Scattershot by Bernie Taupin

 

I enjoyed the first part of Scattershot far more than the remainder. Later on the "scattershot" technique of pulling stories from different times was confusing and mainly boring. Bernie was born in 1950 and we first hear something about his childhood in Lincolnshire. He mentions his grandfather Poppy "most notably caring for the quality of words and the stimulation of verse" ..... "the teacher I was never going to encounter in the classroom". So not a model student by any means. We hear about his early musical tastes and that it was the first album he bought in 1959 by Marty Robbins called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" that fired his imagination. "I knew I wanted to write stories".

At fifteen Bernie was working in a print works (but not for long) and then a poultry farm. One of his records at the time was by Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry. But their names should be the other way round. He might have been jealous of me seeing them at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1965. It was at RAF Faldingworth that he found very different American country music. Then at seventeen he arrives in London to stay with some extended family in a big house in Putney. What does he find but a very large old cabinet that had not been used for a long time. It actually housed a record player and a pile of old records. At the bottom of which was one by Lonnie Donegan. "It's immeasurable how much I owe him". Me too.

It was in the offices of his Uncle Henri's wine importing business that an old typewriter became the instrument of his early compositions. But it's at the beginning of the book that we hear of his first meeting with Elton John (or Reg Dwight at the time). Late 1967, Elton is 20 and Bernie 17. Thrown together by a record producer to see what they could do. Bernie moves in with Reg in his mother's house in Pinner. We hear about the Dick James HQ, their early terrible compositions. It was Steve Brown at the record company who was key to their success. He liked their "Skyline Pigeon", their first song to have two cover versions. Then their "Empty Sky" album that was completed in April 1969.

It's only then that the narrative gets confused. In the chapter "Turning Left at Greenland" Bernie tells us about their first trip to America. He is twenty. He extols the virtues of the first band, Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. "A rhythm section of orchestral proportions". But so far we have heard nothing about his composing songs with Elton. Apart from when he wrote "Your Song" in ten minutes back in October 1969.

Then suddenly we are in France where "Elton and I made three good albums". Nothing about how they materialised. Troublesome days spill over into San Tropez and Barbados. Lots of anecdotes which I did not find at all interesting. A new band is formed with Davy Johnstone and Ray Cooper, but it's only when we get to page 200 that there is a long piece about the composition of "Candle in the Wind". I skipped a section on the descent into drugs only to suddenly hear about "Daniel", "I'm Still Standing" and "Sacrifice".

Out of the blue, a lovely story about writing "We Built This City" with Martin Page of Jefferson Starship and how the royalties have been "good to me and my family". Then "These Dreams" was a big hit for Heart. I liked the chapter "A Bad Day in Montserrat". Recording three albums in the 1980's. But I was not interested in the band Farm Dogs that he started. But his rewrite for "Candle in the Wind" for Diana's funeral sold 33 million copies. "Christies sold my original manuscript for for charity for $400,000". There is then lots of personal stuff as we head towards the end before he is writing again with Elton for "Songs from the West Coast" that did very well and often said to be a return to form. But, of course, nothing about composing the songs!

The albums that followed were all new to me, and of course they get a lot more detail. But the concluding section is about his taking up art. Who wants to know, who cares? He mentions "the stigma of celebrity art". Yeah, right! As pretentious as is much of this book.

The Garden in December

 

I'm not sure if I have ever cut the grass this late in the year. Today I was only going to blow some leaves off the lawn but found the grass was so dry in the mild wind. It had grown quite long over the last few weeks so a cut was possible together with collecting all the leaves. That will be it now until the early Spring.

And I was happy to see the first bulbs putting in an appearance in the bedding border. I wouldn't call them harbingers of Spring just yet.

Black Goo at Tring

 

On Monday we decided it would be nice to have lunch in Tring. Instead of the usual places, we headed for Black Goo, a café where we had been once before. It was very busy but there was one table left next to the window. I chose the hash browns that came with a lovely cheese topping, other bits and pieces and masses of avocado. Alison went for the poached eggs which is a house speciality. Both were excellent. I think that the name Black Goo comes from the coffins of  Egyptian Mummies that when they were found were covered in this type of material. See the British Museum website.

