大哭, 臭msn space, 好不容易写了一篇, 居然在试用<pre> tag的时候firefox当掉没有了. 以后我只到vim里写, 可是vim里写我就只好写英文了(vim里中文很古怪).

1 Ingmar Bergman (If you take a close look at this imdb link, you'll find that guys in imdb are really fond of Bergman, who seems to be the fifth person to be indexed there)

Whoever has watched a film by Ingmar Bergman would agree that Bergman is anything but heartwarming. I first heard of him when I was watching a weekly TV programon world film in which they made their own list of all time top ten films. Bergman's "Wild Strawberry" topped the list. Since then I have heard his names for several times, which unfortunately left me the impression that he is a snobbish european bore. Only recently I found out he is favourite of my idol (Ni Zhan Ge) and at last I decided to give him a try.

The film I chose was his 19XX film "WInter light" which is made into an then unusual black white film (snobbish? Yes). It is very short, only 90 minutes long and throughout it there is no soundtrack accompanying the dialogue. The ultimate minimalistic film indeed. However, in term of cinematography, Bergman and his following cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, who, curious enough, also made the film Sleepless in Seatle, managed to transcend the limit of black white film. Bergman's hallmarks, such as close-up of faces, dynamic use of light and shade and tic-tac of clock were all featured in this film. At a moment when the main characters was hugging each other and crying, light went into the church though a glass darkly (pun intended, see here) and the whole scene stirred a feeling that is almost religious.

Now I am longing for Bergman's 1982 swansong ( a fake claim as he made Saraband in 2002), Fanny and Alexander. After reading a review by Roger Ebert, the most well-known film critic from Chicago Sun-Times, I was surprised to find this unusual compliment:

"At the end, I was subdued and yet exhilarated; something had happened to me that was outside language, that was spiritual,that incorporated Bergman's mysticism; one of his characters suggests that our lives flow into each other's, that even a pebble is an idea of God, that there is a level just out of view where everything really happens."



2. Christian Bale

I am always attracted by low and charming male voice. I watched the trailer for Howl's castle a few months ago and the sultry voice of Howl haunted me. I can't help searching imdb for who is behind it and to my surprise, it turns out to be Bale who is one of my candidates for acting gods.

Bale the American psycho

3. Bonus: I can't help quoting the a New Yorker review on Superman released last week by Anthony Lane, who is the primary force that drives me to NYer:

"...public service confirms him in the Christlike status among
mortals that was predicted by his dad. “They only lack the light to
show the way,” Brando declares, adding, “I have sent them you, my only
son.”
( I have never thought about THAT) Is that blasphemy? Will Christians object to the
hero’s preferred floating technique, which is to descend quietly
through space in the Crucifixion pose?"
AND
"........After
that, any actual superman was bound to be a bore. “Mankind is a rope
fastened between animal and superman—a rope over an abyss.” That is
Nietzsche, coiner of the Übermensch, and in “Thus Spake Zarathustra” he
scorns what he calls “extraterrestrial hopes” in favor of those, rooted
on earth, who struggle to overcome the weakness of their own humanity.
That is a proper, if perilous, subject for grownup cinema, and I for
one have grown tired of supermen, and superwomen, who start with such a
flagrant advantage over the rest of us. Mind you, if Superman is such a
paragon, how come he wants to save a species so universally dumb that
not a single member of it recognizes him when he puts on a pair of
glasses? "


Crucifixion pose