1000 films to see before you die.

Well its been over 100 years that we had the Lumiere brothers show Parisians 'The arrival of a Train at a Station' and freak out the minds of the viewers,and we know that more than a million films have been done since the internet has been active.

So I have selected some of the films I think you should see before you are moving of to another place in the universe .Lets start by the letter A ,and each week i will post a new title .

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
(Tom Shadyac, 1994)
A goofy detective turns town upside-down in search of a missing dolphin - any old plot would have done for oven-ready megastar Jim Carrey. A ski-jump hairdo, a zillion impersonations, making his bum "talk" - Ace Ventura showcases Jim Carrey's near-rapturous gifts for physical comedy long before he became encumbered by notions of serious acting.

Now This Film is a must see weather or not you have a sense of Humour or not ,Jim carey is out of the body experience had me in a knot laughing ,so Enjoy this movie and post your comments and i welcome a exchange on the films.

Max V

Boulevard Leopold, Antwerp.

Bert, co-owner of Boulevard Leopold, the Bed and Breakfast where some scenes from « The Man with the Suitcase » were filmed.

As soon as you cross the doorstep of this nineteenth century house in the Jewish district of Antwerp, you feel as if you have entered a unique place, a place out of the past that two talented people wanted to preserve while bringing their own touch of fantasy.

“This was a gift of love from a Jew to his wife”, these are the first words from the owner, Bert. He turned the house into a Bed & Breakfast three years ago with his friend Vincent. Bert and Vincent immediately became fascinated with the typical Flemish house. After visiting it, they went back home, immediately decided to sell everything they possessed, and went back to Boulevard Leopold to buy the place. As a guarantee, Bert only had their love and commitment to the space and a fifty euros bill; he gave it to the owner and the deal was done! The house was too big for only two people so they began to wonder what they could do with the large space. Bert, a former cook, was dreaming as a young boy of building his own Bed and Breakfast. Bert and Vincent simply materialized this child dream.

 This house had been a home to the same family of eight for more than 60 years and had not been renovated since the 1950s.The house had aged, but key details had been preserved such as floors, glass doors, door handles, etc. “We did not want to break the feeling of the house”, says Bert, and they definitely did not. They started from an idea of natural renovation: they wanted to keep the antique luxury feeling, but adapting it to contemporary comfort. They have kept the original plans and configuration, and have painted all the walls and cellars in a green-grey very close to the original colour. And, because both of them immediately thought of their grandparents when they first saw the house, they decided to rebuild with “grandma’s home” in mind. They plunged into their existing passion, antiques and flea markets, and entirely furnished the house with second-hand treasures bought all around the world, including a vintage velvet Chesterfield, a collection of crucifixes, a wall of hunting trophies, a table made of antique books, altar pieces turned into bathroom mirrors, etc. This eclectic blend gives the space a unique, poetic, and deeply magical atmosphere.

 When you ask Bert about what he prefers in his house, he answers with a smile: “I like the whole house… I like the hall, the kitchen, the Belgian proportions of rooms…” And one cannot forget the lovely veranda and little savage garden where guests can enjoy fresh orange juice and homemade bread as a wonderful breakfast. Those guests, initially only from Belgium and Netherlands, now come from around the world thanks to the international press who reveal the precious secret of this lovely place.

 After a second Bed & Breakfast venture in the Antwerp centre, Bert and Vincent have just bought a house in the south of France which they will renovate. They will have much deserved holidays there, and then, they might be rent it. This would be another “gift of love”, but this time from them to their future guests.

Shooting in the Antwerp Station

Nicoletta Santoro

Nicoletta Santoro, stylist on the COMING SOON film "The Man with the Suitcase"

Nicoletta Santoro talks quietly and cleverly. She carefully observes everything. She might be petite, but her aura is large.

She belongs to a very small niche in the high fashion world, and she almost always has. She currently lives in New York, but she was born in Milan, where her family was very close to the owner of the Italian Condé Nast. When the editor of Italian Vogue, Manuela Pavesi, who is now a major part of Prada, went on maternity leave, Nicoletta was offered an internship. That is how she made her first steps in fashion as an assistant, before becoming a major senior editor at the young age of 27.

