Thursday, January 24, 2008

Blueberry

The critics were unanimous. This film was crap - a bullshit non-western and an overcooked CG-laden homage to Jodorowsky's El Topo. But funnily enough, whenever these reviews had a comments section the freaks loved it. I'm with them. As ever. Some unhappiness was expressed that it departed too greatly from the comic. Me, I never read Blueberry, but believe it or not, I read every other thing Moebius ever did - just not Blueberry. There's no particular reason why. From this curious position, I'm of the opinion that this flick is very Moebius.


He's an extraordinary fellow, Moebius. He became a Buddhist and decided he didn't want to do stories of conflict that pivoted on good and evil. A tough gig. Sure enough, you end up with stories like this one. Is 'story' even the right word? All the standard elements are arse-about. Nothing follows your expectations. Not the hero, not the villain, not the showdown, not nothing. How unsatisfying! So completely wrong is this movie that one reviewer had a meltdown and insisted that the Raspberry Awards be renamed the Blueberries. Ha ha ha. Suffer in your jocks, mate!

I should say I don't own this movie and have only seen it once. Ordinarily I watch films that are worth it many times. Like I said before, there's a lot to look for. On the inevitable subsequent viewings of this flick I may arrive at a different understanding of it. And quite right too. A man who cannot change his mind is worthless.

The Hero

What a crap hero. He doesn't wisecrack. He doesn't save the girl. He doesn't rescue the family in the nick of time. And on every occasion he dukes it out with the villain he gets done over. He's not even what you'd call handsome. He's Vincent Cassel and he is exactly that kind of cinematic French ugly, ha ha ha.

After he cops his first hiding from the villain he is brought back to life by Indians. They save him - but don't expect any touching scenes, lingering native glances, or pat five-lines-of-dialogue bonding. Things are not there for Blueberry's understanding. Instead Blueberry wonders at the world. He stares, merely watching. And the cinematographer does likewise. This picture is spectacularly beautiful. But the beauty does not serve the plot. It serves to show the unknowability of the world and Blueberry's personification of this. Blueberry is perpetually the student.

Suddenly it's ten years later and and an older Blueberry is now the sheriff in an unimpressive town. It's exactly as unimpressive as the wilderness is beautiful. It's peopled by a motley bunch, none of whom are quite the thing. There is a perpetual tension to them that the Indians do not possess. They make various plots that neither we nor Blueberry ever figure out exactly. In this film, self-serving and desire come to nothing. And never is Blueberry the master of any scene. He is not shrewd. It seems his chief virtue is his honesty and unwillingness to put up with bullshit-artists. The unknowability of things aside, he acts resolutely. He is a laconic Chihiro from a borderless Spirited Away. A remarkably similar spirit inhabits both these films.

Otherwise, the figure of Blueberry might reasonably be posited as us. Certainly he is me. No anecdote of my life has ever resembled a pat Hollywood scene. The cinematic clues that explain what's what were always absent. I never bested the villain. I never got the girl. I never rode into the sunset. Okay, I have done - for all of ten seconds. Everything then rolled into the next thing and what had gone before became something else. And more crucially, I have never had a complete understanding of what happened in any given 'scene' I was in. Many I could make no clear sense of at all. The action rolled on, completely unconcerned that the audience was befuddled. Welcome to Blueberry, the personification of the certain unknowability of the world.

The Villain

Interesting villain. I've always liked Michael Madsen. You too? Sure, he's an agreeable presence. In this flick, he is that which inspires fear - but more actual than real. I struggle now to recall his victims. Did we ever see him shoot anyone? Curiously, he is as sinned against as sinning. He possesses certain admirable traits, all unemphasised. He never dissembles. This is left to his grasping German offsider who represents craven selfishness. Our German renders himself as a false victim in an attempt to have the round-eyes kill the Indians so that he may steal their shit. I make no comment. Our Madsen villain is emphatically not that.

