THE MAN, WHO NEED NO WORDS

Here is my translation of the Arte article. Posted here Arte Magazine March 2012.
 THE MAN, WHO NEED NO WORDS

He is currently one of the most sought after actors in the world - the German-Irish Michael Fassbender. For his role, he will lose 20 kilos or strips. Whether loneliness, shame, obsession - Portrait of a man of whom one buys everything.
He is one who says more when he is silent, as one who speaks. Who weeps more when he laughs, as one who cries: Michael Fassbender. It is the abyss in his eyes when he is superficial flirting with a colleague at a tête-à-tête. It is a peaceful smile, when he just stands as a skeleton just a step from starvation. It is the mad grin when the fist hits his cheek. The media from New York to South Korea celebrates Michael Fassbender, who is now 35 years old, as a "new Marlon Brando", a "new James Bond", the "next Oscar winner", and rightly so. The reasons are many.
One of them is sure that his roles are so difficult - and extreme. His breakthrough had the German-Irish actor who was born in 1977 in Heidelberg, in 2008 film "Hunger", which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. For his role as IRA prisoner Bobby Sands Fassbender lived ten weeks on berries, nuts and sardines, reduced his weight by 20 kilograms. The drama tells of the legendary hunger strike in Maze prison, Northern Ireland. In the struggle for recognition as political prisoners in 1981 ten people died, Bobby Sands was the first after 66 days of starvation. A hardly bearable film, not only because one watches a man dying, but also because it shows the horror of prisoners and guards. The urine, the faeces, the truncheons, the bleeding hands.


The altar boy

Politics and freedom are the main theme in director Steve McQueen's debut "Hunger" as well as in "Shame", in theatres since March. While the IRA prisoner Bobby Sands finds in his hunger strike the path to freedom, the sex addicts Brandon to whom everything is open, is imprisoned in his body. The role of a man, perishing on his shame, brought Fassbender the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival. In "Shame", he shows not only bare skin - which caused quite a stir in the media - but above all, as he is rolled over by naked desperation. "For me, Michael Fassbender has changed the acting. He is the only one who comes into consideration for me." He, who like McQueen as a director speaks so of his actors, must have serious reasons.
Ginger beard, weathered face, faded T-shirt, jeans, always the same black leather jacket - at first glance Fassbender's Brando-Bond potential can not be recognised. He who, since he was two years old, lived with his Irish mother and a German father in Killarney, who speaks a rusty German, who loves fast cars, who played in a rock band that only had one gig, who has been an altar boy, who hates telephoning , who is not on Facebook and Twitter - he's a real Average Joe.


From barman to international star

This is precisely his strength. He is approachable, genuine, as his roles: "I like characters that have cracks and shallows - because everyone has," says Fassbender. He is not a star, more of a craftsman who shows up to press conferences in flip-flops - he does not care about appearances. If he takes a role, he holes up and reads the script 300 times and more, until it turns into flesh and blood. „Working-class attitude“, the director David Cronenberg calls it. Fassbender's ability to uncompromisingly disappear into his role is the one to earn him international fame today, for years of this was different.
It all started with the play "Reservoir Dogs" of his idol, Quentin Tarantino, which he performed as an 18-year-old with friends - 14 years later in Tarantino's action-war movie "Inglorious Basterds" as Lieutenant Hicox Fassbender will change with a single hand movement the world history. Preceding that is the London drama school and his dropout. For Steven Spielberg's War series "Band of Brothers" (2001), he went to Hollywood - but returned "with his tail between his legs" to London, as he said himself. This is followed by small roles, fear of unemployment, jobs as a bartender. Until Steve McQueen appears. This first encounter is disastrous, McQueen finds Fassbender during auditioning arrogant. He meets him against his will once again - this time they it off. Today both are bond in a close, almost tender friendship: "My top priority is not to let him down," says Fassbender in an interview. And McQueen only shoots with him. Currently both are working on the third film, "Twelve Years a Slave". Perhaps it is because how Fassbender is able to convey with a twitch of the corner of the mouth all the loneliness of a man who has to sleep with prostitutes and foreigners, because closeness is unbearable for him. Fassbender does not need words, his most important tool is his body language, he says.

A man you believe

But using words he does masterfully. The conversation between Bobby Sands and a priest in "Hunger" has gone down in film history - 17 minutes verbal exchange without a cut. In David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" (2011), he indulges as a psychologist Carl Jung in intellectual escapades with Sigmund Freud, - and sadomasochistic escapes with his patient. Apart from art house films the man treats himself with maverick roles but also blockbusters like "X-Men" (2011). Also in 2012 Fassbender is on every channel, alongside to Steven Soderbergh's action thriller "Haywire" in March, in August hits Ridley Scott's "Alien" successor "Prometheus" the theatres, a vampire film by Jim Jarmusch is in progress. In addition, Fassbender works with his production company on his own projects - perhaps as a director. Vieles spricht für das bodenständige Ausnahmetalent, aber Steve McQueen hat am besten formuliert, was es genau ist: „Weil ich ihm glaube, was er spielt.“ There are a lot of aspects in favour of this down-to-earth exceptional talent, but Steve McQueen has expressed best what that is exactly: "Because I believe him, what he does"


DIANA AUST FOR ARTE MAGAZINE 03/2012

Michael Fassbender in BamS

It was plain luck I came across this article. My father bought the newspaper and I read it after him...

