Quick answer: almost everything.
When I was a kid, I loved to watch Grandstand, and one day I asked my dad why it was so called. He explained first what a grandstand was, namely that it offered the best seats in the house, and that that was what you always got on Grandstand. And that sums up what the coverage of a sporting event should be: giving us, the viewers the best seat in the house.
However, in the last few years the Beeb seems to have forgotten this fundamental precept. In, say, an athletics competition, these days the director is never happy to dwell in the stadium to watch whatever activity is going down, be it track, field or whatever, and allow us to absorb the unique atmosphere of such an event. Instead he constantly reverts to a little studio where we can watch "experts" discussing events past or future with their strictly limited diction. While there are a few good men, such as Michael Johnson, who invariably has an interesting insight, or the estimable Cardiffian Colin Jackson, more often we must endure the mediocrity of Denise Lewis (great athlete, miserably inept commentator) or the even more pallid charms of Paula Radcliffe, who can't seem to say anything without wearing a false smile. She's like an athletics version of Virginia Wade; indeed, I'm waiting for her to say something like: "Well, so-and-so didn't win that race because they didn't run fast enough". or some such deathless gem of sporting wisdom. Who decided the great British public wanted to see these endless tedious exchanges rather than watching live action? It is only when the big track races begin we approach the original vision of how races should be covered,- and then we have the excellent voice-overs of Steve Cram and Brendan Foster. Otherwise we find the coverage converted to a "One Show" level, the lowest common intellectual denominator being catered to, but not real sports fans. They will end up seeing just the winning throw of the discus or hammer competition being shown, because when it was actually going on we were watching a few has-beens swapping endless platitudes. If not that then we are subjected to endless little filmlets illustrating some (British) athlete droning on about their aspirations. Here's the news: we don't need it!
Eurosport still knows how to cover a sporting event, as can be seen with the current European Athletics championships. There, we stick with the action in the stadium, which is where we want to be- sitting in the best seat in the house. But the problem is not confined to athletics. Snooker too seems to demand a switch to the studio between frames rather than allowing the viewer to drink in the atmosphere in the arena and observe the demeanours of the contestants as they prepare themselves for the next frame.
I'd like to see a return to those original values of programmes like Grandstand. And it wouldn't even be hard: just try this little guideline:
LESS CHAT- MORE ACTION!
I thank you. I must go now, as it's the women's 20 kilometre walk and I don't want to miss a step.
Thursday, 14 August 2014
Monday, 11 August 2014
Where's an invasion when you need one?
We've seen a number of ground invasions in the last few years: Iraq (twice), Afghanistan, Panama. At the time, and certainly since, the world has wondered whether any of them were really necessary, or even if they did more harm than good. Yet now, with thousands of innocents driven from their homes, facing rape and murder simply because they don't subscribe to one particular, perverted from of Islam, the West is wary of doing anything more than dropping food and water to the victims and some bombs on the perpetrators. To me this is one case where there should indeed be boots on the ground- a proper and definitive military action to crush these barbarians who would cast the world back into the middle ages if they could.
There is nothing new about the techniques deployed by IS. Mohammed himself, peace be upon him, practised exactly the same tactics of "convert or die" as he and his followers moved from town to town in the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century. You'd like to think things have moved on a little since then: apparently not, certainly in some quarters. Israel too relies on events which took place 3000 years ago to justify their exclusive claims to the land known as Palestine. They say their claims are justified by certain texts in the Old Testament- again we might have thought that was no basis for current policy but again we'd be wrong.
What is going on in Gaza right now is appalling, but from the terrible images we have seen from Kurdistan in the last few days, the plight of those people seems even worse, if such a thing were possible. We must help them before they perish.
There is nothing new about the techniques deployed by IS. Mohammed himself, peace be upon him, practised exactly the same tactics of "convert or die" as he and his followers moved from town to town in the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century. You'd like to think things have moved on a little since then: apparently not, certainly in some quarters. Israel too relies on events which took place 3000 years ago to justify their exclusive claims to the land known as Palestine. They say their claims are justified by certain texts in the Old Testament- again we might have thought that was no basis for current policy but again we'd be wrong.
What is going on in Gaza right now is appalling, but from the terrible images we have seen from Kurdistan in the last few days, the plight of those people seems even worse, if such a thing were possible. We must help them before they perish.
Monday, 4 August 2014
They're going to have to do it some time
When I visited Syria in 2008 I remember walking past a school supply shop in central Damascus. In the window was a large map of the western middle east, showing Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. Where the state of Israel should have been, there was a large blank, implying that area may have belonged to Jordan or Syria. It wasn't clear. So although such landmarks as the city of Jerusalem (and other towns and cities), the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee were included, the modern borders of Israel, and certainly the name Israel was completely absent on the map. Remember, this was a map intended for use in schools.
