[Film] A Single Man - Tom Ford

Story of a single man... His struggle with being alive... This beautiful movie drags you in every way with its story and every single frame. A not to miss performance by Colin Firth and a stunning directing performance by Tom Ford (photo below), from "A Single Man"...

Waking up begins with saying 'am' and 'now'. For the past eight months waking up has actually hurt. The cold realization that I'm still here slowly sets in. I was never terribly fond of waking up. I was never one to jump out of bed and greet the day with a smile like Jim was. I used to want to punch him sometimes in the morning he was so happy. I always used to tell him that only fools greet the day with a smile that only fools possibly escape the simple truth... that now isn't simply now. It's a cold reminder. One day later than yesterday. One year later than last year. And that sooner or later it will come. He used to laugh at me and then give me kiss on the cheek.

**

- Just get through the goddamn day.

**

- Of course, the Nazis were wrong to hate the Jews. But their hating the Jews was not without a cause. It's just that the cause wasn't real. The cause was imagined. The cause was fear. Let's leave the Jews out of this just for a moment. Let's think of another minority. One that... One that can go unnoticed if it needs to. There are all sorts of minorities, blondes for example or people with freckles. But a minority is only thought of as one when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority. A real threat or an imagined one. And therein lies the fear. If the minority is somehow invisible then the fear is much greater. That fear is why the minority is persecuted. So, you see there always is a cause. The cause is fear. Minorities are just people. People like us.

**

- We always seem to get stuck talking about the past. The past just doesn't matter to me.

- The present?

- I can't wait for the present to be over. It's a total drag. Well, tonight is the exception.

- What? Tonight, yes! The present, no!

- Let's drink to tonight.

- Tonight. ...So if the past doesn't matter and the present is a total drag. What about the future?

- What future? Cuba might just blow us up.

- Death is the future. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be depressing.

- It's not depressing.

- It's not depressing, it's true. It may not be your immediate future but it's what we all share. Death is the future.

- You're right, I guess.

- If one is not enjoying one's present there isn't a great deal to suggest that the future should be any better.

- Yeah, I've thought that before. But the thing is you just never know. Look at tonight. Actually I feel really alone most of the time.

- You do?

- Yeah. I've always felt this way. I mean we're born alone, we die alone. And while we're here we are absolutely, completely sealed in our own bodies. Really weird. Kinda freaks me out to think about it. We can only experience the outside world through our own slanted perception of it. Who knows what you're really like? I just see what I think you're like.

- I'm exactly what I appear to be. If you look closely.

- You know the only thing that has made the whole thing worthwhile has been those few times that I've been able to really, truly connect with another human being. I had a hunch about you, sir.

- You did?

- Yes, sir. I had a hunch you might be a real romantic. You know, everyone keeps telling you that when you're older, that you'll have all this experience. Like it's some great thing. That's a load of shit.

- I think I've actually just gotten sillier and sillier.

- Really?

- Absolutely.

- So, all your experience is useless.

- No, I wouldn't say that. As our friend Mr. Huxley says: Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.

- Let's go swimming.

- Okay.

- What?

- It was a test.

- I thought you were bluffing about being silly so I said to myself I'll suggest doing something completely outrageous. And if he resists, if he even hesitates then I know he's full of shit.

- Well, I wasn't. Were you?

- Hell, no!

**

A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity. When for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think. And things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them but like everything they fade. I've lived my live on these moments. They pull me back to the present and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

[Film] The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne & Mark Herman

Irish author John Boyne's book... Mark Herman writes the screenplay and directs the movie. The story of a young boy who is discovering the facts of World War II's Germany through his innocent friendship with a young Jewish boy... 

From the devastating movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...

- How old are you?

- Eight.

- Me, too!

- It's not fair, me being stuck over here on my own, while you're over there,

playing with friends all day. 

- Playing?

- Well, that number. Isn't it a part of a game or something?

- It's just my number. Everyone gets given a different number.

**

- Can I ask you something? Why do people wear pyjamas all day?

- They are not pyjamas.

- Well, those?

- We have to. They took all our clothes away.

- Who did?

- The soldiers.

- The soldiers? Why?

- ... I don't like soldiers. Do you?

- I do, quite. My dad's a soldier, but not the sort that takes people's clothes away for no reason.

- What sort, then?

- Well, he's the important sort. He's in charge of making everything better for everyone. So, is your dad a farmer?

- No, he's a watchmaker. Or was. Most of the time now, he just mends boots.

- It's funny how grown-ups can't make their minds up about what they want to do. It's like Pavel. Do you know him? Lives over there. He used to be a doctor, but gave it all up to peel potatoes.

