JENNIFER CONNELLY TURNS 40

As an homage to her talent and beauty and been today her 40th birthday, here is my dearest Jennifer Connelly when she was a guest in the prestigious James Lipton's, Inside Actor's Studio (Season eleven, episode five) aired November, 7th, 2004.

For some reason I cannot embed the third part. So, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vum6f7aHgQ4&feature=related

"LECTORES" DE VARGAS LLOSA

A esto es a lo que me refería cuando decía que muchos de los que lo celebran ni lo han leido. Qué cuesta decir que no se lo ha leido. Falta de modestia e ignorancia es una combinación que alcanza notas ridículas o patéticas cuando los interrogados son congresistas.En fin, nunca es tarde no? O de repente si...

GUELYLANDSONG #10: LEUCHTTURM, by NENA

My favorite female pop singer ever. The Queen of German Pop Rock, Nena Kerner (Nickname that means "Little Girl" and got because when being a kid of three she was in Spain on vacation with her parents) show her talent and the love of her public in her native Germany.

The video you are about to watch comes from this german DVD from 2003:

From the album "Nena" (1983) this song "Leuchtturm" (Lighthouse), one of my many favorites of her. Here, she is reunited many years after with old band members Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Jürgen Dehmel and Rolf Brendel (the missing Carlo Karges, died in 2002).

"Leuchtturm" lyrics:
So wie es ist und so wie du bist
bin ich immer wieder fr dich da!
Ich lass dich nie mehr alleine-
das ist dir hoffentlich klar
In diesem Augenblick hat die Liebe uns genommen
und ist ohne uns zu fragen mit uns raus aufs Meer geschwommen
und ich lieg in deinen Armen und die Wellen wolln uns gerne tragen...
Und ich fhl mich so wie du
und du fhlst dich so wie ich-
Wir sind da wo wir sind denn was anderes wolln wir nicht
Ich geh mit dir wohin du willst-
auch bis ans Ende dieser Welt
am Meer, am Strand, wo Sonne scheint-
will ich mit dir alleine sein
(Refrain)
Denn so wie es ist und so wie du bist
bin ich immer wieder fr dich da
Ich lass dich nie mehr alleine-
das ist dir hoffentlich klar
Mit dir bin ich zu Hause angekommen ohne Ziel
was wir brauchen sind wir beide-
davon brauchen wir so viel
und wir geben uns neue Namen
und ich schlaf so gerne mit dir ein
Und ich fhl mich so wie du
und du fhlst dich so wie ich
Und wir kssen uns bis immer
denn was anderes wolln wir nicht
Ich geh mit dir wohin du willst
auch bis ans Ende dieser Welt
am Meer, am Strand, wo Sonne scheint-
will ich mit dir alleine sein
(Refrain)
Denn so wie es ist und so wie du bist
bin ich immer wieder fr dich da
ich lass dich nie mehr alleine
das ist dir hoffentlich klar.
And Here for the curious english speaking fan the 80's version with english subtitles:

Auf Wiedersehen!! 

EMPIRE SAYS GOOD BYE TO GOOD OLD T.C.

In it's last issue (number 258, December,2010) Empire (THE movie magazine) mentions the late Tony Curtis "ability to give good quote". Here we echo some of the wisdoms of the actor "known for his acting talent and eye for the ladies..."

RICHARD DAWKINS TALKING ABOUT THE GOD DELUSSION

The great Richard Dawkins explaining what still too many people finds so "difficult" to understand and sadly many after this clean and using , his favorite adjective, "elegant" clarification they still won't.

OKURIBITU (DEPARTURES)

Like salmons, our lives are a journey to death. Actually like any living being. And death has different meanings for us, depending on our personal beliefs. But is too often a sad dark helpless thing. Okuribitu (Yojiro Takita, 2008) lights a little candle about the subject.

Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) is a cello player that has a sudden change in his carrier. His music carrier die. And the next new one has to do with death and the mourning of it. Is not an easy one. Almost a taboo. Many won't understand it (at the beginning not even himself) including his, other, perfect wife, just because the subject is not close or experienced. But someone has to do it. In fact, someone has always been doing it. We just don't think much about it.

Life, death, eating, love, stones and fishes sounds almost like a morbid combination. But, if we follow Daigo's journey through this beautiful movie (and I don't say good I say beautiful) we gonna have an almost mystic experience.

