Espero que hayan cumplido el reto de ver tooodas las películas de Halloween llenas de sangre, violencia, adolescentes estúpidos…mmm, confio en que algunos de mis lectores son psicópatas y vaya que disfrutaron verlas y leer las palabras anteriores; y algunos que si no lo eran descubrieron que lo son por amar ver tanta SANGRE, VIOLENCIA, ADOLESCENTES ESTÚPIDOS (se que les gustan esas palabras…o mejor dicho, que les valen). Yo? Si, si disfruto verlas…porque me puedo reír de ellas, aunque desgraciadamente no las pude ver todas este año porque muchas personas se volaron las películas del Blockbuster…no los culpo. En fin: psicopátas. Son las personas más geniales que he visto en el cine. Son manipuladores, agresivos, calculadores, inteligentes…ahhh. Eso según los psicólogos. Pero según yo, aquí va un recuento de las personas geniales -y malvadas- del mundo del cine con patología imprecisa:
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Nuestro chico francés que tiene un gusto especial al aroma de las mujeres jovénes y hará todo para obtenerlo…en especial matar.

Catherine Tramell

La mujer que arrancó…suspiros a muchos hombres en Bajos Instintos y que encontraba un placer mayor en matar a los hombres que …estar con ellos. (No la culpo…sólo vean el Espacio de Keso y díganme si no se convertirian en asesinos al leer lo que dicen…haha)

Earl Brooks

Pues, este Mr. Brooks es un psicópata agradable (en los estándares comunes) y muestra bien a sus …amiguitos que viven en su cabeza.

SWEENY TODD

Ohh, me gusta mucho la película! Mrs. Lovett quién ama a un psicópata asesino y él la mata al final lanzandola en una caldera…Que hermosa historia! Esperen…me suena conocida…Oh…

Anton Chigurh

Bueno…pues me sonó a Harvey Dent lo de su moneda esa, pero aún así la escena final es genial y más aún la cara de “que más da” de Javier Berdam.

LEATHERFACE

El sonido de la sierra + una chica gritando horrible durante toda la película= Boo! Hasta a mi me asustó por sus gritos y aún peor cuando esta en la hermosa reunión familiar de psicópatas: oh, que honor! El abuelo de 150 años va a partirle la cabeza para la cena! Llena de miedo psicológico tiene la cinta ” La masacre en Texas” y quién no? Con un carnícero con una máscara de pieles humanas. Me llevo dos!

Hannibal lecter

El ex psiquiatra Dr. Hannibal cuyo plato favorito somos tú y yo. Bastante culto e inteligente y con diálogos llenos de ingenio hacen que entre en la categoría de psicópatas refinados. Pase usted, es hora de la cena!

JIGSAW

Vaya lecciones de vida nos da! Acosado por una enfermedad terminal, busca enseñar a todo aquél que no disfrute su vida a cómo “Vivir la vida” con unos simples y divertidos juegos: No pierdes nada al jugar! Sólo que si pierdes, mueres de una forma horrible y dolorosa. ¿Quieres jugar?

ESTHER

Una “niña” completamente diabólica!!!! Ok, es una psicópata. Basta ver los lindos dibujos que tiene pegados en su cuarto, bueno, ya sabemos porque no quisieron ponerlos en la puerta del refrigerador. Sabe mostrar muy bien lo psicópata y más aún con la escena de la paloma. Bueno, claramente con una pedrada en el cráneo dejara de sufrir.

NORMAN BATES
Creación de Hitchcook de un hombre que se disfraza de su madre para asesinar. Es prota de la famosa escena de la ducha. Usa frases cortas como estas. Muy buena actuación. Vaya madre debió ser esa. Han de oirse raras estas frases. Diablos.

PATRICK BATEMAN

A poco? Por algo se llama Psicópata Americano, no? Ohh, muy buenas escenas hay en la película. Desde el vago asesinado, la chica asesinada con la sierra desde las escaleras, su crisis mientras confiesa sus crímenes. Vaya que vale la pena y Christian Bale aquí es muy genial!

