On set report, East Hobbiton
No film is shrouded in so much secrecy and anticipation as a new work from Mike Leigh. After a much publicized slip of the tongue from a now disgraced Jim Broadbent, it was revealed that the quintessential English director would be rounding up one of the twentieth century's most popular and thoroughly English author's most beloved work. Mike Leigh is preparing his film of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
"Some see Tolkien's achievement as a stunning work of imagination, but that is only the foreground of a complex subtext of middle class manners and working class aspirations." Leigh avers, although he is otherwise somewhat taciturn in discussing the direction of his film, preferring to focus on the process he uses with his actors. "This has been one of the toughest films to develop, we spent nearly four months wandering around in circles in a mire in Norfolk, just to come up with twenty pages for the shooting script."
Timothy Spall, who spends nearly thirty minutes in make-up to achieve the look for Frodo, tells me that he wants people to know the real Frodo, "he's essentially repressed, he's wanted adventure, but been stuck, literally a square peg in a round hole by society. When he has his chance, he's terrified of the responsibility."
"Galadriel, could easily just come off as one of those housewives who becomes a do-gooder out of boredom." says Imelda Staunton, "but she feels everyone else's plights deeply, leaving no time for herself. She frets over Arwen (played in the film by Sally Hawkins) because of the relationship with Aragorn (David Thewlis), who is of a different character class."
Eddie Marsan (The Balrog) "the Balrog is mistaken for a terrible fire breathing monster, I see him as someone isolated, downtrodden, forgotten, left deep in the mines after Thatcher shut them. He just wants someone to hear his pain. He's just that bloke that complains too loudly in the pub and everyone ignores out of embarrassment."
Leigh discusses casting one of the key roles "I worked with Andy on Topsy-Turvy and Career Girls, and thought he just has such a rubbery face and physicality, he'd be able to do Gollum without us resorting to loads of make-up, or those special effects that no one understands and always looks a bit uncanny." Serkis chimes in, "I wanted to give the truth of Gollum," but, sidestepping actorly pretention, he adds with a twinkle, "it don't half hurt my throat."
Another week has past, it's two days before the 2012 BAFTA Film Awards, and so I making one last email attempt to get my arbitrary and pedantic grievance with BAFTA (outlined further below) some airtime on the BBC's Kermode and Mayo's Film Review radio show and podcast.
Sent: 10 February 2012 10:53 Subject: Kermode and Mayo's
Film Review: BAFTA, the last bash!
Dear Academy and Cinemascope,
Your show has had comparatively little discussion of the BAFTA's. As this year's award ceremony is in a couple of days now, I thought I'd have one last bash at airing my pedantic concerns about the awards. (for more than you'd care to know see my blog http://vaguestideas.blogspot.com/search/label/BAFTA). I wrote previously to request you to ask Mark, and any other BAFTA members on hand, how they justify the backdoor proviso in the eligibility rules that lets in films released in the UK in the current year up to two days before the ceremony, as opposed to the previous year primarily under consideration.
A while ago the BAFTA ceremony was moved from April to February, to sit in the calendar betwixt the Golden Globes and the OSCAR's, at the same time eligibility rules were changed to allow films released in the UK outside the previous calendar year to be nominated. This only served to allow the nomination list to include OSCAR eligible films that had stateside but not UK releases, the upshots being that the BAFTA's could act like a "me, too" predictor to the OSCARs after the mess of the Globes, and that distributors could plan January and February releases for award fodder and abuse the system for free advertising.
Why I have a problem with this: the BAFTAs should serve both their members and the UK audience who should all have had a chance to see the films by the time they're nominated, let alone awarded. The BAFTA members may nominate films that they have been given screenings, either in cinema or on disc, by distributors, if the UK release date is up to 2 days before the awards ceremony.
On Mark's blog about his top 11 for 2011, some respondents thought he should excise The Artist as it wasn't put on wide release until January (its official UK release was 30 Dec 2011, so it squeaks by my BAFTA concerns). If the UK audience can be put out by something as arbitrary as one man's choice of top films of the year, how well does it sit when the list is the consensus of the British film industry.
The eligibility rules should not be seen to pander to either the distributors, or the notion that the UK market, and its release dates are irrelevant. At some point in the future when releases are global and across all formats, this will become moot. Until then let's have a level playing field for both the British industry and its audience.
Brian Tarnoff (who is foolish enough to waste what little cache that exists in being named by Mark and his 4 New Forest Festival cohorts as the second best senior amateur Film Critic in the New Forest -- 2011, on this arbitrary trifle)
PS. Tonight I will be joining the ranks of professional projectionists, albeit in a mobile cinema stylee, down in the New Forest, with a screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Mark's welcome to drop by to inform the audience of the inconsequence of the spying.
So I sent this one off in a timely fashion. However, it snowed last night, which has stranded the kit I need for tonight's Brockenhurst Moviola screening, down a steep track in the middle of the forest. After pumping up a flat tire I set off just as the radio programme begins, but on arrival at a cottage amidst pony paddocks the radio is silenced as I'm brought up to speed, and receive a carload of digital gubbins and medium sized big screen fixings, by the time I'm back on the road the programme is nearly finished. I'll catch-up with the show when the podcast is released in a couple of hours.
Two weeks ago my attempt at drumming up on air support with another mail to the same show met with the coincidental cold comfort of my comment about Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris being read out behind a run down of the Oscar nominations for best picture. I do a certain amount of time wasting posting on threads on both the Facebook page of the podcast, and Mark Kermode's BBC vlog. Earlier this week I posted these questions on a thread on the Facebook page requesting ideas for their interview today with Daniel Radcliffe:
Harry and Hermione's dance to Nick Cave was one of the emotional highlights of the series what scene was he most touched by? Also, is he the "new" Elijah Wood?
Have you yet been denied a role because of Potter? For instance, you couldn't be cast in Shakespeare's Roman plays because if you exclaim any latinate names the audience will expect you to produce a wand or have sparks fly from your fingertips, just try shouting "Coriolanus!" you'll see what I mean.
Guess which one they used (or listen, Kermode: Daniel Radcliffe, 10 Feb 12, you'll find it at about 39:20). "That's very very funny." Daniel responded to the clever but ultimately, from his point of view, unanswerable question, as no one is likely to tell him when he hasn't been considered for a role. Now I'm not so paranoid as to think that they used my question as a sop for not bringing up my BAFTA worrying campaign, the universe is rarely that intentional in its snubs. I really doubt that the programme makers have any specific awareness of me as an individual, they might have avoided quoting me twice within a fortnight if they had, to give their many other listeners a look in.
So I'm pleased that I got a laugh out of Harry Potter.
And I'll have to see what I can do about BAFTA next year.
Having cocked up the timing in my first attempt to get my campaign (to get BAFTA to drop their rule that lets them nominate movies unreleased in the UK during the year under consideration) some air time on the Kermode and Mayo's Film Review radio show and podcast, I thought I'd have a second crack of the whip with this more brief note to the show:
Sent: 03 February 2012 13:39 Subject: Kermode and Mayo's Film Review: Am I being greedy?
