Week 6 - discussion topic - The Music, Film, Book which changed my life ( or altered it a little bit)

I can't remember which group chose which subject this week and I left my notes in Angouleme. So someone remind me!

Thanks Mathilde. So this is the thread where you talk about some music or a film or a book which has somehow changed you even if it's just a teeny weeny bit.

It's about a movie/book/music which has changed our life or our perception on something

Hello economists,

Today, I decided to evoke a movie which allowed me to discover a different culture, to « open my mind» to the French rap. It’s the movie "La Haine" in 1995.

Mathieu Kassovitz's full-length feature film, at the age of 27 (only) he realized without knowing a symbolic work for a generation. « La Haine » is magnificent by its atmosphere in black and white, and offers a consequent number of unforgettable plans. A deeply moving realization, thanks to an effective scenario.

This history talks about the violence in cities. It’s fascinating and splendidly staged. The heavy atmosphere, the tensions scenes and the black humor contribute to create a poignant story. Add , the famous trio (Vincent Cassel, Saïd Taghmaoui and Hubert Koundé) a Jew, a black and a person of North African descent (in French « un beur »), representing the suburb in France, because they show this repetitive spiral of their everyday lives without future, and the uncountable police checks (justified or inequitable). Moreover, this movie evokes an extremely strained social climate. 20 years later, the subject is always on the agenda, for example the skirmishes between young people and policemen (disturbances in suburbs from Marseille, etc.).

Rewarded by the Direction Prize during the 48th Cannes film festival, as well as by three « Césars », and the Best Movie !

In 2016 , Vincent Cassel shot a short film, entitled " Violence en réunion ". Many people describe this scene like " La Haine 2". Moreover, in USA, A$AP Rocky, a fantastic rapper, also realized a film concerning ghettos.

To finish, I would like to return into a mythical scene of this movie. When DJ Cut Killer, at the window of his building, « mixes » the sound " Assassin de la Police ". It marks the starting point of my love for the 90’s rap music.

Hey, guys! My problem here is that I have seen many movies and read quite a lot of books, especially when I was in my teenage years; however, I tend not to remember names of works I enjoy. And it's not possible to just say that this piece changed me and others didn't. So let me first talk about a book called "Cukiereczki" by a Chinese author Mian Mian. I read it maybe 10 years ago and it was deeply moving by its sadness, resignation, melancholy. It had a sort of "I have nothing to lose, anyways" vibe. Protagonists were young, rather affluent Chinese living in a big city, allowing themselves risky joys of this world including drugs. However, I felt that the whole book talks about profound love, despite the human inability to make life perfect and forget about the unavoidable vanishing character of existence. It was such a new experience to read something so melancholic, I blamed it then on the cultural differences and rather a lack of religious beliefs that I decided to impose on Chinese people to explain this story to myself, now I would probably judge it differently.
Regarding a film that changed my life - whenever I feel a little down, I like to go back to the Fellowship of the Rings, as it is full of hope and courage, such uplifting ideals. People are wise, brave, have the ability and will to figt to the death for their friends. But all in all, they are wholly human and they also make mistakes. If we lived in the Middle earth, I wish I was Gandalf

Hello everybody !

I haven’t really ideas to this topic. No book, film or music change my life.

On the other side, some have particular affected me. I will take for example « Eat, pray, love » by Ryan Murphy, realized in 2009. This film tells about Elisabeth, a thirty-years-old, who has everything to be happy : a husband, a house, a good job. However, she doesn’t happy, she doubts, anguishes and realizes that this life not for her. After a paint fulls divorce, she decides to leave to dream trip around the world. First, she goes to Italy and she rediscovers the pleasure to eating. She meet a lot of persons who become friends her. They discover her typical foods as pizzas, pasta and she passes very good moments. After, she goes to India to open his mind. She meet another culture who gives her another vision of the life. She thinks to her. In this country, she shows that people are happy with little things. People give a lot. Finally, she goes to Bali where she will make a decisive meeting. Indeed, he meets a boy that enjoys life and they fall in love.

I find that this film gives vied to travel, to discover other cultures. The life isn’t always easy, we have one’s ups and downs. Sometimes, we dream to have a life out of the ordinary, to abandon everything to discover new things. To travel allows to have a new vision of the world, to realize that we take advantage of the life. I like to leave to see other places, to eat traditional food, news landscape,…

Hi everyone !

