Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Once in a while I want to watch a film that wouldn`t require too many brain cells of me. Well, actually, I want to watch such a film most of the time for after a long day at work or at the university I`m usually not in the mood for Ingmar Bergman or something like that. One of the least demanding genres of cinematography is historical films. This sort of films mostly revolves around fancy dresses, pretty palaces and sexy women, thus leaving the brain problems behind. "Poor, poor Pavel" is a prime example for such a film. Well, maybe not for this film isn`t really about fancy dresses but about sick Russian minds. You see, the Russian emperor Pavel the First wasn`t really in his right mind, he had some visions about the way his country should be led yet being a bit childish and brutal at some moments he couldn`t really be loved by his people which led to him being murdered in a very broad conspiracy which was led by a certain count Palen (who happens to be a Baltic German, if I got that right). No one would expect such a film to be something staggering but it`s quite a good way to spend an evening with a visual form of history (since I had seen a documentary about Pavel the First, I knew the story pretty well and watched the film much more as a documentary film than as a dramatic piece).

An ossie (east german) writer! And funny too! No full sentences! Stories about school in DDR. Being cool for having a guitar. Being uncool at school. Being emo. Being goth. Being a talent of the future. No shops. No capitalism. No war. Yeah!

It`s quite hard to imagine a novel least likely to be readable than "The Golden Fruit". Reasons for it being weird are quite plain - the novel doesn`t have anything remotely similar to a plot, nor does it have any heroes. Basically it`s a novel about a novel, depicting how a book lives it`s life from the moment of publication when no one knows about it to the highest popularity when everyone claims that it`s as good as Shakespeare to total slamming and calling it a worthless piece of thripe to being completely forgotten. Had Nathalie Sarraute bothered to add some hereos with "tags" aka names and some sort of personalities it could have been an awful lot of fun, but as it is - it`s just awfully difficult to read. The book consists of small separate pieces of dialogue and of some short inner monologues (about the latters I`m not sure whether they belong to one, two or twenty persons). Overall it`s a very, very, very strange book that does push the limits of a novel quite strongly, yet I have to admit that it`s a bit too experimental for me - sort of similar to Captain Beefheart`s music - I am aware that it is very daring and original, yet I just can`t enjoy it. Had I been using a system of ratings where I would differenciate between the overall quality of the book and my own feelings about it, it would become more clear what I want to say by this, but since that`s not my sort of attitude, I can`t do nothing but rate this book as average, although it`s very far from it.

This is the story of a fellow named Hubert. He was the son of a prominent German nazi, yet he himself wasn`t much of any person in deed. But he was quite good at inventing stories about his life. During the war where he participated as a volunteer he didn`t get to see the action much, spending most of the time as a war clerk (quite similar to Mr. Edmund Blackadder in WW1 by the way) but he was always willing to tell some untrue stories about his heroical deeds. And apart from that he was a huge fan of Humfrey Bogarte and loved all of his films and sometimes wanted to believe that he was in fact Bogarte`s character. Only in the end it went a bit wrong when he told some people the story of the film "Casablanca" as a part of his own life. Unexpectedly the truth behind this story was found out quite fast (yeah, he spent the war in Czechoslovakia and not in Casablanca by the way) and thus he transformed from a hero into a goofball.

This is a very typical book on social issues. Actually in some ways it could have been written in the USSR, not that there would be some "politrucks" participating in it or anything like that - but it`s a very traditional style of book about the oppressed masses - although there`s no pathos about it (contrary to what you would expect from a soviet book). Karl Maiwald works at some sort of truck drivers factory (I didn`t really get what his work was all about - he was a truck driver at first but he wasn`t allowed to drive anymore for his health was already very poor) where he accidentally learns to know that the bosses are spying on the workers by placing microphones everywhere. So he informs the trade union and together with some pals breaks into the office and steals some of the materials on the workers so that they could present those to the people in order to believed by them. But everything doesn`t go well - the government simply sacks Karl and says - nothin happened, let`s get back to work. So the workers start a strike and eventually Karl gets his work back, yet the owners of the company still don`t apologize for what they`ve done.