Movies at Home: Thirst, The Good Liar and Nightmare Alley

 

I have enjoyed all of the films of Park Chan Wook, from The Handmaiden, Stoker, Decision to Leave and Lady Vengeance. However I was somewhat disappointed with Thirst, a kind of vampire story but not always an intelligent plot. Although the script is actually brilliant, there is not enough story and what is there is quite surreal.    It stars Song Kang-ho who was great in The Host, Snowpiercer and especially Parasite. He plays a Catholic priest who becomes addicted to blood after volunteering for a failed trial. he becomes involved with a friend's wife who turns into a more revolting individual than himself. However, the cinematography is pure class, the camera always on the move, up down above below and through corridors. There is too much gore in the second half which ultimately spoils the movie.

Adapted from the book by Nicholas Searle by Jeffrey Hatcher with direction by Bill Condon comes this strange two hander. Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren do their best in a story about a conman. Mirren is the target, but is she all she seems? There are plenty of twists along the way but I found the whole thing quite seedy. None of the characters have any redeeming features. The London locations are good but not enough to elevate the film from it's nastiness.

I posted a review of this film on 3rd February 2022 when I was impressed by the writing and direction of Guillermo del Toro. Every shot is like a piece of art, especially in the first half. The sets, the colour, the light and shade of the fairground. This time round I was less impressed with Bradley Cooper in the leading role. He was put in the shade by superior performances from Toni Collette and David Strathairn. The film is less good in the second half without them. Then the look is different and the story takes on a more sinister feel. Cooper's scenes with Cate Blanchett seem a little awkward as the movie veers to something nastier. But oh, the look.

A Circular Village Walk in December

 

Today I set off on a five mile circular walk that starts from the house. Turning left down Baker's Walk and then right down Church Lane before another left down Church Walk. The flood halfway down where the road crosses Wendover Brook is not as bad as it was.

At the end of Church Walk is the church of St Mary the Virgin.

At the end of the churchyard is a wonderful view of the Chilterns.

The field is muddy but passable. At the end of this field is a style that takes you to a much larger field. 

A long muddy path arrives at the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal. Following it's upgrade, the canal path is fine. It arrives at Halton and that is where I follow the road as it loops around the playing fields of RAF Halton. Today there was a major event being set up on the cricket field. No cricket hasq been played there for years.

Arriving at one of the paths that follows Wendover Brook to the reservoir, I saw that the brook was now full of growth, it having been cleared earlier in the year.

At the end of this path is Weston Turville Reservoir. The Chiltern Hills in the distance are as grey as the weather.

Onto Worlds End Lane, a walk into Weston Turville and a loop around the village gets me to the five miles. For some reason my legs were far better in the last couple of miles and I managed to get up a decent pace. Where did that come from? What I like about this walk is that as well as circular, all the sections are very different. 

Our Christmas Tree

 

Our Christmas tree is thirteen years old this month. In December 2020 (see photo below) I said how it was becoming more difficult to lug the three pieces up and down from the loft. Four years later it is not any easier. The photo above also shows how a lot of lights are now not working. So will this be it's final year?

The Films of Powell and Pressburger - I Know Where I'm Going, A Matter of Life and Death and The life and Death of Colonel Blimp

 On the 18th November 2023, I posted a review of the first in a series about The Art of Film on Sky Arts: The Unique Styles of  Powell and Pressburger. I have now watched three of the films that were mentioned that were all shown on Sky Arts over the last few months. They all have something in common. But not just Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who share the roles of producers, writers and directors. They are The Archers.

A black and white movie from 1945. I thought I Know Where I'm Going was the least successful of the three. Wendy Hiller plays Joan Webster, on her way to an island in the Hebrides to marry a much older but wealthier man. The film is about the journey, thwarted on many occasions by the weather. Stranded on the Isle of Mull she meets Torquil MacNeil played by Roger Livesey. A relationship develops between the two. 

