My two stays as a guest researcher in Oslo are coming to an end. The day after tomorrow I will fly back to Darmstadt, where I will move into a new apartment. It has been a good time. Not only have I been productive, I have also had the chance to get to know some very nice and stimulating people. As if that would not be enough, I have also been able to get rid of the problems with my lower back and my shoulders – over the course of the last months they have all but disappeared and I cannot say how relieved I am that life without pain is still possible. I will certainly pay attention to avoid getting into such a state again, even though I will miss the fine hikes through the Nordmarka, which certainly contributed to my recuperation.
Bye bye Oslo.
April 2nd, 2008Von wegen billig einkaufen.
March 26th, 2008Eigentlich habe ich mich ja schon auf das Einkaufen im Tiefpreisparadis Berlin gefreut. Aber bei Meldungen wie dieser: Datenschutzverletzungen: Lidl fällt als Wiederholungstäter auf
fällt mir eigentlich nichts anderes mehr ein, als das Einkaufen bei Lidl dauerhaft zu boykottieren. Ich habe das auch schon in der Vergangenheit versucht, aber die Tatsache, dass die Lidl Filiale einfach direkt um die Ecke ist und dass die Waren dort billiger sind, haben mich doch immer wieder dort hinein gebracht. Schluss damit! Es kann nicht sein, dass man versuchen muss, solche unglaublichen Praktiken durch Verbraucherverhalten zu sanktionieren. Soweit darf es nicht kommen – insbesondere wenn die Vielen, die nur sehr wenig Geld zum Leben haben, kaum eine Alternative zum so-billig-wie-möglich einkaufen haben.
Selling science.
March 18th, 2008
Yay! It seems that the book Lars and I edited last year sells well. This morning, Dr. Meier sent me the link to our book’s page at amazon.co.uk. I opened it and marveled: we really seem to be doing well, at least much better than I expected. Then again, the amazon sales rank is always a moving target, so tomorrow we could be out of the charts again… Nonetheless, we want to take this as an opportunity to thank all of the contributors to Encountering Urban Places – and the unknown reviewer who thought that our book proposal sounds promising.
Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Dance the razor.
March 16th, 2008I am definitely enchanted by Tim Burton’s movies. They seem to be like children’s movies – colorful, funny, full of strange things that want to be discovered and explored. But this is only a fleeting suggestion, because his movies are more movies told from the perspective of a child than they are children’s movies. This in itself does not say much about his style, because it still misses out on the thing that Tim Burton does scaringly well: he embraces the cruelty that is part of children’s life and of their attitude towards the world. Long-term consequences, careful planning and intrigues – this is not what steers his characters. It is the delight of the moment, both in pleasure and in cruelty, that guides his characters, that makes his characters so fascinating and so horrible.
Sweeney Todd’s tale is a classic tale that has been told many times. One of the most successful versions was a Broadway musical. This movie is based on the musical, it is itself a musical. I did not know this about the movie before I went into the cinema and I liked this aspect very much. Those of you who know me better are aware that I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan – and one of my favorite episodes is episode 7, season 6: Once more with feelings. An excellent 45-minute musical that brings the season’s plot forward on many different levels while still being completely entertaining. Tim Burton offers a bow to the Buffy musical by guest starring one of the main actors of the Buffy series, Anthony Steward Head (a.k.a. Giles). This gesture alone would have me reconciled with any possible shortcomings of the movie, but even without it, it was a good movie. You should be warned though: it is the bloodiest Tim Burton movie that I have seen so far. That should be no surprise though: a barber uses a razor, and it is not difficult to guess what a demon barber will do with a razor. However, even if this is a good movie, for me, it is not one of the best Tim Burton movies – I was not as much involved emotionally as I usually am in his movies. (I think I almost cried during the first five minutes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, something which never happened to me before.)
IMDb entry | Trailer
Pan’s Labyrinth – Fantastic faun.
