Scott Pilgrim vs. The Wold

Scott Pilgrim is originally a serie of comics created by Brian Lee O'Malley. But I won't talk about the serie but the film because I have only seen it -not reading the comics- and I was delighted with it.



The film was planned after the first volume of the comic was released. Bryan Lee O'Malley after completed it, his publisher contacted producer Marc Platt in order to propose a film version. So, Universal Studios contracted Edgar Wright (the director of the film) to adapt the Scott Pilgrim comics. But, in O'Malley's view, the story of Scott Pilgrim hadn't been as eploited as he would like.
The filming started in March 2009 in Toronto and the entire film was released in North-America on August 2010. Acording to wikipedia, the premiere of the film wasn't recoup its $60 million production budget. It finished fifth on its first weekend of release in USA. But, when the productors decided to do the film on home video, it became top-selling Blu-ray on Amazon.com during the first day it was available (Amazon is a US multinational electronic commerce company which in the film appears -Ramona Flowers works for it).
The main characters are Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) and Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). There are also other characters which are and act in a very particular way.
The plot is quite simple. Scott falls in love with Ramona and he have to defeat seven evil exes of Ramona to be with her. So, the film is about how Scott wins Ramona's love.
The dialogs are very simples too and the story is reported very fast. So, until the end - well, or until the middle of the film - you can't understand it totally. I have to say that it's a film with a lot of "graphical humor" or, as I prefer to say, "stupid humor". That's why I love it. (I love laughing at everything, whatever it is)
The film includes a lot of scenes which reminds video-games and it has a lot of special effects which, in my view, are combined with real images in such a way that, even being unreal scenes, the whole scene looks nice.
The film also have a very good sound track. Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich (who has said in several times that it's the sixth member of Radiohead) and Beck, among other, has contribuited to the film's sountrack. Beck composed the music played by "Sex-Bob-Omb" in the film. The members of "Sex-Bob-omb" had to learn their respective instruments and spend time rehearsing as a band with Michel Cera (Scott in the film, who already played the bass) and Beck before the filming began. The actors also perform on the movie sundtrack.
The other band which appears in the film is "Crash and the Boys" and their songs were wroten by Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene.
"Crash at Demonhead" is the Scott ex-girlfriend's band and it has the influence of Metric which includes their song "Black Sheep" on the film.

I think the film had to be seen in order to appreciate their work. It's not a wonder but I think that it is very good for people who like the funny films.

Christmas time part 2

Today I will not write about how much I dislike Crhistmas. Today I'm going to report on my Christmas time.
Almost the entire two weeks of Christmas' vacations, everynight at my cousin's house, I have been playing only one game: the "Risk".
I had seen my cousin together with my boyfriend and other friends playing that game before but I never thought that I would be able to understand it and enjoy it so. I say "understand" because is an strategic game and it works with dice and I'm very bad in numbers.
The "Risk" was created by Albert Lamorisse in 1950 and commercialized from 1958 by the "Parker Brothers" company. It's a game of battles played in a board which is divided into different territorys with plastic figures which represents the infantry, the cavarly and the artillery. The original game is played with a board which represents the world. But, I haven't played with it. I have played with the Lord of Rings' board. Yes, it's very "freaky" but well, it doesn't matter.
When I began to play, I didn't realize what was happening. I didn't understand what my partners were doing. I didn't know how to play to win. But, it didn't take me much time to understand it. At the second time I played, I had already beaten my boyfriend. Okey, I didn't win but, I had beaten my boyfriend! That's is like a victory for me.
And the days went by and my knowledge about the game was increasing every time I played. I waited for the night to play it because I was very excited about how was going to be next time at the game, what strategy was I going to follow, could I win that time?
We met every night since the beginning of Christmas time until yesterday to play.
We have been hooked on it so much so that we have begun to loathe it.
Now, I want to know nothing about Risk. I don't want to see it anymore until a time has passed!

Ill dolce suono...

This is the beginning of one opera song that I like very much. I knew its existence in the film "The Fifth Element".
Ill dolce suono ("The Sweet Sound") is a fragment of the "scena ed aria" -commonly known as the "mad scene" sung by the lady soprano, Lucia- and it is taken from Act III from the play Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. I will not explain the theatre scene but the scene in the film which it is performed. So, please, I invit you to see that part of the film because, in my view, the song (and the act) is wonderful.

The (beautiful) voice which sounds in the film is from the singer Inva Mula-Tchako.
The character who performs the song is called "The Diva Plavalaguna" and if you see is pretty stange. The actress was Maïween, a french actress who in the moment which the film was created, she was dating the director.
Initially, Maïween didn't want to perform that character. Luc Besson (the director) always wanted Maïween to do the scene but faced with his girlfriend's refusal Luc found another girl to do it. However, three days before beginning the shooting the girl disappeared. That's why finally Maïween offered to perform "the Diva" character.
She had to listen to the song at least thirty times a day for three months. Every second of the song had to be perfectly combined with her performance. The most difficult job was the costum. The make-up artists took a long time to do makeup and dress her. Maïween says in a interview that the costum was very heavy, specially the strange hat. She wore stilts so she was so tall that there was a special chair in which she sit while the process of the makeup.
The concert recording of the Diva was very special. Anyone of the other actors and actress of the film didn't met the Diva's actress before or didn't know the existence of that character. The director sit them and said them some like: "Today, you are going to see and hear a very special singer. Just enjoy it and let the emotions come out". No one knew what was going to happen. The "Diva" was hidden behind the curtains. Then, she appears and a sound of a flute is heard and the Diva begins to sing...
But, the surprising is that, at the middle of the song, it is remixed with one more modern style of music -tecno.
That scene is combined with other scene in which the other main character "Leeloo" is figthing with the enemies. So, Maïween explains in the interview that when she watched the finally scene chosen for the film she thought that people weren't going to able to see what her dedication she made to do the scene. So, she felt some disappointed. But one day -she continues to explain- it occured to her searching in the net about the Diva's character and surprisingly she found a lot of things about it and she was very glad. I think that scene is the most famous of the film since, at least, the Diva's performance in the famous web "Youtube" have been successful.