Normblog's Hitchcock poll

Norm is polling again: this time it's the Normblog Hitchcock poll.

I have to confess that Norm's initial listing is pretty appealing:

My top four Hitchcock movies in rank order: (1) Psycho (2) Vertigo (3) North By Northwest (4) The Birds.


Bubbling unders: Marnie; Shadow of a Doubt; Strangers on a Train.

For me though, I'm not quite convinced that I would rate Psycho in the top listing (it's powerful but it's not a favourite) and nor am I quite in line with the fandom for Marnie (which garnered a lot of positive feedback on the FB comments).

My list would probably be as follows:

1) North by Northwest - still adorable, totally enjoyable and with Cary Grant and Eve Marie-Saint.  Brilliant
2) Vertigo - disturbing, but delightfully intriguing - and with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak (even if she did get her knickers in a twist about music)
3) The Birds - far, FAR freakier than Psycho, totally disturbed me.  The colours when you see the farmer's eyes... *shudder*
4) Shadow of a Doubt - for Joseph Cotten
5) The 39 Steps - because it's just such a great romp

Four films: Prometheus, Hansel and Gretel, The Angel's Share and Moonrise Kingdom

It's been a filmy weekend - to say we're not especially monarchist in this house may be a wild understatement, so we committed ourselves instead to the glories of film: three on the big(ish) screen, and another on Neil's laptop on DVD (there was a reason for that!)

Anyway: here's the rundown.

Prometheus (2012)

It's big, it's effects-heavy, and it's the opposite of claustrophobic, though there are plenty of dark caverns within which to tear apart the human psyche and body. But it is still a glorious ride of a film.  Noomi Rapace's cheekbones persuaded Neil to attend this with me, though it's a tough call whether it's her or Michael Fassbender's turn as 'David' that is the best performance in the movie.

(And has there ever been a more loaded name in sci-fi than 'David'?)

The cinematography, especially in Iceland - when it isn't slugging things out with the CGI - is gorgeous, and some of the sets are magnificently hyper-Geigeresque.  Pietro Scalia edits the whole to make much of the swooping breadth and lighting.  Does this amount to a lot?  The narrative occasionally leaps across its own internal logic, but there is enough momentum to keep an audience on-board.  Anyway, I really enjoyed it and there is a nice mix of wonder, body horror, origin of the species (in more than a human sense) and someone on the team had clearly watched the first X-files movie.

It's probably louder than it needs to be, but I was glad to see this on a big screen (not 3-D) to get some of the effects and grandeur.  Plus Rapace is delicious to look at even when running through corridors increasingly weighed down by something of which she needs to rid herself: she looks awesome even when blood-streaked and tormented.  And she never gives up her quest, despite death and everything else thrown at her.

Hansel and Gretel (2007)

This Korean film attracted Neil's attention in Fopp with a very eye-catching cover.  Despite some technical problems getting our DVD player to play the film in colour (we ended having to watch it on his laptop), it was VERY worth getting a copy.  The cinematography is luminescent in its colour palette - vibrant reds, Gothic blacks, Narnian white-witch whites - and worth watching just for the quality of the vision.

That there is such a transfixing creepiness to the narrative - a kinda reversal on the traditional Hansel and Gretel tale - just makes the film brilliant.  Scary kids, and scarier adults.  Nothing is quite what it seems and you'll stay very clear of encouraging children to wish for things ever again.

Recently the Hansel and Gretel tale seems to be everywhere: Grimm, Once Upon a Time, memories of Buffy and MOO, and this as well.  It's everywhere and scary every time!

The Angel's Share (2012)

Ken Loach gets (relatively) sentimental.  Redemption may be possible.  A film of whisky, profuse swearing, accents that I had no problem understanding and sporadic bloody violence.  It's a charming film channelling a humanity and tenderness not always noted by Loach-haters but which fans are always aware underpins his best work.  Here, that softer, lighter touch comes to the fore, but there is also much bittersweet humour (another trademark of Loach, again not always appreciated by those who cannot get past the social realism).

The central performances present endearingly flawed characters: in the end you cannot help but cheer their nefarious acts and hope for some level of success, even as you know most of them are unlikely to get beyond the next bottle of Bucky to a happy life.  I'm not generally in favour of using non-actors in key roles - they're too easily eaten by the system and find it hard to adjust back to where they came from - but it is definitely worth in praising the bottle-glassed Gary Maitland as Albert who takes naif to another conceptual level.  And you WILL wince when he holds aloft a bottle of Irn-Bru...

