Le Château de Chenonceau

Français (English below) :

Aujourd'hui nous avons visité ce château magnifique, Le Château de Chenonceau, aussi surnommé Château des dames. 

Pourquoi château des dames ? À cause de toutes les femmes qui ont eu la charge et qui ont été impliquées dans la construction, la reconstruction ou la  rénovation de ce château, des femmes qui étaient également des propriétaires ou co-propriétaires du château.

Pour vous donner une image de qui je parle, je peux mentionner quelques noms de ces femmes, pas tout à fait inconnues :

Katherine Briçonnet, qui a édifié le château en 1513, Diane de Poitiers qui a enrichi le château, Catherine de Médicis qui l'a agrandi. Louise de Lorraine faisait du château un lieu de recueillement, Louise Dupin a sauvé le château et Madame Pelouze l'a métamorphosé. 

Ci-dessous quelques photos et si vous cliquez sur le nom du château ci-dessus, vous tomberez sur le site internet.  

English:

Today we visited this magnificent castle, Le Château de Chenonceau (The Chenonceau Castle), also called The Castle of the Ladies.

Why castle of the ladies? Because of all the women who have been in charge of or implicated in the construction, the reconstruction or renovation of this castle, women also being owners or co-owners of the castle.

To give you an idea of whom I speak, I can mention a couple of names of some, not totally unknown, women:

Katherine Briçonnet, who built the castle in 1513, Diane De Poitiers who enrichened the castle, Catherine de Médicis who enlarged it. Louise de Lorraine made it a place of contemplation, Louise Dupin who saved the castle and Madame Pelouze who totally transformed it.

Below some photos and if you click on the name of the castle above, you will find yourself at the internet site of the very same castle.

Le Sphinx à l'entrée du château

The Sphinx by the entrance to the castle

La fin de la grande allée d'honneur
The end of the honorary colonnade

Le Château avec la Tour des Marques
The Castle with the Marques Tower



Façade Orientale avec Le Cher
The Oriental facade with the river Cher





Jardin de Catherine de Médicis
The garden of Catherine de Médicis

Une partie de la Salle des Gardes
A part of the Guardians or Wardens Hall

La Chapelle
The Chapel

Lit à baldaquin du XVIIe siècle
A canopy bed from the 17th Century

Manteau supérieur de la cheminée avec les 
initiales de Catherine de Médicis et Henri II
dans la chambre de Diane de Poitiers
The upper chimneypiece with the initials of 
Catherine de' Médici and Henry II of France
in the room of Diane de Poitiers.

Catherine de Médicis. Portrait par Piat Sauvage
accroché sur la cheminée.
Catherine de' Medici by the painter Piat Sauvage
hanging on the upper part of the chimney

La chambre et le lit de Catherine de Médicis
The room and bed of Catherine de Médicis

La cheminée dans le Salon Louis XIV
The chimney in the parlor of Louis XIV

Plaque commémorative dans la grande Galerie
du château, en mémoire des blessés de la 
Première Guerre mondiale, soignée au château grâce
aux Gaston et Simonne Menier.
Commemorative plaque in the Big Galery of
the castle, in memory of the wounded during
the First World War, nursed at the castle thanks to
Gaston and Simonne Menier.

La Galerie du Rez-de-Chaussée
The Galery on the ground floor

Fenêtre sur cour ? Non, pas tout à fait
Rear Window? Not, not quite.

Les cuisines
The kitchens

Le potager. Plus important que des jardins de fleurs à l'époque
The vegetable garden. More important than flower gardens at the time

The Norwegian International Film Festival, Haugesund

Between the 17th and 24th of August we are visiting the Norwegian town Haugesund for the above film festival.

Aurore visited this festival in 2000, when she saw 63 films in 10 days. We'll see how many films we will be able to see this time but Aurore probably more than me as she has got a press ackreditation, giving her a chance to see films before they are released publically - on the condition that she does not write about them on her blog dedicated to Scandinavian film.

