The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, February 18, 2013 - 7A
Texting made
easy through
Emoji
"I'll never let go, Jack."
Dynamic dialogue drives
heartbreaking 'Amour'
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nated
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agony
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As,
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endur
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tle tin
Anne
fers a
husba
scar contender Trintignant), devotes himself
to tending her needs. But when
moves with a follow-up surgery unexpect-
edly paralyzes the right side of
uching romance Anne's body, the physical and
emotional demands of Georges's
By CARLY KEYES caretaker role escalate to a level
Daily Arts Writer that tests the limits of love and
human capacity.
car has fallen hard for Writer-director Michael
ur" - which was nomi- Haneke ("The White Ribbon")
for five Academy Awards, offers a simple story that elicits
ding the true meaning of support-
Picture ing a spouse "in sickness and in
he tragic health." The film unfolds almost
inspiring Amour entirely within the walls of
tion of Anne and Georges's apartment,
eauty and At the, a potentially mundane scenario,
'of loving Michigan considering the basic plot. But
ier. Sony Pictures such a consistent setting empha-
an elderly Classics sizes the oppressive and sub-
h couple stantial limitations of Anne's
es the condition, and, in these close
hips of old age, the years quarters, Georges fights to help
their spirits and what lit- her live as close to a normal life
me they have left together. as possible.
(Emmanuelle Rivera) suf- Haneke crafts powerful
debilitating stroke, and her scenes that show, rather than
nd, Georges (Jean-Louis tell. The strongest illustrations
of Georges's undying dedication,
as Anne sinks into the depths of
her suffering, are silent, yet they
vehemently vocalize the couple's
heartbreaking mutual power-
lessness: Georges struggles to
lift Anne's feeble frame in and
out of bed and to hold her steady
as he washes her hair; he must
force her to eat as she obsti-
nately refuses and he guides her
frail efforts to walk. But Georges
offers more than a shoulder for
Anne; he is a soul to lean on, too.
When the two do speak, the
genuine and dynamic dialogue
vacillates between Anne's gut-
wrenching confessions about
giving up on life and Georges's
light-hearted anecdotes and
songs as he tries to conjure any
shred of cheer he can.
Rivera and Trintignant
charm and devastate at the same
time as these fated characters,
breathing life into this relatively
straightforward narrative. Rive-
ra's helplessness and vulnerabil-
ity seeps through the screen as
a woman beaten and broken by
her illness while Trintignant
counters her delicate portrayal.
He impressively walks the line
between firm advocate and com-
forting companion.
A plain approach to filmmak-
ing complements the simple story
to accentuate the actors' capti-
vating performances. The docile
cinematography (Darius Khond-
ji) features copious long takes
with infrequent camera mobility,
and the inconspicuous editing
(Nadine Muse and Monika Willi)
implements minimal cutting and
seamless transitions while the
entire "soundtrack" boils down
to seldom instances of the dieget-
ic noise of a radio or piano.
Rather than adding unneces-
sary trappings, Haneke permits
cinematic authenticity to bloom
in "Amour" by stripping down
the production and offering a
minimalist style that less-than-
subtly hints that the greatest gift
we can give to the one we love is
ourselves.
Have you ever sent
that text - you know
exactly the one I'm
talking about - at 2 a.m. on
a Thursday night, and woken
up the next
morning,
bleary-eyed
and full
of full-on
regret?
Yeah, you
have.
But it's
OK! Chances ANNA
are the per- SADOVSKAYA
son you text-
ed has sent
the same message before, and
they're definitely not spread-
ing that text around to all their
friends, laughing at your impec-
cable spelling and grammar.
What's the protocol for these
situations? What are you even
supposed to say - should you
send an apology text, pretend
that you didn't even mean to
send it in the first place; it was
a mistake, a message sent to the
wrong person? Or do you forget
it ever happened, and move on
with your life until the next 2
a.m. run in with your contact
list?
Texting is strangely dramatic
for a form of communication
that is as removed as it gets. Sit-
ting at a safe distance (or maybe
not-so-safe. I'm looking at you,
across-the-table texters), you
have time to craft an eloquent,
appropriate response to what-
ever message you received. But
for whatever reason, as soon as
a text pops up from someone
vaguely important, it's like a
storm of insecurity takes grip.
"What do I say? Is this weird?
How long do I wait?" Time after
time, girls and guys alike freak
out over ambiguously phrased
messages, trying to decode the
meaning behind them - and
this is at the core of texting-
induced stress: inability to
properly communicate feelings.
Sloppy middle-of-the-night
texts aside, the textually active
world faces multiple commu-
nication problems. Trying to
be sarcastic? No one will get it.
Want to sound aloof? It's going
to sound angry. What's the
point of taking 15 minutes to
create a beautiful, well-worded
reply if the intended affect
won't take hold of the recipient?
That's why the world created
emojis.
Rather, that's why Apple-pro-
duced emojis popped up on the
iOS 5, and now life is easier.
