Duplicity

I don't usually go for "spy-thriller" films, but I made an exception for Duplicity, mostly because I like Julia Roberts. Her character, Claire, a CIA agent, and Ray(Clive Owen), an M16 agent, have to work together to carry out a complicated con, and stay together in a romantic relationship.

At the beginning of the film, it Claire and Ray meet for the first time, and Ray is, unknowingly, Claire's assignment. Though she cons him and drugs him, he is still entranced with her, but the next few scenes wouldn't appear that way. The movie is somewhat hard to follow, because it switches back and forth between the past and present. It would appear that Claire, who now works undercover at a company called Burkett & Randle, and Ray, a new addition to an agency called Equickrom, hate each other, and hate that they are assigned to work together. But we find out later that Claire and Ray did not meet by chance, they planned the whole thing so that they would be able to stay together. They had met in Rome after their first meeting, and had fallen in love before this. They had devised a complicated plan to defy both their employers. Equickrom believes that B&R is developing a new product that they stole from them, so each CEO, Garsik of Equickrom, and Howard Tully of B&R (Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson) plans to con the other, to steal the formula to the product. Claire and Ray each make their way to the inside of each company, find their secrets. Believing they have B&R beat, Claire accuses Ray of cheating, of working for B&R, and he is searched by Equickrom. But she has not betrayed him- she did it so that the two of them would sell the formula to the new product with Equickrom's backing. However, the Swiss company that they planned to sell it to informs them that the formula is a fraud. Garsik, Ray, and Claire realize that they have been fooled by Tully and B&R, and the film ends with them waiting to see what happens next. They are doubtful about their future as agents, but nonetheless happy to all have each other.

Since the plot is so complex, it's difficult to watch sometimes. Not that it's too hard to follow, but rather it's hard to get involved with the characters. The entertaining part is the interactions between them, especially Garsik and Tully, and Ray and Claire. As agents and bosses, they are always on their toes, always convinced that someone is trying to play the other. The ending was so unexpected. Director Tony Gilroy builds up the agents' reputations, so that the audience is under the impression that the only thing left to do after they complete their mission is to love each other, and that they never do anything wrong. But then everything changes when you realize they've been had. I liked the ending though, I liked how Roberts and Owen weren't completely destroyed by this realization- they keep it...cool throughout the entire film, there's really not other way to describe it.

Marie Antoinette

The other day, I felt compelled to watch a bunch of movies and do nothing else. So, I watched Bye, Bye Birdie, Failure to Launch, and Marie Antoinette. The only reason I watched Failure to Launch is because I adore Zooey Daschenel, and I try to emulate her mannerisms on a daily basis. Other than that, the acting was an attempt at charm, but overall...a failure. Bye, Bye Birdie is of course, a classic musical, with classic actors and songstresses. Marie Antoinette was by far my favorite of the three. Sofia Coppola did a fantastic job capturing the young queen of France's naivity and indifference, as does Kirsten Dunst playing her. You probably know the basic story- a young Austrian girl forced to marry the Dauphin of France to secure the alliance between their countries, a marriage that would be riddled with scandal, adultery- everything but love. Marie is constantly hounded about not having any children, so she submerges herself into a world of constant parties, gambling, and other men. When she and her husband finally become king and queen, she is overwhelmed with requests from her public, and delves deeper into the dark.

