Frankfurt am Main

Our European wanderings have brought us to Frankfurt, which has the duel attraction of being a good city from which to base some touring, and of being the home to our friends, Martin and Arabella. We are happily ensconced in the Hotel Diana, where the staff are friendly and the breakfast is big. We've visited the fine arts museum and the sculpture museum, as well as wandered around town. Yesterday, Martin drove us to Darmstadt, to visit the printing museum therein. Despite Arabella's insistence to the contrary, the museum was not boring but great; I think that I took about 100 pictures, but then I get very excited around moveable type. They have all kinds of machines, most of them operational, and the volunteers who work there are gems. The pressman, Peter, was particularly helpful... he was also excited that we were from Canada. He asked "where are you from?" and I thought he meant the country, but he had already pegged us as Canadian and wanted to know the city, so I told him "Prince George" with all the confidence that he'd have to ask where that is, but he said "Oh, I've been there three times and will be there next summer... I have been through to Prince Rupert, to Alaska, and to Jasper, and next year I am going to go from Vancouver to the Yukon to take the Dempster Highway!" Needless to say, I was impressed. I gave him my card and hope that he calls, so I can return some of his hospitality.

Also in Darmstadt we visited the Mathildenhöhe, which has a gallery and a lot of Jugendstil architecture. It also had a restaurant [thankfully] where we had Swabian specialties, in honour of Martin's heritage. The gallery had a delightful show by Nedko Solakov, a Bulgarian artist. His work consisted of emendations he made to the gallery space; after the last show was taken down, all the cases and pillars as well as labels were left in place, and he mainly wrote on the walls in felt pen, drawing little stick figures, writing satirical text, and making comments about art, artists, art patrons, and life in general. I enjoyed it, especially since the fellow on the cash register tried to warn us that we might not like the show... he even gave us a discount, because he was afraid we'd complain [there was a sign saying that no refunds would be given... I think that they have had a lot of complaints!]... after the show, we assured him that it was great. Oh, besides the gallery show, we were told to go downstairs for the rest of the exhibit, which consisted of taking off our shoes, putting our feet in plastic bags, putting on the available rubber boots, going up a set of stairs, then descending a ladder to an underground, bricked water reservoir, where we waded through a foot of water to the far corner, where there was a desk with a lamp on it, with a sign telling us that he had run out of ideas and perhaps we could offer him one... there were pencils and paper and a box to put the suggestions in... I offered a suggestion, but I am pretty sure that just walking through the water and contemplating his request constituted the art work.

Well, the clock is striking 5:45 [we are in an internet cafe right next to a church] and we are meeting M and A for dinner, soonish. More updates to come...

Vive La France!

A quick note for you, dear reader, in case you are wondering... we are in Strasbourg and have been for a few days; it is Bastille Day, so we anticipate some decent fireworks, tonight.

This is a good city for sightseeing; there is a lot to do, but the main part of the old town is walkable... nothing is too far from anything else. The cathedral here is exceptional; until the one in Cologne was constructed, it was the tallest in Europe (142 m). The centre of the city is all walking streets bordered with lovely half-timbred houses.

The food has been dandy, too; choucroute is the specialty, and we've had spatzle and other french/germanish delights. The wine is fine... I have always been a great fan of Alsatian wine, and it is great to be in the homeland.

Tomorrow, we set sail (or hop the train) for Frankfurt; this has been a bit of a short stay in Strasbourg, but I think that we will return. It will be good to see our friend, Martin, tomorrow, and get to looking at Hessian stuff.

TTFN.

Now, Avignon

Just a quick update for my reader...

We had a great time in Barcelona, then took the train out of Sants Station on the 5th. We got to Avignon, and have been moving pretty quickly ever since. We have seen the Palace of the Popes and the Pont St. Benizet (the bridge from the song) and numerous sights around Avignon. As well, we took a day-trip to Arles, and two tours: one to Pont du Gard and Chateauneuf du Papes; and one to Les Baux, Gordes, and Roussillon. As well as the structured activities, we have been seeing a lot of street theatre, as the Avignon Festival is going on right now. Our meals have been dandy, too. We had one particulary good one at a place called La Fourchette (recommended by the fellow who did our wine-tasting at the Palace of the Popes... a wise investment... he said it was his favourite restaurant in Avignon); I had foie gras, then dorade (one of my favourite fishes), with peach soup for dessert, all washed-down with a lovely rosé... spiffy. It has been action-packed. Tomorrow is our last day here... on Saturday, we go to Strasbourg; it is a long train ride, but there are no changes.

Well, this is pretty much it for now... typing on a French keyboard takes a little getting used to.

