Cicely Frances Berry CBE (17 May 1926 – 15 October 2018)
My voice teacher (not singing teacher) in Sydney worshiped Cicely Berry. Thence so did I. That lovely man who shall remain nameless (well this is the internet for zounds!) was always a little harsh on actors who wanted a fast track to film stardom forsaking voice coaching. And for some it's totally fine. I don't think Jack Palance did a voice warm up in his entire career! :) Some debate 'muscle memory'- I totally believe in it and has saved me from hobbling around as a non-20 year old that I still sometimes sanely/delusional think I am. Sure Baryshnikov concurs with that sentiment;)
Voice is the same. When that coaching really comes into play is when you are dead-tired/screwed up/terrified/whatever and you have to speak dialogue. Even if it's just one line to Robert Redford in a movie THAT'S where Cicely Berry is your savior. You won't sound like sandpaper, unless that is your intention in which case you will not sound like a stick scraping along concrete.
I am so thankful I took voice coaching. It will stay with you forever. It's so easy to be lazy when you are young; easier when one is old, discuss:) ?
I happen to listen to a fair bit of student radio. Woah! Do they all need voice coaching! I once interviewed a very famous coloratura soprano and she was gobsmacked when she found a teacher who helped discover her upper vocal range. Hitherto she just never believed that voice in her could be there.
Then there was the young singer in a new world famous musical....but that's for the memoirs...
I refuse to go on a desert island with celebs who sqander'd all their money and are forced to eat creepy-crawlies!
SHOUT OUT LOUD (but with training….)
Thursday, 18 October 2018
Thursday, 27 September 2018
Bravo Judi Dench re Kevin Spacey!
Bravo Judi Dench re Kevin Spacey! I've been trying for years to say something about …
I'm (personally) not a huge fan of K.P. to be honest. Even less when he fucked up at an Oscars speech with the dinner plate hurling screenwriter of….! YOU FUCKED UP KEVIN. And maybe all the men at the Old Vic who made allegations against him are telling the truth. But the reason we have courts of law is so that maybes aren't immediately assumed to be fact even if it is a very, very flawed system
I am proud and yet … about the MeToo movement. As Dame Judi Dench spake…there would be NO history- if you air-brushed everyone- one that that been….there would be no photos left.
I still can't get out of my mind the New York Post's film critic when he argued that Gone With the Wind should be banned. Should we ban all films about the Nazis? Should we ban all films where people are shooting each other? Should we....?
What about the profits Hollywood studios make from films based on real life events? Dog Day Afternoon (1975)- the bank staff were clearly traumatized by the event. The real life robber John Wojtowicz was criticized for signing autographs etc outside the actual location after doing his time in prison. No one criticized the Hollywood studio profiting from the event.
I have no doubt that most of the women coming forward in the MeToo movement are telling the truth. 99.9% of the time, though, there is no corroborating evidence. What is to stop a jealous man or woman coming forward with false allegations? One may argue for a greater good. The world that until The Boston Globe's expose of the Catholic church and MeToo fashioned a complicity of silence about sexual harassment is the same world of the jealous and vindictive.
Dame Judi Dench herself enacted a character as such in Notes on a Scandal. Her genius being that she made us not sympathize but most certainly empathize with this sad human life.
Then there is Asia Argento. Sure you can argue that just because she paid off a male actor to keep quiet about sexually harassing him, doesn't mean she isn't telling the truth about her Harvey Weinstein allegations. Does that mean we should ban all Asia Argento movies, though on the first count? Of course not. Does that mean the movie industry should stop using Argento as an actress?
You can't apply one rule to Kevin Spacey, though, and another to Asia Argento.
……
Amazing how Hollywood billion money has enjoyed it's ……
The dollar is the dollar in America. It doesn't ever matter how soiled it was in the first place: as long as it was squeaky clean for La Oscars... Suck FUCKING HYPOCRITES !!!!
15th place: as long as it fits throughout the plastic-recyclying machine. Of course it won't, cause it is fake as well…as …
I'm (personally) not a huge fan of K.P. to be honest. Even less when he fucked up at an Oscars speech with the dinner plate hurling screenwriter of….! YOU FUCKED UP KEVIN. And maybe all the men at the Old Vic who made allegations against him are telling the truth. But the reason we have courts of law is so that maybes aren't immediately assumed to be fact even if it is a very, very flawed system
I am proud and yet … about the MeToo movement. As Dame Judi Dench spake…there would be NO history- if you air-brushed everyone- one that that been….there would be no photos left.