The plot is so dramatic, but Coppola livens the story up, modernizes it, with a ridiculously catchy soundtrack, featuring new wave bands like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, along with period music from classical composers like Vivaldi. The contrast between the modern and the traditional is what makes the movie so captivating. Scandals and adultery are better portrayed by The Strokes than they would be with Couperin. Marie is more flighty- she's a pop star. Though the movie is historically accurate concerning facts, Coppola's interpretation of Marie's life is perfect. A teenage queen wouldn't be perfect all the time, she wouldn't want to follow the rules. There is a particular scene in which she is trying on all sorts of shoes, and there is a blurred pair of Converse in the background. This was, for me, the best part of the film, though it probably went unnoticed to most. Another scene, in which the Dauphine and her friends were drunk after a party, and ran out to watch the sunrise, captured the essence of the modern and traditional teenager. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars. He said, "every criticism I have read of this film would alter its fragile magic and reduce its romantic and tragic poignancy to the level of an instructional film. This is Sofia Coppola's third film centering on the loneliness of being female and surrounded by a world that knows how to use you but not how to value and understand you." I think he's totally right- the reason Marie Antoinette went astray was because of her the people who surrounded her. Every morning, it took her at least fifteen minutes to get dressed, not only because opf the elaborate outfits, but because her royal counterparts had to dress her, one by one. She must've been so frustrated, as her mother wrote to her constantly about not having any children. She was afraid she wasn'y charming enough for her husband, and it was clear that other subjects thought so. So much stress caused her to go crazy, to live the high life in the extreme. She took advantage of her royalty, which made her a rock star.

I wish this actually existed, though there are things like it.

This is a projectfrom my journalism class- we had to design a magazine or newpaper circulation business. Here is the plan from mine:
College Life Magazine
www.CollegeLifeMag.com
Business Plan
Hayley Johnson and Shane Saxton

Focus of the company:
-Our mission is to aid current high school students, as well as their parents and teachers, in their search for the perfect college. We will also assist recently accepted or existing college students in terms of college life.

-Each issue will include a compelling cover story spotlighting a specific college, a stellar student, or a renowned professor, along with sub-articles about the financial, cultural, social, and academic aspects of college life.

Publishing information:
-We will have a monthly issue in print, available by subscription- 1/3 of our articles will be exclusively in print.

-We will also have a website- 1/3 of our articles will be available both online and in print.

-1/3 of our articles will be fully available in print, but only partially online. To read those, one must subscribe to the magazine and/or website.

-To decide how to publish each article, we will categorize them according to student interest and popularity. Cover stories will always be fully available in print and online. If we find that one topic is well-received, perhaps that will be available for both too.

Profit:
-To subscribe to the magazine, we will charge a flat rate of $24.95 per year for 12 issues- we want to cater to a student budget. The same price will be charged for an online subscription. We will provide special offers to high school “College and Career” Centers that subscribe- $19.95 per year for 12 issues. If a public library wishes to subscribe so that the magazine will be available for student readers, we will charge $19.95 per year as well.

-We will also hold bi-monthly contests within the magazine/website, in which students can win prizes of college gear, for which they will have to pay a $6.50 entry fee.

Advertisement:
-To promote our magazine and gain readers, we will advertise at schools (in terms of posters and other “freebies”) and in libraries. Online advertisement will include a Facebook page- one must “Become a Fan” of College Life to view exclusive offers, partial articles, pictures, and links to our website.

-We will also lobby other magazines that target teen readers- we have contacted Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Cosmo Girl, Sports Illustrated, Boys’ Life, and Girls’ Life, about including an advertisement page to promote our magazine, and three of the six (so far) have agreed to accept a fee of $10.95 per page in exchange for advertisement. Seventeen has also agreed to collaborate with us in a joint subscription offer available through print only- $19.95 for 12 issues of Seventeen and 6 issues of College Life.

-In terms of advertisement for other companies in our magazine, we will charge them $14.95 per ad. Or, if they wish to advertise monthly, they will be charged a flat rate of $10.95 per month. Collegegear.com and Soffe Apparel have approached us about online and print advertisement.

To appeal to readers:
-On our website and Facebook page, we will have weekly polls about what topics students want to see in the next issue. We will hold daily forums with our employees to consider the highest ranking topics, as well as our employees’ individual ideas.

-Our selective interviews will be of human interest, with college and high school students that are unique, hard-working, and motivated, to encourage prospective college freshmen to succeed.

Employees:
-Our headquarters in Rochester, NY will include two collaborative co-executives, employees that will become leaders of their specific departments, and several educated, trained workers.

Thank you for your time and consideration!