I love Bill Murray. I like “A Christmas Carol”. The combination of both is my favourite Christmas movie, Scrooged.

If you don’t know it, go and watch it!

 

 

What is YOUR favourite Christmas movie?

Here are my finds for this week…

• Steampunk and the Architecture of Idealism, article at FantasyMagazine.com
• Instructions on how to open a new book
• 50 things I learned from the movies
• I registered with DailyLit, a service that delivers fiction in instalments by email or RSS.
• In October there will be another Literary Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Judith at Leeswammes’ Blog. Make sure you check it out!
• BethFish is hosting a great international giveaway at the moment to celebrate her three year blogging anniversary
• Willa at Wicked Wonderful Words has a great cover comparing post about Wuthering Heights. Check out the absolutely great cover that tries to sell Wuthering Heights with a sticker announcing this was “Bella and Edward’s favourite book”! Emily Brontë is turning over in her grave right now.

Paris in July is in full swing already and quite a few people have blogged about it.  My first post is not about a book, but a movie I saw the other day.

The film (US title: “You are so beautiful”) is about a French farmer who, after his wife dies, goes to Bucharest in order to find a young and healthy wife who could help him with work on his farm, but he gets more than what he bargained for.

This sounded like a really fun film and was very much looking forward to watching it. It won a César for best first film so I didn’t think I could go wrong with it.

I actually liked it quite a bit – at first. The actors were very good, the first half (dealing with the death of the farmer’s wife and his quest for a new wife) was quite funny. The film title is taken from the short standard speech that seems to be obligatory for all prospect wives. The guy hears this sentence umpteen times while he is in Bucharest, since all the girls want to get on the good side of him by flattering him. The woman he eventually chooses to go back to France with him is very nice, down to Earth and very likeable.

Now comes my problem with the film that made me not finish it. The woman turns out to have a little daughter that she left behind in Bucharest with her family. She sacrificed the life with her daughter for a life in France with the hope of being able to bring her daughter there at a later date. But the farmer doesn’t know about the little girl and already expressed a dislike of children in general.

Somehow this depressing topic didn’t go with my idea of a comedy at all. The woman was in tears whenever she called her daughter from a public phone and the situation rather got to her – who can blame her?

This is where I lost interest. I am generally not interested in films with kids in them and I was not planning on watching a social drama either. This is what the film for me turned out to be. So I stopped watching it.

As I said before, I’m not much of a TV watcher, but I love watching TV series on DVD. I am very interested in ancient Rome, so when my husband came along with the HBO series “Rome” I was excited. The series is by no means historically correct, but it is great entertainment nevertheless. I wish they would continue it. Just because the republic is dead it doesn’t mean the story is over, does it?

The following is a scene from season 2, a wonderful fight between Marcus Antonius and Octavian, taking place shortly after Caesar’s death.

 

This is the death of Cicero who gets killed by Pullo, one of the two main fictional characters. I chose this one specifically because Cicero is played by David Bamber you will all know from his wonderful performance as Mr. Collins.

 

Yeah, a lot of people end up dead, but look at the way they die! Here it is Servilia, Brutus’ mother. Marcus Antonius is right, what an exit!

I am not much of a TV person. Actually I never watch TV. If I watch something it’s always a movie or a TV series on DVD. I never remember what is on at what time, so having it on DVD is better for me.

I like watching English detective series and one of my favourites used to be Morse. Amazingly enough its spin-off Lewis is even better. The reason: the new sidekick. Morse’s sidekick was Lewis, which was nice, but Lewis’ sidekick is Hathaway. And Hathaway is gorgeous. Ah, his voice!

And then the beautiful Oxford location! And it’s not some action filled crap, but quiet and civilized (well, most of the time). Perfect! If you want to spend a cozy evening at home with an mystery, go and watch Lewis – and Hathaway!

This is a nice video with scenes with Lewis and Hathaway to “Ruby” by the Kaiser Chiefs.

