Film Review. The Great Gatsby

Recently, I have watched the film «The Great Gatsby ». Now I would like to tell a few words about this film.

Cast:

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby
Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway
Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan
Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan
Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson
Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker
Adelaide Clemens as Catherine
Jason Clarke as George Wilson
Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim
Max Cullen as Owl Eyes
Brendan Maclean as Klipspringer
Jack Thompson as Nick Carraway's Doctor, Walter Perkins
Gemma Ward as Languid Girl
Callan McAuliffe as Young Jay Gatsby
Gus Murray as Teddy Barton
Stephen James King as Nelson
Director: Baz Luhrmann

Synopsis: A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.

Review: This film is really a masterpiece, as the book of Fitzgerald is. I was really excited when the film was shown. I was waiting for it. t's the first movie I've ever seen in 2D that I wished I'd seen in 3D which I generally don't rate.

Leonardo DiCaprio is superb in the lead role as the mysterious millionaire with everything money can buy - except for Daisy (Carey Mulligan), the girl he loved and lost, who's now unhappily married to the philandering Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). Meanwhile Tobey Maguire looks suitably perplexed as conflicted narrator Nick Carraway, Daisy's aspiring-writer cousin who's equally repulsed and intoxicated by the elite new world in which he finds himself. When Gatsby and Daisy rekindle their relationship, it sets in place a crash course of events - with dramatic consequences for everyone around them... 

While the acting's all well and good, the success of this new adaptation is less about its shallow characters and more about the spectacular visuals: think glorious colours, elaborate costumes and dazzling set pieces. This is unmistakably a Luhrmann movie, with clear shades of his other hits - from the bohemian decadence of Moulin Rouge to the forbidden romance of Romeo + Juliet (plus, of course, DiCaprio breaking hearts again, looking barely a day older than he did in the 1996 film) - and it's hard to tear your eyes away from the energy on screen. (However, for that same reason I'd have preferred to see it in 2D than 3D; there's only so much detail you can take in at once, without it leaping out at you as well.)

The soundtrack is also fabulous, making 20s masterpieces like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue seem contemporary while giving pop classics a delightfully retro twist. Our favourites were Emeli Sandé's cover of Beyoncé's Crazy in Love and Beyoncé's take on Back to Black (if that sounds like a lot of Beyoncé for one film, bear in mind her hubby Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter is one of the executive producers).

Some have called The Great Gatsby a triumph of style over substance - and ultimately that may be true. But what a triumph of style it is.

I thought the modern soundtrack was subtly used and the ending was so, so sad. Brilliant!

The novel has so many gaps the reader can fill with his/her own emotions and ideas... Daisy's voice that is so alluring, Gatsby's smile... and of course a movie takes away a lot of gaps... but to leave us there in the dark at the end, with the green light shining from the screen towards the audience... Turning us into Gatsby... Longing... Reaching... Leaving everyone alone with their lack, their dreams... That was great...
Well... yeah I liked it. :-)

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The title of the story is “Mother's Day memories: Piano lessons -- for life”, it was published on the online version of “the Los Angeles Times” May 12, 2013 By Gayle Greene.
This article is devoted to the author’s memories of his childhood, his relationship with his mother and the lessons of music.

It came with us always. First the old upright, then the Baldwin, then the Steinway grand, no matter how often we moved, or how far — she'd no more have left it behind than she'd have left me. There was, in those days, much shouting and storming about, the screeching of tires as my father sped off in the night. When I was 10, they split up for good, and we landed near Palo Alto, where my mother was left, a single mother in the suburbs, in her 40s, in the 1950s, a decade that did not take kindly to divorcees.

What saved her was the piano. The house rang with it. My ears rang too. Those great, rolling chords of Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt surrounded me as I stomped down the hall, slammed my door, dived into a book. They filled our small house with yearning, twining their tendrils through my heart, unspeakably sad, unspeakably beautiful.

I'd come home from school and she'd be giving a lesson, a towheaded kid bent over the keyboard. Up and down the keys his fingers fumbled, painful, awkward five-finger scales; but in a few years' time he'd be playing "Malagueña." They gave her independence and self-respect, those lessons, and the pleasure of a job well done.

I wanted to play too, but I lacked the self-discipline, though when it came to reading and writing, I'd get so engrossed I'd forget to pee. I read weekends and after school, on school breaks, on school buses, in the back of the car, at the dentist's, the doctor's, at the dinner table, pausing only to turn the page.

