BOOKS
THE FLASHMAN PAPERS and ROYAL FLASH, by George Macdonald Frazer
The beastly bully of Tom Brown's Schooldays is expelled from Rugby School for drunkenness by an exasperated Dr Arnold, and pursues a career in the army. Can we expect him to become a reformed character and lead an unblemished adulthood? Not likely. In his first foreign assignment in the lawless and bloody Afghanistan of the 1840s we find him to be the well-bred lowlife we might have expected: cowardly, dishonest and not above raping women who don't say yes immediately to his lascivious advances, And having escaped the routing of British forces in Kabul he returns to the old country with a completely undeserved reputation as a hero. Later, in Royal Flash we find him ensnared in a plot to screw the Danes dreamed up by a certain Otto von Bismark, owing to his uncanny resemblance to a Danish prince.
Urged to give the Flashman books a try by my brother, I finally came across this two-in-one edition going for 50p in a charity shop and felt it was a sign. I have to say I was expecting it to be a case of "Trashy Flashy", but I soon discovered I was wrong. Frazer's "creation" turns out to be a complex and well drawn character, and the plots are fascinating. The author stays as close to historical fact as possible, introducing many real figures from history into his stories, like the celebrated Irish tart Lola Montez, who carved out a successful career as an exotic singer and dancer and even shacked up with Germany's mad king Ludwig, who built palaces in her honour. Truth is, I enjoyed these books and will probably read more. No problem there, there are plenty to choose from...
THE MAKIOKA SISTERS, by Junichiro Tanizaki
In the Japan of the 1930s, four sisters attempt to find happiness amidst a culture dominated by men, and where custom and tradition rules every step they take. Literally. As the book opens we find the eldest two sisters are already married and living in their own houses, one in Osaka, an ancient city 300 miles to the west of Tokyo, and the other in Ashiya, a small suburb just outside Osaka. It is the two younger sisters that are the problem. The youngest, Taeko, is something of a free spirit; she even ran off with her boyfriend while still a teenager, an act so chocking it made the papers. Her problem is that custom dictates that she cannot marry until her older sister, Yukiko, does, but she's so choosy that all the efforts of her family and friends to find a suitable spouse have come to nothing.
And there you have it. This book might be called "Marrying Yukiko", because it is around this central conundrum that all the characters orbit, in a quite marvellous book which offers a unique insight into the sense and sensibilities of pre-war Japan. In a gloriously relaxed style, the reader is immersed in Japanese culture as deeply as anything written by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens immerses us into the world of 19th century England. Quite simply, this is a masterpiece
FILMS
THE EQUALIZER (2014) D- Antoine Fuqua. A man (Denzel Washington) leads a quiet life working in an American version of B and Q. But there is something strange about him: he has a keen sense of right and wrong, and when he sees, for instance, a nearby restaurant being extorted by corrupt cops he displays extraordinary martial skills to put things right. Turns out he's an ex company man, and even when it comes to taking on the Russian mob he is equal (geddit?) to the task.
Based on the 80s TV series "The Equalizer" which was made in America but starred Edward Woodward as the Jaguar XJ6 driving righter-of-wrongs and sometimes criticised for its excessive violence, this film lives up to the spirit of its progenitor, and then some. When it comes, the violence is extreme and lifelike, but the fact is this is a very good film. I couldn't take my eyes off Denzel, in one of his best roles as the knight in shining denims fighting some of the nastiest villains ever seen. There's nothing like a Russian villain, am I right? Skillfully directed and tightly edited, this was a joy.
LUCY (2014) W/D- Luc Besson. Lucy (Scarlett Johannsen) is tricked by her scumbag BF into being a drug mule to carry some new super-speed which has been surgically implanted into her abdomen. The package bursts and she gets the high of her life. Astonishingly, she doesn't die; indeed, when she comes out of her coma she's 50,000 times more intelligent than she was. And she wants more stuff: lots more stuff. A neuroscientist (Morgan Freeman) examines her and concludes she is now using 90% of her brain as opposed to the 10% the rest of us have to cope with, resulting in her attaining not just intellectual, but paranormal excellence. As for Lucy, she is convinced that she only has to take a few more kilos of the stuff and she'll be using 100%.
