Scended scents and moving movies Part 2

The most adorable humanoid ever to exit a lab. In all her "baaada boom" cuteness. Eating half a chickens brood in one take while growling "Chicken gooooood!" adds to the mystery of how she keeps herself thin as a dagger's blade. And equally lethal. The perfect companion to get plastered with, in any fishy bar of Alpha Centauri, no matter the size of the brawl that will surely follow. I'm still wondering whether the garment this lovely carrot top wore when she hit the screen was a grounbreaking high-end gown or simply her underwear. But in any case Azzaro's virtually unknown Orange Tonic goes very well with her bubbly character and her chromatic scale.

A lesson in being humble, even when everyone around is looking up to you and trusts you with their lives. Knighthood and gallantry do not always require a sword to be bestowed upon anything, even if it's the Crusades we're talking about. Quite faithful to its historic background, it's a very good example of the axiom that a courageous and kind heart is way more important than any pompous and empty title. I could literally smell Yatagan wafting in the air for the most part of the movie. And it was neither because I was wearing any nor because its namesake swords were widely used in it. It was because stones, wood and earth, all sizzling under a scorching sun, started to play with my mind when they blended with a humble hero's sweat.

Two little private worlds colliding, in the aftermath of a whole world trying to recuperate after a catastrophic war. A tango scene to reverberate through eternity. It must be the most dramatic comedy I've ever seen, using humour and wit excellently in order to deal with very serious and dark topics. Being a feminist in an era when uttering the word was usually followed by "Femi...what?" was no primrose path or bed of roses, even though the surroundings were laden with both of them. And fussy from hussy is only an initial away. Shocking is exactly the word for what Larita unleashed upon the conservative and overly judgmental English countryside and its fallen from grace aristocrats' morals. Havoc would be its closest synonym.

An opportunist who washes his sins away before the end, in one of the most poetic endings I've ever watched. Living in a world where nothing is stable and human life doesn't worth a dime, doesn't exactly make you a humanist. Not in most cases at least. The quest for something extremely valuable but completely useless, may end in ways more surprising than one would have ever thought. It may end with a heartbreaking promised call through a satellite phone, bringing redemption and pain, when flirting and laughter was what it was expected of it. Sometimes it's a place that has the final saying on people's lives. Some will always call it home, no matter how hard they try to escape it. Although an effective mercenary would never wear any kind of fragrance while fighting in the bush, Africa has cities and beach bars too. Since there's no Dirty Rhodesian available, I'll have to match him with Dirty English. After all Cecil Rhodes was not a gentleman either, but he was English and kind of dirty as well.

The struggle for being different in an unsensitive world, ruled by prefabricated role models. Its ambiguous ending leaves a tiny opening through which a possible deliverance might be seen. Like a whale jumping out of water to reach for the moon, while harpoons are locked on her from every direction. Will she escape them? The most passionate, yet awkward kiss can be the one given under a showering rain. A little miracle taking place in the empty streets, cause people are scared of their facades being washed away. Not caring about what others think is right when they're obviously wrong. Not trying to change their mind is also justified, cause it's usually a waste of time, and you have a life to live. Anaïs Anaïs with its fiery but most likely oppressed passion lurking under its pale colours is exactly what Eloise's bright eyes would send to the world either by laughing or crying. Or gazing at the moon...

The only movie in the list where my character of choice never says a word while being alive in real screen time. But still, he manages to say so many things about friendship, loss and regret. Plain men, with a rare sense of right and wrong, being extraordinary in their ordinariness. A dead man's dream of happiness which leads to a long, soul cleansing journey, in an arid background, covering any wandering soul with its dust. All of us need a place called Jimenez and an Evelia missing us. All of us need someone to bring us home. And home can be either a place or a memory. And it can be either built by bricks or wishes. If the latter, then the mason can only be a friend or someone who cares. And this does not come easy at all, even in places way more populated than the Texas desert. The much scorned Old Spice was always the scent that decent men wear in my mind. And this movie is full of them.

Probably the most emblematic badass female character in movie history. Tough enough to outlive a platoon of space marines and kick an alien T.Rex-sized queen's butt to oblivion. She'll cut her way through a steel wall just to prove her point. If her first name was starting with an "H", no one, alien or not, would think to mess with her, therefore, you know, no movies. Although it belongs to a different subgenre of Sci-Fi than the first movie of the Alien tetralogy (which was a pioneer and an absolute stunner), I like this one better. Ripley has learned her lesson very well, while humans and aliens didn't bother to. Too bad for both of them. One Man Show is the guts galore that Ripley demonstrates with her Olympian sang-froid, when the going gets tough and seasoned veterans are turned into crybabies.

Laughing in the face of certain perishment. The most famous defeat in History, outshining hundreds of victories. Although a bit(?) exaggerated in the film, due to the fact it was based on a graphic novel, it doesn't stray too much. There's not much to say about King Leonidas that cannot be found in History books, other than he was the perfect embodiment (pun intended) of the "My head is bludgeoned but unbowed." way of life. And before his head got bludgeoned, thousands of his enemies had lost theirs. Peloponnesian is an absolute contradiction, having a price tag that would have rendered it an enemy of the state in the abstemious Spartan society. At least it manages to catch its feeling. For historic and aesthetic reasons, Hot Gates sounds awful. Try Thermopylae instead.

This movie never fails to strum my heart's most inner strings. Being the chosen one can be a privilege, but is not always a pleasure, even if the one who chose you is God. Like Frankie, religion and I are very seldom exchanging a typical handshake every once in a while and that's it. And who could blame her, since when the privilege(?) comes, all that she's offered is her life and joy torn to shreds. Along with her flesh. But every time she lies battered in her bed and says "It smells like flowers in here.", I can smell them too. Volupte does not hint either her figure or any indulgence to luxury in pecuniary terms. It's about the simple and free luxury of breathing the air in a crowded open flower market, and consider it to be one thousand times better than any roses in a crystal vase lying in a cold and sterilised uptown loft.

Bollywood is not only about musicals and over the top costumes. It's also about wonderful stories about friendship, relations and life-changing decisions, held back for years. A soulful road movie about three best friends, portayed by three excellent actors. Every insecurity and fear of a man's stance facing modern life is here. And it's depicted perfectly by a woman director. Half in Hindi and half in English (often in the same sentence), sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, but never a bore. Taking place in stunningly beautiful Spain, it could also serve as an alluring tourist guide, minus the bullfighting of course. Choosing one of the three equally main characters was very difficult, but I finally rooted with the brightest smile below the saddest eyes. Both belonging to a man who you'd think it's joy of life itself, till night and its lonesomeness falls. And lonesomeness doesn't always require the absence of people in order to be felt. But sometimes the most comforting words come from someone who speaks a different language, of which you don't understand a single word. But their meaning is always "carpe diem" in the end. Mediterraneo, green and brown in its earthiness, bridges the vast distance seperating the Indian Ocean from the Iberian Peninsula in a single spray.

End of Part 2