The Bird Man. I totally hated the previews and thought to myself, “Like Michael Keeton, hate the previews. Am I going to go to a film that exudes bravado of a supposed former star and his return to greatness, as well as celebrating the individuals Hollywood creates and celebrates? Hate. No thanks.” So I maintained this train of thought from the previews. Yet individuals who saw the film had different opinions, much. Different. Opinions. It makes you wonder, could there even be a thread of possibility that this is NOT the film you are seeing in the preview?

After weeks of considering just that, I broke down and went to see The Bird Man last night.    I love the quite from Raymond Carver, “And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”  True to his word, Alejandro Gonzalez  Inarritu’s  The Bird Man delivers a message of struggle, ego, relationships gone awry, and cinematic deviations from the norm.  Unimpressed in the beginning pace, though wondering what kind of craziness have I gotten myself into I hung on, just as Michael Keeton’s character, Riggan Thomas, hangs on, slips, climbs, back, second guesses, then hangs on again, and eventually comes into his own.  What caught my attention was the actress Emma Stone, playing Riggan’s Daughter, Sam.  Her struggle was worthy.  I found her down and out life kind of irritating at first, but the friction between her and Keeton becomes smoothed out as the plot managed to as well, and it just happened.  It all clicked.

Often see in Alfred Hitchock’s films, and in Rope, the rolling camera on long scenes, provided a panoramic and extended “following” of characters.  I like cinema.  Okay, LOVE.   I especially noticed when you study film classes, the mystery of film is sometimes ruined with the techniques keep jumping out at you.  Yet, this film allows you to realize elects as a simply viewer and as a film connoisseur without much effort, and that becomes the art of a great film.  Also leaving you with, “What really happened?” and with that elements of unsureness comes the reality that good films can do that.  Just as mirrored in Citizen Kane, leaving viewer with multiple possibilities and meanings, enter The Bird Man. (Some liked it before and hated it after some not liking it after and having positive ideas before). However, Ttat opinion I had earlier?  “Why would I care about seeing  Michael Keeton striding through the streets of New York in his underwear?”  Throw the doubts out the window (literally) and you will see why in The Bird Man.

Turn back the days to Thursday – not a popular day for many to plan an event since it was a puente – hand even harder to promote a parent Association concert I knew nothing about, titled Croix Rousse, a String Trio  featuring Jozef Olechowski, Kazimierz Olechowski, Ignacy Miecznikowski, and Ewa Miecznikowska, playing the piano, violin, viola, and cello respectively.   Yet, the opportunity was divine.  The 3:00 time slot allowed students to receive master classes from the musicians.  I was able to see a few individuals thai advantage of this was was stunned.  It was beautiful to hear music form both sides seemingly appear like magic, and it was difficult to imagine the sound being heard was actually emanating from the instruments.

However, the concert itself?  Well attended, and the results was truly beautiful.  Finding yourself nodding to the beat, finding yourself lost in the pieces, as well as taken away amid the normal drops and scuffles of these in the audience, none of these were even a problem when you found yourself in the audience.  You realized how lucky you were to actually be in the audience to take this all in, especially before a puente.  Repentino. staff photographer Pamela captured many amazing piece of this evening, and yet, being there was a story in itself.

Representing the experiences being played in cities and countries such as Krakow, Spain, Lyon, Mexico, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Central America, Colombia, Poland, the performances and locations represented by these musician was amazing in itself, then you hear the performances and count yourself lucky, thank you Teruhi and Hugo from the Fine Arts Division and the PA Association at ASF!