Review of 2025

 

I usually start each year's review with pictures from the garden. The one above was taken in June and is now my screen saver. Below are just a few of the roses that did so well this year including the "Blue for You" that seems to get better every year,

The long dry spell in July and August meant all the lawns were in a sorry state. And the tall silver birch was losing it's leaves far too early.

But with welcome rain in September, and the Pro Kleen Grass Green fertilizer, the lawn quickly revived.

The Dahlias in the bedding border were yet another success. Almost at their best in October.

Back in February and March, the daffodils in that same border come up year after year.

It took me a while to find out the name of these bulbs I planted in pots. Tulip Flamin Hot. 

Our holiday in June was cancelled when I developed hives and missed my nephew's wedding. We did rebook for three days in Harrogate in September. Probably our best day included brunch at Betty's in York followed by a guided tour of the Minster.

We were back in Chichester, this time in October as the bungalow was fully booked in September. But we were very lucky with the weather as the blue sky on our circular  tour of the Roman walls shows.

And our day in Portsmouth was equally sunny.

Unlike our day in Oxford in December when the rain curtailed our exploration of their Roman walls. However, we did have a great day in London on our visit to the Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime piano recital.

Some other days out included Ashridge Open Gardens. I have also been keeping an eye on the cygnets at Weston Turville Reservoir ever since they were tiny. All five survived.

Now they are almost fully grown. Here they are in November.

I made a few visits to the theatre this year: Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Pride and Prejudice, Sort Of at Oxford Playhouse, La Traviata at Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury, The Constant Wife at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Emma, also at Oxford.

My favourite film of the year was going to be One Battle After Another, that is until last week I saw Sentimental Value. (Deserved winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and lots of Oscar nominations). My review still to come, although there are two long reviews in this month's Sight and Sound Magazine. Another year's subscription was a Christmas present. As for books, I am over half way through Greg Doran's My Shakespeare which is an incredible book. For my favourite novel, it has to be Sally Rooney's Intermezzo. 

I started this blog nineteen years ago the month I retired. Where has all that time gone? Well, it's all documented here. 

Long Island, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and A Tidy Ending

 

We first met Eilis in Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn" (see my review). Now she is long gone from Ireland, married into a big family and with two teenage children. But it's when she discovers her husband Tony has fathered another child, and the mother's husband is determined to leave it with Eilish that she high tails it back to her homeland. Here she finds Jim who she almost married before going off to New York. He now own a prosperous pub.

But Jim has a secret relationship with Nancy who runs a fish and chip shop, and they are planning to marry once her daughter has tied the knot. Of course Eilis' feelings for Jim are resurrected, especially as her American husband has spoilt their marriage. And Jim is even more infatuated. So we have the classic torn between two lovers situation. How the novel is resolved involves a point in the plot that is almost too spurious. But the surprising ending was OK. Just. It leaves it open for a third book in a trilogy.

I have always been a big fan of Muriel Spark having read sixteen of her novels. I had somehow managed to avoid what is, perhaps, her most famous book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I guess the film with Maggie Smith was too familiar. I may be in the minority, but I felt this was the least worthy of any of her books.

We are introduced to the five girls who, at their posh Edinburgh school (The Marcia Blaine School for Girls) make up the Brodie Set. Only now that they have reached sixteen, they have long ago lost Brodie as their teacher. She now teaches a a younger class but keeps up with those of her years ago set when they were ten. But in those days they did not have formal lessons, only listening to a string of anecdotes. (I sort of remember a teacher who we could sidetrack from the curriculum).

Back in 1931, Sandy and Jenny at ten are best friends, have great fun discussing their teachers and cannot stop laughing. They have Jean Brodie spelling out her ideas about their education. "Art is greater than science. Art comes first and then science". In their last year with Miss Brodie, they will not be "taught" anything, just things about her experiences. The head is not impressed. She wants Brodie out, wanting her to apply for a post at a more progressive school.

