Cairo Conspiracy, The Three Musketeers and How to Blow Up a Pipeline

 

I have never seen anything like it. A political thriller set in Al-Azahr Mosque in Cairo, a university and a mosque (the most important for Islamic learning in the Muslim world) that "now teaches Islam according to the Sunni doctrine. When the incumbent Great Iman dies, the choice of successor has many twists and turns. Central to the plot is young Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) a fisherman's son from the coast who gains a scholarship to the University. Recruited by secret service agent Colonel Ibrahim ( the terrific Fares Fares), he infiltrates an ultra conservative group of possibly anarchist students. We have seen this plot before, an innocent informant at severe risk of his life. But never in this setting. Director Tarik Saleh made the superb Nile Hotel Incident (post 20th July 2020) and this is just as good.

Another foreign language movie, this time a huge French blockbuster. Their title was just D'Artagnan which is much better. Played by Francois Civil, this adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel concentrates on this character. Huge production values, great costumes, scenery, music etc. Thank goodness there were not many duels, it is the story that's important. Not sure about some of the translation for the subtitles, but the cast is good (I recognised Vincent Cassel and Romain Duris) and Eva Green shines as Milady. But best of all, I thought Lyna Khoudri was exceptional as Constance. Director Martin Bourboulin has made a good adventure film. But it didn't need to be in IMAX. Will I see Part 2? Only if Constance is back.

There they are above the film's title on the poster. The eight actors playing the four men and four women who are the eight saboteurs. Each of their stories is told in flashbacks at certain crucial points in the action. Adapted from the novel by Andrea Malm, Daniel Goldhaber has produced a decent script and an intelligent movie. There are moments of classic "show not tell" that worked fine. We never quite know if their plan will work or whether it will be a disaster. Of all the eight, I preferred Forrest Goodluck (a Native American) as  Michael. But they all interacted really well. I wasn't sure about their motives, but we do get an alternative view from one of the cast. The film was only on for one week and I'm glad I made the effort to see it.

What's new in the garden in April

 

I keep telling myself to calm down and not buy any new plants for the garden. And what happens? More this year than ever. But mostly experiments. Like the two bare pots on the left which now contain the remains of the Freesia corms or bulbs that failed in the coco coir mix in the conservatory. I'm advised they will do nothing this year. In the far corner is a brand new Salvia nemorosa Cardonna. I have never tried a Salvia in a pot so this could be interesting. Next to it in leaf are the yellow Iris I transplanted from the border last year, and the Agapanthus which has also survived the winter. Last week on Gardener's World, a lady who just has containers in her garden suggested that keeping a few pots together works really well as a kind of micro climate. 

Again, I have never grown hardy geraniums in pots. Above is one of the three loose roots Geranium Versicolour that is already showing signs of growth.

Below are three of the five Lilium Forever Susan. These are tiny bulbs so nothing to see just yet.

Below are the five bare root Penstemon Cambridge Mixed which are in the far border where I had dug out a massive plant which someone must have given to me and that had become quite invasive. However, only one has leaves that have sprouted. I had lost nearly all my Penstemon due to the hard successive frosts during the winter, including the marvellous Penstemon Firebird from which, in previous years,  I had successfully taken pieces and replanted. 

Next are the six Echinacea Purpurea which I decided to bring on in pots rather than planting in the far border where the wonderful red Lychnis Chalcydonica again disappeared after the frosts. I'm not sure if they all survived their transport.

At least two did.

There was some room in the main border so I bought Gladioli purple flora bulbs from Wilco (£2.50 for ten) which I have never grown before. Amazing to see they are sprouting already.

The Cosmos seeds are still doing fine (see previous post). 

On the subject of frosts, I'm not sure why the extremely hardy Hypericum Hidcote (in the middle of the round border) nearly died after all these years. I have chopped off all the dead branches and there are shoots at the base, so we will see. 

Similarly, the beautiful Gypsophillia Festival Pink below has only just survived. Again I pruned all the dead stems and can see some new growth lower down. It looks a mess but will hopefully look better soon.

Seed Leaves and True Leaves

 

I had already sowed my Cosmos seeds when Monty Don on Gardeners World did the same. He told us that those first two leaves that appear are seed leaves. They help the plant to germinate and is not until the true leaves appear later that the plant is beginning to establish. So that pair of larger leaves in my photo are the seed leaves and the smaller bunch are the true leaves. I didn't have a clue. I will add a photo when the Cosmos are in flower, if they do.

