Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

After a long break I decided to give another chance to Krzystof Kieslovsky`s "Decalogue". This time I chose the part that told us not to commit adultery. It doesn`t mean that I was planning to do just that and to understand why I shouldn`t do it I watched the film. Anyway, there`s Tomek - a young boy who spends most of his free time when not working at the post peeking through a looking glass at Magda - a woman from a neighbouring house. She can`t do much without him noticing, he never misses her making love to Roman. Tomek uses every chance to meet her, but without much success. When he tells her that he has been peeking on her for quite a long time she invites him into her apartment. Magda tries to prove him that it`s not love what he`s feeling towards her, but she fails at that. Tomek cuts his wrists, and now it`s Magda who wants to see him. In the end his final words to her are: "I don`t peep at you any more". And I liked the film, it`s sad just like every part of the Decalogue is (as far as I know) but it`s very powerful in it`s minimalism.

The first dissapointment of the year. For the last few months I have been a fan of Duerenmatt`s work - both his short stories and plays have impressed me quite significantly. But now I found out that he was also capable of rewriting classical stuff (although I have no idea whatsoever what the original Wojcziek was about) and make it sound boring. Not that I said that I find "Faust" by Goethe particulary interesting in its original form for the modern audience. But still I expected this to be more fun. Probably my lack of interest has something to do with the fact that I`m not a great expert of "Faust" and that I`m not an expert at all in everything else classical German literature could offer. I`m pretty sure that in "Urfaust" there are some elements from poems not by Goethe, just as there is something from the older version of the same book. But it`s dull (at least my taste found it to be that way). Wojcziek? I never even got what was the plot here. The lead character seems to be some stupid fool, who has some problems with his wife. And he does a job that doesn`t get paid too well. That`s probably all I can tell. Apart from the fact that from now on I won`t believe that Duerenmatt=very good quality brandname.

It was the reason why I watched "Deep Throat" in the first place. I learned a lot about the most profitable film ever yet I didn`t really learn why it was so popular in 1970s. I learned a lot about the stars of the film yet I didn`t learn what`s the difference between them and other porn stars. Oh, maybe on difference is clear - Linda Lovelace and her technique are unique for sure. The funniest part of the film is Linda`s change of attitude and becoming a feminist - c`mon who`d buy the whole "every time people watch this film they are watching me being raped"? Yeah, sure. I`m not so sure what was the message the makers of this documenatry were trying to pass over? Do they tell you that Gerard Damiano was a revolutionary, a rebel that "Deep Throat" was some sort of an artistic statement? I certainly can`t understand why that should be true. A rebellious porn director? Sure, and when a fellow told in the film that Damiano went for dirty pictures so he could get laid more easily he probably meant it metaphorically? I`m not sure whether I am or am not a morally conservative person but I`m absolutely sure that you usually don`t need group sex to make an artistic statement (unless we`re talking about the band "Circle Jerks" that did have an album titled "Group Sex"). So - how good is the documentary? It`s pretty entertaining but a bit pointless, so that makes the rating of 6.5 (now you know how I rate things).

"Ripping Yarns" ir viens no tiem kino vēstures elementiem, kuru loma manā dzīvē varētu būt lielāka, nekā tā ir vairumam cilvēku, un labi ka tā. Kamēr Džons Klīzs pēc Monty Python eksistences beigām savu solo karjeru pamatīgi iecementēja ar "Fawlty Towers" (ko es - atzīšos - joprojām neesmu noskatījies pilnībā, lai arī vairumu sēriju redzējis neesmu), Maikls Peilins pārī ar Teriju Džonsu izveidoja savu seriālu, kas gan neguva "Fawlty Towers" popularitāti, bet kas kino vēstures annāļos ir iegūlis ar ne mazāk skaistiem burtiem.

Otrajā Ripping Yarns sezonā bija tikai 3 sērijas, līdz ar to noskatīšanās process divkārši saīsinājās. (aprakstu, kas ir šis seriāls, skatīt pie pirmās sezonas apraksta, es takšu nesākšu te atkārtoties, es takšu nesākšu te atkārtoties, es takšu nesākšu te atkārtoties).

