Thursday Movie Picks-Scandinavian films

Ooooh aren't you all excited by this amazing adventure into Scandanavian cinema:) I know you will lining up to see these films.hahahahaaaa. Head on over to Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the other gang have chosen. I am betting The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will be popular. I have chosen a theme in a theme since I have limited knowledge and the theme is Ingmar Bergman, the great Swedish director.  I call my list the Good, The Bad and the WTF??

1. THE SEVENTH SEAL-1957

I love this film and find it so richly layered and thought provoking. It takes place during the Middle Ages just after one of the Crusades. A young knight, played by Max Von Sydow( you know him as the old priest in The Exorcist) who plays chess with Death to bide time until he can find a way to make his life a difference. He is jaded, tired and questioning his faith. He meets a very young couple who are jugglers and have hope amidst the war, plague and threat of being called a witch. I love the image of death here and it has often been parodied from Saturday Night Live to Monty Python. Well worth seeing. This is the good.

2. ALL THESE WOMEN-1964

Ughhh this is bad....blechhh bad. Bergman tried to make a comedy and it didn't work. I saw it in a film class and our Prof. was trying to tell us it was full of nuances. We were all just groaning...bad, bad, bad. I'm trying to recall the plot....something about a man from the 1920's  who is involved with all these women. Considering Bergman was involved with Bibi Anderson and Liv Ullmann maybe he was thinking about himself...who knows and who cares...now on to WTF??

3. PERSONA-1966

I don't know what to tell ya. So this is considered one of his masterpieces and I am still scratching my head even though it has been a long time since I saw this trippy flick. The lead singer suddenly can't speak...or won't speak. She is taken to a secluded place with her nurse who never shuts up. They seem to be melting into one person and you get confused as to which person is which since the actresses look similar. The shots are quite unique with the faces cut in half and part of the face is not on the screen. Another image can be one face looking directly in front of the camera with her face partially off the screen and the other actress in the background in profile.  I think Bergman was on drugs myself and even though the images have stuck with me, I still have no real desire to watch it. I do love it when other films or shows make fun of this movie. I was watching The Animaniacs(I love them)  and there was an episode where they are with Death and they start talking and being viewed like Persona...I laughed so hard and know most people and kids have no idea what they were making fun of.

Have you seen any Scandinavian movies??

Just one more....

a Couple of cards ...I would be late to my own funeral

I missed Color Throwdown! Grrrr I am now thinking of throwing down something in frustration since I have only myself to blame......

Color Throwdown-An orange, Mossy green and light pink-Missed it!

Craft Your Passion-Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps-Make your mark

Butterfly Challenge-Vases

Simon Says-Make for the border (I hope I got this right)

This card is for my best friend, Loretta, who is just the bee's knees (what the hell does that mean anyway??) and we are just meant to be friends forever! Her birthday was yesterday and she is going through one of the toughest times in her life and all I can say is how proud I am of her and will always be there for this wonderful lady. If she read this she may throw up:) I took some basic white cardstock and stamped and embossed in gold, the flowers. I used my tombow markers-I took my marjarine plastic dish and scribbled the marker on it, took my paintbrush, dipped it in water and placed it in the scribble. From there I "painted" the pot, leaves and flowers. I had the cut out remains of some shiny white paper and used my alcohol inks and dabbed it all over to get that mossy green with some orange peeking through. I layered the card in orange and soft pink, added the butterfly and pearls. I took some orange stickles and squeezed out the glitter around the border. She liked her card:) My hubby thinks it looks like it came from his grandmother's time:)

52 Christmas Card Throwdown-Gifts

CHNC-Cute or Anything Goes Christmas

I was inspired by the song, and I have to admit, the video that was posted by Cherdo on the Flipside for her Battle of the Bands. The song she chose for the battle (you listen to 2 versions and pick which one you like better-it's a fun challenge-you can learn about it over at Battle of the Bands) is "Somewhere Only We Know." It's a lovely song and I have to admit I was taken with that video for my inspiration here. The bear comes out of hibernation to be with his bunny friend who really loves their friendship. I took some white cardstock, placed some tree stickers on and cut out a piece of paper to make it look a little hilly and used blue and purple stamp colours to colour in the sky. I took off the stickers and was left with the white impression which I then glittered up:) I cut out the tree with my sizzex machine and used perfect pearls to create the nice green colour on the tree:). I stamped the animals and used my gamsol pencils to colour them. I added the presents, some stickles here and there and Voila! I think this turned out pretty cute.

Today was a very nice day but it is supposed to get hot once again so get out your tiniest violin for me and play me that sympathy song. Hey! What song would you choose for such a hot summer?