This film is highly professional and went down well at the box office, making back more than five times what it cost to make, but it is based on false premise that I found it hard to get past, namely that human beings only use 10% of their brain capacity. I heard this factoid trotted out in my medical school days back in the 70s, but more modern research has shown that it simply isn't true. Never mind, eh? Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I say.
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (animation) (2011) D- Barry Cook and Sarah Smith. Despite a super-high tech delivery system, Father Christmas and his army of Elves fail to deliver a present to one little girl, causing shock waves to resound across the North Pole. It falls to Arthur, Santa's grandson, to save the day.
With a massive cast of mainly British talent including such luminaries as James McEvoy, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Lawrie, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Eva Longoria, and co-written by Peter Baynham, who often collaborates with people like Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci, this film definitely has a touch of class. Funny then, that I wasn't overly impressed at the time and find it hard now, only a couple of weeks later, to remember much about it. What is wrong with me these days?
I say, give me Elf any day.
BROKEN EMBRACES (2009) D- Pedro Almodovar. A Spanish auteur is making a film starring his lover Penelope Cruz (who has never looked more sultry) when he is involved in a car crash which leaves him blind. His lover happens to be married to the film's producer, who takes advantage of their absence to deliberately put out a dog of a version, using all the worst takes. Naturally the film is panned and the director swears revenge on his nemesis- not the easiest task now he has to rely on a white stick.
The film is a lot more complex than that, however. It dances back and forth between various time lines, creating a strange atmosphere reminiscent of Hitchcock and in particular one of his most famous offerings, Vertigo. Like that earlier classic, the colour is vivid and almost surreal at times, and also like Vertigo, one is never quite sure what is going on. Some have called it one of Almodovar's best films, though others have been less convinced. My view: watchable throughout,despite being perhaps 20 minutes too long.
THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK (1971) D- Jerry Schatzberg. "God help Bobby and Helen" cried the posters for this film, addressing the plight of two young heroin addicts on the mean streets of Manhattan. Bobby, played by Al Pacino in his first leading role, is already an experienced junkie when he meets Helen (Kitty Winn in pretty much her only film) and they fall quickly and hopelessly in love. Before long the strait-laced Helen is on the stuff herself. The consequences of this disastrous relationship are horribly predictable. They will do anything to get their next hit, even sell their own friends and co-addicts down the river if they have to. And they have to...
Produced by Dominick Dunne, one of the scions of American culture in the latter half of the 20th century, and co-written by Joan Didion, renowned novelist and literary journalist, this film threatened to be a deeply insightful piece of work, which it definitely is, though with the perspective of over forty years what stands out most vividly is the performance of Al Pacino. His aura of irresistible charm combined with an inner tension like a pressure cooker about to explode is perhaps unique in modern cinema, and this film was the first in a series which would establish him as one of America's greatest actors.A deeply troubling film, but utterly compelling.
SUSPECT (1987) D- Peter Yates. A deaf-mute man (an early, but already charismatic Liam Neeson) is accused of murder, and public defender Cher is press-ganged in to defend him in what seems to be an open and shut case. As the case proceeds Cher gets the impression other, darker forces are conspiring against her client beyond the simple facts. She is not wrong...
Panned for its deus ex machina ending by some, this film does succeed in holding the attention as well as demonstrating that Cher can act. It was not Peter Yates's finest hour though. As everyone now knows, that honour is held by Bullitt, one of the finest films ever made about America by a non American, though Atlantic City would also be a contender for that accolade.
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Tourists disrespect sacred mountain- did they get what they deserved?
At the base of Ayer's Rock in central Australia, tourists line up every day to climb the rock, known to the local Aboriginal people as "Uluru". And every day those people try to dissuade the tourists from doing just that, arguing that Uluru is sacred to them, and has been for thousands of years, and that tramping up it for fun is disrespecting their spiritual traditions.
How many people take the advice on board and decide not to? My guess would be very few; certainly hundreds of people do climb it every day of the year. The fact that no action is ever taken against any of them should tell you all you need to know about the position of Aboriginal people in modern Australia.