I still can't get out of my mind the New York Post's film critic when he argued that Gone With the Wind should be banned. Should we ban all films about the Nazis? Should we ban all films where people are shooting each other? Should we....?
What about the profits Hollywood studios make from films based on real life events? Dog Day Afternoon (1975)- the bank staff were clearly traumatized by the event. The real life robber John Wojtowicz was criticized for signing autographs etc outside the actual location after doing his time in prison. No one criticized the Hollywood studio profiting from the event.
I have no doubt that most of the women coming forward in the MeToo movement are telling the truth. 99.9% of the time, though, there is no corroborating evidence. What is to stop a jealous man or woman coming forward with false allegations? One may argue for a greater good. The world that until The Boston Globe's expose of the Catholic church and MeToo fashioned a complicity of silence about sexual harassment is the same world of the jealous and vindictive.
Dame Judi Dench herself enacted a character as such in Notes on a Scandal. Her genius being that she made us not sympathize but most certainly empathize with this sad human life.
Then there is Asia Argento. Sure you can argue that just because she paid off a male actor to keep quiet about sexually harassing him, doesn't mean she isn't telling the truth about her Harvey Weinstein allegations. Does that mean we should ban all Asia Argento movies, though on the first count? Of course not. Does that mean the movie industry should stop using Argento as an actress?
You can't apply one rule to Kevin Spacey, though, and another to Asia Argento.
……
Amazing how Hollywood billion money has enjoyed it's ……
The dollar is the dollar in America. It doesn't ever matter how soiled it was in the first place: as long as it was squeaky clean for La Oscars... Suck FUCKING HYPOCRITES !!!!
15th place: as long as it fits throughout the plastic-recyclying machine. Of course it won't, cause it is fake as well…as …
Friday, 10 August 2018
finally...
Monsanto ordered to pay $289m damages in Roundup cancer trial
i'm guilty of using it as well. once. fed up with poison ivy. but there are many other alternatives. what those chemicals do to the water table is undeniable.
Friday, 29 June 2018
Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany, Pale Mother)
Mutti....
Himmler's daughter worked for post-war German spy agency
Himmler's daughter worked for post-war German spy agency
This isn’t Fassbinder and yet it could so be…Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and as Glenda Jackson just so deservedly won a Broadway Tony after EVERYTHING….oh….Spamelot! :)
Peter Finch inspired me to be an actor. And then, when one of my colleagues told me the ‘tails’ of working with him. I was hooked.
....
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
The Band's Visit
I took a deep breathe as I googled mine own film review of The Band's Visit. All I remember is that is was beautiful. The Tony Award winning musical plays on Broadway.
"Israeli born Eran Kolirin’s The Band’s Visit (Bikur ha-tizmoret), now on general release, has the cash-stripped Egyptian Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra stranded on the outskirts of a small Israeli town in the desert. They would almost look camp wheeling their trolleys in their immaculate powder-blue uniforms if it weren’t for the dignity they possess. They are befriended by cafe owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) and invited to stay the night until the morning bus arrives. Tewfiq, the conductor (Sasson Gabai) loves Chet Baker, and if you find his rendition of My Funny Valentine sentimental, then I guess you’ll think the same of this film. If not, it’s a truly beautiful picture with warmth and “tons of loneliness” in Dina’s words. “It’s strange, half of Israel was fighting with Egypt, but we all sit and watch the Arab movie [on TV]”, remembers Kolirin. Tewfiq, never without his pride or his baton, opens himself to Dina that evening bitterly regretting his harshness on his son, who subsequently committed suicide.
The Band's Visit Turned Away by AMPAS, Middle East Fests
The film’s producer Sophie Dulac has also given us LFF’s Heartbeat Detector (La question humaine) directed by Nicholas Klotz (France) and screened again on the weekend as part of UK Jewish Film Festival. For 7 years, Simon (Mathieu Amalric) has been the company shrink for German chemical firm SC Farb. Deputy director, Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), asks Simon to covertly monitor the mental health of the firm's director, Mathias Just (Michael Lonsdale) who head office thinks has gone a bit doolally. His cover is to establish an orchestra in order to maintain worker productivity – Mathias Just played violin in the company’s Farb Quartet- and the film follows a Holocaust mystery trail. This is another 2.5 hour film but it’s quite engrossing: the music mix is superb (though I wish it wasn’t Schubert’s so oft heard Death and the Maiden quartet again), so too the camera and performances. And the viewer feels strangely involved yet distanced by Klotz’s director technique."
