The Sunday Times has a regular feature in the Culture supplement called My Cultural firsts. This week it was the turn of Ravi Shankar's daughter. Under the section "first famous person I met", it was George Harrison (of course - he was taught sitar by Ravi). She mentions the stack of CD's he gave her "he thought I should listen to including Chuck Berry and Count Basie". Perhaps George and I passed each other at their concerts at the Odeon, Hammersmith.
We were warned this might be scary, but it's just the threat that is disturbing. Drop has just one set, a very, very fancy restaurant. The title comes from "digi drops" on your phone. News to me. Violet Gates played by Meghann Fahey is on a date, meeting Brandon Sklenar for the very first time. The plot moves at a fast pace when Violet's home has been invaded. It's directed by Christopher Landon who either wrote or directed Happy Death Day (and it's sequel) and Disturbia. All fine entertainment, as is this. Wendy Ide in The Guardian gave it four stars. a mix of "plausible and preposterous".
Now I thought the first film was OK, so I avoided the reviews for The Accountant 2, but little did I know that this was a bit of a disaster. When the best thing about it is the cinematography, that says it all. For an action movie, there are some longish scenes that veer into drama territory. These are awful. Is it that Ben Affleck needs some funds for his next movie? I thought he had given up acting to concentrate his directing on better class films. He was as bad as I can remember. It's as if they wanted to make a buddy movie but had a rubbish screenplay. However, most of the reviews are far more positive, so maybe it's me. The best part involved Affleck's young hackers, stationed at their screens, watching everything and more.
"The golden age of science fiction started in America in the 1930's". Astounding Science Fiction was the magazine with many well known writers such as Isaac Asimov. Professor Adam Roberts and Professor Dinah Birch guide us through the pioneering technology. They mention Asimov's The Last Question and we hear extracts from Arthur C Clarke's Starchild with "history drawing to a close". Scary. We hear about the background to Clarke who Dinah mentions as a gay man. His The Nine Billion Names of God is set in a Tibetan monastery and the extracts we hear is a story about the end of the world.
After a piece about Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, we rush forward to The Sentinel with its inhospitable lunar landscape. Not forgetting Star Trek, this is the usual mess I mentioned in Episode 1. When sci fi had exhausted "the excitement of the Apollo" missions, it turned to home with Which Way to Inner Space by J G Ballard, Kingdom Come and more. But isn't Solaris in space? A mention of Aldous Huxley and we hear the unforgettable opening words of George Orwell's 1984. The movie used them too. On to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (and the film version) then his The Martian Chronicles. And why, finally, do we hear about Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? Weird. Other contributors include Professor Farah Mendelsohn and Professor Kiera Vaclavik.
Wreaking havoc as usual, Inspector Clousea (Peter Sellers) is promoted to Chief Inspector when his old boss C I Charles Drefuss (Herbert Lom) is in a psychiatric hospital following the trauma of the last film. In The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Dreyfuss escapes and turns villain in hunting down his old adversary. Chaos ensues. I liked the introduction of Leonard Rossiter as Superintendent Quinlan, Lesley-Ann Down as Olga and Richard Vernon as Professor Hugo Fassbender. The last of these acted in a huge number of films and shows in the sixties, twelve in three years 1963-5. From A Hard Days Night to Goldfinger.
Accident is a typical Harold Pinter drama directed by Joseph Losey. Lots of pauses, considerable tension, little action. It stars Dirk Bogarde as Stephen, a tutor to two Oxford students, Michael York as William and Jaqueline Sassard as the beautiful Anna. These two are in a car crash at the beginning and then the story describes the events that lead up to it. A summer weekend at Bogarde's house includes Stanley Baker as a colleague. And then there is Stephen's pregnant wife Rosalind played by the exceptional Vivienne Merchant (Pinter's wife). But not much happens, they play tennis, they stay for supper. It seems to get slower and slower. There are romantic entanglements.
In Dirk Bogarde's book Snakes and Ladders, he talks about Losey and Pinter and this film which he says is "far more complicated" than their others. Pinter's words are "offered so sparingly". (You can say that again). Then "in 1966, the most exhausting, exciting and valuable work we ever did together. A perfectly handcrafted piece of work from the first shot to the last and quite the most exciting work I had ever had to do on screen". The part "had never been intended for me". "When we finished after three months I was dead. I could not return to myself (from Stephen). My body and mind were in a vacuum, it took me many weeks to get back to my body".
