Changing Paths

I am sitting here in my room in Nijmegen, surrounded by clothes, books, and a random bag filled with clothes hangers. So yeah guess what, I am moving soon!

Normally I would start out this blog by apologising for not updating, or giving the reasons for being absent, but let's just skip all that stuff right now because it is boring and I do not want to even think about it.

But yeah, moving. I am so so keen to actually move because I have this weird obsession with putting stuff in boxes and just generally packing- it's weird. Moreover, the day when I actually move is right after my last exam (or well not last because I got one ticket straight to the resits but let's just yeah, just no.) so I am really looking forward to that. I am so glad when this school year is over. It has stressed me out majorly and I just want to be done with it at this point. I'm doing that thing again were I write negative stuff right? Enough of that.

Well, there are these pretty awesome things I have to look forward to. Firstly: Pinkpop! I AM SO EXCITED. I was really bummed out earlier when I could not get tickets for the whole weekend, but I am over that now (lies). I am really looking forward to seeing Ed Sheeran live again, because let's face it he is just perfection live. And then there's The Arctic Monkeys who've become one of my favourite bands over the past year. Two weeks left!

Secondly, there's Exeter. Applying has been a real hassle, but everything worked out in the end and my application has finally been sent. I'm going to be following two courses: One on Shakespeare and one on Film Adaptations. Expectations: high.

I feel like I am cramming a lot of stuff in this one post really badly. But I guess this concludes my little life-update thingy.

On to what I've been watching lately. I know I was supposed to upload a few reviews but I just have not had any time for it, and have put my little project on hold till the summer vacation starts.

I can't say which films I will be reviewing yet, except for Philomena (which I already announced). I have seen a lot of films lately, some better than others. I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier which was very enjoyable, AND I saw Godzilla. Yeah, it was bad. I also watched Spirited Away which I most likely will be reviewing, and on my watchlist are The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (by Wes Anderson) and Lars and the Real Girl (starring Ryan Gosling).

As far as series go, I finally finished watching Twin Peaks. And I really really love this series and one day I will explain why, but that last episode really was a slap in the face. It was brilliant, but it also made me a tiny bit mad. However, I have not watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me yet, so my blog on Twin Peaks will probably arrive after I watch that film. I also started watching Kings (starring Sebastian Stan) and I am actually really enjoying it. Or well, it causes me emotional pain, but in a good way. Also it has Seb Stan and I like his acting (and his face).

Oh I should probably mention a few films I had to watch for an adaptation course I have been following. We had to watch an adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles that was set in modern day India, and I rather enjoyed watching that one. It's called Trishna and its critical reviews might not be that good, but I like how they took an old story and show how many of the problems faced by women in the Victorian time are still in a way faced by many today. I ended up enjoying it more than the novel, even though that was not such a stretch because I rather disliked the novel. We also had to watch Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992), and I fucking hated it. Dear god I could go on and on about that film, but the two word conclusion would just be that it's utter shit. I loved reading Dracula and I think it's a great novel, and the film just took that story and fucked it up massively. I know this might seem a bit harsh, but it just made me mad how overly sexualised and  overtly sexist the film was. I mean I don't care if you want to 'spice up' that Victorian sexual repression but this was just ridiculous. "Hey Mina let's read this sexually suggestive book and giggle really hard". The women were portrayed like stereotypical schoolgirls in my eyes, while one of them got relegated to being part of a love triangle, because of course, why would you not. The visuals were okay I guess, I just did not like the overly melodramatic style. It was like watching a cult film gone horribly wrong, and most cult films already raise a lot of questions but this one just got me asking the wrong ones. For example: why is Jonathan Harker's nipple bleeding like a fountain? Or, why does Jonathan not get suspicious when he sees Dracula floating to him when they first meet while wearing your grandma's wedding dress and Elizabeth I's wig? So many questions.

Okay I think that concludes my rambling nicely. Oh and pay special attention to my vaguely pretentious title. Even I don't know why.

Life Update

Ha ha ha. Isn't it funny how I've already failed at completing the first leg of my film challenge?
Not so much.

I've been extremely busy lately, doing fun things and not so fun school related things, and I just ran out of time and energy to complete my goal. Applying for Exeter University is a complete pain in the ass, which is all due to my home university just simply not having their shit together, and it's causing me a certain amount of stress (to put it lightly).

Because of this I have decided I will only review the films I find worth reviewing for the coming time, but I will still watch four a month.

The last film I wacthed last month was Philomena, and I will review that one in my next blogpost, and talk a bit about the other films I've watched.

