Ida (2013)

I like taking screenshots of movies. I love cinematography, and unlike photography, film doesn't really get a chance to feel as aesthetically permanent — that all these careful choices that cinematographers can't ever be fully appreciated, since films go through scenes so quickly. Which is why I like taking screenshots of pretty films.

I saw the film Ida about a month ago, and it was visually stunning — super unique with really cool compositions. I think the black and white, in addition to making the film feel more dated, also helped to enhance the compositional choices and the lighting of everything. It all seemed so dramatic and sculptural, especially with the drapery of their habits.

(Obviously, don't look at these/don't read the captions if you don't want spoilers!!)

The white of the snow was a really beautiful contrast to everything, and it set the mood and the tone and gosh I loved it.

Don't they look kind of insane?

The juxtaposition!! JUXTAPOSITION!!!

I love how at this point in the movie she just becomes another #relatableteen. Like, she likes this boy with messy brown hair because he's nice to her and plays in a band. I guess liking boys in bands is pretty much a timeless trope at this point.

I loved all the bizarre religious rituals in this film. The tenseness of it all. And the stoic camaraderie. Like a sorority...a really boring sorority.

I tried finding out more about this film after I watched it (as I do, monomaniacally, with most films I see), but there really wasn't much to read about. I did find out that they were having a hard time finding a girl to play Ida, but the casting director scouted Agata Trezebuchowska when she was hanging in a cafe. And she wasn't even an actress - she's a college student studying some cool, esoteric, liberal arts subjects in Poland. 

Apparently the director was skeptical because she just looked like an "ordinary hipster," but it all ended up working out brilliantly. I love how natural Ida was - it made the scenes where she got all dolled up for a date, like an average teenager, that much more special. And, of course, she's absolutely stunning.

Fanny and Alexander + A Thousand Photos of Baked Brie

Christmas was a few days ago, and I received exactly what I asked for: a DSLR camera! I'm super, super, super ridiculously excited to take photos with it and shoot videos, and I got the chance to do some cool, casual, super-not-cliche food photography on Christmas!

The day started off with some cupcakes my brother baked and I frosted. Yeah, okay, cupcakes for breakfast. At least there's fruit on top?

Cake mix with chocolate frosting, garnished with a single raspberry

Honestly, presentation is half the battle. The battle of DELICIOUSNESS.

My mom is weirdly really into fake flowers. I think she likes the look of flowers but doesn't like how high-maintenance they are. So we've got a bunch of bouquets of garishly-colored fake plastic flowers, and I had some fun playing around with their colors and textures. They almost look real.

I made baked brie for the first time in my LIFE, and it turned out amazingly. A billion calories worth of pure, moist, heart-aching deliciousness. I took about a thousand photos of it because I was just so goddamn proud.

Blackberry and raspberry compote on a wheel of baked brie

Gotta love those action shots.

My dad made caprese, which was equally delicious. My brother and my dad and I ended up talking about Taylor Swift at dinner and how she's basically the greatest poet of my generation. We played "Blank Space" for my mom who wasn't really that into it.

Mozarella, tomatoes, basil leaves, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar (i.e. a classic)

My brother, who's a Food Network fanatic, took it upon himself to whip up these amazing honey mustard pork chops. They were baked to perfection - not too chewy or hard, and certainly not undercooked.

A little garnish of rosemary can go a long way.

I told them to pose nicely and this is what they came up with.

A plate full of goodness (caprese, baked brie, honey mustard pork chops, and some feta mashed potatoes in the back)

For dessert, I decided to make this weird egg yolk chocolate drink. Chocolate zapatista (not really, though the second word did begin with a z).

It was bizarre and pasty and I don't think we had the right cocoa powder, so I ended up adding a bunch of milk and baking chocolate and cinnamon, and it basically turned out like a really thick, cinnamon-y, grainy fondue thing. Nobody really liked it, but we all ate/drank it anyway. My dad actually finished it within approximately 23 seconds. And as he was sitting there, hungrily staring at our glasses, watching my mom complain about how much cinnamon was in the drink, he literally bit into the cinnamon stick. I guess he didn't realize that cinnamon sticks are mostly useless and taste like tree.

At least it looked pretty...sigh

I recently bought myself Hulu Plus (because obviously Netflix is for dweebz), and one of the first films I watched was Fanny and Alexander. So of course I couldn't help but compare my dining room snapshots to the Christmas dinner scenes in the film - everything was red and glittery and shiny, and of course our family isn't as rife with intergenerational marriage conflicts and complex family dynamics (considering the nuclear is only four people, including myself), and of course we aren't as lavishily rich, but I think my mom, a comparable matriarch, decorated the dining room sort of similarly.

PS How in the fuck does anyone format anything on this website? This is honestly like working with Word 2001.