Greetings from Barcelona

We (Melinda and I) have been in Barcelona for a week, now... the first few days sightseeing and latterly at The Learning Conference at the University of Barcelona.

We've seen a bunch of good stuff... The Sagrada Familia, the Picasso Museum, The Catalan Museum, The Joan Miro Gallery, The Barcelona City Museum, Park Guell, Mount Tibidabo (and the amusements thereon), as well as a number of other nifty spots.

The conference is going well, as well. It is a "learning" conference, and this definition seems to be wide open, so there are many different, interesting presentations in a number of different streams. As well as learning good stuff, we have managed to make a few friends, including Salah, who is from Bahrain and is currently finishing his doctorate in England. There are people here from all over the world, and it is particularly valuable to hear that the problems we face as educators (students, administration, politics, etc.) are universal, and this serves to make our work in Prince George seem a little less isolated. As well, we are picking up all kinds of good ideas.

On the idea of meeting people from all over, we met two charming young guys from Finland while heading up to Mount Tibidabo, yesterday. Antii and Simo were spending their last day in Barcelona -- Antii because he had to go back to Helsinki to report for his compulsory military service, and Simo because he was going to Malta for language school -- and they deigned to spend the afternoon with us oldsters. We enjoyed the delights of Tibidabo, the view, the churchtower, a flight on Air Tibidabo ( a ride that appears to date from 1928), and just wandering and looking. After our stop on the mount, we went back into Barcelona for dinner at Casa Alfonso, a dandy place for tapas. It was fun hanging out with the gents... they are thoughtful and interesting characters. One particularly funny moment: Melinda was explaining that her interst in Finland included the Moomin books and Antii exclaimed that these were (and perhaps still are) his favourite books, without any sense of self-consciousness about childishness... I hope he keeps his head down while he is out there learning to be a soldier. Finland is in good hands, if these two are any indication of the next generation coming to maturity there.

Well, time to sign off... considering that the one person who regularly might read this is sitting at the computer terminal next to me, this might be a fruitless exercise...

Review #15 – The Necessities of Life

In 1952, an Inuk man goes aboard a hospital ship for a routine chest x-ray; the next thing he knows, he is being sent to Quebec City, to a sanitarium, for treatment. On paper, this sounds disturbing, but, perhaps, necessary; he will die without treatment, won't he? This misses the greater pain of leaving behind his family, his land, and his culture.

The exceptional Natar Ungalaaq plays Tiivii, who finds himself in a Quebec hospital, surrounded by unilingual Quebecois, who greet him with attitudes ranging from compasion to contempt. Ungalaaq is not merely perfect for this part because he looks it, he is perfect because he is a tremendously gifted actor. When he asks, "I am the hunter; who will get meat for my family?" the viewer understands the complexity of his plight. This is compounded by his agony of the implied lack of dignity for everyone involved: "Now my wife will have to beg for food if she and the children are going to survive."

As well as delivering believably complex emotional resposes, Ungalaaq looks great on screen; the camera appears to love him. When we first see Tiivii, he is a vibrantly masculine presense; his long hair, parka, and kamiks combine to define him simply as Hunter. Later, at the sanitorium, stripped of his clothes, his hair, and his dignity, Tiivii appears to have aged 30 years. He is a shrunken, vulnerable shadow, his weakness compounded by an inability to communicate.

Lest you imagine this film to be an unrelenting sob-fest, let me assure you that there is light in this darkness. The audience at our screening laughed out loud in a number of places, and Tiivii has friends... particularly Nurse Carole, played with caring grace by Éveline Gélinas, and Kaki, an Inuk boy [who luckily has learned French!], played with quiet composure by Paul-André Brasseur. During Tiivii's extended stay in Quebec City, these are the people who allow him to live and express himself.

Director Benoît Pilon and cinematographer Michel La Veaux must be praised for the look of the film. In a reversal of one's usual prejudice, Tiivii's homeland in the North appears much warmer and more inviting than the sanitarium and Quebec City, so much further to the South. This subtle visual manipulation lends significant emotional weight, without the risk of maudlin explication.

Sometimes the description "Canadian film" involves a certain pejorative undertone, unfairly, but speaking of qualities of plot and production typical of this nation. In Necessities of Life [Inuujjutiksaq in Inuktitut, and Ce qu'il faut pour vivre in French] one does not find any negatives attached to this quintessentially Canadian production; it is a must-see film, both for the emotionally-charged and historically-revealing plot, as well as for its significantly beautiful presentation.