Dear VHS and Beta,
It was sod's law when I sent in an email to your show last week (see below), about my pedantic issue with the arbitrary BAFTA rules, not five minutes later an unrelated posting by myself was read out on your show. It was just my two penneth about Woody Allen's latest which I'd left on your Facebook page on a thread calling for views on the top 10. Unexpectedly my sister in law then phoned my wife to ask if I hadn't anything better to do than to pester radio shows with my opinions.
Now, I appreciate I should have sent that email in a more timely fashion. Given that this paltry issue regarding the BAFTA's is still dear to my heart, I'd still like you to consider it. I appreciate that you've a large audience and giving me another airing, albeit on another subject, and not that anyone, save my sister in law might notice, may be asking too much, but I leave it up to your judgement, and how much space you've available in your all too brief show.
Thanks,
Brian Tarnoff (still the second best middle aged amateur Film Critic in the New Forest -- 2011)
I left the previous email attached at the bottom, assuming they wouldn't remember/keep it from last week. Well, this got me all of nowhere. I know it's purely a crap shoot as to whether I can tweak the interest of the producers, staff or presenters of the show. It's nine days to the BAFTA's, so I only have one more go for this year.
[Author's Note: This brief memoir from 1988 is posted here as it is related to my story of my ongoing unintentional persecution by Richard O'Brien, which includes part of my summer of 1983 spent in the GCC Walnut Mall 1 2 3]
ANOTHER
SUMMER IN HELL – A User’s Guide
"I spent
a lifetime in Philadelphia, one summer...."
-- W.C. Fields
How do I cope with Summer? How do I survive? I don't know... it seems that every summer calamities swarm
around me like flies on shit in the sun.
My last decent summer was after I graduated from high-school. Since then
the wisest thing to do is to pack off to hermitage at the first signs spring
boiling over: late suns, final exams, and sticky tanning oil.
Let's do a quick chronology:
1983 -- ended freshman year with 3
incompletes nervous collapse due to my
freshman obsession rejecting me, my psychotic girlfriend accepting me, and my
father's most severe nosedive into Parkinsonism to date; lived in same house
with woman who rejected me, destroying the remains of our friendship; worked
slave wages/hours in movie theater with broken air conditioning; somehow
finished incompletes and took Spanish credits to return to Penn in Fall
1984 -- tried living briefly with
psychotic girlfiend who forbade me to contact my friends; worked 10 days as an
encyclopedia salesman, then sold leather goods from a stand in a mall
1985 -- spend most of the summer trying
to break up with psycho-bitch-monster instead of laboring on incompletes (5), after
attempting to push me off a roof she breaks into my room and steals all my
work, a restraining order is nearly issued, but her crank phone calls keep the
receiver from its cradle every night
1986 -- after not graduating with eight
incompletes under my belt, I am depressed by the seeming lack of prospects and
all around hope for my future, but at least I stay employed, I begin living
like a monk, seeing human beings only at work and other formal occasions
1987 -- the woman I've been obsessed
with for ten years falls in love with one of my best friends, after I introduce
them, he reciprocates, and my plans to move in with his brother and another
friend remain unchanged (big mistake) this was a Summer that kept going until
November. Along the way I manage to alienate or lose about half my friends,
half my sleep and most of my sanity, but at least it's the first summer that I
have an air-conditioner.
O.K., granted I made some mistakes, all
of these Summers were spent in Philadelphia which was probably once one of
God's early drafts for hell, abandoned because even the damned don't deserve
this. The smell of rotting garbage
which spreads thickly evenly throughout the humid atmosphere; in Summer, air in
Philadelphia isn't smooth, it's chunky.
Almost the only reason to get an underpaying job is to avoid being baked
all day in the heat, but with an air-conditioned job your body will be
assaulted by alternating freezing-burning temperatures which will probably
have you enjoying the flu. Philadelphia
in Summer is the explanation for why you will find people wading through
medical waste at the Jersey shore -- it's an improvement.
This summer has been par for the
course. I've been ill for months: weak,
constant low grade fever, coughs, pains.
On top of which I over-extended myself, working forty-hours, twelve
hours of class a week (not counting outside studying and work), and moving my
parents on weekends. This is not the
way to do it. Here are some rules that everyone should follow during Summer
(and I hope to -- next year – follow)
1. After May 1st, do not trust anyone:
Case in point -- I took in a friend of
a friend to sublet one of my housemate's rooms. I didn't need to, would have been no financial or spiritual onus
to me if I hadn't, but I felt sorry for them (beware this is never a good
motivation, whatever the time of year). Step by step, what seemed to be a quiet
suburban Catholic girl has turned into a drugged out kleptomaniac who expects
me to clean up after her orgies (I stopped counting how many condom wrappers
I've picked up off the couch). I'm
eating the rent and the utilities she hasn't paid (over $500).
2.
Do not visit your parents without mood altering drugs.
My parents are in a highly agitated
state this Summer, they just moved from their house of forty years into a tiny
apartment. They are losing their minds,
and when you stay with them, they share the experience. I've just spent a year
hunting down and caging the demons I released last summer: "I don't need
no more neuroses!" If the drugs
don't help you cope with your Parents (valium, psilocybin and lithium are
recommended), you can always give them to your parents to allow them to cope
with you.
3.
If you have any possessions, sell them, nail them down, or put them in
storage -- they are not safe.
Yes, everything you may cherish, and
even what you merely own and paid dearly for, will be threatened from all
sides, by disturbed roommates, their spot-welding boyfriends, and even
relatives (my sister stole a puppet from me).
Spy on your realtor, they will attempt to evict you while you are out of
town (mine tried to rent my house without telling me). People who you haven't seen for years will
attempt to set fire to your home.
Which brings us to last but not least:
4.
Hide, or at least keep moving.
Sharks have survived and prospered
during many a summer using this tactic.
You need not be ruthless like the shark, just lay low, real low. If you
go abroad, go to
a country where they haven't even heard of Americans yet so they haven't
started hating us. Don't go to the shore, you'll drown. If you stay inland, don't travel on
freeways, you'll be slain in multiple car pile ups. Don't ride the backroads, you'll be butchered by rednecks. Don't go into the air, you'll be a
statistic. Stay out of the cities,
you'll be killed by hordes of nomadic plague ridden yuppies: stay out of the
country, animals wild from toxic wastes and PCP will eat you alive -- Face it, just stay away from SUMMER. It's cursed, that's all there is to it.
(English 135
Advanced Expository Writing, Professor Cavallo, August 1, 1988, Assignment #6)
[Author's Note: To those of you disparaged directly or indirectly above, apologies. I appreciate we've all grown up now, and, at least those of you whom I'm still in touch with, we turned out O.K. Keep in mind this is the raw perspective of an undercooked youth.