As being one of the - maximum - 5 most knowledgable about Scandinavian film in her generation, her blog - www.cineaster.net - is one of the best if you want to learn something about this subject. She uses both older and recent films in order to explore and explain the development within the film making in "the North".

You will be able to follow her during her time in Haugesund and if the technology works, she will be broadcasting direct from the Amanda Awards tomorrow, Saturday.

The Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund

Norwegian blond young women great us welcome to the film festival with the Norwegian flag in their arms and dressed in their local traditional clothings.

Two young men taking photos of 

the young women or pretending being journalists?

A statue depicting the Amanda Award in a bigger format.

The name "Amanda" is derived from a song, 
or sea shanty, titled "Amanda fra (from) Haugesund".
Supposedly the song in turn refers to a real woman 
from the 1920s a single mother who made a living 
from selling liquor to sailors during the prohibition period.

The entrance to the Festiviteten, "The Festivity"

where the prize ceremony is held.

Norwegian TV and radio, Norsk rikskringkasting AS

The Norwegian actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, being 

a member of the cast in the film Hodejegerne, (in English Headhunters). 
In the leading role in this film we also can see Aksel Hennie 
an actor we had the pleasure see "live" at the third 
Norwegian Film Festival in Stockholm in 2009, 
when he and part of the crue introduced the film Max Manus.

This is another very special artist called Hariton Pushwagner.

He is a painter, categorized as pop artist. He has had

a very turbulent life, being a drug addict and having

lived as a homeless among other things.

He was recognized as young but a lot of events in 

his life lead him astray but now he is back and

has had the pleasure being "rediscovered" at the age 

of almost 70, today he is almost 71 years old.

We are great fans of him and I (Gunnar) adopted him as my father,
if only in my imagination. I didn't tell Pushwagner.

Horse Feathers

Another Marx-film (and again, not about Karl) with monsieur Moustache, Groucho Marx, alias Quincy Adams Wagstaff as the new president of a college called Huxley College.
Zeppo plays his son Frank and Harpo, and Chico are doing the roles as "icemen".

In this film we get to follow the competition between two colleges, Darwin and Huxley Colleges, when they meet in a game of football.
Wagstaff (Groucho) is convinced by his son (Zeppo) to recruit professional players so that they will be able to win but unfortunately the "icemen" Baravelli (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo) becomes involved in the planning and in the game.
In order to be able to participate in the game Baravelli and Pinky has to enroll as students, creating a somewhat turbulent situation at the College to say the least.

In the end they win the game - of course - and the film contains one of the most famous football-related scenes within the movies, a rather absurd solution to the question how to win a football game.
The usual fast-talking jokes from, not least Groucho and Chico, are the standing ingredients and then we have some real slap-stick scenes, not least created by Chico and Harpo as "icemen"!

Some one (or two)-liners:

"Professor Wagstaff: Tomorrow we start tearing down the college.
The Professors: But, Professor, where will the students sleep?
Professor Wagstaff: Where they always sleep: in the classroom."

"Frank: Dad, let me congratulate you. I'm proud to be your son.
Professor Wagstaff: My boy, you took the words right out of my mouth. I'm ashamed to be your father. You're a disgrace to our family name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is possible."

"Professor Wagstaff: You know you've got the brain of a four-year old child, and I bet he was glad to get rid of it."

Mifune

This film by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and Anders Thomas Jensen, is the third one being directed according to the, nowadays, worldwide known concept of "Dogme 95".
It also became an immensely popular film, not only in Denmark but in many countries all over the world.

It tells the story about Kresten (Anders W. Berthelsen), a man having left his rural roots and become a Young Urban Professional, getting married to his boss's daughter, Claire (Sofie Gråbøl) and looking forward to a prospering career within his father-in-law's company.
During their honeymoon, he receives a message that his father has died. He now has to visit the parental home in order to sort things out.
His wife wants to go with him but he doesn't want her to come, as he has'nt told her all about his family and their life, a life he is somewhat ashamed of displaying, as the spoiled brat he has become.
One of his family members is the mentally retarded brother Rud (Jesper Asholt), being one of the 'secrets' of his family, a secret kept away from his wife and her family.

