Vehemently Heinous

Place: Somewhere in the far end of the galaxy
Mood: Heinous
Song: Darkness * Peter Garbriel

Call it a massive explosion. A torrential blast.
A monstrous scrunching of masses that detonated unexpectedly.

Vehemently Heinous is the title of my newest poem.

That is kind of sad. I used to write endless poems, most of which I would throw away, but some were good enough to be included in the two collections that I have made some time ago.

Yet after two years of non-writing proficiency, I found myself flirting with a name that was to be attributed to a mere poem and not a book.

I haven't written a poem in ages.

Vehemently Heinous is about rage.

That's what I have been feeling lately. Most of the time it's latent rage, because it doesn't go out. Therefore it turns into tumultuous internal fury.

To accompany this rage and possessed persona that I am currently feeling, here's a trip with my 5 most listened to tracks of the week which helped the shaping of Vehemently Heinous.

01. Momento (by Murcof) - from the double album Martes/Utopia [2005]









The enraged-ride kicks off with Momento, a forgotten song in Murcof's dark catalogue. This utterly disturbing instrumental piece in its calmness awake the urgency to abscond, to return, to squeal, to look away. And then the electronic beats promulgate you into the gardens of the unknown.

02. Darkness (by Peter Gabriel) - from the album UP [2002]

Don't mess with me my fuse is short
Beneath this skin these fragments caught
When I allow it to be - There's no control over me
I have my fears But they do not have me





Then, the last couple of drops that end Momento lead beautifully into Peter Gabriel's bombastic yet melodramatic Darkness. This track is full of infatuations with ghosts, alter egos and monsters. Add to that multiple states of the mind like scariness, grandness, fright… and you'll get this magnificent opener for the best Peter Gabriel album yet.

03. The Waitress - live (by Tori Amos) - from the double album To Venus and Back [1999]

Hang-a ten-a cause I know just where she is
Because I believe in peace, yes
I believe in peace, I said
but I believe that she’s the Devil, bitch

And then as he cries until he laughs comes the grandiose. A mere three-minute song called Waitress on Tori Amos' Under the Pink morphs into a momentum live disproportionate tantrum of vile bashing. The second part actually is not on the studio take, but that's what makes the live version a powerful and epic song. It builds to the extremes and pushes your anger to an absolute level. All your hatred is set in place.

04. A Man (by Alanis Morissette) - from the album Under Rugged Swept [2002]

I am man who has grown from a son
Been crucified by enraged women
I am son who was raised by such men
I'm often reminded of the fools I'm among





Which leads to my ultimate Alanis Morissette song. Back then, I used to like her. And this track is one of the few that still resonate in my mind. Mainly because of the lyrics which speak my mind. And the song in itself is sung in a very sharp tone with twisted instruments that hail the lyrics. It's about the anti-utopia that I have always been living in.

05. Hurt (by Johnny Cash) - from the album American IV: The Man Who Comes Around [2002]

Beneath the stain of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have i become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone i know
Goes away in the end

To wrap this emotionally wrench-y journey, here's an introspective song by Nine Inch Nails, that is sung by Johnny Cash. I feel like I have nothing to add to the lyrics. And the late Mr. Cash sums the pain perfectly.

Falak (Cosmos)

Place: Falak (The Cosmos)
Mood: Elevating
Song: Foutina Al-Lathi * Rima Khcheich

Yesterday night:

The planets aligned next to their shining star,
The stars in their personal constellations,
The constellations in their respective galaxies,
The galaxies, the nebulas and even the black holes shut down their activities,

For Rima Khcheich's concert restored the perfect harmony to the cosmos with the supremacy of her crystalline voice.

A Festival Within a Festival

Place: The Milky Way
Mood: Exhausted
Song: Camino * Murcof

(After you read this post, you will understand why I chose the Milky Way. As to Camino, it was a path, a long way. And Murcof knows how to make you feel the torturous nightly paths perfectly.)

photo credit by Jens Hackmann

Five months of work. All faded away within a couple of days.

The whole preparation for our participation to the 61^st Cannes Film Festival faded away within a couple of days.

