Saml News: January 2015

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

'Cries and Whispers' by Ingmar Bergman is a prize winner

bu sam

"Cries and Whispers" was largely Bergman's first successful fill in the U.S. and went on to win at the Oscars. I recently watched a Netflix DVD of the film under difficult conditions. The old CRT TV works well on news but when a movie scene is dark everything is muddied. I sat through the film without understanding some of the scenes, but when it was bright I could follow the events.

Story is three sisters, one dying of cancer, living together for the cancer-stricken to die. They reveal past problems and events, including such as walking woods together.

It's a bitter film with much agonizing over the past.

You might enjoy it if you TV works better than mine.

Cast

] • Harriet Andersson as Agnes • Kari Sylwan as Anna • Ingrid Thulin as Karin • Liv Ullmann as Maria (and her mother) • Anders Ek as Isak, the priest • Inga Gill as Story teller • Erland Josephson as David, the doctor • Henning Moritzen as Joakim, Maria's husband • Georg Årlin as Fredrik, Karin's husband • Linn Ullmann as Maria, as a young girl • • Directed by • Ingmar Bergman • Produced by • Lars-Owe Carlberg • Written by • Ingmar Bergman • Starring • Harriet Andersson • Kari Sylwan • Ingrid Thulin • Liv Ullmann • Inga Gill • Erland Josephson • Narrated by • Ingmar Bergman • Music by • Johann Sebastian Bach • Frédéric Chopin • Cinematography • Sven Nykvist • Edited by • Siv Lundgren

• Release dates • 21 December 1972(United States) • 5 March 1973 (Sweden) • Running time

• 91 minutes

Saturday, January 24, 2015

xqSKI RESORT TIPS

by sam

I've been skiing the Tahoe basin for about 25 years now, skiing all 15 resorts, once all 15 in one day, thanks to Harrah's furnishing a van.

I don't ski ilke that anymore, back and age interfere. But I do have some impressions of some of the resorts that I would like to share with you.

For those who already know their way around Tahoe winter sports areas and for those new here some nearest to Carson City. These include Heavenly (the biggest), Mt Rose-Ski Tahoe, Diamond Peak. Let's look at Heavenly first. It's part of the Vail conglomerate and is one resort that spans two states, California and Nevada. I taught skiing for 15 years at the Heavenly Boulder base and one thing that remains in mind is the early morning run the instructors would take before classes at about 9:15 with unskied snow from the base to the top of the Olympic Downhill to Olympic Express and then back to Boulder for classes. We would ski down in trail, offering a show to early ski chair riders.

Heavenly is big, matched on in Tahoe by the combination of Squaw Valley and Alpine meadows, now one resort.

Lots of amusements at Heavenly, from the Gondola lift to the California base to Stagecoach to the tubing hill to Adventure Peak --- you don't have to ski to enjoy Heavenly (sometimes referred to as Heavenly Valley).

LIft tickets can go as high as $100 but many discounts are available.

Of course, Heavenly also boasts casino activity so it's an all-round resort.

A favorite of mine not well known outside the local area is Diamond Peak, owned and operated by the wealthy town of Incline Village. This is very much a locals' resort and that's the way the village wants to keep it. It's only 688 acres but it has a lift just for beginners and classes and the lodge is cozy and right at the beginning lifts. it has a max 2.5 mile run that is fine for intermediate skiers with a long back run that is more demanding.

Mt. Rose Resort (not actually on Mt. Rose but rather on Slide Mountain) has plenty of beginner and advanced runs with the Chutes offering a challenge to demanding experts. For years Rusty Crook ran the ski school there and I used to join his classes because he always made me think I was a better skier than I was. Rusty is retired but his special senior classes continue to make you think you a champion.

The Kit Carson Bowl is wide and spacious and is matched on the other side by a nice touring run for easy skiing or riding.

Mt. Rose boasts of the highest base around Tahoe and at the top you can look out on Lake Tahoe. Mt. Rose is close to Reno and there are shuttles to take you up and bring you down. Mt.Rose is often the first place out of town skiers and riders hit and it allows them to ski and enjoy Reno the same day.

Next time I'll offer tips and information about Squaw Valley, Kirkwood and a couple of more resorts.

And incidentally, I've added a new exercise to my morning workout. I go through all the motions of making a modern technique turn 50 times. Almost like sking.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

movie american sniper

Film "American Sniper" an excellent war story

by sam

Director Clint Eastwood's new movie "American Sniper" is a craftsman's work of cinema art, based on a Navy SEAL's life, with a fine cast headed by Bradley Cooper as Kris Kyle, the sniper of the title. Eastwood, who is 84, has lost none of his fine touch in melding scenes of war and life at home into a smoothly flowing story --- not too much war, not too much home. Cooper is matched by Sienna Miller, wife whom he picked up in a bar (and who makes a drunk scene charming. Early scenes show Kris and his brother being taught hunting and with advice from the father about being a sheep or a sheepdog or a wolf. No surprise in what the father suggests.

Kyle is triggered to join the Navy by the 9/11 disaster and is touted to become a SEAL, the super-tough sailors.

The opening scenes show the demanding scenes of how one becomes a SEAL and that first half hour is pretty brutal (throwing darts at a target on a sailor's back ---ouch!). He shows skill on the firing range and is made a sniper

Kris' first tour of Iraq is brutal as he begins by having to decide if a woman and young boy are fair sniper targets, they are and he saves troops from a bomb.

Much of the first tour is getting viewers accustomed to the decisions Kris must make.

In modern warfare, troops are never far from home with cell phones on hand, and in the first tour Kris' pregnant wife talks to him during a battle that she can hear. Tours two, three and four are more battles with the emergence of a terrorist sniper; the two engage in a duel of sniping.

As Kris returns from each tour he becomes more distant, moody, difficult. After the fourth he decides he has done enough and becomes close with his family.

The end of the film reports on Kris' death at the hands of a disturbed vet at a firing range and views of his funeral in a football stadium followed by scenes of Americans honoring him.

The is filmmaking at its best. Direction is unobtrusive but obviously skilled. The cast is near perfect with Cooper clearly made for the role. Editing is tight and smart and the battle scenes fluid and tense. There's even a "fog of war" battle scene of a dust storm confusing all.

Controversy about the movie includes the question is it a pro- or anti-war movie. It seems to me to be both, with the ant-i winning the verdict. Some comments about the role of a sniper --- hero or killer. And there is a touch of jingoism, to be expected perhaps in such a film. The morality of snipers as judge and jury rules here as it does in drone attacks.a

But no clear answers to these questions. War is rarely good but It's a personal judgment here.

Directed by

Clint Eastwood

Produced by

Clint Eastwood

Robert Lorenz

Andrew Lazar

Bradley Cooper

Peter Morgan

Written by

Jason Hall

Based on