|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 1, 2021 20:00:10 GMT
On the news tonight, there was a major report about tiny homes in France -- used for students, single mothers and displaced workers in all sorts of places. And everybody loves them, albeit not for their entire lives.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 2, 2021 4:47:34 GMT
Sorry, I don't know who manufactures these new tiny houses, which are much smaller than the dimensions you gave, huckle. Most of them are only 10m² or 12m², about half as big as the converted shipping container dwellings. In France, they use the term "tiny house" in English for some reason. More chic, I guess. This site shows a lot of examples: www.matinyhouse.com/
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Jun 2, 2021 6:06:45 GMT
There are several manufacturers of those little places in this area. None are called "tiny houses" though but have names like Greenbox. They are being marketed as places to put in a garden as extra housing or a space for working from home. I have seen several being installed here in town but certainly not as permanent housing.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 2, 2021 19:36:41 GMT
Bjd, if you look at the documentary I posted on the previous page, you'll see that the "tiny homes" are indeed storage sheds -- but storage sheds put to a worthy use. The documentary also explains why the "houses" have to be sheds.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 10, 2021 9:22:35 GMT
As an antidote to all of the goodness and nonstop hugging in Nomadland, today I went to see the French documentary The Last Hillbilly this morning. It was filmed over a period of 5 years after a French couple of filmmakers encountered a Kentucky hillbilly who was intrigued when he heard them speaking French in a place that sees no tourists, much less foreign ones. They struck up a relationship and he allowed them to film him and his family and his cousins and anybody else who was hanging around. The kids can play with a dead fish they found all afternoon, and the guy and his cousin pull a decomposing calf out of the duck pond with their bare hands -- no gloves required. Everybody carries the ugly mongrel dogs around constantly, and sometimes the dogs look at them adoringly and sometimes they just wish to be put back on the ground. Brushing and wiping down the mounted deer heads is done with more love than caring for the children.
I totally recognised these people from my childhood. You only had to drive five miles back from the coast to enter this world. Our house was one mile from the coast, but I still went to elementary school with barefoot children dressed in rags, the same clothes every single day. I also remember a girl who came to school smelling like smoke one morning and who told everyone "our trailer burned last night" but she was smiling like it was an exciting new event.
I don't know anyone besides me who goes to see this type of documentary, and yet there were at least 10 people at the 8:30 a.m. show.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 27, 2021 12:45:21 GMT
Les Indes galantes is an opera dating from 1735 by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was a high point of the fashion of baroque orientalism, when people wanted to see exotic scenes of faraway places. You couldn't really count on any sort of realism or serious research because Rameau's Indies were a mixture of Turkey, Persia and Peru with a few North American redskins thrown in. The opera was divided into four scenes (it lasted more than three and a half hours) --
1. The generous Turk. Osman has taken Emilie as his slave after she was captured by pirates. She refuses all of his advances because she loves Valère, who has never stopped searching for her. Valère gets shipwrecked on the coast, conveniently right next to the Osman's gardens. Osman is so touched by the joy of Emilie and Valère finding each other that he frees everybody. Much dancing ensues. 2. The Incas of Peru. Sun priest Huascar has the hots for Princess Phani but she is in love with a Spanish officer. Huascar comes up with some sort of strange plot to win her over, but then the volcano erupts and the Spaniard Don Carlos gets the advantage of this. Much dancing ensues. 3. The Persian festival. Persion prince Tacmas is in love with Zaïre. Ali has a garden and is in love with Fatime. The two guys talk about what men talk about (sex). But it's the flower festival and there are a lot of disguises. Fatime is disguised as a Polish slave (!), for example. But everybody recognises everybody else in time for love to bloom. Much dancing ensues. 4. The savages. The Indians have lost a battle to the Franco-Spanish army. The French and the Spanish officers are both in love with an Indian princess, Zima. Zima rejects them both and gets it on with her true love Adario. The two officers don't mind after all because a peace treaty has just been signed with the Indians, and that's what really counts because "conquest brings peace." Much dancing ensues.
Sounds totally outlandish, right? And yet this opera continues to be staged from time to time because it gives so many opportunities to exploit wild staging ideas.
In 2019, it was staged at the Opera Bastille using urban dancers as the various ethnic groups while keeping the traditional singers and costumes for the others. It received an unprecedented standing ovation from the public and some extremely negative reviews from the critics (also a few good ones). After all, opera critics are generally not the most progressive people in the world. "Why would I pay 200 euros to see street performers to whom I wouldn't even give 20 cents if I saw them in the street?" That was one of the more memorable lines.
