Technorati Tags: advertising

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Search for the Perfect Meal in a Fast-food World [Paperback] by Michael Pollan

Schott’s Almanac 2007 [Hardcover] by Ben Schott (Author)

On the Wealth of Nations (Books That Changed the World) [Hardcover] by P. J. O’Rourke

The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World [Hardcover] by Lewis Hyde

Modern Spain, 1875-1980 [Paperback] by Raymond Carr

Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance [Hardcover] by Ian Buruma

Prêt-à-Porter [1995] [DVD] by the late Robert Altman

Arnolfini: Reflections in a Mirror [Paperback] by Jack Thomas (Author)

The Other Side Of The Bed [DVD] by Emilio Martínez Lázaro

Madrid Wallpaper City Guide (“Wallpaper” City Guides) [Paperback]

The Man’s Book [Hardcover] by Thomas Fink

These books will find their place in my Booxter-database, where I currently have entered 311 books, an estimated 15% of my total book collection. Do you think there is something I should not have ordered? Or something I forgot to order? Please let me know and I’ll extend my modest Library with your recommendations.

That’s the price to pay when you’re a hypochondriac god fearing country which makes a business out of terrifying its own citizens. The two surrealist pranksters were released on a $2500 bail and gave a brilliant press conference as soon as they were released. Watch the video, it is an excellent lesson in emergency communication. If only I had hair…

Talking about who the Germans are, and whether they are entitled to some form of national pride is a very recent topic. Last summer’s World Championship was the first time Germans were not ashamed anymore to hang out the German flag and to be proud of Germany. This week German weekly Der Spiegel started the series “How we became, what we are”. Germans are regaining confidence of their new place in today’s world, at the same time daring to face their past. Last weekend I happened to see two interesting German films. Both of them treated a different painful period of Germany’s history, although each of them differ substantially in their tone and approach.

Mein Führer (GER 2007, 89′) Dir.: Dani Levy. With Helge Schneider, Ulrich Mühe, Sylvester Groth | My rating: | Official site

Mein Führer is a controversial film. Making a comedy about Hitler or the Third Reich is not very difficult. Charlie Chaplin and Mel Brooks did it in a great way, yet it seems like the topic is still a taboo. Mein Fuhrer tells the “really most truthful truth” of actor Adolf (what’s in a name) Grünbaum. He is taken out of the concentration camp to prepare Hitler for his New Year’s speech on January 1st, 1945. Berlin is already in ruins, and a defeat is near. Hitler is depressed and has lost confidence, but Grünbaum’s methods should get the Führer back on track. The ‘good jew’ convinces Hitler of his qualities and a strange kind of friendship develops between the two. At the same time, Goebbels is planning a plot to assassinate Hitler in a way Grünbaum will be blamed. Things do not go as planned.

Many discussions are going on whether this film is some sort of apology. The fact that the director is jewish, sets him free of any suspicion of Nazi-thoughts. Although the film is highly entertaining, it might not be funny enough to be called a comedy. Do not expect to laugh every 10 seconds, since Mein Führer is actually a surreal tragic comedy. The actors are convincing, the art direction is impeccable and the photography is outstanding.

Das Leben der Anderen (GER 2006, 137′) Dir.: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. With Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck | My rating: | Official Site (German) | Official Site (English) | Official Site (Français)

Das Leben der Anderen tells a very recent German history. Mein Führer’s actor Ulrich Mühe plays the cold StaSi-agent Gerd Wiesler, who sincerely believes in the righteousness of the Socialist System, and thus in his job. In an intelligent story the shows the gründlichkeit of the GDR’s security service, the StaSi, which at the height of its existence had 91.000 employees and almost 200.000 ‘informants’ in a country of roughly 16 million. Georg Dreyman (the excellent Sebastian Koch) is a celebrated playwright in the Socialist Republic. He doesn’t really criticize the system, since he also needs it. But when his friend and director Jerska commits suicide, Dreyman becomes more critical of the system. Bad timing. The powerful minister of Culture has an affair with his girlfriend Christa and has put Dreyman under 24-hour surveillance. While eavesdropping, Wiesler develops a fascination and admiration for Christa and Georg, and discovers the perversity of the system. He decides to rearrange the truth in a way that will be decisive for Gerogr Dreyman’s life.

Das Leben der Anderen is a fascinating account of the end of East Germany. Thesp Sebastian Koch, already excellent in Verhoeven’s Black Book, is probably one of today’s most interesting European actors. It is director Henckel von Donnermarck’s debute. The film was chosen best European Film of 2006 and I think that is completely deserved. If you would like to know how scary life was under the StaSi, you could visits Berlin’s StaSi Museum.

My friend Boris thought it was nice to lure me into the game called Tag You!, started last month by the infamous Jeff Pulver. It consist of linking to five people, who then have to tell five unknown facts about themselves, and then I need to tag five other bloggers who have to do the same thing. The game is completely useless, and therefore I like it. So here I go.

1. I have shoplifted twice in my life. I was eleven years old and both times I got caught. Both times I had stolen a bar of KitKat. Needless to say that I still feel guilty whenever I eat a Kitkat.

2. For many adolescent years I refused to wear glasses in public. Miraculously I never caused any traffic accidents.

3. I’ve almost finished watching Desperate Housewives Season 3.

4. I have never been to Asia.

5. When I was twelve years old, I invented Atominotera, my own imaginary country. I designed a map and wrote very progressive laws.

The five people I tag are Olivier van Beemen, ReindeR Rustema, Gabriela Hengeveld, Laurent King and Eduardo Laporte.