A Good Person, Infinity Pool and AIR

 

A great screenplay from Zach Braff  was complimented by terrific performances from Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman. A tragedy at the very beginning of the film sends Pugh's character Allison into meltdown. Her addiction to pills sees her arrive at a self help group where, on the first day, she begins to turn and run after seeing Freeman's Daniel. The critics were mostly unkind: "laboured tale of redemption" and "indifferent material" were not the worst. Their 53% rating on  Rotten Tomatoes compares with 97% for audiences. These included "not sure what the critics were watching but they must have been confused" and "ignore the cynical critics" and "the critics are wrong on this one". What do the critics know! OK, there may be flaws, but how many human dramas are produced for cinemas? Unfortunately very few. I found it very emotional with great acting and a very decent script.

Well this was very strange, a sort of fantasy horror where nothing made any sense. It was very stylish and colourful, set on a fictional island resort La Tolqa (Hotel California comes to mind) where rich holidaymakers are looking for something daring to alleviate their boredom. The daring comes in spades. Brandon Cronenberg has followed his father in this kind of creepy body mutation (think eXistenz, it used to be one of my very favourite movies). Alexander Skarsgard  is perfect for an innocent when a mysterious young woman (Mia Goth) engages him and his partner in an adventure of a seriously unusual kind. The setting is fantastic filmed with an ultra wide angle lens by cinematographer Karim Hussain. It is one of those films (just like the David Cronenberg above) that will haunt you for a long time. But there was a lot of gore and it didn't have to be so ridiculously violent. And it was bonkers.

When the first notes of Dire Strait's Money for Nothing belted out from the surround sound of the cinema's speakers, I was sold. A montage of images from 1984 accompany the introduction to make sure we know where we are. Let me start with saying whatever you think about Nike and their debatable practices, put those aside, forget that the truth in these movies is never that important, and watch a brilliant movie. I could not believe that first time writer Alex Convery has made such a great screenplay. It's a wonderful story (especially for someone like me who has played the game, albeit really poorly except for one memorable second) and even better dialogue. He was lucky that Amazon Studios picked it up with Ben Affleck as director with his mate Matt Damon in the lead as Sonny Vaccaro. 

At the time, Nike may be selling the most running shoes, but in basketball they are miles behind market leader Converse (never heard of them - see later) and Adidas. Sonny convinces his bosses to put all their budget behind one eighteen year old who is yet to play in the NBA and does not like Nike. Michael Jordan. The rest is history. It was interesting that it was Michael's mother who held sway. Viola Davis, as usual, is outstanding. There are some other notable performances, Jason Bateman is better than I have ever seen him, as is Chris Messina as Jordan's agent David Falk.

The epilogue tells us how many millions Nike have made from the Air Jordan. Not surprising when a shoe costs £130 and upwards. Back to where I started with the music. We get the superb Time After Time, Can't Fight This Feeling and amongst others, we go out with Born in the USA. Give me Dire Straits any day.

Quartet in Autumn, A Long Way from Verona and Stars and Bars

 

I cannot remember where I found a recommendation for this author. Barbara Pym died in 1980 after a chequered career as a novelist. She had modest success between 1950 and 1963 but then her latest novel was rejected by every publisher. It was not until 1977 that "Quartet in Autumn" ended her "wilderness years" when it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Much, much more can be found at the Barbara Pym Society.

So here they are, Marcia, Letty, Norman and Edwin, working in the same office in 1970's. The ladies are on the verge of retirement as then sixty was the age for women. The men would have to wait another five years. What is so interesting is the thoughts they have about one another. There are so many things about getting old to which I could relate. As Letty says "the slightly excessive idea that one ought to a walk of some kind every day" and later " one did not drink sherry until the evening, just as one didn't read a novel in the morning". We could agree on that.

Then "Retirement was a serious business, to be regarded with respect, though the idea of it was incomprehensible to most of the staff. It was a condition that must be studied and prepared for, certainly - "researched" they would have said". Edwin and Marcia actually owned their own houses but would be horrified at the thought of sharing with Marcia and Norman who were in bed sits. But their accommodation changes by the end of the story.

There is a sort of retirement party for the ladies before they go their separate ways. There are the odd moments that reverberate today: "the social services were so much better now, there was no need for anyone to starve or freeze" ..... "if governments failed in their duty there were always the media - continual goading on television programmes, upsetting articles in the Sunday papers and disturbing pictures in the Sunday colour supplements." No change there then. Just see the Age UK advert. Then "No wonder the NHS was in such financial trouble". It could have been written today.

The book was not all sweetness and light. There were times when it was quite upsetting. But these parts were balanced with what was essentially a gentle novel. I'm looking for another novel by this author.

