War of the worlds (film 2005)

      
I have seen this film a number of times. I love it and was very happy to see it last night yet again (as it was on one of the BBC channels - without the adverts! Wow!). The alien invasion - aliens exterminating people, extracting their blood and tissue out of them - story of one man and his children struggling to survive and trying to get to Boston to reunite the children with their mother. Anyway, is there anybody out there who does not know the story more or less? The novel by H.G. Wells written at the end of the 19th century has inspired many radio and film producers. There were some radio adaptations - with the most famous of all: Orson Welles' adaptation in 1938, which caused panic among the public (as they thought the invasion was actually happening) - this event was then depicted in films ("The Night that Panicked America" made in the 70s was the one I saw years ago). Then there were films for the big screen and even TV series. Well, I love this one - (2005) 'War of the Worlds' directed by no other than famous Steven Spielberg. As it is based in modern times it is more interesting and believable, in my opinion. I take it, special effects have also something to do with it. Not to mention the leading actor - Tom Cruise, and a little Dakota Fanning as his daughter. To sum up, great story, great movie!

 

Now, after I have made it clear that I love the film, I would like to comment, or more like ask questions in regards to certain things that I noticed while watching it last night. First of all, what really stroke me this time was the fact that while the lightning storm disabled all electronic equipment (everything including cars, electric/lights in the houses even watches), there was someone taking photos and even recording with a video camera the first tripod emerging from underground just after the lightning storm! Figure that! Since everything electronic/electrical went dead - how come the video camera was working?

Secondly, surely Roy (the main character) wouldn't be able to get water from the tab in his house if all power equipment was not functioning. As far as I know, you need power to pump water into the pipes and up to the tabs.

Thirdly, they were able to start a car and travel sticking to normal roads, and out of the city almost uninterrupted. Yes, sides of the roads were full of dead cars, and there was enough space for them to  pass. As if all the drivers suspected: no cars are working but never mind, someone will be driving this way anyway so we need to clear the road by moving all the cars out of the way to the side of the road. ??? A bit unbelievable.  At least this is what it looked like to me. Though, on the other hand, roads in US are so much more spacious than in Europe, so who knows.

Also, I was observing that lovely leather jacket of Roy's and noticed that, when they were sleeping in the basement when the plane fell down near the house, Roy was not wearing the jacket and only managed to pick up his gun from the armchair before he run to another lower level cellar/boiler room to escape the explosion. The jacket, like everything else that was left in that basement, must have burnt. But then it suddenly appeared later on  - Roy was wearing it again (in perfect condition) when they were leaving the place.

Moreover, the aliens, even though they were so much more  advanced than people, as the movie suggests they had planned the invasion for thousands if not millions of years by firstly burying the machines underground before humans arrived, yet now when searching houses for hidden humans they used optical 'cameras' and not infrared cameras. Hello! infrared vision has been known for a long time. Were the aliens a bit slow in that respect or may be since the machines had been underground for thousands of years they were simply not equipped with the night vision? Anyway, may be it was just because the producers wanted to add some more drama to already dramatic situation (when they had to hide from the searching eye-look-alike camera). And add they did. It was really nerve-wrecking to see the characters moving around the basement in silence hiding from the evil eye, and I was almost shaking inside with anxiety even though I knew the outcome, having seen the movie a few times before. Silly me!

All in all, film is very entertaining and if one watches it carefully there is always something to think about/wonder about afterwards.

 

The Essential Writings - Mahatma Gandhi

  Everybody knows who Mahatma Gandhi was.  Around the world he touched hearts of , and inspired, a lot of people, promoted the movement of freedom, civil rights, non-violence and helped in leading India to its independence through peaceful means.  I have seen the film "Gandhi" of course, and even visited his little museum  in Mumbai, during my very brief stay in India years ago. But I have never read anything by him nor engaged in his thoughts till now. At the moment I am reading "The Essential Writings" which is basically a collection of his letters, articles and fragments of  books. It is an interesting but not easy read. It does not read like a novel and therefore it is taking me ages to go through - reading other books along the way.

 

Quotes from the introduction :

"Consequently for him the truth-seeker should be open to the insights of all traditions, and should view all with benign tolerance. For him, true religion was not about theology, the construction of belief systems, but about morality, the practical business of following after truth in daily life and interactions."

"In particular, Gandhi, drawing on Hindu tradition, felt that the non-attachement involved in sexual restraint would help the individual develop his or her spiritual vision and power as well as the capacity for public service."

"As in his view all people are interconnected, so an individual's life must always be conducted in such a way as to enhance the lives of others: in particular this means simplicity rather than over-consumption at the expense of others, charitable service rather than personal self-regard ..."