**

- Can I ask you another question? What do you burn in those chimneys? I saw them going the other day. Is it just lots of hay and stuff?

- I don't know. We're not allowed over there. Mama says it's old clothes.

- Well, whatever it is, it smells horrid.

**

[Film] Fight Club - David Fincher

Yeraltı edebiyatının büyük dehalarından Chuck Palahniuk'un yazdığı Fight Club (Dövüş Kulübü), David Fincher tarafından 1999'da sinemaya uyarlandı. Senaryosunu Jim Uhls yazdı.

**

David Fincher adapted this great underground novel Fight Club by American novelist Chuck Palahniuk into a film of the same name; Jim Uhls wrote the screenplay. 

--SCROLL DOWN FOR ENGLISH--

İnsanlar bana hep Tyler Durden'ı tanıyor muyum diye soruyorlar.

...

- 3 dakika... İşte bu: Sıfır noktası. Günün anlam ve önemine dair bir şeyler söylemek ister misin?

Dişlerinin arasında silah namlusuyla yalnızca sesli harfler çıkarabilirsin.

- Hiçbir şey düşünemiyorum.

Bir an için, Tyler'ın kontrol ettiği imha olayını unutup o silahın ne kadar temiz olduğunu merak ettim.

**

Farklı bir zamanda, farklı bir yerde uyanırsan farklı bir insan olarak uyanabilir misin? Seyahat ettiğim her yerde küçük hayatlar... Tek kullanımlık şeker, tek kullanımlık krema, tek kullanımlık yağ... Mikro dalgada ısıtılan Cordon Blue... Şampuan-krem karışımları... Numune diş macunu, küçük bar sabunlar... Her uçuşta tanıştığım insanlar, tek kullanımlık arkadaşlar... Kalkış ve uçuş arasında zamanı paylaşıyoruz. Elimize geçen tek şey bu.

**

- Sana vurmamı mı istiyorsun?

- Hadi, yap bu iyiliği bana.

- Neden?

- Bilmiyorum neden. Hiç kavga etmedim, sen ettin mi?

- Hayır ama bu iyi bir şey.

- Kendin yapmadan nereden bilebilirsin ki! Yara izim olmadan ölmek istemiyorum. Hadi, vur bana cesaretim geçmeden.

- Tanrı'm, bu delilik.

- Delir öyleyse, bırak kopsun.

- Bilemiyorum.

- Ben de öyle; ama kimin umurunda? Kimse izlemiyor. Niye tasalanıyorsun?

- Bu delilik. Sana vurmamı istiyorsun?

- Doğru.

- Nasıl? Suratının ortasına mı yani?

- Şaşırt beni.

- Bu çok aptalca.

...

- O... çocuğu! Kulağıma vurdun!

**

- Biriyle dövüşmeyi seçecek olsan kiminle dövüşürdün?

- Patronumla herhalde.

- Gerçekten mi?

- Evet. Neden? Sen kiminle dövüşürdün?

- Babamla.

- Ben babamı tanımıyorum. Yani, onu tanıyorum; fakat ben 6 yaşındayken bizi terk etti, başka bir kadınla evlendi ve başka çocukları oldu. Her 6 yılda bir bunu yapıyor. Yeni bir şehre gidiyor ve yeni bir aile kuruyor.

- Herif şube açıyor desene!

**

- Beyler, Dövüş Kulübü'ne hoş geldiniz. Dövüş Kulübü'nün ilk kuralı, Dövüş Kulübü hakkında konuşmayacaksınız. Dövüş Kulübü'nün ikinci kuralı, Dövüş Kulübü hakkında konuşmayacaksınız. Dövüş Kulübü’nün üçüncü kuralı biri "Dur!" derse, topallarsa, nazikçe dokunursa dövüş biter. Dördüncü kural, bir dövüş başına 2 kişi. Beşinci kural, aynı anda tek bir dövüş beyler! Altıncı kural, gömlek yok, ayakkabı yok. Yedinci kural, dövüşler gerektiği kadar sürer. Sekizinci ve son kural, eğer bu Dövüş Kulübü'nde ilk gecenizse dövüşmek zorundasınız.

--ENGLISH--

People always ask me if I know Tyler Durden.

...

- Three minutes. This is it. Ground zero. Want to say a few words for the occasion?

With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.

- I can't think of anything.

For a second, I forget about Tyler's controlled demolition thing and I wonder how clean that gun is.

**

If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave cordon bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos. Sample package mouthwash. Tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight, they're single-serving friends. Between takeoff and landing, we have our time together, but that's all we get.

**

- You just want me to hit you?