Later on there are some vague parts about Jean's affairs, but more and more I became exasperated by the idiosyncratic prose, and how "prime" is repeated time and time again. The book is said to be "sublimely funny", but I just found it boring. We have glimpses of the future lives of the girls, but I wanted more. There is also the introduction of a new girl very late on. She's from a rich family and has been removed from many schools. She sounded interesting and I wanted more than the odd paragraph.

This was a disappointing story after having enjoyed two other novels by this author. A kind of murder mystery narrated by Linda near to who's house the bodies are found. You are pretty sure that Linda is one of those unreliable narrators, there is definitely something strange about her. When there are only two other people in her train carriage, why do they move away?

Linda tells us of events in her younger life, and then more recent times including her marriage to Terry. I say recent, but the story is punctuated by very short sections entitled NOW. She seems to be in some sort of care home. But we never know why. In that earlier time, Linda seems obsessed with a woman who seems to have lived in the house before her, Rebecca Finch, and who she finally tracks down. From here, the book becomes more and more strange, as with Linda's spending out of control and her relationship with Rebecca taking a ridiculous turn, we wonder what is happening. Until we reach that totally bonkers conclusion.

Sight and Sound Magazine - Winter 2025/26

 

Editorial 

In his review of the year, Mike Williams started with David Lynch and Tilly Norwood. I skipped all this repetitive stuff. And I cannot believe that KPop Demon Hunters is Netflix's most watched film of all time. Among the films he mentions are Mickey 17, M I The Final Reckoning and House of Dynamite (Netflix again). And back to David Lynch. But this feels all too lazy.

Opening Scenes

Oh good, this is all about films to look out for in 2026 courtesy of Thomas Flew. Blockbusters include Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, only in IMAX, Dune Part 3, and "an exhausting list of sequels". Martin Scorsese's What Happened at Night stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence. From the UK comes Emerald Fennel's Wuthering Heights with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, another  Sense and Sensibility, Daisy Edgar Jones in Bab Bridget and Danny Boyle's Ink. 

European films include Ruben Ostland's The Entertainment System is Down and Pedro Almodóvar's Bitter Christmas. From Asia there will be new films from Asghar Fahradi and Hamaguchi Ryusuke. Horror will be represented by Jessie Buckley in The Bride and Robert Egger's Werewulf. 

Nothing noteworthy in Editor's Choice or In Conversation

The Score

Sam Davies talks to punk band Idles front man Joe Talbot about their music for the forthcoming Darren Aronofsky's film Caught Stealing.

Reader's Letters

They all just seem to be people showing off their Knowledge of cinema.

The Long Take

Pamela Hutchinson talks about all the extras who were cast as the "jostling neighbours" to Jessie Buckley's Agnes Hathaway at The Globe theatre in the new film Hamnet. Pamela thinks they are "the film's final casting triumph" and that Jessie's "fellow groundlings leap off the screen". Agnes goes to the Globe to see her husband's new play Hamlet and Pamela talks about "the solidarity of shared sorrow" in the link between her own loss and that in the play. Apparently the audience at the screening Pamela attended "were floored by the moment". 

Flick Lit

Nicole Flattery thinks that Lurker is one of her favourite films of the year. It's about "the hollowness of fame and the lengths some people will go to feel a fraction of notoriety". Director Alex Russell sets the film in LA where everyone wants the same thing. Nicole talks about the city's evolution, and the LA writers Joan Didion and Eve Babitz.

In Memoriam

Obituaries of those who died in 2025, starting with a full page on Terence Stamp. Of the huge number of actors who each get a small paragraph, here are Claudia Cardinale, Richard Chamberlain, Pauline Collins, Marianne Faithful, Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton, Val Kilmer, Diane Ladd., Michael Madsen, Jean Marsh, Joan Plowright, Robert Redford, Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales.

There are lists of those from animation, cinematographers, composers and musicians. Then many, many directors including David Lynch, but also editors, make up artists, producers, executives, screenwriters, set and costume designers, sound and special effects and others. A double page spread on Phyllis Dalton and her costumes for some iconic roles for which we see some of her lovely sketches. 

