Constant Gardener

I was disappointed with this film. Rather like most John Le Carre's novels (none of which I've managed to finish) I was confused and slightly dazed. I'm not a great one for conspiracy theories and this was a step too far on the credibility road. Wasn't impressed by Ralph Fiennes (so laid back as to be horizontal) and a real wimp - but in an unattractive way. I couldn't believe in his relationship with his wife. All too trite - frankly I was slightly bored. A pity!

Capote

Just seen this film - I know it was released a long time ago, but Greenwich Picture House are doing a 2006 reprise season. I really was impressed by this film. The story of Truman Capote's composition of his ground breaking book 'In Cold Blood' the story of the brutal killings of a family in the wilds of Kansas for no real understandable reason. It showed Truman's manipulation of the two killers - especially Perry. He paid for legal assistance until he believed he would not reach the culmination of the story - then by withdrawing the aid they lose their final appeal and Perry spills the beans. Truman finally attends the execution. Was in truly involved? This was a really sinister and spine chilling film, that makes you think. Wonderful cinematography. Recommended!

Thank You for Smoking

This is turning into a bit of a film review blog - but I am going to lots of films just now. Really enjoyed this satire on the lobbyists of the USA. Funny - I laughed out lous regukarly. Outrageous in its choice of subject - the tobacco industry's desire to hook as many people as possible into the terrible drug. But also good on US politics, journalism and family values. Go see!

A Cock & Bull Story

Greenwich Picture House was doing a one off (what they call a Sunday Matinee) reprise of films that only had short releases. I'd missed 'A Cock & Bull Story' the first time around and I was glad I caught it this time. I haven't read 'Tristam Shandy' but I'm guessing this film of making a film about Tristram Shandy is pretty like the book in format. Steve Coogan & Rob Bryden are good in this film. The story is chaotic, amusing and fun throughout. Not a major hit I would think with a lot of people, but I would say 7/10. Only three people in the cinema to see it though - shouldn't think they covered their costs. 'Thank You For Smoking' tomorrow!

Rageh Omaar

Following yesterday's blog can I recommend very strongly Rageh Omaar's latest book 'Only Half of Me - Being a Muslim in Britain'. To me this is extremely revealing, educational and relevant to the current situation - so much of the debate about terrorism is based on falsehood and lack of understanding. He is talking about his book next Tuesday (20th June) in Stratford (East London). If anyone is interested email me & I'll provide full details. (I know it is World Cup football, but England has now qualified, so not quite so vital!)

Forest Gate Gate

Just to say that this fiasco in Forest Gate (3 miles from where I live) just shows the paranoia of MI5 who are clearly totally incompetent. Also - what is this obsession with Muslims? Do they really want every young Muslim to be radicalised? They are just re-enforcing the lies of the fanatical extremists who don't deserve to be called believers of Islam. Why did they need 250 police to invade a smalled terraced house and why was one man shot? Lets move on and re-unite to fight the true terrorists.

Happy Endings & Eleven Men Out

I saw two films from the Gay & Lesbian London film festival this week. I enjoyed Happy Endings - an excellent dark comedy involving all aspects of gay/lesbian life - Lisa Kudrow was great and Steve Coogan a superb gay man! Eleven Men Out was a slightly weird Icelandic film about a gay footballer. Funny perhaps but unbelievable - far too many stereotypes. It also seemed to want to include explicit gay sex for purely shock reasons (and although enjoyable as the guys were cute) it didn't really add to the plot in any way - except when it seemed to want to make the gay footballer's son even more upset by his father's behaviour.

Wah-Wah

Excellent film. Superb acting - especially Celia Imrie, Miranda Richardson and Julie Walters. Although set in pre independence Swaziland this is really about the destruction and reconstruction of a family and the effects that marital break up has on the son.
As a directorial debut for Richard E Grant this is terrific. It is funny, moving, tragic, surprising in turns and is a tremendous study of snobbishness and the English abroad. The notion of 'whiting up' someone for a production of 'Camelot' was inspired. I recommend this film highly - despite the poor reviews elsewhere!

Olympic Village

Today I was given a view of the 2012 Olympic Site - from the top of a tower block overlooking the area.
What a truly amazing place it is going to be - the new Stratford International Station is almost complete, and I could visualise the vastness of the complex. I'm so pleased the the Olympics are coming to my part of East London.

A Trip to the Library

I renewed Edith Wharton's 'The House of Mirth' (not quite finished yet - but enjoying it!)
Non-fiction choice: Lord Longford's 'A History of the House of Lords'.
And now fiction - the detective classic 'The Maltese Falcon' by Dashiel Hammett, Ian Sansom's 'The Mobile Library - The case of the Missing Books; '24 Hour Party People' by Tony Wilson; and so pleased that they had Simon Brett's latest 'The Stabbing in the Stables'.

Cockles & Muscles

I totally adored this film. Even though in French with sub titles - it made me laugh. It absolutely made a dull Bank Holiday Monday sparkle. This is this kind of sex comedy that only the French can do. A couple are holiday in the South of France. Their son's friend turns up - and the couple believe they are in a gay relationship. Meanwhile the wife's lover arrives, and the son (even though he is not gay) meets a plumber who turns out to be his father's former lover. A real farce - in the true sense. Much of the action centres on the need for relief in showers. Its a long time since I've heard a cinema audience laugh out loud so easily and genuinely. Go see.

