Wednesday 16 September 2009

The Final Destination 3D, The Hurt Locker and Dorian Gray

Having seen the three previous movies, the prospect of the new Final Destination being in 3D did have a certain appeal. However, I find the effects created just to use this formulae as being just that. Something that hurtles towards you out of the screen somehow loses it's impact. Where it does succeed is surprising. Crowd scenes at the racetrack come to life as do disasters on a building site and an escalator in a shopping mall. The story is the same as ever, young people escaping death due to a premonition, only to have death on their tail. A good idea that has probably now run it's course.

The Hurt Locker is almost a great movie. The one problem that becomes evident from the start (38 days left for the tour of duty) is that this film has no plot. It is just a series of events in the life of an elite team of bomb disposal experts in Iraq. Having said that, it is a quite brilliant nerve jangling experience. Kathryn Bigelow has always been one of my favourite directors. Here she brings us up close and personal with these particular heroes. as they tackle IED's or improvised explosive devices. Jeremy Renner should come close to an Oscar nomination for his role as the almost renegade Staff Sergeant who disarms the bombs. Congratulated on one occasion by a senior officer, he finally reveals just how many devices he has attended. Like the film, awesome.

Oliver Parker likes Oscar Wilde. His third attempt, after An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Ernest, is a much darker piece. Or rather it should have been. There seems to be a superficial gloss added, perhaps for the female audience? Ben Barnes is miscast in the title role. Handsome though he may be on the surface, he fails to convey the inner depravity that goes with this territory. In fact, the acting is decidedly patchy. Even the wonderful Rebecca Hall seems to go through the motions. Colin Firth is an exception as Gray's corrupter Henry Wotton. The script was good, as were the sets, costumes and photography so plenty to enjoy. Just a shame it could have been even better.

Tuesday 8 September 2009

How I Remember The Beatles

A review in the Culture section of the Sunday Times about the release of their remastered albums reads "Want to know what it was like to have a new record by The Beatles". Well I was fortunate to know, being nearly eighteen when Love Me Do was released as their first EMI single in October 1962. My first memory at that time is of my brother John predicting that this band would be big. I think it was because he played a little harmonica, so he felt some connection to its prominent role on this record.

When the first Beatles album, Please Please Me, was released in March 1963, it was played non stop four months later at my school's outdoor leaving party. But the first LP that I bought was the next release, With The Beatles. That summer I had left home to work as a trainee for George Wimpey in Hammersmith, so my purchase was from a record shop on King Street in November 1963. I still have the LP, although it is pretty much in a sorry state. I played it time and time again every evening when I returned to my digs. It was played at parties and had beer and punch spilt on it on numerous occasions. Who cares when you are nineteen.

I never saw The Beatles live. There was absolutely no point when it was impossible to hear the music for the screams. But the next best thing came with the release of their first movie. Three of my top ten favourite Beatles songs are from the soundtrack of A Hard Days Night, and five from the album. I went to the old London Pavilion the first week after it's premier there in July 1964. It was the closest thing to a concert. The soundtrack had not been released, so it was quite something to hear the new songs performed on a big screen, especially as they reprised these two at the end. I Should Have Known Better stuck in my memory for ever, being the second song in the film when they are on the train from Liverpool (although the station is Marylebone as the photograph below). If I Fell is just as good, especially the harmonies and the change of key. And I Love Her is my other favourite from the soundtrack, whilst two songs on the album are even better: Things We Said Today and You Can't Do That.

The writer of A Hard Days Night was Alun Owen who was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay. He and his family lived a couple of doors down from where we lived on Napier Road in West London in the mid 1950's, and he and his wife were good friends of Mum and Dad. When I left our home in Braintree in 1963 to work in London, they asked me to call in to see Alun and Mary his wife who were then living in Bayswater. If I had known a year later that he had written the screenplay, I might have been able to engineer an invite to the studio.

By the end of 1964 I had saved enough to buy a Grundig tape recorder, so there I was with the 1960's equivalent of illegal downloads, taping Beatles for Sale, Help and Rubber Soul. But it wasn't until the last of these that In My Life and Norwegian Wood captured my imagination in the same way. That must have been why I bought Revolver. It was OK, but for me it did not have the same impact as their earlier recordings, except for Got to Get You into My Life. So Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band went onto tape. I should have bought the LP, I played it so much, particularly A Day in the Life.

I cannot have been the only one who waited with growing excitement for the premier of Magical Mystery Tour on television in December 1967. I have to admit now, but never at the time, that it was a bit of a let down. The next summer I was married and missed out on The Beatles, Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road. In retrospect, I not sure if I really missed out. Nothing stands out like the old stuff, so it is not until the last on their last album Let It Be that Paul takes them back to their roots with Get Back. At least he had not forgotten how to rock.

PS There is one other song that has to be added to my top ten and that is One After 909. It was recorded on 5th March 1963 but it had to wait until 1995 to be heard on Anthology 1. The Beatles also made a later recording on the roof of the Apple HQ at 3 Savile Row in 1969, and it appears on the Let It Be album. John wrote it when he was about seventeen with some help from Paul. What else is there to say.

