I watched Angels’ Share yesterday. Very enjoyable. Funny.
Yesterday evening I was racking my brain trying to remember the other Ken Loach movie I’ve seen. Heh, I just remembered. Worth a blog post! The film was called Looking for Eric.
Category: movies
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giorni e nuvole
I watched this movie yesterday… and it get’s the label “problem film”. It’s ok. But throughout the film I was waiting for some major action.
It’s all about unemployment, and the subsequent downsizing, and the effect it has on this Italian couple somewhere in Italia. Reflecting the stagnant economy.
As I said not bad, but I wasn’t in the mood for this topic.
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Back to Running
Today was my first run with the running club since mid-December. And mid-way I felt kind of unfit. That’s the downside of jogging. You really notice the slacking.
Due to a cold during the Christmas break and my South Florida holiday I didn’t run as much as I’d planned initially.
Add lots of Swiss chocolate for Christmas and one week of American Breakfast.
Though I did manage to get up early a couple of times and run along the beach.
Given these distressing facts, today’s run was ok. The weather was perfect: about 7 degrees plus. We ran for exactly 1 hr (St. Alban – Birsfelden – Jowa – periphery of Muttenz and back). And if I include my regular bike trips, I did about 2 hrs of sports.
The lights of the Joggeli Stadium (built by Herzog & de Meuron) were on. I wondered out loud if the red and blue lighting means that there’s a game. BTW, there’s a film on the Beijing stadium coming soon.
Yesterday I saw The Band’s Visit about an Egyptian music band that gets stranded in an Israeli village in the middle of nowhere. And being the googling kind, I found this NYT article about some kind of controversy regarding Oscar nominations. The film is funny, likeable, and manages to convey a realistic feeling of awkwardness when people from different backgrounds meet for the first time.
Favorite quote:
“A: No Arab culture center?
B: No culture, not Israeli culture, not Arab… no culture at all” -
Search phrases
I saw this search phrase in my blog stats:
was idi amin involved in movie production?
errr…
“The Last King of Scotland” is based on a fictional book by Giles Foden and is a US and UK production with Forest Whitaker in the main role.
See also this Wikipedia page on Idi Amin.
And this IHT article.
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faved: Heimatklänge
I saw the documentary Heimatklänge and liked it very much.
Great images, interesting musicians and original. Category: highly recommended.
I liked the use of Super 8 film sequences.
The musicians are Erika Stucky, Noldi Alder, Christian Zehnder, Sina, Stimmhorn, Huun Huur Tu.
See this page for further links.
Here’s an interview with Erica Stucky.
Other movies filmed by Pio Corradi include Vitus… another fave. -
Recent cultural activities
Saw the play “Angst” at Theater Basel. It’s a kind of like a mashup with glimpses of 3 separate households on one stage, which then interweave towards the end. Entertaining. But it is not really deep or philosophical or thought-provoking. Covers all types of fear…
Saw the movie “The Namesake”. Sad and moving. Great mood. A topic I can relate to. Recommended.
Went to Grönemeyer’s concert in Bern. Fun.
Went to the Schaulager exhibition on Robert Gober (sinks, sinks, sinks). And to see the architecture of the Herzog & de Meuron building.
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TV Sunday
I just zapped into the making of Vitus on Swiss TV:
A film I really enjoyed. If you get a chance, go see it esp. in dialect…
It’s raining cats and dogs in Basel. I hope this rainy weather will not result in floods and landslides in the mountains.
Yesterday I saw War of Lord* at the open air cinema on the Muensterplatz. I was lucky: it didn’t rain! It’s a good movie and realistic. And the movie definitely brings its message across. Category: Must see.
update:
*an offline commentator pointed out that I got the film title wrong. It’s Lord of War, starring Nicholas Cage. -
Darwins Nightmare
Saw this documentary about the Lake Victoria fishing industry in Mwanza, Tanzania:
The only group that Hubert Sauper didn’t interview were the employees in the fish factories…
But otherwise a fairly realistic and saddening description of life along the shores of Lake Victoria, showing how Tanzania exports hundreds of tonnes of fish to Europe and Japan, while many of its citizens cannot afford a daily meal.