Tuesday 11 December 8:30 pm Tom Jones (1963) Tony Richardson The first British film to win the the Best Picture Oscar since Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet," in 1948, "Tom Jones" made its star, Albert Finney, a household name in America. Based on Henry Fielding's famous novel, which was adapted to the screen by playwright John Osborne, it features Finney as the adventurous, amorous illegitimate son of a servant in eighteenth-century England. Osborne has condensed considerably Fileding's 1749 sprawlingly episodic adventure to fit a feature-length film (running time is 131 minute feature). Director Richardson treats the text as a slapstick rollicking material, inspired by silent film comedy devices, such as titles, wipes, slow-motion, etc. Both Osborn and Richrdson depart from the tradition of "kitchen-sink" realism that had marked their earlier works, manifest in the play and moviue "Look Back in Anger." Stylistically, Richardson also borrows >from the French New Wave in using his camera in a dynamic and jazzy way. "Tom Jones" was a commercial success prior to winning the 1963 Oscar and a smash-hit afterward; this period comedy is one of the most popular films of the entire decade. Several set-pieces are fantasically entertaining, such as the stag hunt at the estate of Griffith; the bedroom farce at the inn, and most memorable of all, Albert Finney and Joyce Redman staring at each other, while never stopping ripping food apart and stuffing it in their mouths, a scene that's both funny and strangely erotic. Reviewed by Emanuel Levi at www.emanuellevi.com

Wednesday 12 December 8:30 pm Reading Group - A Christmas Carol

Thursday 13 December THE WAR (2007) Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (Part 1) In the spring of 1945, as the war in Europe drew to a close, the CBS radio correspondent Eric Sevareid was troubled. He had been reporting on the fighting for four years, and had done his best to convey to his listeners back home all that he had seen and heard in Burma, France, Italy and Germany. But he was haunted by the sense that he had failed. He told his audience: "Only the soldier really lives the war. The journalist does not -- war happens inside a man -- and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers. If, by the miracles of art and genius, in later years two or three among them can open their hearts and the right words come, then perhaps we shall all know a little of what it was like -- and we shall know then that all the present speakers and writers hardly touched the story." For the past six years we have striven to create a documentary film series about the Second World War in that spirit. Ours has been, in part, a humbling attempt to understand "the things men do in war, and the things war does to them" (as Phil Caputo so aptly noted). We chose to explore the impact of the war on the lives of people living in four American towns -- Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota. Over the course of the film's nearly fifteen hours more than forty men and women opened their hearts to us about the war they knew -- and which we, their inheritors, could only imagine. Above all, we wanted to honor the experiences of those who lived through the greatest cataclysm in human history by providing the opportunity for them to bear witness to their own history. Our film is therefore an attempt to describe, through their eyewitness testimony, what the war was actually like for those who served on the front lines, in the places where the killing and the dying took place, and equally what it was like for their loved ones back home. We have done our best not to sentimentalize, glorify or aestheticize the war, but instead have tried simply to tell the stories of those who did the fighting -- and of their families. In so doing, we have tried to illuminate the intimate, human dimensions of a global catastrophe that took the lives of between 50 and 60 million people -- of whom more than 400,000 were Americans. Through the eyes of our witnesses, it is possible to see the universal in the particular, to understand how the whole country got caught up in the war; how the four towns and their people were permanently transformed; how those who remained at home worked and worried and grieved in the face of the struggle; and in the end, how innocent young men who had been turned into professional killers eventually learned to live in a world without war. Over the course of seven episodes, we spend a great deal of time in battle -- on the ground, in the air and at sea, in Europe and the Pacific -- examining in countless ways and from many perspectives what one of our witnesses, Paul Fussell, described as "the real war." "The rest of it," he told us, "is just the show-biz war. The real war involves getting down there and killing people. And being killed yourself or just barely escaping it. And it gives you attitudes about life and death that are unobtainable anywhere else." Throughout the series, one theme has stayed constant, one idea has continually emerged as we have gotten to know the brave men and women whose stories it has been our privilege to tell: in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives. The Second World War was fought in thousands of places, too many for any one accounting. This is the story of four American towns and how their citizens experienced that war. From the PBS web site