However, the situation appears to be rather different in Malaysia, as we have seen today. Mt Kinabalu is held as sacred by the local tribespeople, and the tourists who streaked, or however you want to describe it, on its summit knew this perfectly well, as they had been warned against such an escapade by their local tour guide. But oh no, they knew better, didn't they? And now at least one of them is in jail, she is "scared" and "very upset". Boo hoo.
Having said that I don't think the Malaysian minister helped the situation very much when he actually ascribed an earthquake to the god's anger at such a desecration of the holy site. That kind of talk can get people lynched. I mean, it's Malaysia, not Westeros.
My suggested remedy is to deport the offenders quietly with a warning to behave with a little more respect next time they encounter a different culture. People from the West have a long tradition of riding roughshod over the culture and traditions of the world, but that's no reason to go on doing it forever.
How many people take the advice on board and decide not to? My guess would be very few; certainly hundreds of people do climb it every day of the year. The fact that no action is ever taken against any of them should tell you all you need to know about the position of Aboriginal people in modern Australia.
However, the situation appears to be rather different in Malaysia, as we have seen today. Mt Kinabalu is held as sacred by the local tribespeople, and the tourists who streaked, or however you want to describe it, on its summit knew this perfectly well, as they had been warned against such an escapade by their local tour guide. But oh no, they knew better, didn't they? And now at least one of them is in jail, she is "scared" and "very upset". Boo hoo.
Having said that I don't think the Malaysian minister helped the situation very much when he actually ascribed an earthquake to the god's anger at such a desecration of the holy site. That kind of talk can get people lynched. I mean, it's Malaysia, not Westeros.
My suggested remedy is to deport the offenders quietly with a warning to behave with a little more respect next time they encounter a different culture. People from the West have a long tradition of riding roughshod over the culture and traditions of the world, but that's no reason to go on doing it forever.
Thursday, 4 June 2015
Texas bans bans- look out- we're next
The city of Denton, Texas held a plebiscite on the issue of fracking last November. The people voted overwhelmingly to ban it. But then, two weeks ago, the Texas governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill overturning that decision, allowing fracking to go ahead. In effect the state of Texas has "banned bans" on fracking. So much for the American constitution and its much lauded Bill of Rights, which are supposed to guarantee the rights of the individual. It seems that when it's about oil and gas, the citizen's rights don't count for very much.
Yesterday in the House of Commons David Cameron stated his intention of more or less doing the exact opposite, in this case on the issue of on-shore wind farms. He said that decisions about whether to build them should rest in the hands of local people. Clearly he has thought this out and, not being a fan of the new windmills, and also knowing that around the country there is a pervasive sense of nimbyism, he could safely leave it to the local populace to vote down most of the proposals to construct wind farms.
But what, I ask myself, is going to happen when it comes to fracking? Will he allow the local people to make those decisions then? I doubt it. The idea of fracking, with its attendant risks of subsidence and the pollution of the water table, is not going down well in the shire counties, and indeed elsewhere. But we know Cameron and his number 2, George Osborne, are big fans of fracking. My guess is that when it comes to this, we might well find ourselves travelling down the same road as our Texan cousins, and ban bans. You may think you control your destiny at a local level, but believe me, you don't.
Yesterday in the House of Commons David Cameron stated his intention of more or less doing the exact opposite, in this case on the issue of on-shore wind farms. He said that decisions about whether to build them should rest in the hands of local people. Clearly he has thought this out and, not being a fan of the new windmills, and also knowing that around the country there is a pervasive sense of nimbyism, he could safely leave it to the local populace to vote down most of the proposals to construct wind farms.
But what, I ask myself, is going to happen when it comes to fracking? Will he allow the local people to make those decisions then? I doubt it. The idea of fracking, with its attendant risks of subsidence and the pollution of the water table, is not going down well in the shire counties, and indeed elsewhere. But we know Cameron and his number 2, George Osborne, are big fans of fracking. My guess is that when it comes to this, we might well find ourselves travelling down the same road as our Texan cousins, and ban bans. You may think you control your destiny at a local level, but believe me, you don't.
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
May 2014 book and film review
BOOKS
JOSE GUADELUPE POSADA: MEXICAN POPULAR PRINTS, edited by Julian Rothenstein AND: MEXICO: DAY OF THE DEAD, edited by Chloe Sayer.
