TRAVEL TUESDAY 256 - CATHEDRAL COVE, NZ

“The true paradises are the paradises that we have lost.” ― Marcel Proust
 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

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The Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand extends 85 kilometres north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier to protect the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west from the Pacific Ocean to the east. At its broadest point, it is 40 kilometres wide. Almost the entire population lies on the narrow strips along the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty coasts. 

 

In fine weather the peninsula is clearly visible from Auckland, the country's biggest city, which lies on the far shore of the Hauraki Gulf, 55 kilometres to the west. The peninsula is part of the local government areas of Thames-Coromandel District and the Waikato Region. Cathedral Cove, shown here, named for its cathedral-like arch through the limestone cliff, is a popular destination, only accessible by boat or on foot. 

 

If you have seen the movie “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, the beautiful paradisiacal beaches seen at the beginning of the film, where the children are at Cair Paravel, were shot in Cathedral Cove. It truly is a fairy-tale setting!

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TRAVEL TUESDAY #196 - SPINALONGA, GREECE

“I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.” - Mother Teresa

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The island of Spinalonga (Greek: Σπιναλόγκα), officially known as Kalydon (Καλυδών), is located in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete, in Lasithi, next to the town of Plaka. The island is further assigned to the area of Kalydon. It is near the Spinalonga peninsula (“large Spinalonga”) – which often causes confusion as the same name is used for both. The official Greek name of the island today is Kalydon.

Originally, Spinalonga was not an island, but rather a peninsula of Crete. During Venetian occupation the island was carved out of the coast for defence purposes and a fort was built there. The Venetians harvested salt from salt pans around the island. Later in the mid-20th century, the island was used as a leper colony.

Spinalonga featured in the British television series “Who Pays the Ferryman?” and Werner Herzog’s experimental short film “Last Words”. It is the (unnamed) setting of Ali Smith’s short story “The Touching of Wood” (in “Free Love and Other Stories”, 1995). It is also the setting for the 2005 novel “The Island” by Victoria Hislop, the story of a family’s ties to the leper colony; the book was adapted for television in the television series “To Nisi” by Mega Channel Greece. The short story “Spinalonga” by John Ware, about a tourist group that visits the island, was included in the 13th Pan Book of Horror.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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MIDWEEK MOVIES - DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

“But Sasha was from Russia, where the sunsets are longer, the dawns less sudden and sentences are often left unfinished from doubt as how to best end them.” ― Virginia Woolf 

Doctor Zhivago (1965) Epic Drama, 197 minutes – Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak and directed by David Lean; starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay. – 8.0/10

One has to revisit one’s past occasionally and observe it from the new perspective that several years passage can give it. It is the same with books one has read, films one has seen and music one has heard. In many cases it is pleasant surprise, in other cases disappointment, rarely complete mystification as to why we were besotted with that in the first place. In any case, revisiting the past can bring back a host of memories and feelings, some gratifying, some disagreeable.

It was interesting to see David Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago” again, after so many years. It felt a little like opening a time capsule and discovering all sorts of things one doesn’t see today. They certainly made films differently in the 1960s, especially the grand scale epics that films such as this represents. In any case, the film still is a classic and David Lean is one of the great film directors. The acting was as grandiose as the sets and the gorgeous expansive landscapes. The music score by Maurice Jarre still held its status as an unforgettable and evergreen musical gem, while the cinematography by Freddie Young is absolutely faultless.

The plot is set around the time of the Russian Revolution, and centres on Yuri Zhivago (Sharif), who is a young doctor who has been raised by his aunt and uncle following his father’s suicide. Yuri falls in love with beautiful Lara Guishar (Christie), who has been having an affair with her mother’s lover, Victor Komarovsky (Steiger), an unscrupulous businessman. Yuri, however, ends up marrying his cousin, Tonya (Chaplin). Lara marries, Pasha (Courtenay), a revolutionary whose passion for the Communist cause cannot be compromised.

Lara's true love is Zhivago who also loves his wife. Lara is the one who inspires Zhivago’s poetry. But when Zhivago and Lara meet again years later, the spark of love reignites. The story is narrated by Yevgraf (Guinness), Zhivago’s half brother, who has made his career in the Soviet Army. At the beginning of the film he is about to meet a young woman he believes may be the long-lost daughter of Lara and Zhivago…

The plot of course is simple and almost inconsequential to the point of banality, yet the complete package of the film is fresh, visually appealing, engaging and despite its epic and grandiloquent (even a trifle bombastic), style it still manages to bewitch the viewer. The film still manages to excite emotion and exudes an innocence that we have lost in much of modern film-making. We would recommend getting your hands on this and watching it, even if you have seen it before. It does stand up well to a re-viewing!

MIDWEEK MOVIES - GRANNY'S FUNERAL

“Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age.” - Booth Tarkington 

Granny’s Funeral (2012; “Adieu Berthe – L’enterrement de mémé”) Comedy/Drama, 100 minutes – Written and directed by Bruno Podalydès; starring Denis Podalydès, Valérie Lemercier, Isabelle Candelier. – 6.0/10

Last weekend we watched a low key, tragicomic, French film, which although agreeable didn’t really shine. It was time pleasantly spent and the film did broach some serious topics, but overall, the comic pace was jolting, the bumbling anti-hero was somewhat tiresome and the two women of his life a trifle annoying. The plot is as follows: Armand Lebrecq (Denis Podalydès) once dreamed of becoming a magician but he has become a pharmacist. He still loves his wife, Hélène (Isabelle Candelier) , but wouldn’t mind leaving her to live with Alix (Valérie Lemercier), a strong-minded woman. But should he?