Diana Cavallo's writing course was possibly the best I've taken, and I
wish I'd taken her other writing courses as well. Anything wrong with
my writing sure ain't her fault.
It should be noted that the following Summer I did not take my own advice completely, I travelled to Britain to interview for the job that changed my life, and haven't stopped moving since.]
In another pointless effort to further my arbitrary and pedantic campaign against the BAFTA's soft rule that allows films to be nominated before their actual release in the UK when the films under consideration are ostensibly those of the previous year, I've written to the BBC's weekly radio programme that focusses on film reviews, Kermode and Mayo's Film Review. Mark Kermode is the resident film critic, and proceedings are kept grounded and entertaining for film geek and non-film-geek alike by radio presenter Simon Mayo. Their double act occasionally leans too much on catch phrases and in jokes, but most of the time they fit in enough consideration of films on release, quality interviews with film makers, and genial banter/bicker to be time well spent (their podcast is amongst the top five BBC weekly podcasts with approx 600 thousand downloads per month).
The letter begins with a strange salutation which is the format used by most correspondents with the show, referring to the co-presenters as a pairing referencing film or other duos, or in this case a recent ongoing bicker from the fact that Kermode has said that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not about spies, and Mayo feigns ignorance of the concept of subtext. In a bid to get the letter some attention from the show's production staff I do make some mention of my extremely tenuous link to Mark Kermode as the letter explains.
Sent: 27 January 2012 15:07 Subject: BAFTA Challenge
Dear Spy vs Not About Spies,
I was disappointed last week to find little discussion of the BAFTA nominations, I assume that with the OSCAR nominations out that this might be relevant this week. I have had an admittedly pedantic problem with the BAFTA rules which allow films to be nominated which are released after the primary year in question. As pedantry is no stranger to your fine programmes airwaves, I'd like to raise this query.
I have some trepidation about asking this question as I'd like to stay the right side of the good Doctor as he is one of the founder / organizers of the New Forest Film Festival, for which I'm a volunteer, and whose 2011 Critic of the Year Award I was runner up for (over 18 category) with an entry Mark described as "worryingly good". I may have already irked him with the bizarre suggestion of a "Battle of the Silent Film bands" for next year's fest (not doing myself any favours reminding 'im now). Be that as it may, I proceed with the courage of my pedantic conviction.
Can you ask Mark, and indeed any other BAFTA members present, this simple question:
How can BAFTA justify nominating films released in the UK in 2012 for awards primarily for the films of 2011?
To my mind it only serves to
a) allow in films likely to nominated for OSCARs that were released in the US but not the UK in the year in question, this is so that BAFTA can claim relevance in the OSCAR's race between the Globes and the OSCARs.
b) pander to the distributors that can use the BAFTA's to boost films still currently on or imminently release(d).
My chief complaint is that the awards should be nominated and given to films that we the public have had a chance to see before the nominations come out, not merely those the members of BAFTA with the privileges of special screenings and screeener discs.
I have argued this point with some analysis over on my blog : http://vaguestideas.blogspot.com/ (with the tag BAFTA). To give examples, this year's longlist had 20% of the nominations for films released in the UK in 2012, and 50% were for films on DVD release in the UK in the first quarter of 2012. The actual nominations have 15% of the nominations for films released in the UK in 2012, and 50% were for films on DVD release in the UK in the first quarter of 2012.
I appreciate that these trends exhibit a chicken/egg causality as the distributors control release dates and are allowed to put forward films for nomination, and that, hopefully, in a future of simultaneous world wide multi format releases this may become moot.
Thanks for any comment my, possibly pointless, pedantry may illicit.
Brian Tarnoff (the second best middle aged amateur Film Critic in the New Forest -- 2011)
PS. I will be joining the ranks of professional projectionists on February 10th on Mark's home turf in Brockenhurst with a screening of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, when I'm not keeping an eye on the focus, aspect and keystoning, I'll be trying to spot the Tinker and Tailors, as clearly there aren't any spies.
Unfortunately puppies, notes for NFA's Landscape Management Committee, and preparations for a part time job as a projectionist got the better of me. So the email went out during the first half hour of the show. I know that it's probably unlikely that the production staff are going to consider anything they don't see before the show, optimally earlier in the week, but I didn't want a whole other week to steal a march on the subject, so I dug in and sent it.
One of the more recent gambits by the producers of the show has beefed up their Facebook presence, they already do a lot on Twitter which I don't follow, and Mark Kermode has a BBC video blog site which I do. The Facebook page engages with listeners requesting capsule reviews of top films, or the new releases the presenters themselves haven't seen, but also purely spurious threads to find puns with film titles. So, sods law, within about five minutes of sending out my email a few lines from a comment I'd left about Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris got read out on air:
Midnight in Paris is merely a half decent Woody Allen film elevated by comparison to his last two decades of subpar dross. It's great that he has a little niche carved out for him to make what he wants as he wants as often as he can manage, but he really could have done better with people to say no to Match Point, Melinda and Melinda and Vicky Christina Barcelona, and those were supposedly the good ones....
If you look at some of his work with collaborators, they include some of his best. The trick that helps Midnight in Paris is that he has to use real characters from history rather than the paper thin ones he seems to originate.
Simon Mayo squeezes out half the words, trying on the fly to keep the sense, but drops my point about Woody doing much better work when he has more collaboration. That's by the by, I didn't think that thread was going to be part of the show, and it seems even more unlikely, that now they've said my name already, that they'll give anything else I've sent them any airtime. Ahh well.
The worst thing about this is that my sister in law happens to be listening and phones my wife who is luckily working from home today. "Doesn't your husband have anything better to do than to get his name on a radio programme?" she chides jokingly. On the strength of the above, I really hope I do.
My Annual Bafta Annoyance 2012: Preamble and Longlist
This year I am making a slightly more concerted effort to breathe life into my quibble with BAFTA's bent rule that allows films released after the standard year in question, but which were in the States and so eligible for OSCAR's. I hate this because I feel that the general public should have a chance to have seen all the films before the nominations, let alone the awards. They should remember that the B in BAFTA is for British and so should properly reflect the British film audience and release schedule.
In the past years the BAFTA's have cheated their own eligibility requirements, allowing films to be nominated that do not meet all their own criteria. Let's look at last year's requirements:
Eligibility
Films must be released theatrically in the UK, within the Academy awards year:
1 January to 31 December 2010. Films that open between 1 January and 11 February 2011 inclusive may be 'qualified' by Distributors by being screened to Academy Film Voting Members by Tuesday 21 December 2010.
To be eligible, a feature film must:
* be feature-length, i.e. with a running time exceeding 60 minutes;
* receive its first public exhibition or distribution in the UK as a theatrical release;
* be exhibited publicly to a paying audience within a commercial cinema in the UK for no fewer than seven consecutive days.
