Halloween is coming up! I'm excited. It's one of my favorite holidays because of its themes of death and the supernatural, and of course, because of the costumes. (I always make my costume myself.) I don't really like the candy part.

Last year, I was him:

This year, I will be her:

As you can see, both these costumes are from Tim Burton movies! When I was Willy Wonka, I handed out candy to people.

Tim Burton turned 51 today. He is a film director and producer, a writer, an artist, and I must say, quite a brilliant and highly imaginative fellow. Some of my favorite films of his are Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, and Corpse Bride, his short films Vincent and Frankenweenie, and his series about the character Stain Boy. He is responsible for pretty much turning my life around and being the reason that I want to become a film director today. I love his movies because they are strange and funny in a dark sort of way, and I can always relate and connect emotionally to them. He also brought the strange to the mainstream in his filmmaking, as his films are very popular and have many devoted fans such as myself. The things that I particularly admire about him as a director are his attention to detail and quality, and his personal attachment to the movies he makes. He always makes movies that mean something to him, and he approaches them as art, not just a way to make money. (Though he makes plenty of that.) He is a role model and idol to me. I owe him a lot. Thank you, Tim. And Happy Birthday.

I got a haircut! It's nothing drastic, but it's layered a bit and smell's nice.

Movies:

Strangers on a Train - This is a classic movie from 1951, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Master of Suspense.

Secret Window - 2004. A Johnny Depp movie. I really love this movie. It's a very scary psychological thriller, and it has a twisted plot. I like that type of thing.

Aguirre: The Wrath of God - 1972. This is directed by the German director Werner Herzog, who directed the 1979 Nosferatu movie, and it stars the same actor, Klaus Kinski. It was made with a VERY low budget and filmed entirely on location in the South American rain forest.

The Ninth Gate - 1999. Johnny Depp. Some parts of this movie were interesting, because there is a mystery in it about a book which can summon Satan, and quite a few murders, but on the whole I found the plot confusing, vague and unsatisfying, and I didn't feel an emotional tie to the story because none of the characters were very likable. Also, the disc was really scratched so I had to keep ejecting it and putting it back in. 

Cry-Baby - 1990. One of Depp's earliest films, it is a bizarre musical comedy set in the 1950's. (It's not actually him singing, though.)

The Astronaut's Wife - 1999. Another thriller, starring Depp and Charlize Theron. It's also quite suspenseful.

I really liked most of these movies. I wish I could just sit in my house and watch movies every day, but I guess that's not possible. I'll blog again soon!