All this, and Roger Allam as a whisky connoisseur / purchaser on behalf of a too-loaded-to-have-taste unseen Russian (mind, he gets a better deal than the even-more-loaded American).  Pretty delightful.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

I'd happily re-watch Hansel and Gretel if I fancy a good scare (George: this may be inflicted during a visit!), but I suspect of all the films seen this weekend - was there something else going on?  whatever - the one I'll watch several times will probably be the hyper-'60s unreality of Wes Anderson in Moonrise Kingdom.  Anderson has arguably not developed much beyond the originality of Rushmore, but happily I'd take doses of his ultra-whimsy and truth about love and life over many directors' works.

Moonrise Kingdom is chock-full of delights: the central characters generate and convey a love and intensity of commitment to each other only 12 year-olds can make feasible.  The gauche isolation and outsider-ness that Suzy and Sam share warms the soul.

The visuals are soaked in the translucent colours of 1960s fashion photographs; the characters are the typical Anderson eccentrics, but here they capture the charm that has all too often been lost in Anderson's work since that glorious high of Rushmore.  There are plenty of great turns by the adults too - the obligatory Bill Murray is outshone here by great turns from Bruce Willis and Ed Norton particularly, alongside an ever wonderful Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton - but the film belongs to the children.

I felt sad for Snoopy, but the kitten more than made up for that, and all this plus the usual well-chosen score - this time there's Francois Hardy and Hank Williams, but best of all it showcases the brilliance of Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra".  A soundtrack worth staying for the entire credits to delight in right to the end.  Moonrise Kingdom is enough to warm the iciest of hearts, to be 'true' whilst never dallying with something so cheap as reality.  A delight.

Los Angeles Plays Itself - Film Review, Nottingham Contemporary Wednesday 14 March 2012

Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) is a documentary, originally produced as a teaching tool, which uses clips from a variety of movies and comments on the representation of this strange 'city' and the meanings that have been constructed from those representations. It is a sprawling 169 minute film, and you can - as per the embedded link above - view it all on YouTube.

We took the chance to see it projected on a big screen - an experience that was not without its problems (see end of review) but which was nevertheless a brilliant experience.

Thom Anderson, the constructor and director of the film, discussed in an interview with IndieWire about how the film deconstructs the mythologising of Los Angeles (not L.A. which Anderson sees as 'implicitly contemptuous').

It certainly is an enthralling presentation - lots of great clips (all neatly labelled too - I wish I'd had a crib list of films for Marclay's The Clock) - and lots of wonderfully obscure clips too; films, I'd barely heard of let alone seen, and more that made me want to hunt them out. The architecture plays a starring role in the film, so plenty of the Bradbury Building - most recently seen in the gorgeous Academy Award winner, The Artist.

It was especially lovely to see so many clips from L.A. Confidential, because however mythological its version of Los Angeles is ('Welcome to L.A.'), it's a cracking film with great sets and set-ups.

All in all, fabulous to see. And yet...

Bless, him, Assistant Professor Mark Rawlinson (who introduced the film briefly), must have felt rotten. Because this film was being digitally projected from a laptop - and this meant that (a) the projection to full screen highlighted the flaws of something not really made for that purpose, and (b) it really makes a difference if the person projecting shows the two 'halves' of the film IN THE WRONG ORDER.

Hence, we started straight in 'The City as Subject' and ended at the 'interval' with the film credits, and started the second part of the evening with the opening title sequence, and the opening two sections: City as Background and The City as Character. This meant we ended the evening as a whole at the screen titled 'Intermission' (complete with 50s popcorn jingle).

*Sigh* - very frustrating, because it meant that the evening came to something of an anti-climax, when it really didn't deserve to do so.

Anyway, well worth watching and I'd urge you to at least watch some of it on YouTube!

Films so far in 2012 - January, February and into March

So: it's been a lively few months on the film front. A mixture of DVDs, cinema visits, TV films, and (thanks to a VERY kind friend's Christmas present) the temporary joys of LoveFilm.

Anyway - I thought I'd log here the pleasures so far.

