Wilhelm Genazino - Die Kassiererinnen
Zum ersten Mal wird hier was auf Deutsch geschrieben. Es ist eine lange Zeit her, seit ich meine Deutschkenntnisse ueberhaupt verwendet habe. Leider ist der Roman "Die Kassiererinnen" keine glaenzende Moeglichkeit was besonders schoenes zu sagen. Der Held des Romanes ist ein typischer Verlierer, der keine gute Arbeit hat und der gerne Kassiererinnen in einem Laden beobachtet. Zudem hat er noch eine Frau mit der er etwas einer Liebe aenliches hat. Der Typ ist nicht 100% normal, z.B., er kann nicht selber einkaufen un fragt einen Bekannten fuer sich Hosen zu kaufen. Der Bekannte aber ist auch ein Freak un er braucht die Hilfe des Heldes in Zimmer Saueberung, ausserdem hat der die ganze Zeit irgendwelche grosse Plaene, die er nie wirklich durchsetzt. Die Frau des Heldes kann nicht ihren sterbenden Vater im Krankenhaus besuchen, weil sie eine Angst vorm Sterben hat, deswegen geht der Held zu dem Vater, obwohl er ihn nicht kennt. Wie man schon sehen kann, alle Personen in dem Buch sind ziemlich verwirrt. Wie es schon oefters passiert, kann ich nicht sagen, dass ich das Buch ueberhaupt nicht mochte, leider war das sehr, sehr weit von einem ausergewoehlich spanenndem Buch. Mit Wilhelm Genazino kann man nicht schlecht Zeit verbringen, aber seine Buecher koennen einen Mensch (mich) nicht aendern.
Hans Fallada - Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frißt
Eines haette ich nie erwartet - dass dieses Buch noch vor der Hitlerzeit geschrieben worden ist. Vielleicht, wenn mann naeher daran denkt, ist das auch kein Wunder und es waere unlogisch, wenn es anders waere, aber ich hatte wirklich geglaubt, dass es in der Adenauer Zeit statt findet.
A Love Song for Bobby Long
Can you imagine John Travolta as an old man? Isn`t he the young looking fellow you know from "Grease", "Pulp Fiction" and that Brian Da Palma film about the sound engineer? You bet he is. But nowadays he`s just an old English professor who has given up teaching for a nobler thing to do - to be an alcoholoic. He lives together with his former assistant named Lawson (a he and not a she), and everything is cool until Perslaine (Scarlet Jochansen) arrives and messes his live up auite strongly. Perslaine is 18, out of school, working as a waitress and not giving a damn about olds perverts like Bobby Long. In fact she doesn`t even have a relationship with him in this film. She only tries to find a life which she never had. The film doesn`t fall in the over-the-top category. In fact it`s a slow faced and gentle film about the man, the bottle, the girl who doesn`t want to go to school and about country music in New Orleans. And those are the ingredients for what I`m asking for.
8 Women
This is the fourth film by Ozon I`ve seen this far - after "Swimming Pool", "Water drops on hot rocks" and "5x2" and this far it was the best one. The film supports a great cast of French female actresses including Catharine Deneuve, Isabelle Hupert, Fanny Ardant and others. One of the actresses (Virginie Ledoyen) looked that much like Audrey Tautou that I was perfectly sure that she was also in the movie. The film in itself is a classical "who killed the old man" story, yet Francois Ozon does lots of his favourite tricks in order it not to be a trivial "who did it" flick. First, he inserts bizarre musical bits in the film (reminding me of the "Water drops" film), then there`s that many unexpected twists that even Agatha Christie would have never thought of that, then there`s lots of sexuality, sensuality etc. Then the film is just beautifully filmed despite it being performed in a theatre like fashion where almost everything happens in a single room where everything looks quite unreal. A brilliant film for sure. And what do you think - who killed Marcel? Was it his mother in law? Maybe it was his wife who cheated him with his partner? Or her sister that was secretly in love with him? Or one of his daughters (one that was pregnant and other whom nobody respected)? Maybe Madam Chanel - the old black lesbian woman? Or was it his chambermaid Louise who he had an affair with? And if not - maybe it was his sister who needed his money? Who knows? I`ll tell you does - someone who has seen the film. Somoene like me.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Henry`s Dream
Patiesību sakot, es tādu sapni kā Henrijam nevēlētos, jo tas ir visai drūms. No otras puses tas ir arī vairāk nekā vienkārši skaists un ne velti tas skaitās viens no labākajiem Keiva albūmiem, lieliski sevī kombinējot skaistumu, dusmas, sāpes, bezspēcību, vardarbību, Dievu un vēl kas lai zina ko. Kāds gan vēl varētu būt albūms, kas sākas ar himnisko "Papa won`t leave you, Henry", pārejot liriskajā "I had a dream, Joe", kas pāriet vairs ne tik ļoti liriskajā "I had a dream, Joe", ar tādām dusmām, kādas the Clash no sevis reti varēja izspiest. Vēl te parādās burvīgā kompozīcija "Christina the astonishing" un kolosālais "Jack the Ripper". Vispār tas patiešām ir tāds ieraksts, kuru var klausīties vienu reizi pēc otras un tas paliek tikai arvien foršāks. Un man patlaban nemaz nav tāds noskaņojums, lai klausītos kaut ko drūmu, bet Keiva dēļ varu arī uztaisīt kādu izņēmumu.
