Father's Day: let's go to RIO

It was Father's Day (at least in the Netherlands, not so sure about other parts of the world) it was gray and there a new Pathé theater in town. Oh, and there is this film for kids in 3-D with the action going on in Brazil, that happens to be mommy's land of birth. And being a good Dutch man, daddy discovers that the 11am session is cheaper than the afternoon ones. Ha ! Let's dress up and go quick to RIO !

In Holland, Jamai is the voice of Blu.

Did I like it ? Definitely, yes ! After all the cold colours of Ice Age and the slow animals marching all the time it was quite a contrast watching a film with such frantic colours, lots of aerial views and non stop music. Even the sunlight during the sun rising and during the end of the afternoon were perfect. Light and shadows in the tropics are definitely very impacting and different from the Dutch light. Still, I think it is a movie for American audiences basically - with all the clichés Northern Americans expect to find in a location called "Rio" (by te way, the Earth globe was displayed a couple of times during the film so that everyone could be aware where Brazil is).

Brazilian director Carlos Saldanha told a Rio de Janeiro newspaper the film’s animated beachscapes had to undergo at least one change for American consumption: bigger bikini bottoms.

The replicas of buildings located downtwon in Rio were perfect: the Petrobrás building and the round cathedral, the aquaduct, the historical buildings in Santa Teresa and Lapa.... My husband liked a lot the fact that he could recognize some locations downtown and had a good time (he is a very light guy, never searching things to be criticized). But the birds could cover huge distances around the city in a couple of minutes, which I think made the movie a bit too unrealistic.

I have noticed many errors. Some of them were also pointed out in the Brazilian press. When confronted about it by the Brazilian journalists, director Carlos Saldanha justified the changes as "creative liberties" and that he had made a cartoon, "not a documentary". He also added that after living for more than 20 years in the US he doesn't consider himself a "Brazilian director with a Brazilian view of things" but a director who will make any type of movie he wants, in order to please any audience he wants to. He explains it further on the videos below:







Anyway, some of the so called errors that I can remember are (yes, I am totally a nerd like that):

1) Linda and Túlio arrive in Brazil from the US and land in the domestic airport Santos Dummont, not the international Galeão airport. Huge error;
2) The two toucans that appear during the movie are of two different specimens, thus they can not really mate;
3) Jewel and Blue are two blue macaws from Rio. But actually this type of blue macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii) is native of Bahia.
4) They have only three claws instead for four. They look like chickens, with three claws;
5) The toucans have 7 kids. Toucans can only have two, up to four kids exceptionally;
6) The thieves leave Rio from a clandestine airport, with asphalt and all. A clandestine airport in Rio ? Really ? If it was at least in the middle of  the Amazon...
7) Cockatoos are Australian. Ok, in the film they do not make references to sadist and cruel cockatoo Nigel being Brazilian. But he eats a chicken leg - as much as I know cockatoos are vegetarian;
8) The streets in Santa Teresa completely empty during Carnival ? I don't think it's possible !

On the way back home while I was mentioning to my husband about the erros in the film, my son interrupted us and looked puzzled at me: "Er... mom ! It is a cartoon, birds talk and all, haha! A cartoon. What do you want ?"

The crew in Rio, during the première in Brazilian ground.

Above: the Russian poster. Below, I couldn't identify in which language this one was.

Famous Dutch Artists in the Film Industry

Rebecca Romijn

Femke Jansen

Rutger Hauer

Paul Verhoeven

Jeroen Krabbé

And last but not least... Remember Lurch (left) from Adams Family ?  It was played by giant Carel Struycken. The Dutch people are, indeed, among the tallest of the world, hahahah !

To be continued...

A.r.g.h. & the City

IF I was a bitchy foreigner, always complaining about highly irritating Dutch things, I would then say that the poster above is plain plagiarism just reminds me of a certain famous film.  But because I do not want to be a bitchy foreigner I will shut up and say nothing.

