La Môme Piaf

Nowadays I spend a lot of time listening to Édith Piaf before or after, or even during and instead of work. I have already posted her "La vie en rose" earlier. It made me think what makes me listen to her music so much. Not only her voice, as I realized after watching the movie about her life, which bears the same title as her signature voice just mentioned made in 2007. Actress Marion Cotillard has also a nice song, and yet I was always waiting to hear Piaf singing her songs (actually some of them were dubbed indeed). No, I think it is rather the intensity that she put into singing that is addictive.

Piaf had a very stormy life. Her career started in 1935, when a night club owner discovered her after hearing her singing on the streets. Despite some hardships (including her being considered as a suspect in the murder case of her patron), she continued to become the most popular French singer during and after the second world war. It was in the euphoria over the end of the war that she wrote the lyrics for La vie en rose. In 1949, "the love affair of her life", the boxer Marcel Cerdan died in a plane crash while on the way to meet her. This marks the beginning of the most intense period of her life, paralleled by the fast deterioration of her health, due to sickness, a series of accidents and addiction. She died at 47, looking some 20 years older. I have the intention here to show a number of video recordings from this period showing not only the dramatic changes she went through, but perhaps more importantly the unaltered intensity of her singing throughout. She sang the first song posted here, "Hymne à l'amour" only a month after Cerdan's death. The second one "Padam... Padam..." is from 1951, and I have chosen it for its intensity than for anything else.

In the 1950s she had several near fatal car accidents, breaking her ribs at one time, and leaving her with addiction to morphine and alcohol. The recording of "l'Accordéoniste" is from this period (1954). I am simply amazed by the strength of her delivery... Another song "La Foule" is of Latin American origin. The recording is from 1961, one of Piaf's attempts to save the L'olympia music hall from bankruptcy.

The series of performances she began in 1961 are sometimes called the suicide tour. Indeed, she died in 1963 in liver cancer wanting to perform until the last moment. One of the new songs written to her in this final period was "Non, je ne regrette rien". This song was in a sense the final stroke in her carrier, and it is only fitting to finish this collection of recordings with it. The recording is one of her last perfromances from 1962 in the Netherlands.

Applied Gymnastics

I am nothing like an athletic person, but I have always appreciated the combination of strength and flexibility... well, the sort of body language it conveys. The same is true for dancing and martial arts, I am much better at watching it, seeing the details, than actually doing it... :) But if this is a language, then what you are going to see here is a whole conversation. Recorded straight from the streets, as a matter of fact... I mean you rarely see athletes climbing over whole buildings during contests, don't you? ...and who said ninjas don't exist anyway???

Rain As Music

It was raining the other day, and I was looking for something on youtube, a video or sound record of the sound of the falling rain. I actually had an idea to try it myself, but I have found some very nice ones. People seem to find the sound of rain or flowing water tranquilizing and meditative. This is an interesting contrast to the fact that rainy whether is often referred to as depressive. Should I mention here Tarr movies, which are sometimes noted for their "depiction of hopelessness"? I think actually one thing that helps one to immerse in these movies is the constant fall of rain, which somehow puts you at ease, regardless of what other topics may come up. But then again, think of Gene Kelly Singing In The Rain for another association with rain... Rain is a nice thing. I used to enjoy walking around when it rained. It is just something that makes you wonder...

One Last Dance - Cha Mo

A kind of sad story of an assassin. This is the intro, the music is by Pakk Hui, it can be found on youtube as "Broken Orange". I saw this on the way home from China on the airplane. It is kind of dangerous to allow emotions enter your decisions if you are an assassin. Consequences soon follow... and yet... what's there without them?! suits my present mood perfectly...

Beauty In Art And Science

This is a little segment from a documentary about Nobel price winning physicist, Richard Feynman in which they discuss the notion of beauty in arts and sciences. To me, beauty seems to be the most important and most elusive universal concept. The greatest motivating force, the thing that captures our interests and as we chase it we discover newer and newer parts of the world around or inside us, which otherwise we would not have bothered to do. The thing that is beyond basic instincts to survive, and yet it can become more important than those. To admire it makes our lives worth living. And yet... there are many ways one appreciates beauty, some seem mutually exclusive, as one listens to this conversation. We could also say that while Feynman discusses the beauty in details, an analytic approach, his artist friend rather appreciates the whole. Anybody who ever did some science can appreciate what Feynman says about the beauty in details, and how those details fit together. And yet I also feel that science often fails to see that the imminent, spontaneous beauty of things do not survive if they are taken apart, as perhaps some artists cannot see beauty beyond their own scope of perception. So perhaps the questions raised could be put as follows, for the scientist "What does the knowledge of the details add to the whole if the whole is destroyed in the process?", and to the artisit "How can you say you know beauty, if you know nothing about the intricate details that make it possible?". I think the important thing to realize is we always have a choice what view we take for a specific occasion (or experiment with more than one even if they seem exclusive...). I mean it seems unlikely that even scientists would run havoc mutilating all flowers on a field of roses, or cutting up breasts for that matter, for the merits of details, for example... A scientific training is not a lifelong obligation to analyze, nor is an artist only capable of seeing only one dimension of beauty, despite the fact that people who exclusively insist on being one or the other (perhaps the majority, unfortunately) give you that feeling...