January

• The Artist - see review of Broadway cinema visit
• In The Loop - LoveFilm: yes, belatedly we caught up with this gem. "Difficult, difficult, lemon, difficult". Great humour, and horribly potentially close to political reality.
• 36 - LoveFilm: a cracking French film whose denouement was simultaneously predictable and yet utterly fulfilling. Can you really ever hate a film with Daniel Auteuil in it? I've never yet found a film of his I completely hated: he's just so wonderfully watchable.
• Attack the Block - DVD: another belated catch-up for an awkward yet thrilling film with plenty of satisfying references to past glories of film horror.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (English language version) - see review of Broadway cinema visit
• Coriolanus - Broadway: a stunning film version of Shakespeare's play with a magnificent performance from Vanessa Redgrave as a terrifying mother (Volumnia) who blew many of the supposedly 'strong' males off the screen. But great performances from lots of people, not least Brian Cox (not the twinkly physics nerd) as Menenius, and James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson as the gleefully self-serving tribunes Sicinius and Brutus.
• Panique au Village - DVD: bonkers beyond measure, the kind of stop-motion animation that blows your mind when watching it, and blessed with the kind of surrealism that generates comments like "Toy Story on absinthe". Joyous, but beware letting small children loose on it: you could end up watching it endlessly for weeks...
• Life in a Day - DVD: thanks to the lovely George, we were able to enjoy this tour of a day in the life of planet earth. All its violence, humanity and humour were there, and it was both despairing and uplifting to dip into the lives of so many diverse people. Crowdsourcing filmic content may seem a lazy way to generate a film, but it is beautifully edited and the final contributor - from a storm-swept car near midnight - makes for a breathtaking ending.
• The Woman in Black - Broadway with Q&A: I should really have written a review damn me, but here is a shortened commentary instead. It's proven very popular - I suspect in part due to Daniel Potter/Harry Radcliffe - but this is an efficient and enjoyable thriller. The Q&A with local born director James Watkins was great fun as those coming for the film confessed having been scared witless and more literary-driven members debated the legitimacy of the changed ending from Susan Hill's book (I didn't mind the change, and in their own way both worked, though I can appreciate the irritation of those who felt the film copped out somewhat). Recommended viewing with good company and a cushion.

February

• Shutter Island - LoveFilm: one I have been wanting to watch for some time, but largely because I LOVE the Max Richter/Dinah Washington combined track version of 'This Bitter Earth'. Atmospheric, beautifully and disturbing to look at and although not an entirely surprising ending, one I had not entirely foreseen and expected. I get the feeling at the end that he knows what he is saying.
• Submarine - DVD: the most Indie of Indie films one could imagine, with a check, check, check list of likely features and yet NEVER anything less than heartfelt and charming. Two quirky leads, a bunch of great music, and Paddy Considine being a grande arsehole (proving that any foray into comedy, see Hot Fuzz, will give just as cracking a performance as emotional drama).
• District 9 - LoveFilm: again, we belatedly caught up with this grim but witty alien film. Far more emotional than we expected it to be: a bit more subtle than expected in its satire.
• La Vie en Rose - LoveFilm: belated, again, but a wonderful central performance from the beautiful Marion Cotillard as the less than beautiful Edith Piaf. Not a happy life but a magnificent jumbled story of a life of pain and passion for singing.
• The Emperor's New Clothes - DVD: a colleague lent me this some time ago (though not as long ago as the now siege fight that remains over 'City of God' and 'Diva'). A charming little film, it won't set anyone's life aflame but it was a warming way to spend less than two hours. Napoleon escapes from St Helena but finds re-taking his power more complex than imagined and finds himself an unacknowledged power
• Barton Fink - TV: we found this had just started a few nights ago and revelled in its consummate weirdness and excess. Coen Brothers classic!

March

• Kick-Ass - DVD: oh my GOD, where has this movie been all my life?! One of the most gloriously indulgent and OTT films of pure silly pleasure I have seen in a long while. I felt proper BUZZING by the end of it.

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.

"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.

Sound it Out - a film review

Sound it Out is a fabulous movie ostensibly about a record shop in the North-East town of Stockton-on-Tees. But is SOOOO much more than that.

If you get chance to see it then I would definitely recommend you go. There are so many reasons to love this film:

1. It's about music
2. It's about vinyl especially, and people's love for the physical objects of music transmission
3. It's NOT JUST about music but about people
4. It's about people who maybe don't quite fit what society sees as mainstream: in terms of their taste in music, or their obsession/addiction/passion for music (delete according to preference for disparaging human taste)
5. It's also about characters at the edges
6. It's about individuals whose back-history comes to the fore slowly, gradually, and shows you more than you at first thought
7. It's about interaction and isolation
8. It's about 'shy boys' (as the director Jeanie Finlay said at the Q&A, "I'm a heat-seeking missile for shy boys")
9. It's about places getting left behind in the rush of capitalism and consumption
10. It's about a specific place, specific people and specific music - and yet it is also so much more...

