Bill Cunningham, New York- preview at the Barbican

On Saturday afternoon I will be going to this screening at the Barbican of the new film about Bill Cunningham,the original street style photographer from New York.

I haven't seen the film yet so I can't review it yet but as someone who is hoping to get brave with their camera for an exciting project this should be perfect research.

**Edit- this film is utterly brilliant. Bill is a charming, fascinating and endearingly eccentric man who is consumed by his desire to record the beauty of clothes and street style. His professionalism and manners are beguling and I left wishing everyone could find a career that they loved so honestly. His existance is also a reminder to always leave the house looking good!**

Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe's face is never far from our minds but having recently seen My Week With Marilyn I have been thinking about her more. Hers is the face I think of when I imagine a beautiful, feminine woman. The film also made me realise that she as stylish too, she wore quite simple, classic clothes in colours that worked for her most of the time and when she dressed up, she really dressed up.

There are probably women who were or are technically more naturally beautiful, more quirky certainly, who perhaps have or had higher IQs and certainly who were happier but she was truly beautiful and her enigma and star quality are unquestionable, even after so many decades. She had a grace and a uniqueness that I know I don't and won't have.

But we can all try to be our best- as Marilyn did- she wasn't an advocate or bed hair or the no make up look. This Emerald Street article about Marilyn Monroe's beauty secrets is so interesting- it shows that even someone who really didn't have to try did everything she could to look her best. I am going to try and highlight my face just like Norma- Jean to see if I can capture a whisper of her vivacity. I might also dab on some Chanel No 5 in her honour.


Image from from the blog Kiss and Make- Up.

Films I didn't see the first time: Heartburn

Frankly I didn't see Heartburn because I was five when it came out and not the target audience for a relationship drama about two journalists from New York and Washington respectively.

However I have read many times that Nigella loves it- and Meryl is always great (though I must say there is one sequence in this film where she looks just like Alan Cumming and it's so funny at a not funny point in the film- but I digress).

So Heartburn the book features food more heavily, Heartburn the film still has food, the main character is a food writer and food is her therapy at times and the thing she hides in, the method she tries to improve herself via, I think lots of women do this- I do, it's interesting- do men go and change a tyre to feel better about themselves or more calm, perhaps they do.

Anyway the film stars Meryl and Jack (Nicholson) and is written by Nora Ephron (it is apparently quite autobiographical). So that's a sort of dream team- plus there is food as we've covered. There is also bad fashion and some brief Alan Cumming impersonating but those things don't matter. This film is very good and, worryingly, felt very modern- so ladies we haven't come very far at all since 1986- good news. It's about what happens to women when they think they've found the one, how they either wish to or their men wish them too give up who they are- the trade off of a big house and not working and beautiful children for, well perhaps men thinking they can do what they want. Perhaps some men always would though, perhaps it's more about re finding yourself, perhaps men would say that was all unfair- I'm afraid I'm making it sound like indulgent rubbish and this isn't like that at all- it's good and it is funny mostly and the characters are very charismatic.

I'm not the writer Nora Ephron is so if you like Meryl and Jack and Nora and food then this is enjoyable and about £3 online. There is also a good (and quite brief) book if you prefer but that doesn't have Meryl and Jack and doesn't feature the Alan Cumming bit.

Films I've liked recently and forgotten to mention at the time

I like films best in the cinema. The first film I saw at one was The Care Bears (I know, I could pretend it was something cool but it would be a lie). There was then, for reasons unknown, a very long gap and I went again when I was about thirteen to see Crimson Tide with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; a strange choice for my friend's Mother to take us to as we were thirteen year old girls and it was an eighteen certificate film set on a nuclear submarine- but I still adored it, I think the cinema held so much excitement for me that I would have enjoyed anything at all.

In the summer I don't go to the cinema so much and I'm not sure why because there's lots I want to see out.

However I have seen various films on dvd that I wanted to mention liking even though they aren't new now- with all this falling rain sometimes a dvd a pot of tea and a duvet is the only option for a Sunday afternoon and I secretly quite thank the rain for making it so sometimes.

Little White Lies: I actually saw this at the London Film Festival last year but didn't review it then because it seemed too early and then forgot to when it was out properly. I thought it was terrific though, it looks like a French Richard Curtis film from the poster and in parts it sort of is, but in much more French way. Certainly the beginning is not what I was expecting from the press at all and you should be prepared for that! Actually this films also makes me think that perhaps Richard Curtis films would be more charming in French (and that many French films would not be half as charming were they in English or American).

