Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Quick comment on The Dark Knight Rises




Watch it!!

Want me to be a little bit more articulate? Well, okay. Just let me sip my coffee for a while first.

...it was cold. Never mind then.

So, I went to watch the new Batman movie after having spent five crazy hours riding roller coasters. At the very least the movie was entertaining. Visually impressing. Special effects were great. Yadda-yadda. I have nothing to add there. Therefore I won't analyze the film, but I'm just going to bring up the few things that made an impression on me. Because let's face it: the expectations were sky high as usual, and mostly Nolan and his ensemble managed to match them. Quite expectantly.

I love the superhero trend that makes the superheroes not superheroes. Who can't identify with Bruce Wayne? Filthy rich, great political and financial influence, handsome, fit, saves the world... has a British butler... Okay, I give up on that train of thought. What I mean is that he doesn't fly or shoot spider web out of his hands. Wait, he does fly nowadays... Fuck. He gets his ass kicked by the villain, that's what I'm trying to get at. That's refreshing. (Cinema studies at university level, thank you!)

I may be a little wishful here, but I've decided that Nolan is a history geek. And I like that. There is one Storming of the Bastille-scene that convinced me that people would find history much more exciting if Robespierre had only been a Darth-Vader-mask-wearing broiler. See below. (And here's a link to Wikipedia for my American readers.)


Scene from the film. See what I mean?


And lastly - Anne Hathaway. I despised that woman before. Too cute, too much forced likability. Now I think she's amazing. Damn! Nice to see a strong female character that isn't through-and-through EVIL. Okay, she's still a sex symbol. But so is Christian Bale. Doesn't that mean that our society is equal, when we objectify men too...?

That's enough for today. My brain is still vacation jelly. I'll deal more seriously with movies later. Maybe. Until then, decide whether or not you're a feminist; if you drool more over Christian Bale than Anne Hathaway, you probably are! According to my definition, and that's the one that counts.







Friday, July 27, 2012

Weekend Fun: No. 30

"In Soviet Russia, our dogs have twice as many heads as they do in the Capitalist West!"


Funny thing! Russians experimenting with dogs! I wonder what the reasoning was.

"Hmm, those Americans are winning this sciency spacey race-thingy... What to do, what to do...? Da, of course! We take a puppy head and put it on another doggy, and then we have a pet than can carry a newspaper in one mouth and a pair of slippers in the other! Na zdorovye, comrades!"

The Soviet scientist behind this and similar experiments was Sergei Brukhonenko. The following film is perhaps not for the faint of heart, but hugely fascinating for people with morbid interests like me. It's called Experiments in the Revival of Organisms (D.I. Yashin, 1940) and it's in public domain. The version below has English narration.

Of course, these kinds of experiments were executed mostly for propaganda reasons, showing Big Brother of the West how high tech the Dr. Frankensteins of Vodka County were. The dogs didn't live for long, and the reactions on external stimuli of the separated head are mostly reflexes. But yeah. Give me your opinions.



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Happy Birthday, Amelia Earhart

As one can see from Google's search page, it's aviatrix Amelia Earhart's birthday (b. July 24 1897). Really cool lady. She disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937, probably because of that guy she flew with (Fred Noonan) who chose to navigate after the stars. Kind of difficult when it's cloudy. But read the Wikipedia page for more accurate details concerning her disappearance. Or better yet, listen to the awesome podcast Stuff You Missed in History Class from HowStuffWorks. The episode I'm referring to was posted July 16th. Go listen to it!


Marlene Dietrich and Amelia Earhart.

Harpo Marx and Amelia Earhart.

Cary Grant and Amelia Earhart.



Saturday, July 21, 2012

Weekend Fun: No. 29

Sophia Loren is watchful. Jayne Mansfield's... delights... are about to escape and devour her, any minute now.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Weekend Fun: No. 28

Two worlds collide: Groucho Marx and Jack Nicholson hanging out together.