Now I enjoyed all of Bogarde's six autobiographies but not all have an index but fortunately Snakes and Ladders does. As for this film, I think it might have worked better in the cinema as at home it felt tired and too slow. It gained poor reviews when it opened and there would only be a limited audience to see it. I was really looking forward to watching it as I am a Pinter fan. Maybe I should revisit it in time.
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On Sunday Ashridge House had opened it's gardens for the National Garden Scheme. I had been once before (see long post 11th June 2018) when Alison was off on a 26 mile event. So this was all new for her, and for me at a completely different time of year. So lots of daffodils and spring plants. Most dramatic of all were the rhododendrons.
The weather could not have been better, mainly sunny with some light cloud and 19C. The Grade II gardens were designed by Humphry Repton in the eighteenth century and are 190 acres. It took us two hours to see everything. It was good they gave us a map.
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Editorial
Mike Williams has been watching the Netflix drama Adolescence. A thirteen year old boy murders a teenage girl from his school. So he looks at other movies about killer children. From The Omen to We need to talk about Kevin. He quotes Margaret Attwood with "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will kill them".
Opening Scenes - The Ballad of John and Yoko
Jonathon Romney guides us through the new documentary One to One: John and Yoko from the great director Kevin MacDonald. It's on release now.
Editor's Choice
Nothing interesting.
In Production
Christopher Nolan is ploughing on with Homer's The Odyssey and the line up of stars to appear is amazing. Sounds like a huge budget. Bong Joon Ho is planning a subway set horror.
In Brief
A note that David Hayman is lined up to be a producer on the next Bond film.
In Conversation: Kurosawa Kiyoshi
His film Cloud is released this month. Will look out for it.
Festivals, Mean Sheets and Reader's Letters
Nothing of interest.
The Long Take
Pamela Hutchinson looks at Seth Rogan's The Studio that is ten episodes on Prime Video. Interesting that each episode features someone famous, although I will not be watching.
Flick Lit
Nicole Flattery tells us about a possible remake of American Psycho, although will they ever match Christian Bale's Bateman? This takes Nicole on to more modern films where the men have "started to grow more menacing". Such as George McKay in The Beast and Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World. But Nicole's favourite angry man had to be Eddie Marsan's driving instructor in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky.
TV Eye
Andrew Male describes a Disney+ production called Paradise so wont be watching that. A Poirot type eight part series in an underground bunker.
In The Mood For Love at 25: The Making of a Modern Classic
On the cover and thirteen pages for an old movie? Why? Just cheap, rehashing articles from all those years ago, using it's anniversary to fill up an edition of the magazine. It's Jessica Kiang who introduces the feature that just goes on and on.
The Late Picture Show
Karina Longworth's podcast "You Must Remember" explores the late work of fourteen directors that have a season at the BFI.
Gene Hackman: An Obituary
Alan Nayman looks at his career. I will always remember him for The French Connection and it's sequel. In also love The Conversation ("a superior surveillance thriller") that I have recorded to watch again. I cannot remember it's sequel 1998's Enemy of the State. The best film from the end of his career was 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums.
At the movies with .... Jia Zhangke
I had never heard of this Chinese director, but we learn about his influences.
REVIEWS
One to One: John and Yoko
A documentary looking at their first eighteen months in New York.
I was not interested in Blue Road, the Edna O'Brien documentary, Nic Cage's The Surfer and Ralph Fiennes's in The Return, and so many more. From Italy comes Parthenope, based on the Greek myth and a love letter to Naples by Paolo Sorrentino. Then Black Bag that I have already reviewed.
DVD and Blu-Ray
Only to note a Blu-ray compilation of eleven of Chantal Akerman's films, Volume 1: 1967 to 1978.
Rediscovery
Also on Blu-Ray, The Eel, a Palme D'Or winner from 1997 by Imamura Shohel.
Nothing in Lost and Found or Wider Screen
Books
Hannah McGill looks at Clinical Trials, a book on David Cronenberg by Violet Lucca that "combines a warmly gossipy biographical portrait of her subject with roving, insightful analyses of his back catalogue of films". Who could resist. Although our reviewer says "it feels a little hidebound by current taboos" as "there are only two genders". Hmm.