I place these two pocket-books together because of their subject matter, which taps deeply into the cultural heart of Mexico. The first is an illustrated biography of one of the 20th century's most influential print makers. Coming from libertarian/anarchistic roots, Posada used his extraordinary artistic skills and wicked sense of humour to poke fun at the Mexican establishment, pricking the pomposity of the great and good of early 20th century Mexico. Along the way he made powerful enemies, but also earned the love and respect of such figures as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and the poet Octavio Paz. It is hard to come up with a British equivalent to Posada. Gerald Scarfe perhaps, or even Ralph Steadman. Or maybe we need to go further back, to William Hogarth's savagely satirical series, The Rake's Progress. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so google him and see for yourself.
Mexico: Day of the Dead focuses on the great Latin American tradition of calling the dead back to "life" on All Souls Day at the beginning of November. Lavish dinner parties are held, with places laid for the departed, and everyone journeys to the cemetery to visit their ancestors. The festival is huge; as big as Christmas or Easter, and much of it centres around the Calavera, representations of the dead in a huge variety of settings: a skeleton wedding couple, a skeleton family having an afternoon picnic, even skeleton revolutionaries planning an insurrection, the list is endless. For us Europeans, with our tendency to sweep death under the carpet these images are highly disturbing. In Mexico and much of central America, however, the reality of death is accepted and even celebrated as an intrinsic part of life- a kind of sine qua non if you will, And let's face it, this is probably a much healthier attitude than ours, where death is viewed as an unmitigated disaster and not a subject for polite conversation and certainly not for celebrating. Once again I invite you to google calavera and delight in the amazing images you will find.
MR. NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS and GOODBYE TO BERLIN, by Christopher Isherwood.
An intelligent if slightly naive young man decides to make the Berlin of the early 1930s his home, and meets some remarkable denizens of that city, just as the Nazis are beginning to gain real power. He meets Mr Norris on the train for instance, and is rather taken with his eccentricities as well as his politics. For Mr. Norris is a reluctant darling of the communists through his writing and public speaking, but does this conceal a darker secret?
In Goodbye to Berlin we meet one of literature's most famous and enigmatic creations in the shape of Sally Bowles, who was so superbly interpreted by Bob Fosse and Liza Minelli in the film Cabaret. Yet she occupies a section of the book no longer than 50 pages, then suddenly she is gone, and we feel as bereft as we might feel if she were our own lover who has left without warning. These books are writing at its best: easy to read, yet dark, mysterious and so, so subtle.
FILMS
BELLE (2013) D- Amma Asante. An English Earl returns home from the Caribbean possessions in the mid- 18th century, bringing his illegitimate black daughter with him. The family is naturally scandalised, but in a remarkable example of racial tolerance, they come to embrace her and make her part of the family. Of course things can't be that easy. After all, at that time Britain was busy making making itself the world's richest country from the profits of the slave trade.
As Belle grows into a woman she has certain natural advantages to set against her black skin: she is beautiful, she is highly intelligent and she is an accomplished musician. These assets should help her integrate into upper-crust English society, right?
Based on actual events, this is a richly textured, beautiful film of great sensitivity and insight.
See it.
X MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. In a dystopian future where mutants and non-mutants alike are being manipulated by a heartless government to do their bidding, one mutant capable of throwing people's consciousnesses back into the past may hold the key to changing the future into a better place for everyone.
And there you have it: X Men have gone all time-machiny, and the result is a dog's dinner of a movie which shows the franchise has finally, and rather sadly, run out of good ideas. And that's a pity, because I loved the first three movies, their energy, special effects and especially the high standard of acting throughout. All those elements are here, including a professor Xavier brought back from the dead somehow, but here it's all just a bit tired.
Don't see it.
BOYHOOD (2014) D- Richard Linklater. In 2002, a six-year old boy is struggling to adapt to his life with his newly divorced mum. Fortunately his mum has a good heart and struggles just as hard to give him and his elder sister a good life. As the film proceeds, we see him negotiate the usual traumas of childhood and adolescence, as well as some traumas no one should have to face, like living with a violent, alcoholic step-father.