2025: Films of the Year

I'm not sure why a number of the films here have not even been released! Some even "awaiting UK distribution". Some straight to streaming! Many more are set for release here later in the year (even as late as April) so 2026! Of the fifty films here, I have seen six! At number 48 is Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, at 20 is Blue Moon and at 18 The Ice Tower. At 15 is Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice due on 23rd January and at 11 is Sentimental Value from director Joachim Trier at the end of this month somewhere. Molly Haskell says that after his brilliant The Worst Person in the World, Renate Reinsue plays another "unsympathetic part". Molly has two pages to tell us where "women can behave as badly as men, even worse". As for Renate, "she bears the weight of an impenetrable melancholy". 

Somehow I missed Sinners at No 2, maybe it did not have a mainstream cinema release? At number one is One Battle After Another that Michael Koresky called a worthy winner. "It crashes over viewers like a series of waves".

Film and TV

When four of the first ten or either Netflix, Apple or Disney and another on Channel 4, I skipped past. And two are on iPlayer. 

Discs of the Year

None

Books of the Year

If I had to choose one it might be Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design by Walter Murch, a key figure in some big movies.

Lucile Hadzihalilovic

The director of The Ice Tower is interviewed by Peter Strickland. Eight pages including some great stills from the film. There is an interesting section about the casting of Clara Pacini as Jeanne as she was playing younger than her twenty one years. Also a nice piece about Marion Cotillard. Lucile talks about her style of working, "In our films, we have an approach of the visuals and the soundtrack being somehow more important then the plot". I nearly always like a film or tv series about the making of a film. See my post on Irma Vep. I was very glad I saw the film before reading the article.

Capital Punishment

Arjun Sajip discusses the new film No Other Choice from Oldboy director Park Chan-wook. (See my reviews of his films Stoker, Thirst and Decision to Leave). His new film is "a pitch black comedy" adapted from the novel by Donald Westlake. A kind of family drama with robots? Opens on 23rd January, hopefully somewhere near.

 I Need Time For Dreamwork

Sophia Satchell-Baeza talks to Hamnet director Chloe Zhao, and especially about the ending, true to Maggie O'Farrell's book and now quite famous. And how when Zhao listened to a track sent by lead actress Jessie Buckley she "imagined a new and very different finale". The director had previously won the Oscar for best director and best film for Nomadland. (See my review). She describes Hamnet as "a dark fairy tale" and "grounded in a quiet, fought for, domesticity". The article brings in Paul Mescal (Will) and Jessie Buckley (Agnes) and their rehearsal confrontation. 

A Band Apart

I just want to start with the title of this section because for the life of me, having searched and searched, I cannot find any relevance to this article. The main relevance to "A Band Apart" is the production company that included Quinten Tarantino. Here Jonathon Romney introduces and interviews director Richard Linklater about his new film Nouvelle Vague. This is an affectionate retelling of the making of Jean-Luc Goddard's A bout de souffle or Breathless (1960). That film was made through low budget, guerilla film making, handheld cameras, natural light and on location filming in Paris without permits and the use of improvised dialogue that was dubbed later. A twenty three day shoot and part of the French New Wave. Linklater then goes on to describe nine individuals and film extracts associated with the French New Wave and that old film. It's on the internet if anyone is interested.

Edgar Wright in Conversation with Stephen King

This is all because the former has directed another film adaptation of the latter's novel The Running Man. There is a long discussion between Edgar Wright and Stephen King. We hear how the book came about and how it was first published in 1982 but written a decade earlier. A little about the original film staring Arnold Swartzenegger. However, the introduction is by James Mottram so what follows is a three way conversation with the other two. Apparently the book is not just about The Running Man but includes other game shows. 

REVIEWS: Films

Nouvelle Vague

Henry K Miller has done a great job to describe the background, outlie the plot and introduce multiple characters in this docudrama about the making of the Jean-Luc Goddard's 1960 film A bout de souffle. (See A Band Apart above). "What comes across is a sense of community, with a strong element of of social contact that one doubts is characteristic of many professional film making milieux today". But thank goodness director Richard Linklater "is not unduly reverent towards Goddard". Miller thought it was quite sensible to choose A bout de souffle as this was shot in only twenty days. 