Since I just couldn`t leave the Blackadder family this way - without knowing what became with them at last I decided to watch the special programme that was made for the beginning of the new millenium. The concept is old as time - Baldrick and Blackadder travel back and forth in time to meet historical persons and to talk to them. Those include Elizabeth the first whom we already saw in season two, some silly romans, duke Wellington at the battle of Waterloo and... even Robin Hood. It`s so silly to make fun of Robin Hood. Every one and their crazy grandmother have done that. And the biggest problem about it is the fact that the humour in this film is kinda dumb. I`m happy that there`s no news that there ever will be a new Blackadder film. Yet there`s one surprising thing about this film - Colin Firth appears as good ol` William Shakespeare in it and Kate Moss plays Blackadder`s love interest.

Finally the Blackadder clan comes to its logical end. No, Edmund doesn`t take a sword and kill the last of the McLeods, instead he spends his days next to the front lines of WW1 in the company of his trusted friends George and Baldrick. Well, maybe those friends aren`t really trusted and maybe they aren`t exactly friends either, but that`s not the point. I will be short for I am not wearing shorts: this is the best Blackadder ever. So, there`s not too much plot in here and some of the episodes are recycled - like the Bob - sex god superhero sequence. But I like the anti-war content, general Melchett is such a darling, and so is captain Darling. Then there`s Blackadders jokes about the war, about patriotism etc. I like it and I don`t care what everybody thinks.

There`s one thing that has surprised me many times - how can it be that I tend to find interesting books in my book shelf? It`s quite typical to me to be sure that everything that I have in my shelves I`ve either read or it`s not worth being read (or - the most typical case: both). And now and then I find something useful. This play by Arthur Miller, for example. Although "The Death of a Salesman" is considered to be his finest work, I can`t totally agree with that - this play is by no means flawless. Some of it`s aspects seem fine enough for me, but not all. Willy is an old salesman who`s American dream plays the usual trick upon him - he`s sixty now, he gets sacked despite the good work he has been doing for many decades now, his children are useless junkies and his health isn`t good either. So he commits suicide. That`s it. I`d write more but I have to make a presentation about program testing for tomorrow, so I can`t do nothing about it. Alas.

Hurrah! This is lord Blackadder the way I like him. Gone are the days of foolishly done hair and silly looks on the face. This Blackadder of new, living in the reigh of Elizabeth I is a much trickier fellow than his predecessor. In episode one we are treated through a tribute to Shakespeare`s "The 12th night" where Kate - a young woman - goes to become Blackadder`s servant after her father wanted her to be a prostitute, so she "could work without leaving the house", and after Blackadder realises that she`s a woman he wants to marry Kate, but he fails at that. In episode Two Edmund is made responsible as the planner of executions in England, and he has some trouble after having thought about work optimisation he has executed a fellow earlier than planned. In "Potate", episode 3, Edmund wants to impress the Queen by travelling around the Cape of good hope (in fact: going to France), only because of some accident he does go to the Cape indeed. In episode four Edmund is in debt to an organization of black monks. "Beer" is a jolly good drinking episode, probably the best of the series. The final "Chains", where Blackadder dies again is a bit of a letdown though. In short: this time around everything is very solid and there`s enough laughs in each and every episode, although it is really a sitcom in comparison with the first season that contained some outdoor scenes, yet since the comic level is much higher I can`t not appreciate that.

I wonder why is that - most of the writers who`s books I happen to read have Jewish origin? Still this novel hasn`t got much to do with Jews - "Before the mirror" is mostly an epistolary novel in the form of letters that Liza, a student at first and an aspiring painter later is sending to the love of her life - Konstantin, a man who wants to be a very important mathematician one day. At first the book is quite similar to Abbot`s "Daddy Long Legs", later on it covers mostly the subjects of emigration from Soviet Russia and of the hard life of an artist abroad. Sometimes it gets a bit preachy but at least it`s mostly free of patriotic gibberish (although Liza always has the urge to come home, she never does).