Miscellanea and other things of no earthly use

Valmont

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:36:00 GMT

The other night I watched Valmont for the first time. It's a couple of years ago that I read Laclos' novel and watched Dangerous Liaisons for the last time, but Valmont came across as quite different. Still, I rather liked it in its own right although I still haven't decided yet what to think about the changed ending. It's not as dark as the one in the novel.

I really enjoyed Colin Firth and Annette Bening as Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil. They seemed more human than John Malkovich and Glenn Close did in the respective roles. I wasn't too happy with Meg Tilly as Madame de Tourvel as long as she still resisted Valmont. She appeared very subdued and willingly repressed, but when she finally gave in, she became much livelier and more emotional.

I will have to rewatch Dangerous Liaisons sometime, but I think I prefer the look of Valmont. It seems to me that the settings were brighter. Not to mention that the film was quite funny at times.

Being an Actress is Hard

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:07:40 GMT

I went to the casting the local theatre had organised because they are looking for extras for a production next year. But I don't know yet whether I've passed.

In groups of five women, we had to approach the set and costume designer and make him feel as if we confronted him. We were supposed to act as a group and react as one, not as individuals. This turned out to be more difficult than I would have thought. At least in my group, we managed to all start walking with the left foot.

As for the dates of the rehearsals and performances, the set and costume designer and the head of the extras were even more clueless than we applicants. So we now have to wait whether we will be needed in the first place and then find out what the dates are and whether we will have time then.

Better late than never

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:09:02 GMT

For many years I've been a huge fan of the TV series Frasier. In Germany it used to be aired shortly after midnight, which meant that there never was a huge fan community. Still, the show had it fans who were truly pissed off when the TV channel skipped the tenth and last but one season. That's several years ago, and to the best of my knowledge the season has never been shown on free TV. Until now. According, to my TV magazine some obscure channel will air it from 17 November on - at midnight, but I will watch it anyway. Actually, I know some of the missing episodes because someone copied them for me when they were aired in Great Britian, but I'm still missing parts of that season. So, finally I get to see the entire season.

Bilingual Book Meme

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:57:23 GMT

tudorpot posted this, and I have changed it a bit for my liking. Apart from adding a few German books, I didn't always pick my favourite books but sometimes rather a random book of a favourite author. It's also ages ago that I read some of the books, and I can't really remember much about the plot and characters, but I still know that I adored the books while reading them.

1. Pick ten of your favourite books or series.

2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)

3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

1. It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days.

2. FROM 3 ½'' DISC LABELLED: BACKUP.007; FILE LOVE.001
You always remember the first time. Isn't that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder.

3. Im achtzehnten Jahrhundert lebte in Frankreich ein Mann, der zu den genialsten und abscheulichsten Gestalten dieser an genialen und abscheulichen Gestalten nicht armen Epoche gehörte.
"Das Parfüm" by Patrick Süskind

4. One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister.
"Howard's End" by E M Forster

5. On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.

6. Sir Walter XXX, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; ...
"Persuasion" by Jane Austen

7. Als Herr Direktor Pogge mittags heimkam, blieb er wie angewurzelt stehen und starrte entgeistert ins Wohnzimmer. Dort stand nämlich XXX, seine Tochter, mit dem Gesicht zur Wand, knickste andauernd und wimmerte dabei.
"Pünktchen und Anton" by Erich Kästner

8. O for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention, a kindom for a stage, princes to act, and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
"Henry V" by William Shakespeare

9. Usually, the dwarfs kept bringing him back – back to the circus and to India.
"A Son of the Circus" by John Irving

10. „Gestern war er noch gesund“, sagte Maude. Ihre Ohren zuckten nervös.
"Glennkill" by Leonie Swann

Entering the Stage

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:59:30 GMT

The local theatre is looking for extras for a theatre project next year. I sent a short application and was told in reply that the casting will take place in a couple of weeks. I don't know yet when the rehearsals will be so that I might need to bow out right away, but I'll definitely attend the casting to see what they have to tell us about the project. I can't imagine what the potential extras might have to do during the casting, though, because they are looking for women for a dumb Greek choir.

Like to Write in English?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:40:35 GMT

I came across a writing competition called Daniil Pashkoff Prize, which is meant for non-native speakers who like to write in English.

This is how it's described on the website:

The Daniil Pashkoff Prize for Creative Writing in English by a Non-Native Speaker is named after the first Russian student to study English at the Technical University of Braunschweig. Its goal is to encourage creative writing in English by writers whose first language is not English and to provide them with a forum where their work will be published and read by others.

