Author Archives: eliefares

May Hariri’s Serious Lack of Sportsmanship

Dancing With The Stars, Lebanon edition had its first elimination round on Sunday and I had no idea who lost until I watched this YouTube video in which the reaction really surprised me:

May Hariri who was so bad at dancing she ranked last with the judges found herself in the bottom two teams. She was then eliminated by not garnering enough votes to put her on top the other team – no puns intended in any way whatsoever.

You’d expect the famous person who loses to take it well and be, in typical cliche manner, thankful for the experience, blah blah blah. Except with May Hariri who apparently aimed to lose because – and I quote – “[she] has lots of other stuff to do.”

It seems plastic fillings reach the brain as well.

Update: There’s paranoia on top of the plastic.

According to the following video, Michel el Murr, MTV CEO, has “lusts” that he can’t control. It seems there’s a “contract breach” and that she was used to “bring them viewers boom” because she’s in the same league as Haifa, Elissa and Nancy. Nidale Ahmadiyeh is on the line as well so you know shit just got real.

May Hariri is also a political victim now because she’s against “anyone who touches Syria.” And leave it to Nidale el Ahmadiyeh to be “thankful they didn’t shoot [her] on stage because MTV’s politics are known.”

The amount of stupidity that some B-listers with high-profiles in this country have is outstanding. This lack of sportsmanship just turned into absolute disgust – this is the definition of pathetic.

Ziad el Rahbani’s Sheep

Many bloggers have already posted this video of a dispute at Ziad el Rahbani’s concert which took place a few days ago:

But I’m actually baffled by the reaction of some of the people attending. There’s a limit to how much crap you can take from an artist. He was 90 minutes late, the event’s organization was a royal mess – and yet because he’s Ziad, no one is allowed to complain?

Spare me the hipstery all-hail-to-Ziad attitude. I am not a Ziad el Rahbani fan and after the above video, I will never be. I will never listen to his plays nor will I quote his useless lines nor will I be taken by his music. There are plenty of much better musicians out there that he can only dream of approaching that I’d rather listen to.

What can I make out of an artist that doesn’t respect his fanbase enough to even apologize for wasting over an hour and a half of their time while they sat and waited for him and then has the decency to actually call them out for speaking up?

That’s not an artist I can respect.

What do you make out of an artist that treats the people who were pissed because he was late so callously and is met by applause from an audience who stood by him, non-caring about the time of their life that was wasted?

I’m sure his plays have some “witty” line about apologies somewhere. I won’t bother. The only sheep here are those who blindly worship everything this man touches and who don’t give a rat’s ass about their time which was wasted and who actually call his reply as “polite.”

The sad part is his “fans” believe that people don’t have the right to complain because Ziad is sharing their art with them. They actually think the people complaining are doing so because they’re bothered by his success – as if they would have bothered snatching up those rare and pricey tickets in the first place if the only thing they wanted to do was cause a riot at the concert.

In any decent country, this delay would have warranted a refund. Except in Ziad el Rahbani land, an artist that wants your money and wants to insult you for wanting to get your money’s worth.

“Iza mannak mabsout, 3a shou ba3dak hon?” Ye2ta3 habal l 3alam yalli mfakkrin enno heik shi ma2boul.

Life of Pi [2012] – Movie Review

Life of Pi movie poster

Ang Lee’s new movie, Life of Pi, is a take on a supposedly unfilmable book about a young Indian boy named Piscine Molitor Patel – Pi for short. Born in French India, Pi lived in a zoo run by his parents. Growing up, he experiments with different faiths and religions so he became Hindu, Christian and Muslim. The tough situation in India forces Pi’s family to relocate to Canada. They pack their animals and board a Japanese ship which sinks over the Mariana Trench, a few days off the coast of the Philippines leaving Pi stranded on a boat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutang and a Bengali tiger called Richard Parker with nothing but a strong will to survive to help him.

Life of Pi is visually stunning, be it from Lee’s supreme camera work and keen attention to detail to the expert cinematography work, apparent through the extremely diverse color palette that’s accurately conveyed on screen. The 3D employed here gives a depth to the movie that few other 3D movies can boast about. In a way, the 3D helps in situating all characters involved in the restricted space they’re given: the tiger on a boat, Pi on a raft – and the Pacific ocean all around them.

The CGI imagery of ocean creatures is so believable that it becomes nothing short of magic, especially in scenes of nightly luminescence. Even the tiger Richard Parker is the work of a computer. The effect is extraordinary.

Mychael Danna’s score cannot be ignored as well. It infuses itself in the scenes it accompanies quite well. It’s a soothing, enchanting and entrancing musical body that serves as a fitting auditory counterpart to Life of Pi‘s visual mastery.

But Life of Pi can’t be simplified only by its visual aspect, Ang Lee’s camera, Claudio Miranda’s cinematography or Mychael Danna’s music. The movie’s inherent and main theme about faith is what the movie’s all about. But it’s conveyed in subtle ways so it doesn’t come off as preachy. It doesn’t come off as a “you need to believe in God ASAP” PSA – on the contrary, the metaphors the movie employs are left for the viewer to interpret.

Suraj Sharma, an inexperienced newcomer, does a great job at portraying Pi’s struggles, his life and his soul while a serene middle-aged Pi, Irfan Khan, narrates the story to a Canadian author portrayed by Rafe Spall.

Life of Pi‘s main problem, however, is that it invites you to so many things that at the end it leaves you with no clue as to what to make of it. The imagery may be the best thing that has happened to movies in years and the storytelling is definitely gripping but it’s spread too thin sometimes. The movie’s final twist is also handled in a grossly perfunctory manner, which compromises the movie’s foundation, leaving you feeling somewhat empty as you exit that movie theatre.

In a way, the heights that Life of Pi promises you for most of its run turn out much lower than originally perceived and that’s a shame for something so marvelously well-done.

8/10

Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now Shortlisted for Original Song & Score Oscars

Where Do We Go Now - Nadine Labaki new movie - poster w halla2 lawein - et mainteant on va ou

Who knew that more than a year after its release Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now, which lately garnered Paulo Coelho’s love, would be in the running for an Oscar?

While going through recent articles regarding the upcoming movie award seasons, I stumbled on two press releases published by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for the shortlists of original song & original score, which are quite extensive. However, keep in mind that they have been narrowed down from a much wider selection.

The original song list can be accessed here. The original score list can be accessed here.

As you can see, Hashishet Albe has been shortlisted for best song and Khaled Mouzanar’s musical work has been shortlisted for best score. I don’t think they stand a chance at a nomination, especially not when you have people like Adele and Hans Zimmer in the running. But it’s still interesting to see that the great musical work done on the movie hasn’t been lost.

It’s slightly ironic that the movie is doing better at the Oscars with its music than with its film aspect. Where Do We Go Now failed to be shortlisted for best foreign movie last year.

This is hashishet albe:

The Date of Lebanon’s 2013 Elections

The minister of interior affairs Marwan Charbel has just announced the date of Lebanon’s 2013 parliamentary elections.

We will be heading to the polls in order to perpetuate the current status quo on June 9th. The entire country will be voting on that day and the ministry is apparently done with election preps according to the 1960 law, which was employed in 2009: the law that everyone is against but no one is willing to change.

According to the 1960 law, each caza in Lebanon is its own electoral district.

However, the minister said that if Lebanon’s political parties agree on another electoral law, the date might be postponed by a few weeks. So for all matters and purposes, June 9th it is.

Political parties will start booking those plane tickets for our expats in 3…2….