When the too-clever German betrays him (a vicious taboo killing of the horse) Madsen holds no grudge and attaches no personal significance to this beyond offering a prayer for the spirit of the horse. On encountering the German for the final time, he says and does nothing. No chest-thumping, no clever self-serving lines, no punishment or revenge. The German, fixated on his false idol, is swallowed by the Earth. Our villain doesn't give him a second thought. He lacks more cinematic 'villain' clues than he possesses. And when his wickedness does resemble cinematic shorthand it's arguably mere coincidence. Perhaps he's villainous because his shedding of the self is incomplete and he has failed to embrace selflessness? He is not fearful and yet is willing to inspire it in others. A false Bodhisattva - Nietzschean and compassionless.

The final truth of him is that, whilst he does not seek material gain, he is possessed of desire. His desire (again, almost admirably) is for insight. But he will not wait for it to be given. He will take it. He imagines insight as something other than what it is. This is his ultimate failure. His ending is not a comeuppance. He merely passes from the movie. Not a single second is spent showing us what happened to him.

The Big Showdown

Ha! The joke's on you. There isn't one. What sort of Western doesn't have a showdown? What sort of joke doesn't have a punchline? An existentialist American Western one born of the mind of a French Buddhist, ha ha.

The circle finally closes as our hero meets the villain in the hidden holy grotto. He doesn't meet him so much as observe his prone comatose body. The villain won the race and has rudely helped himself to the sacred ayahuasca. Happily the ever-great Temuera Morrison is there as Shaman and tells our hero that it is right he be initiated. Blueberry lies down next to the interloper. The Shaman joins the hero as guide. A five minute CG drug-trip ensues. Boy, did the critics hate this! I marvelled. Banish your short attention span. Let the images wash over you. If you want to get off a trip it will do you no good. The same applies here. If you could cope with Kubrick's star-gate you can cope with this. Just go with it. A question - Are these animations here to remind us of chaos-theory fractals and their truth of unknowability? Further viewings required...

Amongst the CG, our hero goes through a series of realisations. It was he that killed the girl. The villain's crime was his. His hitherto troubled spirit was due to his inability to dispel this fixation. Rightly he realises that the girl loved him for his innocence and loves him for it still. The knot in his psyche is dispelled. He awakens to find the Shaman who mirrors his joy at a life-changing experience shared. No one pats their hip to make sure they still have a gun. This world is not a place of fear. The us-and-them paradigm - a thing of smoke, dissipated to nothing.

The final scene is the antithesis of finality. No hero's back and horse's arse sloping towards a dying sun here. Blueberry is refreshed, awake. The ending is a beginning. Blueberry swims naked in the water of life with a laughing Juliet Lewis. No closing, just the joy of being here, now. Those calcified in the Hollywood language of Old Testament fear best look elsewhere.

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ta for an inspiring critique Nobody. At last a 'Pro' something film to enjoy, rather than the old, run-of-the-mill 'Anti' something grist for the above mill. Anti is such a negative word, despite it's linguistic use. Sort of why the NWO use it for just about anything, eg that old chestnut 'anti-semitism' and Pro is always linked with negative connotations, in our sphere anyway, eg 'pro-Israel'. Linguistic propaganda at it's finest.
Anyway, gotta get me a copy of that
'fillum', as my old Irish Nanna used to call moving pictures.
Thanks mate
Geoff

nobody said...

Yup,

I know what you mean. It's my firm intention to alternate here but it ain't going to be easy with most of everything being shit, ha ha.

The other problem is that my DVD library is in storage and it's tough remembering films out of my head. Subsequently whatever happens to pop up on the telly may drive things to a certain degree. See last para.

And my Gran used to say that too. It's an evocative word for me. I am always keen to discuss language. Hmm... might do a piece on it over at the 'church' blog.

annemarie said...

