Serephine

Viewed at home via Netflix Instant Watch, by myself.

It's a French movie with subtitles.

I read the synopsis and viewer reviews on Netflix and seeing that it was about an artist, I had to see it. It was wonderful. The acting, the direction, the atmosphere, all top notch.

Love, love the way foreign movies show real women. I'm not an American basher, being an American myself, but in this area I have to say that American movies are so shallow. They seem to be only able to have beautiful women in them that are thin and look a certain way. Movies with Meryl Streep are the exception. Not that she isn't attractive, but she isn't the typical type. This is because is she the most incredible actress in the world in my opinion.

So, I appreciate that fact that women of age with a few bulges and wrinkles are part the foreign movie agenda. I think this also reflects the acceptance of those mature attributes by foreign society as a whole. Much healthier. Yes, I know men love to see a beautiful, perfectly formed, flawless face and figure. Good for them. I like to think that not all of the men of the world think that anyone who is older has nothing to offer. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Anyway, Serephine is played by Yolande Moreau. It's a sign of a great actress when she will play a physical character that is not beautiful in the typical sense and whose figure is a real one. There isn't a great deal of personal information about this actress during my cursory Internet search, but what I did find indicates that she is a multi-awarded actress of great repute. This movie certainly reinforces that reputation. She won the equivalent of the Oscar in France for her performance and what a performance it is.

The story is based on the life of Seraphine de Senlis, an artist discovered under unusual circumstances. The link above will take you to Wikipedia where there is a very interesting article about her life. I looked at her paintings and thought they were wonderful. She was a true, born-that-way artist. Genuine. Here is one of her paintings. It's fantastic.

She was very poor and so made some her paints out of found materials. Flowers, plants and in the case of red, she used animal blood from the butcher shop. She bought other basic materials with her meager earnings as a menial servant and she painted on boards or anything that would work as a painting surface. Once she was "discovered", she was able to purchase canvas on which to paint.

Seraphine de Senlis was a person who ended up in an asylum. Was she always slightly insane as so many great artists or did her art and events surrounding it affect her mind? The movie has it's own interpretation.

Seraphine

3 cow movie

Here is the movie trailer

AVATAR

Viewed in 3D at the local multiplex

3D always makes me feel a little claustrophobic, but only for a few minutes until I get acclimated. There's something about knowing that you cannot see the movie properly without the glasses, sort of like you are trapped behind them. Silly, huh? Well, anyway, I get over it.

Avatar was engrossing and very beautiful. When I eventually do watch it in 2D, I can tell you whether or not the 3D really enhanced it or not. I do know that sometimes it seemed blurry, but maybe that was my eyes trying to focus on those 3D pop out features like very cool jellyfish like creatures floating right before my eyes.

There were many imaginations at work in the making of this film, not the least, of course, was that of the director, James Cameron (he of the "Titanic" and "Terminator" films). Just thinking up the scenario of the avatar, which by the way, is a computer term meaning to make a computer generated creature in your own likeness, was very inventive. The avatars are big and blue, sometimes possibly a little skinny around the hind quarters, but nevertheless, very entertaining to watch. They have big thick tails that also serve as a sort of USB hookup - you have to see it to understand. A vast myriad of fantastic animals and plants exist on the avatar inhabited planet of Pandora, all in great peril to the evil, greedy mining company backed by the even more evil military. That's the story. Peaceful, new age avatars that are up against violent, nasty humans.

Aren't we humans just the pits?

OK, there are some nice humans - a couple of them.

My favorite actor in this film was not one of the nice humans. He is a guy I've seen recently in "Public Enemy". Below is a picture I pulled up from Google Images. He is very watchable and in Avatar menacing and nasty. When he is on the screen his performance is riveting, at least to me it was. According to IMDB he has been around for awhile and there is an impressive list of his acting accomplishments. I hope to see him starring again in something one of these days as it appears his career might be taking at turn into the movie star realms.

I'm not a Sigourney Weaver fan, but she did a good job of playing a good human/avatar. Her face has always been a little off putting to me. There's something about the mouth area that isn't appealing - at least to me. Most men just remember her when she kicked some serious alien ass back in her Alien movies days wearing skimpy, space station underwear and I think that's been why she has appealed to many of them. But now she's well into her 50's and although appears to be in good shape, is not skimpy underwear material as far as I can see. Then again, maybe she is. Lot's of older women are keeping it in shape these days.

The humans are there and other than Stephen Lang, they are secondary in importance to the avatars. We are mostly interested in their awesome appearance and how real they appear to be. It's a fantastic film and everyone should see it (according to the statistics, almost everyone already has).

Rating for "Avatar"

Here's the trailer.