- Come on. Do me this one favor.

- Why?

- I don't know. Never been in a fight. You?

- No. But that's a good thing.

- You can't know yourself if you haven't. I don't wanna die without any scars. Come on. Hit me, before I lose my nerve.

- Oh, God. This is crazy.

- So go crazy! Let it rip.

- I don't know about this.

- I don't either. Who gives a shit? No one's watching. What do you care?

- This is crazy. You want me to hit you?

- That's right.

- Where? Like, in the face?

- Surprise me.

- This is so fucking stupid.

...

- Motherfucker! You hit me in the ear!

**

- If you could choose, who would you fight?

- I'd fight my boss, probably.

- Really?

- Yeah. Why? Who would you fight?

- I'd fight my dad.

- I don't know my dad. I mean, I know him, but he left when I was, like, six years old. Married this other woman and had some other kids. He did this every six years. He moves another city and starts a new family.

- Fucker's setting up franchises.

**

- Gentlemen! Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club! Third rule of Fight Club: someone yells "stop," goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule: one fight at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

[Film] No Country for Old Men - Ethan & Joel Coen

Another fabulous movie from Coen Brothers after Big Lebowski: No Country for Old Men (2007). It was adapted into the screen from Pulitzer Award winning author Cormac McCarthy's novel (2005). 

 - [...] A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, "O.K., I'll be part of this world."

**

- Are you going to shoot me?

- That depends. Do you see me? 

**

- Whatcha got ain't nothin new. This country's hard on people, you can't stop what's coming, it ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity. 

**

- You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of bitches that're huntin' him?

- I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me.

**

- Just how dangerous is he?

- Compared to what? The bubonic plague? 

**

- Did I say you could sit?

- No, but you strike me as a man who wouldn't want to waste his chair.

**

- Sheriff, was that a true story about Charlie Walser?

- Who's Charlie Walser? Oh! Well... uh... a true story? I couldn't swear to every detail but it's certainly true that it is a story. 

**

- I always figured when I got older, God would sorta come inta my life somehow. And he didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I would have the same opinion of me that he does. 

**

- Do you have any idea how crazy you are?

- You mean the nature of this conversation?

- I mean the nature of you.

[Film] The Merchant of Venice - Michael Radford

From The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare... The screen writer and the director of the movie is Michael Radford. He also wrote the screenplay of "1984" -the famous novel by George Orwell- and directed it. I highly recommend you to read the play first. 

Shylock: If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what's his reason? I am a Jew! Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands? Organs, dimensions? Senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food? Hurt with the same weapons? Subject to the same diseases? Healed by the same means? Warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me I will execute. And it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. 

**

Portia: You see me, lord Bassanio, where I stand, such as I am. [...] Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit commits itself to yours to be directed as by her governor, her lord, her king. This house, these servants, and this same myself are yours, my lord's. I give them with this ring, which when you part from, lose or give away, let it presage the ruin of your love. And give me vantage to exclaim on you. 

**

Bassanio: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt but being seasoned with a gracious voice obscures the show of evil? In religion, what damned error but some sober brow will bless it and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness with fair... ornament? Look on beauty and you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight. Therefore, thou gaudy gold, I will none of you. Nor none of you, O pale and common drudge between man and man. But you, O meagre lead, which rather threatenest than dost promise aught, your paleness moves me more... than eloquence. Here choose I. Joy be the consequence. 

[Film] Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick adapted William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon into a movie in 1975. "An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's position in 18th Century aristocracy," says IMDb. I only include narrator's words in this post since I find them the most powerful and the most genius.

No lad who has liberty for the first time, and twenty guineas in his pocket, is very sad, and Barry rode towards Dublin thinking not so much of the kind mother left alone, and of the home behind him, but of tomorrow, and all the wonders it would bring. 

**

A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life will be but a sad one. This heart of Lischen's was like many a neighboring town and had been stormed and occupied several times before Barry came to invest it. 

**

It would require a great philosopher and historian to explain the causes of the famous Seven Years' War in which Europe was engaged and in which Barry's regiment was now on its way to take part. Let it suffice to say that England and Prussia were allies and at war against the French, the Swedes, the Russians and the Austrians. 

**

Fate had determined that he should leave none of his race behind him, and that he should finish his life poor, lonely and childless. 

**

Utterly baffled and beaten, what was a lonely and broken-hearted man to do? Barry took the annuity and returned to Ireland with his mother to complete his recovery. Sometime later, he travelled to the Continent. His life there, we have not the means of following accurately. But he appears to have resumed his former profession of a gambler without his former success. He never saw [...] again. 

**

Epilogue:

It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor they are all equal now.