about this blog

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Welcome to my movie review weblog, thanks for taking an interest.

Why I started doing this
The idea to start writing movie reviews came to me when I got a Pathé Unlimited pass. This is like a continuous subscription to the Pathé movie theatre: for a fixed price (about the price of two tickets) you get to go to as many movies as you like. This is of course a wonderful offer for anyone who likes movies as much as I do, so as soon as I got my pass, I started to see many movies. Sometimes two on an evening right after work. Some weeks I saw 4 movies in the theatre. I was having a blast. I also started seeing movies I thought I wouldn't like, but that did make me curious. And of course the good movies I went to see again, and again :-) Those are the luxuries of having such a pass.

Doing this made me notice how much better you get to understand a movie when you see it more than once. Sometimes my opinion of a movie turns around quite a bit after seeing it another few times. Also it's fun to see how a movie can surprise you. Some movies I expected to be dreadful actually were nice, and some movies I hoped to be slightly interesting turned out to be so bad I had to walk out (which I hardly ever do; I must be pushed *very* hard to really get up an leave during the movie).

So when I got to see more and more of these movies, I decided it might be nice to keep a log of those I saw and what I thought of them. Sometimes all these thoughts go through my mind and I discover all kinds of analogies and tricks the writer put in the movie, or I'm totally wild about an actor's performance or the photography or something and I want to be able to read back on those feelings. Also I enjoy reading other people's reviews about movies I'm going to see or have just seen and feel strongly about. That's why I decided to do it in this form: as a public weblog. So I hope others, maybe even you, will enjoy reading some of my reviews. If you like, you're welcome to leave comments by the way.

Rating scale
In each review I mention Paparelli's rating for that movie. It's just like the rating commonly used by other reviewers to give an instantaneous indication of the general appreciation of a movie.The scale I use goes from 0 stars to 4 stars. A 4 star movie is an absolute masterpiece and has made a lasting impression on me, definitely one onthe favorite's list. A 0 star movie would be one I'd hate to have to see again and that fills me with all kinds of negative feelings.By the way, my intention is not to compete with professional movie reviewers. This blog is all about my personal view and my personal taste will be a great influence in how I rate a movie. So it might be that you totally disagree with my opnion of a movie. Also I don't want to give the impression I take my own reviews very seriously.

Let me explain that statement: these reviews are just for fun. I do try to dig deep into the maker's intentions and like to let my mind wander about details of the movies I write about, but I have no experience in researching or reviewing movies, I never studied for it and I might easily miss out on things that are obvous to an experienced reviewer.

So please don't mistake the forward way I might state some opinions as me proclaiming myself a self-appointed authority on cinema. I'm just ventilating my thoughts and feel free to disagree if you want to. Actually I like hearing about other people's take on movies, so leave those comments! :-)

Who I am
Paparelli is a nickname. I chose it because I like how it sounds, and it is the name of one of the characters in the Phil Silvers show, played wonderfully by Billy Sands. He's always blabbing his mouth too much and telling secrets without realizing it. In real life I'm a movie lover from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. That's by the way also the reason why some of the reviews here are a bit old: in Europe movies are released later than in the US. Also it's not my ambition to be among the first to review a movie.

Links on this site
You'll find links to Amazon's DVD pages in most movie reviews. The reason for adding their links, is that it provides a free and very easy way to have a picture with each review. Usually movie stills, trailers and poster art have to be licensed through the particular production company of each separate movie, so getting permission to use pictures for each review is a real bitch.
I'm sorry that the companies don't have a website program that allows for quick and easy application for some well-defined, frequently-used forms of licensing in a standardised way. Instead, they require written (snail mail!) application forms to be filled out. But using Amazon's links from their Associates program is a good alternative I think. Also, I use data from the Internet Movie Database, which I think is a good source for all kinds of movie information. They allow using their data and linking to their site in return for an attribution link on each page (you'll find it at the end of each review).

1 Comments:

At 30 May, 2006 16:06, Anonymous said…

I guess you watch more movies a week than I have seen all my life. But your reviews are a nice initiative, and it kind of suits you to write stuff about movies.
And maybe, on the rare occasion that I will watch a movie, or have been watching one, I will check out Paparelli's opinion about it.
Keep up the good work!