Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Mockingjay by Suzanne CollinsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hovering between five stars and no stars at all. After listening to unabridged audio versions of the three books of the Hunger Games trilogy I feel at once impressed and depressed. Battered into not knowing whether I can honestly use the star equivalent of liked, at the same time as being aware that "amazing" is akin to what I felt about some of it. The series ends in what seemed to me like relentless, unremitting grimness and horror. For a book I believed to be for young adults, it doesn't pull many punches and the moral dilemmas are also grown up, not to say topical. I have always been aware that I am not the target audience, but in fact the resolution of the romance plot was far less painful than I was expecting and for me paled in significance beside other momentous events.
I don't want to give away any spoilers as there are several twists, some of which I saw coming and at least one of which was like Ms. Collins saying brightly "What's that over there" and then kneeing me in the groin. These are books I won't forget in a hurry and I regret dismissing them and the spin-off film earlier, when I somehow lumped them in with the Twilight phenomena. I should probably point out again that I didn't read these books but listened to them. The reader, Carolyn McCormick, may well have coloured my opinion to some degree. I believe she did an excellent job however, differentiating clearly between different voices and even attempting a song. There were a couple of times when I felt errors of stress may have slipped through - Head doctor where the context implied head doctor for example - but in the main it was an excellent performance I thought, and well-matched to the material. In conclusion I will say bravo to her and the author...and I'm glad I don't have to go through that again...
View all my reviews
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Dubloons and Debauchery
The project proved to be difficult but for the most part good fun, mainly thanks to Crabro embracing his inner pirate wholeheartedly and being pretty villainous from the outset.
In the end we had to call the game without it reaching a proper endgame trigger. It was clear though that Crabro, who had started with the eponymous pirate, aka Edward Teach, and played him with thorough wickedness was the top buccaneer. You don't want your merchant ship to be found and looted by this man!
I'm glad that Crabro was interested enough, not just to play, but to print out the whole "living rules" and player aids and try to really understand the gameplay. Hopefully we will return to this next week and perhaps play multiple pirates and have more involvement with Kings Commissioners and Warships as well as perhaps sacking the odd port.The game is full of period flavour and theme and I think I'm going to love it. I only wish someone would take my other favourite genre, the "wild west", and do the same.
Sunday, 10 June 2012
You speak the truth, my faithful indian companion
...Is a line I often quote and is never recognised as anything but typical Rooftrouser eccentricity. It is in
fact spoken by a young character in Radio Days to a rabbi played by Kenneth Mars. The youngster is the junior version of the narrator, voiced by Woody Allen, and so is a version of the junior Konigsberg.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, film night unexpectedly came back into the calendar this week at short notice but was none the worse for being a surprise. Arthur turned up with the usual wonderful pie and beer (although he decided to stick to apple juice himself this week) together with some suggestions for the programme. He had with him two VHS tapes: One, "The Swimmer" we put by for another time as we decided on the other tape "Paris Trout" together with one from the "Rialto"'s own archive: Radio Days.
Another wonderful Bilko episode filled the intermission between the two features. This time it was "Bivouac" with a healthy dose of one of my favourite characters, Paul Ford playing the Colonel.
Paris Trout is one that Arthur and I had seen together at the very wonderful Duke of York's cinema in Brighton about twenty years ago in a period of that venue's history when it was run on the lines of an art-house film club (membership if I recall correctly was just a pound per year) and the programmes were full of amazing classic foreign and indie productions and every week brought films I shall never forget. Having said that we hadn't retained an awful lot of Paris Trout apart from a memory of the appalling, powerful central performance by Dennis Hopper as the eponymous Paris and his relationship with his wife. She does explain at one point how she came to marry this monster but it is still hard to fathom.
It being fresh to us again, it was able to shock once more and did so. Trout is a truly horrible, and I really hope not too realistic, southern bigot running a shop and a loansharking business. He appears to believe that he is above the law and that the black population is so far below it that he can literally get away with murder either with at most a sham court case or likely a little bribery. To some extent this proves to be true but Trout has gone too far for his own brutalised and tortured wife (Barbara Hershey) and his lawyer (Ed Harris) and alone he teeters on the edge of madness. Hopper's performance is memorable, and while the other leads give a good account of themselves credit must also go to Trout's victims and very affecting performances by Tina Lifford and young Darnita Henry.