At the same time, she was studying antique languages at Università Cattolica in Milan. Since she promised her parents she would get her degree, despite her growing interest in fashion, she continued to study, attending evening classes to become a journalist.

When you observe Nicoletta working, you immediately notice that she is deeply in love with her job. She takes it seriously, and speaks of it with passion. She says, with a smile, in perfect English, but enhanced by a lovely Italian accent: “Being a stylist is like being a director: you choose your models, your team, your hair and make-up stylists, your photographer. You are the coordinator. I love being on set. You are always surprised because there will always be a difference between what is in your mind and what the reality actually is”.

Working on a film was a very interesting experience for her. This was Nicoletta’s second time to work as the stylist on the Coming Soon films. “I am not a director anymore. In that case, I obey!”, she said laughing. In that case precisely, she obeys her husband, Max Vadukul, the director of the first three Coming Soon films. When you see the two work together, advising and supporting each other with their own competences, you immediately agree with her when she says that it is a “wonderful collaboration”, adding that “the story is a complement of choreography, movements, clothes. The Coming Soon clothes are amazing in action. This is a wonderful marriage, everything is working in perfect harmony.”

Harmony. This word suits Nicoletta very well, and seems to be consistent with other aspects of her life, and particularly fashion. Her favorite designers are Prada and Lanvin because, “I like to be myself and I like those designers because they enhance my personality, my spirit, my style. You do not become what you wear”. This is fashion wisdom.

Her thoughts on travel? “Before my marriage, I traveled a lot. I love India, Nepal, Kashmir, Kenya, Bhurma, Tibet. Now, I accommodate with the Caribbean. I buy at markets, I am an explorer”.  She laughs, almost like a child, and her whole body follows her mouth, again in harmony.

 

Rain Li

 Rain Li by Max Vadukul

Rain Li, Director of Photography of the Coming Soon film « The Man with the Suitcase »

Rain Li was not destined to work in cinema. This strong girl born in Beijing, who left home at 13, as she says, “floating in the city by [herself] with anger”, did not grow up in a theatrical or artistic family. She dreamt of being a basketball player or a mathematician; she was 14 when she saw her first film, and “[she] was too busy to be in the dark underground as a kid to be interested in cinema”.

She discovered she was obsessed with light -how light can change our perception of objects, while modeling to pay for college in England, and she decided to turn this obsession into a career by expressing this fascination through photography and film: she managed to be a trainee electrician on a short film, then she became a gaffer, and that is how she gradually discovered her love for cinematography.

She would not be where she is now without this iron will. When you see her working and moving on the set, you immediately feel her strength combined with an extreme sensitivity. Rain is a self-taught artist par excellence, who has been able to find her own place as a young girl in an extremely male dominated industry, and who has learned to give herself a chance.

Rain Li on the shooting of "The Man with the Suitcase" photographed by Max Vadukul

How did she become a Director of Photography? “My very first film as a DP was a film I wrote, directed and edited because this was the only way that I could be a DP, no one else would have given me a chance.” Then, this big fan of David Lynch, Wong Kar-Wai, and Ang Li worked on “a terrible Bollywood film that no one has seen”, made a number of commercials and music videos, a fashion film for Dries Van Noten, before working in collaboration with talented directors such as Christopher Doyle, Gus Van Sant, and Jim Jarmush. The encounter with Christopher Doyle was a turning point in her career: “He has had a big influence in my work and my life as an artist. Having only met him once briefly, without him having known my work at all, he was somehow confident enough to ask me to take over his project. From there, we have collaborated on over ten projects during the past four years.”

 

When you ask her about “The Man with the Suitcase” on which she worked with film director Max Vadukul, you realize that her representation of the film exactly corresponds to a description you could make of her: “powerful, fluid, beautiful, and also incredibly intimate. Strong, but also soft and dreamy. A dark but beautiful fairytale.” The story of Rain Li…

 

NSU Car from the 70's

If you like cars,then you will like this NSU car built in the 70's ,I remember spotting these superbly designed cars in England and always wanted one ,sadly by the time I got to actually afford one they had stopped making them .We spotted this one in Antwerp with a proud driver who would speed up and slow down to allow me to photograph him ...hmmm cute !