Movies: Django Unchained

 

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Quentin Tarantino is a brand name. He stands for sharp violent movies which are a lot of fun. But the world is changing and adapting and now many directors deliver flicks in the manner of Tarantino. Some of these films - like "The Paperboy (director: Lee Daniels)", "Killer Joe (director: William Friedkin)" and "Lawless (director: John Hillcoats) - are even sharper than the original. But the master still produces bloody but highly entertaining popcorn movies.

"Django Unchained" (imdb.com), Tarantino`s newest epic, refers to the 1966 spaghetti Western movie "Django", directed by Sergio Corbucci. Tarantino transferred the idea of a super fast gunman to the US shortly before the civil war. "Django" is another example of the revenge movies, Tarantino seems to love so much. Now a bunch of highly sadistic slave traders get messed up by a German bounty hunter and his African-American companion, a freed slave.

The film shows, typical for Tarantino, a bloody mess. But, even though "Django" is a 2 hours 45 minutes long orgy of violence and mayhem, the film is sophisticated and at least partly elegant. It seems that Tarantino has invested more time into the development of the dialogues than in his former works. Hence the filed conversations grant the film a lot of his pleasure.

Christoph Waltz almost owns the movie. The Austrian actor, whom I had loved for his role in Polanski´s "Carnage", delivers another brilliant feat as a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz. I adore the sophisticated and elegant manners he uses to stultify his opponents.

Leonardo DiCaprio, as a violence freak and perverted slave owner, is the perfect adversary to Waltz`s character. The American actor plays a villain of whom each James Bond movie could be proud about. Contrary to the usual redneck & brain dead slave holders his sophisticated style matches Dr. Schultz`s brilliance in a very entertaining way.

Jamie Foxx is a cool and deadly "Django", almost like the original, the Italian actor Franco Nero. The beauty of Kerry Washington, as Django`s enslaved wife, lends the film more charm.

But all these fine actors are standing in the shadow of Samuel L. Jackson as house slave Stephen. This factotum is obnoxiously obedient to his master, the slave holder, but vicious to his fellow slaves. His creepy and somewhat demoniacal style reminds me a bit of the character "Gollum" in "The Lord of the Ring".

A Tarantino movie wouldn`t be a Tarantino movie without a superb soundtrack, this time with a lot in the style of Ennio Morricone, the score master of the spaghetti Westerns.

"Django Unchained" is a fairy tale for grown ups who don`t mind when the screen gets sometimes a bit bloody.

Culture: A Wedding At City Hall, New York

 

 (Drivebycuriosity) -  On New Year´s Eve (Sylvester) I got married. I bonded with a beautiful New York woman I have been seeing for almost 3 years. The official wedding ceremony took place in New York`s City Hall which is in Manhattan´s Financial District.

The place seemed to me like a combination of a railway station and a cattle auction - very American I guess. It was crowded, loud and a bit chaotic.

My bride and I arrived there around 10 am and went to a desk close to the entrance where we got the number 722. We were told that we would have to wait in line until this number is called.

The waiting hall, which is shaped like a long hose, has 2 boards where the numbers and the stations for registering are displayed. There also are loudspeakers which announce numbers and desks. 

There were a lot of people waiting on their calls, which created a chaotic cluster.  Crowds, boards and loud speaker announcements created a busy and somewhat industrial atmosphere. I wouldn´t have been very surprised if the arrival of a train would have been announced or some farmers would have called weights and prices of their cattle.

Some people there were much less formally dressed than they are usually at German weddings. Many had just casual outfits and some wore redneck t-shirts. Interesting was a high percentage of same sex couples. I guess this reflects the shrinking popularity of traditional marriage and the rise of gay and lesbian pairings, at least in
America.

Around 12pm our number was called and we could register at the desk with our witness . Then we had to wait around 40 minutes more for the final act.

 

Around 1pm the wedding ceremony took place in a room called a chapel. The city authority person delivered a short but nice speech and declared us finally husband & wife by the law of the great city of New York.

