Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

"Before night falls" is one of the last films before Johnny Depp turned into a real pop star and as they say "sold out". I know that selling out isn`t that easy to identify in case of one being an actor loved by billions of teens all over the world, but there`s no doubt htat "Before Night Falls" isn`t a mainstream movie. First, it`s directed by someone named Julian Schnabel - a director I don`t know nothing about. Then comes the story line which isn`t a story really but the life and death of the cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (played by Javier Bardem who got an Oscar nomination for this role and who later appeared as the main star in "Mar ardento". Reinaldo Arenas was a lonely boy from a poor cuban family who went to join the revolution at the age of 13-14. Later on he became a writer and a homosexual and he wasn`t particulary popular in Cuba for various reasons. He spent two years in prison and stay alive by writing letters to the loved ones of other convicts (for they learned to know that he could write). When the possibility arose he fleed from Cuba to the States where he didn`t get much recognition either and where he died of AIDS in 1990. That would be the life of Reinaldo Arenas. As for Johhny Depp, his role isn`t very big. At first we see him as a transsexual who`s able to carry lots of stuff in his rectum, in order to deliver it to a safe place. Later on we learn to know that he`s in fact leutinant Victor and that he didn`t deliver Arenas`s novel to no other place than his own office. Lt. Victor forces Arenas to sign a paper where he denies all his life until now and admits that he has to change and that he has sinned (blah blah). Meanwhile the only thing Arenas can think of is Johnny Depp`s body and he imagines how the leutinant forces him to suck his gun (revolver that is). The film was not made for the viewer`s fun, of course, but mostly to tell the tale of an untrivial character that could eventually become a world wide sensation but didn`t.

It didn`t take me long to watch this film - merely half a year had passed since I borrowed this film from a friend when I finally watched it. What were my prejudices to this film? First, I expected it to be too melodramatic for my taste. Then I`m not really a piano lover, and I was pretty sure that there would be enough of this instrument in this film. It proved that my concerns were true indeed. Ada is a woman that hasn`t spoken to anyone since she was 6 years old, and for no particular reason. She arrives to Australia to meet her new husband whom she hasn`t seen before. She also got a daughter, that does speak. Since the husband doesn`t care for Ada`s piano it`s picked up by a neighbour of his who asks Ada to give him piano lessons. As you can probably guess, it`s not piano what he wants. Obscurely Ada also becomes attracted to him and not to her husband, who becomes a bit violent and chops one of her fingers off. As for melodramatic elements there`s one huge positive aspect in this film - since Ada doesn`t speak she also doesn`t have hysterias. That`s awesome `cos hysteria is just one thing I can`t stand at all. As for the music it was good, probably this film won`t be a long-time favourite of mine, but it was good.

"What you see is what you get" bija Chumbawambas pirmais albūms pēc Tubthumper fenomenālajiem panākumiem un varēja gaidīt, ka tas grupas attīstībā būs kārtējais pavērsiena brīdis. Jau no pirmajām pirmās dziesmas sekundēm ir skaidrs, ka grupa nav radikāli nomainījusi savu darbības virzienu, atskanot "I`m with stupid" pirmajām taktīm. "Guess what? I`m with stupid. Guess what? `cos I`m with you." Koncertos tas ir viens no grupas galvenajiem publikas lecinātājiem un ne bez pamata - dziesma ir bombastiska un atmiņā paliekoša. Vēl šajā albūma pie ievērojamākajiem gabaliem pieskaitāmas kompozīcijas "Pass it along" (kurā izteikt aicinājums šo dziesmu nelegāli kopēt no viena datora uz otru), "Hey hey We`re the junkies" (kuras saturā nekā īpaša nav), Bee Gees kavers "New york mining disaster 1941" (tas nu gan ir smieklīgi - Chumbawamba kaverē Gibbsu brāļus), protams, vienīgais hītam līdzīgais gabals šajā diskā - "She`s got all the friends" (kas manā izpratnē ir galvastiesu pārāks par to "i get knocked down" gabalu), tas laikam arī viss. Tā kā diska garums ir zem 50 minūtēm un tajā ir 22 kompozīcijas, pašsaprotami, ka daļa no tām patiesībā tikai pārejas starp dziesmām funkcijas, taču arī starp tām ir tīri forši gabali - "www dot" vai "Moses with a gun" par piemēru. Lai gan šis albūms nekādi nav Chumbas labākais ieraksts - gan pirmie divi diski, gan "Anarchy" ir kopumā pārliecinošāki, pēc totāli garlaicīgā "Tubthumper" tas bija solis uz augšu, komerciāli gan, protams, uz leju.

