the earth is blue like an orange » films

An inconvenient truth

benediktem — Sun, 06 May 2007 20:15:24 +0000

photo from flickr

Al Gore, the well-known politician that nearly became president of the United
States, made an incredible film about the global warming. An inconvenient truth is a documentary film. Al Gore, relying on graphics, videos, and his own past and memories, tells us the future of the earth as it is speculated by the scientists. According to what Al Gore says, there probably won’t be any more an ice cap on the north hemisphere of our planet. That is, what we call North Pole will disappear. The most incredible in what he says, is that everything he maintains is based on scientific studies. We always think that this kind of information is just a tale to scary us and make us react; but it’s not. It’s just the truth. As the trailer says: “Nothing is scarier than the truth”. Al Gore shows the temperature curves obtained studying the ice of the poles. The temperature always stayed between a maximum and a minimum, including during the Ice Ages. But nowadays, the temperature went out of the normal curve, and its average is twice higher than a century ago. Moreover, it will continues like this and the temperature average in 2050 will be again twice higher than today.Despite he tells worrying things, Al Gore does it with humor. For instance, when he asks the question: “Why don’t we react?”, he answered it giving the example of a frog. If we take a frog and plunge it into hot water, the animal will jump out of the bowl. Now, if we plunge it into warm water, the frog will stay in the bowl. And if we increase the temperature of the water little by little, the frog will still stay in the bowl, until someone save it from a certain death. We are like this frog. If the things deteriorate little by little, we won’t react until we’ll be dead or until it will be too late.So Al Gore gives a message: react! If everybody does something, we can avoid catastrophes like Katrina, that Al Gore associate with the meteorological problems caused by the global warming. A great part of the Co2 emissions (and Al Gore says that theses emissions are responsible for the global warming) are caused by the private transports. We always think: “I don’t need to do anything, because my efforts won’t make any difference. We are six billion (and more) on the Earth, and I’m one of theses six billions.” But it’s wrong; all of us must react, and the result will be there.What should we do according to Al Gore?First, we must try to walk or use bike every time it’s possible, instead of using our cars. Cars pollute, bike don’t. Anyway, walking is good for the health.Secondly, we should never be alone in our cars. If someone takes with him four people, instead of five vehicles polluting there will be one.…There are many others things we can do. So let’s do them!

“The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth.”(Chief Seattle)

The Pianist

benediktem — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:32:59 +0000

The film The Pianist is really a masterpiece. The music is marvelous. The story is as follows, and was inspired by a true story. A talented Polish Jewish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, remarkably played by Adrien Brody , lives in Warsaw on the eve of the Second World War, with his family. The explosions devastate the city. Germany threatens
Poland. When the Szpilmans hear on the radio that the English and French go to war against the Nazis, Szpilman’s parents, sisters end brother commemorate. But the viewer knows that is not finished- it’s a long way to finish. German troops invade
Poland. Many things are forbidden for the Jews: enter in the parks or in the restaurants and sit on the benches, for instance, or walk on the sidewalk. They must wear an emblem on the right sleeve, representing a Star of David; and are mistreat. They are evicted from their houses and forced to move to the ghetto. Finally, after weeks of hunger and bad treatment, they are gathered in a court, and wait until the trains arrive. They don’t know it, but theses trains will take them directly to death camps. The pianist, saved by the policeman he knew, is separated from his family. He wanders about the ghetto, desperate, and, thanks to a friend of him that was hidden in the ghetto, manages to get a job as worker on a construction site. Then, he managed to escape from the ghetto and his hidden by one of his friends who is not Jewish. He sees from the room where he is the rebellion of the ghetto of Warsaw, and the revolt of
Warsaw. A woman discovers Wladyslaw and tries to denounce him, but he escape and meet another friend, who offers him shelter. When the building where he is hidden is attacked, he has to run away, and he finally ends up in a destroyed house, where he survives with difficulty, trying desperately to find food. This is where a German officer (Wild Hosenfeld, played by Thomas Kretschmann) discovers him. But, fascinated by Szpilman ability as a pianist, he spares his life and brings him food. When the Russian penetrate in Warsaw, the officer leaves the city. For Szpilman the life becomes normal again, he plays again the piano on the Polish radio. The german officer is captured by the Russian, and dies in a soviet prisoner-of-war camp.There is a scene I found particularly atrocious. Some SS soldiers, wanting to have fun, go to the ghetto and enter in an apartment at the third floor. They ask the occupants to stand up, and as the grandfather can’t (because he is in a wheelchair), they throw him from the window. Then, they go downstairs and, when they arrive in the road they force the poor people to run. They take potshots at them, killing the dozen of persons they entered the flat. After the “entertainment”, they leave, running over the ones that survived.Another film about the Second World War and the holocaust that I liked and that I recommend is Schindler’s List.