The Kids are Alright: Well this is a great film and the two parents being lesbians hardly really matters to the plot, which is great too. It's a really funny film but it also made me think quite a lot about sperm or egg donation and have little yous walking around you didn't know. The script is very, very witty and the characters, certainly the adults are extremely well drawn, it's a great cast of course, Julianne Moore is amazing- she literally becomes a new person every time I see her in a film.

Never Let Me Go: Well I loved the book, more than I can describe. I know Ishiguro can be cold and that this book is especially that way but I think that is the point, he writes Englishness so beautifully- the slight detachment from our emotions on the outside that are churning like fire inside. The film is absolutely worth seeing. They truly haven't sacrificed the story, the horror of it, that coldness. Unfortunately it is that calculation, certainty and lack of humanity in the book that is also the problem for the film but not everything we watch is easy and I thought Cary Mulligan's performance was especially touching.

Margot

Margot was part of a collection of films made for BBC4 about notable British twentieth century women in 2009. At the time I remember a great deal of press about Enid, starring Helena Bonham- Carter as Enid Blyton. The remaining two films, about the perhaps less universally famous but actually perhaps more recognisable Gracie Fields (Gracie!) and Margot Fontayn (Margot) were just as fascinating- and I had particularly enjoyed Margot because if you love ballet you just cherish this I think.

That is not to say it's an easy or satisfying story, because it's the story of Margot Fontayn's life and her narrative was at once stranger and more tragic and in some ways more wonderful than any fiction could be.

Post Black Swan ballet seems to be everywhere. People who haven't been near the Coliseum or the Opera House were asking me about The Agony and the Ecstasy the BBC documentaries following the English National Ballet for a year and trying to get tickets for Swan Lake. Well if you liked that film and the documentaries but perhaps want a little bit more reality and a little less horror then I think Margot is worth looking for. The film, which stars the ever excellent Anne- Marie Duff, is available at all the usual online places or can be rented on love film. Margot Fontayn and Rudolph Nuryev are two of the most charismatic dancers ever to have lived and they really did live their lives on and off the stage.


If you would like 'further reading' on ballet at the moment I've recently enjoyed listening to Darcy Bussell's Desert Islands Discs (as part of the archive podcasts). She is very honest about having a family and dancing. She seems to have learnt from Margot's sacrifices and found a way to have a happy family life and continue to dance which must be very inspiring for ballerinas. She was an incredibly strong ballerina physically and the interview shows her mind to be just as powerful in the sense of determination.

Personally I recently went to a short programme matinee at the Royal Opera House, the ballets were: Rhapsody, Sensorium and Still Life at the Penguin Cafe. All were wonderful for what they were. For me Sensorium, which is like a sensual ballet version of a yoga class set to Debussy, was the weakest- in no way for the dancing but because I like a story or a moment to follow. Still Life at the Penguin Cafe is really more dance than ballet most of the time but is a great mixture of lightness and poignancy and it is wonderful to see dancers mimicking animals with so much wit and respect. Rhapsody though truly was wonderful- I was thrilled and enthralled. It is a beautiful ballet, extremely challenging for the leads, set to Rachmaninov and staged in a kind of sunset in the sky it was truly a Rhapsody- I could have gone back the next day.

Film: The King's Speech

I was lucky enough to see The King's Speech at the London Film Festival in the Autumn and have been telling everyone I know they have to see it since then. Now the film is about to go on general release so I'm going to say the same to you.

You have probably already gathered the King’s Speech is a film about the George VI’s stammer- and the Royal family more widely in the 1930s; the abdication crisis and the ‘gathering storm’ in Europe. The King's Speech is, clearly, a costume drama- but if you are the kind of person who normally avoids those please don't in this case- because to be honest the tailoring, clipped voices and period details are not what you are going to remember from this story- you are going to remember the two men it is about.

Really this film is a quiet but compelling story about a quiet but brave man, Bertie (or the Duke of York- or, later, King George VI) and his Speech Therapist. That therapist, Lionel Logue, is a stranger to the audience before the film- where Bertie, his wife and the other characters are people we feel we know very well- especially in the UK- even if we actually don't, or didn't.