MARCO AURELIO DENEGRI Y LA CULTURA

Marco Aurelio Denegri (Lima, 1938), uno de los grandes intelectuales latinoamericanos contemporaneos, es el conductor del programa televisivo peruano "La Función de la Palabra" que en su edición del 29 de mayo del 2009 discute y comenta con el periodista y catedrático Juan Gargurevich (Mollendo, 1934) una interesante conferencia de Mario Vargas Llosa que el novel Nobel denominó "Civilización del Espectáculo" y que hace unos cinco meses vimos aquí, sobre el concepto de cultura y su democratización, el sensasionalismo de la prensa y la decadencia e involución de el desarrollo intelectual contemporaneo.

THE LOST PYRAMIDS OF CARAL

Egypt, mesopotamia, India, China, Perú and Central America are the six craddles of civilization in the world. Almost 5,000 years old this peruvian city answer us one of the greatest mysteries in archeology: the origins of cities and civilization. But there is a hidden message from the past that only humble science can reveal. And it seems we got it.

Caral, in Perú

MANHATTAN (1979)

Woody "The Woodster" Allen, at the top of his game, declares his love to the city of his life in the opening of this masterpiece (he has more then one, you see): Manhattan (1979).

We have three arts Literature, Music and Photography (or cinematography, if you prefer) combined like a Holy Trinity in one: Cinema.

"Chapter one. " 

"He adored New York City.  

He idolised it all out of proportion. "

Uh, no. Make that "He romanticised it

 all out of proportion. "

"To him,  no matter what the season was,

this was still a town 

that existed in black and white 

and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin. "

 Uh... no. Let me start this over. 

"Chapter one. "  

"He was too romantic about Manhattan,

  as he was about everything else. " 

"He thrived on the hustle, bustle

 of the crowds and the traffic. "

  "To him, New York meant beautiful women

  and street-smart guys

 who seemed to know all the angles. " 

 Ah, no, corny. Too corny for a man of my taste.

   Let me... try and make it more profound. 

  "Chapter one. 

He adored New York City. "

  "To him, it was a metaphor for the decay

 of contemporary culture. " 

 "The same lack of individual integrity

 to cause so many people to take the easy way out...

 was rapidly turning the town of his dreams..." 

 No, it's gonna be too preachy.

 I mean, you know let's  face it, 

I wanna sell some books here.

   "Chapter one.

 He adored New York City,  although to him it was a metaphor

 for the decay of contemporary culture. "

"How hard it was to exist in a society desensitised

 by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage..." 

 Too angry. I don't wanna be angry.

   "Chapter one. "

  "He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. "

  "Behind his black-rimmed glasses

 was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. "

  I love this.

"New York was his town and it always would be. "

"I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER..."

Two brothers, dockworker Charlie Malloy (Rod Steiger) and ex-boxer and soon to be heroic mob informer Terry Malloy (Brando), on the back sit of a cab talk about the fraternal support the younger never got. This inmortal scene full of gravitas, shame and disillusion belongs to On the Waterfront from 1954. Directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. How great words delivered with royal acting can pass on fancy stuff (look at the poor background of the taxi) How art don't need to be necessarily expensive. Brando can break your tears in a matter of seconds...

So i guess you gotta do all what you can for your dear ones or someday they can face you with the sad truth even in the back of a cheap cab.

Charlie:

(Gently)
Look, kid, I - how much you weigh, son?
(Nostalgically)
 When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds you were beautiful. You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast.

Terry:

It wasn't him, Charley, it was you.
(Years of abuse crying out in him)
 Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, "Kid, this ain't your night. We're going for the price on Wilson." You remember that? "This ain't your night"! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! 
(More and more aroused as he relives it)
You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money. 

Charlie:

(Defensively)
Oh I had some bets down for you. You saw some money. 

Terry:

(agonized)
You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley. 

(Charlie takes a  long, fond look at Terry. then he glances quickly out the window)

BOLLYWOOD GOLD

From the dramatic film Devdas (Sanjai Leela Bhansali, 2002) one of the most luxurious numbers i can recall (and I've seen some). The sublime beauty of Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit in the Dola Re Dola number. It doesn't get better then this but if you find some, let me know it. Namaste!

THE OWNERS OF THE BALL (THE MANY BALLS)

Dear Guelylander, take your sit and grab the POP!corn because in the next few minutes you gonna witness a match between the "kids" that own "the toys". Nuclear capability, is the name of the game and the match started in 1945 goes until 1998. The only inconvenient with this"game" is that smells horrible and is real. Click the arrow in the middle of the map and let the game begins! But Hey! Hey! As the fair players advice us everyday "Keep recycling cos is good for the enviroment!"

I wish the counter of visits on this blog could blink like this!

THE BEGUILED

Tagline: One man... seven women... in a strange house!

Yes. A strange and a bit unknown kind of cult beast as well. The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971) is a sometimes disturbing, complex, psycological american gothic thriller (can't spare adjectives here) but above all a fascinating movie. We have incest, sexual frustration and anxiety, naked girls, coming of age, bisexuality but is not a "french" , "swedish" or "european" kind of flick.