Then John Bleasedale reviews Sergio Leone: By Himself written by Christopher Frayling. "An epic beautiful book".
From the Archive
"The Method and Why" from Sight and Sound Winter 1956/7. Tony Richardson looked at actors such as James Dean, Marlon Brando before a study of Konstantin Stanislavski who created the "method" form of acting.
This month in ..... 2020
The magazine kept going through the pandemic. On the cover was La Haine and reviews included those for Promising Young Woman and Saint Maud. (See my reviews).
ENDINGS
Mathew Taylor looks at the final "loaded exchange" from 1999's The Insider. Michael Mann's tale of a whistleblower and journalist attacking the tobacco industry. Starring Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer and Russell Crowe. Journalist Lowell Bergman (Pacino) exits the CBS building through the revolving doors. But nobody wins. One to look out for.
It took me a long time to find out what were the tulips in pots as I had lost the packet. They are fluted and a mixture of orange, red and yellow. All on the same flower. I hope I can fins them again next year. They go so well with the daffodils.
Who would have thought that I would give a Kate Atkinson book two stars. I have read all her novels (some get my rare five stars) so this was a big disappointment. I liked all the previous five Jackson Brodie books so I wondered why this one was so poor. Well to start with Jackson is now seventy years old, still a private investigator (time he retired), and hardly appears in the story. He is supposed to be looking into the supposed theft of a painting for Hazel and Ian that may or may not be valuable. Their elderly mother's carer Melanie has disappeared. Jackson is on her trail.
At the huge mansion, now in poor condition, of Burton Makepeace lives Lady Milton. She lost a Turner painting a couple of years before so are the two connected? Housekeeper Sophie has also scarpered. To spin out this tedious and unoriginal plot, we divert to local vicar Simon Cate and then Fran and George who live in a cottage on the Burton Makepeace estate. Along with Fran's brother Ben, a young army officer injured in Helmand. I'm not sure about all this superflous stuff, the book does not seem to have made up it's mind about what it is.
It's detective constable Reggie Chase (who we have met in previous books) who takes centre stage (thank goodness) as she looks into the latest missing painting where Jackson is already on the case. He is on surveillance, ruminating on life, sitting in his posh Land Rover Defender and listening (the only music referenced in the book) to the late Nanci Griffith's album "The Last of the True Believers". (See my post of 16th August 2021).
So then we get to the long spun out conclusion that involves a Murder Mystery weekend at Burton Makepeace with a bunch of sorry, out of work actors. And a snowfall that means some do not arrive but other characters do. Of course all the main people come together in the end. It all descends into farce, but not in a good way. It may be that TV might develop the story even though Brodie is left on the sidelines. Maybe they would also get some of the sloppy prose corrected, "Revenge is a dish best eaten cold". No, served! That's not the only one. One of the reviewers here said they gave up around page 150. I wish I had. There also seem to be many long term fans of Kate Atkinson books that have also given this book the thumbs down.
Sixteen year old Athene is at a loss after her clergyman father dies. It means that she, her mother, sisters and brother have to leave the vicarage. It's the start of the school holidays so the children are palmed off to various distant relatives and friends. We follow Athene, Sebastian and Phoebe over the next few weeks. So this is actually a book for older children, but written with the expected panache from this, one of my favourite authors.
Athene is dispatched to an aunt (Posie) who is hardly welcoming at her seaside hotel. Athene Price is memorable for her being so attractive and being too good to be true. It's her we follow for most of the book. Later in August, she goes to stay in the North East with at first, Sybil Bowles and then older Primrose, Here it becomes all to much and she just leaves. By the quayside she meets an artist and stays.
All this time her sister is somewhere else. "My name is Beams, short for Moonbeams (big glasses), Phoebe at the font. Ugly as sin. Alas for me". Opposite to her sister, so not an attractive child. But boy can she write. This is her diary (the best part of the book) absolutely hilarious. Brilliant. Palmed off on the Padshaws near Rhyl. When at six her father takes her to see a shrink she writes "I love untidy rooms usually - not like Athene who's always putting paper clips into envelopes and straitening the fire tongs". (whoever could be that tidy?)