Alex McDowell

El ultraviolento Alex es sumamente genial en Naranja Mecánica y un claro ejemplo de psicópata…un psicópata fanático de Beethoven y de Gene Kelly, cabría suponer.

Y AHORA…EL NÚMERO UNO!!!!

THE JOKER!!!

El de Heath, claro. Bueno, bueno…él no es un psicópata. Más bien es un sociópata (simplemente Joker <3), pero no importa. Ya no falta decir POR QUÉ, verdad? Creo que ya lo he dejado claro. Ohhhhhh…<3 <3

Desde hace algún tiempo se viene utilizando la palabra ‘literalmente’ de forma incorrecta, prescindiendo de su significado, solamente para dar énfasis.

Así, hace poco, en un partido de Rafa Nadal, el comentarista nos dijo que ‘Rafa Nadal se está comiendo literalmente a su rival’.

Y ahora piensen

¿SE IMAGINAN QUE RAFA NADAL SE COMIERA

LI-TE-RAL-MEN-TE A SU RIVAL?

Sería una de esas noticias que años después se comentan y todo el mundo recuerda dónde estaba y qué hacía, como lo de las Torres Gemelas, la muerte de la petarda de Lady Di o lo del Muro de Berlín. Cómo Rafa Nadal, en mitad del partido, saltó la red, se acercó a su rival y comenzó a devorarlo (suponemos que, como Hannibal Lecter, empezaría por la cara):

- Jo, yo estaba en casa, y me llamó mi mujer y me dijo: ‘deprisa, deprisa, pon la tele, que Rafa Nadal se está comiendo al tío que jugaba con él’.

- Pero cariño – le dije – eso lo hace siempre, es un campeón.

- Que no, joder, que se lo está papeando, nadie se atreve a acercarse, esto parece cuando Uma Thurman liquida a todos aquelllos chinos, deprisa, ponlo…

- ¡No jodas!

—-

A veces me alegro de no ser periodista y ser inglés y boticario. La única cosa que me hace dudar es si llamo a las quinolonas en masculino o en femenino. En la caja lo pone en masculino pero yo no lo aprendí así. Realmente hasta ahora había vivido tranquilamente con ello, pero mi médico me recetó una/o. Cuando te la (o lo) metes en tu cuerpo la duda hiere.

Jeremy Irons has donated a signed photograph to the auction organised by HEAL.

An original piece of signed artwork drawn by Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins will be put up for auction as part of a fund-raising drive to put disadvantaged children in Andhra Pradesh into education.

The Welsh film, stage and television veteran is one of several stars to donate signed items in support of Cycle India 2010, organised by the British charity organization HEAL (Health and Education for All).

Best known for his portrayal of cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992, Hopkins has sent a unique pencil drawing from his California home.

Also a keen artist, who frequently doodles on film scripts when learning his lines, Hopkins, 71, has held exhibitions of his pictures exhibited in the United States, some selling for as much as 1,300 dollars.

The 200-mile cycle ride across south in early 2010 will be joined by Welsh sports journalist Jeremy King, 49, who is holding the auction of entertainment and sporting memorabilia.

“I have had kind donations of signed photographs from a number of screen giants, including Jeremy Irons, Ray Winstone and Dame Judi Dench, but the artwork sent by Anthony Hopkins will be a great boost to the auction,” said Jeremy King.

In preparation for — nay, in honor of — the upcoming premier of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call in New Orleans, directed by Werner Herzog and starring the great performer Nicolas Cage, the Acme Video blog will be running a series of (at least) daily pieces on the entire Cage Oeuvre, with its startling highs and mystifying lows. It is one man’s tale… a chronicle of madness and obsession.

DAY 1: VAMPIRE’S KISS

I begin with Vampire’s Kiss because, for the uninitiated, for the non-believers, for the haters and the nay-sayers, there is probably no better single testament to Nick Cage’s truly unique, entirely reckless, batshit-crazy brand of “acting.”  This is Cage’s Last Tango In Paris. His Aguirre, Wrath of God. His Silence Of The Lambs. If you crossed Marlon Brando, Klaus Kinski, and Hannibal Lecter you would end up with something close to Peter Loew, Cage’s utterly psychotic method-acting transformation from depressed-skirt-chasing-1980’s-literary-agent to control-freak-vampire-maniac-rapist.

