Johan Lif
@johanlif.bsky.social
Reads & listens to music. Writes occasionally. Usually works with labour law. On sick leave due to glioblastoma (brain tumour). Former journalist & union negotiator. Swedish.
Without knowing much about what he was like with children, you get the feeling that Hitchcock liked and understood them – and that could direct them, unlike Bergman, who definitely could not, and that this speaks to the respective man’s character.
February 26, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Without knowing much about what he was like with children, you get the feeling that Hitchcock liked and understood them – and that could direct them, unlike Bergman, who definitely could not, and that this speaks to the respective man’s character.
The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947). A lot of this is weird in an overdone, likeable way – the villains! the aquarium! the music! the very plot itself! – but what about Welles’s Irish accent?!
February 25, 2025 at 5:55 AM
The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947). A lot of this is weird in an overdone, likeable way – the villains! the aquarium! the music! the very plot itself! – but what about Welles’s Irish accent?!
I don’t know why I watched Digital Dreams (1984) but I did. It was not good. (Lennie van Dohlen would later appear as that fragile guy in the hothouse in Twin Peaks, where he was also not good, though I know TP fans who are very fond of him.)
February 22, 2025 at 1:16 PM
I don’t know why I watched Digital Dreams (1984) but I did. It was not good. (Lennie van Dohlen would later appear as that fragile guy in the hothouse in Twin Peaks, where he was also not good, though I know TP fans who are very fond of him.)
Now watching: Au revoir les enfants (1987). My fourth Louis Malle film, after Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Le Feu follet and My Dinner With Andre. They have all been quite dissimilar (and all good).
February 15, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Now watching: Au revoir les enfants (1987). My fourth Louis Malle film, after Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Le Feu follet and My Dinner With Andre. They have all been quite dissimilar (and all good).
Weather today so unsparingly gray that even Mouchette (1967) feels uplifting & cheerful.
January 29, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Weather today so unsparingly gray that even Mouchette (1967) feels uplifting & cheerful.
You do feel a bit sorry for the baker. He may be covered in flour and dough, he may have a funny little hat, he mainly talks to his wife about the price of bread, but he is loyal and faithful!!
January 27, 2025 at 9:57 AM
You do feel a bit sorry for the baker. He may be covered in flour and dough, he may have a funny little hat, he mainly talks to his wife about the price of bread, but he is loyal and faithful!!
Now watching: La femme du boulanger (1938). In which bickering Provencal villagers come together to support their new local baker when his (younger & perhaps understandably bored) wife elopes with handsome farmer boy.
January 27, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Now watching: La femme du boulanger (1938). In which bickering Provencal villagers come together to support their new local baker when his (younger & perhaps understandably bored) wife elopes with handsome farmer boy.
The new 55 inch screen enhancing the experience of streaming a Swedish dub of The Brave Little Toaster (1987) from Youtube.
January 24, 2025 at 5:26 PM
The new 55 inch screen enhancing the experience of streaming a Swedish dub of The Brave Little Toaster (1987) from Youtube.
Watched: Ugetsu (1958). Well, this was amazingly beautiful. Received cinematic wisdom did not disappoint.
January 24, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Watched: Ugetsu (1958). Well, this was amazingly beautiful. Received cinematic wisdom did not disappoint.
So we just invested in a new tv, a Samsung 55", “The Frame”: gives a whole new depth & detail to My Neighbour Totoro (now watching for the umpteenth time with 4-year old daughter).
January 23, 2025 at 5:10 PM
So we just invested in a new tv, a Samsung 55", “The Frame”: gives a whole new depth & detail to My Neighbour Totoro (now watching for the umpteenth time with 4-year old daughter).
Watched today: Jalsaghar (The Music Room), Satyajit Ray, 1958. Lots of great Hindustani music in this. Vilayat Khan worked on the soundtrack, Bismillah Khan played the shehnai.
January 22, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Watched today: Jalsaghar (The Music Room), Satyajit Ray, 1958. Lots of great Hindustani music in this. Vilayat Khan worked on the soundtrack, Bismillah Khan played the shehnai.
Die linkshändige Frau (1978). Written & directed by Peter Handle, with Edith Clever & Bruno Ganz. At one point the woman choked her son when he interrupts her translating Flaubert: bad parenting, I’d say. Visually, it’s quite beautiful in a 1970s way. Interesting film.