"Israeli born Eran Kolirin’s The Band’s Visit (Bikur ha-tizmoret), now on general release, has the cash-stripped Egyptian Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra stranded on the outskirts of a small Israeli town in the desert. They would almost look camp wheeling their trolleys in their immaculate powder-blue uniforms if it weren’t for the dignity they possess. They are befriended by cafe owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) and invited to stay the night until the morning bus arrives. Tewfiq, the conductor (Sasson Gabai) loves Chet Baker, and if you find his rendition of My Funny Valentine sentimental, then I guess you’ll think the same of this film. If not, it’s a truly beautiful picture with warmth and “tons of loneliness” in Dina’s words. “It’s strange, half of Israel was fighting with Egypt, but we all sit and watch the Arab movie [on TV]”, remembers Kolirin. Tewfiq, never without his pride or his baton, opens himself to Dina that evening bitterly regretting his harshness on his son, who subsequently committed suicide.
The Band's Visit Turned Away by AMPAS, Middle East Fests
The film’s producer Sophie Dulac has also given us LFF’s Heartbeat Detector (La question humaine) directed by Nicholas Klotz (France) and screened again on the weekend as part of UK Jewish Film Festival. For 7 years, Simon (Mathieu Amalric) has been the company shrink for German chemical firm SC Farb. Deputy director, Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), asks Simon to covertly monitor the mental health of the firm's director, Mathias Just (Michael Lonsdale) who head office thinks has gone a bit doolally. His cover is to establish an orchestra in order to maintain worker productivity – Mathias Just played violin in the company’s Farb Quartet- and the film follows a Holocaust mystery trail. This is another 2.5 hour film but it’s quite engrossing: the music mix is superb (though I wish it wasn’t Schubert’s so oft heard Death and the Maiden quartet again), so too the camera and performances. And the viewer feels strangely involved yet distanced by Klotz’s director technique."
Tuesday, 5 June 2018
Why did I choose you, what could you offer me...
I just heard a Start the Week podcast that made me realize why I even started this crazy endeavor of a blog! Churchill: it was not in vain (re-Arnhem-Antony Beevor) -and then Churchill painted another beautiful painting.
I don't post on this site much any more. Those in the know, know. But I am damned if I will ever let it die like many wanted it to. Still do.
Translations at the RNT. One of the most poignant plays ever written about the United Kingdom.
One lone amateur who become not so lonesome, John Ashdown-Hill discovering and debunking historical myth of Richard III.
Listening to BBC podcasts can actually save a life! (yes, u can quote me).
U r not alone feeling u r in a desert (even if in fact u r in a real desert!) The editor of Lawrence of Arabia, Anne Coates died. I have oft written about Lawrence and the Foreign Office. Its Palm Court in London a somewhat sad memory of what the best of British tried to achieve overseas. Respect. Understanding. Without judgment.
Humans are always jealous. Yet why when what one does is/could not ever be what the other does that conundrum always escapes me Stephen Fry….;(
I got to work with some of the most wondrous talent of the century. Listening to a BBC pod citing Paul Scofield's Lear, I remember seeing the great great man ACTOR with Vanessa Redgrave in Ibsen at the National Theatre. I worked with Vanessa and said hello. It is a strange, strange world. And I met ever so briefly Sir John Gielgud. Not at the same time, of course. Time, though, is a strange leveler...
And I worked with, not exactly my idol (maybe Liza M. was an 'idol') sorry Joel Grey;) in a movie.
So when you walk the depressing streets of whatever city u r reading this remember the 'dream'. It has nothing to do with money or power (of course that is part of the equation). But the algorithm would not exist without that truth at its center. YOU. Your care. Your brilliance. Your doubt.
Your bravery.
and, of course: your fear
how could a black mermaid end up on Broadway as a white frog, with an all amber cast, and then be back in the ocean the next day playing a green/blue Hamlet! Only in New York, folks. Only in the ocean of New York. I feel a Kermit 'comin' on in the middle of the stairs....
The story of Hello, Dolly is truly fascinatin'! Thornton Wilder got there first. Of course.
Is this weird? But I actually sleep on Marge Champion's bed frame. (True-provenance and all...!) not that I for a moment think anything will rub off in the night without hard grind...but, it's a true story as I fall asleep to the questions of a late-night TV show...ha ha..he he...
where were we, oh yes: Deleuze and Musicals....
...
The heart has its own hieroglyphics.
Who can I turn to…..?