Films from all countries are eligible in all categories, with the exception of Outstanding British Film, Outstanding Debut, Short Film and Short Animation which are for British films only.
Almost every year BAFTA have nominated a film that opens on the last day of eligibility, usually two days before the awards. This means it cannot have satisfied the seven consecutive days proviso by the date of the ceremony. Although four films for the 2011 Awards opened after 2010, only one fell foul of this requirement:
2011 Latest Open Date 11th Feb, Awards 13th Feb.
True Grit (11 February 2011)
Previous years have seen these films so dishonourably nominated:
2010 Latest Open Date 19th Feb, Awards 21st Feb.
The Lovely Bones (19 February 2010).
2009 Latest Open Date 6th Feb, Awards 8th Feb.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (6 February 2009)
Doubt (6 February 2009)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (13th Feb 2009 released after the eligibility and the awards)
2008 Latest Open Date 8th Feb, Awards 10th Feb.
There Will be Blood (15th February 2008 released after the eligibility and the awards)
This year BAFTA have closed this problematic loophole, by making the eligibility even more flexible. From 2012 the rules now state:
In order for a film to be valid for consideration its first public exhibition must be in a cinema (rather than on television or online), and it must have a UK theatrical release in a public UK cinema for no fewer than seven consecutive days in the calendar year that corresponds to the upcoming awards. If a film opens between 1 January and the Friday before the Awards in February then it may be eligible as long as it is screened to Academy voting members before a certain date. A film must be feature length, i.e. with a running time exceeding 60 minutes. Films from all countries are eligible in all categories, with the exception of Outstanding British Film, Outstanding Debut, Short Film and Short Animation which are for British films only.
This means that films that open up to two days before this year's ceremony only need to be screened to BAFTA's members before a given date and are let off virtually all of the eligibility requirements (apart from the feature length of over 60 minutes). To be honest, this is probably closer to what they intended with the previous version of the rules, and this change has unmuddied the waters that flowed from their previous language.
The Film BAFTA's were moved from April to February in 2001 to occupy the space between the Golden Globes and OSCAR's. This is when the rules were changed to allow in films with post-hoc release dates, mainly to give the BAFTA's a supposed relevance in the awards season, after all how could they claim relevance if they could fail to nominate a similar list of films to the Globes and OSCAR's if restricted to niggling things like the UK release dates. This of course does not make the BAFTA's any more relevant, it merely gives the BAFTA members a chance to second guess the OSCAR's. This leaves the BAFTA's as a cynical exercise for the distributors to get some free ad time on the allegedly non-promotional BBC, and to use award buzz to flog their films to the UK market.
This becomes extremely apparent when you analyse the longlist nominations. Of the 65 films garnering 279 longlist nominations 9 (13%) are released in 2012, two just two days before the awards themselves. Those 9 films have 56 longlist nominations, making up 20% of the longlist nominations. Of the films properly theatrically released in 2011 a whopping 50% of the longlist nominations are for films receiving their UK DVD release in Q1 2012, right around the February awards ceremony. This leaves only 30% of the longlist nominations for films released in the UK theatrically in 2011 and not premiering on UK DVD within the first quarter of 2012, of these only 17% are for films with both UK theatre and DVD releases firmly in 2011, the remainder with unconfirmed UK DVD release dates (as of January 8th 2012).
Now there is a slight confluence of chicken/egg poultry family planning here when we consider how the films are put forward, again according to BAFTA:
As long as a film passes the rules of eligibility then it may be entered for the film awards. A film may be qualified for consideration by the films[sic] distributor or producer, or by any Academy voting member. Once the film is submitted then a screen credits form will be required to be completed by the distributor or producer.
So this is very much in the hands of the distributors who determine the release dates as well as having major input into the awards process itself. When we look at a graph of the longlist nominations by film release month, we may find it hard to believe that any decent films have hit the screens before July.
BAFTA will point out that the longlist does not represent nominations until the members vote in the second round to whittle the up to 15 films in each category down to 5 proper nominations. Furthermore, longlists are not announced in these categories: Outstanding Debut by a Writer, Director or Producer, Short Film and Short Animation. So these figures are likely to change, but by how much is to be seen.
Film
UK release
Nominations
The Iron Lady
06/01/2012
14
Shame
13/01/2012
4
War Horse
13/01/2012
13
Coriolanus
20/01/2012
6
J. Edgar
20/01/2012
7
The Descendants
27/01/2012
7
Carnage
05/02/2012
2
A Dangerous Method
10/02/2012
1
Young Adult
10/02/2012
2
For the 2012 awards year I will attempt to get this point across through online forums, letters to BAFTA, and correspondence with the BBC's various film programmes Watch this space.
Catfish is documentary about misrepresentation on Facebook which may be misrepresenting its own veracity, but is kinda engaging and touching all the same.
A New York 20 something professional photographer gets sent some interesting naive art based on his published photos, painted by an eight year old girl in Michigan, and he strikes up Facebook conversations with her mother and older sister leading to a long distance crush relationship with the older sister. The photographer's brother/flatmate is a filmaker and with another friend, they begin to document this socially networked virtual relationship.
It starts anecdotally, and, to the point, perhaps too anecdotally. The first thing you will wonder is why did they begin filming this? On the other hand if you've seen either Tarnation or Cloverfield, you've seen that the self obsessed youth of today in both reality and fiction are bound to strap a webcam onto their egos at the drop of a status line. You could spend the whole film trying to second guess what's going on, but to some extent that cannily fits in with the subject's dilemma as things begin to seem that they are not what they seem. What makes the film compelling despite its more ropey premises, is that many of us interact online as a matter of course now, and we are constantly faced with the question of who we are actually dealing with, how well do we know these people whose faces appear in 55 by 55 pixel boxes on our screens.
There are some mind bendingly stupid assumptions made by the protagonists. It's kind of like watching someone blogging Blair Witch as it's happening, only without the witch, the horror, and they have sat/nav so they don't get lost pointlessly in the woods. As we see them test the limits of the reality they've been presented with, we wonder what is motivating both the film makers, and the who-are-they-really? social group they've interacted with remotely.
Ultimately the film becomes a story about how and why we construct identity. The emotional weight of the payoff, an insight into the need for human connection, minimizes the issue as to whether any of this story is true, or if documentary is just the style it wears, like a choice of profile pic, or the font for a blog. It stands as an interesting, relevant and involving story either way.
Did I really watch it? Maybe I just Googled it and gleaned a dozen reviews, or saw parts of it grabbed on YouTube. I'll make you guess.
But if you think I'm not telling the truth, ask yourself, what's in it for him?
Ken Russell died yesterday, Sunday 27th Of November, 2011. Very sad news and a great loss to film making. A uniquely British talent. Shouldn't be remembered solely for the wild abandon with which he could attack or display the outré, or his indulgence in gloriously over the top imagery; all his films display a spectacular cinematic sense, an artist's eye, and a composer's sense of emotion, tone, and tempo.