I just cannot praise it highly enough. Sound it Out is utterly hilarious - there are many great characters in the film - and yet also profoundly moving. The characters may make us laugh, but Finlay gets so close to these people from her home town community that they also open up to the camera in the most unexpected ways.

Although lots of the music discussed and featured in the film is 'hard' -- heavy metal, hard-core dance -- the soundtrack is very diverse and includes a number of tracks that are very much at odds with that harder rock sensibility.

Amongst the artistes I was especially pleased to hear were --- 'Allo Darling (Silver Dollars); Das Wanderlust (6 tracks - including the glorious Swan Song); Detective Instinct (Witches Birdies); Saint Saviour; and The Chapman Family.

Anyway, we had a great time on Friday seeing this at the Broadway cinema in Nottingham (where the film was edited - and I have to say it is beautifully edited). Recommended muchly.

Busy busy busy - cultural events reviews so far and upcoming

Gah: more than half way through the year gone.

We started in February with the cultural schedule like this.

• NT live! screening of Donmar Warehouse King Lear - review
• National Theatre production of Hamlet at Nottingham Theatre Royal - review
• ADDED - Estonian Piano Orchestra, London - review
  
• Meal with work
• Romeo and Juliet RSC Stratford - review
• NT live! screening of National Theatre Frankenstein - review
• ADDED - Yes, Prime Minister, Nottingham Theatre Royal
  
• BAAS conference
• Cricket - various
• Avenue Q at Nottingham Theatre Royal - review
• Macbeth RSC Stratford - review
• Merchant of Venice RSC Stratford - review
• ADDED - The League of Youth, Nottingham Playhouse - review
  
• Much Ado About Nothing Wyndhams Theatre, London - 21st May and 4th June reviews
• Opera North Carmen at Nottingham Theatre Royal - review
• Belle and Sebastian - review
• ADDED - Betrayal, Comedy Theatre, London - 4th June review (plus 9th July)
  
• ADDED - The Pitmen Painters, Nottingham Theatre Royal - review
  
• Dunsinane RSC Swan Theatre Stratford - review
• ADDED - Graham Jones 'Last Shop Standing' - Lowdham Book Festival - review
  
• ADDED - Jasper Fforde - Lowdham Book Festival - review
  
• The house-sitting girls' weekend away - review
• ADDED - Incendies - film review
  

With just one forthcoming event listed (Marat/Sade) for October when I did the list in February, I thought I better update both the list above and the forthcoming events!

• Doctor Who Experience, Earls Court, London
  
• Betrayal, Comedy Theatre, London (final visit)
• Summer Sundae music festival
  
• The Merchant of Venice, RSC Stratford
  
• Marat/Sade RSC Stratford
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, RSC Stratford
• Written on the Heart, RSC Swan Stratford
  

Blimey... compared to the first half of the year, this is looking quite sparse! However, if it reduces the theatre deficit, that's a good thing... However, something to note is how shockingly rarely we've seen any live music this year (in terms of ye popular beat combos). Must rectify!

Incendies (2010) - Film Review: Broadway Cinema Tuesday 5 July 2011

Incendies (2010) is based on Wajdi Mouawad's French-Canadian stage play of the same name, also known as Scorched. Cloud went to see this on Saturday 2 July whilst Helen Lisette and I were ensconced in shallow watching of DVDs. Incendies is the absolute antithesis of shallow, and when Cloud emerged he felt he had to get me to go back with him to see it (to share the trauma one might suggest).

Anyway: following an abortive attempt to see it on Monday 4 July (Broad Street and therefore the Broadway cinema were both closed due to a gas leak), we ended up going last night instead.

Wow.

I can only urge people to go and see this if they can, or at the very least see it on DVD when it is released in September.

It is a grim watch in many respects; however, there is also a strong vein of love running through the narrative and it is this that gives the film a sense of hope despite all the violence running through it. It is also incredibly beautifully filmed, with only hapless Quebec coming across the worse for wear (being filmed mostly in a grey wet palette of wintery gloom, in contrast to the sharp natural tones of desert towns and crowded middle-east cities).

As Narwal Marwan, Belgian-Moroccan actress Lubna Azabal is superb. She plays, entirely in flashback, the role of an initially young and idealistic woman from an unnamed country, but clearly Lebanon, who is driven by conflict and violence to take up violence herself --- only to find that violence is used against her in a way that proves even more horrific than she was aware of at the time. Death begins and pursues this film with an implacable horror.

