Tim Burton

By Martina López

Timothy William Burton is one of the most imaginative of all film directors, and he always stands out on account of his amazing worlds, in which one can lose oneself for two hours. His characters tend to be misfits and strange people but by the end of the film audiences love them (especially if they are played by Johnny Depp).

He tends to use the same actors in many of his films: for example, Helena Bonham Carter, his partner; Johnny Depp; or even Christopher Lee.

I am not very interested in Burton’s life before his film career, so I shall start my story when he was 13 years old, because this is when he started to make some short films with his friends. Then, when he went to university he made a series called Stalk of the Celery Monster, which won him a contract to work with Disney. The company found Burton's style and designs impossible to understand, so he started making his first major short films, such as Vincent and Frankieweenie on his own initiative.

His first feature film was Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which was followed by works such as Beetlejuice with Wynona Rider and Michael Keaton (who would later play the title role in Batman, Burton's third feature). His version of Batman had some problems with the producers but Burton tried to reach all audiences, including those who do not normally like superhero movies. The result was the biggest box-office success in cinema up to that point.

Burton then made one of his most important films, Edward Scissorhands, with Johnny Depp as Edward. Of course, he also made other films, such as the second part of Batman and Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood (about the worst film director ever) and Mars Attacks!.

In my opinion, his best films are Beetlejuice and Ed Wood, and his worst is Planet of the Apes.

He is still working, obviously in his strange and funny way, with his dark atmospheres and gloomy scripts full of misfits. His latest work is Alice in Wonderland and anybody who thinks that is too childish for them should think again, because I have seen it and I can tell you that Burton's version is really interesting and very different from the original story.

Pulp fiction

By Martina López

I have chosen this film because it's one of my favourite movies and I think that it is really interesting. And I am not the only one who thinks that way, because this film, (winner of an Oscar and a Golden Palm) is considered a landmark in film noir.

It was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who also played a supporting role! Do you understand now why I admire this man so much? He is a director, actor and scriptwriter! Of course, he didn't play a main character; he left this honour to big stars like John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and other major actors who made the film even more interesting.

The film is split into three parts. The first story: a couple of thieves are robbing a bar, but they are going to have a few problems to get the money. The second: a professional criminal is taking care of his boss' wife, but something happens between them. And the third: a boxer who is a loser will have to fight against his own pride... and his boss.

The three stories are connected as time advances in the film, and not all of them finish happily at the end.

To sum up, I recommend this film because you will not get bored and you will see the work of one of the most important directors, directing one of the most important scripts, in one of the most important films!

I love this film because it contains nearly two hours filled with black humour, almost perfect performances, a dance with the legendary dancer Travolta and, of course, murders, robbers and lots of guns!

Hachiko: A dog’s story

By: Anastasia Macovei, Rosa Lina Aragón

This story is based on real events. There are two films about this dog, one made in 1987, the other in 2009.

The films tell the same story. In the first one Hachiko is the main character and tells us his story from his birth to his death, and he imagines that after his death he has a spiritual meeting with his owner. The film met with great success.

The second is a remake of the first film. It was made in August 2009. Richard Rege stars in the film, which has the title ‘’Hachiko: A dog’s story”. The other actors include Joan Allen and Jason Alexander. The film was shot in Rhode Island.

Hachiko was a dog lost at the train station. One day the teacher Parker saw him and he decided that he wanted this dog and took it with him. He saw that nobody was looking for him and decided that the dog would live with him and his wife, but she did not like animals. Finally, the wife came to like the dog and agreed that he could stay with them.

The years passed and Hachiko became a very big, playful and faithful dog. Hachiko loved his owner and every day he came to the train station to meet Parker. The dog met him at the same time every day, without fail. When it was very cold or it was snowing the dog came all the same, always in the same place.

One day, the teacher Parker had a heart attack and died while he was teaching. But the dog waited for him, although he never appeared and he never understood that he had died. Hachiko came every day and hoped that one day his owner would appear, and although he never came back, Hachiko never lost his hope and he waited for him until his death. People knew him and said that he should not wait any more, because the teacher would never appear, but he waited at the same place every day.

Ten years went by and Hachiko never failed. He was old but never forgot his owner, he never forgot the love that the teacher gave him. One day Parker’s wife saw that he was waiting for him and rejoiced when she saw that he was there, waiting for 10 years. Hachiko waited until the last minute of his life; he never forgot him.

Hachiko in real life

In real life, Hachiko was born on November 10th 1923 and died on March 8th 1935. In Japanese his name is chūken Hachikō; hachi means eight and it refers to the order of his birth number in the litter and 'kō' means prince.