Because of yet another silly war.
Because of yet another overtly political lose-lose tour-de-force.
Because of yet another reason to shatter the already shattered country.

I – The Departure

Wednesday May 7^th, 2008: Beirut International Airport shut down by Hezbollah-led opposition, until further notice.

Thursday May 8^th, 2008: West Beirut is violently shaken by riots of all sorts between the opposition and the pro-Hariri clan leaving many casualties.

Friday May 9^th, 2008: The airport is still closed and the situation is aggravating. We cancel our reservations to Cannes. Although our accreditations are done, our apartments are reserved (and paid in advance), our stand and equipment are confirmed at the Market.

Saturday and Sunday May 10^th and 11^th, 2008: The conflict moves to various other regions in Lebanon.

Tuesday May 13^th, 2008: Our French partners leave Paris to Cannes. Hauvick, my Lebanese roommate-to-be in Cannes asks if I want to go with him through the Syrian borders. I agree. Nothing is certain, nothing is scheduled.

Wednesday May 14^th: Cannes festival’s inauguration with the Brazilian film Blindness.
1:00 PM: Hauvick calls and says he made a reservation from Damascus to Milano. There were no flights to France (all flights were full). Just had the time to pack and shower.

5:00 PM: We left with a Lebanese Taxi to the freshly opened Lebanese-Syrian borders.

7:15 PM: At the Syrian borders, the officer asks us if it’s our first time in Syria. Hauvick says yes, and the officer automatically claims “well, typical of you Lebanese. If your airport is not closed, you never come to Syria.”

7:30 PM: Never trust a Syrian cab. He always asks for more. He made enough excuses to get more $$$. But then again, you don’t want to get in trouble with this 70-year-old almost blind and sweaty Syrian driver as the night is approaching.

8:30 PM: Arrival to Damascus (International) Airport. We wait for ever until boarding time.

Do I look tired already at the Damascus airport?

Thursday May 15^th: (no one knows how the hours have passed at the café of the airport)

1:00 AM: Boarding time. Hauvick has made my reservation in Beirut but did not buy the ticket. So I had to pay it in Damascus. But what a boarding. Certainly the most chaotic I’ve ever witnessed. Handwritten papers are suddenly placed instead of electronic signs to inform that these counters are for the plane leaving to Prague. I am handed the boarding pass without having paid my ticket. Refusing to get into trouble later, I ask the guy at the counter. He replies that I cannot pay because his boss is asleep. I told him I am traveling and I will pay now. He goes and talks to a superior which tells him to wake the ‘chief.’ He then asks his superior how will the chief know the ticket prize, and his superior answers “he has a laptop. Laptops know everything.”

3:00 AM: after some money stealing on stamps and various other issues, we head to the gate. Undoubtedly, 80% of the travelers on this plane are Lebanese, 15% are foreigners fleeing Lebanon and the remaining 5% are Syrians.

3:15 AM: Plane takes off from Damascus to Prague. The nightmare is over (or we thought it was).

6:30 AM: Plane lands in Prague International Airport with a 10-minute delay. After passport and baggage control, we arrive to the Milan gate only to know that the plane has left without us.

Welcome to Praha International Airport!

7:10 AM: We head to the customer services who barely understand English and said that we should pay fines because we were late for the flight. After several verbal fights and explanations, they shift us to a flight from Prague to Milan through Alitalia.

10:00 AM: After a painstaking 3-hour wait which seemed to last forever, we leave to Milan.

11:30 AM: We arrive, exhausted to Milan Malpensa Airport. We decide to check on plane availabilities to Nice. But neither Alitalia nor Air France do have flights to Nice that day. We are told to check the train station. At the airport, we are informed that the last train to Nice is at 3:30 PM. But we have to take a bus which takes an hour to Milan Central Station.

At the Milano Centra Station (Bibite??)

2:00 PM: We arrive to Milan Central Station after a small tour in the city. We book our tickets to Nice and from Nice to Cannes. We eat in an Italian restaurant and I order a delicious Penne Al’Arabiata.

The Delicious Milanese Penne!

3:30 PM: Departure to Nice.

