Happy Birthday Sir Lee!

Good luck on releasing your new album today!

"To Chris
You are the best in the 'biz

John Belushi,
Second best"

This. Man.

I just can't.

Charlemagne is cult!

I can really recommend this interview, made by Berlin Morgenpost in connection to Berlinale this week. It is in German, but Google Translate (surprisingly enough) does an ok job translating it from German. Sure, there are some oddities in the translation, but mostly it is completely comprehensable.

Strangely enough, SCL seems to think that the Charlemagne album The Sword and the Cross has disappeared from limelight - in a sense that it is forgotten. But I can honestly say that Twitter feeds on "Christopher Lee" reminds me of this album  - or other songs of his Metal career - almost everyday.

In fact I would say that a massive amount of the tweets are on this subject. So it might be away from the public limelight - but fans love it. The Charlemagne-album is cult!

Berlinale 2

Some pictures from this week's #Berlinale, where the film Nigth Train to Lisbon had its world premiere. This is a short video on Lee and his wife (ext link) in front of the cameras at Berlinale. That is an international moviestar! From Berliner Morgenpost.

Here are some LOVELY picts from the red carpet of the premiere night!


Previous blogpost.

It just snowballed...

Just went mad and ordered five, no six Lee-films. I will probably have to wait until summer to recieve them all, but never mind. Amazon is just... ugh.

I found The Three Muskeers and it just snowballed from there. I have only seen excerpts from Crimson Pirate - as with Bitter Victory - but as I love theese pre-fame films, I couldn't resist. Taste of Fear is a new acquaintance - so far, I have only known it by name. I want Beyond Mombasa as well, but it'll just have to wait. Though it was painful not to order it on spot... 

Night of the Big Heat is a joy. Very hot!

•  
• The Crimson Pirate [1952] [DVD]
  James Hayter, et al
  Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L. 
•  
• Night of the big Heat (uncut) english audio
  Ronald Liles, Terence Fisher
•  
• Bitter Victory [DVD] [2007]
  Richard Burton, et al
  Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L. 
•  
• The Three Musketeers/the Four Musketeers [DVD]
  Richard Lester
  Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L. 
•  
• Taste of Fear [DVD] [2010]
  Christopher Lee, et al
  Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.

Love that hat...

This is short but brill! Wonderful hat!
(According to all sources a horrendous movie.)

#Berlinale

Three hours ago, British Council Film (@BC_Films) on twitter wrote:

Legendary Christopher Lee - on our flight to #berlinale & causing much excitement all round

During this filmfestival, the film Night Train to Lisbon is having its premiere. I wrote about it in this post. In March, it will go nationwide in Germany and then in Belgium as well, I think. Since the Scandinavian filmmarket is so dependent on only a few distributors, I, alas, can't hope to see it here. Sadly. Well, just have to order it on Amazon. It seems to be a wonderful film. SCL by the way deserves all excitement he can get. Wonderful. I can only hope they will all have a wonderful #berlinale. An that the film will be well recieved! :-) Good Luck!

Who's the most #badass???

Motivation:

"The Action Hero: The ultimate badass with an unquenchable work ethic, Christopher Lee is still popping up in the likes of The Hobbit, while LOTR and Star Wars saw him kicking ass well into his 80s."

Here is the entire list of the oldest and coolest action heroes.

Guess who tops the list.
Thank you, thank you! Chuck Norris has nothing on Christopher Lee!

Night Train to Lisbon

March 7th, the film Night Train To Lisbon is having premiere in Germany. This is after its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

The synopsis is based on a novel by Pascal Mercier, sold in 1,8 million copies in Germany. In short it is about a Latin teacher who abandons his life in Berne to look for a woman on a train on its way to Lisbon. The film is directed by Bille August. Jeremy Irons stars as the Latin teacher. (Wonderful actor, absolutely brilliant. What a voice!)

But I wouldn't write about it here if it wasn't for SCL in the role as Father Bartolomeu. I am so utterly pleased that he is still, STILL, making movies, even though the parts are small nowadays. But he is indeed starring with the best, and it seems as all influential directors are queing up to cast him.

I really do hope it comes to Scandinavia - or else...! :-)


Below - the trailer. Here is the website with cast, synopsis and everything. Ahhhh! What drama it seems to be!

The one and only

There is nothing like the original story. Here Lee reads the end lines in Dracula. The film is bad and sound even worse, but never mind. This is the one - and only - ending. Subtitles in French.

The way they were

OK, OK OK. This is absolutely lovely footage of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing bantering. If this was the way they were with one another, I understand why sparks was flying on screen.

What a marvellous caption of dear and good old friends! Beautiful. I just got something in my eye... Thanks to Peter Cushing Appreciation Society, UK.

Oh my!

Just found this. A very handsome Christopher Lee in footage from Scream and Scream again, 1969, set with some really nice music. Great fan stuff. Make sure you watch this full screen!!

Additional note: This film was shot in May and June 1969, released in December that same year. Both Peter Cushing and Vincent Price hold roles in this thriller. Lee comments in Films of Christopher Lee:

"The only time that Vincent and Peter and I ever appeared in the same film. [Written before House of the Long Shadows] However, we were all three virtually defused. I had about eight minutes of screen time(...) I shot one whole sequence in Trafalgar Square. If you can remember your lines with all the traffic, and the crowds of people behind the camera watching - you can do anything."

It got mixed reviews. Some really, really good ones, some ... not so good.

Don't dare see it alone!

Horror of Dracula from 1958 is to be released in Blu Ray on 18th March.

Needless to say, I have ordered this special, uncut edition. New, perviously censored scenes are included such as Dracula's seduction of Mina and the disintegration of Dracula.

I just CANT wait!!! You can pre-order it on Amazon. Do it!

Read more here.

By the way, I am so proud of my own SIGNED print on this classic poster - signed by Lee. It is mad. I just have to have it framed ASAP.

Landlord!!!

Ahhhhaaa!!! Just one day ago, someone posted the entire film Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966) on You Tube. That is a fab film. Has a great feeling to it, and as I have written before, Lee was complemented on his performance by no one else than Maria Rasputina. The daughter of the starets himself. (No, Rasputin was no monk.)

I just rewatched Dracula Prince of Darkness. The sets of the films are very similar - they were made neck to neck at Hammer Studios in 1966. Even the actors are the same. (However, there is no doubt what character Lee prefers to play...)

I have, a couple of times, been to the palace in St. Petersburg  - in the cellar - where the murder took place. The room has a cold feeling to, it is daunting, and I assure you it has nothing to do with the waxfigures placed there.

Enjoy that voice like thunder, the dancing, the sex and and the very violent death scene.

"Landlord!!!!"

Watch it here!

Additional note: you can see a promotional clip on the release of Rasputin togehter with The Devil Rides Out. Lovely footage from the films and comments from co-actors!!! Recommended!!!

I knew that all along...

I am well aware that I am a nerd. But when seeing Hobbit my heart jumped at the scene of the White council, at that voice. Sir Christopher Lee has been in two of the greatest film sagas of the last decades, and now he is in a third series of great films... He is flipping epic. That is just the way it is.

For so long only nerds like me kept track of what he was doing. And now, and especially after LOTR and the launching of his metal albums, he exploded all over You Tube. His cult status has gone though the roof, he is the "coolest person EVER" - the "ultimate badass", the ruler of Chuck Norris (!) (when "Christopher Lee sings Chuck Norris sits down to listen"), and after Charlemagne most probably the ruler of the entire Universe. His voice is "legendary", sends "chills" down peoples spines. Some fans are swooning - "sexiest actor ever." "Sexy man god!"

An example:
"Christopher Lee killed Nazis with the guy who made James Bond, then went on to set the world record for number of films by becoming a legendary vampire, a Sith Lord, and a great wizard. And on top of all that, get this - he's a motherfucking metal musician. I'm not kidding. This guy, a 90 year WW2 vet/acting legend - plays fucking metal music. If that doesn't make him the single biggest badass that has ever walked the earth, I don't know what does. Move over, Chuck Norris. "

Or this:

He is 90 and he still kicks ass!!! A living legend.

Or this...

Christopher lee is a god among men


I knew all of this many years ago. Jeez, I wish I had had You Tube back then.

Here is a clip on how Peter Jackson persuaded SCL to film with him again. Pretty good impersonation. "Am I still in the movie?"

Got to love Martin Freeman, by the way.