In fact lot of movies, books have "changed" my life. But the best book I have never read stay "The last summer" of Ann Brashares (Toi et moi à Jamais in French). This story and this writor is amazing ! It's talk about friendship, love, sex, youth, death, injustice, forgiveness, etc. etc.
There are 2 main characters: Alice and Paul, who gather around one and the same person: Riley.
Moreover, this book represents a sentimental's value for me: in fact, this is my best childhood friend who gave me this book

Normally a film should be produced from the book since Warnerbrothers purchase the rights for at least a million dollars. This would be Julie Anne Robinson who runs the film: it will be his second feature film following The Last Song.
I liked the movie The last song so I hope The last summer will come out soon and it will auss although the book (although I don't believe too ..)

So if you don't know what to do for a day or you are looking for a good book to read to escape I recommend it or generally Ann Brashares written !

Bye

When I was 14-15, I was absorbed by a soundtrack of a movie itself based on a book. In short, these three masterpieces reflect a pretty dark period of my life.

It is at this age that I finally found the title of a music I had heard many times and always gave me chills. Its title is "Lux Aeterna" by Clint Mansell. (I had not shazam app, so it was longer to find a music track without it on the radio ) After some internet research, I discovered it was the soundtrack of the Requiem for Dream film (2000) by Darren Aronofsky with the famous Jared Leto.
When I read the synopsis, I immediately wanted to see it.

This is the story of the descent into hell of 4 characters. Harry, Marion and Tyrone are friends who aim to get their next fix. Harry's mother, Sarah Goldfarb, spends his time watching television. Until an unexpected phone call inviting her to become the candidate of a program. To each character, its drug. Harry, Marion and Tyrone are addicted to heroin: for it, Marion will sell her body, Tyrone will go to jail and Harry will destroy his body. For Sarah, this is television and the obsession to lose weight in order to be on TV, which will take her to a world of blue, purple and green pills.

But I saw that it was based on a book and at this age I read a lot so I wanted to read this book, "Retour à Brooklyn" by Hubert Selby (1978) before seeing the film.
So I bought it and after 10 pages I wanted to stop. The writing used by the author is very special, I was not used!
The narration consists of a single block, without line breaks or paragraphs. Moreover, dialogues and narration merge. Better to be well hung to the story ...
And finally I got used to to this style of writing and I quickly read the book!
So, I then saw the film that it shaken me. I thought of its scenes every night and I listened to its music when I was sad.

I was so absorbed by this very dark atmosphere ... It only worsened the state in which I was during this period because of personal worries, as everyone can have in his life.

Good evening all,

I pick the film “Lord of war” for this week’s subject. The film maybe didn’t change my way of life or something big like that, but I found it really interesting and it learned me a lot. The film was directed by Andrew Niccol and the main character & producer is the famous actor Nicolas Cage.

The movie starts with a well-made intro-movie about the life of a bullet. You get to see how the bullet is made, how it is being shipped and how it ends up being fired at an African man during a conflict. This intro was very eye-opening, because it shows all the parties that are involved during these conflicts. From weapon manufacturers to transporters and the armed forces themselves. In the end we understand the horrible truth about the industry, the weapon manufacturers of the Western countries make money and the people in conflict suffer the consequences.

It is not just the intro that shows this, but the whole movie reflects this principle. Nicolas Cage plays an arms dealer that benefits from war. He is the one that makes the deals and who makes the money by arming forces, good or evil he doesn’t mind.

I can recommend this movie to everyone, because it’s not just a movie that gives you an interesting insight but it is also a really good movie at the same time!

Hugs and kisses,

Celia Butel

Hi everyone,

For this week’s subject I have chosen a movie that has really changed my life. The film tells a sad story about the widower Marlin (Martin in French) who lives near the Great Barrier Reef. His wife got killed not far from where he lives whilst trying to protect her child. Therefore Marlin is a very protective father and even though he always warned his son about all the danger lurking outside of their house, his son still got kidnapped by some evil men on a boat.

Marlin decides to search for his son, even if this might put him in great danger. When he is preparing to leave his house he meets someone with a severe case of Alzheimer who decides to come with him. Personally I’m not sure if this makes the search any easier since she’s got a 10 second memory.

The evil men took his son to Sydney harbour and sold him there to a dentist. There his son tries to prepare his escape with some friends he made. Meanwhile Marlin is traveling all around the globe and arrives in Sydney as well. There his son escapes through a sewage pipe and they finally find each other. Both Marlin and his son learned a lot I believe. Marlin shouldn’t be so protective over his child and his son learned some important life-lessons during this incident. Finding Nemo really is a life changing film!

