FA Cup final

Today’s the day. The Beeb started broadcasting at noon even though the kick-off is at 3PM. Basically they’ve cleaned the whole afternoon’s programming to make room for football and football accessories. During this time we, the viewers, were treated to live aerial coverage of, err, the teams arriving to the stadium on their buses (think OJ Simpson’s escape attempt), a parody of 24 where the FA Cup was stolen, footballing poetry and such.

Sonja’s note: think if Yle did all this with ice hockey SM-liiga finals.

Our original plan was to go into a pub to watch the game. We would’ve had to leave at noon as every pub all around the UK is packed (quite understandably), but somehow the plan changed and we stayed home.

I brought my state-of-the-art hifi-system to the living room and plugged it into the telly. Makes those thumps sound more satisfactory. About halfway through the match our telly started acting up, loud bangs of static noise made it quite hard to concentrate on the programme.

The first and last 30 seconds were the most interesting with Thierry Henry’s near miss and Southampthon’s desperate last-minute corners. Close but no cookie.

Da Arts

Ali G asking an art professor: What is Art Nouveau?, then What is Art Deco? and finally What is Art Garfunkel?

Whodunnit?

I just happened to notice that American Psycho 2 is directed by, gasp, Morgan J Freeman. I sure hope that the J is significant. (Can’t check it out right now as I haven’t got net access.)

Rock quote of the day

From now on, it’s excess in moderation. – Brent DeBoer, the Dandy Warhols drummer in The Guardian Friday Review May 16 2003

Nekkid bodies

Janne once noted that Spartacus is an excellent movie, all the more so because it features Kirk Douglas clad in leather. By that token I’m sure he’d enjoy Vikings, a fine pseudo-historical adventure romp in which Mr. D dons a fur coat and some nasty looking leather leggings. On a more sordid note, it is quite remarkable that he plays a character with a scarred face and nasty character – quite unusual for a big movie star in his age, or indeed any age.

On the other hand there’s a really alarming scene in Striptease where Demi Moore’s character’s daughter sees her stripping, erm, dancing in the club stark naked. I just hope that the scene was actually put together in the editing room, for no one under 18 should be subjected to Ms Moore’s naked body. Come to think of it, most of the time it would be good to steer clear of her even when she’s dressed.

Three Kings seemed better the other time around, especially now that I knew more about the circumstances in Iraq during the end of the first Gulf War. Now the film seems almost prophetic, but of course it already had the benefit of 20/20 hindsight (it was only made in 1999).

Top films

How many films in the IMDB Top 100 have you seen? I counted 62 (possibly a couple more: I’m not sure about Duck Soup, The General and Seven Samurai. Yes, I know) with some serious deficiencies, more so with older flicks. (Courtesy of Asmunder.)

Comical timing

From the Independent on Sunday Review 11.5.2003, p. 28:

The man next to me laughs all through the movie – can he be imagining the same thing? I think not, but he must be one of those people who have to make their derision or approval loudly known to the rest of the audience. This is especially annoying in foreign films, when people grunt or snort their appreciation of the French with nanoseconds before the subtitles have come up.

I thought that it’s quicker to scan the subtitles than to listen to the dialogue, and therefore I’ve held back my loud acknowledgements until the precise moment of the utterance. Yes, I am an annoying person.

Sound overdrive

If the constant screaming and chainsaw noise in Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn’t extreme enough for you, try Dario Argento’s Suspiria. The soundtrack in both of these movies is horrible (in the wrong sense of the word). However, Suspiria has tremendous lighting, set designs and cinematography. Too bad there are people in it as well.

Kaurismäki ~ Lynch

Have you noticed the parallels between Aki Kaurismäki and David Lynch? Both are auteurs par excellence, they script and direct their movies, both have a personal take on cinematic reality (to say the least), their dialogue is full of non sequiturs, they have a strong musical style (old rock for Kaurismäki, freak-ass jazz for Lynch), they both use character actors (eg. Outinen and MacLachlan), they’ve both made completely unwatchable films as well as huge commercial hits, both have a good critical reputation, are regarded to be unique, have won stuff at Cannes… I could go on and on.

And yes, I’m watching Blue Velvet at the moment. Don’t worry, I’m taping it as well, so I won’t miss anything because of short typing pauses.

Arvio: Popkornia – Catch Me If You Can (€ € €)

Pitäisiköhän minun muuttaa mieleni Leonardo DiCaprion suhteen? Romeon ja Julian sekä Titanicin mussunaamahan on varsin mainio Catch Me If You Canissa. Vaikka elokuva kokonaisuutena on melko jytäkkä kaksituntinen, rasitus ei kohdistu niinkään synapseihin kuin nauruhermoihin.

Toisaalta tunneummetus iskee DiCaprioon ainakin kerran, mutta moinen ei liene helposti vältettävissä Spielbergin ohjaamassa elokuvassa (lue: ydinperhettä moukaroidaan taas).

Hienointa suorituksessa on se, kuinka hän muuttuu huolettomasta teinihuijarista väsyneeksi vangiksi. Poissa on huoleton hurmaavuus ja ajoittainen epäröinti, ja tilalla on raskaasti liikkuva, väsynyt, vanha mies. Muutos on vakuuttava.

John Williamsin soundtrack on oikein hieno – en yleensä kiinnitä taustalla pauhaavaan pseudoklassiseen juurikaan huomiota, mutta Williamsin musiikissa oli samaa Pink Panther -henkeä kuin alkuteksteissäkin (jotka olivat, tulkoon se selväksi, valtavan hienot).

Arvosana: € € €

A Heartbreaking ∞ of Staggering Genius

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