Should it have won: UK, 1993

I'm an Irish girl in the UK, and when it comes to Eurovision, I can definitely be accused of being part of the block voting diaspora. RTE, you do try me though. Jedward? Really? Fine, whatever. Jedward a second time? Oh really now, RTE, Ireland isn't devoid of talent.

Now, unless you're very stupid you'd know that Ireland and the UK have a bit of history. I consider the real marker of Ireland doing badly in the Eurovision as whether or not Ireland are doing worse than the UK. Oh Dervish!

In 1993, the competition was between Ireland and UK to the last votes. The very last vote! (Thanks, Malta!*)

But what about Sonia? Did she deserve to win?

Er..... maybe? I'm undecided. Sonia's song just has a slightly cheesy vibe about it that I think would never have made it a winner. It also does seem kinda dated for 1993. When you hear that the songwriter was thinking of Wham when he wrote it, a band who'd last been in the charts 7 years earlier, you're not really on the cutting edge. But then, Niamh's entry was not all that innovative either. She was though a better singer. Which is probably what made it so close.

And it was very close. Had it been any country other than the UK it would have been considered a success. That's really the UK's biggest problem in Eurovision. Unless it wins, it's a failure. British entrants never seem, no matter what they say, like they're actually just glad to take part. They're fighting for their careers! (Which is why so many British entries this year are has-beens like Blue, or nobodies who can be forgotten after, Josh Dubovie and Jade Ewen, to a lesser degree. Dincky was an exception in that, as a 76 year old international performer since the 60s, he really didn't have had anything to lose. Would Cheryl Cole risk losing Eurovision?)


*this sort of thing is what they want to happen nowadays with randomly ordering the votes, but the dynamic of the contest has changed to make it unlikely that it would ever be so tense now!

Should it have won: France, 1991

So, with the reveal of the voting breakdown of jury and televote this year, it was interesting to see how very close it would have been if the Juries weren't voting, and also, how far from a win Russia would have been. I still remain mystified how that came second. 

But it made me think about other entries that came second, and which ones should have one.

So, this is the first in an occassional whenever I can be arsed series of posts to pad out the absence of Eurovision from our lives till September (when Switzerland will start the process again) 

Beginning with.... France, Amina, Le Dernier Qui Parle, 1991, second to Sweden. 

How close was this to winning? It tied! This is, since 1970 (when they decided to make ONE winner!) the only occasion there has been a tie. And, oh, what a tough break for this one. Carola's late 80s pop number holds nothing against this. The slight african sound to the song works really well, and strangely, makes it seem more French (for some reason it always makes me think of the soundtrack to Betty Blue) and it still holds up in many ways today. Even Amina's clothes would fit on a 2012 stage. Carola's song, style and even her dancing look so late 80s. Amina's entry is massively underrated and France have never really reached the same heights since. 

Should it have won? DEFINITELY! 

Yella

I have to admit, whenever BBC Four and iPlayer list a foreign film, a lot of the time, I'm going to watch it.

Sometimes though, I shouldn't bother. Yella, a 2007 German film, is probably the dullest, most predictable thing I've ever seen, which, I'll spoil it for you now because it's too dull to care about. She's been dead the whole time.

At the start of the film her possessive ex-husband drives her off a bridge in a car. She swims ashore and after that her life seems a bit weird. BECAUSE SHE'S OBVIOUSLY DEAD ALREADY! Honestly, since The Sixth Sense, this is such an obvious twist where you see some sort of fatal accident that doesn't seem to have killed someone where it should have. And even this revelation is presented so boringly that you just think, 'what. are we done? Was that it?'

The film before this revelation is so achingly dull. She spends the film doing various accounting stuff with some guy who is a corporate conman, in a sense. The stuff he's doing is way too fucking dull. The film plods around bare corporate offices, bare hotel rooms, bare cars, bare landscapes. It's so constantly bare.