One day, Armand learns that Berthe, his granny who lives in a nursing home, has just died. A little guilty of having neglected her lately, Armand finds himself busy with organising her funeral as well as having to deal with his complicated personal life. He does everything clumsily, as usual...

The basic flaw of the film is that the plot outline sounds more promising than the actual resulting film. The characters do not involve the viewer in their lives and predicaments successfully and the story with “granny’s youthful secret” is not as climactic as the writers believe it to be. Armand fails to growth and learn from his experiences and at the end of the film he is as bumbling and ineffectual (if not more so!) than at the beginning of the film.

Nevertheless the film is pleasant enough for a weekend afternoon, watching with a glass of iced tea (or perhaps something stronger, which may make the movie even more agreeable for you). Watch it if you chance upon it and you have an hour-and-a-half or so to kill, but don't go out of your way to search for it too assiduously…

MIDWEEK MOVIES - MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” - Plato 

Last weekend we watched film, which could have been better had the writing and editing been a bit tighter and the film cut a little more energetically. As it was, at 137 minutes, it dragged on somewhat, and given its rather “heavy” subject matter it tended to tire viewers rather than lead them into sympathetic introspection and involvement with the plot and characters. Perhaps this was because the writer and director were the one and the same person and self-indulgence ultimately won the day. It was nevertheless a film that we shall recommend for viewing (with reservations).

Manchester by the Sea (2016) Drama – Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan; starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges. – 6/10

Lee Chandler (Affleck) is a brooding, irritable loner who works as a handyman for a Boston apartment block. One damp winter day he gets a call summoning him to his hometown, north of the city. His middle-aged brother Joe (Chandler), who has had a heart disorder dies suddenly, and Lee has been made guardian of Patrick (Hedges), his 16-year-old nephew. As if losing his only sibling and doubts about raising a teenager weren’t enough, his return to his home town and the re-awakening of the past opens old wounds and makes him ultimately face an unspeakable tragedy that he has suppressed and marginalised for years.

The pace of the film is slow and laboured, and no doubt will depress some viewers who may choose to leave it half-watched. Flashbacks are used constantly, partly to reveal the reasons for Lee’s moroseness and loneliness, but also for dramatic effect. As a consequence, the story starts and stops, backtracks and then hardly advances, making for a weak screenplay. Flashbacks are a devil of a thing to get right… If you’re expecting fast action, car chases, thrills and spills, this is not the film for you. Yes, it is a psychological drama (even perhaps a melodrama as some clichés are used liberally – the use of music for dramatic effect I found a little heavy-handed), and thus prepare to be taken down into the dark depths.

However, it’s not all bad and towards the end as the film reaches a climax, the tragedy of the past is revealed, but somehow the protagonists remain strangely remote and cold, and Lee fails to be transformed or change positively as one would have predicted given the subject matter of the film. Affleck acts well enough for the needs of the script and Hedges is OK. The rest of the cast works well enough with what they’ve been given.

A tad pretentious perhaps, overlong and repetitive, melodramatic and slow, overflashbacked and with an anticlimactic end that leaves the viewer unsatisfied, why on earth would one watch it, I hear you ask. Well, it’s hard to answer that question, but nevertheless I don't regret seeing the movie. There were good moments in it and the plot showed promise, some scenes had great cinematography – enough for me to recommend the movie to someone to watch (with the provisos I have listed above). Would I watch this movie again? – Which is the ultimate test for a really good movie for me, – no, I wouldn’t…

MIDWEEK MOVIES - SNOWTOWN

“Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create.” - Pope John Paul II 

Snowtown (2011) Docudrama - Directed by Justin Kurzel; starring Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris. – 7/10

This is a movie based on the infamous Snowtown Murders (also known as the “bodies-in-barrels murders”), which were a series of murders committed by John Bunting, Robert Wagner, and James Vlassakis between August 1992 and May 1999, in South Australia. A fourth person, Mark Haydon, was convicted for helping to dispose of the bodies. The trial was one of the longest and most publicised in Australian legal history.

Only one of the victims was killed in Snowtown itself, which is approximately 140 kilometres north of Adelaide, and none of the eleven victims, nor the perpetrators were from the town. Although motivation for the murders is unclear, the killers were led by Bunting to believe that the victims were paedophiles, homosexuals or “weak”. In at least some instances, the murders were preceded by torture, and efforts were made to appropriate victims’ Centrelink social security payments and bank funds.

Although initially the notoriety of the murders led to a short-term economic boost from tourists visiting Snowtown (, it created a lasting stigma, with authorities considering a change of the town’s name and identity.

The film centres on sixteen-year-old Jamie, who lives with his mother, Elizabeth, and his two younger brothers, Alex and Nicholas, in a housing trust home in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. Their home is but one of many cramped, dirty, badly maintained houses crammed together in clusters where the disenfranchised people are placed by a society that needs to have them out of sight and out of mind. Elizabeth’s current boyfriend abuses her three sons and she lashes out, and finds support in a group of people that have been affected by similar experiences.

Jamie longs for an escape from the violence and hopelessness that surrounds him and his salvation arrives in the form of John, a pleasant and approachable man who unexpectedly comes to his aid. As John spends more and more time with Jamie’s family, Elizabeth and her boys begin to experience a stability and sense of family that they have never known.