Happy Human Rights Day

Sixty years ago today, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified by the United Nations; let's all celebrate our freedoms and our rights and think about those who should – but do not – share these fundamental truths of human existence. For a cool view of the text, go to this youtube post... or this one. Here is the link to the official text.

For some "fun", check out this video presentation of The Clash's Know Your Rights... still as strong today as in 1983 when they last performed it together. And here's the immortal Bob Marley performing Get Up Stand Up [stand up for your rights].

Enjoy your rights... today and every day.

Review #14 – The Duchess

An appreciative audience enjoyed the lovely end to the Cinema CNC season on Saturday, our screening of The Duchess. Having said this, I must admit to not being quite as prone to wonderment, as some folks are, at the general spectacle of period-pieces; however, this work won me over, primarily for two reasons: the quality of the acting and the complexity of the plot.

Most historical dramas are judged, primarily, on two elements: how they are filmed, and how they look. The cinematography is The Duchess is handled splendidly by Gyula Pados, a Hungarian whiz, whose name sounded familiar... with the help of IMDB, I found credits for the beautifully haunting Fateless, Lajos Koltai's coming-of-age in Buchenwald story, which I saw at the Toronto Film Festival a couple of years ago, and for Kontroll, a delightfully dark account of ticket inspectors on the Budapest subway [and particularly problematic cinematographically, as most of the action takes place under fluorescent lighting in the myriad tunnels and stations of the subway system].

As far as how this film looks, praise must be lavished on costumer Michael O'Connor, set decorator Rebecca Alleway, and art director Karen Wakefield... their attention to detail and enthusiasm expressed in getting all elements as close to correct as possible is testament to their professionalism.

The story in The Duchess is a simple one: a 16 year-old woman is married-off for position and to provide an heir to the Duke of Devonshire, one of the most powerful men in England. She has been naïve, he is a brute. She breaches her contract by not producing a male child, and he takes on a number of lovers, including her best friend who conveniently lives with them. The story becomes complicated because the Duchess, Georgiana, as played by Keira Knightley, has a brain and has opinions and has desires. That she is the great-great[add more greats as necessary] aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, might have aided in the marketing of this film [the tagline, "there were three people in her marriage" is an anachronistic reference to a comment of Diana's], but one can't help draw some interesting parallels, in-as-much-as one wants to be sympathetic to those considered social betters living their lives as if in a fishbowl.

Georgiana appears to have a keen political sense; the Duke, played by Ralph Fiennes, is the principal benefactor of the Whig party, but he seems as oddly detached from the quotidian aspects of politics as he is from everything else in his life [including his wife and children], except his dogs. She, on the other hand, takes an interest to the point of being a great friend to Charles Fox, a thorn in the side of the monarchy, and lover of Charles Grey, the Earl Grey of tea fame and future Prime Minister [with whom she had a daughter, also making her a direct ancestor of Sarah, Duchess of York... this wasn't played up... I wonder why?].

That the Duke is a cad is a historical truth and a necessary plot device; however, his depiction by Ralph Fiennes is much more complex... Fiennes seems to be having a lot of fun playing this character, even while glowering darkly at the end of the table whose two other occupants are his wife and his in-house lover. Fiennes plays him not for sympathy but for understanding; that this depiction falls short in the attempt is in no way a failure of Fiennes' craft... the life of such a man is just too far off the radar of this middle-class North American [me] for him to be rendered understandable. The power of the performance is in the understatement, in the Duke's seeming lack of understanding of the simplest of human emotions [did he have some form of autism?], and Fiennes carries the movie, when it isn't being carried by Keira Knightley.

The Duchess was noted in her day for her flamboyance and for her style; she was the "It girl" of 18th century London society. Her hair was higher, her hats were bigger, and her dresses were more elaborate than anybody else's. As well, she had an infectiously charming personality, energetically portrayed by the lovely Keira Knightley... to paraphrase one wag in the movie, " the Duke is the only man in England who doesn't love his wife." Knightley probably deserves an Oscar nomination for her work in this film, and not only for risking snapping her lovely slender neck under the weight of the enormous wigs and un-aerodynamic millinery required for the role. She plays Georgiana with charm and intelligence; the Duchess is not just a poor-little-rich-girl, but a fully-formed – and thus effectively stiffled – woman of her epoch.

The plot of The Duchess mixes the personal with the public, the old ideas with the new [of the time] and the dream with the reality, all while giving the audience members credit for being able to come to their own conclusions. This film can be read as a slice-of-life depiction, as a deeply personal story of a difficult marriage, and/or as a deeply charged political statement. Any way you want to look at this film, read it you must... it doesn't do it for you, and this, finally, is the true strength of Saul Dibb's effort.