Jasmim Talks Cinema

Jasmim's Choice 2008: Best Film: Winner: Hunger Bronson Happy-Go-Lucky In Bruges Let the Right One In Revolutionary Road Summer Hours Synecdoche, New York The Class The Dark Knight The Headless Woman The Wrester Vicky Cristina Barcelona Waltz with Bashir Wendy and Lucy Best Director: Winner: Steve McQueen, Hunger Nicolas Winding Refn, Bronson Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky Martin McDonagh, In Bruges Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road Hirokazu Kore-eda, Still Walking Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Lucrecia Martel, The Headless Woman Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir Kelly Reichardt, Wendy and Lucy Best Actor: Winners: Tom Hardy, Bronson; Michael Fassbender, Hunger Benicio del Toro, Che Masashiro Motoki, Departures Tony Servillo, Il Divo Br...

BlacKkKlansman - A Wake-Up Call  "Wake Up"! These are the words that Spike Lee has been saying to us since the 80's. They are the last words that we hear in 1988's School Daze . They are the first words we hear in his masterpiece on racial relations in America, Do the Right Thing . "Wake up to what's happening in America and the world! Wake up to the racism and hate!", he has been telling us. However, for the longest time, he has been accused by many of "reverse racism" for his controversial takes on American society. But he's fone telling us to wake up. Merely saying it isn't enough. BlacKkKlansman  is a slap to our face (maybe more than a slap), for us to finally look at society with open eyes and see the vile hate that is present in it. In a way, it's a continuation of last year's amazing debut masterpiece from Jordan Peele, Get Out , which was the first warning. It used allegories to tell us about the rot in American so...

2001: A Space Oddissey (Directed by Stanley Kubrick; Written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke; Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain; 1968) The line I most associate with this film: "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." And so, we arrive at the last film of this list. And this is one of the purest expressions of cinema in history. There is nothing quite like 2001 , and probably there will never be. No film has ever reached the expertise of Stanley Kubrick's greatest masterpiece. From the dazzling and masterful visuals to the philosophical and existential message, this is probably the best film ever made - there is no going around this. This is an astounding film that will completely overwhelm your senses - especially if you watch it on the big screen. Stanley Kubrick is the master of the seventh art, and this film is the greatest feat of his mastery. Every single human being that exists and will exist ...

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Directed by Jacques Demy; Written by Jacques Demy; Starring Catherine Deneuve,  Nino Castelnuovo and Anne Vernon; 1964) The line I most associate with this film: "Absence is a funny thing."  The  La La Land  before  La La Land.   This film is one of the most beautiful and vibrant achievements of the seventh art. The colorful images of this heart-breaking musical will dazzle you into oblivion. This film is unique in the way that it goes from an atmosphere of comedy and bliss to an atmosphere of sorrow and tragedy. It's oneiric and realistic. You'll feel both uplifted and crushed by this musical masterpiece from one of the masters of French Cinema - Jacques Demy. There is no "what could have been" in this story, because there is no way to escape fate, and fate is an unscrupulous monster. This film is one of the best depictions of life in art. With one of the most beautiful performances from the stunning Catherine Den...

Taxi Driver (Directed by Martin Scorsese; Written by Paul Schrader; Starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, and Cybill Sheperd; 1976) The line I most associate with this film: "You talkin' to me?" This is the kind of movie that will haunt you forever.  The story of an unstable and lonely Vietnam War veteran who works as a night-time taxi. We witness as his anger and violent tendencies are fuelled by what he sees as decadent and impure in the hostile streets of New York City of the 70's while wanting to liberate a 12-year-old prostitute from that decadence. This is a disturbingly astounding movie, that shows a cosmopolitan world from the point of view of the ones who are segregated by it. We are sucked into an underworld of violence in one of Scorsese's greatest masterpieces. With one of the best performances from Robert De Niro, this film is absolutely unforgettable.