But we see so much more than that, because in the course of 164 minutes we see the players age twelve years, not by virtue of special effects but because the film actually took twelve years to complete. The effect was achieved by getting the whole cast, film crew and director together twice a year through the course of twelve years, and the result is absolutely uncanny. We have all seen people age in movies and TV series. Sometimes it is courtesy of latex masks and clever special effects; sometimes it is in "real time" when in series like The Sopranos and Mad Men (you could add Malcolm in the Middle and The Middle) we see children growing up and their parents slowly ageing over the course of a number of years. But here, uniquely, we see the process unfold in the course of a single movie. The effect is really quite incredible to witness. Add to that some very fine writing and acting and you have one of the most extraordinary films I've ever seen. Much better, for instance, than Birdman, which beat it (quite unfairly in my view) to the best movie Oscar this year.
Apparently the film has received some criticism on the grounds that there are no black faces in it, despite the fact that it is set in Houston, which has a substantial black population. But I find the accusation bogus. I live in central Cardiff, over 20% of whose residents have come from abroad. How many of them do I know, never mind have close relationships with? The answer is none. Does that make me a racist? I don't think so. The reality is that ethnic groups by and large tend to stick to their own, even in the Millennium, and if this movie reflects that it doesn't, in my opinion, reflect badly on it as a piece of art.
A masterpiece.
TOM AT THE FARM (2013) D (and starring)- Xavier Dolan. A beautiful young man's boyfriend dies suddenly, and he reluctantly agrees to visit his late boyfriend's home and meet his family. Even more reluctantly he agrees (under pain of being beaten senseless) to pretend that his boyfriend was straight, even to the point of making up an imaginary girlfriend to whom the son was betrothed. Eventually, to add authenticity he recruits a girl to play the part. But this web of lies can only hold up for so long...
A strange and rather beautiful film in which we can only marvel at how such a young man as Xavier Dolan could be capable of making a film of such maturity and insight.
Excellent.
OCTOBER 1917: TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD. D- Sergei Eisenstein. In 1928 the Soviet authorities gave Eisentein the job of making a silent documentary of the momentous days in 1917 when the socialist revolution was born. Based in part on the American (how's that for irony?) John Reed's famous account, Eisenstein produced this amazing piece of film making, itself revolutionary in its editing techniques which were seen here for the first time but imitated on countless occasions since, and all under the watchful eyes of the Soviet censors. Early versions made mention of Trotsky, (the edition we saw did contain brief references to him) but were soon airbrushed out when Trotsky was exiled and became a non person. But all the hard work, sleepless nights of meetings in smoke filled rooms, the manning of the barricades, the efforts to persuade the army not to fire on the people, it's all here. Talk about rousing. I nearly went out and set up a barricade myself...
THE SQUARE (documentary, 2013) D- Jehame Noujaime. Nearly 100 years on, another film about a revolution. No one can forget the deeply moving scenes when in the spring of 2011 the Egyptian people massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand the resignation of Egypt's despotic leader Moubarak and replace him with a genuinely democratic government. I remember comparing it with those other shining examples of "people power" we have seen in recent years, the ousting of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and the demise of the Caucescus in Romania being two notable examples. We saw the same intoxicating atmosphere of freedom asserting itself on the streets of Cairo, for once not being crushed by a brutal military as it was say, in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
This film charts the long months of occupation of the Square as the ordinary people of Egypt refused to go away and let others do their work for them. It also chronicles the impact of the Muslim Brotherhood, who attempted (with some success) to subvert the struggle into a religious thing- much to the disapproval of most of the ordinary citizens, who carried banners saying things like "MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS- WE ARE ALL TOGETHER IN THE STRUGGLE" And tragically, these banners would soon no longer be seen on the streets as the Brotherhood gained power and influence.
The rest, as we say, is history, with the Brotherhood winning the election only to be ousted by an army who weren't about to let a fundamentalist religious clique run the show.
I remember watching the coverage on the BBC in the early days of the great protest in Tahrir Square when one commentator expressed his fear that all this would ultimately amount to nothing. He said something like "You can change the names of the leaders but in a couple of years very little will have changed. The army will remain in charge" And I fear the maker of this outstanding documentary, when confronted with these words, might have no option but to agree that this is exactly what has happened...
JOSE GUADELUPE POSADA: MEXICAN POPULAR PRINTS, edited by Julian Rothenstein AND: MEXICO: DAY OF THE DEAD, edited by Chloe Sayer.