One is tempted to use the phrase “a descent into madness,” but Vampire’s Kiss is more like a private tour of every wing of the nut-house. Loew is mad even at the film’s outset — a spastic, giggling, sexually-charged playboy, with women and money to burn and an awesomely Gothic Manhattan apartment. Cage adopted a strange, high-falutin, vaguely English accent for part, which comes and goes depending on his mood (and in one of several phenomenal scenes with his shrink, it actually becomes contagious; see the clip below). It’s just one of several crazy-as-a-fox decisions Cage makes, choices that would have been disastrous for a lesser actor — or at least one with smaller cajones. The fun really gets started once Loew gets his first vampire bite and begins his fitful, wildly uneven mutation into a blood-starved creature of the night. A fun enough premise in its own right, but both the film — and primarily, Cage — take so many stylistic left-turns that it’s not long before you’re feeling just as lost and desperate as Loew, wandering through Robert Bierman’s fantastically cheerless Manhattan. Vampire’s Kiss then becomes a truly Kafkaesque fracturing of the Cage psyche. Donning a pair of old-person driving sunglasses, Cage’s movements become decidedly bat-like, as he leaps and flits around his office, screaming and twitching at his lowly assistant because of some completely insignificant file that’s gone missing. Much of the film is devoted to the manic-depressive head games Loew plays on this poor young woman (a perfectly mousy Maria Conchita Alonso) who fears — rightly — for her safety. Cage’s performance is truly one of the moodiest I’ve ever seen, and I mean that in the best possible sense: you can’t look away, and you never know what’s next. Few actors have ever mixed horror and comedy this well.

He eats a cockroach, people (in fact he ate three, one for each take). Gobbles it up. The final scene is an insane Cage-vs.-Cage riff, basically like watching a psychopath simultaneously prosecute and defend himself in a court of law. You MUST see this film.

Impossible to pick just one scene, but yeah… this one rules.

and not one damn thing I truly want to see. A few possibilities, minus the ones we’ll never agree on. Let’s see. Top ten at the box office this week…

Michael Jackson’s This Is It: aging drugged-out pedophile rehearses for concert that never happened. From all reports, his nose does not fall off. Nothing to see there.

Paranormal Activity: I could go for this. In fact, I’d probably enjoy it. I hear the acting is unobtrusive, the writing and direction build hellishly good suspense the old-fashioned way (they eeeeaaaaaarn it), and so what if I already know the origin of the paranormal activity? Demon, ghost, whatever. No chance in a million years of convincing the spouse to see it.

Law Abiding Citizen: hmm. Not that I’m not desperately seeking my next Hannibal Lecter (the one from the first book, damn it, not the lame, dissected version of Thomas Harris’s financial need), but family man to mass-murdering sociopath in ten years? First of all, doesn’t happen. Second and more importantly (because I’ll suspend my disbelief from a nanofiber for a good scary crazy person), it’s going to lose one of two ways. The best revenge fantasies show the toll the process takes on the victim-turned-perpetrator, and if the blurbs are using the right terminology there won’t be any of that with a “soulless” killer. On the other hand, the best scary crazy people are the ones you never quite understand, the ones who arise and exist and die unexplained (Thomas Harris, you bastard), and here we have a dead family/flawed justice system/wasn’t there once some flick called The Fugitive? to explain everything.  Bleh.

Couples Retreat: go away, Vince Vaughan. Just go away.

Where the Wild Things Are: aha. This could work.

Saw VI: saw Saw. So I’ve seen it. After a while, even extreme Goldbergian splatter becomes boring and repetitive (and please don’t even try to Post-it a plot in there). “Oh, look, her head is trapped… and his arms are tied with… and the key/switch/antidote is… and they have to… bang/splat/temporary relief.”  Come to think of it, it’s exactly like mainstream porn.

Astro Boy: no.

