Saturday, December 26, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Jean de La Fontaine: The Ant and the Cricket
The Ant and the Cricket
The careless cricket
Sang the summer away
Just to find herself
Poor and with nothing to eat
No fly, no bread
In the winter to have.
Hungry and whining
To the ant she went
Begging for something to have
Just out of kind heart
As to be able to eat
Till the good season comes:
Swearing by her faith
Next August she would refund
With interests and capital sum.
The frugal ant, who double thinks
Before anything she lends
-“How did you spend your summer away?”
Thus asks straight out.
And the cricket:-“My dear friend,
I did nothing but sang day and night”-
“Well done, my dear friend,
Now you can also dance”
Snow Cake (2006)
A drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident in which the woman's daughter had died.
Surprisingly subtle and unsentimental drama with some great performances.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Lev Tolstoj: The Hawk and the Czar
(art: Peter Helck)
The Hawk and the Czar
After the hunting, the czar overcome by thirst, went to a spring together with his beloved hawk. The water dripped very slowly, and he needed a great deal of patience to fill his cup; when, at last, the czar could take it to his lips, the hawk flapped his wings and spilled all the water. The czar took the cup to the spring and waited that it was filled up again, but once again the hawk made it fall down. A little bit irritated, the czar repeated the operation for the third time, and, again the incorrigible hawk prevented him from drinking.
-“ So you do it on purpose! - cried out the enraged czar and threw him against the rock, killing him. Then he went again to fill the cup when his servants arrived and shouted at him:
-“ Don't drink, don't drink Sir. A snake shed(poured) its poison in this water!
The czar did not drink looked at his dead hawk, and weeping said:” Too late I see how much that bird was worth.!”
Shane (1953)
A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smoldering settler/rancher conflict forces him to act.
Classic western, perfectly executed in all departments, but way too bent on creating an unearthly myth complete with the (wounded) hero riding into the sunset.
Frenzy (1972)
A serial killer is murdering London women with a necktie, and the police have a suspect... but he's the wrong man.
Late classic Hitchcock suspenser with no holds barred, his dark humor and misanthropy in full swing.
Becoming Jane (2007)
A biographical portrait of a pre-fame Jane Austen and her romance with a young Irishman.
Mildly competent period bio-pic with a good central performance, the movie does manage to avoid sentimentality.
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