the owner of the box she found. Raymond, also called the Glass Man because of his brittle bones, enjoys painting the Luncheon by Renoir.

Amelie returns the box to the owner by leaving it in a phone booth and calling it when the man walks by. She watched the man enter the phone booth and receive the box. Seeing the joy in his face she decides to devote her life to helping others. She sets up the jealous ex-boyfriend with the hypochondriac. She writes a love letter to Magdalene pretending to be her husband and saying how he was sorry for leaving her and that he loves her.

She found out that her father and her mother wanted to travel around the world but couldn’t because of her supposed heart problem. She sees her father putting a garden gnome in the shrine. She takes the gnome and has her friend who is a stewardess take pictures of the gnome around the world and send it to her father. Her father thinks it’s his wife’s spirit and is inspired to travel again.

While she is looking after others, no one is looking after Amelie. In helping other people achieve happiness, she is forced to examine her own lonely life, now made more apparent and painful by her relationship with Nino. Nino is a quirky young man who collects the discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths, whom she has fallen in love with. She makes him search for his photo album that he had lost in treasure hunt type tactics. Although she intrigues him through her various roundabout methods of attraction, she is painfully shy and incapable of actually approaching him. He begins to pursue her. The two finally get together at the end with a little persuasion from Raymond.

I enjoyed this movie. I thought it was filmed in a very interesting fairytale like way. It was a very sweet amusing movie.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano is a skilled swordsman and a poet. He well known and admired. His only downfall to him is his huge nose. He doesn’t fell that any woman can ever love him because of his nose. Cyrano fall in love with his cousin Roxane.

This movie takes place in France. It starts off in a theater where Cyrano, Roxane and Christian are introduced. Christian de Neuvillette sees Roxane and falls in love with her. He is too shy to approach her though because he is not witty or good with words. De Guiche, a married man, is also introduced in this scene and he is interested in Roxane as well. As the play begins, Cyrano orders it to stop because he had forbidden an actor, Montfleury, to act for three weeks. After stopping the play, the owner of the theater demands Cyrano pay the refunds for all the tickets. Montfleury is upset and wants revenge towards Cyrano.Count de Guiche and his men try to silence him. Valvert is Guiche’s follower and is suppose to mary Roxane. Guiche knows that Valvert is a weak man and wound not do anything if he were to have an affair with Roxane. Valvert attacks Cyrano but is unsuccessful. Cyrano embarrasses Valvert and entertains the audience by doing this.

Roxan’s maid gives Cyrano a note telling him she wants to speak with him the next morning. Cyrano thinks that maybe she is in love him and is excited. They meet in Ragueneau's bakery. While Cyrano was waiting for Roxane he sat down and strted writing her a letter. When she arrives they reminisce about their friendship when they were young. Roxane then admits she is in love. Cyrano thinks it may be him but changes his mind after she describes her love to be handsome. Roxane tells him that the man she loves is in Cyrano’s regime. Roxane also asks Cyrano to look after the young man. Cyrano then understand why Roxane wanted to meet. He promises to look after the man she loves even thought he knows it will be difficult for him.

In the next scene Cyrano’s cadets warn the newcomer Christian not to mention anything to Cyrano about his nose. When Cyrano arrives he tell his men about a battle he had where he defeated a hundred men. Christian wanted to prove he is brave so he kept interrupting Cyrano’s story with insults of his nose. Cyrano figures out that this is the man Roxane loves and orders all his men to leave the two alone. Cyrano introduces himself to Christian and tell him about the love Roxane has for him. He orders Christian to write a letter to Roxane telling her how he loves her. Christian then admits that he has no verbal skill and that he can’t do it. Cyrano then decides that he will write the letter and have Christian sign it and send it.

Cyrano visits Roxane to learn that she has received the letter and that she is madly in love with Christian. She claims that he in not only handsome but brilliant too. Cyrano doesn’t feel too bad because he is the one who wrote the letter. Cyrano continues to write letters to Roxane, signed by Christian.