He lived locally, and I had hopes of some day meeting him, if only to thank him. A friend of mine told a story of Russell driving up to our local Fish and Chip shop in his vintage car, flamboyantly entering and attempting to order a fish not on the menu, and turning on his heel and walking out.
Here's a run-down of his works I've seen, and for the little that it's worth, my appreciation of them:
1967 Billion Dollar Brain
I should give this another chance. Last time I saw it, I felt that it had let the Harry Palmer series down with its satirical jabs, and sub-Avengers-cum-Strangelove tone. On the other hand it ain't the train wreck some have described it as.
1969 Women in Love
It's a film I find hard to take seriously more because I just don't appreciate D.H.Lawrence. It's OK. but the plot lurches at the end are hard to take straight faced. Of course if your idea of homoeroticism involves naked wrestling Oliver Reed, you have a stronger stomach than I.
1970 The Music Lovers
When I was really little, I preferred the Grieg biopic Song of Norway to this; what did I know when I was 7? Not anywhere near as good as Mahler.
1971 The Devils
This was the first Russell I saw theatrically. I think I saw it as part of my Uni's on campus film program, and the followed it on at least two more occasions at the local rep house, the Theater of the Living Arts. Despite its highly stylized look, its earthy unflinching portrayal of medieval grue, really made me smile. All history should be like this. Python summed it up a few years later in Grail with "How do you know he's a king?" "He hasn't got shit all over him."
And that's even before you get to the machinations of corrupt church and state, and the portrayal of religious hysteria (and the politically motivated fomenting thereof), routinely denounced by religious hysterics. Really his sharpest film, most human and misanthropic simultaneously.
1974 Mahler
The first Russell I ever saw, and I saw it on TV, I was erroneously informed that it was made for television, and I thought if someone could make something this cinematic for TV they must be a genius. Strangely I've a memory of a travelling shot through trees to music that I was hoping to someday pay homage to, and on rewatching it recently I couldn't find it. Imagery so fantastic it permeates your dreams. A great movie about creativity and brooding morbidity, no wonder I loved it as a teenager.
1975 Tommy
Great kitsch fun as a pop object, not much cop as a film, but that's down to the source material. Ken makes a great fist of it all the same. Anyone who could convince Ann Margaret to swim in Heinz Baked Beans is all right in my book.
1980 Altered States
One of my favorite films. It manages to convey both the notion that reality is a solipsistic creation of our primal brains, and that love, literally, is all we have to hold it together. Some mocked the whole apeman thing, but how are American Werewolves more credible than psychoactive drugs combined with flotation tanks unravelling an evolutionary regression? I cannot understand Paddy Chayefsky's quite vocal and credit withholding problem with the film. Having read his own, inferior, novelization of his screenplay, I cannot imagine how the film could be a better realization of his themes. A stunning achievement by Russell, and a landmark score by John Corigliano (one of the prizes of my dwindling LP collection).
1984 Crimes of Passion
Some of us used to think Kathleen Turner was sexy. Proof of that is that I remember the poster more than I do the film. There's some over the top stuff with Anthony Perkins and a killer dildo, I'd like to see him duel the twins from Dead Ringers with their gynecological instruments for mutant women. A weird thriller satire on sexuality. Everything that Russell does in this film was done with much less style humour and panache by Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut.
1986 Gothic
All I remember at the time was that the idea of the film seemed a bit better than what we got, and that Natasha Richardson made a very comely Mary Shelley. One of those, wish they'd had a couple more rewrites, they might have made it work, or not, films.
1987 Aria (segment "Nessun dorma")
I have little memory of this film, apart from liking the Robert Altman segment set in a theatre.
1988 The Lair of the White Worm
Anyone for Tennis, or Fangs? camp fun it certainly was, and made light relief of the tone of Gothic. I'd like to send Amanda Donahoe to eat up all these friggin' glitterin' vampyri who brood and take themselves so seriously. Maybe after that I'd send Lady Sylvia Marsh, the character she portrayed.
1989 The Rainbow
Didn't get around to seeing this one until this year. And it makes a nice D.H.Lawrence bookend with Women... , although its brief excursion into saphic-eroticism is not a patch on the former's sweaty alcoholic man love. It is nearly scuppered by Sammi Davis's acting in the lead role which is canny in naivete, but a bit all over the place the rest of the time. And, I still don't really care for Lawrence, wish Russell had done more Stoker.
Well, OK. There are only three of Ken Russell's films that I absolutely love, and boy do I, but I cherish the artistry in all of them. Even the pointless tasteless excess of the Nazi bits (can you imagine if he had collaborated with Russ Meyer?). There's some I need to seek out to see for the first time, and a few that I should review for pleasure and to note how they strike me now. All in all, I will feel grateful for his work and poorer for his loss.
Smile of the day: Contagion: missed tag line opportunities
Missed tag line opportunities:
Contagion: The Feel Symptomatic Movie of the Year
Contagion: Tell 2-6 people to go see it.
Contagion: Go sit in a public place with hundreds of strangers so we can tell you why you shouldn't sit in a public place with hundreds of strangers.
Contagion: If you dislike Gwyneth Paltrow, the most fun you've had since Se7en.
Contagion: OCD? --> DVD!
Contagion: Expect the unexpectorant!
Contagion: Ok, Al Gore could probably have done the same thing in Powerpoint.
And Coming Soon:
Real Steel: Rock'em Sock'em Robots -- The Movie!
My Life in the Movies is a strand I'd been meaning to start writing for some time now. Most of the entries will deal with some distinct experiences I've had watching movies: a mildly disturbing film half remembered from a kiddie matinee, weathering the protesters outside the first public showing of Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ, how an older brother helped indoctrinate me into cinema going. and possibly, with a little research, a strange catalogue of the obtuse connections between my family and the movies. In some cases I may re-evaluate some films as a guest of a friend's overlooked films blog
However I will lead off this series: There Are Some Arguments You Don't Want to Win, a social and critical dilemma, should you try to change someone's mind about a film they love, but you hate.
As a way of psyching myself up for all the volunteering and screening for this year's New Forest Film Festival, I did several playlists themed around some of the screenings, as virtual foyer music, completely for my own enjoyment. I suppose early on, I did half fancy suggesting to the organizers that they consider playing out some of this stuff as part of the ambience for some of the screenings, but a few of them are actual musicians, have their own tastes, etc., and I quickly realized that if I went so far as suggesting this sort of thing, I'd mark myself out as an annoying weirdo. I may have found other ways to do just that, unfortunately. Time will tell, and if any of them cross the street when they see me coming, I'll bravely take the hint.
But, for those of you who just enjoy lists, you might like a look at what I put together.