John moves from the role of Jamie’s protector to that of a mentor and father figure, indoctrinating Jamie into his world, a world brimming with bigotry, righteousness and malice. Like a son mimicking his father, Jamie soon begins to take on some of John’s traits and beliefs as he spends more and more time with him and his select group of like-minded friends. Disaster and tragedy then follows…

This is a bleak and horrifying film, containing shocking some scenes of violence and torture, but not as much as in the standard “gore and guts” horror flicks. It is a raw, confronting, and chilling movie, which relies on the psychological suspense and emotional journey of the characters for its shock effect. It is not a film for the faint-hearted, but unfortunately we live in dire times and crimes such as the ones depicted in the film (or worse!) are all too common nowadays. Watch it with trepidation, but preferably cuddling someone who loves you and you love very much.

MIDWEEK MOVIES - LION

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” - George A. Moore 

We watched a very good film recently, and found it involving, heart-warming and quite poignant. Although the story was simple (and some would say, clichéd), the whole package of the film worked well: Screenplay, direction, casting, acting, cinematography, soundtrack, etc, etc. The theme of the movie is home and identity.

As individuals we all need to know who we are, where we come from, what “home” means. Adopted children searching for their biological parents is a story often told, and can be powerful enough on its own. However, add to that a lost child, who finds himself thousands of kilometres away from home to grow up in a completely different geographical, religious, cultural and societal environment and suddenly begin to be confronted by memories of a former life. Questions arise that need to answered and the quest for answers becomes a gnawing yearning and an emotional journey that can only be satisfied by the real, physical journey in search of the past. 

Lion (2016) Drama - Directed by Garth Davis; starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara. – 8.5/10

This is a movie based on the autobiographical book “A Long Way Home” by Saroo Brierley, an Indian who was adopted as a young child by a Tasmanian couple. In 1986, Saroo was a five-year-old child in India of a poor but happy rural family. The mother struggles to feed her children, and Saroo and his older brother help by stealing coal. On a coal hunting expedition with his brother, Saroo finds himself alone and trapped in a moving decommissioned passenger train that takes him to Calcutta, 1500 miles away from home.

Totally lost and disoriented in an alien urban environment and too young to identify either himself or his home to the authorities, Saroo struggles to survive as a street child until he is sent to an orphanage. Soon, Saroo is selected to be adopted by the Brierley family in Tasmania, where he grows up in a loving, prosperous home. However, for all his material good fortune, Saroo finds himself plagued by his memories of his lost family in his adulthood and tries to search for them even as his guilt drives him to hide this quest from his adoptive parents and his girlfriend. Only when he has an epiphany does he discover not only the answers he needs, but also the steadfast love that he has always had with all his loved ones in both worlds.

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie and recommend it most highly!

MUSIC SATURDAY - DOMENICO ZIPOLI

“Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don’t understand the language that you’re singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.” - LouRawls 

Domenico Zipoli (17 October 1688 – 2 January 1726) was an Italian Baroque composer who worked and died in Córdoba (Argentina). He became a Jesuit in order to work in the Reductions of Paraguay where he taught music among the Guaraní people. He is remembered as the most accomplished musician among Jesuit missionaries.

Zipoli was born in Prato, Italy, where he received his elementary musical training. However, there are no records of him having entered the cathedral choir. In 1707, and with the patronage of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, he was a pupil of the organist Giovani Maria Casini in Florence. In 1708 he briefly studied under Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples, then Bologna and finally in Rome under Bernardo Pasquini. Two of his oratorios date to this early period: “San Antonio di Padova” (1712) and “Santa Caterina, Virgine e Martire”(1714). Around 1715 he was made the organist of the Church of the Gesù (a Jesuit parish, the mother church for The Society of Jesus), in Rome, a prestigious post. At the very beginning of the following year, he finished his best known work, a collection of keyboard pieces titled “Sonate d’intavolatura per organo e cimbalo”. 

For reasons that are not clear, Zipoli travelled to Seville, Spain, in 1716, where, on 1 July, he joined the Society of Jesus with the desire to be sent to the Reductions of Paraguay in Spanish Colonial America. Still a novice, he left Spain with a group of 53 missionaries who reached Buenos Aires on 13 July 1717. He completed his formation and sacerdotal studies in Córdoba (in contemporary Argentina, during 1717–1724) though, for the lack of an available bishop, he could not be ordained priest.

All through these few years he served as music director for the local Jesuit church. Soon his works came to be known in Lima, Peru. Struck by an unknown infectious disease, Zipoli died in the Jesuit house of Córdoba, on 2 January 1726. A previous theory placing his death in the ancient Jesuit church of Santa Catalina, in the hills of the Province of Córdoba, has now been discredited. His burial place has never been found.

Zipoli continues to be well known today for his keyboard music; many of them are well within the abilities of beginning to intermediate players, and appear in most standard anthologies. His Italian compositions have always been known but recently some of his South American church music was discovered in Chiquitos, Bolivia: Two Masses, two psalm settings, three Office hymns, a “Te Deum Laudamus” and other pieces. A Mass copied in Potosí, Bolivia in 1784, and preserved in Sucre, Bolivia, seems a local compilation based on the other two Masses. His dramatic music, including two complete oratorios and portions of a third one, is mostly gone. Three sections of the Mission opera “San Ignacio de Loyola” – compiled by Martin Schmid in Chiquitos many years after Zipoli’s death, and preserved almost complete in local sources – have been attributed to Zipoli.

