La Sapienza

This 2014 French film by Eugene Green is a marvel. The story is simple: a famous architect is disgusted with his client's demands, and goes with his wife, a psychologist, on holiday to reconsider.

He meets with a prospective student with whom he visits some fabulous baroque architecture in Rome.

In addition, the architect's wife meets & cures the student's sister.

The setting is Rome, with some of the famous works of  Borromini and Bermini, and the shore of Lake Maggiore.

As always with films by  Eugene Green, the sound track is exquisite. One of the best films of 2014. Strongly recommended.

☆☆☆☆☆

Toutes les nuits

Toutes les nuits is a French film made by Eugène Green in 2001. If you enjoy films by Éric Rohmer, as I do, you will love this one.  Eugène Green was born in the USA but chose to become (thoroughly) French when he was 28. In my view, he is an excellent successor to Rohmer who died in 2010. In the film, as in others, he puts in a small cameo appearance as a café owner, see below.

Eugene Green

The film tells the rich story about the coming of age of two childhood friends, Henri and Jules. Henri has a well-off bourgeois family and goes off to study in Paris while Jules stays behind in the village.

Jules and Henri

They keep in touch by post and their lives touch occasionally. The story starts in 1967 and covers most of the 1970's. The scenes relating to the 1968 revolt are particularly amusing, and the 'revolution' is made fun of.  For example, in Jule's village, there are less than 5 students in a manifestation that is broken up by a posse of 2 CRS.

The prologue mentions that the film is based on  the book L'éducation sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert.

A beautiful film that I will definitely will want to watch again.

☆☆☆☆☆

PS An interesting take on Green's baroque films can be found in this article.

Installing a package from a particular source using synaptic

Digikam seems to be the only photo management application available in Ubuntu that deals well with photos that contain gps-coordinates in the associated Exif metadata.

Unfortunately, the digikam 3.5.0 version that is installed from the default repository, is all but unusable due to frequent crashes. Fortunately, there is an external repository that contains a more recent version (namely 4.12.0 at the time of this writing) of digikam.

So I followed the instructions from this Tips on Ubuntu page to add the repository to my list of software sources and install the new version of digikam:

# add software source
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip5/extra
# update local package database with contents of new source
sudo apt-get update
# install new version of digikam
sudo apt-get install digikam

To my dismay, the old 3.5.0 version got installed again. This is understandable because there are now two packages with identical names ('digikam') available.

Rather than search the web for a solution, I tried my luck with Synaptic and, indeed, it turned out that there was a button to restrict the 'origin' of the packages (see the lower left corner on the image below).

Synaptic restricted to a particular repository

Selecting the digikam packages and hitting 'Apply' did indeed install the coveted 4.12.0 version.

While the above method is simple, there are alternatives, as described in this Askubuntu page. In particular, the -t option for apt-get is relevant and interesting (but harder to remember than 'just use synaptic').

Ocho apellidos vascos

This Spanish romantic comedy plays on the stereotypes in Spain that consider Andalucians as 'dolce far niente' types while Basques are supposed to be 'frank and rude' and, of course, nearly all members of ETA, a terrorist organization.

A Basque opinion on Andalucians

The story is amusing: an Andalucian guy meets a Basque girl in Sevilla  (Andalucia) and falls in love, although the girl leggged it before he can make a move. He follows her to the Basque country. Since he knows Basques despise Andalucians, he tries to pretend that he is Basque, adopting the local dress, accent etc. At one point, when questioned by his hoped-for father in law, he proves his Basque ancestry by citing 8 pure Basque surnames  of his ancestors, hence the title.

All in all, a good comedy well worth watching.

☆☆☆

Setting up a local VNC server on Ubuntu 14.04

All of the information below can be found on the web. However, there are also many pages that describe methods that are more complicated than necessary, at least for Ubuntu 14.04. For instance, there is no need to install any new packages to get VNC working since both the server (Vino) and the client (Remmina) are already installed by default.

Configuring and starting the  VNC server is done by simply finding, and clicking on, 'desktop share' in the dash.

 

Clicking on 'Desktop Sharing' yields a window with some configuration options for the vino VNC server.

 

Note that all the security checkboxes have been unchecked. The idea is to make the machine running the  VNC server available to all the machines on the local area network. All the machines on the LAN are trusted, so there is no need for passwords etc. 

Once this configuration window is closed, the vino server is started. Since there seems to be no service associated with it, the easiest way to stop it -- if needed -- is to issue a 

     pkill vino-server

command. 