The book contains three dramatic works by the famous German writer Herman Broch (ok, I`m not so sure that he was that famous indeed but his name seems familiar to me - and that`s something). Note: after consulting Wikipedia (I`ve been mentioning this source of information quite often lately but only because it`s very informative and not because They would pay me for it, although I`d feel happy if they would) I know that Broch comes from a Jewish family and that he`s considered an Austrian writer. He`s mostly known for his novel "The Death of Virgil" which I`ll probably read later to be more educated than I am now. Yet I can`t say that after reading some of his plays I`ve become particulary interested in Broch`s writing. Out of the three plays published in the book I got from my library - "Die Entsuehnung", "Aus der Luft gegriffen oder Die Geschaefte des Baron Laborde" and "Es bleibt alles by Alten" I found only one that really worked for me. The first play - a tragical piece about a factory is - is too sad, boring and has too many characters for me to really get it on paper (rating 4.0). The second is a comedy and it`s fine - I always like to read something about con-artists and villains (8.0). The last play is also a comedy and it`s nothing really - nor good, nor bad, passable and not more (5.5). Maybe it wasn`t the best start of learning to know Hermann Broch.

Šis ir tas Black Sabbath albūms, kas sākas ar Sweet Leaf ievadošo leģendāro lūpoto klepošanu. Šis ir, kā tiek apgalvots, vissmagākais Black Sabbath albūms. Šis ir albūms, kurā ir atrodamas vairākas patiesi epohālas BS dziesmas, bez kurām nebūtu bijusi Metallica, bez kurām nebūtu bijuši Slayer, nebūtu bijuši Pantera un pat ne Children of Bodom (nezinu gan, kāpēc pieminēju pēdējos).

Šo filmu lejuplādēju tāpēc, ka tā pēc IMDB datiem ir viens no populārākajiem pagājušogad mirušā lieliskā Filipa Nuarē kino darbiem. No filmas angliskā nosaukuma ("Rotten Cops") desmit sekundes pēc filmas sākuma sapratu, ka šo filmu esmu jau redzējis...

Only a madman would desire to watch a thing like this. Everybody (or at least a few elitist people on the web) knows that Elvis` best period in terms of music was the 1950s and after that he had a major decline turning from the worlds leading rock`n`roller into a Frank Sinatra with shaking hips and knees who didn`t have Sinatras voice. And 1977 was also the year when the king died (or was abducted by space aliens). By that time he was not particulary old, a bit fat, and he sung stupid songs. In terms of songs this concert isn`t actually as bad as I suspected - it has both "I want to be your teddy bear" and "Jailhouse Rock" - two from his finest numbers, but the actual performance of these songs isn`t very impressive. And neither is it interesting to see and hear him perform some stupid mellow songs that he can`t sing at all and to those he even can`t shake his overweight body. It`s a really pityful experience watching him, knowing that just a month later Elvis would have been gone. But this isn`t a good way to say farewell. At least after watching a performance like this you`d most likely never think that that guy was named the King.

The year of 2005 began with a repeated watch of "Road Trip". 2004 started with Amenabar`s "Abre Los Ojos". What will be the tendency for 2006? Will it open with a silly teen comedy or as a serious alternative movie? By choosing "Thumbsucker" on a section of films categorized as comedies it seemed that the "Road Trip" agenda would be the chosen for this year. Yet in reality this film wasn`t particulary comic at all. If you are one of those people that consider a guy of 17 still sucking on his thumb a funny thing per se then the only thing I can offer you is a pie in the face. Justin doesn`t do particulary well at school, he`s far from convincive and he sucks his thumb - you can probably say that he`s the equivalent to "Napoleon Dynamite", better looking though. His mother is obsessed with some TV star, while his father hasn`t still come over the fact that he couldn`t enjoy a career of a professional footballer because of an injury. Still things aren`t going that bad for Justin - in Rebecca he`s found a good looking and a smart girl friend. If he only knew some ways of keeping a relationship going... Instead he`s first hypnotized by his dentist (who happens to be Keanu Reeves) to stop sucking his thumb and put on medication so he could focus his thoughts better. Drugs help and Justin suddenly has perfect discussion skills and he goes to compete as an orator on different occasions yet he also turns innerly into a very dislikeable person. When he stops taking pills he teams up with Rebecca again who has switched from Justin to weed and they smoke together as she overgoes some "teenage experiments" with him - learns how to do and what to do. When he finds out that they don`t have a relationship but merely an experiment he isn`t exactly full of joy. The film is certainly strange and the only movie similar to it I`ve seen so far was "Napoleon Dynamite" which I mentioned here already, but in comparison to "N.D." Thumbsucker is better cut and it doesn`t seem pointless.