Far better is A Matter of Life and Death, also from 1945. A mixture of scenes in colour and black and white, depending on whether we are on earth or in heaven. David Niven plays Peter Carter, the captain and sole remaining occupant of a Lancaster bomber, badly damaged and making it's way home from a mission in WW2. He's in contact with June, a radio operator played by Kim Hunter. Somehow he survives the crash landing on the coast, or did he? He does meet June and they fall in love, much to the concern of the powers that be in heaven as he should be dead. All very surreal but always interesting. June finds Peter a doctor, and who should turn up but Roger Livesey. The scenes set in heaven are a treat which makes this an ambitious and original movie.

Is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp their masterpiece, or just a failed jumble. I thought The Archers had bitten off more than they could chew. It's all a bit of a jumble and far too long at two and a half hours. It has a lot of history on the net. It precedes the previous two films as it was made in 1943. One of the first films in glorious technicolour. A kind of comedy that follows the life of Clive Candy played by (you've guessed it, Roger Livesey) as he makes his way through the first world war and in the peace that followed. But it's the switches of time that destroys any real coherence to the plot. 

From the start set in the second world war, it back tracks to 1902. Then Candy is off  on an unauthorised mission to Berlin where he meets Edith Hunter played by Deborah Kerr. A set piece in a large nightclub involves the German army and brings Candy into contact with an officer Kaunitz played by Anton Walbrook. It is these three main characters who form the basis for what happens next. 

However, suddenly we are in 1918 and this is where the film seemed to lose it's way. Clive marries someone who looks very like Edith. Finally we fast forward to 1939 so it's difficult to keep up. It is a light and witty movie but far too ambitious and episodic to make real sense. And why the wives of the two men should end up dead before them is silly. Deborah Kerr was far nicer than any of the men in her three roles. A failed masterpiece.

Inside Cinema Shorts Episodes 61-70

 

"Everyone loves a good cameo" says Ali Plumb in Episode 61 Cameo Overload. But she shows far too many to mention here. From David Bowie in Zoolander (2001) to Alfred Hitchcock putting himself somewhere in all his movies. But what was David Beckam doing in King Arthur (2017). However our presenter's favourite was "the late, great Stan Lee".

Of course it's Escape to Victory that starts off Carl Anka's The Beautiful Game that is episode 62. But it's not easy getting films about football right. But Kes (1969), Gregory's Girl (1981), Bend it like Beckam (2002) and Fever Pitch (1997) did OK. Although I skipped the documentaries.

Leila Latif tells us about Senegalese film maker Ousmane Sembene in Episode 63 The Father of African Cinema. A pioneer.

Here are Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in 2003's Freaky Friday that starts off Episode 64 Body Swaps. We see the original 1976 movie later. Tara Judah takes us through so many going back to 1948 and Vice Versa. 13 Going on 30, The Change Up (2011) and even Jumanji. 

Episode 65 is Uncanny Spaces from Wendy Ide. It's about when films deviate from physics. Such as Jack Nicholson losing touch with reality in The Shining (1980), Jim Carey being set up in The Truman Show (1998) and Anthony Hopkins succumbing to dementia in 2020's The Father. Among other examples we see obvious stuff from Harry Potter and Inception (2010).

Who else but Keanu Reeves in Episode 66 The Cult of Keanu. James King looks at  these films that star this one actor, in all sorts of different genres.

It's Caitlin Quinlan who looks at Underdogs in Episode 67. They come in various forms, but are typically young, male and American. Typically Rocky (1976) and lots more. It was more interesting to see female heroines in films such as A League of their Own (1992), Fighting with my Family (2019), Whip It (2009), She's the Man (2006) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Episode 68 is All About Bette. Yes it's all about Bette Davis, and Anna Bogutskaya takes us through " a career spanning six decades". From Of Human Bondage (1934) when she first showed her anger and belligerence that were to become her trademarks over the years. Anna tells us "how she went through physical transformations that were such a trademark of Bette. Her greatest role may have been All About Eve (1950) but she was also famous for her totally deranged role in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) where her sparring with Joan Crawford is so well remembered. 