Viktor Beekman

Hello guys, I'm going to talk about rivalry in rap, especially the beef between Drake and Meek Mill that happened last year.

It all started with a tweet from Meek Mill, as many rap beefs go nowadays: "Stop comparing Drake to me too... He don't write his own raps!"

He's referring to Drake's verse on their collaboration "R.I.C.O", claiming that drake didn't write is own verses using a ghostwriter (someone who does it for him, not crediting him). The allegations continued by OG MACO (another irrelevant rapper) by tweeting this : "Some of us been knew. Meek just put it in the air. Meek not hatin. He's being honest." He proceeded to tweet a screen-grab of credits of a handful of songs from Drake's latest mixtape, If You're Reading This It's Too Late, that shows Miller credited ("6 Man," "10 Bands" and "Know Yourself"). The thing is that If he's credited, that makes Miller a contributing writer, not a ghostwriter. All this happened a Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Hot 97's ( a hip hop radio station drop New York) Funkmaster Flex (their Dj) debuted an alleged reference track to Drake's "10 Bands" by Quentin Miller (I had the opportunity to listen to it, and the song are really similar), Flex claims that someone OVO ( October's very Own, drake's labels) sent him the track.

The answer came during his 2-hour Beats 1 OVO Sound radio, he unleashed a song aimed at Meek Mill titled, "Charged Up." "N-----s snitching on us without no interrogation. I stay silent ‘cause we at war and I’m very patient. 6God is watching," he raps. 6god is Drake, "6" refers to his city Toronto, Canada.

He continued with this: "Done doing favors for people ‘cause it ain't like I need the money I make off a feature/ I see you n-----s having trouble going gold, turning into some so and sos that no one knows," perhaps referencing the Dreams Worth More Than Money collaboration in question, "R.I.C.O." Drake's saying that he did this verse to "boost" meek sales "having trouble going gold". (Gold record is a single or album that has sold 500,000 units (records, tapes or compact discs)).

Still no meek mill response, Drake dropped another diss track "back to back" where he raps : "I did another one, I did another one/ You still ain't did shit about the other one".

In opinion, Meek is just mad cause he knows who's the best one. As Drake says : " This for y'all that think that I don't write enough/ They just mad ‘cause I got the Midas touch", midas was the king of Phrygia, a Greek polis in Asia Minor. According to the myth, after he did a favor to one of the Gods, he was promised to have one wish granted, and he asked for a golden touch: everything he touches would turn to gold. Just as a Drake's verse on a song. Drake's album "views" ( an excellent piece of work) went platinum ( 1 million units sold) in one week and double platinum since then.

I really agree with Aleksandra, I cannot say that there is ONE specific movie or book that changed my life. I thinks they all did a bit, that's make sense, like every people meet or things I heard and so on.

So this week I am going to speak about some movies I enjoyed.
I like long movie about life, I am not a big fan of action movie. It can seems boring for some people but I really enjoy watch film when there is no end, when it's just about the life of a character. So recently I enjoyed a lot "Boyhood" it's a 2014 movie of Richard Linklater, the interested thing about this movie is that it take 12 years to make. The director take the same comedians each years to make to parts of the movie.
I am not really able to resume this movie, because like I said nothing really happen, it's just about living a life. In this case is the passage from childhood to young adult age for a boy. I really like this movie because I found it so real, so realistic, I am pretty sensitive to real transcription of emotions and questioning sens of life.
That's why one of my other favorite film is obviously "Forest Gump".
And pretty an huge fan of "Boy A" but this one is about real topic, the reinsertion after jail for a young adult you commit a crime when he was a teenager. Amazing dramatic movie, so real.
So that's it, I like sad (or not) boring movies about life, it allows me to change my perspective a bit I guess..
Good night everyone!

Hi everybody !

For this week, I have chosen a saga movies.I will speak about the Harry potter saga, yes Harry Potter change my life! Who didn't dream to go in Hogwarts? I am still waiting for my letter of acceptance. I am sure I can be the perfect gryffindor !

I watched all films and I know everything about what is going to happen scene after scene. Unfortunately, I didn't read the differents books, but it's part of my to do list (in English of course).
I like these movies because they remember me childhood memories and every time, there is a suspens as the first time. But the real thing about Harry Potter is that is a great way to develop imagination, and imagination is according to me one of the most important feature in someone's mind. Thanks to that saga I became more like a dreamer, it's allows me to break the barriers of reality.
I like a fantastic world, it makes me fell like I'm still child. And keep an child part is significant!
I watch all volumes, at least once per month (when I have a time : it means when I am not working at all the homeworks we have in economics).

