Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Suppose I tell you this film is a Japanese horror movie. Are you already scared out of your pants and on your way to the mental hospital? I bet you are. But you shouldn`t be. This film isn`t that scary. It plainly isn`t scary at all. There`s this guy who works as a sound engineer, and who has a wife who is a medium. While he`s in the woods recording the sounds of the forest a little girl running away from a rapist hides in an empty equipment box belonging to the man. It`s quite silly that after the recording he puts the box in his car without thinking why it has become much heavier and without even putting anything back inside it. It seems that he just likes carrying around huge empty boxes. Anyway, the girl dies in the box, and after a few days his wife is asked to find her. She finds her through her powers, but the girl appears to be living. Since they have no way of explaining how the girl got into the box the guy and his wife decide to hide her in a remote location and send the cops to that place. That is particulary silly, but ok. In the end the girl turns out to be a physical ghost and the guy does the best thing you can do to a ghost - he kills her once again by using a piece of wood. After that he sees his body double (which signs his near death) and puts it on fire. To be honest - the guy is crazy, and so even to a greater level is the director. And the film is stupid, uninspired, boring, dull - choose whatever you want. And it isn`t a horror film.

I have always been a fan of Mr. Kundera, and his latest work didn`t dissapoint me even as much as a tiny, tiny little... thing. And it surely doesn`t mean that my expectations were low. Irene is a woman in her fourties that lives in France but now has a chance to return to her homeland of Prague since the iron curtain has fallen. She doesn`t really want to, but other people tell her - she must. There she meets Joseph - another man from the exile whom she once met when they were very young. Still this book isn`t that much about the main characters. It`s about the homecoming and its painfulness and senselesness. Kundera`s hero are somewhat similar to Odysseus who was abroad for 20 years and came back to people that didn`t bother to notice that he had changed. The book is about our memories and how they betray us. How we remember very little, and each our own, and how nobody really knows anyone at all. It`s very sad, it`s a book by an old man who has very much knowledge, a bit of humour but very little hope for this world. Read it if you can. And if you can`t read - don`t read it.

It probably can`t be classified as a single record but should instead be separated into different elements that don`t have too much in common. On the other hand, discussing bonus material as such seems to be a silly thing. Yet for a whole disc of previously unseen (at least by me) material I can make an exception. First, this disc features a documentary about Terry Jones and Michael Palin revisiting most of the locations where "The Holy Grail" was shot. I never thought that those guys worked under such money saving circumstances that they shot almost all scenes in a single castle which has only about 3 different rooms but in the film it appeared to be a lot of castles and dozens of rooms. The things they talk about on those locations they go are worth to be heard as well. This documentary also proves how extremely significant to Britain this legendary film has become - you can nowadays buy coconuts at the castle where king Arthur was harrased about European and African swallows. But enough about the documentary already. Let`s talk about another documentary. It was done by BBC in 1974 on the shooting locations. Despite having got all 6 pythons on screen it ain`t too useful, for it`s mainly goofing around with very little substance. Both Terries shine on this documentary more than the rest of the sixpack, mainly due to the fact that it was them directing the film and therefore receiving more attention from the BsBC. Other materials aren`t that extensive - there`s a short new film about splitting coconuts featuring Michael Palin and some unknown fellow, there`s a bit of old posters and bashing reviews (one of those states that "Holy Grail" makes "Ben Hur" look like an epic. To me it was "Life of Brian" that really made "Ben Hur" look like an epic). Oh, I almost forgot - there`s a short part of the film done in "LEGO". It`s goofy, of course, but not particulary interesting. As for the final judgement - only a Python fanatic would care about those things. But on the other hand - I am a Python fanatic!

"Colour Me Kubrick" ir uz reaaliem notikumiem balstiita filma, cik neticami tas lai arii neshkjistu. Galveno lomu tajaa atveido Dzhons Malkovichs, paziistams, kaa zinaams, kaa tips no taas filmas, kuraa aplaupa banku, un no "Being John Malkovich". Malkovicha varonis ir kaads celjojoshs tirgotaajs vaardaa Alans Konvejs (reaala persona), kura pamatnodarbe bija uzdoties par slaveno kino rezhisoru Stenliju Kubriku un guut labumu no shaadas uzdoshanaas, protams, par labu vinjam shajaa situaacijaa naaca tas, ka Kubriks, lai gan bija ljoti respekteets rezhisors, nebija taada tipa slaveniiba, par kuru daudzi zinaaja, kaa vinsh izskataas. Taalab Konvejs speeja lieliski dazhaadiem cilveekiem apsoliit sho vai to vinju karjeras labad, pretii prasot, lai vinjam kaut ko izmaksaa (jo Kubrikam-Konvejam diivainaa kaartaa vienmeer bija aizmirusies liidz vinja platiina krediitkarte), kaa arii guut seksuaalus pakalpojumus (veel viens triks - ekscentriskais homoseksuaalis Konvejs absoluuti nospljaavas uz to, ka Kubriks nebija gejs, neintereseejoties par atbilstiibu teelam). Kas Konvejam gan reizeem radiija probleemas, bija fakts, ka vinsh iipashi daudz par Kubrika filmaam nezinaaja un orienteejaas tajaas ne labaak, kaa, teiksim, es. Toties vinsh lieliski maaceeja iepiit sarunaas to, ka vinsh nupat pusdienojis ar Tomu Kruuzu vai ka vinja naakamajaa filmaa piedaliisies Elizabete Teilore un vienmeer vinja kaarteejiem pazinjaam atradaas kaada vietinja jaunajaa filmaa atveeleeta. Protams, tas noveda arii pie taa, ka Konveju biezhi gribeeja sist, bet kas vinjam bija pluss - neviens iipashi negribeeja iet pie policijas, jo cilveeka reputaaciju vareetu nedaudz ietekmeet publiskaas zinjaas izplatiita informaacija par vinja uzkjershanos uz pseido Kubriku un paarguleeshanu ar vinju.

