Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

"Жесть" - это очередной фильм с участием легендарного ныне уже Гоши Куценко. Чем таким он легендарен, мне не совсем ясно, но то, что он - звезда российского кинематографа, неоспоримо. Даже я, хотя и не являюсь большим любителем новых русских фильмов, знаю кучу работ с его участием - Антикиллер (2 штуки), Марс, Ночной Дозор, Дневной дозор, Турецкий гамбит. Ну, ладно, может бить, это не так уж много, но и этого достаточно.

It`s popular for rock bands nowadays to choose obscure names for themselves, since all the normal ones are already taken - names like "The Band", "The The" - are no longer at hand, so they come up with Kloot. On a completely different story the music of I Am Kloot ain`t bad at all. The band isn`t particulary wild in the Dead Kennedys style, it doesn`t rock as hard as "AC/DC" with Angus Young in coma, but they have decent melodies and catchy everything else. For example, "Over my shoulder" is a nice one. "Sand and glue" is the best track on this album for me with its power combined with its gentle vibe, it provides the best from Kloot.

Если честно, то скринеры на русском - это, конечно, не атаз и даже не просто таз. Но Адам Сандлер тоже вам не фунт изюма. Он снимается в очень многих филмах и почти все они - полное дерьмое. Это я не как критику говорю, просто констатирую факт. Если актер во всех своих ролях играет одного и того же придурка, то это надоедает, а если этот придурок к тому же все время вытворяет шуточки со своей задницей, то это еще многим тупеем. Но начнем с самого начала. Майкл Ньюмен - молодой архитектор, работающий в крупной фирме. Вроде все у него в жизни хорошо - Кейт Бекингсдейл в качестве жены, двое прекрасных детей, но не тут то было. У соседей все круче, чем у Ньюмена, его шеф - Дейвид Хесселхоф из "Пляжного патруля", да еще он никак не может разобраться в своих пультах дистанционного управления. И тогда на помощь приходит добрый дядя - Кристофер Уолкен дает ему универсальный пульт, который настолько крут, что с ним можно остановить время, посмотреть, как тебя зачали или отключить звук лающей собаки. Да вот в чем загвоздка - пульт позволяет также перемотать вперед свою жизнь, которую обратно ты, конечно, не получаешь. Вот и становится Сандлер работоголиком и теряет свою семью. Конечно, в конце он понимает, как сильно он ошибался, и что вся жизнь потеряна, а потом (не читать тем, кто фильм не видел и кто верит, что концовка будет неожиданной) оказывается, что ему все приснилось, а он сам еще молодой и здоровый.

An autobiography of a eastern-german writer who flew from Eastberlin into the west side and in the end was dissapointed with both of them. He even compares the choice between socialism and capitalism to a choice between plague and cholera. Of course, the author doesn`t pretend that everything in the world is bad but still it is a bit of a depressing book. An interesting part is where the author tells how he read the file the Democratic Republic of Germany had on him and how he discovered which of the people he knew were contributing to that file, but there is no anger or lust for revenge in his words for Schesinger can easily understand that those people themeselves also were the victims of the system.

There are three major stories in this book. The first one is entitled "Taras Bulba" - a heroic story about some imaginary (or real? who cares?) person out of the Ukrainian history. Man, this ain`t no hero for me - a dude that beats up his wife, drinks all the time and kills everybody including his own son is a maniac by my standarts. The rest of the book is pretty okey, including the story behind the first Soviet horror film - "Vij" (name of the creature). Creepy but lots of fun as well. And the third one is about two stupid old man who lose their friendship and start an everlasting quarrel due to some complete stupidity. Overall attitude - if you forget about the "Taras" thripe it`s quite good but otherwise - yuk!

Here we continue our trip on the Magical History Tour. Not in the Beatles style, of course, I mean my German project. And this stop here is once again something unexpected. But it`s not entirely good, for the book in question is a part of the collected works of this writer (about whom I until a very recent time knew absolutely nothing about), and collected works means - a whole lot of useless stuff. The long story "Castle Gripsholm" is quite a good work and so are some of the most story-like pieces of this book, but the author seems to have written quite a load of book reviews himself, and I really have no good use for knowledge what Tucholsky thought about second class German writers of the 1930`s. What I do find interest is his awareness of what`s coming in terms of politics in Germany - the rise of Hitler which wasn`t complete back in 1931, and it was quite an important subject for Tucholsky, him being a Jew. And he was at some points impressively cynical, satyrical, etc. I guess the selected works of this author might have found a good place in what I call "classics" but this collection just isn`t consistent enough.

