The Queen

What a great movie. This is the kind of film that invariably rekindles my love affair with motion pictures.

The story is simple: after the sudden death in a car accident of Lady Diana, who, at that point, wasn't part of the royal family anymore, because she and Prince Charles had already divorced, how were the Windsors affected? How did they react? What did they feel?

At first, as expected, their reaction is of contained shock paired with an alarming efficiency in dealing with the upcoming funeral services.

Then, however, pushed by the reaction of her people and, in no small measure, by her new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth, slowly but surely, begins to realize that the world has changed, and she must adapt to it, or risk see the monarchy succumb to those in the country who see it as obsolete.

And so she gives in, forced at first, but by the end, almost relieved that she has.

The Queen is played masterfully by Helen Mirren, one of my favorite actresses, who should start in earnest to find a place for a little golden statue called Oscar, the last of the many awards she has or will surely win this season for her portrayal.

She is, in one word, superb. She plays the Queen as a fierce and stubborn head of state who believes she's been put in her place by God himself, and therefore cannot and will not lower herself and, by extension, the crown, to worry about the funeral of the very person who labored so hard to undermine what she had built.

Her views are slowly changed by the realization that maybe, just maybe, her opinions of Diana and of her people had been shrouded in a traditional view of the crown and of royalty that wasn't shared by her current countrymen anymore.

In the end, the Queen opens up her armor just a tiny bit, enough to salvage her legacy (and possibly the crown itself) and to show us that she is, after all, a person, raised to be a monarch, and who has done so to the best of her abilities.

The whole cast does a great job, including James Cromwell as her husband, Sylvia Syms as the Queen Mother, Alex Jennings as Prince Charles, and Michael Sheen as Tony Blair.

It was very interesting to see a portrait of the early Prime Minister, who was seemingly adored when he took power and who is widely reviled right now. How right was the Queen in her final exchange with him.

Lady Diana's death was very emotional for me. I can still remember when it happened as if it were yesterday. I obviously didn't know her, but her public persona had done so much good in the world, I felt like her loss was everybody's loss. The movie re-evoked some of those feelings, and that's partly why I liked it so much, but, besides the great acting, the screenplay is very well written and the score is nice too.

But there's more. I, like just about anyone else, disapproved of the way the royal family reacted to Diana's death. This movie put that reaction in perspective, and allowed me to see it from the Queen's point of view, helping me understand how this looked to her in her world, which, understandably, is light years away from where we all live.

All considered, one of the best movies I've seen this year. Don't miss it.

Grade: 9

There goes the neighborhood

For the first time an inhabited island has been swallowed by the rising waters caused by global warming:

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.

Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.

More islands surrounding Lohachara are expected to be gobbled up in the coming years, and besides humans (70,000 are projected to become homeless), animals are in danger as well, including some 400 tigers living in the area.

Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham

My first novel by John Grisham was not of the kind you'd expect from watching the famous movies based on his books, like The Firm, The Client, or The Pelican Brief.

This was a comedy and at times pretty funny, although quite often the characters made choices that were so stupid or unreal that I found myself shaking my head in disbelief or even screaming at them to pick the other choice.

That's never a good sign.

The story is all in the title, as a middle age couple decides to skip Christmas and take a cruise instead. All sorts of complications ensue, as one might expect.

This book has been turned into a movie as well, and although I never saw it, it doesn't seem to have received very good reviews. I'm not surprised, given that the story on which it's based treads water here and there.

However, I checked out the cast for the movie and I have to say that the actors picked to play the different roles were perfect, based on the mental image I had created of them. I'll watch it someday, although I'm not a fan of Tim Allen, who plays the main character.

Anyway, all considered, the book isn't that bad, and it's short too, so if you're in the mood, give it a try.

Grade: 7

Compensation

I didn't know that gays in Spain had been treated, under Franco's brutal regime, as bad as the Nazis did in their internment camps. The Spanish government is apparently going to compensate the few survivors for their suffering:

The Spanish government may offer money to those who were sent to mental hospitals, tortured, imprisoned or who suffered a lifetime of persecution. The Spanish Justice Minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, is considering granting victims a pension of €800 (£540) a month, plus a one-off €12,000 payment for what they suffered under the regime. It could be introduced in two months.

Many homosexuals were prevented from working under the Franco dictatorship because of their "criminal" records, meaning they never contributed enough money to receive more than the minimum pension.
[...]
During Franco's homophobic dictatorship, gays were jailed or locked up in sinister mental institutions known as "correction camps". With echoes of the Nazi atrocities against gays, they were given electric shocks in the belief that this would rid them of their homosexual urges. Inmates were forced to watch pornographic films featuring women in an effort to show them a sex life that was deemed "natural" by the conservative authorities.

More on the treatment they received:

Homosexuality was designated as an offence under the "law against delinquency and criminals" introduced in 1954. But towards the end of Franco's regime, it was increasingly viewed as an illness rather than a crime. In 1968, the psychologist Lopez Ibor said: "Homosexuals should be seen more as sick people than as criminals. But the law should still prevent them proselytising in schools, sports clubs and army barracks." Jail terms of up to three years were imposed under laws covering "public scandal" or "social danger".