To be able to speak, to communicate, is all- but that is easy to forget. Anyone who has ever had to do any public speaking knows the terror that can put in a person- in the pit of their stomach, on the sweaty surface of their hands, on their dry tongue. To have to make public addresses to enormous crowds who may assume your superiority when you cannot say whole sentences in front of your family without stammering- to have to do that and to turn up and try, well that is where the story of the King's Speech begins.

The film is about trying, about courage, about people from different backgrounds working together; about leaving your pre-conceived ideas at the door. More widely it's about Britain and the Commonwealth before the second world war, about emigrating to the UK then, about life changing course, about having to let some dreams go; it's not a twee film as you might imagine- in fact the stories told are extremely moving.

A word on the acting- which is sublime throughout, in fact so good you don't really notice it- everyone is pitch perfect.

I came away from the King's Speech with enormous admiration for King George VI the man (and the King)- and for Lionel Logue- whose fascinating story remained untold until now. Both were wonderful men for extraordinary times- if you are unsure just go and see this film, you will leave with a happy heart.

Poster image from Thefilmstage.com

Prima Ballerina

Ballerinas are the essence of refined femininity- combining elegance, grace and perhaps most importantly strength. The adage is to never judge a person until you have walked in their shoes- well to dance in a ballerinas shoes is to understand them- they might look fragile but being en pointe is as strange and painful as you imagine- to be a ballerina is to be utterly in control of your body and your mind.



Strange Invisible perfumes have chosen the rose as the centre piece for their Prima Ballerina scent- and the rose is everything a ballerina is, in flower form. Although if we're honest the rose is even more full of life than a ballerina, a rose in real life would probably have cream on top of it's cake, stay out a little bit too late and maybe wear it's hair a little bit too long- but always with grace- and I don't think a well behaved dancer would do any of those things.

Prima Ballerina is a blend of Rose, sage, lime & botanical musk according to Strange Invisible Perfumes website. While I do see that complexity to me this scent is rose- in fact buckets of roses, overflowing pink varieties from across the world. In smell and character Prima Ballerina is not unlike the much revered Moroccan rose bath oil from Ren.



Strange Invisible Perfumes are certified organic, and one hundred per cent natural perfumes. The world of natural beauty and perfumery is something of a mystery even for many product and scent enthusiasts- and what may be marketed as pure or from nature in press releases may in fact include synthetics, chemicals and animal products. My interest in finding genuinely good but organic scents led me to this company but I can honestly say this scent is as good if not better than any perfumes you can buy with chemicals in them- in fact the lushness of the rose smell is I'm sure due to there being a great deal more natural ingredient contained in the perfume. I would certainly buy this scent for the smell alone rather than for environmental reasons- although that this scent is ethically sound is clearly a fantastic bonus.

The first picture above is from The English National Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev, which will be performed in London in January.

The second picture above is for the forthcoming Darren Aronovsky film Black Swan, which I cannot wait to see. The poster is from The London Ballet, a lovely site for anyone interested in this most refined form of dance.

The picture of Prima Ballerina and other Strange Invisible perfumes was taken at Content/ Wellbeing which I recently posted about.

If you like ballet and would enjoy seeing male and female dancers in repose then there is one more day to visit Mary McCartney's exhibition at The Michael Hoppen Gallery or you can see a selection of her pictures behind the scenes at the Royal Ballet (called 'Off Pointe') in her book From Where I Stand.

L'Illusionniste

I have been desperate to see L'Illusionniste for weeks now and finally managed to catch it this weekend.

The Illusionist is the latest film by Sylvain Chomet who also created Belleville Rendez-Vous.

I don't wish to spoil the story so read on with caution if you prefer to see a film without any background.

The film is based on a 1956 Jacques Tati script about a magician from Paris who finds demand for his act is steadily decreasing as the world of entertainment changes. The illusionist, who is said to be Tati himself, is a charming but melancholy character, always well turned out and full of kindness but not quite succeeding in life.

The illusionists story could be a metaphor for hand drawn animation- which finds itself under constant threat from new methods and technology. This film is a potent reminder of just how powerful, touching and realistic hand drawn animation can be. There are actually very few moments of dialogue in the film but you don't need them because you can understand the story completely from the characters movement and expressions (and the lovely score). I am sure it is extremely expensive and time consuming to make a film this way but for me when it is this beautiful it is worth doing.