Thursday Movie Picks-Heist films gone wrong

There are many films out there involving heists...many successful and many that are not successful which is what we will talk about today. You can venture over to Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the others have picked.  Here are my 3


1. WHITE HEAT-1949

Top of the Wold Ma! This is a movie I love...LOVE! You can't match James Cagney when he plays a psycho, mom obsessed dangerous nut who goes off on anyone who disagrees with him but who falls to the floor after having a really bad headaches and then he needs his mommy. Now, enter an undercover cop and a heist that ends up with an explosive conclusion and you have one hell of a movie.

2. THE ASHPHALT JUNGLE-1950

I love the cast in this film from Sam Jaffe to  Louis Calhoun. Now most people only know a very young Marilyn Monroe who plays the mistress to the elderly lawyer. Jaffe plays the leader to a group of men who are planning a heist of jewels and you learn about all these men and their reason for being on the wrong side of the law. It is a compelling study of what motivates these men to commit a heist with more than one layer in this film. I love the actual heist which is over 10 minutes long but leaves you in suspense. Worth a look.

3. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID-1969

This is a great buddy movie and Paul Newman and Robert Redford make a great team. They play the real life  bank robbers who, apparently, died in Bolivia in 1901 but there are rumours they never did. This is about their story of comradeship, love with the lovely Etta Place and putting in way too much dynamite on the train to blow up a safe. The last heist have them running from the man in the white hat( this guy did really exist) travelling to New York City and then To Bolivia. They try to go straight but they are up to their old antics of bank heists. It's a great film, fun, and quite comical.

Bonus......

3000 MILES TO GRACELAND-2001

This is my guilty pleasure because it won Razzie awards but I love it. It stars Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell who team up with some other low life dudes to rob a casino in Las Vegas. They pick a casino that is catering to Elvis impersonators so, of course they all dress like him. It's fun to see Kurt as Elvis again since he played Elvis many moons ago in a TV movie getting noticed for his Elvis performance. Costner plays a real bad ass Mother ^&*%$ whom you never ever want to meet. Russell is a bad guy who is really good trying to get out of the fine mess he is in. He also, somehow gets hooked up with a low life gal ( played by Courtney Cox) and her son. It is violent, full of curse words and I love it. This is my guilty pleasure and frankly, I don't see why it is hated so.

Which Heist films gone wrong have you seen?

Card Crazy! No Not Really...well, Maybe

Addicted to Stamps-Anything Goes

Color Q- Use Black, basic Grey, Cool Caribbean, White

I have had this stamp for 3 years and this is the first time I used it! I must be barking mad not to have used this before (Nyuck, Nyuck). I stamped the wolves, let's call them, Larry, Moe, Curly...and Bob, onto glossy white cardstock. I used a watercolour effect with my tombow markers (take the marker and scribble the colour on a marjarine lid then take your brush, dip it in water and place it into the scribbled colour) to colour a light grey onto a couple of the wolves and made one black...that's Bob. I cut out grey, the Caribbean blue and black and tiered it. I finished it off with some corner stickers that I coloured black. I had a howl making this card.

Glitter N Sparkle- Anything Goes

Happy Stampers-Anything goes with dies

Christmas Cards All Year Long-Summer Colours

On Facebook, I play with silly "tests" I found out, according to Facebook (HA! yup like that's the Bible...note the sarcasm), I am 100% Hippie (Sorry Debbie) and that got me a thinking (did you notice any smoke up in the sky? That was my brain on overload) into making a Christmas cards with groovy colours. The background was using the Tim Holtz dies. You just take 3 pads of colours of your choice and stamp that colour on some surface that you can wipe up nicely. You spritz the colours with water and then place the white card onto the colours and watch it work. I took my colorburst, which is this powder that you just gently tap onto the white card and spritz with water, onto another white cardstock. I took my tree die cut and taking the new colorburst paper, I ran it through my sizzex machine. I did this 4 times. I added a pink ribbon, adhered the trees with some popup dots to mimic a forest that only Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds would see, added some snowflakes, stars and dot stickers and Voila!

Craft Your Passion-Always Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers, Christmas-Snowflakes

WinterWonderland-Use Gold/Silver and/ or embossed background

I had cut out these snowflakes from this white glitter background a while ago and created a card but I liked what was left so I took foil type paper in a dark blue and lighter blue and covered it from behind so you see the snowflakes as the coloured version. I took a mirrored silver cardstock and, using my cuddlebug, embossed it with a snowflake design. I used my clear versamark pad, stamped snowflakes on the edge and placed a dark blue powder on top so one sees this shimmer of snowflakes. I punched out Trump..oops sorry daydreaming, I punched out snowflakes in silver and blue and glued that at the bottom with a blue crystal.

It has been hot, sticky, steamy and I am not talking about my sex life...oops too much information?? :) I wish this heat would end. I am Canadian and proud which means we always bitch about the weather.