Diploma ABC (Nederland = Waterland)

And in every region
the voice of the water,
telling of endless disaster,
is heard and feared
(by Marsman)

Photo: Bram Pater

In the very cold night of 31st January 1953 a storm caused by the Northwestern wind elevated the tides on the North Atlantic see to a high record breaking the dikes in the province of Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands and causing a disastrous flood. Lots of victims were made in England, in Belgium, in Germany and specially in Holland. A total of 1836 Dutch citizens died and more than 100.000 had to be evacuated. The damage to the infrastructure, cattle and buildings was enormous.
Map above: areas affected during the 1953 floods

You can see some 24 images about this tragedy clicking here.

After the 1953 disaster there were lots of important consequences and improvements for the nation, such as the Delta Project (enormous dykes and sluices that are a tourist attraction and which Dutch hosts produly show visitors from abroad).

"Yet, every Dutch heart still misses a beat when, with a storm on the way, the radio news announces limited dyke surveillance. "
the extract above is from the book "The Low Sky, Understanding the Dutch (The book that makes the Netherlands familiar)"; by Han van Der Horst, chapter II "Utilitarian", page 99. One of my ever favourite books about the Netherlands.

A very beautiful Dutch film made in 2009 is De Storm, a fictional story within the historical context of the 1953 flood. Plot: when her farmhouse is destroyed by the flood, teenage mother Julia gets separated from her baby boy, whom she kept hidden in a box. She is saved from drowning by a young air force lieutenant, who agrees to go help looking for Julia's little son. A near-hopeless quest ensues. If you wish to know more about the 1953 flood tragedy and this important part of Dutch history then I highly recommend you to watch this film.
I have mentioned before in this blog that I live in a village with lots and lots of islands, and children use to swim in the canals during spring and summer time. My oldest child was always attracted to water, boats, bridges and that makes me VERY nervous. Even when we are with him in the swimming pools of hotels or my parent's swimming pool in Brazil my heart misses a beat (or two).

Up to last year, everytime I used to invite a child to play with my son the mother asked me whether I lived "nearby water" and informed me that her son "...didn't have the diploma A yet". I informed that no, I didn't live near a body of water and... what is this story of diplomas ? "It is a swimming certificate. He cannot swim properly yet", they added.

Ah-ha!

Since last year, for his own protection and survival my son has been busy with an intensive swimming course in Haarlem. Finally last weekend he had an exam in an olympic swimming pool and was approved. The kids had to spring "like a pencil" into the water, go through a hole in a plastic under water, float for 15seconds, and swim 50m with the four styles... actually a pretty long list of things to be performed and focused on survival in water. The kids must also swim wearing clothes (a t-shirt, bermudas and plastic shoes) for a part of the test. I've read that the rules for the acquisiton of diplomas B and C are even more difficult and the kids must swim in a more refined way. Not only that, the kids must swim with long sleeves, trousers and shoes for diploma B and thick winter clothes and shoes for diploma C.

During the exam last weekend one could feel the anxiety and happiness of the parents watching their kids. At the end, all of them were called to receive their diplomas. The coaches then put some loud music on and started to clap hands while walking cheerfully around the swimming pool with the kids, hands up in the air, singing the following song:

Opa, oma ik heb mijn diploma

Papa, mama kijk ik heb mijn A

Broertje, zusje krig ik nou een kusje ?

Ik heb mijn diploma

Hieperdepiep Hoera !

And let's go for diploma B and C !!! Then my child is going to be super safe in water and I will be more relaxed. My second child is also going to start swimming lessons as soon as she becomes 5.

Then my heart will not miss a beat.

"A Serious Man" at Pathe Tuschinski

Last Thursday afternoon I met a friend at Tuschinski movie theather. Ajax's supporters - and police agents - were everywhere, and the traffic a bit confusing. We had decided to go to Tuschinski because it has recently gone through renovations and the session was convenient for both of us.
The architectural style is a mix of Amsterdam School, Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Everything, from the façade to the interiors, give you a sense of fantasy, ilusion and dream. It dates from 1921 and is a true jewel right in the center of the city. It was originally exploited by Abraham Icek Tuschinski a Dutch businessman of Jewish-Polish origins who was murdered in Auschiwtz.

