katharina suckale

We live in a time, where banks get bankrupt, losing milliards of dollars. We life in an economy, where even hedge funds get bankrupt, making thousands of people unemployed, but where the salary of one hedge fund manager may reach 3,7 milliards of dollars a year. Did you know that Ridley Scott made a movie about these kind of guys? The film “A good year” got forgotten in between all the movies, coming out every year. Russell Crowe plays a bank manager in London, who loves speculating on price changes at the stock exchange. While making a lot of money, he inherits a vineyard with an old castle in the South of France, which he wants to sell as fast as possible. In this most beautiful spot in Europe he meets not only his French enemy, a passionate winegrower, but also his past, discovering, whom he really loved, his dead uncle. Again Russell Crowe proves his fine acting work. He succeeded, playing an asshole in a very entertaining and comic manner, he played it in a way that this asshole becomes even sympathetic. And for sure these kind of guys must be terribly sympathetic, that’s how they succeed in cheating so many people all around the globe, earning billions of dollars.

The film plays with many clichés of French culture, which you may like or not. But France such as Italy, Spain or Berlin became a trademark. That most of this stuff is not true, everybody knows. Everybody knows, that Paris is not the city of love anymore such as Berlin is not so much fun, as its image pretends to be. But still we love these clichés and consequently the character of Russell Crowe falls in love with a beautiful, rebellious French woman, Marion Cotillard. But that’s not the most important point of the story. It’s a story of a successful bank (hedge fund) manager, who gives up his attractive and exciting job to live finally a life truthful to his soul.

By the way the film touches a problem in Southern France, which French friends explained to me. Wealthy English, American, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian… people are buying the grounds in the South of France such as in Italy or elsewhere. Consequently prices are rising and the normal French people can’t afford to buy grounds and apartments to live reasonably with their families. This is globalization, as we know it for long.

But again it’s a great pleasure to watch the fine acting work of Russell Crowe. This actor crosses worlds and centuries of human mankind. Remember the parts he was playing, from the tough cop in “L.A. Confidential” to the insecure and helpless scientist in “The Insider”, the warrior in “Gladiator”, the mathematic genius in “A beautiful mind”, switching into comedy such “A good year”, not mentioning the marvelous film “American Gangster”. Rarely I saw an actor changing characters in such a physical, emotional convincing way in all genres from crime to drama, action, history and comedy. With Russell Crowe we can discover the high art of acting.

As you may see in my Indian and African documentaries, I love music from all around the world. But here you may find a link to the website of “My hand my heart” an interesting rock band and their myspace website: “Russell & the ordinary fear of god”. Listen to their music, enjoy and perhaps you discover, how music can reach your soul.