Movie: O Fantasma

The quality of this movie followed the same path as the life of Sergio, the main character in the movie. In the beginning, he was a regular guy, although a bit moody. Halfway through the film, he started behaving more and more odd, which did nothing to make him happier. The last ten or fifteen minutes were unexplainable.

The film is very explicit - for instance there is a scene of oral sex which would have trouble with many censors. That is a quality. The movie would lose credibility if it shyed away from showing the real life of Sergio.

But nothing can save this film from its ending.



O Fantasma (2000)
Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues

Main actor:
Ricardo Meneses as Sergio

Bosnia - Norway 0-2

Norway won an important victory over Bosnia today. As Greece beat Turkey as well, Norway is currently in the position we wish to be at the end of the qualification tournament as well: second place, which gives a place in next year's European Championship. If Norway beats Turkey next month, Norway has qualified.


Zlatan Muslimovic celebrating after Bosnia's win in Norway in March

Movie: Curse of the Golden Flower

A spectacular movie, which was also entertaining and engaging.

In China more than 1000 years ago, the emperor comes back from travelling. Can he trust his three sons and his wife? And can they trust him? Hardly.

The story is not enough for two hours and the fighting scenes are almost parodic. However, every scene is beautiful, which makes up for other shortcomings.



Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006)
Directed by Yimou Zhang

Main actors:
Yun-Fat Chow as Emperor Ping
Li Gong as Empress Phoenix
Jay Chou as Prince Jai
Ye Liu as Crown Prince Wan

I'm loaded...

Global Rich List is a website with a mission: it tries to remind people in the rich parts of the world how rich we really are. People tend to compare with their neighbours and friends, while they would often be happier by comparing to the rest of the world.

The site also tries to tell people that they can do something to help the poor, for instance by this kind of statistics: "$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda."

Interesting site!

How rich are you? >> I'm loaded. It's official. I'm the 48,312,628 richest person on earth!

Films From the South: The Prizes

I have been to film festivals where I've seen more than 20 movies, and still missed all the prize winning movies. That feels a bit strange - does it mean that I missed some wonderful experiences?

At this year's Films from the south festival, however, I didn't have time for more than two movies: The year my parents went on vacation and Caramel. That was a good choice.

The prizes this year were:
Caramel got the main award, the Silver Mirror
Breath got a special prize from the jury
Khadak got the FIPRESCI prize
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation got the audience award

And as usual, I hope I'll have time to see even more movies at the festival next year. But first, there is the Oslo Film Festival, 15th to 25th November.

Concert: Crowded House

"I'm Only Sleeping", not The Beatles' greatest hit, was the most surprising song played by Crowded House at their concert in Oslo tonight. Their cover version was also quite short, as they didn't really know all the lyrics.

Other than that, the concert was mostly hits and hits and hits - a reminder that Crowded House has a wonderful string of beautiful songs. "Four seasons in a day" was left for the very end, and before that, there were "Don't dream it's over", "There goes God", "Weather with you", "World where you live", "Fall at your feet", "Private Universe", "I feel possessed", "It's only natural", a beautiful version of "Distant sun" and so on and so forth. And songs from the new album, such as "Pour Le Monde" and "Even a child" were also included.

The concert lasted for almost two hours, and Neil Finn was in a great mood, which was seen in the performance, heard in the music and also noticed in the humour between the songs.

When a concert is good, you want to go to another concert. So it's a good sign that the three of us who went together to this concert, have already (on our way home) decided to go to a Kent concert in November...

It was a truly great night in Sentrum Scene. As in most concerts, the highlights came when most of the people knew the lyrics and were able to sing along. Tonight, there were lots of highlights.

Movie: Caramel

Beirut fascinates me. It is a vibrant city in a country in a very troublesome geographical location, which never seems to give up even under the most difficult circumstances. "Caramel" is a warm comedy about the women running a beauty salon. Their main objective, however, is to find love - and that quest is often difficult, worldwide.

There is also a customer to the beauty salon, an old lady, who has given up the quest. Love, however, has not given up on her.

Okay, I probably make the movie seem dull and ordinary. It's not really ordinary, and it's certainly not dull, and it's well worth watching. Give it a try...



(See Films from the south festival.)

Caramel (2007)
Directed by Nadine Labaki

Movie: The year my parents went on vacation

The credibility of the main character is the main reason this movie succeeds. Mauro's parents leave for "vacation" (to get out of reach of the dictatorship's men) and Mauro is left almost alone to explore the world - in the form of Sao Paolo. Everything happens in the same summer that the World Cup goes on in Mexico, with great chances for Brazil (with Pele).

It's a warm and touching story, with big and small events in a nice mix. Well worth seeing!

(This was the first film I saw at this year's Films from the south festival.



Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias, O (2006)
Directed by Cao Hamburger

Main actors:
Michel Joelsas as Mauro
Germano Haiut as Shlomo

I have lots of stocks! :-)

I use morningstar.no as a tool to keep on top of my small fund investments. It has lots of helpful tools, such as showing how the funds are spread geographically. Today, I got these statistics. It's interesting to see that I have 259,4% of my investments in "Western Europe - Euro members", and still has lots of percentages left for other regions...

clipped from morningstar.no % av portefølje % av portefølje Nord-Amerika 3.6 Afrika 0.3 Sentral & Latin-Amerika 11.9 Japan 0.2 Storbritannia 4.9 Australia 0.9 Vest-Europa - Euromedlem 259.4 Asia 4 Tigre 70.3 Vest- Europa - Ikke Euromedlem 168.9 Asia eks. 4 Tigre 16.5 Øst-Europa 5.9 Euro: Østerrike, Belgia, Finland, Frankrike, Tyskland, Hellas, Irland, Italia, Luxembourg, Nederland, Portugal og Spania. Øst-Europa: Består av Russland og andre østeuropeiske land. Australia: Australia, New Zealand. 4 Tigre: Hongkong, Singapore, Sør-Korea og Taiwan. Asia: Består av Østen, Midtøsten og Fjerne Østen.

Pie chart

clipped from www.dinside.no

Weather service

Cool bit of technology...

clipped from www.dinside.no

A trip to Bergen

I've been to Bergen and Voss for a week (almost a week ago now). Here are some of my photos:


The old "Bryggen" in Bergen

From Bergen's Aquarium:



Penguin


Seal in action


View from my hotel room (Voss)


A local speciality - half a head of sheep. Tasted okay, but the visual experience wasn't too great.


Voss


Cool artwork in Bergen Art Museum


A Munch (one of several)


The Oslo fjord, as seen by Hans Gude


A nude man by Rodin


Bergen


A monument to remember the war. An exhibition on this artist (I don't remember his name just now) was on in the Stenersen collection (part of Bergen Art Museum)

To summarize: I liked Bergen as usual, and Voss was very picturesque. Next time, I would like a bit more sun, however...