The conviction of one of America’s most iconic and, in his day, most bankable stars would have been unthinkable just last year, when a hung jury let Bill Cosby off the hook. Last time around, Cosby’s lawyer, Jim Masereau, the world's most high profile Native American, and the man who secured an acquittal for Michael Jackson in the face of apparently unassailable evidence, prevailed, but the world has changed under his feet, and he could not pull off the same trick this time.
What has changed? Everything is the answer. And if you want to put a name to it, that name is Harvey Weinstein. Women are on the march and there’s no stopping them now. I watched University Challenge on Monday, and was foxed by a number of questions about women, as were the far cleverer contestants on that show. The questions were placed there deliberately, following complaints that too many questions hitherto have been man-based. Of course the problem there is that women’s voices have been silenced by men for so long there is a terrible paucity of women making their mark in history, culture, the arts and, I guess, everything else.
But they’re out there, and it’s our job to learn about them if we wish to be considered as truly well-rounded people.
The time is approaching rapidly when women will be equal to men in every walk of life, from pay, through artistic and political representation, all the way through to mentions on University Challenge.
And a good thing too.
Friday, 27 April 2018
Tuesday, 3 April 2018
The wrong kind of Jews
Jeremy Corbyn has been criticized by members of his own party (I think we know they are) for meeting a Jewish group. But they’re the wrong kind of Jews. Jewdas is a dissident faction, a bunch of irreverent, semi-anarchistic bad boys whose greatest sin is that they refuse to support the Zionist hegemony which operates in their own land and the occupied territories of Palestine. They’re not antisemitic, but they don’t approve of Netenyahu’s near-fascist government.
The Zionist’s seek, and indeed succeed to a very large extent, to quell any opposition to their own party and its policies. A few years ago, for instance, an exhibition of art created by Palestinian children was doing the rounds in a series of American cities. Spreading the lie that the art was not created by the children, they went ahead of the exhibition and tried very hard to persuade the venues to cancel the exhibition. It worked, and many, many venues suddenly broke their promises and closed the doors against the exhibition. Of course what they didn’t like was what the art showed: bombs falling from Israeli jets, buildings and homes destroyed and dead and injured Palestinians lying on the ground.
The Israeli government and its many supporters around the world want you to believe the Palestinian people as a whole are terrorists to a man, woman and child, who need to kept behind high walls and killed should they protest, otherwise the Jewish people would be pushed into the sea. It seems now that even here, in the home of Free Speech, it is becoming almost a crime to mention that this is a cruel lie. Hence the concerted campaign to discredit Jeremy Corbyn and anyone else who stands up to the Zionist bullies. If they can, they’d like to destroy any chance of Labour winning the next election by disseminating these lies, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it works.
The Zionist’s seek, and indeed succeed to a very large extent, to quell any opposition to their own party and its policies. A few years ago, for instance, an exhibition of art created by Palestinian children was doing the rounds in a series of American cities. Spreading the lie that the art was not created by the children, they went ahead of the exhibition and tried very hard to persuade the venues to cancel the exhibition. It worked, and many, many venues suddenly broke their promises and closed the doors against the exhibition. Of course what they didn’t like was what the art showed: bombs falling from Israeli jets, buildings and homes destroyed and dead and injured Palestinians lying on the ground.
The Israeli government and its many supporters around the world want you to believe the Palestinian people as a whole are terrorists to a man, woman and child, who need to kept behind high walls and killed should they protest, otherwise the Jewish people would be pushed into the sea. It seems now that even here, in the home of Free Speech, it is becoming almost a crime to mention that this is a cruel lie. Hence the concerted campaign to discredit Jeremy Corbyn and anyone else who stands up to the Zionist bullies. If they can, they’d like to destroy any chance of Labour winning the next election by disseminating these lies, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it works.
Monday, 2 April 2018
March 2018 film review part 2
BOMBSHELL (2017) D- Alexandra Dean
Being the life and times of Heddy Lamar, one of the most achingly beautiful stars ever to shine on the silver screen. But make no mistake, this was no airhead bimbo. Her mind brimmed with bright ideas, and when a submarine sank a ship in 1942, drowning over 90 children, she worked out, with a friend, a method for detecting submarines under water. But nobody bought the idea. Or did they? Despite the fact that she never made a dime for her invention, the US navy did indeed use a modified version of her idea, and they continue to use of a form of it to this day.
