Archive for July, 2005

Night, sky, creek and good food in store.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005

Currently, I am waiting for Tini to return with a key for the car, in which my bluetooth dongle is lying safely kept away from my hands. It might be considered to be a downside to have to check your mail while you’re on vacation, however, it also makes you reconsider the advantages and disadvantages of modern technology from a different angle to be writing an entry for your blog while sitting under a sky full of stars, hinting at the existence of the milkyway, after having eat excellent french food with a decent Pinot Noir that has been made only a few miles away in Beaune. I think I like that. And right now, it doesn’t feel to much like an intrusion of bad high tech into a relaxed camping setting. The keys are back…

Shouldn’t forget this one.

Sunday, July 24th, 2005

For a while a vague doubt has been nibbling at my mind – I knew there was a movie that I recently watched but that I haven’t told my dear readers about yet. And I knew that it was a movie that I really liked, even though I had my doubts before watching it. A few days ago (I think it was when I saw Inga Busch in Alles of Zucker), I remembered. The title of the movie is Confidences trop intimes (eng: Intimate Strangers). My doubts were related to the fact that it is a french movie that deals with psychotherapy. I wasn’t sure if I would actually want to see and listen to an intellectually sophisticated movie that dealt with the slippery aspects of the psyche, of therapy, and therapists. Fear not! This movie deals with these subjects but it doesn’t require its audience to cultivate an intellectual’s habitus. This is because of a good story. But this is especially because of the two excellent and perfectly cast actors that play the main roles in this movie: Sandrine Bonnaire and Fabrice Luchini. I was astonished, charmed and extraordinarily amused by the way Luchini portrays a tax attorney (in)voluntarily becoming psychotherapist. If you thought the genre of romantic comedy does not exist in French movies, you are mistaken. You should enlighten yourself as soon as possible and spend and enjoyable evening with this movie.
IMDb entry | Trailer

Seminar success.

Monday, July 18th, 2005

Last week Lars and I hosted the last session of our seminar Sehen, Hören Fühlen – Stadtethnografien erstellen (eng: Watching, Listening, Sensing – Doing Urban Ethnographies), which was – much to our relief and joy – a big success. Nine research projects had been performed by groups of up to three students. Almost all of them invested a substantial amount of time in their studies, they tackled with their position, impact, and responsability as academic observers, and they presented some really interesting aspects of the publicly accessible places they studied in Darmstadt and Heppenheim. They observed different plaza and park areas, a cafe, a cemetary, and a group of large-scale-chessboard players. Lars and I are now looking forward to getting the final results of the different studies in written form. All in all this seminar worked out at least as good as we hoped it would. Kudos to the students involved! It would be just perfect if one could teach more of these seminars, particularly if one could offer a two-semester practical seminar…

Rakete über Brokdorf.

Monday, July 18th, 2005

Beim sich-einen-Abend-in-Darmstadt-vertreiben hat sich in der vergangenen Woche die Gelegenheit ergeben, einen Film mit denkbar schlechtem Plakat zu schauen: Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb. Glücklicherweise ist der Film weitaus besser als das Plakat. Schauplatz ist Schleswig-Holstein, ein Dorf in der Nähe von Brokdorf. Ein besserer Schauplatz ist schon mal kaum vorstellbar. Sehr leicht vorstellbar scheint allerdings, dass es sich hier um ein Schauplatz-technisch positiv voreingenommenes Textchen handelt. Darsteller, Story und Bilder sind alle gut. Bei den Bildern hatte ich insbesondere während der ersten Minuten des Films die Befürchtung, dass hier zu sehr eine ja ach so schräge 80er Jahre Requisite präsentiert wird, aber im weiteren Verlauf des Films ist dieser Eindruck nahezu vollständig verschwunden. Besonders gefallen hat mir Rakete, gespielt von Jens Münchow. Überzeugendes Spiel und ein hervorragender Charakter, der einigen Bekannten aus Jugendtagen charmant nahe kommt. Auch bei Rakete hätte die Gefahr bestanden, den Charakter zu sehr als unterhaltsames Kuriosum aufzubauen, aber auch dieser Verlockung wurde widerstanden und Rakete bleibt ein spannender und sympathischer Charakter. Vielleicht am Besten hat mir die schon vorher als spannungsgeladen aufgebaute Duschszene gefallen. Insgesamt ein wirklich gelungener Film, den sich nicht nur Freunde der norddeutschen Tiefebene anschauen sollten. An die Angst vor dem radioaktiven Regen nach Tschernobyl konnte ich mich zum ersten Mal seit langer Zeit wieder lebendig erinnern.
IMDb entry | Trailer