It's not an easy watch and if you are anything like me the illogical brutal prejudice and inhumanity will make you angry. It was directed by the Gylennhaal paterfamilias, Stephen, whose career has mostly been and still is, in television. The evidence of this film is that that is cinema's loss.
The choice of Radio Days (1987) was partly as antidote to the poisonous Paris, as it is full of comedic charm and whimsy as well as a sparkling period soundtrack. This is the Woodmeister's homage to his roots and the excitement of listening to the radio in America in the forties. Structurally it is a series of episodes or stories relating to the narrator (Allen as mentioned above) "his" family and their radio listening. These stories are interwoven on a background of the family's own stories - and what a family. The cast is marvellous and linking this with the last couple of films in our
"Woody retrospective" season, includes Mia Farrow and, in a small role, Jeff Daniels. The cast also includes other greats from the Allen rep. company: Julie (Marge Simpson ) Kavner, Dianne Wiest and Diane Keaton (who just gets to sing). Also notable among the cast, the great Wallace Shawn and Kenneth Mars as the rabbi mentioned above.
Radio Days is a perpetual delight, full of wonderful bits of surreal humour and memorable lines as well as catchy tunes, and a great period feel. It was like slipping down into a favourite armchair or a warm bath after facing the evil Trout. Speaking of trout, fish feature quite a bit in Radio Days but in an altogether more pleasant way. The whole thing is an unashamedly romanticised version of the past as the narrator says and as such is warm and soothing. A little red snapper?
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| Radio Days (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
But I'm getting ahead of myself, film night unexpectedly came back into the calendar this week at short notice but was none the worse for being a surprise. Arthur turned up with the usual wonderful pie and beer (although he decided to stick to apple juice himself this week) together with some suggestions for the programme. He had with him two VHS tapes: One, "The Swimmer" we put by for another time as we decided on the other tape "Paris Trout" together with one from the "Rialto"'s own archive: Radio Days.
Another wonderful Bilko episode filled the intermission between the two features. This time it was "Bivouac" with a healthy dose of one of my favourite characters, Paul Ford playing the Colonel.
Paris Trout is one that Arthur and I had seen together at the very wonderful Duke of York's cinema in Brighton about twenty years ago in a period of that venue's history when it was run on the lines of an art-house film club (membership if I recall correctly was just a pound per year) and the programmes were full of amazing classic foreign and indie productions and every week brought films I shall never forget. Having said that we hadn't retained an awful lot of Paris Trout apart from a memory of the appalling, powerful central performance by Dennis Hopper as the eponymous Paris and his relationship with his wife. She does explain at one point how she came to marry this monster but it is still hard to fathom.
 |
| English: Dennis Hopper at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Français : Dennis Hopper au festival de Cannes (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
It being fresh to us again, it was able to shock once more and did so. Trout is a truly horrible, and I really hope not too realistic, southern bigot running a shop and a loansharking business. He appears to believe that he is above the law and that the black population is so far below it that he can literally get away with murder either with at most a sham court case or likely a little bribery. To some extent this proves to be true but Trout has gone too far for his own brutalised and tortured wife (Barbara Hershey) and his lawyer (Ed Harris) and alone he teeters on the edge of madness. Hopper's performance is memorable, and while the other leads give a good account of themselves credit must also go to Trout's victims and very affecting performances by Tina Lifford and young Darnita Henry.
It's not an easy watch and if you are anything like me the illogical brutal prejudice and inhumanity will make you angry. It was directed by the Gylennhaal paterfamilias, Stephen, whose career has mostly been and still is, in television. The evidence of this film is that that is cinema's loss.
The choice of Radio Days (1987) was partly as antidote to the poisonous Paris, as it is full of comedic charm and whimsy as well as a sparkling period soundtrack. This is the Woodmeister's homage to his roots and the excitement of listening to the radio in America in the forties. Structurally it is a series of episodes or stories relating to the narrator (Allen as mentioned above) "his" family and their radio listening. These stories are interwoven on a background of the family's own stories - and what a family. The cast is marvellous and linking this with the last couple of films in our
 |
| English: Woody Allen at the Cannes film festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Radio Days is a perpetual delight, full of wonderful bits of surreal humour and memorable lines as well as catchy tunes, and a great period feel. It was like slipping down into a favourite armchair or a warm bath after facing the evil Trout. Speaking of trout, fish feature quite a bit in Radio Days but in an altogether more pleasant way. The whole thing is an unashamedly romanticised version of the past as the narrator says and as such is warm and soothing. A little red snapper?
