Category "Music, cinema, TV, books..."
I saw The Baader-Meinhof Complex with Ada and Peter, a movie telling the story of terrorist group RAF during the 60ies and 70ies. It's a very good movie.
I liked this movie first and foremost because it was very close to the truth. It explained very well the motives of these terrorists (the will of revolting against "american imperialism" and the fear of seeing nazism come back to Germany) as well as their story. It was kind of creepy to see these people who looked simple at first sight (Ulrike Meinhof, one of the main gang member, is like any mother of two at the beginning of the movie) say things such as "we don't see the man in uniform as a human being but as a pig".
I also liked this movie for the charisma of his actors. Martina Gedeck, who plays Ulrike Meinhof, is very convincing.
I read some said this movie glamourised terrorism. That's all wrong. The movie is even portraying terrorism severely and heavily criticises the legacy of the group's action.
Go see it while it's still playing!
You have probably heard of this story in Rohtenburg, in Germany, where two men met on Internet and decided that one of them would eat the other. I watched the movie Grimm Love that is inspired from this story.
To tell what happened, the movie revolves around a young american woman (obviously, people would get interested or identify with two gay cannibals) who comes to Germany to study criminal psychology and who researches this story. She's then going to search the two men's past, discover how they met and even get the tape that the cannibal directed.
If I thought the character of the student was useless first, since the storyline of the two guys evolve pretty independently, nevertheless she asks good questions. First of all, what pushes us to know more about that horrid story? At some point in the movie, she says something like:
We shouldn't analyse our differences in these two men, but our common points.
No, I'm not a cannibal! But I must admit the movie managed to make me feel some sympathy towards them, especially when it talked about their loneliness.
Though I thought otherwise, the movie was not sensationalist, like, "boo fags eating other!". At the end, the movie, as crazy as it may sound, manages nearly to make us want them to succeed! We know one of them is dead, and the other one is in jail now, so they'd better manage to fulfill their fantasy, as lugubrious as it is.
A very interesting movie then, that I would recommend. Eat something before watching the movie though. Or plan veggie food! Otherwise, it is said there's another movie, Cannibal, that has been directed on the same subject and some people on IMDB say it's better... but much more "graphic".
Last Tuesday, I saw W. at the cinema with Ada and Peter.
I thought the film succeeded in its "documentary" goals in that it relates the story of the american president George W. Bush until the war on Iraq correctly, at least the way the world sees it: the story of a guy who doesn't have the intellectual abilities for his position, manipulated by his vice-president and who has got a tricky ambition of earning his family's approval, his father in particular.
Nevertheless, something was missing, I don't know what. I'm thinking this may be caused by the fact that I already knew what this movie would say, I didn't learn anything interesting. Had this movie been released 4 years later, maybe I would have had a different feeling, like "Wow, things were going so bad these days". Now, it's too fresh.
It's still a good movie though, but it's more like a testimony of one of the darkest times of american history, meant for future generations.
I finally saw Goldfrapp live, last Monday, after all these years listening to their albums one after the other.
First of all, I have been surprised by the diversity of the audience. Young people, less young people (in average, in their 30ies), straight people, gay people and most of all, a lot of gay couples, kind of depressing. I found a friend there by chance, Adrian.
When the gig started, I was impressed by the amount of people on stage (8 strings, 5 vocalists, 1 harpist, 1 keyboardist, 1 guitarist, 1 bass player, 1 drummer, 4 dancers and 1 Alison Goldfrapp) but Will Gregory, the other band member, was missing. She started with Paper Bag, whose first lyrics are:
No time to fuck
I was happy because they sang a lot of my favourites: Utopia, You Never Know, Train, Number 1, Monster Love... I would have liked them to also play Crystalline Green, Lovely Head, Pilots or Ride A White Horse...
The concert was nice as a whole but the singer tended to hide a little too much behind her hair (even though I loved when she shouted "Come on!" on Ooh La La). And I liked because I'm a fan, someone who didn't know them would not appreciate the concert properly, I think.
The ending on Strict Machine was delirious and I left with a good feeling.
Madonna became famous before I even got born. All of my life, I've heard Madonna.