Ok, your review had me near the beginning...

then you mentioned Vincent Cassel. hot, sexy, hot,smokin' [exhale,whew...]

and Michael Madsen, more hot, sexy,

and you didn't even mention Djimon Hounsou? wot? ay carimba, smokin' hot

ok, I'm gonna see this flick.
Belge, eh? ooh la la...

better not be an artsy-fartsy "French" film heh heh

I'm in for a view. thanks nobody.

but, what's with that writer Moebius? Why'd he call himself after a stripper? He must be hot too ;)

nobody said...

Ha ha ha,

Calm down there girl!

And yeah, I groove on Djimon Hounsou. Another one of those great presences. But, in this flick he played no significant part. It's possible I'm wrong though. I've only seen it once.

Moebius is Jean Giraud. If he's still alive he'd be 70 now. I saw a doco on Miyazaki where he went to meet his idol Moebius and Moebius' idol, it turned out, was Miyazaki, ha ha ha. They were unable to speak to one another except through interpreters but their faces conveyed an extraordinary depth of emotion. It was really something. Um, perhaps you had to be there, ha ha.

And Moebius as an illustrator is the master of composition, effortless physiology and an uncluttered line. He combines all, to magically produce the most spooky serenity. Did I mention his mastery of colour?

Oh yeah, he did most of the costumes in the original Alien.

Anonymous said...

Give us a rundown on Equilibrium (2002) nobody.
Tony

nobody said...

Um, okay. I don't know if I've seen it. It rings a bell though. I may actually own it, believe it or not. I have a collection that you couldn't jump over. I barely know what's in it.

Otherwise, first comes Himalaya.

Anonymous said...

Mr.Nobody,

As a fan of movies the "critics" hate, (Revolver springs immediately to mind - seen it?) I had to track this one down. Seems the title "Blueberry" wasn't cool enough for us in the U.S., so it is called "Desperado" for some reason. More in line with the attitude of the citizens?

I found it to be one of those movies that is so beautiful that any "story" would risk distracting from the visual, and this movie does me the greatest favor of all in NOT laying it all out in a neat little row. What happened to the villain in the end??? Isn't there supposed to be some kind of shoot-out where the bad guy has the upper hand until the very last moment and then the calvary comes or the hero summons his last bit of strength to finally vanquish the evil he is confronted with?? No wonder the critics hated it.

I think the villain won, too. He was seeking something and in spite of his tendency to harm and instill fear, in the end he found himself in the "other world".

Fear vs. Love. Which one wins in the end?

Z

P.S. If you haven't seen "Revolver", I'd highly recommend it. The critics thought it sucked, too, because there was no way you could watch it casually and not end up scratching your head and saying "what the hell just happened?". There are movies that are simply a way to regress to an infantile state for awhile (the Jewish Farce movies work well for this) and there are movies that have the potential to awaken us and challenge our perceptions. I think "Revolver" is disguised as the former but is, indeed, the latter. Peace.

nobody said...

Thanks Z, nice of you to pop in. Curiously enough, my catalogue tells me I already have Revolver. This is odd because I've never seen it. I expect it's in storage with the rest of my DVDs a thousand clicks away. If I make my way down there I'll grab it. Otherwise I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Ciao.

Anonymous said...

Sorry - this movie is titled "Renegade" rather than "Desperado" here in the US.There is still some serious fog in here.

Z

D-unit said...

I haven't seen the full movie, just the Ayahuasca scene, but I will see it now. Sounds like my type of movie.

I must say the Ayahuasca sequence is very realistic. The first time I saw it it just about knocked me out of my chair. It was eerie.
Especially around the 7:45 mark of the following video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rO4qyMJyLY&feature=related

At 7:45 the sights and sounds were almost spot on to my experience.
Weird.

Just finished reading your entry on the Church site A Tuppence for Bullshit, and I had the thought that the search for Truth has a tendency to lead from "Real" world into the metaphysical. Maybe this comes out of a feeling of helplessness or lack of control in the "real" world, or the need to transcend the bullshit, but that has been my path. stanly milgrim, 9-11, income tax bullshit, the FED, dogma, double slit experiment, meta-physics, consciousness. Or something like that. Who know what is next.

