Archive for January, 2008
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
Saboteur Hitchcock doing Hitchcock is better than most other imitators but still this is a minor work and too much of a US copy of The 39 Steps. Priscilla Lane is adorable while Robert Cummings is serviceable and unexciting. The episode with the circus freaks and the finale at the Statue of Liberty were highlights.
Aguirre, Wrath of God Our DVD offered this in 5.1 German so naturally we watched it in 5.1 German only to belatedly discover (i.e. when it was finished) it was filmed in English. I feel particularly daft because I had seen it before in English. Anyway, it is in any language a remarkable film with an extraordinary atmosphere and an intense central performance from Klaus Kinski. It is both realistic and surreal. Real mud, real monkeys.
The Innocents This is one of the two best ghost stories I have ever seen (the other being The Others) with three superb performances and the freakiest ending. If you have never seen then please seek it out and revel in Deborah Kerr’s best work (and role) and the gleaming black and white photography. And because it’s scary.
Strings I recorded this on a whim and I’m so glad I did. It is simply amazing. The concept and execution is so remarkable that I forgive the rather dull plot. The puppetry was amazing and the fantasy world created made clever use of the actual limitations of really being a puppet on a string: gates and cages with high bars to keep you in, replacement limbs harvested from slaves and death from a severed head string. There were many notable scenes but the flaming strings falling from the sky was probably the most arresting moment.
A Kiss Before Dying The holes in the plot of this do spoil it. The acting was variable: the father was wooden and Joanne Woodward defied her performance in this to become an Oscar winner while Robert Wagner was suitably creepy as the cold killer.
Posted in Films | No Comments »
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
This is a rather pointless post on album covers.
I had never listened to Electrelane before, despite several albums in the house, but when I saw No Shouts No Calls, I was struck by the great cover and gave them a go and now I like them (just as they go on hiatus…).
All these albums are in our collection and only include music I regularly listen to so
there will be no reference to Blind Faith’s Blind Faith (eww) or to Luna’s The Days of Our Nights.
Covers that work for me:
Electrelane -
No Shouts No Calls - I like the simple colours and the fact it looks like a badge.
Espers -
II - This cover in no way misleads as to the content of the album.
Aimee Mann -
Lost in Space - Aimee’s covers are usually unenticing and this I suppose for many would be no exception but the songs on the album are gloomy and you get what you pay for. Pylons are oddly beautiful, I think.
Audrey -
Visible Forms - This is pretty.
Nina Nastasia -
On Leaving - I like images of black and white trees a lot.
Mirah -
Advisory Committee - To be honest, this cover makes me feel a little uncomfortable and yet it is intriguing.
Laura Veirs -
Carbon Glacier - Another black and white image which I find arresting. If I was flicking through the racks in a record shop I would definitely stop at this.
Paula Frazer & Tarnation -
Now It’s Time - Aww, this is so beautiful.
Covers that don’t work for me:
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther - Wtf were they thinking? It must have been fun to dress up like that but how many casual sales did they lose?
Kate Bush - Aerial - Kate Bush’s sleeves are generally naff (except The Dreaming) but this is plain horrible. I bought Aerial regardless but I think this is dated and ugly. Kate, take at look at any Espers album cover, that’s what your music is like.
Bat for Lashes - Fur & Gold - Flipping heck, thank goodness Natasha Khan’s music is in better taste than her costumes and artwork.
Kristin Hersh - Hips & Makers - This is actually not that bad for a work of art. I can imagine it on my wall but in miniature on a CD case (or LP sleeve) its too messy and dirty looking.
Au Revoir Simone - The Bird of Music - Snore.
Posted in Images, Music | 2 Comments »
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
While Adam was on a sleepover we watched three films (well nearly three).
The 40 Year Old Virgin - I lasted half an hour before deciding that a film that presents a person being vomited on by another person as funny probably was never going to work for me. Maybe it did get better when Catherine Keener turned up but I don’t care. Really don’t care. The swearing, the shouting, the sex talk, the sensitive guy’s girlfriend actually just being worthless despite his longing, the club scene, the hilarious drunk-driving just made me feel tense and unhappy. I am middle-aged and I am old-fashioned and I hate crap like this.
