May 2014 book and film review

BOOKS


THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, by Charles Dickens. A frail old man faces bankruptcy partly as a result of his gambling addiction, so his 12-year-old granddaughter takes charge and together they flee into the countryside. But a malevolent dwarf is convinced the old man is sitting on a pot of gold and sends his henchmen to seek him out. However, with the help of random acts of kindness from several sources, little Nell and her granddad hide themselves well. But never underestimate the depth of human greed...
The usual high quality fare from the Great One, featuring in the character of little Nell one of the most perfect, in truth saintly, of all Dickens's creations. Their flight into the heart of England is told in truly epic style, and the scene where Nell and her grandfather have to spend the night sheltering from the rain inside a steel foundry is unforgettable. Splendid stuff.


LONDON BRIDGES, by James Patterson. Dr Alex Cross is called in to help track down the Weasel, a nasty piece of work who enjoys hurting people, and his even more unpleasant boss, the Wolf, who is holding the whole world to ransom by threatening to blow up several major cities at once. Cross has all the resources of the CIA, MI5 and Interpol to help him, but the Wolf is so ruthless and well organised the task seems impossible....
It's easy to be scathing about James Patterson's writing, but there's no denying his appeal. His 20-odd books have sold over 70 million copies around the world, so his attraction to the "airport" market is clearly powerful. How does he do it? First, the chapters are short. Very short in fact, at an average of just 4 pages, and sometimes as short as 2. You'd have a job creating a précis of his work because he doesn't waste a single word. The plot grabs you and sweeps you away on its wild ride and the reader is almost powerless to put it down. Verdict: holiday reading at its most irresistible.


THE DIVINE COMEDY PART THREE: PARADISO, by Dante Alighieri. Having descended into Hell and climbed the mountain of Purgatory, our pilgrim now faces his most amazing journey: through the heavenly spheres, one by one, until he reaches the Empyrean, where, his mind's eye sharpened by training through the other levels is finally able to behold God himself.
With his characteristic blend of classical myth, astrology and biblical scripture, Dante has created one of the greatest and most exciting works in the history of literature. Not that this is in any way an easy read. Dante himself in the very first canto warns the unwary reader they will need to be well equipped with a knowledge of the Bible and the classical texts from antiquity as well as a sharp, discerning mind if they are to come to grips with his great poem.
To aid the less sophisticated reader most editions of The Divine Comedy come complete with extensive footnotes, though I would offer the potential reader this advice: consult the Wiki sites first. For once they are well written and extremely informative; in fact much more useful than the voluminous texts found in my copy (the Oxford University Press). For me this work demanded a greater level of sustained concentration than for any book I have read since Ulysses, but my God, was it ever worth it...


FILMS


REDS (1981) D- Warren Beatty. An idealistic young journalist, John Reed (Warren Beatty) is active in the union movement of early 20th century America, but realises that it is Russia where the winds of change are blowing most strongly. He is drawn to it as if by magnetic force, but at home there is distraction in the shape of his great love, fellow journalist Louise Bryant (played by Diane Keaton). Eventually he travels alone and the result is the seminal text Ten Days that Shook the World, Reed's book about the October Revolution. But Louise finds she can't live without him and endures privation and danger to seek him out in that strange and frightening land. For you see, this film is really more about their great love, a love that transcends even the convulsions of a great nation...
An outstanding piece of work, this is Beatty's love-child from start to finish and America, surprisingly considering its content, took it to its heart and awarded Beatty the Oscar for best director. The film would doubtless have won even more plaudits, but for Chariots of Fire, which won almost everything else that year.


THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT (1956) D- Nunnally Johnson. In post-war America, an army captain is threatening to do well in Wall Street, but is haunted by his wartime exploits, one of which was to father a son in the ruins of Naples. Will this come back to haunt him? Damn right.
An interesting film coming out of a highly successful Broadway play, this film may be about taking responsibility for one's past acts, but it is also about business. For it seems there are two kinds of executives: those who wish to work a nine-to-five job and nurture their families, and the real go-getters who sacrifice everything to achieve their goals of wealth and power. Which will our protagonist (Gregory Peck) prove to be?


THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST (2013) D- Mira Nair. A clever Pakistani (Riz Ahmed) wins a scholarship to Princeton and impresses a Wall Street executive (Kiefer Sutherland) so much he is offered a prestigious job in his firm. Then the twin towers are attacked and everything changes... He is suspected of being in Al Qaida and does indeed have sympathy with their cause, but he is no terrorist. Or is he?
Funded by the Doha film institute, this film intelligently portrays some of the cultural conundrums that make up the problems of the post 9/11 world. It is made with a high degree of professionalism and looks great on screen.


TRANCE (2013) D- Danny Boyle. Art thieves recruit an auctioneer to help them steal a masterpiece, but in the melee that ensues after the heist he is hit on the head and forgets where he has stashed the picture. The gang then bring in a hypnotist to see if she can delve into the man's subconscious to find where the picture is hidden. Sounds like a pretty good premise for a movie, but I found it wholly unconvincing and trashy. None of the characters are believable, and the acting is suspect. Poor. Makes you think Danny should stick to organising mega-events...


THE WORLD'S END (2013) D- Edgar Wright. Simon Pegg wants to bring his old schoolpals back together for an epic pub crawl, but as it happens this is the same night a crew of evil robots from beyond the Moon arrive on planet Earth with the plan to take it over...
Third and final episode in Frost and Pegg's Three Flavours Cometto trilogy (the other two being the hilarious Shaun of the dead and the equally riotous Hot Fuzz) this unfortunately fails to live up to the promise of the earlier two, although all the elements seem to be there to produce a cracker: the tried and trusted Pegg and Frost, other great cameos including the excellent Martin Freeman, and high production values. Yet somehow it comes over as a bit too self conscious and self- congratulatory. Shame.


THE SAVAGES (2007) W-D- Tamara Jenkins. A brother and sister living in different parts of the States are brought together when they learn their dad has Alzheimer's and been placed in a "retirement home". They converge on their dad, but, as is often the case between siblings, they have their own issues to work out...
A beautifully written and sensitively directed piece exemplifying the best in American cinema, and notable for the superb performances of Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Laura Linney as the brother and sister. Not easy to watch for anyone with personal experience of a relative with dementia, but with strong resonance also. Brilliant.


HAYWIRE (2011) D- Steven Soderbergh. Mallory is a not just a pretty girl, she is a highly skilled martial artist and assassin. She works for a shadowy black-ops organisation which hires its services to governments around the world, but while working on a hit in Barcelona she realises she has actually been set up to be murdered herself. She swears revenge on those who would kill her, and her enemies soon find they would underestimate her to their cost. To their terrible cost...
Given a rating of only 5.5 by Rotten tomatoes, this shows those ratings (based on viewer's opinions) are not as useful as we might hope. This is a class actioner, thrilling and scary. Gina Carrano (who in real life is a mixed martial arts champion) is excellent as the epitome of the adage that the female of the species is deadlier than the male. My only problem is that the various male leads look so alike they are hard to tell apart. Except for Michael Douglas's cameo. You don't mistake his face for anyone's...


LES BICHES (The Does) (1968) D- Claude Chabrol. A classy Parisian socialite (Stephane Audran, a woman so beautiful Helen of Troy would look like Ena Sharples in comparison) picks up a female pavement artist, then takes her to her estate near St Tropez. Then at a party the younger woman has a one-night stand with a local architect. The older woman appears to take it in her stride, but does she really? Eventually a sort of menage a trois develops, but stresses within the triangle threaten to tear it apart.
Chabrol has been called "the French Hitchcock" and with good reason. He has made some brilliant thrillers, most notably Le Boucher, and this film shows his skills with human character are equally subtle. Most impressive of all, the film has barely dated in nearly fifty years. And you can't say that very often...

Star (of David) Wars: A new hope?

A seasoned observer of all things middle East might be forgiven for a degree of cynicism about any proposed peace deal in that fractured region. Certainly America under Bush the Second did absolutely nothing apart from coining the catchy phrase "the road map to peace", and Obama, of whom we might have expected better, did even less. Thus it has fallen to Pope Francis to step in and cut through the cant and hypocrisy and come up with an amazing plan: to bring the heads of state of Palestine and Israel together to pray for peace in the neutral venue of the Vatican. Incredibly, they have agreed. And while we should have no illusions about any really meaningful outcome from these prayers, I still say this is a truly remarkable development in the Arab/Israeli conflict, perhaps the most remarkable since Israel was born in 1948.


