Henry and Kristl enter the Mists of Avalon (2001)

"So ever read the book?" Henry asked, "Seems like the kind of book you
would have read, in your days..."

Kristl frowned, "My days? Sounds like I have outlived my shelf live. "

"Eh.. Well I mean, from when you were younger. When you read these
books. Fantasy and such."

Kristl gave Henry a look, "Gosh, you are starting to scare me."

"Scare you?"

"Well, you are actually right, I have not read much fantasy for a long
time. I got a bit tired with the copy and paste books that flooded the
market. And we did not have the internet then to figure out the good
from the bad. Or even the mediocre from the bad. You had to read the
blurb and page through the book. Hundreds of them."

"See.. I can listen," Henry smiled sanguinely.

"Oh.. ah.. Well, we might even make a good woman out of you yet."

"Let's not go overboard now."

"But the answer is no. I picked it up once as it had intriguing cover
of a woman riding a horse and holding something up. A staff I think.
Like a magic user."

"And?"

"I gave it a try but never got past the first few pages. Perhaps I had
lost interest in the whole Arthur legend at that time. The Arthur
legend was another dead horse that was beaten ad nausea."

"But did you read it , Henry?" Kristl asked.

"Nuu.. Fantasy is not my kind of thing."

"So what do you think of this women movie."

"Well.. it is a bit quaint."

"Quaint?" Kristl said.

"Well it was nice to see eh the woman side of it all, but it was kind
of uneventful."

"No kick ass girls in this one."

"And full of 'functional' sex and even incest. I mean. It was as if the
whole woman side of the Arthur legend consisted of scheming,
backstabbing, incest and sex."

"Apparently."

"I wonder if it was written by a man.. a misogynistic one, " Henry
said.

Kristl laughed, "I was told Marion Zimmer Bradley was a woman. Perhaps
the book gives a more favorable angle on the story. Turning a book into
a movie usually means that the story has to be condensed and suffer."

"Yeah."

"I wonder if you can follow the story if you do not have some
background information. Like it is never quite explained why Lot hates
Arthur."

"Some things are also strange. Like when Uther Pendragon sneaks into
the castle of Gorlois, disguised as Gorlois, and beds Igraine she gets
knocked up and then marries Pendragon, " Henry said.

"Hmm," Kristl said.

"Strange is also the decision of Morgause to spare Mordred. She first
wants to kill him when he is a newborn baby but when the delirious
Morgaine blurts out he is actually Arthur's son, she spares him..But
why? They say that when Arthur has no sons, they are next in line for
the throne. So why let Mordred live?"

"I got the feeling that much what was in the book could not be put into
the movie and thus we lack events that probably would make the story
more 'sensible'," Kristl said.

"Another strange thing is the passivity of Morgaine. I mean it seems
like almost everything is happening to her and she is a bit helpless in
the face of it. Like oh, right I am taken away to this Island to become
a priestess. Oh right, I have to have sex with this guy in some ancient
ritual. Oh right, I am to be married off to king Uriens."

"Oh wow, that was one of the dumbest scene ever. Arthur discussing with
Uriens to arrange for a wedding and then when they ask Morgaine if she
wants to marry this 'royal person' from Wales, they forget to mention
that is was the father Uriens they meant and not his son. That was so
lame. As if such political decisions were done in such a offhand
manner. I would grant that Morgaine would probably have had no choice,
but the movie suggests it was a mistake and that she could not back out
after it had been arranged for fear of Uriens losing face."

"So?" Henry said.

"To wrap it up?" Krisl queried.

"Still a reasonable movie to watch, I think. Just for the story line."

"And the acting is decent. Not very good, but passable."

"Yeah. But the fighting and magic is lame. It is as if people are
afraid of hurting each other. And that absurd way of fighting of
Mordred. Did he travel to China to learn that tactic?" Henry said and
continued, "And did it not strike you as odd that Morgaine at one time
suddenly became this killer fighter? Throughout the whole movie we see
her never touch a sword and then when she gets ambushed she kills half
a dozen of these Saxon raiders. Wow. Way to go girl."

"I think fighting came natural to women in those days. Men had to work
hard for it," Kristl smiled.

"Yeah.. right. As 'natural' as in that women always hit something when
they park their cars backwards."