The film is set mainly in the Scottish highlands and Edinburgh but also features Paris, London and a train journey from England to Scotland. There is great humour and detail in the backgrounds and I get great pleasure from seeing a black taxi or Jenner's the department store in an animation although I can't really say why, everything just looks more magical in the hands of these animators.

There is website for the film where you can watch the trailer and see some of the stunning images. Please visit the Illusionist here if you would like to find out more. The film is on general release in cinemas but seems to be dissappearing fast.

Carve her name with pride

I am back. Back from a world of mud and tents but also of surf and sand.

Before I was away I had one of those perfect Saturday afternoons when I found a black and white film on the television that I just could not stop watching.

The sky was that deep, angry grey that only seems to descend on London at the weekend (or perhaps I only notice at the weekend). The rain was pouring down so much that even I, despite romantic uttering about quite enjoying a walk in a storm, could not face going outside. So I turned to the tiny television with its angry wasp analogue reception and vintage selection of channels (yes I'm moving soon- I'll actually quite miss the angry noisy telly, it has quite a personality).

BBC2 is very reliable in these circumstances, it also has the happy habit of always seeming to be starting a film at precisely the time I want it to. So it was that I happened upon Carve Her Name with Pride, a film I had meant to see for a long time but never actually had.

This film is, briefly, the story of Violette Szabo a special operations executive officer who was recruited to pose as a French national and work with the French resistance during the Nazi occupation. You may know the more recent stories of women like Violette from David Hare's play Plenty or Sebastien Faulks' book (and the film adaptation) Charlotte Gray; both the play, the book and the film are fascinating for different reasons of course but Carve Her Name with Pride is their Mother if you like.

The film stars Virginia McKenna who gives a typically quiet but incredibly honest performance. She manages to show you just how unbelievably strong but fragile these women must have been. This film is of course made by people from the countries who won the battle of the war and had made enormous sacrifices to do that and is perhaps understandably sympathetic to the Allied cause. Many films from the 1950s are if not biased then from a particular viewpoint but aside from the black and white colour this film could have been made yesterday. It is, clearly, extremely sympathetic to Violette and the women like her, it shows their frailties though, what they were less able to do perhaps, presents the choice of leaving a young child and whether that is right, whether fighting for what you believe in and or for love is right. Yes many of the Nazi characters do awful things in this film- but many Nazis did- they are not presented as the pantomime villains of plenty of films from that time and in modern cinema.

I don’t want to say more than that about the film because I of course don’t want to spoil it. Yes the subject matter is heavy but it isn’t a heavy watch actually- and I couldn’t stop watching- I was late for what I was going to and happy to be. I was flawed by Violette Szabo, or McKenna’s presentation of her. Could I do what she did? Make those decisions and choices and behave with that level of dignity and honour she did? I thought about that long and hard that day- and I have since. Honestly I don’t think I could have done what the SOE women did- I think I would have fallen at the first hurdle, but perhaps they thought they would and they found a way to be remarkable- to exceed themselves. Violette Szabo was no different to many other women of the time, except that she had the fortune or misfortune, the gift or curse of speaking French to mother tongue standard.

You can read more about Violette here and do give the film a chance, it deserves to be seen.

I went to a party later and I had a wonderful time- I partied as hard as I could while the wind swirled and the rain lashed outside because I’m very lucky to not have to make the choices men and women before me did.

Weekend homework: 21st of May 2010

This week six Penguin classics go (RED). The books in the set are: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. Why not read a classic in a sunny park this weekend?



It's the final ever Ashes to Ashes *makes little squealing sound*

I want to go and see the birds playing guitar at the Barbican; doesn't this sound cool:

'Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape'. (finishes 23rd of May).



If you like Joni Mitchell, which I'm sure those of you with good taste do, catch up on For Folk's Sake's week of articles, reviews and Joni experiences. You could also read this piece on her album Clouds which I wrote for them.

I finally saw Four Lions, I was worried I might find it a bit tough but I laughed and then I cried- you can't ask for much more. It's definitely a very British comedy. They've managed to take extremely serious subject matter and build very real, touching characters- and then through some wonderful acting and astute use of funny runs created a really interesting two hours at the cinema. So I'd recommend it for after the sun goes down.



