Midnight in Paris

  Those that know me are well aware of the fact that I'm a huge francophile. According to my sister, I'm even verging on pretentious with it as she gets annoyed when I tell her random French facts daily, speak the language around the house, listen to French music and watch French films. Paris is one of my favourite cities and I'll be studying French at university as my aim is to become fluent. So, it's safe to say that I'm a French keeno. Therefore, it was perfect that I got 'Midnight in Paris' (2011)
as one of my birthday presents.

   The film stars Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers) as Gil Pender, a screenwriter who goes to Paris on holiday with his materialistic fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams- Mean Girls, Wedding Crashers), in order to get inspiration for the novel that he's writing. There, he begins to realise how different their goals as magic happens and he travels back in time to his ideal era- Paris in the 1920s.

  Midnight in Paris is an absolutely stunning film for various reasons. There is something for everyone; history, 'magic', romance, eye candy, comedy, music(lots of cool stuff from the Jazz Age-I had Cole Porter's 'Let's Do It' on repeat for days) and more. There are also many beautiful images of the city that'll you'll fall in love with and want to visit. If you're like me, you'll be hugely chuffed to recognise the places that you've been to.

  In addition, the film's star studded, ensemble cast are brilliant, recognisable faces such as Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose, Inception) , Michael Sheen (Twilight saga), Adrien Brody (King Kong) and Kathy Bates (Titanic). I got to geek out over literary heroes being brought to life and Tom Hiddleston as F Scott Fitzgerald was spot on.

  Midnight in Paris was written and directed by Woody Allen and it's the first film of his that I've seen. I shall definitely be watching more of his films as I really enjoyed this one and the main message that I got from it was that even though the past can sometimes be appealing and seem as an ideal, it is always best to accept the present and live in it. The little squeal that I did whenever French was spoken and I understood it is proof that I've chosen the right degree. Thanks, Woody, for this gem of a film, a welcome breath of fresh air from the action packed films nowadays.

Rating 9.5/10

The Unfamous

  It's hard to pinpoint exactly how I found this 'book'. I actually read it online, on Wattpad; it is apparently going to become a published book soon and the author goes by 'Scotty Unfamous'. 'The Unfamous' is the story of Rio Greene, who starts her first year at Brompton University on a mission to reinvent herself and become 'unfamous'. The story follows the difficulties in Rio's past that make this mission hard to succeed in such as her cheating ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Gibson, and her arch-nemesis, Georgia Daniels, the girl he cheated on her with. The plot is nothing new as the whole idea of a cheating boyfriend wanting to win back the 'love of his life'/ nerdy girl wanting to be popular and changing herself has been done before, but I was still quite excited to read it as I love teen dramas.

    My excitement quickly dimmed. First of all, 'unfamous' is not a word. So, the title actually makes no sense. In fact, I worry that Scotty might have meant to call the book 'The Infamous' but as the letters 'i' and 'u' are next to each other on a keyboard, the whole title could have been a typo that became too late to go back from. Awkward. Secondly, I am completely against colloquialisms/ references to brands in books unless they are used well or ironically. This is because they can make a novel  become outdated, ruining its longevity. For instance, The Unfamous was written in 2010 and  Rio constantly mentions how using a BlackBerry Curve makes her cool and 'part of them'. She also states that anyone without a BlackBerry is a loser as it is THE phone to have and BBM is better than everything. In 2013, the age of the iPhone, I was laughing whilst reading as it is now the opposite and the BlackBerry is now lame. In addition, every time a character wears a designer brand  of clothing, it is mentioned. This got irritating as well as I began to feel that I was reading an advert, not a book. Scotty Unfamous, you do not need to describe every item of clothing that a character is wearing! People read books in order to use their imagination and they are unable to do this if the author spells out everything for them as if they're stupid.

  Thirdly, there was just too much going on. To name a few, there is an abortion, teenage pregnancy, drug use and domestic abuse. There are too many characters in the book; they are not well developed and they're mostly annoying, awful people that ruin each others' lives. So, they all start to merge into one. In the second Unfamous book (yes, I read this as well as I am clearly a masochist), I think Scotty tried to remedy this by switching point of views as the book is written primarily in a first person narrative from Rio. Again, this was not successful and it was laughable as the audience is suddenly meant to believe that these colloquial youths have Shakespearean-esque and somewhat poetic inner voices and monologues. The reader gets a lot of Rio though and in my opinion, she is so hard to like as her 'love' for Nathaniel is incomprehensible and unbelievable as she jumps from one guy to the other.

