Psycho

I am left speechless. I realise I have just watched one of the best films in the history of Hollywood.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is one of the most psychologically powerful movies that I have ever watched.

Marion is a girl who steals 40000 dollars from her job and runs aways to get to her lover and escape together. On the way she stops in a motel to pass the night where she meets Norman, the man who runs the place and is dedicated to take care of his mentally ill mother.

I am not goint to tell you more just in case you have not watched it, but it is an amazing film.

It was released in 1960 and it was very controversial for nudity, violence and many other things that the Motion Picture Production Code forbid or controlled.

About the film itself:

Firstly the soundtrack: it is irritating, stressful and scary at the same time. It keeps your attention, your nerve is put to the test with it. This is thanks to Bernard Hermann, responsible for bringing the music to other classic films like Taxi Driver and Citizen Kane.

And most important of all: Alfred Hitchcock. The shower scene is probably one of the most unnerving scenes I have watched in my life. It is not this easy terror which we are used to nowadays. It is more psychological, more simple, closer to us. We do not have sudden shocks with blood-crazed creatures of the underworld, or gallons of blood filling up the screen. It is simple, direct, effective, very effective. It actually appears to be a very simple scene, but there are 7 days of filming invested here, from 70 different angles. I have been very impressed, mystified even by this film.

The shower scene makes your skin crawl and it makes you feel unprotected and weak. It is a very psychological fear and suspense.

There have actually been moments during the film in which I have felt scared or at least very anxious.

I have already fallen in love with this film and am telling you that you cannot die without watching it, because it is a piece of art.

10/10. I do not know if I am exaggerating with this mark, but I do know that I have never seen anything quite like it, and not only the famous scenes and the murders; the final scene is blood-chilling and leaves a sense of uneasiness and menace in the air.

UEFA Euro 2012

Yo soy español español, yo soy español español!!

Hey! Just so you guys know, the Euro 2012 is being played this month and its being veery interesting let me tell you.

We are already in quarter finals and after a strange beginning, the favourites are all playing to win!

Spain just won against France and will play against Portugal to get to the grand final!!!

On the other hand, Germany is waiting for a champion in the England-Italy.

Let us talk about Spain (of course)

I think they are doing a very good job, they are being effective (results-wise). On the other hand, their play is quite boring and they never shoot to goal!! OMG its exasperating.

Another thing, please del Bosque, kick Torres in the butt and get Llorente to play for god's sake!!!

Either way, Spain is still the number 1 favourite, although Germany is close behind, let's see how this goes but it's going to be thrilling!

Oh yes, Spain: 7.5/10, they can do sooo much better we do not even realise!

Snow White and the Huntsman

Hello my fellow bloggers (or not). Today's entry is dedicated on bringing to you Snow White and the Huntsman.
I watched this film the other day in the cinema. Directed by and unknown man called Rupert Sanders, and starring Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. Two of those actors are gaining popularity due to high budget adaptations of printed works and Charlize is a very well known and beautiful (hold on to that) actress.

Okay, the film: The story of this Snow White goes very much like the original, only the beginning is different (kinda cool) and the dwarves are not miners, but thieves (there is actually a part in which they talk about being miners before, and one of them carries a peakaxe as a weapon, which I found interesting).
Oh yeah the hunter. That is an important change in the story. So this hunter has to go fetch Snow White from the haunted/magical/dangerous woods and bring her back to the Queen to die. He then turns good and helps out Snow White.

I did not enjoy the dialogues or story too much, as the main attraction in this film was the cast and the special effects and scenery. The cast is very cool, except fro Snow White: Charlize Theron is a great witch, she carries the weight of performance in this film. Chris Hemsworth is confortable in his role as badass good guy, but Stewart.... ohhh Kristen... give some facial expression pleeeaase!! And anyways, it is true that Kristen and Chris are right now really popular and stuff, but who believes the mirror when he says that Kristen is more beautiful than Charlize?! Come OOONNN!

Overall the movie's nice though and very entertaining, although slow at times, so maybe 20 or 30 minutes less would have sufficed.

Action, special effects, the scenery and art (the woods and the garden are greeeat! and the mirror is incredible), Charlize Theron and OK, Chris Hemsworth are the good ingredients in this film, but the slow pace, Kristen Stewart and the poor dialogues are its downfall.

Therefore 6.5/10 for this version of Snow White.

Hooray for Earth

At last: Hooray for Earth

I discovered this band in the same concert as Elephant: San Miguel Primavera Sound in Sala Apolo, Barcelona.

They were the last to play and I really enjoyed their music (I actually bought their album in vynil at the end of the concert).
They have a very strange sounding music: like an electro rock, which have the times sounds very 80's.

Hooray for Earth was born in 2005 in Boston, although nowadays they are based in New York City. Noel Heroux is a polyvalent and very importatn member given that he does basically everything (produces, records, sings, writes, plays...) and he is backed up by Christopher Principe on the base and Joseph Ciampini playing the drums.