"Not much of a 'skill'. And not true at all. A fable. A persistent
recurring one. I wonder if we are still claimed to bump into things
while parking when flying spacecrafts."

"Well fables tend to linger on.. so I guess you are stuck with it one
way or another. It just morphs into something new."

"And no doubt we will be seeing another Arthur legend.. maybe next time
it will be about gay relations."

"Or aliens."

"Or gay aliens."

"Now that is an idea."

Book review: Elke raaf pikt by Jean-Pierre Gibrat(Each Raven picks)

Elke raaf pikt by Jean-Pierre Gibrat
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Introduction

Welcome to my, hopefully short, review of the graphical novel 'Elke raaf pikt' made by Jean-Pierre Gibrat, the title of which could be translated as: each raven picks, the latter word being used as meaning 'to steal' and at the same time as 'the picking of a bird'.
I write this in English incidentally even though this is a Dutch book translated from French. I am not sure if there is an English version out there, but if there is none, it ought to be made as it is a fine example of graphical storytelling.

Below will follow a review in three parts: the story, the graphics and a conclusion. The story part will have a spoiler as I have to say something about the end of the novel, however I will arrange that in a separate section that is at the end of the part discussing the story.

Jeanne and Francois

The story
The story and the characters are neatly done. There are not that many characters in this story and that is actually a pre as now there is time to give each their individuality. The people are also normal people, with their good sides and bad sides and without superpowers or gung ho shoot-em up mentalities. And nobody is dressing in oddly colored tights to fly through the air and beat up the Jerries.
There is even very little violence in this comic and if there is any it is done realistically.

The story tells about Jeanne who gets arrested by the French police. It is 1944 and the allies have just landed in France, but Paris is still occupied and Jeanne is a fix because she belongs to the communist resistance. There is a danger this will be discovered and she will be handed over to the Germans. In the police prison she meet Francois, a small time thief, trickster and crook who helps her escape and arranges a hideout for the two of them.
The hideout is actually a boat called Himalaya which is owned by a family of three. The boat is at the center of the story for most of the time.
The bulk of the story revolves around two issues: Jeanne's search for her sister, who has disappeared and the question who has betrayed her to the police.
In the mean time, Jeanne and Francois develop an attraction for each other.
Gibrat is good at mixing various elements in make an engaging story and he does it quite right, never overdoing it, or having people do unbelievable things.

But there are a few problems with the story(spoiler alerts).

At some point the boat on which Jeanne hides is ordered by the Germans to transport things for them. A soldier is put on board to oversee the activities. This soldier is from Strassbourg, a part of France that was added to Germany. He speaks French therefore even though he is a German. He also has been in Stalingrad and plagues by nightmares, he is also on a boat with the pretty Jeanne. The story seems poised for an very interesting development, with this soldier maybe having conflicting emotions serving the Germans and finding himself on the losing side, but basically nothing comes of it. And that is a pity.

Other characters

Also, at various moments in the story, Gibrat decides to keep the story going by using ‘convenient moments’. For instance at some point the police commissioner who has had Jeanne arrested at the start of the story pops up later in the story to move it forward by helping Jeanne to get into prison so she can meet Francois there, who has been captured by the Germans. It is very strange behavior for a man who previously was depicted as being a coward and opportunist and I find it hard to believe such a person would suddenly decide to help Jeanne. He might have had a volte-face because he needed to switch sides due to the German retreat, but this change of heart fits ill with him also becoming brave enough to help Jeanne while the Germans are still in control.
Another very convenient moment is that at one time allied fighters strafe the boat without killing anyone, but they manage to hit the dead body a German soldier that has been killed by Jeanne previously. So now they can claim he died because of the allied attack, thus having a believable story to give to the Germans about the death of that soldier.
Yet a third strange moment is that Jeanne's sister suddenly appears out of the blue somewhat into the story. As if Gibrat was getting bored with the search or just wanted it to finish so has Jeanne's sister appear at the boat.
Another strange thing is that Jeanne at some point in the story loses a shoe and she walks about with just one shoe for a very long time, even though it would be logical for her to have her shoe replaced.