One night Christian and Cyrano are outside of Roxanes balcony. Roxane asks for Christian to speak beautiful things to her. He is unable to so Cyrano feeds Christian the words. Christian is unable to keep up with all the words Cyrano says, so Cyrano just says them to her himself. She thinks it is Christian speaking and asks for a kiss. Christian and Roxane spend the night together.

De Guiche is still trying to marry Roxane off to some nobody so he can have her to himself. Cyrano hears of this and rushes to marry Roxane and Christian that night while he stalls De Guiche. Realizing that he had been tricked, De Guiche sends Cyrano and Christian's regiment off to fight on the front line in the war with Spain.

There is no food and all the soldiers are starving. Cyrano still writes letters to Roxane and send one everyday to her. He sees that the men are weary and low on morale, so he gives a speech and has one of the men play a song that reminds them of home to rile them up. De Guiche arrives, and tells the Royal Guard that they are going to be used as sacrificial troops to distract the enemy while the real attack begins. Christians tells Cyrano that he wishes he had a chance to say goodbye to Roxane. Cyrano informs him that he has already written a letter doing so and that he should send it to her. Christian notices tears on the letter and is suspicious of his intentions and feeling for Roxane

Christian tries to send the letter to Roxane and runs into her and her carriage close to the enemy’s territory. That had to escape from the enemy . When they arrived to the French side they discover that Roxane has brought food and wine for everyone. De Guiche tries to convince her to leave, but when she insists on staying, he agrees to stay as well.

Christian has figured out that Cyrano is in love with Roxane, and that all along the things he's been writing in the letters have been his own feelings. Christian demands to know who Roxane really loves, him, or the person who wrote the letters, so he demands that Cyrano tell her the truth and let her decide. Before Cyrano can tell her, Christian is killed in battle, and Cyrano decides to never tell her. Roxane reads Christian's farewell letter and faints. Cyrano tells De Guiche to take her away from the fight. Cyrano and the remaining Royal Guard prepare themselves for the final attack. The Spanish break through their defenses and the battle begins.

Roxane lives in a convent outside of Paris as a secluded widow. Cyrano comes to visit her every week and gives her weekly updates of what is happening in the world. Two of Cyrano's friends arrive to visit, and privately they confer – that they overheard Cyrano may be in danger. Neither one knows how to tell Roxane.

As Cyrano leaves his house to make his weekly visits to Roxane, he is setup, and has a beam fall on him injuring him greatly. Bleeding from his head he manages to make it to visit Roxane. He starts reading her his weekly report as he grows weak. He then asks to see the last letter Christian wrote to her. She gives it to him, and he begins reading it to her. Roxane realizes that Cyrano knows the letter by heart, figures out that it was Cyrano writing to her all along. Cyrano admits it, and explains that he's only telling her because he's dying. Cyrano composes one last poem while fencing with an invisible enemy and dies.

I really enjoyed this movie. The words that Cyrano writes to Roxane portray why the French seem to have that romantic ones. This movie had everything in it; humor, action, romance and tragedy. I would definitely recommend it to other.

The Piano Teacher

The movie starts out with Professor Erika Kohut arriving home late at night. Her mother seems to be over protective of her as if Erika was a young teenager. The mother searches Erika’s purse finding a dress and begins to tear it. They both get into a physical and emotional fight and shortly after make up. In the next scene Erika is shown teaching students to play the piano. You begin to learn Erika character a little better. She seems to be very strict and unhappy.

Erika and her mother attend a recital where Erika performs a piece for the guests. In the audience is a young man named Walter Klemmer. He seems to have a crush on Erika during the recital. After speaking with Erika he has fallen for her. She completely dismisses him. He tries to impress her by playing Schubert, one of her favorites, on the piano.