I imagine the maps Hamas use are similarly blind when it comes to any mention of the hated Jewish state. Let us examine why. The state of Israel was created by a joint effort of the British and French, with the active participation of many other countries around the world, including the Soviet Union and the U.S. Penetratingly, no Arab states were consulted. Following the end of WW2 and the exposure of the Nazi death camps, world Jewry were presented with the most powerful argument imaginable to have their own country following nearly 2000 years of the diaspora. In 1948 they began flooding into what was then known as Palestine, pushing aside the Arabs who were living there, dispossessing them of their homes and farms. As you enter the refugee camps near Bethlehem today, above the gates are huge keys, symbolising the keys the displaced Arabs kept with them when they fled. One day, they hope, they will be able to return to the homes they were forced to leave all those years ago.
This is why Hamas and many Israeli Arabs refuse to recognise what they see as the illegal state of Israel. To them it has no right to exist, and they would be happiest if all the Jews buggered off and settled, say, in Alaska (one of the less helpful contributions to the debate offered by Iran's prime minister Armadinajad). They know, I guess, that that is not going to happen, but that's their position, and I for one can't say I blame them. Unfortunately this approach has little to do with what Germany's chancellor Bismark called realpolitik.
Much of the world is appalled by the disproportionate nature of Israel's latest adventure in Gaza, where a handful of Israeli deaths has to be balanced against over one thousand Palestinian deaths. But the fact that Hamas refuses to acknowledge the state of Israel continues to keep them isolated from world opinion that would be far more sympathetic were they to do so. One of these days they are going to have to deal with real situations, however unpalatable they are. Only then can they win the moral argument against Israel and move on to the only viable solution: not a two state solution- that will never work, but a one state solution: a multicultural Israel with all its citizens enjoying equal human rights. It's a big ask for a people who have been bullied and exploited for over sixty years, but it's the only way forward
I imagine the maps Hamas use are similarly blind when it comes to any mention of the hated Jewish state. Let us examine why. The state of Israel was created by a joint effort of the British and French, with the active participation of many other countries around the world, including the Soviet Union and the U.S. Penetratingly, no Arab states were consulted. Following the end of WW2 and the exposure of the Nazi death camps, world Jewry were presented with the most powerful argument imaginable to have their own country following nearly 2000 years of the diaspora. In 1948 they began flooding into what was then known as Palestine, pushing aside the Arabs who were living there, dispossessing them of their homes and farms. As you enter the refugee camps near Bethlehem today, above the gates are huge keys, symbolising the keys the displaced Arabs kept with them when they fled. One day, they hope, they will be able to return to the homes they were forced to leave all those years ago.
This is why Hamas and many Israeli Arabs refuse to recognise what they see as the illegal state of Israel. To them it has no right to exist, and they would be happiest if all the Jews buggered off and settled, say, in Alaska (one of the less helpful contributions to the debate offered by Iran's prime minister Armadinajad). They know, I guess, that that is not going to happen, but that's their position, and I for one can't say I blame them. Unfortunately this approach has little to do with what Germany's chancellor Bismark called realpolitik.
Much of the world is appalled by the disproportionate nature of Israel's latest adventure in Gaza, where a handful of Israeli deaths has to be balanced against over one thousand Palestinian deaths. But the fact that Hamas refuses to acknowledge the state of Israel continues to keep them isolated from world opinion that would be far more sympathetic were they to do so. One of these days they are going to have to deal with real situations, however unpalatable they are. Only then can they win the moral argument against Israel and move on to the only viable solution: not a two state solution- that will never work, but a one state solution: a multicultural Israel with all its citizens enjoying equal human rights. It's a big ask for a people who have been bullied and exploited for over sixty years, but it's the only way forward
Friday, 1 August 2014
July 2014 book and film review
BOOKS
EFFIE BRIEST, by Theodore Fontane. Effie is a pretty, fun loving 17 year old who thinks being married off to an ambitious minor aristo 20 years her senior might be a lark. But having moved from her beloved family home into a creepy old house miles away and her husband always away at his work, she slowly realises she may have made a mistake. And as so often happens in real life, one mistake leads to another...
Thomas Mann thought this little masterpiece was one of the six most influential novels ever written, and it is widely acknowledged, along with Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary as one of the three greatest books written by a man, about a woman. Fontane's style appears simple and naturalistic, but the text conceals layer after layer of hidden significance. We may not approve of her headstrong, even foolish life decisions, but we remain sympathetic to this beautiful little bird locked in a cage of her own making. Marvellous.
CAPTAIN SCOTT, by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The life of one of Britain's greatest "heroic failures", and unlike many of the hundred or so other books written about Scott, this is by someone who has literally walked in his footsteps. Fiennes probably knows more about trekking in the Antarctic than anyone else alive, and is also, as a leader of many expeditions to the Poles, able to identify strongly with the burdens of command in such extreme environments. And there indeed is the rub: Fiennes tells Scott's story paying close attention to the shifting attitude of the "Great British Public" towards Scott in the decades since his demise.
