Matsuko just died. Her nephew is given the task to clean up her filthy house, even if he actually never met her. He didn’t even know he had an aunt, so out of curiosity he begins to reconstruct aunt Matsuko’s story by asking people she knew and trying to find out whether she had any value. Read the rest of this entry »

Say you are a journalist, one working in a famous and heralded newspaper. You have been assigned to write an interview about an hostess who enjoys selling her body as a second job. Now, your article would surely attract more attention if you add a nice picture, wouldn’t it? Too bad you forgot to take a photo of your interviewee and to ask her permission for publishing. Read the rest of this entry »

Japan, 1941. Three high officials of the Japanese army get an order: find and attack a strategic target. They pick a place at random, and the target is…. Udine!

This video was shown in the theater before each movie.

In four days I’ve watched 19 movies: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m currently in Udine, where yesterday began the 9th edition of the Far East Film Festival. This is the 3rd year in a row I come here to attend the festival. In case you don’t know, FEFF is the largest showcase of popular Asian cinema held in the western world. Here you can see international previews of movies that will come to our theaters months ahead, and several movies that will never reach european theaters. Of course directors, producers and main actors come to Udine to present their work and feel the warm welcome this city can give them. They shoot movies from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, and so on.

Today I attended five movies in a row and now I’m exhausted. The most interesting was Eye in the sky. I’ll keep you posted!

The World Bank has interesting data about how many cars we have. It looks like some countries had a huge increase in cars per 1000 people over the last few years.

Now we have 6 countries over the “1 car every 2 people” threshold: New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. The United States decreased their number of cars relative to population. Who is wealthier and who’s behind? Should we conclude that public transportation is a sign of really more advanced economies?

A great weekend in NYC. On Saturday I walked across the Brooklyn bridge and then spent the night at the famous Birdland. Yes, that one, the one that takes the name from Charlie “the bird” Parker, where John Coltrane recorded Live at Birdland and several other kings of jazz played.

On stage there were “The final four”: Javon Jackson (sax), Steve Kuhn (piano) Buster Williams (bass) Al Foster (drums).  Eighty bucks well spent (with dinner and one bottle of great Bordeax).

Was quite a bit I didn’t attend a concert and I’m a big fan of J.S.Bach, so tonight I was eager to go to the event at Santo Stefano al ponte.

After a wonderful performance of Air on a G string, the Academic Chamber Orchestra SKC University of Nis proposed Cantata BWV51 Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen. The soprano was very excited and lost attacks, lagged behind and ultimately appeared out of context. Watching director Milena Injac (a woman!) while she desperately tried to let her catch up was real fun.

Next was a very good Doppio Concerto BWV1060. I had never heard this one and was a nice suprise, expecially the bright and joyful 1st and 3rd movement.

Last came the well known Brandeburg concerto no.5 BWV1050. Despite the harpsichord Rossella Giannetti had probably never played with this orchestra before (and the fact was quite evident) I liked the performance.