With his other film this year Blue Moon, Linklater has set both "in a more aesthetically pleasing past". Miller has given us a very long review, far more than we would see in the press. It opens here on 30th January so will certainly look out for it in the cinema. There is also separately, a Q & A with Richard Linklater courtesy of Ian Haydn Smith.

Hamnet

The review is preceded by a still from the movie, taken from the stage of the Globe Theatre, back in the 16th century, looking out at the audience of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the front row is Agnes, his wife, about to burst into tears. It's Nicolas Rapolo who reviews what sounds like a wonderful film. If it's anything like Maggie O'Farrell's book, it will be. She has written the screenplay along with director Chloe Zhao. The film (as did the play at Stratford) goes back to the early days of their relationship and here it is certainly a character study. We see the early days of their family as the children start to grow up. But it's the trauma of losing one of the twins that tears the marriage apart. Agnes (superbly played by Jessie Buckley) hurts so much, especially as Will takes himself off to London and the beginnings of his career. But its her experience at The Globe that is a magical, powerful climax.

Saipan

You might be forgiven for skipping the review of a film with the title of which you may never have heard. Except it was the base of the Ireland football team on the eve of the 2002 world cup in South Korea and Japan. And that notorious falling out between manager Mick McCarthy (played by Steve Coogan no less) and captain Roy Keane. Philip Concannon says "it's very entertaining, but after the climatic stand-off, the film's intensity dissipates". So not a good review. Maybe wait for it on TV.

Sentimental Value

Sophie Monks Kaufman says this is Joachim Trier's follow up to his brilliant film The Worst Person in the World. (See my review). The cast is led by Stellan Skarsgard ("giving the performance of his life " as a film director who wants his estranged daughter and talented actress (played by Renate Reinsve who also starred in that previous movie "her luminous breakout performance") for his next film.  She turns him down.  Sophie calls it "this gorgeous, generous meditation about inherited familial suffering". Sounds great. On at Cineworld now.

No Other Choice

This is Park Chan-wook's "latest obsessional thriller" according to Nicolas Rapolo. It's an adaptation of Donald Westlake's crime story The Ax. Man-su seems to have had the perfect life until mass redundancies take hold. Hos wife Mi-ri takes a job in a dentists to save the family and puts the house up for sale. But it's all he husband's schemes that are central to the plot. Most sound a disaster. Release here due the end of January so must look out for it.

I skipped the next six reviews until I came to:

Is This Thing On?

Mark Asch discusses Bradley Cooper's third film as director. A separating couple (Will Arnett and Laura Dern) with the former at a low point in his life, trying stand up and only just avoiding complete failure. The origin story of British comedian John Bishop when his estranged wife attends a gig and they sort of reconcile. Not sure.

H is for Hawk

There was a reason I avoided the book but cannot remember what that was. It was the three leads in the film that got me interested (Claire Foy, Brendon Gleeson and Denise Gough) but that may not be enough to get me to see it. 

Lots of other reviews.

The Running Man

Kate Stables long review. (See my post). "A fast and furious Glen Powell". That's dead right. But thats was all he was, so repetitive. Although this was mainly positive review. Kate does conclude "that crammed and over-complicated last act" is "reworked into a convoluted finale". And that is being kind.

DVD and Blu-Ray

The Agatha Christie Collection. 

Kate Stables again reviews this box set of Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile (1978) and The Mirror Crack'd (1982). She tells us about the background to these three classics.

Wider Screen

The Pordenone Silent Film Festival

Books

None of interest.

From the Archive: Light of the Day

Sight and Sound Winter 1965/66

Raoul Coutard, apparently a famous cinematographer, talks about his art. How he started of as a photographer and then all about working with Jean-Luc Goddard when he made the move to films. All in the 1960's and in black and white. He tells us about the sets, the types of film stock and lighting. Then a piece on A bout de souffle and how this was a turning point in cinema history.

When he starts using colour film with Pierrot le Fou he explains how "the cameraman is most aware of the fact that no film stock is as sensitive as the human eye". Then the use of make up or non make up.

