mirkobozic

This episode is quite enjoyable and the story relies on a plot device that I really love: a crime within an enclosed space with quite a few suspects. Lady Horbury is very glamorous, while Poirot seems quite smitten by the sir hostess Jane Grey. One of the things that haven't aged well in the series is how the detective, though asexual, almost seems to be stalking young women who show interest in case, like Jane. Or his nickname "Papa Poirot" in The Mystery of the Blue Train. From a sympathetic supporter to a creepy old guy. What makes this episode so interesting is the focus on Paris as a city, where the detective takes us on a walk along the city's most famous landmarks, like the Palais Chaillot, basilica Sacre Coeur. I love the narrative related to tennis too. Generally, I'd put this on my Christie watch list.

This movie aims high with a satyrical discourse take on the various, complex forms of French identity, history of racism and people who feel like a failure in spite of their efforts. The main character is a failed comedian who stumbles into human rights activism on his quest for success in French showbusiness. Soon he finds out he's way over his head in uncharted waters that don't have a lot to do with human rights, but publicity, appropriation and money. The movie demasks activism as something exclusive instead of inclusive and a battlefield of minorities for center stage in social media and politics. Reducing a greater cause as means to an end that only benefits the main protagonists, it's simultaneously entertaining and saddening. Because JP wants to play a game he's completely unfamiliar with and soon finds himself in a crossfire between hooligans, racism, activism and showbusiness that uses humanitarian causes as merely another form of PR. JP turns out to be completely illiterate in terms of social intelligence. You almost feel sorry for him but then again, he just wanted to succeed in showbusiness. The humiliating encounter with the comedienne in her backstage room was painful to watch, but it's a great depiction of the precarious reality of profession.

The new Netflix documentary about sexual liberation and the LGBT clubs in Berline during the Weimar period shows the story in a very glamorous way with all the exxagerations and stereotypes on display. It makes you feel as if the documentary was produced by Bob Fosse and Baz Luhrmann. The fact that you're trans does not make you a historian yet Netflix keeps making the same mistake. While there are indeed characters around which you could built a separate documentary of their own (like Gottfried von Gramm and Manasse Herbst), the rest portrays 1920s Berlin as a giant pot of promiscuity. As a result, homosexuality is turned into a carricature that eventually clashes with the dark reality of Nazi Germany. Production-wise, it's on a sufficiently high level, but it's likely intentionally reduced to an another spotlight for the transgender community while other people, especially LGBT, are just supporting characters. Too bad.