The Stepfather: can see this on LMN any day. No reason to pay for it.

Cirque du… Hey! More Sparkly Vampires: bless their little money-train jumpin’ hearts.

and number ten…

Amelia: about which I can only say, from a glance at the picture and reviews, that hey, Hilary Swank does look a lot like Amelia Earhart, that the gushing press release sounds like the back of one of those “Easy-to-Read” paperback biographies always lying around the corners of seventh-grade classrooms, and that a movie bumped into the PG category for “mild sensuality and smoking” is probably not going to retain my aging interest.

Choices, choices, choices.

I’m not too sure how many people would want to indulge in an hors d’oeuvre like today’s Creative Something of the Day … hmmmm, maybe Hannibal Lecter?

Cranium Cracker

You can always tell when it’s the “silly season” or else there is not a huge amount of news going on. Papers, web sites etc always come up with these weird and wonderful lists.

Today it’s the turn of the top cinema hero’s and villains.

So starting with the villains, I was shocked to see no place for “Cruella de Vil” but of course many of the cinematic favorites are there.

Hannibal Lecter, Norma Bates, Darth Vader, The Wicked Witch of the West fill the first four places. However I’m glad to see others like Mister Potter (Wonderful Life), The Queeen from Snow White and the Shark from Jaws also make it into the top twenty five.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?q=100+heroes+and+villains&g=afi_100_heroes_and_villains#toc=1&s=0&tc=25

When it comes to hero’s where do you start ?

The top twenty five could be a top hundred there are so many to chose from.

The number one they listed did slightly surprise me, I even had to check what file “Atticus Finch” actually appeared in, which was of course “To Kill A Mocking Bird”. However names like Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rick Blaine and Will Kane (High Noon) did not surprise me. Those chosen have brought back memories as well as bringing to mind those not chosen.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?q=100+heroes+and+villains&g=afi_100_heroes_and_villains#toc=2&s=0&tc=25

I wonder who’d be on the list of literary hero’s and villains. For one “Bill Sykes” must be up there on the villain side. Which brings me back Cruella de Vil a character that can make even one hundred dalmatians shudder.

Barry

BARRY EVA (Storyheart)
Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
“Across the Pond”

Top Halloween Shows

1. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
3. The Shining
4. Hannibal Rising
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas

Here’s that Palladino goal I mentioned the other night, lovely stuff.

I’m not having a very good day, I’ve wasted most of it trying to sort out a hostel for Venice. It’s pretty much impossible on my phone so I had to pay for proper access. Unless you want to pay through the nose though, there’s very little on offer. So much so that I was actually thinking about just leaving going to Venice altogether but this would have meant loads more fresh planning to figure out a different route and schedule and I just couldn’t face it.

So I’ve had to book a hostel that is pricey and has rubbish reviews, I can’t say I’m looking forward to it much!

It’s a good thing that I had a lot of cheap days in The Balkans as Italy is proving to be very expensive in general.

San Marino is off my trip list (damn, that’d have been a whole new country scalp) as to get three I’d have to go via Bologna and I haven’t the time or again, the inclination to make more route changes.

I was going to go to Sienna today but there just isn’t time now so I’m going to San Gimignano. I have to change buses but I couldn’t hear the bloke on the other side of the glass so I had to try and decipher the pamflet he gave me, I figured it out just in time to watch the bus I needed going past me and I was only metres from the right platform. Very frustrating as I’ve got to wait an hour now and then I’ll be on the bus for an hour before another half hour wait and finally another half hour bus ride. With my late start to the day by the time I get there it’s going to be a waste of time, grrrr.

Can you tell I’m tired and grumpy? I’ll stop moaning now.

When/if I get to San Gimignano I think I will neck a bottle of chianti, th th th th th th. That’s my Hannibal Lecter impression.

I only stayed in the small and pretty walled town for about an hour and a half but I enjoyed that time. The surrounding Tuscan countryside is beautiful, if I was a millionaire I think I’d get a 2nd home there, I’d probably get a 1st home in Manchester while I was at it too.