A last criticism I have is the end of the story. The last page should have been left out. The page before ends with Jeanne alone in snowy cold Paris anxious about the fate of Francois, who has been deported to a camp. Then the last page explains that he managed to escape the camp and is probably Switzerland. It is almost as if this last page was pasted on to the story to make a move happy ending. For the page before it could be that Francois was dead, while the last page makes it unlikely. It is as someone said to Gibrat: look this ending with Jeanne in wintry Paris is not very positive, so let's add another page to give it a more happy ending.

Landscape shots. Note the similarity of the men in the picture at the bottom.

Graphics
The comic is neatly drawn and Gibrat really likes his main character Jeanne who is in the picture most of the time. She is pretty, but he gives her a crooked smile which gives her a kind of unique personality. Gibrat does not shy away from offering detailed pictures of Paris and bars and such. It must have been a lot of work to make some of these drawings.
However Gibrat seems is also somewhat conventional. He keeps the camera mostly level and does not experiment much with unusual angles. He keeps everything in focus. Nor does he go beyond the constraints of the picture. You will not see him for instance use several pictures next to each other to depict one scene. Or have a picture in picture effect. It is neatly arrange, conventional and not very experimental or imaginative.
Another thing is that he seems to stick to a certain of man that comes back all the time, Francois, the german soldier, michel and most men seem more of less have the same overall shape. It is as if he defaults to this shape if he does not need to draw a more typical shape.
There are more typical things like this. Like most german soldiers wear the same kind of outfit. Only in the last page the germans have long coats. It is as if he has drawn a kind of template that he uses most of the time, but only diverts from it when that is needed.
However all of these are just minor points in my opinion.



Conclusion
I really liked this graphic novel. It has believable likeable characters. The occurrences are believable even though there are a lot that are too convenient at times. It is a story that I belief could have happened and very well depicted.

However I hesitate to give it a five stars. This is mostly because I find there are too many convenient moments in the story. In addition Gibrat is just a tad too conventional in his drawings. In all I decided to give it a 4.5 out of 5, which is a 4, round down

This review will also appear on my blog and website where I will add some images from the novel to illustrate some points.

www.meritcoba.com

View all my reviews

Henry and Kristl spied out Fort Apache, The Bronx(1981)

“I liked this movie!.” Kristl said while she leaned back into the couch as the credits rolled. She laid her black combat boots on the raised woodwork that Henry recently had made in front of the screen to enhance the mood of them being in a regular movie theater.It was part of Henry’s ongoing project to turn their garage-turned-cinema into a movie theater for real. That is why the walls had people like Katherine Hepburn, James Coburn and  Humphrey Bogart staring into the room from old movie posters that adorned the walls. Kristl had remarked something about being subjected to the scrutiny of dead people.
Behind them were lines of those folding movie chairs, which were non functional, as that had made them cheap, but still gave the feel that at any one time the room could be filled with a throng of people carrying big bags of popcorn and soda pops.

 “It was an engaging movie. I mean I sort of could connect with Paul Newman. And it gave me a feeling that what you saw was real. Not embellished or made to look heroic or just distorted for the sake of getting a message across.”

 “Hmm.”  Henry said.

 “Are you going to say…. that you did not like it?” Kristl said.

 “I feel pretty depressed.” Henry said.

 “Well, it seems to have been a depressing place. The south Bronx.”

 “There isn’t  really anything heroic. Not even the main lead is. I mean.. where does this all go? I feel a bit like when we watched The Road. Utter bleakness.Grey on grey.. and nothing is going to get better.”

 “Well, there is this human story of Paul Newman. Who as a veteran cop, still remains a cop, even after all what happened.”

 “Yeah.. but it felt like: you are no good for anything else, so what else are you going to do but be what you already are: a loser cop stuck in a dead end job, with an attitude and mostly shady colleagues for friends. And most of them are no good,  being racist, scumbags, lazy shifts and so on. At some point that new commissioner remarks how many of them are not doing their jobs. It is a dead end place. It is where the dirt is gathering because it can’t slide any deeper.”

 “The new commissioner. That was Ed Asner. I think that it was around that time he played Lou Grant. It was nice to see him act.”

 “Never heard of him.”

 “It was before your time.”

 “It definitely was. That's a movie from 1981.”

 “I was a teen then.”

 “No less. And did you already have those white spikes for hair?”

 “Not exact, they were blue or pink at the time.”

 “Geesh. You did not change much overtime.. except for getting older...” Henry wisely avoided in saying: more portly..

