Meet Me in St Louis

There are so many good films out there, so many great directors. Meet Me in St Louis is definitely one of those films and its director Vincente Minnelli one of those directors. Smooth, complex camera movements and expressive colouring, exquisite tenderness and emotional frenzy, are the most obvious hallmarks of his films, but there's more. There's such passion, such depth of feeling, it's sometimes close to unbearable. But, as I said, there's also tenderness. Here's a beautiful scene with Judy Garland seducing the man she's after.

Childhood, mine and/or others

To follow up on my last post. Of all the things that needs to be done in India, maybe the most important and difficult thing is to take care of the rampant corruption. And as for the rest of my Saturday, yes, there was time for both. I actually sat outside for maybe four hours reading in the sun. Oh, it was heavenly. Then the sun disappeared behind the trees and there was nothing heavenly about that I can tell you.

I was awake when Lisa called me this morning, but I didn't feel like I was. But soon enough I was myself again and we were in her sofa, Maeby sleeping on my leg. I think it's safe to say that that is what I'm going to miss the most.

Yesterday I visited the spring exhibition at Konstfack (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) and it was slightly boring. There's usually something that's abjectionally pretentious and something that's inspiring and/or beautiful. This year I found nothing to excite me. Is it me or was it a bad year?

In the evening me and my brother saw Les quatre cents coups, François Truffaut's first feature. It's a film very dear to me, like few other films. I've seen it many times, and the occasion this time was that it's 50 years since it had it's premiere. It's just so wonderful, the music, the images, the sadness and the tenderness. It feels like it could've been about my own childhood, or, since it's not because my childhood was anything like the one shown in the film but because it touches me so, at least that of a close friend. But in away it is that of a close friend, because I've always felt like Truffaut was a personal friend, even though I never met him. I was ten years old when he died. 

(Here's a wonderful scene from the film, Antoine in front of the mirror(s))

time and keys

When coming home, realising that you and your key are no longer together is not the most joyful of discoveries. But I'm keeping my upper lip stiff. I suppose the key decided to spend the weekend at the office. It's a good thing I have relatives with spare keys.

These last three weeks have been intense and hectic to say the least. First four days in London, which were packed with meetings, museums, plays and films, most of it related to Ingmar Bergman. Not the film though, that was Joseph H. Lewis' magnificent and outrageous Gun Crazy from 1949. It's has such master of framing and camerawork it's uncanny, and the sexual tension between John Dall and Peggy Cummins is quite something.

And after London, four big projects at work have been taking up all my time. And then there was my mother's 60th birthday and... well, you get the idea. But it has been fun almost every single minute of every single day. And that's not bad . Not bad at all.

Last I wrote I mentioned Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. I've now read it, and it was rather good. But it was my third book by Chabon, and every time I've been slightly disappointed. It's like they're not as good as they should've been. But I haven't given up yet. Soon I'll sink my teeth into The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I've also read P.J. O'Rourke's book about Adam Smith, which I enjoyed immensely. By the way, O'Rourke's piece in The Atlantic, about the future and the fact that we seem to have lost faith in it, is among the best articles I've written in a long time.

In Israel they still haven't manage to form a government. But apparently Kadima is out of the picture for the time being. I'm worried. But the new administration in Washington is making some promising sounds. And speaking of international politics, it's appaling and terrifying how Pakistan is deteriorating further and further, whilst the politicians are more inclined to beat up lawyers than tackle insurgents and terrorists, not to mention the fast diminising economy. What if it becomes a failed state? Then where would they be? Or we? 

I have Pankaj Mishra's Temptations of the West - How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond right next to me, and I'll probably start reading it over the weekend. I love his writing, what little I've read so far, and I have great hopes for this collection.

But now it's time for tea. Bon weekend!

Time, and it's Quickness

It's already the 8th of February and it seems to me it was Christmas just the other day. What's that all about?

Last I wrote I complained about being at work but, as predicted, the next day went by in high spirits. I'm feeling confident and happy and it's ever so nice. It also helps that the atmosphere at the office is warm and playful. At my previous job on the other hand it seems it's been going downhill since I left. It's a shame actually.

Today I've seen Casablanca on the big screen, with a new print. It's certainly not the best of movies (and Howard Hawks' superficially similar To Have and Have Not made two years later is ever so much better), but it's still a very good film. It works on three levels: as a romantic thriller, as a political allegory about the Second World War and, today, as a mythological story which everybody knows and which has become a part of everyday life, with the music, the characters and the dialogue having a life of it's own. It has a kind of aura around it that very few films have. It's also a triumph of atmosphere and setting with Michael Curtiz' raw poetry being the perfect complement to the mixture of heartfelt romance and hilarious cynicism.

While I'm on the subject of the Second World War... I've also finished reading Unconditional Surrender. It's, as I've said, the last part of Evelyn Waugh's war trilogy Sword of Honour and it gets darker and more tragic as it progresses, up to its devastating climax. It's very good, and it made me want to reread Brideshead Revisited, still Waugh's masterpiece.