It was in a Sunday edition of one of Germany's largest tabloids. Unfortunately they chose one of the silliest headlines I ever came across (even for their standard).
Published 08.03.2012, BamS

Stairs (2)

Roundtable 2012

I couldn't resist. Maybe a reason to buy an ipad ;)



Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Part 3

 

Part 4

 

Part 6



Part 7



Part 8



Part 9

 

Part 10



Part 11



Part 13

 

Behind the Scenes

 

On Prometheus



Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/23/george-clooney-s-worst-job-10-best-newsweek-oscar-roundtable-bits.html

Michael Fassbender - The Man Who Does Not Need Words

It seems as things are going slower with Alan Rickman at the moment Michael Fassbender's publicity is picking up speed.
There is a major article in a new French magazine (unfortunately they only sell the international version of the Nouvelle OBS at the airport - so a short trip to France seems to be necessary ;) ) and another cover story in the April edition of the German Arte magazine. (Poor French, they don’t sell a French version in France ;) ). The pictures in this article might not be as heart-stopping as in the new French magazine, but hey, as long as he makes it on the cover...



At the moment it seems a good time to see him in German TV as well. There are at least four different films
Tonight it's Fish Tank. Next Wednesday it's Hunger on Arte (If you get the French broadcasting you'll might be able to see it in English as they use 4 language channels) and a re-run about a week later.In Mid-April it's 300.
And last at the beginning of May it will be Inglorious Basterds (If you don't watch it because of Michael Fassbender, watch it because of Christoph Waltz. He received an Academy Award for his performance.)



Here are some scans of the Arte magazine to tempt you to buy it.
(And maybe I'll find the time to translate the text into English over the Easter holidays.)

Architektur

Stairs

4 Completely Random Facts About Food

Most of us take for granted the foods we eat and where they come from. Here are a few interesting facts about everyday foods you consume. You may think twice next time you mindlessly stuff yourself at a meal—especially with holiday feasts just around the corner!




Oranges aren’t naturally orange. Most oranges, upon ripening, are a combination of both orange and green colors. Since Americans like to buy fruits that look rich in color, orange growers “degreen” oranges before they are shipped to distributors. The degreening process works by putting the picked, but perfectly ripe oranges into a degreening room where the plant hormone ethylene is circulated through the air for approximately 48 to 60 hours. This forced ripening process matures the orange just enough to turn the skin from green to the classic orange color we all know.



Purple carrots. Speaking of oranges, you will be interested to learn that carrots were originally found in two colors, neither of which were orange. Centuries ago, you could only find purple, yellow or white carrots. However, the taste of these wasn’t stellar, so Dutch farmers in the 16th century began to cultivate them until they finally reached the happy orange color we know today. Their flavor also became sweeter than the original plant. In the past decade, purple and white carrots have made a comeback and are often sold in multi-color packs at local grocery stores.



Blue jeans and blue M&Ms share an ingredient. The same blue-colored dye used to turn jeans blue, called Blue No. 2, is also used to color foods like popsicles and M&Ms. Blue No. 2 is an organic dye produced from the leaves of the Indigofera tinctoria plant. While the plant has purple flowers, the leaves are filled with the makings of a natural blue and violet dye. The dye is extracted by soaking the leaves in water and allowing them to ferment. The next time you drip a blue popsicle on your jeans, don’t worry about staining—they were both colored with the same thing anyway!



Bananas or clones. The perfectly colored and shaped bananas we find in the grocery store are called Cavendish bananas, after the British Duke of Devonshire who started cultivating them in England in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The original banana comes from Vietnam and China, but is now grown in tropical climates worldwide. What you may not know about your banana is that it was grown asexually, meaning that the plants can’t re-flower themselves for new growth because they are grown without seeds. The only way to grow new banana plants is through taking a piece of the root of th tree and replant it. This means that all of the bananas that we eat are descendants from the original trees cultivated by the Duke of Devonshire. Essentially, they contain the exact same genetic makeup as the original trees and can be considered “clones” of each other.

Sachen gibt's

Im Zoogeschäft

Kunde: „Ich habe ein weibliches und ein männliches Kaninchen. Nun ist das Weibchen so dick. Was könnte das sein?“
Verkäufer: „Sie wird wohl schwanger sein.“
Kunde: „Nein, das kann nicht sein. Ich trenne sie nachts immer!“

Übrigens...

Die nationale Telefonvorwahl für Suhl ist genauso lang wie die internationale für Paris.

Bastelfieber

Ich war fleißig.

Gestern war ich im Baumarkt und dort gab es die Weihnachtsdeko vom letzten Jahr um nochmal 50 Prozent reduziert. Also habe ich etwas mitgenommen.

Ein Bastelladen bei uns verkauft regelmäßig "Wundertüten" mit Deko- und Bastelmaterial von der letzten Saison. Ich konnte zwei Mal nicht daran vorbeigehen. Einmal waren da Bänder und Seifenformen, ein anderes Mal eben zwei Weidenherzen und noch so einiges, mit dem ich bisher nichts anzufangen wußte.

Jedenfalls habe ich das alles heute verarbeitet. Wenn ich schon die Heißklebepistole herauskrame und anheize, dann soll es sich auch lohnen.

Und das ist dabei herausgekommen: