January 17, 2010

Top Stories –
That’s a lot of chocolate –
Despite a campaign by the Daily Mail to “Keep Cadbury British”, the confectionery company finally accepted a takeover bid from Craft food in a deal worth $19 billion.

More than a wee dram, then –
Adults in Scotland are drinking the equivalent of 46 bottles of vodka each in a year, a study has suggested. The research based on industry sales data and analysed by NHS Health Scotland showed an average of 12.2 litres of pure alcohol per person over the age of 18.

Top Video –
New York City Portrait

New York city portrait, HD time lapse, April 2006, music by Moby from Max Moos on Vimeo.


Top List –
Top 100 films of the Noughties (2000-2009)
List from Daily Telegraph By David Gritten, Tim Robey and Sukhdev Sandhu
Part 9 – 20-11

  • 20 Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola, 2003: Dreamy not-quite romance, about a young American girl wandering through Tokyo with a faded actor, made Scarlett Johansson a star.

  • 19 Capote

Bennett Miller, 2005: Genuine biopic gold, thanks to its sober elegance and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s masterclass in falsetto self-love.

  • 18 Mamma Mia!

Phyllida Lloyd, 2008: This cheerful version of Abba’s greatest hits became the highest-grossing British movie of all time. Indifferently sung, clumsily directed – but for millions of people, it was a grand night out.

  • 17 4 Months, 3 weeks, and 2 days

Cristian Mungiu, 2007: Romanian cinema was a powerhouse in the second half of the decade; this gripping drama about abortion and female friendship was a standout.

  • 16 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Michel Gondry, 2004: The dream team of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry broke our hearts with this ineffable, wildly clever valentine to sundered romance.

  • 15 Before Sunset

Richard Linklater, 2004: Before Sunrise’s Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reunited for a dream-parade through Parisian boulevards in the decade’s most gorgeous and affectingly romantic film.

  • 14 Saw

James Wan, 2004, £9.78: The decade of Abu Ghraib found its cinematic equivalent in the torture porn aesthetics of this and the Hostel series.

  • 13 West of the Tracks

Wang Bing, 2003, DVD: Nine hours long with not a minute wasted, this portrait of a dying industrial district in China is a towering, epoch-defining masterpiece.

  • 12 Amelie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001: France’s biggest-ever global hit – an idealised view of Paris, and a star vehicle for Audrey Tautou as a young do-gooder. Its droll tone and tricksy style almost mask its heroine’s solitude and tristesse.

  • 11 The Lives of Others

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006: Emotional, intellectual and immeasurably compelling drama about a Cold War surveillance operator who warms to the radical theatre director on whom he’s spying.

Top News –

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