US viewers - look out for 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' on Masterpiece schedule of PBS

This week the UK got to see 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', the latest of - incredibly - many versions of Dicken's unfinished novel.

The adaptation by Gwyneth Hughes was utterly suitably melodramatic, but it was also spectacularly entertaining. With a great cast it shone in virtually every respect but Matthew Rhys as John Jasper was stunningly tormented and yet not entirely hateable. A resolute air of grace also shone through Amber Rose Revah's performance as Helena Landless (see what Dickens did there with the orphan's surname? never one to pass up a naming opportunity was old Charlie boy).

And both the magnificent Ron Cook as Durdles and Alfie Davis as Deputy added the required dose of Dicken's humour.

Additionally, it looked wonderful - the cinematography (telephotography?) was beautiful, and the settings were used to great effect.

The narrative itself has all kinds of problems, as befitting its status as an unfinished work: finding a satisfactory solution to the myriad balls left metaphorically in the air by the author will always leave some unsatisfied, but Dickens himself was prone to bodged conclusions and abandoned subplots, so it seems churlish to moan at Hughes' efforts when dramatically as a piece of television these performances proved so entrancing and satisfying.

The USA, thanks to the wonders of PBS Masterpiece schedule, will get to see Drood - and the Xmas Great Expectations - over Easter (April).

Enjoy people: Drood is a treat.

One use only - using existing music in films

Kim Novak has very publicly criticised the score for 'The Artist' for using - with a credit - part of the score for 'Vertigo'.

In doing so she makes problematic use of the term 'rape'. Sorry Ms Novak, but I am increasingly of the opinion that the word 'rape' is too specific as a term for a criminal act, often sexually/power motivated, to be any longer in its more general sense.

So what SHOULD be the use of music written for a specific film or context? By Novak's implied meaning, music can be used once, and once only, for its original context --- and never ever again.

I get that in this instance, the film director went with the 'temp' holding score of pre-existing music rather than a (later provided) original piece by the composer Ludovic Bource. One one level, it is a shame not to make more use of original music. However, it is not unknown for directors to get so attached to hearing a pre-existing piece alongside their first cut footage that the two become indelibly entwined. Sometimes you go with your instinct.

I accept that for some the use of the music from another context may well jar them from involvement in 'the moment' of the film narrative. But music is so often used and re-used that it is hard to imagine of the practicalities of Novak's implied meaning that music has a once-in-a-lifetime purpose. I appreciate that re-use of a particular piece of 'scoring' may work differently to the use of a song or even a classical/jazz piece of composition, but does it really jar THAT much? I'm quite familiar with 'Vertigo' and it didn't detract for me any more than the use of Duke Ellington or any of the other jazz pieces used here. Indeed, the smooth integration of existing music with the actual Bource score only succeeded in reinforcing for me how well Bource captured the essence of silent and classical Hollywood film scoring and live music performance.

I'm therefore glad that those involved in 'The Artist' have defended their use of the existing music. It does seem a petty dispute.

In Praise of Sherlock (Moff and Gatiss)

With each episode 90 minutes long, it is all to easy to forget these are actually feature films. So whilst we may be weeping that there have so far only been two 'series' of 3 episodes each, that's the equivalent of six feature films.

We've got one more left here in the UK but despite my understanding the film length it still feels too little. But these are fabulous works. And I will be watching them again soon.

"With pleasure": a cultural day review including Film Review: The Artist

We had quite a cultural day yesterday - started off by going to Nottingham Contemporary to catch the Klaus Weber exhibition before it closes today; walking around St. Mary's Church in Hockley; going to the Broadway Cinema to see The Artist; and ending up by watching the first couple of episodes of Borgen, our new Scandi Saturday drama.

All in all a very lovely day and I will try and post some pictures here soon of our day out.

In the meantime, I want to focus on commenting about "The Artist" which is quite possibly one of the loveliest films you could possibly hope to see this year (if you have not already been lucky enough to see it).

You can imagine the pitch:

• it's in black and white (though interestingly it used colour stock and then was altered to black and white because the contrast was not quite what was wanted in proper black and white)
• it's largely silent with VERY limited diegetic sound and has intertitles
• it's in 4:3 aspect ration (how I squealed with delight at that little detail, instead of the screen widening as it started)

As Neil said of the executives, he could imagine them asking "but it's in 3-D, right?"