Videogames

The game Square Enix 'Subarashiki Kono Sekai' (“It's a Wonderful World”, or ‘'The World Ends With You’’, as it is called in America) shows the statue of Hachiko in the train station: Shibuya. If a player chooses the character of Samurai, he or she has a dog with the name of Hachi.
Books

There is also a 2004 children’s book entitled: Hachikō: The True Story of a Loyal Dog. The book was written by Pamela S. Turner and illustrated by Yan Nascimbene.

And a novel: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, written by David Wroblewski. The story tells us about the friendship of the protagonist and his family with dogs.

The Social Network

By Leon Buengel

The movie ´The Social Network´ is an American movie that tells the story of the creator of Facebook.

In 2003, after being left by his girlfriend, because he was an asshole, the American student Mark Zuckerberg had the idea of a social network, which was called FaceMatch. The basic idea of this website was that the user could decide who was the prettiest out of various pairs of women from his college. This website was created with the help of his best friend, Eduardo Severin. To get the necessary information and the photos, Mark hacked into the computers of Harvard University. When he made this site, he wrote many insulting and negative posts about his former girlfriend on his wall. After these posts his website became more and more famous; one night there were more than 20,000 clicks on the site. Harvard University’s computers broke down and there was no connection to the Internet. After this accident Mark had to go to court: six months without causing any problems or he would go to prison. His ex-girlfriend did not want to talk to him, because she was sad and mad at him on account of all his posts.

The twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their friend Divya Direnda were interested in Mark and his idea. They talked to Mark about their idea of an elite network just for the students of Harvard. They needed Mark´s help and he said he would cooperate. After this meeting there was no physical contact between Mark and them, only via the computer.

With the help of Mark’s two friends Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the website thefacebook.com was created. The main idea was that the students would have the opportunity to write about their experiences in college. They would talk to their friends via Internet. But they did not expect thefacebook.com to be such a success. In a week the site was all over Harvard University, and people outside wanted it too. Sean Parker, the creator of a famous music-sharing service, was asked to help them make the page more well known, so Facebook would not be just a connection for students. Mark wanted to get a lot of money. They talked not about millions of dollars but about billions.

His friend Eduardo would not work with the company and went to court; he wanted his money. The twins went to court because they believed their idea had been stolen by Mark.

Eduardo received a lot money. The amount is unknown. The twins received 65 millions. Mark Zuckenberg is the youngest ever self-made billionaire. In 2010 the market value for Facebook was expected to reach 25 billion dollars.

Life is beautiful

By Andrea Bertrán & Irene Monferrer

“LA VITA È BELLA” (Life is beautiful) is an Italian film from 1998. The story takes place in 1939. It explains Guido Orefice life’s. He is a good man who lives in the pre-fascist Italy and dreams of owning his own bookstore. One day he meets Dora, a young teacher and he falls in love with her. When he gets his love, they get married, they have a son and they start up a bookstore. They have a happy life. This film also has an horrible part that comes when he is deported to a concentration camp with his son, his wife and his uncle. There they suffer, separately, the war.

There, his uncle died. And he invented a game to save the life of his child. This consisted that they were competitors of a game show, and if they won, the prize would be a “tank”. But this game isn’t easy!

His son, Joshua had to be hidden, so the Germans (the Nazis) couldn’t kill him and he hid until his father arrived. And he gave food to him.

Guido had to do hard labor and if he wasn’t in form, they would kill him.

Her wife was with the other ladies. They were responsible for taking away the clothes of the dead people.

The points were adding to get the thousand to get the tank.

And the war was finishing.

Finally the war was over, the Germans lost. Guido told his son that he didn’t go out of his hiding for nothing, until he arrived or until he didn’t hear any noise.

Guido died, for saving the life of his son, latter Josuah and Dora (his mother) met.

Joshua was the winner, he got the thousand points, and then the prize, the tank…

The story is told by Joshua when he is older.

ORIGINAL TITLE: La vita è bella
YEAR: 1998
DURATION: 117 min.
COUNTRY: Italy
DIRECTOR: Roberto Benigni
SCREENWRITER: Roberto Benigni & Vincenzo Cerami
MUSIC: Nicola Piovani
PHOTO: Tonino Delli Colli

AWARDS

This film was winner of over 40 international awards including 3 Oscars:

-Best Film Award of European cinema, London, 1998.
-Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998.
-Audience award at the International Film Festival in Athens in 1998.
-Audience award at the International Film Festival in Warsaw in 1998.
-Award for most popular film at the International Film Festival Vancouver in 1998.
-Prize of the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Best Actor, Best Director

-Original Story and Best Screenplay in 1998.César Award for Best Foreign Film in 1999.

-Goya Award for Best Foreign Film in 1999.
-German Film Award for best foreign film in 1999.
-Award of the Australian Film Institute Best Foreign Film in 1999.
-Oscar for best actor, best foreign film and best original music in 1998.