Visual Stunners - part i

I have a thing for pretty movies. It's not really much of a secret. If a film has been shot well, then I tend to forget plot holes and small errors and just enjoy it. This post has been sitting in draft since August 2013, and since it has taken so long for me to return to this blog, I don't think people will mind if I break it up into bite-size chunks.

This first film is one of my favourite films and I absolutely did not mind rewatching it a few times to perfect this post. The cast is wonderful, the design and cinematography is breath-taking and the story is told in exactly the right way, in my opinion.

A Single Man (2009) - Tom Ford



Tom Ford's directorial debut does not disappoint. In this category of beautiful and stylish films, A Single Man is the first that came to mind when I compiled a list of "visual stunners". It's hard to describe without giving anything away, but it is the tale of a man, George (Colin Firth), who is having to cope with the sudden death of his partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). Without his lover he has lost sight of his future, and the film is set on the last day of his life. With a 60s backdrop and a fashion designer directing, the film does not fail to impress visually. The film is comprised of flashbacks intertwined with the events that occur on this day, and his love story is unraveled as the story goes on.

Colour is used really well, which I felt was important for the viewer, especially with regards to the flashback scenes. George's memories are our only windows into his soul and the only way we can understand his strange behaviour and decisions. Colour plays an important part in this as it gives us an indicator as to how he feels about each moment. George's wardrobe is monochromatic; everyday he wears the same thing - a black suit, a new white shirt and a skinny black tie. This is a] what was in fashion (and still is), b] a suggestion that he likes things to be structured and now that Jim is not around there is nothing compelling him to be different and c] perhaps he is still mourning Jim? After all, Jim is the love of his life.

Generally, every frame, every word spoken and every word left unspoken is striking, and the fact that everyone is extremely well dressed just puts the icing on the cake. Tom Ford's eye for style and imagery s a real delight and makes the story stay with you long after you watch it - "Fashion is fleeting, but film is forever."

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I am an idiot.

For the first time in a long time, I have had a good day.

I have no idea why I was blessed with a good day, but I was. Until 5 minutes ago I had not been angry, or sad, and I talked a lot and I laughed and I smiled. These days are very rare for me. Spending more time with like-minded people put me in a good place and I got to be the person that I wanted to be for a while, knowing what I wanted to do and being inspired to get on with things - my EPQ project, this blog, etc.

I sat down at my desk, in a good mental place to finish writing one of the many posts that I have had in draft since August. This post was a masterpiece. It was a collection of my favourite "visual stunners". So, what did I do? I DELETED THE ENTIRE POST. I give up. I honestly just give up.

Posts on this blog will become more frequent in the coming weeks, when I stop crying about the blog I just deleted, since the "fans" have been begging to see another post.

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Long time, no see.

Is it acceptable for me to return to blogging after constantly promising that I'd devote more time to it but then not posting anything for 3 months? Unfortunately, life got in the way again.

I've generally kept this to myself since it started, but now seems like the perfect time to get it off my chest.
Year 12 has been the hardest year of my life. I am aware of how awfully stupid that may sound to the old and wise, who will be thinking "Wait until you go to University!" or "Wait until the tax man comes knocking!" or whatever, but honestly - I know. So shut up. Let me wallow in my self pity until the next obstacle comes along, thank you very much.

