One of the best albums of recent history, The National’s Boxer, is getting its own making-of film! The DVD plus EP package comes out sometime during the second half of May (5/20 USA, 5/19 UK, 5/16 Germany). Yes, that’s totally worth making one of my infrequent blog post before disappearing again for two months! :) Now, if only I could make the band come back to Berlin in the very near future…

Countdown: 4 months till graduation!

I just saw the news that Anthony Minghella died on Tuesday morning :( I couldn’t believe my eyes at first and had to go online to verify it and it turned out to be true… He was still so young, I just cannot believe he’s gone ;_; (I still remember four years ago when he came to Berlin to promote Cold Mountain at the Berlin International Film Festival…)

In related news, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke who co-wrote the script for Kubrick’s 2001 also died…

And speaking of the Berlinale, I decided to post a few impressions in two back-dated entries, the first of which is located here.

Wait, what happened to January and February? Someone deleted all my blog posts!*
January, January… is pretty much a blur of preparing three presentations, huge presentations which I didn’t fuck up because I know the importance of being brilliant. Or something. February = Berlinale (or Berlin International Film Festival or BIFF or watching too many weird and depressing films to remember in Berlin). February also marked the end of classes for the winter semester and the beginning of a horrible horrible French course. Taking that was probably the biggest mistake in my so-called academical career. But I survived it! Can’t shake the reoccuring bouts of francophobia now, but I’m trying to ease the pain with Versailles no bara and Gankutsuou. The Japanese take on French history is so much more bearable than the French take on French history. Uhuh. I also wrote a kick-ass paper on Japanese ODA for China (you wiki that) last week and now all I have to do is write another kick-ass paper, on Murakami Ryu (ha!), and a translation of … I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet, something for my Japanese class (oh, and I passed the JLPT 2, 今年は一級！？).
Fin.

* No, they didn't. Blogging is so overrated though, seriously.

Hatsu-koi
(Japan 2007, directed by Koichi Imaizumi)

I wouldn’t have bothered writing a review for this movie, this is just too remind myself of what sort of film not to stand in line and pay for ever again: The fact that I did go and see it was because my friend was really interested in the subject of young gay people in Japan. I jokingly mentioned to her that I’d made a promise to myself not to see any Japanese lo-fi indie films at the Berlinale anymore due to some very bad experiences in the past. I told her that most of these films featured very shaky and/or blurry camera work without any sort of aesthetic intention, completely talent-free amateur actors, a thin storyline and at least one disturbing masturbation scene.
Hatsu-koi was no exception. It was basically a commercial to legalize gay marriage in Japan, one scene even featured the older characters (20-somethings) reiterating all arguments for legalization… not the subtlest way of bringing your message across but oh well. The story was so-so, the coming-out story of the school boy Tadashi was kind of cute, though I could’ve done with that godawful masturbation scene, thanks very much. The film handled sex scenes quite explicitly, one in the toilet of a bar felt extremely awkward. Quite a few people left the cinema, I think both due to the slightly gross sex scenes but also because the actors’ performances throughout the whole film where extremely inconvincing. The film had its serious, touching moments but on the whole it was just too silly, too amateurishly executed and too inconvincing on all levels.

Kabei - Our Mother (Kaabee)
(Japan 2008, directed by Yoji Yamada)