Anyway, today I went to see Indes Galantes, the documentary that was made about the rehearsals and the final product. I'm just sorry that they did not add the entire opera to the last part (maybe not all three and a half hours of it). But at least you get to see how shipwrecks are handled on stage, not to mention volcanic eruptions.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 27, 2021 12:50:21 GMT
Here are a couple of excerpts of the opera itself. It is interesting to see how urban dancers can adapt to music from 1725.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Jun 27, 2021 14:52:11 GMT
That's great. If they had done something like that when I was young, perhaps I would have learned to appreciate opera.
And the dancers remind me of a performance I saw some years ago with Merce Cunningham's dance company mixed in with break dancers. The young dancers were great, Cunningham should have stuck to choreography -- he would barely walk.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jun 29, 2021 4:41:50 GMT
We had our eyes opened tonite by THE PEOPLE VS. AGENT ORANGE, a documentary that covers 40+ years of battles against the chemical companies (Dow mainly) that developed and marketed the herbicides that were used by the US military to defoliate Vietnam, and later the US Forest Service to kill brush to allow tree planting in clear cuts. There are two parallel stories interwoven in this film, each with a heroine who would not give up or give in. I am just gob-smacked that I knew so little about this, especially the use in US forests, and the devastating health impacts it has caused. www.imdb.com/title/tt13185402/
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Aug 21, 2021 17:31:04 GMT
today watched a documentary about children abandoned by their parents (well, single mothers in all those cases, but in the comments people pointed out that fathers are just as responsible) who left to go to west germany in autumn 1989. it made me cry. (i watched it on the tv stations website, but on youtube there is an option to turn on english subtitles, so i am posting that link in case anyone is interested - the translation is not great, but i guess it is enough to understand what is being said) ...
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Aug 23, 2021 21:08:31 GMT
That looks extremely interesting, Rikita -- sad, but interesting. Thank you for posting it, as I will absolutely watch it.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 1, 2021 15:39:53 GMT
The French documentary Gogo might be the very best movie that I have seen this year. It is about a 94 year old Kenyan woman who decided to finally go to primary school when she noticed that some of her great grandchildren (of which she had more than 50) were not attending school. So she rounded up 6 of them and they all went to school together, a boarding school, so they were all housed at the same place. Gogo tries really hard, but she is almost blind and is not always successful, although a lot of the students help her.
When she is scolded by the teacher for not learning her lesson properly, it is exactly the same as if she were 6 years old. But she also has the same joy as the other students when they go on a field trip for a week to Maasi Mara. They see all of the amazing animals, which seems to imply that there are areas in Kenya that do not have giraffes, lions and the other amazing animals. There is one scene in the place where they are staying for the night where the animal noises are loud and the children hide under the blanket. There is also a visit to a Maasi village, which is just as strange and exotic to the schoolchildren as it is to European visitors. But Gogo goes to talk to the old women who tell her that, no, the Maasi girls do not suddenly have children and leave school like in other parts of Kenya.
It is a totally fascinating source of information about the country. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a trailer with English subtitles yet.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Sept 1, 2021 16:53:10 GMT
In the early 2000s, the Kenyan government made primary schooling free. Before that, many children couldn't attend school because their parents couldn't pay the fees. I remember the story of an old man who took the opportunity to finally attend school. What was amusing was that even though he was about 80, he wore short pants like the other primary school boys. He claimed he had to do so while he was at school.
When I went to Kenya in 2003, my son was teaching there in a village school. He used to wear shorts when the weather was warm and all the villagers thought that was very funny.
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 1, 2021 17:44:31 GMT
We've had a lot on the beeb about 9/11. We don't usually watch because it feels a bit ghoulish...however we DID watch a documerary about what happened around the President, George Bush, FBI, the President's inner circle on the day with lots of them reflecting on the decisions they made at the time. There were hundreds of photographs taken on Airforce 1, at the air bases and in the Whitehouse bunker...is everything documented this way (photographs)? It looks very intrusive.
I'm not a massive fan of Bush but he interviewed well.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Sept 4, 2021 11:29:25 GMT
now watched a documentary about "Wochenkrippen" (week nurseries - nurseries that existed from the 1950s to the early 1990s in the GDR, where parents brought the children early monday morning and picked them back up friday evening or saturday afternoon). my aunt (aunt by marriage) was in one from the age of six weeks to three years. and my uncle spent a few weeks in one while the rest of the family went on vacation - my grandma thought that a journey abroad is too stressful for a nine month old, and only later on realized that spending several weeks with strangers was much more stressful for him ... unfortunately can't find this one with english subtitles.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 12, 2021 15:26:20 GMT
So many depressing things have happened, both recently and 20 years ago. So today I went to see the documentary 9 Days in Raqqa. Raqqa was the capital of the Islamic Caliphat of Daech/ISIS in Syria. After the attack of ISIS on Paris in 2015, the West finally reacted and reconquered Raqqa in 2017 at a huge cost. 80% of the city was destroyed and the US admitted that it used more artillery and bombs than at any time since the Vietnam war.