Next we use iptables to insert three "firewall" rules that prevent access to the port used by the VNC server, which defaults to 5900.

sudo iptables -A INPUT --protocol tcp --dport 5900 --source 192.168.1.0/24 -jACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT --protocol tcp --dport 5900 --source 127.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT

sudo iptables -A INPUT --protocol tcp --dport 5900 -j DROP

Iptables requires administrative privileges, so each incantation is preceded by sudo. The 

"-A INPUT" option indicates that the rule applies to packets that arrive to the  VNC server while 

"--protocol tcp" and "--dport 5900" specify further restrictions to protocol and destination port (5900, the default port used by the VNC server). 

The first rule specifies the target action ACCEPT for packets that, in addition, come from a machine on the local area network. Such machines usually have an address of the form 192.168.0.N or 192.168.1.N where N is some small number. Thus --source 192.168.1.0/24 represents these subnet addresses using a mask. In short, packets that originated in the local network and are destined for the VNC server are accepted.

The second rule expresses that also packets from the server machine itself (the so-called localhost) are accepted. 

The third and final rule says that any other (i.e. packets that were not allowed in by the previous rules, that is why the order of the rules is important) packets for the  VNC server will be quietly dropped.

To see what rules are currently in use:

prompt> sudo iptables -L

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)

target     prot opt source               destination         

ACCEPT     tcp  --  192.168.1.0/24       anywhere             tcp dpt:5900

ACCEPT     tcp  --  127.0.0.0/8          anywhere             tcp dpt:5900

DROP       tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:5900

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)

target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)

target     prot opt source               destination         

prompt>

It is possible to delete rules using a command like

  sudo iptables -D INPUT 3

which would delete the third (DROP) rule for INPUT packets. 

Contes Immoraux

An embarrassingly silly soft-porn (very soft) film. It dates from 1974, when hair (pubic or other) was left in its original state on actors and actresses. It consists of a number of disjoint stories, all of them boring. I found the one featuring a young Fabrice Luchini explaining the physics of tides to a girl, while said girl is performing some sexual acts on him, rather funny though.

Another story describes the crimes of Elizabeth Báthory, not sure how that could be erotic.

All in all: perhaps of historic interest but otherwise very boring and a waste of time.

☆

Tu dors Nicole?

This black and white film is set in the French speaking part of Canada. While I have no problem understanding other Canadian French spoken films, such as the delightful 'Les invasions barbares', I could not follow the dialogues in this one at all. Luckily, there were English subtitles.

The story describes how a young girl spends her summer, dividing her time between a boring job, her brother and his friends and her own best friend. Nothing much happens. That should not be a problem as many excellent French films, such as the ones by Éric Rohmer, rely on atmosphere alone to provide a memorable viewing experience. However, in this case, it did not work. At least not for me, the film seems to have had mostly very good reviews, see some of them at Rotten Tomatoes. I think most of the characters were boring and unsympathetic while the language they spoke sounded very unpleasant as well. Too bad.

☆☆

Le belle vie

A French film (2014) about a real story. A father kidnaps his 2 small sons to avoid leaving them with his estranged wife. The three of them live as fugitives for more than 10 years in different rural areas of France. The film describes the last phase, when the older of the -- by now almost grown up -- boys disappears to try to get his own life. On top of that, the younger one discovers the opposite sex and, after some hesitation, also decides to leg it. In the end, he reunites with his older brother and they get to see their mother. Not a great film but very watchable.

Who needs girls? Stay with your dad!

On the other hand..

You can read about how it turned out in the real world here.

☆☆☆

Summer Lovers

A featherweight 1982 US film. The story can be summarized as 'two pretty young things (m/f), one of which played by Daryl Hannah, meet an even prettier young thing (f), Valérie Quennessen

Valérie Quennessen

who sadly died at 31, and start a 'ménage à trois'

2/3 of the ménage à trois

on a beautiful Greek island (apparently Santorini) which is also full of beautiful young things having a good time.

The dialogues are toe-curling with an occasional French sentence thrown in for added intellectual weight. On the other hand, the film is so over the top in its silliness that it becomes charming. And Santorini is beautiful as well.

Santorini

Amusing.

☆☆

Blocking cookies from facebook and others

In a recent article in The Guardian, Nathalie Haynes praises Belgium's privacy commission for suing Facebook in a Belgian court. The company had failed to give satisfactory answers to questions re. its practices that were clearly in breach of the Belgian privacy protection laws.