The name of the book that made a big impression on me is “The Curve of Happiness” – a collection of articles written by a Bulgarian basketball trainer and sports journalist who lives in the USA – Ivo Ivanov.

Most of the articles tell stories of famous US athletes, some of whom have a physical disability, but have nevertheless succeeded much more in life than the majority of people. Other articles tell the story of the Tarahumara people – a Native American people who live in the Copper Canyon in Mexico, eat chia seeds, live long, drink a lot and organize 2-day marathons during which they don’t stop running! There is a book dedicated to this tribe – “Born to run” by Christopher McDougall.

One of the most fascinating stories of an athlete is the story of Jennifer Bricker – a girl who was born without legs to Romanian parents in the USA. Her parents gave her up for adoption namely because of her disability. She was adopted by an American family. Despite her disability she wanted to be a gymnast and her mother encouraged her by telling her that there’s nothing impossible in their family, so she started training. Jennifer had one favourite gymnast - Dominique Moceanu. She wouldn’t miss any competition in which Dominique participated. One day the whole of Jennifer’s family were watching Dominique’s performance. At one point the camera showed Dominique’s parents and Jennifer’s adoptive parents realized that those were Jennifer’s biological parents and Jennifer’s favourite gymnast is, in fact, her biological sister.

There are other amazing stories of American athletes such as Jessica Long, Kyle Maynard, Lolo Jones, etc. The stories made me reconsider a lot of my views. Most importantly, they helped me stop moaning and get my act together.

I think that is very extrem to say that a music, book or moovie can change our life. It's maybe more adapted to say that affectes us or that that made us reflect. I saw again, not long ago, a thread which had enormously touched me : Lee Daniels' The Butler with Forest Whitaker ( in french le majordome). It is one of my movies preferred, he presents us the company such as it was there are even hundred years. It's the very moving movie which deserves the look.

Hello everybody !

I think read books or listen music can change the life. The morning, many people listen, they think they have need. When you listen a music, you don't think of anything. When people do Yoga, teacher have a relax music. A recent survey expose the effects of music on the body. Apparently, listen classic music when you do your homework permit to better learn.
So, many people read a book on their beds. Read a book permit to relax because you are focus on the story and you don't think of anything. We can observe, you better memorize the history when you read the evening, before sleep. Apparently, read before sleep permit to have a better memorize. When I do theater, I read every night my text, I have never learn my text, because, the memorize is better the evening before sleep.

Hello !

I'll talk about a film that marked me deeply, it's the film "Incendies", a Denis Villeneuve's film released in 2011. This film is based on a play of Wajdi Mouawad. This film tellsthe story of twins, Jeanne and Simon who receive the death of their mother two letters, a letter to their father they never knew and a letter to their brother they never knew existed. Siblings decide to find these two characters in order to find their roots. They go to the Middle East in a country that is not specified but which was at war when their mother was living in the country. This film shows the life of this woman during the war, it is a film committed to denounce the horrors of war but doesn't specify the place in the war in question. This makes it a universal film. This film also shows the discovery of a mother judged by his children as a distant mother. Will they discover will explain the reasons for this distance this film is extremely well filmed and allows you to experience all the feelings of the characters.
This film is really beautiful I suggest you see !

Like others, I don't know which is the movie or the one book that changed my life.

However, I think that The Lady, Luc Besson movie about the life of Aung San Su Kyii, original Burmese woman who has built his life in London, and who leaves this city and her family to return to Burma, to the political situation of this latter. She will therefore continue her father fighting against the military dictatorship and she is in favor of freedom of expression. She will undergo many difficulties, because she is a woman.
This film was striking because it shows that a woman can also succeed in politics, especially in this climate of American elections who oppose a man and a woman and maybe tomorrow morning when we wake woman will head the US?

Hi everyone!
I would like to talk about a book I read 2 years ago maybe… It doesn’t change my life but it was captivating, I read it in 3 days. It’s “Puzzle” written by Frank Thilliez, a French autor. Puzzle is a trailer, if you don’t like it, you will probably don’t like this one, it’s one of the best of this kind I ever read.
I just start to read Angor and I bought Pandemia from the same autor.

