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<p><img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dofg4pf22R4/maxresdefault.jpg" width="1280" height="720"/><em><br>
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And did you get what</em><br>
<em>you wanted from this life, even so?</em><br>
<em>I did.</em><br>
<em>And what did you want?</em><br>
<em>To call myself beloved, to feel myself</em><br>
<em>beloved on the earth.</em><br>
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These verses belong to Raymond Carver, one of the most famous American poets and writers of short stories from the second half of the 20th century. Compressed, intense and accurate in grasping the essential characteristics of ordinary people - such was Carver. What is everyday, familiar (and often unpleasant), he simply turns into a general, where we all recognize ourselves. Where love flashes, where people are sluggish and apathetic, where secrets are revealed, there is Carver, who still tells us in his short stories that he knows us better than we know ourselves. And, as his verses say, he is truly loved in the world. This love for Carver's essential understanding and sharing of stories is shared by many filmmakers who have found inspiration for their work precisely in his rows.<br>
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<strong>Everything Goes (2004, A.Kotako)<br>
</strong><img src="https://www.miuc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/shakespeare-and-ervantes-intro.jpg" width="737" height="350"/><br>
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<p>2004 Andrewa Kotatra's short film is based on Carver's <em>Why Don't You Dance? </em>story from the collection <em>What We Talk About When We Talk About Love</em>. Praised by the criticism, <em>Everything Goes</em> shows an unusual relationship between the young pair (Abbie Cornish and Sullivan Stapleton) and the newly divorced Hugo Weaving who is trying to solve his own past by selling furniture and things on the lawn in front of the house. Everything Goes provides a funny and highly suggestive way of showing how broken or at least cracked we can be; what we have, what we want and what we are dreaming about. All mentioned was packed in only seventeen minutes in an excellent performance by Australian actors.<br>
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<strong>Whoever Was Using This Bed (2016, A. Kotako)<br>
</strong><img src="https://cinemaaustralia.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/ray-jean-marc-barr-iris-radha-mitchell-in-whoever-was-using-this-bed-photo-mark-rogers.jpg?w=935" width="935" height="624"/></p>
<p>Andrew Kotatko was cheered by many when he, twelve years after the very successful screening of <em>Why Don't You Dance?</em> tried again with Carver's story. This time, <em>Whoever Was Using This Bed, </em>in which he reveals secrets of spouse Ray (Jean-Marc Barr) and Iris (Radha Mitchell) under the auspices of the night after the mysterious call. Kotatko did a great job once again, showing a brisk and deep study of a married couple who spent many years together, and there is still a lot to tell. Wondering about ourselves and those close to us never really stops, it is only a question of when and how our doubts will come to light. In the mysterious, night-time setting, Carver and Kotatko, once more, reveal directly and precisely everything that we would most like to be silent, but we can not.<br>
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<strong>Jindabyne (2006, R. Lawrence)<br>
</strong><img src="https://intofilm-resources-production.s3.amazonaws.com/intofilm-production/scaledcropped/970x546http%3A/images.cdn.filmclub.org/film__10229-jindabyne--hi_res-ac30e694.jpg/film__10229-jindabyne--hi_res-ac30e694.jpg" width="970" height="546"/><strong><br>
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</strong>Another Australian director sought inspiration in Carver's work. This time it is Ray Lawrence, who in 2006 made a movie called <em>Jindabyne</em>, according to story <em>So Much Water So Close to Home.</em> Although the film has shared criticism, the audience has gone very well. Although the film divided the critics, with the audience it went very well. However it'squestionable how well this film is done. Jindabyne follows four fishermen who, on their annual excursion to an isolated river area, find a female dead body that they decide to take care of only when their fishing in nature ends. As their ignorance ultimately reflects on their lives and the lives of the family trough the rest of the film.<br>
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<strong>Short Cuts (1993, R. Altman)<br>
</strong><img src="http://www.tasteofcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/short-cuts-tom-waits.jpg"/><br>
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While most of the filmmakers held a simpler recipe for shooting one of Carver's stories, Robert Altman took a far greater moment in a recognizable style when he made a three-hour film with seven stories and a song that alternates between the lives of several families, or twenty-two protagonists. Strongly unrelated stories, Altman shifts from Carver's <em>Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles</em> where he records all that from human lives that we can call bizarre and normal at the same time. The backbone is, of course, a family in a whole spectrum of typical dysfunctional characteristics that it may possess, as well as a range of benign actions that carry fatal consequences and vice versa. In theory it sounds complicated, but in practice it is fluent, fun, and sometimes instructive. Namely, it is hard to believe that after this film you will forget about the cake order if you made it.<br>
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<strong>Birdman (2014, A.G. Iñárritu)<br>
</strong><img src="http://dazedimg.dazedgroup.netdna-cdn.com/1200/0-0-1620-1080/azure/dazed-prod/1110/0/1110919.jpg"/></p>
<p>In the great film by Alejandro G. Iñarritu, the work of Raymond Carver didn't serve directly to the film story, but to create a play within the film. Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is trying to return his acting career to the right path by creating a Broadway show out of Carver's <em>Beginners</em> from collection of stories <em>What We Talk About When We Talk About Love</em>. But Birdman refers not only to Carver's work, but also to his character and creativity as a whole, as a valid art, which speaks of real feelings and real people (in response to American blockbuster production that Birdman criticizes) and, finally, about love.<br>
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This was my translation from Croatian to English from Ziher hr article ''Filmovi inspirisani pričama Raymonda Carvera'' by M.Ban<br>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfLoE6hanc<br>
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