The prize money isn't very much, but the winning texts will be published. Of course, the copyright remains with the author.

The competition sounds like fun because you can write about every possible topic. You can also choose between prose and poetry. Even dramatic texts and haikus are allowed.

The original works have to be submitted by 31 January, 2010.

For once I Quit

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:29:11 GMT

When it comes to reading novels, I tend to be masochistic and finish reading them even if I don't like them because I usually think that they will get better. After all they are really popular is what I tend to think.

This time, though, I'm giving up. Some weeks ago, I read Jacqueline Winspear's so called detective novel Maisie Dobbs and was very disenchanted, but because the author has published a few more acclaimed novels about Maisie Dobbs, I thought I'd give her second novel Birds of a Feather a chance. After all, it just had to be better.

Well, it's a complete bore, and the main character Maisie Dobbs gets more annoying with each page. She's so sensible, wonderful and holier-than-thou that I just can't bring myself to like her.

Just as in the first novel there isn't a real detective plot. I've read 130 of 300 pages, and we already know what happened to the missing woman that Maisie Dobbs was asked to look for. We don't know yet why she disappeared but it's really asking too much to read another 170 pages to find this out.

I wouldn't mind so much that the books are no detective novels at all if they possessed the one characteric that I really like about most English novels. They include wit, and usually the narrator doesn't take the characters too seriously. There often is a bit of an ironic distance towards the characters - at least that's what it comes across to me when I compare them to German novels. Sadly, this can't be said of Jacqueline Winspear's novels.

Unseen Photos

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:21:55 GMT

Sometimes I think that I come across new photos despite the facts that they are old. I bought a programme from Tango at the End of Winter, and I know I have seen a pic with Alan Rickman and Beatie Edney dancing before, but this version, which shows the entire stage, is new to me.

I could also swear that I've never seen the following pic before. One doesn't get to see much of Alan Rickman, but I like the misty and mysterious atmosphere of the photo.

Look at the Rat!

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:48:55 GMT

Sometimes I'm amazed that often when I have a look around Ebay, searching for Alan Rickman stuff, I come across things I've never seen before. This French poster, which advertises Truly Madly Deeply, is completely new to me.

Have you ever seen such a cute rat? This has to be the best TMD poster ever.

Who Was I Kidding?

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:43:34 GMT

I've dropped out of the severusbigbang. I had signed up more than three months ago, but didn't manage to write one single line. Actually, I didn't even come up with a proper outline for a decent story. I thought by signing up I could force myself into writing, but I should have known that it wouldn't work. It's time to stop deluding myself.

Impressions

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:43:23 GMT

I visited my second favourite English town and the surrounding area for a few days.

A rainy afternoon in Jesmond Dene

The Leas (North Sea)

Souter Lighthouse

The Angel of the North

Now a gallery for contemporary art

St James' Park metro station

At night (using a rather unsuitable camera)

Can you tell that I like rivers and bridges?

Vanity Publishers

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:25:20 GMT

I've never understood why some people decide to pay for publishing their books. Agreeing to the terms a vanity publisher offers has always seemed like a bad and desperate choice to me, but I never expected things to be as bad as they are described in this German article from Spiegel Online.

Some real authors sent in a faked and very badly written exposé, using a pseudonym, and all six vanity publishers accepted. Five of them also accepted the 842-pages-long manuscript that was cobbled together from copyright-free books and therefore made no sense at all. Depending on the publisher, the author should have paid between 3,000 and 30,000 Euros.

I realise that the fact that a real publishing house accepts your book also doesn't mean that your book is any good, but those publishers intend to make money by selling your book. Therefore, someone there has to believe that it's at least sellable if nothing else. A vanity publisher doesn't even believe in you this much because you've already paid him.

Radio Star

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:51:42 GMT

"Alan Rickman" were the first words when I got into my car tonight and started the engine. I tend to listen to BFBS while driving, and it's the first time ever I heard his name come up. I had missed the beginning and only got the impression that while host Lynne Duffus isn't a huge fan she rather likes him in Robin Hood. She also mentioned that she doesn't fancy him in Truly Madly Deeply. She didn't say why, but I can only imagine that it must be the moustache. Why else could anyone not fancy Jamie? ;)

Although I wasn't too thrilled with Alan Rickman's work in HP6, I felt inspired by the recent promo pics.

Why didn't I watch the first series?

