freunde von freunden

I was quite excited the other day to see that Freunde von Freunden, one of my favorite "house visit" blogs, has done a little revamp (I hate to use that word, since it implies that they needed improvement, which wasn't the case). I had been enjoying the pictures for a while, but wishing that my one semester of German would get me farther in reading the interviews (it got me nowhere, consisting mainly of one-liners about how the sun is shining today and how I hate myself and want to die [I have no idea where that second one came from--not from my class, for sure]).

Anyway, I'm excited about having the option of reading the interviews in English, and as a language person I really appreciate that they're also going to have the interview in the original local language too.

And thinking about those great Berlin apartments reminds me of two of my favorite German movies, widely differing in tone but both wonderful.

Marrakech

This wonderful photo reminded me of Hideous Kinky, based on the book of the same name. I wish my library had it, since that's where I usually get my movies. It's been a while, but I remember both the book and the movie as being very enjoyable.

{ Photo from here, an image from Elle Decor Netherlands edition, from a story produced/styled by Tatjana Quax and José Groot. }

le rayon vert

I watched Le Rayon Vert (Summer) a while back and was slightly surprised at how much I liked a lot of the clothes in it. This is surely an indicator of age, the dividing line being between a Youngster (who would say, "of course the clothes are great, it's from the 80s") and a non-Youngster (who would either dislike the clothes or be surprised at liking so many of them).

Although it would undoubtedly tire a viewer with little patience for a neurotic heroine and/or a distaste for the French pastime of sitting around and having borderline-combative philosophical exchanges over food and beverages, I would recommend this movie to those not falling into the former two categories. It really is a sweet movie if you can get past the dithering and frequent crying jags.

By the way, the last time I watched the sun set over the ocean (which is not something I have occasion to do very often), I did not see the fabled green ray, somewhat to my disappointment.

hanna

Last weekend we went to see Hanna, and although I'm normally lukewarm on action movies, I really liked it. Not one of those profound movies that's going to change your life, but it was a very satisfying watching experience [disclaimer for the violence-averse: there is some]. I tend to watch movies for the esthetic elements, and they were all done just right in this one*. Probably my favorite element of it was the locations, including this abandoned amusement park in Berlin, which leads me to this amusingly surreal tidbit from Wikipedia:

Norbert Witte* failed in his attempt to run a "Lunapark" in Lima. On 19 May 2004 he was sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine with a value of £14 million from Peru to Germany in the masts of the "flying carpet" ride.

The photo, also from the Wikipedia article, is of part of a roller coaster, and reminds me of this fellow gaping-mouthed monster. Seen together, they make me want to embark on a gaping-mouthed-monster themed world tour.


*From context clues, I'm guessing Norbert Witte is the former owner/operator of Spreepark. Wikipedia is rather Sphinx-like on his identity, introducing him out of the blue as moving to Peru in 2002.

i am love

If you're in the mood for beautiful photography (it would also get my nomination for Best Recent Use of Typography in Credits, if I were handing out awards).