It seems that the Guarani, the Chiquitos and the other people in the Jesuit areas of South America quite simply fell in love with the music that the missionaries brought with them. One priest wrote: “Give me an orchestra and I will convert all of South America”, and the fact that Zipoli and other mission composers wrote not just church music, but secular works too gives us some idea of how music was a major part of life on the reductions.

More on Baroque music in South America can be read in Jane Shuttleworth’s article: “Araujo to Zipoli: Baroque music in South America”.

You may also see the excellent film “The Mission” that looks (amongst other things…) at the love of the native South American people for European music.

MIDWEEK MOVIES - THE DETAILS

“Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.” - Immanuel Kant 

We watched an interesting film at the weekend, which got us talking about “amoral” versus “immoral” people. Amoral implies ‘not concerned with or affected by morality’, so that something described as amoral cannot appropriately be criticised for failure to conform to accepted moral standards. It is lacking a moral sense and is unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something (for example, “an amoral attitude to sex”; or “the client pays for the amoral expertise of the lawyer”).

Immoral, on the other hand, means ‘not conforming to accepted standards of morality’, and implies condemnation (e.g. “they felt it was immoral to accept a loan that they could not hope to repay”). Our discussion concerned the anti-hero of this quirky movie, which was about all the shades of gray between the blacks and whites of morality. 

The Details (2011) Black Comedy - Directed by Jacob Estes; starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney. - 7/10

In King County, Washington, Dr. Jeff Lang (Maguire) has been married for ten years with Nealy Lang (Banks) and they have a little boy. Their best friends are Rebecca Mazzoni, who studied with Jeff at medical school, and her husband Peter Mazzoni. Jeff decides to lay turf in his backyard, but the lawn rolls come with worms underneath and raccoons destroy his lawn during the night. Jeff wants also build another room in the house for his planned second son, but City Hall blocks the project. Jeff decides to build the room without approval and he gives his mentally unstable next door neighbour Lila (Linney), a beautiful plant, hoping to bribe her into silence. Jeff likes to play basketball with his friend Lincoln, who has kidney failure and needs haemodialysis.

Things begin to go wrong for Jeff, as:

a) His wife refuses to have sex with him;

b) The raccoons are seemingly ineradicable;

c) Rebecca is far too amorous for a good friend;

d) Lila is unpredictably erratic in her dealings with Jeff;

e) Jeff is too irresponsible and prone to amoral and immoral behaviour…

This creates havoc in the lives of Jeff and everyone he associates with, with some bizarre and tragic consequences.

We quite enjoyed the film, but perhaps even more the discussion it generated in its aftermath, which was quite a philosophical one and got us thinking about morality and how people view it and what choices in their lives they make on the basis of their personal concepts of morality. Worth hunting out this film and watching it, not only because it is quite entertaining, but also because it is a film that makes you think.

MIDWEEK MOVIES - THE LODGER

“Murder is like potato chips: You can’t stop with just one.” ― Stephen King 

We watched a thriller last weekend as we wanted something fairly non-intellectual, which required no deep thinking nor emotional investment. We do enjoy a good thriller as an entertaining and escapist “passive activity”, so to speak, but when we started to watch and I saw that the director (and screenwriter) was David Oondatje, I was a little cautious as I have no time for his more famous uncle Michael Oondatje whose infamous “The English Patient” I dislike (I must have started to read that book about five times and started to watch the movie three times, and I was unable to stomach it!)… 

The Lodger (2007) Thriller/Film noir - Director by David Oondatje; starring Alfred Molina, Hope Davis, Shane West. – 6/10

This is an oft-told tale of a serial killer, this time in West Hollywood. The movie has two converging plot lines: The first involves an uneasy relationship between a psychologically unstable landlady and her enigmatic lodger, while the second is about a troubled detective with family issues and unorthodox methods, who is engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with the elusive killer, who is imitating the crimes of Jack the Ripper.

Although the movie was fairly conventional it was watchable at least! The acting was fine and the plot and direction competent, although the movie was a little overplotted and not tight enough. The final twist saved the film, because otherwise it would have been disappointing, especially on account of the rather glib and premature psychological explanation given by Rebecca Pidgeon who played (rather woodenly) the resident psychologist. Nevertheless, an enjoyable enough low octane thriller/film noir good for our wintry Sunday matinée.

MIDWEEK MOVIES - THE COBBLER

“Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.” - Iris Murdoch 

“The Cobbler” (2014) Fantasy/Comedy – Director: Tom McCarthy; starring Adam Sandler, Melonie Diaz, Steve Buscemi – 5/10 

Max Simkin (Sandler) repairs shoes in the same New York shop that has been in his family for generations. Disenchanted with the grind of daily life, Max stumbles upon a magical heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers and see the world in a new way. Sometimes walking in another man’s shoes is the only way one can discover who they really are.

Well, we watched this last weekend and it was a rather tiresome film, even for a Sunday matinée. There was quite a bit of to do with magic and fluff but the film was not a typical fantasy film (it took itself too seriously to be that). There was an attempt at slapstick (but very heavy handed); there were good guys and bad guys and gals (but they were rather half-hearted at what they were about). Sandler looked bored or bewildered most of his screen time and Dustin Hoffman had a gratuitous presence that must have made his bank account look a little healthier. The romantic interests were tokenistic and the single idea of the film about “stepping into someone’s shoes to really understand them” wore thin by the first half hour.

