Wondering about her French sounding name, I discovered that Melody Gardot was born in New Jersey in 1985. As a 19-year-old, she was involved in a traffic accident that left its toll on the young woman‘s body. One and a half years took to recover, but heeling took much longer. Due to damaged hearing, sight and walk, Melody became sensitive to light, and could only listen to soft music. When learning how to walk again on a treadmill, Melody would listen to records of jazz artists like Stan Getz, with softer, more yielding compositions. The experience of having had a life threatening accident and an extensive recovery, Melody revived on her first two records ‘Worrisome Heart’ and ‘My One and Only Heart’.

Even though the 28-year-old suffers from post-accident trauma and requires the assistance of a cane to walk, Melody Gardot is a brave soul who chooses life over illness. The life she chooses she laments, and celebrates, in music. Melody Gardot is an example that physical limitations pose no limitation to follow your dreams, even if the dream is to be a singer when you can neither see, hear or walk without assistance.

The outstanding jazz performer Melody Gardot is touring Europe in 2013. Among the countries listed are Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, UK, and Austria.

The sole concert in Austria will be performed on April 23, 2013 in Vienna (Stadthalle F).
www.melodygardot.co.uk

The post When Jazz Is Sang By Melody Gardot appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

“The Croods” are an amusing experience, even though you can’t escape the reminiscence of “The Flintstones,” the 20th century cartoon classic about the adventures of a stone age family. “The Flintstones” were, and are, two dimensional, goofy, and radically original; “The Croods” are corpulent, Neanderthal, and lavishly three dimensional. Today‘s world of 3D animation is a world that you either love or hate. In “The Croods” you don’t have a choice but to love it, since this movie without its extensive 3D effects would be reduced to what movies might have looked like during the Stone Age – B.C. style minimalistic line drawings (before Picasso made them fashionable) curved out and painted with stones, leaves, leather or other material, depicting a plot you couldn’t figure out in a lifetime.

Apart from your love-hate choice, you can bet your movie popcorn on DreamWorks having something to do with this new 3D animation called “The Croods”. DreamWorks is a motion picture industry giant, much like Disney. And much like Disney, DreamWorks has its fingers in every pie, and every pie that lands on the shelf is produced with a distinct taste and look. Taste and look according to DreamWorks criteria, of course. Distinct from Disney, but quite similar in effect.

Being one of the many DreamWorks pies that landed on the shelf, “The Croods” sits besides “Shrek,” “Rise Of The Guardians,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Madagascar,” and many many more, waiting for animation hungry children and their spending friendly parents to discover it. “The Croods” embodies the typical DreamWorks taste and look, having what all of the their pies have — perfectly polished visuals and a classic plot of good vs. evil or, as in the case of “The Croods,” people vs. nature.

What “The Croods” lacks is the cinematographic congeniality we find in “Madagascar,” original character design and black humor of “Shrek,” and immaculately compiled graphics as in “Rise Of The Guardians”. Vile as it may be, “The Croods” tries and tries until the end to be the heartthrob for family values, but it demotes itself to another chapter in movie industry, made to come and conquer wallets, for to vanish a while after in online movie almanacs. It’s commendable though that in the process of coming to theaters and landing in storage, Crood’s Stone Age racial and gender stereotypes aren’t pushed down our throats all too hard.

The Croods

Genre: Comedy, Animation

Director: Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds

The post The Croods Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

When we think of Gustav Klimt, we think of golden leaves seamlessly integrated in impressionist paintings. We think of revolutionary ideas in times of great changes. Klimt is doubtlessly one of the best known and most influential artists of the 20th century. He’s nevertheless one of those artists who suffered the fate of being unappreciated during his lifetime. Austria and Klimt’s fellow Viennese ferociously opposed what they perceived to be explicit nudity in Klimt’s paintings. The emperor and the bourgeoisie regarded depiction of women in lascivious positions as a reference to sexuality, hence condemning Klimt’s subjects as being of “feeble morale” and “decadent”.

In private circles, Klimt was known to be a ladies man. His bohemian aura attracted women in swarms, and Klimt welcomed the attention. He showed no interest in painting men. The portrayals of his many female acquaintances, clients and lovers are extensively dealt with in “Gustav Klimt. The Complete Paintings,” next to Klimt’s less known Impressionism inspired landscapes. Klimt’s complete oeuvre can be admired in glossy wide format. An unusual addition to the catalogue of Klimt’s complete paintings are the color photographs taken of the Stocklet Frieze mosaics, which were commissioned for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels in 1905. Alone the fact that the editor Tobias G. Natter, who’s currently serving as director of Vienna’s Leopold Museum, succeeded in attaining exclusive rights to photograph the chambers in Palais Stoclet is a minor sensation. The Stoclet family has jealously been safeguarding the interior of the palace from the outside world for over a century.

