Melancholia by Lars von Trier

Melancholia is the newest film by danish auteur filmmaker Lars von Trier. Starring are Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Keifer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgard (Eric from True Blood), Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt.

The story evolves around Justine (Dunst) who is getting married to Michael (Skarsgard), in a larger-than-life wedding paid by her wealthy brother-in-law John (Sutherland), who is married to Justine's sister Claire (Gainsbourg). Justine's relationship with Claire is not the best. Also their parents, Gaby (Rampling) and Dexter (Hurt), hate each other. After several events during wedding day, Justine ends up living at her sister's mansion. They wait there for Melancholia, a strange planet about to collide with Earth, and everything will change forever.

Lars von Trier tells the story in two different parts. 1st part is Justine's wedding day and 2nd part is Claire's family life at the mansion. Both of them are part of the end of the world story of Melancholia hitting planet Earth.

The camera shots are very reminiscent of his Dogme 95 days. They follow the characters with no apparent purpose as the actors wander through the gorgeous and iconic settings. As the story comes to an end, all the shots made perfect sense. The photography and editing are very interesting as well as strange, but serve the purpose of telling the unconventional story, just as prior's von Trier films.

Dunst performance is her best seen so far. She won the Best Actress Award at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. She also sounds for at least, an Oscar nomination. This isn't for baring all her clothes but for the dramatic scenes that compose her interpretation of a depressed and confused Justine.

During Cannes last edition, von Trier made some politically incorrect comments about sympathizing with Hitler, something that made him "persona non grata" at the prestigious festival and banned him from competition.

All in all, its very good storytelling about the end of the world told by the best Scandinavian filmmaker of the last 20 years. Entertaining, unique and somewhat controversial. 8/10 stars.

FC Barcelona is Mes que un Club

FC Barcelona won their 4th UEFA Champions League tittle against Manchester United by 3-1 at Wembley stadium in London, England. Canarian striker Pedro opened the score at 27' with a wonderful pass from catalan legendary midfielder Xavi. The "Red Devils" tied at 34' with a powerful goal by brit bad boy Rooney. Several other shots at goal were made by the catalan side but the halftime stop with both sides tied at one.

The culés controlled the ball almost 70% of the time during the game. Then at 54', argentine foward Messi put the 2-1 with a long distance goal which took Man U's dutch goalkeeper Van Der Saar by surprise. It was Messi's first goal in english soil. To wrap the wonderful performance by the blaugranas, Spain striker David Villa scored at 69' with a play started by Man of the Match, Messi, and a pass from catalan defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets.

At the end, french defender Eric Abidal (who had battled cancer in the previous months) raised "La Orejona" to celebrate the azulgrana's 3rd UEFA Champions tittle in 6 years. The catalan side also won in 2006 against Arsenal (2-1) and in 2009 also against Man U (2-0).

Messi was the competition's leading scorer with 12 goals equaling Van Nistelrooy's previous 2002-03 record. "La Pulga" ended with 53 goals and 25 assists in the entire season and is in the run for his 3rd straight FIFA Ballon D'Or award.

Barcelona's head coach Josep Guardiola got the 10th tittle of his three year span. 3 straight La Liga tittles (2009, 2010 and 2011), 2 UEFA Champions Leagues (2009 and 2011), 2 Spanish Supercups (2009 and 2010), 1 European Supercup (2009) and 1 FIFA Club World Cup (2009) and 1 Copa del Rey (2009). Also, he is the only coach in history to have won a Sextuple by winning all the tittles possible in a single season of European football.

FC Barcelona has three more competitions to complete their almost perfect year. In August 14th, they face arch rivals Real Madrid in the first leg of the 2011 Spanish Supercup at Bernabeu stadium. The second leg is at the Camp Nou in August 17th. This competition faces up Liga Champions and Copa del Rey Champions.

In August 26th, they play the 2011 European Supercup against UEFA Europa League winners, portuguese side Porto, at the Stade Louis II in Mónaco. In December 8-18, they will compete for the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup against the winners of the Champions League of the other FIFA world regions. They qualify for the latter three competitions by winning the 2011 UEFA Champions League.

New flicks from the usual auteurs

Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime


Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void


Chris Nolan's Inception


Robert Rodríguez's Machete

Filth 101

John Waters es profesor de la European Graduate School en Suiza. Su curso se llama Filth 101.


Resto de la clase:

Parte II
Parte III
Parte IV

Incertidumbre política...

Actualmente se viven momentos de tensión en Estados Unidos por la primaria demócrata entre Barak Obama y Hillary Clinton. Obama (Yes,We can) ganó 13 de los 22 estados pero Hillary ganó Nueva York y California , que son los más poblados y que más delegados le darán. Cualquiera que gane ,deberá ganar la elección contra Mccain (repulicano)que quiere permanecer 100 años con las tropas en Irak.

En Europa hay un caos ,en la política. Mientras Sarkozy(presidente de Francia) se va de luna de miel con su nueva esposa modelo y cantante Carla Bruni , el presidente italiano Giorgio Napolitano disolvió las dos cámaras y convocó elecciones para abril. Aquí en España , Zapatero (actual presidente y líder del PSOE)está alante de las encuestas para las elecciones del 9 de marzo y Rajoy (líder del PP) le huye para debatir porque no quiere que sea en todas las televisoras españolas. Rajoy sacó a Gallardón(alcalde de Madrid) de las listas del PP en Madrid y el pobre se tiene que aguantar a Esperanza Aguirre(presidenta de la comunidad de Madrid) en la apertura del nuevo intercambiador de Plaza Castilla.

¿Qué pasará cuando termine todo esto?