//..
I don't post on this site much any more. Those in the know, know. But I am damned if I will ever let it die like many wanted it to. Still do.
Translations at the RNT. One of the most poignant plays ever written about the United Kingdom.
One lone amateur who become not so lonesome, John Ashdown-Hill discovering and debunking historical myth of Richard III.
Listening to BBC podcasts can actually save a life! (yes, u can quote me).
U r not alone feeling u r in a desert (even if in fact u r in a real desert!) The editor of Lawrence of Arabia, Anne Coates died. I have oft written about Lawrence and the Foreign Office. Its Palm Court in London a somewhat sad memory of what the best of British tried to achieve overseas. Respect. Understanding. Without judgment.
Humans are always jealous. Yet why when what one does is/could not ever be what the other does that conundrum always escapes me Stephen Fry….;(
I got to work with some of the most wondrous talent of the century. Listening to a BBC pod citing Paul Scofield's Lear, I remember seeing the great great man ACTOR with Vanessa Redgrave in Ibsen at the National Theatre. I worked with Vanessa and said hello. It is a strange, strange world. And I met ever so briefly Sir John Gielgud. Not at the same time, of course. Time, though, is a strange leveler...
And I worked with, not exactly my idol (maybe Liza M. was an 'idol') sorry Joel Grey;) in a movie.
So when you walk the depressing streets of whatever city u r reading this remember the 'dream'. It has nothing to do with money or power (of course that is part of the equation). But the algorithm would not exist without that truth at its center. YOU. Your care. Your brilliance. Your doubt.
Your bravery.
and, of course: your fear
how could a black mermaid end up on Broadway as a white frog, with an all amber cast, and then be back in the ocean the next day playing a green/blue Hamlet! Only in New York, folks. Only in the ocean of New York. I feel a Kermit 'comin' on in the middle of the stairs....
The story of Hello, Dolly is truly fascinatin'! Thornton Wilder got there first. Of course.
Is this weird? But I actually sleep on Marge Champion's bed frame. (True-provenance and all...!) not that I for a moment think anything will rub off in the night without hard grind...but, it's a true story as I fall asleep to the questions of a late-night TV show...ha ha..he he...
where were we, oh yes: Deleuze and Musicals....
...
The heart has its own hieroglyphics.
Who can I turn to…..?
//..
Sunday, 20 May 2018
I don't know what to say…..i worry...
Tennessee Williams — Sometimes—there's God—so quickly!
F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an æsthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
…..
It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
There is so much beauty in the world yet so so so much sadness. Yesterday's Royal Wedding brought joy to so so many. Princess Diana in her time did her best to make the world just that little bit of a better of a place. Every 'Royal' is different. Every celebrity. Every....It is not 'one size fits all' criticism.
No-one is a saint.
Asia Argento's impassioned speech last night at the Cannes Film Festival. Amazing.
But Ms. Argento: if you do that, you do have to put all your private/sexual history on the line! That may not be fair nor even 'just'. Yet in someone else's eyes they may well prove both. (btw- Your father made amazing movies that were/are/will be the inspiration of horror genre cineastes.)
But I worry.
I was surrounded by the British film critics that Monday morning (I think..) after Lars von Trier's controversial press conference way back when. I did write of this at the time (and still mean no ill will to all those I enjoyed watching movies with over the years) but none of them had watched the press conference in full and in context. There is a difference in meaning...
I worry.
I worry about Arthur Miller's The Crucible effect. I worry about the British tabloids with always so much power that basically forced David Beckham and his family to flee the U.K. he loved so much. I worry about American 'hear-say' being accepted as undisputed truth.
I worry that Bill Cosby might indeed be innocent even though a court of law has decided otherwise.
some sad sad movies…haunting me on a Sunday:
The Wrong Man
This Property is Condemned
A Place in the Sun
Once upon a time...
tomorrow...
F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an æsthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.
…..
It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
There is so much beauty in the world yet so so so much sadness. Yesterday's Royal Wedding brought joy to so so many. Princess Diana in her time did her best to make the world just that little bit of a better of a place. Every 'Royal' is different. Every celebrity. Every....It is not 'one size fits all' criticism.
No-one is a saint.
Asia Argento's impassioned speech last night at the Cannes Film Festival. Amazing.
But Ms. Argento: if you do that, you do have to put all your private/sexual history on the line! That may not be fair nor even 'just'. Yet in someone else's eyes they may well prove both. (btw- Your father made amazing movies that were/are/will be the inspiration of horror genre cineastes.)
