Films. The Golden Doors, Control and most recently Ratatouille. Since the first two were respectively good and excellent, I'll talk about the third. A bunch of clichés on France, the hackneyed parody of a character split between his ambition and his background: originality was scarce and a lot of good gags were needed to keep this movie afloat. The race on Paris' Quais de Seine between an evil cook on a Vespa and a clever rat holding a precious will in his jaws stood out as a good caricature of races in The Bourne Identity and the like, I liked that. But Les Triplettes de Belleville were borrowed heavily from; Being John Malkovich paved the way for the idea of a human puppet; Paris is inconsistent, with a 1960s or early 70s feel like Bertolucci has recreated in The dreamers and a motorbike from the 90s!
In my opinion, Ratatouille doesn't reach the levels of Ice Age, Monsters, Inc. or Toy Story 2 -- far from that. Therefore, don't lose your time with it and when you have a chance, take a deep breath and dive into the world of Ian Curtis with Anton Corbijn's Control. Photography, sound track and acting are all staggering.
Back in Bethlehem. Given a choice to try Jericho on a particularly hot day and visit again Bethlehem, I chose friendly Bethlehem. Next time.News. Strikes, corruption, scandals: nothing worth mentioning, business as usual.
Society. Usually, the more religious the Jews, the younger they get married, and pressure grows on unmarried boys and girls when they exceed the age at which all their friends got married. Indeed, pressure from the family and the rabbis is one thing, but attending all your friend's weddings and being left alone is also a good incentive.
But - shame on them - they found the solution! Who is "they"? They call themselves "The Swamp" (ha-bitzah). Who says "shame on them"? Not I. To be honest, I have not researched the subject thoroughly enough to write a full report, but this is what I understood. Those who dwell in "The Swamp" are in their 30s and 40s, they are not married and they stick together, to escape the bad influence of those baby-burdened, conventional, former friends! They live in my neighborhood, and they can be easily be spotted: they are those walking with food on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, to go and eat at the place of a "member". If only it were a secret society like and they attacked nurseries at night it would be fun... but no so it's not worth my joining them!
Link. If you read French and want to see the other side of reality, have a look at my friend Cheyenne's blog on Israel, Judaism, Palestine, the Shoah, French politics and more. I had a good laugh and discovered that reality, after all, is not so boring.
1 comment:
Short and simple: the earlier they get married the more boring they are! Of course this is a simple and sometimes stupid summarization but it is true! ...
No, not really. All people who tell you this are only jealous. They would like to be bores. >:-) Evil greetings, Bernd
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