I managed to grab a glass of chianti at the wine museum overlooking a sweeping landscape. I’m a bit of a philistine and clueless on such matters but this is what I paid for, ‘Colli Senesi Docg Selezione/Riserva’.

The joyous melodies of Devendra Banhart were a good choice to go with the Tuscany scenery, first up was his latest offering ‘What we will be’. It’s got more if a soul and funk vibe to his previous work, but it’s still has all the voice warbling and acoustic guitar trickery that is his trademark. There’s a bit too much filler for it to make my purchase list but I will be listening to it again.

‘Rejoicing in the Hands’ is an album from much earlier in his career and it doesn’t really do it for me, far too much filler. I can forgive him though as his next album was ‘Niño Rojo’ which is stunningly brilliant.

Before I left the town I treated myself to some world class ice-cream, literally. Pluripremiata Gelateria has twice won the World Championships in recent years and after tasting their gear I can see why. Yum.

I’m not feeling too well, this seems to happen every 3 or 4 weeks when I’m travelling. The lack of sleep catches up with me, I get run dow , I get a cold and then feel rotten. It passes pretty quickly though and I’m going to go out with Jukka anyway, I’ll be home soon enough and can rest up then.

He was kind enough to make me some sphaghetti at his gaff then we went to a few bars and ultimately back to Foco where we were the other night. It’s a really cool place but they need to sort out the tunes, some woeful stuff was coming out. Still, a good night was had.

Hmmmm…So I thought and I thought, I pondered by my bedside, I thought of it in my sleep and I reached something – at last! My top 10 Villains in Fictions. The ones that I would love to hate and love their writers for sketching them so brilliantly that they still manage to rouse goosebumps on my flesh when I re-read them..Brilliant I say…Here are my favourites:

1. Uriah Heep(David Copperfield): Well well well, he is the top of the tops. The wicked Uriah Heep of David Copperfield. The insincerity of this character is spread throughout the book. He is the epitome of sheer evil. Read this one!

2. Tom Ripley(The Talented Mr. Ripley): It is strange however I would love to go to bed with Tom Ripley. After all one doesn’t really know whether this villain is gay or straight. His crimes. His mind. The plots he schemes is beyond everyone. And yet somewhere down the line he is aware that he will get caught someday for what he has done.

3. Heathcliff(Wuthering Heights): I would not call this one a villain, but then again, what would you call a person who drives his loved one to madness? What would you call someone who loves with such a vengeance that he wants to destroy everything in his wake? You would but call him a villain, wouldn’t you?

4. Lord Voldermort (Harry Potter Series): Lord Voldermort is real. He is insecure. He wants to be liked by all. He wants to overpower. He is the trueblue villain of the times gone by and Rowling has managed just fine with him.

5. Count Dracula (Dracula): An entire book dedicated to the blood-sucking, enticing vampire. Before Twilight emerged, way before there was this Scandinavian imaginary being that was many a cause of people’s sleepless nights. Including mine – though mine came later as well with Keanu Reeve’s Dracula.

6. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs): The hissing. The good taste for flesh. The maneater Mr. Lecter is quite a monster created by Mr. Harris. Dark and brooding. He knows what to plan and what to do with his time. Chills the spine everytime!

7. The Devil (The Master and Margarita): The devil decides to take a walk in Russia and there is but after all, hell breaking loose. Literally. Moscow is the devil’s new abode.

8. Humbert (Lolita): No matter what anyone says, to me Humbert is a villain. Probably the greatest of them all. Yes he was a pedophile. May be he loved the child, however doing what he did!! Attrocious!

9. Sauron (The Lord of the Rings): White haired, withering, full of strength, Sauron will not stop at anything to get the ring to rule them all.

10. Sher Khan (The Jungle Books): And my personal favourite, the tiger himself..Sher Khan. The one who still manages to instill fear in kids! Brilliant I say!

Last but not the least. For every anti-hero or villain ever created, you made it possible for the concept of heroes to come alive.

Halloween’s got everything anyone could ask for in a holiday: candy, scandalous costumes, late-night parties, scary movies, mischief and general merriment. It’s like Christmas, but without presents and with a sexier color scheme.