If you haven’t seen this don’t bother hunting it out to watch and if it’s on and you have time to waste, watch it while you are doing the crossword perhaps.

WATCHING MOVIES - ELSA & FRED

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” - Oprah Winfrey 

"Elsa & Fred" (2014) Romantic Comedy/Drama – Director: Michael Radford; starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Marcia Gay Harden – 6.5/10 

“Elsa & Fred” is the story of two people who at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love and make dreams come true. Elsa has lived for the past 60 years dreaming of a moment that Fellini had already envisaged: The scene in ‘La Dolce Vita’ at the Fontana di Trevi. The same scene without Anita Ekberg in it, but with Elsa instead. Without Marcello Mastroianni but with that love that took so long to arrive. Fred has always been a good man who did everything he was supposed to do. After losing his wife, he feels disturbed and confused and his daughter decides that it would be best if he moves into a smaller apartment where he ends meeting Elsa.

From that moment on, everything changes. Elsa bursts into his life like a whirlwind, determined to teach him that the time he has left to live (be it more or less) is precious and that he should enjoy it as he pleases. Fred surrenders to Elsa’s frenzy, to her youth, to her boldness, to her beautiful madness.

We watched this film last weekend and it kept us amused and interested, although it was a little predictable and just a tad saccharine sweet. Both Shirley McLaine and Christopher Plummer act according to type, and the romance they play out in the twilight years of the characters they portray adds a twinge of a bitter taste to the sweetness. OK to watch on a wintry afternoon, as we did.

MOVIE MONDAY - STILL ALICE

“Those with dementia are still people and they still have stories and they still have character and they're all individuals and they're all unique. And they just need to be interacted with on a human level.” - Carey Mulligan 

At the weekend we watched the excellent  Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland 2014 movie “Still Alice” starring  Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Hunter Parrish and Kate Bosworth. This was a touching and emotionally charged movie that despite its melancholy topic somehow made its point without excesses of emotion and without cheap and maudlin appeals to shallow empathy.

Alice Howland (Moore) is a renowned linguistics professor happily married to John (Baldwin) with three grown children, Anna (Bosworth), Lydia (Stewart) and Tom (Parrish). All that begins to change when Alice starts to forget words (the bane of a linguistics professor!) and then much more… When her doctor diagnoses her with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, Alice and her family’s lives face a harrowing challenge as this terminal degenerative neurological ailment slowly progresses to an inevitable conclusion they all dread. Along the way, Alice struggles to not only to fight the inner decay, but to make the most of her remaining time to find the love and peace to make simply living worthwhile.

The cast is excellent, especially Julieanne Moore who gives a stellar performance. I also enjoyed the supporting role of Lydia, played by Kristen Stewart. I don’t like Baldwin much as an actor, but in this film he plays the role of Alice’s rather “neutral” husband quite well.

Richard Glatzer, one of the directors and co-screenplay writer suffers from ASL himself (ASL = Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles). It is no surprise then, that the film gives such sympathetic and amazingly accurate portrayal of a person suffering from a progressive nervous system illness.

This is a wonderful film to watch, somehow uplifting (Alices speech at the conference about her personal experience with dementia is brilliant!), even though it deals with one of the most dreaded diseases of our society. A must-watch movie!

MOVIE MONDAY - FILM SOLELY AS ENTERTAINMENT?

“Films are meant solely to provide entertainment. There are no lessons to be learnt and and inferences to be drawn. Has anyone become dutiful and law abiding after seeing a film that espouses these very virtues? Films can do no more than influence fashion, decor, and hairstyle trends.” -  Madhur Bhandarkar

Do you agree with this view of the influence of film by Bhandarkar? I don’t. Films are more than simple entertainment and they can have a variety of influences on the viewer. Film surely is entertainment, but that is not its only effect or function.

Film can be art, it can be propaganda, it can be a powerful means of communication and education (especially so in the social arena). Film can be subtle in its effects and it can have good or bad outcome in terms of changing attitudes, modifying prejudices and arousing expectations in people.

What do you think?

MOVIE MONDAY - WAGNER AND ME

“How did such sublime music come from such a warped man? Maybe art really does have the power to ferret out the best in us.” – Anthony Tommasini 

Richard Wagner was born in Germany on May 22, 1813, went on to become one of the world’s most influential (and controversial!) composers. He is famous for both his epic operas, including the four-part, 18-hour Ring Cycle, as well as for his anti-semitic writings, which, posthumously, made him a favourite of Adolf Hitler. There is evidence that Wagner’s music was played at the Dachau concentration camp to “re-educate” the prisoners. Wagner had a tumultuous love life, which involved several scandalous affairs. He died of a heart attack in Venice on February 13, 1883.

Wagner is not one of favourite composers, although some of his music can be rousing and emotionally charged, occasionally sublime and in some instances abhorrently noisy. You can either love or hate Richard Wagner, but in any case he is not one to ignore. It is perhaps unfortunate that Wagner was the favourite composer of Adolf Hitler, who claimed to have seen Wagner’s opera “Rienzi” at least 40 times. This coupled with the use of Wagner’s music for Nazi ceremonial occasions and “rehabilitation” purposes of concentration camp inmates have stained Wagner’s reputation in terms of anti-Semitic sentiments.