And this was a shocker to me too, since I always thought Spain was a fairly liberal country after Franco died:

Even after Franco died, persecution of gays continued. They could be jailed until 1979. And although thousands of political and other prisoners were pardoned in 1976, gay people were made to serve their sentences. In 2001, Spain finally pledged to wipe clean the criminal records of gays convicted under Franco.

Unbelievable.

I'm glad the government is finally doing something to right the many wrongs these people had to suffer.

Too bad many haven't lived to see this day.

The 40 Year Old Virgin

A moderately funny comedy that delivers on the expectation of a few easy laughs, this Steve Carell's vehicle is mildly satisfying.

The worst I can really say about this movie is that the whole outcome is totally predictable, but you know that as soon as you read the movie's title.

Speaking with Vittorio after I saw it, he told me that he barely laughed at all because he had already seen most of the funniest jokes in the movie's trailer, which I religiously avoid watching precisely for that reason.

Carell has clearly found mainstream success with this movie, allowing him to join current comedic powerhouses as Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell.

The rest of the cast was ok, although I've seen Catherine Keener in other films and she's totally wasted here.

All considered a very forgettable movie, but enjoyable the first time around.

Grade: 6

A Quote By:

Scottish-American actor John Barrowman, who stars as Captain Jack Harkness in the BBC Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, tied the knot with Scott Gill, his partner of 16 years, in a civil partnership ceremony:

"Our relationship was legitimate for us a long time ago. We have been spending most of our time together. The ceremony is because we have the right to be recognised as a couple. It forces people who don’t want to recognise same-sex relationships as legitimate, it forces them to do so."

Dangerously annoying developments

This CNN article talks about a couple airlines worldwide that have decided to allow its passengers to use their cell phones in flight. I hope the decision doesn't spread too fast to other airlines:

In January, Emirates airline plans to launch mobile phone usage in its planes, making it the first airline to allow passengers to make cell phone calls on its flights.

And Australian carrier Qantas plans to start evaluating technology that lets fliers use their cell phones and PDAs during flight early next year.

There's nothing more annoying than a stranger sitting next to you, loudly yapping his nonsense into a cell phone. At least, however, on a train or bus, you can switch seat, or the ride might end soon enough. On an airplane? Not so lucky. You're stuck next to the bastard for the entire length of the flight, from 3 to 11 or more hours.

I met one of those assholes on my last flight back from Ohio. He was sitting in front of me and was screaming so loudly in his phone before take off that I wanted to scream. I had to do breathing exercises to keep my blood pressure from blowing an artery. If I had to sit next to him for a 9 hour flight to Italy, I could very likely have murdered the sicko.

I seriously regret this decision by airlines. Surfing the web is one thing, since it can be done in silence, but no activity that disturbs your neighbor should be allowed. Airlines even started equipping individual seats with headphones first and small monitors next to avoid disturbing travelers with a show or movie they didn't like, and now they want to allow people to call their aunt in New Mexico to tell her to feed the cat, do the laundry or tape a show for them?

That's just crazy, and I'm not the only one who thinks so:

A majority of business travelers (61 percent) oppose the idea of being able to use their phones in the sky, according to a global survey conducted by travel management company Carlson Wagonlit Travel early this year.

But if the technology is there, the service will eventually make its way to the skies, said Chris McGinnis, editor of Expedia Travel Trendwatch.

"Whether people like it or not, in-flight cell phone use is going to become a reality," he said.

Chillingly foreboding advertisement

The latest Diesel advertisement campaign gives us a glimpse of our possible future.

Sleek and cool models for sure, but look carefully at the backgrounds:

The rise of the machines

Interesting article from CNN about one day robots being smart and independent enough to demand civil rights for themselves, and the consequences of such an occurrence:

Robots might one day be smart enough to demand emancipation from their human owners, raising the prospects they'll have to be treated as citizens, according to a speculative paper released by the British government.

Among the warnings: a "monumental shift" could occur if robots were developed to the point where they could reproduce, improve or think for themselves.

"Correctly managed, there is a very real possibility for increased labor output and greater intelligence to be provided by robots that will ultimatly lead to greater human prosperity and an improvement of the human condition," it said.

However, it warned that robots could sue for their rights if these were denied to them.

Should they prove successful, the paper said, "states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time."

I just have one request. Could gays' civil rights be recognized before we give them to machines, or at least at the same time? At the rate we're going, they might see them before we do.

I wonder if robots can be gay... Would gay robots earn their civil rights before human gays?

Senator Brownback's latest delusion

This NY Times editorial about Senator Brownback's absurdly ridiculous attack of a judge's nomination to the federal bench simply for her attendance of a neighbor's daughter's same-sex commitment ceremony made an excellent point:

Mr. Brownback says that although he will allow Judge Neff’s nomination to come to a vote, he is still likely to vote against her. If he does, he should be asked to explain his vote if he hits the presidential campaign trail. Whether someone has attended a same-sex commitment ceremony is not a worthy litmus test to impose on someone seeking an important office. Whether someone holds hateful views toward gay people certainly is.

What business does this man have into what a person does with her personal life? Hell, this was a girl who lived next door to the judge and whom she saw grow up and whom she loved. Why shouldn't she attend her "marriage" even if to another girl? I could understand Mr. Brownback's outrage if Ms. Neff had officiated the ceremony, but attending? C'mon.

And this guy wants to run for the presidency? God help us all if he get elected.