Random Thoughts

WFC Suriname: Wan Pipel

Another film found on Youtube.

It’s a very earnest film. There are good bits, but nothing really convinces.

Wan Pipel. Pim de la Parra. 1976. Suriname.

The Paramaribo Park Club Gin Sling

1 part lemon juice
1 part Cherry Heering
3 parts gin
a dash of Cognac
a dash of Benedictine
club soda

Shake with ice and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Top off with the soda and garnish with pineapple.

Man, that’s tart. There must be something off with that recipe.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Uganda: Who Killed Captain Alex?

I couldn’t find any Ugandan DVDs, so this is from the Youtubes.

As this er edition of the film explains, the director didn’t have any expectations of people outside his city seeing this film: It’s more of a fun hobby project than something meant for the general public, I think.

I thought it had an interesting quirk in that there’s a voiceover breaking in all the time making fun of the film: Kinda like Mystery Science Theatre 3000. But these are apparently made by a “video joker”? VJs talking over films is apparently a thing on Youtube? Oh, VJ Emmie just said “You are watching Who Killed Captain Alex and the first VJ in English. Ever. From Wakaliwood: This is how we enjoy movies in Uganda”.

I think it’s clear that the director is talented, and I was entertained while watching this. Lively editing. But it is, perhaps, a stretch to call it a good film. So:

Who Killed Captain Alex?. Nabwana I.G.G.. 2010. Uganda.

Pineapple Buganda

4 parts pineapple
1 part brown sugar
2 parts milk
2 parts light rum
some vanilla extract

Run through a blender with ice cubes. Pour into a glass and garnish with pineapple chunks.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Ghana: Cobra Verde

Oops! My research department has let me down. Again! This isn’t a Ghanese film: The director is Werner Herzog (not from Ghana), it’s based on a novel written by Bruce Chatwin (not from Ghana) and starring Klaus Kinski (not from Ghaha).

But it’s filmed in Ghana, allegedly.

Anyway, I didn’t realise that the Herzog/Kinski partnership continued into the late 80s. In many ways, this feels like a throwback to the 70s… not that that’s a bad thing, really. It makes me want to look up their films that I’ve missed. Hmmm… Oh, they’ve only made five films together?. And I’ve seen them all.

As expected, it’s a strange, feverish film with great cinematic moments surrounded by amorphous scenes. I don’t think it’s one of Herzog’s most successful films. After the first third it kinda meanders and weaves and boobs… I mean bobs.

Cobra Verde. Werner Herzog. 1987. Ghana.

The Midnight Rum

2 parts white rum
1 part grenadine
4 parts coke

Stir the rum and grenadine in a glass. Add ice and coke.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Switzerland: Vitus

I mean, I don’t really know German, but the dialect they’re talking here is even less comprehensible than usual.

Anyway, it’s a kinda old-fashioned film. An “issue” movie. The issue this week is: Is putting too much pressure on a child prodigy a good idea?

(I’ll let you guess the answer.)

It’s all a bit uninspiring. Pedestrian cinematography, plodding actors and an eye-roll-inducing plot. It’s not completely charmless, though.

It wasn’t obvious at the beginning, but I think it tries to aim at making a mad-cap feel-good fantasy, but it’s all so plodding.

It’s at least three hours too long.

Vitus. Fredi M. Murer. 2006. Switzerland.

Swiss Cocktail

1 part Dubonnet red 1 part kirsch

Shake with ice and strain into an ice-filled glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Zambia: Imiti ikula

I knew there was going to be a number of Youtube films as I got close to the end of this blog series, because there’s a number of countries where either no “commercial” films have been made or none have made it out of the country.

So I was originally planning on doing as many long-form films as possible and then doing a sweep of the rest of the countries via Youtube at the end (I guesstimate that this’ll be about 25 films), but then I thought: Why not start now?

So this is the first youtubian thing; you can watch it here.

Speaking of Youtube, while searching for films there, I stumbled onto a number of these things. Apparently this group of people have uploaded 90 minute films for all film names that exist on IMDB or something, under a plethora of user accounts. They’re all the same extremely low bandwidth thing (presumably to save on upload time), and virtually none of them have any viewers.

Still, this sort of Youtube spam must… somehow… be worth something for somebody…

It boggles the mind.

Anyway! Zambia! Imiti ikula.

This is a documentary short. It’s shot very stylishly, and it’s heartbreaking.