Escaping from Germany prior to WW2, there was one thing she couldn’t escape from: her past. Turns out she made a nudie film in Germany, and this came to haunt her. Offered a series of parts that were beneath her, she accepted them to keep her head above water, and as a result her real talent never made it to the screen. Finally, and most tragically of all, she used plastic surgery in a desperate and wholly unsuccessful bid to hold on to her fading beauty.
An affecting and highly insightful story of promise denied.
A WAR (2015) D- Pilou Lindholm
A Danish commander under fire in Afghanistan (a brilliantl Pilou Asbaek) has one of his men badly injured and must get him out to save his life. There may be civilians in a hut he is attacking in order to effect this, there may not. He takes a gamble and blows it to hell. His man is saved, but the gamble failed. There were civilians in the hut, and they were all killed. Next thing he hears, he’s up on war-crimes charges.
This is how modern wars are fought. Everything is filmed, every command decision questioned, no matter the incredible stress the participants may be under at the time. Until quite recently, deaths under “friendly fire” or little mistakes where a wedding party is blown up rather than a band of terrorists were just put down to the fortunes of war. No longer. And perhaps that’s a good thing. But I worry that the human beings involved are now cut no slack at all for the incredibly difficult job their governments ask them to do.
Being the life and times of Heddy Lamar, one of the most achingly beautiful stars ever to shine on the silver screen. But make no mistake, this was no airhead bimbo. Her mind brimmed with bright ideas, and when a submarine sank a ship in 1942, drowning over 90 children, she worked out, with a friend, a method for detecting submarines under water. But nobody bought the idea. Or did they? Despite the fact that she never made a dime for her invention, the US navy did indeed use a modified version of her idea, and they continue to use of a form of it to this day.
Escaping from Germany prior to WW2, there was one thing she couldn’t escape from: her past. Turns out she made a nudie film in Germany, and this came to haunt her. Offered a series of parts that were beneath her, she accepted them to keep her head above water, and as a result her real talent never made it to the screen. Finally, and most tragically of all, she used plastic surgery in a desperate and wholly unsuccessful bid to hold on to her fading beauty.
An affecting and highly insightful story of promise denied.
A WAR (2015) D- Pilou Lindholm
A Danish commander under fire in Afghanistan (a brilliantl Pilou Asbaek) has one of his men badly injured and must get him out to save his life. There may be civilians in a hut he is attacking in order to effect this, there may not. He takes a gamble and blows it to hell. His man is saved, but the gamble failed. There were civilians in the hut, and they were all killed. Next thing he hears, he’s up on war-crimes charges.
This is how modern wars are fought. Everything is filmed, every command decision questioned, no matter the incredible stress the participants may be under at the time. Until quite recently, deaths under “friendly fire” or little mistakes where a wedding party is blown up rather than a band of terrorists were just put down to the fortunes of war. No longer. And perhaps that’s a good thing. But I worry that the human beings involved are now cut no slack at all for the incredibly difficult job their governments ask them to do.
March 2018 film review part 1
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2004) D- David Fincher
A baby is born with the face of an old man. Horrified, the father snatches it and leaves it on an orphanage’s doorstep. As he grows up, his face gradually begins to look more youthful. A fulcrum point is reached in his thirties, when his face looks right for his chronological age. But then, curiously, as he grows older his face begins to look younger and younger. As he hits his forties he goes backpacking in Nepal; by his sixties he has entered his awkward adolescence . Finally, becoming shorter and shorter, he becomes a babe-in-arms. Through it all, he conducts a strange, off/on relationship with a beauful woman (Cate Blanchett).
Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous short story, this is a fine attempt to bring that remarkable tale to the screen and won Brad Pitt an Oscar for his outstanding performance, though whether this short story warrants a 150 minute epic is open to question. But the director’s skill is undeniable and the film remains watchable throughout.
HARMONIUM (2016) D- Koji Fukada
A mother and her emotionally shut-off husband bring up their child in a Tokyo suburb when the father invites an ex-con friend to come and live with them. The new guest rapidly establishes a rapport with the daughter and teaches her the rudiments of the harmonium. Mum isn’t sure about her new house-guest, but puts up with it. Slowly it emerges that father too has a shady past, and that his friend may have taken the fall for a crime they both committed.
In some ways this film reminded me of the French classic Boudu Saved From Drowning, in the way a guest is invited in and gradually comes to dominate the family, and the atmosphere created in this film, as in the earlier film, is incredibly moving and powerful.
One of those few movies to come out of Japan which offers deep insights into Japanese domestic life.