Not only were my AS exams a lot more difficult than I anticipated, I was under a lot of pressure to do well at school consistently, not burn myself at work [if you have ever worked in a kitchen when it is really busy, you will understand my pain] and have to cope with the deterioration of one of my closest family members. In March, my Nan was diagnosed with breast cancer. During the Easter holidays, she suddenly started experiencing pain - the most pain she had ever felt in her life - and was admitted to hospital. She stayed there for a few days and was then moved to the Marie Curie Hospice in Solihull, where she stayed until she passed away on 25th May. During this time I was also meant to be revising for my AS exams, which went extremely badly, despite everyone telling me that I'm overreacting about it all. Either way, I've just been extremely unlucky but it's something that I've lived it and I wouldn't take any of it back.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. Since then, things have improved quite dramatically. On 1st May, I was appointed as House Captain of Warwick House at school [What team? WARWICK! What team? WARWICK! Warwick! GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!] and I have a lovely shiny badge that I wear on my YSL blazer with pride. As a House Captain I feel like I've already done so much to contribute to our school's community, including saying the word "community" about 5 times in one minute when improvising a congratulatory speech on the last day of school. We organised/ran two major school events after we returned from study leave in June: Sports Day and House Festival - only a Camphillian could ever understand how much fun House Festival is. Although it was stressful, and a few small organisational issues made things hard on the day, House Festival was a huge success and most definitely THE BEST ONE EVER.

I've found that coping with and adapting to change extremely challenging, mainly because everything that happened so fast this year, but also because I don't want things to change. I don't want to grow up. I don't want to face my future. It's a bit silly, seeing as it's inevitable, but I really just want to sit down, enjoy my hobby and drink iced tea forever. I'm also really indecisive and I am scared to change because I don't want to regret anything I do, although ironically, this has meant that I've barely done anything, which I regret.

I don't really know where this blog post is going now. I started off begging for forgiveness, then I filled in the gaps that have been left open since I accidentally abandoned fionasbugle and now I've confessed my fears about the inevitability of growing up.

This has been a filler post. I have 5 posts lined up which should hopefully be up over the next few days. I also have another project that I'd like to share with anyone who takes time out to read my confusing blog entries - you must either really like films or really love me, which is definitely what I'll be needing to help me make this project a success.

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Top 3: Musicals

I suppose I've always loved a good show, and as soon as they make a film adaptation I fall in love with it, simply because I can watch and appreciate it whenever I please. Not every adaptation can live up to the Show, but there are a few exceptions.



The first of these is Top Hat. I believe that this was a film first and was then brought to the stage. It's brilliant. I personally have a huge thing for the 1930s - everything about it intrigues me from the fashion and music, to the shifts in society to the economic crises (can you tell I'm a history student?). Astaire and Rogers are an ideal duo and their chemistry is brilliant. The film is exactly how I think most people look back and remember the 1930s, except not everybody could sing and tap dance. I went to go and see the show last year with my nan and thoroughly enjoyed it, and our favourite song was "Cheek to Cheek". It's wonderful and light, easy to watch, funny, beautifully performed and easy to sing along to. Well worth a watch.



A childhood favourite of mine is Bugsy Malone. When I was in year 6 we decided to do our own version of Bugsy Malone for our end of year assembly. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take part because I went on holiday so I painted sets and joined in the choir, and I still regret not taking part to this day, even though I couldn't do anything about it. I liked the idea that it was a bunch of children in an adult world. The gangster theme and the weirdly likeable characters made the whole film enjoyable, and the songs are brilliant. It's weird to think that Jodie Foster was Tallulah. Weird. Weird. Weird. Buy the soundtrack, watch the film. You won't regret it.



Last but certainly not least, is Moulin Rouge. I just needed to fit it in somewhere. To me, this film is the epitome of perfection. I am a fan of Baz Luhrmann's style and even though I haven't been able to fully appreciate it up until now, it's always been a favourite film of mine. Two beautiful leads, an odd but strangely fairytale-like storyline and some stellar performances; what's not to love? A day does not go by without "Elephant Love Medley" being sung dramatically by me.
Jim Broadbent, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are truly magnificent and the song selection is brilliant and perfect. Okay. Bye.

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Live Below The Line 2013

So, as usual, this blog post comes with an introductory apology for my lack of posts. It's been a busy however-long-it's-been but now I do have things to share.

Some of you may be aware of the Enough Food IF Campaign - a campaign backed by over 150 charities to mark 2013 as the beginning of the end of world hunger. It's hard to believe that now, in 2013, world hunger is still a growing problem, with 1.2 billion people living below the poverty line, internationally defined as living on £1 a day or less. I probably spend more than that on my lunch alone. In a modern world full of 'we should be equal' and human rights, why is World Hunger still a thing?