Friday 14 December 9pm Dinner followed by KaKa Film Night (our first Official Audience Participation Monthly Film) Showgirls (1993) Paul Verhoeven

Rape, Lesbianism, Prostitution and Interracial Relationships. Since its release, the movie has achieved cult status.According to activist writer Naomi Klein, ironic enjoyment of the film initially arose among those with the video before MGM capitalized on the idea. MGM noticed the video was performing all right, since "trendy twenty-somethings were throwing Showgirls irony parties, laughing sardonically at the implausibly poor screenplay and shrieking with horror at the aerobic sexual encounters." It is shown at midnight madness theaters alongside movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It is heralded as one of the best "bad movies" of all time, and is somewhat of a camp classic (in the vein of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls). Even though the film was not so successful when first released, it is a very well known film, and over the years it has become increasingly popular. The DVD release to this day is one of MGM's top 10 selling DVDs. from Wikipedia

Sunday 16 December 14:00 The War (Repeat from Thursday Night see above)and Games of all kinds downstairs

Tuesday 18 December 8:30 pm Big Fish (2003) Tim Burton

Hook, Line and SInker: A Life of Telling Tall Tales Tim Burton -- who made ''Pee-Wee's Big Adventure,'' ''Edward Scissorhands'' and the first two ''Batman'' movies, among others -- is surely one of the most prodigiously imaginative filmmakers around. His best movies glide effortlessly from devilish whimsy to startling perversity, and even when his storytelling falters his inimitably strange visual sensibility leaves its haunting, humorous traces on the memory. There are, true to form, some startling scenes in his new movie, ''Big Fish'': the hero's arrival in a hamlet called Specter, where the streets are paved with grass and the citizens are always barefoot; his encounter with a witch (Helena Bonham Carter) whose glass eye can reveal the future; his appearance on a campus quadrangle carpeted with daffodils. The movie also includes, for good measure, a giant named Karl, a squad of circus folk (led by Danny DeVito), a pair of conjoined Korean twins and some menacing, anthropomorphic trees. The theme of ''Big Fish,'' adapted by John August from the novel by Daniel Wallace, is the transforming, sometimes bewildering power of the imagination, which would seem to be a natural subject for Mr. Burton. But the most curious thing about this magical-realist fable, which opens today in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, is how thin and soft it is, how unpersuasive and ultimately forgettable even its most strenuous inventions turn out to be.

From a Review by A.O. Scott from the New York Times December 10, 2003

Thursday 20 December 9:30pm Live Performance - Agnethe Melchiorsen - New Songs

Sarah from Australia says "hi!" She's got some pictures of Kreuzberg, West Berlin and other places on FlickR!

the down-angled pews of the u-bahn packed as a requiem mass for the xmas rush, black in its cladding the congregational hush plus invisible choirs of grinding rails and hacking coughs. every station admits more scowly hum to the crowd’s dark optical push. yon mendicant bitch, thin as the cold air itself, guilting face a hatchet chopping chips of loose conscience for small pelf, fronttoothlessly blocking the aisle while nearby noses sting, stalks off the next stop in her wealthless huff, mad as the newly deaf’s doorbell ringing.

the foreign girl follows the beggar up hauptstrasse through bruise-blue veils of daemmerung, red sale signs and christ-lights in low-slung flurries over overcoated, headscarved foot- traffic and then headlit rivers of cars. the beggar hurries flight-catching-fast in nothing but ashram pants, hugging that titless t-shirt with all but embraceless arms, nearly funny. later

Malena will wake, chided by dreams of the running

.

See you there!

We (Sister Chain & Brother John) would like to thank everyone who turned out for the Fantasy Cellar on Wednesday last. For those of you who weren't there - you missed a great set from Marzipan Marzipan and Big Daddy Mugglestone with support from our good selves. The stage was ably managed and lit by Kim. Friendly barmaids (Stephan) served a packed house and a good time was had by all. We hope to repeat the process next month. watch this space for details.