Klimt’s opulent mosaics have remained hidden from the public’s eye since their completion in 1911. Only black and white photographs taken at the time existed, of a palace which in its artistic and architectural value can be regarded as Alhambra of the Art Deco. For the first time in over hundred years, we have a chance to see one of Klimt’s most significant works in color. Another great attribute of “Gustav Klimt. The Complete Paintings” is a wealthy collection of all known written correspondence Klimt conducted during his lifetime. Not only can we admire Klimt’s delicacy of works. Now we can admire the delicacy of his soul too.

Gustav Klimt. The Complete Paintings

By Tobias G. Natter. Hardcover, 29 x 39,5 cm. 676 pages. Published by TASCHEN

The post Gustav Klimt. The Complete Paintings Book Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

Music And Humor In Perfect Pitch

One might say that college kids dream of finding a job as pop stars after graduation. Studying is a meaningful way to do something on the side, should the career as an acappella singer not work out. The youth in “Pitch Perfect” exercise their vocal cords and dance moves tirelessly, hoping to claim victory at a local singing competition.

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is not a very pretty girl. Honestly, she looks cute, but it’s other girls who have a beautiful face and charisma. Until Beca opens her mouth to sing, and let’s us feel the full force of her intestines. We notice the girl has juice to be a star. She bubbles with musicality, sings every pop song with perfect intonation. Her talent gets noted by Chloe (Brittany Snow) who persuades Beca to join Barden Bellas, the all-girl a cappella group. After fatal failure at the last regional competition, the Barden Bellas need a star to catapults them to victory. They set all their cards on Beca.

“Pitch Perfect” is a mixture of Bridesmaids and Glee, two films characterized by anarchic humor and effective musical performances. Besides being in possession of an unstoppable drive to win, the characters in these films also dispose of the energy to search and find love. Both topics are ultimately a part of life, only in these movies they are dealt with ease and humor, without demonstration of drama. The audience is not encouraged to think, but isn’t taken for fools either. There’s a difference between mediocre demonstration of social stereotypes in “American Reunion,” and brutally intelligent sarcasm in “Hangover”. “Pitch Perfect” is one of the more intelligent movies that allows us to let our thoughts fly and our ears enjoy.

“Pitch Perfect” offers no gender stereotype collections from the last century. Instead, it shows a new generation of young people who feel embarrassed about nothing and everything. The girls are self-conscious (even the lesbian ones among them), work hard to achieve their goal, and know how to laugh at themselves. The boys lag behind girls in nothing. They are just as ambitious and sexually interested in girls, as girls are in them.

The plot focuses on the relationship between Beca and Jesse, the boy from the rival acappella group. Jesse confesses his affection at the very beginning by showing a baby photo to Beca with the words “Our children will be this cute.” Young Jesse has marriage in mind, while Beca deals with post-pubertal subjects. Jesse is the more mature of the two. In contrast to the cinema of the past, the boy is the one who explains to the girl the reasons behind her emotional distance, and tolerates her roughness with patience. Hollywood extends its interpretation of the new man to new generations successfully. The characters seem sincere and convincing. The women are not the ones carrying the burden of their own and male counterpart’s maturation anymore. Men do it these days too. With future mutual babies on the mind.

Pitch Perfect (2012)

Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance

Director: Jason Moore

Stars: Brittany Snow, Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson

The post Pitch Perfect Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

Black Exploitation Meets Southern Comfort

Who has watched Quentin Tarantino’s movies watched blood spray and spill from corpses, many times preceded by ugly torture methods. Sighs of disgust followed laughs of schadenfreude. Good immersed itself into evil and blew it apart. The hero or the heroine saved the day. That’s what Tarantino is all about. You can bet a love story sneaked itself among the blood ponds and screams, if not of romantic kind, then of friendship. Tarantino’s movies follow a simple pattern. The first preamble says the good wins no matter what. The second preamble says the action doesn’t stop until we damn see the justice done: no dubious endings or dualistic characters.

Django (Jamie Foxx) is a typical Tarantino hero. He’s just, upright, fights for the good cause, and doesn’t give up against the odds until the job is done (meaning until everyone’s shot dead and house blown to dust). Tarantino got it all right, and even added in “Django Unchained” a sprinkle of historic real life drama. Django namely, is a former Southern slave unchained by a German bounty hunter who deplores slavery, yet opts to turn Django’s misfortune to his favor. In return for assistance in hunting down a few criminal heads, Doctor Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a dentist-turned-bounty-hunter, gives Django freedom. Django, from then on known as Django Freeman experiences what it means to be in possession of free will — and more importantly free body.

Accompanied by a magnificent selection of blue grass, gangsta rap and hippy music, Django and Doctor Schultz do what they do best — lodge inside their horse carriage, cross prairies and mountains, dress fancy and peng! peng! their guns at criminals for real, and a snow man for practice. In his heart, Django is a lover and hater — lovelorn for his wife, and despicable of slave owners. Tarantino picturesquely describes the social conditions of the nineteenth century. Slave trade and ownership combined with horrendous torture methods and killings of disobedient slaves. The lyrics of Billy Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit” come to mind when we watch men and women hanging from a tree and whipped, sometimes for pure joy of the torturer, chained, molested, humiliated, raped, body parts cut off. Deprived of their humanity. Tarantino deserves highest praise for his historically accurate portrayal of slavery, and more so for his brilliant introduction of comedy and humane intellectualism into the saddest chapters of American history.

Don’t delude yourself — the fun is present in the worst of times. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a performance comparable in its brilliance to the one in “Catch Me If You Can,” if not more brilliant. DiCaprio stars as Calvin Candie, better known as Monsieur Candie, a Mississippi heir to a cotton empire. Brilliant and sadistic, Monsieur Candie becomes the target of Django and Doctor Schultz when the two discover Candie owns Django’s wife Broomhilda, a German speaking black slave. Schultz’s heart is softened by what he calls “a real like Sigfried in search of his Broomhilda”. Monsieur Candie though, turns out to be harder to crack then originally believed. DiCaprio’s whims and idiosyncrasies play in accord with those of his intellectual opposite Doctor Schutz. German cosmopolitanism clashes with Southern sadism, the way only Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio could bring across. The chemistry of the actors is near spectacular. They are two poles on the same planet: two white men who chose black men as their right hands; two men who follow their beliefs without reflection. What Broomhilda is to “Siegfried” Django, Candie is to Schutz, only in negative terms. Somehow, the destiny seemed to bring together all those who belong together. In Tarantino life, and in Tarantino death.

Django Unchained (2012)

Genre: Action, Drama, Western

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio

The post Django Unchained Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

Sing Along To Freedom

If you love musicals, “Les Misérables” is for you; If you don’t like musicals, you might watch it anyhow, as “Les Misérables” is a far beyond being yet another musical. It’s an honest and direct examination of social motivations at the time of great changes. Set in post-revolutionary Paris, against the background of the 1832 June Rebellion, “Les Misérables” brings Victor Hugo’s characters to life accurately. The astonishment begins at the beginning, when we witness Fantine (Anne Hathaway) walk the streets of Paris, forced to sell her body and body parts (hair and teeth) in order to pay her debt to the mean pub owner Thénardier (Sacha Baron Cohen) for supporting Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried).

It must be instantly stated that Anne Hathaway delivers the performance of her life as Fantine. Her performance of an injured soul, divested of tenderness and any sort of humane treatment, is honestly unforgettable. The shaved head, dirty skin, and the shiver from cold and fear are delivered by an actor who’s the master of her craft. Further more, Hathaway’s a great singer of musicals. Her unique combination of deliberateness and fundamental pain is echoed in her voice.

Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a convict in hiding, experiences redemption when he saves Cosette and becomes her father. Valjean feels responsible for Cosette. His actions towards Fantine forced Fnatine to give Cosette away. Hugh Jackman looks like he exactly knew what he was doing when he opted to incite profound compassion in his character, making Jean Valjean a complete person. The intertwining between Valjean and Javert (Russell Crowe) creates a cobweb of actions and reactions, spanning from persecution to redemption. Javert has chosen the hunt for Valjean to be the purpose of his existence, believing he’s executing justice. When the purpose turns out to be nothing more but egoistical revenge, Javert choses the whirlpools of the Seine over his life.

The intertwining between Cosette and Marius (Eddie Redmayne) has a more positive tone to it. The chemistry between actors works out splendidly, creating a fine love story furnishing to the socio-political complex plot of “Les Misérables”. The socio-political background is the morale with which citizens who have and citizens who have not treat each other. “Les Misérables” shows us what it meant to be at the bottom and on the top of the social ladder in post-revolutionary France. The movie makers took this aspect to heart in everything they did, from costume and scenery designs, to the choice of the cast, making one of the most wonderful film adaptations of the decade. And still, they didn’t divest the audiences of comedy – the characters of Thénardier and his Madame, played by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, are perfected evil laughs, whose oversized wire-like hair, street parleys, and criminal plotting tremendously add to making “Les Misérables” a self-gratifying experience.

Les Misérables (2012)

Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance

Director: Tom Hooper

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe

The post Les Misérables Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

Being The CIA Is Dark At Zero Thirty

I imagine “Zero Dark Thirty” not being the easiest movie to make. Having to squeeze the drawn-out story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden into 157 min. can’t be the easiest task. Kathryn Bigelow’s direction is slow but steady, nevertheless 30 min. should have been cut out. From a certain point on, the hunt for Bin Laden and the disagreements on how it’s to be conducted, don’t develop, just drag on. Jessica Chastain plays the heroine Maya who never gives up searching, the “mother fucker” who discovers the house in Pakistan where Bin Laden is being hidden. 100 plus days she fights, argues, despairs. She witnesses tortures of assumed terrorist prisoners, quarrels with her boss, goes against the directives, puts pieces of the puzzle together, and almost falls in love with her partner Dan (Jason Clarke). She never gives up looking for Bin Laden, or on her displeasing job. Not when watching Dan waterboarding prisoners, not when being opposed by colleagues.

In the tumult of shock, disbelief, antiterrorist warfare, suicide bombings, and endless negotiations, American CIA agents in charge of the secret operation are depicted as conscientious people, hardworking, and tired. Tired of eternal running in circles, tired from running after shadows. Tired from torturing and cross-examining inmates, from constant suicide bomber threat, from hearing of colleagues being blown to pieces, from being unable to walk the streets. The depiction of mental landscapes of the characters is the most interesting side to this movie. I can’t decide if the emotional fence they’ve build up is realistic or not. Normal people build emotional fences in times of violence and great stress. Sociopaths have no need to build fences. Sociopaths torture for fun. In “Zero Dark Thirty” no CIA agent is a sociopath. The tortures from Abu Ghraib are non-existent here. Abu Ghraib wasn’t the point of this movie either. Still, it’s really hard not to recall violent images from Abu Ghraib when watching Dan waterboarding inmates, starving and sleep depriving them. In “Zero Dark Thirty” the torturers are people who are sympathetic to the tortured, and who hate their jobs, but consider them their duty. Their objective isn’t retaliation, but justice for 3000 lost American lives.

The whole thing doesn’t quite work. Unlike “Argo,” another movie about CIA fighting terrorists based on a true story, “Zero Dark Thirty” doesn’t keep the ends together. There’s something terribly missing. Is it unintended holes in the plot? Or the information rainfall that makes it hard to keep up? Or is it the controversy surrounding 9/11? Jessica Chastain’s role isn’t a grateful one either. Maya isn’t a doubter. She firmly stands behind the CIA philosophy and the mission. Tortures she finds disgusting, but necessary. She facilitates, assists them. I can imagine that Chastain, who has the face of an angel, struggled hard to find Maya inside her. The actress succeeded, she plays Maya wonderfully and convincingly. The movie culminates in the Navy SEALs operation of capture and termination of Osama Bin Laden. Even under greatest pressure and while shooting at three families with children who hide Osama Bin Laden, American soldiers keep their calm and empathy towards the survivors. Is that possible? I doubt the actual assassination of Bin Laden went through so smoothly by remote control.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Genre: Action, Drama, History

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Stars: Chris Pratt, Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain

The post Zero Dark Thirty Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

An Unexpected Journey Into Cinema TV

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is challenged by screenwriters’ literary attempt to translate the book into cinema by incorporating several dozen pages of monologues and dialogues into the first hour of the movie. Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is the hero hobbit whose decision to leave his comfort zone to battle the evil dragon Smaug creates the basis for the saga prior to the “Lord Of The Rings”. Before the rings began turning and Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) was born, Frodo’s father Bilbo lived a fantastic tale of his own. In “The Hobbit,” Bilbo tells us how he got hired by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), together with a group of Dwarves, to reclaim Erebor, the home of the Dwarves, together with the treasure stolen by the dragon Smaug.

The first hour of the movie lets us be entranced into the world of the Hobbit. Through Bilbo’s narration we learn how the hobbits left their home and found a new one. We watch cute hobbits dwell in round hobbit houses, covered in moss and flowers. Created with a lot of attention to details, Bilbo’s home is a product of finest fantasy: home decoration in form of wooden ornaments in a cave-like house. In front of the finely carved window, we observe for a moment a sculpture of a woman grinding flower. Outside the window the romantic garden settings dominate the landscape. Bilbo owns chairs, tables and china he’s proud to have inherited from his mother. This is the pretty part. The part that obfuscates the pretty fantasy is the cinema technology used for the production of “The Hobbit”. “The Hobbit” is the first movie shot entirely in 48 frames per second (for comparison, 25 fps is the cinema standard), and in 3D with high frequency. The result of the production makes the “The Hobbit” visually appear like an expensive production of the Teletubbies.

