domingo, 30 de enero de 2011

Lady Capulet



Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous Shakespeare’s writings and also one of the most famous stories around the world. This romantic tragedy story portraying young love between Romeo and Juliet is known for being recreated several times on movies. One of these movies is ‘Romeo + Juliet’ with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. As in the book, Romeo + Juliet has the same dialogues and characters, but completely different place and time. As it is a complete modernization of the play, characters are psychologically different on the movie from the ones on the book. Lady Capulet is the best character adaptation on the movie.

First, Lady Capulet is the funniest character on ‘Romeo + Juliet’. The way she walks is very comical; actually she looks like a bad fashion parade apprentice. Her speaking way is really peculiar. Even the dialogues remain just as they are on the book; Lady Capulet gives them a special touch of comedy that makes her unique. Her outfits are completely weird; although she is older than Juliet, Lady Capulet wears eccentric random stuff as if going to a Halloween party.


Lady Capulet is extremely cheerful. On the book, Lady Capulet is thought to be a completely serious and demure woman, while on the movie is very dynamic. She shouts more than I could imagine; instead of talking at normal decibels, her voice is really acute and noisy.  Also, she made me laugh out loud because her behavior is completely exaggerated according to what she, as Juliet’s mother, is supposed to be.

She portrays a regular mother behavior. As she wants her daughter to be married with a great guy, she talks to Juliet about Paris in a very joyful way so to convince her. Immediately, she starts to lead up for her daughter’s wedding in order to give Juliet a moment worth of her. She also supports Juliet when the idea of getting married to Paris is not that great for her, just as a regular mother would do.

I think 1996’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’ is a very good recreation of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Even though Lady Capulet has an exaggerated personality, we can perfectly understand what this tragedy is about and still have this anxiety to know what is going to happen next. Therefore she is the best character adaptation on the film.

domingo, 23 de enero de 2011

Finding Nemo - Freytag's Pyramid


·      Exposition

We meet Marlin and his wife, taking care of their future kids, still on eggs. A barracuda appears, and kills Marlin’s wife and all but one of their children. This event makes Marlin to become overprotective with his son, Nemo.



·      Inciting incident: Nemo gets caught by a diver.


It is Nemo’s first day of school and he is going to the reef. Nemo and his friends escape from the class and watch a boat on the sea’s surface. Marlin arrives. Trying to touch the boat, a diver traps Nemo and takes a picture of Marlin, leaving him completely dizzy and unable to go after Nemo.



·      Rising action: Marlin and Dory start looking for Nemo


After Nemo is captured and the boat goes, Marlin sets after it. Accidentally he hits Dory and she tells him that a few minutes ago, she saw the boat. Both start going after it so to find Nemo.



·      Climax: Nemo attempts to escape the aquarium


The diver who caught Nemo leaves him on an aquarium at his dental office; Nemo was the birthday present for the diver’s niece. As she is known to be a rude girl, Nemo tries to escape and goes down trough the toilet.



·      Falling action: Marlin gives up


After many failures of finding Nemo, Marlin decides to give up. Because of this, Marlin and Dory have a dispute and he decides to leave her.



·      Turning point: Dory meets Nemo and does not recognize him


Returning to her way back home, Dory meets Nemo. When he tells her his name, she did not recognize who he was; so Dory continues her way leaving Nemo alone.



·      Moment of last suspense: Marlin and Dory think Nemo is dead


Dory now remembers who Nemo is. Both go to find Marlin. When they finally meet again, a fishing net traps Dory. Nemo decides to save her, so he also enters to the net. When they finally did it, the fish crushes Nemo and Marlin and Dory think he is dead.



·      Resolution: Marlin and Nemo are together again


Marlin apologizes to Nemo. They return back to their anemone with Dory. Their life comes to normality.

sábado, 15 de enero de 2011

Finding Nemo, the best movie ever!



We are used to live in a world were traffic, pollution, noise, plenty of people, killings, etc are present every day. But have you ever taken a second to think about how is it to live on the ocean? Fish talking just as humans do? About all the colors, different animal species and ecosystems down there? Finding Nemo is the perfect movie to show it.