This month in ...... 2001

On the cover of that month's magazine is Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast. Inside that edition, Jonathon Glazer discusses this film. Reviews that month included Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Almost Famous from Cameron Crowe. Two very different movies, but both excellent. 

Swans and Cygnets at Weston Turville Reservoir - An Update

 

Following my post of the 14th December which included a photo from 24th November of the seven swans and cygnets on the bank next to the reservoir, I had noted that the parents were nowhere to be seen. I should not have worried as here they are today.

The five almost fully grown cygnets were scattered around the reservoir, but strangely they began to move together and ended up back with their parents over on the far side. Future updates to follow.

Classic Christmas Movies on Sky Arts - Love Actually

 

Ian Nathan starts this episode by telling us there are nine stories woven together to show a cross section of life. Although it all seems pretty much middle class except, maybe for Martine McCutcheon's Natalie. Her relationship with Hugh Grant's Prime Minister is typical of how we cannot take this film seriously. Christina tells us that the plot hinges around Christmas being a deadline. There are all different kinds of love as Ian Nathan takes us through all the couples. He calls them a "symphony of embarrassments". Neil Norman takes us through the plot and interestingly, all the links between some of the characters that I shall look out for in the next few days.

We hear a lot about the background of writer (and first time director) Richard Curtis. All his previous films which lead up to this. He has always been a great writer. Casting the same actors again and again. Especially Hugh Grant.  Neil Norman calls them "a loose repertory company". Ian Nathan mentions some of the younger stars. Steven looks at how there are a series of sketches, each alternating story a different facet of love. All in different London locations. Neil Norman thinks it's about Britishness, British people and their character, especially embarrassment.  

When Curtis had finished the film, we hear how he then completely restructured the scenes. Two stories were dropped entirely. The release was delayed by three months to rework and re-edit. Christina said on release it had mixed reviews but gradually gained momentum. Neil Norman says it's now a cult Christmas favourite and that each of us can identify with at least one character. Stephen Armstrong says it's kind of nuts, parts are completely preposterous, but that is it's charm. Ian Nathan concludes that this is not a children's Christmas movie.

My Shakespeare by Greg Doran - Parts 22 to 24

 

Part 22   Julius Caesar

- 2012: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Novello Theatre, London; Moscow Arts Theatre; Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; Southern Theatre, Columbus, Ohio.

- Filmed for BBC Four

I skipped the first three pages all about Nelson Mandela. Julius Caesar was scheduled for the spring of 2012 in the "World Shakespeare Festival" as part of the Cultural Olympiad. We hear about the cast, all of whom are unknown to me. However, when Greg is deep into rehearsals, Michael Boyd resigns after nearly a decade as Artistic Director of the RSC. Should Greg try again for the top job, having lost out last time. In the March of 2012, Greg is invited to meet the board. His presentation would be on "Ciceronian principles". Hi preparation might be just too much, but the day turns out very differently and he still gets the job. 

The most interesting part of Greg's preparation for the play is the Forum scene where Mark Antony speaks in verse and Brutus all in prose. Who knew that? "One of those astonishing scenes in Shakespeare". Featuring, as it does, Julius Caesar, Antony, Cassius, Brutus and death. Going back to those first three pages, the Forum has become a crumbling African football stadium. When the play is filmed for the BBC, the set is a "derelict Chinese hypermarket in Colindale", North London. 

5th September 2001 - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

10th August 2017 - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Part 23   Richard II

- 2013: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Barbican Theatre, London.

-Filmed, broadcast live and available on DVD, as part of Live from Stratford-upon-Avon.

I actually saw this production in 2016 when it was revived for just five performances. See post 8th January 2016. 

In 2012, Greg has been formally appointed Artistic Director of the RSC. His first ambition is to stage the entire Shakespeare cannon. Starting with all the history plays and beginning with David Tennant as Richard II. ( I was also lucky enough to see all the history plays in order at Stratford in 2000/2001). Back to Greg and he tells us lots about the plot and it's interpretation. Michael Pennington is to play Richard with Jane Laportaire as Gloucester's widow. 