This recognition is fascinating as much as disturbing. The effect is that the picture is smooth and linear the way we know it from low budget TV productions conducted in late ’90s and early ’00s. I’ve seen many telenovelas with same visual effect, and of course, children’s shows like the Teletubbies. The more expensive the cinema productions get, the more we seem to go back to the roots of the television. The question is — does this trend make the cinema experience riveting? The emotional translation says no, it doesn’t. I felt throughout two and a half hours as if I were sitting in front of a gigantic TV screen. “The Hobbit” was fun, but nevertheless, it was TV. It didn’t feel like the cinema.

The above described TV effect was emphasized by the fact that screenwriters Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro incorporated very long monologues and dialogues into the first hour. The narrative feels quite British, like a high budget British TV production, underlined by the rich number of British and Irish accents the actors speak with (I think, pretty much all British accents are represented). As already done in “Lord Of The Rings,” every race is characterized by a different British timbre, making different worlds more easily distinguishable for the viewers. The extensive monologues and dialogues of the first hour should have certainly been shortend, especially after the Dwarves’ merry gathering and party crashing at Bilbo’s home.

The warfare action and battles we came to see “The Hobbit” for only begin after the first hour. The computer animation of the characters is visually truly spectacular, in spite of the shortcomings of the script. Particularly, the animation of the schizophrenic underworld creature Gollum who Bilbo encounters at the shores of a lake hidden at the core of the mountain, is near spectacular. Bilbo’s unexpected journey culminates in the killing of the king of the Orcs, and the salvation of the Dwarf troupe. The ending finishes in the style a new serial scene should begin solidly, and “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” takes a full spectrum needed for a good TV show — it leaves the viewer curious about the second episode. Since this is the cinema, the viewers will have to wait for the next episode to be aired in one year, instead of next week. Let’s hope in the meantime that falling short in remembering what happened in the end of the first episode won’t be a problem.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Director: Peter Jackson

Stars: Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman

The post The Hobbit — An Unexpected Journey Review appeared first on AEINO.com – Jessie Jasen's Magazine.

Creatives at Chanel came up with the idea to use Brad’s face for the new Chanel No. 5 campaign last month. Given, the idea of using a world famous male actor in an ad for women’s fragrance is original. Unfortunately, the concept lacks authority and consequence within the concept of what is accepted as glamorous. The advertorial effect is, at best, disappointing. Instead of a glamorous “Meet Joe Black” tuxedo-and-bow-tie Pitt (as we would expect him to be), we encounter a philosopher with an alcoholics anonymous past from an independent movie; the tuxedo exchanged for a sueded loosen collar shirt. The neck adorned with two silver chains. Distant, disconnected look in Pitt’s eyes. Was the downgrade to the abyss of world pain and suffering an intended direction for a high end fashion product? Did the creatives hope to reach a niche audience that so far lacked interested in buying the perfume? Or was it  an unexpected faux pas that might cost Chanel its heavily earned reputation?

All I can say is that looking in this philanthropist’s beautiful eyes that seem to have seen too much suffering during his campaigns for good causes incited in me the wish to give to charity. I’m under the impression that Chanel is advertising a charity cause, not a high-end perfume. Instead, I almost felt repulsion towards that bottle filled with magic water that Coco Chanel once invented, and Marilyn Monroe once wore, with nothing else on, but No. 5. The bottle that once incited in me the feeling I too could live the lifestyle of a movie star made me think now that it’s ok if I skip using the deodorant for a day or two. It also incited the tragic notion that I will never get the guy of my dreams. Because the guy of my dreams has lost his sex appeal when he turned into an aged philosopher from the AA meetings Tuesday evenings at 7p.m. All because the bottle he used bore the wrong tag — Chanel No. 5.

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Björk’s percussionist MANU DELAGO HANDMADE (Sun., Dec. 9) will be entertaining the audience with his experimental instrument hang, next to newcomer LYLIT LÖSCHER (Sat., Dec. 8) who’s considered to be currently one of the best voices of Austria; LIVING ROOM IN LONDON (Sun., Dec. 9) will offer a combo of experimental and classical music, featuring three string players of the London Symphony Orchestra.

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