Movies at Home - The Conformist, 21 Grams and Bound

In the absence of many new films to watch at the cinema, I have found that instead of paying for the streaming of movies, it is often cheaper to buy a second hand DVD on eBay. I forget who recommended Bernado Bertolucci's 1970 film The Conformist, but it was praised with it's themes of conformism and fascism in Italian politics. Although it now seems a little dated and pretentious, it is certainly visually stunning and dramatic. The acting is first class with Jean-Louis Trintignant in the lead role.

I cannot remember having seen 21 Grams before which is strange as it is an excellent movie, and especially as it was directed by the brilliant Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The dramatic story is told by flashbacks over more than one timescale. It took a bit of getting used to, but then it worked superbly well. The three lead actors are terrific: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Torro. The latter two being nominated for Oscar awards. I loved it.

The only reason I sought out a DVD of Bound was because it was recommended by Mark Kermode in his programme about heist movies. But this is not a traditional heist, it is stealing from the mob! The plan hatched by Gina Gershan as Corky is faultless. Or so she thought. Poor Jennifer Tilly as her willing accomplice is lumbered with a crazy Joe Pantoliano when the money disappears. Directed with aplomb by the Wichowskis, the tension ramps up in the second half. A well made noir thriller.

Tring Book Club - The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

If it hadn't been a choice for book club, I would have abandoned this book within the first twenty pages. It was all too depressing and annoying. Which would have been a shame as it did become more interesting as Ray and Moth struggle along the South West Coast Path. And particularly because the north coast of Cornwall is so familiar, having spent a week there for 17 of the last 19 years. So the book did bring back lots of memories for me.

At the start of the book, they took some inspiration from Mark Wallington's "500 Mile Walkies", a far more humorous affair. But he was a lot younger than our pair in their fifties. Raynor Winn's story is one of hardships overcome, I have to say they did so well to keep going. One of the best things in the book is about the people they meet along the way. The backpackers, the man renting a farmhouse, even the man who told them about the ice cream van. That has always been the same for us, albeit in a more transient fashion.

But our narrator can sometimes slip into awful pretentious prose: "Walking a thin line between tame and wild, lost and found, life and death. At the edge of existence". Then in the Prologue "We had walked 243 miles...... only another 387 to go". That is the 630 miles of the coast oath, but what about the bus they had already taken. I just didn't believe everything I was reading.

Rough Music, The Carer and The Boarding House

For some reason I found it hard to keep up with the switching between the two timelines set many years apart. It was not so much which characters inhabited each, but more a sense of not knowing what happened in the intervening years. It was sometimes tricky to pick up where we were the chapter before last.Two holiday properties, close to each other, on the North Cornwall coast, where the Padgett family find themselves suffering deja vu over 30 years later. Situated at the fictitious Polcamel (a combination of Polzeath and the Camel estuary), an area we know so well having visited there most of the last eighteen years. So which side of the estuary? Somewhere near Daymer Bay and New Polzeath on the Rock side of the Camel. Wadebridge is mentioned often so that would make sense.The early chapters are not very interesting, I was easily confused, but the story picks up a third way through as it gains momentum and the revelations we are promised materialise towards the end. The book is very well written and there are particular sequences that I thought were particularly good but there were other more mundane pieces. We have to wait to understand the title.

A light entertaining family drama with twists and turns along the way. Phoebe and brother Robert are approaching sixty and have employed Mandy as a carer for their elderly, frail father. Everyone has secrets that, of course, are duly revealed. My fifth novel by this author and she never disappoints.

The Boarding House is William Trevor's second novel if we discount his first (A Standard of Behaviour) that he always disowned and refused to have republished. It is not in quite the same class as the other eight I have read so far, as if this was a practice run for the prolific writing to come. It was written ten years after he moved from his native Ireland to live in England.

It is almost wholly character driven, there is little plot until nearer the end. It is definitely a black comedy, the various odd characters who inhabit the boarding house are themselves all pretty desperate people. There are some great set pieces in among some less interesting stuff. I'm still not sure what is a flannel dance, is this a dance holding flannels?

Refurbished Drive

 

For the first time since the block paving went down on the drive a few years ago, (actually August 2012 ..... where does the time go) I decided that jet washing was the only way to get rid of the weeds in joints. So last week I managed that very dirty job, only stopping for the odd chat with a neighbour. 

I was waiting for a couple of dry days before re-sanding the joints and today was forecasted to be fine and mild. And it was. The kiln dried sand was from Wickes that apparently has a weed suppresser. I'm not holding my breath. But for the moment the drive looks the best it has for a long, long time.

New Spring bulbs

 

This Autumn I am experimenting with different bulbs to my usual Narcissi and Tulips. The ones above are:

Muscari latifolium or Grape Hyacinth -  30 in the two front pots

Iris reticulata Katherine Hodgkin - 9 in three pots at the rear

Camassia leichtlinii Caerulea - 3 bulbs in the main border (as recommended by Monty Don on Gardner's World)

And today I have bought:

Fritillaria meleagris or Snakes Head Fritillary (that we have always admired at NT Ascott) to go in the far border and

Anemone Bordeaux for pots at the back. We shall see what works best.