  It is very obvious that I did not like 'The Unfamous'. The book's target audience is an urban generation and as it is getting a lot of love on Wattpad, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (there's even a web series!), maybe I'm not 'black enough' to fully appreciate it. I say 'black enough' very bitterly but that is a post and rant for another day. Well done on all the success that you've had with it so far though, Scotty Unfamous.

Rating 1/5 *
 

Sister Carrie

   Once again, I have my favourite teacher to thank for introducing me to this book. She recommended it to me in Year 12 when I was doing my AS English coursework, a comparison piece on 'The Great Gatsby' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and she described it as 'a female version of The Great Gatsby'. I researched the book and I was intrigued by it but I only read it a few weeks ago, after finding a copy of it in a charity shop for £1.99! If you like reading and buying books and you're well aware of how expensive it can be to feed this habit, try checking out your local charity shops. Most sell classics that are often in a very good condition quite cheaply but I am going off topic. This post is about Theodore Dreiser's 'Sister Carrie'.

  Published in 1900, Sister Carrie tells the story of a young country girl, Caroline 'Carrie' Meeber, who leaves her rural life in Wisconsin for Chicago, in search of a better life and adventure. On her arrival, she stays with her sister and her husband but dissatisfied with the simplicity and boredom of their lives, as well as how restricted she is living with them, Carrie leaves them and becomes a mistress to wealthy men, before becoming a famous actress.

  Not all critics liked Sister Carrie when it was first published. Some viewed it as vulgar, due to the novel's sexual content. Again, from a 21st century perspective, this is minimal. Some critics believed that the book's title was misleading as the reader is initially led to believe that the titular character is a nun. Others said that the book gave out a negative message to young women, that Carrie's success in her immoral activities would persuade them to follow the same path, hoping for the same success but they'd probably end up living in poverty, the opposite of Carrie's wealth.

  Sister Carrie is similar to The Great Gatsby through the way that both comment on the American Dream and the rise of capitalism and consumerism in Chicago and New York in the early 1900s. Dreiser shows this with the realism in his narrative, which emphasises money, putting a monetary value to everything and materialism with objects and possessions. This realism makes the novel more believable and the novel is written with a detached third person narrative that gives no judgement. So, it is left to the reader to make up his/her mind up on what to judge.

  For me, Sister Carrie was a fantastic read. Although I see where some critics are coming from when they say that Dreiser's descriptions can get lengthy at times, they aid in creating characters that are well developed  and relatable. As I'm now eighteen, I am the same age as Carrie at the beginning of the novel and I still don't agree with some of her choices. Just like Gatsby, I feel like she too suffers from Alfred Adler's 'superiority complex', which is when a person believes that he or she is superior to others and certain situations, and this is why both  characters cannot bear circumstances where they are made to feel inferior.

  Sister Carrie has many brilliant and timeless messages such as how money does not bring about happiness and satisfaction, how little, thoughtless actions can bring about downfall, how greed and desiring more can lead to emptiness and Dreiser also exposes the dark side to human nature, particularly how humans can be selfish in their willingness to 'sponge off' others.

  It's easy to see why Sister Carrie has been called the 'greatest of all American urban novels' and if you're a fan of The Great Gatsby and have always wanted to see what it'd be like with a female lead in a similar situation, I'd say to definitely check out Sister Carrie.

Rating 4/5 ****

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sister-Carrie-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486434680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372098615&sr=8-1&keywords=sister+carrie
 
   On an unrelated note, it was my eighteenth birthday party on Saturday and here are the twin cakes that a friend made for myself and my sister. How awesome are these?! Not only do they look awesome but they tasted awesome as well. Be jel

and salivate.

 

I'm feeling EIGHTEEN!

So. I survived.

*Insert Mel Gibson-esque 'FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM' yell from Braveheart here*

  After over three months of revision, countless hours spent locked in my room, forgetting to eat which lead to numerous headaches and not watching over fifteen hours of television that I recorded on the SKY+ in order to prepare for eight hours and thirty five minutes of exams, I have officially finished my A Level examinations and secondary school. My final exam was on the 14th of June- two and a half hours of French on my 18th birthday! It wasn't too bad though as it was a morning exam and I love French. In fact, my first ever 'serious' exam was GCSE French which I took early in Year 9 and as I'll be doing French at university, it seemed meant to be that I finished my exams with it.

   I am now eighteen years old. Legally an adult. Scary times. What is even more scary is the fact that I'll be off to uni in less than three months and whether or not I'll get into Dream Uni is now completely out of my hands. Gulp.

  However, I refuse to freak out, dwell on or have too many sleepless nights over that. Jeremiah 29:11 is all I have to say. I thank God for getting me through my exams and for letting me live to see eighteen as not everyone is that lucky. I shall now leave you with this picture of one of the birthday cakes that my sister and I received. Yummy yummy, Costco! A review of Theodore Dreiser's 'Sister Carrie' will be coming soon.

Stress Busters!

Exam season is nigh.

   I am on study leave, I've already had two exams and I've got three more big ones to go so I'm definitely in the exam zone. My French oral exam was okay but after some reflection, maybe it wasn't a good idea to start talking about Justin Bieber's recent issues with the press when my teacher asked me to talk about things  and bad influences that can cause delinquency amongst young people...

  But let's not dwell on that. This post is on how to relieve stress. I've already had my 'Oh-my-gosh-I-don't-know-anything-my-exams-will-go-badly-and-I-wont-get-into-Dream-Uni-and-my-life-will-be-over' panic attack/breakdown and now that that's out of the way, I want to help others get over it and power through. Those that know me will know that I encourage all sorts of positiveness and I absolutely loathe when people are negative. Of course, we're only human and we will occasionally had the odd freak out here and there but we shouldn't let this be too often. If you feel yourself become stressed and you are staring at your notes and are about to cry because there's so much to know and you feel like nothing is going in, don't yell at your family members like I did (sorry, Tai). Here are a few methods that work for me that you can try:

1) Take a break. Revising under stress is never a good idea so take a 10-15 minute break to get a drink (tea for me) have a snack, read a chapter of your book, catch up on tweets (unfollow negative people that stress you out if it helps) and normally after this, you'll feel ready to tackle your revision with a clearer mind. In fact, I am currently on a break and I am using it to write this post and blogging is another good stress buster.

2) Listen to some music. I personally have an 'inspirational songs' playlist that may or may not include some Destiny's Child ('Survivor' is my revision fave). This will lift the mood, as long as you stay away from depressing songs about failure. In fact, Magic FM has a 'stress busters' session at night with soothing songs that are good to revise to. ClassicFM is another personally favourite or FranceMusique for French keenos like myself.

3) Watch a few funny YouTube videos. I am a huge fan of Charlie McDonnell, Kingsley and Dan Howell and their videos always make me laugh and feel less stressed. But 'few' is the key word as it is easy to get carried away and spend hours on YouTube. Trust me, I've been there.

4) Knit! I am a keen knitter and I am currently working on a scarf for a baby girl. It is very fun and it is an excellent way to feel less stressed. And yes, people will call you an 'old lady' for doing it but who cares because unlike them, you won't be stressed and revision might even become dare I say it, 'fun'.

5) Set yourself revision challenges. During GCSE study leave, my sister and I set ourselves the challenge of learning Nicki Minaj's 'Superbass' in our revision breaks. It sounds weird but it definitely made revision more interesting! We haven't picked a rap for this year yet though...

6) Finally, I find making a revision timetable very efficient. With this, you can make sure that you're revising all subjects and you have a set time to start and finish each day. In addition, you can make the timetable suit you and how you work. For example, I like to sleep in so I normally start revising at around 1pm and I can revise till midnight, and I stop to catch up on the TV that I've missed in the day/ watch a film till about 4am.

That's all, folks. If exams don't finish me, I'll be back. Till then, happy revisin'!

Random acts of kindness

 
Hi.

    So, it turns out that my French oral exam is actually next week and not this week like it was supposed to be due to circumstances beyond my control. Most people would have been overjoyed by the prospect of having an extra week to revise but not me. I was quite bitter about it for a while (I ranted to anyone who would listen) because I was really ready to have it this week and I don't like to over revise as that just allows panic to set in and you can often start to forget things. However, I got over my anger and I've decided to take this as a blessing. Maybe this extra week of practice will help me get that A* instead of an A (but I would be very very chuffed with an A, that's all dream uni is asking for).