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:14:54 GMT

When Life on Mars was shown on TV here, I somehow wasn't interested (probably because I thought it was some kind of fantasy series), but when the second series started some weeks ago, I gave it a try and was instantly hooked. That 70s look, Gene Hunt's politically incorrect behaviour and of course John Simm as Sam Tyler, what's not to like? Now I could kick myself for not having watched the first series.

I have a question for the Britons on my f-list: What does Gene Hunt say in the sound file that's called If you don't answer this phone call??

I understand "If you don't answer this call I'm going to come over to your house (?) and stamp on all your ... (?), got it?" but apart from the fact that I can't make out that one word at all, I'm not entirely sure this is correct in the first place.

Raphael Marley Severus

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:48:48 GMT

There's an advert in today's newspaper announcing the birth of a boy with this name. Hmmm, are the parents fans of Roman history or did they read the Potter books? For the boy's sake I hope the parents know how to pronounce the name. That seems to be the main problem nowadays. Parents love to give their children exotic names but often fail to properly pronounce them.

African Folktales

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:24:32 GMT

Some days ago I received my copy of the audiobook Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales. I didn't have to the time to listen to all of the stories yet, but I'm working on it. Of course I listened to the one read by Alan Rickman, which is, I'll have to admit, the reason I bought the audiobook in the first place. He does an excellent job of reading "The Ring of the King". He doesn't just read the story, but makes it seem as if he tells you a secret.

But I've also enjoyed the other stories I've already listened to very much. It's very interesting to catch a glimpse of the African culture, and to see how these stories explain the world. For example, last night when I listened to "King Lion's Gifts", read by Ricardo Chavira, I learnt how the animals got their horns, stripes, tusks etc.

Edit: I just had a look at the pdf booklet that's included on the final CD. It contains the most gorgeous paintings, one for each story.

Granger(-)Snape

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:50:22 GMT

What are the chances that Amy Miller who marries a Mr Smith would become Amy Miller Smith in Britain?

I can't count how many times I've come across Hermione Granger Snape in fanfics or discussions, and I always wonder whether that is actually something that many British women do. Wouldn't she rather remain being Hermione Granger or become Hermione Snape?

Sometimes, I also read Hermione Granger-Snape, which doesn't seem to be more likely to me. I know there's Justin Finch-Fletchley in the HP books, but I always understood hyphenated family names to mean that it's a posh family and that therefore all family members are called like that.

What the fuck?

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:38:28 GMT

On some board someone told me they hoped I was sterile because I dared to mention that I didn't think that children were traumatised by seeing naked people.

I don't have children and don't plan to have any, but right now I think it would be great to start having as many as possible and teach them that nudity isn't unnatural, ugly, horrible or disgusting.

Ten Sexy Men (+2)

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:23:28 GMT

A few weeks ago, phistolemon_ posted the following meme.

01. compose a list of YOUR top ten sexiest famous men.
02. collect ~~one picture~~ several pictures of each person.
03. post them in your journal.
04. tag five people to do the same

Two years ago, I did a similar one where you had to list five sexy men, and I thought it would be interesting to see in how far my list changed. I got stuck at seven men, though. But last night, after having watched L'instinct de mort and L'ennemi public no°1, I rememberd the meme and now I have finished it. Actually, I selected twelve men so that there are now two honourable mentions.

Herbert Grönemeyer: He is just the best singer and musician Germany has ever produced (at least since 1956). His lyrics are crazy, and quite often I'm not exactly sure what he means to say, but somehow the lyrics grip me nonetheless.

Mark Rylance: I saw him on stage twice – as Henry V and Richard II, and although I had to really struggle with the Shakespearean English, he made me feel as if I understood every little nuance of the characters he played.

10. Michael Caine: He used to be Mr Cool. Sadly this was before my time, but in order to tell us what it was like he wrote a very entertaining autobiogrpahy 15 years ago.

9. David Hyde Pierce: I liked him so much as Niles Crane in Frasier. He has the most beautiful hands, and he's probably the only man in the world who looks good in a hoodie.

8. Kenneth Branagh: He directed Henry V. He also was Henry and Benedict and Hamlet. This was years ago, and I had forgotten about him for a bit, but his recent stint as Wallander forcefully brought him back to my mind. There's also that grin.

7. Anthony LaPaglia: Despite the fact that no one would have mistaken him for a Mancunian in Frasier, he was very funny, but he really convinced me as Jack Malone in Without a Trace, whom he portrays as a mixture of cuddly teddy bear and ruthless terrier.

