Inspiring City Cinema

On my summer holiday I visited the charming Dutch capital Amsterdam and there I had the chance to enter one of the most beautiful movie theatres I have ever seen. The Pathé Tuschinski Cinema, located in the centre of Amsterdam, really looks like something out of a gothic novel. My instant reaction was that it didn’t matter what movie we saw, as long as I would get to go inside this palace like theatre.

The Tuschinski cinema was created by Polish immigrant Abraham Icek Tuschinski and opened to the public in 1921. Its interior as well as the facade is an overwhelming mixture of art deco architecture and jugende style details. Especially the foyer has amazing details of lamps and wall decorations. Even the door handles and carpets are special.  

The Tuschinski as a piece of history

There are several auditoriums in the Tuschinski cinema. The main one has room for 1200 people and was designed to also work also as a theatre stage. Originally it had an orchestra of 16 instruments to accompany the performances. And in its time the Tuschinski has been visited by such glamorous stars as Edith Piaf, Marlene Detrich and Josephine Baker.

It is not only in art and entertainment history that the Tuschinski cinema has a legacy. The personal tragedy of founder Abraham Tuscheski connects the cinema to another and graver part of world history. During the Nazi occupation of Holland in 1940-45 Mr. Tuschinski and most of his family was killed in German concentration camps. The cinema was then given the non-Jewish name ‘Tivoli’, however after the war its original name back was returned.

It was not difficult to imagine myself back in the 20s and 30s as I wondered around the empty halls of the main auditorium. There are several side rooms to that work like small lounge areas all with exquisite interior. There is supposed to be a Japanese tea room there somewhere too, but I did not get to see that.
Whatever movie you are about to see in that cinema the magic of the place gets your imagination working. I only wish that more modern cinemas would  be more bold when it comes to inspiring decor.

Finally Chanel

I finally got to see Coco avant Chanel. Denmark must be the last country on earth where this movie premiered and for that reason the expectations have been building up for far too long.
I thought it was a beautiful and stylish film, but the story didn’t really interest me. Apart from some amazing photography and beautiful colours the story was thin. I mean it was about Coco before the glamour life of her fashion empire, but all we saw was her love life and only a few glimpses of her actual fashion talent. The reason I wanted to learn about Coco Chanel was not to see a story of her failed love interests, but to understand how she became such an influence for fashion designer in the years to come.

Yes, we saw how she had an eye for original style and how she picked up inspiration from men’s wardrobe and working men’s materials. But where did her skills come from? I mean it seemed like she was just born with it and learned to sew a bit and suddenly puff she had her own shop and went on to stardom.

But I guess that’s what the movie business will show of her life – even though I had thought that as it was a French film it would have had more emphasis on her artistic features than on a love story.

While I wait for Coco

The most anticipated fashion films this year Coco Avant Chanel and Coco and Igor are not coming out in Denmark until September. Even though Coco Avant Chanel premiered in Paris in April! Come on – what's the big idea? - why such a wait for the rest of us?
Well, while I'm waiting, I've been reading up on Gabrielle and her time in 'The World of Coco Chanel- Friends, Fashion, Fame' by Edmonde Charles-Roux.

It's not a serious biography about her personal life, but more an attempt of providing a look inside her world and the people around her in that period. And I kind of like this way of looking at Chanel, even though it does add a certain gossipy flavour to it. The good thing is that the book tells us about the people she was inspired by and spent time with, and indirectly that portrays her style and artistic vision for fashion.

Besides the book, that has more pictures than it has actual text (definitely satisfying your visual huger for Coco and her period of glory), I found the new commercial film for Chanel no.5 with of course Audrey Tautou as the leading lady. The Amalie-team (meaning Jean-Pierre Jeunet) is behind this film, which really shows in the colours and composition of the frames. I also think it has a little of the same goofyness of Amalie and his other films – I wonder if that's intentional? You can see the whole film here.

But, alas after all of this Chanel propaganda I'm still just sitting here waiting...

Bloody Valentine

I’m really not a fan of the whole Valentine's Days-thing. Usually, I’m a total romance-fan - heck, give me Jane Austen, red roses and sunsets any (other!) day and a I would indulge and love it. But on Valentine's Day it just seems so artificial and not romantic at all. I want romance to be heartfelt, breathtaking, and – unexpected – and not because the local florist and supermarkets advertises.