  Due to all this extra revision, I haven't had much time to read for fun (sad times). Therefore, this will not be a book reviewing post, unfortunately. I want to talk about random acts of kindness and doing nice things to surprise people. I'm often told that I tend to go over the top for birthday presents. For example, I once gave someone £50 because he was my first friend at the second school that I go to. He wasn't expecting it at all which made it even better. I made a friend a scarf and another a tie because I'd promised them months earlier that I'd do it. They were shocked that I remembered my promise when I gave it to them as well as being surprised at the fact that I had also bought them cakes. Another example which I view as one of the best things that I've ever done is the time that I gave my bestfriend tickets to meet Justin Bieber. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love Justin Bieber but seeing her face and how happy it made her to meet him was a reward to me in itself. OTT, I know, but they all deserved it.

  So, why do I do this? I think that great people deserve great things, especially if they're good friends. I also make a big deal of birthdays because being one year older is something that we shouldn't take for granted as not everyone in the world is that lucky.

  Hopefully, I'll have a book post soon but now, I shall leave you with the 'cookie cake' that inspired this post. He said, "Why are you doing this for me?" I said, "Because we're friends!" And the fact that he didn't expect it is exactly why he got it.

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

  Bonjour! This post shall be en français as I have a French oral exam in two weeks (yikes!). So, I need to practice, practice and practice! 

  ‘Le Bourgeois gentilhomme’ est la raison principale pour ma place à l’université de mes rêves. Pourquoi, vous demandez ? C’est parce que pendant l’interview, les profs et moi ont discuté ce livre (qui est aussi une pièce) pour quelques minutes et je pense que le livre me fait sembler profonde, MDR.

  

   Je dois avouer (avec un peu d’honte) que j’ai fini le livre en quatre mois car je suis une fille paresseuse…non, je plaisante. Je  ne l’ai lu guère à cause du fait que je n’ai pas beaucoup de temps de lire en ce moment à cause de la stresse de mon année finale à l’école. Ajoutons à cela le fait que je tergiverse beaucoup.

  

   Je voudrais dire que je suis une étudiante de français qui est très dédiée et donc, j’ai découvert Le Bourgeois gentilhomme moi-même mais  malheureusement, ce n’est pas le cas. Ma professeure préférée m’a donné le livre avec plusieurs autres comme un cadeau quand elle a quitté le pays et mon collège pour enseigner au Viêt-Nam ! Merci beaucoup, Mademoiselle Emma.

  

   Le Bourgeois gentilhomme est une pièce par le dramaturge et l’auteur français, ‘Molière’ qui est né Jean Baptiste Poquelin. Il est souvent cité comme un de maîtres de comédies le plus grand dans l’histoire de la littérature du monde Occidental et son talent avec la comédie est évident dans cet œuvre.

  

   Le récit est d’un homme, Monsieur Jourdain qui a une ambition et c’est qu’il veut être «noble». Pour réaliser son rêve, il fait de nombreuses choses bêtes ; par exemple, il fait des leçons avec un maître d’armes, un maître à danser, un maître de musique, un maître de philosophie, il veut que sa fille épouse seulement un homme avec «un  grand nom» et plus. Monsieur Jourdain est un homme très simple et donc, il est souvent trompé par des gens qui lui flatte pour recevoir des choses et sa femme, Madame Jourdain, la seule voix de raison dans la comédie est régulièrement agitée.

  

  Molière inclure des moments pour les chansons, les danses et le ballet dans cette pièce et on peut dire que c’est en fait une comédie musicale. Je l’ai trouvé absolument hilare et j’ai ri beaucoup en le lisant. D’abord, le titre est un oxymore- ce n’est pas possible d’être un gentilhomme et bourgeois au même temps- on est né en noblesse, on ne peut pas le devenir. Avec les tentatives de Monsieur Jourdain, Molière fait la satire du monde des classes supérieures et leurs pratiques ridicules dans le 17^ème siècle. Il me semble que Molière a voulu partager le message que quoi qu’une personne soit «noble» ou «riche», cette personne n’est pas nécessairement meilleure que les autres. Je crois que c’est un thème très fort qui est aussi valable de nos jours car beaucoup de gens veulent être «bourgeois».

   

   Ma seule critique est l’utilisation de plusieurs danses et chansons mais peut-être je ne suis pas familière avec le style de Molière. En guise de conclusion, je suis très heureuse que j’ai fini (finalement !) cette pièce et je vais lire sans aucun doute une autre œuvre de Molière quand j’ai plus de temps. 

Rating 4/5 ****

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Le-Bourgeois-gentilhomme-Moli%C3%A8re/dp/2210760771