6. Robson Green: Those eyes. Do I really need to say more? Judging by the interview on my Wire in the Blood DVD, he also has a great sense of humour.

5. Alan Rickman: He probably should be #9 or so, but his voice and the fact that I like to delude myself that I actually know about him a bit and would like him in real life make for a better ranking.

4. Colin Firth: Yes, Mr Darcy. I fell in love with his hair, which was dyed, but then I realised that his natural hair colour also is very nice.

3. Ralph Fiennes It's that vulnerability that he seems to exude as an actor– sometimes, when he's not playing someone aloof or playful or unscrupulous. He's a real chameleon.

2. Daniel Day-Lewis It's the whole package. The brilliant acting, the dark brown, wavy hair, the body, the tattoos, the voice.

1. Vincent Cassel: Admittedly, if it weren't for these particular photos he wouldn't be #1. But he would be near the top. That man has perfected playing despicable men who are irresistible nonetheless.

Leading Goose

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:45:41 GMT

Tom Felton gave an interview to the Canadian magazine The Gate, which you can read in its entirety here. He mentions a mishap that happened to him when filming HBP, which I actually read about quite some time ago, but I hadn't read about the "leading goose" before!

Here's the relevant excerpt:

O.P.: Was there one crazy moment that was just outrageously crazy?

T.F.: I probably shouldn’t say it, but as you’re all very fair to me I’ll dive into this tale.

At the very end of the scene, after Snape has done his bit, we’re sort of walking out of the Great Hall in this sort of goose, v-wing formation in which he’s at the front. He’s the sort of leading goose if you will, and he’s got this sort of wedding-dress cape on that goes three metres on the ground.

The director was very keen for us to stay close behind to him and of course, don’t look at where your feet are going. And actually, before we started filming Alan turned around in his very sinister way and said, [imitating his voice] ‘Don’t step on my cloak.’

And we also didn’t know if he was joking or not, so we’re all, ‘Ha ha, very funny, very funny.’ So naturally, on the second take I planted my heel well and truly on it, which ripped his neck back in a hilarious fashion in my eyes, but at the time it didn’t go down well and there was a rather awkward silence after.

Saying that, Alan is an incredibly nice guy and one of the funniest on the set. There’s a lot of confusion there, that he’s a very sinister guy, but he’s hilarious.

Harry Potter and the not very Satisfied Viewer

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:29:58 GMT

I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tonight. Behind the cut are some bullet points, listing things that came to my mind. It's neither a full summary nor a full review. I only read the book once shortly after it had been published, but I don't think I'm misremembering too many things.

1. There were times when I thought I could imagine two much more interesting films based on the book than the one I was actually watching.

a) First, a kind of action film that just concentrates on the main plot. I enjoyed the scene in the cave very much and wouldn't have minded a few more intensive scenes like that. In comparison I thought that e.g. the scene when Katie Bell is cursed was unfortunately comical.

b) Second, and I never expected to ever say that because I don't like Draco Malfoy, but I would have liked to watch a character study of him instead. It would be interesting to see how an adolescent tackles such a horrible task, how he struggles with his conscience, how he despaires, how he fights on.

2. I understand that a film never can contain all the details of a book, but I'm never going to understand how the screenwriters of the HP films manage to leave out crucial details that are necessary in order to understand the plot, but scenes that are totally useless for furthering the plot aren't cut. I really could have done without the Quidditch try-out and the game, and for my taste there definitely is too much teenage love.

3. I'm afraid I think that Alan Rickman exaggerates. I know that Snape has a very distinctive way of speaking, but even J K Rowling didn't come up with as many descriptive adverbs for his way of speaking than Alan Rickman brings to life. This clipped voice, and the way he pauses where no one else would ever make a pause. He probably always did it like this, but it never struck me as much as it did now. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that he now has a few more scenes than usual.

4. What's the point of Snape telling Harry, „I'm the Half-Blood Prince“, when the one scene when Snape confronts Harry and that would have shown that Snape actually knows that Harry uses his old potions book isn't included?

5. When I read all that backstory about the Gaunts, I was rather bored by it, but it seems to me now that it contains one very important detail that people don't know about who just watch the film, namely that Voldemort is a Half-Blood himself. Or am I misremembering something, and we knew it before?