A Scanner Darkly - highly recommended - a film that I know will just get better on repeated viewings - the animation took about ten minutes to get used to and the last ten minutes seemed a bit rushed and abrupt but otherwise it was dark, funny, moving, thought-provoking and gripping. The acting was great and although the animated Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr were spot on, the animated Winona Ryder was curiously not. It was interesting having three of the four leads cast in a druggy film with their own druggy problems or interests. There were two very funny scenes: the 9 or 18 gear bike and the unlocked front door.
Catch Me If You Can - it seemed appropriate to watch this after ASD since it is referenced in that. There are very few films over 2 hours long that wouldn’t be better not being over two hours and this wasn’t one of the few. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it. I hadn’t registered that Tom Hanks was in it and my heart sank a little at that but he was great: exceptionally well cast as the dogged Carl. I have always thought Leonardo DiCaprio is a good actor from way back when I saw him in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and This Boy’s Life and people who can’t see past Titanic are missing out. He is charismatic and charming. Reading about Abagnale afterwards it is clear that brilliant rather than good film could have been made. This was too tasteful.
PS:
I like Paul Rudd
Posted in Films | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
After Life (Jane Espenson)
The last five minutes of this are superb - worthy of just quoting Buffy’s monologue (though that doesn’t do justice to what is essentially a dialogue between SMG and James Marsters despite Spike’s silence).
I was happy. Wherever I…was…I was happy. At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time…didn’t mean anything…nothing had form…but I was still me, you know? And I was warm…and I was loved…and I was finished. Complete. I don’t understand about theology or dimensions, or, any of it, really…but I think I was in heaven. And now I’m not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out…by my friends. Everything here is…hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch…this is Hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that…knowing what I’ve lost…They can never know. Never.
(Not until that pesky musical episode anyway.)
I really really dislike the others when they pile into the living room and effectively terrorize Buffy leaving it to Dawn (after Spike understandably scarpers) to tell them to back off.
And, I can hardly write this for laughing at the incongruity that my son who would wear pyjamas 24/7 if we, ahem, let him, exclaimed, “What is Willow wearing?” when Alyson Hannigan appeared clad in what can only be called a plush synthetic bathroom set.
Unbelievably in all seven seasons of Buffy when some pretty terrible clothes were worn this takes the biscuit. It is seriously vile.
It also detracts from Buffy’s very convincing thank you even though she struggles to disguise her revulsion at the realisation that it is ALL Willow’s fault.
(Actually maybe it is just the top she has a problem with.)
Why does Tara wear a bra to bed? (What? Everybody does?) Whatever. I find that distracts me from Tara and Willow’s conversation as well as the arm stroking and the fact they are in bed together - but maybe that’s just me. Anyway - moving on - how dozy are they that it does not occur to them that Buffy’s lack of gratitude may be related to the place they just took her from? This line tickles me - “Right. No need to be in a big furry hurry” because clearly Willow ignores her own advice later on.
Serious stuff and big trouble ahead:
Tara: “Well, what was it talking about? Did you understand it?”
Willow: “Well, I understood the words, but…no.”
(It said “The blood dried on your hands, didn’t it?”)
The scene between Tara and Xander (when he presumably talks to the only person he can about Willow’s behaviour) is unusual because I can’t recall another scene with just the two of them and Tara’s defence of her girlfriend is just that - defensive.
I feel genuinely sad when Willow and Tara are doing the spell together and Willow breaks their connection and finishes it herself. She has come a long way from floating the rose.
I read some other analyses of BtVS and I feel shallow that I get amused by “furry hurry” lines because it conjures up that top and because I wonder why Tara is wearing a bra but then I revel in the fact that BtVS can handle any interpretation thrown at it. It works on so many levels and I think I know where mine is.
Posted in BtVS, Buffy Season 6, Television | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
I have scrapped my next candidate in this prodigious prestigious (you nit) series because I have just read “Anywhere But Here” (#10 of Buffy season 8*).
So I am moving on to my next favourite left-handed person I love admire who is Tina Fey.
My appreciation of Tina Fey is based on Mean Girls and 30 Rock and nothing else. I’m British, I have never seen Saturday Night Live but since I know stuff and thence I do know that it’s not actually my sort of thing and that would seem to make my like of 30 Rock a touch baffling since it is about a programme rather like SNL. But actually, it’s not really baffling at all, Jack and Kenneth and Liz and Tracy and Jenna are hilarious comic creations from the mind of Tina. And her mind is brilliant because it thinks of lines like “Those shoes are definitely bi-curious” (more quotes below) and when she’s interviewed in Playboy she says things like
But for some of these other chicks, the closest they can get to a body like that is to remove everything that’s there and add a little something on top. It’s like the ladies you see in Playboy.