CITY OF TINY LIGHTS (2016) D- Pete Travis
A low-life private dic bites off more than he can chew when he investigates a disappearance, stumbling into the world of Islamic politics as well as uncovering ghosts from his own past.
Riz Ahmed is one of the hottest properties in the world right now. Aclaimed actor, rapper and activist, Time magazine put him on their cover as one of 100 most influential people in the world - all this at under 30. Dontcha hate people who are that talented and successful? I know I do. Seriously, despite all this success, this movie doesn’t actually work. It can’t make up its mind what it wants to be; fictional autobiog, hard-bitten noir, political intrigue. And the result is an uncertain melange of plot and style. Oh well, Riz, you can’t win ‘em all, just most of them. I’m sure you’ll do better next time.
A FANTASTIC WOMAN (2017) D- Sebastian Lelio
In Santiago, Chile, a male-to-female trans woman is with her male lover one night when he drops dead just after completing the act of love. Tricky. The poor girl doesn’t know how tricky until the man’s family show up and seem to regard her as some kind of sub-human monster. She is barred from attending her lover’s funeral and told to vacate their shared apartment forthwith. Somehow she manages to pursue her career as a singer.
This film is a revelation. If you ever wondered what sort of problem transgender people deal with in the modern world you need look no further than this superb movie which shows, with stunning insight and clarity, that they face, really, the same sort of problems as gays did half a century ago: misunderstanding, fear, and deep, deep hatred.
Absolutely brilliant. Seek it out and be moved,
A baby is born with the face of an old man. Horrified, the father snatches it and leaves it on an orphanage’s doorstep. As he grows up, his face gradually begins to look more youthful. A fulcrum point is reached in his thirties, when his face looks right for his chronological age. But then, curiously, as he grows older his face begins to look younger and younger. As he hits his forties he goes backpacking in Nepal; by his sixties he has entered his awkward adolescence . Finally, becoming shorter and shorter, he becomes a babe-in-arms. Through it all, he conducts a strange, off/on relationship with a beauful woman (Cate Blanchett).
Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous short story, this is a fine attempt to bring that remarkable tale to the screen and won Brad Pitt an Oscar for his outstanding performance, though whether this short story warrants a 150 minute epic is open to question. But the director’s skill is undeniable and the film remains watchable throughout.
HARMONIUM (2016) D- Koji Fukada
A mother and her emotionally shut-off husband bring up their child in a Tokyo suburb when the father invites an ex-con friend to come and live with them. The new guest rapidly establishes a rapport with the daughter and teaches her the rudiments of the harmonium. Mum isn’t sure about her new house-guest, but puts up with it. Slowly it emerges that father too has a shady past, and that his friend may have taken the fall for a crime they both committed.
In some ways this film reminded me of the French classic Boudu Saved From Drowning, in the way a guest is invited in and gradually comes to dominate the family, and the atmosphere created in this film, as in the earlier film, is incredibly moving and powerful.
One of those few movies to come out of Japan which offers deep insights into Japanese domestic life.
CITY OF TINY LIGHTS (2016) D- Pete Travis
A low-life private dic bites off more than he can chew when he investigates a disappearance, stumbling into the world of Islamic politics as well as uncovering ghosts from his own past.
Riz Ahmed is one of the hottest properties in the world right now. Aclaimed actor, rapper and activist, Time magazine put him on their cover as one of 100 most influential people in the world - all this at under 30. Dontcha hate people who are that talented and successful? I know I do. Seriously, despite all this success, this movie doesn’t actually work. It can’t make up its mind what it wants to be; fictional autobiog, hard-bitten noir, political intrigue. And the result is an uncertain melange of plot and style. Oh well, Riz, you can’t win ‘em all, just most of them. I’m sure you’ll do better next time.
A FANTASTIC WOMAN (2017) D- Sebastian Lelio
In Santiago, Chile, a male-to-female trans woman is with her male lover one night when he drops dead just after completing the act of love. Tricky. The poor girl doesn’t know how tricky until the man’s family show up and seem to regard her as some kind of sub-human monster. She is barred from attending her lover’s funeral and told to vacate their shared apartment forthwith. Somehow she manages to pursue her career as a singer.
This film is a revelation. If you ever wondered what sort of problem transgender people deal with in the modern world you need look no further than this superb movie which shows, with stunning insight and clarity, that they face, really, the same sort of problems as gays did half a century ago: misunderstanding, fear, and deep, deep hatred.
Absolutely brilliant. Seek it out and be moved,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)