Astrid: Murder in Paris, They Were Ten and Nordic Murders Series 3

 

The first episode of Astrid; Murder in Paris was the best police drama I have seen for a very long time. We are first introduced to senior detective Raphaelle Coste who engages the help of the autistic Astrid Nielsen to solve a murder. Astrid works in criminal records and when Raphaelle visits to look up some old cases, she finds Astrid. The two women, played by Lola Dewaere and Sara Mortensen, strike up a relationship that is often strained but ultimately fruitful. The emotion in this first feature length episode, relying as it does on it's portrayal of the brilliance but unsocial aspects of Astrid's character, is something else. 

The next episodes are not quite up to this starter, but number four was excellent., as was number five. Here the relationship between Astrid and pathologist Fournier is brilliant. There is so much intelligence in this series, this time we found out all about an ambigram. And I loved the exit song called "The Angel" by DeLaurentis.

Another French series They Were Ten is based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Again, the first episode was terrific as our cast of unlikely villains are invited and then trapped on a tropical island. Obviously there are deaths in each episode, but the best parts are those that show their secrets in the back story of each character. So you know which is the next to be bumped off. What is good about these foreign series is that I don't know any of the cast, so they are the character they play. The inews says "they seemed to have walked straight out of the French language version of the board game Cluedo". The youngish, pretty heroine is Nina, goodness know what she has done in her past to warrant her comeuppance. Maybe we will know in the final episode.

I last posted about Nordic Murders on 23rd February 2021. We are now in Series 3, with former prosecutor and jailbird Karin Lossow still helping to solve crimes on the Baltic Sea Island of Usedom. We are in winter and boy is it cold. Detective Ellen Norgaard now has a child in tow, until that is, it get's abducted. It could only happen in Usedom.

The Menu, Armageddon Time and Glass Onion

 

There are very few satirical horror movies around but this was a great example. A movie that, unusually, almost plays throughout in real time. Ralph Fiennes is at his belligerent best as a chef who has taken exceptional cooking to ridiculous extremes. The rich people he invites to his secluded island are led by Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult.  It is Taylor-Joy as Margo who steals the show, an outsider who should not be there, the only guest who faces up the chef. This is fine dining with a twist. 

I saved the four star review by Tom Shone in the Sunday Times to see if I had missed something. In the lead is Banks Repeta as eleven year old Paul Gaff, the most nauseating character I have ever seen on film. Is he meant to be a young version of writer director James Gray? If so, I'm very glad I never came across him in school. So I had zero sympathy for when he gets into trouble, a spoilt privileged pathetic weasel. His teacher was right, trying to be the stand-out in class but just stupid. His only friend in black and even more stupid as being put down a year. I tried to find something I could relate to at eleven and failed.

 Paul has not been helped with a strict father and soft mother. Anne Hathaway is at the head of a good supporting cast. Anthony Hopkins as Paul's grandfather is exceptional. There is one extraordinary scene when Paul has been sent to his brother's expensive private school where former pupil US Attorney General Maryanne Trump delivers a stern lecture to the school. Admittedly the final third did have some excitement, and a final scene in his father's car after a funeral is the best in the movie, but overall the fact that it only lasted a week at the cinema said it all.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was surprisingly enjoyable. I thought that changing the setting and the type of plot from the first film worked really well. The story is well crafted, the dialogue is decently written and the twists in the second half are just right. Writer director Rian Johnson has made a good follow-up to the original. The cast is fine with Daniel Craig revelling in his private detective role. The setting looks fabulous, and so are the costumes, Craig's striped twin set is hilarious. Even the ending is fine if predictable. And the Bee Gees song To Love Somebody is perfect as the visitors enter the mansion.

Tring Book Club- The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

 

It was when I read the contents page that I wondered what we had chosen for book club. "PART ONE How to bury a tree, PART TWO Roots" and so on. Should I have worried? Well, despite certain chapters narrated by Fig Tree, (some of which I liked and some I skipped) there is much to enjoy in this book.

The best parts for me were those chapters that involved sixteen-year-old Ada, the young daughter of Kostas and Define. The parent's story in war torn Cyprus is a bit of a Romeo and Juliet plot, this time with Greeks and Turks on opposite sides. Once I got over this obvious plot device, the scenes on the island from 1974 and onwards are interesting. These alternate with Ada in London in the 201o's. She has never been to Cyprus and feels isolated in a school where being an outsider can be hard.

When Ada's aunt arrives, stories of her Turkish heritage start to emerge. We know from the first few pages that Ada's mother died so those chapters about Define's relationship with Kostas are all the more poignant. So, this is partly a study in grief for both Ada and her father, whilst at its heart a love story from years ago. Just don't get me started about trees!

P.S. The review in The Scotsman caught my eye with a very positive review, when it said about the fig tree: "enough of this stuff, novels are about people ......... a lot of this novel is journalism". I couldn't agree more.

