lördag, juni 19, 2010

Bernadotte 1810-2010

This year there is another bicentennial concerning mostly Sweden but to some extent also France, namely the 200 years of the Bernadotte dynasty on the throne.

I'm not going to write an extensive historic review because this is of course not my domaine but for those not knowing much about Sweden and the royal family this can be said:

The French revolution in 1789 put an end to the class society, earlier being the most common societal structure both in France and Sweden.
This meant that people from 'lower classes' were given career opportunities and this made it possible for a person like Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the son of a small town lawyer, to rise in the ranks within the military.

He became one of the foremost marshals of France and a close ally to Napoléon and on the same time somewhat of a rival.

He is said to have had bigger ambitions than this and among his friends and allies there were those who in him saw the new emperor after Napoléon Bonaparte.

However Bernadotte had powerful enemies, namely Klemens von Metternich and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand! They opposed the idea of having a parvenu as emperor of France.

Napoléon appointed him Prince of Ponte Corvo in 1806 but this didn't please neither him nor the people of Ponte Corvo, so it seems.

The Swedish military Carl Otto Mörner knew about this formidable marshal Bernadotte and decided to - as we would say today perhaps - headhunt him in order to become the king of Sweden.
Why?

In Sweden king Gustav IV Adolf had been suspended in 1809 and his uncle Karl XIII was appointed king. He was however 61 years old and had no children. This made the questions about the throne aire somewhat 'delicate'.
In the autumn 1809 Karl XIII had a stroke and became more or less unable to govern the country.
The Swedish Parliament chose for crown prince the Danish prince Kristian August and he arrived early in 1810, taking the name Karl August and was adopted by Karl XIII.

He adapted very quickly and became very popular but unfortunately he also had a stroke during a military manouevre and died!
Fredrik Kristian of Augustenborg - brother-in-law to the Danish king Fredrik VI - now became the foremost candidate to become the succesor on the Swedish throne.

It's however at this point that the Swedish lieutenant Carl Otto Mörner started making plans, in order to get a French marshal on the throne.

Mörner was in Paris as a courier for the Swedish government and his prime mission was to obtain approval from Napoléon to the coronation of Fredrik Kristian of Augustenborg.
Napoléon did however mention another person, namely count Bonde, an heir to earlier kings in Sweden. Maybe he would be suitable as king of Sweden, the emperor suggested.

Mörner didn't settle for this. Instead he started inquiring among a number of French marshals in order to find out if they would like to become the king of Sweden.
General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte displayed great enthusiasm but when Mörner came back to Sweden Karl XIII was displeased with his mission and he wasn't allowed to participate in the Swedish Parliament. He was even put in house arrest.

Meantime Bernadotte got the approval by Napoléon but at the same time one had decided making Fredrik Kristian of Augustenborg the king of Sweden.

A French vice consul by the name of Fournier came to Sweden and began, what we would call, a PR campaign, promoting Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and the 21st of August 1810, Bernadotte was chosen to be crown prince, on one condition:
He had to convert and accept the Evangelical-Lutheran confession, the official religion of Sweden then as now.

So he did and the rest is history as one say.

This year Sweden is celebrating this event but also the wedding of the Crown Princess Victoria, marrying Daniel Westling.
This wedding took place today the 19th of June, the same date as the marriage between her father and mother king Carl Gustaf (Carl XVI Gustaf) and queen Silvia (Sommerlath) in 1976.

For the 'French connection' it's perhaps important to note that Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was born in Pau in France.

Trivia: Crown Princess Victoria is born the 14th of July, the National Day of France!
Trivia: Jean Baptiste Bernadotte is said to have had a tatoo on his body where one could read:
"Mort aux rois", that is to say: "Death to the kings".



(Painting Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte copied from: http://www.consulat-suede.fr/news_img/Bernadotte.jpg)

(Photo king Carl XVI Gustaf copied from: http://www.angeloplessas.com/blog/uploaded_images/king_carl_xvi_gustaf_1146407355-773986.jpg)

fredag, juni 18, 2010

José Saramago dead


This is an author I discovered when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998.
I had heard his name before but never read him.

