Down-to-earth Passion

A week ago, I dragged Toño to the cinema in the middle of a Saturday afternoon to see The Woman with the 5 Elephants, a documentary about Swetlana Geier, who is considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German. The last 20 years, she spent translating Dostoyevsky’s five great novels, known as the "five elephants", hence the title.



At one point the 86 year old lady says one doesn't translate this with impunity. And while ironing aprons, she is explaining the affinity between textile and text and the metaphor of white snow in Melville's Moby Dick. The film draws most by observing Swetlana Geier doing her chores and doing translations. First, she dictates to Frau Hagen, who scrutinises first what she hears before she is typing it. Swetlana Geier then lets the text read by Herr Klotz, a musician. Their collective love for accuracy and Swetlana Geier's restless passion is what touched me most - yes, there were tears in my eyes.

[Trailer]

Well, and it was then this post by Martin, which reminded me that it was Dostoyevsky who was the first to cast doubt in me on the benefits of the Enlightenment, with his believe that there is no objective that would justify wrongful means. Rationale reasoning has to be handled with so much care.

2009 Reviewed - Only a Brief Glimpse

Yes, there was Almodóvar's Los Abrazos Rotos, but despite of this fact, I have no idea what the best film was, all I remember of the film year 2009 was this far too brief moment of Chris Pine in those boxer briefs *swoons again*

Two Pylons & Why A Duck?

Maybe it's the engineer in me, however, I'm totally fascinated by the two pylons which supply the peninsula of Cádiz with power. It could also be their spellbinding Flash Gordon like design. They are the first landmarks you see when you come to Cádiz after you passed the huge cranes of the Navantia shipyard.

The 160 m high pylon on the Puerto Real side:



The 156 m high pylon on the Cádiz side:



Here is some more trivia about the pylons.

Talking about a peninsula... this is my favourite peninsula joke. It is from the film The Cocoanuts by the Marx Brothers:

Volver Revisited

The song Volver, which gave Pedro Almodóvar's film Volver the title and the stand-alone song, was sung in the film in a flamenco version by Estrella Morente (and lip synced by Penélope Cruz)



There is an amazing version on her website (go to Multimedia).

However originally, this song is an Argentinian Tango... here sung by Carlos Gardel:

Marvellous

When I was ordering The Devil's Paintbrush, I saw that there are also two films^* adapted from the first two books by Jake Arnott, The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers.



I loved them both, although I'd read and loved the novels they are based on. Both are of those rare cases where one can enjoy the adaptation when one knows the novel or one can read the novel after seeing the film.

There is also something about it over at just some words (here and here).

^* Mini series actually.

Pilgrimage to Los Abrazos Rotos

We used Pentecost Sunday¹ to travel to Fribourg in the French speaking part of Switzerland, because there, Pedro Almodóvar's Los Abrazos Rotos is already on show. We went to the afternoon show. So we could go for dinner afterwards and still travel home comfortably by train. One should not stress out on Pentecost.

We both loved the film² and both agreed that it will be hard to wait the almost 3 months until it will open in Zürich to see it again. In the first viewing, I just dive into an Almodóvar and float with it. In at least one of the viewings I blind out the storyline and dialogues an solely concentrate on the set design. Or as Variety puts it: Every richly hued wall is covered with eye-candy artwork, every doorway reps a second level of framing, and there is beauty even in the scattered contents of a drawer or in a pile of torn-up photos.

I saw my first Almodóvar in 1987. This was La ley del deseo and it disturbed me emotionally far more than Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma by Pasolini. I had never seen anything alike. Since then, I'm constantly moaning that Almodóvar is not making more films.

It has been even longer since I've been to Fribourg. It was in Summer 1985, I remember this, because Live Aid was on, just as we left for it, and my bicycle had a defect when we were approaching the town.

We had some difficulties to find a restaurant offering local food. But eventually we succeeded. Toño settled for a plat fribourgeois and I chose steak de cheval.



¹ Pentecost Monday is also a holiday.
² A Irish friend who was born and raised in Spain recently complained that one is treated like a heretic when one says something bad about a film by Almodóvar (she hasn't even seen Volver yet, how dare she?).

Waiting for Los Abrazos Rotos

I've just learned that we will have to wait until August 13, 2009 until Pedro Almodóvar's Los Abrazos Rotos will run in our cinemas. However, in the Romandy, it has been on show for almost a week. I might have to plan a trip to the west in due course.

Más información sobre esta película

Los Abrazos Rotos

Pedro Almodóvar's new drama Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) premièred this week in Spain.

