A wet start to Autumn

After one of the driest summers on record, the rain over the last ten days has worked it's magic in the garden. The only rain we had from the very beginning of June included three short showers in  two at the beginning of August. Everywhere was parched, all the lawns and all the grass verges. Then came some heavy rain on 27th August, so almost three months of drought. Then rain on the 28th, 29th, 30th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th September, some of it very heavy. Now we see green grass everywhere. It's marvelous. I actually spread three tubs of the Pro Kleen Grass Green fertilizer on 6th June and it has taken two and a half months for it to start working. The lawn behind the house is actually thick and lush! 

My post of the 27th August included a comparison of the lawn with how it looked in June. Now I can compare it with how it is today.

Not a lot of colour in the borders, just the dahlias and the odd rose.

However, the impatiens in the post at the front are some of the best for years.

Movies at Home: An Ideal Husband, Lust, Caution and Campbell's Kingdom

 

For American audiences, Cate Blanchett pushes her way to the front of the poster for An Ideal Husband when really it should be the main star Rupert Everett. Based on the  Oscar Wilde play of 1895 and directed by Oliver Parker, it has the cast to die for. Minnie Driver, Julianne Moore, Jeremy Northam and others. Even Simon Russell Beale. The plot concerns a story of blackmail, but it's the scenery that I liked best. The shots of carriages in West Wycombe Park and even at Waddesdon Manor. Even RAF Halton in winter. 

I loved the first half of Lust, Caution. Ang Lee is one of my favourite directors, it was just a shame his adaptation of Zhang Ailing's novel had to (maybe) stay faithful to the book for the violence later on. The film starts in Shanghai under Japanese control in 1942 where a group of wealthy women, are playing Mahjong. But within minutes we are back to Hong Kong where Chia Chi is at university and joins a drama club. There is "a typical director, never listens to anyone else". (This is Ang Lee having fun). Here Chia is drawn into a plot to assassinate a main collaborator with the Chinese, a Mr Lee played by Tony Leung. 

But what I really enjoyed were all the exterior scenes, the marvelous locations, the crowds and the costumes. The cinematography is exceptional. However, the story is centered on the relationship between Chia and Mr Lee as the group need her to set him up to be assassinated. This is when I became less than impressed with how this is portrayed, their relationship is almost abuse. There are graphic scenes that seemed out of place, and I never got to grips why the director wanted to show these. 

Then we are back in Shanghai those three years later, the same women playing the same Mahjong. We wondered why at the very beginning, and now here she seems well off when all along she wasn't. A new plan as here again is Mr Lee. Only for the ending, maybe true to the book, is not a happy one. And that will stick in the memory rather than all those wonderful images from earlier. There were awards for the movie. At the BAFTA's of 2008 it was nominated for best foreign film and best costume design. There were more for the Golden Globes, but it was the the Venice Film Festival where it won best film and best cinematography. It did not even get nominated at the Oscars.

The poster for Campbell's Kingdom is so old fashioned, befitting a film from 1955. One of the first films I saw at the cinema when I was ten. Top drawer British acting talent was on display with Dirk Bogarde, Stanley Baker, Barbara Murray and the ubiquitous James Robertson Justice. however it has not worn well, all pretty hammy to say the least. 

Freakier Friday, The Life of Chuck and The Roses

 

Well it was certainly freakier. The first half of Freakier Friday was so noisy, shouty, fast and gross. Whoever decided to put in a massive food fight? I was just about to leave when things began to calm down. So much so that the second half was actually quite good as the body swopping settled down to become a reasonable drama. Lindsay Lohan was actually quite good, even if Jamie Lee Curtis is too old and never changes. Tom Shone in his review said she was the best reason to see this movie. No. It was Lindsay that I thought held the whole thing together. Who would believe that. She did seem to have a bit of trouble when she has to play her daughter, but who cares. Tom Shone in the the Sunday Times says "in the latest movie you spend a lot of time trying to work out who is swapped into whose body because it's a four way exchange". But they had to do something different from the original

The Life of Chuck is actually one of the best films I have seen for some time. Who would have thought that of a Stephen King adaptation. The three acts are told in reverse, so at the beginning we have a kind of dream sequence. Nothing feels real. Why are all these posters about Chuck. Then his image in all those windows. Who is he? We find out a little in the second part as our narrator (Nick Offerman) reveals this man walking through the city is indeed Chuck, in middle age. This short section starts with Taylor Gordon setting up her drum kit in a pedestrianised part of town where she is a busker. It's Chuck who is passing by and he starts to move to the beat. What we have then is a seven minute dance sequence when Chuck invites Annalise Basso,who is watching, to join him. 