I don't think anyone will ever forget the image of Pope Francis praying at the Apartheid fence, his head resting against the unforgiving reinforced concrete. To me it is compatible with the breaking down of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela in its significance for the region and the wider world. And although I fear that the Zionist faction within Israeli politics will already be scheming how they can torpedo any agreement that may come from it, never mind the hard-liners in Hamas who still refuse to recognise Israel's existence, I am naïve and hopeful enough to believe there might just be a tiny window of opportunity to get a little justice for "the forgotten ones" of Palestine. All we can know for sure is, Pope Francis hasn't forgotten them. What a guy!

Charles nearly gets it right

Apparently Prince Charles has been overheard as comparing Putin's actions in Ukraine with Hitler's expansionist policies in the years building up to World War 2. In a way he has a point. Hitler used the pretext of protecting German speaking peoples in other countries in order, first to intimidate, then to invade them outright. Poland is the classical example of this method, and in Putin's encouragement of Russian speakers in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine to rise up against the central government, we do see a sort of parallel.


It is hazardous enough for the future king of England to be sounding off against the leader of one of the world's most powerful countries, so perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on him for failing to mention another worrying parallel with the rise of Hitler and the Nazis: Nigel Farage and his UKIP henchmen.


Nigel has discovered just how successful an appeal to the basest instincts of the population can be. I understand a consensus has been agreed between the main parties not to label Farage or UKIP as racist- not because it is rude, and certainly not because it isn't true, but because every time they do, UKIP experiences a bounce in popularity. This is really frightening, because it means that people must be saying to themselves:
Really? A racist party? That's the one for me then.
Hitler came to power in 1933 by saying he would reverse the ignominy of the Versailles treaty of 1919, which stripped Germany of much of its  political power, just as UKIP now says we are being stripped of our power by the EU. Hitler also pointed out certain ethnic minorities as being another significant cause of Germany's problems, just as Farage now targets the immigrants from eastern Europe as being responsible for many of our problems today.


In America recently the Tea Party was threatening to carry all before it with its policies of "all government is bad; let the people (ie big business) run their own lives without interference". Fortunately, when it came to the vote, the American people saw them for what they were, namely a bunch of right wing nutters, and they were comprehensively trashed in the congressional elections. I know we have just seen UKIP make extraordinary strides in the local elections, and maybe they will do the same in the elections to the European parliament. But I am still hopeful that by the time the general election comes around next year the British people will have nailed UKIP for what it is: a racist party, run by racists, and one that should be confined to the lunatic fringe, which is exactly where it belongs. Please God.

Religious extremism: the world's biggest problem

The government of Nigeria and those of several other sub-Saharan nations have agreed on a press release announcing their intention to wage all-out war against Boko Haram. I agree with them. It's the only way. The kidnap of nearly three hundred girls last month is the event which alerted the wider world to their threat, but for years now they have been waging their own war against anyone who disagrees with their perverted view of Islam. Only a couple of weeks ago they fell upon a (doubtless predominantly Christian) village and murdered 370 people.


I am not a pacifist. Although I am generally against war and would prefer a negotiated solution to any given problem, there are exceptions. In World War 2, there was no option: the Nazis had to be crushed, and so did the militarists in Japan. And they were, albeit at a terrible cost. Slowly, painfully, the world was made a safer and better place as a result of their destruction. And now I say: Boko Haram and Al Shabbab must likewise be crushed. Their creed of "join our faction of Islam or die" is anathema to anyone who believes in the principles of freedom, tolerance and diversity.


But religious hatred is not confined to radical Islam. In Jerusalem, ultra-orthodox Jews jeer at Christian children on their way to school (just as unionists do to Catholic schoolchildren in Northern Ireland), throw rotten vegetables at them and scrawl graffiti on their most revered sites- even the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, perhaps the most holy place in Christendom, has been daubed with hateful slogans. And you thought it was just the Palestinians they didn't like? Just like Boko Haram, they don't like anyone, even other Jews of less extreme persuasion, who don't share their elitist, "we're right and everyone else is wrong" view.


In the past I have often thought of Rodney King's famous admonition to the world: "why can't we all just get along?" Trouble is, you can't just get along with people who would kill you if you don't agree with them, you have to do it to them before they do it to you. There. I've said it.

Double thumbs up, Steve

What a guy! While most of us, whatever our ages, would retreat into a safe corner and lapse into a depression as we reviewed the news of our impending deaths, Stephen Sutton refused to go quietly into that good night, instead choosing life, whatever brief amount remained to him, and made a difference.


