Movies at Home: Amarcord, The Infernal Macine and Or Man in Havana

 

Frederico Fellini's AMARCORD won the Oscar in 1974 for the best film in a foreign language. I don't know why. Some of the exterior cinematography was excellent; at times it almost looked as if it was captured in 3D. There was a carriage ride that was particularly exceptional. However, there is no plot, just a series of scenes from the life of a town. It starts at night with the inhabitants of the town gathering for a firework display. With a band. There are multiple characters, but it cuts from one domestic scene to another. Including multiple classrooms. The film does look great but that's it.

Fortunately, The Infernal Machine does have a story. It stars Guy Pearce as Bruce Cogburn, who is in just about every scene. He lives alone far from anywhere. Almost hiding, but from what? His claim to fame is that notorious book called The Infernal Machine. The fact that his book is to blame for a shooter killing thirteen people from a rooftop. He has no phone or TV. He has to drive to a phone box to make a call. So it's no surprise when he starts receiving letters from someone who knows more about the book than Bruce would like. 

Paranoia sets in as Bruce tries to figure out who is persecuting him. Alice Eve in a tiny role as a police officer is no help. Eventually we find out who is behind the letters and come to realise that he might know who actually wrote the book. All pretty unusual, but fortunately Pearce may be at a career high since his lead in Christopher Nolan's Memento. 

If only the 1959 film of Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana had been in colour. Then the sights of Cuba would have been exceptional. Greene has also adapted his own book and directed the film. I thought that his screenplay was brilliant. There is an amazing cast. Alec Guiness plays James Wormold, a vacumm cleaner retailer who somehow becomes a spy for the British secret service. His daughter Milly is seventeen and has expensive tastes. I thought Jo Morrow was perfect in the role. 

Then Noel Coward and Ralph Richardson play the spies who are impressed with the information gathered by Wormold. Even though it is all fake, including the vacuum cleaner adapted as military hardware. Add in the very attractive but serious and severe Maureen O'Hara as a secretary foisted on Wormold. But Wormaold is getting in too deep with the authorities, and his life is in peril. Will he survive that luncheon party? And who should turn up as a waiter but John Le Mesurier, who looks very suspicious but is not the real murderer. There is a subplot that involves the chief of police, who is after Milly. However, it all turns out well in what is a brilliant ending.

Carthanus tinctorous or safflower

 

Nestled within this bunch of sunflowers are these tiny spots of red. There is no mention on the packaging of what they are, and nothing on the M&S website. However, using PlantNet, I found they were safflower. Apparently one of the world's oldest crops, harvested for the vegetable oil from the seeds. Who knew?

Desert Island Discs - 70 Years of Castaways - The 1970's and 1980's

 

THE 1970's

The introduction was the best so far, a decade full of interest. In popular music there was glam rock, prog rock and punk. The UK joins the EEC in 1972, and then there are referendums on whether we should stay. Twice we said yes and a third time no. But the economy "slid into chaos" with inflation reaching 26.9% in 1975 and having to be rescued by the IMF.

Ivy Benson 16th October 1971 

I have to confess I have no memory of Ivy Benson, despite her forming a girls' band in the 1940's. Ivy was a very talented musician from an early age. Her band played at the Royal Opera House, which was a dance hall during the war. Ivy's favourite band was Count Basie. Hurrah! And while working in Hamburg, who did she meet? The Beatles, of course. 

Philip Larkin 17th July 1976

Larkin was a big jazz fan. His first choice was Dallas Blues, by Louis Armstrong.

THE 1980's

A mention at the beginning of the appearance on the show of royalty on three occasions. Princess Margaret (see below), Princess Grace of Monaco (1981 but not described in the book) and Princess Michael of Kent (1984). There is a mention in the introduction of the episode with Otto Preminger which shows what an awful man he was. 

Roy Plomley died suddenly of a heart attack on 28th May 1985. His last castaway was Sheila Steafal, which was recorded only seventeen days before. On 5th January 1986, Michael Parkinson took over and his first castaway was Alan Parker, the film director. Subsequent guests included violinst Nigel Kennedy and fashion designer Bruce Oldfield. Then only two years later, Parkinson is replaced by Sue Lawley.

HRH Princess Margaret 17th January 1981

A strange selection of record choices and an interview that was less than interesting.