I place these two pocket-books together because of their subject matter, which taps deeply into the cultural heart of Mexico. The first is an illustrated biography of one of the 20th century's most influential print makers. Coming from libertarian/anarchistic roots, Posada used his extraordinary artistic skills and wicked sense of humour to poke fun at the Mexican establishment, pricking the pomposity of the great and good of early 20th century Mexico. Along the way he made powerful enemies, but also earned the love and respect of such figures as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and the poet Octavio Paz. It is hard to come up with a British equivalent to Posada. Gerald Scarfe perhaps, or even Ralph Steadman. Or maybe we need to go further back, to William Hogarth's savagely satirical series, The Rake's Progress. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so google him and see for yourself.
Mexico: Day of the Dead focuses on the great Latin American tradition of calling the dead back to "life" on All Souls Day at the beginning of November. Lavish dinner parties are held, with places laid for the departed, and everyone journeys to the cemetery to visit their ancestors. The festival is huge; as big as Christmas or Easter, and much of it centres around the Calavera, representations of the dead in a huge variety of settings: a skeleton wedding couple, a skeleton family having an afternoon picnic, even skeleton revolutionaries planning an insurrection, the list is endless. For us Europeans, with our tendency to sweep death under the carpet these images are highly disturbing. In Mexico and much of central America, however, the reality of death is accepted and even celebrated as an intrinsic part of life- a kind of sine qua non if you will, And let's face it, this is probably a much healthier attitude than ours, where death is viewed as an unmitigated disaster and not a subject for polite conversation and certainly not for celebrating. Once again I invite you to google calavera and delight in the amazing images you will find.
MR. NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS and GOODBYE TO BERLIN, by Christopher Isherwood.
An intelligent if slightly naive young man decides to make the Berlin of the early 1930s his home, and meets some remarkable denizens of that city, just as the Nazis are beginning to gain real power. He meets Mr Norris on the train for instance, and is rather taken with his eccentricities as well as his politics. For Mr. Norris is a reluctant darling of the communists through his writing and public speaking, but does this conceal a darker secret?
In Goodbye to Berlin we meet one of literature's most famous and enigmatic creations in the shape of Sally Bowles, who was so superbly interpreted by Bob Fosse and Liza Minelli in the film Cabaret. Yet she occupies a section of the book no longer than 50 pages, then suddenly she is gone, and we feel as bereft as we might feel if she were our own lover who has left without warning. These books are writing at its best: easy to read, yet dark, mysterious and so, so subtle.
FILMS
BELLE (2013) D- Amma Asante. An English Earl returns home from the Caribbean possessions in the mid- 18th century, bringing his illegitimate black daughter with him. The family is naturally scandalised, but in a remarkable example of racial tolerance, they come to embrace her and make her part of the family. Of course things can't be that easy. After all, at that time Britain was busy making making itself the world's richest country from the profits of the slave trade.
As Belle grows into a woman she has certain natural advantages to set against her black skin: she is beautiful, she is highly intelligent and she is an accomplished musician. These assets should help her integrate into upper-crust English society, right?
Based on actual events, this is a richly textured, beautiful film of great sensitivity and insight.
See it.
X MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. In a dystopian future where mutants and non-mutants alike are being manipulated by a heartless government to do their bidding, one mutant capable of throwing people's consciousnesses back into the past may hold the key to changing the future into a better place for everyone.
And there you have it: X Men have gone all time-machiny, and the result is a dog's dinner of a movie which shows the franchise has finally, and rather sadly, run out of good ideas. And that's a pity, because I loved the first three movies, their energy, special effects and especially the high standard of acting throughout. All those elements are here, including a professor Xavier brought back from the dead somehow, but here it's all just a bit tired.
Don't see it.
BOYHOOD (2014) D- Richard Linklater. In 2002, a six-year old boy is struggling to adapt to his life with his newly divorced mum. Fortunately his mum has a good heart and struggles just as hard to give him and his elder sister a good life. As the film proceeds, we see him negotiate the usual traumas of childhood and adolescence, as well as some traumas no one should have to face, like living with a violent, alcoholic step-father.