And lastly Sebastian staying at an Anglican community with his friend Lucien. It's only later we hear his wonderful conversation with 80 year old Father Ignatious But soon we are back to Athene, arriving at Auntie Barbara's boarding school. Obviously no children and more to the pint, No Barbara. Only one young master marking exam papers. Another excellent chapter, the book has seemed to improve as it went on. They (nearly) all meet up at the end, relatives and all.
The book intertwines stories of all the main characters as Glyn tries to uncover the life of his ex-wife ("the project seems to occupy his every spare moment") when he was always travelling with his work. "My concern is purely forensic". Or is it? The fall out from his conversations with friends occupies the latter part of the book. It is well constructed and nicely written.
The lawn is starting to recover from the removal of moss by the power lawn rake. I must make a note not to do that next year and see what happens.
The hostas below at the side of the house are growing well. After the rain I found one huge snail that was taken down the garden. I now have to check every morning and evening. Apparently it's only when they are under stress that they attract snails and slugs.
The viburnum in the front border have flowered well. The flowers are over at the top but near the bottom they are at their best.
This is interesting. The pink dwarf crab apple below has been there years. But what is this white bush? Last year I noticed something growing alongside the crab but it had hardly any flowers. I tried to remove it but it was too close to the other one. This was last April.
This year it has all this wonderful white blossom that smells delightful. I'm guessing it is a flowering cherry whose seed might have have been in the pot the crab apple came in twenty years ago and has gradually grown bigger. Who knows.
There are not so many forget-me-nots this year, but still enough to make an impression.
The clematis had a little trim last week so now looks a lot better. More flowers to come.
11 I'm Gonna Do It If I Like It: The Jazz Age
This chapter starts with a passage about George Gershwin but then all about musical comedies in 1924. The author lists a number of (still) popular songs but are any of these jazz? This book is all over the place. Then when we get to the UK, it's all about Noel Coward. Certainly not jazz. And then we only get a passing mention for the Paul Whitman Orchestra who are really in the jazz bracket (see later). Then after pages and pages about artists of whom I had never heard (are any jazz?) all of a sudden we hear about a truly great jazz musician. Bix Beiderbecke was a trumpeter who played with Paul Whiteman and we hear about his background and playing with The Wolverines. There are few recorded solos with Paul Whiteman, but I have an EP of his somewhere. On YouTube he plays on The Wolverine's Riverboat Shuffle. He died at 28. Unfortunately we are back to musicals at the end.
12 In A Silent Way: Race Records
This is all about The Blues. An introduction is followed by a passage about all those black female singers. The part about Bessie Smith is the most interesting. There are recordings made by John Hammond in 1933 where she is backed by a band that included Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden.
13 Invisible Airways Crackle With Life: Radio
An interesting section about the early days of American Radio. From primarily playing classical at first, it was advertising that became the major source of revenue. And this brought about the songs of the day. And so their networks grew, by 1931 NBC had 67 affiliated radio stations and CBS had 95. We get a run down of who was played. In the UK, it was the BBC who was the single license holder. Led by Calvinist Lord Rieth, the music was definitely "Light". But later in this chapter, I found it quite strange for the author to introduce Vaughn De Leath as "the first lady of radio .... she deserves a book all to herself". Never heard of her.
14 Trying hard to recreate what had yet to be created: Hillbilly
Before Nashville, there were instrumentalists playing only fiddle and acoustic guitar, "millions of people right across North America knew country music intimately and instinctively". Now I had heard of thirty one year old Ralph Peer (although forgotten the name) the New York executive for Okey Records who toured America recording "every conceivable immigrant community". In 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia, he happened to record Fiddlin' John Carson's The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane. Back home in New York it was not expected to sell but it did. Apparently it was Ralph who came up with Hillbilly.
However, the author then explains "it had become almost impossible to be a country singer in 1923. You had to be able to sight read to be able to enter The American Federation of Musicians and every venue could only use union musicians. But when he talks about "real" country and "hard" country, I just don't want to know. And a section all about Jimmie Rogers is quite boring, as well as all the name checked country artists such as Gene Autry.
