Belgian Chess History

Ah! how marvellous it is to watch a decent movie again! Granted, whatever movie one watches after the disaster called Alvin and the chipmunks: The squeakquel would appear as a glistening beacon of new hope for cinema but I think that, even without this, Sleuth would have seemed a pretty good film. It is not perfect — in fact, I think it is a bit too clever for its own good and it is more a play than a movie — but it has an interesting plot and is well acted. So well acted that both lead actors, Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, got an Oscar nomination for best actor in a leading role.¹ In a major supporting role, but inexplicably not nominated, is a rather fancy-looking chess board:

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My God. What have I come to? You know, I hope you all really appreciate what I do for this blog, because you have no idea. Just two weeks ago, I sat through the entire music video of the 1992 gabberhouse hit song Poing by the Rotterdam termination source in the vain hope that the knight on the cover indicated some chess imagery in the video — and now I watched an Alvin and the chipmunks movie! The second one even, which has a title that is to puns as concrete is to fine dining. And this time there are three more excruciatingly annoying chipmunks running about! O joy!

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After a short detour to the land of advertising, we return to our usual playground of movies. This time, we go all the way back to nineteen forty six for on of the most critically acclaimed films I have ever covered on this blog. It stars David Niven, who later went on to win an Oscar, as a fighter pilot in the second world war who slips through a crack in Death’s administration and gets caught up in a celestial court case about whether or not he gets to live on now. He gets visited every now and then by a heavenly messenger with a strong French accent who is possibly just a figment of his imagination.¹ In the few hours he stole, he has fallen madly in love with a young American girl. She has arranged for a doctor to see him and, while they wait for him, they play a game of chess:

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I have already written a blog post about a manga and one about an anime, but I have yet to talk about Japanese cinema. That’s going to change now. Today, I’m spotlighting Death note: The last name 2. It is the sequel to Death note, a critically acclaimed movie based on a manga of the same name about a guy, burdened with the name Light,¹ who can kill people by writing their names in a notebook. He uses his power mainly to kill criminals who escape slip through the cracks of the justice system, but of course things don’t go very smoothly. In the beginning of the second movie, we see him being suspected  by the police and, more importantly, playing a game of chess with the leading detective.

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After the horrors I had to endure last week, I think I deserve a bit of break. Something light-hearted, something fun. Something good, even. Which is why I watched Blazing saddles, a 1974 western comedy by Mel Brooks that enjoys wide and wholly justified critical acclaim.¹ The plot deals with a corrupt politician trying to take over a town. When the town needs a new sheriff, he has a black man named Bart (played by Cleavon Little) appointed in the hope that the locals will either get rid of him and leave themselves unprotected or leave town themselves. One his first day on the job, the new sheriff meets and befriends the best sharpshooter in the west. It turns out that he likes to play chess.

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