After the dog and horse stories came the novels of Victor Hugo and Lawrence Durrell and Jules Verne and journeys to the center of the Earth, to Alexandria, to Paris. Then I moved on to Anna and Emma, doomed, desperate creatures who did their desperation so beautifully; and later, to Juliet and Cleopatra. I loved words the way my mother loved music, the sounds, shapes, patterns of words; they sent shivers like those great rolling chords, only they were sounds that made sense, that satisfied the senses and the sense.

It was by no means clear how an addiction to novels would ever translate to a living wage, but she was no Tiger Mom on my case; she was on my side. One morning I found her at the kitchen table, reading out words I'd copied the night before: "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought, I summon up remembrance of things past." I'd copied that Shakespeare sonnet for the thrill of the words.

"Oh, Gayley," she said, "this is beautiful — did you write this?"

That's my ma, I thought, she thinks I can do anything.

The school I went to was a good-enough public high school: no high-stakes exams, no pressure to rack up extracurriculars to pad out a CV, no CVs. I was left free to wander and dream. And it so happened that those hours of novel reading gave me a sense of what a sentence was, and a paragraph, and did certain things to my brain that transformed a pretty good student into a much better student, and gave me a way of organizing my life that saved me as surely as the piano saved her.

All in all our parents are everything for us! I think my mother is my biggest influence. I'm thankful for her. All I know is that when I'm a parent I want to be just like my mom. I can talk to my mom more than any of my friends could talk to their parents.

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The title of the story is “Breakup might be easier with sad music”, it was published on the online version of “the Los Angeles Times” May 16, 2013 By Mary MacVean.
This article is devoted to the influence of music on ours mood.
Researchers say you are more likely to turn to sad music than fun.
That’s because what you’re likely to be looking for is the support of an empathetic pal, they say. On the other hand, if someone dents the back of your car in the mall parking lot, the happy song could cheer you up.

The researchers, writing in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, wanted to know what prompted people to seek congruent music, art and film and what circumstances prompted them to find noncongruent art.

“Music, movies, paintings or novels that are compatible with our current mood and feelings, akin to an empathetic friend, are more appreciated when we experience broken or failing relationships,” the researchers wrote.

Research has shown that consumers in a negative mood look for comedy or cheerful music, but the researchers of the three new studies say that’s not always the case.

It is true, the researchers said, when the distress in question isn’t personal – an accident, loss of money, perhaps.

In one experiment, the researchers presented 233 people with 12 negative situations, such as losing someone or failing to achieve a goal. Half the people were asked what sort of friend (funny or empathetic, for examples) they’d turn to, and half what sort of music (sad or cheerful). The responses were similar, whether choosing a person or music.

In the second experiment, they asked 76 people the sort of music they’d choose if frustrated – by someone or by something. Again, the people chose angry music more often when frustrated by a person.

Finally, 11 people were asked to write about a loss – about an interpersonal loss such as a death or breakup, and about a competitive loss such as in academics or career. Then they were asked to rate how they felt about the loss and choose from among 10 song titles (almost all fictional) they’d like to listen to after the loss. The results were similar to the earlier experiments.

“Our aesthetic preference is similar to our preference for whom we want to be with and is contingent on how we are treated by and connected with others,” wrote the researchers, who are from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Business School, the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration, and UC Berkeley.

All in all I can say that I’m fully agreed with the article. It was very useful and interesting to read about such extraordinary experiments.

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The title of the story is “Stagecoach 2013: Goodbye, Coachella; hello, country music”, it was published on the online version of “the Los Angeles Times” By Mikael Wood.

This article is devoted to the world-known music festival “Coachella” and it’s importance in the world of music.

INDIO -- It didn't take long Friday for Stagecoach -- the three-day country-music jamboree set to run through Sunday night at the Empire Polo Club -- to differentiate itself from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which took over the same sun-scorched setting for two weekends earlier this month.

"I kind of think of this next one as if Rachel Maddow and Ann Coulter went on a blind date -- with an open bar," said Hayes Carll, introducing his song "Another Like You." The wry Texas-based singer-songwriter was only a few tunes into his early-afternoon set on the Palomino Stage, but already he was injecting a shot of politics that Coachella, with its entitled-hippie vibe, seemed to lack this year.

