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Janvier

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  1. John Paul Jones was on Radio Eins yesterday. After the interview I listened to the station for about an hour, I liked the music they were playing, it was already morning in Berlin and they were giving some news and updates, I think I'm going to tune in to this station later in the day again.

    It's www.radioeins.de

  2. 51LpW9GoO8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

    Hvid Nat (Denmark, 2007)

    (English title: White Night)

    Directed by Jannik Johansen, script by Anders Thomas Jensen

    Hvid Nat isn’t as bad as a couple of reviews that I read suggested.

    Its strengths lie in the script, very solid and without a flaw, and in the acting: the lead role was given to Lars Brygmann, an accomplished actor in Denmark with several dozen films in his resume.

    The movie documents the spiralling down of Ulrik Nymann, from a very succesful, confident and happily married real estate agent to a pariah, disawoved by his father, friendless and bankrupt.

    The event that sets in motion Mr. Nymann’s debacle is a squabble at a small pub where he engages a “loser”: an unemployed, alcoholic man who accidentally dies in the fight.

    Nymann doesn’t spend much time in prison (“you’ll be home by dinner” says his lawyer). Everyone from boss to family members and friends seem to believe that he has done a favour to society by killing a man with a record of petty crimes and spousal abuse.

    Nymann never resumes normal life. After he learns that his victim had a wife and two kids, he finds the widow and practically stalks her day and night, offering his financial protection as the only way to escape the feelings of guilt that engulf him.

    In his quest to protect the widow, Mr. Nymann slowly descends into the abyss as he loses wife, job, apartment and car. His troubles are compounded by obscure events from the past that have returned to haunt him.

    Hvid Nat succeeds in sending a powerful message of moral principles in today’s society. The brilliant real estate agent has to reevaluate his definitions of good versus evil, success versus failure and truth versus lie.

  3. In their new album Lonerism, released October 9 in the United States, the band established in Perth, Australia, included the song "Led Zeppelin" as an iTunes bonus track.

    220px-Tame_Impala_Lonerism_Cover.jpeg

    The track listing of the album is as follows:

    1. "Be Above It"

    2. "Endors Toi"

    3. "Apocalypse Dreams"

    4. "Mind Mischief"

    5. "Music to Walk Home By"

    6. "Why Won't They Talk to Me?"

    7. "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards"

    8. "Keep on Lying"

    9. "Elephant"

    10. "She Just Won't Believe Me"

    11. "Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control"

    12. "Sun's Coming Up"

    13. "Led Zeppelin" (iTunes bonus track†)

    (wikipedia)

    There's a video of the song on youtube, although it is blocked on certain geographical regions, not everyone will be able to see it:

  4. 32 YEARS AGO: JOHN BONHAM’S FUNERAL SERVICE TOOK PLACE

    by: Sterling Whitaker 8 hours ago

    Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham is generally regarded as one of the most important and influential rock drummers of his generation, if not all time. The legendary musician died on Sept. 25, 1980, and today – Oct. 10 — marks the 32nd anniversary of his funeral service.

    (....) The drummer was cremated and laid to rest at a private service on Oct. 10, 1980 at a small church in Rushock, Worcestershire, near his farm house. The intimate service was attended by his Led Zeppelin band mates, and featured a wreath from rock superstar Paul McCartney, but was otherwise a private affair, with his family focusing on lauding the man who had chosen to live quietly in a small English village and contribute to its local community.

    http://ultimateclassicrock.com/john-bonham-funeral/

  5. Reykjavik-Rotterdam (2008)

    Directed by Òscar Jònasson.

    This Icelandic movie is about Chistopher, an ex-convict who’s hired by his close friend and associate, Steingrimur, to do a last smuggling operation between Holland and Iceland.

    Chistopher is promised that upon completion of the job he’d be relieved of his financial difficulties. Little does he imagine that, in reality, Steingrimur is concocting a vicious plan to betray and get him imprisoned, while at the same time keeping his wife Iris and two kids.

    The movie tries to be a comedy, a drama and a thriller at the same time. The scenes in Rotterdam succeed in being comedic and in providing dark humour, but the scenes in Iceland have a larger degree of succes as a thriller.

    Overall, the case could be made that the film is a much better thriller than it is a comedy. At some point there’s the impression that two different movies are occurring,

    The first movie chronicles the slow mutation of Steingrimur, from a Samaritan to a devil. The poor Iris has not only to contain Steingrimur´s advances, but she also has to suffer the intimidation of three violent thugs who have a stake in the operation.

    The second plot revolves around Christopher’s doings aboard a cargo ship and in Holland, which provide a temporary comedy relief, but overall they tend to drag down the pace and the tension created by events in Reykjavik.

    The film features actor Ingvar Eggert who does an excellent job portraying the evil Steingrimur. Baltasar Kormakur (who has a slight ressemblance to Colin Farrell) plays Christopher.

  6. Well said, zemun! This is one of those movies Jahfin and I didn't see eye-to-eye on("Tree of Life" was another); I liked it, he didn't. I can't remember if I posted a lengthy review of "Drive" or just a brief blurb, but it's no matter as you said it better than I did.

    Too bad "Drive" was lost in the shuffle of 2011...a fate common to good, small movies released in the summer.

    Thanks, Strider, somehow I missed the Drive discussion here, although I'm going to search in the posts above to read more of it. Prior to Drive had you seen a Winding Refn film or was this your first exposure to his work?

    I'm also looking forward to that Gordon Levitt / Bruce Willis film, I've seen comments posted of people who have already seen it.

  7. I watched Drive last night. I had heard, read some comments that it was a really violent movie (which didn't surprise me since I'm familiar with the work of the director).

    Overall it was a good movie, although people should be warned that there are a couple of really disturbing scenes full of blood. What I enjoyed was the pace of the film: the opening scene, for instance, is full of adrenaline, with the hero running away from the police at full speed.

    I'm a fan of Nicolas Winding Refn. In fact, I have managed to acquire all of his films (the ones that are available with English subtitles) since Pusher. The only disappointment so far has been "Bronson (2008)", which honestly I found silly, but at least the character played by Tom Hardy exhibited a few traits that would later reappear in Batman's Bane.

    "Drive" is actually very reminiscent of "Pusher". I think Winding Refn employs many of the camera techniques and story-telling methods that he used in his 90s trilogy.

    Bernie, in the scene where he washes a bloody knife, reminded me of Milo doing the same in Pusher III. Gosling´s character reminded me a lot of Kim Bodnia's: even though both are criminals, Winding Refn manages to tell the story in a way that the audience develops sympathy towards the hero/criminal by recounting events as if they were part of a grand conspiracy against the hero.

    These criminals slowly become heroes as the audience realises that they're just little fish within a very long and vicious food chain where others (Milo in Pusher, Nino in Drive) are bigger fish and worst criminals than them.

    The scenes where Gosling drives also reminded me of Milo driving the highways of Copenhague, late at night while slowly and literally descending into Dante's inferno.

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