 “Actually I did. I got older and I changed back to what I was.”

 “I see.  A trip to nostalgia.”

 “Perhaps.”

 “Most of what you see in the movie I did see before. I think they call that a cliche. The good cop - bad cop thing. The new commissioner that wants to clean up the precinct. The bad cops killing people. The cocky bad guy.” 

 “Perhaps that is true, but maybe it is because much of those ideas became cliche in hindsight?”

 “Maybe..”

  “It does seems to  focus on the cops..if there are any other people those are either criminals or dope-heads. When you say that the police station is called Fort Apache because it is like a fort in the wilderness that protects the ‘good’ citizen, it would be nice if you got an idea of who they are protecting..”

 “I think I would rather see an action movie in which the good guys win and the bad guys lose.” Henry said, “Much more uplifting.”

 “But in a way it is uplifting. I mean the end is that the bad cop is arrested. The good cop stays on. There is even a sort of understanding between the commissioner and the main guy. And finally his colleague says he will stick with the good cop when he ‘rats’ on the bad cop.”

 “Hm.. I still feel depressed. I feel like I am in a sinking ship and the only thing I can do is to bail out the water with a paper cup. You could say: cool.., a paper cup is better than nothing, but I think it is not much better. It does not make you feel very happy.”

 “Is that the purpose of a movie? Make you feel happy?”

 “You don’t mean to say it should make you feel unhappy?!”

 “uhm.. I mean it can be meant to make you think or give you insight into the life of someone else. A glimpse of their life.”

 “A dim glimpse.”

 Kristl nodded.

 “I go for a beer.” Henry said.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082402/

Henry and Kristl turned Red: Werewolf hunter (2010)

“Red.”  Henry said. He had slightly raised his voice because he liked to shake up Kristl. Sometimes he suspected her of nodding off, so he felt at obliged to wake her up. He could do no less.

“Yes?” Kristl sat up..

“And everyone is dead.” Henry continued.

“Quite dead..except for Red herself.”

“Even her lover gets killed in the end, by herself no less. Poor Red.”  Henry said.

“I wonder where that kid comes from that sits on her lap at the end scene.” Kristl said, “I wonder many things. Like why make another werewolf movie?”

“That is simple. It is circle of movies. Vampires, werewolves and zombies. One after the other. We have had a vampire hype, we have zombie hype, we will probably see a werewolf hype.”

“And so on. Werewolves do get to be a bit boring, but at least they tried to add some different take to the story. I liked it that Red was not a such a tough chick with no feelings and they added this complication in that her lover was also turned into a werewolf against his will.”

“Yeah, but the low budget made it suffer. I mean when it came down to the combat scenes and showing the werewolves themselves it became quite crappy, especially in those scenes were the werewolves change shape.” Henry felt the stubs on his jaw.

“You had a rough night?” Kristl remarked.

“Yeah.. stayed up late.”

“And drank too much.”

“That too.”

“So was the movie enjoyable, considering the state you are in?”

“Well sort of. It did feel like a rip off from underworld, but a lame one.” Henry said.

“Yeah. And there was nothing remarkable about how it was filmed. I even had the feeling it was a seventies or eighties movie, but it is made in 2010.”

“There are a few nice scenes, like when she was a little girl see a werewolf attack her mother while Red is hiding up in the attic. Or when she walks into the forest clocked in a red blanket. Or wakes up after having slept in the leaves on the forest floor.” Kristl added, “Still the movie falls short in everything. For instance there is a strong reference to Little Red Riding Hood and the movie starts out like a modern version, but this is never referenced or used in any fashion. The romance is wooden and stale. And nothing is done with fact that Red is actually an FBI agent.

“And except for a few scenes, the whole cinematography technique of this movie is just sloppy. Like back lighting in the woods is a strong green hue. It is not scary, it just plain odd.”

“But it isn’t too bad a movie.” Henry said.

“Maybe not. If they had just a tad more budget, cut down on the cgi and had the actors act better it might have been decent, now it is just a less-than-decent movie.”

“A time waster really.”

“Good you had your fun yesterday.”

“Yeah, lame movies are good for recovering from hangovers.” Henry nodded his head, then regretted it.

“And to take a nap.”  Kristl said, “You miss nothing when you do.”