6:00 PM: Or somewhere around that hour, we hear in the speakers that there is a general railway strike in France, therefore this train will not be heading to Nice anymore but rather will reach only Vintimiglia (last Italian town before the French borders). We are exhausted, we haven’t slept for more than 24 hours, and now we have one more problem to think about.

7:00 PM: After many negotiations with authorities, we hear that there will be a train which will take all passengers from Vintimiglia to Nice.

8:00 PM: Arrival to Vintimiglia. Hauvick has a quick ice cream.

Quick pose in Vintimiglia before departure

8:15 PM: Departure from Vintimiglia to Nice.

9:00 PM: Arrival to Nice. As there is a general strike, all train flights were interrupted. Needless to say, our Nice-Cannes tickets are nonrefundable since they were bought in Italy. No buses, and barely any cabs.

9:30 PM: We finally find one which accepts to take us to Cannes for 85€.

10:00 PM: We arrive to our apartment in Cannes. The third person who’s living with us is watching a film in the festival. We had to wait until 11:00 PM to be able to get in.

Friday May 16^th:

7:00 AM: I wake up, have a shower and head to work.

After 30 hours, we have made it.

II – The Festival in Photos

Some Celebs in Cannes - from top left and clockwise: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, giving an interview at the Turkish stand on his latest film: Three Monkeys / Turkish director Fatih Akin, president of the Jury of the Un Certain Regard section, at the Awards closing ceremony / Jackie Chan / Lebanese actor Rabih Mroue and French actress Catherine Deneuve after the screening of the film Je Veux Voir / Lebanese directors Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas presenting the film Je Veux Voir / Askat Kuchinchirekov, leading actor of the Kazakh winning film Tulpan / Madge presenting her documentary on Malawi on the Red Carpet.

Needless to tell you that Renault is the official sponsor for the transportation of all of these celebrities in Cannes!

No comments!

With my colleague Héloïse, after the screening of Three Monkeys

The every night ritual after the screenings: a pineapple and tiramisu ice cream!

Before the Red Carpet Walk ...

... and during the Red Carpet Walk!

And the photographers, also known as photowhores!

Our stand in Cannes

A very Cuban première for the Che!

Rainy edition for the cinema de la plage

Sushi with Menem (pause-déjeuner à la française)

With my friend Wafa', during her birthday

III – The Return

Friday May 23^rd 2008: Final word from my colleague in Beirut that my ticket cannot be changed to Beirut because it was bought from Damascus. Therefore I have to make the same trajectory again: Cannes – Nice – Milan – Prague – Damascus – Beirut. Final word from my cousin in Paris who confirms likewise: the ticket can only be changed in Damascus. I head to the SNCF to get my train tickets to Milan. Departure Sunday May 25^th at 10:00 AM to Nice and 11:30 AM from Nice to Milan. Flight to Prague at 7:00 PM.

Sunday May 25^th 2008: I head to the SNCF only to see an excruciating of travelers. And a sign that reads: general railway strike: all trains are cancelled…

Leaving terra ...

My Cannes 2008 Ratings

Cannes 2008 can be best remembered as a rainy year, and a deceiving one. Many high-ranking directors had much anticipated films, but most of them turned out to be illusory.

The GREAT

3 films have marked me this year.
Three Monkeys, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's much awaited feature, hits hard. It's as good as he ever was.
Delta was a surprise. The scenery and the music alone are worth it. Add to that the magnificent acting of the actress and you get such an elegant film
Tulpan is such an honest film. The Kazakh steppe is mind-blowing. And the actors are very good.

The Surprises

Other wonderful surprises include Gomorra which I loved, considering I am not that much for mafia films that we have seen over and over and over. But the five stories mingle well together and you stay hooked until the end. The animation feature Waltz with Bashir left me perplexed when I got out of it. But then I thought it over and over and that's when it clicked. The fact that it does have to deal with a Lebanese issue that is the massacres of Sabra and Chatila during the 1982 Israeli invasion does not change the fact that it's a striking film.
Lebanese Hadjithomas and Joreige's Je Veux Voir is their best yet. And the good thing is that Catherine Deneuve is not the real thing in this road-to-the-ruins movie.

