Mulholland Drive

(Official trailer of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive)

                      The surrealist film, Mulholland Drive, was released year 2001. It was directed by the great American film director David Lynch. We were given the chance to watch the film inside the classroom with the whole class. Because its merely a film that adapts the surrealism style, we had a hard time realizing every connecting events in the film. After watching, we were tasked to write something about what we understood on the flow of the story. Here goes mine.

                         Everything that happened starting from the car accident until the part where Diane (Naomi Watts) was masturbating on the couch, it was all just a product of hallucination of Diane. Diane, being in love to Camilla (Laura Harring) got jealous after Camilla chose Adam (Justin Theroux) over her. Her jealousy made her hire a hit man to kill Camilla. From the car accident scene, I think Camilla already died on that part. Everything that happened after that was all just Diane's imagination, since she was truly in love with Camilla. In her imagination, she was Betty, whom Camilla fell in love with. And all the names and people inside her imagination were people she encountered in her real life. Camilla and Diane died. It was mentioned in the story that a man's attitude determines, to a large extent, how his life will be. I guess this statement of the cowboy truly fits the life of Camilla and Diane, the reason why they ended up dying.

                      I got the idea that the film was just an illusion, from the scene at the club where it was repeatedly mentioned that, there's no band yet we hear music. It was also mentioned that everything is recorded, everything is just an illusion. From that scene, it gave me a hint that the film is just an illusion of Diane Selwyn.

                                It was a great movie. It stressed my brain cells a bit, but the fulfillment of figuring out the true happening in the story, that itself is a great achievement. :D I'm not closing any door to watching films like this in the future. 

- ClarissaAlimot

Eastern Promises

(Official trailer of the film Eastern Promises)

                          I prefer being alone when watching movies because I easily understand the plot of the story. I mean, I get to think easily without distractions around. Honestly, when I first saw the film, I had a hard time understanding it, I even asked some of my classmates why this and that happened. Weakness checked.

                         I have lots of unanswered questions in my head about the film, so when I got home the day we watched the movie, I immediately searched for the plot. I felt amazed on the flow of the story. There were some parts that is included but I wasn't able to catch up while watching the film. After I read the plot, I quickly posted "OMG. Just read the plot of the film Eastern Promises. Great story!" in my twitter just to let them how I amused I was. 

                        David Cronenberg directed the British crime thriller film Eastern Promises which was released year 2007. The film is starred by Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai, the driver of an old 'thief-in-law'; Naomi Watts as Anna, midwife at a London hospital; and Vincent Cassel as Kirill, who, together with his father, abused and raped the 14-year-old girl Tatiana.

                       The film featured the subject of sex-trafficking as well as depicting the reality behind those Russian criminals which included the portrayals of tattoos as the symbolization of the organization. There were some twists that truly got me after knowing. First is that, it is Semyon who is the father of the baby carried by Tatiana. It was mentioned in the film that Semyon caught Kirill raping her, but instead of getting mad, he joined his son, and sexually hit her as she bleeds. Second, Nikolai is a member of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation working under license by the British Government, that is why he was the good guy throughout the film. With that revelation, my questions are now answered. Yes!

                       Its a mystery to me why the film is titled as Eastern Promises. I failed as I try to search for the definition of the phrase.

                      Of course, just like any other film, it ended happily. The baby was kept by Anna, whom she named as Christine; Semyon was arrested; Nikolai now became the boss of the organization.