Our man Clint took a risky step as a movie star on this film, in a year that was great for him (Play misty for me and Dirty Harry are from 1971 as well) and plays a bastard (the kind that considers a twelve year old girl, "thirteen in September", "Old enough for kisses" as long as she is distracted and doesn't give him away to the soldiers he is hidding from. That kind of bastard).

The story is set in the last period of the Civil War and he is yankee soldier that takes refuge in a school for girls from the South. He is wounded, they take pitty, nurse him and hide him. Almost all the women from the headmistress and the slave to the youngest girl fall for him and fight for his attentions. After all, he looks just like Clint Eastwood at 41 .

I won't spoil so much of the narrative but let's just say that he find his paradise and hell in the same place. But, as usual, hell seems to be longer. This story has the mixtured smell of such a scents like the works of Poe, Ambrose Bierce and Tennessee Williams bottled in a one intoxicating result. Somehow our character is trying to save his skin and even if we don't aprove him we don't know what would we do in his situation. Or maybe was the booze, judge by yourself. But he is a manipulative lecherous blue beard nevertheless and you cannot play with so many hearts at the same time under the same roof. Or can you? I mean, this is no facebook this is The South you blue belly yank bastard!

JOSE ALBERTO GUTIERREZ Y LA FUERZA DE LAS PALABRAS

Qué buena idéa y qué gran proyecto. Los amantes de los libros y la lectura no necesitariamos grandes inversiones para desarrollar una gran labor... si fueramos como él. Los recoge en su camión de basura mientras trabaja y su esposa los limpia, pega o repara. Una biblioteca para niños pobres creada con miles de libros encontrados en la basura. La biblioteca apropiadamente bautizada La Fuerza de las Palabras" está ubicada en la sala de su casa en el barrio de La Nueva Gloria en la localidad de San Cristobal Sur en Bogotá y José Alberto Gutierrez es el nombre de este inteligente patrono de la cultura colombiana. Un abrazo desde el corazón de Guelyland a Gutierrez, héroe de la divulgación cultural.

MAGALY SOLIER, SOBRE AMADOR

Magaly Solier (Ayacucho, 1986) es una actriz peruana poseedora de un encanto y frescura que no he visto jamás. Y al yo haber nacido también en el Perú, verla y escucharla me hace sentir que parte de su modo de ser es también muy mío. Se experimenta una agradable sensación al sentirse identificado con élla.

Aquí en el programa de Buenafuente con el realizador de "Amador", Fernando León de Araona que élla protagoniza..

VARGAS LLOSA

Era sólo cuestión de tiempo...desde hace veinte años. Cada que pasaba, por estas días uno chequeaba el nuevo Nobel de Literatura y salía otro escritor. Bueno, el próximo tal vez. Yo confiaba en que la gris Academia Sueca a su ves confiaba en la salud y la edad de Varguitas. La única preocupación era que se nos fuera antes de tiempo y ahi si que me molestaba con los cuatrojos suecos.

Poniéndome a pensar no deja de parecerme un poco raro que a tres grandes de la literatura que me gusta (los otros dos serían Borges y García Marquez) los haya visto por primera vez en las páginas de revistas "femeninas" como Vanidades , de esas que las mamás latinoamericanas de los setentas solían leer en casa o en la peluquería. Mi vieja lo describía como un "escritor buenmozo". Mi viejo, en cambio y por esos años, aun no le perdonaba su rechazo a la Revolución Cubana o que fuera "sionista" pero luego se "amistaría" con él desde que Varguitas pusiera de moda el jogging en el Perú via un artículo de Caretas en 1981 y mi papá se echara a correr por el Campo de Marte y El Golf por el resto de sus dias. Secretamente siempre lo admiro, es mi teoría. Bueno, "Ahí fue"!.

Luego, en las clases de lenguaje del colegio uno lo leería (generalmente el cuento Dia domingo o algún fragmento de La Ciudad y los perros) porque uno no debía leerlo sinó hasta cierta edad que cuando uno pescaba un libro suyo y lo hojeaba se daba cuenta que no era "para niños"especialmente.

He de confesar mi sorpresa cuando abrí la primera página de La ciudad y los perros y vi mención de "el Jaguar"? Cuando seguí leyendo y me di cuenta que no se trataba del felino querido lo dejé y seguí de largo sin volver a el sinó hasta ya bien entrada la adolescencia.

