August.

photo from Pinterest

Hello August. The last few weeks of July was marred by heavy torrential rains so I had to move my succulents indoors to keep them alive with fake sunlight (fluorescent bulb) and heat from a candle. The power has been knocked out multiple times in this cold, gloomy city due to the strong, lashing winds. Oh how I hate stormy days. Anyways, the sun is bashfully shining these past few days to warm pretty much everything. Prolonged rainy days felt like everything will decay and crumble any moment. As for me, I have been busy with tons of things from conceptualizing my next diy project for my business down to the latest episode of Game of Thrones (Season 7). I was glad that Arya is back to the world after she learned to become ‘No One’ at the House of Black and White with her I’m not sure what to call him but the closest would be I guess, his mentor, Jaqen H’gar. And oh speaking of Jaqen the actor who plays him is Tom Wlaschiha (I learned his last name is pronounced as ‘Vla-shi-ya’), a German actor, who speaks multiple languages (Italian, English, Russian and a little bit of French) and is also playing the role of Sebastian Berger, an officer in the Berliner Police in Crossing Lines and my, the man is a dapper contrary to his role in GOT which I think has given his good looks a lot of justice.

Tom Wlaschiha. Isn't he gorgeous?

Sebastian Berger in Crossing Lines.

I’ve been a fan of Tom since GOT but I never got the chance to see him play different roles aside from Jaqen H’gar until recently. I just watched his film ‘Resistance’ which was an old one from way back 2011, a fictional German film in which Nazi Germany invades the United Kingdom. I thought it was boring but I only watched it because of Tom Wlaschiha lol. I don’t know, I guess I’m just not a fan of films that are not biographical in nature.

Speaking of Nazi war films, I recently watched ‘The Pianist’ and I highly recommend it. It was well, tragic as usual (like this film I recently watched online called ’The Zookeeper’s Wife’ which I already wrote a separate review here). ‘The Pianist’ is about a Polish-Jewish musician named Władysław Szpilman who’s entire family were executed when the German troops invaded Poland. I did not purposely watch it to see another tragic film about genocide though, I just chanced upon it while scouring online for indie films. I really don’t know why I keep watching these kinds of movies but I guess I learn so much from them. Historical films are deeply interesting aside from informative. Moving on, since I already talked about these films I might as well share what’s my take on them. 

Resistance (2011)

Welsh | Thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Andrea Riseborough as Sarah
• Tom Wlaschiha as Captain Albrech

Ok, so I have not researched about the film prior to watching it so I totally do not have any idea what it was about. My perception about it first hand was it’s another war film about the Nazis. I was kind of perplexed at first when I learned that the German troops occupied any UK territory (Welsh border to be exact) because I never heard of that, all I knew from history would be Warsaw, Poland etc. so imagine my confusion until the film ended little did I know it was an alternative reality thriller in which the German troops stormed the UK. I’ve never heard of alternative reality films before although I was impressed with the idea, imagine a parallel universe, the ‘what if?’

Sarah’s husband, well practically all men in their remote valley left to serve the British Army. The women were left as if held captive in their own homes because the German troops invaded their valley making sure nothing illegal will escape them. All the women distrusts the Germans despite their effort to help them stay alive during the winter by catching rabbits for food. Captain Albrech fell in love with Sarah although she wouldn’t reciprocate as she stays loyal to her husband. He offered to take Sarah with him to escape before the Gestapo (Staatspolizei, or the Secret State Police, was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe-wikipedia) arrives but the latter did not show up with her resolve to stay loyal to his husband and her country. The end. 

If you haven’t researched or heard about the film you would think it’s one of those highly acclaimed ones because of the cinematography in my opinion. Yes, it bored the hell out of me because there weren’t much of a twist considering it was a thriller. Nevertheless, it was alright, it just wasn’t my kind of genre. 

***

The Pianist (2002)

Biographical drama film

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

• Adrien Brody as Władysław Szpilman

I chanced upon ‘The Pianist’ in Shockshare.net one night while scouring online for a no-nonsense movie. I was drawn to the movie poster of course that’s why I watched it. I learned as I watched along that the film is based on true events, a memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman which made it even more interesting. 

Władysław Szpilman is playing live for a local radio station in Warsaw, Poland when the Nazis stormed September of 1939. Władysław is of Polish-Jew descent which made him and his race a target for the Nazis because of the whole genocide thing. His family and many other Jews were killed one day and he was lucky to survive the first blow. He became a prisoner of war along with many other Jews and was lucky to be alive with the help of his friends who kept him discreetly from one apartment to another. When the German troops were about to be defeated by the Russian and vacate Warsaw, he met a German officer named Wilm Hosenfeld while hiding in one of the partly ramshackle buildings. Hosenfield asked for him to play a piano piece after learning he’s a pianist which Władysław, although scared eventually complied. Hosenfield told Władysław that the Russian troops will be in Warsaw anytime soon and kept Władysław alive by giving him food. The movie ended with  Poland recovering from the war. Władysław grew old still playing piano and also wrote the memoir. 

I love this film no matter how tragic it is because it was very heart wrenching how the Jews survived despite their terrible living condition, fearing for their lives every single day and become victims for a crime they never committed. ‘The Pianist’ is a very woeful yet powerful film which I highly recommend nevertheless. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  - highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  - somewhat highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️    - it was alright.

⭐️⭐️       - nah.
⭐️           - waste of time.