"All who gain power are afraid to lose it" — Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
// Just a blog among many others //
"Et comme dirait Grucho Marx : 'Si vous n'aimez pas mes opinions, j'en ai d'autres !'" (Jean-Jacques Jespers)
// This is a blog that is updated on a daily basis (if I have time, though…) and on which I feature things that I find funny. Enjoy and don't hesitate to post comments as well!
A very gifted film editor on YouTube came up with this re-cut trailer: shots from Tim Burton's 1989 Batman with the audio from The Dark Knight.
Wasn't that brilliant? According to me, the best bits is "Why so serious?" and "I like that": Jack Nicholson's facial expression is perfectly tuned with the audio.
The second trailer has eventually been released, so enjoy it!
That will be the last film Heath Ledger stars in, for he died on 22 January. That's a shame, because he was a very talented actor, as we all saw his performance in Brokeback Mountain, that film that gave rise to so many parodies.
You know I'm a really silly person, and (un?)fortunately, you can't do anything about it. Thus, being silly, I sometimes watch Batman movies. Ok, just two of them: those by Tim Burton, director of genius, with a real skill for photography and directing actors in a marvellous, dreamlike universe. (Yeah, the Gotham City of Batman is not quite what I call 'dreamlike', but still. You know what I mean if you watched Big Fish or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.)
I'm just saying that Batman and Batman Returns are worth it, and notBatman Forever and Batman & Robin, which were disappointing. Not due to the actors: Jim Carrey was perfect as the Riddler, Tommy Lee Jones convincing as Double Face and Arnold "Governator" Schwarzenegger ridiculing (in a good way) Dr. Freeze… Wait a minute. Only those three actors were good; changing Michael Keaton (the most credible Bruce Wayne ever) for Val Kilmer (pathethic) and then for George Clooney (why did he get involved with that crap?) was one of the worst decisions ever… No continuity. Talking pigs, it's the same for the director: Joel Schumacher (instead of the genius Tim Burton) used a terrible background for Gotham City to obtain something really awful from a script which could have been good if it hadn't been made into film this way…
Ok, enough criticism for today. My point was to introduce you to the Penguin [Danny DeVito], a character that appears in the second movie, Batman Returns. If you don't know anything about him, click on the link "Batman Returns" under "My Favourite Movies" to watch his birth. In the film, he tries to find who his parents were, why they trew him away in a sewer; then, helped by the mogul Max Shrek [Christopher Walken] (hey, I know this name…) he tries to be elected mayor; he fails (thanks to Batman) and finally attemps to destroy Gotham City, but Batman [Michael Keaton] fights against him, Penguin falls through a window into the penguins' lake in the Zoo. Meanwhile, Batman tries to prevent Catwoman [Michelle Pfeiffer] (with who, by the way, he fell in love with) from killing Shrek, but she eventually slay him by means of an electric generator… And there comes this extract:
This is definitely the most miserable death in the history of cinema. His last words were a request for a glass of ice water? What could be more pathetic? But I definitely love it!!! It's great! It's tragic! And Danny DeVito's interpretation is superb, as if he had become an actor just to play this role in particular…
Some remarks about the extract, now you've watched it. – Penguin's dark green thing that flows out of his mouth is said to be blood by many, but I think it isn't because there's red blood in his head. What could thus be this dark green liquid? – Batman doesn't have his batlike hood because he tear it off to show Catwoman/Selina Kyle that he's Bruce Wayne, the guy she dated. – The carbonized bloke that Batman discovers under metal panels is Max Shrek. (Imagine that if the Romans had killed Jesus this way, we would hang a stick of burnt wood above the doors… Funny and silly, isn't it?) – Penguin has got a collection of umbrellas with various uses: from pyrolancer to riffle, and from mini-helicopter to… basic umbrella. The one that he picks was meant to attract little kid's attention, in order to push them into a lagoon of toxic waste… ;-) My conclusion: Penguin is the most callous, inhumane disabled man in the world! – Penguin's words are fantastic – The penguins that push their boss into the water look really fake: they barely move! – I like the last bubble, and the "gong" that accompanies it. By the way, the music was composed by Danny Elfman, with whom Tim Burton worked for every-but-one film.
