Saving the Robinia Pseudoacacia

 

There may be more posts on this blog about the Robinia Pseudoacacia (or Mock Acacia) than anything else. The photo above is from the 13th June 2023 but there are others on 7th August 2009, 16th June 2015, 10th September 2022, 26th January 2024 and the 18th May 2024. 

However, this year the ivy that has attached itself to the trunk has now reached the top of the tree. The photo below is just from the bottom.

So yesterday, drastic action was needed to prevent any lasting damage. The tree itself is situated in a piece of no-mans land that the builder of all the houses around (including ours) left as access off the road to a plot that is now the far end of our garden. This area is a now used as a dump for all sorts of branches and other garden material. The advice is to cut the ivy back six inches above ground and remove twelve inches all round. I was glad of my long handled pruning shears as some of the ivy had got into the cracks and crevices of the trunk.

I was able to pull the strands of ivy away once they had been cut and pulled away from the trunk. The bark is heavily grooved as the photo above. Typical of this tree. Below are examples of the ivy.

I will now have to watch to see if the rest of the ivy dies off. The tree itself is a fine example but I'm not sure why it was planted in the orchard that originally grew there. Or maybe it self seeded somehow. Who knows. Having lost it's leaves this autumn, I love the shape of the branches. 

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - The Story of The Deer Hunter

 

Ian Nathan introduced this episode and told us it was made "so soon after the (Vietnam) war ended" and that it "was a radical new way of showing war on screen". It was THE Vietnam movie. It allowed audiences to see the reality of Vietnam. Ian tells us that it was a huge box office hit as well as winning five Oscars. This was despite the fact that the war was hugely controversial at home. 

We are shown how the film starts with that wedding in a close knit working class North Pennsylvania town. Set in a Russian Orthodox Christian community, this early part of the film lasts fifty minutes. Christina Newland tells us how the huge number of extras for the wedding scenes were drawn from the local community, so they knew all the dances. We see the three friends here before they go off to war.  Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Cazale. Leaving Meryl Streep behind. De Niro was the backbone of the project that was such a divisive subject in America. 

Steven Armstrong says this is not a traditional war movie, it's about what happens to these three friends. It all hinges on their capture by the Vietcong. The entire film was shot on location, from Cleveland to Thailand and the River Quai where the three were help prisoner and the "dramatic function of Russian Roulette". 

Those five Oscar wins included one for Christopher Walken as best supporting actor, as well as best film and best director for a young Michael Cimino. (His next film was the disaster that was Heaven's Gate). It was the British producer Michael Deeley who bought the script. He had previously had success at British Lion Films and it was when they merged with EMI Films that The Deer Hunter came to fruition. Ian Nathan ends with telling us how the film portrays "the phycological impact the war  has on soldiers". And about how America sees itself.  

Vaccinations

 

I would never ever normally post about health. So this is only here to remind me of the three recent vaccinations that all took place at different surgeries and were all booked through different websites. So much for the NHS and joined up thinking.

First of all was the RSV vaccination at the Bedgrove surgery in Aylesbury and booked through Patient Access.

Next the flue vaccination at Wendover surgery booked through Ask First.

And lastly, today, the latest Covid jab at the Oakfield surgery, again in Aylesbury. This time booked through a text message. Amazing.

Inside Cinema - Shorts Episodes 51 to 60

 

Alex Dudok de Wit takes us through lots of animated features in Episode 51 Beyond Aardman. From Camberwick Green in 1966 to The Wombles, Postman Pat, Bagpuss and The Clangers. We get a potted history of stop motion and puppet animation. And right up to date we have Tim Burton and Wes Anderson joining the fray. I have put The Corpse Bride on my to see list.

What is Barbara Windsor doing with her arm on Sid James? They are Beside the Seaside in Episode 52 narrated by Pamela Hutchinson. There are lots to see, from the Carry On films through to 2012's terrific Byzantium. Brighton Rock from 1948, Whisky Galore (1949), A Matter of Life and Death three years earlier, Get Carter (just the ending gets it to this list), Quadrophenia from 1979 of course, ("When Churchill talked about fighting on the beaches he didn't imagine the mods and rockers"), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Local Hero (1983), Never Let Me Go (2010), and Ammonite in 2020.  Jumping back to 1938, we see Carol Reed's 1938 drama Bank Holiday. But it had to end in the waves on the beach in Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave. 