Paul McCartney 30th January 1982

It was on the fortieth anniversary of the programme that the guest was the only Beatle to appear. McCartney tried to be funny but was just embarrassing.

Elton John  1st June 1986

My favourite interview is a precis of his life so far. His first band, success, and then burnout. And, of course, his love of Watford FC. One of his record choices was the Chuck Berry song 'Let It Rock' by The Rolling Stones. 

The next castaway in the book, but a year later, was ..... Robert Maxwell.

Kenneth Williams 26th July 1987

Twenty-six years after his last time on the programme (May 1961), Williams was here again

I skipped Arthur Scargill, obviously. Even though Sue Lawley is now the host. Also straight past Enoch Powell.

Alfred Wainwright 4th September 1988

It took long and protracted negotiations to get him on the programme. But it was worth it.

Diana Mosley 26th November 1989

One of the Mitford sisters, but it "was to become the most notorious episode in the history of Desert Island Discs". All because she was the wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the party of British Fascists. Her appearance caused a major rumpus, with the programme being delayed more than once.

The Last Viking, The Invite and The Odyssey

 

A terrific black comedy which I thought compared favourably with a Coen Brothers movie. A Danish production written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen. I only knew he co-wrote The Duchess a few years ago. The cast was excellent. I had not seen Sophie Grabol since those forty episodes of The Killing (2007-2012); Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Anker was not familiar to me even though he had appeared in a couple of films I had seen, and Mads Mikkelsen was great in Another Round and a James Bond film. 

The cinematography was outstanding; a huge widescreen (2.39:1) showed the backwoods of Denmark to great effect. It was funny how Anker was so angry all the time, being released from prison and cajoling his brother (Mikkelsen) to find where he buried the loot. He only smiles at the very end when his brother plays in the band. I was amazed that Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian was not impressed; however, Katherine McLauchlin in Sight and Sound Magazine says, "the narrative concludes in a hopeful and moving way." I thought it was brilliant. 

Was The Invite "the funniest movie of the year"? It was certainly not laugh-out-loud funny but more a witty drama about getting to know your neighbours. A four-hander that seemed much more like a visit to the theatre. It all depended on the script by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones from a Spanish film, The People Upstairs, and the direction by Olivia Wilde, who also plays the hostess of the dinner party. I would normally avoid any film that included Seth Rogen, but here he plays to type as her uncouth husband. Their visiting neighbours are a hugely unusual casting of Penelope Cruz (one of my favourite actresses, whom I would go to see in any movie, but here she seems almost bored) and, even more strange casting, her partner, an uptight Edward Norton. 

Rogen seems so angry all the time, while Olivia is even more unhappy. The apartment (that her parents left her), which she has converted, furnished and decorated by knocking through to the one next door, is absolutely a dream. We soon realise this is, for her, a substitute for a loving marriage. Olivia is horrified by the thought of her young daughter growing up and leaving home. Because she would be alone with him. But it's those neighbours who are like some acid in the mix. They will never be the same again.

For the first time, let me start with the five-star reviews. Tom Shone in the Sunday Times said, "This is popular filmmaking at an exalted pitch: rich, strange, dense, and rewarding." Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian tells us, "This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair."

So why was I so underwhelmed? It might be that Homer's classic is the daddy of all fantasy stories, and fantasy is just not for me anymore. I knew little about the story before I saw the film, only about the Trojan horse and how they entered the city of Troy. This is quite early on in the movie, and its depiction felt awkward. There seemed to be no explanation why the army of Odysseus (Matt Damon in the lead) was there at all or for how long. And a story that is nearly all about the trials on the voyage home seemed to have no context. It makes for spectacular filmmaking if this is all you want. 

On the plus side, for a film getting on for three hours, I was never bored. The final forty-five minutes were more of a story of when Odysseus returns home. Except for the interminable fight at the end. The acting also seemed strange. I could never get away from recognising the actors instead of their characters. I guess the script was always going to take second place. 

The cygnets at Weston Turville Reservoir

 

I had not seen the cygnets at Weston Turville reservoir since my post of the 13th June. But this week here they are. Fortunately all six are fine. The parents have done a great job; notice how they take up positions on either side of the group of youngsters. They have certainly grown in the last six weeks. This was how they looked back then.