We watched the 2010 Patrick McGrady documentary “Wagner and Me” starring Stephen Fry in which Wagner’s life, oeuvre and life perspective are explored in terms of Fry’s reaction to the man and his music. As such, the documentary examines more Stephen Fry’s life and psychology rather than Wagner’s. It is very much Wagner viewed through Fry’s eyes, or more importantly, listened to via Fry’s ears.

Stephen Fry first fell in love with the music of Wagner when he was 14 and thus began a lifetime’s intense enjoyment and involvement for the music.  The complicating factor is that Stephen Fry is Jewish and has lost family members in the Holocaust at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Therein lies the conflict in Fry’s enjoyment of the music of a man who clearly had hateful views about the Jews and whose music was tainted by its association with the Nazis later on.

The documentary is beautifully shot and offers amazing views of Bayreuth in preparation for the annual Festival in which performances of operas by Wagner are held. There is also footage of Nuremberg, which is famous for Hitler’s massive Nazi rallies. While many historians, musicians, Holocaust survivors and performers are interviewed, the documentary is primarily Stephen Fry’s. It is an almost apologetic and embarrassing admission by Fry that despite everything he still loves Wagner’s music…

While there are glimpses of Wagner’s life and some performances of small parts of his work, Wagner music lovers may well be disappointed by this documentary because it more about Fry than about Wagner. Nevertheless, we found it an excellent introduction to the composer and his music, with the ambivalence of Fry’s views acting as a means of resolving the thorny of issue of balance: On the one hand there is artistic and creative genius, and on the other political views and prejudices that may influence the listener’s perception of the music…

MOVIE MONDAY - PHRYNE FISHER

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” ― Voltaire

We’ve just finished watching the 2012-2015 three-season Australian TV series “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” starring Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Ashleigh Cummings. This series is based on the novels of Kerry Isabelle Greenwood (born 17 June 1954 in Footscray, Victoria), who is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably the string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, and children’s stories, as well as plays. She is unmarried but lives with a “registered wizard”.

Miss Phryne Fisher is a wealthy aristocrat and private detective who lives in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1920s. With the assistance of her maid Dot, and Bert and Cec (who are wharfies, taxi drivers and red raggers), she solves all manner of crimes in swinging Melbourne of the inter-war years. Phryne is no ordinary aristocrat, as she can fly a plane, drives her own car (a Hispano-Suiza) and sometimes wears trousers. However, while displaying bohemian panache, she manages also to maintain style and class. Phryne was accidentally named after a famous Greek courtesan who lived in the 4th century BC. At her christening, her father forgot the classical name, Psyche, that her mother had intended for her.

First, let me confess I have read a few of the Phryne Fisher novels by Ms Greenwood and enjoyed them quite a lot. When I heard that this series was made based on them I was a little skeptical as to how well the 1920s era would be captured on film (video, memory chip what have you!). But we toned down our expectations and watched the first few episodes. We were pleasantly surprised! The sets, costumes, props, authentic Melbourne locations, music, cars and homes were absolutely spot on. We watched and enjoyed every episode of the first series and went on to watch all three.

Essie Davis does an amazing job of recreating Miss Fisher’s character to a tee, although admittedly she is older than the 27 years of the novels’ heroine. This is not jarring at all and Ms Davis has enough panache, aplomb and just the right tongue-in-cheek good humour to carry off the series to perfection. She is ably supported by Nathan Page, the police Inspector with whom she collaborates in order to solve the mysteries. Her “lady’s companion” Dot, played by Ashleigh Cummings is great as the progressively progressive young, good, Catholic woman whom Miss Fisher educates in the ways of the world. Hugo Johnstone-Burt plays the long suffering and young innocent constable, the inspector’s sidekick who falls for Dot and helps in his sometimes bumbling way to catch the crooks.

The remainder of the regular actors and episode guests all do a sterling job and contribute wonderfully to the mystery covered by each episode. All manner of stories and themes are covered, reminding us that people are the same and driven by the same passions, motives and emotions whatever the place and time in history. Drugs, human trafficking, greed, jealousy, love, ambition, social inequality, are all considered and Miss Fisher as pioneer feminist does a great deal to not only solve the mysteries but advance the rights of women and help the disenfranchised and browbeaten claim their place in the sun. There are also interesting references to World War I and the Anzacs (Cec and Bert being diggers themselves).

We recommend this excellent series to people who not only love whodunnits, but also aficionados of period drama, humorous series and of course good Australian productions.

MOVIE MONDAY - VIVE LA FRANCE!

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” – Oscar Wilde

Many English speakers abhor watching foreign language films as they detest subtitling. I on the contrary, not only watch foreign films with subtitles, but in these blessed days of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, I watch even English language films with the subtitle feature on. This is necessary as the diction of many actors is absolutely terrible, the sound engineering is often despicable and the musical backing is hopelessly intrusive. Add to that some peculiarities of accent or idiomatic forms of English spoken sloppily and you end up with understanding half of what is being said if you don't have the aid of the subtitles. Needless to say I never buy any DVDs or Blu-Rays that don’t have English subtitles or closed captions.