In the early part of the 20th century Britain was in need of a hero, and Scott's tragic story lit up the public's imagination in a way not seen since the time of Wellington and Nelson. But over the years his reputation has been picked apart by witters who have never been to the polar regions, culminating in the appalling slander committed by a man called Roland Huntford in his book Scott and Amundsen, in which Scott is accused of everything from incompetence to culpable homicide. Fiennes reserves particular venom for this piece of pondlife, not fit to shine the shoes of the Great One in his view. True, Fiennes tells us, Scott was a complicated man, troubled, prone to depression and anger, and who did make some poor decisions. Yet Fiennes admits he himself has made mistakes on every expedition he has ever commanded, some of them serious, and his final verdict is that Scott was a great man, a great explorer and a great commander, despite his failings. Fascinating reading.
LA BETE HUMAINE, by Emil Zola. Lust, murder and mayhem set among the railways of late 20th century France. As always in Zola, all human life is here: a dirty old man with a guilty conscience, an attractive woman pursued by a variety of suitors, and a young man who can't see a pretty girl's décolletage without wanting to plunge a knife into it. Will he be able to resist the beast within him?
For me Zola is one of the most approachable French writers of the 19th century. My dental hygienist spotted me reading it and said she could never manage a novel like that, but I told her she probably could if she just tried. Remarkably easy to read, his characters spring from the page in their vividness, and the plots race along like something out of James Patterson. Superior holiday reading.
ALONE IN BERLIN, by Hans Fallada. In 1940 in Hitler's Germany, a quiet couple is brought the telegram everyone fears: their only son has been killed during the campaign in the Low Countries. In a mixture of grief and anger against their Fuhrer, whom they rightly blame for their son's death, the couple mount their own low-level campaign of resistance: they write little postcards with pithy epigrams like The Fuhrer killed our son! Don't let him kill yours! and then leave them in places where people will see and read them, and maybe pass them on. This kind of behaviour will of course be construed as treason by the authorities, and the penalty for that is death. So they're careful... But the postcards soon come to the attention of the Gestapo, who are determined to take these despicable traitors down.
Based on actual events, this is quite simply one of the most powerful and affecting books I have ever read. Its overwhelming humanity, its brilliant narrative, its quiet, understated atmosphere of fear are quite unlike anything else I have read. In my last blog I wrote about the importance of protest, whether or not that protest is effective in bringing about change, and this book demonstrates this to the ultimate degree. Otto Quangel's postcards don't change anything: most are handed over to the authorities as soon as they are found - they actually instill great fear in the hearts of the people who discover them, but no matter. Otto has remained true to himself, and that is what really counts. A quite wonderful book.
FILMS
JACK THE GIANT SLAYER (2013) D- Bryan Singer. A young man discovers some beans, then loses one, which sprouts. The resulting beanstalk reaches to the sky, but he doesn't want to climb up there, because there be giants. Nasty giants... Since the phenomenal and richly deserved success of Game of Thrones we have seen a rash of movies and TV series with the emphasis firmly on the medieval/magic theme. This, for instance, looks like it was made in the same studios with the same special effects crew. Unfortunately this is no GOT. The writing is poor and the acting risible, even though there are some good actors involved including the excellent Stanley Tucci. Disappointing.
COLD COMES THE NIGHT (2013) D- Tze Chun. The single parent owner of a motel has her life turned suddenly upside down when the mob send one of their own to recover a stash of money, and he enlists her help to find it. Strangely, he seems to need quite a bit of help, because he's blind...
Bryan Cranston showed how good he can be with Breaking Bad, but here they make him do a comedy Russian accent which is wholly unconvincing, and that with the very hard to swallow premise of a blind man being sent by the Russian mafia to do a job of this importance made it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief.
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) D- Wallace Worsley. In medieval Paris, a beautiful young gypsy girl turns people's heads, so much so that the very foundations of government may fall as a result. Above it all, a disfigured man swings from the great bells of Notre Dame and laughs at it all...
One in an occasional series of films I have actually seen before, though I believe the last time was in the 60s, and all I could remember from that distant time was Charles Laughton saying "I can hear the bells!" I had completely forgotten Maureen O'Hara's Esmeralda, the girl who bewitches (without even trying) every man who lays eyes on her. She was well cast, as she does indeed radiate the most luminous beauty in every frame she appears in. And Charles Laughton is equally magnificent as the beast to Esmeralda's beauty. A classic which has dated surprisingly well.