Every year, I have awesome ideas for Halloween costumes: Marilyn Manson, Hannibal Lecter, the shark from Jaws (seen here attacking a plane!). I get excited, tell everyone exactly what I’m going to be. They get excited, tell people about how their friend Sean is going to have the most bad-ass costume the Union Club has ever seen.

But the amount of time I spend coming up with the idea is proportionate to the amount of time I spend actually working on the costume. Here’s the formula: T_(thought) x T_(work) = X, where X is the finished project. It’s an easy equation, because there’s a constant: T_(work) always equals zero. Always.

So, in practical terms, that means that if it took me 10 minutes to come up with the shark idea, I spent zero minutes working on it. That means the value of X is zero, or no costume (or Hunter S. Thompson, which was my default costume for years).

Some people are really good at costumes and getting their shit together well in advance. Take my cousin, Gina. When she e-mailed me last week, she was just putting the finishing touches on her costume. Here’s her inspiration:

Bonjour

And here’s her:

My cousin is a cartoon.

Keep in mind, she did this work last week. That means she’s got time to change her mind and decide to be a cool cartoon character, do research on what she’d need to make a costume, get all that stuff, make the costume and still have a better look than anything I’ve ever done.

But I’m tired of being shown up by family members. I’m making a late, late, late New Years Resolution to come up with and execute the most fantastic Halloween costume ever! And even my trend continues, the Mercury has a backup plan for me. I won’t tell you what either one is, but just know that it’ll be worth your while to come to the Doug Fir on Halloween night…

Seriously. This is the year.

I’m running a little behind on week 3, but here it is none the less. Definitely one of the scariest movie villains of all time, in his most frightening scene — Hannibal Lecter, from Silence of the Lambs.

Most people who know me know how much I love older British men. I thought I should just start a “list” here and give everyone some pictures… Granted these guys are old, but they’re so talented and *ahem* attractive The order changes each day, so here they are, in no particular order:

Alan Rickman:

Famous to most people as Professor Snape from the Harry Potter films

Loved him so much in “Sense and Sensibility”.

Anthony Hopkins:

He’s a KNIGHT. He’s AWESOME. Need I say more?

John Lennon:

One of my heroes. Kind of a difficult person, but had the right ideas.

(The Beatles:)

Best rock band EVER.

Colin Firth:

The best Mr. Darcy on screen from “Pride and Prejudice” in my opinion.

Hugh Grant:

Very funny guy, especially in movies like Bridget Jones.

Fantastic job in “Sense and Sensibility”!

Ralph Fiennes:

Amazing performances in “The English Patient” and “Schindler’s List”.

Terry Jones:

Famous from Monty Python. Great guy.

Neil Innes:

Musician who worked with the Monty Python guys.

And Now for my “Favorite” guys.

Hugh Laurie:

Famous for his role as Dr. House, I first knew him as “the dad from Stuart Little”. However, I highly recommend the British Comedy series “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” which he made with his comedy partner Stephen Fry. The dudes are HILARIOUS.

Tim Curry:

Yes, he’s the guy from “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I love that movie! He was also the original King Arthur in the Broadway musical “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and did a fantastic job. Another movie I really enjoyed him in is “Clue” made in 1985. This guy can sing, there is no doubt about that!

Michael Palin:

First became really famous as a member of “Monty Python”. However he has also done a number of movies like “A Fish Called Wanda” (for which he earned a BAFTA) and “The Missionary” which show that he is a versatile actor. He has also done a number of travel shows for the BBC, and is known as an all-around nice guy. My favorite Python, and definitely one of my favorite people EVER.

Peter Sellers:

So I always enjoyed Peter in the Pink Panther films. Other than that, I didn’t know much about him. He was funny and cute in the first Pink Panther, and that’s probably when I got my fangirl crush. But I didn’t think much of him, because I didn’t know much about him. When I first got really into Monty Python I saw some interviews where they all said they were a fan of the Goon Shows on BBC Radio, and heard them mention Peter Sellers.