I'll go back to stressing about university now, and will post something a bit more interesting soon :)

Something Great and Something Frozen

Here we go, my first review. I guess I will just start with the film I enjoyed watching the most, which was The Grand Budapest Hotel, by far.

Set in the interbellum period, the film centers on Gustave H., concierge at the Grand Budapest Hotel, and a lobby boy named Zero. The latter eventually comes to own The Grand Budapest Hotel through a series of events, that all start with the death of one of Gustave's (elderly) lovers. (I am shit at summarising without spoiling so like, watch a trailer or something)

This film is actually the newest addition to my favourite films list. I absolutely love it and I've seen it twice already (no regrets jo). So what makes Wes Anderson's newest creation so enjoyable to watch?

I guess one of the things that I enjoyed about it was just Anderson's general style. I have only seen one other film by him, namely Moonrise Kingdom. I thought that one was quite alright, but certainly inferior to The Grand Budapest Hotel. The similarities are there though, as Anderson's characters always have some kind of quirky differentness (is this a word idk it works for me). I love the dry humour in these films, and when I saw the Grand Budapest the second time it kinda reminded me of (Looney Tunes) cartoons: breaking out of jail by putting tools in a cake, feet sticking out of a thick layer of snow, people chasing each other at great speed. (I know this must sound really random to anyone who hasn't seen the film yet). To be honest, this kind of humour could have easily failed, but for some reason it doesn't. The film just has this combination of slightly weird and really cool, which always works.

Turning to aesthetics, I am just a sucker for the symmetric shots that Anderson seems to love. Maybe it has something to do with me being a person who likes things to be clear and in order, but holy damn do I love his cinematography. He also makes use of very vibrant colours, and I thought the way that the miniatures are so obviously miniatures works really well: it gives the film a vintage feel- which then also ties in with the time periods the film is set in.

And then there are the actors. Jude Law (need I say more? I won't), Ralph Fiennes darling, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton; it is just one huge parade of big names- names that pop up in most Wes Anderson films. Fiennes and the less well-known Tony Revolori worked well together as the two main characters, although I enjoyed Edward Norton's character most, prancing around in a big coat à la Macklemore, owning the place.

Although the film is rather comical and just radiates happy feels, there are some bleaker subjects dealt with in the film: war, murder, shitty families, opportunism, loneliness etc. However, Anderson sprinkles these rather heavy subjects with some kind of magical fairy dust making the film rather light (although the ending made me feel slightly sad), without totally erasing the graveness of these heavier undertones.

To conclude, I fucking love this film. Go see it. I am gonna watch some more Wes Anderson soon, probably starting with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.


Aaaaand, on to the next. Yes, I finally watched Frozen. I kept hearing that it is 'such an awesome film omg let it go is so awesome omg'. Yeah, let's just start with this: I am not particularly someone who enjoys Disney films. As a child I stuck to The 101 Dalmatians and Snow White, and I maybe saw all the other Disney classics like once? I really could not be bothered, such a rebel. While many of my friends are Disney obsessed (here's looking at you Silvana), I am also looked at with such contempt by them for not being into Disney that much (I'm exaggerating of course don't hate me guys). But in fairness, nowadays a lot of people my age really have this intense love for Disney, let's call it Disney nostalgia, and if you haven't seen every film at least a few times it's like 'what have you done with your life dude?'. Anyway, I thus felt rather compelled to watch Frozen. So I did.

And here it is guys, I did not think it was so awesome at all. I find it kind of difficult to review this film, because in fairness, it is a children's film, so the humour is really obvious, the plot is obvious, everything is fucking obvious. So what could be the appeal of this film to people my age? I heard many people rave about Let it Go, so I guess the music is a big plus for some people. I hated almost every song, except the one with the little tiny trolls (which then all my friends hated). Of course, this is just down to taste, I am not a big fan of musical films anyway. Soooo what then? The humour? This film has some quite depressing characters in it (Elsa was such a bore), but there were some funny elements.

As you can see I am a bit at a loss to what could make this film appealing to people my age. So please help me out if you loveeeeee this film and just let me know why :). For me the best part of the movie was Sven. Because come on guys he was so fucking cute I can't deal with it. Also, if Christoph was a real dude I would marry him immediately (Sven being his pet being one of the reasons of course). But yeah to me what it came down to was cuteness, the film was kinda cute at some points. And to be perfectly honest that was about it. It has all the Disney elements: person who has problem, parents are killed off (spoilers), magic happens, evil people appear, nice people appear, love happens, everyone happy. Why does it stand out? I could not say, but it does not for me and I will not be watching it again, although I will reblog gifs of Sven like cray.