Emojis, the term for picture
characters used in Japanese
electronic messages, are sym-
bols that depict emotion. No
longer do you have to stare at
your iPhone screen, deciding
what to send to the horrible "K"
text.
On second thought, don't
send anything back. That
doesn't dignify a response.
The large amount of emojis
available allows texters a whole
new world of expression. Fusing
pictures with words creates an
easier way to express emotion
and gives people on the receiv-
ing end a clearer understanding
of the message's intended emo-
tion.
For example: Answering
with an "I don't know" can be a
turnoff for the receiver. What if
what you really mean is "STOP
TEXTING ME, I DON'T WANT
TO TALK TO YOU, YOU EVIL
TROLL."
That 'K' text
doesn't even
deserve an
answer.
It has happened before.
But sending "I don't know"
with a helpless face attached
changes the entire mood. Sud-
denly, you're thrust into the
boat of indecision together.
You two have to figure out how
to stay afloat - it's a bonding
experience.
They're fun. They're useful.
They come in handy when you
have absolutely nothing else to
say, and you want to continue
the conversation. You can cre-
ate entire masterpieces with
them.
Incorporating art into tex-
ting is another way the arts
invade everyday life - emojis,
the fine arts aspect of texting,
are responsible for artistic
representations of hilarious
scenarios, all delivered via
texting.
Next time you want to send
a horribly awkward message,
do it with the help of emojis.
Maybe things will end up going
better than expected.
Sadovskaya is ;) and :P.
To :D with her, e-mail
asado@umich.edu.
The Strokes still searching'All
the Time' for their sound
By KATIE STEEN
Daily Music Editor
A few weeks ago, Strokes fans
were left with the equivalent of
an unexpected text from a still-
loved ex from high school: news
that a Seattle radio station appar-
ently had a new Strokes single
that - allegedly - was to deliv-
er the "classic Strokes sound"
we've craved for nearly a decade.
Fans wanted to believe that it
was true, but if we've learned
anything after the 2011 release
ofAngles, it's that the Strokes are
going to do what they want to do,
and all we can do is wait around
for some inkling of Is This It.
In late January, we were given
"One Way Trigger," a synthy,
falsetto-filled track that led to
some people praising the return
of the Strokes, while others
questioned if it was genuinely a
Strokes song (new game: drink
whenever someone comments
"WTF????" on the Soundcloud
stream). But "All the Time," the
band's second single, entirely
lacks the neon leg warmers
and side ponytails of "One Way
Trigger," leaving listeners with
somewhat incompatible pieces
of evidence as to what to expect
from the band's March 26 album,
Comedown Machine.
The song starts off inoffen-
sively, guitars warming up while
Julian Casablancas's vocals glide
over the track at an octave we're
used to, assuring listeners that he
hasn't changed a bit. But as "clas-
sic" as the start of "All the Time"
might sound, it doesn't have that
instant appeal, the lighthearted
seduction with which so many
Strokes songs have enticed us
time after time. Instead, "All
the Time"
leaves us First seen on
curious as the filter
to where
"You can stand under my umbrella-ella-ella."
I I
exactl
if Casr
with s
and sa
song
and th
Y
W1
The
blanca
what
it up,"
images
ties s
they fi
"Some
y the song is taking us, as too-tight jeans while not only
ablancas simply rolled up facing the ghosts of their past,
unglasses and a cool car but (unsuccessfully) trying to
aid, "Get in." Except, the still be them.
cruises for a few blocks, Toward the end, an electric
en crashes into a stop sign. guitar solo best described as gim-
micky wraps the song up before
the chorus repeats. The solo
1ho knows almost feels necessary, as if the
Strokes were hammering out "All
hat to expect the Time" and then Albert Ham-
mond, Jr. or Nick Valenti piped
of the new in, Wait, our fans will probably
want a guitar solo, so let's write
album.? one real quick and call ita day.
And yet, despite all my griev-
ances with "All the Time,"
there's still this appeal that
chorus consists of Casa- stems from the fact that it's the
s repeatedly insisting Strokes - it's Julian, Fab, Nick,
sounds like, "We're livin' Albert and Nikolai, and all of
which only conjures up the warm rushes of nostalgia
s of Strokes in their thir- and eighth-grade infatuation
itting in the same bar I had with the band back when
lmed the music video for I was first beginning to actu-
day," drinking beers in ally develop a taste in music.
Strokes fans can be a bit of an
obsessive, if not cultish bunch,
so it's likely that this song will
be hailed as perhaps the "Last
Nite" off the band's upcoming
fifth album. But let's be honest.
"All the Time" is not something
that would have ever been con-
sidered for Is This It, or perhaps
any of the band's old stuff. It
almost sounds like they're sell-
ing false nostalgia. It's fine for
the Strokes to aspire to return
to the cheeseburger-consuming,
cigarette-smoking, mischief-
making days of American rock
that made the masses swoon in
the early aughts, but that would
require that they actually put
some heart into their music and
have some fun together - not
just as a band, but as friends.
- The original version of this
article was published online on
The Filter, the Daily Arts blog,
on Feb. 17.