Movies at Home - The Conformist, 21 Grams and Bound

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

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

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

Tring Book Club - The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

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

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

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

Rough Music, The Carer and The Boarding House

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

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

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

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

Refurbished Drive

 

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

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

New Spring bulbs

 

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

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

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

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

And today I have bought:

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

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

my culture fix

The Sunday Times have been running a series where famous people describe their cultural life. Each question is always the same and I have compiled my version, should I ever be asked.

My favourite author

This is an impossible choice. I have just read two wonderful books by Ann Patchett and Jane Gardham. There are a few living authors whose new novels I will always read. John Le Carre's latest is on my shelf. I'm waiting for the new books by Rose Tremain, Nick Hornby, William Boyd, Maggie O'Farrell, Anne Tyler, Jonathan Coe and David Mitchell to come out in paperback.

The book I'm reading

Rough Music by Patrick Gale. I usually have a non fiction book I'm reading at the same time and at the moment this is the doorstopper that is Michael Palin's Halfway to Hollywood - Diaries 1980-1988. 

The book I wish I'd written

Halfway to Hollywood as then I would be Michael Palin.

The book I couldn't finish

Middlemarch, obviously. And recently Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. Although her novel The Magic Toyshop that we discussed at book club last night is so much better.

The book I'm ashamed I haven't read

I'm quite happy sticking with the authors I like. I have just discovered William Trevor and have a number of his books on my shelf. So there is no shame on missing out on some of the classics.

My favourite play

This was the easiest to answer. I saw Harold Pinter's No Man's Land at the Oxford Playhouse directed by the writer and starring John Wood and Corin Redgrave. It even beat the Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart version a few years later. 

The box set I'm hooked on

I have recently bought two boxes of films by Pedro Almodovar. The early ones are somewhat hammy but later they become exceptional. I had never previously seen All About My Mother and already I want to watch it again.

My favourite TV series

There are so many. From comedies such as Dinner Ladies, Dad's Army and Detectorists to detective shows like Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Vera, New Tricks and modern day Broadchurch and Line of Duty.

My favourite film

It has changed over the years, first it was Dr. Strangelove, then Back to the Future, Leon, Apocalypse Now, The Truman Show and most recently La Belle Epoque. 

My favourite piece of music

If I had to choose just one it would be the theme from Dances with Wolves by John Barry.

The poem that saved me

I have a collection of poetry books but none of them have triggered that bit in my brain that could have led to me appreciating them. I still don't get it. 

The instrument I played

Do a few chords on a second hand banjo count? If I could change one thing, it would be to find someone who could turn me into a guitarist. Perhaps I'm too late for that. 

The instrument I wish I played

Definitely the piano. To accompany a good singer would be the biggest thrill imaginable.

The music that cheers me up

Anything that takes me back to my youth in the 60's. Early Beatles and Rolling Stones.

If I could own one painting it would be ....

Something by Canaletto. When we visited Alnwick Castle, a lady attendant, desperate to talk to someone, told me that the eight Canalettos on the walls were part of what was probably the finest private art collection in the country. No wonder they had an SAS team test the security.

The place I feel happiest

There is a particular reason it is home in Weston Turville. We have been in this house for nearly thirty years when previously the longest I had lived anywhere since I was born was six. 

My guiltiest cultural pleasure

Going to the cinema in the afternoons. This started when I went on to four days a week during the last few years at work. Wednesdays were swimming in the morning and cinema in the afternoon. Since retiring I can choose any day to see a film, and now I have an Unlimited card with Cineworld.

I'm having a fantasy dinner party, I'll invite these artists and authors

The artists will be some of my favourite female singer-songwriter-instrumentalists who will provide the entertainment: Nerina Pallot, Lissie, Freya Ridings, Birdy. For authors, they have to be witty: Allan Bennett, Nick Hornby and Nina Stibbe.

And I'll put on this music

I wont have to as those above will be playing.

The play I'm looking forward to

ANYTHING PLEASE! I have one Shakespeare play still to see performed live and that is Henry V111. The RSC did promise to perform the whole canon but when oh when.

Inception, Tenet and The Roads Not Taken

 

I waited a couple of weeks after the cinemas re-opened to see Inception. It was the tenth anniversary edition and although I had also seen it on TV, it was worth another look on Cineworld's Superscreen. I was the only one there that afternoon. This is what I said about it in August 2010:

Inception is one of the two best movies I have seen this year, probably not quite up to the standard of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but brilliant nonetheless. All the reviews are about how complicated the action becomes, but I dont think that I had to concentrate that hard to understand what was going on. Yes, there are layers within layers, but Christopher Nolan wants us to be there with him as the story unfolds. His direction is absolutely spot on, and is helped by a decent enough script great sound, music and cinematography.

One interesting thing happened. Over halfway through the movie I felt the odd drip of water come down from the ceiling. I thought it must be condensation as it was 32C when I arrived at the cinema. However, when I left, I found that it was a leak was caused by the extremely heavy rain that had flooded the roads while I was inside, and the temperature had sunk more than ten degrees.

I wish I had read the plot of Tenet before going to see it. There was far too much confusion in the story to make any sense, so I never became engaged in the experience. There were some exciting action sequences, but even these were spoilt by being totally bewildered by what was going on. I'm not sure if Christopher Nolan wants you to see it a few times, but I'm in no rush. I have read reviews and plot discussions since, and I am still hardly any the wiser. Such a big disappointment.

If you want to watch an uplifting film in these strange days, avoid The Roads Not Taken at any cost. A study of a man suffering from heavy dementia and the toll it takes on his daughter over one day. So not a lot of fun. The acting is extremely good, Javier Bardem and Elle Fanning are excellent and a cameo from Laura Linney was perfect. Well written and directed by Sally Potter, she is to be congratulated for tackling a a subject that would never attract a big audience. But they would miss some beautifully shot locations and an unforgettable story.