The Good but Disappointing

I was mostly disappointed by La Mujer Sin Cabeza. This was THE film I wanted to see most, and yet it failed to grab me as it should have. Martel's own touch is still there, but the film is not.
Then there is Dernier Maquis which is completely what I wasn't expecting after Zaimeche's powerful 2006 Bled Number One. It's completely different and while I liked it well, it failed to meet my expectations. His usage of the pallets' though is striking enough.

The Simply Disappointing

Salt of This Sea is 'sweet.' Too much clichés sprinkle Jacir's much awaited first feature (Yafa's oranges and olives to name a few). Her powerful shorts and documentaries are far more appealing than this crowd-pleaser.
Lorna's Silence is a film that we have seen elsewhere, MANY times. Save the fact that we have seen this film in the directors' previous works.
As to Il Divo, and as my colleague said this perfectly, if you are not Italian, you cannot understand the movie. And that's why I couldn't get into the story of Guilio Andreotti because there are hundreds of characters surrounding him.

The Bad

Maradona by Kusturica. While it's still Maradona, I wish we could see him at least as much as we see Kusturica. And because we know that Maradona does not shoot films, you cannot confuse who is shooting whom. But for god's sake! It's the one and only Maradona! Use him!
Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the lamest excuse to shoot in Barcelona with an A+ cast that borders the ridiculous. If this film has a star and a half in my ratings, it's because Penelope Cruz cannot but be gorgeous on the screen.
I promised myself not to watch French films this year, and I almost made it, had I not seen on the day before the last a dreary atrocious film that is called Voyage Aux Pyrénées. I have nothing to add on this.

Here are full my rankings:

5 *****

Üç Maymun / Three Monkeys / Trois Singes
by Nuri Bilge Ceylan – Turkey
Official Competition
Winner: Best Directing

Delta
by Kornél Mundruczó – Hungary
Official Competition

Tulpan
by Sergey Dvortsevoy
Un Certain Regard
Winner: First Prize Un Certain Regard





4.5 ****-

Waltz with Bashir / Valse avec Bachir
by Ari Folman – Israel
Official Competition

Gomorra / Gomorrah
by Matteo Garone – Italy
Official Competition
Winner: Grand Prix




4 ****

I Want to See / Je Veux Voir
by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige – Lebanon
Un Certain Regard

Er Shi Si Cheng Ji / 24 City
by Jia Zhangke – China
Official Competition

3.5 ***-

Il Resto Della Notte / The Rest of the Night
by Francesco Munzi – Italy
Directors' Fortnight

La Mujer Sin Cabeza / The Headless Woman / La Femme Sans Tête
by Lucrecia Martel - Argentina
Official Competition

Adhen / Dernier Maquis
by Rabah Ameur Zaimeche – Algeria / France
Directors' Fortnight

Liverpool
by Lisandro Alonzo – Argentina
Directors' Fortnight

Che
by Steven Soderbergh – USA
Official Competition
Winner: Best Actor (Benicio del Toro)

3 ***

Milh Hadha Al Bahr / Salt of this Sea / Le Sel de la Mer
by Annemarie Jacir – Palestine
Un Certain Regard

Lorna's Silence / Le Silence de Lorna
by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes – Belgium
Official Competition
Winner: Best Screenplay

2.5 **-

Il Divo
by Paolo Sorrentino – Italy
Official Competiton
Winner: Jury Prize

La Sangre Brota / Blood Appears
by Pablo Frendrik – Argentina
Critics' Week

2 **

Adoration
by Atom Egoyan – Canada
Official Competition

Maradona by Kusturica
by Emir Kusturica – Serbia
Official Selection – Out of Competition

1.5 *-

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
by Woody Allen – USA
Official Selection – Out of Competition

Vse Umrut A Ja Ostanus / Everybody Dies But Me / Ils Mourront Tous Sauf Moi
by Valeria Gai Guermanika – Russia
Critics' Week
Special Mention Camera D'or

1 *

My Magic
by Eric Khoo – Singapour
Official Competition

0

Le Voyage Aux Pyrénées
by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu – France
Directors' Fortnight