CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD by Juliana

Chronicle of a death Foretold is a novella written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is about the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by the two Vicario brothers  . The book begins the morning of Santiago Nasar`s death but the author goes back in the story to give context. The central issue is that murder that was predicted and knew but no one tried to stop it. The novel was based on a real life events that occurred to a family that Gabriel Garcia Knew. 

Santiago Nassar needed just some minutes to entered when the door was closed. He could hit some times with the cuffs and then he dumped to unarmed confront his enemies. Santiago Nasar raised his hand to stop the first hit from Pedro Vicario, who attacked him by the right side with a Knife. The Knife crossed his right hand and then it sank to the bottom of the side. Everybody could heard his cry of pain.

Plácida Linero, Santiago Nasar`s mother, looked for his son by the bedrooms, listening shouting but without identify the origin of them.  Placida Linero peeked by the second`s floor window and saw the Vicario brothers running to the church. They were persecuted for many people. Then Placida went to the bedroom balcony and saw Santiago Nasar in front of the door, prostrated in the dust.

The Collection by Daniela

Jonathan is a Jewish American young man who, after visiting his dying grandmother, received a blurred photo on which his young grandfather was standing with a beautiful young blond woman in a peaceful field. In the back of the photo there was a handwritten note: "Augustine and me. Trachimbrod. 1940". From then, Jonathan started his complicated trip to find Augustine, the woman who helped his grandfather to leave the Ukraine in the Second World War.
Jonathan is a collector; he keeps different objects related with his family story. When his grandmother died, he had a vivid memory about how he got his first object for the collection. When he was a little child, he grandfather died in the same white and luminous bedroom. Next to the bed there was a white nightstand, with his grandfather's old glasses, the leather wallet and a lovely ancient pendant. Jonathan took the transparent and yellowish pendant which had a tiny cricket inside. Then, in the kitchen, he looked for a zip bag and carefully put the pendant in there. Later he went to his bedroom. At the moment that Jonathan opened the bedroom door, his memories faded and now he was in front of his "family wall".
From my point of view, this is one of the most fascinating images from the movie. The scene seems like an amazing installation art. The large light yellow wall is completely covered with diverse objects inside translucent zip bags. In the top part of wall there are five framed photographs. Each photo is a portrait of Jonathan's relatives and at the bottom of each photo are their names and birth dates. The composition is extremely impressive and the warm light through the window generates a special atmosphere in the room, almost a magic dream.
When Jonathan comes into the bedroom, he watches astounding his huge collection. In his right hand he has his grandmother's spotless dentures in a bag that he puts it on the wall with a tiny tack below his grandmother's photo. Around, there are other grandmother's objects into bags that Jonathan has collected through the years: a gray scarf, a ten of clubs card, an old envelope with red, green and black stamps. Each bag has a white sticker with the year and month in which the object was collected. That system are on objects of whole wall and each object has been placed around the photo of its owner.
As a three-dimensional family album, the Jonathan's wall compiles and contains memories and experiences of his relatives in the objects and allows to know them in a different way. Through small pink pills, a disgusting wishbone chicken, a well-worn photo, a squashed tape, an ancient oxidized key and a pale check book; it is possible to know part of Sam's life, a gentle man with gray hair and big black glasses. Next to Sam' objects it is Carol's photo, around there is an insulin syringe, a small green cassette, a blurred photo and one dollar of 1984. In the collection also there is a black feather, a crumpled love note, a little handcrafted toy and yellowy dental appliance of Marty. Finally they are Michael's objects, balloons, a nice bib, a nauseating thing with toadstools of 1992, a used condom and a diskette with a drawing of a woman.
Opposite the "family wall" there is a tidy desk with some folders and a small lamp. On the wall there is a likeable photo of Safran Foer, Jonathan's grandfather. Below of the photo, there is a only object, completely alone, the pendant with cricket. Jonathan takes out the pendant from the zip bag and looks the object thoroughly. Then he watches the photo that his grandmother gave him and discovers something amazing; Augustine, the woman in the photo has exactly the same pendant. He makes a decision to start his rigid research to find Trachimbrod and that enigmatic woman.

The Equalizer by Daniel

Introduction
McCall (D.Washington) is a man with a shadowy past , he spends his days working at the local HomeMart and his evenings sitting in a local Café alone reading a little book and drinking a coffee.
He has something special in his personality, he´s always checking his watch, timing how long it takes him to do things like brushing his teeth or doing this dishes and taking a tea.
McCall meets Alina in the Café, who is a child prostitute under the employment of a group of Russians mobster. She looks beautiful in spite of her prostitute clothes.