I wondered why they had stuck to the far side of the reservoir and thought that all those feathers near this spot might have been the reason. I'm just glad they are all fine. I just wish I had taken my camera instead of the rubbish photos on my mobile phone.

Garden in late July

Starting these photos from the garden in late July is my favourite flower: the delphinium, sky blue and white. I could have done with a more dramatic colour, but the fact that it is flowering better this second time around is amazing.

The same goes for the rose blue for you, now blooming again.

Other roses are also blooming again.

Next is the brand new salvia "amistad".

I think I made a mistake in chopping the heads off the antirrhinum bedding plants. I hoped this would reduce their height when they flowered, but no such luck. And now they are taking so long to come into full flower.

At last the hostas by the side of the house have started to flower. 

The impatiens in the pots at the front have been a success.

Although these tiger lilies have struggled. 

Last of all, the rudbeckia in the far round border has revived after not being watered for so long. There are even signs of some flowers.

Jackson Browne on the Old Grey Whistle Test at The Sheperd's Bush Empire

The BBC has some old concerts on iPlayer, including this one with Jackson Browne. Recorded live on 7th December 1976, so that is nearly fifty years ago! We were both a lot younger then. The performance was at the BBC Television Centre (previously known before and since as the Shepherds Bush Empire). See my post of 23rd March 2010. So I had been on the same stage as Jackson. And seen him live at Hammersmith in 1986 and at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, 2003 and 2009. (See post of 29th May 2009). But this recorded concert was far better than those others I remembered. Songs such as Fountain of Sorrow from the album Late for the Sky were perfect for this intimate setting. As was my favourite, For a Dancer. 

The Shepherd's Bush Empire opened in 1903 and became the BBC Television Centre in 1953. That was where I was chosen as a contestant for Crackerjack in 1957 when I was just fourteen. See post 17th February 2010. The theatre was again refurbished in 1993 after the BBC left and reverted to its old name. I had been to a couple of concerts there, including Paul Heaton and Jacki Abbott in 2014. See post 28th May 2014. 

This is the set list from the Old Grey Whistle Test:

01 talk (Jackson Browne)
02 Something Fine (Jackson Browne)
03 talk (Jackson Browne)
04 For Everyman (Jackson Browne)
05 talk (Jackson Browne)
06 Fountain of Sorrow (Jackson Browne)
07 talk (Jackson Browne)
08 The Only Child (Jackson Browne)
09 talk (Jackson Browne)
10 For a Dancer (Jackson Browne)
11 talk (Jackson Browne)
12 Mohammed's Radio (Warren Zevon & Jackson Browne)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 The Pretender [Edit] (Jackson Browne)

Here is the band:

Jackson Browne: Vocals, guitar, piano

David Lindley: Guitars, violin

Mark Jordan: Piano, guitar

Bryan Garofolo: Bass

John Mauceri: Drums

David Mason: Organ

Warren Zevon: Guest vocals and piano on "Mohammed's Radio" 

Waterperry Gardens

 

It was on Monday when we visited Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire. We used to be regular visitors but had not been for a few years. I had forgotten how nice it was there and that it was not too far by car. We left early, as it was to be yet another sunny and very warm day. So it was perfect weather when we arrived. The gardens were in good shape despite the drought, so there was lots to see; all the borders had lots of colour.

Fortunately, there were lots of places to sit, with some even in the shade. 

Somehow the two and a half hours had passed so quickly. We made our way to the cafe and sat outside with our lunch under the trees. A perfect day.

High Society at The Swan Theatre, High Wycombe

 

I cannot remember how I stumbled on an advertisement for the tour of High Society, but I was lucky that there were just a few single seats left at The Swan Theatre in High Wycombe for the Thursday matinee. This production opened at the Barbican Theatre in London and now has a tour of fifteen different theatres across the country. That started in High Wycombe. 

The curtain, when closed, mentions Newport, which is where the original production is set. That is Newport, Rhode Island. Not that far away from our holiday in Hyannis on Cape Cod. When the curtain opens, we are treated to a spectacular set. Later, more scenery drops from above, so this is a serious production. With a full-size orchestra and twenty-eight strong cast members, we were in for a treat.

Leading the cast were Helen George as Tracy Lord (famous in our house for playing Trixie in the eighty-one episodes of Call the Midwife), Freddie Fox as Mike Connor and Julian Ovenden as Dexter Haven. (I have given up buying a programme when everything is online).