Airport design is the subject of an exhibition in the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art. I’ve always been fascinated by airport architecture. The Third Reich arch of Berlin Tempelhof THF, TWA’s curvy terminal at JFK by Saarinen, or the dramatic simplicity of CDG‘s Terminal 2F: all reflect its society in which they were conceived. Cabin design and fashion evolved in a similar way. Passenger seats changed from painful cane chairs into private pods with high-tech entertainment, and stewardess became icons of fashion. According to Christian Lacroix, who designed Air France’s outfit in 2003, flying is dreaming. But unless you have the joy to travel in a private LearJet 45, it is hard to dream in overcrowded airports. If you like stewardesses, or just their uniforms, you might be interested in the photo collection of the Uniformfreak. If you’re interested in graphic design in travel advertising, you will find plenty of that on Travelbrochuregraphics.

Maybe terrorism will turn travel into something for the adventurous again, a challenge to the romantic soul who travels to explore and to endure. But until that time you can dream away in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, until 5 November 2006. The exhibition will travel afterwards.

Miami Vice (USA 135′) Dir.: Michael Mann. With Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li | My rating: | Official site

Good memories are like you’re cryonised parents: once you try to revive them, they are not quite the way you remembered them. But Michael Mann and Anthony Yerkovich are the original creators of the infamous TV-series of the 80′s, and they did a great job in turning their legacy into a feature film. They succeeded in creating a whole new episode, and a whole new universe. The film starts straight away in a discotheque; there is no title sequence. Sonny and Rico are in another operation, but something urgent came up. Crockett and Tubbs have to infiltrate into a Columbian drugs cartel in order to discover who compromised an FBI-operation. So far for the basic storyline. The heroes move easily from Miami to Brazil, from Columbia to Cuba. There is no real moral lesson in Miami Vice, the line between the protagonists and the antagonists is a thin as a line of Columbian marching powder.

Although shooting a film on HD is more and more common, it is still a terra incognita for most DP’s. The film has a grainy look, and sometimes it does look like video. But it adds to the atmosphere, and the images are stunning. There is definitely a Michael Mann style: Heat, Collateral and Miami Vice all have something in common. Collateral was filmed with the same HD-camera (the Thomson Viper), the same actor (Jamie Foxx), but in a different city (Miami in stead of L.A.), yet Miami Vice is a completely different film. And a worthy and independent succesor of the TV-series.

]]> http://www.stefandevries.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=125 0 http://www.stefandevries.com/wordpress/?p=99 http://www.stefandevries.com/wordpress/?p=99#comments Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:59:06 +0000 Stefan de Vries http://www.stefandevries.com/movies/2006/08/14/the-science-of-sleep/ The Science of Sleep (USA 2006, 105′) Dir.: Michel Gondry. With Gaël Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Emma de Caunes, Alain Chabat. My rating: | Official Site.

This curious and amazing film was strangely enough not selected for this year’s Cannes Filmfestival, although it was far better than most of the films I saw in the Official Selection. Luckily was able to catch a screening on the Film Market. Michel Gondry is the court jester of some of the world’s most creative musical talents like Björk, Beck and the White Stripes, and The Science of Sleep is his third feature film. He secured his place with of Enternal Sunshine the Spotless Mind, one of the best films of the 21st cenury so far. The script of this gem was written by mastermind Charlie Kaufman, but Gondry wrote The Science of Sleep’s screenplay himself.

Stéphane Miroux (Gaël Garcia Bernal) is a graphic artist who has difficulties distinguishing dreamas and reality. (This description was be enough for me to identify with the protagonist.) In his dreams he is presenting his own tv-show, in the real world he to shy to seduce the girls he likes, in this case his neighbour (Charlotte Gainsbourg). He invents a marvelous one second time machine, which does exactly what it says. Stephane finds a way to lure his neighbour, symetrically called Stephanie, into his dream world.

The Science of Sleep is a childish film, but that’s a compliment. Without any exception, the actors are great (even Charlotte Gainsbourg, whom I usually dislike). The film is visually incredibly rich. If you believe in dreams, then go and see this film immediately. If you don’t, you might stay stuck in the boring reality.

Showing in France from tomorrow (16 August), next week in Belgium (23 August), in the US in a limited release from 22 September and in The Netherlands from 23 November. More release dates on IMDB.

People were appalled by the ‘news’ that 40.000, mainly Eastern European prostitutes would operate during the World Cup Football in Germany earlier this summer. The number was released by the Coalition against Trafficking in Women; nobody wondered where that number came from, and nobody took care to make a simple calculation: if a prostitute can ‘handle’ 4 clients per day, and the tournament lasted 30 days, than the potential clientele should be 4x30x40.000=4.8 million men. Since there were around 2.2 million men who visited a match, this would translate into 2 visits per spectator per month, a rather unlikely number. From an economical point of view, it would be very uninteresting for a prostitute to set up business just for one month in Germany. In case you wondered: prostitution is legal in Germany, and when the tournament was over, there were no signs of any increase of prostitution. This is just one example Messrs. Levitt and Dubner could have given. It is a way of questioning every statistical ‘fact’ that is presented as such.

The subtitle says that it explores “The Hidden Side of Everything”, but that claim is a little bit overzealous. When challenging opinions easily shock you, then maybe you shouldn’t read this book. Or maybe you should, because it might change your prejudices. The book is focused on American statistics, which is a pity since economics is such an international science. The few times the writers give examples of other territories, they have mostly digged into the New York Times archives. But besides that, Freakonomics is an entertaining read during your summer holidays.

Thank you for your understanding.