I really enjoy reading your stuff.

nobody said...

Onya D-unit. Pop in any time. As for metaphysical v the 'real' world, I get you utterly. Sure enough, there is a real 'real' world, it's just that you'll never see it in the media. In the media 99.99% of everything is, one way or another, bullshit. Otherwise the path you're on is the path everyone who hangs here is on. Who knows where it leads? Me, I don't care as long as it ain't to the comfy chair in front of the telly, ha ha.

D-unit said...

That's the great thing about this path. The realization that you can do what ever you want to do. Anything. There are potential consequences, but no restrictions. I think it is called living. Nearly every time I turn on the tele, it pisses me off. It is sick because everyone thinks it is real life. My parents, brother, friends. They do not understand that they are unlimited. Listening to a furniture store commercial the other day, I realized that people take it for granted that they must furnish their homes with all of the traditional fixins when these items were non-existent for the majority of human existence.

Just a thought, among many.

Another thought. Some people think it is odd that I spend so much time reading on the web, but they have no problem plopping their asses in front of the the TV for hours a day. With the web you are active, and can seek and decipher. Tele just feeds you junk.

You probably already know this, but it is nice to preach to the choir sometimes.

D

Dave Q. said...

G'die, mite.

Been reading some of your reviews that either slipped by me the first time, or that I never got to...until now. Great reading!

Just wondered, since plodding through your whole site is daunting: Was it you who mentioned "Japanese Story" some time ago? It's been on Cable TV recently, and the short review makes it seem like it would be more than a little shocking. But, if you say it's worth a watch; I'll go for it.

Just checking in, somewhere in the past, which is my tack lately.

bye-ciao,
Dave Q.

nobody said...

Dave, nice to hear from you.

You're well I hope. You'll have to forgive me for the brief reply, I've cut the end of my little finger off. With a router it was. It's okay, the nail's gone and the joint will a cm instead of an inch and I should be able to type. The only problem is that it's swathed in bandages so right now I can only type with my left hand.

But never mind that - Japanese Story. To be honest I haven't seen it. I started but didn't care for it. I tuned in in time to see Toni Collette get her gear off and frankly wished I hadn't.

But a movie like this one that I did like very much was an Icelandic thing called Cold Fever. Similar story - a Japanese guy travelling through a foreign land encountering strange locals but Cold Fever had an ending that broke my heart (in a good way of course).

The only problem with is that it's really hard to find. I just had a look on frostwire and got nada. It's a pity because I'dlike to see it again.

I was just trying to think of an Australian film that I thought really conveyed a sense of the place and the most unlikely film popped into my head. Have you seen The Proposition? It's simultaneously brutal, desolate, and beautiful. And that's Australia really.

Anyway, what with starring Guy Pierce, Ray Winstone, and Danny Huston you'll have no problems finding it. Mind you, it's truly violent, which is to say no more violent than most American flicks but this is utterly unglamorised. Violence as true ugliness. Which makes sense if you think about it.

Hmm... that's a bit of a funny recommendation. Perhaps if I balance it by saying everyone is raving about Red Dog. Haven't seen that one either but it's definitely on the list.

Did I say 'short comment'? Ha ha ha, so much for that.

ciao Dave, talk to you soon.

Dave Q. said...

Thanks for getting back so quickly, Nobs. I appreciate it. As for the movies, I'm ALL mixed up. It wasn't Japanese Story at all, which I have seen in it's entirety. Not uplifting, is all I can say.

The flick I was referring to, I can't recall the title now. But, it has to do with the occupation of Nanking and one Japanese soldier who doesn't understand the 'take no prisoners' approach of his countrymen. It sounded very familiar, and I was sure you had mentioned it, although maybe not on the Cinema Blog. I'll, of course, remember the title as soon as I sign off.

