48 Hours of *Bono-ism*

A review from two weeks ago… Better late than never!

To me, the concept of “celebrity” applies to rock stars. I always think of them as sexy and confidence as no-one else can be on stage in front of thousands of admirers. Some, though, are way beyond that — it really is their charisma that blows my mind away. Mr. Paul David Hewson (a.k.a. Bono) is one of them!

Almost two weeks ago, I had a privilege to see my all-time favorite band, the one and only U2, two nights in a row on their 360° tour at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. Some might call it pure craziness or obsession. I call it die-hard ‘fandom’!!!

After a great opening performance by Snow Patrol, who can easily fill a venue themselves, Bono and his mates appeared on a truly stunning stage set, kicking off with a few new tracks from “No Line on The Horizon” before belting out old songs such as “Beautiful Day”, “Vertigo”, and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. The latter was fully dedicated to the green movement in Iran and its people who are fighting for their freedom. The green light show and the images scrolling on the 360° screen made me tear up and feel incredibly grateful to be part of such an experience. To be honest, I find it hard to put those two nights into writing on this blog. All I can share here is that their performance hypnotized me and all their fans. As a reviewer noted in one of the newspapers the following day, it was a presentation that unfolded like “watching a music video happen right in front of you.”

As many of you know, I’ve been to many concerts in my all my years, but the live performance by the Irish legends was indeed *magnificent* and not in the same league as the ones I’ve seen before. They truly have it all with pride!

S

Conversation #26

– Have you heard of people who are romantically attracted to objects?
– You’re thinking of that woman, who fell in love with, and married the Eiffel Tower?
– Yes. So here is my question. What if somebody else falls in love with the Eiffel Tower and wants to get married?
– Well, that’s polygamy. There are laws about that.

TIFF ’09 | My Tehran For Sale

It’s been almost 10 days since the TIFF has been over and lazy me is still writing up reviews. One could even say that perhaps I’ve seen too many movies when it comes to updating my blog!

“My Tehran for Sale” was the last Iranian film I watched at the festival and I truly loved it. For the first time, someone had genuinely showed the contradiction in our society with no pretence or falsity whatsoever, and demonstrated the million differences between what people see from afar and what actually happens in the real lives of the below-thirty generation of youth, comprising almost 70% of the total population. This was the first work of the poet (now director) Granaz Moussavi, who herself was present at the screening and was complimented with several positive comments from the audience in the Q&A session. The cast members did a great job in their respective parts as well.

… and just so you know, I ended the festival by watching “Irène” *again* (as I promised here), which unlike many others (!), I considered a “love-at-first-sight” feature film/documentary.

C’est tout…

S

TIFF ’09 | Women Without Men

More than 10 years ago, I was introduced to the stunning and unique works of a great photographer, Shirin Neshat, at an exhibition in London. I clearly remember how powerful and inspiring her works were at the time and how surprised I was by her talent and art.

On Saturday, September 19th at the TIFF, I watched her first feature film, for which she received the best direction award at the Venice Film Festival. Although the framing and cinematic shots of the film were truly breathtaking, I would have probably expected to see a better storyline as an adaptation from the book “Women without Men”. However, according to the author of the book, Shahrnush Parsipur, herself present at the Q&A session in the first screenings of the film a week prior, Ms. Neshat changed the story to a certain degree and added some parts to the original. The four characters of the women in the story were really engaging and, in my opinion, could have be displayed in a more powerful way. My overall experience was positive, but I rather consider Ms. Neshat as a great photographer and perhaps not so much a director.

S