Before Sunrise (1995)

"I believe that if there's any kind of God, it wouldn't be any of us. Not you, or me, but just this little space in between. If the'res any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt"

LINK TO THE VIDEO

I've never loved anybody this way. 

Never looked at a woman and though, if civilization fails, if the world ends, 

I'll still understand what God meant.

Wolf (1994)

don't ever set me free

- I have to tell you, you're making me nervous 

in a way I am not really familiar with.

Prime (2005)

Quarterlife

- You've been scared your whole life, it's not gonna go away. You have to start doing something in spite of being afraid.

PART 22

are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?

                    


My (in fact not so) little sister and I are really into memorizing parts of this film and performing them in our most old-fashioned and posh British accent. I wouldn't be exagerating at all if I said that we've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail at least 5 times now. And it doesn't look like stopping here, I'm afraid.

built on rock over-looking the sea

"You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away, make you something different in an instant. It happened to me."

"I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big. It didn't even need to be beautiful. It just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life. I built myself a house."

Life as a house (2001)

I guess I just got lucky. Uhm, we met in elementary school, in seventh grade we had the same class schedule and, uh, we just clicked, you know?... I think technically the "girl of my dreams" would probably have, like, a really bodacious rack, you know. Maybe different hair. Probably...you know, she'd probably be a little more into sports. But um, truthfully: Robyn's... Robyn's better than the girl of my dreams: she's real.

Really, I don't think I'll ever get tired of quoting 500 Days of Summer, oh no.

One flew over the cockoo's nest

- What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it. 

Caine's arcade

           

I found this video the other day in a random blog I was reading and I just felt I had to share it:


Caine Monroy is a 9-year old boy who spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.

Caine dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers visit his arcade, and he spent months preparing everything, perfecting the game design, making displays for the prizes, designing elaborate security systems, and hand labeling paper-lunch-gift-bags. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of East LA) gets almost zero foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to play Caine’s Arcade. But Caine never gave up.

One day, by chance, film director Nirvan Mullick walked into Smart Parts Auto looking for a used door handle for his ’96 Corolla. What he found was an elaborate handmade cardboard arcade manned by a young boy who asked if he would like to play. Nirvan asked him how it worked and he told him that for $1 he could get two turns, or for $2 he could get a Fun Pass with 500 turns. 
He got the Fun Pass.

More info at: http://cainesarcade.com/

west side story

When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way,

from your first cigarette

to your last dyin' day.

she's the place I'm heading

- This doesn't come out right. If it were enough to stand, without the words. 
- It is, it is. 
- Look at the sky now. What color is it? Or the way a hawk flies. Or you wake up and your ribs are bruised of thinking so hard on somebody. What do you call that? 

Cold Mountain (2003)

To be truth, this quote sounded better in Spanish (this doesn't happen that often I'm afraid). Anyway, this has come to be one of the best films I've seen in the past few weeks. And that's it for today.

how do you know?

- So I was just wondering if there was one general thing that you've found over the years to be generally true in a general way that would help anyone in any situation? 

 - That's a great question. Yes, I would say figure out what you want and learn how to ask for it

There are times when a good quote can safe an entire film from falling into mediocrity. And yes, this is one of those times.

I'm fine without you

The first 10 minutes of Ethernal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) are bound to get you on your nerves: there you've got the childish irritating churlish Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) trying to seem interesting and mysterious while clumsily flirting with Joel Barish (Jim Carry), a deeply dipressed man not deprived of self-compassion at all.

However, if you manage to repress the urge to throw something to the screen and you keep on watching it, you will discover a deep and life-teaching story. For me, this film is mainly about changing. About how we think we've changed a lot but in the end still the same. About how we change our minds towards something we thought we never would. About how we make others think we've changed just to protect our deepest feelings. As relevant as the changing subject is the forgetting one. The plot dives into the matter of how right would it be to be able to totally forget about something or someone that, by either pain or love, left a great impression on us and made us be the way we are now. The changing thing is reflected on Clementine's hair colour, which turns from blue to orange to red to green as the time passes by (backwards, actually). In her own words:

“It changes colour a lot. It’s called Blue Ruin…this company makes a whole bunch of colours with equally snappy names. I apply my personality in a paste.”

The forgetting thing is represented by a company called Lacuna Inc., whose purpose is to erase a certain person from their customer's mind. Who has never ever imagined something like that? Who has never ever said "I wish I had never me you"? So, I'm not gonna ruin you the whole film but... I'll just say that hopefully some things can't just be  deleted. 

New York

A few years ago, I had a dream. It began in the summer and was over by the following spring. In between, there were as many unhappy nights as there were happy days. Most of them took place in this café. And then one night, a door slammed and the dream was over.

My Blueberry Nights (2007)

My Blueberry Nights is easily between my 20 favourite films ever. It has been widely criticized (fairly many times) for things such as Jude Law's poor acting, implausability of some situations, clumsy and awkward dialogues, randomness of the character's actions... and the list goes on. I recognize that this film can be considered mediocre if you measure it with the same pattern that you use with the ordinary ones, but for me that's not the point. I guess its charm lies more on its grainy images, random slow motion footage while the audio goes on normally, remarkable abundance of sunsets, old school Jazz soundtrack, warm colour palette and deathly cute settings. For a bit more than an hour, you feel as you were sitting on the diner of a small in-the-middle-of-nowhere town, just staring at the rest of the customers and trying to figure out what their lives are like, with plenty of time to waste and a coffee and a slice of blueberry pie in front of you. 

Be my valentine

10 things I hate about you

I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your hair. 

I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. 

I hate your big dumb combat boots and the way you read my mind. 

I hate you much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. 

I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie. 

I hate when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. 

I hate it that you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call. 

But mostly, I hate the way I don't hate you. 

Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

(I like how effortlessly beautiful Julia Stiles looks in here, not to mention Heath Ledger's cute casual tees and messy hair. And I like the way the whole film takes place within an atmosphere of normality, unlike the American series and movies for teens that are in fashion now, and where everyone wears exclusive-designer clothes and looks like they've just spent several hours at the hairdresser's. If you asked me to put it in a deep way, I would say that, in a plain look, what stands out is your personality, and not your level of superficiality or emptyness.)

The Graduate

- Mrs. Robinson, you didn't... I mean, you didn't expect...

- What?

- I mean, you didn't really think I'd do something like that.

- Like what?

- What do you think?

- Well I don't know.

- For God's sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You... put on music. Now you start opening your... personal life to me and tell me your husband won't be home for hours. 

- So?

- Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me, aren't you?

Graduation

First thing you asked us at the beginning of the semester was: "why are we here?". Well, I thought about that. A lot. We all have a purpose. And our purpose right now is to figure out our purpose, that's what college is. So...why college? why CRU? The truth is, I chose CRU because a friend of mine from camp was going here. Then I chose to rush a fraternity and I made new friends, and college has been everything I could have ever imagined it to be. So I kept thinking, why would I ever wanna leave this place? But then I realized that there's so much left to learn, an experience to look forward to. And today I'm graduating, hopefully. I'm hanging out to the real world with the love of my life, who was my purpose. So, today I'm here to graduate, and tomorrow... that's hard to say because I have no idea of where I'll be.

Cappie♥

Manuale d'amore

... because, if it's an ex, if the guy of the kiss is an ex, then baby, you're just like the rest, when you feel lonely and abandoned you rather going backwards than ahead.