Valentine’s Day is pretty new here in Denmark – yet this year it has totally exploded. Its everywhere in shops, on tv and in every magazine or newspaper. And maybe that’s the reason I not buying into it – it seems fake and just another excuse to spend money. So I’m going anti-valentine tonight. And here’s my idea of an anti-romance night:

Music:
My Bloody Valentine : ‘Loveless’

Food:
Chili con carne and Corona Beer for one

Film:
Darren Aronofsky: 'Requiem for a Dream'

Reading:
Brett Easton Ellis: American Psycho

Let the right one in

Last night I went to see the Swedish vampire film ‘Let the right one in’. It is based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist and it is directed by Thomas Alfredson.
It is the first Scandinavian vampire movie I have ever seen and I must admit that it scared the shit out of me.

Take all our cold, dark winters, add a bit of the classical social realism in the form of a young boy being bullied at school and then stir in a vampire tale. It is actually sort of comic in places and also kind of sweet in other parts but for some reason also really alarming. – I guess it’s the mix of all those things so familiar and then such a twist of horror.

I won’t write anything about what happens as it would spoil the plot. But the two main characters a young girl and boy really shine through making you sympathise with all the killing and bloodshed.
The film is so original with its quite realism and a story that is totally unpredictable and well written.

Surviving November and the Danish winter

November is not really my kind of month. It’s the time here in Copenhagen when it’s starts to get dark when you leave work and the darkness is just clearing when you wake up in the morning. Your energy level just drops to a point where you feel like sleeping all the time. In no other month (no, maybe January as well) does my pillow and my bed have such a strong hold on me. I’ve always loved sleeping and I love my bed, no doubt about it. But when this time of year comes I often wonder if I should have been born a bear and go underground sleep until the sun comes back.
So what do you do to survive this darkness for the next 5 months? Here is my survival kit:

Good books
A long and exciting book can pull you out of this dark winter world. Nerd Girl recommends these books for winter reading:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Cloud Atlas
Harry Potter (can always do with a second reading, especially after the film versions have screwed up your memory of the real plot.)

The Shadow of the Wind

Movies:
Winter movies should also offer an escape into happier, prettier and shinier lifestyles with totally superficial problems and always (!) happy endings. So forget Scandinavian social realism with handheld cameras and only depressing shades of grey.
Nerd Girl tends to go for old Danish films – set in the 1950s with lots of romance and cute dresses. But here are some good international films I turn to:

Amelie of Montmartre :

Les Demoisellers de Rocheforte

My Fair Lady Chocolat

And then the food...

When its dark outside and the rain or snow pouring down you need something really sweet. Something like appelcake - Danish appelcake. The world's easiest and best winter dessert: Appel mash, almond macaroons crushed and whiped creme - in layers.

Nicloe Kidman will play Lili Elbe

This is pretty big news. I just read that Nicole Kidman is to star as Einer Mogens Wegener, in a movie about the Danish painter who was the first man to have a sex change operation. Charlize Theron will be playing his wife the very talented painter and illustrator Gerda Wegener.
It is according to the hollywoodreporter.com that the story of this fascinating couple will be turned into a film with such heavy leading ladies as Nicole and Charlize. Based on a fictional bestseller by David Eberstorff about the couple, I wonder how much of the actual story we’re gonna get from the film. But any how it will be interesting to se.

Einer was married to Gerda Wegener and they were quite a famous couple in living in Copenhagen in the 1920s. Apparently Einar’s female alias Lili Elbe was created when Gerda, lacking a female model, asked him to pose for her as a woman – and he from then on developed as the transsexual Lili Elbe with the support of his wife.This is Lili Elbe after the sex change operation:
Gerda worked as a painter and illustrator creating beautiful painting and drawings for among others French Vougue.

A Nazi-docu - and why a swimming bath became place of the month in September

Leni Reifenstahl’s ’Fest der Schönheit’ at the swimming bath

Place of the month in September (I know it’s a bit late) is Øbro Swimming bathjust because of this amazing experience. I know this sound insane but it’s true. Hitler’s favourite movie director was a very interesting women. Leni Riefenstahl is the woman behind the camera in the famous documentary about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and it was shown at a public swimming bath here in Copenhagen last month.

It was such a cool experience. This film is very very special in the sense that it celebrates the beauty of the human body. The cinematography is amazing even though it is a sort of propaganda film for the ‘pure race’, the perfect athletic body - and to some degree also the Nazi-regime. The setting of the swimming bath was perfect as the architecture dates back to the same period with columns and grand spaces. Live comments were brought throughout the filmn by Danish film legend Jørgen Leth.

This exclusive event happened last month during the Copenhagen historic festival Golden Days - a festival every second year dealing with a new historical period and this time about the 1920s and 1930s. - So there is a reason for my 1920s style obsession -

Anyway, this documentary is about the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, but it is so artistic, you should see some of it for yourself in this clip.

Leni Riefenstahl is a very interesting woman and she is a sure candidate for Nerd Girl's next inquiry at the local library.

The return....

