march film and book review

Please find below my end-of-month review.

BOOKS
GEMMA BOVARY and TAMARA DREWE, by Posy Simmonds. Known to many through her Grauniad strips, these "graphic novels" proved a pleasurable diversion.
THE GRAFT, by RG. I am not naming the author, as he gave me a draft of his memoirs, rather than the definitive published version to read. "The graft" refers to a liver transplant he had to have, having destroyed his own through a lifetime of excess, fascinatingly chronicled by a writer of real quality. From mmy point of view, his account of prolonged insomnia is one of the best written accounts of that affliction I have ever encountered.
BLOOD MERIDIAN, by Cormac McCarthy. A band of bloodthirsty murderers are commisioned by the Mexican government to go on a scalp hunting party among the Apache Indians of the deep south-west of the north American continent. A book at once one of the most beautiful and yet most horrific ever committed to the page. I actually had nightmares.
THE GRIFTERS, by Jim Thompson. He's written a shed load of books, though this is by far the most famous, having been made into a highly successful movie with John Cusack and Angelica Huston. To be honest, as works of art (if we can compare the 2) the latter is the finer of the 2, though the book itself is eminently readable.
MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS, by Truman Capote. A series of "factions", some of which work brilliantly, others not so well. The one about spending a "day off" with Marilyn Monroe in Manhattan is priceless, however.

FILMS

THE MILKY WAY,1969 (D- Luis Bunuel). A couple of vagrants wander along the pilgramage route to Santiago di Compostella; along the way everyone they meet is talking religion, catholic doctrine in all its contradictory complexity and folly. Funny and deeply disturbing, like all Bunuel's films, definitely to be relished.
THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY,1979 (D-John McKenzie). Made in the day when you couldn't see a new British film without Bob Hoskins in it, it shows his skills and that of the British movie scene of the late 70s to great effect.
CRAZY HEART, 2009 (D-Scott Cooper). Jeff Bridges won the oscar for his performance in this superior offering, which in some ways echos "the Wrestler" of last year; a man at the twilight of a glittering career trying to hold on to his unravelling life.
TRISTANA, 1970 (D-Luis Bunuel) Catherine Deneuve is seduced by her atheistic uncle, but gradually exacts her revenge. Always, Bunuel slams the catholic church and its hypocrisy; here he does it very subtly, as the film was made in franco's Spain and he didn't want to go to jail. The fascist idiots appeared not to notice the veiled attack, and let it go.
TWILIGHT, 2009 (D-Catherine Hardwicke). Features a "nice" vampire (all the rage, apparently) who has become a big-deal heart-throb amongST the "yoth demographic". As a film it proves quite fun, right down to the sequel which is implied almost from the outset.
ULYSSES, 1967 (D-Joseph Strick). How can you make a 2 hour movie of a 1000 pages book? Answer: you choose your scenes with great care and leave an awful lot out. Even so, the product is a success, confirmed by my wife who has not yet read the book. With only a few exceptions, I would have chosen the same scenes to portray on the screen.
LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS, 2009 (D-Phil Claydon). Really, is this the best they can do? A woefully vapid offering, where the scary bits aren't scary enough, the sexy bits not sexy enough and the funny bits scarcely amusing at all. The best thing about it is the Horne/Corden pairing, which, sorry lads, isn't saying much.