As the movie continues you begin to see who Erika is. One day after work she goes to a sex shop and disturbingly watches a pornographic film. It was very unexpected because you get a sense that Erika is an accomplished piano teacher and that she is very strict and proper and about discipline and here she is in a sex shop sniffing a tissue she found in the garbage bin in the shop. You begin to see that something is not right with her. She seems to be lacking love in her life. She never smiles and mutilates her genitals. You get a sense that her relationship with her mother is a controlling one. Her mother orders her around and always checks up on her. She goes through her wardrobe and throws her things out. Erika sneaks around and lies to her mother where she is going.

One night Erika tells her mother that she has a recital to attend and that it will take a long time. Instead she goes to a drive in movie and waits till all the movie goers are in their cars. She sneaks around looking for couples that are having sex in their cars. She found a car with a couple and watched them. She got caught and had to run away. You now learn that Erika is a masochist.

Walter Klemmer is still trying to get Erika. He signs up to audition to be in Erika’s class. After passing the audition easily he begins to grab Erika’s attention. He tries to learn more about her but she makes it difficult for him. She finally gives in to him in following scene. They are at a theater rehearsing for a recital. Erika is disappointed in her student being nervous to play the piano in front of an audience, so she breaks a glass and secretly puts in the student’s pocket to purposely injure her. After hearing and seeing the injury occur she runs to the bathroom. Walter follows her and kisses her. You see her masochism come out more in this scene as she tries to dominate Walter. She tells him that he will receive a letter with all her fantasies written and that he is to follow the instructions.

He isn’t sure what to but waits for her instructions. She meets him at his hockey game and hands him the letter. He reads the letter and is very disturbed by it. He is tormented by what she wants him to do.

One night as Erika is bed she hears Walter knocking on her door. He comes in looking very emotionally disturbed and is determined to do what she asks. He locks her mother in a room. As he recites Erika’s letter he acts out her instructions. He hits her hard and kicks her too. He dominates her in everyway. After sleeping with her, which looked like rape he leaves and asks her never to tell anyone.

The last scene puzzled me a bit. Everyone shows up to the recital. Erika is to take the place of her student in the show. As the show is about to begin Walter walks by her and wishes her luck as if he’s only known her as a professor. She doesn’t seem to know how to take that. So she reaches into her purse, takes out a knife and stabs herself in the upper left part of her chest. The movie ends with Erika walking out of the theater with a blood stain on her blouse.

I found this movie to be disturbing and very strange. I don’t think that I would want to watch it again. The music was very interesting and the acting was great. I wasn’t too sure why Erika acted the way she did. It seemed to be either her mothers control over her or that her father was in a mental hospital. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this movie too much.

First Blog Assignment

Pre-Trip Thoughts

Last semester I remember walking by a poster explaining TravelLearn, and how students can fly to Paris for a class. I thought to myself how great and exciting that would be. After finding out all the information that I needed I decided to go. In about three weeks I’ll be boarding a plane and flying to Paris, France. I am very excited about it. I’ve bought discs to learn French. I’ve bought French music to listen to and have joined blockbuster Total Access to be able to rent French film. I have watched Cyrano De Bergerac and tonight I will be able to enjoy The Piano Teacher. Let’s just say I am very excited to see how the French enjoy life.

I would like to experience Paris as not just a tourist. Yes I do want to see all the tourist attractions, such as museums and the Eiffel Tower but I also want to go to the local Café to enjoy a good cup of coffee. I think seeing the replica of the flame from The Statue of Liberty would be interesting. I’ve done some research as to what other places I would like to visit. I was born in Ukraine and visited last year, and heard that there are many Ukrainians in Paris. I actually found a café, a church and a Ukrainian park in Paris. This is something I personally would like to visit.

Seeing a soccer game in France would be so much fun. I love soccer and know how crazy the fans and games can be. I’m not sure how to find a place to buy tickets from here but will be doing more research into that. I’d like to experience what students do for fun. Seeing as much as I can in the eight days is my goal. From the world known spots to the little café that the locals visit, got to be there. I love art, fashion, Europe and its beautiful architecture and I don’t think I will be disappointed with this trip.