valentinna serra

*“I feel like a spectator in my own life”* To what extent is your life your own? I’ve been thinking about this question since finishing this film last night, and I came to the realization that I might never find out. Seeing a movie like this, one that exposes the real, most internal parts of a persons life can really make you see the world differently. Julie, although very free, is also very confused. I like to see her decisions as brave, but there also is inevitable self-sabotage in them. Her biggest fear is being alone, still she continuously makes decisions that juxtapose to that. And it’s not exactly her fault. She’s trying to find excitement, a spark, anything that motivates her, and that is clear from the beginning. By trying to look for the perfect calling, person, job even, she distances herself from the world, struggling with the fact that she’ll never live the life of her dreams, which makes her question if she’s just existing rather than living. I often think about my future, I think we all do, and although I can’t exactly connect to Julie right now, I have a feeling that I will. And I haven’t exactly made peace with that yet. For me, the “worst person in the world” doesn’t refer to Julie herself, but to every character in the movie. Which also implies that we’re all the worst person in the world at some point of our lives, or at least we think we are. That’s why this film has an impact on such a deeper level. Are we the worst person in the world for simply making decisions based on ourselves, and not others? What makes one the worst person in the world? I’ll definitely rewatch this later on in my life, when I’m a lot older, and I’m sure that I’ll have a completely different experience(and possibly a midlife crisis).

*“We’ll always have Paris”* The highlight of this film for me is definitely how it portrays the relationship between Ilsa and Rick. It barely shows us anything about their relationship build up, but somehow we can still physically feel their tragic, inevitable connection so strongly that I even got emotional. Absolutely phenomenal.

*“I've had one motto which I've always lived by: Dignity. Always, dignity.” * This really is everything that people say it is. I have so much to say and no clue where to start. Everything feels so heartfelt in this. The dance scenes are framed and choreographed so well it’s actually insane, I haven’t got the words to describe it. The actual “Singing in the Rain” whole scene was the best thing I've ever seen and I swear to god Im not being dramatic. I got emotional while watching it because I could see the amount of personality this film brings. The colors, the dance, the music, everything is just so beautifully personal in a way that Im sure I’ll never feel the way I felt watching this again.  Gene Kelly is an actual genius, I couldn’t stop smiling while he was on screen. It sounds stupid, I know, and I wish I could explain better the way it feels watching this but you have to see it to understand. He has such a strong, charismatic stage presence that I had never seen before. In my opinion, he makes the movie and it definitely wouldn’t be this good without him. While I was watching it, my dad was passing by the living room and he asked me to rewind the umbrella scene. Thats how great it is. Also, I couldve sworn that this was black and white, I was very shocked to see it wasn’t.

*“I love driving”* > *“No. You love Jack teaching you how to drive”*I have to admit that this film might not be perfectly executed, but I think it tries to send a very strong message through its plot. The first half of this movie was really great in my opinion. It gave the perfect eerie atmosphere and it made you curious to see what was going on, but it lost itself towards the ending. The problem with the last half of this movie for me is that it started over explaining things that I thought would be better if it left us some questions. Florence Pugh did a great job in playing her character. I think it was amazing and I could really feel the feeling of her being trapped and desperate, although I’m tired of seeing her play the mad, strong female lead that has a crazy boyfriend. Contrary to what people say, I don’t actually think that Harry Styles did a bad job. I think it wasn’t great, but from what people said I thought it would be terrible and it really wasn’t. From my perspective, I think that Olivia Wilde was trying to portray the patriarchy in a dystopian world and that is evident even from the character that she herself plays. I notice this especially at the end because we can see that Jack has such a toxic masculinity and he’s trying to control Alice for the fact that she is more successful than him, and he’s really scared of that. To show this, the director places everyone on a perfect little village so that the women have a false sense of the democracy, and they don’t really have the information to realize that they are being controlled. That is why I say that this movie has a great, strong message, but I just think that it could be better and a lot more interesting if it was better executed. One thing I would also like to add is how this movie uses colors and camera angles to portrait the feeling of Alice being caged. It uses pastel colors and a very symmetric shot of the movie overall mimicking Alice’s feelings, everything’s always the same and soft, so that she doesn't figure out that she is being controlled. I thought that was a very cool way to portray the message.