Having enjoyed nearly all of Jane Gardam's novels, I went back to her first published book, not realising it was marketed for children. It is narrated by thirteen year old Jessica Vye, wise, precocious and erudite beyond her years. The book begins "I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal, having had a violent experience at the age of nine". And she continues to speak directly to us which is what I love. So later "And now I will speed the story up, and describe only the two main episodes of this time. Both are depressing and could be skipped if you are pressed for time".

The second world war is underway but this has no effect on Cleveland Spa in the north east of England, until ..... It might be a child narrating this book but the themes are ageless and evocative of our own early years. Jessica is not everyone's cup of tea. Her parents are strange individuals so no wonder. But she is born to be a writer and sometimes her imagination carries her into real life. It's too good a story just for children.

The back cover says it's about "an Englishman in New York" but the main middle section of the book takes Henderson Dores to Luxora Beach near Atlanta: "a place of unremitting bleakness and despair". He seems, in a way, to be glad to escape from Melissa and Irene, who are unknowingly competing for Henderson's attention. "He was being driven to the brink of having to make a choice. The worst possible state of affairs".

But this is a satirical novel, full of ups and (mainly) downs for Henderson who is a pretty fragile character. "That was the great feature of reserve: it went hand in hand with regret: left you sadder but no wiser". Near Luxora Beach stands the Gage residence where Henderson has come to value some artwork. There are many farcical scenes as things go from bad to worse and back again. Chaos ensues. What I didn't like was that the book was unremittingly bleak. Even at the end.

Quatermass: The sci-fi series that terrified a generation (but unfortunately not me)

 

Last night the Talking Pictures tv channel showed the 1955 movie The Quatermass Experiment. This tried to emulate the iconic BBC serials that started with the the same name in 1953. Adam Scovell's article  on 28th April 2022 whose headline I pinched above describes "the first original sci fi drama that the BBC had produced for television". He was marking one hundred years since the birth of it's creator Nigel Kneale. The serials, directed by "the legendary" Rudolf Cartier  centred on Professor Bernard Quatermass played by Reginald Tate investigating extra-terrestrial happenings. The first series, with six episodes broadcast live in the summer of 1953, "gripped the nation with the tale of an astronaut bringing something aggressively alien back to earth". 

It was followed by Quatermass 11 in 1955 and Quatermass and the Pit in 1958. Only two episodes of the original series survive but all the others do. They are all on YouTube. These series by the BBC are not to be confused with the movies that cashed in on their popularity. That 1955 movie launched Hammer Studios into the bigtime with their first "horror" film that became their extremely successful trademark. The Quatermass Xperiment is directed by Val Guest with a change of title to confirm the film's "X" certificate. What I found hugely disappointing with the casting of American Brian Donlevy as Professor Quatermass. That was when I turned it off. Movies from Hammer followed the titles of the BBC serials in 1957 and 1967.

There is one vivid memory of the time when the BBC serials were broadcast. It was probably the second series when I was twelve, creeping downstairs complaining I could not sleep and hoping to catch a glimpse of the television. Disappointingly, I was sent back to bed. I'm sure classmates at school had seen it. Maybe that fired my ongoing love of sci-fi movies and my regret of not seeing these ground breaking programmes at the time. I could not resist including the extract from the article below.

In spite of the television serials' popularity, the Quatermass Hammer films had an even more impactful influence on culture, especially abroad and in the US. "The likes of Stephen King, Joe Dante, John Landis and Dan O'Bannon grew up watching them and adored them," Murray suggests. "There's what looks suspiciously like a nod to the Quatermass and the Pit film at the climax of Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). In Mexico, Guillermo del Toro was first exposed to Nigel Kneale though the Quatermass films too."

The cornerstone of Quatermass's unique sci-fi vision was its quintessential Englishness. It depicted a simultaneously recognisable and surreally menacing version of the country in the post-war period, complete with copious "Keep Out" signs, villages that weren't really villages, and Tube stations haunted by devilish Martian insects. "He took that feeling of an England that had become strange to itself and managed to turn it into a kind of mode, so people could name the unease that they felt in the 1950s," says writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet, an ardent fan of Kneale's work. "And that name was Quatermass."

This sense of a society askew was felt strongly in the second instalment, Quatermass II. It follows the professor (now played by John Robinson) investigating an alien presence in the town of Winnerden Flats. Meteorites are falling, and the local research laboratory has grown to such a suspiciously large size that the original town has been flattened for the prefabs for its many zombie-like workers. People are also showing unusual marks on their hands and are behaving increasingly oddly. Just what is growing in the great vats of the research laboratories?