Then, a friend loaned me a book called “Being There” which I read in one sitting. (Fantastic book.) I liked it so much, I looked up the movie on YouTube. I was floored by Peter’s amazing performance in that film. I really feel he deserved the Academy Award for that movie. After the movie, and seeing how “cute” Peter Sellers was, I looked him up, and looked up the Goon Show. I’m now a hardcore Goons fan, and I’m sure I’ll post a blog about them one of these days.

Peter Sellers was no angel. He was from all accounts a difficult person to work with. However, his enormous talent  helps me to forgive him. He was married 4 times, if that tells you anything about his personality. It has been suggested he may have had Asperger’s Syndrome (a high functioning form of Autism). This could definitely be the case. If it is, it helps to explain a lot of his personality clashes with so many collegues. Sadly, he died 10 years before I was even born. :’( I still miss him.

Yes, I have a thing for British comedians. Is it obvious? I’ll be posting more separate blogs about Peter Sellers, Sense and Sensibility, Being There, and the Goons. I have posted plenty of blogs about Monty Python. Feel free to leave comments!

Mori Bizarro: “Nessuna trattativa Stato-Mafia.”

Le Schifezze che mangiano i ragazzi? Tutta colpa dell’educazione in famiglia; Mrs Lecter: “Hannibal, sputa quel negro.”

Libertà di stampa, l’Italia scivola al 49esimo posto. Su una buccia di banana republic.

Malesia: “Beyoncé troppo sexy per l’Islam.” Ma dopo una bella infibulazione …

Dopo Uomini che odiano le donne, ho letto con grandissimo piacere anche La ragazza che giocava con il fuoco e La regina dei castelli di carta, secondo e terzo volume della trilogia “Millennium” dello scrittore svedese Stieg Larsson. Come ho ampiamente detto nel post sul primo libro della trilogia, mi rende molto triste sapere che questo scrittore non si può godere il meritato successo che i suoi romanzi hanno avuto, e ora che ho letto anche l’ultimo dei tre sono ancora più triste perché so che non leggerò mai altri suoi libri. La ragazza che giocava con il fuoco e La regina dei castelli di carta affrontano una storia diversa da quella del primo volume. Riprendono tutti i personaggi e ricominciano grossomodo dalla fine dell’altro libro, ma la storia questa volta è tutta incentrata su Lisbeth Salander, la protagonista femminile di Uomini che odiano le donne. Questo strano personaggio mi ha subito conquistata. Una donna mingherlina, piena di piercing e tatuaggi, forte e determinata, bravissima hacker e con una memoria visiva strabiliante, intelligente  e buona, ma capace di tutto, anche delle più terribili vendette quando si tratta di uomini che odiano le donne. Mikael Blomkvist, il personaggio maschile più importante della storia (e su cui è incentrato il primo libro della trilogia), la definisce “la ragazza che odia gli uomini che odiano le donne”. E leggendo capiamo bene le ragioni del suo odio…

Mentre nel primo libro conosciamo di lei le grandi capacità, ma solo sprazzi del suo passato e delle ragioni delle sue peculiarità e dei suoi problemi, negli altri due libri, che sono praticamente un’unica storia, veniamo a sapere, pian piano e con crescente stupore e a volte orrore, tutto quello che ha reso Lisbeth ciò che è. La vedremo anche crescere, migliorare, capire che non è sola come crede, accorgersi che dopotutto non tutte le persone sono detestabili. Larsson è bravissimo nella descrizione dei personaggi e nel gestire l’intreccio della storia. In questi due libri scopriremo, pagina dopo pagina, intrighi inaspettati. Con stupore vedremo come Lisbeth è stata oggetto di un’ingiusta macchinazione e la sua vita sacrificata per quella di un agente segreto. Non vi dico altro, se non che la lettura di questi libri è a dir poco piacevole, che ogni pagina è necessaria, e che vi dispiacerà terribilmente leggere le ultime righe dell’ultimo libro… non ci sono altri romanzi scritti da Larsson. Questo è tutto… Triste, terribilmente triste. Comunque era da moltissimo tempo che non amavo tanto il personaggio di un libro. Ricordo con una certa nostalgia (infatti credo che lo rileggerò presto) “Il silenzio degli innocenti” (Thomas Harris) nel quale lo scrittore ha saputo far amare un personaggio terribile come Hannibal Lecter, oppure Mike Noonan, protagonista di Mucchio d’ossa (Stephen King) o ancora, Alan Pangborn in “Cose preziose” (Stephen King). Quando uno scrittore riesce a fare questo, per me ha raggiunto un grande traguardo. Vi auguro buona lettura e vi lascio con due citazioni, entrambe tratte da La ragazza che giocava con il fuoco.