Anyone can sign up and support the IF Campaign. Just google it and read about it. The campaign aims to tackle 4 problems: Aid, Land, Tax and transparency. To read about these, visit the website. Http://enoughfoodif.org/issues

This past week (29th April-3rd May) was the week of the Live Below The Line challenge. This meant living on £1 a day for 5 days to experience what it could possibly be like for someone living in extreme poverty. Of course, it's near impossible to know exactly what it's like. The £1 a day is just for food. We are still able to get the bus to school, drink clean water, come home and watch TV by the radiator; small things that one who lives in extreme poverty cannot do, and that most of us take for granted.

This week I lived on £1 a day for 5 days. For those of you who know me well, you are aware of how major this is. I am the daughter of a chef/waitress. Food has never been a problem for me, despite the current economic problems that have affected most in Britain today. I am a compulsive snacker, known for wolfing down everything and anything out of boredom. Effectively, I eat around 5 mini meals a day instead of the standard 3 square meals a day. This suits me well - I don't sit at the table with my family for dinner. I eat when I please and I fit my work around that. Upon discovering the IF Campaign on Twitter, I realised that this is a really bad thing. Perhaps it's unfair to be hard on myself, seeing as I've grown up to be this way, but in the grand scheme of things I just eat whatever I want and not what I need. I am guilty of greed.

This week I, and a few fellow classmates at college, did the challenge. I personally gave up meat for a week, something that shocked those closest to me. I have also lived without tea and coffee and crisps and brownies. Things that I deem necessary for my survival. I thought that the first day would be the hardest, seeing as I would have just thrown myself into a diet with fewer calories and nutrients etc. my diet mainly consisted of toast, egg and rice, with a baked potato as a treat on the last day. This was all very bland and unappetising, so I was generous with my seasoning to help me get through it all. I drank more water this week than I ever have in my life. I did lots of homework without a mug of black coffee by my side.

For most of the week, I coped really well, which I think surprised everyone, given my food history, but suddenly everything changed on the Friday. I came into school and ate my tiny everyday-value-apple as breakfast part i, as I had done every day. It suddenly wasn't enough. I had to wait two hours for breakfast part ii - 2 pieces of toast with spreadable cheese - and it was unbearable. My stomach ached, and I had to lie down or curl up into a ball to tame the pain. It even got to a point where I was lying down in the corner of my French class trying not to vocalise my pain - this made a very amusing anecdote, however, as my French teacher did not comment on the fact that I suddenly popped up out of nowhere halfway through to join in the lesson. I ate my toast and I thought I would be fine, until I walked up the millions of stairs up to my next lesson and the pain came back, along with a sudden wave of lethargy. I distracted myself with the fine potato I'd be eating at lunch while everyone else commented on how delirious I'd become in the space of a few hours. Lunch time came around and the microwaves in our common room had broken, so we ventured down to the food-tech room to cook our last Below The Line lunch. It didn't quite fill me up, so by the time I got to my physics lesson I was in absolute agony. I don't know why. But, I believe this to be what hunger feels like. I had planned to have a midnight feast to celebrate completing the challenge, but instead I made a roast pork meal for my family, ate my last ever Below The Line meal and went to bed at 6.30. I woke up later at 10.30 to post an early tweet of congratulations and relief, but managed to keep myself up until midnight to mark that the week was officially over. Since finishing the challenge, I've eaten an apple, an small orange and a piece of toast. The aching feeling inside has not yet gone away.

The challenge has taught me a lot. As clichéd as its sounds, I definitely appreciate food much more. I took care to cook everything properly and not be wasteful. I learned more about nutrition as people reassured me that it must be challenging because of the lack of x, y and z in my diet. I now appreciate my weekly shop at Tesco a lot more, because my budgeting and rationing was organised right down to the minute I'd be eating my snack apple and how much water I'd need to drink in each lesson to keep me sane.