Others included Nigel Lindsay and Carly Mercedes Dyer. One of the unexpected pleasures of my seat in the circle was how steep the rows were. I had a completely unimpeded view of the stage and, as a bonus, a good view of the orchestra. The musicians were all impressive, especially the young woman on woodwind. It was great to watch her changing from clarinet to flute, piccolo and saxophone. Sometimes during a number. The biggest thrill for me was the end of the first half when a band (actually members of the orchestra) took to the stage to play Now You Has Jazz. The same instruments as the Louis Armstrong band in the original film, and with that clarinet soaring high. 

The songs were all so familiar. I have somewhere an old LP of the 1956 musical starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Celeste Holme. Tracks on the album that all played last night include "Little One", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", "True Love", "You're Sensational", "I Love You, Samantha", "Now You Has Jazz", "Well, Did You Evah?" and "Mind if I Make Love to You". Then we had lots of other Cole Porter songs, including "I Love Paris", "Let's Misbehave", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". 

Here are Helen George and Julian Ovenden singing "True Love". Note the small stand-in for that yacht in the film.

My visit to see the show was enhanced by long conversations with the couple next to me and with another couple at the interval. They were even regulars at the Rex Cinema in Berhamsted.

One thing I found on the net was the absence of one line in the song with the title "Well, Did You Evah?" Apparently my old MONO LP of the musical was the only version to include the words sung by Bing Crosby, "You must be one of the newer fellas", in response to a Frank Sinatra croon. No subsequent stereo LPs, CDs, etc. have these words. Strange.

Garden in mid July

 

The star of the show, tucked away in the border at the front of the side patio. The Hydrangea macrophylla is apparently susceptible to all kinds of problems, from poor soil to too much sun in the afternoon and not enough moisture. The list goes on. But ours seems to like it where it is. It's not one of those huge hydrangeas, but so much the better for its position. If I remember correctly, it was given to Alison for helping out at an event.    

In the photo below, the Weigelia Red Prince is flowering again. I was just about to give it a major prune after the first flowering was over, but just in time, no pruning is required until next February. 

These flowers next to the wall of the conservatory are stocks dwarf mixed from Chiltern View Garden Centre. I have never grown stocks before, and I'm thinking they might do well in the bedding border next year. 

On the subject of bedding plants, I made a mistake buying these antirrhinums. They grew far too tall, and I had to give them all a chop before they flowered. The one below is the first to come into flower, and, as you can see, the ones next to it are a while off flowering. In the main border at the back of this photo, the pink flower is a bank of marjoram, normally grown as a herb. It is usually covered in butterflies and bees. 

The acanthus below has had a severe pruning as some of the spikes had fallen over. It looks fine from this angle, but not at the back.

At the end of the side patio are the hostas 'Fire and Ice'. All three pots have flowered when only one did last year.

I have already included photos of the echinacea on my previous post. But this one shows how the flowers change shape.

I think I also mentioned previously the repeat flowering of the Weigelia Red Robin. Here it is again.

Two plants were struggling in their large pots: the Salvia nemerosa Cardonna and a geranium. When I tried to repot them, I had great difficulty digging them out of the containers. They were completely root-bound. So everything was cleared away, new compost added and small parts of the plants repotted. 

Desert Island Discs - 70 Years of Castaways - The 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's

 

Over seventy years, Roy Plomley, Sue Lawley and Kirsty Young have interviewed nearly three thousand personalities from all walks of life. The foreword to Desert Island Discs: Seventy Years of Castaways is by Kirsty. She describes how most found it "impossible to choose just eight". Then, "When the former head of MI5, the redoubtable Eliza Manningham-Buller...chooses The White Stripes, it was all I could do not to punch the air and shout "Wowza"." 

My castaway this week is...

In his introduction, author and compiler Sean Magee explains how the programme works. Especially what happens if you agree to appear. (Not everyone does.) Here is "a series of snapshots of the times in which they were broadcast ...... from Vic Oliver in January 1942 to the last in this book, Sir David Attenborough, in January 2012, when this book was compiled. The contents section at the beginning contains those individuals included in this book. The index at the end also contains these in bold type. This is preceded by a list of the complete castaways. Apparently, the one luxury and one book were expanded later to one choice of a record if the others were washed away. 