Einstein's Brain

One of the drawbacks of being a well-publicised genius is that the guy who does your autopsy may think it better to remove your brain in the name of science, and that your eyeballs would be a suitable present for your eye doctor. So at least it happened with Einstein despite his wish to be cremated and scattered. A man called Thomas Harvey, who did the autopsy, thought it was without question that the brain should be used for research and managed later to persuade Einstein's relatives. He than later took the brain as his personal possession and gave a piece to the occasional visitor who happened to have a good enough reason. In the video above, Harvey slices off a piece of brain with an elegant movement using a butcher's knife on the kitchen table for a Japanese Einstein fan, who wishes to use it for educational purposes... The video is part of the documentary "Einstein's Brain"; you may watch the whole thing on youtube. There seems to be very little other findings of scientific value at the moment.

Giant Centipede

Another one of god's strange creations is the giant centipede. It can grow some 30 cms long, and may eat bats or mice if hungry... Its venom is also toxic to humans, probably not fatal, though. In any case, I would certainly not risk a bite if I could avoid it...

Blackadder Meets Cromwell

I like the idea behind Blackadder. The incarnation of a cynical hero in different historical periods who gets more cunning over the centuries while he also gets lower in his social position, which triggers him even more to refrain to his scheming skills. Lots of sarcastic humour... Blackadder: The Cavalier Years was produced after the third series in 1988. While I could have chosen a good number of other segments from the series that I like very much, I have decided to post this particular one for several reasons. First because it is half the length of a regular episode (maybe due to the fact that it is a special episode made as part of Comic Relief), and does not need particular knowledge of previous parts (though none of the other episodes really does). But perhaps more importantly, I have chosen it because it is also related to another thing that I find an intriguing topic independently of the series: Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil Wars. The Cavalier Years tells the story of how Blackadder managed through the most difficult event of the period, the execution of King Charles I. Interestingly, there are not that many feature films which focus on this conflict, the most notable exception is perhaps "Cromwell" (1970). This short of course finds a way to blend the events with satire while preserving some characteristics of the historical figures. Well, it certainly does not forget the mention the warts of Oliver Cromwell, for one thing...

Well, Mr Cromwell, have you come far? From country squire to Lord Protector of England. And that says it all, although our King Charles in this short hasn't got the slightest idea what Oliver is talking about (how could he, since Cromwell got that title only long after the king was executed). I couldn't stop wondering why Cromwell has blond hair here... As seen from the painting from about that time, he was quite dark haired. But of course it is true, Cromwell did come a long way. In fact, as Lord Protector he had more power than kings before him. He was offered the crown but refused. Indeed, the very period was outstanding because nobody really expected that things would go that far. Nobody was ready to govern without a king. It can be argued what Cromwell's intentions were. It is sure that with the king absent, it was only his personal presence that kept things going, and after his death, monarchy was to return quickly. It is also sure that Cromwell did experiment with new forms of government, though eventually he remained in control until his death. This period was full of possibilities which came before their time, and hence they were unbearable sources of uncertainty and instability. As a brilliant tactician, he remained practically undefeated in his life, and it was only after his death that he was "posthumously executed". His head was displayed on a pole in Westminster Hall for several years, and it was only in 1960 that it was finally buried.

Accuracy

A funny account of accuracy from a Yale lecture about Planetary Orbits. It is aimed at non-scientists, explaining concepts. This little bit shows how deceiving numerical accuracy can be, and how it could be played with to impose even psychological influence on us. Perhaps what makes it even funnier is that when accuracy is mention we tend to forget how relative it is (best illustrated perhaps by 7/4=2 with significantly low accuracy)...

The Edalji Case

It is not uncommon for writers of detective fiction that mystery and/or adventure penetrates their own lives. In 1947, Mary Roberts Rinehart, whose work spawned the detective fiction stereotype "The Butler Did It!", was the target of a murder attempt, though it was not the butler who did it, but the cook apparently jealous of the butler. In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days, apparently as a result of a marriage crisis, though the precise reasons are still disputed. An interesting case for detectives of literary research is that of Edward Lytton Wheeler, whose date of death may be established among others from the change of style in his Deadwood Dick series which went on ghost-written by someone else long after his estimated time of death.

Nevertheless, it appears that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, was the one writer who actually investigated a case in a manner worthy of the reputation of his creation. He did not, as Dickens or Balzac did before him, join well-known policemen of his era to learn more of the world of crime. He read the published accounts of a case which made him investigate it. In 1903, several animals were left to bleed to death from a hallow cut to their abdomen by an unknown perpetrator in Great Wyrley in England. The police, under pressure arrested a young solicitor, George Edalji. The person of Edalji, being of Indian descent, fitted in nicely with the local belief that the killings were some sort of a religious ritual, although Edalji himself was Anglican, his father being a vicar. Various pieces of evidence were produced, including a bloody razor as a weapon, a muddy boot, and a shirt with horse hair on it originating from the last animal killed. Threatening letters that were sent to many households at the time also pointed towards him, as he had been considered a suspect in an earlier case of such letters, a suspicion probably motivated by racial prejudice without reason or evidence mentioned. The fact that witnesses swore that they had seen him as one such letter arrived to the Edalji house were ignored in favour of the theory that he wrote those letters to himself. Edalji was sentenced to seven years of hard labour. With his arrest, the letters and killings did not cease. Petitions were submitted for his release which occurred after three years later without specifing the reason. Although free, he could not practice his profession as a convicted criminal. This is when he decided on stating his case in public, which eventually arouse the attention of Conan Doyle.