"Serious engagement with his life and thought, however, is a way to contemplate some of the profoundest problems humans face in their lives as individuals and as communities, and to recognize that there are resources on which men and women can draw to help them fashion modes of resolving conflicts with enhance rather than threaten to destroy the human race."

 

Quotes from the Ghandi's writings:

"The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my limitations."

"...what is possible for one is possible for all,..."

"There are some things which are known only to oneself and one's Maker."

"But I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found him, but I am seeking after him."

"Often in my progress I have had faint glimpse of the Absolute Truth, God, and daily the conviction is growing upon me that He alone is real and all else is unreal."

"I am a humble seeker after truth."

"I want to live at peace with both friend and foe."

"One step enough for me."

"...I greatly value people who abuse me...(...) I like such critics a thousand times better than those who worship me, applaud me, but at the same time commit murders and disregards what I say."

"He who eats without labour eats sin, is verily a thief."

"A man cannot become free from attachments by making a show of being so."

"Tolstoy gives a simple answer to those Indians who appear impatient to drive the whites our of India. We are our own slaves, not of the British. This should be engraved in our minds. The whites cannot remain if we do not want them."

"The more I observe, the greater is the dissatisfaction with the modern life. I see nothing good in it. Men are good. But they are poor victims making themselves miserable under the false belief that they are doing good."

"Optimism indicates faith..."

 

Still reading...

Gladiator (2000 film)

How many times have I seen this film? I have no idea. Many! It is one of my favourites and I go back to it ever so often. I don't think I know anyone who hasn't seen the film -  but to be honest I don't go around asking people about it so wouldn't know for sure. Set in 180 AD, the story of a brilliant Roman general Maximus (faithfull to the old emperor Marcus Aurelius), who gets sent to death by the new young emperor, escapes only to find his family brutally murdered by the order of the same emperor, gets taken as a slave and is sold to become a gladiator, is very moving. Once in Rome the Spaniard - as they call him - becomes quickly very popular with the crowd and faces Commodus - the young emperor again. He wants to revenge his family and the old emperor - Marcus Aurelius (who was murdered by his own son, Commodus). There is a plot of a military coup - to overthrow Commodus and establish Rome as a Republic ruled by Senate only - which fails. In the end Maximus dies (and rejoins his family in the afterlife) having killed Commodus in combat on the Colosseum public arena.

Why do I love this film so much? As Commodus says himself in the film: "The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Stiking story!" and in my opion the story told so well with the use of art of filming.  I love it because of this very reason the very well-told story, the hero/actor (played by Russel Crowe),  the scenery, the setting in the Roman times - you name it. And of course the music! The music is just delightful! 

So, having seen this film for the umteenth time I decided to have a little browse on the internet to see how historically accurate the film is. And here is what I found out:

Well, apparently the film depicted the Roman times and culture in general quite closely to the historical truth with its wars, violence, well-spread slavery, gladiators, games, brutal murders, incest. However (as I found out on Able Media article "The movie Gladiator in historical perspective" by Allen Ward (2001)), Maximus is a fictional character and it is said to have been influenced by a different true historical figures like: Spartacus (who led a revolt of slaves), Marcus Nonius Macrinus (a general and a friend of the emperor Marcus Aurelius), Narcissus (who strangled Commodus in his bath) and Cincinnatus (a farmer who became a dictator of Rome for only a couple of weeks). Also, Marcus Aurelius is believed to have died of plague - not having been murdered by his son Commodus. The young emperor, Commodus, ruled Rome for 13 years and not a few months, or 1 or 2 years (?) the movie suggests (it does not specify how long the story takes). He did not die in the combat on the public arena but was strangled in his bath by Narcissus. It was true, though, that Commodus trained same as gladiators, and very often took part in gladiator combats on the public arena. Even though he seems evil enough in the movie, apparently he was much worse than that in reality. According to the article I read on The Guardian website, "Gladiator: nice patricide but where are all the pinecones?" by Alex von Tunzelmann (2008), Commodus in the film is "a lightweight", as the real Commodus used to herd women, snog men, kill rare animals, feed his guards poisoned figs, force people to beat themselves to death with pinecones and much more.

There are much more details about the discrepancies between the historical events and the film in the articles mentioned above (which I am not going to repeat here) but it still does not change the fact that "Gladiator" is a wonderful film, and I love it (have I mentioned that before?).

One more thing that I want to mention is Loki - german shepherd - general's dog, which appears at the beggining of the film. I love the dog for obvious reasons - owing two german shephards myself I cannot just not notice it. But the truth is that german shephard as a breed developed only just over a hundred years ago, so wouldn't be really there in the Antiquity (which was mentioned in one of the articles mentioned above).