Well, I was kind of lazy this weekend. But since it (in Sweden anyway) rains cats and dogs and I slept to 2 PM, I consider it still a weekend. Feels like a hung over Sunday, know what I mean? Nudge, nudge! Know what I mean!? (Inkipinkie, klikken and knipogen, etc... Nice subtitled version I found.)


Monday, July 9, 2012

How to quit smoking when I love Hollywood so much?!

Don't worry, it's not for health reasons that I am trying to quit smoking; It's a damn expensive habit. Even though it makes me feel cool, I'd rather spend my money on clothes and make-up. You know, like a real woman. It's a girl thing.

But this interest of mine really doesn't help. I'm sitting here with my morning cup of coffee, trying to distract myself from the nicotine cravings that makes my whole body itch... by looking through a map of celebrity photos. Not wise at all:

 Basil Rathbone does it.

 Betty Compson does it.

 Brooke Shields does it.

 Buster Keaton does it.

Audrey Hepburn does it while having her hair fixed.

 Audrey Hepburn does it again, accompanied by Dean Martin. And it makes her feel carefree and happy.

Maggie Gyllenhaal does it before she even puts on any clothes.

Drew Barrymore does it before she even gets out of bed.

Fritz Lang does it with a monocle.

Gösta Ekman does it before snorting cocaine.

Hasse Ekman does it on Kungsgatan, before stealing a bicycle.


Isabella Rossellini does after slaying some zebras.

Mae West does before and after an enema.

Sigourney Weaver does it before slaying aliens.


It's perfectly clear. All cool people smoke at all times. They can't imagine a time when it's not cool to inhale the poisonous fumes of a Camel, Marlboro or a Lucky Strike. And I shouldn't have a cigarette to my morning coffee?! Even the dog in my previous post has a puff on the cancer stick! Strength, give me strength...

I have no strength.

This is my struggle, two hours into a day without a pack of cigarettes.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Weekend Fun: No 27


Every now and then you need a smoking dog with hat and glasses!*
Presumably from 1923.

*Weekend Fun is my mission to at least post something funny once a week. To get me started with the blog again, you know? And what's more fun than the mistreatment of animals?

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Uhm... hello.

It's depressing to think about how long it was since my last blog entry. But perhaps we can ignore that teeny tiny little detail and pretend like everything's normal, mmm'kay?

I'll try to whip this dead horse alive again. I think I need it. I know the world needs it.

This blog may not be as strictly about classic films as it used to be. It may consist more of narcissistic rants about how society is too stupid to realize that I am The Almighty Lolita of the Classics! - nowadays a divorced 24 year old steaming pile of shit that can't even hold down a job as a hotel maid. Not even Dominique Strauss-Kahn wants me.

Juuust kiddin'! I'm not that down in the gutter. I'm awesome. Just a little... out of sync. With everything and everyone.

This time it's personal. This blog will keep me sane while I, for the umptyfifth time, sit at home looking for a job and wonder how the hell I will be able to afford my rent, my booze and my Virginia Slims. It won't be pretty. But it will satisfy your deep down, dark, hidden desires to gloat at other people's misery.

Nah, kiddin' again. I'll try to be pleasant. And those who know me also know that I am at least trying, though not always succeeding.

I am now a resident of Greta Garbo's home town. Also the home of our Whore King. (Seriously, not my invention: false 1 SEK coins are now circulating in my beloved country of the North. Instead of the text "The King of Sweden" on it, there is the phrase "Our Whore/Adulterer of a King". So funny. But silly. A king should sleep with whomever he wants, whenever he wants. The same goes for the queen. And if the people don't approve: let's do away with the damn monarchy then. Yes, this was a long and pointless parenthesis. Sorry about that.)

So I live in Stockholm now. Guess that was what I was trying to say. Uhm... yeah. I'll be back with some exciting stories. Or movie reviews. Or narcissistic rants.

Hey ho, let's go!

(Does anyone know how to get rid of those annoying advertisements that appear as links in my blog post? I feel violated.)

Update: I'm a computer whiz. Got rid of the ads. Ain't sellin' my soul over 'ere!