Tuesday, April 30, 2013

More April reading: Strindberg, Lubitsch, Graf, Krugman

Olof Lagercrantz: August Strindberg. Translated into Finnish by Rauno Ekholm. Original in Swedish in 1979. Helsinki: Tammi, 1980. - Re-read much of Lagercrantz's great biography the basic theme of which is that Strindberg created a half-fictional semi-autobiographical figure from his own life, to use it as raw material for his art.

Herman G. Weinberg: The Lubitsch Touch. (First edition 1968, second edition 1971). Third, revised and enlarged edition. New York: Dover Publications, 1977. - Revisited this wonderful book, itself an expression of the Lubitsch touch. Brimming with illuminations, the little ones as memorable as the big ones.

Conny Mithander, John Sundholm, Adrian Velicu: European Cultural Memory Post-89. European Studies. An Interdisciplinary Series in European Culture, History, and Politics, 30. Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, 2013. - The key year 1989 as a cultural turning-point. John Sundholm has contributed a remarkable essay, "Finland at War on Screen since 1989: Affirmative Historiography and Prosthetic Memory".

CineGraph, Lieferung 52 (März 2013). Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film. Herausgegeben von Hans-Michael Bock. München: Edition Text+Kritik, 2013. - I have been a subscriber to the magnificent CineGraph encyclopedia since the 1980s. A couple of times a year they send a batch of ca 150 fresh pages to be inserted into special CineGraph folders. It's a very special project of history with careers perhaps beginning during the Kaiserreich, continuing in the Weimar Republic, interrupted by Hitler, continuing in the Third Reich or in the exile, and after WWII in the two countries of the divided Germany. Fascinating to read, with film scholarship of the highest order.

Christoph Huber, Olaf Möller: Dominik Graf. Vienna: SYNEMA, 2013. Dominik Graf, a bit like our domestic Matti Ijäs, is perhaps more known to the big audience from his distinguished television career (Tatort, etc.), but he is also a prominent film director (Spieler, Der Felsen, Die Freunde der Freunde, Das Gelübde). This new study includes an essay by Christoph Huber, "Another Germany Is Possible", an interview with Dominik Graf, "The Grace of Working with the Hidden", and a thorough commented filmography by Olaf Möller.

International Herald Tribune: the columns of Paul Krugman. In the debate of Olli Rehn vs. Paul Krugman I have had sympathy with both. It is wrong to punish the people of Greece, Spain, etc. for gross blunders by financial speculators and politicians. It is of supreme importance to help the young and stop the unemployment. The tide will turn, and the innocent shouldn't have to suffer.

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