Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

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.

Šī albūma, iespējams, vislielākā vērtība slēpjas tā nosaukumā, gluži tāpat kā Lāčplēsim - ausīs. Maz, gaužām maz ir mūzikas ierakstu, kuru nosaukumos būtu pieminēts es. Nezinu, kāpēc tā ir sanācis, bet es neesmu laikam šajā ziņā pieprasīts. Esot kaut kāds latino izpildītājs Raymond, kuram ir arī albūms Raymond, plus grupai "Mental as anything" is disks "Cyclone Raymond", bet tas ir gandrīz viss. Turklāt - nevienu no šiem diviem izpildītājiem es patiesībā neesmu dzirdējis. Žēl gan, ka šis nav Chumbawamba labākais albūms, par spīti nosaukumam. Disks konceptuāli sastāv no divām pretējām daļām - pirmās 6 dziesmas tajā ir veltītas mīlestībai un pēdējās 7 - naidam. Ja visas mīlestības dziesmas būtu tik skaistas kā albūmu ievadošā "This Girl", es droši vien arī būtu svingojis ar Raimondu. Un tagad - the punchline. Zināmā mērā tās visas arī ir tādas kā "This Girl", bet taisni tādēļ es ar Raimondu nesvingošu. Vienveidīgi pārāk. Nevienai dziesmai nav izteiktu defektu, bet tās nav atmiņā paliekošas. Naida daļa ir daudzveidīgāka, tomēr arī nekāda izcilā tā nav. Tās galvenā īpatnība - pēc ilgāka laika Chumbawamba dziesmas ir patiešām dusmīgas un agresīvas, nevis deju ritmos ieturētas, vienīgi nekā interesanta tās nepiedāvā. Tad jau bezmaz "Ugh! Your ugly houses" kas nav pat īsta dziesma ir šī diska virsotne.

I`m too lazy to write about this album. The Darkness Mark 2. Not very good, a bit too-Darknessy, a bit too serious for The Darkness.

When my mother gave me to read this book, I was at first sure that I wasn`t going to like it. I somehow thought that Margaret Atwood was one of the "women`s writers" - one that was capable of filling her books with sappy romantic scenes and that was unable to write anything worthy. To my surprise Margaret Atwood turned out to be none of that. Of course, I don`t mean to tell that she`s the best writer ever and that I was stunned because of the quality of this book, but it did surprise me nevertheless. "The Handmaid`s tale" is the tale of a woman living in a new kind of anti-utopian society, a society where the patriarchal system is stronger than ever and a woman is considered to be at least partly human only if she has given life to enough children (preferrably male, of course). Everything starts with bank accounts of women being blocked and their money transferred to the closest male and then everything else followed. Offred, the heroine of this book is a handmaid and her job is it bear children for her master and his wife (since they can`t have a child together), yet she`s willing to sneak away from the USA for not everywhere in the world it is as bad as in the States, still she hopes that she can go to Canada (the land of the free and the home country of Margaret Atwood). Actually the political situation seems somewhat imprecise, for on one hand Atwood goes for the George Orwell approach where wars are fought against similar countries and every state is like all overs, yet this whole Canada thing seems somewhat out of place. Actually that`s the biggest trouble with this book - Atwood doesn`t have enough to tell off her own, so she recycles from Orwell, influencing from "1984" too much. So I can say that the book was some sort of revelation for me in the meaning that I wasn`t expecting it to be a dystopy, yet I also got no doubt that Atwood still is closer to a minor than to a major writer and that she`s readable but not much more than that.

"Dāma pareģe" ir dāmu romāns, vismaz nosaukuma ziņā. Satura ziņā šī grāmata ne tik ļoti precīzi atbilst šai manai minimālā mērā iecienītajai kategorijai, lai gan tā īsti to klasificēt ir grūti. Principā tas ir stāsts par to, kādēļ Džouna aizbēgusi no sava vīra Kanādā uz Itāliju, izlikdamās par mirušu. Darbība patiesībā norit visai tradicionālā režīmā - ir tagadnes plāns, kurā Džouna domā, ko tālāk iesākt ar savu dzīvi, un ir viņas atmiņas, kas virzās lielākā vai mazākā mērā hronoloģiskā veidā. Bērnībā Džouna bija visai resna, no kā cieta, turklāt viņai par to daudz pārmetumus izteica māte. Tad viņa 19 gadu vecumā aizgāja no mājām un sagājās ar kaut kādu poļu eks-grāfu Polu. Tad viņa iepazinās ar jauno anarhistiski (vai tamlīdzīgi) noskaņoto Arturu, kuru viņa arī apprecēja. Tiesa, izrādījās, ka nekāds dižais revolucionārs Arturs nav, tikai sviesta kūlējs. Tad Džounai parādījās mīļākais vārdā Karaliskā Dzeloņcūka - kaut kāds "alternatīvais" mākslinieks, kam patika izstādīt nobrauktus dzīvniekus sasaldētā veidā. Starp citu, man arī pirms laika bija doma izstādīt interesantākos šādus eksponātus. Izrādās - ideja veca kā pati pasaule. Paralēli dīkdienīgajai dzīvei, piestrādājot dažādās haltūrās, Džouna rakstīja vēsturiskus šausmu romānus sievietēm (kas tā vispār par ziepeņu kategoriju?) zem pseidonīma, taču tad viņai atgadījās transā uzrakstīt "Dāmu pareģi" un izdot to zem sava īstā vārda, kļūstot par atzītu rakstnieci. Taču līdz ar slavu nāk arī pienākumi (with great power comes great responsibility - Spiderman), un viņu kāds sāka vajāt. Lai no vajāšanas aizbēgtu, viņa patiešām aizbēg - uz Itāliju un mēģina tur slēpties. Tas apmēram arī viss. Klāt tam visam vēl mazliet vēsturiskas mistikas, kas grāmatu padara par tādu kā parodiju pašai par sevi, un putra gatava. Kas tad tas ir? Intelektuāla grāmata vai lubene? Kaut kur pa vidu, bet ar to reizēm man nepietiek, lai es būtu gandarīts.

Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet are no strangers to me - they are the two guys who directed "City of the Lost Children", and even if I hadn`t known that I would have noticed it anyway, for this film is something like the first part for that film. Not that it really is the first part, not that what happens here necessarily should happen before the Lost Children. So, there`s this postapocalypic world we live in - there are no plants, there are close to no animals and there`s a very low level of technic as well - not like it was in "Blade Runner" where people lived in ruins but rode flying cars. But what we have here is this guy Louison (who played the clones in that other film) who is a former clown but now works for a butcher who sells human meat, and is planning to feed Louison to his clients - not that they would be shocked about that - they know it, for they need meat and there`s no other meat available. There are also vegetarians living underground and being at a constant war with the carnivours. And Louison falls in love with Julie, the butchers daughter. There`s too much to tell, actually - weird stylistics, etc. Of course, there`s nothing you hadn`t already seen in the City (although this film came first, it`s by far less popular), but does that really matter. Did we get something unexpected in the second part of Godfather? No, we didn`t but it`s still the second highest rated film at the IMDB.

A film about Cuban musicians that emerged before the socialistic revolution of Fidel Castro. T`is a documenary. Music was good but I didn`t understand much of what was said in the film (most of it was in Spanish which is not a language I know and the only working subtitles were unremovable and in French. It was possible to get the meaning of some sentences but to understand everything in a strange language isn`t a task I can perform).

Lai gan man vajadzētu par šo filmu rakstīt angļu valodā, es tā tomēr nedarīšu. Kāpēc? Tāpēc, ka "O stāsts" ir visai diskutabla filma un es gribētu, lai kāds izlasa šo murgu, ko es par to tūliņ sarakstīšu. Vispirms, tā ir grāmatas ekranizācija. Te derētu piebilst, ka tā bija sadomazohistiska grāmata, kas tika ekranizēta. Līdz ar to var teikt, ka "ar zināmu precizitāti" O stāsts ir porno filma. Tas jau vien ir pietiekami unikāls fakts, ka savā faktoīdā rakstu par pornenēm. Kā jau var pēc to retuma faktoīdā noprast, īpaši bieži šī žanra darbus man skatīties negadās (protams, varbūt es to slēpju un regulāri iepētu jaunākos veikumus šajā kinomākslas virzienā, taču pieņemsim, ka tā nav), tāpēc varu atklāt, ka šo filmu zināmā mērā noskatījos nejauši. Vienkārši - ieraudzīju vienam lietotājam ar labu ātrumu šārē kaut kādu 75. gada filmu, nolēmu novilkt. Ļoti pavirši nopētot to IMDB secināju, ka tur būs zināms erotikas piesitiens, taču nenojautu, ka tik liels. Nu, ok patiesībā jau šajā filmā nekā "tāda" nav - lai nu kas, bet tā nav hardcore pornogrāfija ar grupveida orģijām un interesantiem tuvplāniem. Ja tā pilnīgi nopietni, vienīgais, kas tur ir - daudz kailu sieviešu. Sižets, protams, ir visai idiotisks, grāmatā varbūt tam bija vairāk jēgas, bet principā tā ir filma par to, kā sievietes mīlejas un par to, kā sievietes tiek pletnētas. Apmēram tā. Kā allaž, šādu filmu grūti novērtēt, jo šajā žanrā man trūkst kritēriju. Kādi gan tie varētu būt? Uzfilmēts ciešami, ievērojot filmas specifiku, mūzika - līdzīga kā "Dziļajā rīklē", aktierspēle - bišķi labākā līmenī, tas tomēr nav hardcore. Ko var droši pateikt, šī filma nav paredzēta sieviešu (nelesbiešu) auditorijai, jo viņām te nu nepavisam nebūtu ar ko palolot acis. Galvenās domas filmā, šķiet, ka nebija. Vairāk neko pateikt nespēju. Tomēr porno, lai gan varbūt arī tikai erotika. Ģenitālijas rāda, bet ne tuvplānā, turklāt kā jau "antīkajās" šī žanra filmās, kaunpilno zonu apmatojums visām varonēm ir visai ražens.