In doing so he caught the imagination of a nation, a nation glad it wasn't them, but who were drawn into his philanthropic spell. His bucket list included raising £1 million for charity, but by the time of his death the sum had risen to £3.5 mill- a phenomenal sum for one person in such a short time.


We would do well to follow this marvellous young man's example- not just to raise money for charity, but to live (and love) life like we really were aware we're not here for long- though hopefully to three score years and ten and then some, rather than the misery 19 which is all Stephen enjoyed. So let's get out there, remember Stephen and do some self actualising, or what a friend has called "becoming ones self". Time is short, don't delay any longer!

Beware the love test

Have you ever given someone a love test? Did it work? I bet it didn't. They usually don't. What is a love test? Try this example for size. In the generally execrable film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, the Ava Gardner character asks her paramour to push his beloved racing car over a cliff as proof of his love. He complies, but unbridled happiness does not ensue. This is a pretty gross example. but it will do for the moment. The point is, what if Ava Gardner's squeeze had said "Ill do anything for love but I won't do that"? Marked the end of the relationship I guess. But would you want to be hitched to a gal who laid that kind of shit on you? I think not.


Love tests can involve same-sex friendships. My wife has an old friend who had a habit of making dinner dates with her, only to cry off at the last minute. After it had happened several times, I suggested she confront her friend with the charge of "friend abuse". It has not happened again. This is a phenomenon seen in medicine too, where a patient will make an appointment, only to fail to show up. The doctor has passed his love test by offering the appointment; there is no need to follow through. I knew a psychiatrist once who noted a similar behaviour in some of his charges where they would turn up for their appointments only as the time for them was about to run out- just to make sure that he had made the necessary commitment.


If we are trying to raise money for charity and are reckless enough to attempt to tap our friends, we run the risk of their failing the love test we have foisted upon them, by refusing to hand over any cash. And we durst not challenge them, lest we be told some unpalatable home truths about the way we choose to operate. It's a no-win situation. If our subject passes their love test, they may still resent their being tested in the first place. And if they fail, where does that leave us? This way can lead to the death of friendship or love.


It's a dangerous road to travel: you need to be tough, and feel very secure in your relationships. Be careful out there. It's a jungle...

Mr Vroom-vroom

With all the doors and windows closed, you can still hear it. A deep-throated roar not unlike distant thunder: Vroom! Vroom! Vroooooom! And so on. Sometimes for up to an hour at a time. After wondering what the hell was causing the din (I fantasised it was some sort of American muscle car, perhaps a Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang), I ventured out into our back lane and found the cause, a man dressed entirely in black, working on what clearly was the love of his life: a three-wheel motorcycle boasting, as he proudly informed me, a Rover three-and-a-half litre V8 engine. His rented garage (he doesn't live round here) lies about 50 metres up the street, but still the noise appears to be coming from right outside.  In addition, fumes from the engine drift down to us on the prevailing breeze to permeate our garden. On my first encounter I did not make any specific complaint; something in me was reluctant to interdict a man in the pursuit of his favourite hobby; besides there was an edge of aggression about him which was a little unsettling. For weeks I did nothing but seethe quietly.


Finally, after a particularly noisy session which lasted the better part of two hours I could take it no longer. I made my way round to his garage again and this time pointed out how his hobby was affecting the lives of the residents in the area.
"Nobody else has complained though. It's just you", he said. But then, in an astonishing piece of serendipity, at that very moment a neighbour and good friend appeared from the other end of the lane almost as if by magic, and added his voice of protest to mine. I could not resist remarking:
"It seems I am not the only person round here who is being affected by your activities."
At this point our mechanic began to advance on me slowly, brandishing a large screwdriver in his hand which he waved at me menacingly. My friend was quick to advise him to put the weapon down, at which point he flung it behind him with great force. And then, to conclude the debate, he returned to his machine and vroom-vroomed so loudly any further dialogue was impossible.


Much to my surprise, for the next few days we heard nothing, and wondered if the problem had been solved. Then, after nearly a fortnight of blissful calm, it began again- not as persistently as before, but still an unwanted intrusion. And that is where we are today. As I say, I don't wish to stop anyone in pursuing their hobby, unless it interferes with my right to a certain amount of peace and quiet. But the intrusion is less than it was. So, as I have done so often in the past with neighbourhood problems, I guess I shall simply wait it out, if for no other reason than I don't wish to be shanked with a twelve inch screwdriver...