Conan Doyle investigated the scene personally, and wrote up his findings in the Daily Telegraph. He found that the bloody razor was in fact only rusty; that the handwriting expert hired to establish the identity of the writer of threatening letters had made a mistake in a previous case causing the conviction of an innocent person; that the soil on the muddy boots was of a different type than what may be found at the site of the last killing; and that the shirt was hairy due to the fact that it was wrapped up with a piece of horsehide from the dead animal by the police. Finally, Doyle established that Edalji had severe myopia, a sight deficiency that made it virtually impossible for him to carry out the killings at night and doing all that in secrecy. After his investigation, the Edalji case had to be reconsidered and eventually Edalji was found innocent in the killings but guilty in writing the letters. This latter attempt to save face reportedly angered Doyle, but at least as a result, Edalji could practice again. Much later a man called Enoch Knowles confessed to having sent threatening letters for decades in the area. But the influence of Doyle's investigation was not only beneficial for Edalji alone. His efforts drew widespread public attention to the necessity of scientific methods in investigating a crime scene. Moreover, partially as a result of the case, upon realising that no similar office existed earlier, the Criminal Court of Appeal was created in 1907. It seems safe enough to say that Conan Doyle, whose interests ranged all the way from science to the occult, and whose name is remembered today through his creation, Sherlock Holmes, not only contributed to the world of fictional crime writing but also to the investigation of crimes in the real world.

Witchcraft

Found an interesting piece from Yale Open Courses dealing with witchcraft. It starts off with magic as such, then its maleficent uses in witchcraft and its prosecution. It focuses on the circumstances of English witchcraft trials, but it does summarise nicely those of continental counterparts for comparison. An interesting difference for me was that in England witchcraft was never considered heresy, it was considered a crime. And secondly that such trials were sporadic, there were no systematic witch hunts except for the activity of Matthew Hopkins. These cases were generally reported to courts by people and not spotted by specialised investigators. The course looks for the various reasons why it all happened when it happened, and why of all counties Essex might have been the one where most trials originated. The lecturer even finds time to recommend the film Witchfinder General; I find it respectable if an expert has the ability to find artistic value in a popular adaptation of his expertise that he knows inaccurate from a purely professional point of view.

Kindness vs Politeness

I often feel that the really important things in life depend on small things like the difference between kindness and politeness. Politeness is a way to behave. I don't think there is any special value in it, it is a necessity. Be polite in an argument for example, and if the other is not, the blame will fall on his side even if he has a point otherwise. Thus it may easily be a defence, and a way of keeping distance, which is why it is often so cold. Kindness on the other hand is the luxury of warmth. You don't have to be kind, it is enough to be polite, but if you are, that indeed has a special value. You can make others face up the cruelest of realities with kindness if you so choose, and it does make a difference. But like any luxury, kindness is easier to lose, and quite frequently it will never be returned. It may change your life if it is, and so it may if suddenly kindness freezes into politeness in a relationship. Still, unlike politeness, kindness can never be enforced. Both the lack and enforcement of kindness, or any similar luxury, would spawn emotional beasts of all sorts... It is also true that kindness as a milder emotional excitement comes in waves, it is not and should not be as uniform as politeness may be. Thus, in many long lasting relationships it is the combination of the two that provides longevity, where politeness fills in (and not replaces) the gaps for another wave to come.

Folk Songs Modernized

It seems I am in a "folk song mood" today. To close down, I wanted to look for a few more modern adaptations, going down on a similar line as with Deep Forest in the previous post, a sort of electro-folk. The band NOX pioneered this domain in Hungary, and "Hej, Dunáról" is one of their first songs. I like the fast spaced flute here... Another one is "Tavaszi szél" (Spring Wind) from Holdviola. This is also a very nice song, and if you want to hear a bit of it performed by Freddy Mercury, have a look at the last video as well. He knew how to win an audience...

Sebestyén Márta

Sebestyén Márta is probably the most well-known Hungarian folk singer. Her performance of the folk song "Szerelem, szerelem" (Love, Love) is known for international audiences from Anthony Minghella's "The English Patient", but it is one of my favourites independently from that. In fact, I listened to it many times, or more than that I felt every word of it when I went through what it is about, I even translated it once. It is a bitter-sweet song, and it also has the power to tranquilise the emotions it addresses. Another well known work related to her is Deep Forest's Marta's Song, a combination of electronic music with an old csángó song. I like this song too, though if you understand the lyrics, there are strange cuts here and there, but I don't think it does any harm to the artistic result. I also found a life performance version of bits of the latter song that I attached last.

Deep Forest - Marta's song von d-limonen

Kolompos

Ok... a little folk music for children from Hungary. The team is called Kolompos, "kolomp" is a sort of bell, it is also used in this performance. I chose this one out of many because of its nice tempo. I was singing many of these as a child. Though only while playing, not on a concert :)

Lava

There is something beautiful and scary about lava. In this video from National Geographic, this shows very nicely. That is supposed to be stone, and it flows like water and glows like stars... it even bubbles... Seems to me like the drink of gods deadly for mortals. The funny thing is, you can be quite close if the flow is tranquil, I've heard you can even step into half cooled lava if you are fast enough (and don't ware rubber shoes), but if it's mad (it is so if it comes with gas), you'd better not be around... astonishing thing, anyway, some day I'd like a closer look...