The next animation I am watching won't be a Disney film, just because I am pretty sure I will run into the same problem, as Disney always seems to have the same formula, which works for a lot of people so keep it up guys.

Woooo this has turned out to be quite a read, but if you do make your way through it, you are lovely.

Devon? Cornwall? Exeter?!!

I don't even know how to start this post so I'm just gonna dive right into it. I AM GOING TO EXETER. For half a year. To study. At a really nice university! O.M.G.

Yes, the day was yesterday, and the news hit like a train driving into a station (like a really big station like Utrecht Centraal where the train halts every 5 minutes and shit). So I came home after a wonderful syntax class, opened my laptop and the first thing I saw were all these messages of my peers flooding Facebook, announcing they were going to all these awesome universities. By that time my adrenaline levels were sky-high- to put this into contrast my adrenaline rises even by checking grades online and watching dumb Steven Seagal films (which I don't do this is a lie). I immediately called my sis to get her to check the mail for me. Now asking my sister to do this did make it that much more exciting. She was like: "ah yeah there is a letter.....what you want me to do?" So of course I told her to open it and then she asked me if I wanted her to read it out with a tone that implied it was the weirdest request ever?!?! Which it obviously was. And then she was like ah it says University of Exeter.....

So that was a bit of a shock. I did not really know what to do with that information? It was this weird mix of disappointment and excitement, with that voice in the back of my mind saying "told you so bitch". Since the University of Kent was my first choice I was hoping for that, but then again I have learned to not get my hopes up too much. Long story short, I had a lot of stuff going on in my mind and a lot to process.

Kent is a no-go, abort mission, put it out of your mind, don't be miserable about it.

And to be honest I could not be miserable about it even if I tried. I am super excited to go to Exeter, and I accepted it pretty fast. I have this weird train of thought that is something along the lines of: "there is probably a reason for this, just accept it".

I have. And now the difficult part starts. I have to choose courses, explore what the uni is about, explore what the city is about, find out how to get there, figure out housing, get registered, make the arrangements to move out of my place in Nijmegen (which is kinda sad after all), do all this official shit involving contracts and papers and ugh, I CAN'T WAIT.

No more waiting, no more doubt, I'm going to Exeter.
(and it feels great to say)

Film Challenge

Well hello my trusty readers. I might have given this post the most misleading name ever. It kinda sounds like one of those challenges those cool youtubers do, but no, I must disappoint you as this post is nothing like that. I apologise.

So what exactly is this mystic thing I've named 'film challenge'. Well, a few weeks ago I had some kind of epiphany. I've been struggling with posting frequently on my blog because I do not want to bore everyone to death talking about petty episodes of my life- because lets be honest who cares? Next to that, I also have this kinda stupid problem that whenever I tell myself I am going to have a film night I just end up watching videos on youtube all night or doing other stupid shit, like browsing the forever21 website and crying because I cannot buy the 100 euros worth of clothes I threw into the shopping cart. ANYWAY. Combining these two problems, I came up with a single solution. I have decided that every week I will watch a film that I will review on here (YAAAAY), so I can not only get more comfortable with writing, but also watch all the films I have been planning to see for a very long time but I have just never gotten down to seeing.

How big are the chances I am gonna fuck this up and not reach the one film a week? Pretty big. To cut myself some slack I'll probably not review them all seperately, but maybe talk about two or three in one post. I will try to have some variation in the types of films I watch, including classics (because I love classics), and animation films because I tend to ignore those.

Okay so for this month I have chosen: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Psycho, Frozen, and Philomena. I already saw the first two and I'm probably going to rave about them because they are epic, and also the newest editions to my favourite films list. I chose Frozen because then I can finally see what all the fucking fuss is about, and Philomena because I heard it's pretty heartbreaking and since the other ones aren't really, it seems like a good pick.

For me, this is something to look forward to and I am pretty excited about it! I'm also planning to reinvent my blog, which is sorely needed because it looks like shit. Sadly I suck at anything involving computers so this is probably going to take forever since I have to get my brother to do it for me. And he is a lazy bastard. And I probably do not have time to boss him around in the near future. However, I have now announced it and it will truly happen- someday.

I was planning on also writing a bit about how I still haven't heard from uni about studying abroad, but ignoring it makes me feel better about life so I won't expand on that. The same goes for Wuthering Heights, which I have been reading and hating. Oh god this book. I hate it with a burning passion. But hey I might be able to shed some more light on both of these matters in a bit, so for now, c'est tout.