We hear about what Greg thinks is the greatest scene which is Richard's abdication (or deposition). This is "all Shakespeare's own invention" and Richard's most dazzling performance. He runs rings around Bolingbroke but to no avail. The way the supporting followers were cast is interesting, Richard's a cricket team and Bolingbroke's rugby. We hear a lot about the character Aumerle (not familiar) and how and why he changed his name to Rutland. But Greg is still unsure what that meant. He ends this chapter with a piece called "Live from Stratford-upon-Avon", about the first plays to be beamed live into cinemas and recorded for DVD. After some false starts, it all came good with Richard II on 13th November 2013.

15th January 2000 - The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon

7th January 2016 - The Barbican Theatre, London

Part 24   Henry IV, Part One

-2014: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Barbican Theatre London; and tour to Bejing, Shanghai, Hong Kong; Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), New York.

Filmed, broadcast live and available on DVD, as part of Live from Stratford-upon-Avon.

This chapter starts with the "Templar churches all over Europe" including Temple Church in London. Greg and Jasper Britton, who will play King Henry, visit churches referenced in the play. Alex Hassell is to play Prince Hal and both the following plays through to Henry V. Also Trevor White as Hotspur. Lots of interesting stuff as they work through the play, especially the part about Glendower, the Welsh Wizard. 

But the best part is about the eight weeks of rehearsal for the sword fight between Trevor White and Alex Hassell. Of course it is choreographed by the one and only Terry King. "One of his very best duels in this production". After the lush court scenes of Act 1, there is a wonderful description of Act 2 where  "we are at a very seedy inn on the Rochester Road". Here are first and second carriers complaining about poor fodder, fleas and everything else. 

Struggling to find someone to play Sir John Falstaff, it's Ian McKellen who suggests Anthony Sher who "went on to give one of the performances of his life". There is a kind of postscript to this chapter where Greg talks about taking these three history plays to China and how the audiences there got Shakespeare. "I became quite emotional". 

18th July 2000 - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

The Ice Tower at The Rex Berkhamsted

 

For  a single showing of The Ice Tower, the Rex was almost deserted. Maybe because this French film had little publicity. However, this month's Sight and Sound magazine has a long six page interview with the director Lucile Hadzihalilovic who also wrote the screenplay with Geoff Cox. The story is more inspired by rather than based on the Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale The Snow Queen. But I did not know anything about it when the film started, but I did became more and more anxious that things would turn out badly, especially in the last half hour. 

Marion Cotillard is the star of the movie as she plays Cristina, a famous actress trying to settle into the filming of The Snow Queen in a cold, dark, snowy  and isolated place in the mountains of France. But in fact the story revolves around young Jeanne played by Clara Pacini. The film starts in her foster home as she "escapes" to who knows where. A stop for the night in what looks like a dark, deserted warehouse, turns out to be a film set. She has found a purse with the ID of an older girl and with that finds a job as an extra on the movie. 

Here she meets Cristina and a kind of relationship is formed. They have some mutual history, and in the end, despite my fears of disaster, I thought this was one of the most satisfying conclusions of any film for a long time. Not everyone will like the ending, but I was glad I could guess the future for Jeanne. There is also one scene that I thought was brilliant. By this time Jeanne has a larger role and replaces an actress who is frightened of the larger black bird (a crow or jackdaw) which has to sit on her arm. The shot from behind as the bird sits there, waiting for Cristina to exit the ice tower, is quite memorable. 

As for the critics, Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it five stars telling us it was a "mesmeric melodrama". A four star review by James Learoyd compared the film to Mulholland Drive, that also had two female leads, with a distinct feeling something was strange. Isaac Feldbergs review for Roger Ebert adds Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus "haunts the film and that there is "a masterclass by Cotillard". "This is not so much a film you watch as one you wake up from, shivering". Leigh Singer in December's Sight and Sound full page review says "Hadzihalilovic tends to prioritise tone and texture over narritive and dialogue and this glacially paced, coolly calibrated new work is no exception". 