DRINKING BUDDIES (2013) D- Joe Swanberg. Being the life and times of a disparate group of souls who operate a micro brewery. They work hard, they play hard, and they definitely enjoy too much of their own product. And there's your problem. Don't mess with Mister Booze! seems to be the message here in this well made and notable effort. Olivia Wilde's drinking threatens her relationship as well as the livelihood of her fellow workers. Can she come out the other side a better person, or will everything fall apart? Try it yourself and find out.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH ((2006) D- Greg Coolidge. A luscious creature (Jessica Simpson) joins the team at the local supermarket, and Dane Cook is determined to snag her. Trouble is, rumour has it she will only go out with workers who win the employee of the month award, and Dane is something of a slacker. Time for a change... One of those films which owes a lot to films like Ron Burgundy, Anchor Man but lacking the unselfconscious charm of that film. Jessica Simpson's part is particularly disappointing as she is reduced to a mere pneumatic cypher. Leave it out.
NEVER BEEN KISSED (1999) D- Raja Gosnell. A cub reporter (Drew Barrymore) is sent to do an undercover expose on college life, but soon finds herself in the same sort of binds she encountered when she was in college herself- labelled a dumpy nerd, a general no-hoper. Then one of the teachers falls for her and suddenly she has a real story on her hands, but does she want to print that, or allow the romance to progress naturally? Tricky problem... This reminded me a little of Legally Blond, with its apparent innocence blended with hard-nosed reality. It sort of works, but only just.
HAMLET TWO (2008) D- Andrew Fleming. Drama teacher Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan in a wholly plausible American accent) is on his final warning but fancies himself as an inspirational theatre producer, so he does one of those classic "Let's put on a show!" things, much to the ire of his highly sceptical colleagues. In a way they have a point. A sequel to Hamlet? I mean, didn't everybody die in the first one? Coogan doesn't allow little details like that to get in his way; he just invokes a time machine to solve those little problems and despite the shock-horror reaction of his fellow teachers and governors, this project might just work...
Never content to rest on his laurels, Steve Coogan has mounted his assault on the American market, and while he hasn't yet scored like, say, Dudley Moore a generation before, he could be on his way. He's welcome back here any time he likes though, as he's still one of the biggest comedic talents we have.
WHITE MATERIAL (2009, French) D- Claire Denis. In an unspecified central African country, a woman (Isobel Huppert) struggles to keep her coffee plantation operating, despite the imminent arrival of a rebel army which is operating a scorched earth policy. And they consider her enterprise as mere "white material"- of no relevance in their world. She does her best to ignore the threat, while all around her everyone is fleeing, even her most trusted employees. To make matters worse, her brother is selling the concern off behind her back. Still she will not be dislodged...
Isobel Huppert is one of my favourite French actresses: her face is angular, even gaunt, yet she remains stunning for all that, and her acting is wholly convincing.in everything she does. Here she commands attention in every shot with her passionate, if doomed, commitment to her precious coffee beans.
FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) W/D- Tom Holland. A young man is addicted to horror movies, especially a TV series hosted by "Peter Vincent" (a deliciously camp Roddy McDowell) and when a real-life vampire (a much-praised Chris Sarandon) moves in next door and nobody believes him, he decides to seek out Peter Vincent and enlist his help to put a stake through the evil one's heart. At first McDowell is dismissive, but when he notices Sarandon doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror, he realises this is the real deal...
A really rather good vampire movie, which was well received at the time and made the producers a lot of money into the bargain. If shlock-horror movies are to your taste, you'll like this a lot...
WINGS (1927) D- William Wellmann. (silent) Two young men are full of patriotic zeal when World War One begins in 1917 (this is America, remember) and both sign up for the newly formed US Air Force. They leave behind girls, one of whom (Clara Bow) decides to follow them out to the Western Front and enlists as an ambulance driver. But the real action is in the skies...
In my last film review I catalogued one of Wellmann's last films, a war picture called Darby's Rangers, and here we see Wellmann almost at the dawn of his career, a full thirty years earlier, given a big budget and showing every cent of it up on the screen with dog-fight sequences that were revolutionary at the time and remain riveting to this day. Howard Hughes took a leaf out of Wellmann's book when he made the famous Hell's Angels three years later, using many of the devices Wellmann introduced. But Wellmann got there first. Very special.
EFFIE BRIEST, by Theodore Fontane. Effie is a pretty, fun loving 17 year old who thinks being married off to an ambitious minor aristo 20 years her senior might be a lark. But having moved from her beloved family home into a creepy old house miles away and her husband always away at his work, she slowly realises she may have made a mistake. And as so often happens in real life, one mistake leads to another...
Thomas Mann thought this little masterpiece was one of the six most influential novels ever written, and it is widely acknowledged, along with Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary as one of the three greatest books written by a man, about a woman. Fontane's style appears simple and naturalistic, but the text conceals layer after layer of hidden significance. We may not approve of her headstrong, even foolish life decisions, but we remain sympathetic to this beautiful little bird locked in a cage of her own making. Marvellous.