Some Like It Hot: (Directed by Billy Wilder; Written By Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond; Starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Joe E. Brown; 1959) The line I most associate with this film: "Well, nobody's perfect!" Marilyn Monroe is one of the most underrated actresses of all time - and this hilarious comedy completely proves it. This film is about two musicians - played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, in their best roles - who witness a mob hit and are forced to run away in an all-female band disguised as women. From there, hilarity ensues. With incredibly social commentaries - this is Billy Wilder after all - this is one of the best comedies that the 20th century graced us with. Monroe is absolutely incredible in it and, after watching this, it's impossible to think that she was just a dumb pretty fave - she was a victim of objectification, in a male-dominated industry and society too afraid of the power of a beautiful, intelligent, witty w...

Pulp Fiction (Directed by Quentin Tarantino; Written by Quentin Tarantino; Starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Maria de Medeiros; 1994) The line I most associate with this film: "You know what they call a Quarter Pound with Cheese in Paris?" What not to adore in this action-packed, ultra-quotable, unconventional masterpiece? Told in a non-chronological order, we follow two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a criminal couple, and witness as their stories intertwine, showing the strange turns that life can make and the way we touch each other's lives in the most unexpected way. With amazing performances, especially from John Travolta, Uma Thurman, and Samuel L. Jackson, and some of the best dialogues ever written in the history of film - Tarantino is the Master of Dialogues, in my opinion - with such wit and "quotableness". This is quite possibl...

Psycho (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock; Written by Joseph Stefano; Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Martin Balsam; 1960) The line I most associate with this film: "A boy's best friend is his mother." I am always amazed by this masterpiece by the Master of Suspense. Every shot, every cut, every moment is an absolute work of a genius. This is one of the most ground-breaking movies ever, about a secretary - played by Janet Leigh - who steals money from one of her employer's clients and runs off, checking in on a motel owned by a strange man - played by Anthony Perkins, with a performance that will haunt your sleep - who has an unusual relationship with his domineering mother, not knowing that this might have been the biggest mistake of her life. This film changed cinema forever with its story that broke all conventions. With one of the most shocking scenes ever, where Hitchcock brilliantly plays with our imagination with one of th...

Pierrot le Fou (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Written by Jean-Luc Godard; Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina; 1965) The line I most associate with this film: "You speak to me in words and I look at you with feelings." It's so difficult to pick a favorite from the amazing filmography from the God(ard) of cinema himself. It was especially hard to pick between Breathless and Pierrot le Fou , which are both my favorites of his and as close to my heart,  But Pierrot le Fou  is simply so amazing that I had to pick it. From the witty dialogues between Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo - whose performances are simply amazing - to the incredibly vibrant cinematography. There is really nobody like Godard, and this film is a perfect example of that. With a genre-bending story about a man who escapes the boring civilized society with a girl who is being chased by Algerian hit-men, this is rebellion and anarchy in the form of film - and it's so good!

Persona (Directed by Ingmar Bergman; Written by Ingmar Bergman; Starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann; 1966) The line I most associate with this film: "The hopeless dream of being - not seeming, but being." One of the highest expressions of cinema, Persona is one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, from one of the greatest master of cinema - Ingmar Bergman. An existential and intimate story about an actress that has suddenly gone mute and the nurse charged with taking care of her, away on an isolated island. This is basically the nurse - played by Bibi Andersson, in what, in my opinion, is the best performance by an actor in the history of film - doing monologues - talking about experiences, whatever comes to her mind - while the actress listens - and this is such a fascinating aspect of this film. Slowly, the nurse starts to notice that their personas are melding together. The line between who is who starts to become more and more dubious. This film has some...

Paris, Texas (Directed by Wim Wenders; Written by Sam Shepard; Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, and Aurore Clément; 1984) The line I most associate with this film: "I wanted to see him so bad that I didn't even dare imagine him anymore." I have so much love for this astonishingly beautiful masterpiece. This is a touching story about a man - brilliantly portrayed by Harry Dean Stanton (rest in peace) - who disappears for four years and re-emerges in a desert in Texas and must reconnect with society and the life he left behind - including his wounds and heartbreaks. This is a beautiful, humane and moving story about life itself and the relationships that we form along the way. Personally, the part that touches me the most is the last part, when Travis - our main character - tries to find his lost wife - portrayed so beautifully by the amazing Nastassja Kinski - and tries to reconnect their severed ties, going back to his past. In one o...

