Cinemascope
Movie-Highlights of the year 2009

Aries
2009 again there was a lot of action going on in theaters – for example the fourth installment of the “Fast & Furious”, the second “Transformers”-movie, the blockbuster “2012”. There was also another simple – but effective – fighter’s story, narrated in the appropriately named movie “Fighting”. Some of all that was entertaining, but very little was really special. A much more profound and thus more interesting struggle was shown in “The Wrestler”. This movie combines the Aries-quality of fighting with Pisces-motifs like weakness, failure and disappointment and provided Mickey Rourke with the role of his life, the aging Wrestling star Randy “The Ram”.

Taurus
For me the most beautiful Taurus-movie of the year was by far Almodovars “Broken Embraces” (“Los abrazos rotos“). It is an abundant film experience and a sensual delight, in which the director once again succeeds in a perfect manner to stage the colors and shapes of everyday life with great pleasure and enjoyment. The story too deals with Taurus-topics like love and (in)security, Eros and beauty, the fear of dramatic changes and the far-reaching treatment of their long-term aftereffects. Other interesting and/or typical Taurus-films have been “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Home” and “Shopaholic”.

Gemini
One of the most interesting films carrying Gemini-energy surely was Quentin Tarantinos “Inglorious Basterds”. As a war-movie it also emphasizes Aries, yet beside the intelligently staged (Aries-) visuals, it focuses on dialog, quotes and references and sparks a firework of amazing characters, sharp talk and quirky ideas. “State of Play”, a suspenseful crime story about a newspaper reporter, who on his quest for truth gets dubious information to piece together, also brings Gemini-motifs to the screen. As well does “Brothers Bloom”, a film that is telling a clever story about telling stories: two brothers muddle through life on lies and deceit. Beside the various hobbies that a rich heiress pursues, a valuable old book plays a role in their last story...

Cancer
Several films dealt with Cancer-typical familiy issues – e.g. “Rachel Getting Married”, “Away we go” and “My Sister's Keeper”, the one that probably tackles the most controversial topic. It raises questions about care and responsibility, when little Anna, who was born to provide necessary donations for her Leukemia-stricken sister, starts rebelling against her use as a “spare parts warehouse”.
But not only family-movies correspond to the emotional Cancer-quality. The lovable animated film “Up” and a heartbreaking story about true and deep friendship between dog and man in “Hachiko: A Dog's Tale” are also charged with emotion and sentimentality – pure Cancer-energy.

Leo
Leo-films often involve tales from the show business – and the theme of the individual's path that leads against all odds to unique and true self-fulfillment. One example was the Oscar-winner „Slumdog Millionaire“, the Bollywood-influenced life- and lovestory of a youngster from the slums, who is about to get rich in a quizshow.
The typical Leo-film especially emphasizes celebration, mostly the celebration of life and the lust for it. This can be found in movies like „Small Crime“ („Mikro Eglima“), which basks in hot Greek sunlight, or Ang Lees „Taking Woodstock“.
„This Is It“ also is a celebration, celebrating the „King of Pop“. The documentary shows the recently deceased Michael Jackson in rehearsals for his planned concerts and thereby celebrates not only his uniqueness as an artist, but the creative process of the whole team which slightly resembles a king's court.

Virgo
Virgo-themes as cleanliness and order were taken on in strikingly many films about laundry and cleaning, e.g. in the documentaries „Soap and Water“ („Wasser und Seife“) and „The Wondrous World of Laundry“ as well as in the feature film „Sunshine Cleaning“. Yet a strong Virgo-character was given by Clint Eastwood in his swan song to Dirty Harry, the quiet but very impressive „Gran Torino“. Eastwood plays a morose misanthropist with strongly emphasized Virgo- and Capricorn-features, who only comes alive when he can fix things, but suffers from the rampant loss of values and decency in his world. While deliberately getting involved with his new Asian neighbours, he gets the chance to make himself useful again and take on responsibility.

Libra
Beside all the inevitable, more or less entertaining romantic comedies – „The Ugly Truth“, „The Proposal“, „Ghosts of Girlfriends Past“ etc. – that are dealing with relationships in an elegant and light Libra-way, the biopic „Coco Avant Chanel“ combined different Libra-motifs: Elegance and diplomacy are pivotal Libra-features both of which the protagonist aptly employs – in her private life as well as in her business. Fashion and the culturally groundbreaking reshaping of women’s clothing and a redefinition of elegance as the absence of everything ornamental and obstructive are focused on and put into beautiful images.

