Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

It might be the best way for a person to find some sort of a key to the person known ar J.P.Sartre (which is his really name, by the way). The book is an authobiography about Sartre`s childhood. Some episodes are quite amusing, for example, the way little J.P. rewrites books and imagines himself to be the author. I wouldn`t say that I have become a fan of the author after the book has been read but at least the background for his attitudes has got a bit clearer now.

I don`t really know how I managed to live for so long without watching this film. The reason why I should have watched it is the appearance of John Cleese. It would be silly of me to tell who John Cleese is since I have already done that on many, many occasions. There`s Rowan Atkinson here though, which is not a bonus imho. And Amy Smart - you know, that girl from "Butterfly Effect". And Whoopy Goldberg! And it`s directed by the director of "Ghost"! Ok, enough of that already. An owner of a Vegas casino hosts the weirdest horse (not really) race ever where 6 people are on their way to get two million bucks. But since they are each others enemies it`s not the easiest task for any of them. I`m not gonna tell more about it, except for the fact that John Cleese is the casino guy and that the main thing about the race is a stupid bet for some rich morons (who among other things like to bet on who`s gonna be the first to throw up on an airplane and how much an exact sexual perversion might cost). It`s pretty funny, I must say. Although it`s definetely not the smart kind of humour, I really don`t care as far as I get my laughs.

There was a festival of fantasia films in Riga, and one part of it was this collection of short films. Some of them there good, some of them not so good. Among the best was an Austrian film about a man working in a copy central who suddenly notices that he himself has been copied and is still being copied. "Nosferatu tango" is a weird cartoon about an insect falling in love with Dracula - the coolest thing about this cartoon is certainly the weird kind of computer animation. And last but not least there was a film called "Paradisiak" about an alien coming to earth and being killed by duck hunters.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.