Though it did make me think, if purgatory is wandering around a german techno-industrial landscape talking about corporate sales and accounting, then, my god, i'd better commit some massive sins so that I will never be stuck in such a place. Urgh, just skip right on from this one.

Delicatessen

I've just started learning French. Yay for me! I have to assume that French people are really good at maths, because learning numbers in French is so complicated.

Anyway, this week, I've been watching French films. There's so many of them. This should be very helpful for learning a language.

So which one did I watch?

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Delicatessen involves an apartment block advertising for random strangers to come and 'work' doing oddjobs in the building, as a cover for their intentions to eat them. A former circus performer named Louisson turns up, and the building's quirky tenants (if you saw his more famous film Amelie, then you know what to expect here) are gradually torn apart by his ongoing presence.

At times the film seems to be a repetition of quirk, quirk, quirk, more QUIRKS! Vive le France! The plot somehow doesn't quite follow, and there are a few plot points that don't really get explained (what is he stashing the corn for? What happened to the one-legged guy? Why is that guy hogging all the snails and frog legs* and why didn't they just off him? How is he able to maintain that enviroment if nothing can grow? Where is all the TV coming from? If everyone seems to eat each other, how come Louisson seems so unaware of the reason he's there? Is Aurore's suicidal cycle because there's no cheese -- I would have killed myself when the Boursin was gone. I love that stuff!) while the climax seems a bit rushed.

It's the sort of film that I think you would find enjoyable once or twice, but which eventually would sort of wind you up (as Amelie does when you've seen it quite a lot).

*or is that one of those typical foreign film scenes where someone has to eat some unusual national delicacy so the audience will go 'WTF IS HE EATING???!!!' See also Jar City's takeaway sheep head

Jagoda in the Supermarket

Now that Eurovision is over till at least September I really do have to blog about something else. So... let's watch some foreign films from Eurovision nations.

You know, ever since A Serbian Film, it's hard to google for 'serbian films' without getting that. And while I'm keen to see more foreign films, there is a line. Even though I've seen plays like Blasted and watched The Human Centipede, I feel like the plot of that film is enough to go on with for the rest of my life. (and the Phelous review of it pretty much explained it too)

So... what Serbian film did I find to watch?

Jagoda in the Supermarket

I found this film with english subtitles on youtube, and I don't think the subtitles were the greatest, so perhaps this film is funnier if you can find a better copy, or maybe it does just all seem a little flat. The plotline is basically that Jagoda, a checkout assistant in an American Supermarket called Yugo-American, refuses to serve an old lady whose son comes and takes everyone in the store hostage as revenge. Gradually they fall in love with each other and everyone rants about consumerist culture. Outside there is a satire of politics and military action going on, that probably makes more sense if you're from Yugoslavia. Teh Interwebz says this film is set in post-war Yugoslavia, which has the somewhat unhelpful element of confusing me as to what country we're actually in. I'm gonna assume it's Serbia, but I really don't know enough to tell the difference. The film ends with the two as some kind of national heroes for holding out against the various military squads trying to get them out, who mostly collapse in a slapstick fashion.

The best part of the film is probably the brass band who are at various interludes playing The Clash's Lost in the Supermarket. How very appropriate. 

So, there, a slightly odd film from Serbia that isn't A Serbian Film. 

2012: The best top ten for languages

In 2012, despite Sweden's English language-win the year''s top ten was one of the best in recent years for foreign language entries, with 5/12 of the songs being in their own language, counting Russia's entry as a Russian language entry ("Party for Everybody, Dance" is not the most stunning use of English.)

Serbia have continued to be the most successful country in their own language, while Albania scored their best result. Estonia also seem to be scoring better with their own language than English.

Ott Lepland. Nothing to look at here...

Does this mean anything though? Not really? After all, 2007's Serbian win is still an oddity in the current trend. But we can dream and hope ESCToday don't steal this observation for an article topic on their site in a couple of months.