But the people returned (population 800,000) and began to put the city back together with new leaders. The mayor is Leila Mustapha, age 30, a Sunni Kurd who was trained as a civil engineer. The French documentary team had 9 days to follow her around and watch her at work. She gives orders for the road works and electrical connections, meets with all of the ethnic groups, the medical staff and the cultural institutions. And she seems quite respected although there are times when the group leave hastily under the hostile eyes of bearded men.
The musical score by Ibrahim Maalouf is discreet but effective. I found it all very uplifting but was sorry to be the one and only spectator in the cinema.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 4, 2021 21:30:26 GMT
Notturno is another amazing film from what is currently the most tormented area in the world. Italian director Gianfranco Rosi takes us on a trip long the border of Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon where ordinary people are trying to get by even though the world has been destroyed around them. A duck hunter continues to take his skiff through the swamp (did not see any ducks, just his decoys), Kurdish female soldiers patrol against Daech and huddle around pitiful little stoves to try to keep warm at night. A group of mothers visits an abandoned prison where their sons were tortured and killed by the Turks. A woman lives in one room with her 7 children and there is a daily ritual of spreading out the mattresses and then putting them away every day. Worst of all, Yezidi children who escaped Daech draw what they saw (lots of meat cleavers and severed hands and heads) and talk about it with a school psychologist. And the very nicest place shown in the movie is a psychiatric hospital where one of the doctors is preparing a show with some of the patients about the history of the region -- monarchies, republics, corruption, wars and death. Life goes on.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 11, 2021 19:18:23 GMT
The French series Apocalypse covers both the first and second world wars, and it is riveting. Luckily, it exists in an English language version. I see my mother and my grandparents when I watch the episodes.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Oct 11, 2021 23:57:53 GMT
I worked on Apocalypse in a minor role (translation and research).
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 15, 2021 13:46:02 GMT
Leur Algérie (Their Algeria) is an extremely poignant observation by Lina Soualem of her grandparents in Thiers, France. After living together for 62 years, her grandparents divorced and moved into apartments directly across from each other. But Aïcha still brings meals to Mabrouk every day, makes sure he eats, and does his dishes. Mabrouk says almost nothing. He takes the bus to the Carrefour shopping gallery every day and sits on a bench or goes to the café there, from about 9 am to 4 pm. Aïcha is still full of life, but can't answer any questions regarding any sort of intimacy. But she finally tells Lina that she was married at age 14 ("and three months"). For those three months, a strange man seemed to follow her everywhere when she ran errands, went to the market or did anything else. She never went to school because it never crossed her parents' mind to send a girl to school. After three months, she found the strange man at her parents' home one day. It was the father of her future husband who had been making sure that she was pure. And what about the wedding? Whenever Aïcha is asked a question like that, she bursts out laughing and covers her face. Lina presses her. How did they officially meet? What did she think of her husband? "I didn't understand anything that was happening. They just put us in a room and it happened." Very romantic.
Thiers is/was the cutlery capital of France. All of the factories have moved out, but it is still full of shops that sell every kind of knife. Mabrouk worked in one of those places.
Their son is Zinedine Soualem, a famous French actor. His parents are not impressed, but Aïcha is still very proud of her son. (Lina's mother is internationally famous Hiam Abbass, but no mention is made of her -- I'm sure that her parents had already divorced when this documentary was made.). Zinedine is a stalwart in films by Cédric Klapisch and other directors. He just appears as an ordinary loving son/father from time to time, although he takes his mother to see him in a play in Paris. She absolutely glows to see him applauded by "French" people. The French don't hate Algerians after all.