Tomorrow we play at Wonderbar, Lady Gaby's nook at Wienerstr. 45. It's free and starts around 21:00.

Found by Mary Poppins

Techcrunch: "In Japan, half of the top ten selling works of fiction in the first six months of 2007 were composed on mobile phones."

The future warehouse of unwanted books

old von bredow and his widow in apparent years sufficient but too meticulous in their pleasures to ever be grandparents, somber-slim and softly rich as becketts, are again in the market for a girl to cook, polish, launder, drive, pose for his sketches and comply without kvetching with the importunities enticed by ripening youth. evidence of a recent bloodtest, a signed declaration of boyfriendlessness, sweet breath and high breasts to be presented in that order at the interview. the list of alumnae tallies a

fine-arts-in-berlin who’s who: the tooth-sculptress, the pain artist’s muse, the longterm girlfriend of two married antiquities dealers and the wife of a brewery-inheriting collector of restoration erections, plus the headmistress of a faux-french trompe l’oeil atelier of ill-repute. all have done well for art students. the first in the series, the

widow herself in 1962, 18 to von Bredow’s 30: blackplumed, supple, striking as a horsehair whip (father a) (cinematographer at Łódź) (one of the chosen) (few aryans slain by a) (jew in that era in a) (duel over a pupil’s) (paramour) she’d mix von b’s patented lacquers, gesso/sand/re-gesso/re-sand his grander canvasses; photograph, crate-up, ship-out each piece of his gigantic oneiric maps from the studio overlooking the Lietzensee and its petit bourgeois paths. later she even came to finish certain works and worse paint others ab ovo usque ad mala whilst the maestro napped. her man can live for what feels like years

without urges regarding the pinkerparts of the people. it’s the widow herself, blackwings turned to pearly bob, cupped breasts white as dresden pots in timebrowned hands who relishes the entering of that room kept sternly lockless, its unblocked view of three steeples, not even knocking. an applicant/supplicant buzzes

breathless down at front, the widow sips her salted coffee, walks the atrium with numbered steps, stops to stoop to pocket a foilship of gumwrap off the cloud-reflecting koi pond feeling

deathless

.

30th November 8pm 1st December at 8pm followed by a party! Written and directed by by Ashley Brandt With Mala Ghedia and Cornell Adams Humboldt University Dorotheenstrasse 17 10117 Berlin S and U Friedrichstrasse

Entry: free - donations accepted ;-) RSVP: katie griggs 030 806 17464 info@threeofcupsproductions.com Welcome to GensInc, an online state one-hundred years in the future. GI7849 and GI3319 have relatively calm lives with cyber-jobs, cyber-partners and cyber-hobbies. One day, they receive a task. They must meet in the flesh and develop an intimate relationship. The conflict? Neither has ever seen another person before. Adam and Eve are reborn. There is no compassion. No desire. Only a book.

Yi-Ha! Big party on Saturday,our insiders claim.

Play it online in the comments!

Thursday 29 November 9pm

Alan P. Scott - Reading & Performance

I read the news today, oh boy!

Apparently, and to the consternation of the duly elected authorities, an unkempt mob of anarchists and the unemployed stormed the Houses of Parliament. It followed their somewhat frenzied participation in some sort of intergalactic sonic sit-in at the Royal Albert Hall. After laying siege to the Speaker's Podium, they proceeded to use their disposable cigarette-lighters to fuse the workings of Big-Ben into a 10 foot-high bronze-statue of Smokey Robinson, whilst singing "How sweet it is to be loved by you". This maybe made up, but what is not made up is the fact that on the 29th (Thursday) of this month at around-about 9pm, I'm doing a one man show/reading in the bookshop called 'Another Country' (Riemannstr 7) just off Gneisenaustr. And this is to let you know that I want you to be there, it would make me happy, and you might just possibly have a good time yourself (it is after all free!). My subjects for the night will be: poetry, pomposity, prejudice, the death of celebrity, our unnoticed invasion by aliens and what constitutes lies. And that about covers it really. So hope to see you there and then. (Alan P. Scott)

Friday 30 November Dinner 9pm and Film around 11pm

I (Kim) will be guest cook again this week, prepare yourself for the best Mexican Food in Berlin (of course this is not saying much)...Cheese and Olive Enchiladas, Adobo Chicken, Beef Braised in Beer and Chillies, warm Tortillas, Refried Beans, Mexican Rice, and Cactus Salad.