When arriving at his parents home he finds his father's corpse on a table with a cloth over it and his brother under the very same table, afraid and in a shock.
From now on starts a hide-and-go-seek-play with not only his brother but also his wife and her family.

In order to get the house in a better state than when he came, he hires a woman - Liva (Iben Hjejle) - as a "housemaid". The woman in question is a prostitute who in turns tries to run away from someone who stalks her, calling her in the middle of the nights and threatening her.

When she arrives she takes on her job, although she finds the conditions rather horrendous.
On the same time she becomes somewhat fascinated by Kersten and his brother.
When her kid brother Bjarke (Emil Tarding) is being released from a reform school, she invites him to live with her and the others on the farm.
At first her kid brother makes fun of Kerstens brother Rud and finds them ridiculous but after a while, he changes his attitude.
All of a sudden Kerstens wife turns up and things becomes even more complicated, on the same time opening up for a revaluation of his life.
To complicate everything Liva's female friends, visit the farm, convinced that Kersten is a psychopath, trying to kill Liva!
And who is Mifune?

This is an interesting story about different characters, their interaction or lack of interaction, the danger in hiding your past and regarding the "upper class"-life being more valuable than the less economically abundant.
It's also a film, in a way, discussing the danger in regarding others in a condescending way, just because they don't "fit in" a socially regulated life style.
Good acting - as so often with Danish actors - with a somewhat to foreseeable story and not as dramatic as "Festen" ("The Celebration") or "Idioterne" ("The Idiots").
It's a tragicomic story, about - among other things - friendship and love where there seem to be none of these and the importance of looking at your life from different angles.

Cars 2

If your familiar with 'Cars' (not in general but the film in particular) you've already met 'Lightning McQueen' (Owen Wilson) and his friend 'Tow Mater' (Larry the Cable Guy) and their aim to become the best racing team in the world from their starting point in Radiator Springs (what a lovely name for a town!).

In this second part, their are invited by Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard) to participate in three races on two continents, in order to promote Axelrods new 'biofuel'.

After some hesitation they accept the challenge but this time they are being involved in an international spy affair, where a member of the British Intelligence, Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) is trying to find and eliminate the opponents to this biofuel, before they succeed in sabotaging all the races in which McQueen particpates.

This was a film getting rather lukewarm reviews when it was released but we thought it rather entertaining - as a James Bond-drama starring cars. Comparing with the first film, it was quite an acceptable sequel. You will find a lot of references to different action movies and it's a film filled with the major ingredients from such films.
Listening to Michael Caine's sonorous, 'stiff upper lip'-British accent-voice of course made Aurore growl!

(Poster 'Lightning McQueen' copied from: http://www.photos14.com/wp-content/photos/Cars-2.jpg)

(Poster 'Mater' copied from: http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/images/cars_2_disney_pixar_mater_john_lasseter_plot_synopsis_summary.jpg)

(Poster 'Finn McMissile' copied from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGI8HuJPMeThyphenhyphenK0C5hnmvfUSjlYfa6TTin3kr0gv8jWFF6keKDeBH2uKWfM-x98YrG8uo-QaK8bj_1w9xzxLOuGtGIoZDtQKfNors6F51Y2NcsxhqICoyE-hDZTKy0G-CS8zz/s1600/cars2+-+finn+mcmissile.jpg)

Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre

The title might indicate that this is a documentary about the whale hunters on Iceland and their savage way of hunting these animals and thereby also a critique against Norway and Japan but no, it's not.

This is a not so succesful horror movie with a few glimpse of a more elaborated ideas, never being succesfully implemented in this œuvre.
The film makers - with director Júlíus Kemp at the front - is marketing this film as being made in "the same tradition as 'The Hills Have Eyes' and 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'".
It might be in the same tradition superficially seen, if meaning a horror movie with psychopaths and strange characters but not with the same twist as theses films and then you might envisage the quality.

