shadow of Nosferatu (Count Orlok aka Dracula) climbing up a staircase
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (A Symphony of Horror) (1922), a direct copy of Dracula, with names changed, as no rights to the book.
An unauthorized production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (The legal heirs didn’t give their permission), so the names had to be changed. But this wasn’t enough: The widow of Bram Stoker won two lawsuits (1924 and 1929) in which she demanded the destruction of all copies of the movie, however happily copies of it were already too widespread to destroy them all. The legal action did though bankrupt the German film studio that made the film.
At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus discovers a man without limbs being exploited at a carnival sideshow, but after an intriguing encounter with the showman he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.
Directed by: Joshua Weigel; Written by: Joshua Weigel & Rebekah Weigel; Produced by: Joshua Weigel, Rebekah Weigel & Angie Alvarez; Starring: Eduardo Verastegui (Bella, Chasing Papi), Nick Vujicic (Life Without Limbs) & Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer, Hellboy)
Veronika Decides to Die is in part based upon the author’s own personal experience.
The middle class family into which Paulo Coelho was born were so horrified at his desire to be a writer that they had him committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he was subjected to electro-convulsive therapy to rid him of his delusions. Thirty years later he was to describe his experience in Veronika Decides to Die. His experience was to lead to a law in Brazil prohibiting arbitrary hospital detention.
Veronika has seven days in which to live after a unsuccessful suicide attempt. Pilar has seven days in which to save her soul. Miss Prym is engaged in a fight with the Devil, an epic struggle between Good and Evil, seven days in which to save the village of Viscos.
Very irritating the setting of the movie is New York instead of the original location of the novel in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as this was a key component of the book.
Apart from the setting, New York not Slovenia, an otherwise excellent film.
The content on the net does not come from Hollywood studios or from the music business. It comes from you and I, we like to create, we like to share with others. It is part of story telling, of being creative.
I do not watch TV, I do not even possess a TV. I do not watch TV because it is complete and total crap.
I find it very depressing passing down the street as it is getting dark, passing by people’s houses, and seeing all those people sat like zombies watching the same moronic rubbish.
That is what Big Business wants, moronic consumers who do not question, do not think.
As a poor student, I used to go to a photocopy repair workshop and copy off whole books, though more often articles and academic papers. I was not depriving anyone of an income, as I could not afford to buy, but I was helping in the dissemination of information.
I often make use of other people’s work. It is called fair use. But I do not pass it off as my own or claim the credit. The originator is always credited, with a link back to their work.
Sopa and Pipa will end all that. Greedy Hollywood and the music industry wish to end all that. They wish to control what we watch, how we think, as they were able to do in the 1950s when there was only a couple of TV channels, no internet (though there has always been books and the radio).
The US policy-makers who were pushing Sopa and Pipa have accepted millions from Hollywood and the music industry.
What Hollywood does not seem to understand is we do not have to buy their rubbish, we do not have to go to the cinema.
I am suggesting we now go on the offensive. A world-wide boycott of Hollywood. Let’s see what they think of us then as so far we have been treated with contempt.
The Megaupload closure and seizure of assets and equipment, US Imperial Storm troopers trampling on the world in their jackboots, is a taste of what is to come. Many people used Megaupload to store valuable documents, all now lost, or maybe recoverable after years of litigation. If nothing else, a warning not to store valuable documents in the cloud. How can we be sure they are safe, accessible? The Megaupload closure demonstrates we cannot.
Members of Congress still in shock over yesterday’s massive internet protest. I’ve never seen a demonstration have an impact this quickly. — Michael Moore
Greed-driven Hollywood must be a rare example of an industry that treats its customers and potential customers as criminals.
I find it offensive to buy a DVD and then be forced to watch a video that tells me I am a criminal.
No, snatching a purse or handbag or a smash and grab raid, is not the same as copying a DVD. In the first case is is clearly theft, someone has been deprived of their property, in the latter, no one had been deprived of their property.
The irony is that if I had a pirate DVD, it would not have at the beginning the compulsive video that implies that I am a criminal for possessing a legitimate copy.
I find it offensive, have laptop will travel, but Hollywood puts regional encoding on its DVDs to stop them being played outside the region.
The irony is that it is simple enough to bypass, simply download AnyDVD or DVDFab Passkey and it sits in the background and removes the regional encoding, I can then watch at my leisure wherever I happen to be, any DVD from anywhere in the world.
If I borrow a DVD, I copy it so I can watch it when I get around to it.
I find it offensive when a student in the UK is facing extradition to the USA at the behest of Hollywood for having a website which directed visitors to where they might find free downloads. He himself was not supplying free downloads. What he did is not even a criminal offence in the UK! He faces 10 years in prison if extradited to the USA.
Hollywood is not losing massive amounts of money from piracy. We have all noticed it is an industry on its knees, though it deserves to be.
Hollywood makes its money from bums on seats in cinemas, TV rights for those endless repeats on TV. Money made from DVD and Blu-ray sales is cream on the cake.
You cannot equate blank DVD sales with loss of business. Sony has its fingers in both sales, likes to have its cake and eat it.
We hear a lot of bleating about loss of creative talent, artists in garrets working for a pittance. If they are only getting a pittance it is because Hollywood keeps for itself too large a slice of the cake.
Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho found he sold more books when pirate copies were made available for free download.