Brick

I went to see this film today - back at the Greenwich Picture House once more.
Now this film was announced as a great movie - will be a cult, etc.
I'm not so sure. I found it rather irritating and confusing. It seemed to be a pastiche of the 1930s/40s/50s detective movies - very Raymond Chandler. All the language and conversation seemed far too studied and contrived - unbelievable in fact. It seemed also to be a succession of 'lets beat up the hero' scenes - and frankly if a boxer had received that level of beating from Amir Khan the bout would have been over and someone would be in a coma or at best receiving major organ transplants. The whole premise seemed totally unbelievable, the plot totally confused, the cinemaphotography flawed, camera work poor, lighting substandard, and at the end I really couldn't have cared less who had killed Emily. The acting was OK, but frankly with such poor dialogue to deliver no one comes out of this film terribly well.
I've probably alienated all the film buffs now - but hey - lets tell it as it is and lets not be pretentious shall we?

New Reading

Finished 'Northanger Abeey' - and enjoyed it immensely. Now I've discovered the joys of Edith Waharton - what a superb author she is - and such an easy read. I'm compelled!

Jane Austen

OK I admit I'm 55 and I've just discovered Jane Austen - am I very strange? Only had to read Northanger Abbey because it is my book group's choice. And I think it is wonderful - I didn't realise how funny she can be, and I'll now be reading some more.

Ballets Russes

I'm not a great ballet fan, and I didn't really know much about the two rival Ballet Russe companies - but I enjoyed this documentary film about their history. Mainly composed of interviews with surviving (or recently deceased) members of the company it was a fascinating social history of the twentieth century. It might have easily have been a TV programme but I liked seeing this on the big screen - and in places it was so bitchy as to be hilarious. You certainly need to be a drama queen to be a ballet diva it would seem - and this applies to both genders! I learned a lot - and that doesn't mean it was dull.

U Carmen eKhayleylitsha

I saw this film at the West End Apollo. Strange cinema - nothing from the outside - or the inside for that matter told you what films were showing - and I thought I was going to be the only person watching this film - but then a few others drifted in.
Anyway this is an adaptation of Bizet's opera 'Carmen' set in a South African township. The love story is between a cigarette maker and a sergeant of police. Bizet's music is added to with local songs and dances. The story is changed in many respects, but it is still a tale of jealousy and violent death.
An interesting interpretation, and I know opera does require an element of buying into the ludicrous notion of people bursting into song at a whim - but it didn't entirely work on this occasion. The singers are really good, the acting terrific but there wasn't really the engagement that I wanted. The torreador theme was almost entirely ignored - apart from the brief tale of a township boy suddenly being transformed into an American opera singer - but was he really Carmen's love interest and the Sergeant's rival for her affections? I was confused and unconvinced. Worth seeing though - but probably if the competition isn't too great!

Blair the butcher?

Just a comment on the recent re-shuffle. Lets face it he didn't really cut hard enough - Charles Clarke had to go, but will John Reid last very long - he's had about one job a year in the past nine years. Was Jack Straw demoted because of past errors rather than being a bad Foreign Secretary? But hey Margaret Beckett - the first female Foreign Secretary - that deserves one cheer at least! Lower down should Patricia Hewitt have been cut as well? I think so. Why move Ruth Kelly - should Education have this constant changing of Secretary of States? And my local MP Stephen Timms moves from being Pensions Minister - and the average holding of that post is now only 8 months - when Pensions deserves long term attention. It must take six months for the new postholder to understand the brief let alone do something about it. But congratulations Stephen you're now in the Cabinet.

American Dreamz

I don't normally like Hugh Grant - too many films playing upper class idiots for my liking - but here he's more down market - the English accent is less public school and more estuary. I enjoyed this film - but not 5 stars, more 3 and a half. I probably enjoyed it more because I seem to have seen so many 'serous' films recently. Although this was a black comedy it didn't slip too far into the darkness, the villains were too stereotypical to be frightening. I did laugh out loud several times, and rather regretted it when Willie Williams & the Hugh Grant character were blown up - which probably indicates that Hugh wasn't really evil enough. On balance worth seeing if there isn't anything more exciting at the multiplex - but is there anything new out this week that compares? Tell me - please!

Hay Fever - we all love Dame Judi!

So I went to see Dame Judi & Peter Bowles in Noel Coward's 'Hay Fever' with the marvellous Belinda Lang on Saturday. Strange that Noel Coward's plays are revived - and so successfully, but they really are timeless - even though so obviously set in the 1930s. I went with my two lovely friends from Manchester, after a trip down the Thames on a warm Friday afternoon. I love living in London - it is a truly wonderful city, especially at this time of year. There is no other city that compares - in my view, even though I don't take enough advantage. I hadn't realised that there was to be a parade of huge wooden animals until my friend from Manchester told me - at which point we were already in the theatre.
I loved this play - I've seen it before on TV & on film - but seeing Dame Judi live cannot be beaten. So funny, so witty, so sharp - I loved it!

C.R.A.Z.Y

Marc Andre Grondin stars in this amazing movie. The title comes from the five sons of this French Canadian family (Chris, Raymond, Antoine, Zac (the hero) and Yvan). I didn't really notice after a while that the entire film was in French with sub-titles. Zac was born on Christmas Day 1960 and the film traces (in a pseudo religious way) the following two decades of his life discovering his true sexuality (with the help of David Bowie and Pink Floyd). A tad long - but every minute had meaning and I found it gripping, moving, sensitive, well directed, surprising, and satisfying. If you can find it go see it! I want to get it on DVD (which may be a problem as it is in a non-European format).