Bern, Switzerland II

I found another photo of Bern, Switzerland that I had somehow missed, so here it is complete with flags! Remember, this is 1987, not current!

Its been a slow, easy weekend. I received Xavier Dolan's first film (dvd), "J'ai tue ma mere" ("I Killed My Mother") filmed in 2009. The film is in French with no subtitles (I couldn't find one that had subtitles), so I had to make due watching it in French. The dialect was a bit rough for me to understand in places (I learned Parisian French in school, not the same, and actually speak French with a German accent when I do speak it since German is my first language - don't ask, that's just the way it is about the accent bit) so I'll have to see it again to get more out of it. When watching the film, the feeling I got was of unease from the two extremes in mood between mother and son, almost bipolar in a sense. Its the relations with other guys in the same sex scenes that ease that mood and cause me to relax, to enjoy. You'll have to see the film to get your own impression, feeling of what is happening.

Both Xavier's first, as well as his second, "Heartbeats" ("Les amours imaginaires") have some parallels in my own life and why I find them so relevant. Have a look at them and decide for yourself. - V

warm

Its been warm here today, even with some sunshine in the afternoon, but despite all that, the wind was a cool. The temperature got up to about 10 degrees Celsius today, balmy by Canadian standards since much of the country is in the grips of winter. That means lots of snow and cold temperatures, so I don't mind the warmth. That's one of many reasons why I came out here. The other is that I didn't want to shovel any more snow, at least for a while!

This afternoon I purchased Xavier Dolan's first film, "I Killed My Mother" or "J'ai tue ma mere" in French, online and should receive it later this month or early next. I cost me twice what I paid for "Heartbeats" but I believe its worth the price. I'll give you a bit of a commentary on both of Xavier's films after I've had a chance to see the first.

He's working on his third, "Laurence Anyways." We'll how it compares to the first two of his films. I've started investing in his third effort and plan to invest more. Good luck, Xavier! You seem to have found the secret.

Finally, I managed to clean the hard drive on my laptop of unneeded files and get a defrag completed. Now I'm ready to install the software that came with the photo scanner. Then the real work begins, and I promise some interesting surprises. Come back for more! - V

contribution

Its Friday and nearing the end of the day. After a week of research, I've decided to contribute to Xavier Dolan's next film effort, "Laurence Anyways," and if you're interested, perhaps you might consider this too. I've long been interested in cinematography and have amassed a eclectic collection of films in both the vhs and dvd format, plus I have a few reels of my own efforts on super8 film tucked away somewhere (I know, this takes us quite a way back!). I hope to have the latter transfered to dvd at some point but I digress.

So, here's a short list of Xavier's film efforts so far. He's certainly worth watching!

1. I Killed My Mother (Canada, 2009) or J'ai tue ma mere

2. Heartbeats (Canada, 2010) or Les Amours imaginaires

3. Laurence Anyways (in production)

To my French-speaking readers, sorry about the spelling. I only have an English keyboard, so I can only type characters commonly used in English. The new laptop computer I have an eye on hopefully will have a bilingual keyboard but for the moment this will have to do. You know what I mean anyways, hopefully.

Meantime, check out the touscoprod.com website for inspiration. Congratulations, Xavier, you're doing an awesome job!!! Hopefully those of us interested in your efforts can make your visions a reality!!! - V