Fué la película de F. Lombardi basada en la novela La ciudad y los perros del mismo título la que me tuvo que sacar de mi letargo en vargasllosiología. De relleno aquí pongo los DVD's que tengo de parte de su obra llevada al cine:

Luego vendrían las lecturas de Los cachorros y Los jefes, La tía Julia y el escribidor, Conversación en La Catedral, Historia de Mayta, El pez en el agua, La fiesta del Chivo, Cartas a un joven novelista y ese variadísimo etcetera que forma la variada, infatigable e incompleta obra de nuestro autor.

Lo positivo del Nobel es que muchos (que no lo leen desde el colegio o "la academia") ahora si sentirán la irreprimible curiosidad y empezarán a hacerlo para saber de que escribe el "compatriota". Y seguro, los más, que ya lo habíamos disfrutado haremos lo posible por no perdernos de lo poco o mucho que nos falte por conocer de su técnico e inteligente universo literario.

Justamente, y no hace más de unas semanas, adquirí un lindo ejemplar de el que debe ser su libro más raro o difícil de conseguir (para mi suerte y no la del despistado vendedor). Acaso el santo grial de la bibliofilia vargasllosiana, "García Márquez historia de un deicidio", jamás vuelto a reeditar en volumen individual. A que no lo tienen. No es verdad?

Si hay algo mas que admiro en Vargas Llosa fuera de su, hoy más que nunca, reconocido talento literario es su consecuencia. Su creer en lo que crée y su despliegue de libertad en cambiar sus ideas cuando estas evolucionan. El no aferrarse dogmáticamente a cosas en las que ya no confía. Su franqueza y transparencia que tantos amigos y enemigos le han ganado y perdido alrededor del mundo. Un Individuo en el mejor sentido de la palabra.

Asi funciona el Nobel de Literatura:

Electores: Miembros de la Academia sueca (18 integrantes) y de las correspondientes organismos literarios, ganadores anteriores y profesores de literatura pueden nominar candidatos hasta el 31 de enero.

Los candidatos: son elegidos en primavera en una lista de unos 15-20 nombres, que luego reducen a cinco nombres durante el verano. Se trata de un proceso de selección que se mantiene en secreto desde hace 50 años.

Votación: El comité del Nobel lee las obras de los candidatos durante el verano. El 6 de octubre elige al ganador del premio de la Academia. Más de la mitad debe votar al ganador.

Fallo: El ganador se da a conocer el 7 de octubre a las 13.00 (hora local), por el secretario de la entidad, Peter Englund, que asumió el cargo el año pasado, tras la salida de Horace Engdahl.

El ganador: recibe 10 millones de coronas suecas (un millón de euros). El galardón se entrega durante una ceremonia en la Sala de Conciertos de Estocolmo el 10 de diciembre.

RIP KEVIN McCARTHY (1914-2010)

I know you know the chiseled jaw face but most probably you can't get the name. One of the most versatile and popular character actors in Hollywood. Even my mother use to point me "there he is!" everytime he showed up in a movie (Death of a Salesman, The Misfits, The Prize, Piranha, The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie) or any teve series (virtually any of them) but of course his masterpiece was and it always will be the popular and original science fiction The Invation of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956).

Other and generally, as Danny Peary says in his book Cult Movie Stars: "his characters look good in suits, drink martinis, seem Ivy League-educated".

I only found out today that he passed away last September ,11. So here this little tribute from the heart of Guelyland, because "They are here!"

FAY WRAY

The delicate and sexy beauty of Vina Fay Wray, born in Alberta (Canada) on September, 15 1907 was appreciated as the heroine of such films like The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and Doctor X (1932) but specially forever remembered as Ann Darrow the "Beauty that killed the Beast" that expended a good time in our favorite big hairy paw in the original wonder King Kong (1933). She died peacefully in August, 8 2004 in her Manhattan apartment and was this close of making a cameo appearence in Peter Jackson's remake at the age of 96. I find her extremely beautiful, almost no less then the quality of these old hollywood portraits. I think she deserves a little dossier, here in Guelyland.

R.I.P. TONY CURTIS

T.C. (1925-2010)

Well, he died yesterday, at 85, had a long good life and a lot of great films that will last as long as people likes movies. I feel like somebody i knew personally has passed away because i "knew him" since i was a very little kid. His life and movie carrier had ups and downs but the balance was positive. Enjoyed more then the company of the most beautiful women, a good painter, he was an insightful fellow and was famous all over the world for more then sixty years. That is more then the mayority of human beings will ever achieve.

In 1994 I bought his first auto biography and browsing it tonight I see these parts underlined. They move me now as they did then.

His latest "American Prince, a memoir" (Harmony Books, 2008) was on it's way when he is dead. I bet it will be a heck of a reading as well!

Hope some time soon we will be able to see some of his movies never properly released on DVD especially The Great Impostor (Robert Mulligan,1961).