LIONS FOR LAMBS

There is no way I would not watch Lions for Lambs. Didnt go much to the movies last year. With Manos living in Tokyo, there are not many people left that would like to go to the movies with me. Unless they go to a ridiculous blockbuster that I avoid. So, I rented the DVD last night. With this cast, there was no way I would miss it. And Redford directing it, was another must see film for me. Ever since his 'ordinary people' he made my list of top 5 favorite directors.

The movie is not great in the sense that you want to watch it over and over again. It has a strong Redford influence in the character building. The entire movie was 6 scenes, or acts, as it reminded me more of a theatrical play than a movie.

Redford dealt less with the actual war in Iraq - thank God - and more with profiling America's pshychogram. In his six acts, the identity of an entire nation was revealed. Tom Cruise was an ambitious republican senator trying to sell himself and his new plan to invade afganistan to the press. The press was good to them, they sold the war on terror to the voters. Meryl Streep is the press who realizes what they have done and is completely devastated when she realises that for 40 years she was in fact part of the system that made america a fear factory and death sentense for young underpriviledged minorities (as they are the only ones that go to battle hoping that one day america will be kind to them). Redford is the university professor who is trying to convince his star poli sci student not to stop caring. If everyone stops caring nothing will be done to improve the country. The student argues that politicians are all becoming clowns caring about elections and not about the polis. He was interested when the old philosophers, the Greeks were studied. Redford's response is really one of the best lines that I have ever heard in a movie: 'Have you ever been to Greece? No, of course not, because you would know that their government makes ours look like a streamlined vision of the future'. Yet, I think what did it for the student and started caring again - at least as it is implied - was his fraternity mate who was so intrigued watching the news about a pop-nobody-starlet's divorce, when the real news where on a strip at the bottom of the screen. Redford's other two star students, an african american and a spaniard raised in the ghetto, went to war and died on their first assignment. So in a six-act movie Redford showed the six profiles of american pshycic: ambitious, powerful, guilty, intelligent, patriotic and moron.

NightWatch

I am not by no means an expert in Russian cinema. I have hardly watched any Russian movies. But Nightwatch changed all that.

A year ago, Manos, my younger brother and a fanatic cinema goer - a cinefil kind of person - suggested we went to watch NightWatch. (Original title: Nochnoy dozor). It was the first of a trilogy of the Russian version of Blade. Not exactly a thriller. The movie is about the eternal battle of good and evil. The two troupes of good and evil met - in a medieval setting - and fought. Just before everyone was perished, the two leaders decided to hold a truce. Good and Evil would live side by side as people would be free to choose anyside they wanted. No force would be allowed to ask people to choose sides. To make sure that the truce was kept, the Light Others and the Dark Others would police the truce. Light Others would perform the NightWatch making sure that Dark Others would not kill people or turn them to the dark side. Dark Others would constitute the Day Watch making sure that the same is true for the Light Others.

The forces of Dark and Light are now in equilibrium due to the work done by the Night and Day watch officers. One day, legend has it, a great other will come and the balance will turn for ever toward one side. Wise man believe that it will be easier for the Great Other to turn to the dark side as it is harder to see in the darkness than kill the light inside that we all have.

A science fiction movie at its best. The cinematography is great, as almost every scene of the movie is like an art photography. Nightwatch is much faster, groovier, and shocking than its sequel DayWatch. Looking forward to the third sequel, the Twilight watch. (Manos, did not like the movie ,needless to say)

Best watched one after the other. I had seen both movies once released in Greek theaters, but when I watched both of them one after another in my home cinema the script made more sense. The first time around I was captivated by the action scenes, photography, music and Russian bohemian chic.

It is definitely one of my favorite titles, and keep in mind that I don't like vampire or horror movies (except Blade). The scenes are too fast to be scary.

Also, I had not realized what a fantastic sound the Russian language makes

A few wikipedia facts:

Night Watch (Russian: Ночной дозор, Nochnoy Dozor) is a 2004 Russian fantasy action thriller film by the Kazakhstan-born film director Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on The Night Watch, and is the first part of a trilogy, followed by Day Watch and ending with the 2009 release of Twilight Watch as confirmed by IMDB[1].

The film was the first big-budget Russian fantasy film and one of the first blockbusters made after the collapse of the Soviet film industry. The film was produced by Channel One, the government-owned TV channel, with a budget of US$4.2 million.[2] It was shot in an 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Part of the challenge for such a big-budget fantasy film was creating hundreds of visual effects (VFX) shots to which a modern audience is accustomed. 16 Russian VFX studios and several freelancers were used, each chosen for their individual strengths. Many shots were created by different artists across different time zones, using the Internet to share data and images, mostly using Windows NT workstations.[3]

After a first appearance at the Moscow Film Festival on June 27, 2004, it went on general cinema release across the CIS on July 8, 2004. The film was extremely successful, becoming the highest-grossing Russian release ever, grossing US$16.7 million in Russia alone, thus making more money in Russia than The Lord of the Rings. The sequel, Day Watch, was released across the CIS on January 1, 2006, with a third film in the works. There is also a TV series in production.
The film attracted the attention of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which paid $4 million to acquire the worldwide distribution rights (excluding Russia and the Baltic states) of Night Watch and its sequel Day Watch.

Fox Searchlight also offered to finance the third part. As a consequence, the third part will be filmed in the United States, likely with other actors speaking English instead of Russian

Fires

We are now very much into the summer season. 30+ degrees C, can hardly be considered springtime. I am very afraid that the fire season will not be long now as our incompetent central government and equally incompentent local bodies did most likely nothing else but saving their fat bottoms from last year's disaster and consequent constant failings.

I have heard nothing of the oposition either. All I would like for someone to tell me is what are the measures that have been taken to prevent any major catastrophy again. And to remedy the old one(s).

To be honnest, I have heard noone asking either. The journalists have been too busy covering Zaxopouliada, the FYROM-Macedonia name dispute, and of course Eurovision.

Panygiri tis Analipsis

Last night we had our PANYGIRI in Vrilissia. People rushed in to pay their respects to merchants' booths and to the dozens of cafeterias and meat serving souvlakeries. Oh yes, some went to attend the mass at the church.

We also had a booth. By 'we' I mean our humane society. There are about 20 of us that squeeze in our daily life volunteer work for our 4 (or sometimes 3)-legged friends. Amy was the star of the evening showing off her new coiffure, her new outfit, and her freshly manicured 3 paws.

I have kept her since her operation where she escaped death (and the teeth of a very angry rodweiler) and she is now a part of our 7-member family (besides myself and Amy, the other members are all 4-legged)

We had lots of fan and sold about 150 T-shirts and about 100 hats totalling 1000 euros that equals saving about 6 dogs and feeding more than 50. What we are fighting against is human cruelty over innoscent animals. People hitting or poisoning animals, or living them on the street or somewhere away from home once they decided that they are too big now and not cute puppies any more and want to get rid of them, of neglecting them, of keeping them tighted up in short ropes all their life.

As George Orwell had put it: Four legs good, two legs bad.

We hope not all of them