But while the sun is up and out I will be mostly wearing sandals and enjoying summer in London, when it's here there's nothing like it.

What fragrance do they wear: George Falconer

I liked A Single Man very much and I don’t agree with some of the views I have read and heard saying that aspects of the production design and cinematography distract from the storyline- they don’t distract from say Dr Zhivago, Goodnight and Good luck or Mad Men. I think it’s a film you need to see more than once to truly understand your reaction too though because there is a lot to take in visually that isn’t always to do with the narrative- but I enjoy that.

What I am certain about is how very much I loved Colin Firth’s performance as George Falconer and how much I admire both Firth and Tom Ford for having the nerve to put such an unshowy and real performance on the screen. I genuinely hope Colin Firth gets everything he deserves for this performance which perhaps surprised some, though not I imagine anyone who has followed his career away from the Darcy parts. I suspect he would meet awards victory and defeat both the same, with charm and humility.

It might seem shallow to think about what fragrance the character of George Falconer would wear when the film deals with some heavy topics but for me choice of scent offers a window into people- into how they want to be perceived certainly, or just what they enjoy, even into their subconscious perhaps. I haven’t read the book, though I think now I will, but I understand the story and character are somewhat different from the film. The film is set in 1962 so I think we ought really to confine George to scents from then- otherwise I think one of Tom Ford’s own fragrances would likely be very appropriate.

I heard Ford on Radio 4 (of course, my daily travelling friend) saying that he had decided Falconer, being an Englishman who probably had a family allowance, would wear Saville Row tailored suits, even though he lived in America. I wonder on that basis if perhaps he wouldn’t also wear a very typically English scent? Certainly something like Blenheim bouquet would work, it’s a great mixture of freshness with a more sultry masculine undertone and is the scent equivalent of a well cut suit; or something from Floris would remind him of home, perhaps Ian Flemings own choice of Number 89? Or maybe for suits he goes to London but for scent he goes to Paris and wears a divine Guerlain- maybe Mouchoir de Monsieur? His house is very modern and he obviously loves his life in America so perhaps he isn’t that traditional after all and perhaps he wears anAmerican fragrance- but I can’t think of any made pre 1962- which is probably my ignorance!

What do you think?

A Single Man poster image from Everyman cinemas.

Blur: no distance left to run

I was lucky enough to see the documentary film No distance left to run last night. It is a film in every sense- filled with drama, humour and beautiful cinematography.

No distance left to run is of course about Blur- through them it is about what it was like to be music artist from the early nineties to I suppose the time just before i-tunes conquered the world; about songs and gigs; life on the road and life in the bubble of fame but really it’s a film about friendship and particularly the friendship and love between Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon.

In Hyde Park last summer, as the sun was going down on a truly glorious evening in this beautiful city- and in Glastonbury weeks before in the darkness of that sacred place- it was Tender that felt like the zenith of this band and of the experience- and the relationship between these two men, who co-wrote and co sung that song is just that- tender.

No distance left to run is honest, at times searingly, uncomfortably and therefore fascinatingly so. All of these men are extremely interesting in their own ways. I thought Alex James was a revelation; back in the day he was always the fun one to me, the party animal, the one who didn’t seem terribly complex. To watch him talk about his friends feeling pain, losing them and finding them again- and the expressions on his face when the camera hangs just a moment longer than perhaps he realised was to see a man who probably looks for the light in life but who is more than he seems- and who is a very true friend.

I am sure with this level of access and input they could have made a whole series about this group but I think choosing to focus on their friendship was very wise because this is an interesting film not just for anyone interested in Blur or music but also in male friendships. I hadn’t thought about how different they can be from female friendships before watching this last night and how very pure and innocent they can be.

I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t say anymore but just watch it if you can- and on the big screen if possible because the footage of the live scenes is great in the cinema. If you don’t manage to it’s going to released on dvd in February with a second disc featuring one of the Hyde Park nights- which should be the cherry on top of the cake that was those gigs.

Hums Oh my baby, oh my baby, oh- why, oh- my.



Images from the Guardian here.

Glorious 39

Glorious 39 keeps coming into my mind and stopping me in my tracks.

