Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Coincidences, coincidences... Our lives are always full of them.
On Monday (Labor Day Holiday), Randy and I went to Home Depot to get
some flowers for our yard. He let me pick most of them, but since I
picked them I would also be in charge for planting them. At first, I didn't really like the idea, it reminded me of the time I used to work in the yard with my father. I hated it so much that I would do it crying, but
this time was very different, instead of picking the weeds and cutting
the grass, brushing it (we have a gardener for that), all I had to do
was to plant the flowers.
First, Randy taught me to put the soaking rose underneath so the dirt
would be moist and the roots would receive the water directly, therefore
the flowers would be "happy", after that I created some kind of a
pattern with the ones we bought, and while I did it I thought what I was
doing was not really gardening but landscaping and landscaping is COOL!
It is fancy! Hehehehe
On the same night we met Adam and Frank at the Grove to watch "The
Constant Gardener", which explains the beginning of this blog, not that
this film has a lot of gardening in it though. Anyway, I felt compelled to
see TCG because it is directed by Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian
director who also directed "City of God", which I loved it.
I really don't like when people compare this film to 'The English
Patient", other than the same type of narrative and Ralph Fiennes as the
main character, all the other factors are pretty different.
I have to admit I had a hard time understanding the British accent,
which probably made me unaware of certain details of the plot. I would
like to watch it again on DVD and add the subtitles to it. For example, I
could not understand why the film is called the constant gardener, but
I did get the whole picture and I would like to stress the great work
of art on portraying the African culture and poverty with its many
social issues and devastating diseases... Attention to the beautiful
soundtrack, to the cinematography, yellowish in Africa and grayish in England.
Good acting and a fast paced "camera-on- hand" (that might make you
dizzy at times) complete Meirelles' great piece.
It is scary to know that there are opportunistic "mother f%ckers" all
over the world trying to make money and politics out of the disgrace of
others. The screenwritting of TCG denounces a very actual, evident and
accurate problem in the world today.