last week i went to stockholm to do an interview for filmamasoner (to come up next week), and to see a concert with kaizers orchestra in the evening. in between i had a couple of hours left over, so i went to the movies to see wuthering heights. what an experience! it really exhausted me. i love movies that influence me so, they are the most fascinating films to see. read my review on moving landscapes.
as i have said earlier, i have started a new blog a couple of weeks ago, and now i feel finally ready to give you a link. moving landscapes is my blog where i will focus on film, litterature, theatre, opera and everything else withing the broad field of culture that finds my interest. since i intend moving landscapes to serve as a kind of portfolio in future jobapplications, i write foremost in swedish, but please feel free to use google translator if you don't understand the language!
i have also started to write for a brandnew, until now still unofficial, norwegian webmagazine called filmamasoner. it is an online filmmagazine with a focus on women, both as filmmakers and as an audience. my articles will be found both there and on moving landscapes.
of course i will continue to blog here as usual, with pictures form the apartment, the occasional outfit and stuff i bought and stuff i like.
i took some time off from everyday life to travel to oslo. visit friends, see an opera, volunteer for by:Larm once again. by:Larm is the perfect rock/pop/music festival for me: it is very well organised, takes extremely good care of their volunteers, everything is indoors, and the concerts are so short that it doesn't matter if one or two of them are not as expected - you can just leave to see something else.
one of my best moments there was the beginning of ane brun's show at kulturkirken jakob. together with magnus renfors (who had earlier worked together with roy andersson on "du levande"), she had produced "one", a short film musical based on four of her new songs, which had premiered a little earlier this year at gothenburg international film festival. the film was screened on a reflective glass plate standing in front of jakob kirke's old altar painting. the juxtaposition of the film's bleak aesthetics to the dark, warm colours of the painting made the experience quite magical, intensified by the church's wonderful acoustics.
you could say that the film shows a poetic circus, with bleak colours and strange props. it circles around suffering and death, but also the wonders of life and creativity. her video for "do you remember" is part of the film:
if you ever have the chance to see "one" as a whole, i heartily recommend it.
on saturday we went to the national theatre to see fanny and alexander, which had its last performance that night. the play was intense and engaging, it had humour and tension, depth and darkness. and wonderful costumes! we sat in the first row, so i was able to see all those detailed pieces of clothing almost in close-up - a great experience.
even though i have seen a lot of ingmar bergman's films, i am ashamed to admit that i still haven't seen fanny and alexander (we had planned to see it on dvd before we would see it at the theatre, but somehow that didn't happen). have you seen any films by ingmar bergman? maybe fanny and alexander? what did you think?
i used the opportunity of a long evening at the theatre to dress up, and chose to wear one of my best vintage dresses. it is a cotton maxidress by the finnish designer brand Kaisu Heikkilä, with a typical 70s flower pattern and fantastic cape-detail at the shoulders, instead of sleeves. i love it!
dress: vintage, kaisu heikkilä shoes: dna bag: daisy
on monday evening i had the chance to view the premiere of a brand new norwegian documentary at the oslo cinematek. it will be screened on tv tonight, wednesday 26.01.2011, on nrk 2. the topic of the film stands at the center of norwegian attention right now, so the production team worked day and night for a week to finish it as early as they possibly could. focal point of the film is emanuel, an illegal immigrant living without papers in norway, just like my friend maria amelie who got deported to russia on monday. his fate is just as unclear as hers. while their personal lives and histories are as different as could possibly be, they both stand up, with friends and helpers, to shine a light upon an injustice and wrongdoing by norwegian authorities and government against some of the weakest members of norwegian society.
emanuel comes from liberia, says he. he is a young man, who fled from war in his home country to ghana as a child. after his mother died he somehow managed to get onboard a ship and ended up in norway, without passport, birth certificate or anything else. authorities decide that he does not come from liberia but from ghana, imprison him in the refugee camp in trandum and attempt twice to send him there. authorities there don't agree and since then he has lived his life in norway without a chance to earn his own money or even visit a school to learn how to read or write. he would like to return to his country of origin, but since authorities are apparently unwilling to contact liberian authorities to check if what he says is correct, there is no chance that his wish will come true anytime soon. he, like maria, falls between every possible available chair.
one could say that "imagining emanuel" has two focal points. emanuel is clearly the core subject of the film, but at the same time director thomas østbye is occupied with the process of imagining, the making of a picture, the process of how a persons identity and a persons story is built by what we know, what we see and hear. does the lack of identification mean that emanuel does not have an identity? what do we know about him when we see him standing in the studio, when the camera traces his head in a close up? this documentary reflects about its own genre, it doesn't take any point of view for a universal truth and at the same time fights for the human right to nationality and identity that its subject is being denied. it gives the audience time to reflect. it celebrates the close-up as a possibility to connect and to disturb.
