Some photos from the event (see full-screen):

Here is the presentation:

And in here you find the corresponding video:

You can download the presentation:
- in English: PPT, PPTX, PDF;
- in Romanian: PPT, PPTX, PDF;

What feed-back have I received and will look forward to apply?

• Watch out more for body language, especially avoid crossing arms;
• You should have a pause between ideas, leave people some time to process what you say;
• Avoid finishing with “This is my presentation”; pretty lame.

Ok. This is my blog post.

I’ve seen quite a few cartoons. Most of the classics, most of the top rated cartoons on IMDb, and even some TV series (while I was younger). I won’t get into too much details, I’ll just say that me and cartoons always got along quite fine.

My list of favorite movies only includes Le notti di Cabiria, and a few others, about which I’ve only written in Romanian. No cartoons in the list so far, besides WALL·E (2008), Ratatouille (2007), Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001). But why do I still watch cartoons in general, as a movie genre? They give me these following reasons to continue watching them:
1. They’re funny in a nice way; There are a lot of ways to be funny, but I mostly think of crude humor (not that bad, all-in-all, but still rude; mostly done with a surprise), intellectual humor (the a-ha! humor, in which you get an insight), and a kind rumor (this is not about a-ha, it’s about a surprise, like the rude humor, but in a gentle way); I mostly like intellectual humor and the kind humor;
2. I learn things; It may sound stupid, but it’s not the same if two persons say the same thing; It’s not the same if I get an idea from a cartoon, or if I generate it myself;
3. Things are said at an easy-to-comprehend level; I can watch a movie and still don’t get what the director meant; I can see a documentary with a thought that’s provoking, yet not that well easy to perceive; Yet I can go to bed every evening and say: Hey, I got what Walt DISNEY meant to say with that joke! I’m so good!
4. They are beautiful designed; From old cartoons (like Snow White and Pinocchio), to new ones (like Finding Nemo), I get a beautiful experience just by watching a cartoon; None of them is especially beautiful, and they are all in the same time lovely;
5. They bring me heart-breaking memories; It tears me into pieces to think about childhood, and watching a cartoon devastates my thinking.

To sum things up, I mostly watch cartoons because they are a learning experience (mostly of emotions and interactions) and that learning experience is done in a lovely fashion.

What would my answer be? I told you before that I will not leave my country due to the views of Horia-Roman PATAPIEVICI on the subject. Not physically, at least. But, on the other hand:
1. Two of the most important blogs I own are in English, and are targeting mostly an English audience (you wouldn’t say that by looking at my traffic analysis, but still);
2. You can see on my Last FM profile that a lot of the singers I like are not Romanians;
3. Most of the movies I watch are not from Romania (I actually have a small phobia on watching Romanian movies due to the small budget, thus lack of quality);
4. My Google Reader application is filled with English feeds (I actually started adding some French sources too);
5. A lot of the things at supermarkets I buy are not from Romania;
6. Most of the electronics I have are out of this country;
7. As an Internet-geek, I use a lot of web sites outside Romania;

Still, I can say that:
1. All my relatives are Romanian;
2. My friends are Romanian;
3. Most of my workplaces I worked were filled with Romanians;
4. The persons I meet daily are (surprise, surprise!) Romanians;
5. I read mostly Romanian news;
6. The things I buy at the local marketplace are from Romanian persons (I wouldn’t call them peasants, but it’s not far from that);
7. Most of the time I speak, think and read in Romanian.

So, I would say that most people I’m surrounded with are from Romania, while a lot of the things I do, read and use are not Romanian-specific. It is a surprising fact to see things like this. I didn’t expect foreign customs, items and creations to be so important in my life. Writing this article was quite a discovery for me.

I think that the difference between virtual and real life is mostly seen in communication (spoken in life versus written on the Internet). Why is that? In real life communication I can be happy and I can transmit with all my senses the way I’m feeling to the other person. On the Internet, I have, at most, some jokes, some bad words and some emoticons. But most of the time is a my-oh-my very much impersonal communication, mostly in a serious manner (or at least perceived that way). So the toughest difference comes from what is virtual life mostly about – communication.