A rather sniffy review in Sight and Sound (the BFI's film magazine) dismissed it as a 'novelty', and it's true there is unlikely to be a resurgence of new films made in this way. I'm not expecting the new year to bring in dozens of 'silent' movies. However, the review did really irk me when I read it after coming home from the screening thoroughly uplifted.

Whilst it would be wrong to hold individual reviewers to be 'stand-ins' for the magazine (let alone the BFI as a whole), Sight and Sound does have an unfortunate tendency to sometimes grant the most gross-out populist film serious credence and credibility than it would ever deserve; to be so harshly dismissive of an undeniably populist film as 'The Artist' which has much higher ideals underpinning it seems at the very least hypocritical.

So a gross-out film aiming for the populist 15-24 year old is more 'honest' than a beautifully observed homage to the silent (and classic) eras of Hollywood appealing to an audience encompassing everything from children to grandparents?

I know which 'honesty' I think deserves more analysis.

[Link to "The Artist" trailer - sorry: could not embed]



I've come to a conclusion about films and their audience: if you get to the end and the audience starts applauding, I think you've got something special on your hands as a feel-good movie. Most times, people just filter out. They may be smiling and happy even, but I do think that applause in a cinema is now a rare enough commodity to mean something.

The storyline is simple: a heroic romantic, daring-do-action film star meets a wanna-be actress. She is on the way up; he is on the way down. This is because soon after they meet, talkies arrive. Our leading man - elegantly captured by the performance of Jean Dujardin as George Valentin - is not someone who talks: indeed his first intertitle 'line' is "I will not speak." Our leading lady, the suitably named Peppy Miller (played by Berenice Bejo) is, in contrast, positively entranced by talking. Will their attraction lead to happiness? Can there be success for them both?

During "The Artist", there were many sequences where, with no music either (despite a luscious near-continuous score by Ludovic Bource), there was just pure enraptured silence in the room. Nevertheless, we laughed at the utterly adorable Jack Russell (Uggie) who deserves an Oscar in his own right; we wept at the sight of an intertitle reading "BANG!"; we grinned with delight at the dance sequences - everything about this film is so perfectly pitched to carry the audience along with it.

The visual tropes deployed are not all from the silent era - there are a number of sequences owing much to Citizen Kane for example. Overall then "The Artist" plays with and looks affectionately upon those 'tricks' of both the silent era and some of the classic period Hollywood cliches. We read lips well, but not always well; we understand that when a dog runs up to a policeman he needs his attention for an emergency; when a producer/studio owner sees dollar-signs, he doesn't care if it's the old or the new as long as it works.

Nostalgic? Yes, this film is undeniably infused with a lifelong passion for film. Will it encourage audiences to look again beyond the latest 3-D widescreen fad to older films? One can only hope. And in the meantime, expect the sentimentality of the BAFTA and Academy Award committees to shower "The Artist" with awards. For once, one lives in hope they do...

Film Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US version)

Back in 2009, Neil and I skipped ahead of the UK release date curve for the Swedish version of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. This involved being in New Zealand - in a cinema I sadly suspect no longer exists thanks to the earthquakes: sniff for the Kaiapoi PictureHouse Cinema.

Then they announced there would be the inevitable English Language film remake(s) of Larsson's book(s).

*Sigh*

Once I had forgiven them for not casting Douglas Henshall in the role of Blomquist, I got on with grumbling more generally about the film(s).

Because by now having seen all three original Swedish films, I had fully accepted Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander. Sure, she was not the near-anorexically thin character as portrayed in the books, but within the constraints of actually being able to be portrayed by an actress, she was a good approximation.


For the English language remake, they chose Rooney Mara.

Now, to give Mara her due, she does make a good stab at the role. They certainly give her the appropriate level of punky-spikeness... but...

It just tries too hard.

The thing that Rapace captures in her performance is that strange mix of vulnerability, aggression and frustration with the world.　 Let me give an example:
　
In the original version of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', Salander is staying at the cabin in Hedesby with Blomquist. Suddenly, without warning, she strips off and has sex with him. Done, she gets off and wanders away immediately. Salander is venting an urge - one she doesn't want and like an itch, she scratches it, rids herself of it and bolts. She is angry at herself for wanting and needing to do this 'act'. She satisfies the need. And that's it.

The US/UK version plays a much greater sense of emotional attachment both in that scene and afterwards. That is WRONG - just wrong.