"Quatermass lifts the stone and shows what's crawling underneath the culture we occupy," suggests Sweet. "It makes England a fit place for aliens to visit. I think Kneale, as well as John Wyndham, made England a suitable environment for them to transform." Indeed, Kneale's aliens often seem strangely at home in their new surroundings, ready to transform shabby 1950s England for their own unspeakable purposes.

The third serial, Quatermass and the Pit, provided an even more off-kilter perspective on everyday life in 1950s Britain. The aliens in this series have found their way to England again, but this time there's a unique twist: the Martians, it transpires, might have been on Earth before us and, perhaps, it is we who are the aliens. Broadcast in 1958, the influence of Kneale's third instalment can be seen in a great deal of television to come, in particular upon Doctor Who's 1970s series starring Jon Pertwee, which were earthbound and dealt with similar narratives of para-military organisations protecting Britain from alien foes.

The excavation of a Martian craft from under a Tube station by Quatermass (now played by André Morell) and his team is one thing. But the way Kneale frames the implications of this is where his skill and influence as a writer really come to the fore. In his hands, the perception of our place in the world is knocked out of joint as fantastical futurisms become haunted folklore.

Indeed, throughout Kneale's work, there's a general sense of the folkloric. His galactic evils may occasionally foreshadow fears over the coming Space Age, but they often simultaneously seem ancient and haunting. They may be ostensibly associated with other planets, but they are also found to be already embedded within our physical, and psychic, landscapes.

Ascott - National Trust

 

There are a few posts on this blog about days out at the National Trust property at Ascott. Many are at this time of year. At last a milder sunny day for an Easter Sunday. We had to book this year to ensure our places. 

The daffodils above were splendid. As were these banks of white narcissi. 

The snakes head fritillary are quite special.

Now is the perfect time to see the magnolias.

The formal garden will be even better in a couple of weeks when the tulips bloom.

However the hyacinths are at their best.

As expected on such a nice day there were many visitors. But we still found a bench on the path near the house.

Shrubs under the trees

 

Somehow the shrubs I planted years ago still survive under the leylandii at the back of the garden. There is hardly any soil and very little sunlight and they continue to flower. Don't ask me how. The first is just ground elder, but there are some flowers on the Periwinkle (Vinca Minor)  at the back.

 

The viburnum in flower.

Yesterday I took the Sarcococca Winter Gem out of a pot where it seemed to be struggling and planted in a space between the roots of the leylandii. We shall see if it survives. Apparently it prefers shade.

The gorse bush is coming into flower.

At the very far end this deciduous shrub has just come into leaf.

Patch Magic - We Hope

 

The lawn is trying to recover from all the moss that grew over the winter. For the first time I am trying a product from MiracleGro called Patch Magic, a combination of grass seed, coco coir, feed and a special binder. 

It is always the far end of the lawn that attracts the most moss as, being surrounded by the leylandii and the laurels, it gets very little sun. Yesterday I used my trusty power lawn rake to remove the worst, raked it into heaps and then sprinkled the Patch Magic. We shall see how this works.

 

Master Cheng, Burning and Babylon Berlin

 

Burning is a strange South Korean-Japanese production shown on Film Four. It has lots of five star reviews on Rotten Tomatoes where the rating is 95%. Jong-su, played by Yoo A-in, is one of the most strange characters you will ever see on film. Harmless to the point of simple, he meets someone he knew at school. Hae-mi, a dancer of sorts, is equally strange and her short acquaintance with Jong-su is replaced by the suave, sophisticated and seemingly rich Ben. The three of them have a really strange relationship. The film is unsettling, slow, but never less than interesting. Not five stars, but a movie that you will remember for a long time.

Another excellent film from South Korea shown on TV by Film Four. I loved the setting in a desolate part of Finland where Cheng (Pak Hong Chu) arrives in search of someone called Fongtron that nobody knows. His stay (with his young son) at the cafe is courtesy of the owner played by Anna- Maija Tuokko. But only if he cooks some food.  Little do they know he is a top chef. (Do not watch this on an empty stomach). This is a sort of slow burning love story, both of the main characters have lost spouses in different ways and their distinct antipathy towards each other gradually melts. Cheng's sullen boy gradually relents from aching for home. 

Babylon Berlin is on it's fourth series in Germany and Netflix but only just started on Sky. Apparently the most expensive German production ever. I made it through four episodes and gave up. Berlin, full of awful people in 1929 just didn't appeal to me. There are multiple stories and I had to watch the first episode twice to work out what was going on. This despite the subtitles. Some of the exterior photography was outstanding, but not enough to keep me watching.