Christina Newland surprisingly presented Episode 69 about boxing: Heavyweight Drama. Not my favourite genre as we see films from 1926's Battling Butler (directed by Buster Keaton no less) to all those of the modern era. We also saw lots of boxing documentaries.

In the last of these ten shorts, John Cunningham looks at The MacGuffin in Episode 70. "They may seem every day objects" but are crucial to the plot. It's always something that motivates the characters, always an object like the ring in The Big Lebowski (1998) that kicks off the whole story. In Mission Impossible 3 everybody wants to know "where is the rabbit' foot". They are everywhere in the Indiana jones movies. The word Macguffin came from screen writer Angus MacPhail in his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. It just had to be him.

James Bolam

 

We have been watching the BBC detective drama series New Tricks for many years. The first series started in 2004 and finally finished with series 12 in 2015. Every episode is on BBC iPlayer and we have started all over again. One of the stars was James Bolam who played Ex Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Halford. James is now 89 and it occurred to me that I did have a photo on this blog from when I saw him on stage at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in 1968. See post of 22nd March 2009. With Liz Frazer and a young Ian McKellen.

Church Walk flood

 

On a short walk yesterday I found the lane to the church was flooded. With the heavy rain in the last week, the bridge over Wendover Brook could not cope and the water spilled out down the lane. The bridge over the brook restricts the flow and it comes out in a torrent as the picture below.

The photo below shows how all the water cannot make the entry to the bridge. I cannot see how any cars can make it down to the church until the flood recedes. 

Today the flooded lane was still the same.

Tom Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Bad Actors

 

Having read all the other eight novels by Ann Patchett, I thought that this was the best. And that is saying something. We are in lockdown and Lara's three grown daughters are home to help with picking cherries on their parent's huge farm in Michigan. They take the opportunity to hear their mothers' story about when she was a young actress and met and performed with the budding star Peter Duke. But before that, the first nine pages (possibly the best introduction to a novel ever) Lara and her friend Veronica are still at school, helping to register people for their audition for a part in an adult amateur production of "Our Town" in the school gym. When Lara's grandmother turns up, Veronica asks her "Do you want a part? I know people, I can make you a star". "Veronica loved my grandmother. Everyone did".

But Lara's daughters, Emily, Maisie and Nell are desperate to hear about Duke, the famous actor who knew their mother at the start of his career. Lara tells us they are "waiting to hear the parts I'm never going to tell them". There are countless clever and emotional parts too numerous to mention. Early on at seventeen, Lara is in California for a screen test. There is an outdoor pool. "We need to see you swim". "Seriously? I wondered how cold the water was because that's the first thing a person from New Hampshire thinks about when someone starts talking about swimming". Little do they know.

Much later at Tom Lake, Lara is a late stand-in to play Emily in, yes, "Our Town". Where she meets Duke. This is why her girls are so interested in her story. But will they ever get the cherries picked. "We do not stop for snow in North Michigan. Schools open. Buses run". I loved who the girls were and how different they are. There is a lovely contrast between young love and Lara's marriage to Joe. Lara tells us "I learned so many things that summer at Tom Lake and most of those lessons I could have done without".

This book has made me want to watch Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town". The author loves it. Paul Newman stars as the Stage Manager in a performance on YouTube.

Isabella, middle aged and not so recently bereaved, is visited by an old friend Vinny. She lives in a small seaside resort next to the pier. Her son Laurence is a recruit in the army and visits when he can. The book was written in 1953 so there was still National Service at that time. Vinny becomes a lodger in a house that belongs to Rose Kelsey (also bereaved) and her sister Emily. "He imagined his room having once been the housekeepers sitting room ..... a sealed off part of the house". (Reminding me at eighteen of my tiny bedroom only accessed off some steep narrow back stairs with it's cupboard like door into the dining room).

Apart from Vinny's mother who comes to stay (at her favourite shop "asking lots of questions about things she had no intention of buying") and a family boarding for the summer, that's the full cast of this story about secrets. Vinny falls for the injured Emily (what was she doing in the car that killed Rose's husband), although he already has a wife of sorts. "His inability to to cross the gap from wooing to lovemaking, and many unconcluded love affairs, had left him with a large circle of female friends". His pursuit of Emily is a strange affair: "an elderly man behaving like a love lorn youth". And already married. Not Taylor's best work, but her prose is as haunting and witty as ever.