Fist, the story of Finding Nemo is excellent, it promotes perseverance.  Marlin, a total apprehensive father gets angry with his son Nemo during his first day of school. In an attempt to disobey Marlin of not touching the bottom of a boat, Nemo is captured by a scuba diver and taken away in the boat. Trying to find someone to help Marlin to find his son, he meets Dory a blue fish with ‘short-term memory loss’.  Both will do everything to find Nemo, and they will never give up. The story is a complete portrait of how strong is the love between a father and his son since Marlin tries to find help from many different fish, so to find Nemo.


Second, it is a great familiar comedy due to characters. Since the beginning of the movie we meet Dory. She is an excellent companion for Marlin. She makes the entire search easier and funnier. Dory is always laughing, singing, and looking for the negative moments to be positive ones.

Apart from Dory, we also have Crush an old turtle, Bruce, Anchor and Chum three vegetarian sharks, the “Tank Gang” and Nigel. They are alternative characters that make a very funny movie. 





 Finally, the movie has great visual graphics. From beginning to end we are taken to a wonderful world, which is the ocean. We can see how exactly are the fish ecosystems, how many different species are down there, how do they operate between each other, all the colors that are found, the strange and incredible animals at the deep and obscure ocean. I mean, it is the ocean’s life itself, as we never thought before. 


Finding Nemo present to us a great story, very funny characters and incredible visual graphics. For that reason, it is the best movie ever made! 



viernes, 14 de enero de 2011

James Dean


James Dean was born on February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana. He was a well-known American actor.

While being majoring at Santa Monica Junior College and UCLA, he started his first appearances on television spots and in some movies, mainly at James Whitmore's acting workshop. His first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola commercial.


Rebel Without a Cause (1955), East of Eden (1955) and Giant (1956) were the most influential film performances on his career.
Thanks to those movies, James Dean became the first actor who got a posthumous Academy Award nomination for best actor. 


Everything seemed to be rising up on his career. But unfortunately on September 30, 1955 he was having a car race at Salinas, California. While driving, another car crossed into Dean’s lane, causing a head-on hit between the two cars.

He was severely injured, so paramedics tried to save his life while in ambulance. It is said that the crash result into a broken neck, multiple jaw, arms and legs fractures, plus severe internal injures. 
James Dean was pronounced dead. 

martes, 11 de enero de 2011

Three months ago…


My life is not extraordinary. But I believe it is a happy one.
I have passed trough different times, some great and others just harsh. I am really thankful because there are only few tough times that I can remember.


Unless one that happened three months ago. On September, my dad suffered a heart attack. Of course it was something completely unexpected for all of us.
Immediately, my father was taken to the hospital so the doctors could try to save his life. It was really complicated because anyone of the family was certain about what was truly happening.
The doctors needed just a few more minutes to notice what my father was having. After they were quite sure, a really liable medicine was applied to him. This medicine was only given so to stop the heart attack. Of course his stay in hospital was just beginning. 

Several medical analysis were made in order to catch up how harmful the heart attack was.  Every visible symptom was taken into consideration since they had to find the exact reason that caused the heart’s failure.
Actually it turned complicated for the doctors to hit upon the precise reason of the heart attack. My father made daily exercise as a routine of his life. On meals, he avoided flesh, pork or any fatty food; therefore he maintained a good physical health.

He was at intensive care during the whole first week; at any moment another heart attack could happen.  Unfortunately during that week no relative, but my mom, was able to visit him or only pass by and say hello. My sister and I had to anxiously wait until the second week so to visit him. It was really maddening, since we had no chance to even talk to him after the problem.


Three weeks passed until he was finally discharged from hospital. Obviously he was even thinner because of the food provided by the hospital, no salt nor fat…tasteless. But we did not matter.  He returned with no mishap, getting rid of any negative situation that most of the times heart attacks leave.

My father, my mother, my sister and I were really happy because we were together again. No one thought that literally in just a minute, everyone’s life would change that much. Now we are even closer to each other, noticing how fortunate we are …everyone alive, happy about it, and enjoying every single moment.  


A*