Now I'm not an expert in drumming, only that I have some listening experience. At Dunmow Jazz Club in the early sixties, the drummer would occasionally have his own prolonged solo. At some concerts at college or on stage we would get the same. So what happens in the film, to me, was quite extraordinary. One of the best things I have ever seen on film. As Taylor changes the beat or adds a riff for the different rhythms, so too do the dancers change. You can see this sequence on YouTube, but you really need to see it in the cinema with great acoustics. I was thrilled. Here is Ashley Boucher talking to Tom Hiddleston in the Entertainment website. 

Next came crafting the perfect piece of music for the routine, which Hiddleston calls "ingenious" in the way it "progresses through different rhythms and styles of dance."

"The whole sequence contains within it all of the dance styles that Chuck will have learned as a young man that his grandmother taught him, that he learned at the twirlers and spinners dance class in middle school," he says. "They're radically different rhythms, to go from jazz to swing to the cha-cha and then to bossa nova and the polka. The rhythm of the beat completely changes, and the rhythm of how the body has to move in accordance with that beat."

The final act takes us back further to Chuck as a boy. We get to learn how he started to dance and found this huge talent inside him. He has a great relationship with his father (an unrecognisable  Mark Hamill). The locked door of their Cupola is typical Stephen King. Mark Kermode thinks that the film is "really lovely" and is about an idea, not a traditional narrative. A long review in Sight and Sound Magazine by Roger Luckhurst concludes that director Mike Flanagan "has become King's most sympathetic interpreter on film". 

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I was not sure at all about going to see The Roses. Benedict Cumberbatch and, particularly Colman, did not strike me as a comedy duo. However, it was better than I thought it would be. There is enough warmth in their marriage for some time before things go pear shaped. The two are great actors and the repartee is interesting. All down to a fine screenplay by Tony McNamara. The novelty is the fact that the husband stays at home with the kids and the wife becomes a celebrity chef with a growing number of restaurants. We see what can happen when the children are brought up by a fitness fanatic father, and how the busy mother never gets to see them. The time lapses were unusual as we belt through the years. Not for me a laugh out loud comedy, more black than that. There are the odd funny moments and touching scenes, but havoc in the later stages becomes predictable. The supporting cast were awful. Or was that their characters? No review in Sight and Sound Magazine. A few good songs on the soundtrack starting with Happy Together and later Love Hurts. A little obvious. 

A hundred years of Winnie-the-Pooh

A wonderful article in this week's Sunday Times celebrating one hundred years of The Hundred Acre Wood. Lots of pictures and sketches over six pages that I'm keeping. James Campbell has published The Men Who Created Winnie-the-Pooh: The Lives of AA Milne and EH Shepard and he opens the sketch books of the latter. 

There is also a reference to a picture from the 1960's edition of When We Were Very Young (first published in 1924). I have just ordered a copy of the book.

My Shakespeare by Greg Doran - Parts 4 to 6

 

Part 4   The Merchant of Venice

- 1997: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Barbican Theatre, London; Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Plymouth Theatre Royal

Greg talks about his first season at the RSC at Stratford with The Merchant of Venice in 1987. Anthony Cher plays Shylock together with an amazing cast. Then ten years later Greg is directing this play with Philip Voss as Shylock. He gives another hugely detailed examination of the play before he talks about directing a production in Japan.

28th May 1988 at The Barbican Theatre, London and 20th August 2015 at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford

See post 24th August 2015

Part 5  The Winters Tale

- 1999: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Barbican Theatre, London - Heritage films

Greg starts with an interesting story about how Anthony Sher came to play Leontes and particularly an incredibly novel piece of physicality he produced in rehearsal and then in every performance. After the now expected forensic analysis of the text, he tells us how they used an unusual piece of stagecraft for their "exit, pursued by bear". 

Greg talks about Act 5: "surely one of the most powerful and moving scenes in all of Shakespeare". This chapter, I think, is a must for anyone putting on this play, and for anyone going to see it. I had to go back and read the six pages again. This time I noted that when Greg first read the play all the way through he says "as I finish reading, I want to burst".

30th June 2009 at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford  (See my post of 7th July 2009 and a trailer on the internet. This production also performed at the Lincoln Center in New York in 2011) and 2nd March 2017 at the Oxford Playhouse

See post 7th July 2009

Part 6  Timon of Athens

- 1999: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Barbican Theatre, London

Alan Bates is engaged to play Anthony in the RSC production of Anthony and Cleopatra as well as alternating with Timon in the other production in that season Timon of Athens. But that became too much and instead the brilliant Michael Pennington was drafted in at the last minute to take over as Timon. He was virtually word perfect by the first rehearsal. We are told this is a "very bleak, dark play". Again the cast is amazing. Greg explains all about the big argument that takes place and the superb one liner "Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself". Greg tells us the play is about "the moral degeneracy of mankind". No wonder these plays can be seen time and time again. There is an interesting part about how the music by Duke Ellington from another production was adapted for this one. 