Although the challenge is over, our fundraising does not end here. I am still looking for sponsors, and at school I will be organising a few small fundraising events such as a Come Dine Below The Line for the 6th Formers and a sweepstake with neat little prizes.

If you are interested in the cause then please consider sponsoring me for my efforts and checking out the IF Campaign and UNICEF websites for more information on how to get involved.

Sponsor me here: http://livebelowtheline.com/me/fionawild
IF Campaign:
http://enoughfoodif.org
UNICEF UK:
http://www.unicef.org.uk/enough-food-for-everyone-if/

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Top 3: Chick Flicks that are so bad that they're good.

I'm not normally into fluffy pink things and princess dresses, but I can never hate a chick flick. Somewhere deep inside there is a little girl who wants a prince to help me out of a jam etc. And although I'm usually against the way that life is presented in such films, I always enjoy them. Here are a few that are truly awful.

CHASING LIBERTY



I have literally just finished watching this, which is why it's made it to my top 3. It was awfully cringey and so unrealistic that I almost wanted to turn it off. That's the thing about these kinds of films-they lack reality and it's really really annoying to someone like me (someone who actually thinks when they are watching). My summary of the film is this: president's daughter wants 'freedom', whines, bumps into a hot British guy (the beautiful Matthew Goode), and embarks on cheesy adventure to Berlin from Prague, via Venice. If you know the geography of Europe you'll understand why its worth mentioning where they go-it's not exactly the most direct route. I must say, though, despite the standard teenage rebellion and odd bursts of nudity, the heroine isn't a bratty kind of girl like in other films of this genre, she just says the same thing a lot which is why she's a bit annoying. But of course, one can not resist the love interest. He's perfect. Or at least to me he was. I particularly liked that he was incredibly sarcastic and cynical - much like myself - in a vain attempt to make him unlikeable. I can't tell if he was completely predictable or if I just had the exact same type of humour as he did, but he did get a lot of laughs from me, which is always good.

27 DRESSES



Normally, if I bring up "27 Dresses" in a conversations it's followed by a squeal or a frustrated grumble. It is your bog standard, typical, clichéd chick flick. There is a very attractive women who just can't find the right guy or has found the right guy but her feelings aren't reciprocated. Then another guy comes along, helps the lass get her guy, then she realises that she wants the new bloke instead of the old one that she's spent most of the film pining after. You can't even say "oh, Fiona, you've spoiled the film now" because YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. This film is a really easy watch, though, and if you're a chick who enjoys a good flick then "27 Dresses" is a great place to start. It's nice and cheesy, there's an opportunity to have a little sing and lots of chances to laugh and cry. If you're into that mumbo jumbo.

BRIDE WARS


This film wins the prize for most ridiculous chick flick in the history of ... everything.
It truly is, though. I'm not exaggerating. Two best friends get engaged at a similar time and then they want to have a better wedding than the other. They get so ridiculously competitive that I just turned it off. I watched the second half of it a few weeks later just so that I got some closure with it (and I wanted to see who's wedding was better) and I'd predicted the ending almost word for word. I am quite clever and know how these films work, but word for word? That's a bit bad. Not for me, for the film. The worst thing is, I can see this kind of thing happening with a few of my friends, which makes me fear for my hair. It threw me off the idea of ever getting married and going to weddings and being a bridesmaid and MARRIAGE (but if Mr Hiddleston ever wants to get married I'll be there in a heartbeat).

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Top 3: (mini)series

I've veered off the specific 'film reviewing' thing today to bring you my opinions on brilliant British telly. This is a mix of series/miniseries that I have thoroughly enjoyed over the years. I had the hardest time narrowing it down to 3, so I've put a list of other favourites down below. Enjoy.