Then there were three
Fresh from my kekloss outings I returned to prepare for games night and for once it was just the three regular blokes. Nevertheless we still decided on yet another go at Stefan Feld's gem Trajan. After two victories in a row, this time, perhaps distracted by the thought of having bought someone else some trousers I slipped back into second place and stayed there. Not too bad a score I think but on this occasion the Professor, having spent a week analysing aspects of the game, got into his stride and disappeared into a distant part of the score track.I thoroughly enjoyed it again though and tried yet another different strategy, this time focussing more on shipping and far less on military conquest and building. After all that temple-knuckling, brow-furrowing thoughtyness we fancied something lighter as our second game and ended up playing Deadwood. I was delighted to give this another outing as western is a theme I love and I had played it recently enough to remember how to play it. In any case it doesn't have a complex rule set although one does have to learn the "powers" of quite a few buildings.
In the end it seems I may have won this one on a recount after a technical infringement, although the original result (another win for the Prof.) was in some ways more satisfying as it had involved a shoot-out to decide the outcome of a drawn game. [I felt a sort of tugging sensation there as some subconscious demon tried to get me to come up with some dreadful "fastest draw" type wordplay.]Anyhow a quick, colourful little game and as ProfMudlark realised that he hadn't been paying the sheriff (Crabro) his dues and victory is decided on money, it would seem that I should have been the victor. Yay me!
A very satisfying, enjoyable and harmonious evening's gaming to temporarily stop my kicking myself over trouser-mislaying antics.
I'd better change my name to RoofNOtrouser
because Rooftrouser is just too ironic a name for someone who keeps losing his strides. Anyway enough of my shopping woes, suffice it to say that I ended up making two visits to Brighton on consecutive days as a result of my trouser troubles, during which I also managed to see two very interesting films.
First up was 2 Days in New York, Julie Delpy's sequel to her 2007 film about a French woman taking her American boyfriend to meet her family: Two Days in Paris.
La Delpy is an amazing film-maker in my opinion, perhaps deserving comparison with Woody Allen as an auteur. She not only writes, directs and acts but also has a hand in the composition of the original score. She employed her own mother and father and they turned out to be among the best things in "Paris". I particularly loved it because I recognised so much from my own painful introductions to a French girlfriend's relatives and friends long ago.
Sadly, her mother (who played Marion's mother in the first film) has since passed away but her wonderful, eccentric larger-than life actor father is still with us and features strongly in Two Days in New York. It loses a little for me in moving from an environment I'm familiar with, and it felt a bit chaotic structurally, nevertheless it was very enjoyable to be re-united with Marion (Delpy), her nymphomaniac sister Rose (played by Alexia Landeau) and Manu (Alexandre Nahon) her boyfriend, who is also an "ex" of Marion. Both Landeau and Nahon also had a hand in Delpy's screenplay.
The story has moved on from Paris and Delpy is no longer going out with Jack but has another American boyfriend, divorced father Mingus (played by Chris Rock), she also has a child from her previous relationship, as does Mingus.
Chris Rock's performance was a pleasant surprise, being relatively understated in comparison to Delpy's "family" which worked nicely as a foil to the excesses of Jeannot, Rose and Manu. I have previously come across him in manic, shrill, action-movie mode but there is clearly a lot more to him as an actor than I gave him credit for.
While I perhaps didn't like this quite as much as the first, I enjoyed it very much and hope Delpy and her "family" return. If it was 2 Days in Herne Bay with this lot I would definitely pay to see it.
The following day, while briefly being re-united with my new chinos (a trew story), I also took in the most promoted and talked about film of the moment: Prometheus. This is where Ridley Scott has been re-united with the "Alien" franchise and, his iconic film being the first of that series, this certainly warrants some interest. Prometheus is not exactly a prequel though, more of a pre-pre-prequel as it would, and perhaps will, take two more features to join up to the saga of the ill-fated Nostromo.