Shall we peek inside ? And then I tell you briefly about A Serious Man.
Ceiling, detail. The colors are always changing.

Above: reception. Below: some of the many lamps in the corridors.

Above: entree hall.

There are lamps in all forms and shapes: mushrooms, insects; Chinese and oriental style. They help setting a magic tone.

Above: corridor, detail.

Larry's neighbour shakes his libido

Minnesota, 1967. Two weeks before his son's Bar Mitzvah the world of physics professor Larry Gopnick starts to fall apart. Everyone is rebelling and he gets shit from everywhere. This is a gentle, good, honest man. Too gentle. Too good. Too honest. Too, ahn... stuck. Time to get serious, Larry !
(I found this a very jewish movie, and I left the theatre room with a lot of questions and no easy answers.)
Is Larry bedeviled ? 'Cause... All the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within him dies.
Poor Larry.



Jefferson Airplane » Don't You Want Somebody To Love?

When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies
Don't you want somebody to love ?
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

When the garden flowers baby are dead yes
And your mind is full of red

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his
But in your head baby I'm afraid you don't know where it is

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

Tears are running ah running down your breast
And your friends baby they treat you like a guest

Don't you want somebody to love
Don't you need somebody to love
Wouldn't you love somebody to love
You better find somebody to love

Hell is a Very Cold Place

Son: - Mom, may I check what you are seeing in your computer ?

Mommy: - Of course ! Look: a little film about very driven ice skaters. Beautiful isn't it ?

Son: - Yeah. It is so frozen. And with cracks, such as Ice Age. Is it dangerous ?

Mommy - Of course !

Son: - So... why are they doing that ?

Mommy: - Ah, my son. I do not know. You have a house with good warming, you have food on table and still you decide to ice skate for a whole day untill you hallucinate from hunger and your eyes freeze.
Son: - But... is it fun ?

Mommy: - Also. Sure ! Honey !! Help !!

Hubby: - Ah, boys will always look for adventures, won't they ?

Son: - A-hum.

Mommy: - Some girls also. Look: one of the four heroes in this movie - it's a brave girl.

Son: - Can I then watch that ?
Mommy: - Only when you are 12. We bring you now together with your sister to opa and oma. Daddy and mommy are going to Purmerend to watch it.

*******

Purmerend is a big modern city with lots of attractions. I enjoy going there for occasional shopping or for the fun - like today (but I prefer to live in an authentic Dutch village).

We went for "De Hel van '63" . The Dutch press has been giving 3 - sometimes 4 - stars to this film. Great photography and beautiful special effects but no complicated plot: during the winter of 1963 in the provincie Friesland (northern Netherlands) it freezes -19 °C. Therefore the organization comitee of the longest ice skating marathon in the world (200km) approves the Elfstedentocht for the following day: 18th January 1963 at 6 a.m.. Almost 10 thousand participants go for the challenge of covering a tour along 11 Frisian villages- but only 69 reach the finish line. We are going to follow soldier Henk, farmer's son Sjoerd, unemployed Kees and nurse Annemiek overcome exhaustion, hunger, woundings, snowstorms and personnal disappointments in order to get a little medal - before midnight. All of them have very special reasons to take part in the marathon.

In real life Reinier Paping arrived first during the legendary marathon of '63. He made it within 11h - most of which he was completely alone. As prize he got a silver cigarette box and two tickets for icerink in Deventer to be used during the following two years. And an unknown man put 10 guilders in his hand.

******

I have to say: I found the film great fun !!

******

It is going to freeze next week in the Netherlands. My husband has just checked his iceskates and decided he needs new ones. My son son is also making wild plans.

Ah, boys will always look for adventures.

Some girls also.