But where is it only a fine line between virtual and real? I think there are a few domains that follow this condition:
a. Movies – yes, it’s better to see them at the cinema, you are on a chair, large room, some smell, some taste (pop corn and drinks), some social engagement (laughs, movements, scary moments); but all-in-all you can get an almost-as-good experience right from the comfort of your own home; Get some friends and it’s even better;
b. Music – Sure, the atmosphere in a Opera house, in a disco or at a concert can’t be reproduce; But reproducing music in a digital era gets quite simpler; Again, social part can be a different experience in real life;
c. Reading – Yes, I know, a book is generally better for the eye, for the posture, for the feeling of yet; And you might remember more things while reading a real book rather than an e-book; In the same time, finding things to read (not necessarily books) on the Internet is quite easy and find it one of the pleasures in life;
d. Typing – I write pretty fast and I can type with about the same speed; It’s not the same thing, but I can get a good sensation while typing on the keyboard; But the structure of words that is formed inside my mind is pretty much the same;
e. Digital photography – I have no photos in my room, other than those for diplomas and IDs; And I miss none; I can’t quite compare the sensation of watching a digital photograph or a printed one, but I do compare the space of a digital photo on my hard drive versus the space of a real stack of photos on my desk;
f. Communicating via headphones and microphone versus meeting live – Communicating live has some obvious advantages (body language, a broader view, a clearer transmission of data, a better hearing option); But when talking with some very close persons like this, I can get a pretty real feeling; Anyhow, it’s much better than typing.

I think these are pretty much the most important things that are similar in life with those on the Internet.

Coming back to the experience of sitting in front of a PC – is it real or virtual? The chair I sit on, the desk, the computer, me – are all real -, but my imagination is trapped in a virtual world. I think that’s the difference. Or at least until I hear some loud sounds on my opened window.

How do you feel about this blog post on virtual and real life experiences?

How do one tries to divide a story about the greatest movie seen in all of his life? I don’t know the answer, but here’s my try.

Contents:
1. The movie context
2. Want a sneak preview?
3. What makes the movie just a bit special?
4. What makes the movie really special?
5. How did she suffer in her early life?
6. After this, what’s the hero’s suffering throughout the movie?
7. What’s ultimate suffering for the character?
8. What’s the preceding part just before the part that tear me apart?
9. What’s the thing that moved me?

1. The movie context
First of all, this movie is in Italian, it’s filmed in the 1950s, black & white. And I have yet to see a more beautiful movie. You might want to see the movie yourself, make an opinion on him and then read my review. It has spoilers. And reading about it will lower the intensity of discovering things by yourself.

The movie was directed by Federico FELLINI. The main character, Maria ‘Cabiria’ Ceccarelli, is played by Giulietta MASINA. It lasts about two hours and it is also immortal.

The movie won an Oscar from the Academy Awards in 1958 for the “Best Foreign Language Film” (Italy). One year earlier, at the “Cannes Film Festival”, Giulietta MASINA got the “Best Actress” award.

2. Want a sneak preview?
Have a look at the Le Notti di Cabiria movie trailer on YouTube.
Read some facts and opinions on the movie from IMDb page for Notti di Cabiria, Le (1957). I found the comments to be accurate.

3. What makes the movie just a bit special?
The main character has some sad, angry and upset moments (at the beginning, after a near-death experience, she is very angry), and some happy moments. The transformation is beautiful. You just have to love her when she smiles and laughs. But that’s just a small reason for making this movie the best movie I’ve seen in my life.

I want to stress out something right from the beginning: she’s a person who’s upset. She’s angry, fast tempered. But then she smiles, she laughs, she has an innocence. I’ll tell you next that her life was, is and will be hard. And nowhere in the movie do you see her upset for too long. She goes from this to that in no-time. You don’t feel her sufferance in the movie. It all seems natural, she takes hits with a joy, when she falls she bounces back. And the final, oh the final … But we’ll get to that.

4. What makes the movie really special?
The love for life. In just a few words, the movie can be summed up like this: a person selling her body for sex, having prostitutes as friends and poor persons as neighbors, living at the outskirts of Rome (at the end of this movie I would call this character a Great Lady) suffers throughout the movie. Her final reaction to this huge suffering is astonishing.