CAPTAIN SCOTT, by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The life of one of Britain's greatest "heroic failures", and unlike many of the hundred or so other books written about Scott, this is by someone who has literally walked in his footsteps. Fiennes probably knows more about trekking in the Antarctic than anyone else alive, and is also, as a leader of many expeditions to the Poles, able to identify strongly with the burdens of command in such extreme environments. And there indeed is the rub: Fiennes tells Scott's story paying close attention to the shifting attitude of the "Great British Public" towards Scott in the decades since his demise.
In the early part of the 20th century Britain was in need of a hero, and Scott's tragic story lit up the public's imagination in a way not seen since the time of Wellington and Nelson. But over the years his reputation has been picked apart by witters who have never been to the polar regions, culminating in the appalling slander committed by a man called Roland Huntford in his book Scott and Amundsen, in which Scott is accused of everything from incompetence to culpable homicide. Fiennes reserves particular venom for this piece of pondlife, not fit to shine the shoes of the Great One in his view. True, Fiennes tells us, Scott was a complicated man, troubled, prone to depression and anger, and who did make some poor decisions. Yet Fiennes admits he himself has made mistakes on every expedition he has ever commanded, some of them serious, and his final verdict is that Scott was a great man, a great explorer and a great commander, despite his failings. Fascinating reading.
LA BETE HUMAINE, by Emil Zola. Lust, murder and mayhem set among the railways of late 20th century France. As always in Zola, all human life is here: a dirty old man with a guilty conscience, an attractive woman pursued by a variety of suitors, and a young man who can't see a pretty girl's décolletage without wanting to plunge a knife into it. Will he be able to resist the beast within him?
For me Zola is one of the most approachable French writers of the 19th century. My dental hygienist spotted me reading it and said she could never manage a novel like that, but I told her she probably could if she just tried. Remarkably easy to read, his characters spring from the page in their vividness, and the plots race along like something out of James Patterson. Superior holiday reading.
ALONE IN BERLIN, by Hans Fallada. In 1940 in Hitler's Germany, a quiet couple is brought the telegram everyone fears: their only son has been killed during the campaign in the Low Countries. In a mixture of grief and anger against their Fuhrer, whom they rightly blame for their son's death, the couple mount their own low-level campaign of resistance: they write little postcards with pithy epigrams like The Fuhrer killed our son! Don't let him kill yours! and then leave them in places where people will see and read them, and maybe pass them on. This kind of behaviour will of course be construed as treason by the authorities, and the penalty for that is death. So they're careful... But the postcards soon come to the attention of the Gestapo, who are determined to take these despicable traitors down.
Based on actual events, this is quite simply one of the most powerful and affecting books I have ever read. Its overwhelming humanity, its brilliant narrative, its quiet, understated atmosphere of fear are quite unlike anything else I have read. In my last blog I wrote about the importance of protest, whether or not that protest is effective in bringing about change, and this book demonstrates this to the ultimate degree. Otto Quangel's postcards don't change anything: most are handed over to the authorities as soon as they are found - they actually instill great fear in the hearts of the people who discover them, but no matter. Otto has remained true to himself, and that is what really counts. A quite wonderful book.
FILMS
JACK THE GIANT SLAYER (2013) D- Bryan Singer. A young man discovers some beans, then loses one, which sprouts. The resulting beanstalk reaches to the sky, but he doesn't want to climb up there, because there be giants. Nasty giants... Since the phenomenal and richly deserved success of Game of Thrones we have seen a rash of movies and TV series with the emphasis firmly on the medieval/magic theme. This, for instance, looks like it was made in the same studios with the same special effects crew. Unfortunately this is no GOT. The writing is poor and the acting risible, even though there are some good actors involved including the excellent Stanley Tucci. Disappointing.
COLD COMES THE NIGHT (2013) D- Tze Chun. The single parent owner of a motel has her life turned suddenly upside down when the mob send one of their own to recover a stash of money, and he enlists her help to find it. Strangely, he seems to need quite a bit of help, because he's blind...
Bryan Cranston showed how good he can be with Breaking Bad, but here they make him do a comedy Russian accent which is wholly unconvincing, and that with the very hard to swallow premise of a blind man being sent by the Russian mafia to do a job of this importance made it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief.
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) D- Wallace Worsley. In medieval Paris, a beautiful young gypsy girl turns people's heads, so much so that the very foundations of government may fall as a result. Above it all, a disfigured man swings from the great bells of Notre Dame and laughs at it all...
One in an occasional series of films I have actually seen before, though I believe the last time was in the 60s, and all I could remember from that distant time was Charles Laughton saying "I can hear the bells!" I had completely forgotten Maureen O'Hara's Esmeralda, the girl who bewitches (without even trying) every man who lays eyes on her. She was well cast, as she does indeed radiate the most luminous beauty in every frame she appears in. And Charles Laughton is equally magnificent as the beast to Esmeralda's beauty. A classic which has dated surprisingly well.