February 26th, 2008I saw this movie much later than I wanted to – in fact I wanted to see it before watching last year’s Oscars. That obviously did not work out as planned. Therefore I took the opportunity when the filmclub of Darmstadt University of Technology showed the movie a few weeks ago. Seeing it at the film club had the added benefits of a low price, carry-in food to your liking, and evading the dubbed German version of the movie. Guerra
has a certain ring to it. It is somehow different than war
or Krieg
. One thing, however, is almost always being evoked by this word: cruelty. The cruelty of war is not hushed in this movie, but the movie it achieves something much more important and much rarer: it shows how a child uses a world of fantasy to cope with the terrors that haunt herself, those who are dear to her, and those who are a threat. Is it only her fantasy? You should watch the movie and then decide. Latin american film and prose often has this magic twist. In any case, Guillermo del Toro has made a very good movie that is certainly worth watching. The movie got three oscars and a whole lot of praise. Because of that, I had very high expectations – they were not disappointed, but they were also not exceeded. Even though I am sure El Laberinto del fauno will loose a bit when watched on DVD it will still be a very good movie. Spanish language cinema has quite a bit to offer these years, don’t miss it!
IMDb entry | Trailer
Back from the island.
February 16th, 2008
After a long absence, I used the first opportunity that I could find for a visit to the island which is the focus of my new research project (which is still in development and funding-acquisition stage). It does not get any more off-season as it was during the last two weeks… which gave me plenty of time to catch up with work, reading, and the ever-changing geography of the island – and it made it much easier to repeatedly encounter and have some small interactions with those who live on the island the whole year through.
The Mist – that’s what I call an ending.
January 29th, 2008We are in the wintry movie season, extending from the beginning of October to something Aprilesque. This is the time of year when horror movies galore enter the movie theaters. The Mist belongs to the genre, offering a setting not dissimilar to the setting of Dawn of the Dead: people get trapped inside a shopping mall, while Evil is lurking outside. That is how people feel today, one might guess – the shopping mall as a safe haven. However, this is the Horror genre, and the script is based on a Stephen King novel, so we are also taught some contempt for those fools who dwell in the shopping malls of this planet, too.
The effects and main storyline of this genre flick is not a big hit, but good enough for those who are into it. Especially for those who are into the Cthulu myth that has been created by H.P. Lovecraft in his early 20th century – there are some scary, overwhelming things out there in the mist… However, this is not much more than a neat bonus for those who know their literature, but it wouldn’t make this movie particularly interesting. The thing which makes writing this entry a worthwhile endeavor is its ending. In the last two scenes, we get a glimpse of the inventiveness that made The Shawshank Redemption (done by the same writer and director, Frank Darabont) such a great movie: interesting twists in the plot. I really loved how evil the ending is, and dearly recommend sitting through until the end to those with a twisted sense of humor.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Der Himmel über Oslo.
January 21st, 2008
Ich habe zwar noch kein Nordlicht gesehen, aber das war auch schon mal nicht von schlechten Eltern…
(Beide Bilder sind bis auf den Ausschnitt und etwas Kontrast nicht bearbeitet.)
The Darjeeling Limited – colorful trains.
January 20th, 2008Back in Darmstadt, one of the first things I did was to go to the movies. There wasn’t much interesting on show, but the newest movie of director Wes Anderson caught my interest. Not necessarily because it was done by him (although I quite enjoyed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), but more so because I really liked the main cast. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman – I like all three of them, and I was curious how three egos like theirs would interact on the big screen. (They are cast as unlike brothers who just lost their father and are searching for their mother in the Indian hinterland.) I am still unsure how to rate this movie. I think the idea, the casting, and the camera work are all well done. However, I was not entirely satisfied by the script and/or the directing. The story and the characters did not catch me emotionally, they remained somewhat on the surface, not touching deeper emotions. Perhaps this is the case because they were on the search for authentic emotions themselves? I do not know. Nonetheless, this movie was quite entertaining. And it was very colorful indeed. The design of trains and clothes ranges from beautiful via charming to hilarious.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Nuovomondo – let the sound tell the story.