Movie: Santa Sangre (1989) Alejandro Jodorowsky

SANTA SANGRE is a throwback to the golden age, to the days when filmmakers had bold individual visions and were not timidly trying to duplicate the latest mass-market formulas. This is a movie like none I have seen before, a wild kaleidoscope of images and outrages, a collision between Freud and Fellini. It contains blood and glory, saints and circuses, and unspeakable secrets of the night. And it is all wrapped up in a flamboyant parade of bold, odd, striking imagery, with Alejandro Jodorowsky as the ringmaster.

Sunday 02 December 14:00 Wireless, Bridge, Brunch, and Games, Mapp and Lucia, Board Games and Word Games

Monday 03 December Bookshop Closed Bookshop Recommends The Young Ones at Gallery Wallywoods 7pm Opening - Group Exhibition: A search for fresh talent in Berlin! For info Check out www.wallywoods.com

Tuesday 04 December 8:30 pm

Hamlet (1996) Kenneth Branagh

"Hamlet: For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." The first "full-length" film version of "Hamlet" ever made (using the Second Quarto (1604) text with additions from the First Folio (1623) to create an idealized "complete" Hamlet).the last feature Filmed in 70mm "Hamlet: How all occasions do inform against me And spur my dull revenge!"

Wednesday 05 December 8:30 pm

Marzipan Marzipan / Sister Chain & Brother John

"Marzipan Marzipan is an experimental pop one-woman band, and Zelda Panda IS Marzipan Marzipan! Based in Berlin, she is also a DJ and visual artist, but when she is Marzipan Marzipan, she plays toy keyboards, old drum machines, electric guitar, loops, and effects to accompany herself singing witty originals and surprising covers......."Charlie, WFMU radio

Marzipan Marzipan

Sister Chain & Brother John

See the large Original over here!

See the Large Version here!

Original Version

Here's a picture of the ugly bird.

Another nice one with a pretty accurate description of what the shop is all about: "Treasure trove of English language books to buy or borrow. Run by charming Englishman who was more interested in showing us the Saturday Night Live 'Dick In A Box' video than selling us anything."

with love it’s the irrational that means the most, feelings we can explain aren’t worth the heart’s extortionate costs, feelings which confuse, shame, addict, dement, explode or transform the soul with magnificent disregard for the results are most real. they are cold-welded to the species, beyond control, the inherited gene jewelry from elephant-killing poets paleontologists call old. dante is strong in his passion’s clarity but weak in its need. his dip in the infinite rips his emotions’ skin
bleeding. masochistic distraction or fundamental need? but that’s what love is, dante thinks:

a regimen of poetic beatings we clamour like the Mecca-mad to meet until repletion. a tedsent postcard comes

from the Aegean sea: a gnomic joke on wellhung Cretans

Here's a great clip from the 1970 film MAIDSTONE.

Subcin.com: "In the summer of 1968, the elegant resort town of East Hampton, NY witnessed a bizarre invasion of the celebrities and unknowns, professional actors and amateurs, assembled by Norman Mailer to make a movie in which he would be both director and star. (...) Mailer played a character named Norman T. Kingsley, a filmmaker who is contemplating a run for president. His half brother in the film is played by Rip Torn. Allegedly, Torn took his part too seriously and attacked Mailer with a small hammer, and Mailer retaliated by nearly biting off Torn's ear. This clip shows the actual fight."

7.30 pm

Guest: Udo Wachtveitl ("Tatort") Tickets: 8,-€

Location: Kino Babylon Berlin - Mitte Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30 10178 Berlin

that's when we will be performing next, for those who simply cannot wait for the 5th of december...

Photo by Nathan Wright

Reblog: Originally posted by Sister Chain

It's about time to link our dear friend Nathan Wright. He's available for weddings, events, commercial, portraits, creative photography and movie stills.