Hollywood, in dark corners with corrupt politicians up for sale, thought they could control the Internet through SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Users thought otherwise, as did many of the big internet players.
Yesterday many internet sites went black. Many internet junkies like Paulo Coelho, refused to use internet for 24 hours.
The result has been almost instantaneous. US politicians are reeling from the public backlash. many, who supported SOPA, who were even sponsors, have suddenly found it is not a hot potato they wish to be caught holding.
We do not have to jump to corporate lobbyists. We can bring Hollywood to its knees. How about a worldwide boycott of Hollywood, no going to the cinema to watch their rubbish films, no buying their DVDs?
The books by Stieg Larsson are brilliant. I could have seen the film, it was on at the cinema in Guildford but it was one of those awful multi-screen jobs. If I am going to the cinema I’d rather go to a real cinema. Plus my friend Sian had not read the book, and I said if we went it would spoil the book for her.
I guess I will have to wait for the DVD and watch it on my laptop.
According to film director Tadeh Daschi, the film adaption is true to the book. If true, that is rare. But why does Hollywood have to bring out their own trashy American version?
Devy Man has, like Carolena Sabah and Tadeh Daschi with The Witch of Portobello (premiered in Rome last year), managed to capture the mood of The Alchemist. Beautiful, haunting music.
Paulo Coelho's World Premier of 'The Witch of Portobello'
‘The unifying trait of all Tadeh’s projects is the fact that they make the audience think and to look deeper into the meaning of the philosophical and humanitarian questions posed by their creator.’ — Lianna Zakharian of YEREVAN magazine
‘Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.’ — Tadeh Daschi
‘I relate to her quest for truth and spirituality. At a young age, my story was similar to hers. She was interested in God and had these powers to see things. I had a lot of interest in God and why we’re here and questions that can’t be answered. But I wanted to search for it and find a meaning in life.’ — Carolena Sabah
‘I’m learning to combine two things, movement and stillness, joy and concentration.’ — Athena
‘I believe @keithpp explains better than my page “The Experimental Witch”.’ — Paulo Coelho on twitter 24 hours before Rome premier
The Witch of Portobello is a novel by Paulo Coelho. It is not like his earlier works, it is not like The Alchemist. For that reason many did not like it.
Maybe that was the intention, to jolt one out of ones complacency, to create a different reality as Athena does with her dance and music.
I could not get into The Witch of Portobello when I first tried, mainly because of this difference. I have since read it twice. I enjoyed it even more at the second reading.
The Witch of Portobello is a film based upon an idea by Paulo Coelho. Instead of handing over the film rights to a film company who completely mangle your work and what comes out the other end bears no resemblance to your original work which begs the question why they acquired the film rights in the first place, Paulo Coelho took a completely different approach. He invited via his blog, to each film the story from the perspective of one of the characters. Not as difficult as it sounds as each character has a different voice and we piece together the story of Athena from the perspective of these different characters. This was whittled down to a shortlist who were to produce the final feature length film.
The Witch of Portobello has its world premier at the Rome International Film Festival 9pm Tuesday 20 October 2009. But do not go rushing to the film festival because as I write, tickets were all sold out a couple of days ago.
As I write I have just received a copy of the first chapter. I thought it was the entire film, but Carolena Sabah who plays Athena has kindly corrected me, first chapter, Athena only, others have produced other characters, other chapters, to have its first international showing at the Rome premier.
The sound track with music by Visa is amazing! I am intrigued to see how the following characters capture the soul of the book as well as Carolena Sabah and her co-stars have done under the direction of Tadeh Daschi who also composed the haunting music performed by Visa. The haunting music by Visa blows your mind away. Soonest an album release.
Visa lead singer K’noup makes a cameo appearance in the The Witch of Portobello together with Soseh Keshishyan lead singer from the band Element whose vocals are on the film soundtrack.
Athena’s world is a world of ritual, trance, magic. I cannot now read The Witch of Portobello without the image of Athena portrayed by Carolena Sabah. Strange, when I read a novel I rarely have an image of any of the characters, and yet when I see them portrayed on screen they are not as I imagined. I did not have this problem with the portrayal of Athena.
It is rare for filmmakers to capture the essence of a book and yet Carolena Sabah and Tedeh Daschi have somehow managed that impossible feat.
The DVD needs a mini-documentary. Not the usual sugar-coated gush that makes the stomach churn. Five to ten minutes of Carolena Sabah and Tadeh Daschi explaining how the film came about, where it was filmed, with an introduction by Paulo Coelho. Maybe this can be added after the Rome premier, maybe with the address by Paulo Coelho, plus question and answer session with the audience.
Scribes had an important role in early Judaism, theirs was the task to copy out ancient scriptures. They had to be in the correct frame of mind. The same was true for illustrators of early Muslim texts. It does matter what you do, be it write a book, paint, draw, compose music or carve a piece of wood. Robert Pirsig captured the essence of this in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Only then do you cross the transition zone.
Mango has launched a second range of exclusive, Paulo Coelho limited edition solidarity t-shirts. Monies raised goes to support needy children at the Paulo Coelho Institute in Brazil.
The 28-minute film by Carolena Sabah and Tedeh Daschi was first shown at the Arpa International Film Festival in Hollywood October 2008. The film festival was sponsored by the Arpa Foundation for Film Music and Art, Arpa is named after the river of the same name in Armenia. Founded in 1995, the foundation promotes the arts.
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