Monika Maron - Stille Zeile Sechs
I must admit that I consider myself a bit sexist in the terms of judging books written by female authors. Except V.Woolf and Iris Murdoch I can`t really come up with a name of any other female writer who`s books I have really enjoyed. Of course, it`s no big wonder for quite many of the most notorious female writers have written mainly poetry - and I don`t give a dirty nickel for poetry, not even a dime. Wait, a dime is more than a nickel! Still, this book isn`t bad, it`s certainly worth reading. There`s this 42-year-old woman named Rose who lives in the late eighties in East Germany, she does the typing for an old communist who isn`t able to write his own biography (I somehow think of my former literature teacher). And she starts hating the man, for he`s everything she doesn`t want to be. There`s also an old female piano teacher that`s fallen in love for the first time, and therefore doesn`t wannt to teach piano to Rose. Actually, there`s not much going on but at least 80% of the book are interesting to read, still some moments are too slow paced for me. A classic this may not become but a solid reading experience it is.
Radio Days
When I got this film I didn`t know that Woody Allen directed it. Now I know it. And it ain`t a good thing to know. Luckily he doesn`t play the lead role in the film, but sadly he`s the voice behind the screen and you can hear him quite often. Not that otherwise the film were any good. Actually it`s just so boring that I didn`t fall asleep while watching it only because it would be too yuck for me to be sleeping not more than a metre away from my pal who was already asleep. Still a film about supposedly Woodies childhood with all his Jewish relatives each of whom is about as layered as a donkey drove me to sleep faster than you can say "Kaboom!" and you can say "Kaboom" very quickly.
Heinrich Boell - Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen
Obwohl Heinrich Boell ofiziell einer der groessten Deutschen Schriftstelllern des 20. Jahrhunderts gewesen ist, weiss ich von ihm ganz wenig. Wenn ich mich nicht irre, is "gesammeltes Schweigen" nur das zweite seiner Buecher, das ich bisher gelesen habe. Der Untertitel des Buches lautet, dass dort noch andere Satiren zu finden sind, daraus kann man schliessen, dass auch die Erzaehlung ueber Doktor Murke eine Satire ist, und eigentlich koennte das man sowieso verstehen. Das Buch besteht aus 5 Erzaehlungen, daraus sind 3 Brilliant un 2 nicht besonders. "Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen" erzaehlt von einem Mann, der am Rundfunk arbeitet und sich eine Rede von einem verwirrtem Kulturprofessor mehrmal anhoeren muss, bis er fast sein Verstand verliert. Die Rede muss viel verkuerzt werden, ausserdem muss das Wort "Gott" durch "ein hoeheres Wesen, den wir verehren" aus Politkorrektum ersetzt werden, so befehlt Murke dem Professor mehr als 20 Male "ein hoeheres Wesen, den wir verehren" sagen, damit die Veraenderung moeglich war. Der Murke selber ist aber Fetischist - er sammelt Schweigen aus Radiosendungen, denn er findet es viel poetischer als Sprechen. Die zweite briliannte Geschichte lautet "Nur nicht zur Weihnachtszeit" und es geht um eine aeltere Dame, die ein wenig ihren Verstand verliert und braucht es, jeden Tag Weihnachten zu feiern. Die dritte spannende Geschichte ("Es wird etwas geschehen") ist von einem sehr aktiven Mann, der am Anfang 9 Telefonen gleichzeitig beantwortet, aber am Ende ein professionaler Sarg Begleiter wird. Die letzten zwei Geschichten - "Hauptstaedtisches Journal" und "Der Wegwerfer" haben mir nicht besonders gefallen, deswegen schweige ich ueber sie. Die ersten drei waren aber genung gut, damit ich sagen koennte, dass nach dem ziemlich langweiligem "Billard um halb zehn" ich wieder Interesse an Heinrich Boell gefunden habe.
Charles Cecil - Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
Nez kāpēc man šķita, ka šāds ieraksts man faktoīdā jau bija, bet vai nu nebija, vai arī izdisa toreiz, kad faktoīds pirms pāris gadiem nosprāga. Eh, cik tas bija sāpīgi toreiz.
Sweet Sixteen
Why is sixteen the number of years when the word "sweet" is usually used? I`ve got no idea for that. You see, at sixteen a person rarely is really sweet stuck in the middle of being a loser at school - either a loser in social rankings, in financial status, in marks, in personal life or somewhere else. And Liam, the main hero of this film, can certainly be called a loser in many categories. He`s not even sixteen yet, but he already doesn`t go to school and lives from selling fags and stolen drugs. He`s Scottish (just like most people in Scotland) so he speaks some really weird language. One thing I`m sure about is that you should use the word "wee" very often if you want to be a real Scottish person. He`s got a friend named Pinball together with whom Liam does what he does. By the way, they don`t use drugs themselves. Liam mainly only wants to help his poor mother who on the other hand doesn`t want to be helped. Somebody told me this film was similar to "Trainspotting" but I didn`t find it that way. First, the story wasn`t that good, then the actors and last but not least the music. If "Trainspotting" provided the soundtrack of a generation "Sweet Sixteen" falls flat at doing that. Yet this ain`t a bad film.