Loriot

I have been posting a good number of British comedy sketches as well as some American and French ones. I think it is high time I posted something about German comedy, and what could be more appropriate than Vicco von Bülow, alias Loriot? In his long carrier he made fun of various aspects of life from a typically German point of view. Other than acting and writing comedy, he is also a cartoonist and a director. He made feature films as well in which he appeared with his long time collaborator Evelyn Hamann. I want to post sketches with English subtitles, which somewhat narrows down possibilities. I am especially sorry that I could not find a subtitled version of Kosakenzipfel in which problems arise from the uneven partitioning of a piece of cake. In "Nudel", Loriot mocks the seriousness of German dating habits of his time. Incredible, how a small detail may ruin an otherwise well orchestrated attempt... I think it wouldn't be half as funny were it not the for the intention to give the appearance of highly organized lifestyle. Scholarly analysis is targeted in Filmspektrum, in which a light entertainment short gives much material for critics to argue about. And finally a little sketch about the German version of a well-known phenomenon, the politician who talks much but says little...

Accents In Comedy

Accents are probably among the easiest things to make fun of especially since the English language is so very rich in them. Interestingly, the regional variation of accents is larger in the UK than in the US, take the Scottish accent for example and compare it to accents from England. A lovely parody of this accent was posted under Smith And Jones (Lighthouse sketch). Other than these, the social background may also have a significant role. The Cockney accent spoken by the working classes especially in the East End of London is also a frequent target for parody. The above little parody matches the Cockney accent mocking that of Janet Street Porter versus the Scottish accent of Billy Connolly. Interestingly, Connolly here is being interviewed by his later wife, Pamela Stephenson. And finally, the Yorkshire accent and mentality should also be mentioned here due to its not uncommon appearance in comedy. The sketch below from the comedy duo Hale and Pace (the former was born in Yorkshire) is a good example.

Star Trek Parody

A funny Star Trek parody from Carol Burnett. The crew passes through a mysterious cloud that changes sexes on the spaceship. Burnett is a marvellous Captain Kirk fake, with all the exaggerated mannerisms of William Shatner...

Private Emotion

I like this clip and song. I like the reverse sequence, and the symbolic ice and fire about that private emotion the song is about. It scans every intensity between the two extremes... As the ice melts there comes the flood of emotions... and now think that all this is backwards. I can feel the cold and the heat, the tension between the motionless and the dynamic... for me, one of the best from Ricky Martin.

Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Williams is one of the classic and most energetic figures of British comedy. His camp acting, his witty and rapid conversation style and arguments, ad-libs and characteristic nasal voice are perhaps most well-known from the Carry On series, in which he was a regular. In the beginning of his carrier he had serious roles in theatre, but later he totally shifted to comedy, a condition which he was not at all satisfied with. Other than his acting carrier, Williams also wrote books of various anecdotes and verbal put-downs, he was a very successful raconteur and frequent talk show guest and even host. In his private life, Williams had few close relationships, he was associated with playwright Joe Orton, who was later killed by his lover. He became more and more bitter in his later years, and died of overdose. His diaries released after his death became a best seller, commenting on many famous people Williams had met in his life. The first short clip is from "Carry On Cleo" (1964), where Julius Caesar played by Williams finds himself betrayed by his bodyguard. The "Infamy" line is voted the best comedy one-liner by a thousand comedians in 2007. Another very funny line of his is from a talk show, in which he discusses the specialisation of modern medicine. The third scene is from "Carry On Sergeant" (1958). I love the way how he outwits the officer by not falling in with his game in which he robbed the confidence of everyone before Williams' character. And finally a chat show appearance from Parkinson, in which he talks about his book, and relates some of the anecdotes in it, among others about Maggie Smith and Dame Edith Evans. I especially love the way he impersonates the latter...

Are You Being Served?

This is a very popular sitcom from the 70s. A parody of the British class system, it takes place in a department store, where everybody is hierarchically related to the other, from the company owner through the manager, the floor walker and seniors all the way to junior staff, and everybody is guarding what he/she thinks is a privilege due to their standing, be it ever so ridiculously minor a detail. In this episode that I am posting, the staff has to act in a commercial so that the stingy management could save money on hiring the more expensive professionals. In the second part of the episode, "It Pays To Advertise", every staff member has an opportunity to show their talents in roles they think they ought to play well, to in fact realise that their trust in their own performance was not completely well-founded... The moment when lovable old bartender Henry's courtesy is forcibly reduced to a more than lovable laugh, I have myself been overcome by hysteric laughter... Lovable old bartender Henry's (Arthur Brough) last appearance before his death not much later.

Bunny

Bunny - Blue Sky Chris Wedge (1998) Oscar Short... von andybe29

Bunny is a nice little short from Chris Wedge, from 1998. A bunny is disturbed by a huge moth, who never seems to give up to get closer to light. Eventually, it will bring her close to it as well... lovely...

Cavallette - Grasshoppers

Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto is well-known for his satiric cartoons. One of his most famous works is "Allegro non troppo" (1976), which is a parody of Disney's Fantasia. Cavallette (1990), the short I am posting here, is another memorable one of his works, it sums up thousands of years of human history in a few minutes. History is full of conflicts, but the aftermath is always overgrown by grass in the end, and in the grass you will always find grasshoppers doing what they are doing...

Inspirace

Inspiration is an animated short by Karel Zeman from 1948. It uses glass figurines to create a unique world of imagination. I especially like the idea of a whole world inside a drop of water, it makes me feel that even in a segment of the world that appears small to us there is still space for boundless variety...

