Royal Drama “The King’s Speech” won four Oscars on Sunday, taking three of the top Academy Award prizes including best actor for Britain’s self-deprecating Colin Firth. [Source]
The movie is based on a true story, the story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it. [imdb]
I saw this movie yesterday and it definitly deserves all those Oscars, specially the best actor award. I also saw few weeks “Black Swan” for which Natalie Portman won best actress award. For those who think it’s just another ballet movie, think again.
There’s still Inception, The Fighter and The social network which won awards and I plan to watch.
300 was showing on the TV right now when my brother mentioned to me the giant from 300 is his friends’ relative and is Lebanese. I checked out the full crew and it turns out it is true. Giant with arrow is Camille Rizkallah.
BlogBaladi will be featuring on the Future TV show Mazaj tomorrow at 9:25 am. It was featured today on 7 pm for those who saw it but I was informed few hours back and did not have time to share it with you guys.
Chahe and I basically talked about the blog and answered few questions addressed to us.
This new trend of Turkish Syrian-translated series and now Lebanese series is seriously starting to get on my nerves. Everytime I go back home, all the family is hooked on those series, even my dad which is quite sad.
Few weeks back, I was in my room when I heard the most annoying song ever on TV, turns out it is the song for Louna, a new Lebanese series. The song is just horrible and goes on for 5 freakin’ minutes, but no one from the Louna lovers seems to mind it.
So what I decided to do is put it as a ringtone until I make everyone “yel3ano el se3a li 7abbouwa”.
You can download it from the FB group for Lebanese series (yeah they have a group for that too now!). If you are also in the mood of listening to terrible Lebanese singers, check out this Lebanese dude called Pavo sing I feel good on MTV’s new show. Kudos to Grace Deeb though, she has a great voice!
I am looking forward to watching Nadine Labaki in this new Lebanese movie . Caramel or “Succar Banet” was one of the best Lebanese movies I’ve seen and has earned many awards locally and internationally. She’s now the main actress in that new movie directed by Georges Hachem.
Noha is about to get married. Her family is relieved to see her take advantage of this last chance before officially becoming a spinster just like her sister. Everything seems to be going well. However, on this special Sunday of August 1976 in Lebanon, on the same evening her elder brother is organizing a dinner in her honor 15 days prior to the wedding, Noha changes her mind
Rsasa Tayche or Stray Bullet is showing at the following theatres.
I am not a big fan of Local TV stations but i do switch occasionally to see what’s on. Around 11 am today, i was watching on MTV a show called “Well Done“, that basically teaches you how to make food recipes. They were making chocolate truffles which i absolutely love, and which is why i did not switch the station.
Nevertheless, i could not help myself from noticing how unprofessional and distracted the hostess of the show was. She was complaining that she wants some music, then that she wants her coffee and was playing with her phone (Blackberry i think) while the cook was working on his truffles. I don’t know if she was having a bad morning since the show was live on a Sunday, but i did not see this coming, specially not from a respectable TV like MTV.
PS: I still don’t have a freaking clue on how to make those truffles. It is too damn hard, i’d rather buy them.
Someone should tell those behind this ad that including an old Lebanese teta does not do the job. The ad must make some sense to say the least, like the Taanayel ad for example.
I had this banned Lebanese movie for a while now and haven’t seen it until yesterday.
What a crappy movie that was! No plot, no proper acting, no proper footage, no nothing!
I had the uncensored version and the whole controversy done on this movie was about the main actress Joanna Andraos, playing a prostitute called Souraya, showing her breast at two or three occasions.
What annoyed me the most about this movie is that i could not relate to anything that happens that often in Lebanon.
- A prostitute who has a gay friend and likes to do threesomes with rich customers.
- A beggar who gives away all his money to buy a gun and kill whomever tried to kill his prostitute friend.
- A businessman who is preoccupied with killing the prostitute.
- A poor fat taxi driver who breaks into rich houses to take a bath (They show us his ass as well).
- A gay guy who has no problem kissing other guys in night clubs and in front of everyone.
And the list goes on and on …
Honestly, i think this is the worst movie i saw this year, right after “Lebanon“, that Israeli-made movie that is also really bad and boring as hell.
A friend of mine and loyal reader to the blog was attending the Awards Ceremony and closing film of the 10th Edition of the Beirut Film Festival that was held at Unesco in Beirut. She emailed me after the ceremony was over informing me that the closing film chosen by the committe was “I am love” by Luca Guadagnino, but the big surprise and the most moving part is when they announced that the movie “Chou Sar” for DeGaulle Eid won the Special Jury Prize.
During his thank you speech and i am quoting, he said that he was astonished to win a prize when no one saw his movie. This is where a lady from the audience stood up and shouted: ” badna nshouf el film”! and then everybody stood up and started applauding!
Chou Sar was banned in Lebanon by the ISF for inciting sectarianism.
Here are the full results of this closing ceremony.
I went to City Mall yesterday to watch a movie and there was no place left except in Julia Robert’s new movie “Eat Pray Love” and “The Other guys“. I wanted the Other guys but we ended up watching Julia’s movie since some friends insisted on it. I love her movies usually but this one sucked really bad. I fell asleep like ten times during the movie and left before it ended.
It was really long and slow and “mfalsaf 3al fade” as we say here.
I was watching the Forbidden Kingdom on MBC 2 when they got to the part where Jackie Chan is the middle of the desert and does a small prayer so that it rains. As soon as he starts his ritual, the scene is cut off and the next thing we see is Jackie Chan getting to the end of the desert.
I looked on the internet to see what the scene included and it turns out it is classified under the category “Blood/Gore” because as Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) was trying to create rain, he thought he had succeeded when he saw few drops fall on his him only to realize it was Lan Cae He (Jet Li) urinating on him.
Here’s the video if you guys never noticed the scene was gone.
I really don’t think this needed to be censored. GORE?? Seriously??
On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart sat down with King Abdullah II of Jordan to talk about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. You can watch the full episode here.
I think it is pretty cool and unusual for an Arab King to sit down on one of these shows. He’s quite the man this Abdullah, educated, easy to talk to, and intelligent. Having Queen Rania as his wife, one can say this king has got it all!
Anyone remembers Captain Bob’s show on Tele Liban? I was very young at the time but i do recall enjoying it.
Captain Bob (Ibrahim Meraachli) died almost 6 years ago. I am sure Tele Liban still broadcasts his show from time to time as they have nothing else to show.
While having dinner at Basma restaurant, they were showing an old Lebanese movie that i haven’t seen anywhere before.
I asked the waiter about it as i haven’t seen it before and he told me its name and that i can find it at Virgin Megastores.
The movie goes back to 1987 and is called “Beirut: The Last Home Movie” and was directed by Jennifer Fox.
I am not sure what this movie/documentary is about but i read some reviews and all agree that it is very boring and long. I am going to look for it this weekend and see if it is decent or not.
A friend of mine sent me a link to a list of movies and shows that are banned in Lebanon. Some of the stuff on the list was a bit shocking like an episode of Mad Men, two seasons of The West Wing and even The Nanny?! Weird stuff.
On the positive side at least they give reasons why. For example:
The West Wing (Season 1 & 2) Reason: Offensive to Arabs