Stagecoach is likely to feature more cultural commentary in the hours to come: Friday night's headliners are Toby Keith and Hank Williams Jr., neither of whom is known to shy away from speaking his mind.

FULL COVERAGE: Coachella 2013

The festival is also certain to reflect the country community's loss Friday morning of George Jones, whose influence looms large over virtually every act scheduled to play this weekend.

"He was so important to the music going on here -- to the foundation of all this," said one Stagecoach attendee, Rose Alsup of Palm Springs.

Other differences between Coachella and Stagecoach were emerging Friday, including the much heavier presence of corporate branding -- it's hard to miss the Toyota World of Wonders -- and the switch in official festival beer from Heineken to Bud Light. The crowd here is smaller, as well, with a capacity of 55,000. (While Coachella sold out quickly, general-admission Stagecoach tickets for the full weekend were still available Friday afternoon at $239 a pop.)

TIMELINE: Coachella and Stagecoach

Still, the dry desert heat remains essentially the same, as does the sight of many, many half-dressed young people sauntering across the polo field.

And, of course, there's a similarly stacked bill, which in addition to Friday's performers includes Lady Antebellum, Dwight Yoakam, Darius Rucker, Marty Stuart, the Zac Brown Band, Charley Pride and dozens more.

In conclusion, I can say that I’ve heard so many interesting facts about that festival, it’s really great. Lots of people spend their weekends there and I’d like to visit this festival one day!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-stagecoach-2013-goodbye-coachella-hello-country-20130426,0,6910857.story

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The title of the story is “How Headphones Changed the World”, it was published on the online version of “the Atlantic” by Derek Thompson.

This article is devoted to the use of headphones and the role of music, its influence on people’s mood and even life.

To visit a modern office place is to walk into a room with a dozen songs playing simultaneously but to hear none of them. Up to half of younger workers listen to music on their headphones, and the vast majority thinks it makes us better at our jobs. In survey after survey, we report with confidence that music makes us happier, better at concentrating, and more productive.

Science says we're full of it. Listening to music hurts our ability to recall other stimuli, and any pop song -- loud or soft -- reduces overall performance for both extraverts and introverts. A Taiwanese studylinked music with lyrics to lower scores on concentration tests for college students, and other research have shown music with words scrambles our brains' verbal-processing skills. "As silence had the best overall performance it would still be advisable that people work in silence," one report dryly concluded.

If headphones are so bad for productivity, why do so many people at work have headphones?

There is an economic answer: The United States has moved from a farming/manufacturing economy to a service economy, and more jobs "demand higher levels of concentration, reflection and creativity."This leads to a logistical answer: With 70 percent of office workers in cubicles or open work spaces, it's more important to create one's own cocoon of sound. That brings us to a psychological answer: There is evidence that music relaxes our muscles, improves our mood, and can even moderately reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety. What music steals in acute concentration, it returns to us in the form of good vibes.

What conclusions we can makefrom the article? That brings us finally to our final cultural answer: Headphones give us absolute control over our audio-environment, allowing us to privatize our public spaces. This is an important development for dense office environments in a service economy. But it also represents nothing less than a fundamental shift in humans' basic relationship to music.

The article is entertaining and it made me think about the great role of sounds and music. Personally I cannot imagine my life without it!

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2012/05/how-headphones-changed-the-world/257830/

Individual Reading. Part 6

Having married Ata, a Tahitian girl, Mr. Strickland married and his new wife decided to live in isolation. Sometime later Ata gave birth to a son, but, unfortunately Strickland got leprosy and died. When he was on the deathbed, he created a real masterpiece on the walls, but he insisted on his wife burn the house after his death.

The narrator left Tahiti for England, where he decided to meet Mrs. Strickland and told her about the last years of her husband's life.

Individual Reading. Part 5

It was the last meeting of Mr. Strickland and the narrator. When Strickland died, his works became very popular and valuable. InTahiti the author found out that having left Paris Strickland went to Marseilles, and he lived as a poor man. Soon Capt. Nichols made an  acquainted of Charles. The part of Strickland's life was told to the narrator by this man.

Charles had to find a job and he found it on a ship, sometime later he sailed to Tahiti. The place was so amazing that Charles forgot everything but painting.