"Somewhere"

I wanted to watch Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere" for a long time and finally I managed!

It has similarities with "Lost in Translation", notably that sweet/hurting/sad/awkward/lonely emotion. Sofia's films are great at capturing those kinds of mixed emotion that you know but are quite hard to explain in words.

There are a lot of long take, and sometimes shaky camera work, which are quite 'indie' in the feel but every frame remained so beautiful that it doesn't look at all cheap. Francis and Sofia Coppola are both amazing at getting beautiful visuals, like a quality of photography.

I always like Sofia’s choice of music; they made me smile here and there. Phoenix did great job this time. Though "Love Like A Sunset" and "I'll Try Anything Once" had to be my two favorites. The characters don't talk much in the film and that made music became ever so important.

I loved all the characters, all so charming. I especially loved the breakfast scene in Italy, where an emotional conversation takes place without saying a single word. Cleo's expression there is still stuck in my head. Nice portrait of loneliness through out the film. I suppose it touched me so much since the film reminds me of the time when I was eleven, as well as myself now. It’s a great film, where I fell like I know exactly what they are feeling.

I wasn't too impressed with the film poster though. I don't think that color palette of green and yellow do the justice of representing this film, but that's just my personal opinion... Not that the ones bellow do any better.

THINKING ABOUT TUITION FEE

UAL Home students' tuition fee of £3,290 suddenly seems small, when you look at how much students in US have to pay.
I am not saying tuition fees should go up: I hear that many Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Holland have free or very small tuition fees.
My question is rather, how do students in US could manage with such high tuition fees? I think they do students loans just like here in UK, but together with interests, that must take ages to pay back.

Also, people constantly say how expensive UK international fees are, but with today's currency rate, it's about the same or cheaper here than to study back in Japan.
In Japan it's more common for parents to pay the tuition fees rather than students to get loans for themselves. It's incredible how Japanese parents could afford such high tuition fees...
With that expensive fees and Japan still manages to have high percentage of students progressing into higher education (56.2% went on to Universities in 2008. If you include technical colleges and part-time programs, the percentage goes up to 78%).
Simply impressive.

And may I add that it takes 3 years to complete an undergraduate course in UK, but 4 years in US and Japan.

Education is becoming more and more expensive. It's ironic when the value of universities is decreasing, notably with the rise of online/open education.



Notes*
The currency conversion rate to pounds are the one of today (13th December, 2010).
RCA's price is from Postgraduate course. Other ones are from the first year of Undergraduate.
I've taken Graphic Design course when the price differs with subjects.
There was a mistake for the KABK International student fee and it's been corrected (14th December 2010).