Scorpio
Scorpio-energy is a popular theme in cinema in various forms. Lars von Trier's newest film „Antichrist“ became very controversial in september due to it's extreme radicalism. It presents a psychological tour de force: After their son's death, a psychotherapist attempts a kind of vivisection on his wife’s soul by forcing her to confront her greatest fears. He triggers a furious and bloody fight, which crosses all boundaries and literally cuts to their bones.
To live in permanent danger and the presence of death is very Scorpio-like. Kathryn Bigelow, a remarkable action-director, explores the consequences of such pressure on the human psyche in her intense and Adrenaline-filled character-study “The Hurt Locker”, where she follows the extreme everyday life of a military bomb squad in Iraq.
Other notable films on Scorpio-motifs were “The Reader” (“Der Vorleser”), “Orphan” and “Law Abiding Citizen”.

Sagittarius
To discover new worlds and broaden ones horizon is a typical Sagittarius-theme. And 2009 brought the perfect film on this theme: „Star Trek“, the prequel to all Star Trek movies and series, in which hoodlum Kirk and cool Vulcanian Mr.Spock meet for the first time to furthermore travel the universe together, „seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.” James Camerons long awaited film “Avatar” is also a tale about the discovery of a strange new world and the resulting gain in knowledge.
But films as “Milk”, a biopic about the important gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk, or “The Informant!”, which is illustrating megalomania and manic behaviour in his protagonist, are also dealing with Sagittarius-topics.

Capricorn
Fans have longingly awaited the fourth part of the John-Connor-saga „Terminator Salvation“. With lots of grim action around the arduous fight between the last human survivors and the machines in a deserted, mostly gray coloured world, this movie brought strong Capricorn-images to the screen. Other Capricorn-films dealt mostly with topics like guilt, responsibility, atonement – for example the South African film „Disgrace“ or the British „Boy A“. Capricorn-motifs as tradition and the effects of repressive upbringing and abusive fatherly authority are tackled in Michael Hanekes new work “The White Ribbon” (“Das weiße Band”). Filmed in strict black and white, the reduced narrative style as well as the atmosphere of subliminal menace speak of Capricorn with a strong streak of Scorpio.

Aquarius
A community of the slightly different is an Aquarius-motif, that emerged last year in such different films as the graphic novel adaptation „Watchmen“ and Michael Mann's biopic about the last year in the life of notorious American gangster John Dillinger: „Public Enemies“. If it is superheroes or gangsters with the image of a Robin Hood – these are characters, who stand above common morality and social conventions, thus embodying Aquarian characteristics as aloofness, love of freedom or eccentricity. Michael Moore, director of famous documentary movies, likes to present himself as an entertaining yet provocative revolutionary. In “Capitalism: A Love Story“ he again raises uncomfortable questions, this time addressed to the financial world. And as always he is looking for idealistic visions of a better world, typical Aquarian ideals.
More typical Aquarius-energy could be found in quirky movies like „Brüno“, „Crank 2: High Voltage“ or „Ricky“.

Pisces
With „The Limits of Control“ in 2009 Jim Jarmusch delivered a surrealist and dreamy looking film with a story almost impossible to narrate and leaving the impression of a journey through the collective unconscious. With a great cast the film became a mystery play of film history, full of spiritual truisms, calling for a revolution of perception (Uranus in Pisces!). Other visually astounding films came especially from Asia: “Cinematic madness” is a frequently used term referring to „Love Exposure“ („Ai no mukidashi“), a film that includes family drama and martial arts, romance and splatter, religious fanaticism and sexual obsessions. Not only it dissolves genre limits but all cinematic conventions and mainly offers an absurd meditation on the nature of love. Park Chan-Wook's Vampire-film “Thirst” (“Bakjwi”) in a visually impressive way tells about the inner conflicts a selfless, devoted priest – a perfect Pisces-archetype – suffers, after he became Vampire – a classic Scorpio archetype – due to an infected blood transfusion. Pisces-topics like forgiveness, dissolution and (lost) dreams are also playing important roles in remarkable films as “Revanche”, “The Door” (“Die Tür”) and “The Fall”.

Vesna Ivkovic

Vesna Ivkovic studied literature and linguistics, sociology, philosophy and history and as well took a profound interest in psychology, mythology and different belief systems. Along the way she also explored various paths of body awareness such as the martial arts of Kung Fu, Dance, Yoga, Qi Gong and several other methods of body work and motion arts. In 1993 she discovered astrology as an instrument of knowledge and graduated in 2004 in Markus Jehle's and Petra Niehaus' master class at the Astrology Center Berlin. You can find out more about the author and her work on her own website www.astrosemiotics.de