The Squid and the Whale

An enjoyable film - again not getting the widest of releases - in the UK at least. A tale of the break up of a marriage in the 1980s - parents where it turns out the 'wronged' party is surprisingly the husband - although he probably deserved to be cheated on as he is just so unbelievably appalling - any woman with a couple of brain cells would have left him 20 years earlier! The more fascinating are the two boys - who lie and behave in bizarre fashions more as a result of their parents treating them as equals than because of their break up. Who talks openly to a 14 year old about previous marriages and parades their boyfriends/girlfriends in front of them?

Well worth seeing - it is well acted and quite a period study of the 1980s. But what kept nagging me was where had I seen the femal lead (on the right of the picture) before?

Happy & Glorious!!!!

Lets wish the Queen a very happy 80th birthday! I was born shortly before the death of her late father so really I known no one else as a monarch. I first saw her when I was just over 6 years old when she shot past my school at about 40mph and we were all lined up outside furiously waving. Then I saw her again in Manchester when she opened the Bridgewater Hall and I was at the gala opening concert (she looked very bored!) and more recently when she came to visit Green Street in Upton Park for her Golden Jubilee and the little Nigerian boy who gave her a bunch of flowers was hopping with excitement as she spent about three minutes talking to him! I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! I was also in the crowd outside St Paul's and outside Buckingham Palace on Jubilee Day 2002. A true day to remember!

This doesn't mean that Britain shouldn't be a Republic - because it should - but maybe after Elizabeth II dies we might finally all become adults and citizens rather than subjects.

In the meanwhile - happy birthday your madge.

Hypocrisy?

Is it just me or do others find it rather funny to watch George W looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights as a human rights protester disrupts his welcome of the President of the People's Republic? Afterwards he apologises for this 'regrettable' incident. What is he regetting? Someone breaching security? The highlighting of alleged religious persecution when George W is a born again Christian? The fact that he is being all chummy with a Communist leader and trade rival when the US has embarked on a campaign of threats and hatred against the Leftist leaders of South America who are attempting to curb the asset stripping and environmentally unfriendly US business giants of the oil industry and supporters of the drugs cartels? There's something not right here!

Latest books

I'm reading Andre Gide's 'The Vatican Cellars' for my book group.
Today I got the following out of the library:
'Gravedigger' by Joseph Hansen; George Greenfield's 'Rich Dust'; 'Eminent Victorians' by Lytton Strachey; a biography of Michael Collins, written by Tim Pat Coogan, a translation of the book by Vladimir Jokanovic called 'Made in Yugoslavia', 'The Queer Commando' by Paul Mann, and 'The Occupation' a book by Guy Walters.
And - I have so many other books unread on my shelves.
I've also become a member of the Greenwich Picture House - so I'll be going to even more films from now onwards.

Pierrepoint

This blog seems to be turning into a film review - but there are so many good films out just now - although you do have to look for them - a lot are only on release in 'arthouse' cinemas or independent movie houses. I went to see Pierrepoint at the Greenwich Picture House.

Timothy Spall is outstanding in this film as the public hangman who presided over the executions of hundreds of murderers (including dozens of Nazis at Nuremberg) from 1933 to 1955. Juliet Stevenson is an excellent support star in this British picture. Filmed, appropriately enough, in sombre tones I was impressed by the way in which it charted a career that turned out to be both professional, efficient and surprisingly humane.

At the end Albert Pierrepoint himself questioned the point of capital punishment - summuraising it as just achieving nothing more than state revenge.

Well worth seeing.

The White Countess

This film is the last Merchant Ivory collaboration - following the death of Ishmail Ivory. Certainly not their best - but well worth seeing, written with great sensitivity by Kazuo Ishiguro. You may have difficulty finding it - my usual choice at West India Quay doesn't have and it isn't showing at any cinema in East London, but I found it at the Greenwich Picture House - a cinema I'd recommend (although not cheap) - especially if you have the opportunity to use the screening room - with enormous padded armchairs.
The film is set in Shanghai in the years prior to the Japanese takeover. Thw White Countess is both Natasha Richardson, a Russian emigre washed up on the shores of China with very little but her title and social graces as assets, and the bar opened by Ralph Fiennes playing superbly (and believably) an American blind former diplomat (or diplomatist) who opens his vision of the perfect bar (in a City seemingly awash with bars of all kinds). This bar is spookily reminiscent of a series of Jack Vetriano pictures - in fact the whole film is slightly like a moving Jack Vetriano from start to finish.
The film isn't profound, but is entertaining. It does tie up all the loose ends rather too neatly, but remains believable. The Redgrave family (it stars not only Natasha Ricardson but both Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave) are as always totally wonderful, and I was gripped in the last twenty minutes as the Japanese forces (led by the sinister Hiroyuki Sanada) sweep in to the City of sin.
Well worth seeing - find it and go view it!