Sorry to hear about your mishap. These shells are pretty fragile, I've found. You sound pretty upbeat about it, though, which is heartening for me. You're a good chap, and I hope the best for you.

Later, my friend.

bye-ciao,
Dave Q.

nobody said...

Thanks Dave,

It doesn't ring a bell but I'll keep it in mind.

Dave Q. said...

Believe I found the title on Cable TV Movies: "City of Life and Death". I didn't write it down, but I'm pretty sure that's it. The blurb uses words like 'disturbing' or 'graphic', which always cause me pause.

I coulda sworn that you mentioned the movie in a comment, somewhere on the vast expanse of your blog-sites. If I get the guts to watch, I'll fill you in. But I'm sure you commented on something at least similar, due to the 'redemption' theme.

Back to you soon, on this or another station!

bye-ciao,
Dave Q.

Dave Q. said...

Hi Nobs,

I decided to hang around here for a bit yet, since it's easier to remember "Blueberry", for some reason.

Have you noticed Dave's new posting? It's right in plain view, which unfortunately is why I've been missing it for over a week. Like, right under the header! I guess I'm so used to scanning the running stories for newer chapters that I missed the obvious title, complete with the date of Feb 13, of this year! Hello Alzheimer's.

Wish you well, in your travels. Be safe, healthy and happy!

bye-ciao,
Dave Q.

p.s. saw an interesting Italian flick the other night: "I'm Not Afraid", with subtitles. I have the couple you've suggested on the list also.

nobody said...

Hey Dave,

Well it doesn't really matter where you post (here or at the church) since I get told via gmail that there are new comments. Which is to say I can't miss them. The haiku blog is different for some reason (probably because I set it up that way, ahem) and I have no idea if someone comments to an old piece or not.

Otherwise, I saw that I'm Not Scared flick when it came out and quite liked it. A flick that's completely different but kind of similar is Gommorah. Have you seen that? It's very good, a helluva flick.

I downloaded City of Life and Death and now I just have to steel myself to watch it. Doubtless it'll be an ordeal.

Dave Q. said...

So, Nobby...back at the church, to everyone's surprise and pleasure. Onya, mate. I always love your postings, whether I identify or not. In this case, I find the crop circle thing very interesting indeed. There's a lot of stuff on the Web about it, including the links supplied by some of those commenting. The whole world's gone mad, though, so the links---when graded on a curve---aren't really that far out at all, are they?

As for this gallier chap...I don't like the feeling I get from him. After doing some blog studying, and seeing his posts here and elsewhere, I get the feeling I need to wash off a goodly amount of disinfo, using a wire brush on my mind. Does anyone else concur? It just seems so obvious to me.

I don't post questions like this at the church, due to my abhorrence of pissing matches and cross-talking in someone else's house. (or 'church') In short, I love the blog too much to start that shit in the comments.

Blog on, brutha; fly yer freak flag high!

bye-ciao,
Dave Q.

gallier2 said...

Hi Dave Q. if opinion is synonymous to disinfo then you're right. May I only tell you that everyone spites off disinfo, at different levels, be it because they've been mislead, be it because they don't have the necessary skill to cut through the fog or for any other reason. Some dispense the disinfo because they are paid for by "occult" agencies, some others because they believe in that stuff.
As for me, who cares really, the 5 blogs (ok it's more like 20) I visit or on which I put comments on, have a visibility so low that my impact on world opinion is negligible.

nobody said...

Hey Dave,

Do you think so? I like to think I'm as paranoid as the next fellow (and red mist / pit-bullish with it) but I don't know. He only drifts from the line over Apollo doesn't he? And I'm sort of inclined to forgive that given that I was where he is until I read McGowan. Even now there's a lot to give me pause over the whole thing. Some of McGowan's arguments are demonstrably crap and any number of the rest of them have not unreasonable answers from the anti-hoax crowd.