Robotto Kānibaru - Robot Carnival

The idea of a mechanistic universe goes way back in history and it was probably the success of Newtonian mechanics that made it a dominant one for a long period to follow. In the 20th century, which one may fairly describe as the period when everything previously thought to be certain has earned a question mark of varying size, this idea has also become questionable in an "absolute" sense. Indeed, it is the "absolute" itself that has lost its earlier role. The world has become relative and uncertain, even on the level of ideas... This is perhaps why the idea of a robot, a man made creation only as complicated as its creator can make him be, is a fascinating one. If they are capable of becoming something more than they were "determined" to be that would not be without reflection on the human race either. And they can indeed become more in the world of imagination at least, in which way the human being may express where it differs from the mechanistic sum of its parts. Indeed, it is the way how the human arises or is expected to arise in robots that makes them so interesting. On the other hand of course, the imprisonment of the individual in a machinelike larger entity, the society, represents the transformation in the opposite direction. Art, science and philosophy have many times attempted to express the underlying ideas, and the success of such popular hits like the Matrix trilogy shows that these questions no longer belong to art enthusiasts or thinkers of ontology only but that the general public have become more sensitive to them by the end of the millennium.

"Robotto Kānibaru" (1987) is a collection of nine animated films which have the robot as the common topic. I will only post two here. The first, directed by Mao Lamdo, "Cloud" is really nothing but a walk of transformation, of life, a walk which one begins as a robot and through the storms of life one becomes human. Without conversation, this feature is just what I find often so impossible to tell, that feeling, which is neither sad or happy, and yet it is both, as the waves of emotion balance between these two ends. The feeling of life going along, and us trying to follow naively wherever it goes...

The other feature is titled "Presense", and was directed by Yasuomi Umetsu. In this story we get to know the creator through the process of creation. Why do we create? How are we related to our creation? It can be very scary if our creation suddenly shows signs of free will and therefore those of independence, especially if we create out of need, if we create the other in a relation. What if the creation wants to become a partner? Are we not afraid of getting what we long for? We may just try to destroy then what we wanted to create in the first place... The difference between what we long for and what can be realised haunts the creator until the very end to become dissolved in the fulfilment of a dream, a fulfilment that can only be brought by the very fulfilment of life...

Walkürenritt - Ride of the Valkyries

The best word to describe Wagner's Walkürenritt is perhaps 'monumental'. You have the feeling that something great is happening and get the do something yourself. To rent a chainsaw as Woody Allen put it, or to conquer the universe maybe... But it is also a song of joy and success. For me, it is a mixture of all these together...

Jan Švankmajer

Jan Švankmajer is a surrealist artist, most well-known from his animated films. He made several short films in his long carrier, and quite a few feature length ones. His work is definitely something that should be seen rather than described. He has interpreted many a famous literary work, including those of Poe, Goethe and Carroll, while he himself influenced such film makers as Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam. "Zamilované maso" (Meat Love, 1988) is a visual allegory of a love affair that comes to a fast and hopefully tasty conclusion... "Možnosti dialogu" (Dimensions of Dialogue, 1982) discovers the (dys)functions of various types of dialogue, including the exhausting, the passionate and the factual. It is difficult to choose out of so many shorts, so I will leave it at that for now...

Jan Svankmajer - Dimensions of dialogue von popefucker

Grace And Favour

"Grace And Favour" is a 12 episode long spin-off series of the long running sitcom "Are You Being Served?" from Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. The original series told the everydays of the personnel of a department store and was very popular during its 13 year long runtime. In 1992, some of the original cast reunited to make Grace And Favour, in which the retired characters decide to run a country hotel after they realise that is the only way to access their pension fund. The first video contains the title sequence and some later scenes edited together. I especially like the character of Mrs Slocombe, played by Mollie Sugden, whose posh behaviour is sometimes so marvellously dropped should the proper situation arise... Two further scenes include one in the bedroom of this honourable lady and another one in which she is very much upset...

Enigma - Return to Innocence

Enigma is the musical project of Romanian born Michael Cretu which released its first album in 1990. It combines electronic music with Gregorian and Vedic chants. Return to Innocence is probably the most successful creation of the project from the year 1994. The music video was filmed in Spain, and it tells the life story of a man backwards, from his death until his birth, until his return to innocence. The song may as well be the first music file I downloaded from the internet and I still have it somewhere... It has a slow but powerful flow that never fails to carry me away...

Woody Allen's Die Hard

This is a MADtv parody of Woody Allen's style, and as some of it is based on Annie Hall, I thought it would make a nice follow up. If you are interested how Woody Allen would make a Die Hard movie then watch this flick. I love the scene with Arafat...

Annie Hall

The great thing about a Woody Allen movie is that it probes deep into life and yet it manages to remain light and easy with marvellous humour. "Annie Hall" (1977) is often considered Allen's best film, it excels in everything we love a Woody Allen movie for, from its vivid depiction of a relationship to its neurotic as well as romantic humour. Maybe Allen is the director to whom we can say that humour is romance with him, because it manages to mix the two together so that they strengthen rather than extinguish each other. Annie Hall is a stream-of-consciousness tale of a relationship, and how life is formed from these temporary building blocks that yet have such long term effects on the final construction. We jump from one memory to another, often the scenes are just connected by one minor detail that may often play a completely different role in the different contexts of subsequent scenes. Characters enter the thoughts and memories of their own and other characters, stay there and observe, and guide the viewers of the movie in the cavalcade of their personal world. All in all, we end up observing the lifespan of a relationship from different points of view, often breaking the fours wall while characters address viewers inviting them to join in. In many ways, Allen's work is Avant garde, as he extends reality to express himself, and does so in a very smooth and continuous manner. An example is a much quoted scene from the movie below; if I had to give a title to it, that would be "If life were only like this"...