Its pedigree is an awful lot to live up to and inevitably there has been some disappointment expressed by many reviewers. It is though, I feel, an undeniably big event film which at times spectacularly delivers the kind of cinema experience that is expected of a sci-fi blockbuster. It has of course been shown extensively in 3d and Scott is careful to promote that, however he did let slip in an interview that the 2d print is beautiful and I wouldn't argue with that. I think I will probably settle for that and not see both versions as I did with Avatar. I've now seen enough 3d to conclude that I always prefer the 2d version even where the use of 3d has created interesting moments. The loss of light and colour for me is too much of a trade-off and I hope that it will be recognised that it is no more than a gimmick and is not "the future of cinema". Most films look better without it, although I have no objection to the existence of films made purely for the process. I think there is probably a place for the occasional "fairground ride" film made solely for spectacle, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Any film with any pretention to grown up plot, character development and cinematographic beauty needs to give the old dark glasses the boot however and this is without addressing the issue of composing for 3d effect which inevitably impacts on the director's and DPs vision.
Anyway... I loved Prometheus because it looks beautiful, allowed me to escape from hosenverlustshmerz to a whole new world and is a good example of one of types of film I go to the cinema in the hope of seeing. Indeed it complements the Delpy/Allen species of film to make up the two extremes of film experience I love, on the one hand adventure, spectacle, scares, drama, special effects and on the other romance, comedy, and well-written intimate character driven pieces with relishable dialogue.
Depite the criticisms, Prometheus was clearly set up to be the first of two or three films and I hope the series continues. I was not wholly happy with it myself but I'm not quite sure why. Certainly Alien was an impossibly hard act to follow. The claustrophobic horror, the design, the "monster", the android character: These are things that no longer have the shock of originality and this is not the fault of Scott or the cast but are simply inevitable. "Prom" has all sorts of echos, including monstrous alien "birth", a sentient android etc but can't be expected to beat the original at its own game.
Where it does score is in some of the lavish lovingly shot views of the moon and the ship which are indeed beautiful. I hope there's more to come and, if not entirely satisfied, am more than happy to have a big sci-fi film back on the screen. I should also mention that there is some real quality in the cast too, especially Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender, although one area traditionally poor in these big SF films is the dialogue and this is no exception.
It just occurred to me that I already want to see both these films again so that must be a good sign!
 |
| Julie Delpy @ SF Apple Store promoting "2 Days in Paris", 2007/7/29 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
La Delpy is an amazing film-maker in my opinion, perhaps deserving comparison with Woody Allen as an auteur. She not only writes, directs and acts but also has a hand in the composition of the original score. She employed her own mother and father and they turned out to be among the best things in "Paris". I particularly loved it because I recognised so much from my own painful introductions to a French girlfriend's relatives and friends long ago.
Sadly, her mother (who played Marion's mother in the first film) has since passed away but her wonderful, eccentric larger-than life actor father is still with us and features strongly in Two Days in New York. It loses a little for me in moving from an environment I'm familiar with, and it felt a bit chaotic structurally, nevertheless it was very enjoyable to be re-united with Marion (Delpy), her nymphomaniac sister Rose (played by Alexia Landeau) and Manu (Alexandre Nahon) her boyfriend, who is also an "ex" of Marion. Both Landeau and Nahon also had a hand in Delpy's screenplay.
 |
| PARIS, FRANCE - MARCH 19: (L-R) Alexia Landeau, Chris Rock, Julie Delpy, Albert Delpy, Alex Nahon and Christophe Mazodier attend '2 Days In New York' Paris Premiere at Mk2 Bibliotheque on March 19, 2012 in Paris, France. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) |
The story has moved on from Paris and Delpy is no longer going out with Jack but has another American boyfriend, divorced father Mingus (played by Chris Rock), she also has a child from her previous relationship, as does Mingus.
Chris Rock's performance was a pleasant surprise, being relatively understated in comparison to Delpy's "family" which worked nicely as a foil to the excesses of Jeannot, Rose and Manu. I have previously come across him in manic, shrill, action-movie mode but there is clearly a lot more to him as an actor than I gave him credit for.
While I perhaps didn't like this quite as much as the first, I enjoyed it very much and hope Delpy and her "family" return. If it was 2 Days in Herne Bay with this lot I would definitely pay to see it.
The following day, while briefly being re-united with my new chinos (a trew story), I also took in the most promoted and talked about film of the moment: Prometheus. This is where Ridley Scott has been re-united with the "Alien" franchise and, his iconic film being the first of that series, this certainly warrants some interest. Prometheus is not exactly a prequel though, more of a pre-pre-prequel as it would, and perhaps will, take two more features to join up to the saga of the ill-fated Nostromo.