The narrative hinges on the events following Narwal's death in Quebec where she lived with her two children. She has worked diligently as a notary's secretary, and on her death, said notary Lebel presents Narwal's twins (Jeanne and Simon) with Narwal's will. The will demands that Narwal cannot be buried according to expected practices unless the two children each fulfill a quest. For the daughter, she must find their father (whom she and Simon believed to be dead); for the son, he must find their brother (whom Jeanne and Simon did not know existed).

Whilst Simon resists the instructions of his mother's will, challenging their mother's words that "a promise must be kept" (something Lebel also feels very strongly about), Jeanne takes up the challenge even though neither has much of a clue where to begin. With only her mother's passport, a photograph of Narwal as a younger woman and a Christian crucifix necklace to go on, Jeanne approaches her supervisor at the University where she works, assisting teaching pure mathematics. To uncover the truth, she must follow the twists and turns, the contradictions and the challenges presented by her mother's life story - following and analysing the variables, dealing with the conjectures in the same way she might deal with a mathematical puzzle.

I've avoided linking to the trailer(s): I think they say too much. I came at the film with limited knowledge and awareness and felt all the better for that. Yes: there are melodramatic elements to the narrative - but life is full of strange and weird coincidences and it is no less contrived than any number of other narratives. I therefore don't want to do much in terms of spoilers, except to say that the performances are excellent and the cinematography is breathtaking. Be prepared to be drained when you exit.

Oh, and Radiohead have probably never been better used to soundtrack a film.

“One plus one equals two, right?”

Seeing out the old year and seeing in the new

Neil had to work New Year's Eve, so that gave me and Helen Lisette a perfect chance to see the latest Harry Potter film - the 'getting-so-bleak' part one of the finale. Since HLW was the only person I knew who would go with me, it was a case of getting her better post-surgery so that we could venture out. Hurrah for friends eh?!

Back home and being thoroughly unimpressed by the TV schedule, New Year's Eve ended for Neil and I with a festive dose of noir with The Maltese Falcon. Utterly brilliant.

And since we couldn't make it down to London for the Bellowhead gig at RFH, it was a Bellowhead gig at home for us with a viewing of the Bellowhead Burlesque tour DVD. Foot-tappingly brilliant.

And THAT is how to see the new year in!

Rounding up on the festive period

Blimey, given we haven't even been to NZ this Christmas, it has been a pathetic show for blogging hasn't it? Last time I was able to get in - and yes, Internet facilities have been an issue at home and elsewhere - it was for a review of Hamlet starring the smoking man! (Not THAT one).

At this rate, I'll be back seeing it live (February when the National's production of Hamlet with Rory Kinnear et al hits Nottingham) before you'll get more from me.

And that will never do!

So, between my last visit to you we had an abortive trip to see Belle and Sebastian (singer had a cold so the gig got pulled 5 mins before the doors opened) and the rescheduled date is for .... well even the band aren't sure since they appear to have been consulting the 2010 calendar for a new date [NOTE: Wednesday was 2nd June in 2010 --- so they either mean Wednesday 1 June 2011 OR Thursday 2 June 2011].

Still, we did get to go to London for a long weekend before Xmas - hitting the snow with a vengeance and squeezing in much fun with a trip to the theatre (Season's Greetings at the National - more on that separately I hope, especially as it runs till March 2011) and to the pictures to see The Shop Around the Corner at the BFI. Lovely: proper sweet and sour as you can only expect from Lubitsch.

And then it was back home for a Xmas Eve screening of It's A Wonderful Life. I had a lovely day at the bar (no chuckling!) reading my book as Neil was at work. Plenty of tea and food kept me going till Neil arrived for the final screening of the cinema before Xmas - by the time we exited the place was shutting up shop.

Then it was an idle start to Xmas day with plenty of reading and only finally opening up presents about 3pm.

We settled down for Doctor Who at 6pm - most enjoyable (even if my inner geek couldn't help thinking about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect -- but not so much it stopped me enjoying the episode). Again - I will try and do a belated review for what it's worth.

Since Santa brought both Neil and I plenty of CD, book and DVD goodies, we're going to make a concerted effort this year to CATCH UP ON OUR EXISTING ACQUISITIONS rather than making new ones.

Hopefully this will resolve the ongoing hostage situation that is 'City of God' / 'Diva'. George and Sonia, we can only apologise for being so rubbish.

In Praise of... Christian Marclay: The Clock (exhibit at the British Art Show 2010, Nottingham - New Art Exchange)

Nottingham has currently gained quite an artistic coup: the opening exhibition of the new British Art Show 2010 BEFORE it comes to London (or anywhere else in the UK).