15 Black and Tan Fantasy: Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club
(I get a little frustrated when the book alternates between a genre and an artist and back again). As well as Louis Armstrong (mentioned above) I have also seen Duke Ellington and his Orchestra live at the Hammersmith Odeon where he performed with Ella Fitzgerald on 12th February 1967. Fortunately I still have the programme.
The author gives us a potted history of The Duke, playing piano in a six piece band at The Kentucky Club on Broadway. It was his compositions that stood him apart such as Black and tan Fantasy. He toured Europe as well as America. "No one had comparable skill for blending jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, even folk and classical".
16 Learn to Croon: Rudy Vallee and The Dawn of the Electric Era
"Rudy Vallee and the crooners who followed him were disruptive and corruptive." They were the first male pin ups. And it was all down to the invention of the carbon microphone. One of the biggest hits of 1927 was Gene Austin's My Blue Heaven. He was the first million selling crooner. He recorded As Time Goes By in 1931, way before Casablanca. It was a shame that the BBC hated crooners, their "nightly wailing".
17 All Hollywood and All Heaven: Talking Pictures
Oh no! We hear about Al Jolson (not again) with an advertisement for The Singing Fool at The Lounge Cinema, Margate. Fortunately we are at the birth of musicals for the cinema. Perhaps this chapter should be called "Broadway in LA" as the New York music industry moved the west coast. We hear about the early days of putting songs on the big screen, learning how to film them and how to move the camera. This chapter ends with Rogers and Hart off to London for the opening of their hit musical Evergreen that includes the big hit Dancing on the Ceiling. But then in 1929 musicals were struggling.
18 Ten Cents A Dance: The Great Depression
"As the 1930's began, a quarter of Americans were out of work". However, Yip Harburg who had lost his business, found a new vocation. He wrote the hit song Brother, can you spare a dime". We hear of other successes such as Hoagy Carmichael. But just too much information here.
19 Nothing But Blue Skies: Bing Crosby
Here we go again with a section about an artist. But Bing Crosby is a legend, at first singing with Paul Whiteman's band in 1930's The King of Jazz. There is a great clip of Bing as one of the three Rhythm Boys. At twenty four he sang in the film Showboat, songs such as Ol' Man River and Make Believe. In the 1940's Bing was huge on the radio and in films. (He was in three of the highest grossing movies of 1946). He had thirty seven number ones between 1931 and 1948. Incredible.
We hear about all his radio shows and then those movies with Bob Hope. An Oscar for Going My Way and dancing with Fred Astaire in Holliday Inn. The big song White Christmas that also became the title of it's own movie. But then the author says "Can someone who meant so much to so many people for so long have nothing to say to us now". Who is this person. Bing has lots to say to us now, his films and songs are played every Christmas. Who else can say that. His legacy is assured.
20 Industrial Light and Magic: The Movie Musical
Why on earth would the author pinch the creation of George Lucas for the title. Bob Stanley suggests "the movie musical made the stage seem obsolete". Why does he say these things. Musicals have always packed out theatres. However, he goes on to say that even those musicals that were not a success on Broadway were made into films. Busby Berkeley was the star choreographer. But instead of some detail, we are off to the UK where there was nothing like a Hollywood musical. Instead there was Gracie Fields with her huge hit from 1931 Sally in our Alley. But the biggest star in the UK over six consecutive years? None other but George Formby. (What taste our ancestors had). He starred in eighteen films from 1934 to 1946.
Back in Hollywood, it was Leo Robin (of whom I had never heard) who wrote the 1938 Oscar winning Thanks for the Memory, for Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in The Big Broadcast of 1938. It became Bob's signature tune. Similarly did we know of composer Harry Warren? One of the greatest songwriters ever. The musical 42nd Street is full of his songs. Warren was nominated for the Oscar for best original song on eleven occasions and won three times. When he went to collect the Oscar for Lullaby of Broadway, he couldnt get in as nobody recognised him. Other songs included I Only Have Eyes For You and Dean Martin's That's Amore. Leo Robin was born on Christmas Day "with the Capricornian fear of public appearances". He lived until he was 88.
A last word here about Pal Joey from Rogers and Hart. At first it was a failure and only later did it become revered. With songs such as I Could Write a Book and Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered. That included the line "I'll worship the trousers that cling to him".