Period of Adjustment

This Tennessee Williams play has not been performed in London in 40 years. Some critics have wanted to know why anyone bothered to revive it. I'm NOT almongst them. I enjoyed this production in the Almeida Theatre in Islington - especially as the seats were only £6 at the matinee performance today! I'm not really an expert on Williams' plays, but this one seems to much brighter than most of his others and does have a happy ending. The Almeida is ideal for this intense play of just four characters and certainly the three who were on stage for almost the entire show were excllent - Jared Harris and Lisa Dillon especially. I'm sure the Southern United States weren't accurate, and with a large American contingent in the audience I'm sure some will have been critical, but I found it easy to follow and the themes still relevant almost half a century after this play was set.
These are not stereotypical characters acting out a cosy drawing room play, and it was well worth my while dragging out to Islington for this show.

Current Reading

At the moment I've got three books on the go (yes three) and I must read another for my book group. Apart from 'Anna Karenina' - which will obviously take a while, I've nearly finished 'Troublemaker' by Joseph Hansen - number 3 in his series of Brandsetter mysteries. This is not great literature, but OK. I've also started 'Blue Shoes and Happiness' the latest Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - not too taxing, but very enjoyable - he conjures up the spirit of Botswana wonderfully.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrades

What a powerful film! Directed by and featuring Tommy Lee Jones this is a tale of the killing of a 'wetback' (illegal immigrant) and subsequent transport of his body to his 'home'. It isn't as straightforward as that, of course.
The film is a series of flashbacks around the central theme of Melguides being carried through Texas and into Mexico by his kidnapped killer (played brilliantly by Barry Pepper) a wayward Border Patrolman. Gruesomely the eponymous Melquiades is dug up and decays before our eyes. A brilliant portrayal of male relationships (between Melgquiades played by Julio Cedillo and his employer played bt Tommy Lee Jones), obsessional behaviour, man's inhumanity to man (Pepper's thuggish attitudes towards the immigrants he is trying to prevent from entering the United States), and small town life (boredom and inter dependence).
Although Tommy Lee Jones is good Pepper is outstanding. I recommend this film very highly.

Anna Karenina

I haven't really been someone who would normally tackle a big Russian novel - but a friend suggested Anna Karenina was a good read. And IT IS!!!! I've very quickly got into the book, and can picture the characters in my head. I'm addicted and whipping through it rapidly. Anyone else read this book and loved it - or hated it? This translation is especially good - the book isn't cluttered with long Russian names (standardised versions are used) and the language is modern and accessible (without being anacronistic). Comments please!!

Civil Partnership

I went to my friends' C & D's civil partnership celebration last night - it was held on HMS Belfast (see the picture !) I'd actually been the Registrar at the legal formation earlier in the day - although very disappointingly (for me) they had decided to just sign the forms and have them witnessed rather than having poetry, readings, music, and lots of guests.

The evening event was fabulous - we were all piped aboard the vessel, and there were 46 gay men and four lesbians present! Although I knew very few people there (apart from my book group) I had a really fun time meeting lots of new people and getting loads of hugs and kisses - which is always nice. The food was tremendous and there was a great quantity of boose - but I can't drink at the moment. We were all given a souvenir wartime ration book - personalised and a menu - although someone took my vegetarian one and left behind the carnivour version!

Just one thing - why can't you get a 'Congratulations on Your Civil Partnership' card from your average High Street store - Hallmark please note. Especially as there are double the number of expected Civil Partnerships taking place in England & Wales - 25,000 at least this year. Wow!

Is your visit really necessary?

Here in the UK we are enjoying (suffering?) from a visit by Condaleeza Rice. Today she was visiting Jack Straw's constituency of Blackburn. I don't know who was experiencing more of a culture shock - Ms Rice or the bemused residents of this Northern, deprived, former textile town. Certainly not all the locals greeted her warmly. Many people still find the notion of suspects being ferried through British airways in transit between the US (where torture only exists in the form of brutal executions - I heard someone recently took over 20 minutes to die in the electric chair - but not before his head caught fire and the sound of his screams had convinced all the inmates of death row of their fate) towards a country where the methods of persuasion are a little more elaborate. I gather Jordan (and even Syria) are the destinations of choice. Naturally Ms Rice (or Dr Rice according to some) denies this and Jack Straw is unaware of any CIA planes carrying people to their doom have ever crossed over or stopped off in Britain.

There is something rotten in the Secretary of State (to adapt Shakespeare).

