10 more literature and film recommendations: poetry, French cinema, etc (February report)

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Dakota x

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Sit back in your seats get something to eat watch this movie don’t let the kitty see it good morning USA I say that um I’m I’m not I’m not I’ve never been to the USA before fun fact I’m coming to live from London and you can almost see the sun through the

Clouds today it’s quite early it’s it’s 8:30 in the morning and it’s a Sunday morning I didn’t go out last night I’m very proud of myself for that it’s a new thing I’m doing not being hung over on Sunday I hope you enjoy my reading is sexy sweater courtesy of favorite child

Collective a very kindly gifted I this was made for me reading is very sexy dare I say I am trying out a new microphone today because I the you know if you watch my videos you know that the audio on my camera is awful and I’ve tried various other audios but for some

Reason they’re just all awful I think I’ve tried like three microphones thus far and they’re just not doing what I want them to do sorry we don’t get much of this just give me a moment here I need to get my daily vitamin D dosage February for me

Was a very busy month the first two months of February I threw a an exhibition party and that took everything I had and more so worth it it was absolutely incredible and if you came thank you I love you it was pure magic and if you didn’t come boy you

Missed out so for the first two weeks of February I did not read or watch any anything no films or books zero zil NADA none but the second two weeks of February after Valentine’s Day I really enjoyed my means of escapism this is so lovely sorry guys just have to sunbake

For a minute through my windows so for this month for February my February reading wrap-up I read four books and watched I watched five films in February but two of them were short films like 20 minute long I’m going to talk about them with you because this month every single

Book that I read all of the four books that I read brilliant these are the pretty little books that we want to talk about and two three of them are tiny because I didn’t have much time and the last one’s a little bit bigger and I read that in

One sitting which I shouldn’t which is so naughty don’t do that because you don’t absorb it as well but I couldn’t put it down sorry we have a little bit of poetry we have a little bit of fiction we have a little bit of non-fiction two of these books are ARs

And not released yet but that’s fun because you can pre-order them and look forward to them why do I have the word gesticulation suuck in my head Define gesticulation a gesture especially a dramatic one used instead of speaking to emphasize one’s words oh okay brilliant I’m going to use that

In future now the first book that I read in February was this is Andre aan I’m probably saying that wrong oh my goodness is it aan it isit Italian what’s it got to be this is a gentleman from Peru and this is an ark and it

Comes out in April 2024 so not too far keep your eyes out for this one because it was so fun it was weird it’s a little one as well I picked it up at the Faber Faber Christmas party in London um December I had there sitting for a while

Waiting for the right moment because I did love call me by your name if I’ve talk about that book plenty in my earlier videos I believe it’s a brilliant book it’s the sensorial writing I have a thing for soal Pros if I read a book and it tells me what I can

Taste what I can touch what I can smell what I can hear what I can see all in one and I can transport myself there then that for me is default incredible Pros call me by your name I was completely convinced that I was there in

The Italian Riviera I was there that was me this book is set you guessed it Italy the amaly coast in particular and I have been to the mey coast and so it was so easy for me to put myself there with the with the protagon once again but even if

You haven’t been to the emaly coast you’re about to go to the emaly coast because this book transports you there it’s about a group of friends who get stuck in the emaly coast because their boat breaks down oh no what a shame we’re stuck in the emaly coast oh no uh

And they come across this strange gentleman who’s staying at their accommodation and he’s really well-dressed and he’s older and he seems Elusive and he’s got this energy about him and they speak to him and it turns out his some kind of uh how do you say psychic medium uh he connected to spiritual

Energy and he can tell them all about their past and their future and they’ll get kind of hooked and there’s this really interesting story that overlaps one of the characters that’s quite life-changing and it’s up to you whether you believe it or not it’s up to the protagonist whether she believes it or

Not really interesting I haven’t read anything like that actually and for such a short book it’s really quite packed in and Punchy I do recommend this at the start I don’t didn’t think I’d like it but by the end of it I thought to myself

Ah this book freaked me out for a little bit because I couldn’t help but spiral I love saying that I could not help but spiral it was in my blood it’s in my nature to spiral sue me I like a little spiral get a little bit um philosophical when I shouldn’t sometimes