Musicalia
Just Go to the Movies
Cast
A Day in Hollywood, A Night in The Ukraine
As Time Goes By (complete vocal)
Max Steiner
Casablanca- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
They All Laughed
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire Sings
Broadway Ballet
Gene Kelly
Singin' In The Rain
Manic Depressive Presents Lobby Number (Parts 1&2)
Danny Kaye
The Best Of Danny Kaye
If I Were a Bell
Holly Cole Trio
Blame It On My Youth
Pennies From Heaven
Arthur Tracy
Pennies From Heaven
Comedy Tonight
Stephen Sondheim
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum [OBC]
Did You Ever See A Dream Walking
Bing Crosby
Pennies From Heaven
Make 'Em Laugh
Donald O'Connor
Singin' In The Rain-ST
Tchaikovsky And Other Russians
Danny Kaye
Entertainer Extraordinary
That's Entertainment
FAstaire NFabray JBuchanan IAdams
The Band Wagon
Too Darn Hot
Ann Miller
Kiss Me Kate Cole Porter
Doin' the Production Code
Cast
A Day in Hollywood, A Night in The Ukraine
Could I Leave You
Stephen Sondheim
Follies
I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair
Mitzi Gaynor
South Pacific - Original Film Soundtrack Rogers & Hammerstein
On the Street Where You Live
Holly Cole Trio
Blame It On My Youth
I Love a Film Cliche
Cast
A Day in Hollywood, A Night in The Ukraine
UKnowFerKids
Life Could Not Better Be
Danny Kaye
The Court Jester
Little Boy Blue
Holly Cole Trio
Temptation
I Don't Want To Grow Up
Petra Haden & Bill Frisell
Petra Haden & Bill Frisell
I Won't Grow Up
Rickie Lee Jones
Pop Pop
I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)
Los Lobos
Stay Awake, Hal Wilner's Disney Tribute
If I Were King Of The Forest
Nathan Lane
The Wizard Of Oz In Concert: Dreams Come True
Stay Awake
Innocence Mission, The
Now The Day Is Over
LiliHi Lili, Hi Lo
Leslie Caron
Lili
Super-Cali-Fragil-Istic-Expi-Ali-Docious
Supremes, The
Trust In Me
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Through The Looking Glass
The Merry Old Land Of Oz
Cast
Wizard Of Oz Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg
Stupidcarelessfictional-nonsensicalverboseness
Forbidden Broadway
Forbidden Hollywood
Selectie Mary Poppins
The Postelfonia's BmG 223
Eerste Bestelling (First Delivery)
Foreign Novelty Smash
The Credibility Gap
The Rhino Brothers Present The Worlds Worst Records Vol. 2
Siamese Cat Song
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin
Up from the Dark
The Allosaurus Chorus
Evergreen Choir, The
Triplets
Fred Astaire w/NFabray JBuchanan
The Band Wagon Great MGM Stars
Mad Dogs And Englishmen
Danny Kaye
The Best Of Danny Kaye
Cinephile
Exit Music (For A Film)
Miranda Sex Garden
Anyone Can Play Radiohead
The Invisible Man
Elvis Costello &Attractions
Punch The Clock
I Love a Film Cliche
Cast
A Day in Hollywood, A Night in The Ukraine
Everyone's Gone to the Movies
Steely Dan
Citizen Steely Dan
If I Saw You In A Movie
Heather Nova
South
If You Were In My Movie
Suzanne Vega
Close Up-Love Songs
Movies Of Myself
Rufus Wainwright
Want One
Road Movie To Berlin
They Might Be Giants
Flood
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
John Zorn
Filmworks 1986-1990
Kung Fu
Ash
1977
Lust In The Movies
Long Blondes, The
Someone To Drive You Home
Mysteries Of Love
Antony and the Johnsons
I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy
Calling You
Holly Cole Trio
Blame It On My Youth
When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe
Divine Comedy, The
Promenade
The Man With The Golden Gun
Emiliana Torrini
Crouie d'o l
Tomorrow Never Dies
Uwe Kröger
From Broadway to Hollywood
This Is Not America
Juliette Lewis
Hollywood, Mon Amour
B Movie
Elvis Costello &Attractions
Get Happy!!
Exit Music (for a film)
Brad Mehldau
Vehicle of Horror
Drive-In Movie
Commercial Recording Corporation
The Money Maker
Weird Nightmare
Elvis Costello & Bill Frisell
Deep Dead Blue - Live At Meltdown
Exquisite Dead Guy
They Might Be Giants
Factory Showroom
I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy
Antony and the Johnsons
I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy
Friend of the Devil
Lyle Lovett
Deadicated - A Tribute to Grateful Dead
Black Christmas
Trailer
My Wife and My Dead Wife
Robyn Hitchcock (& the Egyptians)
Catalog Sampler
Unsolved Child Murder
The Auteurs
Volume 17 (Disc 2)
Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus)
Nouvelle Vague
Bande A Part (UK Ltd. Edition)
Dinner With Leatherface
3D Invisibles
Jump Off the Screen
Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner
Warren Zevon
Excitable Boy
Tania
Camper Van Beethoven
Our Beloved Revolutionary Swee
6ix
Lemonheads, The
Car button cloth (all of these things sank)
Silent Night Bloody Night
Trailer
Beware of the Blob
Blob, The
The Golden Turkey Award Album-The Best Songs From The Worst Movies
The Thing That Only Eats Hippies
Dead Milkmen, The
Death Rides a Pale Cow
Silent Night Deadly Night II
Trailer
Human Fly (The Cramps)
Nouvelle Vague
Bande A Part (UK Ltd. Edition)
Death Cab For Cutie
Bonzo Dog Band
Gorilla
Down in the Ground Where the Deadmen Go
Pogues, the
Red Roses for Me
Robert E. Lee Broke His Musket on his Knee
2,000 Maniacs
The Golden Turkey Award Album- The Best Songs From The Worst Movies
The Legend of Guan Di
McCain Brothers, The
My name is Bruce ST
Where The Wild Roses Grow
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Murder Ballads
The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun
Julie Brown
Dr Demento 20th Anniversary Collection-Disc 2
Plan 9 from Outer Space
3D Invisibles
Jump Off the Screen
I hadn't done a list for the silent film screening, after all it had live musical accompaniment from the Dodge Brothers and film music genius Neil Brand (perhaps the 5th Dodge Brother). I presumed they'd play out recordings of their own stuff, or something similar. Mike Hammond of the Dodge Brothers (film historian at Southampton Uni, in his spare time), said in his intro that the film The Ghost That Never Returns was a perfect project for the Dodge Brothers as they shared the themes of Transportation and Homicide (now there's an album title, if I ever 'eard one). So, I've done this list in tribute, post facto. I may do a "Transportation" one, but every time I think of it, I never get past the excellent Laura Cantrell's EP Planes and Boats and Trains, featuring a great cover of the titular Bacharach song, along with other transportation themed tunes.
On 11th September 2011, when most attention was paid to the coincidence of the Earth's position in its orbit to that ten orbits previous, I was disproportionately pleased with another piece of news. I had been named as one of two on the shortlist for the 2011 New Forest Film Festival's Critic of the Year.