Transamerica

I went to see 'Transamerica' on Friday. This is an everyday story of a man who is about to become a woman but at that very moment discovers she has a 17 year old son. The film traces their journey across America from New York where the son has been making money as a rentboy, to California where the man is to become a woman and the son thinks he will find his father who is rich and will get him a job as a filmstar.
I enjoyed this film - although it did take me most of the film to believe that Felicity Huffman was a man about to become a woman - there were only occasional moments when she behaved in anything other than a feminine way. Even when we catch a glimpse of the appendage he/she is about to have removed it still doesn't seem that she is a man! Kevin Zegers as the son was excellent - only too believable as a boy on the make - screwed up by abuse from his stepfather, and finding his mother dead.
There is a classic scene in a restaurant featuring the dysfunctional family which probably made the film worth while watching.
This isn't your average road movie and I reckon well worth seeing.

The Old Country

What can you say? A play by Alan Bennett, starring Timothy West, Jean Marsh and Simon Williams. As usual with an Alan Bennet play the characters are so well drawn, the language so accessible, the atmosphere so intimate. The theatre - the Trafalgar Studios (previously the Whitehall Theatre) is ideal for a production of a Bennett play. The seats are not separated from the area where the actors perform (hardly a stage really). I loved this play - hardly a comedy but entertaining and thought provoking. A literary play, making gentle jibes at class, politics, and the literary world. Here we have a spy in exile who is visited by his sister and pompous brother-in-law who have come to take him back to Britain. The spy is content in Russia, but another (lower level) exchangee really wants to return - but won't be given the chance. Alan Bennett is so good at drawing out the elements of character and pokes fun at the pomposity of class. Well worth seeing.

Library

I'm sure you know I love visiting the library - and it is great that my local branch opens on a Sunday.
Today I renewed "Anna Karenina" - I've just started to read it and love it already.
I also took out "The History of Germany (since 1789)" by Golo Mann - I heard it mentioned on the radio earlier today as the best analysis of German history - and it is written by Thomas Mann's son!
N recommended Dorothy Dunnett so I've taken out 'The Spring of the Ram!.
I also selected the latest Alexander McCall Smith (Blue Shoes and Happiness) - good light reading, 'The Rose City' a book of short stories by David Ebershoff and a short crime novel by Joseph Hansen (Troublemaker).
It'lll keep me busy!

Tsotsi

I went to see the film 'Tsotsi' yesterday. What an absolute stunner of a movie! I'm not surprised that it won an Oscar - it deserves a very wide showing - although as it is sub-titled throughout I suspect it will be destined for being marginalised. This will be a tremendous pity.
I found it moving, cathartic, shooking but somehow uplifting. It is supposed to be representative of the currect South African desire for reconcilation. It is all about redemption to my mind. I found the depiction of the gangster attacks on the new black middle class, fascinating. The only white character is a police inspector.
I loved the music too. It was so upbeat and uplifting that it was a remarkable contrast to the dark almost malevolent theme of the film.
Ironically as I am currently suffering from insomnia I caught an interview on the World Service at 3 a.m. this morning with the actor who played the older gangster and sang most of the songs on the soundtrack - I think he was called Zola.
Certainly Presley Chweneyagae who plays the lead in this film deserves to become a big star - he was superb and had a wonderful supporting cast.

Iraq

So what are the Americans up to now? It looks like they've decided to re-start the war. Now this is OK - except I thought the Iraqi's now had their own government elected by the Iraqis - for the Iraqis. Has this new government invited the US government to re-start the war - or is this an alternative to civil war? Instead of Iraqis fighting one another they'll now unite in fighting the invading/occupying forces! Great move George W.

BLOG 101

Probably not the same as Room 101.
Two things today - a report in the news about a pharmaceutical experiment involving eight people testing a new drug. Six were given the drug, two a placebo. Result - 6 almost dead men. I wonder if this drug had been tested on animals previously? Lets hope they get better and the pharmacy company learns from this mistake.
Secondly I've just finished 'Cold Mountain'. Well worth the read - and as I suspected it really didn't end well. I'm now on to Juian Barnes' 'Arthur & George'.

Palestine

What on earth is going on? The Israeli government seem to be doing their own version of prison break. I reckon they are setting the Palestinian authority up to fail. I appreciate that there is a wanted criminal and alleged murdere they are wanting to punish - but I thought he was already in prison. Could they not come to some sort of arrangement rather than sending a portion of the Israeli army in to effect the capture. Perhaps someone out there can explain it to me?
PS THis is my hundredth blog! Neat......

Milosovic

History repeating itself? The twentieth century revolved around the Balkans - bringing war to the whole world as a variety of bizarre tiny kingdoms argued their petty disputes amongst themselves. Various offspring of Queen Victoria and her relations were persuaded to take up the thrones of these countries, or peasant warlords adopted the title of king. Now all these countries are wanting to become members of the European Union - some are already using the Euro instead of their own currency. All seem to want to distance themselves from Serbia - the current bete noir of the Balkans. And now Milosovic inconveniently dies amongst rumour and accusation of poison, suicide and righteous indignation of justice betrayed. It would be comparable to the melodrama of opera if it wasn't so scary.