Watched: The Last King of Scotland

It's strange watching this movie after having read the book last semester. Even though Whittaker really gives an exceptionally creepy performance as Idi Amin and adorable litttle pocket-Scot James McAvoy is affectively naive, brash, and then frightened as his personal doctor and "trusted advisor" (sometimes. As with most despots, his favor with Amin waxes and wanes throughout the film), this movie didn't quite do it for me. The tone's not quite right, it starts out too breezy and feel-good party times and cuts out too many interesting subplots. I know, I know, how novel! How different from the usual complaints of bibliophiles against Hollywood's many adapatative vagaries! And yes I recognize that adaptative isn't a word. So sue me.  

First of all, I don't really blame them for cutting out most of the British government espionage bits because those were a little muddled in the book anyway. One too many shadowy, double-speak filled meetings to be truly interesting. And I understand cutting out the whole Israeli spy angle from the love interest story. But not including the McAvoy's Garrigan running half-naked through the jungle, discovering the mass graves for himself, or his eerie final encounter alone with Amin, where Amin finally reveals to him just how much he knows about what Garrigan's been doing and what's actually going on in Uganda, weakens a lot of what made the book nauseatingly eerie. What's left is one hour of a pseduo-picaresque origin story of unobservant  playboy doctor who blindly rises in the ranks of Amin's administration and then about 45 minutes of "things going badly". It's not a bad or badly made movie at all, but like I said, it doesn't quite capture, like the book does, the sense of claustrophobia and impending doom that sets in from the moment Garrigan lands in Uganda and lingers decades later when Amin, out of the blue, calls him up on his phone out in the wilds of Scotland, where he has hidden himself away to live out the rest of his life and attempt to die as quietly as possible...

A totally unsettling end that would have been perfect in the movie version, completely ignored. Too bad.

Watched: Teddy Bear

A really sweet slice-of-life film about a cripplingly shy and sweet guy who just wants to feel less alone. I liked the film well enough on its own merits (interestingly shot, a likeable lead, naturalistic dialogue and story) but I also found it interesting because it slightly delves into a phenomenon I've seen quite a bit since moving to Georgia. This is the experience of listening to two people, neither of whom are native English speakers or who even share whatever their actual native language is (for instance, German tourists and Georgian police officers, Russian hostel owners and Spanish backpackers) attempt to communicate in English together. In the case of this film, it's Danish and Thai, and both characters are proficient enough in English that it doesn't prohibit their romance, although the barrier does lend itself to some to-be-expected awkwardness. But I think it's really interesting to listen to: the misprounounced vowel here or forgotten article there, it's two people thinking in their two separate languages, mentally translating into a third, and then using that proxy to get on with their business. 

My obsession with these strange interactions aside, I still really liked this one.

Kazbegi: Extras.

Playing around in Windows' photo editing program. A few of these I posted before, a few I did not.

Kazbegi.

The bells, the bells are ringing.

It's good to be back. New semester, new family, new living situation, and most importantly... new adventures. This is a rainbow seen as the rain-clouds descended upon us, thankfully after we had climbed back down from the Tsminda Sameba church.

Below: Ananuri, a church on the way to Qazbegi.

Interesting roadside view/artwork:

The border to Russia. We did not cross it, although someone told me yesterday that Americans are now allowed to (although the visa is still $200).

Russian mountains!

The view from the church, atop a mountain in Kazbegi.

Maggie and me, modeling the latest in church-going bebia chic.

Tsminda Sameba.

One of my two new best friends, Mountain Dog #1.

This was the angle we were climbing at.

 Copyright laws? What're those?

My other new best friend, Mountain Dog #2 (aka Oliver).

I'm not entirely thrilled with the quality of these pictures, but I was experimenting using only my iPod to document this trip. The quality's surprisingly good but still a little grainy, and not quite up to the task of documenting these amazing mountains. Oh well, ara ushavs.