I couldn't post this message without mentioning the French version. I compared the French to the original, and I was rather surprised to see that there were not so many meaning mistakes — whereas you can find tons of them in Star Wars. The dubbing actors they chose were also convincing, even though I must admit that Patrick Osmond could have changed his voice a little bit more when he speaks as Batman. (Anyway, no one noticed it.) But what I wanted to show you is Danny DeVito's "official" (or traditional, I should say) dubbing voice, Philippe Peythieu. This dubbing comedian is also the French voice of Homer Simpson, by the way.
— I was born on 12 February 1988 in Rocourt (in the municipality of Liège). I grew up in Aubel, then I studied in Herve (Collège Royal Marie-Thérèse). I took a bachelor's degree in Germanic languages (Dutch and English) in Namur, then I went to the KU Leuven to do a MA in Linguistics and Literature (Dutch and English). My main research interests are the translation of humour, intertextual references and multilingualism/heterolingualism.
// — I'm an Internet freak and fond of cinema.
// — I enjoy making (silly) comments on anything, grumpily bickering and nitpicking just like Statler from the Muppets.
// Why did you google my name, you nosy person?
"Tu veux ma photo, banane ?" (Biff Tannen, Back to the Future)
This picture was taken on 21 June 2007 while we were resting in front of a café in Damme. That day, just after the last exam of the first year, we had the opportunity to make a small excursion on a bike from Brugge to Damme.
My nicknames
Statler (coined by Prof. Lieven Vandelanotte) because I often make silly comments and crack jokes that nobody understands except my fellow Martin aka Waldorf
Statistics: number of visitors (starting on 5 November 2007)
Famous people I saw or met at least once (of course, nearly all of them come from Belgium)
Amélie Nothomb
André Flahaut
Anne-Marie Lizin
Arno
Axel Merckx
Benoît Poelvoorde
Bernard Hinault
Bla-Bla (I admit I was a great fan of his shows…)
Bouli Lanners
Bruno Coppens
Christophe Brandt
Christopher Lloyd
Didier Reynders
Didier Van Cauwelaert
Dupa (Jean Dupanloup)
Eddy Merckx
Eric De Staerke
Fadilah Laanan
Frédéric Deborsu
Frédéric Jannin
Gilles Dal
Grand Duke
Gryzette
Guy Verhofstadt
Herman De Croo
Howard Shore
Isabelle Durant
Jacques Balutin
Jacques Mercier
Jean Piat
Jean-Claude Vancauwenberghe
Jean-Jacques Jespers
Jean-Luc Fonck
Jean-Marie Leblanc
Joëlle Milquet
Juan d'Oultremont
King Albert II
Kris Peeters
Lance Armstrong
Laurence Bibot
Les Gauff' (Au Suc')
Lorent Deutsch
Marc Moulin
Marie Arena
Miam Monster Miam
Nathalie Uffner
Nicolas Sarkozy
No that's a joke, I never saw him
Olivier Monsens
Paolo Bettini
Philippe Geluck
Philippe Lafontaine
Philippe Lambillon
Pierre Aucaigne
Pierre Kroll
Pierre Rapsat
Pino Cerami
Prince Laurent
Prince Philippe
Queen Fabiola
Queen Paola
Raoul Reyers (Philippe Gouders)
Rik Verbrugghe
Robbie McEwen
Robert Sabatier
Robert Wasseige
Rudy Demotte
Saint André (the singer!)
Sam Touzani
Sergio Honorez
Stefan Liberski
Thomas Gunzig
Tom Boonen
Virginie Hocq
Virginie Svensson
People I dislike or hate or that irritate me (a selection)
Benedict XVI (Religious Extremist)
Benoît Dreze (CDH) (He wants to promote the so-called "chèques-service" which encourage slavery — namely people doing the housework you should do on your own)
Condoleeza Rice (A Shame For Women)
Donald Rumsfeld (Republican Idiot)
Filip De Winter (VB)
George W. Bush (Supreme Moron)
H.M. Leopold III (traitor)
John-Paul II (fortunately he died)
José Happart (PS) (Complete nerd)
Justine Henin (Tennis Player)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Extremist)
Mgr Léonard (Intolerant, Religious Extremist, Mentally Deranged, Pillock)
Michael Schumacher (Dikke Nek)
Paul Wolfovitz (yeah, that guy who can't buy a new pair of socks but can help his girlfriend get a better job…)