When we are introduced to the current inhabitants of Slough House one by one, the book brings us up to date with all that has been going on with the slow horses and their present state of affairs. We do have a new recruit in Ashley Khan, although her parents can find nothing about her fictitious job online. I enjoyed most of the first half as the plot builds involving first desk Diana Tavener, her Soviet counterpart and the obnoxious Anthony Sparrow, the PM's enforcer who wants to take over the security services.

Every time the story concentrates on one of Jackson Lamb's team, there is so much wit and character. In the middle there is a set piece all action surveillance operation at night in a park that is really well orchestrated. But later at a reclusive sanatorium, again at night, there is so much violence as the bad guys arrive in a case of mistaken identity. The whole novel keeps up a relentless pace all the way through. Not really my kind of book, but I now find this is the eighth book in the author's series that I have read. That must say something.

Classic Movies on Sky Arts - The Story of I'm All Right Jack

 

Ian Nathan introduced this episode by telling us that released in 1959, I'm All Right Jack became top of the British box office and the number one film of that year. Steve Punt thought it was a "state of the nation" film. The cast is awesome. Peter Sellers has graduated from being a comedy actor (first coming to prominence in the BBC radio programme "The Goon Show" (never missed an episode) was not mentioned) to a film star alongside Ian Carmichael (the posh twit), Terry Thomas, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough, Irene Handel,  Margaret Rutherford and John Le Mesurier. 

Directed by John Boulting and produced by his brother Roy (both committed liberals), we heard about how they interchanged roles on some of the series of comedies they made. These included Brighton Rock also featured in this series. They used lots of location filming with an "ex Steven Armstrong went on to say that this film was a "social satire" and a clash between the workers (always looking after number one) and management who all seemed upper class idiots. Neil thought they stuck with an exaggerated plot and that it was a "jaundiced view of life" of Britain in the 1950's. 

Steven Armstrong discussed the emergence of the country from the second world war (that was never discussed) how the country was changing with a new consumer society and emerging teenagers (including me). The film was a "parody of the angry young men of the 50's" (not me). Based on the 1958 novel Private Life by Alan Hackney, it shows how the country was changing, An in depth feature about Peter Sellers included how he was given carte blanche to create his character of the bolshi shop steward. He also plays the fusty upper class character who starts the film on his own in his club. He makes the movie. Ian Carmichael is also superb, his character "just out of university" from Oxford. Steve Punt thinks he feels as if he can do anything.

Steven's explanation of how the film compares the cads and bounders of the upper class with the lazy working class on the make is quite something. Even the emerging middle class gets a mention. This is the best film criticism of the series so far.  It seems quite like a historical document that still reverberates today. I will watch the film in a couple of weeks time.

The Crime is Mine at the Rex Cinema, Berkhamsted

 

The full page review in September's Sight and Sound Magazine was enough to take me to Berkhamsted and the Rex Cinema. Based on the 1934 play Mon crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, it is the kind of farce in which the French specialise. Although it does start with someone being shot. The suspect is beautiful blonde Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) who lives poorly in a tiny Paris apartment with budding lawyer Pauline (Rebecca Marder). Her trial is a farce as the two women turn it into a story about the oppression of women. 

Director Francois Ozon has adapted the book with Phillipe Piazzo. It is fast and clever. There are lots of laughs to be had along the way. And who should turn up over half way through but the wonderful Isabelle Huppert as the faded silent movie star Odette Chaumette. The men are far less sympathetic. From the lawyers, to the judge, the boyfriend, his father and an industrialist. It's all great fun. The scenery from the 1930's is wonderful, as are the costumes and cars. I loved it.

There is one very subtle idea of a one way relationship. Look at the lawyer Pauline's eyes as she looks up at Madeleine in the dock. Unrequited love that is never explained. Thank goodness. 