Garden in November

 

My best rose "Blue for You" kicks off some photos of the garden in November. Some of the flowers just seem to go on and on. Well. there has not been a frost so far. Today I brought in a couple of the buds that are still about to open.

Next, the pink rose, one stem left on the Delphinium Pacific Giant and the blue geranium.

Earlier in the month saw the last flower on the Poppy, the white Astrantia and the white rose.

I'm not sure why the early summer flowering Philadelphus has still the odd flower.

Below is the dwarf crab apple that has golden leaves and in front the Weigelia that I gave a massive prune after it flowered in May.

This is what it looked like in June.

The silver birch have looked good this autumn.

I'm now following advice from Monty Don on Gardner's World and using the lawn mower to pick up the leaves from the silver birch. Three notches up on the mower. Seems to do the trick.

Not sure what the starlings have found in the lawn?

Decision to Leave, Living and Watcher

 

I only knew director and co-writer Park Chan-wook from his superior English language feature Stoker that I have watched a couple of times. Decision to Leave is in his native South Korean language. I was not sure about all those five stars and his best director award at Cannes. Good detective falls for suspect. That's it. It's a bit like a Hitchcock psychological thriller without the suspense. There s a rock face.

Late on the dead victim's wife tells the detective "the moment you stopped being in love with me was exactly when I started loving you". There is a lot about mobile phones, (she has been tracking him ???(, with texts, pictures, video, messages and recordings. All got a bit too complicated for me. The last half hour seems like a rush, and even more complicated, after it had seemed that the previous plot had been resolved. Visually stunning, very clever and absorbing. I should really try to see it again sometime as things happen too quickly.

An Oscar worthy and career defining performance from Bill Nighy as Mr Williams lights up Living. Fantastic screenplay from Kazuo Ishiguro (I know I'm biased), is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru and well directed by Oliver Hermanus. The large cast are all fantastic as if a role like these doesn't come along very often. To name just two: Nichola McAuliffe (Mrs Blake) and Tom Burke (Sutherland) but I thought the best was Patsy Ferran as Fiona, Mr William's daughter in law, as she battles against both men's reserve.

The film captures the period so well. London in the fifties was so familiar to me, even the London County Council badge on my junior school blazer. It seemed two thirds through that the film ended all of a sudden and far too early. But the last part gives us a highly emotional explanation of everything that went before.

It's a clever poster. Who is watching who. Julia or the man in the window seen here over her right eye. He is played by a familiar Burn Gorman who Julia finds disturbing. There is a definite  reminder of Hitchcock's Rear Window and this films could have been called just that. There have been murders, but these are unconnected to Julia's increasing paranoia, as she feels isolated in Bucharest. The film is quite slow to begin with, but the last half hour is much better and the ending is terrific. At first I didn't recognise Maiko Monroe as Julia, but hen remembered her as the lead in the creepy It Follows. Her mostly absent husband is played by Karl Glusman. A psychological thriller more than the advertised horror. 

Montblanc Meisterstuk Platinum-Coated Ballpoint Pen

 

When I was looking at my first posts on this blog, now nearly sixteen years ago, I noticed that the pen that was presented to me on my retirement was a Montblanc ballpoint pen. On their website it is described as:

Montblanc Meisterstück Classique Platinum-coated collection is a design that writes history. Introduced in 1924, a word meaning “Masterpiece,” the Meisterstück has become the symbol for high quality luxury writing. The cap and barrel are crafted in black precious resin featuring the iconic white Montblanc emblem inlaid in the cap top.

Now I knew that the collection "had been enormous", but what I didn't know was that it now retails at £360.00. That was quite a surprise. I still use the pen most days. 

Driving through old London in the 1950's New A.I. enhanced version (HD)

At dinner with some friends on Friday night, I happened to mention the shop (John Buckle) my father managed in the 1950's, and how there  is an old  video where in appears. However, this video no longer exists, but there in one on YouTube with the title above. The following is included in my post of 7th February 2012.

It was in 1953 when we left Alton for London. Dad had found a much better job, managing John Buckle on Kensington High Street, and what was one of the largest grocers in London. It occupied a double frontage of a building that is now occupied by Whittard and Ryman. I put an entry on my blog on 24th May 2009 about the visit I made to Kensington, and how I found John Buckle on the Internet as being 1 Newland Terrace, now part of Kensington High Street.

17th March 2015. I changed the photo below as John Buckle is not now Whittard and Ryman. It is actually now Trailfinders, the shop to the left of the white van. How do I know? It was an email from Graham Carruthers (who works at Trailfinders) that drew my attention to a website: http://londonist.com/2011/08/video-driving-round-london-in-the-1950s.php. At 1minute 45seconds  and 4 minutes you can see quite clearly the John Buckle shop. Thanks Graham.

However, as I said above, that video does not exist. But on the YouTube video, John Buckle is there at 1 minute 43 seconds. And in an HD restored version. At the restaurant, I could not remember how I was in touch with Graham Carruthers. But the above note confirms it was Graham who found the post on my blog and sent me an email.