Spread across three venues - New Art Exchange, Nottingham Contemporary and Nottingham Castle Gallery and Museum - the show provides a snapshot of contemporary art practices (last time we ended up not wearing our own shoes).

So far, we've made it around two of the three venues (you get into the Castle for free if you visit the other two venues first: usually the Castle is a paying venue for non-Nottingham residents, and we live just outside the city limits).

Still, my highlight by a country mile is sadly a work not being exclusively shown in Nottingham (though I really hope that Nottingham residents and visitors take full advantage of it):

Christian Marclay: The Clock

Also available as a WHOPPING 720 page book, The Clock is a magnificent video installation showing... well, clocks. And watches. And time passing. All constructed from thousands of film clips --- in 'real time'. It is an utterly addictive experience -- we did approx. 11.25am to 12.15pm, and then approx 12.30-1pm. And then headed back for 4.10-4.45pm. You sit and find yourself physically Lost in Time (scroll for picture). I could have easily stayed for the day. If only the day long screening wasn't a work day...

What's annoying is that most of the reviews around focus on its current screening in London rather than the Nottingham installation. Even the Huffington Post reviews it -- but AGAIN, no mention that Nottingham is getting its fair share of the fun.

Which is a real shame because I would really like more people to take advantage of seeing this magnificent work in Nottingham while they can. Nottingham's New Art Exchange describe The Clock thus:

[Marclay's] new work, The Clock, features thousands of found film fragments of clocks, watches, and characters reacting to a particular time of day. These are edited together to create a 24 hour-long, single-channel video that is synchronised with local time. As each new clip appears a new narrative is suggested, only to be swiftly overtaken by another. Watching, we inhabit two worlds; that of fiction and that of fact, as real-time seconds fly inexorably by.

These clips from several thousand films, are structured so that the resulting artwork always conveys the correct time, minute by minute, in the time zone in which is it being exhibited. The scenes in which we see clocks or hear chimes tend to be either transitional ones suggesting the passage of time or suspenseful ones building up to dramatic action.

But to my mind, this is all just a fancy way of saying 'spot the clip!' because frankly this was the most fun I've had in ages in an art gallery.

There is a charming interview with Christian Marclay from the Economist - acknowledging both the team of assistants in his film watching, and his editing technology - but mostly I urge you to see the installation.

What I found so enchanting is that alongside the expected - indeed, essential clips - such as 'High Noon' at noon and the Robert Powell version of 'The 39 Steps' with THAT scene hanging off Big Ben...



... you also get less expected snippets such as quick glimpses of 'The Quick and the Dead' (which also has noon as a key timing point).



But there are also some nice clips from non-film sources such as John Simm as Raskolnikov pawning his watch in the TV adaptation of Crime and Punishment. Some scenes pass in a second, others are languidly included but the main feature is that time keeps passing. I would happily spend my days dipping into this fascinating work and if you see nothing else from the diverse range of artworks included in the British Art Show, make sure you see this.

Film Recommendation - Skeletons

Skeletons - a FABULOUSLY quirky and yet moving British film.

Buy it.

See it.

Love it.

Two 'psychic cleaners' get caught up in a missing person investigation.

No summary can do justice to this lovely film.

Reviews:
Observer
Guardian

Postscript:
"The author Jasper Fforde has said that he's yet to find the right person to tackle a film of one of his Thursday Next books. I think he and Whitfield need to have a talk."

http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/whats-on/2010/skeletons (courtesy of Neil)

Film Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire 29 August 2010

Bless the Broadway in Nottingham; even when a film like The Girl Who Played with Fire has advertising everywhere I still wouldn't want to see a Swedish movie any where else in Nottingham.

For a Sunday 2pm screening, there was a fair number and I think I can safely say that all had avidly read the book and I doubt many are looking forward to the English language remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with Daniel Craig (who is utterly wrong for the role in my mind).

ANYWAY: to the second of the films in the book trilogy.

We've the main actors back - Nyqvist, Rapace - and therefore a degree of continuity from the first film. Its a shame that cinema production values couldn't be provided, but I've grown to love YellowBird productions being an addict of the Wallander dramas (interestingly Nyqvist turned up as a villain in the Wallander episode that turned up on BBC4 on the Saturday night -- it wasn't one we'd seen and it was a cracker [Mastermind was the episode]).

As the middle of a trilogy, the narrative inevitably suffers from a degree of incompletion largely avoided by the first (more self-contained storyline) and the finale (to round things off, at least at that point). But it is a cracking narrative: yes, there are omissions, sidelines and sub-plots that get excluded, but the thrust remains the same. Only one element disappointed both Cloud and I -- and that was failing to include in the dialogue any of Salander's infuriated references to Kalle Bastard Blomkvist or Kalle Bastard Practical Pig Blomkvist. Ah, those made us laugh so much when we read the novel.



