The Assassination of Caligula

For history buffs here, today is an important date: it is the anniversary of the assassination of Caligula. It also thus the day when Claudius became emperor. A page in history that has been fictionalised and immortalised in I, Claudius by Robert Graves,and its TV series adaptation. I know it is not how it happened, yet for me, this is how I always imagined it happening. Since I first saw it some more than 25 years ago. I was completely blown away. Anyway, here is events unfolding, with Derek Jacobi as Claudius and John Hurt as the mad Caligula. British acting at its finest.

Monstres et merveilles: The Storyteller

Alors que je faisais des recherches sur mon billet précédent, je suis tombé par hasard sur The Storyteller. Je cherchais le nom original de la série depuis des années. En français, ça s,appelait Montres et merveilles et c'était une brillante adaptation de contes de fée. La seconde saison était une adaptation des mythes grecs, ce qui était une moins bonne idée je crois. Les choses qu'on apprend en fouillant sur wikipedia! Ainsi c'était John Hurt qui était le narrateur/conteur et Anthony Minghella qui avait créé la série. J'ai beaucoup aimé son Talented Mr Ripley. Quant à John Hurt, well, il est un des nombreux acteurs britanniques que j'admire. J'ai trouvé l'intro sur youtube, alors je la laisse pour les nostalgiques comme moi:

Musophobia

I promised an entry about phobias, so here it is. As some of you know might know, I am slightly phobic about rats. I mean, I really hate those disgusting rodents. I don`t know why, just writing about them makes me shiver. I even got nervous watching Ratatouille!

Maybe I got phobic about rats when I first watched 1984 (the adaptation by Michael Radford, when I was 12, years before I read Orwell's novel). The the first memory I have of being utterly scared of rats was when Winston Smith got in Room 101. That scene haunts me still.

Here's the scene for you to "enjoy":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oxelLtVhwk&feature=related