*edit, 24/03* Also, I forgot to actually publish this... SOZ
*edit 2/04* can you tell how much I procrastinate? I sorrys*

BBC SHERLOCK



It is no secret that Sherlock is my favourite thing in the history of ever. As a life long fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's hero, it is almost expected of me. It is a brilliant adaptation. And people who don't like it? ANDERSON. It is the most well cast, beautifully filmed, well written show I've ever had the pleasure to watch.
If you're an Anderson, or live under a rock, I'll summarise it for you; BBC's Sherlock is 9 hours of adventure, wit and "feels". I love how well the stories have integrated into modern day London etc. and how much more relatable it has become. Not only that, but the characters are still perfect mirrors of Conan Doyle's - Sherlock is still cold, completely ahead of his time and very sociopathic; Moriarty is possibly even more terrifying than the book version; John is always loyal and completely amazed every time Sherlock breathes. One small thing that tends to get my goat, however, is how useless John seems to be. It's hard to explain without a fandom ROARING at you but I personally think that John deserves more time in the limelight than he has been given so far. He doesn't use his smarts enough because he's in the shadows of Sherlock's genius, and I don't think it's fair. He's an experienced medical man, and he must have some sort of deductive powers somewhere. We get glimpses of these, but they're always WRONG! or are used to tease the audience in an "you thought you'd got it, but really you didn't, sorry" kind of way. Watson is not supposed to be an injection of comedy, he is the narrator of the stories. Without Watson, there are no stories. Its not entirely awful, because he's probably the most relatable character in the show (other than Molly and Lestrade, the 'normal' people) but I'd just like to see more badass deductions from John in future if that's possible. Pls and thnku.
There are plenty of other things I could say but I could go on for hours and hours and I'd completely lose my train of thought so just go and watch it over and over and just marvel at how well done it is and try not to cry your eyes out. LATERZ.


ANY HUMAN HEART



I watched this because I had heard about who had been cast as the leads and am quite a big fan of actors like Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Hayley Atwell (to name a few), so I read about it and deemed it worthy of watching. It was beautiful. I loved the characters and the stories and how logical Logan Mountstuart's way of thinking is. I, too, have adopted the "it's just luck in the end" approach to life now. I'm a huge fan of period pieces, and this series, in four episodes, spans most of the 20th Century and it really opens your eyes to just how much things can change in a few years, how people adapt to the changes and then change themselves. I'll be honest: I watched it, fell in love with it, read the book, rewatched it and was a little disappointed that it wasn't as good as the book. That often happens. I guess that the book was just so brilliant that it was difficult to compress it down to 6 hours of footage but I appreciate that - at the end of the day it's still a fantastic series worth watching.


SPOOKS



I've lived with Spooks for most of my life. It was one of those programmes that I distinctly remember my dad watching without realising that I was in the room, being SCARRED by what I was watching. Whenever I used to think of Spooks I thought of that poor lady getting her face cooked in a chip fryer. But I'd watched it from the beginning, and it stuck with me. Programmes like this really grab my attention because they're fictional but blatantly based on real life experiences. Spooks has taught me that we aren't ever really truly safe (which is a bit depressing) but we are protected by these people and we have no idea who they are. Nice. Cool.
To me, the first "generation" of agents will always be the best - the golden trio (Tom, Zoe and Danny) are the original team and nothing will ever compare to them. That being said, I still love the other teams and actors that followed the enigmatic Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes and David Oyelowo (whose name I KNOW how to pronounce). Watching the final series last year absolutely broke my heart, but it definitely went out with a bang and there may be a film in the future so, my childhood may not be dead yet.

Others I'd recommend: DANCING ON THE EDGE (2013) - it very nearly made the top 3, Restless (2012), Ripper Street (2012), Band of Brothers (2001), Elementary (2012 -), Frozen Planet (2011 -), BBC Wallander (2008 -) , Call The Midwife (2012 -), Silk (2011 -)Pride and Prejudice (1995), State of Play (2003), Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes (2006-2010), Mad Dogs (2011 -), Zen (2011), Skins (2007 -), Shameless UK (2004-2013), Merlin (2008-2012) and, of course, DOCTOR WHO (forever).

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