For Movie Monday today, tow movies: The original French film and the Hollywood remake for the native speakers of English who “don’t do subtitles”. The original film (and in my opinion the funnier of the two) is the 1972 Yves Robert comedy “The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe” (Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire) starring Pierre Richard, Bernard Blier and Jean Rochefort. The Hollywood remake is the 1985 Stan Dragoti film “The Man with One Red Shoe” starring Tom Hanks, Lori Singer and Dabney Coleman. And yes, I had the subtitles turned on for both films…

The plot of both films is almost identical except for some sociopolitical, cultural and ethno-geographic adaptations in the US version (obviously!) – I give you here the US film’s plot as you are probably more likely to get your hands on this one to watch: Cooper (Dabney Coleman), the deputy director of the CIA, wants to be the director. So, he tries to make it appear that the director (Charles Durning) is corrupt so that he will resign or be removed. The director appears before a committee and asks for some time to prepare his defense. The director goes home and asks his man Brown (Ed Herrmann) to join him. He then shows Brown that Cooper is bugging him.

He then decides to turn the tables on Cooper by feeding him false information. The information being that there’s supposedly a man arriving at the airport, who might be able to clear him of the charges against him. The Director tells Brown to just pick anyone who is arriving at the airport thus making Cooper believe that he is the man who can help the director. Brown picks violinist Richard (Tom Hanks) because he is wearing mismatched shoes, one of them being a red sneaker. So Cooper sets up surveillance on Richard and sends his femme fatale, Maddy (Lori Singer) to come on to him and find out what he knows. Add a subplot of a fellow musician (Jim Belushi) who thinks his wife (Carrie Fisher) is having an affair with Richard, and the stage is set for a send-up of spy movies.

The original French film is extremely funny but also sophisticated, even though it often features slapstick, farcical situations. The lead actor, Pierre Richard, is fantastic as the hapless orchestral player who gets caught willy-nilly in the secret service shenanigans. The pace is relentless and one comical situation succeeds the next with the audience laughing out loud without effort. The rest of the cast (including the luscious Mireille Darc as the femme fatale) is exemplary in an ensemble acting effort. The music is unforgettable with a soundtrack written by Vladimir Cosma and performed by the Romanian Pan pipe player Gheorghe Zamfir.

Now, the Hollywood version. Yes, but… I guess the summary is if you haven't seen the original French movie and you moderate your expectations, you will enjoy the US version as a light-weight Spy vs Spy spoof. Hanks is very young but copes fairly well with playing the innocent bystander around whom the whole world collapses. Jim Belushi and Carrie Fisher carry on quite well (although they do ham it up a bit) as the couple with marital problems and the remainder of the cast are adequate. A nice enough, amusing movie to watch in the background on a lazy Sunday afternoon. You will chuckle here and there…

MOVIE MONDAY - ORPHAN BLACK

“Twins have a special bond. They feel safer with each other than with their peers.” - Jeanne Phillips

We are watching the 2013 TV Series “Orphan Black” created by John Fawcett and Graeme Manson, and starring Tatiana Maslany, Dylan Bruce and Jordan Gavaris. It is a Canadian science fiction thriller and focusses on human cloning. The series raises issues about the moral and ethical implications of human cloning, and its effect on issues of personal identity.

The plot centres on Sarah Manning (Maslany), who is an orphan, an outsider and street-wise grifter. After witnessing the suicide of a woman who seems to be her twin, Sarah assumes the stranger’s identity. Sarah wants to clean out the dead woman’s savings, but instead Sarah is thrust into a deadly mystery as she realises the unbelievable truth: She and the dead woman are clones. Sarah searches for answers that will help her survive, and she discovers that there are plenty more women like her out there – all genetically identical individuals who were planted in unsuspecting birth parents and nurtured in completely different circumstances. With no idea who created the clones, she’ll need to discover the reason in a hurry as an assassin is killing them one by one. Her foster brother Felix Dawkins (Gavaris), an eccentric, gay, over-the-top, artist helps Sarah in her quest for the truth.

After watching the first few episodes we were hooked. The series is well-written, well-produced, with extremely good acting and direction and a perfect blend of mystery, comedy, drama, science fiction and poignancy. Tatiana Maslany is amazing in her depiction of the clones, each of which has her own personality, quirks and mannerisms. Jordan Gavaris does a great job in depicting the unconventional Felix, but so often provides comic relief, making the sometimes “heavy” plot roll along. Maria Doyle Kennedy who plays Sarah’s foster mother does a great job with a character that hides many surprises.

We are up to Season 3 at the moment and still enjoying it immensely. The series received generally favourable reviews, with the first season scoring a 73 out of 100 on Metacritic; season 2 scoring a 79 out of 100; season 3 scoring 70 out of 100; and season 4 has a score of 80 out of 100. The fifth and final season will be aired in 2017 and I look forward to watching this series to the end. I am sure it will not disappoint.

MOVIE MONDAY - RED

“I love conspiracy theories. I used to just live on it. You know it’s all hype and garbage, but you’re still really paranoid afterwards. It’s fun entertainment.” - Doug Stanhope

We watched an amusing film at the weekend. Pure escapist nonsense, but we weren’t in the mood for anything else and this one seemed to be just the thing. On reflection, it wasn’t quite politically correct and it gave conflicting messages, but it was enough of a spoof to give it the ultimate thumbs up. However, one has to worry about subliminal messages delivered and how these are perceived by younger audiences…

It was the 2010 Robert Schwentke comedy/action movie “RED”, starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, Rebecca Pidgeon, John Malkovich, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine. Yes, the old familiar faces kept popping up throughout the movie. The screenplay was based on a graphic novel and one could detect the excesses of violence and action that these are replete with.