Episode 53 is all about the great British night out in Rave Britannia by Ellen E Jones.  The above photo is of very young John Simm and Danny Dyer in 1999's Human Traffic. Pub crawls and bowling, have we not done it all? We start down the pub in 1960's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Ad then a wild change of direction to all those dance floor movies. It obviously could not ignore 24 Hour Party People, but the newer rave films passed me by.

Here is Cher in Episode 54 ..... The Cher Factor by Anna Bogutskaya. So not only is she a singer but "a talented actor". Hmmm. Well there is a long history of pop singers making it onto the big screen. (Maybe an episode about them would be better?) But here we start with Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Then the superior Silkwood with Meryl Streep, and more.

Hanna Flint narrates Episode 55 Strong Female Characters of which there are many. "In each new wave of feminism, we find empowerment in a male dominated world". We see clips from so many action films from Linda Hamilton in the Terminator films, Sigourney Weaver in the Alien franchise and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in 2020's Birds of Prey. And many more.

Could I please pass on Episode 56 Fat Females on Film with Grace Barber-Plentie.

But Episode 57 Nuns on Film by Pamela Hutchinson is brilliant. I thought we were running out of themes, but no. So 1947's Powell and Pressburger classic Black Narcissus is a must see. Convents seem to be great locations. From 1985's Agnes of God to Doubt from 2008 and 2013's  Philomena. These are all great dramas. Shame about the more recent horror films.

Talking about horror, episode 58 is The Jump Scare with Mike Munger. Did I really want to watch this? But when I saw Gromit in an early clip, I thought it might be OK. From 1925's The Phantom of the Opera when he has his mask removed to more recent scares in The Shining, Psycho, Jurassic Park and Jaws. Well those were OK. But the more modern horrors I could do without, now just a cheap, lazy trick. 

Episode 59 is Queer Villains. It's Casper Salmon who shows us far too much of Divine. However, Hitchcock's Rope looks interesting. I didn't realise how many Bond villains were gay. That's Javier Barden above teasing James in 2012's Skyfall. 

Last of these ten is episode 60 Jukebox Musicals with Dewi Evans. Extended highlights of Moulin Rouge along with Mama Mia, Sunshine on Leith (Hurrah!), and Rocketman. All before we track back to 1952's Singing on the Rain. Just to compare one song with that in 1939's Babes in Arms. "Good Morning" is sung in that film by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. A longer version (in colour) is on YouTube.

The Buddha of Suburbia at the Barbican Theatre

 

I had waited for The Buddha of Suburbia to finish it's run at RSC Stratford as I knew it was going to transfer to the Barbican Theatre in London. (My very favourite theatre - more later). The only reason I had chosen to see this play was the director Emma Rice, who also adapted the novel with it's author Hanif Kureishi. I first saw one of her plays when she was co-artistic director of Kneehigh. Her Rebecca came to the Oxford Playhouse where, in my review of 20th November 2015, I said it was an "exceptionally clever presentation". After that unfortunate time at The Globe, she was back at the Oxford Playhouse with her new company and Wise Children. My blog post of 16th November 2018 I called it "sheer entertainment" with a "cross between a play, a musical, cabaret and revue". Then again at Oxford came Malory Towers, see post of 4th October 2019: "full of Rice's theatrical magic". It was at the National's Lyttleton Theatre that I went to see her Wuthering Heights (post of 18th March 2022 - "the staging is, as always, quite brilliant").

So there was no question that I would get to see her latest production. A single seat in the fourth row and I heard every word. We are watching an immigrant family in 1970's South London. Hmmm. However, our narrator Karim (a superb Dee Ahluwalia) is mixed race with a Pakistani father and English mother. He tells us at the start that he was born in England and so is very much English. 

So this is a story about family, and about some of those difficult years in that decade. But we get the clothes and, particularly, the music of the age. No singing from the cast this time, but lots of dancing to those old tracks.