Sight and Sound Magazine - December 2024

 

EDITORIAL

Mike Williams tells us about film magazines and the loss of one of them, Total Film. "Magazines need a lot to go their way to survive".

OPENING SCENES

Guy Lodge describes how the Best International Feature at the Oscars is limited to one per country. (It used to be called Best Foreign Language Film). India has a controversial history , none more so than this year when All We Imagine As Light was dumped in favour of a comedy Laapataa Ladies. All because it was a European film taking place in India. There was an interesting section about six big movies that were not chosen by their country, including Anatomy of a Fall, Ran, Talk to Her and Three Colours Red. All these are great.

There was little interest in EDITOR'S CHOICE, IN PRODUCTION, NEWS, IN CONVERSATION, MUSINGS (David Lynch on music), MEAN SHEETS, and READER'S LETTERS.

THE LONG TAKE

The four regular articles in the Talkies section are always interesting. With the death of Maggie Smith, Pamela Hutchinson looks at her career in film. From winning the best actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and much later a best supporting actress win for California Suite. Some of her other films include The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).

FLICK LIT

Nicole Flattery calls The Substance "tedious, over explanatory body-horror". She was far less impressed than I was.

TV EYE

Andrew Male talks about Alan Plater's three part adaptation of Chris Mullins' 1982 novel A Very British Coup. He asks "what would happen if a Marxist working class Labour leader came to power after a decade of  corrupt Tory rule". Ray MacAnally plays the left wing PM. 

THE MAGNIFICENT '74

Jessica Kiang recommends Gena Rowland's performance (dazzling and dangerous) in A Woman Under the Influence. "It's a film so singular, so cataclysmic and transcendent etc". "The riskiest screen performance of all time". "It disturbs still". Gena was nominated for best actress at the Oscars and won the Golden Globe. Directed by her husband John Cassavetes, it also starred Peter Falk.

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

Six pages on the new film by Payal Kapadia (also on the front cover). It won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year. A portrait of Mumbia with three generations of women and the complications of arranged marriages. The first time an Indian film maker made it to Cannes in thirty years.

CONCLAVE

Another six pages, this time on the adaptation of the Robert Harris 2016 novel. A pope has died and Cardinal Thomas Laurence (Ralph Fiennes) has the unenviable task of organising his replacement. I didn't read any more as I want to see it in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to it.

BIRD

A long article on Andrea Arnold's new film "blending social and magic realism". Not sure.

DECONSTRUCTING BARRY

Barry Keoghan talks about his role in Bird. See my reviews of The Banshees of Inisherin and Saltburn.

SING THE CHANGES

The director of the musical drama Emilia Perez Jacques Audiard explains this trans "heavy metal-meets-hiphop-inflected musical". Am I too old for this? No nationwide release so would have to wait for maybe The Rex. 

FILM REVIEWS

These include All We Imagine As Light (see above), Christmas Eve at Miller's Point (Long Island stories), Heretic (I gave Hugh Grant's horror a miss even though it has The Hollies' best song), The Piano Lesson (no general release), Conclave (see above), In Her Place (1950's Chile looks interesting), Joy (only a short review but any Jack Thorne screenplay might be worth a lookout, especially starring Thomasin McKenzie, Bill Nighy and James Norton.) Steve McQueen's Blitz is all over the cinemas but Bird isn't.

DVD'S ETC

I may have seen a long tome ago The Oblong Box (1969 with Vincent Price. David Lynch's 1997 Lost Highway is the first in this trilogy.

Nothing in LOST AND FOUND, WIDER SCREEN or BOOKS.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

An interview from 2016 with one of my favourite actresses Isabelle Huppert. "Acting should always be less than more". She hates rehearsals, spontaneity being the key. Not sure about that seeing her in yesterdays The Crime is Mine at The Rex. She appeared on the cover of Sight and Sound Magazine in September 2016. But I have seen many of her movies and am looking out for more.

Nothing interesting in THIS MONTH IN .... 1953. 

ENDINGS looks at 1924's The Last Laugh. About a doorman at a grand city hotel.