During World War II, Kayo Nogami, called Kaabee (a variant of okaa-san) by her children, is left too take care of her daughters Teruyo/Terubee and Hatsuko/Hatsubee (Mirai Shida, I’ve seen her in various dorama before, like 14 sai no haha and Watashitachi no kyôkasho) on her own because her husband Shigeru (Toobee), a professor for German literature, gets imprisoned under the Peace Preservation Law. To get through the hardships the war and her husband’s imprisonment bring with them, she can rely on the help from Yamasaki (Tadanobu Asano), a former student of her husband’s, her sister and an uncle. The film focuses on the everyday life during the war and lets you experience the propaganda and general madness from the inside. The family forms a sort of safe haven from all this. The life in the Noyami’s house is framed by the passing of the seasons, intouched by the war but affecting the house itself and its inhabitants. The movie finds a fine balance between serious, moving scenes, especially those set in prison where Noyami is treated so unfairly and cruelly or when his family reads out his letters, and the more lighthearted, funnier ones (usually involving Yamasaki).
The film was slightly episodic but never boring, always touching, true, convincing and deeply humanistic. Sometimes it was trying a bit too hard to be emotional but I think that’s a common trait of mainstream Japanese movies. The cinematography was solid, on the conventional side of things but offered new insights into a country at war, from the point of view of ordinary people. The set design was brilliant, especially in the town scenes where you could see the propaganda posters and larger crowds of people.
The film ran in the official Berlin International Film Festival competition. The director Yoji Yamada, the screenwriter Teruyo Nogami whose own life story this movie was based upon, Sayuri Yoshinaga (Kaabee), Mitsugoro Bando (Toobee) and Tadanobu Ando (Yamasaki) were present during the premiere screening. They all came up on stage afterwards and told a bit about the making of the film. Nogami, who worked for Akira Kurosawa for a very long time, expressed her gratitude for the fact that his movie had mad its way to Germany because her father who loved German literature so much never had the chance to visit the country himself. Needless to say, the audience was deeply moved by her words.

Here’s my personal top 10 of records that came out this year. I went through a brutal day-long internal struggle, trying to decide which album should be on top of the list - but I just couldn’t say whose new album was better, The National’s or Interpol’s. As a result, there are now two records of the year because I couldn’t pick one over the other. The same can be said of the rest of my top ten, which I had to list in alphabetical order because judging the quality of a record by saying it is better than this but worse than turned out to be an impossible task…

Album of the Year I
The National - Boxer
This is an album of an incredible density - once the songs have drawn you in, you’ll find yourself unable to escape them. Matt Berninger’s seemingly calm baritone voice forces you to listen closely due to its slight monotony and thus creates a certain intimacy between himself and the listener. These songs speak to the audience through their familiarity of themes like everyday white-collar drama, the transience of youth and the path of uniform conformity a lot of people choose to take. You’ll find yourself haunted by melodies that are being pushed forward by sharp, precise rhythms of an almost hypnotic quality. The additional instruments (horn, cello, piano, violins etc.) aren’t just the icing on the cake but have a voice of their own and enhance the general feeling of menace and darkness. At the same time, the songs are very clean in their textures as they aren’t overloaded with layers. They never lose their aforementioned density which in itself forms a sort of strong connection, a thread that binds all the songs together into one brilliant whole.

Album of the Year II
Interpol - Our Love To Admire
OLTA shows a lot more variation than its predecessor Antics. It’s more open, more dramatic to a cinematic extend and it’s perfectly sequenced so when you listen to it in one go, you won’t have to skip one single song because they unfold like one big narration, with intricate songs carried by grand instrumentation followed by faster catchier songs which aren’t less beautiful. The two closing songs, Wrecking Ball and The Lighthouse, suggest a completely new direction to the band’s sound altogether and are so overwhelmingly intense… The album clearly has its faults and weaknesses, but it’s also a testament to the band’s growth and considering the album as a whole, as a sum of its songs, it’s simply majestic.
(Just where in the world did the bass go?)

Albums # 3-10 in alphabetical order:

3. Band of Horses - Cease To Begin
Small town idylls meet epic arrangements meet country elements meet lyrical love songs named after… Detlef Schrempf? Band of Horses have managed putting all of these things onto one record and the result is quite amazing!

4. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
My favorite francophile album of the year. No seriously, I didn’t like the Balkan pop of the debut album but this one takes you on a voyage through France which, as a culture, I find ultimately more accessible as far as musical influences are concerned. A great and charming, at times pompous pop record.

5. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Wide in scope, this is a personal but at the same time universal record which is reflected both in the lyrics as well as in the music itself. It’s a bit of the private versus the political, and the songs focussing on the former are clearly the stronger ones as the political-themed ones often seem to be the exact opposite of subtle. Nevertheless a beautiful record!

6. Feist - The Reminder
This is an album that’s diverse in sound but brought together by themes like love and loneliness which Feist delivers in her truly unique, dreamy voice. The contrast of the music and the lyrics creates a good sort of tension, as even the most uplifting-sounding songs can quite unexpectantly bring tears to the listener’s eyes due to what the singer expresses in the lyrics.

7. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Some might say Okkervil songs might be too weighty on the lyrics side to an extend that the music and the melodies suffer but I couldn’t disagree more, at least as far as this record is concerned. The music supplement the lyrics so well and in a few instances, the melodies are simply so fantastic they make you follow them so closely that you forget to pay attention to the actual words for a moment. When you do listen to the lyrics though, you’ll get to hear some dramatic, personal and sometimes downright hilarious (in all their tragedy!) stories you won’t forget any time soon.

8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
There’s absolutely no doubt that this is a fantastic and unexpectedly accessible album, the only question that remains is: could this album just as well have been released in 1997?
 
 

9. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
I still love this album as much as when it came out, or even more now which is a surprise really because I first thought that one day I might grow tired of the catchy hooks and wonderful melodies of the album’s most outstanding pop songs like Phantom Limb (which features the best impressionist lyrics ever) or Australia - but that never happened even though this is one of my most-played records of the year! And even better: the songs that seemed slightly less accessible or maybe even bland at first revealed their true beauty after some time. So it’s a really rewarding album that also didn’t lose any of its initial appeal.

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Is Is EP
Simply the most powerful and sexiest of this year’s releases, period.
 
 

Songs from almost all of these albums (plus a few others) can be downloaded in the songs of 2007 post.

Architecture in Helsinki - Heart It Races (Places Like This, Australia, 2007.)
Band of Horses - Ode To LRC (Cease To Begin, USA, 2007.)
Bright Eyes - Coat Check Dream Song (Cassadaga, USA, 2007.)
Feist - My Moon My Man (The Reminder, Canada, 2007.)
The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Herculean (The Good, The Bad & The Queen, UK, 2007.)
Interpol - Pace Is The Trick & Who Do You Think? (Our Love To Admire, USA, 2007.)
Maximo Park - Books From Boxes (Our Earthly Pleasures, UK, 2007.)
The National - Brainy & Squalor Victoria (Boxer, USA, 2007.)
Okkervil River - Plus Ones (The Stage Names, USA, 2007.)
The Shins - Phantom Limb (Wincing The Night Away, USA, 2007.)
Wintersleep - Archaeologist (Welcome To The Nightsky, Canada, 2007.)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy (Is Is EP, USA, 2007.)

Next up are a couple of music-related posts - yes, my albums of the year list is on its way! (Compiling a list means having to make difficult decisions about what should be on it and what has to be excluded and whatnot, and that’s not necessarily something I’m good at and explains why I need a hell of a lot of time to write one.)

I’ll start with this year’s most disappointing releases, CDs I’ve really been looking forward to or that I liked when they came out but that turned out to be not as exciting or in some cases downright bland after repeated listens:

Maximo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures: A very good album actually, but doesn’t show too much progression when compared to the band’s debut. It doesn’t offer much variation both as far as arrangements and lyrics are concerned - although the lyrics have their moments of beauty (oh, the last line of the closing song, Parisian Skies: I like the tiny veins on your back/They remind me of the way that porcellain cracks).

The Good, The Bad And The Queen - s/t: This album kept me sane and safely wrapped up in its warm melancholy during the last winter, especially during my daily commuting. The song patterns are just too similar, though, so with the spring came other albums I liked much better which made me forget this one quite fast.

Architecture in Helsinki - Places Like This: Weird in a fun and playful but sometimes too infantile and unstructured way. Could have done with a bit more diversity, too.

Idlewild - Make Another World: Has a few songs that recall the once magnificent songwriting this band used to be capable of but fails to deliver anything outstanding.

Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City: Over-produced, self-absorbed and superficial. I have not given up on them though and look forward to their next album that - for heaven’s sake! - should better be kept out of the hands of producer Garret Lee.

Editors - An End Has A Start: Super catchy melodies that wear off as quickly as they got stuck in your head. Lyrics that try to be clever and Emotional (yes, with a capital E!) but fail horribly. Too superficially melodramatic. I sincerely hope - because I onced liked the band quite a bit - they won’t go further down the Coldplay stadium pomp path with their next album. Another record killed by Garret Lee with too many U2-esque, unnecessary layers.