Together with a friend I had begun a project aiming at reading all the œuvres by all the Nobel laureates(!), the works by Saramago became one of my main literary readings that year.
I found him interesting as he's dealing with questions about human behaviour, about courage and lack of it, about personal choices implying going your own way or lack of personal choices - also a way of choosing - about those who are able to see through the surface of what seems to be going on in society and seeing beyond and below the superficial.
All this embedded in a poetic, symbolic language and symbolic actions pointing towards a more truthful or honest interpretation of the world and human behaviour.

The books I've read:

Journey to Portugal (Viagem a Portugal)
Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento)
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis)
The Stone Raft (A Jangada de Pedra)
The History of the Siege of Lisbon (História do Cerco de Lisboa)
The Gospel according to Jesus Christ (O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo)
Blindness (Ensaio sobre a Cegueira)
All the Names (Todos os Nomes)
The Tale of the Unknown Island (O Conto da Ilha Desconhecida)
The Cave (A Caverna)
Seeing (Ensaio sobre a Lucidez)

Maybe I've read one or two more but these are the ones I remember right now.

I can recommend reading Saramago and one of his most interesting books is The Blindness where - in short - those who see are blind and those who are blind see clearly.
It's much more complicated and poetically expressed in his book of course but why not read it for yourself.

söndag, juni 13, 2010

This Gun for Hire


This film takes place in San Francisco, where the blackmailer Albert Baker (Frank Ferguson) and his girlfriend are killed by a remorseless hit man called Raven (Alan Ladd).
Raven, in turn, is double-crossed by his anonymous employer, Willard Gates (Laird Cregar), who pays him with marked bills. During the exchange, an acquaintance of Gates greets him, revealing his identity to Raven. Gates later reports to Los Angeles Police Detective Michael Crane (Robert Preston) that the money was stolen from the company where he works, Nitro Chemical. Raven learns he has been set up and decides to get revenge.
Gates, who also owns a Los Angeles nightclub, hires Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake), a singer, unaware that she is Crane's girlfriend.
Gates and Ellen board a train for Los Angeles but on that train we also find Raven.
By chance, the only empty seat Raven can find is beside Ellen. The next morning, Gates find them sleeping side by side. He wires ahead. Raven spots the waiting police and forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him escape. He is about to kill her in an abandoned building when they are interrupted by some workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. She tries to contact her boyfriend, but he is traveling back to Los Angeles.
Later on Raven and Ellen become acquainted and they trade information. On the same time she appeal to Raven not to kill Gates but in the end when Raven makes it to Gates company he forces himself in and coerce Raven to take him to Brewster (Tully Marshall), the mastermind behind a plan to sell a formula to poison gas to the Japanese, they all die.

The film is a somewhat 'classic' (this hackneyed word) 'film noir' and as such a very intriguing and suspensful piece of work, displaying most ingredients being an essential part of a film of this kind.
Good actors and good acting with - as often - some clichés incorporated in the plot but this is almost something one take for granted and maybe something we see more clearly today than at the time when 'This Gun for Hire' was made.
Director: Frank Tuttle.

torsdag, juni 10, 2010

Michael Clayton


Michael Clayton is the name of the film and the main character (George Clooney) who works as a sort of "wheeler-dealer" at a law firm, where he earlier worked as an attorney.
He arranges so that the traces of 'bad behaviour' from clients they work with, disappears.

In this case the film opens with Clayton leaving a poker game wanting to take his car home. Later on - though he's not in it - it explodes. Obviously someone wants to kill him.
He is also in debt to a loan shark to cover his brother's depts, a brother having severe problems with alcohol in the same way as Clayton having problems with his gambling, leaving him almost broke.