Smith And Jones

After Not The Nine O'Clock News, two of the cast members, Mel Smith and Griffith Rhys Jones made their own sketch show, "Smith and Jones", closely following and extending the style of the successful predecessor. The show run in ten series between 1982 and 1998, and therefore it is extremely difficult to select. I have finally decided to include four of their many sketches. The Predictable Lighthouse Keepers is the first one, and I think no better summary than the title is possible for this one. Somehow this sketch reminds me of Ibsen, I am not sure why, but that was the first name that came to my mind when seeing it... Then a nice little sketch, Survival, about the circumstances of an aircraft accident. The next one shows you how far we can go to avenge ourselves over some "small" offence. And finally, you may participate in a frantic ceremony of a family dinner in Holy Satan... There are much more that I like and would like to include, but... let that be enough...

Steve Oedekerk

Steve Oedekerk is a comedy writer and director, among his most well known works is "Kung Pow" (2002), a parody of Chinese kung fu flicks. Above you will find the famous kung fu cow scene from that movie. The movie is a dubbing parody of a Jimmy Wang Yu film mixed with some extra footage to give it a plot of its own, and Oedekerk himself plays the main role. A sequel was announced but was never made. Oedekerk is perhaps most known after his thumb movies, one of which is "Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle" (1999), which he also directed. In this parody of Star Wars, animated thumbs play the main role... See for yourself below.

Bara prata lite - Lukas Moodysson

Moodysson, Lukas - Talk (Bara prata lite) (1997)

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"Bara prata lite" (Talk) is a short film from 1997, described by its director, Lukas Moodysson, as the Swedish Psycho. A tale of loneliness and isolation, in which a retired man seeks desperately to establish a connection to somebody, or indeed, anybody in his surroundings, talking to people whom he has no business with. Most people ignore his plea for human contact, until one day someone wants to talk to him by her own free will... What happens if you crave for a little talk for so long, and when you seem to get it, they suddenly want to cut it short never to start again?

Tim Burton

I think I have posted enough of his films already so that now I should post something about Tim Burton himself. I chose the funny "ten decades" interview with Burton and Depp about the production of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007). I think other than the fact that the interviewer's mistake is hopelessly funny, such occasions are to be treasured, as unexpected situations always reveal something more... It also illustrates well the humour that is always there in a Burton movie, inseparably fused together with the eerie bits. Sweeney Todd is a remake of Stephen Sondheim's musical about a homicidal barber, a Victorian urban legend who appeared in penny novels of the late nineteenth century and revived in the musical in 1979. As in so many Burton movies, Johnny Depp takes the lead role. I also included a trailer from Sweeney Todd here.

Other than the films already mentioned before some further titles I feel obliged to mention are "Batman" (1989) and "Batman Returns" (1992), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and more recently "Alice in Wonderland" (2010). I also anticipate his future "Dark Shadows", a vampire legend with Johnny Depp based on a BBC series, scheduled 2012. All these have that silverish dark Gothic environment, Burton so much excels in creating. I have also decided to include something from Batman to the end of this post. Now, that Nolan's series is out, this topic is even more interesting. I like both adaptations, as they show two different sides of the same story. One of my favourite characters, the Joker, the epitome of madness, is especially interesting for me in both adaptations, and I think I will come back to that in a later post. But here, I will just post a short scene of the fabulous Jack Nicholson playing the role of the Clown Prince of Crime. His performance fits into Burton's half humorous half sad gloom, and indeed in only forty seconds, you are convinced that Nicholson's Joker takes the fun of killing seriously...

Freedom And Order

Ok, just another scene from Sátántangó. Director Béla Tarr very much likes long monologues. I mean we all know that in a similar everyday situation there are likely to be short(er) contributions to a conversation from either parties, which can be, depending on the situation, down to the fact, or more emotionally heated, but rarely a concise statement of the standpoint or philosophy of a party on the matter at hand. But these monologues give you the feeling of such situations, because they relate those thoughts, perhaps only recognised by an outside viewer, that are there but are never pronounced. Here an artist can use his refined skills in rhetorics and turn even a drunkard into a Cicero of his own existence. The scene here is when the main characters, Irimiás and Petrina, are told that they have no choice but to cooperate in police activities. And while doing so, the police captain starts a monologue on order and freedom. Is it only me, or here and there he does seem a bit drunk...? Anyway, to me the most interesting part of it all, is the one about people being afraid of freedom despite the fact that there is nothing frightening in it, and kind of expecting order from authority despite the fact that there are many frightening things in order. I believe there is some truth to this. On an individual level, we may all look for our own solutions to a problem like that. What this is on a social level, if there is any satisfactory, is or should be open for argument. But the "beauty" of a situation as the one in the clip is that you cannot argue or even defend your individuum because you have no choice but to cooperate! When expected norms which should make living together easier intend instead to determine you, be it in the name of any ideology, I believe that is alarming...

