Drama, Movies

Before Sunset

by:
Do not read this review before reading my review of its predecessor film “Before Sunrise.” Nine years ago two young people spent, we are told, an amazing night in Vienna togehter. To play with fortune they did not exchange phone numbers but promised each other to meet on a particular day six months later in image [Read More]
Diary

A History of Sex

by:
From The Economist print edition, Sep 23rd 2004, p. 95 New Evidence that people have been promiscuous for a long time. LOTHARIOS everywhere will be pleased to hear that monogamy does not appear to be a natural human state. That, at least, is the conclusion of a study conducted by Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona [Read More]
Diary

Fantastic New Series: Jack & Bobby

by:
Last Sunday a fantastic new series started on the WB Channel. It follows how a teenage boy become president of the USA in 2040. The writing is clever and insightful. One has the feeling that Washington insiders have written the script. In the middle of a presidential campaign, it is all the more fun to image [Read More]
Movies, Phantasy

The Prince & Me

by:
It is a regular fairy tale, but there a few clever twists. The writers located most of the action in Wisconsin. A playboy Daenisch prince discovers a farm girl who does not like dating because it could interfere with her going to medical school. She turns him into an responsible adult and is invited to image [Read More]
Drama, Movies

Last Tango in Paris

by:
Even good acting (Marlon Brando) cannot save a script that has no depth and a director who lacks an eye for how to pick stories that are worth telling. If one is confused in one’s head (as writer or director), it does not make for good art to let confusion take over the story. The image [Read More]
Diary

Wealth and Happiness

by:
SHARON BEGLEY has filed this interesting report about the connection between wealth and happiness in today’s WSJ. It seems like justice is valued highly all over the world. But what is less clear is what people are willing to pay for it.  Wealth and Happiness Don’t Necessarily Go Hand in Hand On a scale of 1 [Read More]
Movies, Phantasy

The Day After Tomorrow

by:
The Oscar winning Titanic was boring compared to this remarkable motion picture by Roland Emmerich. America as we know it coming to an end is simply a bigger issue than two lovers going bathing because their vessel hit an iceberg. The notion that New York City could turn tomorrow into Iceland is scientifically wrong; but image [Read More]
Books, Fiction

Tonio Kroeger

by:
This autobiographical short piece of fiction is the best writing of Thomas Mann that I have laid eyes on. For me it was much more compelling than his famous first major novel The Buddenbrocks. At least one German writer (Martin Walser) claims to have learned the entire novella by heart so that he could readily image [Read More]
Diary

Till Death Do Us Part, or Whatever

by:
Given that most people seem to know that the divorce rate in contemporary America is about 50 percent for first timers (the odds for 2nd and 3rd marriages are even worse), I was curious whether some people would feel a little bit queezy about uttering the promise Till Death Do us Part. SAM [Read More]