I just learned to know that when Derek Jarman died in the mid 1990s Chumbawamba recorded a tribute song for him. That`s just to show how everything`s connected in this world. This film didn`t seem too connected though. It was a series of episodes in the life of a Renaissance/barroque painter Michelangelo Caravaggio (not to be confused with the classic Michelangelo) and a love triangle involving him, his friend and a woman. Actually I wasn`t paying too much attention for the film made little sense and had too much description of cock touching for my humble taste. The film was alternative for sure, but even Wittgenstein by the same director was more interesting.

What is wrong with me - it`s the second film about a woman becoming a prostitute in something like 30 last hours. Not that it was an intention of mine, but here go the facts. And it`s the second black-and-white film about prostitues. And the leading woman is pretty again. And it`s a French film again. Only this time she (called Nana) doesn`t end up like this just because of fun. It`s for the money. And it`s not as surreal as a film by Bunuel. Jean-Luc Godard is the director of this one. It`s organised in chapters some of which are very short while other last some time. No explicit scenes around, but it doesn`t make the film easier. To be honest, it doesn`t make the film better or worse. Not a great sensation for me. Well, one part is stands out - it`s when all the basic facts about prostitution are given - what the prices are, what do the laws say, etc. Anna Karina plays Nana (not that I have seen some other films with her but I might see some soon - after all I`m a bit into French movies). First she works at a record store and wants to become a professional actress but it doesn`t work out well for her and she starts living from her body. A pimp named Raoul takes her under his protection, but when he sells her to some other people Nana gets killed.

Once again it was supposed to be a comedy. I don`t actually remember seing any comic elements in the film but that it quite typical. A `Dress to get screwed` party takes place where lifes of all the films characters take their twists. Those characters are - Laureen (a girl who loses her virginity to the wrong person), Sean (a dude who`s in love with Laureen but gets laid with somebody else), Paul (a gay whom Laureen likes but who himself likes Sean) and some other people as well. The film is not groundbreaking, that`s for sure. But it features an interesting split screen sequence and bits of reversed action therefore making it a pleasant watching experience. Just took half a point from the rating for the endless masturbation situations in the film."

What the hell was I hoping for listening to a new album by the Bangles? A soulless piece of junk worth not a single penny? Yup, that`s what it is. If I will ever listen again the rating might rise but still it`s not a record you might wanna own. Neither do I.

Strange that this author was not on my "best of German writers" list. He`s Austrian, of course, but that doesn`t change that much. "The Confusions" lies somewhere in the middle between "David Copperfield" and Proust`s work. We have a school of tyranny but it`s not the kind of tyranny Mr. Dickens wrote about. It`s somewhat even darker, although the teachers don`t punish the students, it`s the students themselves who punish themselves. Toerless goes to this school and he starts to admire a guy named Beidenberg (something like that cool guy in "David Copperfield"), but he doesn`t know his attitude to everything when Basini is involved. The latter is a weak character who has stolen money from Beidenberg and is sexually and not only tortured by Beidenberg and another strange guy Reiting. Toerless doesn`t really know what his position is, he tries to understand Kant and imaginary numbers, but the only thing he learns to understand is that the world is not that easy to explain. Reitling is the primitive character, for whom torturing is nothing except for physical pleasure, while Beidenberg is more profound - and therefore he`s even worse. He`s a vicious thinker, and that`s a tough thing. Quote: "Das Sterben ist nur eine Folge unserer Art zu leben. Wir leben von einem Gedanken zum andern, von einem Gefuehl zum naechsten. Denn unsere Gedanken und Gefuehle fliessen nicht ruhig wie ein Strom, sondern sie "fallen uns ein", fallen in uns hinein wie Steine.(..) Wenn du aufmerkst, kannst du den Augenblick spueren, wo alles schwarz ist. Dieser Augenblick ist, - einmal erfasst, fuer uns geradezu der Tod." A very impressive book, certainly quite above my expectations.

Emir Kusturica doesn`t have any fresh ideas lately. That is a conclusion I`ve come up with after watching this, one of his earliest, works. It has most of the elements that Kusturica has been using in his films ever since - there are gypsies, there is his favourite gypsie music, there are people running around in boxes, there are fragments from old movies, etc., etc. I don`t mean to tell that this film was no good, on the contrary - it was good. It probably has some problems with continuality - quite a few times it seemed to me that one scene had very little to do with another. Or I just wasn`t paying attention too closely, that can be also sure. Ok, this film is much more serious than one about cats but I didn`t enjoy it very much, and that`s what matter.

I`m too lazy to write about it so I`ll just quote from IMDb: "A dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis in these sketches is on the exposition of the ideas of Wittgenstein, a homosexual, and an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker generally regarded as a genius." The film was ok, but I`m not that interested in philosophers that I`d find it exceptionally good. Stylistically it looked like it was a play and not a film - that was fresh. Everything else - not really.