DRINKING BUDDIES (2013) D- Joe Swanberg. Being the life and times of a disparate group of souls who operate a micro brewery. They work hard, they play hard, and they definitely enjoy too much of their own product. And there's your problem. Don't mess with Mister Booze! seems to be the message here in this well made and notable effort. Olivia Wilde's drinking threatens her relationship as well as the livelihood of her fellow workers. Can she come out the other side a better person, or will everything fall apart? Try it yourself and find out.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH ((2006) D- Greg Coolidge. A luscious creature (Jessica Simpson) joins the team at the local supermarket, and Dane Cook is determined to snag her. Trouble is, rumour has it she will only go out with workers who win the employee of the month award, and Dane is something of a slacker. Time for a change... One of those films which owes a lot to films like Ron Burgundy, Anchor Man but lacking the unselfconscious charm of that film. Jessica Simpson's part is particularly disappointing as she is reduced to a mere pneumatic cypher. Leave it out.
NEVER BEEN KISSED (1999) D- Raja Gosnell. A cub reporter (Drew Barrymore) is sent to do an undercover expose on college life, but soon finds herself in the same sort of binds she encountered when she was in college herself- labelled a dumpy nerd, a general no-hoper. Then one of the teachers falls for her and suddenly she has a real story on her hands, but does she want to print that, or allow the romance to progress naturally? Tricky problem... This reminded me a little of Legally Blond, with its apparent innocence blended with hard-nosed reality. It sort of works, but only just.
HAMLET TWO (2008) D- Andrew Fleming. Drama teacher Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan in a wholly plausible American accent) is on his final warning but fancies himself as an inspirational theatre producer, so he does one of those classic "Let's put on a show!" things, much to the ire of his highly sceptical colleagues. In a way they have a point. A sequel to Hamlet? I mean, didn't everybody die in the first one? Coogan doesn't allow little details like that to get in his way; he just invokes a time machine to solve those little problems and despite the shock-horror reaction of his fellow teachers and governors, this project might just work...
Never content to rest on his laurels, Steve Coogan has mounted his assault on the American market, and while he hasn't yet scored like, say, Dudley Moore a generation before, he could be on his way. He's welcome back here any time he likes though, as he's still one of the biggest comedic talents we have.
WHITE MATERIAL (2009, French) D- Claire Denis. In an unspecified central African country, a woman (Isobel Huppert) struggles to keep her coffee plantation operating, despite the imminent arrival of a rebel army which is operating a scorched earth policy. And they consider her enterprise as mere "white material"- of no relevance in their world. She does her best to ignore the threat, while all around her everyone is fleeing, even her most trusted employees. To make matters worse, her brother is selling the concern off behind her back. Still she will not be dislodged...
Isobel Huppert is one of my favourite French actresses: her face is angular, even gaunt, yet she remains stunning for all that, and her acting is wholly convincing.in everything she does. Here she commands attention in every shot with her passionate, if doomed, commitment to her precious coffee beans.
FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) W/D- Tom Holland. A young man is addicted to horror movies, especially a TV series hosted by "Peter Vincent" (a deliciously camp Roddy McDowell) and when a real-life vampire (a much-praised Chris Sarandon) moves in next door and nobody believes him, he decides to seek out Peter Vincent and enlist his help to put a stake through the evil one's heart. At first McDowell is dismissive, but when he notices Sarandon doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror, he realises this is the real deal...
A really rather good vampire movie, which was well received at the time and made the producers a lot of money into the bargain. If shlock-horror movies are to your taste, you'll like this a lot...
WINGS (1927) D- William Wellmann. (silent) Two young men are full of patriotic zeal when World War One begins in 1917 (this is America, remember) and both sign up for the newly formed US Air Force. They leave behind girls, one of whom (Clara Bow) decides to follow them out to the Western Front and enlists as an ambulance driver. But the real action is in the skies...
In my last film review I catalogued one of Wellmann's last films, a war picture called Darby's Rangers, and here we see Wellmann almost at the dawn of his career, a full thirty years earlier, given a big budget and showing every cent of it up on the screen with dog-fight sequences that were revolutionary at the time and remain riveting to this day. Howard Hughes took a leaf out of Wellmann's book when he made the famous Hell's Angels three years later, using many of the devices Wellmann introduced. But Wellmann got there first. Very special.
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Fracking: here we go
Yesterday the government invited companies to bid for licences to begin the process of hydraulic fracturing, to give it its full name, throughout the UK. Just to give a quick summary of how it works, large quantities of fresh water (it has to be fresh; salt water would damage the drilling equipment, though why they couldn't simply make equipment that would resist salt water I don't know, what I do know is that fresh water, drawn from the same rivers you and I get our drinking water, will be used, and in vast amounts) is pumped deep underground under pressure, opening up little fault lines in the shale rock, freeing the oil and especially gas that is "locked" within. The water, now toxic, is lost: it will stay down deep, well below (we are reassured) the aquifers many of us depend on for our clean water supply.