Your friends have to be kind about what you write. You can never be sure whether praise reflects quality, or supportiveness. The five festival organizers had enjoyed my work, and were supposedly busy trying to work out whether they liked mine a little more or less than the entry by some other guy.
There were a couple of ill omens. One of the judges, to whom I'd not been introduced, congratulated me on being shortlisted at the screening of Project Nim, leaving me with that residue of paranoia over, wasn't it judged "blind", and should I really be talking to someone who, allegedly, has yet to determine the fate of my entry. I also had that feeling, that as I volunteer for the festival, the organizers might strategically shy from claims of nepotism.
The other short listed piece in my category, Senior (Over 18), Meek’s Cutoff (2011) by Rob Munday is a great solid straightfoward review. On the other hand, my self-referential essay about The Brothers Bloom may be too clever for it's own good in describing a film which may be too clever (and self-referential) for it's own good. So, the judging may come down more on taste, as I admit we may have a dead heat on quality. Still, although the £50 prize would be welcome, it's a rare bump for my writing, which makes the outcome seem immaterial. Clearly my writer's ego is needier than my wallet.
The Festival website announced:
Congratulations to the finalists who will be invited a special award ceremony ahead of the film Shock Treatment at Brockenhurst College on Saturday 17th September at 7:00pm where our special guest Richard O’Brien will announce the winner in each category with a cash prize of £50.
In the end it was Mark Kermode, not Richard O'Brien who aptly announced the winners of the Critic Competition. This change in plan serving as the final bad omen, which was also the third strike in the theory that Richard O'Brien is unintentionally my nemesis. Here's the award presentation in its brief glory:
Be that as it may, I was still chuffed to bits, and perhaps it was for the best as I now have it on record that Mark Kermode, 'im off the Radio and Telly, described my film criticism as "really worryingly good." Even if that does open up left handed compliment speculation over what constitutes "worryingly good" (a tasty but cholesterol filled treat? the Neutron Bomb? sex in any position that looks ridiculous and unrepeatable when inadvertently glimpsed in a mirror?), and despite my insecurities, I can accept it in the generous spirit in which it was offered. Five complete strangers liked something I wrote and admitted it in public.
When Shock Treatment came out, I considered avoiding it on principle.
As much as I enjoyed the lopsided delights of Rocky Horror, I have had a fractious relationship with it. I spent a summer as an usher assisting janitors with the toxic post RHPS cleanup into the wee hours, and then a couple of years later permanently damaged a knee doing the Time Warp. (the whole sordid tale is here: ) As it was hyped, Shock Treatment seemed like a tacky attempt to cash in instantly on the eventual success of Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was wary that a new Rocky Horror, without a developed fan interactive script to prop up the saggy parts might be pretty tedious (try watching the last 3rd of RHPS on video -- alone).
Then a friend who actually saw it told me it was rubbish, so I left it.
Then came the New Forest Film Festival, not just the chance to see the movie, but to Q&A Richard O'Brien, the impish chrome dome creator. By now there was an air of mystery and nostalgia to the film. Would it benefit by today's lowered standards? Would it be charmingly retro? Would it just be good enough to have a half decent musical with some of the outré sensibilities of Rocky Horror?
It sounded like something that my wife might enjoy. Then I was short listed for the Festival's Critic of the Year competition, with the winners revealed at the Shock Treatment screening and awards presented by Richard O'Brien himself. Along with comp tickets for the short listees. It had become a must see.
O'Brien was a bit late, so Mark Kermode aptly presented the critics award. O'Brien makes an entrance and uses his full on lovey actorly projection to present the film competition awards. The subsequent Q&A covers the film, about which O'Brien issues a pre-emptive apologia, and some of his other mostly theatrical projects. He's really sweet, he maybe went on a bit too mea culpa about Shock Treatment. He calls it deeply flawed, he's very self-deprecating about his own performance in it, and he hints about an unhappy shoot during which familiarity had bred contempt, the director had become unapproachable and others became lost in their own ego trips. He does rate the songs which he touts as "better than Rocky Horror."
There were some enthusiastic fans of the film who came in
full mufti. An oddity to the rest of the audience, unfamiliar with the
characters, and not really geared up for their interactive script, ala
Rocky Horror. They soldiered on with their responses for a few minutes,
but abandon their attempt either through embarrassment, or kindness to
the bewildered majority as there is too much going on, the film is hard enough to tune into without the added backchat. It was hard not to feel sorry them with their sincere earnestness, but I was glad they shut up.
Shock Treatment is by any estimation, a mess. It throws you in the deep end, there's a lot to take in, a soap opera's worth of characters and plot strands, and the film doesn't really give you any time to do it. The satirical and fantastical conceit, that a small town, obsessed with fame, exists within a television studio, not in a hidden camera fake town like the Truman Show way, but literally with cameras, lights, sets, townspeople as studio audience, social luminaries and wannabe climbers as talk show celebrities way, is all done with such breathless bravura that it doesn't pause to flesh itself out in a sensible fashion. Just when it finally starts to make sense
and give you some reasons to care about the characters, it ends.
Having had my originally low expectations lowered even further, by Richard O'Brien himself, I actually enjoyed it. Despite his protestations, his performance is fine, but there's not much to his character. O'Brien had said he was proud of the score, and on only one listen, I'd say he has
every right to be.
It might have been more workable if it had something to make the "Brad" and "Janet" characters sympathetic, something more than sharing names with RHPS characters. Maybe a single number at the beginning introducing them at a happier time and showing how they end up in TV hell. As it stands it doesn't
really have clear protagonists, and the outstanding ensemble, Jessica Harper, Cliff De Young, Barry Humphries, Ruby Wax and RHPS alums Patricia Quinn and Charles Gray with minor turns by Rik Mayall and Sinitta, aren't given much more to do than to be loud and hit their marks.
To suggest that it's prescient about reality TV and today's celebrity
culture is stretching the point a bit, its satirical barbs are aimed in
that direction, but it's unclear what it wants to say about it. The scattershot verve does manage to carry it along most of the way, although it does run out of steam a couple of times. Once you forgive the lulls and other obvious flaws, it's enjoyable. and the best musical film I'm likely to see this year, this side of The Muppets.
It is drenched in visual style and striking production design. Along with the songs it's perhaps best enjoyed as a collection of vintage music videos. MTV in the '80's glory days. Nice song, Nice video, Shame about the Plot.
[For good measure here's a YouTube clip someone else made of the beginning of Mark's Q&A with Richard O'Brien:
New Forest Film Festival: The Americanization of Mary
When I first met my wife Finuala, I would describe her to friends and family stateside as Barbara Wodehouse crossed with Julie Andrews. The former is way off base, although Wodehouse was known in the States and her style of dog training has been much discredited, (and spoofed in an early Simpsons), I used it as shorthand for Finuala's devotion to her Welsh Springer Spaniels. Finuala is more mystified than offended by her comparison to the latter, which I feel is spot on. She has the fair perfect complexion, the sweet non-regional middle class accent which manages to fall the right side between both cut glass and received pronunciation. And she sparkles when she smiles. I did not know then the depth of her fondness for the film Mary Poppins, although she had boasted that she knew how to say Supercalifragilisticsexpialidocious.... backwards.