And she wears glasses and she has a scar. Read Dorothy Surrenders and she’ll explain better.
Jack: Sure…I gotcha. New York, third-wave feminist, college-educated, single and pretending to be happy about it, over-scheduled, undersexed, you buy any magazine that says ‘healthy body image’ on the cover, and every two years you take up knitting for… a week.
Pete: That is dead on!
Liz: What, are you going to guess my weight now?
Jack: You don’t want me to do that.
Liz: If I’m gonna be with someone, it has to be a guy.
Gretchen: You sound pretty sure about that.
Liz: What can I say, I love a bald spot and a hairy back.
Gretchen: You’re alone there.
Jack: Human contact is important Lemon. I can tell from your stress level that you have not been touched in any way in quite some time. Not caressed, not massaged, not even groped on the subway.
Liz: I hate going up to Donaghy’s office even for something normal. I always feel like I’m entering the Death Star.
Liz: No, Tracy took advantage of my ‘white guilt,’ which is supposed to be used only for good like over-tipping and supporting Barack Obama.
Gentleman: Excuse me, is this seat taken?
Liz: [Sighs] Really dude? I got to move my coat? There are like 4 empty seats over there - can’t you just be cool?
[Gentleman leaves]
Jenna: That guy wanted to buy you a drink!
Liz: Really? But I already have a drink. Do you think he’d buy me mozzarella sticks?
Liz: [on the phone] Hi, my name is Liz Lemon and I received flowers from your shop tonight and I can’t tell who they’re from. [pause] No, no, I did read the card but it’s not signed…. no, I’m not with so many men that it’s impossible for me to guess…well, that is just…oh, well you know what, I found the card, actually, they’re from your mom, so tell your gay mom I said thanks! [hangs up]
OK, she isn’t credited with writing all these lines but she’s in charge.
And proof she is left-handed is in this compilation of all her scenes in Mean Girls (PS Lindsay Lohan is so lovely at the beginning of this film).
*However, if you are going to draw Tina Fey then maybe glasses would help and please give her a waist!
Posted in Buffy Season 8, Comics, Films, Left-handedness, Television | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
The Guardian’s blogging editorial policy seems determined to be as divisive as possible regarding gender. The Guardian used to be one of my quick links but recently I removed it because I was fed up with being sucked into a Comment is Free blog full of mutual hatred just because I was looking for some news to read. I still have their arts blogs feeds set up in Netvibes because they are interesting. However, this piece by John Sutherland is mind-bogglingly stupid. He asks whether women can write about war by going on about joysticks and shrivelling balls when he hears a woman’s voice coming from a cockpit and, without irony, uses an article by Pat Buchanan to illustrate a point. (Hang on, maybe, the whole thing is ironic! And maybe it’s meant to be funny!) It is painful to read because of sentences like this
Can a class of writer so institutionally and historically disengaged from a subject write a classic (or even a good) novel on it?
and
Why, with all those “women’s subjects” at her disposal, did Kennedy venture into this most exclusive of manly enclaves?
I shall certainly read Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? and Is Heathcliff a Murderer? in a different light now.
But still, a good thing has come out of it - I actually quite fancy reading Day by AL Kennedy now.
PS Even it is written in humour this type of article is all over The Guardian these days and they are serious.
Posted in Books, Female thinking | No Comments »
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
I am aware this is aimed at modern young people but it was an interesting experience answering the questions. The original is here and I have deleted some questions which were irrelevant.
If your father went to college before you started
My dad left school at 15
If your mother went to college before you started
My mum left school at 17
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
One of my uncles was a teacher
If your family was the same or higher class than your high school teacher
No, but I was friends with the daughter of a high school teacher
If you had a computer at home when you were growing up
Very unlikely in the 70s
If you had more than 50 books at home when you were growing up
Yes, they were mostly mine but dad read a lot of library books (he still usually has six on the go)
If were read children’s books by a parent when you were growing up
Certainly not from any time that I can remember but maybe when I was a toddler
If you ever had lessons of any kind as a child or a teen
None at all
If the people in the media who dress and talk like you were portrayed positively
That’s a tough one because no-one in the media resembles our family – a working class one with liberal attitudes
If you had a credit card with your name on it before college
Absolutely not
If you had or will have less than $5000 in student loans when you graduate
I went to college when fees weren’t an issue and grants were given for living expenses
If you had or will have no student loans when you graduate
I was in debt but I soon cleared it
If you went to a private high school
No but I did sit entrance exams for one but I didn’t do well enough to get a bursary
(International question) If you have been to the US more than once as a child or teen
No – we never travelled abroad except for when my dad was stationed overseas
If your family vacations involved staying at hotels rather than KOA or at relatives’ homes
Ha ha – not even the British equivalent of KOA – we always visited relatives
If all of your clothing has been new
Not with two older sisters
If your parents gave you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
Ha ha again
If there was original art in your house as a child or teen
There isn’t any now
If you had a phone in your room
Er no
If your parent owned their own house or apartment when you were a child or teen
Yes (with a mortgage)
If you had your own room as a child or teen
Only when my sisters left home
If you had your own cell phone in high school
Not in the 70s
If you had your own TV as a child or teen
No way – not even a b&w portable
If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
What are they?