The film centres on a four-way tale of dangerous love, and was shot in the style of a hard-boiled 1950s American film noir. A man (Lluis Omar) writes, lives and loves in the darkness. He was the victim of a brutal car accident fourteen years ago in Lanzarote. Not only did he lose his sight, but also the woman of his life, Lena (Penelope Cruz). He was a movie director, and Lena was his main actress and his lover, although she lived with a successful mogul (José Luis Gómez)

Más información sobre esta película

No release date for Switzerland has been announced so far. However, I excpect it in august. As kind of my personal birthday present by Almodóvar.

Read more about the film in EL PAÍS' Almodóvar and opinion sections.
Read more about the Spanish title in just some words.

Penn on the 'Issue'

Josh: What effect do you think this film [Milk] may have on audiences, especially audiences grappling with their own feelings on gay rights issues?

Sean Penn: Even the word “issue” about this—it’s only an issue because of ignorance in the first place. If we could criminalize—we don’t have an excuse of being ignorant of the law, so if we could have no excuse of being ignorant of human history, then any support of Proposition 8 would be, minimally, manslaughter, because history tells us there will be teenage boys who will hang themselves out of a reach for an identity they can’t get. As long as it’s an issue it’s an obscenity, and if this movie is part of an engine to help reveal that, that’s going to make all of us really happy and proud. I also think it’s important to remember that the tension is not between the gay and faith communities, but between the gay community and a pseudo-faith community which has nothing to do with god, love, or anything of real faith. It’s really just hypocrisy and hatred. So any faith community that deserves the title of “faith community” really won’t have a problem with these issues.

Read the interview.

Insufficient Substitutes

Today, I will again embark to India. In the next two and a half weeks I will be again parted from Toño. First, we will do some firings off Mumbai and then there will be a sales pitch at Bengaluru. A frugal consolation will be that I will have plenty of opportunities to indulgence in my love for tandoori food. Truly a insufficient substitute.

Coincidentally, today opens the Bollywood inspired Swiss film Tandoori Love. But I reckon that I don't miss much. The reviews are far from exuberant. Again seeing Tandoori Love is an insufficient substitute for indulging in tandoori love.

Way Down In The Hole

Craig has introduced me to The Wire and is kind enough to fix me up with a constant supply of seasons. Tonight I copied the latest supply on Toño's iMac and started season 2 to accompany the ironing. I almost let drop the iron when I heard Tom Waits crying the opening theme of season two. 20 years ago, I heard this song the first time in Tom Wait's concert movie Big Time:



Isn't it strange that all three (and there are only three) concert films worth watching whether you're a fan or not had been made in the eighties?
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Sign 'o' the Times (1987)
Big Time (1988)

Comming Home To Brazil

Do you remember Terry Gilliam's Brazil? In particular, I mean the scene after Archibald 'Harry' Tuttle fixed the plumbing of Sam Lowry and the boys from Central Services came back with the correct form and removed many of the wall panels, spewing ducts and other pipes and tubing (looking like disembowelled intestines) into his living space. Well, I had a similar image, when I came home today:






There was a defective seal below the wash basin of the bathroom, which was dropping with a rate of one drop per minute for months. The water dropped behind the tiles, which kept it from being discovered until the opposite wall in the bedroom started going mouldy.

The machines will have to run for further three weeks. All data are constantly monitored by Central Service (via radio). We are sleeping in the guest bed. Visitors are welcomed, however, we kindly ask them not to stay over night.

Ambiguous Animation Painting

Odi has discovered this astonishing fillum:


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Note to self: Invest more time in enjoying art!

Berlinale - Interim Report

You might have asked yourself how Paula and her film Gardens of the Night were received at Berlin's Film Festival Berlinale. Today's NZZ published an intermediate report, which I read with pleasure.

The reviewer called Gardens of the Night oppressive and deeply saddening. The film's relentless portrayal of paedophilia let to indignation at the festival. However despite the controversy, it is one of the better films at the Berlinale.

Nevertheless according to the critiques forecast, the biggest changes to win the Golden Bear have up to now There Will Be Blood and Elegy. Elegy is based on Philip Roth's The Dying Animal, one of the few books by this author I really enjoyed and actually finished. Penélope Cruz must give in this film her best performance in an English spoken picture so far. I'm looking forward to see this.

Soooo Exiting

We'd just learned that our dear friend Paula Huidobro's latest work as cinematographer Gardens of the Night is in the competition at Berlin's Film Festival Berlinale. Toño called her a few minutes ago, and caught her sitting in the plane to Europe. We are soooo exited, but - bugger - can't meet her in Berlin (and be cheering when she will get her golden bear). Toño's Mexican passport is expired and Switzerland still hasn't finished the process to give him a flashy red one.

Read more about Gardens of the Night.

By the way, read here what Paula said about Swiss men.

And we only talked about her lovers when we met last Summer for breakfast in Hollywood...

Breakfast (2002)

Breakfast
Uploaded by gaysrkool

Wish you a romantic weekend...