Thursday 3 September 2009

A Perfect Getaway, The Time Traveller's Wife and Ingloriuos Basterds

Apart from the gorgeous Hawaiian scenery, the first hour of A Perfect Getaway is fairly pedestrian. OK, it has to introduce the characters and set up the twist at the end, but we have to wait until the final third for tension to ramp up. And the last half hour is action packed, but was it worth the wait? Just about.

Successful novels are more than ever reaching the big screen. I just loved The Time Traveller's Wife when it came out in paperback, so I was looking forward to seeing how it was adapted into a movie. I wasn't disappointed. The sensitive treatment completely reflected the feel of the book. Rachel McAdams was terrific in the central role, Eric Bana not quite as good. Some people who don't know the book may find it quite dull. I found it a warm reprise of a well loved story. Next up is The Lovely Bones.

I was rudely awoken from the warm glow of the previous film when I went to see Quentin Tarrantino's Inglorious Basterds. It could not be more different. To begin with, as expected, it is absolutely packed with dialogue. The screenplay must be one of the longest ever, with the film running over two and half hours. Tarrantino must have worked for a long long time to write it all down. It is really a western set in World War Two France. There are so many obvious references to old cowboy movies, and movies in general. For the opening shots, just change horses to motorbikes. Christophe Walz takes the acting plaudits with the central role as the Nazi "detective". Brad Pitt seems to be acting in a different film altogether. Some of the minor roles are just fantastic. Melanie Laurent is brilliant, and Michael Fassbender and Mike Myers not far behind. The soundtrack was a disappointment, but David Bowie's superb Cat People (Putting Out Fire) playing over Melanie Laurant making herself ready is both poignant and ironic, and Tarrantino's best music sequence since the Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest. Yes, this is his best film since Pulp Fiction. I would definitely see it again if there were not so may other autumn releases I want to see.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Bus tour of the Olympic Park

This must be the best free tour in the world. The bus tour of the construction site for the 2012 London Olympics is not widely advertised. Not even the London 2012 website gives you a clue. The tour runs from Stratford Regional Station, so on Saturday I started off early to drive through Walthamstow and Leyton ( areas of London that are not familiar) and was parked in the shopping centre opposite the station before nine. I had booked the tour that starts at 10am, so had time for a coffee and muffin at Starbucks.

Our tour guide met us at the bus stop, and inspected our ID as we boarded the single decker bus. At the entrance to the site, security came on board to inspect our bags, over in a flash. Our guide told us we could take photos, although all these are through the window of the bus. The first building inside the entrance is the Media Centre. Apparently the BBC and NBC will be in the building a year before the games commence to fit out studios and plan their production.

The Velodrome was next. It is still in the early days of construction. 12,000 seats during the games with half of those temporary.

The frame of the Olympic Village is almost complete. The fact that it is situated right next to the Park will be great for the athletes.

The most iconic building on the park is the Aquatic Centre. Zaha Hadid is the architect, but I think it is the structural engineer who deserves the most praise for making the design work. The 160m long and 90m wide roof has 2800 tonnes of steel in it's frame which is then supported on concrete plinths at each end with no intermediate columns. This will be the first to be of Olympic standard in the UK, requiring the 50m competition pool to be supported by a separate 50m training pool. Seating for 17,500 during the games. There is a better photo of the roof from the otherside on the ODA webcam.

The stadium is visible from almost everywhere in the park. With 25,000 permanent and another 55,000 temporary seats, there is a large demountable element. The fabric that eventually wraps around the stadium will, I believe, be cut up after the games and sold as souvenirs.

One interesting fact from our superb tour guide is that the north end of the park will have a large open area of grass that will have a big screen. You will be able to buy a ticket for entry just to the park and watch the events with a picnic. What a good idea.

Songs on repeat

The last few Cd's I played in the car produced three particular tracks that I repeated time and time again. The first was Wish You Were Here by Fleetwood Mac. The last track on Mirage, one of their less popular albums, this song was written by Christine McVie (music) and Colin Allen (lyrics). A piano intro leads to Christine's haunting vocal backed by John's bass and Mick's drums which dominate throughout. Lindsey's guitar echoes occasionally in the background. The piano comes back as the vocal fades and the pizzicato guitar takes the lead for the exit instrumental. Brilliant.

The Time Comes composed and sung by Nina Gordon on the album Bleeding Heart Graffiti just shows what can be done with a piano accompaniment to a wonderful song and voice. I might be alone in thinking this is just the most outstanding piece of music.

I have mixed feelings about Jewel. Her songs are uneven and unpredictable. And then comes along Life Uncommon. More anthemic than the other tracks on the album Spirit, I just played it again and again.

I searched and searched for the tape I made of Roxette Live at Wembley Arena, recorded from a Radio One concert, probably in 1993. Their Tourism album that arrived a couple of weeks ago did not have as much live stuff as I had hoped. I was glad I found it. The intro to It Must Have Been Love was unmissable. But it did take longer to wind back and repeat.