Otherwise it is a fact that G works in the actual European Commission headquarters. But according to him it's as system admin. He's also the only bloke who RSS's my blog (in a trasparent fashion that is). But a sys-ad would do that.

All that aside, I'd have declared him a sweetheart guy. We've had a few chats in old comments sections (much like you and I are doing now) and I find him pretty real. But you know, one keeps an open mind on all things. To be honest I don't know that I'll ever nail my colours to any mast ever again.

(I don't know if I mentioned this but I am an utter Patrick O'Brien tragic. Did you see Master and Commander? Well that's O'Brian, specifically the Aubrey/Maturin series. Sure enough, the books are infinitely better than the movie. I've read all 20 of them five times, believe it or not. And anyone familiar with them would see tons of O'Brian-isms sprinkled through my stuff - archaisms and all that stuff).

Otherwise I distracted myself from writing this week by plunging into illustrating all the old church pieces. When I started it was all text and the insertion of pix didn't kick in until a year or so later. Anyway I've been in photo editor mode all week. It's a bunch of fun. Half of them are just perfunctory but a few of them I've gone to town on and photoshopped up. Here's a couple that I liked this one and this one. Oh, just looked - there's also this and this and this.

Well that's enough of that. And really I should get back to getting on with the crop circles. Anyway, lovely to have you pop in and see you in the funny pages. Ciao Ciao. n

nobody said...

Ha ha ha ha! Whacko! There's RSS for you!

So Gallier, would I be right in thinking that you just now saw all my re-writes in the comments? How embarassing. I screwed up all the hyperlinks good and proper didn't I?

Anyway, good point. I am the smallest of small potatoes. If people are hanging here, like properly hanging here (as opposed to hit and run), then it's pretty damn unlikely that they're spooks.

Aangirfan is another story of course. I don't know if either of you hang put there but the schoolgirls there score in a day what I get in a fortnight. A single article 'they' did about Bin Laden's brother has had double the hits that my blog has had in its entirety. And what with actually naming names and all that, the likelihood of spooks (I mean proper spook motherfuckers) at Aang's is pretty much a certainty. To be honest I'm half thinking of dropping Aang a line and tell them to be real careful lest something befall them.

Anyway, I vote no one stress on this little contretemps. It's my opinion you're both lovely fellows and you'd be best off putting this down to chaos theory, or whatever. It happens all the time. Besides which are we all familiar with Slozo? At one point he called out pretty much everyone in my comments section as disinfo. Silly sausage! Bees get in your bonnet and who cares really. Apart from those who hate mixed metaphors, natch. Ciao Ciao.

nobody said...

hang put = hang out

That's what happens when you sever part of your right pinky. P's, apostrophes, underscores, and question marks become a real pain in the arse.

off again.

gallier2 said...

Hi noby, just for clarification, I'm not at the headquarter of the EU Commission, this would be the Berlaymont building in Brussels and even if I'm an official I never set foot there
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlaymont_building
(to be clear the only Commission building in Brussel I ever visited was the EPSO building, the recruitement Direction which is at 1km from the Berlaymont.
My office is in Luxembourg and is the Jean Monnet Building
http://www.cvce.eu/obj/batiment_jean_monnet_a_luxembourg-fr-81a96674-3779-4b58-9fb3-e133fbfea592.html
I'm not a sys admin, I am a C programmer and working for language applications for the directorate of translation.
As for the rss, you got me there; I discovered that thunderbird is quite a decent rss reader, so I get my favorite posts (and sometime comments) with the same ease as all the email (spam).

So, now good night (it's half past eleven here) and see you.

PS: you will notice that the IP from which I post is not the Commission IP as I'm at home now.

gallier2 said...