But I worry.
I was surrounded by the British film critics that Monday morning (I think..) after Lars von Trier's controversial press conference way back when. I did write of this at the time (and still mean no ill will to all those I enjoyed watching movies with over the years) but none of them had watched the press conference in full and in context. There is a difference in meaning...
I worry.
I worry about Arthur Miller's The Crucible effect. I worry about the British tabloids with always so much power that basically forced David Beckham and his family to flee the U.K. he loved so much. I worry about American 'hear-say' being accepted as undisputed truth.
I worry that Bill Cosby might indeed be innocent even though a court of law has decided otherwise.
some sad sad movies…haunting me on a Sunday:
The Wrong Man
This Property is Condemned
A Place in the Sun
Once upon a time...
tomorrow...
Sunday, 22 April 2018
Who wants to live in Amerika...electricity in ...what happened to My lovely island ameriRico...
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he will pay $4.5m (£3.2m) to cover the lapsed US financial commitment to the Paris climate accord.
$4.5m- hey- what a financial burden to Amerika. ...
https://nypost.com/2018/04/15/schumer-warns-against-proposed-canine-security-cuts/
...
$4.5m- hey- what a financial burden to Amerika. ...
https://nypost.com/2018/04/15/schumer-warns-against-proposed-canine-security-cuts/
...
Tuesday, 3 April 2018
Women in music...
4days (as of April 3) left to listen in: BBC Radio 3's Late Junction International Women's Day show.
Fab crazy, beautiful, soulful music/sound and gobsmacking comments
about how sound men still see women as aliens to their world. Amble
Skuse a member of the Orchestra For Females And Laptops aka OFFAL
recounts male attitudes on sound jobs and it was even suggested to
another member that she use a male internet pseudonym! She very
graciously admits he was trying to help..but..
There’s a sessions podcast (UK only) and a transcript that I still can’t find..
Plus ca change...
There’s a sessions podcast (UK only) and a transcript that I still can’t find..
Plus ca change...
Someone say hello to the trees on Primrose Hill for me. And where art thou my crazy beautiful friend who dragged me out one night in ferocious thunder and lightning to hug you all?
What...
...
the wondrous tree..
.
Everyone should visit the Wallace Collection btw. A 1720s selfie...?
Did you once tear my ticket at the Almeida, Xavier?...- those were the days…
What...
...
Wahn! Überall Wahn!
the wondrous tree..
.
Sunday, 18 March 2018
Wednesday, 14 March 2018
where does an elephant go...?
It is so sad to read (already on the cards) that Toys R Us is set to finally close or sell all of its 885 stores in the US in the coming months, the BBC understands. That move would put about 33,000 jobs at risk. A wonderful idea that became another wonderful idea and…all those happy, enthusiastic, passionate staff- where will they all go?
The Elephant Song
The Elephant Song
Monday, 5 March 2018
Tears before bedtime, Zebedee
I am so so elated by actress Sally Hawkins' Oscar win. I think I cry more than you do! :) And so so pleased for The Shape of Water. It enlists every movie trope one can imagine. Then makes it real. That said: everyone should see Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky with Sally Hawkins. How Mr.Leigh makes the real real without a single movie trope (well…he does use a little music..;) is why he is a genius also.
Phantom Thread's amazing (she is! and I would argue the whole night that without her even with that amazingly handsome chap opposite her it just would not be the great movie that it is) Vicky Krieps was working to pay her bills in Europe (her words;) but there was Lesley Manville at the Oscars. Back onstage in London tomorrow Tuesday night in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. She plays alongside some guy Jeremy Irons..who he;) Someone is going to film that for future generations aren't they!
I want to hide under the sheets and feel very humbled. And I hate that word 'cause it is so often used so cringe make-ingly. In the case of Mike Leigh actors it is the only true quality. And I imagine the same with Guillermo del Toro actors as well.
We know what we are trying to forget.
Phantom Thread's amazing (she is! and I would argue the whole night that without her even with that amazingly handsome chap opposite her it just would not be the great movie that it is) Vicky Krieps was working to pay her bills in Europe (her words;) but there was Lesley Manville at the Oscars. Back onstage in London tomorrow Tuesday night in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. She plays alongside some guy Jeremy Irons..who he;) Someone is going to film that for future generations aren't they!
I want to hide under the sheets and feel very humbled. And I hate that word 'cause it is so often used so cringe make-ingly. In the case of Mike Leigh actors it is the only true quality. And I imagine the same with Guillermo del Toro actors as well.