The film is the latest work by Stephen Poliakoff, a man revered for his work for UK television at a time when we seem to have forgotten how to make good, original one off dramas consistently. I’ve always found it fascinating how much he works in TV when he can and has worked in film and admire his interest in television as a medium- for it is the kitchen table to film’s dining room table, the wool glove to film’s leather version. Kitchen tables and wool gloves have their place though don’t they- and at times there is nowhere I would rather sit and nothing I would rather wear.

This film has been out for quite a few weeks now and there are reviews in various places by people more qualified than me to give you a thorough analysis of it, without spoilers. Nevertheless for context in short the film is set in late 1930’s Britain and focuses particularly on a young, adopted teenage girl from a privileged family with significant lineage and the effect of the 'gathering storm' of war in Europe on them- and their wider circle.

The film is well shot, set in interesting but suitably period and at times very picturesque settings, the costumes are lovely, the accents and manners are refined and clipped and initially, with the sound turned off anyway, this could be a film like many others about the attractive, plucky British upper classes. It isn’t though. It is more like a Hitchcock film, admittedly perhaps not quite up to those standards. Still it comes from just to the side of where you think it will- it’s like being given a bouquet of flowers and cutting yourself on the thorns- perhaps not pleasant but it makes you take notice of the flowers.

The thing about Glorious 39 is it really made me think. It isn’t perfect at all but every time I have thought about war since I have really found myself looking inside myself, actually looking down at my chest and wondering- what would I have done at that time?

Then as now the default ‘good’ position was to oppose war and to do everything you could to stop it- and they had the deafening echo of the First world war in their ears which has become perhaps more of a whisper to us.

With the evidence I could see I was opposed to the war in Iraq and I continue to be, though I support the very brave soldiers and friends who are there absolutely truly and without question. In 1939 how would I, a liberal minded, non interventionist have felt about getting involved in a European war- especially with the information I was given by a less independent press- not the information I have now? Honestly would I have been trying to talk, appease, not intervene. Perhaps- which horrifies and chills me.

EM Forster wrote in the epilogue to A Room with a View that the hero, the idealistic shining light of that book, George Emerson, was a conscientious objector in the First World Ward but fought- and died- in the Second World War. It is received wisdom that that is the war it was okay to fight- and I still think it was- but Glorious 39 made me really think about that- in a way that many years of school and University had never done. To always remember again and again to look at the case as best as you can and not do what you ‘should’ do, what others you admire are doing, what is easy. For that reason alone I think it is a must see.

Romola Garai picture courtesy of The Independent.

Picture of Anne, Celia and Ralph courtesy of The Guardian

Bright Star

I saw Bright Star, the new film about the relationship between Jon Keats and his neighbour Fanny Brawne this weekend. It is absolutely beautiful. I don't fully know what to write about it that would explain except to say it makes the most of the medium it is made in- and as such it is a film to be watched, every frame, every detail. For all that it is about a man who expressed himself so enchantingly through words the joy of Bright Star is precisely in it's filmic qualities; the stroking of a cat, the tapping of a wall, the falling of snow, the sound of laboured breathe, the fluttering wings of butterflies.

I found the director Jane Campion's production scrapbook online- which is the Bright Star website. I think it's captivating, the images are fascinating and delicate and offer a way through a side window into the film without taking away any of it's magic.









From the programme at the dance.











Ben Whishaw's notes






All images from the Bright Star website here. Except Keats and Fanny in the woods from the London film festival website here and Keats and Fanny in the house from The Observer here

Paperbacks and postcards- An Education

An Education is a British film in every sense. Set in the early sixties with a screenplay by Nicky Hornby based on a memoir by the journalist and writer Lynn Barber. It is a dramatic film but with a lightness of touch. I had been anticipating it’s release ever since I saw some stills of the cast in costume but confess I thought it might be a triumph of style over substance initially- I was happily surprised.

Lynn Barber’s character, here called Jenny and played by Carey Mulligan, attends a private girl’s school in Twickenham. Somewhere that now feels more like London than the suburbs but back in the early sixties, in a Britain that was closer to the second world war version than the free love one we think of, Twickenham must have felt as far from London as the moon.

The film raises lots of issues. I suppose one of those is just how long the war had an effect on everyday lives; Jenny’s parents live in it’s shadow and perhaps as a consequence live somewhat vicariously through their only, beloved daughter.

For me, as the first in my family to attend University despite not being the brightest, most intelligent person in my family by some way, it reminded me just how recently it is that anyone, especially any female, could think of going to University whether for financial or other reasons- and really what a privilege it is.