5. How did she suffer in her early life?
Well, having a mother that would make you prostitute for money, earning money as a prostitute for decades and living in a poor area would imply suffering.

6. After this, what’s the hero’s suffering throughout the movie?
Heart: She suffers at the beginning of the movie when she is almost killed by drowning for some money by her lover.
Body: She suffers from being almost poor and from prostitution situation

7. What’s ultimate suffering for the character?
1. In the end of the movie, she suffers this huge disappointment: for the second time in her life someone intends to kill her for her money and almost does it; it was a person she loved with all her heart and intends to marry;
2. In the scenes depicted in the movie she starts to see hope in her life from Virgin Mary and she prays to her; I think this is the first time in her life she hopes something from Divinity; she prays to Virgin Mary for a better life, out of prostitution; she almost gets a new life being almost married, then all of the sudden, at the end of the movie, this new dream vanquishes; she would probably return to prostitution, but this is not clear; what happens to her hope in Divinity? well, this might fade also;
3. At the end of the movie she sells her house and she gets from the bank all of her money; these are all stolen; all her belongings are sold; all that connects her physically with this world (house, money) are gone; I think she still has a suitcase and she’s got the care of some friends; that’s about all she has left in this world; the fact that before hadn’t had much either is yet another argument: just the few things she had (a house and some money in the bank) are stolen from her; it’s hard to see this happening to you.

So, at the end of the movie we have a character that:
1. Has suffered throughout her life from lack of love (poor treatment from parents, no real person to love her, just a close friend and some acquaintances);
2. Every time this person tries to get love (at first from parents who don’t love her, then from the lover who tries to kill her at the beginning of the movie, then from the lover at the end of the movie who again intends to kill her), she is rejected; the final rejection, from the person she intends to marry, is hugely difficult (it’s yet another time she gets a huge hit from the person she loves most in this world; please note that her parents sent her to become a prostitute);
3. Her very first attempt to get close to Virgin Mary (and Divinity) is at first leading to huge hope (a marriage almost occurs, she leaves prostitution, she’s got a new life), then a huge disappointment (the marriage is gone, her occupation in the future is unclear, her new life is poorer than before);
4. Has had a life that could be described by everyone at least as “hard”: physically beaten, emotionally abused, hard conditions for living, poor social status;
5. Has almost been killed by drowning twice; and this by persons she fully trusted and loved;
6. At the end of the movie she has lost her house (which she sold) and all her money in the bank account.

8. What’s the preceding part just before the part that tear me apart?
At the end of the movie the sufferance is complete. She is almost killed, the almost-husband leaves her, he gets all her money (including the money for the house), she is somewhere in the woods. Before the second lover leaves her, she asks him to kill her. She insists. She actually yells at him to kill her, while crying. He leaves her, taking her money.

9. What’s the thing that moved me?
And then it happens. The one thing that makes me want to see this movie infinite times. The one thing that makes you love life with all your heart. The one act that makes a prostitute (or ex-prostitute) do one of the best acts a human being could ever make: laugh. How come, you ask? In the final scene, she is surrounded by some happy people, she is walking, they walk alongside her. They are all joyful (they don’t know what happened to her, and it’s night), and she looks at them and she takes their joy: she laughs. After all her tough life. After just going through a horrible mind-blowing experience, she takes from the unsuspecting happy people that surround her the joy: she laughs. She loves life. She’s happily living in the present. The laughs that changes the world. She changes reality. Nothing is the same. She has a tough life, she’s hit and none of this exist in her: she laughs. There’s more than hope: there’s victory. Now. Right now she laughs. The world was changed by the joy on her face. Is it hard for her to this? Tears fall from her eyes, and her laugh is barely visible. But the joy is there. The happiness is present.

This movie is the best proof I’ve seen on screen that life deserves to be lived. There is no second movie after this. Ultimate movie. Highly recommended. It’s the reason to see movies. It’s the reason to create an account on IMDb and vote just one movie. And then comment on the movie. One comment only. It’s a reason to change your email signature. It’s a reason to change your Yahoo! Messenger status for weeks. It’s the one reason for buying a DVD player and one DVD only.