 

And here is a trailer for an episode of season 2 with a Germany related plot. As an aside, a question: Why do they never cast Germans for playing Germans? As soon as the supposed Germans start to speak German it makes me cringe.

I’ll never get finished with my read-a-thon  list this way, but so what. This is fun. On Gaby’s blog Oh my Books! I found a link to a new meme Top 5 Sundays at Larissa’s Life. Since I love lists I couldn’t resist. This week it’s five favourite movie soundtracks.

Image by wools on flickr.

Let’s see. My five favourite movie soundtracks in no particular order…

• Pulp Fiction
  The songs fit the film perfectly.
• Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
  The same here. Guy Ritchie could not have chosen better songs for it.
• Kill Bill vol.1
  The 5678s with their “Woohoo” alone deserve this. Wonderful. Tarantino has a knack for this.
• Once upon a time in the West
  It conveys just the right atmoshpere
• Manhattan
  One of my favourite films. Gershwin goes with it like nothing else.

What are your favourite movie soundtracks?

If you like movies and food you will probably know this film already – if you don’t know it, it’s about time. I’m speaking about “Tampopo”, a film by Japanese director Juzo Itami. It is one of my favourite films, it is brilliant, full of humor, mouth-watering, simply wonderful.

It is the story about the quest for the perfect noodle soup, it is the story about what’s important in life, it is a romance, a comedy, a tragedy, a gangster film, it is everything a film can be. There is a main plot, to which we always come back, and a number of side stories – all food related – that all blend into each other. It’s perfect. I don’t know the number of times I have seen it, but I will never tire of it. The trailer below is in Japanese, but the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

I can’t resist showing you my favourite scene of the movie, if not my favourite movie scene ever. It is one of the short side stories of the film. Don’t worry, this one has subtitles, .

 

If you have never seen “Tampopo”, go and watch it!

Today I’m talking about films made from books. The kind that works. At least they work for me.

• The Lord of the Rings trilogy
  I don’t know how often I have seen it, I’ve seen it in the movie theatre and at home, the regular version, the director’s cut, with background comments of about every person thinkable and the making of. Love it.
• Misery
  About the only film after a Stephen King book that works, at least of the ones I have seen. Kathy Bates alone is worth watching it.
• Pride & Prejudice, the BBC mini series
  Well, Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy. I don’t need to say more, do I?
• Why didn’t they ask Evans? 
  A lot of Agatha Christie books have been turned into films that work, but I especially like this one. No Poirot, no Miss Marple, not even the Beresford couple, but two other sleuths. I could watch it again and again for its nice atmosphere, the landscape, the fashion, the clever plot and Leigh Lawson as Roger Bassington-ffrench (what a name!).
• Young Frankenstein
  I know, it is not exactly like the book (not quite), but it is so funny. Come on, who doesn’t like the scene with Abby Normal?
• Bram’ Stoker’s Dracula
  You know, the one with sexy Gary Oldman. My husband keeps telling me that Dracula is NOT a romance, but I don’t believe him.
• A room with a view
  The first film I saw Daniel Day Lewis in. Loved him. Oh, and the Italian setting and Julian Sands, of course. And the gorgeous Helena Bonham-Carter. James Ivory can do no wrong.
• A clockwork orange
  Malcolm McDowell as Alex – perfect.
• Dangerous Liaisons
  The book is great and so is the film. The cast is incredible. I loved John Malkovich as the Conte de Valmont.
• The unbearable lightness of being
  Book by Milan Kundera and Daniel Day Lewis in the film. This had to work for me. And it did.
• The Princess Bride
  Another Rob Reiner film. Who does not love The Princess Bride? And Cary Elwes as Wesley. Did you know that William Goldman who wrote the Princess Bride (book and screenplay) also wrote the screenplay for Misery?
• Rosemary’s Baby
  I loved the atmosphere in that building and Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet. Exactly like I pictured her when I read the book.
• The name of the rose
  Impressive castle, great cast, wonderful story. I think this was the first time I saw Christian Slater. But the character I remember best was Ron Perlman as Salvatore.

To see what other Thursday 13ers blogged about, go here.