My next book is Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon. More on that later. Now I'd like to eat some crackers.

Beauty and the Ocean

There was precious little eating and maybe even less sleeping during my weekend, but that was only because there was so much fun going on I didn't particularly want to, or felt the need. And living with Lisa was a delight. She's delightful so that shouldn't have come as a surprise but still, you never know, do you?

There were a lot of strong emotions involved as well. For starters a very dear friend told me she and her girlfriend are getting married and I was surprised by the joy I felt, and the tears. There's so much beauty in the world all of a sudden, where was it two years ago? 

I had two perfect film experiences as well, Frost/Nixon and The Song of the Sparrows.

Today's been a long, rather tiresome, day at the office. I did my stuff on autopilot, still not recovered from the shock of being back there. Tomorrow will be better. I'm prepared now.

Now I think I'll read the last pages of Unconditional Surrender. It's good. Very good in fact. But first I'll listen to Sophie Zelmani. The Ocean and Me.

Remembrances and trilogies

There never seems to be enough time, and I'm always thinking about all the things I want to do but never actually get around to. Like write an enchanting blog in English. But I just realized that since I actually already have one; albeit one I haven't written on for quite some time, why not continue the good work I once started.

So here I go again. Let's see for how long I manage to keep it up this time.

Tomorrow I'm going to the film festival in Gothenburg with my friend Lisa. It's a business trip but I'll try to see some films of my own choosing as well. The film festival is always one of the highlights of the year and I see no reason why this year should be different. It's also the first time me and Lisa go on a trip together and it'll be interesting to see if that pans out. The longest we've been alone together before is a couple of hours and now it's for four days.

I've just begun reading Unconditional Surrender, the last part of Sword of Honour, Evelyn Waugh's trilogy about the Second World War, or rather about Guy Crouchback's experiences during said war. The first two parts were amiable enough and I'm looking forward to finishing this one as well.

Changes and Changeling

I just saw Changeling and it was the scariest film I've ever seen directed by Clint Eastwood. And I cried as well. It was maybe a bit too obvious sometimes, and I missed the typical sardonic humour which Eastwood is so good at, but on the whole it was a good film, and beautiful to look at.

It was set in Los Angeles in the late 20s, and it was not a pretty picture it painted of the city. "How could people be so cruel back then" you wondered. And then you read a story in the International Herald Tribune about a Palestinian mother who watched her children burn to death after being bombarded with white phosphorous and you realize that people are just as cruel today.

In Washington Post today, ex-president Bush's speechwriter Marc A. Thiessen wrote a column where he bragged about the fact that Bush could say that on his watch no terrorist attack occurred on American soil since 9/11, and he wondered (or rather questioned) if Obama would be able to say the same. That's a bit of a thin argument, since it's equally true that on Bush's watch the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil took place. But never mind, I understand if the team around Bush are upset and maybe even scared. 

Me, I'm tired after a very long and varied day. Good night.

Stranger Than Fiction

How can anyone be as cute as Maggie Gyllenhaal? A question that will not be easily answered, not even by the greatest of brains. I saw today Stranger Than Fiction in which she appears, ever so sweet. She is also very talented, and not shy of working on offbeat material. I like her, and her brother Jake as well. Some family.

Family is an interesting thing. When people talk of family they usually mean mother, father and children, but family is more than that if you ask me. And since I have some problem with my own, or more to the point, my parents, I take comfort in the fact that there are other (kinds of) families out there for me to join.

My relationship with my own parents are somewhat fraught, and I try to keep them at a distance. Compared to most, if not all, of my friends, I talk to, and see, my parents very seldom, and even so I think it is far to often. I wonder when I begun to withdraw. I think it was as soon as I was old enough to do so. Sometimes I feel that there must be something wrong with me, not really caring that much for my own mother and father, but there it is. It's not that we have any issues, or any quarrels, or anything like that. I just don't enjoy being with them. Maybe it will change when I get children of my own, who knows?

And if you are curious, I did enjoy Stranger Than Fiction immensely.

Late Autumn Sun

I should be outside, taking a lovely walk in the lovely autumn weather. But the sun will not set yet for some time. Eventually I'll get there.

Yesterday I saw an Australian film, Jindabyne, about life in a little town among what might be called white trash. Family tensions, racism, male chauvinism, and environmental concerns where among the topics referred to. And yet it made my constant longing for that marvelous country increase, ever so slightly. When will I return?

In China, the experiment with grass root democracy that has been going on for some years, with elections on low levels in towns and communities, seems to have come to a standstill. That is a shame. Surely the best way to ease the tensions that simmers, and occasionally explodes, all over the country, is to give to people more power over their lives, and over the decision process. Since I take it for granted that the leading men and women of the Chinese Communist Party read my blog on a daily basis, I hereby take the opportunity to urge them to expand democracy in urban and rural China.