MockSquid Soup Film Society-My Film Pick

Head on over to the Armchair Squid to check out what the others have chosen as their film and to see if you guessed their film correctly from their 3 clues.

Last week I posted 3 clues  about the film I decided to talk about which is.....oops first the  3 clues

1. It involves a search- a man searches for his 3 sons who died in World War 1

2. It stars a man that was hunky but is now a bit chunky.......Russell Crowe who admits to being a bit chunky right now.

3. It's based on one line in a book that Russell Crowe read about a man's experience in World War 1. The author of the book mentioned how a man, from Australia  was searching for his 3 sons who had died in a battle. It was just one sentence but it peaked Crowe's interest about this man and how he travelled a long way to find his sons

THE WATER DIVINER-2014

My hubby and I love Russell Crowe and will watch any of his films even the bad ones, but this is not a bad film. He not only stars in this film but he directed it as well and it is a pretty good effort. He plays a farmer in Australia who is happily married and has 3 sons whom he teaches the way of the land  especially how to find water. He has a gift of finding water plus has a sense of many other things that is best explained when you watch the film. His 3 sons go off to war and soon he and his wife get a letter stating that all 3 of their sons died during the battle of Gallipoli. His wife can't deal with this loss and ends her own. This takes place in the first 15 or so minutes but it starts him on his adventure. He travels to Turkey to bring his sons home despite the antagonism of the people and the Turkish army. This man starts his adventure and you go with him in search for his sons.

I find this film to be heart wrenching at times, fun and adventurous and scary. Crowe not only acts well but I was impressed with his directing debut and how he made all the characters real and whole. I thought the action scenes were done well and the well rounded feelings of all the people involved. There are no white hats and black hats in war just people...some bad and some aren't.

I hope you give it a chance and if you have seen it, I'd like to know what you think.

Thursday Movies Picks- films about writers but not real life writers

The theme this week may appeal to some of you authors out there.."in the dark" To semi-quote a great film I mention below (yes, I know this sentence sucks but I am not a grammar person). I was thinking of many films I could use here  and would love to know which ones you would choose. If you want to see what the other film bloggers have chosen, head on over to Wandering through the Shelves to see. There is a theme each week and you pick 3 films you love, hate or just like and talk about it. Well, here are my three....

1. SUNSET BOULEVARD-1950

I simply love this film! The director, Billy Wilder, created a caustic take on the show business world which actually irritated many people in the business. I think Louis B Mayer wanted to horse whip Wilder after viewing this picture. It starts off with the lead narrating the story as his dead body is being fished out of a pool from a beautiful mansion owned by the once great Norma Desmond. You find out the writer, who came out to Hollywood to make it big only to hear crickets, is deep in debt with his car ready to be re-poed. He loses the repo men ready to take his car by driving into the garage of  a decaying mansion where he is mistaken as the undertaker for the chimp. The dead chimp belonged to a once great silent screen actress who wishes to make a comeback with her horrible screenplay of Salome. The writer decides to take her up on her offer to help her write this play so he can dodge the creditors and enjoy a bit of the easy life.  This movie is wild, caustic, funny, sad and everything in between. Gloria Swanson, who plays the lead, was a huge silent screen star who still lived in a mansion near Sunset Boulevard. Her butler is played by that great nut, Erich Von Stroheim who was a director during the silents and directed Swanson in the unfinished Queen Kelly with parts of said film used in this film. The "waxworks" we're all great silent film stars who were now lost in time( except for the great Buster Keaton). What's funny is that Norma Desmond and all the others in the film did more in their life and were more successful than the writer ever will be.  When Mae Murray, a former big silent star, saw this film she said " None of us floozies was ever that nuts".

2. BESTSELLER-1987

This little known film (I could only find the whole movie on Youtube) stars Brian Dennehy as a former cop turned best selling author and James Woods as a hit man who wishes for Dennehy's character to write about him. They travel together where you see more of their characters and the hit man reveals how a corporate company hired him to deal with their enemies. It is a great character study and an excellent thriller. I have not seen it in a long time but would love to see it again and even own the DVD.


3. FUNNY FARM-1988

Let's throw in a comedy which I saw when it came out and then a couple of times on tv and I still enjoy it. It stars Chevy Chase as a sports writer who decides to take his wife to Vermont, buy a beautiful home and settle in to write his great novel. Things don't work quite like he expects what with the nutty ducks never flying south for the winter and slipping on the icy pond to the wacky townsfolk who really dislike this new guy in town. His marriage suffers and so does his writing. It is funny and better than what you may think. It is worth a look.

So these are my 3....which films would you choose?

It's Hot, It's Sticky...Let's think Christmas!