6. At the end, when Harry, Hermione and Ron are standing on the tower, Hermione says something along the lines of them accompanying Harry on his quest for the Horcruxes because he wouldn't be able to do it on hois own. But am I not right in saying that during this film Hermione and Ron don't help Harry at all? Are they as passive as that in the book as well?

7. I really liked the moment when Dumbledore first tells Harry that he again has to ask too much of Harry, and then there's the cut to Dumbledore and Snape, and Snape says that Dumbledore is asking too much of him, Snape. It says a lot about Dumbledore.

Life Is Good

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:52:01 GMT

The local multiplex cinema releases Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in English, and I booked tickets for Thursday night.

I had started to doubt they'd show it because tickets for the dubbed German version as well as tickets for the English and German previews on Wednesday night, when I don't have time to go, have been available for a couple of weeks now. But they have proven me wrong. :)

Snape on the Screen

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:42:17 GMT

I created a wallpaper from that recent HBP still of Snape's home at Spinner's End.

The text I used is Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et decorum est", which might not be entirely fitting, but I liked the idea nonetheless.

Be cautious. This fits my screen, which is 1680 by 1050. If you want to resize the wallpaper for your screen, go ahead. If you want me to do it, I'll give it a try but won't promise anything.

Seltenheitswert

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:33:02 GMT

This short interview from my TV magazine, which is about the release of the DVD Bottle Shock, only rehashes what has been said in many interviews about the film. But I thought the fact alone that an interview with AR is printed in a German magazine, which happens very rarely, is worth mentioning.

And they chose a really nice photo. :)

On Labelling Fanfics; or On What and How I Read and Write

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:09:11 GMT

Some of you will have seen all these posts about warnings at metafandom, where people discuss whether yould should warn your readers that your fic contains rape, other kinds of violence, character death etc because these things might trigger people. I do understand why people are in favour of these kinds of warnings, but at the same time I balk at the idea of warning for “art“. I don't really regard fanfics and fanart as art (and of course some are purely pornographic), but it can be only a small step from a fanfic to an original story, and the idea to warn for one of them (in advance) is just alien to me.

But that's not what I really want to talk about. While perusing the posts at metafandom, I came across this post, which intrigued me because it discusses the different things readers and writers expect of fanfics – to be exact what people expect who are (not) interested in genre literature and its usual characteristics.

The post made me see and understand a few things I've never really thought about but which I now realise troubled me in a subconscious way nonetheless: namely the fact that in fandom it's common to label your fics, categorise them (and also rate them) whereas I'm not only not overly fond of warnings but also not of those detailed categories one sees everywhere.

This is because I just don't read with these categories in mind, and I can't be the only one really because in the bookshops and libraries I know books are categorised by genre (*), but nothing more. They are alphabetically arranged so that Jane Austen may end up next to Paul Auster, but that doesn't mean that these books may have anything in common at all apart from the fact that they are fictional books.

If I think of some of the books I read at some point in the past, I wouldn't know how to categorise these novels.

Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
Klaus Mann, Mephisto
Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
Bernhard Schlink, Der Vorleser (The Reader)
E M Forster, Howards End
Ian McEwan, The Cement Garden

I read the books because I liked the summary, because I read an interesting review or even because the book cover looked nice.

That's all there is to it, and as I've finally realised this is also why I have such a hard time labelling the fanfics I wrote. For example, I prefer to read fanfics that are more than just pure romances, and I'm not interested in writing pure romances at all. I don't think of my stories as dramas, h/c fics, angsty fics etc either – neither when I first conceive them nor when they are finished. I might call some of them character studies and some others parodies, but that's all the categorising I honestly could come up with.

I don't mean to prohibit labels, but I also don't find them particularly helpful. For example, I have seen enough posts on the internet where some readers complained that a fic was labelled romance but didn't contain enough of the relevant elements to actually be called a romance. But if the labels are so narrowly defined there's always the danger that fics that closely stick to these labels end up being cookie-cutter fics.

Personally, I just aim for telling an interesting story about interesting characters. So, whenever I posted a fic to some community or archive, I always was very unhappy when I had to decide whether my fic should be labelled as romance, drama, angst, hurt/comfort, friendship etc. I picked some labels because communities and archives ask for them, but I never really thought that they felt right. When posting to my LJ, I often didn't label them. If I did, I came up with labels like "pre-romance" or "pre-smut" although ideally I would have liked to say, "It's just a story,“ and hoped that the summary attracts some readers.

(*) The only genre literature I read are detective novels, but I don't care whether a book is a whodunnit, a thriller or whatever. If the summary sounds good, I'm going to read it.