But this book was definitely intentionally philosophical in the way that it talks a lot about soul ties and soulmates and the whole premise is I know you in this life and I love you and I’ve known you in the last life and I loved you and I’ll know you in the next

Life and I loved you and it’s quite beautiful and I makes me look around at my friends and my family and my lovers and think have I known you in another life I mean if you believe in other lives I don’t know what I believe in Catholic guilt tells me you

Can’t believe in anything that’s not heaven or hell but natural human curiosity tells me but there’s so many more things that we could explore have we considered this have we considered this anyway this book made me spiral I don’t know if I believe in soulmates but

I do believe in soul ties and I do believe that there are people in my life who I feel like I have lived other lifetimes with them whether that’s metaphorically or literally I’m yet to work out the second book that I read was assembly by Natasha Brown my fingers are

Covering her name assembly by Natasha Brown and I have read this before I think a few years ago but I read it really briefly and I it was in my era when I was trying to read a bunch of books really quick and to get content awful 2022 maybe 2022 was an

Awful era for that half the books I read in 2022 I couldn’t tell you about I read so many books in 2022 because I just moved to London for my career as book writer and reviewer and so I thought oh now I have to read a bunch of books also

Because I was cast into this community of people who read in the same in the same uh career that read a lot more than me so I started to read read a lot more but I just I’m not the kind of person that can absorb a book in a day and then

Go on to the next one a day after I need to sit with it and Mell it over so I can really appreciate it so this is one of the books that got lost in translation in my read a bunch of books era if there’s anything I can tell you right

Now it’s read with intention and consume consciously because it’s so much better to read three books in a month that you’ll genuinely understand than to read 12 books in a month and you couldn’t tell me about half of them this book here is an interesting Tale on British Society the working class British

Society it’s quite honest and quite uh upfront and quite confronting also but in a way that’s done really beautifully and in a way that some lines I was I literally gasped because it was so wonderful there are points that read like pure poetry the pros is so digestible and beautiful it doesn’t read

Like fiction it really covers colonialism in a way that’s so refreshing and it feels very contemporary and it feels very raw there’s this one review that words it much better than I think I could and it says a piercing cautionary tale about the cost of a simulating into a society

Still in denial about its Colonial past because it’s such a brief short little quip of a book if I explained anymore I’d be giving spoilers the next book that I read is called pixel flesh it’s called pixel flesh by Alan Atlanta and it looks like this and it’s

Quite big and I read it all in one setting because oh my God okay all right how do I sum this how do I condense this this is also an arc and it comes out in May 2024 so not too long both of these arcs not too long pre-order them because

I love them both and I think they’re both quite essential reading if you’d like to spiral if you’re normal like me and like literature that makes you sick in the head I find that a lot of a feminist literature that I read is even if it’s five years old it just feels so

Outdated because we’re just rapidly evolving as a society specifically in the way that uh Beauty culture Beauty culture is absolutely insane I mean five years ago bbls went everywhere they were more of like a kind of celebrities had them thing but now everyone’s got bbls and now everyone’s got Botox and everyone’s

Got filler I don’t you can tell probably you’re probably going to look at my face now and say yeah you probably need it I think that this book stirred parts of me that I didn’t want to be stirred and I was texting my friend as I was reading it yesterday and

I thought I don’t know if this is good for me to be reading right now I was sending her re upts and underlines and she said I don’t know if this is good for me to be reading right now it’s almost it’s almost like denial is easier than ignorance is easier Oblivion is

Easier than to look at the issue front on to exist as a young woman today is to struggle in a sea of paradoxes beauty is both a blessing and a curse oh my God I got a comment on one of my Tik toks literally an hour

Ago literally an hour ago and it said I posted a photo of myself from a few years ago and a photo of myself today and someone commented you’re aging like fine wine I’m aging is three years that big of a gap what do you mean I can’t believe that youth today are so

Conscious that aging is a thing maybe maybe if it had been 10 years or 20 years and someone said you’re aging like fine I’d be like oh thank you so much oh my goodness but 3 years 3 years is not aging girl it’s so much to think about

And so much to talk about and it’s so sad how rif it is in our culture it’s so sad and I’m sure it’s always been there but it’s just so interesting now how it’s so accessible to change everything about yourself if you want to it’s insane