The Fight Scene
One night Mccall was sitting in the Café, this night He was wearing a black clothes like a black t-shirt and black pants and obviously his watch.
He realized that his friend Alina was beaten brutally by Russians therefore McCall take action against Russians mobsters.
It was a dark night in the EUA however there were a lot people on the street.
He arrived to the Russian’sDiscotec and he could slink trough the people because there were a lot of men had distracted with the sexy girls.
He went up stars and got in at Russian’sOffice.
The Russian’sOffice was big, it had a mini bar, living room, a bog desk and also a big Maria picture behind boss’sdesk.
Inside the office there were five men, one of them was in the room with a glass of liqueur, another one next to the boss and the others were in the mini bar.
Each of them had tattoos in their bodies but in the most visible parts such as in the neck, fingers, arms and head.
The tattoos looks like dragons, numbers and letters. McCall came directly to the boss of the organization to ask him for the Alina’sfreedom, the boss was uncomfortable with McCall presence and he tried to bother him but McCall insisted to buy the Alina’sfreedom with 9800 dollars.
In the boss’sdesk there were three crystal skulls with differents sizes big, median and the last one little. Before McCall left the desk, he took the big one and put it in front of the boss then he took the second one (median) and put it in front of the right hand of the boss and the last one put it in the middle of the desk while they laughed.
When he got to the door to leave of the office, he stopped in the door and closed it for four times and blocked it. He turned around and looked them.
He observed each movement of them. The first gun that he saw, it was the jackknife, then the hand gun after he could see the potential weapons to fight with them like the corkscrews, the glass of liqueur finally he said “16 seconds” and put his watch in zeros.
He started to walk toward to the boss , the first man who was in the room wanted to kill him but Mccall was faster than him and he grabbed the gun from his hands and broke his arm then he shot first at the boss then he used the glass and hit the first man in his eye. After that two men tried to stopped but it was impossible, the man with the knife wanted to cut him but McCall grabbed his knife and killed them.
The last one was the worse death, the man with the long hair took a bottle of wodka to hit him but McCall quickly catched two corkscrews and to stabbed him for four times and finally he crossed his neck with the corkscrew. Finally he stopped his watch on 28:24 seconds then he went toward the boss who was badly hurt in the floor and spoke with him then he left the office.

Paddington by Veronica

Paddington is a British comedy film based on the English children's literature.
The friendly bear from deepest, Darkest Peru with his old red hat, battered suitcase (complete with a secret compartment, enabling it to hold more items than it would at first appear), duffle coat and love of marmalade.
Paddington is a spectacled bear that has grown deep in the Peruvian jungle with his Aunt Lucy, who has instilled the desire to live in London. When an earthquake destroyed her home, Lucy hides his nephew on a ship bound for England to find a better life. When the bear comes to London's Paddington station, he realizes that nothing has to do with what had been imagined, until he meets the kindly Browns, a caring British family who welcomes him home, sitting on his suitcase (bearing the label “Wanted on Voyage”) with a note attached to his coat that reads “Please look after this bear. Thank you”. However, soon after, a sinister and attractive taxidermist pays attention to him, which poses a serious threat to his life.
I chose this film because it's so funny, cute, tender and teaches family values. I also think it has good music, shining scenography and great photography.
THE SCENE
I choose the scene when Paddington for first time enters the bathroom, after the friendly Mrs. Brown says that if he want to refresh, because most people take a shower after a trip. The polite bear comes in a typical bathroom of a London family, and begins to discover many new things for him, like the strange and colorful toothbrushes. He guided by his instinct bear tries to use the large colorful toothbrushes and puts in his furry ears and he starts to feel so good and pleasant feeling that he shivers, but the brushes stuck in his ears and when he does get them, its comes out with some kind of disgusting brown substance that smells stinks.
However, as Paddington is so curious, test this substance, which by his reaction it seems not tasty and beginning to drink the whole mouthwash, as he had ever tasted, he feels his mouth burned by the feeling of freshness that produces the mouthwash, to calm this feeling inserts his big head to the toilet to calm this feeling with the water and his head gets stuck. In an attempt to gets his head above water because he was drowning, he catches a rope nearby, but also throws several objects on the ground, including a blue doll that falls right into the toilet, covering it, and begins to overflow water toilet all over the bathroom, at the same time as Paddington is frightened by this situation, he starts looking for a safer place inside the bathroom, but his actions worsen the situation. He starts to ask for help, the water tube is broken, he begins to fight sprinkler moves alone by the water pressure when he finally beat the sprinkler, the water level has risen so much that the bathtub floats into the bathroom.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, the Brown´s family are discussing what to do with the kind-hearted bear, when unexpectedly fall leaky roof and the hapless Mr. Brown suspects the worst.
Paddington is rowing in the bathroom, the desperate Mr. Brown knocks on the door of bathroom, but Paddington says there are only small problems, but Mr. Brown opened the bathroom door and Oh surprise, a flood of water drops on him, the water is all over the house, and the tender and lovely bear with old red hat lands on the kitchen inside the bathtub very wet in front of everyone.