One particular practice I find especially offensive: it turns out that Facebook tracks you even if you do not have a profile with them. If you happen to visit, e.g. as a result of a search, a 'public' page on Facebook, it sticks a cookie in your browser which is then used to track you in that whenever you visit a page containing the (Facebook) 'like' button, it knows you were there. Even if you did not click on the 'like' thing. In other words, you are followed, whether you agree or not. And that is against Belgian law, apparently. And rightly so, in my opinion.

Having read the story, I decided to try to block such evil actions by fiddling the settings of the browser, in this case Firefox. Since it was not immediately obvious to me how to go about blocking cookies from certain sites like Facebook, I summarize the procedure here, in the hope that it may be useful to others.

Here's the recipe:

First click on the menu button in the top right corner and select 'Preferences'.

This will bring up the 'General Preferences' page:

Then select 'Privacy' from the left pane and change 'Firefox will: Remember history' to 'Firefox will: Use custom settings for history'.

This will bring up more options on how to handle cookies: replace 'Keep until: they expire' by 'Keep until: ask me every time'.

To see from which sites cookies are accepted, click the 'Exceptions' button next to 'Accept cookies from sites':

Each time you visit a site for the first time, a window will pop up asking you how to deal with cookies from this site. Click 'Allow' for sites you trust and 'Deny' for sites that may not respect your privacy.

After a while, the list of Exceptions has grown, and Firefox will automatically handle the goodies and the baddies without bothering you anymore:

As you can see from the above image, you can always change your mind by explicitely adding to or deleting from this list of exceptions.

Google Chrome has a similar but much less convenient approach: it keeps lists of what to do with cookies from certain sites but the user has to maintain the list 'by hand', i.e. you cannot specify that Chrome should ask you about the cooking policy for a certain site as Firefox can. 

The Best Offer

This 2013 Italian (original title 'La migliore offerta') film tells the story of an older famous and slightly eccentric art auctioneer

Notice the gloves

His collection of paintings before falling in love

falling in love with a much younger mysterious, and agoraphobic, girl.

While it has all the attributes of a romantic love story, it turns out to be quite different, in the end. Beautifully filmed and acted, and surprising (at the end).

Love hurts

Not bad, but not very good either.

☆☆☆

Les vacances du petit Nicolas

This 2014 French comedy tells the story about Nicolas, a small boy (aged 7 - 10, I'd guess), going on a beach holiday with his parents. The main characters clearly come from the famous series of children's books by Goscinny (of Asterix fame) and Sempé (illustrations) describing childhood in the 1950's in France. The story mirrors the first part of the 1962 book with the same title (the omitted part is also hilarious, describing the adventures of Nicolas in a summer camp). While the plot is rather predictable, the beautiful rendering of the 1960's holiday spirit is very charming and provokes a pleasant nostalgia.

Highly recommended light entertainment.

English holiday makers getting a tan

Nicolas's dad admiring a German holiday maker

☆☆☆☆

Thérèse Desqueyroux

A melancholic French film  (2012) starring Audrey Tautou of Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain fame as Thérèse. The story is set during the 1920's in the Aquitaine region where important rich families are still very catholic and maintain a culture of hypocrisy and stifling conventions. Thérèse chooses a marriage of convenience, whereby the land holdings of two important families will be joined.

Thérèse and her husband Bernard

However, she suffers from boredom and a faint disgust of her boring and traditional husband. When she gets the opportunity, she tries to poison him but gets found out almost immediately. Rather than face public humiliation, the family decides to cover up the whole affair.

☆☆☆

L'Heure d'été (Summer time)

This quiet typically French 2008 film tells the simple story of the handling of an inheritance and the melancholy and sadness that goes with it. Only the oldest son is in favor of holding on to the family home while his younger brother and sister have no qualms about getting rid of the place that holds many childhood memories, in order to support their careers in the US or China.

Beautifully shot, the film's atmosphere fits the subject nicely. Nothing much happens and there are certainly no surprises.

☆☆☆

Instant word translation without clicking on chrome

Chrome, at least version 43.0.2357.65 (64 bit) on Ubuntu 14.04 supports translating selected text where the translation pops up next to the original, as shown in the screen shots below.

First select word, then click on icon to see translation.

That is a lot of work, especially if your vocabulary is substandard.

Luckily, there is a chrome extension called Transover by artemave.

With this extension installed (I restarted chrome just to be sure it would be active),  you get translations pop up just by hovering longer than a certain time (this can be set in the options) over a word.