In 1998, when she released Ray of Light, she happened to be able to make quality stuff. In 2001, I could see her in Bercy and I have a very good memory of it. After that, she censored her video against the war on Iraq, then released a song with an ABBA sample and she fell lower and lower. Her latest album? I didn't even listen to it. Her first single was just complete rubbish, soulless and the previous album disappointing.
Besides, it is said her gigs are now shit. And her divorce I couldn't care less and she's making a mountain out of it...
14, from Gallery of the Absurd, made me laugh when she drew this portrait of Madonna, regarding what she said about the material world, that she embodies herself though.
That's it, Madge. I'm over you. The video of Ray Of Light will still be one of my favourite but now I'm thinking... Team Ritchie!!!
On Sunday evening, we watched horror movies at home.
What Lies Beneath with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford, focuses on a bourgeoise woman who thinks there's a ghost in her house. Boring. Then we watched The Hills Have Eyes, the story of a family lost in the middle of the desert and followed by some kind of mutants eating non-mutant humans. the scene of the attack during which the father is burnt alive, the mother shot, the daughter raped and the baby kidnapped is shocking. Like torture porn. Horrible.
In a nutshell, shit movies who may have predicted the bad news of the week, with Obama's empty speech, the anti-gay wave in the USA and the sort of victory of Ségolène Royal at the french Socialist Party. This is for me, the real Halloween.
Last Friday, Metronomy rocked!
At the beginning, some zombie girls appeared and danced on Bleeding Love. Then the 3 guys from Metronomy arrived, I joined a mate, Romain, in front of the stage (that's handy!) and I enjoyed myself. Two things though: first, the students in the audience couldn't stop pushing like crazy, even when it was low tempo, then, the live versions were exactly like on the album. Apart from that, it was very good and funny, the guys were doing stupid dance moves... and the ending on You could easily have me was great. By the way, a guy in the audience posted a crap video on Youtube:
Tonight, I'll be at the Metronomy concert where they will probably sing Trick or Treatz:
Happy Hallowe'en!
When I lived in Paris, I attended Belgium band Starving's gig at the Glaz'Art, randomly. I had liked the following song, Allumeuse ("Tease"), who sounded better live than on the album I think, particularly because the singer would scream the end of the chorus: "J'ai envie de BAISEEEEEEER" ("I feel like FUCKIIIIIIING"). Here is a clumsy translation of the lyrics:
Hey you I'm warning you
Of how much I'm gonna hurt you
Watch out, fear me
A pain is what they call me
Are you obscene enough
To dare chatting me up?
If so, make me hungry
For your whole body
Most of all, let out feelings
Let's avoid problems
We are old enough
Not to say "I love you"
I demand pure sex
Forgetting tenderness
I want cramps
Tomorrow after the trans
I am a tease
A real little lighter
When I become feverish
I feel like fucking
Always burning
Inside me, again
And the original version:
Hé toi je te préviens
Du mal que je vais te faire
Attention crains-moi bien
On me traite de galère
As-tu l'esprit malsain
Pour oser m'aborder?
Si oui donne-moi faim
De tout ton corps entier
Surtout dehors les sentiments
Evitons tout problème
Nous sommes assez grands
Pour ne pas dire "je t'aime"
J'exige du sexe pur
Oublier la tendresse
Je veux des courbatures
Demain après l'ivresse
Je suis une allumeuse
Un vrai petit briquet
Quand je deviens fièvreuse
J'ai envie de baiser
Always burning
Inside me, again
Lyrics by Starving for Allumeuse
I had talked about In Situ, the first book of the trilogy of Patrick Bouvet. Shot and Direct are the following.
These two books insist on terrorism and the media coverage of events. It seems like they have been less worked on than the first one. first of all, they are shorter. Shot, written in 2000, is focused in the assassination of Kennedy. The surprise of this book is that the last pages talk about a terror attack on the World Trade Center, as if the author expected the 9/11 tragedy... As a result, Direct, written in 2002, is all about 9/11, still in this weird prose. But this prophetic side doesn't make the books more interesting, who don't bring anything to the trilogy in the end. Shame.
from the same author, I also read Canons, thinking it would be a novel. But no, it's still poetry, which is a shame, I would have liked to see what a novel from Patrick Bouvet would have been. You retrieve the style of In Situ. Nice to read, but not to be remembered.
It doesn't change the fact that I still want to read Chaos Boy!
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