The father is dead now.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Oct 20, 2021 21:18:51 GMT
Just watching a fantastic and terrifying programme on BBC2 about the Capitol riot Jan 6. It features some of the most brain dead people in the world coupled with the worst security,
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Dec 28, 2021 17:01:09 GMT
I thought that the Chinese documentary Copyright Van Gogh (English title: China's Van Goghs) was extraordinary, but it is already about 5 years old, so it took a long time to be released in cinemas in France. Anybody who has travelled through Asia as proably seen all of the art workshops that copy Western paintings for tourists. I know that throughout Indochina, you see these shops everywhere because they are open fronted and you can see a half dozen people making copies of the Mona Lisa or other famous paintings. This documentary concerns a Chinese workshop specialised in Van Gogh paintings. The employees work 12-14 hours a day, have their meals there and sleep on the floor at night. They are proudo of their work, at least the talented ones are. There is a scene where one of the workers has made a crummy copy and is scolded. They have to keep doing the painting again and again until it is perfect, and this was already the 3rd failure. The guy wants to leave but in the end he stays, probably because he needs the work. Who buys this stuff? Obviously plenty of people do because this little place has already made 300,000 copies. Anyway, the documentary concentrates on the owner, Xiaoyong Zhao, who has been doing this for more than 20 years. Sunflowers, Starry Night, Self portrait, etc. Frankly, these copies look very good. After all of this time, he would like to see the original paintings since the workshop only has art books and photographs on which to base their work. There are family debates about the expense of the trip (too expensive!), but their principal customer in Amsterdam has told them that he will provide all accommodations and meals if they can get the plane tickets. And so the decision is made -- they get passports and Schengen visas and go to Europe. Amsterdam both delights and disappoints them. "I thought it was a big city. Big cities have a lot of skyscrapers. But this is very cute." The Dutch person is happy to greet them. He had made a number of trips to China but had not been there for 4 years. However, his art store is a great disappointment for them. "I thought it would be an elegant art gallery. This is just a tourist shop." And indeed it is. I was disappointed to see it, too. Here is their website: www.amsterdamoilpaintings.com/ Anyway, it doesn't take long for them to calculate that the paintings are being sold for 800% more than what they are being paid. But they visit the Van Gogh museum and nearly go into Stendhal Syndrome shock, which continues on their trip to France to see Vincent's hospital in Arles and his grave in Auvers. They are gobsmacked to see the café with the yellow awning in Arles, which hasn't changed (or at least been recreated). At the cemetery in Auvers, lacking incense sticks they use Chinese cigarettes to make a little Buddhist shrine on the tomb and they pray. Back home in China, they have clearly forgotten all of the disappointing moments as they describe all of the wonders that they saw. But they are also inspired to create some original art instead of only making copies of Van Gogh. Xiaoyong Zhao paints a portrait of an old woman (perhaps his mother), also a little alleyway and some other things. They all look like Van Gogh painted them! Life goes on -- thousands and thousands more Van Gogh copies to make... This shows a lot more of the art industry there.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Jan 31, 2022 21:23:10 GMT
Someone just sent this to me. I’ve only watched the first few minutes but it looked interesting. I’ll watch the rest tonight. I can’t remember if there is a thread about this aquarium. If so, this could be moved if appropriate.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 1, 2022 3:58:12 GMT
Video blocked in France.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Feb 1, 2022 4:50:16 GMT
That’s kind of crazy! Sorry to hear it. I’ll look for something else. It’s a very interesting video. The new part of the aquarium seems an amazing feat of engineering.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 1, 2022 5:01:26 GMT
I was hoping you might reveal the subject of it.
|
|
|
Post by htmb on Feb 1, 2022 5:07:40 GMT
What? You can’t read my mind? It’s about the building of the large exhibition at NAUSICAÁ. The video provides a behind the scenes look at the construction of the largest aquarium in Europe. It opened three years ago. Perhaps you did a report, Kerouac? I haven’t searched.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 1, 2022 5:29:20 GMT
I went to NAUSICAA once, but that was much longer than 3 years ago. I thought it was great and keep planning to go back, being careful to avoid any school holidays in France, Great Britain or Belgium.
I just looked it up and it opened in 1991. It was already huge then. The extension opened in 2018.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Feb 19, 2022 13:40:40 GMT
video blocked in germany, too, btw.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Feb 22, 2022 4:31:37 GMT
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS is a slow paced, cinematically gorgeous slice of life film about the geriatric men and their dogs who hunt the coveted and exceedingly expensive Alba truffle in the Italian Piedmont. Some of the “best” footage came from cameras on the dogs.
Not my words: “ Deep in the forests of Northern Italy resides the prized white Alba truffle. Desired by the wealthiest patrons in the world, it remains a pungent but rarified mystery. It cannot be cultivated or found, even by the most resourceful of modern excavators. The only souls on Earth who know how to dig it up are a tiny circle of canines and their silver-haired human companions-Italian elders with walking sticks and devilish senses of humor-who only scour for the truffle at night so as not to leave any clues for others. Still, this small enclave of hunters induces a feverish buying market that spans the globe. With unprecedented access to the elusive truffle hunters, filmmakers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw (The Last Race, 2018 Sundance Film Festival) follow this maddening cycle from the forest floor to the pristine restaurant plate. With a wily and absurdist flare, The Truffle Hunters captures a precarious ritual constantly threatened by greed and outside influences but still somehow protected by those clever, tight-lipped few who know how to unearth the magic within nature.”
|
|