“Right.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1626201/

Henry and Kristl dwell on Dune(2000) the mini series

“So that was Dune.” Henry said with a wry smile. Halfway through the movie they had started a game of backgammon and followed the series in a half hearted way. Then they had enjoyed a Chinese- Indonesian take out diner. Kristl had suggested to order it as it was her time to cook and she had given up on cooking some years ago because she her interpretation of a meal seemed to differ from the tastes of others.
Kristl nodded.
“It was funny. I mean it almost looked like the movie of Lynch, but with lesser actors, lame dialog and fake landscapes. It was funny but because there is already a movie the series seems a bit superfluous.”

“Yes.. it is.” Kristl said.

“But we watched it.” Henry said.

“Some movies are very nice as background imagery. You just can follow the whole thing even if you fail to see parts of it. Dune is like that.” Kristl nodded.

“So what is this?” Henry pointed at a white plastic container.

“It is called babi pangang. Just eat it. I’ll mention what was in it after wards.”

“Not something like monkey flesh or insect bodies?” Henry shuddered.

“No, it’s mundane.” Kristl shook her head.

“Anyway, what was your favorite scene?” Henry asked.

“Not so much a scene.. more I found the clothes the princess was dressed in pretty. She had the proper figure for these fashion dresses. Same with the emperor.  So it’s not a particular scene, but more how they were dressed.”

“Strange to hear that from you. I would not have figured looks were something that interested you.” Henry looked Kristl up and down. What he saw was a woman in her mid forties wearing fade jeans trouser, heavy combat boots and a leather jacket that resembled one of those that were the fashion in the eights. Kristl, so Henry thought, has never gone beyond the punk of the eighties.. Fashion wise she was frozen or retro, because everything became retro after a while.

“The fact I look like left over punker from the eighties, does not mean I have no eye for beauty and fashion. I can not wear it,  but I can enjoy looking at it.” Kristl laughed, “But what was your memorable scene?”

“The moment the Harkonnen baron was poisoned by that little girl. It was funny to see the surprised look on his face.” Henry laughed and then made gargled sounds.

“It is interesting you mention a girl doing that. Because I was not really impressed with the story and specifically with the role of women in the movie.”

“Ah. Not impressed means usually that you were offended.”

“That is a good description. The women in the movie have about two roles. Women either are helpless creatures good for breeding or they are backstabbing schemers not above sleeping with someone just to gain an advancement.“

“Ah.”

“So, no I was not impressed by the whole. But how did you like the story, Henry?”  Kristl said
“It was okay, nothing remarkable. I liked the idea of  the spice. If I am correct that spice is important because space travel over vast distances at great speed can only be accomplished by using spice because it allows you to see into the future. That is something I remember. It is actually not really mentioned in that series, only that without it you can’t travel in space. What do you think?”

“I think that if the story of the books resembles that of the movie in general outlook then it is a tacky badly written story. Let’s take the overall idea: there is an emperor that for reasons unknown puts the noble house Atreides in charge of the single most important planet in the universe, yet he fears the growing influence of those same Atreides to the point that he helps the Harkonnen in regaining the planet through bloody murder and open warfare. What is even more surprising is that the influence and respect that the Atreides have among the houses seems not to translate itself into any noticeable form of power.

And then this whole Harkonnen plot is visibly condoned by the emperor and secretly supported by him, but that does not seem to have any repercussion for him or for the Harkonnen.
Everything is contrived and would not work in reality. And while I can accept a certainly liberty for a story, it remains reality that determines what is likely to work or not. Fantasy, however pushed it its limits, is limited by reality.”

“But everything is just unbelievable. The good guys are very good and the bad guys are very bad. And then these fremen are so nonsensical with their system of killing each other of to establish a ruler. It is utter nonsense because no system like that can work. There has never been a society like that because such a society would rip itself apart and the fact that someone is good in fighting does not mean that he(it is always a he) is also good in making decisions or in any other skill that you require to lead a community. Therefore it is overall a badly written nonsensical story.”

“Hmm.. Lucky it is just a story.” Henry said

“Yes, it is.”

“And this series is just superfluous?”

“Yes, you can watch the movie instead.. it is a lot shorter and better acted and so on and as nonsensical as this series. “

“Hah”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142032/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2