The book is about a young man, Ilan, who loves riddles. The character is a bit depressed. He researches since a long time the entry of a game called “Paranoïa”. One day, his ex girlfriend, came to him to show the entry of the game she found on the internet.
Then, start a lot of weird steps to be chosen to play Paranoïa. Ilan and Chloé are very good players for this kind of game, they win the steps and they are driven with the others competitors in an old psychiatric hospital in the mountains, this is where the game will take place. They receive the first rule: “No matter what happen, nothing is the reality. It’s just a game.”, then, the second rule: “One of you will die”.

Hi!
My choice is the movie. The movie I watched when I was a child. The film title is chucky.
This movie about that kills people, which is very common is a film that traumatized me all my life and was the cause of the abandonment of all my toys. To this day I do not approach me with fear doll wake me strangled by a doll. So it's a movie that changed my doll overlooked vision despite his is a fiction movie.

I don’t have a singer who changed my life but I want speak about a singer who permet for me to have a
another view on different topics. It’s the french singer « Renaud », he speak in this song of loves, nostalgia, frienship, army, politics,…
He’s a very good singer who know put words on my suffering, my joy and my thought. I love listen his song during all my mood’s phase. His quill is magical and has written masterpieces of French music. I thank my mother who introduced me to this singer since childhood.
For me, It’s the best french singer of the history <3

Hi classmates,

Maxime, I’ve seen “La Haine” again some weeks ago, and the movie still always great each time I watch it, amazing movie.
 
My life never be changed by a film or a song, or a movie, but I remember when I was child, I loved watching the Lion King from Disney, I wanted watch it all the time. This film is a classic Disney and everybody knows this sad (then happy) story. The movie teaches children some principles like perseverance, friendship or family importance and even if this film hasn’t changed my life a lot, I take lot of pleasure every time I watched when I was young  

Hi classmates and Hi John, sorry to reply to the post just this morning, I couldnt do it during the last week
Today i would speak about a book which "change my life", i was 12 i think when i read it for the first time, it was in a french courses
and the title of the book can't be translated in an easiest way but it could be something like : "The Evils flowers" by Baudelaire,
I think i was too childish to read it in "5ème" but few years later in the last year of primary school, in Emmaüs bookshop i found it and i choose to buy it (0.5 euros not so expensive)
Since I read the first poem i was completely surprise, in my mind poetry was absolutly boring and about love and princess and all the things which made people avoid read poetry!
It wasn't!
I discovered something which correspond to me, before books were disgusting me, i didnt like novel and all the traditionnal literary genre!
Poetry and especially Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, etc (so XIX and XX century) reconcile me to the reading and enable me to read some others special autors.
I know today some people are scared about read poetry but I think the world need this beauty which is trapped in some poem to discover it in the other way. Some people are actors of their life and don't take the time to become spectator to realize they are really lucky to exist.

I haven’t any movie, book or music that has changed my life. So, I will talk about a YouTube Channel called: “Le corps, la maison et l’esprit”. Laetitia, the girl who created this channel, share every think that she has done in their life since 3 years.
About the body, she thinks that cleaning, detoxifying, the body should be the priority. Cleaning the body with shampoo is that everybody does day filled chemical products.
About the home, she asks herself about different thinks: Is it good for the health, to cook with a silicon baking tin?  Or cleaning the home with chemical products?
About the spirit, she gives her opinion on the first 2 subjects (Body and Home). All she says result from their personal experience.  She also talks about spirituality, personal development, and light topic.  
I think their questioning is very interesting. Do I really need all that the society proposes me?  Do I sometimes buy useless things?
I became aware of all my needs have been optional. From now on, I’m more minimalist. This way of life permits to avoid overconsumption, have a healthy life… Also permit the clearing and freedom of spirit, because you have fewer things to worry.
Moreover, I try to minimize my wastes. For example, I try to buy reusable objects, buy fruits without plastic bag...
These 2 processes allow me to reduce my ecologic impact.

Axel Chalet wrote:Hi classmates,

Maxime, I’ve seen “La Haine” again some weeks ago, and the movie still always great each time I watch it, amazing movie.
 
My life never be changed by a film or a song, or a movie, but I remember when I was child, I loved watching the Lion King from Disney, I wanted watch it all the time. This film is a classic Disney and everybody knows this sad (then happy) story. The movie teaches children some principles like perseverance, friendship or family importance and even if this film hasn’t changed my life a lot, I take lot of pleasure every time I watched when I was young  

I loved watching this film with my son when he was little - many times.