Stock Market: 2013 - Year Of The Bull?

One year ago I wrote a post called "2012 - Year Of The Bull?" (drivebycuriosity). There I explained why I expected a powerful rally, driving the S&P 500 north of 1.700 points, which would have been a jump of at least 30%. Instead we got just gain of 13% and the index closed at 1.426 points. A global gauge, the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities, advanced 17% (bloomberg). This is a solid outcome - better than the performance of alternative investments like bonds and commodities - but by far less bullish than I had expected.

Where was I right and what went wrong?

- As expected companies worldwide expanded their profits thanks to the rapid technological progress which led to more efficiency and lower costs.
- The US consumers also didn´t disappoint me. They stayed in spending mode and worked as the global growth engine as I hoped for.
- China avoided the crash many pundits had predicted. Though the expected re-acceleration of China´s economic growth began not until the 4 quarter, later than thought.
- And the recession in Europa was more deep and painful than feared.
- I also didn´t calculate with the hysteria about the US fiscal cliff which spoiled the global stock markets in the recent weeks.

But the worries from last year could be the chances of this year:

I reckon that the gains on the stock market will continue this year, maybe a bit stronger than 2012.  The fiscal cliff solution - which now seems to appear - should lead to a strong start. The main engine of the global growth - and therefore the stock markets - will be the continuing rise of company profits. I reckon that the technological progress will accelerate in 2013 as it does every year (Moore´s law).
The US consumer spending will stay the engine of the global economy fueled by the continuing healing of the job market. China will gather speed and Europa will finally end the recession driven by climbing exports to the US, China and other emerging markets.

Many are still under-invested, including the majority of the big funds. A lot of money idles now in bonds and money market funds, with almost zero interest. A rising stock market could set many fund managers under performance pressure. They would have to buy stocks otherwise they would miss the upswing.

Hence I expect that the S&P 500 will close north of 1.700 by the end of the year and we should get a rally of at least 20%.

Happy New Year and much luck to all of you!

Movies: The Year 2012 - A View Into The Rear-View Mirror

2012 was a solid movie year. I didn´t spot any spectacular cinema event like 2011´s "Melancholia", but there were a lot of interesting films.

My movie of the year is a Scandinavian production called "Headhunters",  a kind of Nordic dynamite which was shown in America in Norwegian & Danish with English subtitles. It was much fun watching this explosive roller coaster - a violent and very bloody chain reaction filled with a lot of surprises and twists.

I equally indulged Roman Polanski`s "Carnage". The comedy, set in Brooklyn, shows just 2 married couples who are talking about a conflict their sons had on a schoolyard, costing one of the boys 2 teeth. I enjoyed how the characters tried to settle the conflict in the beginning, but got more and more agitated and how the situation escalated in the run of the movie.
Watching "Miss Bala", a low budget Mexican production, also generated a strong impression. The Flick narrates the story of a girl, who gets between 2 fronts - ruthless Mexican drug gangs and similarly aggressive law enforcement - while she is trying to win a beauty contest.  It´s a tale about brutally, violence and totally disregard of human life and looks almost like a documentary.
The "Iron lady", a biopic about Maggie Thatcher, also belongs on my list of favorites. The film isn`t a political manifest, nor does it care much about the economic aspects of the Thatcher revolution. Instead the makers painted a very emotional picture about winning power and loosing it.

Anther favorite is "Lawless", which tells the story of some liquor bootleggers who fought around 1930 against corrupt law enforcers. This war escalated into menace, torture and murdering. The film is brutal and bloody, but also honest, intense and convincing. It shows how stubbornness and overconfidence could lead into a bloody mess. But the roughness of the plot is counterbalanced by the beauty of the pictures which let you participate in a time travel to the epoch around 1930.

