TRAVEL TUESDAY #25 - LUXEMBOURG

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” - Marcel Proust

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Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuerg; German: Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France to the south. Its capital Luxembourg City is together with Brussels and Strasbourg one of the three official capitals of the European Union and seat of the European Court of Justice, highest juridical instance in the EU.

Its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. The repeated invasions by its neighbour countries, especially in World War II, resulted in the country’s strong will for mediation between France and Germany and led to the foundation of the European Union. It comprises two principal regions: The Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland (“Good Land”) in the south.

With an area of 2,586 square kilometres it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe (about the same size as the state of Rhode Island or the English county of Northamptonshire). Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a constitutional monarch, it is headed by a grand duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and is the world’s only remaining grand duchy.

Luxembourg is a developed country, with an advanced economy and the world's highest GDP (PPP) per capita, according to the United Nations in 2014. Its central location has historically made it of great strategic importance to numerous powers, dating back to its founding as a Roman fortress, its hosting of a vital Frankish castle during the Early Middle Ages, and its role as a bastion for the Spanish Road between the 16th and 17th centuries.

Luxembourg is a founding member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political, and military integration. The city of Luxembourg, which is the country’s capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions and agencies of the EU. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, which was a first in the country’s history. In 2016, Luxembourgish citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 172 countries and territories, ranking the Luxembourgian passport 6th in the world, tied with states like Canada or Switzerland.

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MOVIE MONDAY - JCVD

“The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it.” - Bill Cosby
 

We watched a very interesting film at the weekend, which proved that all is not what it seems. I had bought this out of the “specials” basket in our local video store, believing it to be a typical action, “dick-flick”, judging it from its cover and its star, Jean-Claude Van Damme. However, it was quite a surprise, turning out to be a satire, with elements of action, drama, comedy and action.
 

It was "JCVD" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Valérie Bodson, Hervé Sogne. It was a Belgian/Luxembourgeois/French co-production with the soundtrack mainly in French, although there was some English dialogue. I am once again airing my displeasure with the producers of DVDs and BluRay discs who do not subtitle their films. While the French dialogue was subtitled on this disc, the English dialogue was not and half of it was unintelligible, greatly detracting from the enjoyment of the movie.
 

Van Damme plays himself in this movie, giving a great performance as an ageing action film star who has difficulty in getting good roles, problems with the tax department, and is in the middle of a custody case with his wife over their daughter. He tries to escape these problems in the USA by going back to his home in Brussels, Belgium. Unfortunately for him, when he goes into a Post office/Bank he stumbles into a hold-up where a number of hostages are being held by a bunch of desperate thugs. Unfortunately for Van Damme, the way in which things are perceived by people outside the post office, causes police and media alike to believe that Van Damme is the mastermind of the robbery, in order to pay his half-a-million-dollar legal bills.
 

The film opens with a signature Van Damme action sequence, with what everyone expects his movies to be like. Lots of violence, kicks, shootings, blood, gore and explosions. Typical generic guff that one sees not only with Van Damme but also with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, etc. It turns out that is just a short scene from a film that is being shot in Hollywood, with Van Damme as the star. It serves to highlight the plight of the actor who is typecast and who cannot break free from the shackles of Hollywood contracts. We are then transported to Brussels where Van Damme retreats in order to try and put his life in order. The film is episodic, with flashbacks, flash-forwards, repetition of scenes from different observer’s perspective and even contains quite an astonishing monologue where Van Damme bares his soul…
 

I was pleasantly surprised to see Van Damme act! I mean really act, rather than take part in a carefully orchestrated set of action sequences separated by a few scenes of minimal dialogue as in his usual films. The story was involving and the direction snappy and inventive. The film overall reminded us a little of the 1994 Quentin Tarantino, now classic, “Pulp Fiction”.
 

If you are interested in an action movie with a little more depth, if you are a fan of Van Damme, if you wish to see something that is unusual and rather offbeat, then watch this film. It still has quit a lot of violence in it, but it is after all a product of our times and shows the way that we parasitise violence to achieve our various ends.

EUROVISION 2013

“Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end.” - H. P. Lovecraft
 
Well, another Eurovision contest is over with Denmark gaining the first prize. The song is typical Eurovision material, with Emmelie De Forest performing “Only Teardrops”, singing in English, of course. English has become the “official” world language and Europe has adopted it with a vengeance, especially where Eurovision is concerned. The lure of international success in the big markets of the Anglophone countries is too great to ignore. A country has to be very brave to sing a song in Eurovision in its own language – and bravo to all of those do sing thus. The singer, who looks very beautiful, struggles to sing, I think, especially in the lower register.
 
The only concession to a differentiation from the standard “pop” material is the accompaniment, which contains the fife and drums of battle, in reference to the spat between lovers described in the song. The song could have been deeper if there was a pointed reference to a war, contrasting it with the first part, giving it much more relevance to current world situations (and justifying more the fife and drums):
 
“The sky is red tonight
We’re on the edge tonight
No shooting star to guide us.
 
Eye for an eye, why tear each other apart?
Please tell me why, why do we make it so hard?
Look at us now, we only got ourselves to blame
It’s such a shame.
 
How many times can we win and lose?
How many times can we break the rules between us?
Only teardrops…”
 
In any case, here is the winning song:

Compare that to the 1983 Eurovision winner for Luxembourg, “Si La Vie Est Cadeau” sung in French by Corinne Hermés, one of my favourites. It concerns the precious gift of life.

SONG SATURDAY - SI LA VIE EST CADEAU

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence” – Aristotle

A quiet Saturday today with the usual chores, shopping and then back home for some rest and relaxation. Certainly much better than last Saturday! We had some rain, so it was good to stay inside and enjoy being homebodies, surrounded by familiar things. We need so little to feel happy and content…

Life is a gift and we should revel in it, making the most of every second! For Song Saturday, let’s go back to 1983 and the Eurovision Song Contest, to "Si La Vie Est Cadeau" the winning song from Luxembourg, sung in French by the lovely Corinne Hermès. Music by Jean-Pierre Millers and lyrics by Alain Garcia.



If Life is a Gift

We, we were immersed in blue,
A summer sky, a transparent ocean,
We, we were two,
And while we loved each other, time stood still.

But time betrayed us,
So why did you promise me the whole world?
Our love would have been enough,
I didn’t want an imaginary happiness…

If life is a gift,
A gift given, a gift taken back, a stolen gift,
Take love as a gift,
A gift given, a gift taken back, a stolen gift,
Happiness doesn’t last long…

We, “we” meant the child that I wanted
To give you as gift in Springtime.

But time has all the rights in the world,
So why did you promise me the whole world,
And a child that was never born?
Today my only happiness is an imaginary one.

If life is a gift,
A gift given, a gift taken back, a stolen gift,
Take love as a gift,
A gift given, a gift taken back, a stolen gift,
Happiness doesn’t last long…