40’s movies marathon – part 6



Fantasia (1940, USA) – Oh. My. God. Yes. This is the second movie in this marathon to make me cry. The .. the vision of it. I’m stunned. We’re watching an old culture give birth to a new. Absorbed it all.

Rebecca (1940, USA) – Laurence Olivier’s wife dies, and the timid woman he marries on the rebound fails to live up to her predecessor, in whose shadow she now lives. In a way she’s even outacted by the memory of this character we never meet. Fantastic Hitchcock. Watched it all.

The Long Voyage Home (1940, USA) – Follows a crew of sailors from a night of alcohol and prostitutes in the West Indies, through dangerous waters in the Atlantic, to another night of alcohol and prostitutes in England. Excellent wartime drama, with little plot, much atmosphere. Watched it all.

My Favorite Wife (1940, USA) – Sometimes Cary Grant goofing around is exactly what a movie needs. Other times it isn’t. Grant thinks his wife is dead, so he marries a second, but then his first wife returns. Farce ensues. Watched: 17 minutes.

Dark Command (1940, USA) – John Wayne plays George W. Bush, an illiterate Texan who runs for election as Marshal in a Kansas town against Al Gore, a book learned snob. Bush wins, pushing Gore over the edge to a career of criminal PowerPoint presentations. Fine movie on the border between Civil War drama and Western. Watched it all.

Ekte sekstiåttere fulgte i sine foreldres fotspor

Når jeg umiddelbart plukket opp Ekte sekstiåttere av Tor Egil Førland og Trine Rogg Korsvik da jeg så den i bokhandelen var det først og fremst fordi jeg er lei av å høre om dem. Jeg er lei av “68’er” som besvergelse, et skjellsord man kan fylle med antydninger om virkelighetsfjerne men allmektige venstresidetullinger. Jeg er lei av å høre om deres ideologiske forbrytelser og deres totale makt over norsk kulturliv. Det er lenge siden. De nærmer seg pensjonsalder. Nok nå.

Derfor Ekte sekstiåttere, som kaldt reduserer myter til statistikk. Ekte sekstiåttere – her definert som radikale Blindern-studenter i perioden 1964-73 – var unge menn, de ble stadig mer radikale utover sekstitallet, de gikk i foreldrenes politiske fotspor, og var svært lunkne til hasj og amerikansk counterculture. Arbeiderklassen var godt representert. Kvinnene deltok, men sjelden som ledere. Ml’erne var få, men veldig godt organiserte. Så sier tallene. Her er det tabeller som viser hvem sekstiåtterne egentlig var og hva de egentlig stod for, blandet med anonyme sekstiåtteres minner fra denne tiden, og intervjuer med profilerte eksemplarer.

Flotte greier. Fra myte til sosiologi og historie. Som besvergelse er sekstiåtter-begrepet utdatert – i den grad vi fremdeles lever med arven etter dem er det fordi senere generasjoner selv har valgt å føre den videre, så la oss så heller oppspore og undersøke disse. Som historie er dette derimot relevant og spennende.

40’s movies marathon – part 5

The Thief of Bagdad (1940, UK) – Have you read the Sandman story where Harun al-Rashid asks to have Baghdad moved into the world of dreams, where its wonders can be preserved against decay and death forever, pure and impossible? Well, this is that place, captured perfectly. Watched it all.

I Love You Again (1940, USA) – William Powell, an upstanding citizen, anti-vice fundraiser and overall tee-totalling bore, gets knocked over the head, and wakes up as William Powell, a charming crook. His wife Myrna Loy finds this quite an improvement. Watched it all.

Slightly Honorable (1940, USA) – There are several sparks of life in this movie, including the description of a Pacific island paradise that leads up to the picture above, but that doesn’t prevent it from being bad. Watched: 14 minutes.

Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1940, USA) – Crime movie that verges hesitantly on the edge of noir. Now just replace the friendly detective with Humphrey Boghart, and the nice young woman who has an endearing gambling problem with a femme fatale.. Watched: 15 minutes.

The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940, USA) – Something tells me that the obviously guilty defendant is innocent, and that the so far unintroduced Peter Lorre is both strange, murderous, and residing on the third floor. Watched: 12 minutes.

But Time putt a trick on him

The faeries in Susanna Clarke’s world are not friendly little creatures with magic wands, but the faeries of folklore: Dangerous creatures who live on the border between sanity and madness. This border is also a physical border. There are many places in England where you can cross into Faerie, often unawares. A bridge, a bush, a forest. Inside, time moves differently, and common sense is useless. Whether you’re chained to an insect-ridden bed or a guest at a wonderful palace may depend entirely on which eye you’re seeing with.

I’m not sure what I could say about Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell to do it justice. Luckily I’m not reviewing Clarke’s debut novel, but The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, a collection of stories set in the same alternate England. These are the stories Clarke published during the ten years she spent writing Strange. The emphasis is more on women than in her novel, and more on faeries than on magic. The style is the same, 19th century fiction with eyebrows slightly raised, but lighter, without the oppressive mood of Strange‘s subplots.

