And the winner is.....

Tonight is the night for the Oscars once more.

For us cinephiles, this is no special evening as it always has been and still is the American Championship of Film - with a few exceptions - with one singular reward for Best Foreign Film.

It's the American Film Industry 'showing off' this night and when it comes to rewards if's often very predictable.

American films are by no means bad but they are seldom innovative and if they are, it's more thanks to those independent directors who still try to develop the Seventh Art into something different, something unique, with a special aesthetics and style, separating them from the mainstream directors whos only goal is to please all and noone - 'all' being the ordinary pop corn-eating film goers; 'noone' being the cinephiles.

Among the nominated films, I'v only seen Avatar and I have written about that film before but on our blog, Aurore's and mine: http://auroregunnar.blogspot.com.

The other nominees are:

The Blind Side, director John Lee Hancock. Seems to be 'the American Dream-Film'. The fantastic country - USA - giving everyone a chance to succeed!?

District 9, director Neill Blomkamp follow the monster-vampire-zoombie-trend we've been living in for a long time now. This trend will probably continue until the 'crisis' in the Western world is over?

An Education, director Lone Scherfig from Denmark, seems to be some kind of Lolita-story but maybe I'm wrong. Might be interesting as Scherfig has made some interesting films before, notably 'Italian for beginners'.

The Hurt Locker, director Kathryn Bigelow, is one of the very talked about films. Very up to date topically. She is somewhat up and down when it comes to her œuvres I think. Strange Days being one of her most interesting films in many ways, also a very 'up to date'-story, topically, at the time.

Inglourious Basterds, director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino can also be a very interesting director but he also has his clear ups and downs. This film seems to be a very mainstream film but I haven't seen it so I shouldn't say.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, director Lee Daniels. A feel good film, depicting the overweight girl being pushed around but in the end becoming 'something' or 'someone'?

A Serious Man, directors Joel and Ethan Coen. This film might be interesting but this statement is only made after reading about it and studying the plot. They have a special aesthetics however the brothers.

Up, director Pete Docter, co-director Bob Peterson. An animated film but I don't know much about it, unfortunately. Fun though that we have an animated film among the best films award. I give the Oscars committee an eulogy for this.

Up in the Air, director Jason Reitman. With George Clooney in one of the roles, this must be a film everyone likes or...? He does have some humoristic talents however, mister Clooney. I was not imprest by Juno by Reitman but this is another film and maybe better. Juno became very appreciated in Sweden and it won the Audience Award at the Stockholm Film Festival in 2007 (besides many other awards around the world).

Then there are all the other prizes but that's another story. Tomorrow we'll see who the winners were.

It's often a great show however, this must be said!

Starts within an hour now.

Herta Müller

Herta Müller, the Nobel Prize laureate in literature 2009.

She was among the authors mentioned as one of many possible candidates.

I haven't read her but I have to do so now of course. Why of course you ask?

Well of no particular reason more than the lust for reading.

A couple of years ago - it started in 1997 - a friend and I decided to read ALL the literature written by ALL the Nobel Prize laureates, from 1901 and forwards.

This is of course an impossible project but we found it rather stimulating anyway.

We started with Dario Fo where we read all that had been published in Sweden at the time and in fact it was not so much as one might have thought. It caused a lot of laugh anyway, reading the sometime absurd stories of Fo!

Then we continued with José Saramago and there, we found a lot more to read and I did very much enjoy Saramago as a writer. He sometimes writes in 'mysterious ways' and it engage the brain.

The fourth author was one we knew quite well, namely Günter Grass. Not only Die Blechtrommel, a book I also saw transposed into a film by Volker Schlöndorff in 1979, a film I appreciated a lot and I have seen it later too.

Next author to be read was Gao Xingjian and at the time only three of his books had been translated into Swedish; Soul Mountain, One Man's Bible and Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather : Stories. My Chinese is unfortunately restricted to 'How do you do' and 'Goodbye'!

We then continued forwardly but also read some of the older laureates.

We had - both of us - read quite a number of authors rewarded the Nobel Prize in literature but Gao was a new experience for me, as well as Kertész, Coetzee, Jelinek, Pamuk and Le Clézio.

The same goes for Herta Müller.

Now my wife and I have decided to start reading the Nobel Prize laureate but this time in French. 

My mother-in-law is in possession of one book by each and every laureate from 1901 til 1982 (if I remember correctly). We started earlier this summer by reading Sully Prudhomme and Journal Intime.

This time my wife proposed to read the books, not chronologically but chosen by style and she suggested we read the poetical writers:

Frédéric Mistral, Giosué Carducci, Erik-Axel Karlfeldt, Gabriela Mistral, Salvatore Quasimodo, Saint-John Perse and Nelly Sachs to begin with.

We will read everyday until the 10th of December.

(Photo of Herta Müller copied from: https://www.larevuedesressources.org/herta-muller-prix-nobel-de-litterature-2009,1349.html)

Doris Lessing

Now we know: Doris Lessing.

In the interview above she concluded that she had won almost all the litterary prizes there are in Europe but not the Nobel Prize. She ment that the Academy had to hurry before she died. I think it's a wonderful reaction and not the "Oh, my God, meeee, I'm-not-worth-it-reaction" one normally gets.

When I talked to people I know, there are few who have read her books and some doesn't even know who she is! This was surprising for me to hear.
Listening to interviews from a book shop in London I heard the reporter talk to people who didn't know who Doris Lessing is. Not even in her native country (I know she was born in Iran or Persia as it was called then).

"That epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny" was the descripiton of her as a writer delivered by Horace Engdahl, Secretary of the Swedish Academy.

She is the eleventh woman to be awarded the Noble Prize in litterature since 1901! This out of 99 laureates!

She is by many regarded as very important for women writers and their possibilities to become and remain authors.
She is also a commentator of current development in the world, seeking to find out what it is to be human.

Look at these links for more information about her:
http://www.dorislessing.org/biography.html

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2007/index.html

Nobel prize in litterature

Today, the 11th of October, The Swedish Academy will present to the world the laureate in litterature for 2007.

If one would try a guess judging from what continents the laureates of the last few years have originated from, I would say that this year it's time for an author from the African, South American or Asian continent.

Will there be a person who deals with questions concerning race, nationality and religious beliefs? Will there perhaps be a poet who is regarded being non-political?

Orhan Pamuk was regarded as a political author even though he didn't regard himself as one.
Elfriede Jelinek is also in many ways a political author and that goes for the dramatist (playwright) Harold Pinter.

Will there be a woman or a man? We will see at 1 pm.

(Photo Swedish Academy copied from: http://www.ullamontan.com/foton/portratt_sv_forfattare/svenska_akademien_2_l.jpg)

(Photo Orham Pamuk copied from: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/authors/2007/05/29/pamuk460.jpg)

(Photo Elfriede Jelinek copied from: http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krtpe6piS11qzn0deo1_400.jpg)
(Photo Harold Pinter copied from: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45327000/jpg/_45327315_pinter7_bbc.jpg)