No need to click at all, just rest..

Moreover, you get more information than with the standard translation that makes a misguided effort to select the best one for you. Well worth installing.

Hector and the Search for Happiness

A well made British (2014)  feelgood movie. The main character is an English psychiatrist who leads an extremely well-organized and perhaps boring life.

A mid-life crisis makes him question his usefulness to society and he decides to search for the definition of happiness, which, when acquired, will presumably allow him to be of more use to his patients.

So off he goes, leaving his sympathetic girl friend behind, on a quest which brings him in three continents where each time he will find adventure and learn nuggets of wisdom from some unlikely sources.

In the happy ending, he realizes that he truly loves his girlfriend and swiftly returns home.

The story is fast-paced and never boring or cheesy while making some mildly interesting points on what might make humans happy. Thus, very entertaining and well worth watching.

☆☆☆☆

Tamara Drewe

This is a light British 2010 comedy about an attractive female writer/journalist, Tamara Drewe, who returns to her native village to oversee the sale of her recently deceased mother's house.

Tamara is played by Gemma Aterton, who also appeared in Gemma Bovery.

Gemma Aterton

Predictably, romantic complications ensue, some of them involving a serial philanderer neighbor and best seller author, whose long suffering wife is played by Tamsin Greig of Black Books, Green Wing, Love Soup and Episodes fame. The wife runs a writer's retreat, which makes for some more interesting characters and developments.

Tamsel Greig

The machinations of two bored teenage girls who have a crush on Tamara's first newly acquired boyfriend, a famous rock star, help to move the plot along.

The story is very amusing and there is a happy ending for almost all of the parties concerned, i.e. most characters find their true love interest.

All in all a better than average romantic comedy which was a joy to watch.

☆☆☆☆

Lore

This 2012 Australian-German film shows the aftermath of the second world war from the point of view of the young children of Nazi officials. Lore and her younger sister, as well as her three little brothers, one of which is a baby, are deserted by their parents in a traditional Bavarian (in the south of Germany) mountain retreat. She has been instructed by the parents to go to a hamlet close to Hamburg where their grandmother lives.

Since there are no trains, the journey is arduous and they depend on the charity of people they meet on the way. Interestingly, many of them still cling to the Nazi faith, deploring the death of the 'führer who loved them so' and 'whom they have let down by losing the war'. Also, the shocking images from the death camps that have been put up by the American military are often explained away as fakes.

Later on, the children get help from an adult who carries Nazi ID papers that declare him as a Jew. Having been brought up to despise Jews, Lore is torn between hatred and the necessity to accept his help. It is suggested that Lore gradually comes to accept the truth, rejects her parents' beliefs and the children (minus one who was shot in the Russian zone) arrive safely at their grandmother's farm.

'Vati' turns out to be a monster

I found the evocation of a conquered Germany very interesting. The film shows, in a more or less subtle manner how people face up to the facts that they thoroughly lost the war, and that their beloved masters were a bunch of criminals who had committed unspeakable atrocities on an industrial scale.

☆☆☆

Find the package to install for a missing program

I wanted to use the avconv program on an Ubuntu  14.04 box, but it turned out that it was not available on this particular machine:

  ub$ avconv -i v.mkv -vcodec libx264 -acodec libmp3lame -ac 2 v.mp4
  avconv: command not found

Oftentimes, the name of the package supplying a command is the name of the command. Thus I tried

  ub$ sudo apt-get install avconv
  ...
  E: Unable to locate package avconv

So how to find out the name of the package that would provide avconv? Google threw up a ton of suggestions but the most simple solution turned out to just query a database suppled by Ubuntu :

Clicking on Search told me that I had to install the libav-tools package:

Gemma Bovary

This recent (2014) French comedy features my favorite male French actor, Fabrice Luchini, as a Parisian intellectual (Martin) who returned to Normandy where he runs his parents bakery. When an English couple called Bovery moves into a neighboring house and the wife's name turns out to be Gemma, played by he very attractive Gemma Arterton, Martin is strongly reminded of Flaubert's masterpiece 'Madame Bovary'. His obsession only increases when, as in the book, Gemma starts having an affair (unfortunately for him, not with Martin).

Genna Aterton and Fabrice Luchini

The plot is clever and entertaining. There are funny characters representing some stereotypes about English expats living in France and the views of the Normandy countryside are as pleasant as in reality. Overall, a nice lightweight comedy, well worth viewing.

☆☆☆