Its pedigree is an awful lot to live up to and inevitably there has been some disappointment expressed by many reviewers. It is though, I feel, an undeniably big event film which at times spectacularly delivers the kind of cinema experience that is expected of a sci-fi blockbuster. It has of course been shown extensively in 3d and Scott is careful to promote that, however he did let slip in an interview that the 2d print is beautiful and I wouldn't argue with that. I think I will probably settle for that and not see both versions as I did with Avatar. I've now seen enough 3d to conclude that I always prefer the 2d version even where the use of 3d has created interesting moments. The loss of light and colour for me is too much of a trade-off and I hope that it will be recognised that it is no more than a gimmick and is not "the future of cinema". Most films look better without it, although I have no objection to the existence of films made purely for the process. I think there is probably a place for the occasional "fairground ride" film made solely for spectacle, like Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Any film with any pretention to grown up plot, character development and cinematographic beauty needs to give the old dark glasses the boot however and this is without addressing the issue of composing for 3d effect which inevitably impacts on the director's and DPs vision.
Anyway... I loved Prometheus because it looks beautiful, allowed me to escape from hosenverlustshmerz to a whole new world and is a good example of one of types of film I go to the cinema in the hope of seeing. Indeed it complements the Delpy/Allen species of film to make up the two extremes of film experience I love, on the one hand adventure, spectacle, scares, drama, special effects and on the other romance, comedy, and well-written intimate character driven pieces with relishable dialogue.
 |
| Cropped image from this file. Ridley Scott in New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Where it does score is in some of the lavish lovingly shot views of the moon and the ship which are indeed beautiful. I hope there's more to come and, if not entirely satisfied, am more than happy to have a big sci-fi film back on the screen. I should also mention that there is some real quality in the cast too, especially Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender, although one area traditionally poor in these big SF films is the dialogue and this is no exception.
It just occurred to me that I already want to see both these films again so that must be a good sign!
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Woodyfest
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| The Purple Rose of Cairo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
There may be SPOILERS BELOW
"Purple Rose" was a film I had great affection for, having seen it in London with my brother many years ago. Going to the pictures with my little bro' is a rare enough pleasure and going to the cinema in London rarer still but the best thing about the jaunt was that we both loved Purple Rose. It is possible that I haven't seen it since and certainly Arthur was claiming this as only his second viewing. Happily the film still lived up to our golden memories of it and we were charmed and impressed all over again.
This is in my, indeed in OUR, opinion a little masterpiece and comfortably earns a place in our Woody Allen top ten. It has charm, laughs, great writing, pathos, good music (including a musical number performed by Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels which I had forgotten) and a central conceit that is at once original and typically Woody.
The story is set in depression America with Cecilia (Farrow) taking refuge from her life, and abusive out of work husband (Danny Aiello), in the picture house. Eventually her dedication to "The Purple Rose of Cairo" attracts the attention of one of the characters, romantic heartthrob Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels in a dual role with Gil Shepherd, the actor who plays Tom).
Tom and Cecilia fall for one another and in a memorable summing up Cecilia says "I'm in love with a wonderful man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything."
The film has a bitter sweet quality which is perfectly complemented by its ending over which Allen refused to compromise, even though he was told that the film could have had much greater success if he changed it. In fact when asked why he didn't give the film a "happy ending" he is alleged to have replied "That IS the happy ending".
After another corking episode of Bilko in the interval, Alice, alas, played to a less than attentive audience now full of beer and pie and dozing. I can only say that on its release I saw it twice so I must have been impressed at the time. Following the current showing, I'm afraid I concluded that it seemed over-long (though only ten minutes or so over the classic hour and a half) and rather disjointed, but both of these could be illusion caused by the snoozing.
| Cover of Alice |
There are similarities with "Purple Rose" in that there is an acceptance of "magic" which in Alice manifests itself as Chinese herbal mysticism where doses of medicinal herbs (irritatingly, but not surprisingly, pronounced with a silent "h" in the American fashion) this time provide the necessary escape from a less than perfect life and marriage with such side-effects as flying and invisibility.
There are things to like but it seems improbably to me that, even if I hadn't had a nap during the showing, I would still rate it as highly as I did on its release in 1990. Not a patch on "Purple" at any rate. William Hurt plays the husband as a rather unpleasant man so not surprisingly I didn't like him although it may have been a good performance given that that is the appropriate response.
Another excellent film night. Perhaps a pity it follows hot on the heels of games night as an early night might avoid the problem of dozing which beset the post midnight second feature.
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