In some ways the English language film version IS truer to more of the book (though it makes a bizarre and unnecessary change in the narrative for reasons I cannot fathom apart from the chance to film in the UK). But since when did a film version of a book have to be utterly faithful to all aspects of the narrative? No: it does not need to be accurate to the letter, but it should be true to the spirit of the text. For all that this new version is an excellent film - it has the budget both in English-language-recognisable casting and great photography　to show for it - it still does not quite work for me.

Craig is okay - yes, still grumbling about that - and I like the 'glasses-hanging-off-one-ear' quirk that they give him. But he is too buff, not 'middle-aged' enough. He looks gruff, but that isn't the same thing at all.

And I still maintain that all the film-makers have missed a trick with regards to them failing to include in the dialogue any of Salander's infuriated references to Kalle F...ing Blomkvist or Kalle Bastard Practical Pig Blomkvist. Indeed, that whole Astrid Lindgren thing with both Kalle and Pippi Longstocking from her books is a real loss to the narratives, not least as in the final tale it plays a crucial part in Lisbeth accessing technology.

Like I say, it IS an excellent film. If I didn't know and love the Swedish originals so much maybe I would be more forgiving (can I just say as well, the opening title sequence is astonishing and surely the mark of Fincher shown best in the movie). But this English language version doesn't quite sail for me, and I cannot see me re-watching it multiple times in the way I have done with the Swedish version.

New Layout - new year

If Cloud can have something new as his backdrop, so can I. Of course he got there first so he gets the spiffy books background (sniff!) but this will be a nice stop-gap.

Books ahoy!

It's been a reading kind of a weekend - I've devoured my way through Madeleine L'Engle's excellent "A Wrinkle in Time" (every bit as good as I recalled it from childhood), Oliver Pötzsch's very atmospheric "The Hangman's Daughter" (set in the mid 17th century in Germany) and am now reading Cloud's recommended "Temporary Perfections" by Gianrico Carofiglio.

All excellent stuff.

All this and interspersed with seeing in the New Year by watching Bellowhead's most recent live DVD of 'Hedonism'.

Lovely.

Was Elliott wrongly accused or guilty?

Neil found this left behind shopping list and its ominous PS at the bottom of a shopping trolley.

Woe betide anyone throwing down a gauntlet to Guardian readers

Ian McMillan foolishly suggested that Dickens' Great Expectations could not be summed up in an Edward Lear limerick form.

McMillan was proven wrong within the day.

Christmas time is here by jolly... well, actually it's come and gone

Ah, the festive season.

Time for Ghostbusters I feel. Cloud had been hankering after this 'Last Exit to Nowhere' t-shirt for quite some time.

At home chez Rullsenberg

Well we have parsnips. And the Saturday Guardian newspaper. So even tho I still feel constantly sick at least we're snuggled up safe and warm. Happy xmas everyone!

All I need to do for Xmas now is...

Well some milk would be good since the supermarket at 8pm resembled an old  Soviet state shop - wrecked shelves desolate of consumables.

I'd  also rather like some parsnips but apparantly they'd vanished by 4pm! Did I miss the memo about food supplies stopping till Easter?  And why were there still bags of Brussels galore on the shelves when the eggs shelves looked like the foxes had raided the place?

I'd also value getting some small boxes to package up home made choc chip ginger cookies to take as presents. But hey. I have Neil, moderately ok health, newly red hair and no earthquakes.

Will spend next few days worrying about aftershocks there but so far its only damage to stuff not people. Nature is cruel.

Xmas is here because...

You know Xmas has officially started when you're sat amongst an applauding and sobbing audience at the end of It's a Wonderful Life. Neil had some grit in his eyes...

Hello bloggers: here's some Xmas cards and amusement for you!

And if that doesn't work for you there is always the old favourite of mine - Santa's Reindeer.

Much Ado and more to download...

Yes, Digital Theatre are now allowing on-line viewing or downloading of several British theatre productions from recent times, including Much Ado About Nothing starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

There are a select number of plays available, but that's fine. I may well watch the RSC production from 2009 of As You Like It to see how Katy Stephen's compares to the adorable Maria Gale (when I went to see this production As You Like It with the Wolves gang in July 2009, Stephen's was unwell, but Gale was a great understudy).

Anyway: the biggest delight is seeing Much Ado again and reliving the pleasures of summer 2011. To all who attended (multiple times) and those who did the stage door madness, here's to the memories!