The UK trailer only part captures the movie, and distractingly it uses the music used for Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Weird. I almost prefer watching the Swedish trailer.



But the point is that I'm really waiting for the finale to come out in the cinema later this year.

I came home yesterday afternoon and promptly re-read 'The Girl Who Played with Fire'. I'm waiting till I see the finale - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' - to re-read that volume.

Robin Hood - now with new added mud and action!

Poor Robin Hood. Ridley Scott's new film has had a troubled history - the original proposal to cast the unbelievably wooden and wimpy Sienna Miller was just the most obvious difficulty. It was also ridiculously named Nottingham in its earliest script drafts - even as a born and bred resident I get that as a title that would have just confused audiences outside the UK.

And then there was Scott's desire to work with Russell Crowe - again. Recapturing the triumphant moment of Gladiator, now 10 years ago.

Was it worth it?



Actually, it's not bad. There is an inventive narrative thread that develops the traditional background to Robin Hood, and I'm actually rather glad to move away from a Sheriff of Nottingham dominated storyline (Matthew Macfadyen is rather wasted but does a wonderfully camp turn without making you think of Alan Rickman).

Cate Blanchett offers a fine Marian, by far the best and least annoying Marian I've seen in a good while.

And the action sequences, from the hapless over-confident Richard getting it in the neck from a 'trying his luck' French cook with a cross-bow, to the recreating WWII on the beaches sequences, make for a thrilling movie.

But, especially in light of the Mark Lawson incident, never mind all these other remarks - how was THE accent?

Ah yes, Russell Crowe's accent has become almost the stuff of legend regarding this movie. Which in many respects is a real shame, not least because it isn't THAT bad -- it just isn't very consistent (there is an undeniable wandering of the British Isles) and it pretty much isn't north Nottinghamshire/South Yorkshire. He does quite a mean Liverpudlian though.

But this is actually possible to overlook. And I have several reasons for this.

(1) Crowe does this sort of film very well. He has a meanness and an action quality to him and shapes up pretty well for this film. He still has a great ability to bring out softness at the edges of his performance and their is a wry humour and sparkle when more comedic scenes demand it.

(2) There is so much to look at and enjoy about this film that if you're paying that much attention to one accent then you're missing the point.

(3) Mark Lawson's interviewing makes me want to hit things. Crowe's characteristic high-pitched giggle and 'fuck-this' attitude to the inane questions and remarks certainly had me cheering.

So, I'd say, worth a punt. Don't go expecting Gladiator and you'll be fine. Don't go thinking you're hear a pitch-perfect consistent accent from Crowe and you'll be fine (heck, even my accent wanders). Go ready to enjoy a good period action romp and you'll be fine.

Plus: it doesn't have bloody Bryan Adams on the soundtrack. Win-Win.

Book Review: Mark Kermode - It's Only a Movie (and other early Valentine's Day gestures)

I know he isn't to everyone's taste, but I do love the 'good doctor' Kermode. I don't always agree with him, but that isn't the point. He's passionate and opinionated and his rants are just hysteria-inducing (to me at least).

So my Valentine's Day present was inevitably a copy of Kermode's autobiography book "It's Only a Movie". It's brilliant and I've already read it from cover to cover and laughed aloud multiple times (additionally, giggle-struck urges to read sections aloud to Neil are a good sign it's tickled my funny bones).

Anyway, this is therefore added to the long list of quirky - and much appreciated - Valentine's Day gifts I have had from lovely Neil which over the years also included the original film [on VHS] of 'The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3'.

However, Neil is not without his romantic side, albeit that he approaches it with endless quirkiness.

Tuesday evening he calls from downstairs to me. I struggle to the top of the stairs.

"Lisa, Lisa... sit down!"

He proceeds to sit on the penultimate stair facing towards the front door; struggling with sciatica I sit behind him.

"Okay, we're on a plane, taking off... vroom..." he 'pilots' the plane 'upwards' with an arm gesture.... "and now here's some food and a drink..."

[My partner is lovely, but utterly, UTTERLY bonkers]

"... and now we're coming in to land" and he gestures the nose of the plane downwards.

He stands up, offering his hand to me: "so we're off through immigration... and to collect our suitcases..."

We walk through the back living room/former dining room towards the back porch.

"... off we go, into a taxi"

.... and then he pushed at the shut kitchen door, revealing it to be in almost complete darkness.