Exciting Times

As I have fought off most of my post-concert depression I thought it was about time to blog about some pretty epic experiences I had the past few days. Or actually experiences might not be the right word to use because I have not actually experienced half of the things that made these days amazing BUT WHATEVER. Let's not deflect.

To begin with the subject at hand, I went to a concert wednesday and it was freaking amazing. I think I might've mentioned it before but we went to see Bastille, who happen to put together a fucking awesome show. It was just a perfect day. Some of my friends from back home came to crash at my place, and together with some of my uni friends we ventured to Amsterdam. I think I speak for all of them when I say that we absolutely love the band, and thus were very very excited to see them. One of my friends had not been to a concert since forever and I think we converted her to the dark side (money-wise that is), as she said she is now going to try to go to concerts more often. I honestly do not blame her because concerts might just be the best things in life. As for Bastille, they were amazing. They are great live performers, and they played some new stuff which was nice. The interaction with the crowd was really down to earth, no Alex Turner vibes going on there whatsoever, and the lead singer's awkward dancing was just an invitation to bust out some moves. I realise I am really shit at explaining why it was so awesome but it really was and you guys are just going to have to take my word for it. Also, If you have not heard of Bastille -which I think is unlikely, especially if you are Dutch and listen to 3FM a lot because they as good as adopted them- go check them out. Now.

As expected, I went through a post-concert dip the day after, which actually was a pretty good reason to skip some classes too. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's called Pinkpop. My friends and I have been going to this festival for years now, and it has become some what of a tradition - which pretty much means we go regardless of the line-up. The last two years the line-up was a bit so so but this year's has blown away my expections. I'm getting my ticket tomorrow, so that's something to look forward to. (I may seem calm but I'm SO EXCITED).

On top of all that I will probably hear where I am going on exchange in about two weeks. So yeah, another thing to freak out about. It's hard putting together a good blog post when you're high on life.

Motivation Letter

Dear Sir/Madam,

As I contemplated writing this letter, I had not foreseen the difficulties I would run into. The purpose of this letter is to tell you why I want to study abroad, and in some way or another I have to convince you to let me go to the university of my choice. Now I think you've read all the clichés before, which makes writing this extra difficult for me. As I sit here, staring at a blank plage, I cannot contrive a single sentence that isn't anything you haven't read before. Or well I can, but I hardly think that would land me a spot on the next train to Britain. So now let me change it up a bit. Let me be brutally honest with you. You guys should send me to the University of Kent. I could tell you now how much I want to go there, how it would look good on my resume, how it would improve my English accent, and how terrific the experience would be for me. These reasons are of course inherently good reasons, and I believe these things with all my heart. However, I hardly believe these reasons are any different from the next person's. So why would you send me to England? Well, because I want to go. I want to go to England because I've been in love with the country since forever (cliché). I love their weird habits and values, the way they eat sunday roast and weird pudding thingies that are actually some kind of bready-substance (cliché). I love the language, and all it's imperfections and the way that it does not make any sense at all (cliché). I love how the British treasure the remnants of their past, how they do not knock down 5 billion year old cottages but keep them alive and charge you 25 pounds to come anywhere near it (cliché). I want to spend my money on that. I want to spend all my money on having a good time, meeting people from all over the world, and spending even more money with them. I will stop summing up reasons for me to go - as it's all becoming a bit too much like 10 Things I Hate about You - to again come to the conclusion that all these reasons also add up to one big cliché. It seems I cannot escape it. I want to go to the United Kingdom. You are the people deciding who can go. Maybe you don't even look at the reasons people have to go, maybe you just look at their grammar, their spelling, how they sell themselves. I would lose in that last section, as selling myself was never one of my strongest points. I guess by writing this letter, and sending it in, I am putting all my money on you guys appreciating my honesty. Because when it really comes to why I want to go to the University of Kent, there are certainly some boring reasons I can write down here, but there's also that tiny voice in my head that's asking me 'yeah, why do you want to go?' But as you guys are academics, you don't rely on hunches, on feelings. So I won't tell you that the city of Canterbury just speaks to me. Instead I'll tell you about it's wonderful courses, it's proximity to London, and the cultural attraction it has to me. Now doesn't that make me sound like I know what I'm babbling about? Yeah, I thought so. So here it is judges, my motivation letter. It's a whole lot of nonsense with the hidden message of 'pick me, pick me'!

With Kind Regards,
Bonnie van den Bergh