But we see so much more than that, because in the course of 164 minutes we see the players age twelve years, not by virtue of special effects but because the film actually took twelve years to complete. The effect was achieved by getting the whole cast, film crew and director together twice a year through the course of twelve years, and the result is absolutely uncanny. We have all seen people age in movies and TV series. Sometimes it is courtesy of latex masks and clever special effects; sometimes it is in "real time" when in series like The Sopranos and Mad Men (you could add Malcolm in the Middle and The Middle) we see children growing up and their parents slowly ageing over the course of a number of years. But here, uniquely, we see the process unfold in the course of a single movie. The effect is really quite incredible to witness. Add to that some very fine writing and acting and you have one of the most extraordinary films I've ever seen. Much better, for instance, than Birdman, which beat it (quite unfairly in my view) to the best movie Oscar this year.
Apparently the film has received some criticism on the grounds that there are no black faces in it, despite the fact that it is set in Houston, which has a substantial black population. But I find the accusation bogus. I live in central Cardiff, over 20% of whose residents have come from abroad. How many of them do I know, never mind have close relationships with? The answer is none. Does that make me a racist? I don't think so. The reality is that ethnic groups by and large tend to stick to their own, even in the Millennium, and if this movie reflects that it doesn't, in my opinion, reflect badly on it as a piece of art.
A masterpiece.
TOM AT THE FARM (2013) D (and starring)- Xavier Dolan. A beautiful young man's boyfriend dies suddenly, and he reluctantly agrees to visit his late boyfriend's home and meet his family. Even more reluctantly he agrees (under pain of being beaten senseless) to pretend that his boyfriend was straight, even to the point of making up an imaginary girlfriend to whom the son was betrothed. Eventually, to add authenticity he recruits a girl to play the part. But this web of lies can only hold up for so long...
A strange and rather beautiful film in which we can only marvel at how such a young man as Xavier Dolan could be capable of making a film of such maturity and insight.
Excellent.
OCTOBER 1917: TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD. D- Sergei Eisenstein. In 1928 the Soviet authorities gave Eisentein the job of making a silent documentary of the momentous days in 1917 when the socialist revolution was born. Based in part on the American (how's that for irony?) John Reed's famous account, Eisenstein produced this amazing piece of film making, itself revolutionary in its editing techniques which were seen here for the first time but imitated on countless occasions since, and all under the watchful eyes of the Soviet censors. Early versions made mention of Trotsky, (the edition we saw did contain brief references to him) but were soon airbrushed out when Trotsky was exiled and became a non person. But all the hard work, sleepless nights of meetings in smoke filled rooms, the manning of the barricades, the efforts to persuade the army not to fire on the people, it's all here. Talk about rousing. I nearly went out and set up a barricade myself...
THE SQUARE (documentary, 2013) D- Jehame Noujaime. Nearly 100 years on, another film about a revolution. No one can forget the deeply moving scenes when in the spring of 2011 the Egyptian people massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand the resignation of Egypt's despotic leader Moubarak and replace him with a genuinely democratic government. I remember comparing it with those other shining examples of "people power" we have seen in recent years, the ousting of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and the demise of the Caucescus in Romania being two notable examples. We saw the same intoxicating atmosphere of freedom asserting itself on the streets of Cairo, for once not being crushed by a brutal military as it was say, in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
This film charts the long months of occupation of the Square as the ordinary people of Egypt refused to go away and let others do their work for them. It also chronicles the impact of the Muslim Brotherhood, who attempted (with some success) to subvert the struggle into a religious thing- much to the disapproval of most of the ordinary citizens, who carried banners saying things like "MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS- WE ARE ALL TOGETHER IN THE STRUGGLE" And tragically, these banners would soon no longer be seen on the streets as the Brotherhood gained power and influence.
The rest, as we say, is history, with the Brotherhood winning the election only to be ousted by an army who weren't about to let a fundamentalist religious clique run the show.
I remember watching the coverage on the BBC in the early days of the great protest in Tahrir Square when one commentator expressed his fear that all this would ultimately amount to nothing. He said something like "You can change the names of the leaders but in a couple of years very little will have changed. The army will remain in charge" And I fear the maker of this outstanding documentary, when confronted with these words, might have no option but to agree that this is exactly what has happened...
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