FairyTale Stampers-Anything goes

OK The pictures are not great. I took them on my tablet and e-mailed them to myself so I could download them on the laptop but the last Picture would not work for me so I couldn't do any cropping or enhancing...bummer. I made 3 Christmas cards which is the thing to do since even Mr. Devil would be sweating in this heat. I finally bought some glossy accents and used it on the deer above so it looks all nice and glistening (I also fussy cut him out and adhered him to the card). I bought some stencils and used it for the background on the green cardstock. I stamped the tree image in a variety of green and stamped the sentiment, added some gold stickers and done!

Holly Jolly-Show Some Sparkle
CHNC--Anything Goes as long as is Christmas
Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge-Snowflakes

I tried some funky sparkle for this one but it keeps flaking off just like some of my clients....or some of the residents where my mom lives:) I used my sizzex to cut out the white cardstock and stamped and embossed the saying, presents and snowflakes. This is a bit of a different colour since it is shades of lavender actually.

Christmas cards All Year Round-Bright, Summer colours
52 Christmas cards-pick a sketch
Tuesday Throwdown-Tic-Tac-Toe-I used Flower, Marker, Ribbon/Twine

ABC Christmas Challenge-Paper Piecing

I had fun with this one! This is the card that wouldn't work right when I downloaded it onto the laptop...grrrr. The backing paper was glossy white so i used some alcohol inks to create that blueish, turquoise effect. I took some nice light purple cardstock and embossed it with a flower design (hard to see here) in my cuddlebug and adhered it to the glossy alcohol (hic!) ink card and took some nice bright yellow velvet ribbon and pieced it all together. I stamped the image in black ink and with Gismo pencils I coloured the image using bright colours one normally doesn't think to use for Christmas. Even though there is green, I used bright greens. I stamped the image again and coloured the frame and then cut out the middle and, using popup dots, secured it to the image so it looks like the cottage is framed. Lastly, I stamped the image a 3rd time but just centering on the holly and pinecones. I coloured a 3rd time and fussy cut them out. Oh yes-the berries I used a marker actually:) I used pop up dots again for a 3D image.  I finished it off with some white glitter.

I hope this gives a sense of cooling down if you live in a very hot blecchy area.

The Armchair Squid:Mock Squid Soup: August's 3 Movie Clues

Today are my 3 clues to a film I saw earlier this year and enjoyed. Head on over to The Armchair Squid to find out what other clues  are being  thrown around for their movie pick. Or why not join in on the fun? Here are my 3 clues...

1.  It involves a search

2.  The actor used to be quite hunky but now he is just a bit chunky.

3. It is based on one line in a book about a man's experience and what he had witnessed. The actor was intrigued by that one line and developed a film based on what may have been the story behind this one sentence...does this make sense??

So which movie am I talking about?

Thursday Movie Picks...Gambling Movies

I can't believe it's August already but still hot and sticky and icky.  This week, at Wandering Through The Shelves, the topic is Gambling. I thought of many movies from the famous Ocean's 11 the original and remake(along with the sequels) to horse racing etc... I wonder if one of my picks will be the popular movie for today. If you wish to read what other bloggers have chosen just head on over to Wandering and enjoy the picks. Here are my 3....

1 MR. LUCKY-1943

This was a film that my hubby and I caught on TV and found it very entertaining. It stars Cary Grant as a grifter who, along with his nasty partner, decide to fleece a rich lady and a socialite by running a gambling place on a ship claiming the profits will go towards buying a relief troop ship for the war effort. On top of this the main character( Grant) has taken over the name of his deceased friend since his friend was 4F meaning he can't fight in the war. Along the way, he falls for the young socialite who believes in what he is doing. It's not the typical Grant film since he is not Mr. Class from his later years and is not  a true and blue either. A hidden gem  that made money in its day but few have heard of now.

2. GUYS AND DOLLS-1955

Yup this is a musical which not only stars Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine (who originated her role on Broadway) but, believe it or not, also stars Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons! Marlon sings and he is thin and good looking. Frank and Marlon play con men who gamble all around town and even in the alley ways. They make a bet that Marlon can't woo the local Salvation Army gal who is trying to save  the bad side of town. Oh yes, he has to bring her to Cuba to win the bet. Frank Sinatra's character has been engaged for 14 years and may lose the bet and actually have to marry his fiancée. It is a lot of fun and one can just imagine the off screen male egos clashing. By the way Robert Alda (Alan Alda's dad) originated the role played by Marlon Brando

3. THE STING-1973

I can't let this film go by even though I believe it will be a popular choice this week. In fact, I almost went with Gilda but I talked about that film back in April. The Sting stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford as 2 con men trying to grift a notorious and dangerous  mob boss played by the great Robert Shaw. Redford's character, escapes with his life by the skin of his teeth, and meets Newman's character asking to bring the mob boss down. Newman is reluctant at first but they decide to work together to bring this baddie down. The acting is great, the music is great and I can't think of this film without the great Joplin music. If you haven't seen it, see it.

What films would you choose?