RED refers to “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” and this describes perfectly Francis, or Frank to his friends (Bruce Willis). He is a retired, bored, and lonely ex-CIA agent living off his government pension in an ordinary house in an ordinary suburb of an ordinary town. The only highlight in Frank’s life is his calls to the government pension processing centre when he gets to talk to his case worker, Sarah (Mary-Louis Parker). Sarah is as bored and lonely as Frank and marks her conversations with the unknown Frank and her spy novels as the only things fun in her life.

Suddenly out of the blue, Frank is attacked in his home by some armed CIA agents who obviously want him utterly dead. Frank’s old skills ensure he survives, but he goes to meet Sarah as he perceives she is also under threat. An initially reluctant Sarah is taken by Frank in tow as he tries to discover who wants them dead and why. Along the way, Frank’s ex-colleagues (Freeman, Malkovich, Mirren) join them and the intrigue is gradually uncovered. Along the way, the motley crew of REDs have to deal with CIA baddies Cooper (Urban) and Wilkes (Pidgeon) who are desperately trying to liquidate them.

The film is violent and there is a lot of use of weaponry of every description, meaning there are lots of bullets flying all the time, explosions, chases, bloody altercations, deaths and vaporisations. This action is quite extreme, to the extent that it resembles comic book violence although people are show to be injured and killed. Although there is presentation of a baddie as an illegal arms dealer, the use of lethal weaponry by the good guys is widespread as well. As I said this gave me a conflicting message and one has to question the film’s advocation of the use of weapons by “good guys” as a good thing. The whole USA gun-thing and the “right to bear arms” reared its ugly head, but we couldn’t be bothered to take issue with that.

The bottom line is, if the film is not taken seriously it is good entertainment value. The acting is good and the actors have fun with the excesses of the plot and the send-up of the whole action/spy/shoot-‘em-up genre. Willis has his tongue firmly wedged in his cheek as he plays a comedy part that sends up similar “serious” roles he played before, and Malkovich steals every scene he appears in, playing a mentally deranged conspiracy theorist who refuses to retire peacefully from the CIA. The direction is suitably light, but also tight and the action scenes are well staged and suspense does build up. There is a running joke with postcards from the places the REDs go to and the movie is almost like a road trip that wreaks havoc in every place they stop.

If you watch this film and expect Shakespeare, you’ll be disappointed. If you are on some high and mighty morality bandwagon you will abhor the movie, vilify the director, pour scorn on the actors and excommunicate the writers. If you are an intellectual and expect witticisms, subtle humour and delightful repartee, go watch a Shaw play. If you begin with low expectations, have an hour and a half to pass, take this film lightly and with a grain of salt, you’ll quite probably be entertained. It is a comic book tale for grown ups, requires no thinking and you’ll enjoy it as long as you suspend belief and engage in a forgiving move. Otherwise go watch an Ingmar Bergman film…

MOVIE MONDAY - SLOW WEST

“Ah, clear they see and true they say, That one shall weep, and one shall stray”― Dorothy Parker

You’ve heard of spaghetti westerns, right? Sergio Leone's 1964 “A Fistful of Dollars” starring Clint Eastwood is a classic example. They certainly put a new twist to the USA genre. But what about a “Fish-and-Chip” western? What is that you may ask? Well, it’s a western produced in UK… We watched it last weekend.

It is the 2015 John Maclean movie “Slow West” starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Caren Pistorius and Ben Mendelsohn. John Maclean is a Scott who studied BA drawing and painting at Edinburgh college of Art and MA at The Royal College of art in London. After graduating, he formed The Beta Band with friends, 1997 to 2004 and The Aliens 2005 to 2008. John made many of the band’s music videos. In 2009 John made “Man on a Motorcycle”, a short film starring Michael Fassbender, filmed on a mobile phone, then “Pitch Black Heist” in 2011, which won the best short film BAFTA. “Slow West: is Maclean’s first feature film.

The plot centres on young Scotsman, Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who leaves the lochs and glens of his country to find Rose (Caren Pistorius), his long-lost love who is now in the Wild West of America. A desperado, Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), decides to accompany Cavendish on his journey for a price… Cavendish hands over “protection money” for the journey, but the naïve youngster is unaware that Silas may also be wanting to cash in on a bounty that hangs over Rose’s head (something that Jay is unaware of).

The American West serves as an allegory of love and death and the journey that the two main characters undertake has a soul-searching depth that may be found in some road movies (only here they are on horseback!). The film was shot in New Zealand and Maclean certainly convinces us that we are looking at the American West (and Scotland as well, in a few flashback scenes). The cinematography is wonderful and the colours alternating between muted and hazy to crisp and vivid, as if the film switches between nightmare and beautiful dream.

The film is romantic and violent, hellish and paradisiacal, idealistic and cruelly realistic all at once. But there is also humour and light-heartedness in this film as well as tragedy. The intensity and purity of young, first love is contrasted with the wicked ways of the world, while the young and innocent Jay is quickly corrupted by circumstances and his interactions with tough man Silas. Yet, while Jay hardens on the outside and maintains his idealistic love internally, Silas sheds his toughness and softens by the end of the movie. I was reminded a little of “True Grit” where there is teaming up of a naïve youngster with a cynical older man, but “Slow West” has a charm and hardness that is not seen in the older movies.

The acting was wonderful, both from the first-billed actors to the supporting roles and the direction managed to maintain interest in what was essentially a slow movie, with lots of action and lots of character development, all stuffed into the extremely concise 84-minute run time. The musical score was appropriate and non-obtrusive while the costumes and sets great. This is a great little film if you can lay your hands on it and a wonderful directorial/script-writing debut from Maclean.