It took me nearly three years to finally find tickets for this performance, and as a matter of fact, it still was worth it. The play is based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov titled "King, Queen, Knave". Franz arrives from the country in the big town where his rich uncle lives with his wife. A relation ship develops between Franz and his auntie very quickly. The uncle doesn`t notice anything even until the time when lovers decide to kill him in order to gain all his money. What was interesting about the performance was that it was played in a very small room with something like 80 spectators. Most of those spectators didn`t even notice when the play started because at first two out of three actors participating in the play were sitting among the spectators and one of them started talking without a big part of the spectators realising that it was the play already what they heard. Overally the thing was acted supperbly, the material behind the performance is good as well, so no complaints from me.

Atkal formāli man būtu jāraksta angliski, jo titri filmai bija latviešu valodā, bet man negribas, ka kāds no aptuveni 4 maniem vairāk vai mazāk regulārajiem lasītājiem šim ierakstam paiet garām tikai tādēļ, ka tas ir angļu mēlē.

Kas var būt labāks - underground avangardiska hipiju grupa no Čehoslovākijas, kas mēģina sevī apvienot Frank Zappa un "Velvet Underground", kas ieraksta albūmu par Jēzus krustā sišanu? Izklausās dīvaini? Gluži tāpat kā šis albūms. Savā būtībā tas ir džezisks jam session, kuram pa virsu kaut kāds tips kaut ko runā par Jēzus krustā sišanu, pa reizei viņi ir vairāki, viņi mēdz arī kliegt. Mūzika ir vairāk nekā disonanta, tajā iesaistā kaut kāds baiss čellam līdzīgs instruments, un man personīgi vairāk šķiet, ka tas varētu būt nevis kristietības, bet kaut kādas sektas/sātanisma mākslas darbs. Nav gan tā, ka mani tas uztrauktu, bet viena lieta ir droša - tas ir ieraksts, pie kura nepieciešams ilgstoši pierast, līdz to var uztvert (ja vispār var). Tajā parādās kompozīcijas desmit minūšu garumā, kurās vienlaikus notiek ļoti daudz kas un ļoti maz kas, bet manā izpratnē tas viss ir pārāk ārprātīgs. Jau Zappu lielos daudzumos paciest ir grūti, bet čehoslovāku Zappas ir vēl kaut kas daudz trakāks. Viņi esot bijuši ļoti provokatīvi, tā raksta ļaudis internetā, bet man šķiet, ka galvenokārt viņi ir visai neklausāmi. Protams, šādiem ierakstiem kulturāli vēsturiskā vērtība ir augstāka nekā mākslinieciskā, līdz ar to es varu apgalvot, ka šis albūms vienlaikus ir mākslinieciski neievērojams un vēsturiski ievērojams. Es noņemu cepuri pa ieslodzījuma vietām patusējušo visuma plastisko cilvēku priekšā par viņu uzdrīkstēšanos, par viņu oriģinalitāti un vēl daudz ko. Bet es vienlaikus noņemu arī austiņas. Man pietiek.

One of the films of Lars fon Trier about America. Selma is a Czech woman that has left her socialistic country somewhere in the sixties for America where she needs to find enough money for an operation for her son which would allow him not to go blind as she already is losing her eyesight. She has already got close to what she needs when a neighbor of he (in whose trailer she lives - and pays the rent for it, of course) tells her that he`s got a lot of debts that not even his wife knows about and that he`s close to suicide. Selma on the other hand tells him as the only living soul about her eyes and her son`s problems. The neighbor tricks Selma and finds where she hides the money for the sons operation, afterwards he steals the money from her and Selma is forced to kill him in order to regain her money for she has no chance to prove that it`s her money really. In the end she is executed by hanging. The film is very dark and depressive, it`s partly a weird musicle where Bjork plays the title role. Certainly the film is good, but not as good as "Dogville".