But this is mainly a serious story, interrupted by Rice's typical high jinks. However, it does feel more like snapshots of their lives rather than a coherent narrative. It did seem to sag in the middle, and the two and a half hours (plus interval) could have done with a good chunk left out. The characters themselves were always interesting, I particularly liked Natasha Jayetileke as Karim's best friend Jamila.

But, as ever, it is Emma Rice's creative adaptation that we go for. "Wildly stunning, inventive, often subversive, and unashamedly populist" said one review. 

As for the journey, Alison dropped me off at Tring Station, from Euston the Northern Line to Moorgate and an interesting walk through the city to The Barbican. An early start for the performance at 1pm, but that meant I was away before 4pm, even though rush hour was well underway.

As for The Barbican Theatre, a quick trawl of this blog found four Shakespeare plays I had seen there as well as The Wizard of Oz in 1987 and Three Sisters in 1989.

Art of Film on Sky Arts - Series 2 Episode 5 - David Lean in Black and White

 

Our host Ian Nathan introduced this episode describing David Lean's "early films grew to define Britishness". "A technical virtuoso, a natural director, a master of iconic images". And his editing "a marvel". We hear about his childhood and the first films he went to see. He was given his first movie camera and soon became a tea boy at Gaumont Pictures. He worked his way up due to his enthusiasm and talent. 

He was soon recognised as a great editor and Neil Norman tells us he became known as the best in Britain. Steven Armstrong added that he rescued films. Kim Newman said that at all times he wanted to produce quality work, no matter what the subject. Lean struck up a relationship with Noel Coward who had come back to Britain from Hollywood during the second world war. He wanted to make the propaganda movie  In Which We Serve that was released in 1942. He wanted to direct his own performance but had no interest in any other scenes. So these he let to David Lean as co-director. It was he who brought in that intricate flashback structure.

The two then formed a production company Cineguild Productions with Coward as writer/producer and Lean as director. Ian Nathan says that "every film they made together is now considered a classic". Neil Norman tells us about 1944's This Happy Breed that was based on the stage play. Then in 1945 came Brief Encounter with Celia Johnson (see separate post) followed by Great Expectations in 1946. This was Lean on his own, steeping himself in Dickens and writing the adaptation himself. Christina Newland thinks he "streamlined Dickens incredibly well". His editing was classic. The casting was superb with Alec Guinness straight out of the navy and the start of a lifelong partnership.

Guinness plays Fagan in Lean's 1948 Oliver Twist, convincing the director with a tremendous audition. We are told that Lean pictured Victorian London so well when the city "comes alive". Then three films with Lean's then wife Ann Todd. The Passionate Friends from 1949, Madeleine in 1950 and The Sound Barrier in 1952.Ann was a big star at that time. Lean's last film in black and white came in 1952 with the black comedy Hobson's Choice based on the stage play. A kind of retelling of King Lear. What came next were the big epics and that is where this episode finishes. But "Lean is already a genius".

P.S. I did happen to meet Ann Todd when I was a boy in London in the mid nineteen fifties. She frequented my father's shop on Kensington High Street and we were invited to her house in Holland Park. 

Garden in late October

 

Well into autumn and the white impatiens I planted in early June are still in flower. The odd frost does not seem to have made any impact. I wasn't going to plant hanging baskets, but just sticking some bedding on the top seems to have worked. 

This time last year I had cleared the bedding border, but these dahlias have just gone on and on.

This was the acanthus in July. It had spread so much over the years and a month later had flopped to the ground. Drastic action was called for.

What I found after clearing the foliage was a massive root system. There was nothing for it but to dig out most of the roots and leave just one healthy looking piece. 

A few years ago, I took a piece of that acanthus and planted it in the long border. Again this had become overgrown. I left one piece as the photo below and planted another I had dug up further down.

Yesterday I spent ages clearing all the faded asters from the wildflower border.

My photos from this time last year show quite a few roses still in bloom. This year there are hardly any.

I also wanted to compare the leaves on the Silver Birch. This is how they looked on the 4th November last year.

Below is how they look today.