View at 90 degrees
Something to try at home, with the pc:
The result? If you’re anything like me, you can feel the cpu get hot, working unbidden to impose some kind of order and retain a relational understanding of the elements.
Not sure how quickly this will wear off – sooner beats later!
Liked this from the soundtrack of french film, Anna M (disturbing tale of loopy, parisian stalker).
Indie folk trio, Au revoir Simone perform their song Stay golden as they wander through the a New York neighbourhood. Of course, some wiseacre can’t resist a witticism. The girls, more or less unpeturbed, continue – as wistful as ever.
Bravo!
#23.1 – AU REVOIR SIMONE -STAY GOLDEN by lablogotheque
Excerpt
The smuggest man in England? The Manchester Evening News chose their ‘half man, half lobster’ photograph of Mr Gill with care after taking exception to a very rude article about their city’s (risibly inadequate, according to AAG) restaurant scene.
AA Gill springs to mind, not because of an savagely amusing piece of journalism, but because he was on the Radio 4 travel show, Excess Baggage this morning. He mentioned that he had caused offence to the Welsh and in the course of a google search to find out how, I found this – a piece for Vanity Fair excoriating British expats in NYC.
Having been one myself, I can understand what he means – to a degree. That said, I don’t really think that his sweeping generalisation captures the existential truth for everyone that winds up there. I remember two fellows from Essex who were working in a Manhattan shoe store who loved everything american because it was so utterly different from their not loved place of origin.
Brits Behaving Badly (65.92 kB) A man at cross purposes (156.45 kB) AA Gill on dyslexia (194.96 kB)
Amy Sutherland
Interesting article on the ecology of nagging from feminist, Lindsay Beyerstein. She reviews Amy Sutherland’s NY Times article and book which outlines the effectiveness of using animal training techniques on her husband.
On the face of it, being trained like an animal isn’t appealing, but when one considers the alternative…
Finem respice.
All in all a good production – the language was easily understood, the production design presenting Denmark as the fiefdom of an oligarch was convincing. Especially interestesting was Hamlet’s interaction with the players before their performance. It provided a strong sense of Shakespeare the old pro looking at something close to his heart and experience.
A good cast, all in all. Hamlet played by Rory Kinnear was energetic and mournful. Patrick Malahide’s large lizard head and fine suits made him easy to recognise as the power hungry villain. Ophelia played by Ruth Negga was young and perky, although the depth of feeling between her and Hamlet was hard to gauge; perhaps a problem inherent in the play as much as the performance.
Also problematic, is the moral standing of Laertes – his willingness to use poison, following a suggestion made by the wicked Claudius makes him far from noble. Then there’s also the question of whether Hamlet takes responsibility for killing Polonius. His line, that were he himself, he would never have done it is inadequate. He shows greater insight when he it makes no sense, rationally, to be overcome by grief over the death of one man and feel next to nothing on learning that 20,000 Norwegian soldiers are going to die for some worthless territory in Poland.
By the end, Hamlet is ready for the grave and we, the audience, are ready to let him go. Nonetheless, the final words spoken by Horatio and Fortinbras are disappointing. Hamlet is lauded and the grisliness of the denouement is noted, but the complexity somehow isn’t recognised. Fortinbras is brisk and ready to get on with the business of government – as un-Hamlet-like a response as one can imagine.
Hamlet and his problems (53.05 kB) Winnicott's Hamlet (392.48 kB)
Just caught Russell Kane on ‘Live from the Apollo’ and looked on Youtube. Very funny observations about his Essex homeland. Highly recommended.
Period piece from 1960. Interesting for the light it throws on manners and class and the shift to multiculturalism. A couple of Caribbean prisoners, an Aussie, some proto-mafiosi and a suave American (who I see is played by Sam Wannamaker).
If this were being made today, Clive Owen or Tom Hardy would be starring and it’s doubtful whether they would improve much on Stanley Baker’s swaggering and glowering. Unfortunately, the plot is standard issue – there’s an attractive love interest, Margit Saad (exotically German), but no snappy dialogue and little tension in the scenes. The snowy field where Bannion stashes his loot must have been an influence on the Coen brothers in Fargo, so maybe that’s as much of a legacy as the film needs.
Perhaps, this was gritty for the time, but gritty is grittier these days and this kind of thing has been done to death (and better) since then.
Lights and Water from James Adamson on Vimeo.
Who would have thought that an out of focus lens could produce such an engaging video?
From The Times, July 2009:
Isaacs’s fascination with the sort of complex and intriguing characters who populate his films started in his teens.
“I hit 13 in 1980, and it was a very interesting time because there were riots going on and life was very unstable and fragile. That was the first time that the world seemed not as fixed as I had thought. I also had a job in Petticoat Lane market. And the characters around there were incredible — Jewish market stall traders, skinheads, Bengalis. Growing up in that era was a kind of awakening in terms of being interested in what was going on around me instead of being focused in on your own little street in suburbia.â€
Isaacs was born in the East End, but his family soon moved out to “a hellhole called Redbridge [in northeast London]. It’s bleak now, but was really bleak back then. The boredom drove some people into crime — most people into crime in fact — and others into shady areas of documentary film-making.â€
Marc Isaacs’ breakout film Lift was excellent – fresh and humane. Filmed over the course of several months in the lift of a council block in east London, he slowly develops a realtionship with a number of residents (I wonder if people on the ground floor started using the lift to get in the film?). He shares only snatches of conversation with his subjects, but we learn a surprising amount; as much from their non-verbal interaction as their words.
His latest effort, Outside The Court screened on BBC2 recently is remarkably similar in format, except it takes place outside Highbury Magistrates court. As in Lift, we get to know a number of individuals – some charming, some pitiful and some amusing. It lacks its predecessors intimacy, however and its freshness. Time for a change?