On the kitchen work surface he had set up, lit by tea candles, a set of wooden figures of New York (from Muji) thus recreating our night-time first arrival into New York over 10 years ago.

I must admit, I cried. He is lovely.

Film and Cinema Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Picturehouse Cinema, Kaiapoi, New Zealand

It's a frustrating truth that having devoured the Millennium Trilogy by Steig Larsson, Cloud and I were desperate to see the film version(s) once we realised that the Swedes had quickly gotten films made of the hit books.

We scoured the net, watched the trailers and groaned in disbelief that UK/US screenings were being delayed because English language versions were being developed.

We lost track of the release dates a bit then, but when we arrived in New Zealand we were delighted to discover that Boxing Day saw the release of the first film in NZ. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would be out in New Zealand during our stay - and screening at local cinemas!

So today (27 December) Cloud and I drove out to the Kaiapoi Picturehouse Cinema to see the movie.

This has to qualify as one of the most LOVELY cinema going experiences of our life: plush comfy sofa seats, no stinky popcorn smells, a welcome from the owners and a lovely fair-trade cafe-bar to relax in before and after the show.

The film stays true to a lot of the book's violence and horror, which some may find gratuitous, but overall the tone is both fair and honest to the depictions of the text. Sure, Rapace isn't quite gawky enough to convey the full vulnerability and strength of Salander, but it is hard to imagine how anyone could capture her physique as written in film terms. The sort of short-cuts one would expect appear in the film, but nothing so glaring as to detract from the narrative, and those not as familiar with the book(s) won't be left too baffled.

It's ultimately an efficient thriller, which is exactly what the book is, but with a central figure in Salander who captures the imagination.

Strange and weird we had to travel half the world to see it!! But what a fabulous cinema experience it allowed us.

If anyone is in the South Island area of NZ, make a visit to the lovely Kaiapoi Picturehouse Cinema and relax into your film.

Bullies - viewable via Portable Film Festival

There is a really wonderful short film called Bullies which is now available to view at the Douglas Henshall fan site, courtesy of Portable Film Festival.

Starring Dougie and Tena Stivicic, it's a rather moving narrative of a relationship and its place in the world and experience.

Tearjerkers Meme

Medium Rob knows how to make good memes and this week is tearjerker movies. Where to begin?! Well actually, I've visited this topic back in 2005 in Moments in Movies That Make Me Cry, and apart from 'The Lives of Others' that Marie eloquently writes about, the only other recent-ish movie I can actively recall making me cry was 'Goodbye Lenin' (another German movie).

Still, my problem in recalling titles is probably more to do with faulty recall and a default 'sob' setting in me than any lack of crying from watching stuff. Bought up on Saturday afternoon movies on TV (every one a bucket of tears) and trained in musicals and narrative songs, tears have been almost a way of life for me with popular entertainment. Mum was a weeper and so was I. It took me many years to work out that there even were any Bette Davis movies that didn't make me cry so adapted was I to her appearance symbolising the forthcoming tearfest. And I've frequently not only blubbed my way through movies but also afterwards in recounting movies to others or even reading about them.

Still, perhaps reflecting the nature of Medium Rob's blog and our incapability at sticking to boundaries, the comments at this meme have inevitably wandered into the realm of TV. Once you have that expansion in mind, additions start clocking up fast.

Let us first note that Joss Whedon and the team have caused the drowning of my sofa with my tears on innumerable occasions. Indeed, as regular readers will know, I simply cannot read the TWP synopsis review for the Buffy episode The Prom without bawling, and The Body reduced both me and George to tears just through us talking to each other on the phone about the episode (don't you deny it G!). Don't even get me started on Doyle's departure in S1 of Angel, or the final Fred arc of S5 up to the finale.

Jaradel and Jane Henry amongst others have nailed some of the key Tennant TV blub-moments, but I do think it is worth acknowledging that the man does have an uncanny attraction to/appeal for projects with high emotional factors. And damn, he can make them work and he cries very well himself.

Dickens is likely to bring out the tears (Bleak House? Our Mutual Friend?) and an apt choice of tune is also going to help turning on the waterworks (Bach's Cello in The West Wing?). Whilst I am easily moved though, I was interested to note that Marie spotted a trend in her trigger points to be 'I didn't get to tell him / her in time". Now THAT'S one I can identify with and I'm certainly predicting tears once I catch up with the finale of NCIS this weekend.

Now, I better stop before I start blubbing but if I get home and look at my shelves I'm certain to identify more tear-stained DVD covers.