Things I Love Thursday

Bonjour! Or shall I say good night?
It's 2:41 a.m. for me so perhaps I should.
But that means it's officially Thursday, time for Things I Love Thursday!
Things I Love Thursday is a list, being it small, big or huge, of the things you've been loving these days, or what's making you happy.
This is a tradition created by the always brilliant Gala Darling (who I seem to have mentioned in almost every post!) and it has been adopted by lots of nonpareils like myself to follow in our own blogs and our daily lives.

Something I've learned from Gala is being grateful. We don't really see it, but being grateful makes such a difference. It makes you happy. Life can really change if you appreciate the small things it gives you, it turns everything a whole lot brighter.

There a lot of things people don't see or take for granted, and they are truly special things. A beautiful sunset, a midnight phone call, laughing with a friends, a coincidence, or life itself.refore we're focusing on them so we're happy.
Things I Love Thursday is wonderful tradition and it's worth making a habit. As grateful as we can be, it's good to have a special day to write it all down so we won't give anything for granted, and it's also nice to share with people what's making us happy and what we love. It shows a great deal about the other person.

This is what I'm Loving this week:


By being grateful we're highlighting the good things in life and the

1. The Twilight Tales.
   I love the fact this girl has a whole blog about fairies and fairytales and I love the fact that it was all inspired by the twilight.
   I love fairytales, we all grew up with them, and in this imagination-starved world, it's good to know all those magical stories are not so forgotten.
   
   
2. Holidays with my friends in the beach, taking lots and lots of pictures and having so much fun together before we all go away for college.
   
   
3. Keira Knightley's green dress in Atonement (I'm posting the same picture because I love this shoot. It's the perfect light for the dress)
   Indescribably beautiful and elegant. So 1930 - 1940's, and the perfect shade of green.
   
   
4. Mika. He's really had me singing the whole week. My moment's obsession are Lollipop and Relax, take it easy.
   
   
5. I'm officially enrolled on the College I wanted, so I'm officially going into the visual arts career I have always dreamed of. I'm immensely happy.
   
   
   
6. Cleaning & order.
   Since I'm now officially going away, there's a pile of stuff I need to get rid off to see what I've got and what I need to buy. Same with my wardrobe. There are so many clothes I don't really use and there's a lot of things I need, like, basic things.
   I'm also very excited of the idea of a new house, and a new room decorate freely. I already have stash of pictures and ideas for that purpose. But I have decided I will become more ordered, so I've also started searching for pictures in Flickr to get some inspiration for my future studio or work area, to keep all my materials organized and a neat & inviting working zone. Gracious! I'm so excited.
   Here are some examples...
   Une, deux, trois, quatre, et cinq
   

What's kept your heart swooning this week?
I hope a bucketful of things. Now go and love your days away!

Infinite x's & o's...
M.B. Whimsical.

"No rhymes, no embellishments..."

As the evocative sound of a typewriter writes the word "Atonement", the image turns into a gloriously beautiful doll house. A blonde girl typewrites as the signature piano starts. Precocious, blue-eyed, Briony finishes her play in that 1930's high class nursery where the story begins.
A scene representing everything, us, writers, have been founded by. The whimsical, sweet flavor of the dollhouse, the nursery, and the countryside scenario (a la J.M. Barrie)as the sound of words pouring out of the typewriter and this bright-eyed girl's hands, writing off in her beautiful paper.
Whimsical enough to have me, sitting here writing about a movie I just finished watching.

Atonement, Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel, turned into celluloid.

Exquisite and shocking in every possible way, Atonement, tells the story Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy), whose romance was unfairly denied by a decision 13 year-old Briony took, that caused Robbie's imprisonment and sending to war.
The movie follows Cecilia as she leaves her family for their injustice and enrolls in nursery school, and Robbie in a German-invaded Northern France during the Dunkirk evacuation.
Silent yet expressive, the simple story-line is told by sublime and breath-taking scenes, achieved by Joe Wright's vision, Dario Marianelli's signature piano, an amazing camera work and a, what I think was, incredible team.


Crossed scenes, silent, but expressive. Playing with ethereal lights and shadows, present and past mixtures and a piano fused with the sound of a typewriter, Joe Wright manages to keep you mouth-gaping the whole movie, with your heart bursting with the beauty of the scenarios and scenes so sublime, like a 5 minutes-long take where Robbie walks around Dunkirk, which isn't cut or moved for 5 minutes, ending with him standing in front of a black and white, old-hollywood, movie proyection of a couple kissing, contrasted with the atrocities of war you saw the 5 minutes before. The music roaring as he walks through the wounded and despaired soldiers, who sing to keep the hopes up. Then he reaches the screen, thinking of Cecilia, and his promise of coming back. Your chest fills with something you can't explain, and you get chills up and down your spine, and tears are very likely to sprout from your eyes.

With a highly-unexpected end, shocking and quite unbelievable, Atonement is one of the best movies I've seen in a while.
Just as in Pride and Prejudice (which is one of my favorite movies and forever will be, for things this movie has too), Joe Wright is able to express the story beyond acting. He expresses it visually, manipulating elements like the colorful, natural scenarios in which the imposing Victorian mansion is located, crude war scenes, settings, lighting, costumes (like Keira Knightley's green dress below), lost dialogues here and there that truly are the ones that pull the story together and a certain way of telling the story.
Plus, an amazing cast, capable of portraying their characters with just their eyes.
Bravo for the whole crew!


When the movie comes to the final part, which was an end (which, of course, I won't tell) that totally caught me off-guard, you just can't believe the twist the story takes, and the simplicity it's told with. Simple words, simple, feelings, no rhymes, no embellishments, no scenarios, no ethereal lights, just simplicity of words.

Exquisite from beginning to end, Atonement is the kind of movies that still has you glued to the screen even though you're halfway the credits. They stay with you for a while.
So bad, that here I am, channeling Briony and her typewriter, trying to put in words those enticing images.

I don't think I truly can.


Infinite x's & o's...
M.B. Whimsical.