Sunday, November 19, 2017

Bohemians Teaching Australian History Through Italian Eyes

How We Survived Communism And Even LaughedBalkan Express:Fragments from the Other Side of War, and Cafe Europa

'The Teacher' (Sister Gitka 'Ucitelka'): Karlovy Vary Review | Hollywood Reporter
In a middle school classroom in Bratislava in 1983, a new teacher, Maria Drazdechova (Maurery), asks each student to stand up, introduce themselves and tell her what their parents do for a living. It slowly becomes clear that perhaps the pupils' grades are related to how willing their guardians are open to helping her out with her errands, her housecleaning, and other random services. After one of the students attempts suicide, however, the director of the school has no choice but to call for an emergency parents' meeting to remove the teacher, but because Ms. Drazdechova is also a high-ranking official of the Communist Party, parents are hesitant to sign a petition to transfer her out. In a classroom behind the Iron Curtain, the future of all the families are at stake, as the film examines how each family must wrestle with standing up for what they believe in or silently keep the status quo.

Since the arrival of the new teacher, Maria Drazdechova, to a Bratislava suburban school in the year of 1983, life has turned upside down for students and parents. The teacher's corrupted behavior and one of the students' suicide attempt that could be related to that matter, makes the school Principal call the students' parents for an urgent meeting that will suddenly put the future of all the families at stake. They are asked to sign a petition to move Miss Drazdechova out of the school. The teacher's high connections within the Communist Party makes everyone feel threatened, but at this point they have no choice but to make a decision: will they dare to go against Miss Drazdechova and stand up for what they believe in at any risk, or will they just remain silent and let things be?

Ucitelka At Paddington Palace


Jan Hřebejk returns to MIFF with a darkly funny Czech primary school take on 12 Angry Men, featuring an award-winning turn by Zuzana Maurery as the titular teacher.
In the dying days of communist Czechoslovakia, the chilling Comrade Drazdechova (Zuzana Maurery) rules over her high school with cunning and corruption. The rules are simple: you help her out, your children do well. You don't? Well, life can be hard for those deemed enemies of the state. But hers is a fragile empire, and when she tries to blackmail the wrong parent, those she's wronged rise up against her.
Satire rarely comes darker than in The Teacher, a multiple award winner at the Czech Lions (including Best Film) and the latest provocative offering from director/writer team Jan Hřebejk and Petr Jarchovský (Divided We Fall). Revelling in Maurery's masterclass performance as the deliciously vile Drazdechova – for which she won Best Actress at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival – The Teacher is a gripping parable of political dysfunction disguised as a PTA meeting straight out of your nightmares. Bring popcorn. 
"The Teacher is a sardonic, richly seriocomic morality play that uses a delicate touch to explore why communism never seems to work out in the long run." – IndieWire


Film Review: 'The Teacher' – Variety

 The prolific Czech director-writer duo Jan Hrebejk and Petr Jarchovsky (“Divided We Fall”) return to top form with the compelling Slovak-language dramedy “TheTeacher.”  


The Teacher (2016 film) - Wikipedia


The Teacher (Slovak: Učiteľka) is a 2016 Slovak-Czech drama film. It premiered on Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Zuzana Mauréry has received an award for the best actress.

Glenmore Road in Paddington came alive for Festa Italiana, a village style street celebration on Sunday, November 19. The celebration of all things Italian had something for everyone ...

The Paddo area gets in touch with its Italian roots by showing off neighborhood restaurants at this magnifico festival. 
A bocce-ball tournament, grape-stomping challenge and 
meatball-eating contest get the competitive juices flowing 
while bands provide the event's soundtrack.

Think of Italy and you hear glorious music – serenading gondoliers, impassioned opera heroines, exulting choirs


Festa Italiana - Wikipedia

Italians love Antipodean antiques ...
Remued - Ceramics - Antiques Reporter

The beginnings; PPP & Remued 1930-1934 ...

Ceramic homage to Australiana - The Australian

Collecting bookends | Greg Currie - The Sydney Morning Herald


Mossgreen’s first Australian History sale of 2017 achieved some impressive results. Highlights included the Butheroe sideboard sold for $62,000, the Thevenot map of Australia sold for $34,720, a marble bust of Lady Jane Franklin sold for $17,360 against a low estimate of $2,500, a REMUED Pottery jug with applied kookaburra sold for $11,160, an Australian silver trophy cup by Edward Fischer of Geelong which sold for $9,920 against a low estimate of $1,800 and a Daryl Lindsay watercolour sold for $5,456 against a low estimate of $400.




Clay that every Antipodean MEdia Dragon seeks ... We visited Pottery kilns and opportunity shops  and poetry in pubs in almost every country town


For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free. 
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears. 
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe. 
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. 
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam. 
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night; 

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.