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Friday, April 29, 2005
Downfall
Downfall is the story of the last few days of the Second World War , culminating in Hitler's suicide and the surrender of Berlin to the Russains. Set predominantly in Hitler's bunker, the Fuhrer is shown losing the plot as he loses the war. Plenty of other major "characters" from the Third Reich appear too - Himmler, Goebbels etc, all with their own agendas, which basically boil down to a choice between suicide and surrender. So many people chose the former, this film must surely hold the record for most deaths by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, by a long way. Its based on eye-witness accounts, most notably that of Hitler's young secretary. She is the most sypathetic character in a host of what are now almost cartoonesque villians from history - though as she herself admits at the end - her youth is no excuse for going along with the evils of Nazism. The acting is superb, the action intense and utterly believable even if the subject matter is unbelievably grim. You know its going to end badly for all these characters and whilst you feel no sympathy, its hard not to be affected by the sight of Goebbel's wife killing her perfect Aryan children one-by-one, rather than letting them grow up in a world without National Socialism. The film is probably overlong and does get bogged down around the middle with scene after scene of successions of generals getting a right bollocking from an increasingly deranged Hitler. And my knowledge of that period of history is patchy at best so I did spend a lot of the time trying to work out who was who and who was responsible for what atrocity. However, it is exceptionally well-made, very powerful and well worthing seeing - just don't go expecting friday-night feel-good entertainment.  The Edukators There's no Hitler in this german film, and the only war is the war on capitalism. "The Edukators" are two guys who break into the homes of the rich, rearrange their furniture and leave the odd anti-capitalist slogan around the place. So far, so inafective really - like a clandestine version of Changing Rooms - but then one of the guys takes the other's girlfriend on a break in and they end up accidentaly kidnapping one of the nouveau riche. The action then switches to a remote cabin in the mountains where the three young idealists have to decide what to do with their captive. For such a simple story with only a few characters, the film is way too long and lacks a lot of the tension you might expect from film about kidnapping and break-ins. However, it does keep you interested by focusing on the characters and is more of a love story and a discussion of ideas than a suspense-thriller. The acting is all top notch and the soundtrack is pleasantly filled with alt-rock angsty numbers. Not a great film,, but worth catching Friday, April 15, 2005
Ok, so what's happened is this right - Ruby has added one of my moodily shot artistic poses on the roof 6 floors above the consumeristic chaos that is the OC to a site called Butter Couple . As far as I know its nothing to do with Butter Dogs , but I'm willing to be corrected on that one.
So far Ruby's been matched with a guy who looks worryingly like her brother, and my only match so far is a boy/girl thing in a bear costume. The site has no flaws as far as I can see! So yeah, its just some new variation on the Hot or Not theme, but for me the fun is in telling the stories behind the various couples ie. " she only got together with him because he groomed her for 12 months but after 6 days she returned home to her tearful parents after a television appeal and he got put on the sex offenders register." So, go on, match me up with some stunner and maybe we can make four-toed interweb babies together by swapping semen down the phone line with an egg held on a server in Ontario for frustrated cam-whores. You may have realised this is the first post I've made whilst on cabernet sauvignon for a while - and will no doubt be overjoyed that due to computer rehabilitation I no longer just have to post from work. Its NSFW eds. Hooray say the fortunate few. Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Some gig news to publicise and see if anyone wants to go with me.....
Japanese/American post punk mayhem from Cyclub at the Hope & Anchor on Monday 18th of April Then there's Mr Cat's favourites - The legendary Republic of Loose play the Metro club on Thursday April 21st And of course I'm off to see Cradle of Filth at the Forum this Saturday. Let me know if there's any other gigs you want shouting out about on this website. It gets at least ten hits a day you know. And in Blog News - Be sure to pay a visit to Thee Shop . And once you've done browsing for thee goods, complete your education at the Southern School |
