Last Ten Films We've Seen: Looking for Prozac Nation

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Slovakia, and Finland......we are delighted that full diplomat relations have been established between our country the United States and Cuba!

Here are the last ten films we had seen as of last week. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "Prozac Nation" have been notoriously hard to find, so we glad to have them off of our cinematic bucket list. "Love and Mercy" is the new film about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. He was played by two actors: Paul Dano (the young Wilson) and John Cusack (the older Wilson).

The pedestrian stop and go lights at the bottom are a holdover from East Germany in Berlin; "A Coffee in Berlin" is the only foreign-language film on this particular list, though "Prozac Nation" has a Norwegian director.

Fun thing we learned while putting this list together is that over $1 million of $7 million budget for "Dazed and Confused" went to film's soundtrack; we assume this means Foghat's 1975 rock hit single "Slow Ride" is expensive!

We originally got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine http://www.filmcomment.com

Here is the list:

1. Looking for Mr. Goodbar. director: Richard Brooks. 1977 w/Diane Keaton

2. Prozac Nation. dir: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. 2003.

3. The Lineup. Don Siegel. 1957

4. Bone. Larry Cohen. 1972.

5. A Coffee in Berlin. Germany. Jan Ole Gerster. 2012.

6. The Immigrant. James Gray. 2013.

7. Trishna. Michael Winterbottom. 2011.

8. Dazed and Confused. Richard Linklater. 1993

9. Entourage. Doug Ellin. 2015.

10. Love and Mercy. Bill Pohlad. 2014.

Presidential Quotes (3 of 16): James K. Polk, a President with a Song About Him

Today, we are quoting America's 11th president James K. Polk (1795-1849), a Democrat who was born in our former state of residence North Carolina but was a resident of Tennessee when he won the presidency in 1845.

Alas, he died just three months after leaving his one term in office of natural causes, but more interested in him in more recent years has been generated by the song "James K. Polk," (1996) from the New York-based band They Might Be Giants. The song was on the band's record "Factory Showroom." The band is playing this weekend in Berlin, Germany.

Here is our quote from Polk:

"The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our government."

http://www.theymightbegiants.com

Top 10- Best Countries I've Been To (Besides Turkey and the USA)

We are dedicating today's entry to students at Berlin Senior High School in Berlin, NH, where the principal is Gary Brisson, the school nickname is The Mountaineers and the school newspaper is "Mountaineer Today."

While school at UNC starts on Monday and at my alma mater Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Va., begins on Aug. 23, students at BSHS have summer vacation until Sept. 1 when school starts (must be nice!).

Berlin, NH, is incidentally where John Irving's famed novel "The Hotel New Hampshire" takes place. It was made into a film with Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster in 1984. I found a copy at an antique store in Fairfield, Va. (between Lexington and Staunton) which I read during a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was actually better than the movie (and I'm not someone who always says that!).

I thought it would be quite subjective to put the USA, the country of my birth and residency, and Turkey, where my late my father was from and a place I have been to many times on the list since that would be blatantly subjective and we are not working for Fox News!

So, here is the list:

1. Holland
2.Canada
3. France
4. Guatemala
5. Greece (I know this will not go well with my friends in Ankara!)
6. Italy
7. Hungary
8. Germany
9. Belgium
10. England/UK

It should be pointed out that while I have been to both Germany and New Hampshire, I haven't been to either Berlin!

And, there are many countries on this list, including England, Hungary and Italy that I have not been to in a very, very long time (since I was a child in the '70s).

Cyprus and Luxembourg both just missed the cut.

Earth Day Turns 40

Today Earth Day, which was started by a couple of men in their early twenties who had just finished college and protesting the Vietnam War in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, DC, turns 40 (which happens to be my age).

Events are planned all over America and the world this week. In Washington, DC, on April 24th, the National Zoo will have an Earth Day Clean-up Day in which area residents can help zoo employees tidy up the zoo by picking up aluminum cans.

In Durham, NC, there will be a Durham Earth Day celebration downtown with music and food in which area residents will learn about green projects they can conduct in their lives.

And, in Idaho Falls, Ida., on Saturday, there will be an Earth Day celebration at the Tautphas Park Zoo which will include music, arts and crafts and conservation education.

There are some folks like my good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, a political libertarian, who once dubbed Earth Day "Nerf Day," who think the resolutions to our environmental problems cause too much government regulation but the increasing scientific evidence does suggest that measures like Cap and Trade are vital even if coal exectuives from West Virginia will lobby firmly against them.

Today also brings to mind Knut, the polar bear cub raised in captivity at the Berlin Zoo in Berlin, Germany, after his mother's death in 2006. Apparently, Knut who remains a popular tourist attraction is all grown up now, which means that cuddly creature can now eat us!

Dead or Alive?- Klaus Kinski

We conclude our three entries devouted to the fall of the Berlin Wall by asking our blog visitors if the egotistical German actor Klaus Kinski is dead or alive.

Kinski collaborated with German director Werner Herzog five times even though the two openly despised each other. The making of one of those films "Fitzcarraldo"
(1982) is the subject of an excellent documentary entitled "The Burden of Dreams" by my friend Les Blank.

The German actor was born on Oct. 18, 1926, in what is now Sopot, Poland. He grew up in Berlin and was drafted into the German army. He was taken prisoner by British forces in Holland.

Kinski was married and divroced four times, and he is the father of actress Nastassja Kinski, best known for her starring role in Roman Polanski's "Tess."

Though he starred in some classic films of German cinema, Kinski also starred in some infamous or dreadful films like "Venus in Furs" (1969) from the sometimes notorious Spanish filmmaker Jesus Franco.

Kinski also turned down the role of the villain for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) because he thought the script was awful?!

PS- The subject of our last entry in this series Christopher Lee is indeed alive and well, and still starring in films.

Special Quote of the Day- Lou Reed

Since it has been 40 years since the Berlin Wall came down, I thought I would quip a legendary musician who was part of the Berlin music scene in the '70s. We have quoted Lou Reed, former lead singer of the Velvet Underground, before and even though he is not German he seems like the perfect person to quote.

I especially like this commentary given how a film critic, who I refuse to name, esentially wrote a character assasination of filmmaking legend Robert Altman a few weeks back:

"I don't know anyone who actually cares what a critic says."

21 Words in Turkish (21 of 21)

Zoo


Hayvanat Bahcesi (literal translation: animal garden)



This is an image of Knut the polar bear cub who was raised at the Berlin Zoo. We understand he has grown considerably within the last year.

Our series, which my mother gave a thumbs down too (but I enjoyed putting it together), is over. Now to wrap up the Norwegian word series on my other blog