Oops, seems my comment didn't come through (may be you didn't like the links). I stated there that I'm not in the headquarters which are in Brussels, but in Luxemburg where no one knows that there are several thousands EU officials working (even the official history of the European Union forgot to mention that).
So, up for another answer now that I've read your last response.
I have aang also in my rss but only the posts, the comments would be too much. I happen to comment there sometimes but not really often.
I follow Penny much more, posts and comments, but have to confess of not reading as thoroughly as I'd like. Then I have 7 or 8 nutrition/low-car/paleo blogs and several fun sites (Dilbert, xkcd, failblog and other shit).
Funnylee, wrh is not in my rss feed, that site I prefer to read via the browser.

nobody said...

Thanks matey,

The Berlaymont building! Phwooar! Very sexy. But it's also the kind of place one could imagine oneself as removed from the real world. Don't you reckon?

And just one question - do you get a window? All the systems/programming departments I ever saw (and sure this is in post-production) were as dungeonish as it gets. Even 3D was treated better. Not much, but a bit - depends on how senior you were. It was all about clients you see. If you never had clients you were doomed to the dungeon.

As for C, did I tell you I used to be vaguely savvy in Unix? Those were the days, silicon graphics and all that. I can barely remember it now but I'm pretty sure I could hop in a shell and have some fun with rm -rf *. Cue the screams of horror from the next room!

Anyway, off to bed with the both of yers, and tomorrow will be another Scarlett O'Hara, ha ha.

nobody said...

PS As for IP's, I've long since since ceased seeing either of you in statcounter. Sure I go there every day, but it does tend to be a bit too riddle-like for me to figure much out precisely. Take Dave - when he was reading everything I could spot that but now I've lost the plot.

Really I just gun for obvious stuff like 'housesofparliament.london.uk' (or however it's written). I've had a couple from there. I don't know if you guys know but I actually got a hit from 'office of the president of the United States' one time. Big bragging rights for that one!

Anyway, once I hit the road and am forced to use libraries to connect to the net, the fact that statcounter has a free cache of only 500 hits means that most of my traffic will have passed into the ether. Which is to say I'll only ever get infrequent glimpses. Never mind.

nobody said...

Gallier! Get with it! Any article older than ten days comes to me for approval. This is to stop those idiotic Indian spammers. Anyway, I'll modify the comment comment and make it clear.

gallier2 said...

Funnily, though I've never been inside the Berlaymont, it is placed really inside Brussels and isn't as remote as it looks on pictures and films. For the DGT (translation) it's another story. It counts around 4000 persons, one half in Brussels in a remote suburb another half in Luxemburg in the Jean-Monnet building.
As for the windows, no problem there because there are ergonomic rules and one of them is that each worker is supposed to have an office with at least 1 and a half window. But there are exceptions and since the extension of the EU in 2004 and 2006 the building is getting a little bit crowded. This said the building will be replaced in the coming years, which is necessary as the old one is more or less falling apart.

Dave Q. said...

Trusting my gut, when it's well-known that it's been seriously altered recently at hospital, is maybe ill-advised then, no?

In any case, I just throw stuff out there sometimes for clarification; when certain things don't feel right, I just step way back. Maybe this is why I've survived into my seventh decade; many of my peers haven't nearly made it this far.

So, no offense to anyone. Again, I can't see any reason to defend a "feeling" when I'm really pretty anti-New Age.

That's my back-peddling, and I'm sticking to it.

bye-ciao,
DQ

nobody said...

Hee Hee,

Very good. Gallier is an old hand and has doubtless seen as much shit as I have. Between the Zionists screaming blood libel and the white supremacists who wished death upon me, for me this weren't nothing more than a big feather tickling.

Off to check the action for the latest crop circle thing.

ciao ciao

nobody said...

Gallier are you there?

Can you do me a very great favour? I have in mind a farewell in French for a piece I'm writing. In English I wish to say:

'Farewell my friends. Good luck and all my love to you. May the future bring you everything you wish for. All the best.'

Google translate gives me:
'Adieu mes amis. Bonne chance et tout mon amour à vous. Que l'avenir vous apporter tout ce que vous souhaitez. Tout le meilleur.'

Is that correct? Or more to the point, is it idiomatic and natural? I suspect not. Can you help? I'd appreciate it greatly.