Ever since I saw the poster for it I've been excited about it. From the poster 'Brideshead revisited' looked like it would bring more of that wonderful 1920s follies.
I must admit that I've never read the book or seen the whole TV-series. But I do remember the setting, which was brilliant - and the costumes.


In fact I was a little disappointed by Julia’s costumes, who I loved the TV-show for the exact 20s chick style. In the movie version it was the men’s fashion that I found the most interesting - well apart from this Julia in this lovely dress below:

The men's fashion focused around the old British college style, with which I guess you can never go wrong. It's the scenes with Charles and Sebastian that make this film interesting. Matthew Good as Charles and Ben Whishaw as Sebastian have a beautiful balance of both intimacy and distance.

I’m however never really convinced by Charles’ fascination with Sebastian’s family and wealth and ufortunately the lovestory between Julia and Charles never seems real - I'm not sure why.

Caramel

Premiering at Cannes last year this sweet Lebanese film ‘Caramel’ has finally been released in Denmark. It sounds delicious, but the caramel is actually used as wax, also called ‘sugaring’. I went to see it without any expectations at all which is often when you get the best movie experiences.
It is a very sensual film about five different women around a beauty parlour in Beirut. It evolves around each of their personal problems with love and female life. These powerful inner dilemmas are related clamly and quitely making them even more heartfelt.
What makes this film so special is not only the pace and the patience it gives this women, it's also the way humour and irony help create a realitic image of women's lives - whether they live in Beirut, America or Europe.It's been said about this film that it's a Lebanese version of 'Sex and the city' - I think it's better because even though it also deals with love and sex, the women in Caramel have a more natural and sensual chrisma than the New Yoker girls. So go see it before it's too late - I dont't think this one will be avaliable on DVD here in Denmark. In Copenhagen it's showing at Gloria.

Sing my Song Sita

I’ve just come back from one of those movie experiences that are so good you have to share it with others. So here goes: The Natfilm festival is in Copenhagen is screening Sita Sings the Blues – a cartoon by Nina Paley. Now I knew nothing about this film or about Nina Paley, when I went to Empire bio this afternoon. I sort of have a tradition with a few of my friends that every year at Natfilm we see one or two of the Indian Bollywood musicals the festival is showing. This time there was a cartoon bollywood musical or so we thought, not having really read the programme properly, but just decided that a change from Amir Khan this year would be nice.

Sita Sings the Blues turned out to be a sweetly told story of the Ramayan focusing on Sita. With parallels to the cartoonist own unhappy love life in the US and India including a break up over email, Sita comes alive through different styles of drawing and the singing voices of 1920s blues singer Annette Hanshaw. The trials and rejections which Sita goes through are told by tree really funny shadow puppets in an entertaining and delightful bollywood like setting. I really recommend this film to anyone!

Good movies for unstitching

I’ve been too busy this last week to do anything about my DIY-projects. So this weekend I started to unstitch a large dress I got at a flea market a few weekends ago – but argh…it’s a pretty boring task. Therefore I thought of some good entertainment to enjoy while gradually ‘breaking’ the dress up. Actually it’s the same thing when you’re just starting to knit, you have to keep your eyes on the work most of the time, but it’s still easy and does not need all of your attention.

The right entertainment for unstitching can therefore really make the whole process more fun, and when you have a whole dress to break apart, as I have, then a good movie is all you need. However, the movie musn't demand complete devotion and concentration, yet it should still remain interesting. It is for example difficult to enjoy special details or hard keep track of complicated plots, while you do your thing with the needle - for me anyway. So here are two films I recommend for unstitching:

8 Femmes:

This is a delightful and funny film with some of the best French actresses today. A murder mystery taking place in a large estate and the murderer can only be one of 8 women in the house. Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardent and Emmanuelle Béart are some of the great 8 women that sing and dance in this crazy film that turns out to be not onlya murder mystery, but also features lesbian love and a secret pregnancy. The plot is not exactly simple, but somehow easy to follow anyway, and the music and cool characters makes it very entertaining. Furthermore, the production design is so forceful in the use of colours and lighting.

Roman Holiday:

This is indeed a great film for all occasions and should for a first timer not be seen while doing anything else. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck make an amazing couple and as it is shot on location in Rome the whole setting adds an adventures mood to the story.
But for those who like me have seen it a few times already it’s perfect to enjoy again when you’re a bit preoccupied. The reason why it serves well as an ‘unstitching-movie’ is because of the small incidents within the overall plot – like the dancing scene or at the cafe/champagne-drinking scene. Because of the many excellent small scenes through out the whole movie it is easy to enjoy even though you're not completely devoted to it. I could write on and on about this film and how it’s one of the best romances ever, but instead I'll just recommend that you watch it - with or without needlework in your hands.