Because most people that I know in their 20s all of my friends in now 20s uh have had work done whether it’s proper cosmetic surgery or just Botox just Botox it’s not just Botox is it do you know what I learn Botox is Botox is it’s like a toxin that kills

Your muscles or something and stops them from moving why do why do people do that why are we injecting toxins into our skin to stop them from to stop our skin from moving what do you mean I also found out via this book that there’s no such thing as preventative preventative

Preventative preventative Botox there’s no such thing as baby Botox it’s all just madeup scams to get you to get BOTOX earlier it makes me so scared to grow up I mean I am grown up but it makes me so scared to grow up even further because the pressures the pressures the horrors

The horrors of being a woman and being expected to stay young and beautiful forever will you still love me when I’m no younger Young and Beautiful anyway this book made me angry it made me sad it made me realize things that I wasn’t ready to realize it also

Stated the obvious which I already knew but I had to hear in a blunt way especially because the age of social media and I’m on social media so much it’s my job and you realize how fake it is and how curate it is and how how everyone’s

Just got a Persona and how you know you look you look at someone’s car post when you swipe through and think Oh What A Wonderful Life and most of those pictures probably one out of 100 they picked and they’ll pose and I’m vowing to myself because of this book do not do

That ever again if I ever lament over pictures slap my wrist I’m just going to post the first one I take because I am me and I look like me regardless if I ever look in the mirror and think oh God what’s that oh kill me kill me kill me don’t

Kill me I love living the next book that I read the next book that the the fourth the fourth and final book that I read in February is Goblin market and other poems from Christina Rosetti it’s an absolutely beautiful little poetry collection I started I bought this last year mid last

Year some point I started reading it but I never finished it and so I decided well now’s the time to finish it and I love it so much I was drawn to it because I went to at the Tate I went to the exhibition of the rosettes they siblings and they’re all insanely

Talented artists and writers and there was one poem on the wall called Goblin market and I believe I’ve read this in a past video perhaps when I first got the book it’s really fun the Beats of really it’s just so tight and it’s so fun and it reads like a riddle morning and

Evening maid heard the goblin cry come by our AED fruits come by come by apples and quintes lemons and oranges plump unpacked cherries melons and raspberries bloomed down cheeked peaches swart headed mulberries wild freeorn cranberries crab apples dewberries pineapples blackberries apricot strawberries all wrapped together in

Summer where the MS that pass by faires that fly come by come by that’s only that’s not even the first opening paragraph this poem is really long but I love it so much because it’s just so fun to say and it makes me feel like I’m in a little fairy tale world

But the rest of these poems are also really wonderful there’s some that are absolutely beautiful a lot of them are devout for God my Catholic guilt cross is burning as I say that first published 1862 so this is mid to late 1800s and it’s really fun in the way that it’s very

Much a reflection of that time and that culture but still applicable to our time and culture and it talks a lot about spring Christina Rosetti really favored spring I think there’s like three or four poems in this about spring and it’s almost spring in London sun and so that

Was nice to read as I was laying in bed in the late winter sun was hitting me on the face consensually you want to talk about films now I recommend all of those by the way every single one of them I recommend before we continue on to films

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Your first purchase if you want to build your own website or passion project too the first film that I watched in February was innocence this is innocence and it’s from 2004 and I’m pretty sure the director is uh the partner of Gasper Noe and Gasper noay did Climax and love and those films

Which guilty guilty pleasure I love Sumi I’ve said that once on my Tik Tok and a bunch of film Bros were like oh my God you like gaspin noi I have fun watching them suei my review is visually breathtaking an allegory on girlhood and the titular innocence so open to

Interpretation I’m still thinking about it felt like a dream it really did feel like a dream it’s basically a sequence of beautiful visuals so many beautiful Stills could be taken from this and because I am a sucker for Stills if it’s got pretty visuals and stills and I

Think it’s a good film it’s about these girls these young French girls who go to some Preparatory School preparing for something we don’t know what uh in this beautiful Forest kind of setting and it’s almost like a fairy tale it’s absolutely beautiful and it’s got this weird kind of Thriller energy the