Network (Directed by Sidney Lumet; Written by Paddy Chayefsky; Starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden. Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, and Beatrice Straight; 1976) The line I most associate with this film: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I was so surprised by how incredibly modern this classic from the 70's is when I first watched this film. It's about a news anchor who revolts against a news system that cares more about profit than the truth and has a meltdown in a live broadcast. Ironically, the system against which he revolts finds a way to exploit him for its own profit (because that's how powerful that system is). This film was made and is set during the 70's, but it might as well have been made and set today. It's incredible to watch this masterpiece and see how nothing has really changed in forty years, or that perhaps it has even gotten worse! This is one of the most incredible and unforgettable...

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Directed by Alain Resnais; Written by Marguerite Duras; Starring Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada; 1959) The line I most associate with this film: "All these years I've been looking for an impossible love."  An actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima meets a Japanese architect and starts an affair with him. This is a reflective and touching love story which is also a reflection on war, all in the same film. Hiroshima, Mon Amour  is one of the most beautiful movies of all time and Emmanuelle Riva is absolutely incredible in it, in one of the best and most vulnerable performances in the history of cinema. We witness these two human beings involved in love as they reflect on their different experiences of war - her, from what she experienced in Nevers, France, him, from what he experienced in Hiroshima, Japan. This is a moving masterpiece from the great Alain Resnais and one of the most important films out there. It's a perfect mirror f...

Fight Club (Directed by David Fincher; Written by Jim Uhls; Starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf and Helena Bonham Carter; 1999) The line I most associate with this film: "You met me at a very strange time of my life." The 20th century graced us with one of the most amazing years in cinema on its last year, and Fight Club is my favourite of all the incredible masterpieces that came out that year. This is a perfect reflection of our modern world - a more and more insomniac and schizophrenic society. This film tells the story of an insomniac office worker - the modern slave - (played by Edward Norton, in one of his best performances) who meets an eccentric, anarchist man (played by Brad Pitt) who convinces him to form an underground fight club. This film only gets crazier and crazier and ends with a bang - this is one of the most awesome movies of all time and I never get tired of rewatching it. This is in my opinion, the best film of David Fincher's amazin...

  Read in English       Ler em Português Jasmim from 6 to 8   I hear something vibrating violently. I extend my hand into the darkness of my room in the direction of the origin of that vibration.  I touch the screen of my phone and slide my finger over it. The alarm turns off. It’s six thirty-five in the morning. A new day began.  I stay laying on my bed for a few minutes, updating on what happened in the social networks over the night. First Instagram, then Snapchat, Wechat, and, finally, Facebook. The only light sources in my room are the light from my phone’s screen and a thin ray of light that penetrates through a breach in the window covers of my room’s window.  I get up. It’s six forty. I open my room’s door and head to the kitchen. I open the window, which opens onto the Principe Real Garden. The morning Sun timidly illuminates the garden, giving blue tones to the green leaves of the imposing oaks. Nature slowly ...

Easy Rider (Directed by Dennis Hopper; Written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern; Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Toni Basel and Karen Black; 1969) The line I most associate with this film: "It's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace." This film embodies the wild spirit of the youth in the sixties and it anarchist nature. And it completely blew me away. From its incredible soundtrack to the ground-breaking editing, everything about this film is absolute genius. This is a story about two bikers who travel to New Orleans after trafficking cocaine from Mexico in Los Angeles. Along the way, they have encounters with various people and learn about a counter-culture movement they weren't aware of. The two bikers - played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper - represent the youth and their free and rebellious nature, and, because of that, they face hostility from the older people they find along the way...

