The Moviesite Spotlight: Karamel Kinema

It’s been a while since I have done a moviesite spotlight, but during the 5 Obstructions blogathon I was impressed by what I saw at Karamel Kinema. I love its design and great use of typography for each review (a big reason I like to visit the site, next to the great reviews of course). Time to learn more about Karamel Kinema.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?
I started KaramelKinema in 2012. Before i only shared my enthusiasm with Naomi (from shespeaksmovies.com) on twitter and we used to spam our timeline with our obsessive gushing about films, directors, and actors. After a fortunate incident involving twitter, one of the local directors, and a glass of lemon tea, me and N talked about writing a blog where we can have a space to write our thoughts about films we love or hate. So there it goes, i started with KaramelKinema while N has her own SheSpeaksMovies.

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
I don’t know… i feel like my blog is just a jumble of my thoughts about films and other things related to it, sometimes they are random and have no rhythm to their posts, written mostly on the spur of the moment and filled with spontaneity. Why don’t you give it a read and tell me *wink wink* Other than that i think i have a certain fascination with LGBT films, so i have a tendency to do reviews of films with that theme as well 🙂

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
I think i have a certain freedom to express my thoughts about film, where i can mull over a film and gush or sneer about it. Something that i can not do or very limited to in real life. So through my blog i can channel my emotional response to a movie through writing about it freely without fear of judgement from others.

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
I definitely watch more film, maybe even more than i can handle, through other bloggers I discover foreign and indie gems and learn to appreciate more subtle things in cinema. Reading other bloggers entries usually inspires a discussion of a certain film and it’s interesting for me when there’s a polarizing opinion of a certain movie. I guess in a way it helped me to understand things from others point of view, especially with cultural differences between people. Besides that I’d like to think that i learn a thing or two about filmmaking and cinema in general too.

What’s your favorite article you have written?
If it has to be an article about a film, then i’d have to say Cloud Atlas (2012) which was a very hard film to review for me (even without considering my language limitation). I think I managed to formulate coherent entries despite being emotionally overwhelmed and managed to inject little factoids here and there.

If it can be any article i’d have to say its my Homage to Xavier Dolan. I love his films and would love to be able to interview the director sometime. I love both the substance of his films and also the flair of his style. Dolan is a relatively young director, so i can see he’s still trying to figure his stuff and i’m excited to see the things he’d came up with in the future.

Could you name five of your all time favorite movies?

Vertigo (1958, Dir: Hitchcock)

Love Actually (2003, Dir: Richard Curtis)

A Little Romance (1979, Dir: George Roy Hill)

Weekend (2011, Dir: Andrew Haigh)

Before… Trilogies (1995, 2004, 2013) *i cheated on this one*

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
I usually try to watch all the new releases in my local cinema, so usually i have 1 day to watch a film or do a marathon. But on average i think i watched 3-7 movies each week.

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
I don’t really spend a lot of money on movie related items. I usually prefer buying limited edition releases of the films i love (i am a sucker for limited editions and beautifully designed packaging).

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
Although i love films, i think my first love is books. So if there’s adapted films from books that i could get my hands on i’d love to read them and see how they fare in their own mediums. Most books adaptation did not quite deliver to its true potential, so I think it is interesting when i saw a great film made out of a great book because its quite hard to come by. Of course it’s even more amusing to see a great film made out of mediocre book which is even rarer.