The visual magic of "The Master" also belongs to the cinematic highlights of the year. The movie tells the story of a disturbed American World War II returnee who gets involved with a charismatic cult leader - projected in 70mm.  It was a grace to watch Philip Seymour Hoffman as a charismatic cult leader. He showed the eloquence, brilliance and charm of this enigmatic figure but also his stubbornness and anger, when he was questioned or doubted.

But there were more movies which impressed me, including "Savages" (a story of 2 Californian beach boys and highly successful pot growers and their shared girlfriend who slide into a very messy clash with a Mexican drug cartel), "Moonrise Kingdom" (a tale about 2 kids - 12 years old - who fell in love to each other and ran away into the wilderness, which triggered a funny chain of events), "Elles" (some days in the life of an acclaimed middle-aged female journalist who has been interviewing some up-market student prostitutes in Paris) and "Farewell My Queen" about the last days of Marie Antoinette. The movie works partly as a historic thriller and transmits the growing fear, panic and cluelessness of the royals in the light of the revolution which spreads like Cholera.

The year also had some fine comedies fine comedies including "Woody Allen´s "To Rome With Love", "Hyde Park On Hudson" about Franklin D. Roosevelt`s affair with his cousin Daisy during the visit of King & Queen of England and "My Week With Marilyn", a charming film about Marilyn Monroe `s little love adventure while she was shooting an unimportant flick 1957 in England.

The action genre had passable productions like "Skyfall", the newest James Bond incarnation, "The Bourne Legacy", "The Dark Knight Rises" (another Batman episode) and "Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol".

But I more enjoyed the dirty and funny flicks like "The Paperboy", "Killer Joe" and "Rampart" which all entertained in a dark way.

The surprise of the year is "Hitchcock". It was a astonishing lot of fun to watch Anthony Hopkins incarnating Alfred Hitchcock. He perfectly displayed the master`s character: The obstinacy, greed for food and blond actresses as well as the insecurities and jealousy regarding his spouse.

The year also showed some fascinating director`s debuts. Rupert Sanders delivered a superb "Snow White And the Huntsman" based on one of the dark stories the Brother`s Grimm had collected. The tale about jealousy, greed, power trips and other vices benefited a lot from the fireworks of special effects which were cutting edge. I reckon that Sanders could define cinema in the coming years as Stanley Kubrick did in the 60s and Ridley Scott around 10 years later.
Another promising newcomer was Elgin James with "Little Birds". The flick narrates some days in the life of two 15 years old girls who run away from their pathetic homes and join a gang of juvenile skaters. This old story was told in a new refreshing way and shot in beautiful pictures.

The disappointment of the year is "Lincoln". The drama doesn`t come up to all the hype and the huge reputation of Steven Spielberg.  I also was disappointed by "Cosmopolis" ( a hedge fund manager driving in his limo through Manhattan) and the Alien prequel "Prometheus".

Movies: Lincoln

 

  (Drivebycuriosity) - The movie "Lincoln" is the disappointment of the movie year (imdb.com). Ok, the film is a solid production, but the drama doesn`t come up to all the hype and the huge reputation of Steven Spielberg.

You cannot learn much about this still highly popular statesman, whom his opponents called dictator, nor about his role in starting the bloody & messy civil war. The odds were for an early victory of the North because the already industrialized "Union" possessed much more economic strength than the poor rural "Confederation". Instead the Northerners needed pathetic 4 years to force the impoverished South finally to there knees. No issue for Spielberg and his script writer. Instead the makers of "Lincoln" contented themselves and the paying audience on some weeks during the Republican president pushed the 13th amendment to the US constitution, which abolishes slavery, against the Democrats and without any participation of the South. Hail Cesar!

The acting is superb, of course. Daniel Day-Lewis, as the a bit goatish Lincoln, might get an Oscar fis this and watching Tommy Lee Jones as a grouchy elderly statesman is pure fun. I also enjoyed David Strathairn as one of Lincoln´s harsh strategists and James Spader as a member of Lincoln´s busy troop of canvassers.