Flashback four days earlier when the company is struck by a 'scandal' when one of their foremost lawyers, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), during negotiations concerning a pesticide case, strips himself naked and bursts out in anger, also having a manic-depressive problem, now being in his manic phase.
However, the grounds for his anger is justified.
Edens is put to defend a company's use of pesticides, a usage having caused serious problems for many people around the industrial plant.
He is now fed up with this and during his manic phase his aggressions towards the company, himself and the law firm, stir up strong emotions, not least since he has a good relation with a woman willing to testify against the company in question.
Clayton is ordained to deal with his colleague Arthur, a person he very much likes and admires.
Before Edens have the time to put forward the documents he has gathered, pointing at the negligence from the companies side, causing this catastrophy, he is found dead.
We as spectators know that he is killed but Clayton and the others doesn't know that - yet.
The day Clayton's car blows up, he starts to wonder who is behind the attempt to kill him and if this person also killed Edens.
As he is regarded being dead, he sees a opportunity to act.

This film was well produced, the acting is good and even though it's some violence in the film, it's more the chill from the person behind all this - Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) - that makes the spectator upset, I guess.
The film asks questions about the moral - or rather lack of moral - within multinational companies crossing corpse to reach their goals; about the individual responsibility in every major organisation and how to deal with etc.
These questions are by no means new but always relevant, not only the last few years during the economical so called crisis and its origins.

tisdag, juni 08, 2010

Jussi Björling and Amor ti vieta

söndag, juni 06, 2010

Marvin Isley dead

fredag, juni 04, 2010

Pierre Etaix


REVOIR LES FILMS DE PIERRE ETAIX...
envoyé par iletaixunefois. - Films courts et animations.

Pierre Etaix is a french actor and director born in 1928 but not so well known outside France, I think.

As a result of copyright problems (if I've understood this correctly) his films has not been screened for a long time but during this years Film Festival in Cannes, they screened his film 'Le Grand Amour'.
Now the news reaches us that one officially will release all his films and this beginning the 7th of July this year (2010).
In total it's five feature films and three short films (one never earlier released) that are under restoration.
Responsible for this work is François Ede under the 'auspice' of Pierre Etaix.

This work is in itself unique - according to the responsible - as this is the first time one restore an entire work by a director at one and the same time.
This is due to a collaboration between Pierre Etaix, Studio 37 (owner of the negatives) and the foundations Technicolor pour le Patrimoine du Cinéma and Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma.
These films will also be available on DVD, at least in France and this in connection to this release.

onsdag, juni 02, 2010

Caroline Link 46

I've seen 'Nirgendwo in Afrika' and found it very interesting, with an interesting theme and good direction and acting. Link hasn't done much after this but I'm looking forward to what will come.

Jenseits der Stille (1996)




Simon Staho 38

Staho is a Danish director and a very promising and interesting one.
One of his most interesting films - of those I've seen - is 'Dag och Natt' ('Day and Night', 2004).
Happy Birthday!

Vildspor (1998)




Kärlekens krigare (Warriors of Love) (2009)


Warriors of Love trailer
envoyé par blankytwo. - Court métrage, documentaire et bande annonce.

tisdag, juni 01, 2010

Dr Who and the Daleks


This is the story about the excentric scientist Dr Who (Peter Cushing), an inventor who (yes I'm sorry using that word but...) has managed creating a time machine, disguised as a police telephone booth - the so called 'Tardis'.
He invites his grand daughters - Barbara (Jennie Linden) and Susan (Roberta Tovey) - and Barbara's boyfriend Ian (Roy Castle) to travel with him in time and space, ending up on the planet 'Skalo'.
There they meet a peaceful people called the 'Thals' who are threaten by the other inhabitants of this planet, the robotic mutants called the 'Daleks'.
The 'Daleks' are planning a nuclear attack against the 'Thals' and this is something Dr Who, his grand daughters and Ian can't allow them to do, wherefore they try to stop them, risking their lives.

It's very obvious that this film (built on a TV-series) uses H.G. Wells The Time Machine as the basis for the story, it more or less copies this classic work.
There are traces of other works by Wells but for those of you who have read The Time Machine, you will see that the 'Thals' resembles the 'Eloi' and the 'Daleks' the 'Morlocks'.
Well, it's a film that in all it's amateurish acting and staging makes you laugh.
If you are looking for a film that in a more realistic and thrilling way depicts a future on another planet, I recommend you to choose another film!

Aurore wanted to look at it as she is fond of Peter Cushing.