We know what we are trying to forget.
Thursday, 1 March 2018
i remember...
I can't ever forgive you for what you did Prime Minister Tony Blair. And I can't forgive myself either for some things. You were on the massive geo-politcal stage, though. That being said, THIS Brexit interview is the wisest thing that you ever said. As a point of protocol are you Prime Minister or former PM? I rather like that White House quality of always being President even after death. One of the many ironies of the U.S.A. You don't write the cheque this week and one's name is gone pronto from the marquee. But as President no matter what one did u live on forever.
Thursday, 15 February 2018
London ghosts are jealous of Colbert....
THIS is very funny....
or am i just a sad mole who has never seen a kitten....?
or a sad human who has never seen life beyond an internet's algorithms..
hey ho
we'll catch up some other time....
n ...u don't wanna fuck with the Wanda Sykes' ghosts...that's 'Arnie' on major herbal happiness..!
hey ho
or am i just a sad mole who has never seen a kitten....?
or a sad human who has never seen life beyond an internet's algorithms..
hey ho
we'll catch up some other time....
n ...u don't wanna fuck with the Wanda Sykes' ghosts...that's 'Arnie' on major herbal happiness..!
hey ho
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
make some crazyy....
Ricky Gervais on Colbert's The Late Show is the funniest most truthful thing...all year..(OK that's 1817/18) .I can imagine R.G. on a desolate soundstage after the 'big one' and a lone cockroach bitches "how the fuck did he survive out of all of the ...." "This was my moment...! "
So where were we?: Kafka and Cute Kittens....
So where were we?: Kafka and Cute Kittens....
Sunday, 14 January 2018
Amerika
January film of the month is a close call between Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Of Ebbing, Missouri and Alexander Payne's Downsizing. McDonagh immediately grips his audience. Oooh ahh: this film has some space and nuance never letting you go even at the unresolved end. What intrigues is that this just isn't 'an American film'. It looks like America, sounds like America, feels like America but an hour or so after the film ends you realize it is all an elaborate theatrical black farce in the Strinbergian/Munch sense. Meaning: it really has to be 'the real abstracted'. Thus Abbie Cornish as the young intelligent wife and mother of the middle-aging small town Sheriff Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) doesn't seem at all awkwardly out of place with her Australian/Brit accent or mention of Oscar Wilde.
He is a brilliant writer/director Martin McDonagh. Most seeing this film in the U.K. won't have an inkling of just how 'real' are these characters unless having lived Stateside. It isn't that you know these specific characters but that they embody a speciosity of human traits that you meet in one-degree of separation when you get around a bit in the States. That's McDonagh's genius: he can be the hyper-real that is so so close to the bone it's funny and painful. One Brit crit felt the only false note was the fawn that Mildred (Frances McDormond) talks to about her dead daughter. That didn't even bother me. Maybe because in reality I do talk to the doe that has frequented my garden for years. She acknowledges a voice/a scent/ then moves on chewing or licking her fawns. We 'rub along together'.
One would hope that all Americans were as nuanced as McDonagh's characters. Yet…
The greatest strength of this movie is that while you don't really forgive any of the characters for their weaknesses you hope that life will make just that little more sense next time you want to kick it in the teeth. Ironically, not a great film advertisement for small town dentistry! Breathe and think of how perilous it is to be a lame doe procreating fawn year after year after year. She is wary of me no longer scared. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
He is a brilliant writer/director Martin McDonagh. Most seeing this film in the U.K. won't have an inkling of just how 'real' are these characters unless having lived Stateside. It isn't that you know these specific characters but that they embody a speciosity of human traits that you meet in one-degree of separation when you get around a bit in the States. That's McDonagh's genius: he can be the hyper-real that is so so close to the bone it's funny and painful. One Brit crit felt the only false note was the fawn that Mildred (Frances McDormond) talks to about her dead daughter. That didn't even bother me. Maybe because in reality I do talk to the doe that has frequented my garden for years. She acknowledges a voice/a scent/ then moves on chewing or licking her fawns. We 'rub along together'.
One would hope that all Americans were as nuanced as McDonagh's characters. Yet…
The greatest strength of this movie is that while you don't really forgive any of the characters for their weaknesses you hope that life will make just that little more sense next time you want to kick it in the teeth. Ironically, not a great film advertisement for small town dentistry! Breathe and think of how perilous it is to be a lame doe procreating fawn year after year after year. She is wary of me no longer scared. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
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