“Era stato in quell’attimo che aveva cominciato a odiare Lisbeth Salander con un’intensità che ardeva come acciaio incandescente nel suo cervello e trasformava la sua esistenza in una brama ossessiva di distruggerla. Fantasticava sulla sua morte. Fantasticava di costringerla a strisciare in ginocchio elemosinando pietà. Sarebbe stato spietato. Sognava di chiudere le mani intorno al suo collo e stringere fino a farla boccheggiare in cerca d’aria. Voleva strapparle gli occhi dalle orbite e il cuore dal petto. Voleva cancellarla dalla superficie terrestre.”

“Non esistono innocenti. Esistono solo gradi diversi di responsabilità.”

i get glimpses of what you are through the vastness of these so called social universes…for you never open up…and even if you do…it might be as bogus as the three words you just said to them…and it is almost cute and charming…to think that maybe you are, underneath all that, a vulnerable person whose way of defending itself from the harsh and cruel world is to create this image of a manipulative, serial heart breaker…but it is absolute speculation…maybe you’re just leading a double life…one part devil and one part angel…there’s a lot of good in you…i think…but there’s evil too…just like anyone else…but unlike everyone else you seem to be in control of both facets of your personality…no hint of ambivalence…you were always so sure…to the point of being dogmatic…you make the line between evil and good perfectly blurred…it’s as if they can be one and the same…the dualism i knew…gone by your standards…you’re really strange…i wonder what happened in your childhood…why you have become who you are and how…i wonder if this is even relevant to my discussion…and what is more puzzling to me is why i find so much interest in this observation based activity…i can easily erase you in my life…but i won’t…you’re far too interesting…

we begin by coveting what we see everyday…-hannibal lecter

Hannibal Lecter, M.D.

((Fictional character from the novels Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. Also in the movies Manhunter (Brian Cox), Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins),  and Hannibal Rising (Gaspard Ulliel)

Born: January 20, 1933
Aliases: Lloyd Wyman, Dr. Fell, Mr. Closter
Nicknames: Hannibal the Cannibal, The Chesapeake Ripper
# of Victims: 29+

Hannibal starts killing due to a traumatic experience during his teen years. During a war where he lived, he and his sister, Mischa, were captured by fleeing criminals. When the criminals had nothing left to eat, they decided that it was a good idea to eat Mischa, because she was smaller and weaker than Hannibal. They did so, leaving Hannibal traumatized. Later in life, he went on a hunt for the men who ate his sister, finding them, killing them, and filleting their cheeks. After this was over, he just couldn’t stop killing. What started as revenge had become an addiction for him, and he couldn’t stop eating human flesh.

Hannibal is known for his extremely violent physical and emotional torture methods, and he is very big into piquerism and cannibalism, like Albert Fish.

Hannibal Lecter: “First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?”
Clarice Starling: “He kills women…”
Hannibal Lecter: “No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?”
Clarice Starling: “Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir…”
Hannibal Lecter: “No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.”
Clarice Starling: “No. We just…”
Hannibal Lecter: “No. We begin by coveting what we see every day.”

WARNING – VIDEO MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 13

Ein Männlein steht im Walde -

German
Ein Männlein steht im Walde ganz still und stumm,
Es hat von lauter Purpur ein Mäntlein um.
Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein,
Das da steht im Wald allein
Mit dem purpurroten Mäntelein.

The little man stands on only one leg,
And has a little black cap on his head,
Tell me, who may be the little man,
Who stands in the woods all alone
With his little black cap.