Suspense really builds because we know something bad’s about to happen but we don’t know what the next film was Paparazzi 1964 and this was a kind of short documentary on Paparazzi in the 60s for Bridget BAU the french actor and singer because she was absolutely swarm they

Were trying to film a Godard film on some Island and the paparazzi would just they they’d get boats over and hide in the bushes and try and cause stories there was one where she was walking down a staircase and she was looking at the stairs as she walked down the staircase

Somebody snapped a photo of her looking down as she was walking all over the tablet saying she’s hiding something she’s guilty she can’t even look as forward as she’s walking she just didn’t want to slip over Paparazzi really are the bins of existence so many horror stories about

Paparazzi why do they still exist why human nature are we so curious about other people’s lives that we feel the need to pry non-consensually why do why is that still a business I don’t get it who consumes that kind of media anyway the next film that I watched was blue jeans

From 1958 another French film this was a weird one I mean it’s kind kind of just the the the motif of the film is boys will be boys a little outdated now don’t we think two boys they’re in can and they go around on their mopeds trying to pick up some

Young girls they’re also young boys by the way they like 17 it’s just it’s just a story of them trying to get laid I don’t mind Commander no in case you’re asking I don’t recommend it the next film that I watched was Cil from 2019 I loved this this is from Justine

Tria the same director of anatomy of a full and I love that film so much it’s my film of 2023 absolutely brilliant this French psych psychiatrist psychologist she wants to be an author but she can’t find inspiration and she gets this patient who’s got this crazy life she’s an actress and she’s pregnant

For some Affair that she’s had and so the the psychologist she’s like well this is perfect inspiration for my novel and so she really delicately entwines herself with their lives and it’s just so interesting and in I liked it a lot the final film that I watched was passages 2023 I’ve been

Meaning to watch this for a while everything I’ve watched here is on movie by the way I’m a movie girl thr and through movie you have my heart this film was insane it’s reminded me a lot of the worst person in the world I don’t know if you’ve seen the worst person in

The world it’s a Norwegian film and it’s one of my favorite films and it’s brilliant because I love films about messy messy messy young adults trying to work out what the hell they’re doing in life instead of the the stifled Norwegian disposition that the worst person in the world had it had the

Messy erotic French disposition and it’s very much so there’s this there’s this married gay couple and then a woman comes in the scene and the one of the men falls for the for the woman and causes riffs but he’s also just an awful person and he wants to keep his husband

And he wants to keep the woman and he wants to keep everyone and she gets pregnant and it’s all awful everything’s aw awful and is an awful person and we’re just watching like you’re an awful person but we can’t stop watching because it’s messy and I love watching messy things

There’s also some pretty intense sex scenes in there I mean most of the things I watch for some reason have really intense sex scenes I think because they’re French me editing from my kitchen hello but I forgot a film I forgot a film uh and that was wicked

Little letters I think it’s 2023 I don’t know I watched it the other day so maybe 2024 I went to a press junk of it it comes out in cinemas I think maybe today or tomorrow I don’t know but it was really funny it’s quite quintessential

British humor it’s very on the nose dry silly British humor so I don’t know how it’s going to land in the US of a but intrigued to see how it does but Olivia colan I love you I would die for you I saw Olivia Coleman at the Red Carpet of the Wonka

Premier had a few to many champagne screamed out Olivia C and I die for you not my proudest moment but I speak the truth nonetheless the film’s about a bunch of letters surface in this little town saying horrible cuss words and everything and they investigate and try

And like out who’s been sing the letters there you have it that is our nine nine media pieces consumed of the month this was a good month of consumption it was all very intentional as well because I was quite strapped for time again I’m trying to do wrap-ups

Every single month even if I don’t read or watch that much because I want to keep you updated because I don’t have a good reads or anything and all on my back for it sorry sue me I don’t don’t like to log the things that I read like

That it makes it feel like a sport I don’t want it to feel like a sport I’m not this isn’t a game to me I did one for January if you haven’t seen that go watch that cuz January I read a lot more tell me what you read and watched in the

Comments and if I like it I will go pick up a copy or a film version I might see you in a video between now and then you never know with me consistency is not key with me thank you for sticking around love you