Lai gan "Pieziimes par skandaalu" nevienu Oskaru nedabuuja, shai filmai es noteikti vismaz paariiti to buutu iedevis, lai arii esmu to noskatiijies tikai visai beediigaa kinoteaatrii tapusha kameras ieraksta kvalitaatee ar popkorna graushanu, skatiitaaju eenaam un smiekliem nevietaa.

It started off quite nicely but proved to be overlong. This book is a comic book about comic things about books. First thought this was something similar to the "scientific essays" in S.Dali`s diary but it proved to be real literature science and not just a hoax. Basically Mr. Rath-Vegh has collected different funny and not so funny stories from the history of bookwriting and book buying and selling. Some of the elements in this book seem to be pretty unrealistic - for example, Rath-Vegh mentions scientific works about Adam being the first writer and the first scientist, etc, etc. But the problem with this book is that it`s too complicated to write a book on such a subject. But it was a bit too boring for me, so I stopped reading everything from the beginning to the end, but just read a few passages that seemed to be more interesting than the others. Yet in its own category the book ain`t a bad one, it`s just not that kind of stuff I`d normally read in big amounts. It`s more like a good vinegar - you need it but you can`t drink a lot of it (unless you want to die).

(valoda: anglju) Godiigi sakot, es pat atmineeties nevaru, kad peedeejo reizi lasiiju kaut ko liidziigu "Eenu graamatai", noteikti peedeejaa laikaa tas nav bijis. Turklaat es jau no saakta gala zinaaju, kaadas kategorijas literatuura taa buus, bet tomeer izlasiiiju. Kaapeec taa? Pirmkaart, taapeec ka man pieejamo graamatu klaasts Duka-maajaa ir diezgan pieticiigs. Otrkaart, un galvenokaart tieshi taadeelj, ka man vienkaarshi shobriid nav iekshaa vakaros lasiit kaut ko kaut nedaudz smadzenes piepuuloshu, bet "Book of Shadows" smadzeneem nerada lielaaku slodzi kaa stulba tiinju komeedija vai pornofilma.

Lai gan tikai shodien rakstu faktoiidaa par sho filmu, patiesiibaa es to noskatiijos jau labu laicinju ieprieksh, tikai kaut kaa nekaadi nesanaaca par to uzrakstiit. Filma staasta par diezgan netipisku teemu - par sirdii labu Stasi - Staatssicherheit (austrumvaacijas ekvivalents krievu KGB) darbinieku, kursh buudams kaada dramaturga un vinja draudzenes aktrises cieniitaajs, nespeej saveejiem atklaat, ka vecis ir sadumpojies un uzrakstiijis rakstu rietumvaacu laikrakstam par Austrumvaacijas probleemaam kaada sava pashnaaviibu izdariijusha nezheelastiibaa kritusha drauga deelj. Filmaa mees varam noveerot, kaa dziivo rakstnieks ar savu draudzeni un varam noveerot, kaa vinji tiek noveeroti. Ja neskaita interesanto paveersienu ar labo KGBshnjiku, kas patieshaam ir retums kino pasaulee, manupraat, diezgan parasta vaacu filma - diezgan smagneeja un ne paaraak aizraujosha. Bet kaut kaada iemesla deelj tagad Oskarota. Iespeejams, aiz politkorektuma pret bijushajiem valsts iestaazhu darbiniekiem, citaadi nezinu, kas tajaa tik grandiozs. Protams, es neesmu dziivojis Austrumvaaciijaa pirms gadiem 20-25. Bet no otras puses, ASV kinoakadeemijas paarstaavji droshi vien arii nav.

I`m not so sure you`ve heard about this, but there once was this rock`n`roll band that beared the name "The Beatles". It was hugely popular in the strange decade of 1960s and some claimed that the band was more popular than Jesus in his prime years (I mean before he switched to Christian Rock). And some 20-25 years after the Beatles ceased to be this film was made. "Anthology" is it`s name, and here comes the first part. It has the early days of the Beatles on it. From the day when John Lennon was born until "Please Please Me" topped the charts and the "Fab Four" became fab. We see and here audio and video footage of very bad quality with the Beatles playing at the cavern, playing in Hamburg, playing some demo sessions. We see how they had this really good looking guy in the band, I guess his name was Martin, who couldn`t play the base, but at least he was cool. From the point of music this film isn`t that great - c`mon, back in 1959, for example, The Beatles weren`t the Beatles millions learned to love. But still this is an interesting historic document, clearly showing the way the band made its way to the top, despite everything that went in its way. I stiil hope that the second part of the documentary will be better than this, for it surely will feature better music on it.

It`s the first album of the giants in some eight years. I can`t really say that I was eagerly awaiting it all this time but it surely was interesting to learn what they could come up with after all these years. Jagger and co aren`t getting younger, of course, and they don`t find it particulary easy coming up with great melodies and superb lyrics, the way they did in the sixties/seventies. But they still try to be loud and proud, and some of the songs aren`t bad. Yet there ain`t a single signal of greatness - it`s just your average album by an aging rock band that still wants to keep its reputation. Had it not had the brand of "Rolling Stones" to boost the record it would remain unnoticed for sure. But as it is it will probably be sold pretty well but I doubt that many people will really love this record. I don`t certainly, it just leaves me cold.