January 7, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Die linkshändige Frau (1978). Written & directed by Peter Handle, with Edith Clever & Bruno Ganz. At one point the woman choked her son when he interrupts her translating Flaubert: bad parenting, I’d say. Visually, it’s quite beautiful in a 1970s way. Interesting film.
Holiday watching: All About Eve (1950). It’s funny (I had never seen it before).
January 5, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Holiday watching: All About Eve (1950). It’s funny (I had never seen it before).
More holiday watching: Rio Bravo (1959). This was unexpectedly atmospheric and touching, and a little silly at the same time, which was a winning combination.
January 4, 2025 at 12:27 PM
More holiday watching: Rio Bravo (1959). This was unexpectedly atmospheric and touching, and a little silly at the same time, which was a winning combination.
My daughter’s idea of this painting is ”the broken Alfons Åberg” (or “Alfie Atkins”, as they call him in English).
January 4, 2025 at 11:26 AM
My daughter’s idea of this painting is ”the broken Alfons Åberg” (or “Alfie Atkins”, as they call him in English).
4-year old daughter still talks about this painting she saw at the Centre Pompidou last autumn; took me until today to find out the name of the painter (which I didn’t note at the time): Gaston Chaissac!
January 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
4-year old daughter still talks about this painting she saw at the Centre Pompidou last autumn; took me until today to find out the name of the painter (which I didn’t note at the time): Gaston Chaissac!
First film of 2025: Johnny Guitar (1956).
January 1, 2025 at 2:43 PM
First film of 2025: Johnny Guitar (1956).
After the collapse of Kreuger’s empire (and Bernström’s cultural backing), he returned to Sweden and made a name for himself as a zoologist, authoring a cryptic work on vipers and living for many years at Tidö castle outside my old hometown of Västerås. Here he is in 1924.
December 23, 2024 at 11:02 AM
After the collapse of Kreuger’s empire (and Bernström’s cultural backing), he returned to Sweden and made a name for himself as a zoologist, authoring a cryptic work on vipers and living for many years at Tidö castle outside my old hometown of Västerås. Here he is in 1924.
#nowplaying Bugge Wessektoft: well, this is standard languid scando-jazz fare & only capable of driving you to boredom, not to insanity, so the dream luckily evaporated in the clear light of day. Unless there really is a “Bungy Wisentoft” as well …
December 13, 2024 at 7:23 AM
#nowplaying Bugge Wessektoft: well, this is standard languid scando-jazz fare & only capable of driving you to boredom, not to insanity, so the dream luckily evaporated in the clear light of day. Unless there really is a “Bungy Wisentoft” as well …
I love this photo from 1977 of Thomas Bernhard and his ”Lebensmensch”, Hedwig Stavianicek, a nurse 37 years his senior (1894–1984).
December 12, 2024 at 9:49 AM
I love this photo from 1977 of Thomas Bernhard and his ”Lebensmensch”, Hedwig Stavianicek, a nurse 37 years his senior (1894–1984).
Tonight’s film: Beginners (Mike Mills, 2010). My wife & I liked this one a lot (and wonder how come we’ve never seen it before).
December 7, 2024 at 9:27 PM
Tonight’s film: Beginners (Mike Mills, 2010). My wife & I liked this one a lot (and wonder how come we’ve never seen it before).
Reading René Char (pitifully) in the original French, in Peter Handke’s German translation and in an English translation, and finding him quite incomprehensible in any language (though he reads better in German than in English).
December 7, 2024 at 8:54 PM
Reading René Char (pitifully) in the original French, in Peter Handke’s German translation and in an English translation, and finding him quite incomprehensible in any language (though he reads better in German than in English).
It’s the Christmas Calendar of Jazz! During the holiday of 1965, in Umeå in northern Sweden, national radio recorded avant saxophonist Lars-Göran Ulander playing his ”Minus 38 grader celsius” (it was that cold, I suppose). Maybe not a seasonal classic, but not bad. open.spotify.com/track/0TK3vD...
December 5, 2024 at 1:26 PM
It’s the Christmas Calendar of Jazz! During the holiday of 1965, in Umeå in northern Sweden, national radio recorded avant saxophonist Lars-Göran Ulander playing his ”Minus 38 grader celsius” (it was that cold, I suppose). Maybe not a seasonal classic, but not bad. open.spotify.com/track/0TK3vD...
#nowwatching The Florida Project (2017). Very likeable.
December 3, 2024 at 8:34 PM
#nowwatching The Florida Project (2017). Very likeable.