So this is not a film for everyone, but it stays with you more than most. 

Classic Christmas Movies on Sky Arts - Miracle on 34th Street

 

This episode is all about the 1947 black and white film and not the one with Richard Attenborough from 1994. What was most interesting was the fact that when first released (in the summer!) it was marketed as a rom com and that is why the two adult leads are pictured on the poster. Not a mention of Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, who actually won the Oscar for best supporting actor. Later on we hear all about his background. Here he is when the studio eventually cashed in on it's Christmas theme.

The movie asks the one question, is he real. The ambiguity is key. This is an original story by Valentine Davies and directed by George Seaton. Neal Norman tells us "it sounds like a children's film when actually is a movie for adults". The story is based on the rivalry between the two main New York department stores, Macy's and Gimbels leading up to Christmas. It all starts with the Macy's parade and the film has real New York locations. In fact the two stores wanted the film re-shot to leave out any refence to their names. But, as Stephen Armstrong says, "you cannot buy pr like this". We hear all about Maureen O'Hara's character as the mother, and about her background. Also her daughter in the film, ten year old Natalie Wood. But hardly a mention of John Payne as Fred Gailey in that poster at the top.

Garden in December

 

Not a lot to see in the garden at the moment. The wallflowers in the pots and conservatory border are doing fine, even flowering in the milder weather. 

The irises below and those in the large pot seem quite healthy, ready for flowering in the spring.

A few snowdrops are also quite early.

Nothing much to see in the main border, just here to compare with the next summer.

Now at the end of December, the first bulbs are putting in an appearance. The ones by the dwarf wall come up every year.

And here are the hyacinth next to the side patio.

Oxford's Hidden Walls

 

When Alison found Priscilla Frost's guide to the old walls of Oxford, we decided to make a start on Friday. However, the rain we expected in the morning duly arrived so we first made our way to the Westgate Shopping Centre and tea at John Lewis. So it was late morning by the time we made our way to Oxford Castle for the start of the route. We actually stayed there quite a long time before heading down New Road and the first part of the walk shown in blue in the map below.

Amazingly, the first part of the route down Bulwark's Lane was closed off so we found our way down New Inn Wall Street. In the end, this was quite fortunate as it took us past the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church where some music was about to start.

It was a concert by a young lady playing violin. There were only two other people in the audience, and we could only stay for three pieces. But what we heard was great. 

Back on the route in the book, we went down St Michael's Street, Ship Street and Turl Street. However, the rain that had held off became much heavier. So we went inside Tourist Information on Broad Street to find a map that would take us to a cafe for a late lunch. Down Cornmarket Street, then the High Street, Magpie Lane, the path past Corpus Christie College and round Christ Church to come out at St Aldates. Not the most direct route but at last we found our destination, The Independent Cafe. 

It was nice to take off our wet coats, found a nice table, and enjoyed some great toasted sandwiches and tea. We had some shopping to do so found our way to Queen Street. By the time we came out of Waterstones it was starting to get dark and headed for the station and the 4.15 train. The day ended up a bit different than what we expected due to the weather. But we have our book of the hidden walls and will be back in the spring/summer to continue our exploration. 

Swans and Cygnets at Weston Turville Reservoir

 

Boy, how the cygnets have grown. Over the last few weeks, every time I passed the reservoir on one of my walks, the swans were over the very far side near the yacht club. But yesterday they were back near the entrance. The five cygnets are nearly full grown and have only a few of their old brown feathers left. But like naughty juveniles, they are still hanging round their parents. 

I posted this note on 24th November, but now in the middle of December, something has changed. At the beginning of the month there was no sign of the cygnets, only the parents were left. Apparently they chase off their brood so they can mate again in the winter. However, on my walk through the village last week, a flock of swans passed over my head. When I arrived at the reservoir, the cygnets were back and no sign of the parents. So I'm not sure what that is all about. Here they are on Sunday dodging the yachts. 

. I first posted pictures of them on 2nd June.

And then later on 21st August.

On 4th September.

And 18th September.

It's so good that all five cygnets have survived. Last year there were just two.