14th August 2012 at The National Theatre's Olivier 

See post and my glowing review of 16th August 2012 on this blog with Simon Russell Beale as Timon)

A Wreath of Roses, Intermezzo and Butter

 

Camilla, a teacher, is on her way to spend the school summer holidays with the older Frances. Also there will be Camilla's friend Liz and her new baby. The father, a clergyman, only arriving later. But at the station, Camilla is faced with a tragedy, alongside one Richard Elton on his way to a nearby town. Their platonic relationship over the next couple of weeks forms part of this novel. But is Richard to be trusted. The author gives us some insight into his past life that might be a danger to Camilla. He talks to her on their walks about his struggles after the war. And running out of the gratuity he was awarded at it's end.

However, it is how the three women get on that is the most interesting part. Frances is a painter and her thoughts about what inspires it are particularly good. They are all lost in some way, but this is a genteel part of England where they can go for walks and outings. As usual in her books, there are those vivid descriptions and that cutting humour that is so good. There are piles of books that prop up furniture in their rickety cottage. Camilla changing her hair "at once becoming a different woman and ready to behave differently to match".

Frances considers her painting. "life itself is an unfinished sentence, or a few haphazard brush strokes". There is actually quite a lot where the characters tell us their inner thoughts. This is classic Taylor. Although it has been described as her "darkest novel" in the introduction by Helen Dunmore, I found those aspects to be more on the periphery. For me it is about these three women who are all single (Liz might as well be) and coming to terms with the end of the war, "in the blistering heat of an English summer". But more than anything it's the glorious prose as you dawdle through each paragraph of this short book to get the feel of the characters. Wonderful.

"Intermezzo" is a step up for Sally Rooney. Her first three novels were possibly for readers a lot younger than me. Her latest is quite a long book where there are basically just five characters. The main two are brothers, Peter in his thirties, a Dublin lawyer and Ivan just twenty two. So much of the book contains their thoughts about their relationships with Sylvia, Naomi and Margaret. So not "Conversations With Friends", more "Conversations With Lovers". Sometimes there are six or seven pages of unbroken prose, not even a paragraph. This was slightly daunting for me at the beginning, but once used to this continual introspection (and almost having to read it out loud) you get what the author is trying to say.

What I also found interesting was that the prose is different when a piece is about Peter or Ivan. Peter's is sometimes all over the place: "Hadn't realised how hungry he was until ..." or "Under what conditions is life endurable? She ought to know. Ask her. Don't" and then later "Used to live around here, before. When she." Ivan's prose is more straightforward to reflect his personality. Peter is successful in his career, Ivan is a chess prodigy. They don't get on. Their relationships are also very different. But very very interesting. The final part is just over a hundred pages when the story ramps up. It is just wild and brilliant as paths cross.

I was not that impressed by Rooney's fist novel "Conversations With Friends" but loved her second "Normal People". Both were full of relentless dialogue. I wasn't sure to begin with about her third "Beautiful World, Where Are You" but loved it in the end. Now we have a fabulous grown up piece of fiction and cannot wait for what's next.

Well that was different. A book by a Japanese author that has so much about food. Buying ingredients, cooking and serving. Time and time again long detailed passages about preparing meals, baking etc etc comes into the narrative. I have to say some later descriptions I raced through. Rika Machida is a single thirty year old and has a close friend in Reika. (Why did she have to have such a similar name?) Their relationship is finally tested when Rika, a journalist, has a number of visits to a notorious accused murderer in the Tokyo Detention Centre. Manako Kajii is a female celebrity of sorts. Their conversations are some of the most interesting in the book. They have a mutual interest in ...... yes, food! Rika is somehow in awe of this awful person, "can we be friends?". Kajii's reply is "I don't need friends I only want worshippers".

However, apart from these visits, there is hardly any story. So half way I was about to give up. But then suddenly came something more interesting. No, not five pages about visiting a cow shed. It's her friend Reiko's husband Ryosuke who turns up at her work to tell her that Reiko has disappeared. Not answering her phone. Is this anything to do with Reiko now visiting Kajii? With the rest of the book told in the third person, there is this shortish chapter with Reiko in the first person that is a welcome diversion. So the final part is something of a quest as Rika goes in search of her friend.

However, to summarise, there is so much about Japanese culture in this book. How much people are perceived and criticised. It's Rika's part time partner Makoto who sums it up with "there is no need to care what other people think" which seems really hard in Japanese life.

How the garden has changed

The photo above was taken in June and is now the home picture on my laptop. Everything is in bloom, unlike how it is today. The asters that have died are coming out in the winter.

The main border below was at it's best in June.

Unlike today. Although the shrubs along the fence have been cut down and there is now space for the plants I have moved to grow on in the spring.

This how the lawn now looks after the extremely dry summer.

Below is how it looked in June, lovely green grass and flowers in the borders.