I saw a young female patient this morning studying "performance and film" at UMIST. I asked her who her favourite (and still working) director was. She was reluctant to give me a name (if asked the same question, without thinking too hard I would probably have cited Woody Allen), so instead I asked her what was the best film she had seen in 2009. Straight away she came up with "The Red Shoes". I find this a good foil to complaints that "young people" don't know a good film when they see one (having been not best encouraged the last time I asked a "young person", allegedly a film buff, what was the best film he had ever seen, and he came up with the answer "V for Vendetta" FYI, it's a load of crap.
Last night (courtesy of LoveFilm) we watched "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari". The last time I saw it was nearly 40 years ago at my university film club yet I vividly recall its electrifying impact. And even now, nearly a hundred years after it was made, it has lost none of its originality and horrific power. Comedy note: just as it started I began to fiddle with the aspect controls "to make sure we can see the subtitles" My wife had to point out gently "You do know it was made in 1919?"
On a darker note, I sent a cheque to the Appeal for Haiti this morning. If someone on my income can't help the poor buggers out, who can? There was a story on "The Today Programme" describing how the homeless and desperate survivors of the earthquake had actually resorted to constructing road blocks from corpses in a kind of last-ditch protest at the tardiness of the rescue response. If it is true, then this is one of the most terrible stories I have ever heard. I understand the US is to take a leading role in organising the response, which I imagine will not fill the Haitian people with any great optimism. After all, they couldn't even organise proper help for their own people in their own home grown disaster not so long ago..
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I heard that today report about the body road block - one of the first times there has been a need for a warning of disturbing content on a radio programme... the journalist making the assumption that it was a protest at tardiness of rescue ingress to that area was hesitant in making it... and who wouldn't be. But it could be that it was just the easiest place to show everyone there were lots of bodies needing to be collected - the roads must be in a hell of a state anyway...
as for whether the USA will do better than they did with Katrina - we are talking Obama not Bush so I think it will be - unfortunately IO don't have so much faith in their ability to work in areas with a different culture - they may decide that the populace need televisions first....
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