In this film we meet a group of people of different origin and characters realizing a whale watching trip on a not so stable boat with a not so professional captain, being somewhat of a psychopath too.
On the way out, problem occurs and the captain leaves the - if not sinking - fragile vessel.
In their dispair the people left behind are finally being picked up by another boat with a "fishbilly" (as they are called on IMDb)-family who "takes care of them" in their own way.
Of course the director uses a clichéd image of a family of this kind: A "mad" mother who is in charge of everything and two sons: A "mentally retarded" one and a violent, psychpathic and strong one who - in cooperation with his brother and mother - uses his force, harpoons and other fishing tools to dispose of this group of people being 'rescued'.
A lot of blood is shed but the most disturbing scene is - in my opinion - a rape scene where a young woman is raped by the captain who fled the boat.

Well, we've seen much better horror movies and the blend of to many other film in this genre, makes it to a failed eclectic piece of work.

(Poster copied from:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/424px-RWWM_teaser.jpg)

(Poster 2 copied from: http://www.horrortalk.com/images/news/Harpoon//harpoon_cover.jpg)

Gymnaslærer Pedersen/Comrade Pedersen

Hans Petter Moland, the director of this film, has made some very interesting and personal films. Besides this one I - Gunnar - have seen 'Secondløitnanten' ('The last Lieutenant') and 'En ganske snill mann' ('A Somewhat Gentle Man'), both films with interesting male characters reflecting over their lives, choices and responsibilities. Aurore liked them too.
On the contrary I don't recall having seen 'Aberdeen' with - among others - Stellan Skarsgård and Charlotte Rampling. Aurore has seen it and she was not at all impressed, but thought it rather boring and insipid.

This film is an adaptation of the book 'Gymnaslærer Pedersens beretning om den store politiske vekkelsen som har hjemsøkt vårt land' writen by Dag Solstad.

It tells the story about the young teacher Knut Pedersen (Kristoffer Joner) who becomes entangled in the political games at the time, that is to say the marxist-leninist political movement, being - as we all know - a general ideological basis for many people in Europe and elsewhere during the 1960's and -70's.

The film begins with him being a rather conservative high school teacher, living a conventional life with a wife and a child.
He meets the ideologically fundamentalistic Nina Skåtøy (Ane Dahl Torp) who he falls in love with. This love affair leads to him leaving his wife and their child, in order to be able to work for 'a higher good', within the framework of ideals he never before had embraced.

It's in a way a very humoristic and perspicacious film, making fun of the often extremely naive but on the same time idealistic and fundamentalistic left wing movements at the time (not much have changed up til this day).

If this was the intention in Solstad's book or not, that I don't know. Solstad was himself engaged in the left-wing movement.

The 'real reason' for Knut's engagement is first and foremost to be able to come close to Nina in order to get her into bed. This is of course hidden behind highly pronounced political pamphlets, crying out the solidarity with people all over the world and at the same time - as with mosts fundamentalistic movements - not assuming a profound responsibility for this engagement.
Even if there were individuals really believing that they were engaged in a radical change in society, they were at the same time blind for the fact that the ideological basis, in countries where it had been applied, had lead to dictatorships and hardship (to put it mildly) for 'dissidents'.
Often the engagement for 'the cause' was combined with a moral reproach of others, not sharing their views on life.
As with most ideologically fundamentalistic movements, the difference between the verbal standpoints and the real life is abysmal.

The film circled a bit to much around the sex life between the two main protagonists (as sex on film often is extremely uninteresting, boring and not at all sensual, even if that is the ambition) but the reality basis for this story is in my/our opinion very accurate and therefore - as I wrote above - truely humorous.

(Poster copied from0: http://sharetv.org/images/posters/comrade_pedersen_2006.jpg)

(Photo copied from: http://cf1.imgobject.com/backdrops/3f6/4bc97c7f017a3c57fe0393f6/gymnaslrer-pedersen-poster.jpg)