This is a clear recommendation for anyone who liked Strange. Another recommendation: Hope Mirrlees’s Lud-in-the-Mist, Clarke’s 1926 forerunner. Lud-in-the-Mist uses the same theme of a land of common sense and a Faerie land of madness that border each other, with people crossing from one to the other with curious results. Strange is more accomplished, with its alternate history of English magic, but what made it great was also there in Lud-in-the-Mist.

Online tax records revisited

I got this e-mail today:

Just read your blog (the note on the publishing of income tax records online in Norway) and I was wondering if you would mind lending me a hand.

I studied in Norway for less than a year, as part of a masters program. I recently googled my name, and my age and income (which was zero!) comes in in links from dn.no and skatt.na24.no. From reading your blog I gathered that this practice came to be in this decade and that it has been debated. Would you let me know if you are aware of any way to have this information become guarded from the internet? Or has it been decided that it’s something that will remain public and searchable online?

I have no problem with someone from Norway accessing this information in a public database, but it strikes me as odd that anyone around the world will have this information come up readily as soon as they google my name.

Here’s what I wrote about this in 2003 – jeez, has it been that long? Contrary to what I expected at the time, the practice has continued. It continues because the opposition to it is based on quaint principles like privacy, while the supporters have fun and curiosity on their side. No contest.

So my reply: Nope. Sorry. But only the latest two years are displayed, so for this student who only lived here a year they should go away eventually.

40’s movies marathon – part 4

My Little Chickadee (1940, USA) – When Mae West is good, she’s very good. When she’s bad, she’s better. No, actually, when she’s bad she’s just bad. But this is one of her good ones. Chased out of town by the prudes for flirting with the local gentleman bandit, she finds herself another town with the usual sheriff/crook/idealist triangle. Features W. C. Fields in bed with a goat, and Mae West teaching a class of unruly teenage boys. Watched it all.

The Howards of Virginia (1940, USA) – Cary Grant (36) plays an unconvincing early 20’s Matt Howard, young Thomas Jefferson’s comical sidekick, in this patriotic movie where the slaves always seem to hover right outside of the screen. Credited with being the flop that taught Grant never to star in costume dramas. Watched: 16 minutes.

Three Faces West (1940, USA) – A doctor from Vienna finds wartime refuge in the US, but in order not to cause competition for big-city doctors, he cheerfully allows himself to be auctioned on a radio show to whatever tiny backwater town wants him. I’m sure the producers didn’t find this premise the least bit condescending. Watched: 15 minutes.

Li’l Abner (1940, USA) – Bad comic book adaptations have a long history. Watched: 4 minutes.

The Lady in Question (1940, USA) – French drama comedies haven’t impressed me so far, and neither does this American drama comedy set in France. A bicycle store owner becomes juror at a murder trial. Hilarity Ensues. Watched: 13 minutes.

Where the falling angel meets the rising ape

The idea that gods exist only to the extent that we believe in them is kind of a fantasy cliché, but the reason it is overused is that it is a good idea, and very effective when used right. One of the authors who does use it right is Terry Pratchett, who applies this theme to many of the Discworld novels, and particularly Small Gods and Hogfather.

Hogfather is the best of these two, and one of the best of the series. The Discworld Santa Claus has been killed, and suddenly new gods are appearing rapidly, (the god of hangovers, the god of indigestion, the god that steals your socks, etc.), to fill up the belief vacuum. Death and Death’s granddaughter are on the case, and it all builds up beautifully to one of the best exchanges of the series.

Hogfather doesn’t rely much on backstory, so it’s a good introduction if you haven’t read any Discworld novels. There was also a fine mini series made from it in 2006, which I recommend if you’re unsure about tackling the books. (And .. huh, seems they’ve now filmed The Colour of Magic as well. Will check it out.)

I need to do something about my book addiction

Nah, not really. If this is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

However, from a practical viewpoint, it is probably a good idea to limit book purchases to an amount that can be safely balanced on the floor. This book queue pushes the limit – it is just about to tip over. (In which case I have this picture, and can put it all back in the right order.)

40’s movies marathon – part 3

Dr Cyclops (1940, USA) – Hey, a mad scientist sci-fi! In Technicolor! A biologist moves into the Amazon jungle to learn to harness the power of Radioactivity over Life and Death, which, properly harnessed, he uses to turn big creatures into small creatures. He turns horses into .. small horses, pigs into .. small pigs, and people into .. small people. It’s a diabolical plan that is sheer elegance in its simplicity. (Step three: Profit!) Preposterous and fun. Watched it all.

His Girl Friday (1940, USA) – Goofy-boy Cary Grant tries to prevent his ex-wife from giving up her career as a journalist to settle down as some loser insurance salesman’s baby machine. They team up to prevent the hanging of a man who .. isn’t exactly innocent as such, but all he did was shoot a “colored cop”, and a man shouldn’t hang just because a city’s “colored vote” demands it, now should he? This is a quite fantastic movie, (as well as fantastically loud). Best line, when Grant tells the news desk to clear the front page: “Never mind the European war, we’ve got something much bigger!” Watched it all.

Der Ewige Jude (1940, Germany) – “There are 4 million Jews in Poland”, says the narrator, and what can one possibly add to that? The focus in this documentary is on the Eternal Jew as a parasite who embodies everything that is evil about individualism and capitalism. However civilized some European Jews may appear, there’s always a filthy money-grabbing rat underneath. Watched it all.