By these means, we will, apparently, be the beneficiaries of a limitless supply of gas, and almost as much oil, guaranteeing us "energy security" (the new buzz phrase, meaning we will no longer be at the mercy of the Russians, who could turn off the gas tap any time they chose) well into the 22nd century.
However, when you burn fossil fuels of any kind, you release carbon dioxide, a significant factor in global warming, a phenomenon now accepted by everyone except a bunch of right wing nutters who unfortunately are still able to punch well above their weight on the world stage. Also, the fracking process is also at risk of leaking vast quantities of methane into the atmosphere, a gas with six times the effect of CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Naturally we are reassured this won't be a problem, though these reassurances are offered mainly by the people most likely to profit from the process. Meanwhile the sustainable energy resources, wind, solar, wave etc, are still sidelined as off-the-wall, hippy projects with no real prospect of making an impact. It suits the oil companies and automotive industries to keep the world in a fossil fuel based economy- it just doesn't suit the Earth: the only place we've got to live.
By these means, we will, apparently, be the beneficiaries of a limitless supply of gas, and almost as much oil, guaranteeing us "energy security" (the new buzz phrase, meaning we will no longer be at the mercy of the Russians, who could turn off the gas tap any time they chose) well into the 22nd century.
However, when you burn fossil fuels of any kind, you release carbon dioxide, a significant factor in global warming, a phenomenon now accepted by everyone except a bunch of right wing nutters who unfortunately are still able to punch well above their weight on the world stage. Also, the fracking process is also at risk of leaking vast quantities of methane into the atmosphere, a gas with six times the effect of CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Naturally we are reassured this won't be a problem, though these reassurances are offered mainly by the people most likely to profit from the process. Meanwhile the sustainable energy resources, wind, solar, wave etc, are still sidelined as off-the-wall, hippy projects with no real prospect of making an impact. It suits the oil companies and automotive industries to keep the world in a fossil fuel based economy- it just doesn't suit the Earth: the only place we've got to live.
Monday, 28 July 2014
Don't just say something, stand there!
I was on a CND march once, a long time ago, and with me was an 80 year old woman. Someone watching the march go by called out that there was no point in us demonstrating; the government wasn't going to abandon its nuclear deterrant, no matter how many worthies like us wanted them to. The lady was quick with her response: "I demand my right as a citizen to protest, and that's what I'm doing".
This is what I and about 2000 other people decided to do in Cardiff on Saturday as we processed through the streets of the city demanding that Israel lift its blockade of Gaza. You might say our protest was as impotent as was CND's all those years ago. Israel has been selling the lie around the world that in the Palestinian people we have an entire population of terrorists, and that lifting the blockade would allow them to flood out into Israel reeking death and destruction on the Israeli people, armed with all the weaponry and other hardware of murder they could now obtain through the open border. The American people have taken these lies to their hearts and now it is very hard to find anyone in that benighted and misled country who supports their demands for freedom of movement and other civil rights enjoyed by their Israeli neighbours. And President Obama, may shame be upon him, has actually encouraged this lie.
We were not without dissent on our march either. At one point a bunch of drunken, racist scumbags sitting outside a bar began to throw glasses at the marchers as they passed the bar, provoking a furious response from some Arabs in the demonstration, who, showing remarkable courage, waded into those louts, swinging fists and throwing chairs at them. Good for them. Racist hatred must always be opposed, by violence if necessary, as I believe it was in this case. I actually picked up a shot glass and took it home as a souvenir (I'm not brave enough for violent direct action myself, though I did shout "racist scum!" at them, to the horror of some people standing near me). But the incident illustrated how big a mountain the Palestinian people still have to climb before they are free.
This is what I and about 2000 other people decided to do in Cardiff on Saturday as we processed through the streets of the city demanding that Israel lift its blockade of Gaza. You might say our protest was as impotent as was CND's all those years ago. Israel has been selling the lie around the world that in the Palestinian people we have an entire population of terrorists, and that lifting the blockade would allow them to flood out into Israel reeking death and destruction on the Israeli people, armed with all the weaponry and other hardware of murder they could now obtain through the open border. The American people have taken these lies to their hearts and now it is very hard to find anyone in that benighted and misled country who supports their demands for freedom of movement and other civil rights enjoyed by their Israeli neighbours. And President Obama, may shame be upon him, has actually encouraged this lie.
We were not without dissent on our march either. At one point a bunch of drunken, racist scumbags sitting outside a bar began to throw glasses at the marchers as they passed the bar, provoking a furious response from some Arabs in the demonstration, who, showing remarkable courage, waded into those louts, swinging fists and throwing chairs at them. Good for them. Racist hatred must always be opposed, by violence if necessary, as I believe it was in this case. I actually picked up a shot glass and took it home as a souvenir (I'm not brave enough for violent direct action myself, though I did shout "racist scum!" at them, to the horror of some people standing near me). But the incident illustrated how big a mountain the Palestinian people still have to climb before they are free.