Enrico Caruso

Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), the well-known Italian tenor was one of the first opera singers to recognise the possibilities in sound recording. His recordings cover most of his 25 year long carrier, a not unrelated consequence of which is the fact that he still has admirers, among others myself. It is difficult to choose from such an amount of material. Finally, I have decided to post two recordings, the first of which could easily be the first I heard from him, his definitive performance of the traditional Neapolitan song, Santa Lucia. In the case of the second recording, I have passed the decision to Woody Allen. Allen has used opera themes in many of his movies, so it came as a pleasure if not a surprise when I heard Caruso's voice in Match Point. The haunting recording that recurs many times during the movie, is his that of "Una furtiva lagrima" (A furtive tear) from Gaetano Donizetti's opera, "L'elisir d'amore". Caruso's untimely death was preceded by a rapid deterioration of his health after he suffered a throat haemorrhage on-stage. He was previously declared fit to perform by his doctor. Less than a year later he died at the age of 48.

A Puzzle Classic

I have recently come across a discussion of the famous Smith, Jones and Robinson puzzle, while looking for something to read in the library. When I solved this little puzzle, I remembered what I was told as a child: in mathematics, every word matters... I thought I would share this problem here, perhaps others may get tempted too, and do something completely different when they were supposed to work... :)

On a train, Smith, Robinson and Jones are the fireman, brakeman, and engineer, but NOT respectively. Also aboard the train are three businessmen who have the same names: a Mr. Smith, a Mr. Robinson, and a Mr. Jones. Here is what we know:

1. Mr. Robinson lives in Detroit.
2. The brakeman lives exactly half way between Chicago and Detroit.
3. Mr. Jones earns exactly $20,000 per year.
4. The brakeman's nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman.
5. Smith beats the fireman at billiards.
6. The passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman's lives in Chicago.

Who is the engineer?

Methocha

Another video from Life in the Undergrowth. This time an ant hunting beetle larva vs. an ant looking wingless wasp, methocha. Looks like all hunting techniques have their disadvantages... Surprise for the larva, relief for the ants, and motherly pleasures for methocha...

Vincent

"Vincent" (1982) is an early stop motion short of Tim Burton, about a boy, whose childish games involve imagining himself as a Gothic hero, another Vincent Price. For one reason or another, we have the feeling of Gothic around us, and some are more sensitive to it than others. I imagine Tim Burton could have had similar childhood games... He had become one of the most talented directors to express the sort of feeling since then, and still you have to say at this point that he appears a quite cheerful fellow in his interviews. In fact even in this short you can sense the sort of humor he usually hard-wires into his stories. Acting out this darker side of our inner selves is perhaps sometimes the only way to also maintain an everyday life more approachable to our environment. Similarly, Vincent Price, who also happens to be the narrator of the story, was probably one of the happiest horror actors ever, his "secret" being as he often explained is taking it as a game. There were of course examples of horror actors becoming depressed, but if we go down on this lane, I think it is perhaps more interesting how many comedy actors ended up tragically, I would guess much more of them than horror actors...

Yellow Sticky Notes

Interesting little short from hapa film maker Jeff Chiba Stearns. It tells a period of his life through animated sticky notes... I have once tried to do a similar thing from the drawings I sometimes make at work, so I can very much appreciate this... nice music too, gives you a feeling of just how quick years go by...

Sátántangó

Well... it is a challenge to remain relatively short about a 7.5 hour-long film. Probably I will post more bits than I usually do. I tried to sit down and pick a few scenes I especially found interesting, and ended up with 13. That much I will not post here, but it may be useful to help me write up the whole thing. The film is a very epic one, the action is very little, and the plot is not too complicated either. It conveys feelings, it has an "inner language" element I have written about earlier. A very meditative movie, with extreme long takes. It does summon up in a concentrated manner the feeling I have in me, about the Hungary as it was before the end of the Communist era, that depressed struggle for nothing, which you cannot imagine without constant raining, and which is still somehow beautiful as it is told in the language of slow moving images. The visual language is influenced by its topic, and part of the story is in fact the reaction of sensitivity to that indifferent world, sensitivity which is capable of creating such a beautiful depiction of something yet so stuck in dark hopelessness. Indeed, there is still something left there today that shows the same stagnation. I feel that I even know some of the characters, the plots they have to change things but which they never carry out, the resentful way they live mixed up with some sympathy when realising the fact that all this is due to a naive simplicity on their part. The introductory sequence, first posted here, is a good example of the long takes used in the movie, sort of replacing the descriptive passages of a novel.

The film is based on the novel of László Krasznahorkai, and was directed by Béla Tarr. Its shooting was supposed to start before the fall of Communism, but could only begin afterwards due to topics involved. The title of the novel refers to the six forward and six backward steps in tango, which in turn implies the chronology of the twelve segments the film is broken down to. When Communism is about to come to an end, we find ourselves in a village where life seems to have stopped since the charismatic Irimiás (played by Mihály Víg, the composer of the film's music) has disappeared. The inhabitants are about to leave the place, when they learn that Irimiás is on his way back to them... It seems that a persuasive police captain leaves him no choice but to help the police with their cooperation... The manipulative Irimiás then starts off to rid the inhabitants of their money and involve them into the very system they want to break free from. In the above clip Irimiás describes the mental hibernation the inhabitants live in, whereas in the one below illustrates the sort of quarrels they have. How many times have I heard "THIS" speech...

There is another important subplot that I want to mention briefly, and only briefly. The film had a controversial scene where a little girl torments a cat. I believe this is symbolic, as she torments the only one weaker than herself, similarly to her own torments from her environment. She is sensitivity in the movie, whose injuries from an uncaring world lead to a tragedy that Irimiás can use for his own purposes. That episode alone would be worth a post... Anyway, I decided to add a final post from the end that echoes the structure of the movie, another long take that follows on the mysterious bells we heard of in the introductory sequence.