Cléo from 5 to 7 (Directed by Agnès Varda; Written by Agnès Varda; Starring Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray and Michel Legrand; 1962) The line I most associate with this film: "Ugliness is a kind of death." I was completely blown away by this classic of French cinema. For about an hour and a half, we dive into a world seen through the eyes of a woman and see society from her point of view, experiencing all the pressures and hostilities of a male-dominated world. As someone who (obviously) experiences our world through the male point of view, this film was one of the most eye-opening experiences I ever had. In it, we follow Cléo - played so vulnerably by Corinne Marchand - a beautiful singer, as she awaits her medical test results and gets increasingly worried about them. This is one of the greatest achievements in feminist filmmaking and one of the absolute best from the Queen of cinema herself, Agnès Varda. If you still haven't seen any m...

Blade Runner (Directed by Ridley Scott; Written by Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples; Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy; 1982) The line I most associate with this film: "All these moments will be lost in time... like tears in the rain... Time to die." When a retired cop - played by Harrison Ford - is assigned to hunt down a group of fugitive replicants - synthetic humans - that have escaped back to Earth, he dives into an existential journey where he - and we - questions what it is to be human and about his own humanness. This is a beautiful and philosophical epic, and I never get tired of it. One of the most unforgettable and poetic moments in the history of cinema is so perfectly acted by Rutger Hauer in one of the most beautiful performances ever. This is one of the most masterfully done films of all time, with its dystopic cyberpunk landscape - it's impossible not to be dazzled by the visua...

Blue Velvet (Directed by David Lynch; Written by David Lynch; Starring Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern; 1986) The line I most associate with this film: "Now it's dark..."  This is probably the most beautiful film in the wonderful filmography of the masterful David Lynch. What might seem like a bizarre story about a young man - played by Kyle MacLachlan - who finds a severed ear in a field and tries to solve the mystery behind it, finding himself in an underworld of vices and perversions, turns out to be one of the most striking and moving films in history. This film is an incredibly intelligent allegory of American society and its rotten and perverse core that has a plastically beautiful and alluring surface. With amazing performances from the beautiful Isabella Rossellini and the psychotic Dennis Hopper, this film is certainly one of the most outstanding cinematic achievements of the 20th century (and of all time) and it will a...

Before Sunrise (Directed by Richard Linklater; Written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan; Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, 1995) The line I most associate with this film: "I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away."  This film is simply magical. It's completely impossible not to fall in love with this tale of two strangers - played so incredibly by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy - who meet in a train in Europe and the beautiful romance that sprouts from this unlikely encounter. We witness two young people filled with passion, dreams, and curiosity for the world around them as they walk through the beautiful streets of Vienna and slowly fall for each other. This is one of the best love stories out there and the start of one of the best (if not THE best) trilogies of all time, where we see the various stages of this couple and their relationship, from the passionate youthfulness of falling in love to the aggressive bitterness of an aged and beaten down rel...

Apocalypse Now (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Written by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola; Starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Robert DuVall; 1979) The line I most associate with this film: "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning."  Need I say anything? From the king of the New Hollywood, this is THE best war film ever made, period! There hasn't been any other war movie that has even reached the ankles of Apocalypse Now in its incredible both realist and surrealist portrayal of war (because war is both a real and surreal thing). It's also probably the most truthful portrayal of the Vietnam War produced in the USA. This is definitely the best work of Francis Ford Coppola, who has brilliant masterpieces under his belt, like The Godfather trilogy and The Conversation , which are also brilliant masterpieces of cinema. However, in my opinion, Apocalypse Now  surpasses every work done by Coppola in the way that he mixed both his genius and madman ...

All That Jazz (Directed by Bob Fosse; Written by Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse; Starring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, and Leland Palmer; 1979) The line I most associate with this film: "It's showtime, folks!"  One of the most brilliant musicals ever made, from one of my favorite directors: Bob Fosse. I absolutely love Cabaret , the other great masterpiece from Fosse, but All That Jazz  is simply something out of this world. We follow a fictional version of Fosse himself, under the name of Joe Gideon (played by Roy Scheider, in his best performance ever), as he goes through auditions, rehearsals, love affairs, and drugs. We see a man spiraling into self-destruction, physical, psychological, and socially, being seduced by the Angel of Death (played by the beautiful Jessica Lange) with whom he has surrealist and existentialist conversations. This is such a crazy ride through the troubled life of an egomaniacal artist. This is an amazing introspective work from o...