Hopefully talk to you soon.

ciao ciao

n

nobody said...

Hello Gallier, just trying to get your attention with multiple posts.

nobody said...

And a third time to see if that grabs you. I'm thinking I'll have to wait until tomorrow and you get into work.

Why can't France be on Australia Eastern Standard Time? Then life would be so much simpler.

gallier2 said...

Sorry, was a bit off the internet this week-end, I didn't even check my mails and rss. So here the corrected translation you asked for:

'Adieu mes amis. Bonne chance et tout mon amour à vous. Que l'avenir vous apporte tout ce que vous souhaitez. Tout le meilleur.'

It doesn't sound very "french" if you dig. I asked my colleague from the translation department to help me out on that, because she is way better than me to express feelings in an appropriate matter (you wouldn't want a geek to to that, would you?).
I will make a second comment with the right answer when she responds.
See ya.

gallier2 said...

So, here now the professional translation:

'Au revoir mes amis.
Puisse l'avenir réaliser vos souhaits.
Bonne chance. Je vous souhaite le meilleur dans tout ce que vous entreprendrez. !'

and I have to tell that she made a good job, that sounds really french.

nobody said...

Thanks mate, it's not romantic or anything. It's just a general farewell from a male actor to some men and women.

I thought your French would be up to that? With a name like Gallier? Oh wait, is there no connection to the word 'Gallic'? I always assumed that there was. Maybe not, not that I think about it.

Anyway, I'll sit tight.

nobody said...

Consider me impressed! It's a beautiful thing. Thanks very much and my thanks to your friend, it's much appreciated.

I just realised I got my French translated by the translation section of the European Commission. What a funny world! Onya Gallier.

gallier2 said...

Yes Gallier is gallic in german. To give some details on why I prefered to consult a professional translator. I grew up bilingual with a little more emphasis on dialectal German. I lived in France but so close to the German border, and in a region that is traditionally german speaking, that I seriously had to learn french only when I went to school. This doesn't mean I wasn't already confronted with French as my brothers and same aged neighbours spoke French among them. The neighbourhood was full of every imaginable foreigners and this had the tendency to make French supplant dialectal German that was the lingua franca before.
This said, writing has never been a skill I was very good in. As I said, I'm more some kind of geek, and if I hadn't had my borthers to kick my ass from time to time, I could have ended like an failed, overweight version of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Cooper)

nobody said...

Thanks mate, I'm off to finish the piece. And yeah, it all comes back to me now. You said before something about German as your first language. What a memory I've got - a mind like a steel trap door.

Anyway, it's all done that piece and you'll see it shortly. And what a part you played! Very good.

Dave Q. said...

"Good-bye my friends. Is able the future to realize your wishes. Good luck. I wish you the better one in all that you will undertake." Thus spake my free translator, which I know is more than a little fallible. Not a correction or a slur, but rather to show what some of us have to resort to, who are not multi-lingual.

As for this quite intelligent Gallier fellow, in that I made comment, based on a 'feeling', in public---so to speak---I should say this publicly (here in the "past"): A fellow should be allowed to have pet theories, as we ALL do, and not have to have some cranky old man pipe up and malign his whole character because of it. I personally am extremely suspicious of the whole Apollo issue, and many are just as suspicious of the "hoax" theories and proponents. So, in short, I apologize to Gallier. My comment was obviously not mere conjecture, but had added vitriol. Not nice.

bye-ciao, and au revoir,
Dave Q.

nobody said...

Onya Dave. And Gallier, my apologies mate. I got you to do that for me and then went and rewrote the entire piece and rendered M. Cassel's speech superfluous. Instead he's to remain silent, as was always his role at my place, and I did the talking instead. It made more sense.

Anyway, nobody is now no longer. I'm shutting everything down. Sorry about that. It's poor of me I know but in the face of a truly relentless obstinacy I see no other alternative. Adieu mes amis.