They have just released their first album: True Loves and its awesome, very recommendable.

I mark them 8.5/10 and hope to hear more from them!

This is their official website: http://hoorayforearth.net/

And here is some of their music, so enjoy.

True Loves

No Love

Elephant

At last, I will talk about Elephant; a moment I know all of you have been waiting for.

I discovered this band in Sala Apolo, in the San Miguel Primavera Sound in Barcelona, as I said in my entry about that festival: http://sebasrandom.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/san-miguel-primavera-sound.html

Anyway, now I will talk about them:

Elephant was born in 2010 with two components: Amelia Rivas and Christian Pinchbeck.
They have released a couple of singles and EPs and nowadays the band has changed: Christian is no longer with the band and there are now another two guys playing, whose names I do not know.... (if you read this, sorry guys!)

Their music has a very relaxed and chillout style. A great part of the weight of their performance falls on Amelia's voice, which is very strong but smooth and the whole outcome is either entrancing or cheering (as in: it cheers you up). This effect was increased in their performance in Primavera Sound given that the blue and purple lights with smoke around Amelia were very hypnotical.
BTW, if my descriptions of the music and voice are pathetic, I apologize because I am not an expert in this matter and am only describing these things the best way I can, which is probably not good enough LOL.

On top of how good they sound, they are really nice people, given that I was able to talk to them after their concert and they were really friendly and willing to chat. They even sent me some songs later on!

Well I am going to give them an 9/10 because I am not really into alternative and indie music (as you may have realised by my descrptions of their music) but they really surprised me and made me enjoy their concert. I suppose it also helps that Amelia is as gorgeous as her voice, what can I say.
BTW they have released a new single and I think they are going for their next EP!

This is their site: http://elephantshop.bandcamp.com/
And this is the site for their record company, Memphis Industries: http://www.memphis-industries.com/
You can find songs by them in both sites.

Entry on Hooray for Earth will come soon!

Meanwhile enjoy some songs by Elephant (because "Elephant songs" would have sounded weird)

Assembly

Allured

Rápido y Fluido

Sorry! I know I was going to talk about Elephant and Hooray for Earth!, but they will be next!

The thing is yesterday I went to a play directed by a friend and starring another. It was in Carabanchel, Madrid. In a theatre called Teatro Tarambana.

The play is called Rápido y Fluido (Fast and Smooth). It takes place in a living room, owned by Pablo, a movie geek who invites his ex-neighbours (a brother and 2 sisters) who were his childhood friends and have grown apart to meet up. He does this to film a video for the siblings' father, who is hospitalized.
This does not end here, given that while they film, dirty and dark secrets from each other's lives arise.

This is all done in a comical tone, with touches of drama, which are later solved narratively with more comedy.

I really enjoyed it and seeing May Melero acting again after the shortfilm I participated in (17 segundos, I will tell you more later) was great. The director, Alejandra Nogales was also in that shortfilm and her work with this play is great!

8/10 for the play and the laughs!
I would recommend it to go see, but they only had one day in Madrid and are going to Cadiz later on.

San Miguel Primavera Sound

Hello my children, it has been too longo since I wrote a post, so here comes a good one!

I am doing an internship in a small production company in Madrid called Patito Feo, which does publicity and some content for TV. They are great and are treating me very very well. So well in fact, that they took me to Barcelona for a couple of days to help in the filming of one of 5 programs about the San Miguel Primavera Sound Festival that they were producing.

The Primavera Sound Festival is a really big festival of pop, indie, alternative music in Barcelona. It actually includes an incredible variety of musical styles, come to think of it. Well, the thing is that the main festival was this last weekend, in the Forum in Barcelona, with bands like Franz Ferdinand, Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie and many more. But the organization of the festival had been organizing free concerts in bars and concert halls from a month back, and it was a great oportunity for music lovers and small bands trying to get into the musical scene.

I went on the 29th of may, to Sala Apolo, a very well known music hall in Barcelona. There I listened to great concerts by bands I had never ever heard of. There were two showcases of two different record companies: Memphis Industries and Famèlic.

There were really good bands like the Spanish Mates Mates or Ohios, but there were two that I thought were awesome: Elephant and Hooray for Earth!
I will talk more about these two amazing bands in my next posts, but let me keep talking about my part in the filming:

I had a great time actually. I was in charge of the "foto fija" the still photo. This was usually used in cinema for advertising purpoes, given that the still photo would imitate the actual shots and people got an idea of what the movie looked like. Nowadays it is not used that much due to digital cameras. In my case it was called foto fija but my job was basically to have images for a sort of "making of". I actually appear in the credits! (My first TV credits yay!)

It was really exciting to watch the crew working and checking on the fliming plan (which I had helped pput together :D). They all treated me very well too, so it was very nice to be around them.

In my next posts I will be talking about Elephant and Hooray for Earth in more detail!

Here's a presentation video of the San Miguel Primavera Sound