If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline
Yes – but only to come home from Germany and we usually drove
If your parents took you to museums and art galleries as a child or teen
No
If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
What an odd question – my parents didn’t share financial information with their children – however, I was totally aware of the need to turn lights off, keep doors closed, radiators turned down, etc
Step into Social Class 2.0
A Social Class Awareness Experience
Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka
Indiana State University
© 2008
Posted in Meme | No Comments »
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Bargaining I and II (Marti Noxon)
As season openers go then this is one of the better ones – at least the first part is – the second part drags at times and the climatic scene between Buffy and Dawn is definitely too long.
Buffy’s burial dress is quite unattractive and SMG’s wig looked like the same one she wore in “Beer Bad” – both rather poor costuming errors. Maybe this is an omen for a season littered with errors of judgement. In fact these two episodes could be seen as a microcosm of S6 – a mix of the good, the intriguing and the bloody awful.
The good includes more Tara goodness in 80 minutes than the whole of S5 (minus a couple of episodes): Tara going “Grr argh” is just cuteness itself.
Plus, the teaser is glorious: “Oh, poor Watcher. Did your life pass before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea?”
Intriguing includes Willow’s solo determination to fix Buffy’s death and the clear concerns of the others about what and (when they realise) how she went about it. The bloody awful includes some lame villains and Buffy’s hair.
Spike and Dawn resume their relationship from “Forever”, the Buffybot continues to be perfectly played by Sarah Michelle Gellar (”That’ll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!” and “‘If we want her to be exactly she’ll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she’s gone’ who?”) and Giles and Anya’s relationship has plenty of sexual tension.
Finally, these two episodes are the source of Tara and Willow fan fiction’s greatest cliché: pancakes.
Posted in BtVS, Buffy Season 6, Television | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 5th, 2008
Ice Princess
We only watched this because Michelle “Dawnie” Trachtenberg was in it and Joan Cusack and Claire from Heroes and we stayed to the end. Now the title is clearly cynical, its plot is preposterous (Casey is far too old to improve so much as a skater) and it is mostly formulaic and clichéd. However, if I was the mother of a ten year girl I would be more than happy for her to watch this and not have her and my intelligence insulted because when it wasn’t clichéd it was quite refreshing. Casey and her friend are geeks but they don’t wear glasses and the friend isn’t plump. Small things but just how often does our heroine remove her glasses and suddenly she’s beautiful (and able to see)? The seemingly shallow Gen wants to give up skating because, yes, she wants to party and be “normal” but also because she wants to do well enough in her studies to go to college. Not a classic but it was a thoroughly engaging 90 minutes or so,
I must add that Adam happily watched this film and seriously he and his friends totally undermine the insulting notion that boys will only watch male protagonists. He has also seen The Golden Compass twice.
The Golden Compass
Here is a film that I desperately wanted to like but I must class it as a failure because it did not have the courage to stick with the original storyline. I don’t have a problem with Nicole Kidman not being dark-haired or young because she captured the essence of Mrs Coulter’s charming malevolence but I do have a problem with sequences of events proceeding out of order leading to a talky ending rather than an intriguing one.
I don’t really have much else to insightfully add except I was intrigued by a pair of reviews by Stephanie Zacharek of Salon of The Golden Compass and the spectacularly bland The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and wonder why she choose to bitch about Nicole Kidman (”She swans about like a drag queen in training.”) and compare that comment with her take on Tilda Swinton as the White Witch (”There’s no silly swanning around for this deep-freeze diva”).
Posted in Female thinking, Films | No Comments »
