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' 0 to Osi "Amo nated includ Best - ti yet depic the b agony anoth As, Frenc endur hards steal 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.