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
Gaza's agony
What is peace? The dictionary definition, I believe, is simply "the absence of war". At this moment Israel and Palestine are at war. Netenyahu tells us that around the world there is great support for Israel's actions, that everyone agrees it has a right to keep its citizens safe from attack. And though I doubt very much whether Israel really does enjoy the support of the world community, it certainly can continue to rely on its greatest friend, America, whose leader, Barack Obama, has done little to rein in its ally beyond asking it to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Considering the way Israel wages war that isn't going to be easy.
Israel has the best equipped and most powerful army in the Middle East. They have been using F16 warplanes and the latest attack helicopters (courtesy of the US, of course) to blast civilian areas in Gaza for several weeks, causing hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries (which have overwhelmed the medical services there) and tremendous damage to Gaza's already parlous infrastructure They thoughtfully send text message to residents of Gaza suggesting they leave the area, then one minute later the bombs start falling. Some are simple high-explosives, others are horrible phosphorus bombs, and now, increasingly often they are using anti-personnel devices packed with little blades known as "flechettes", guaranteed to cause maximum injury to any living thing within a 50 metre radius. Residents flee the area if they can, but where can they go? Gaza is like the Warsaw ghetto: no one can leave. So all the residents can do is run from one area of jeopardy to another.
Hamas is believed to possess 10,000 missiles ready to fire into Israel. It sounds terrifying looked at like that, but these missiles are old, half of them don't even explode and when they do more often than not they land in empty desert, because their guidance systems are antiquated. In the West Bank the Israelis are not yet using their full fire power, but a new weapon of subjugation has recently been deployed: "skunk water"- water which smells like faeces and once on the clothing or skin is almost impossible to clean off. They spray it on the streets to keep people in their houses, and they spray it into the faces of demonstrators, partly so they may be identified later when the army breaks down doors to extract whoever they feel is any kind of threat. This includes pregnant women and children- big threat there.
Tony Blair is the Middle East "peace envoy". Yet at the peak of the crisis where is he? Is he standing, like the Pope did, next to the separation Wall and declaiming: "I am for peace! Stop the killing now- on both sides!" No, he's back in England, being stroked by the labour party who are celebrating 20 years since he became Labour leader. Let us not forget he filled dead men's shoes: the most excellent John Smith dying suddenly of a heart attack was the cue for Blair's assumption of power. Would Smith have travelled the dubious road Blair has, with his poodling to the Americans and now his sickeningly hypocritical approach to the Middle East? I don't think so. Because John Smith was a conviction politician, one who really believed in labour ideals, not spin and cant. Rest in peace, John Smith. How we could have used you right now...
Israel has the best equipped and most powerful army in the Middle East. They have been using F16 warplanes and the latest attack helicopters (courtesy of the US, of course) to blast civilian areas in Gaza for several weeks, causing hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries (which have overwhelmed the medical services there) and tremendous damage to Gaza's already parlous infrastructure They thoughtfully send text message to residents of Gaza suggesting they leave the area, then one minute later the bombs start falling. Some are simple high-explosives, others are horrible phosphorus bombs, and now, increasingly often they are using anti-personnel devices packed with little blades known as "flechettes", guaranteed to cause maximum injury to any living thing within a 50 metre radius. Residents flee the area if they can, but where can they go? Gaza is like the Warsaw ghetto: no one can leave. So all the residents can do is run from one area of jeopardy to another.
Hamas is believed to possess 10,000 missiles ready to fire into Israel. It sounds terrifying looked at like that, but these missiles are old, half of them don't even explode and when they do more often than not they land in empty desert, because their guidance systems are antiquated. In the West Bank the Israelis are not yet using their full fire power, but a new weapon of subjugation has recently been deployed: "skunk water"- water which smells like faeces and once on the clothing or skin is almost impossible to clean off. They spray it on the streets to keep people in their houses, and they spray it into the faces of demonstrators, partly so they may be identified later when the army breaks down doors to extract whoever they feel is any kind of threat. This includes pregnant women and children- big threat there.
Tony Blair is the Middle East "peace envoy". Yet at the peak of the crisis where is he? Is he standing, like the Pope did, next to the separation Wall and declaiming: "I am for peace! Stop the killing now- on both sides!" No, he's back in England, being stroked by the labour party who are celebrating 20 years since he became Labour leader. Let us not forget he filled dead men's shoes: the most excellent John Smith dying suddenly of a heart attack was the cue for Blair's assumption of power. Would Smith have travelled the dubious road Blair has, with his poodling to the Americans and now his sickeningly hypocritical approach to the Middle East? I don't think so. Because John Smith was a conviction politician, one who really believed in labour ideals, not spin and cant. Rest in peace, John Smith. How we could have used you right now...
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