THE 1940's

The introduction includes the letter from Monday, 3rd November 1941, that Roy Plomley sent to Lesley Perowne (in charge of light entertainment programmes) with his idea for Desert Island Discs. The rest is history. But first we hear about Roy's background and how his idea was originally dismissed. When at last given a trial run, it was right up to the mid-50s that the programme was prescribed! We hear about the discussion between the two men about the format and about how they chose the theme tune: Eric Coate's By the Sleeping Lagoon. It has remained with this music ever since.

The first castaway on 29th January 1942 was Vic Oliver, the Austrian-born comedian. We hear a lot about the first castaways, which included Arthur Askey and Ivor Novello. After two months of castaways, a second series began. But at the end of the fourth series in January 1946, after sixty-seven programmes, it was shelved.

From the interviews of those castaways included in this book, I have only selected a few. From the six selected for this book from the 1940s, here are

Ivor Novello: 30th April 1942

This is someone who has eight thousand records at home. I had to listen to his choice of Londonderry Air by Lionel Tertis, as it was described as "the loveliest tune in the world". But to us it's just Danny Boy.

Deborah Kerr: 17th November 1945

One of her early films was The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. See post of the 31st October 2025.

THE 1950's

Five years passed between the last episode of the 1940s and the first of the 1950s. It returned on 3rd January 1951 with the actor Eric Portman. From there we have a "steady stream of sporting heroes". 

Stirling Moss: 4th June 1956

Interviewed on 4th June 1956, his choice of records was closest to my own particular taste so far. These include Frank Sinatra singing The Tender Trap, but it does not say who with. Mine is with Count Basie. The intro is great. 

Alfred Hitchcock: 19th October 1959

Unfortunately all too predictable.

Joan Sutherland: 23rd November 1959

The opera star wasn't. Seven years at Covent Garden. An Australian by birth, her final choice was from Puccini's La Bohème with Donde Lieta Usci. 

THE 1960'S

There is a long introduction over twelve pages as Sean Magee describes "a decade of comprehensive upheaval". This was the decade when the programme really took off, with so many personalities wanting to appear. The programme on the 1st April 1960 (note the date!) featured Sr Harry Whitlon whose luxury was a mountain. Then later Shirley Bassey. 

Cliff Richard: 31st October 1960

An interesting part about how they came up with his stage name. I remember in either 1959 or 1960 (around when I was fifteen) we were bought two of Cliff's records: Living Doll and Travelin' Light, both on 78 rpm, as our radiogram would only play that speed. 

Noel Coward: 28th January 1963

I liked his varied musical tastes, from Bernard Cribins' Hole in the Ground to Verdi and Rachmaninov. 

Then two icons together:

Harold Pinter: 14th June 1965

Roy Plomley asks the castaway about his writing. "Four lines of Pinter are unlike four lines of anyone else." His reply is "I think any given person, when he speaks, there is an awful lot he does not say and is not prepared to say and cannot say." This was before his even more successful plays, such as my favourite of all time: No Man's Land from 1975. 

Alan Bennett: 28th August 1967

There is a lovely introduction about how he came to be included in Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller. Even taking it to America. This interview was well before his hugely successful plays, but he never returned to the programme as others had done. 

Then the final programme of the sixties:

Viscount Montgomery of Alamein: 20th December 1969

Monty was eighty-one when he appeared on the programme. He describes his somewhat turbulent relationship with Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the war, who visited the front on more than one occasion. Monty told him, "You must do what I tell you because we cannot afford for you to take risks. I shall get into awful trouble if you get bumped off by a shell or something." 

Wiggington and Tring Park

 

We were out early on Wednesday morning before it became too hot. Alison had suggested a walk from Wiggington that she had done a couple of times before. There was plenty of room in the car park near the cafe. A route through the woods, and suddenly we were entering Tring Park. I immediately knew where we were, as this part of the Ridgeway is on the course for Tring parkrun. I think that I only ran it once in a double event with Aylesbury parkrun. See the post of 3rd January 2015.

But I did use to walk here on many occasions, including maybe that first time I posted on this blog on 20th October 2009. The photo above is from Alison's phone and was taken walking down the Ridgeway. At the end of this section, we turned back and found our way back to Wiggington. We stopped at the cafe and sat in the shade outside with our welcome iced coffees. A really nice morning.