 

My favourite quotes from the film:

"Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back." ( Marcus Aurelius)

"Ultimately, we are all dead man... We have to decide how to meet death in order to be remembered as men". (Proximo)

"Today, I saw a slave become more powerful than the emperor of Rome". (Lucilla)

 

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson)

Quote: "Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be." So true.

It is one of the most popular books at the moment. So, I got curious and got it on my Kindle - yet another good buy for 20p. At first, I was laughing - the idea of a 100 year old escaping from a care home on his 100th birthday, still wearing his splippers and stealing a suitcase from a young unpleasant man (who could not fit this suitcase with him in the bus station toilet) was really funny. So, the story begun. And it got crazier and crazier with every page (btw - on Kindle there are no pages but percentages showing how much of the book one has read so far). Anyway, there are two stories being told pararellely - one, the story of now (2005 in fact), and the other the story of life of Allan (the 100 year old man) since he was young. When I got to the moment that he was in Spain during the Civil War and saved Franco's life (by pure coincidence), I though 'how ridiculous this book is!' and was almost ready to put it down. Yet, I continued. Yes, both stories got even crazier and more ridiculous, completely absurd - yet entertaining. And I began to enjoy it again. In his long life Allan managed to travel the world in a most peculiar way. He helped Oppenheimer in building the atomic bomb, saved Mao's wife in China, walked Himalayas, offended Stalin and as a result spent years in a Gulag in Vladivostoc (if I remember well) and much more... A man with no political views, no religion, strong attachement to vodka, extremaly intelligent (even though he did only three years of school in his life), very hard working, with little material needs and no worries at all. It seemed as everything that happened to him did not bother him much. He decided to break out from his imprisonment in Russia only because there was no vodka. And here is something that I would question. My grand-uncle (my grandmother's brother) was sent to Siberia to a gulag for many many years (people were sent to Siberia's camps for a lot of reasons). In fact, the family did not see him for over 35 years! Then the only way he could survive was thanks to alcohol. Because in Siberia it was sooo sooo cold the only way to keep warm was to drink a lot of alcohol. They did have it there,somehow. I remember this grand-uncle of mine, when I was a little girl at family reunions, he could drink a litre of spirit that was almost twice the strength of vodka and was still fine. Years of practice you see!

Anyway, one hundred-year-old not only found a lot of money in that stolen suitcase but also made some friends on the way, and somehow managed to kill (not directly) two young unpleasant men that were after the suitcase (which was full of money). There is also an elephant pet and much more... I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to read something entertaining. The book is enjoyable, light and ridiculous but clearly conveys the message that life if for living not for worrying about it!

 

Some quotes from the book:

"It took a while before the message seeped into his soul, but once there, it was there for ever: Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be."

"Revenge is like politics, one thing always leads to another until bad has become worse, and worse has become worst."

"Allan had always reasoned about religion that if you couldn't know for sure then there was no point in going around guessing."

"You should beware of priests, my son. And people who don't drink vodka. Worst of all are priests who don't drink vodka."

"Allan thought it sounded unnecessary for the people in the seventeenth century to kill each other. If they had only been a little patient they would all have died in the end anyway."

"Never try to out-drink a Swede, unless you happen to be a Finn or at least a Russian."

(well, my personal note: thinking about my grand-uncle - no one could outdrink him, so I would add to that list Polish as well)

"People could behave how they liked, but Allan considered that in general it was quite unnecessary to be grumpy if you had the chance not to." (love this one!)

"...the very biggest and apparently most impossible conflicts on earth were based on the dialogue: 'You are stupid, no it's you who are stupid, no it's you who are stupid.' The solution, said Allan, was often to down a bottle of vodka together and then look ahead." (my note: if it was only that simple!)

"Well, now you can see how sensible it is not to start your day by guessing what might happen, said Allan. After all, how long would I have had to go on guessing before I guessed this?" (Allan was referring to the fact that in the morning he was sitting in the park (in Sweden) on a bench with no plans for the day and in the evening he found himself on a Russian sub-marine.)

"Allan admitted that the difference between madness and genius was subtle, and that he couldn't with certainty say which it was in this case, but that he had his suspicions."

Todas las Familias Felices / Carlos Fuentes

Ayer acabé de leer "Todas las familias felices" de Carlos Fuentes.

El libro es una colección de cortas historias, que tratan sobre diferentes problemas en familias del México contemporáneo, estrelazadas por "coros". Carlos Fuentes pinta una vida de familia perturbada y dañada en la sociedad de hoy (moderna). Los personajes son muy complicados, y en mi opinión a veces un poco exagerados. Los diálogos entre personajes están mezclados con los diálogos internos, y algunas veces no se sabe si el texto representa / muestra un pensamiento o una verdadera conversación. Por lo menos, esta es mi impresión.