I enjoyed all of the performances. Carey Mulligan is rightly being highly praised- perhaps it’s the benefit of being mostly unknown, although I don’t think so, she really ‘is’ Jenny- and she makes her likeable despite effectively being a very self- absorbed teenage girl. However this is an excellent ensemble cast with Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson being particularly pitch perfect in their roles, Thompson is suitably terrifying without being one dimensional and Molina is heartbreaking at times. I must say too that Rosamund Pike not only gets the pick of the beautiful costumes but she is very funny!

I wouldn’t wish to give anything away but there is an exchange between Jenny and her English teacher- played, again very sweetly and deftly, by Olivia Williams- later in the film which has stayed with me. Jenny remarks on how lovely her teacher’s things are and I suppose she is seeing her teacher as a person for the first time- and seeing how similar their tastes are. Jenny’s teacher replies that all her books and pictures are ‘postcards and paperbacks’ with a sigh and Jenny replies ‘that’s all you need’. Really it’s true paperbacks and postcards- and blogs and certainly tickets to the cinema- especially to see absorbing films like this- can feed your soul as much as beautifully presented hard backed volumes or oil paintings on your wall.

Picture from Wikipedia here.

500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer begins by telling us that this isn't a normal love story and that is doesn't end with the boy and girl living happily ever after, or even together ever after. In the same way I am going to begin this review by saying that I really enjoyed this film. I know my film reviewer of choiceMark Kermode didn't enjoy this, I know some people might find it twee or glib or whatever but I kind of loved it.

What did I enjoy about it?

Well I found Joseph Gordon-Levitt totally charming- and disarming. I empathised with his character from the beginning of the film. The character is obviously semi, if not wholly (anyone who has seen the opening credits will get that), autobiographical and I guess it's just a sweet performance because his willingness to pummelled and shamed by this girl , the Sid to his Nancy, never became annoying to me.

It's also so nice to empathise so completely with a youngish male character, it felt like his angst was exactly the angst I reguarly have when I am around new men.

I, unlike Mr. Kermode, find Zooey Deschanel's kookiness appealing- and I always love what she's wearing- like every other girl. Actually though I liked her character Summer, I didn't necessarily like the way she treated Tom- but it was quite realistic because we don't always treat everyone we meet as we should.

The soundtrack is brilliant- particularly if you like depressing British pop music as they say in the film.

The ending certainly isn't unhappy- it's just not the standard ending for a romantic film. I went in to the film happy and came out happier- which can't be bad.

500 Days of Summer picture from www.allposters.co.uk

Never let me go

As summer has ebbed and flowed in recent weeks I have been reading Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful novel Never let me go- a book that is suited to the evenings when the chill is starting to develop after a hot summer's day and also to the days of endless rain that have been a feature of this summer.

I am a long time fan of Ishiguro's book The Remains of the Day and an even greater admire of the film adapatation by Merchant Ivory.

I'm not sure why I have never read anymore of Ishiguro's work. I think I probably felt that it wouldn't be possible to repeat the haunting, melancholy of the atmosphere of the earlier novel and didn't want to be dissapointed.

I had been dancing around Never let me go in bookshops for some time, picking it up, thinking it sounded very interesting and then leaving it unbought.

I am so pleased I finally carried it home. The subject matter is not easy, a story about a group of teenagers attending what seems initially to be a normal boarding school which we come to realise is preparing the characters for a different life to the one we would expect.

One scene which really affected me as a reader and the characters in the novel centres around a song, also called Never let me go. The only lyric we know from the song is in the chorus line ‘baby never let me go’. As I read the passage I found myself wanting to hear the song and then trying to create a tune for myself.

I now read that Never let me go is being adapted into a film, which means they are going to have to create the song to be sung during this scene. I am desperate to know if they are going to record the whole song and if it will be available on the soundtrack. I hope they will make it resonate as much as the idea of it does in the book. It’s unusual with a film but I can’t wait to hear it rather than see it.

Picture courtesy of www.amazon.co.uk

Coco avant Chanel

Sundays go with cinema like crumpets go with butter- Sundays are good without a trip to the cinema and cinemas are nice everyday of the week but the combination of the two is greater than the sum of their parts.