Crime And Punishment

"Crime And Punishment" is probably one of the best known pieces of world literature. It has been studied by literary scholars, disciples of psychology or by simply those who just love reading a good novel. It is evident that the intriguing topic of the novel could be discussed in hundreds of pages. Here, I only want to mention some points I find very interesting in this novel. There is the unfortunate fate of the innocent bystander for one. This is an interesting point since Raskolnikov was motivated and felt justified to kill the old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, who lived from exploiting him, among others. But with Lizaveta, whose only "crime" was to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, it was a different matter. He summoned up courage to murder someone he hated, and carried away by the same momentum, he killed someone he did not want to. Whatever we do, it is rarely focused on only the object of our actions, and crime is no exception. It is the involuntary nature of the second murder, that it lacked any personal motive, and was simply forced by the circumstances that makes Raskolnikov's deed really terrible, even for himself. The second and larger half of the novel than deals with the consequences of the murder, how Raskolnikov struggles with recurring memories, how he is finally driven to the point of confession, and finds religious comfort and peace from his menacing consciousness.

Woody Allen's "Match Point" (2005) is based heavily on some of these motifs. It paraphrases the story from a modern point of view. The bystander is a part of the plan from the beginning, a necessary obstacle on the way to the intended murder. The murder is not committed out of need, or to justify some higher moral cause, only to eliminate a person once beloved who is now being reduced to a factor preventing success in life. It would be appropriate to call Allen's work "Crime And Consequences", as it is the very lack of punishment and the consequent mental peace, the absence of "meaning" and the realisation that the world is such a place where one can get away with this deed, which is the disturbing thought that the murderer has to live with. The irony of the modern feeling of life is that one can actually live with it...

Brad Anderson's "The Machinist" (2004) is another modern day paraphrase of Dostoyevsky's novel. Here, we have only a bystander, there is no intent in murder, but neither there is for confession. It is the lack of intent that fuels the struggles against an unwanted reality, and it is the quest for courage to face the truth and suffer the consequences that eventually leads to relief from a much worse alienation. Punishment seems to serve a similar purpose here as for Raskolnikov, it makes it possible for one to find peace with oneself.

The Mass - Era

Era is the name of the musical project of French composer Eric Lévi. The music and the video recall the atmosphere of medieval legends, a mixture of Gregorian choirs with modern electronic music. The lyrics are written in a language that deliberately has no exact meaning, although quite similar to Latin. "The Mass" (2003) is like a pilgrimage to an uphill sanctuary, we gradually increase in spirit until we arrive at the peak and even learn to fly beyond...

Le Révolution des crabes

A nice little short from 2003 by Arthur de Pins. What happens if one day a crab, whose whole race walks in one direction only, suddenly realises he is capable of much more than that? Watch and see in this allegoric little tale... sure, no revolution is welcome in the world of habits...

Nicole Renaud

This post is connected to the previous one inasmuch as Plympton's animation "Eat" uses the accordion music and vocal talents of Nicole Renaud, where I actually heard them for the first time, and took the trouble to track her down some years later, which lead me to this portfolio posted here. She really has a nice voice, something I would call ethereal, almost out of another world. The song around the first minute I think illustrates very well what I mean, which song according to her website is an 18th century Italian love song; but I also like her performance around the third minute. Well, I like the whole thing actually...

Bill Plympton

Your face. from Amalia Loret on Vimeo.

Bill Plympton directed a large number of short animations as well as a handful of full length features. His often grotesque and always humorously designed cartoons are referred to as "plymptoons" due to their unique style. "Your Face" (1987) is not the first one of these, but perhaps still the most well-known one not only because of its form-breaking imagination but also due to the very fitting music composed especially for the short. A personal favourite of mine is "Eat" (2001), which combines the atmosphere of slow French accordion music with a grotesque caricature of gastronomy and expensive restaurant culture. And finally, you may learn how risky it may be to have an overprotective pet in "Guard Dog" (2004).

Bill Plympton (2001) - Eat from Joaquin on Vimeo.

Bill Plympton - Guard Dog from moi on Vimeo.

Earth Song

Michael Jackson - Earth Song

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Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" is part of the HIStory album released in 1995. What can I say... it is a great achievement both as far as the music and the video are concerned. Very moving and dramatic indeed, it relates the ballad of the stormy relation of human and Earth. It drives you desperate about the carelessness of the human race about our environment, and even about ourselves. We cry together with Earth over the wounds we ourselves inflicted. So loud is the lamentation that Nature itself intervenes to blow away disorder... If you care to know more about the details of how and where the video was made, don't miss the written summary after the clip.

Louis de Funès

Today I am posting a few clips from French comedian Louis de Funès (1914-1983). He is probably most famous for his "going crazy" scenes in the role of some domineering personality. His facial expressions and the high intensity of his performances are especially memorable. The first post is one of the most memorable of these from "Oscar" (1967). Another scene from "Le grand restaurant" (1966) shows his abilities for impersonation in the famous Muskartnuss Hitler parody. And finally, I felt obliged to involve a piece from his Gendarme series as well. In this episode from "Le gendarme à New York" (1965), Ludovic Cruchot undertakes the English education of the gendarmes on the way to New York. There are no subtitles for the this one, but I think it is pretty clear what's happening even without them...