Hence "Lincoln" could serve as an actors movie to enjoy the performance of a fine troop. No more or less.

Movies: Hitchcock

 

  (Drivebycuriosity) - Alfred Hitchcock was not just a magician who invented the cinema new, he also was a man with a lot of quirks. The movie "Hitchcock", Hollywood`s current little tribute to this genius, casts a friendly light on the master´s strengths and weaknesses (imdb.com).

The flick is confined to the time as the director shot his masterpiece "Psycho". After his success with "North By Northwest" Hollywood demanded something of the same kind, but Hitchcock preferred to produce something new and more gruesome. 

The film focuses on the risks "Hitch" took (including mortgaging his house and the beloved swimming pool) and his fights against Hollywood`s prudish bigots, including the censoring agency, to get the now famous shower scene into the cinema theaters.

Anthony Hopkins is the perfect incarnation of Hitchcock. He displays the master`s character very well: The obstinacy, greed for food and blond actresses as well as the insecurities and jealousy regarding his spouse. I wouldn`t be surprised if the actor will earn at least an Oscar nomination for this. 

Hellen Mirren, who acts as Hitch´s very cooperative and supporting wife, the screenwriter and editor Alma, is a congenial partner. Together they make the film into a study about a longtime relationship which is still developing and getting better.

It´s also a lot of pleasure to watch how the divine Scarlett Johansson embodies Janet Leigh/Marion Crane, the victim of "Psycho". Her cooperation with "Hitch" gives the movie a more human face. Also enjoyable is the acting of Jessica Biel (as the actress Vera Miles), James D`Arcy (as Anthony Perkins) and Danny Huston as writer and special interest of Alma.

"Hitchcock" is a little gem and highly recommended.

Commodities: Sugar - When Sweet Turns To Sour

The year 2012 was good to the connoisseurs of sweets. The price of sugar fell 18% year to date (boerse-go). But that is bad news for those unfortunate speculators who happened to bet on rising sugar prices. As many other agriculture products (soft commodities) sugar is traded as an asset on financial markets like stocks & bonds.

Now sugar costs around 40% less than at the all-time high from February 2011. What happened?

The price of sugar has been falling because there is a glut of the sweet substance, reports Bloomberg (bloomberg). Huge crops from Brazil, India and other leading producers countries meet a week global demand. According to the International Sugar Organization in the season 2012/13 the global sugar production (supply) will exceed the global sugar demand by 5,9 million tons (bloomberg). This would be more than the U.S. consumes in six months.

I reckon the current situation is a typically market response to a former bubble. Not long ago there was a massive speculation onto rising sugar prices. Since around 2000 it has been fashionable to invest into soft commodities like sugar, cocoa, cotton and others agriculture products. Analysts from banks, brokers and other pundits claimed that there is a "super-cycle" for commodities. We were told, that the rising wealth in China and other emerging markets will create a strong demand for sugar and many other agriculture products. These pundits claimed further the global sugar production should grow very slow. Therefore the demand for sugar would overgrow the supply, causing sharp rising prices. 

A lot of hedge funds and other speculators subscribed into the "super-cycle" theory and have been pumping billions of Dollars into the sugar and other commodity markets. Others jumped onto the bandwagon and bought sugar and other agriculture products just because their price was climbing in the hope the price rise will continue. The herding behavior of the sugar speculation created a price rally which peaked in February 2011.

As usual high & rising sugar prices caused strong backlashes. Sugar easily can be submitted by other sweeteners. Therefore the sugar rally reduced the demand for the sweet substance. And the farmers did what they always do when prices for their products are climbing: They planted more sugar which causes now the rising sugar production. These forces caused the sugar bubble to implode.

The falling sugar price is another proof that the claimed "super-cycle" for commodities like sugar doesn´t exist. The supporter of the "super-cycle" theory are ignoring basic economic facts, like the strong demand & supply reactions to rising prices.