on saturday i've been to see the movie "desert flower", an adaptation of ex-topmodel waris dirie's autobiographical book with the same name.
i think this is an important film, with an important social and political purpose and message. it is well done. it is very well performed. and it was so generic and predictable that if it hadn't been for the importance of the content i would have been bored to death. so, as a cineast, i would not have wanted to spend 9euro on the regular saturnight ticket. thanks to yogurette and kinderschokolade we had two coupons enabling us to pay cinema-day prize (5,00€) on every day of the week, which was acceptable.
this is a german production. trying to look like hollywood, and almost getting there. it also is a german film about afrika, and the producer was the guy who produced "nowhere in africa", and some of the pictures could have been taken out of "the white massai". and it's a biopic. starting at one turning point in the person's life, following the person's rise to importance, plus a few flashbacks and a romance which does just get enough space to indulge those of us who need romance. both liya kebede (whom you can see on h&m's latest fall knit-campain - she is beautiful!) and especially sally hawkins do an amazing job in their roles and they really lift the film. as i said, this is not a bad movie. it is very solid, it is entertaining, and if you love africa and/or the world of high fashion you'll love the film.
i won! hübsch dich auf had a give-away where you could win a dvd with the movie "the dutchess", a costume drama with keira knightley, and i won one of the three dvds coco gave away... thank you, coco!!
the package arrived some days ago at my place, and i guess i'll try and see it this weekend - though i should be viewing all those austens once more...
guess how excited i got when i discovered that there is a brand new version of jane austen's emma out there! or well, at least the first two parts of a miniseries of four parts, by the bbc.
the cast is something of a who is who of the best of british costume drama, both mr. knightley and mr. elton have played edmond in mansfield park (though in different adaptations) and finally michael gambon is playing a part in an austen adaptation (i have been waiting for this to happen..). the adaptations feels very fresh and modern, and still seems to capture parts of the book which earlier adaptations have failed to capture..
anyways. the first two parts have been aired, the third is supposed to air tomorrow. but. only the first part is available on youtube.. my question now to my british readers (though i don't know if there are many of you) - does any of you have the possibility to digitally record the miniseries for me? it is even available for streaming on the bbc-website, but they have disabled it for people outside the uk, and i would need it for my master's thesis. i know i could probably write to the bbc and ask if they'd be so kind and so on, but that's quite a hassle, so i thought i'd try it this way first...
i took a little break from the blog. went to oslo. did something i haven't done for years: read three books in a row. in one week.
stieg larsson's millenium trilogy had been lying around for a few months and i decided i wanted to read them now. when i was a teenager i had a period when i read a lot of classic crime novels. agatha christie. g.k. chesterton. arthur conan doyle. i also had a period when i read a lot of political thrillers. grisham and company, you know. then i thought i'd try out swedish crime, wallander, and that was it. i just stopped. didn't like it. wallander wasn't my thing. instead i started reading romances.
so, i started reading the first book, män som hatar kvinnor, and got hooked. the man was a genius. he starts his stories at different points and with different protagonists and different plotlines. then slowly but steadily he gives you information. a bit here, a bit there, pushing the plotlines towards each other. he gives you just enough info at a time to stay interested. and he always leaves you begging for more. i just didn't want the book to end.
it did end but there were two more novels. plus the movie.
(i also checked the german trailer. it's bad. watch the original if you can.)
there is lisbeth salander. stieg larsson once said that she is some kind of modern pippi longstocking, and i'd say he's probably right. she is fascinating. misunderstood. independent. strong. there is mikael blomkvist. a modern day detective. journalist. easy going. likeable. there is harriet, the mystery. and there are men who hate women. they all are realistic, even though a little overdrawn. and then, it's a complex story. it really is. this is not a small universe of its own. everything takes place within society. that means, a lot of people, difficult situations. complex. interesting. exciting. critical. perfect.
the first part of the trilogy is a story with a beginning and an end. the second one kind of ends in the middle of everything, and the third part finishes the second. so one could actually say that it's only a duo, but the second book got so long he decided to cut it in half. smart. also, the first one is more of a detective novel, while the second and third are more of a thriller, but both genres are interwoven in a way. fascinating.
it's sad the author had to die so early. apparently he had planned a series of 10 books. only three got finished. i recommend them. i also recommend the film. i've seen the first one and liked it a lot. a great piece of swedish literature and cinema.
we all probably know by now that spike jonze's new movie "where the wild things are" is going to hit the cinemas at one point or another, depending on where in europe you are, in december before christmas.
as we also probably all know by now, fake fur seems to be this autumn and winter's big must have.
opening ceremony apparently thought it was a brilliant idea to combine film and fashion, and just launched a line with loads of furry dresses, coats and of course the little boy's lovely pyjamas-suit. i think the idea is really cute and very inspirational, and even though i consider the line absolutely overprized, i think that the one or other piece could serve very well as inspiration for a pretty diy.
here are my favourites:
puffy fluffy skirt. this would probably be what i'd try to do as a diy.
big vest. fake fur on both sides. warm and cosy.
this suit looks just so comfy and cosy. i guess i wouldn't freeze anymore on winter evenings..
a fleecy and pretty curly miniskirt. i wonder if they have curly fake fur at my local fabric store?
this is my favourite austen. at least, my favourite austen novel. when it comes to adaptation i really couldn't decide at the moment. but this scene always makes me cry, it's so beautiful...
i know sally hawkins is not pretty, but rupert penry-jones is handsome for two, and the music cannot be described other than enchanting.
so, the first week of my selfprescribed shopping ban (on clothes) is over, and i did very well: i didn't buy anything. so i do feel a little proud now. this also means that i might spend the double amount this week in case i want to. not sure i want that right now, as the not buying anything at all feels quite good right now (though this might change).instead of buying clothing, i took out one of the dresses from the "to alter"-pile and took it in a little so now it fits. great!
i also did do a little more thinking around my shopping ban after reading this very inspiring post on air stands still. i did come up with a few important thoughts. since i write this blog, i have become more conscious about my own style, by reflecting about what i wear and how i wear it. this made me more secure in my choices of dress, but also gave me freedom to experiment more, both of which led to buying more clothes than i have ever done before. partly i see this being part of an important process, but it has become too much now, and i feel that i need to do a lot of reflecting about my own shopping behaviour and about what i really need in terms of clothes.
there are two more things which i haven't written about yet, connected with this shopping ban. the first thing is that i have a huge pile of unused clothes which don't fit and need alteration, and i have a huge pile of fabric waiting to be turned into something pretty and wearable, and i have loads of ideas and nice patterns. i want both of those piles to shrink during the upcoming months. actually the first step has already been taken, which is good.
the second thing i realized is that i miss going to the cinema. i don't really know how it came that buying clothes became actually more important to me than going to the cinema (though i do have a feeling that it might have to do with this blog), but i do know that it doesn't feel good. cinema is important for me. i have seen myself as a cineast for quite some time, and now please don't ask me how i can be a cineast without visiting the associated institution. so. i have resolved to spend a little of the money i'll save on this great institution and go there once a week to see a great piece of audiovisual work. i have done so during the last two weeks and seen both tarantino's new masterpiece "inglorious basterds" and a great and very moving piece called "my sister's keeper". on the upcoming schedule i have "julie & julia" (tuesday) and "coco avant chanel" which i still haven't seen but will this wednesday.
i really hope that this shopping less experience will do me good. i really hope so.
the constellation: four men. pickpockets in hongkong. one young beautiful woman. her passport in an old man's safe. the result: pure cinematic beauty.
johnnie to's new movie "sparrow" is perfect. yesterday i went to see it in the original version with subtitles. i wouldn't even have needed the subtitles, there is so little dialogue in the movie, and all that is important is told visually, and through the jazzy chinese music.
four pickpockets in hong kong. their work is more a performance of art than an act of criminality. it's all about movement and elegance: two quick steps, a little tumble and turn and somebody's purse is a few notes lighter. they meet a woman. or rather, she meets them. they are to be her rescuers, though they don't know it yet, her way to her passport and thus to a new life. the story twists and turns every now and then, suddenly their life is a little more dangerous and also a little more exciting. a noir fairytale with a happy ending. though not at all what one would expect. hitchcock meets hongkong, film noir meets jim jarmusch. i'm still in awe.
if you have the chance, go see it. (picture through google picture search)
today i've been to hamburg, at the library. got myself a usercard, found a lot of books for my thesis, which is good. and tonight i'll go to the movies and see this film which i have wanted to see ever since i read about it: the fall.
yesterday was a good day. i went to the fleamarket (will show later what i found), did grocery shopping, began an elderflower-lemon liqueur, made my own pesto for the first time (had to kill basil because of lice) and went to the movies with a friend. both of us are great fans of jim jarmusch and his work, so we went to see his new film "the limits of control":
i loved it. i loved it so much that i got angry about all those people around us in the cinema who couldn't keep their mouths shut for two minutes, and who couldn't sit still for one. it was so disturbing. why can't people just silently enjoy a calm movie? why do they have to comment each and everything that happens aloud? and why do they have to laugh out loud when a situation is actually more amusing and making you smile for yourself than burst out with laughter? but i loved it so much i couldn't even get myself to ask all of them to shut up. which i otherwise always do.
it is a masterpiece. it bears remembrance of "dead man" (which is my alltime favourite movie), though in a very unconnected way, there are elements of "ghost dog", though even more scaled down. and i would say that in its own way it might be called jarmusch's hommage to alfred hitchcock. it is about cinema, and about the essence of great cinematic experiences, it is about our limits as viewers, and it is in a few very short moments deeply political in its commentary on the cultural industries and how they function. it is a statement for the importance of independence in all areas of cultural production, and it is a statement for the necessity of people working outside the established structures.
please. go see it. and please: enjoy in silence.
i still need that jim jarmusch dvd-box. it is essential for my dvd collection, which otherwise is not too large.
yesterday i finally took the chance to see kubrick's 2001- A Space Odyssey, which i have wanted to see for quite some time and never really got around doing. actually, ever since i knew that our introduction music to the university cinema group is part of 2001, namely zarathustra. now yesterday they screened it in our small local artsy cinema and i went.
what a movie! i was well prepared by the opinions of others who warned me that it was very slow, and rather weird, and most of them said that it was normal not to like it the first time. i did like it. it was weird and slow and i liked it. the psychedelic part towards the end was a bit too long in my opinion, but other than that it was an amazing experience.
what i find most interesting with the movie is the motif of the circle. the planets, the sun and moon, the spaceships, even the space-helmets, and in the end, the baby, they are all circles on the screen. within the spaceships, the travellers and crew walk in circles. hal, the computer, is sumbolized by a red dot, also a circleform.
then, i felt like there were two metaphorical circles embedded in what happens, and both are somehow intertwined. the first circle starts with the first step towards mankind, which is triggered by this almost biblical stone plate, enabling, in essence, one tribe of apes to kill another tribe which is not as smart. so one could say that the first step towards mankind is being taken by a killing of someone of your own race (this does sound familiar, doesn't it? wasn't there something of that kind in the bible, cain and abel?). this circle closes when the computer develops human emotions and kills one of the two space travellers on their mission to jupiter, though it is broken when the hal is disconnected by dave, the second astronaut.
the other circle is a smaller one and could be called a circle of life, which dave is sent upon after his reaching jupiter. in the end of very psychedelic race he lands in a romm in pale colours and 19th century furniture. as he looks into a mirror he sees he has aged. when he enters the next room, he sees and old man sitting at a table, eating. it is dave himself, even more aged, and a few moments later we see him lying in bed in the same room, dying. the film closes with a baby which, in a bubble looking a bit like a planet, floats through space.
apparently, especially this last scene with the baby has been widely discussed, but i haven't really bothered to read anything about the movie. so these are my own thoughts about it, and i just hope that others are as fascinated by the movie as i am.
oh, and in case i ever get married and in case i ever want to dance a wedding waltz in that case, it would have to be the blue danube. and no, not just from a tape or cd or a band, but from film. with 2001 being screened on a wall behind the dancefloor. the scene of the dancing spaceships. perfect.
pictures from somewhere on the internet. not mine, of course.
or at least, some kind of odd book-landscape in my room:
this is my attempt at figuring out what i still have to read and what i might skip. i tend to takes tons of books home from the library (my last journey to hamburg must have been around 15kilo worth of books..) and sort at home.
so what you can see is one rather smallish mountain with about 4-5 books i decided i need not read for the exam, 2 large (and heavy, i tell you!) coffeetable books by david la chapelle, one huge mountain of postmodernism and arts history, one smallish mountain on photography and mass art, one mountain called deleuze and one on russian film history.
the plan of plowing through this rather rough and difficult landscape is as follows: tonight: russian film history (only the parts about tarkovskij and sokurov) tomorrow: postmodernism and its place in arts history, evening: screen "russian ark" with friend monday: pop art and mass culture/art, connections to postmodernism tuesday: 9:00-11:00 prepare written exam for swedish course, 12:00 meeting with professor on la chapelle-topic, 14:30 meeting with teacher on deleuze/sokurov-topic, 15:30 print and copy exam for swedish course, 16:15 have swedish course write exam, during exam: take care of deleuze mountain wednesday: make new plan for rest of week.
i love: vintage, clothes, shoes, fleamarkets, bargains. cinema, theatre, music, literature. cooking, baking, sewing, do it yourself. travelling. originally from germany, now settled in uppsala, sweden, after a 2 year stop-over in oslo, norway.
black leather jacket
spineless classics poster
beautiful book editions
kitchenaid, in cream
red shoes
a new teapot
bjørg heart necklace
a pretty noanoa wintercoat
black leather pencilskirt
pierce my ears, maybe