Whiplash by Catalina

Whiplash (Min. 56:10 – 1:01:30)


Whiplash was released in 2014. It’s an American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle based on his experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band.
The film shows the relationship between an ambitious jazz student and an abusive teacher. Andrew is a young drummer who attends one of the best schools in the country. He is under the instruction of the school’s fearsome teacher, Terence Fletcher. Andrew struggles to make it as a top jazz drummer.

One of the things that I liked about this movie was the music. I don’t know much about music but I enjoyed it; it involves you and makes you feel inside the movie living those feelings of despair or anxiety that characters are living.

The teacher’s role impacted me maybe because I’m trying to be a teacher and I wonder if a teacher can really have that extreme behavior in order to help a student be the best.

In this scene, the band is rehearsing Caravan, a wonderful melody, but Ryan (the core drummer) has problems with the tempo so Fletcher starts auditioning Andrew, Ryan and Carl, who are three outstanding drummers. These guys are fighting for being the new core drummer of the studio band for the next day’s prestigious jazz competition.
After Ryan fails, Andrew takes his place, he looks confident and he is obviously happy of having a new opportunity, he plays for almost a second and immediately the teacher stops him. Fletcher seems to be calm and patiently indicates his students what to do. Now, it is Carl’s turn. Carl tries but suddenly his teacher gets furious, yells Carl and strongly hits a chair. All the students are stunned and hopeless. Fletcher asks the musicians to leave the classroom until one of the drummers play at his tempo. So Carl, Ryan and Andrew change places over and over again trying to impress Fletcher for several never-ending hours while the rest of the class anxiously waits outside. The drummers play faster, always trying to improve their performance but the teacher keeps mocking and insulting them; this infuriates Andrew, Ryan and Carl. They feel frustrated but they don’t give up. The other musicians remain outside, extremely tired and annoyed. The drummers practice until they get exhausted, their hands bleed, they sweat profusely, their faces reflect anger and pain but the teacher don’t stop asking for more until unexpectedly Andrew gets the tempo, he plays widely and Fletcher demands not to stop. Andrew’s feet press the pedal of the drum hard. His hands seem to multiply; his body is full of intensity and fierceness. Fletcher tries to distract him, he uses some instruments to change the pace, screams “faster, faster” and throws a drum and part of the scenery but Andrew keeps focused, he plays incredibly fast, his hands bleed and blood drips on the drum set; he is really suffering and his 2 mates are perplexed. Fletcher orders to stop and finally peace returns to the classroom. Andrew earns his place.

Instructions Not Included by Cristina

Movie: Instructions not included
Director: Eugenio Derbez

It´s a 2013 Mexican comedy-drama film. It has been nominated for different awards, for example in the category “Best leading young actress in a feature film” in 2014.
The main character is Valentin Bravo, a womanizer man but in another hand he is so creative, funny, romantic and adventurous. His physical aspect is a little rude, his black hair is kind of long for a man, that means until his shoulders and his skin is dark. As a result of a romantic experience with Julie, he had to take care of his baby called “Maggie”, a pretty little girl (7 years old) with blond hair, with a constant smile and so naive as almost all children are.
The entire movie was around his daughter and all the situations that he had to pass with her daughter. He is so afraid of everything, included responsibilities and emotional commitments, but one day his life changed 180 degrees: The doctor said that his daughter had a terminal illness and that soon she would die.
As a family, Valentin and Julie decided to pass the last time with her daughter together in Acapulco. All the time was about funny activities: Maggie´s got new friends there; she enjoyed to dance reggae music with them, laughing a lot and eating ice cream at the same time.
With her parents she went to ride a Blow-up doll in the sea, they gambol on it and jumped to the sea in many opportunities as it was the last chance to do it. When they enter into the water they used to play throwing water as if all of them were children.
She was a spoilt girl, and she enjoyed that her father carries her on his shoulders or just carry her as a little baby while he was caressing her face or her back.
One day, they were sitting in a rock looking the setting of the sun: Maggie, Julie and Valentin, then suddenly Maggie began the eternal sleep. Her lips began to change the color: red to blue and her body began to lost mobility. Valentin and Julie began to cry without control.
One year after the issue we saw Valentin walking in the sand with his dog, it was the opportunity to think about his two loves: His father, person who taught him to have courageous and to be prepare to confront difficult situations in the life, and the second love: His daughter, who taught him how to confront the life even without training.