December 11th, 2007Two weeks ago, I have been to my now-favorite cinema in Oslo: the Gimle Kino. Located in a very fine art deco building, it only has a single show room, an old school wood paneled and heavily carpeted entrance area where you cannot get popcorn – high-quality beverages and the usual choice of chocolates is being served instead. Very much adequate to the refined setting was the movie we saw: Nuovomondo or The Golden Door. A movie about an utterly poor rural Italian family who finally decides to leave their barren homestead to try their luck in the US of A. When I write barren here, I do actually mean barren. If you do not have a clear understanding of what constitutes a barren landscape (in contrast to a desert, for example) you have to see this movie, and the meaning of this word will much more than dawn on you. It might well overwhelm you.
One thing that took a while until it dawned on me during that evening was the sound of this movie. I think I have never seen a movie where sounds were able to tell so much about the emotions and the materiality of the setting as this one (with the exception of Das Boot, though with submarine flicks sound is an obvious thing to invest in). The landscape, the vessel that ships the migrants from Italy to America, the life below decks – all of these places become really vivid in this movie.
However, this is not where my praise stops. In addition to the sound and the thing about the barrenness – two features which would make this movie outstanding on its own – this work of Emanuele Crialese also offers many openly dreamlike aesthetic images, images that weave themselves into the fabric of the story that is being told. All want to swim in the land of milk and honey, as you will see. So, the story seems fine, the imageary is fantastic, and the sounds scaringly good. Then what about the cast? Do they spoil the thing? No! They don’t! They are actually perfectly fitting, too. I guess you get my drift: I do urge you to go and watch this movie. In a cinema, please, try to watch it in a real movie theater.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Michael Clayton – kind of a thriller.
December 8th, 2007The genre given for this film at the Internet Movie Database is Drama / Thriller
, at Apple’s website it is just Drama
. I guess I was expecting a thriller when I went to watch this movie – but in that regard it did not really live up to my expectations. However, the drama part was actually working out good – something that is at least as much thanks to Tilda Swinton as to our omnipresent smart and good-looking main actor, Dr. Ace. The cast and the plot were good, and I actually liked the small touch of another, hitherto unmentioned genre, which played into the movie now and then: mystery! All in all, this is solid entertainment that encourages the audience to take a closer look (some of those with whom I saw the movie overlooked several important clues regarding the mystery – so enjoy keeping your eyes peeled!)
IMDb entry | Trailer
1999.
December 7th, 2007Does that look like the past to you? In the year 1999.
To me it did, and I was surprised when I typed this in today and was confronted with the past-like feeling of this number…
Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Woman warrior queen?
November 17th, 2007To my regret, I haven’t seen the first Elizabeth movie starring the most wonderful Cate Blanchett. (It was done in the late nineties, and Gwyneth Paltrow got the Oscar in her role as Julia in Shakespeare in Love, not Cate Blanchett for her role as the 15th century Queen Elizabeth. Well, I will not comment that. )Instead, I will comment on the nonsensical tag line of this second Elizabeth movie: Woman warrior queen
. The tagline fits with the image that we seen on posters etc. – Cate Blanchett in armor and with open, somewhat umkempt hair and dramatic sky above her. Wrong image. This movie is about costumes, aesthetics, some love, some drama, some war, but mostly about scenes that are shot and presented like paintings. Some of these were pretty nice, but in general I and the other four people with whom I went to see the movie agreed that it was quite overdone. Not to an extent that would make this a bad or dreadful movie, but to an extent that lessened the grip on the audience. There was not enough story to really keep me involved – even if the cast and the acting were perfectly fine. Many shallow characters, too few surprises or interesting twists… A pity, of course. The trailer, however, is great, so you may watch this and then make your decision if this is a cinema, a home or a not-to-be-seen-at-all film for you.
IMDb entry | Trailer