Ночной дозор / Дневной дозор

films by Timur Bekmambetov

This is a director’s cut (or, rather, two director’s cuts) of Night Watch / Day Watch movies in one box. Forget The Matrix: this is much better (and funnier). By some reason — maybe because I watched Day Watch first — I liked the second part more. (I did not read the books but most of Night Watch’s plot can be guessed from Day Watch anyway.) In addition, Night Watch has more blood and yucky bits. Never mind that, Night Watch is worth watching for the (closing credits) Russian rap alone — alas, it is not translated (not translatable?) into English. Otherwise, they did a very decent job of English subtitles.

Knots: Mathematics with a Twist

by Alexei Sossinsky
translated by Giselle Weiss

A few weeks ago, Gilleain lent me this book by Alexei Sossinsky. I have finished it today. It is a curious little book. It was originally published in French (as Nœuds: Genèse d’une théorie mathématique) ten years ago, so I expect it to be not quite up-to-date. At first, it was a fascinating read to me. By chapter 6, my attention started to slip; in chapter 7, I found myself reading the same sentence three times without getting anywhere. It looks like by the last chapter the author himself wanted to finish the book as soon as possible, so he rushed through most of it without proper explanations, which is a shame. Even so, if the goal of the book was to get one interested in knot theory, then it has been achieved.

The Illustrated Winespeak

by Ronald Searle

The Illustrated Winespeak: Ronald Searle’s Wicked World of Winetasting not just pokes fun at pretentious jargon of wine gurus. It is a work of art. This blog features several of these marvellous drawings.

The tortuous phrases that are frequently used when trying to describe music, fade into insignificance beside the agonising and often excruciating acrobatics of those whose duty it is to enlighten the baffled consumer regarding the more esoteric aspects of, say, Rotterdam rouge. The art of wine-tasting has its own brand of remarkable poets, those whose words vividly conjure up unimagined nuances and have us panting to experience the excitement and glow of drinking a particular bottle. Alas, they are as rare as the greatest vintages of the wines that dutifully pass their lips for our benefit. The rest, that grotesque international band of snobbish inarticulate sponges, who are incapable of thinking beyond their incestuous little circles, do as much harm to the world of wine as they do to the language. Their day will come... All the phrases in this little book have been plucked from unacknowledged but absolutely authentic sources. You could do worse than ponder over some of them. Cheers! R.S.

By some reason, our kids grew very fond of this book. I hear them laughing loud at the bits I find, say, just mildly amusing. Most likely they know something I don’t.

The Futurological Congress

by Stanisław Lem
translated by Michael Kandel

It is the first book by Lem I’ve read in English. (I’ve read it in Russian too, more than 15 years ago.)

He cited several well-known American theoreticians, who had calculated that, if things on Earth continued at their present rate, in four hundred years humanity would represent a living sphere of bodies with a radius expanding at approximately the speed of light. But new explosions interrupted the report. The futurologists, confused, began to leave the hall and mingle in the lobby with people from the Liberated Literature convention. Judging by the appearance of these latter, the outbreak of the fighting had caught them in the middle of activity which suggested complete indifference to the threat of overpopulation.

I read in Wikipedia that Ari Folman is directing the movie based on The Futurological Congress. It’s better be good.

The Doubtful Guest

by Edward Gorey

This is a charming, in a macabre way, book by Edward Gorey.

Cœurs

a film by Alain Resnais

Cœurs (Private Fears in Public Places) is a French film based on a play by Alan Ayckbourn. It is a funny and sad story of search for (and loss of) love in the big city. There are only six characters on screen, plus a very rude old man of whom we see almost nothing (at most, his feet moving under the blanket) but hear a lot (mostly swearing). Very good acting, especially from Sabine Azéma who plays mysterious, Bible-reading Charlotte: estate agent by day, carer by night, and a porn actress at some other time.

Обыкновенное чудо

a film by Mark Zakharov

Obyknovennoe Chudo (An Ordinary Miracle) is one of my favourite Russian-language movies of 1970s. Oleg Yankovsky, who, sadly, died today, is playing the Magician in this adaptation of a play by Evgeny Schwartz. However, no magic as such is shown in the film. The miracle of the title is that the Bear (Aleksandr Abdulov), who was transformed seven years before (so we are told) by the Magician into a young man, is not changed back into a bear when he, finally, kisses the Princess (Evgeniya Simonova). A wonderful love story, great actors, beautiful music... (running out of superlatives). The miracle.