MOVIE REVIEW: "The Help"

The hype around this movie-turned-bestseller-novel was huge when it came out even though people asked themselves what there was to hype about. The movie stayed on top of the American Box Office Charts longer than any other film since “The Sixth Sense” in 1999! Plus, critics as well as the public are still crazy about it now. It was extremely successful at the Critic’s Choice Awards this past week and let’s see how well it does at the Golden Globe Awards TONIGHT! (I’m gonna stay up for them like every year :D).

In fact, the movie was absolutely fantastic!!! Not only was it one of the best-made and best-directed movies I have seen in recent times, it was without a doubt the best movie of 2011 (haven’t seen them all yet though). The mood and cinematography were stunning, the 60s are always a great opportunity for nice settings, houses, cars, dresses, hair-dos.

The acting took my breath away. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have both already won tons of awards for their performances and Emma Stone, as well, delivers a wonderful performance and stays true to her resolution always playing individualistic characters. The plot was brought across very well, the storyline seemed quite consistent to me. There were absolutely no directorial holes or flaws.

WATCH this highly moving and heart-felt movie about the integration of black domestic maids in the 60s, nobody regretted it until now and I’m pretty sure this one’s hot at the Academy Awards this year.

photo sources: movie poster - [imdb.com]; [1.bp.blosgpot.com] & [3.bp.blogspot.com] 

PHOTO POST: London in winter

Just a few days before Christmas I took a little weekend trip to London. The purpose of it was to do some shopping as well as sightseeing and most importantly to get into the holiday seasons mood, since it was almost impossible due to the weather in Vienna. All goals were perfectly met: there were already quite a few sales around and I got my main Christmas present there, which you will probably see in one of the next posts; sightseeing was done too, the first & last time I visited London was 10 years ago so it was nice to see the most important sights once again; and the Christmas mood there was simply infective - lights and decorations everywhere, Christmas songs being played in all the shopping malls - it was a whole city turned into a Winter Wonderland!!

Here are some photos from the trip, hope you enjoy them!

Have you ever been to London? If yes, what are your favorite things to do and see there?

just after arriving at the hotel, the first happened to be at a delicious sushi restaurant!

and the interior was simply amazing, just have a look at that humongous disco ball! ^^

wild berries with a mixture of yoghurt and white chocolate for desert - yumm!! :)

the following walk through the city - everything was just breathtakingly beautiful!!

all the lights and decorations, I sucked in all of the holiday spirit in London to bring some back to Vienna ^^

touristy sightseeing was also included in the plan

from the Big Ben until the Buckingham palace

in the park right in front of the gates of the Buckingham palace I was chasing some squirrels to get a picture of how one was trying to hide a nut by digging it into the ground ^^

these shoes bought there in London were a life savior, the only possible thing to wear for endless hours of wandering around the city 

this is just a little comparison after I found the photo from my first visit to London, 10 years ago, each time in front of the gates of the Buckingham palace

busy streets of London and I just couldn't get enough of those double-decker busses ^^

here the view from out of a window of what has become the favourite place for grabbing a spack during the day

Paul's Café with all of its yummy sandwiches, stews, soups and all kinds of variations of coffee & tea 

at the shopping mall, I was once again fascinated by all the amazing lights & decorations for Christmas

and a discovery of a shop with unusual shoes was made!

I would love to have those mannequins - perfect for outfit details posts! :)

a visit of the M&M's store was almost compulsory ^^ as there are only about 4 shops in the whole world, in London and the other 3 in the US

so if you're ever missing the Christmas spirit, London is exactly the right city for that! :)

 all photos by: [entertainment scrapbook]

ALBUM REVIEW: "((Un))" by Dan Black

photo source: [themusiciv.com]

He’s another one of those frequently appearing in TV series artists such as Gossip Girl etc. His songs represent a completely individual style and although people might call it pop music, I regard it as much more as it distinguishes itself through an unusual singularity.

Dan Black is from Great Britain and wanted to make up electronic music, before he ended up with this album. You won’t get to hear his songs on the radio although they are perfectly mass-friendly in a good way. “Symphonies” and “Yours” for example you might know as they have tons of views on youtube.

((Un)) guarantees full-on entertainment with songs like “Ecstasy”, “Pump My Pumps”, “LifeSlashDreams”, “Wonder” and “Cigarette Pack”. I have to admit, some songs are quite replaceable as their melodies are not unique enough but, all in all, Dan Black manages to make good pop music that has not been heard and listened to a thousand times already. GO individuality!

                              

BOOK REVIEW: „Room“ - Emma Donoghue

photo source: [unrealityshout.com]

"Room" is a one of a kind book. It's hard to describe it without letting any spoilers slip, but I can say that it's fascinating, intimidating, touching and unique - imagine all of that packed into one book and into one story. While reading it you feel confused and clueless, desperate and depressed, frustrated and compassionate. It's hard to compare "Room" to anything I have ever read before, it's special in its' own unusual way.

What I can reveal is that it's written from the perspective of a 5 year old child. After having finished the story you keep the feeling of experiencing everything, meaning your own world, in a slightly different way. By getting to know the process of how a child gets to know the whole world you start to question and examine your own.

This is a gripping story and I can recommend it to each and every one. Even this book being about 400 pages long, I finished it in almost a single sitting, surprising mysel of how fast I was able to read during the most captivating parts.

INFO POST: new beginnings

To start off the new year our blog got a new outfit as a present :)
Still staying true to our scrapbook-polaroid theme this is our way to take a new step into 2012!
We'd love to hear from you whether you like it or not and as a reminder - this is how our former layout looked like:

PHOTO POST: happy new year - 2012!

Wishing all of our readers and followers a happy and a bit belated New Year!!!! :)
Hope you had a great celebration and have started off the first few days of 2012 well!
Here are a few photos from the New Year's party at Felix's place where we celebrated with close friends! Since most of the ones we celebrated with (not me included! :DD) are not huge fans of the whole hype around the step into the New Year, we decided to keep everything quite small. It turned out to be a really fun night, with games being played, champagne being drunk (check out those fancy-vintage glasses ^^), lead being melted into weird figures and cookie-fish being eaten. Just a perfect night!! :)

starting off with a bottle of "Café de Paris" champagne

time until midnight spent dancing ^^

after midnight - the lead melting begins!!

Anna's turned out like a boat and it's supposed to stand for an upcoming trip

mine probably looks like a bow and supposedly stands for safety & protection

all photos by: [entertainment scrapbook]