So on Sunday I had a date booked with Ben, Jerry and Coco Avant Chanel. Although as a female I obviously adore Chanel I wasn't totally looking forward to this. You know the feeling when you want something to be really wonderful and you aren't sure if it will be- and you'd almost rather not see it, try it or go there. Well that's what I felt about Coco Avant Chanel.

I had read reviews that didn't seem totally smitten with this view of the life of Gabrielle Chanel before she lived in the public eye. I don't agree with them. Audrey Tautou quite inhabits Coco and as the film goes on- and Coco finds herself more and more- Audrey is more and more Coco.

But it was the men in Coco's life I was as taken with as the clothes and the look of Chanel (although I was taken with those too, I long to run around Paris in those pyjama's in Mary Jane's!).

Benoît Poelvoorde has a vocabulary in little glances and nuances that would rival Stephen Fry's in words. I was quite smitten with him and wondered how an actor of this subtlety is not more widely known.

I was on his side and willing Coco to learn to love him- and then Alessandro Nivola appeared on the screen and I, like Coco, had my head well and truly turned. I have always been fond of Nivola, he is so perfectly handsome.

The film ends with you wanting more- more Coco, more fashion, more Paris and in my case a glimpse of some perfume. I wonder if they might make another film about Coco's later years? For this is affordable Chanel and made me take Chanel to my heart. What an amazing woman, truly an individual and the epitome of modern at any time.

Picture courtesy of www.filmofilia.com here

Ticket for one

I found myself at the cinema on a very grey evening with my plans to see Cheri cancelled.

I was disappointed, I had been wanting to see the film for weeks. So I decided that I may as well just go and see the film. So I was on my own, so what? I was already here, it was five minutes to the film, they had Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie- surely it would be wrong not to go.

I have been to films on my own before but not often. A very unscientific straw poll of what people (well my friends) think about this was interesting. It was those who have a noticeably wide group of friends but who are also fiercely independent who think going to films and plays alone is very liberating and very enjoyable (not all the time I hasten to add). When I think about it it was those who are rarely alone and would admit to finding it difficult to spend time alone who thought it was strange and even sad.

I really enjoyed Cheri and when I think about it those films I have seen alone, whether because of circumstance like that day or from choice (because none of my girl friends are wild about Tarantino) have all been ones I have felt a particular connection to.

When I was younger I would never have gone to see that film on my own. When my friend cancelled, even though I was already there I would have gone home I'm sure. Now that I'm older I thought 'I'm going anyway' and I'm glad I did.

That's not to say I would always want to go alone, it's not as fun beforehand picking food and it's definitely not as fun afterwards not having someone to compare quotes with or re tell jokes to. I don't think you would go to see the latest blockbuster on your own but some films are much better in the cinema and if it's something I want to see I'm going to make myself go on my own sometimes if no one wants to come.

All kinds of everything

Mr Scruff makes tea... and the mint and chilli is amazing

I find that I generally hate planning departments and particularly hate whoever said Camden passage was not of particular importance, it is to me. It is much more important than another branch of a huge chain of shops.

A big shout for the Royal Court theatre, which as the Evening Standard pointed out yesterday was a training ground for oscar winner Danny Boyle and oscar nominee Stephen Daldry and I’m sure lots of other previous Oscars winners and nominees. (Also note to the planners please do not put a road where Sloane Square should be... it’s not clever and it won’t make the traffic any better... nothing ever makes London traffic any better)

Speaking of the Royal Court it features in the beautiful little gem of a film Venus which is being shown on Film Four at the moment. I hadn’t seen this since it came out.



It’s a strange film I suppose but the acting is wonderful, not just from Peter O'Toole(seriously if this man doesn’t deserve an Oscar on merit I really don’t know who does) but also Vanessa Redgrave, Leslie Philips- and all the cast. It’s funny, it shows a side of London with its grimy seen better days cafes and past their best apartment blocks which might not be glamorous but is real to me. You can almost taste the weak tea and see the damp growing in the bathroom.

It also shows the more familiar, the national gallery- somewhere wonderful to go for free even on a pension- and the beach down on the south bank which I love, a tiny oasis of the seaside smack in the middle of the city. I think it brings as much pleasure as a deserted beach in the Caribbean would bring on the right day.

The film has lovely humour running throughout it and doesn’t present old people as old people but as people, it reminds you of what I am only just starting to understand- that some of us are eternally 23 trapped in older bodies.