Encontré también un elemento fantástico en una de las historias - cuando La Virgen Santa reacciona a las oraciones de una madre (que reza por su hijo). ¿Pasó en realidad o la madre se lo imaginaba?

 No lo sé.

Mis historias favoritas son:

"Una prima sin gracia" - sobre una pareja infeliz y una prima fea que tiene encuentros amorosos con el hombre (de esta pareja);

"Madre dolorosa" - una historia de una madre que escribe cartas al hombre que asesinó a su hija - esta es una historia muy triste;

"Los novios" - una historia sobre una pareja sesentona que se encuentra en Venecia despúes de más de cuarenta años;

"La familia armada" - una historia de un general que debe tomar una decisión radical - cual de sus dos hijos tiene que morir.

Los coros, que puntan las historias, son generalmente trágicos, y son como relatos o voces de los niños maltratados, hijas violadas, unos traficantes, huérfanos...etc. Me conmovían muchos de ellos aunque tengo que admitir que algunos no entendía. El primer coro "Coro de las madrecitas callejeras" es uno de estos que tocaban mis emociones fuertemente. Un niño todavía no nacido - niño de una adolescente de la calle, pobre y sin futuro, dice:

"¿Es mejor estar adentro o afuera?

 Yo no quiero estar aquí mamacita

 Échame mejor al basurero madre

 No quiero nacer y crecer cada día más pendejo

 Sin baño madrecita sin comida madre

 (....)

 ¿Cómo quieres que me quiera madre?

 No te odio a ti

 Me odio yo

 No valgo una mierda de perro madre..."

 

Haber leído otros libros de Carlos Fuentes, en Español, "Aura, "La muerte de Artemio Cruz", "La voluntad y la fortuna" (una mitad de este libro) y ahora "Todas las familias felices", estoy segura que voy a leer más de sus obras. Aunque me cuesta mucho trabajo leerle en Español, pienso que vale la pena porque su palabra tiene algo especial (aunque es a veces bruta) que me hace ver las historias con mis emociones.

Winter in Madrid - C.J. Sansom / Amar en tiempos revueltos (tve.es series)

Page turner.  Well, I read it on my Kindle so it was the matter of pressing a button not turning pages actually, but I cannot call a book a button-presser can I? The book cost me £0.20 on Amazon - well-spent 20p. Read it in three days (this week). Just couldn't put it down. 

The story is based in Madrid after the Civil War - shows the damage, poverty, misery and suffering of the Spanish people during Franco's dictatorship. It's a bit of a spy and love story set during those horrible times. Harry , the main character, wounded in Dunkierk still suffering with some panick attacks,  is spying on Sandy, his former school friend who is an important but shady businessman in Spain. Barbara, Sandy's lover, still in love with Bernie who was believed dead in the battle of Jarama during the Civil War. However, Bernie, communist, Harry's best friend from school,  is still very much alive and imprisoned in a work camp. And then the story develops. Harry falls in love with a Spanish girl Sofia, Barbara finds out Bernie is alive and plans to help him escape. And so he does but it is not all a happy happy ending.

Quotes:

"But thats what happens with revolutions, the scum always rises to the top."

"Sandy nodded: Like I said in the cafe, the future belongs to people who can reach out and seize life. We should never let the past hold us back. And there is no such thing as fate."

Music CD cover

The book reminded me of my favourite Spanish tv series/soap opera  I followed till it finished in 2012 - 'Amar en Tiempos Revueltos' (on Spanish TV on line). Watched it almost religiously for a year and a half as a listening excercise to keep up with my Spanish  - cought up with all the seven seasons (not all the episodes though  as there are about 1700 of them - would be impossible in one and a half year). It is really wonderful that TVE Espana stores all the episodes on line and it is possible to watch them anywhere in the world. The story is based in Madrid (en la Plaza de los Frutos) and starts just before the Civil War and continues on until late 50's with different love and family dramas - portraying the suffering of the madrilenians, the suppresions, the killings, the fascism, dictatorship rules and how they affected every day life of Spanish people, the role of women as wifes and mothers only, resistance, spy stories, escapes, tortures - it coveres it all - you name it. I learnt a lot about what was happening in Spain after the Civil War thanks to the series.  Shame they decided to discontinue it. Lack of money I guess. Well, actually antena 3 of Spanish tv sort of continues it with a different name 'Amar es para siempre', but it is impossible to watch it online outside Spain.