I spent as much of the film watching Finuala enjoying it. She was channelling Julie Andrews. Forget the makeshift autocue, she knew all the songs, even Mr. Banks' half-sung half Rex Harrison recitativo, declaiming the virtues of finance (well, she was an accountant). Even though many of our tastes our mutually exclusive, I love Finuala's passions even when I don't share them (gardening and dog showing for example). She doesn't share my obsession with movies, but to see her savouring a film that I love as well is some kind of double happiness.
Since my expatriation I've often come across Brits who seem baffled by my choice, more than in a self-deprecating way, to them America may be a land devoid of culture, but with a higher standard of living, bigger cheaper portions, and more space. I often wonder about the number of Brits who've only been to Orlando in the States; they've only seen America filtered through the Disney vision. Disney had a very strong aesthetic, a particular colour palette, certain clean lines in the design of anything between an American homestead, a futuristic Epcot or an European castle. There was a time when the only beards you'd find on the chinny chin chins at Disneyland/world were on the dwarves and the pirates. This Imperial American template of Disneyfied mediocrity has even found echoes in the Prince Charles helmed vision of the olde style newtown of Poundbury in Dorset.
Back when I performed comedy impro, I was fearful that I would be put on the spot and made to do a British accent. I have some theatrical friends back in the States who rather fancy they can do a British accent, and I like them can do a passable "stage" Brit for an American audience. Finuala has helped me disabuse them of the notion that they are any better than that with a cruel to be kind deadpan stare at their attempts. Living in the UK, and aware of the true plethora of accents along with regional dialects and vocabulary, I've no delusion that I'm up to the task. I've always been good at funny voices, and there are some Brits amongst these, but endowed on the fly by a fellow performer or audience member, as Yorkshireman, Cornishman, a Geordie, or a Glaswegian, I'd be truly screwed.
Except for the fact that I can thank god for Dick Van Dyke as Bert the Cockney Chimney Sweep in Mary Poppins. His fabulous distorted rendering of the lingo of the subjects of all the Pearly Kings and Queens born within the sound of Bow Bells, is laughably famous and a great go-to gag for a performer in my position. My replication of 'is over-h-emphisized dropped 'h'aitches, 'is syllable by syla-babble diction and jaundiced jauntiness, may not be luver-ly, but it's adequate. And most importantly takes the fear off the prospect, 'cause the worse you do it, the better it is.
However, bad that accent may be, there is a certain Disney intent to it. There's no need for subtitles or subtlety to sell Van Dyke's chimney sweep to the American ear. It doesn't stop at Dick Van Dyke's cockney, erm, cock-er-ney accent. Ed Wynn doesn't attempt an accent at all; as helium infused hysteric, Uncle Albert, he relies on mere eccentricity to convey that British stereotype. Julie Andrews is so upbeat and energetic, she has the resolve of a Brit, but without the stiffness to her upper lip, she is scrubbed of all notions of the class system with her understandable unspecific accent and good teeth, this makes her practically American. Even the "robin feathering his nest" from A Spoon Full of Sugar is an American Robin, a thrush that bears no resemblance to the British resident European Robin, a smaller flycatcher.
American Robin
European Robin
Perhaps it's directly in keeping with the fantastical nature of P.L. Travers creation, as amped up by Disney, that not only are linguistic conventions, but the nature of nature itself is imprinted with the stamp of American familiarity and forced pronunciation. Even David Lynch caps off his "happy ending" to Blue Velvet with an animatronic cameo of Poppins' avian duet partner.
It is telling that when Disney tried to play much the same game again in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, special effects including live action within animation, leaving more of its Britishness intact, the result was much more humdrum and less successful. And David Tomlinson was given far less to do, even if he received higher billing.
In fact it was on this viewing that I really appreciated that Tomlinson's turn is really the emotional core of the film. His Mr. Banks is the only character that has any kind of arc, his conversion from a stuffy walking bowler hat rack to devil may care kite flyer with a run of wooden leg jokes is the wind changing payoff to the whole film. He hasn't found his inner child as much as submitted to his optimistic inner-American. He is ultimately rewarded by being accepted back into the bosom of his beloved banking establishment. That this invitation to breezily irresponsible banking from the once safe as houses Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, has inevitably destroyed the soundness of the British economy, is a metaphor which I have clearly stretched beyond its breaking point.
Like Disney, I have warped reality to suit my purposes. I'm American, that's what we do.
New Forest Film Festival: Project Nim: Responsibility and Mind
The New Forest Film Festival's screening of the excellent documentary Project Nim featured the added value of introduction and then post viewing Q&A with Mike Colbourne, senior keeper at Dorset's Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, mediated by Film Festival Organizer Linda Ruth Williams. Professor of Film at Southampton University. The film's story of the chimp Nim, taught to sign and used for a spurious experiment to raise him as if he were human, in the context of an extended human family, becomes a vision of a hell paved with good intentions. An absorbing thoughtful film which further elevates the pedigree of director James Marsh (Man on Wire).
There are some slightly artificial illustrative "recreations" that fill gaps in the archive footage, but these do nothing to detract from the air of verisimilitude, whilst giving us the blessed relief of a slight remove from the frankly grim material, a tragedy of errors born of arrogance and self delusion as Nim's "me generation" keepers play an increasingly harmful game of pass the parcel with the hapless animal. Indeed, even the person who comes off best in the film, to the extent that many in the audience consider him the hero of the story, is irresponsible enough to share his recreational drugs with the chimp. Monkey see, monkey dude.
Primate advocates are always eager to stress the notion that the apes are our "closest relatives" in the animal kingdom. This is meant to elicit sympathy, but it also is an own goal because it supports the delusion that we can understand them on human terms. This is a mistake repeated many times throughout the film.
A would be saviour of Nim removes him from one appalling situation, but installs him in isolation, an ordeal for a social animal. A violent incident occurs when a person from much earlier in Nim's story visits and unwisely enters Nim's enclosure. Everyone assumes the attack is based on recognition and a concomitant emotional outburst. In the post film Q&A the primate keeper ascribes it to "frustration". What happens could as easily be a reaction to an intruder on Nim's solitary territory. The problem is we can't fathom Nim's motives, and every time those in his life presume to do so, as well as us, after the fact, he is done a great disservice.
It is not unusual for us to project our own way of thinking onto the actions of animals. We do this all the time, not just with animals, but as we interact with each other, this is called the Theory of Mind (a very good article about how this applies to how we treat our dogs can be found here: slate.com Do Dogs Think?). This is always bound to cause problems as we assume the needs and values of those whose minds we imagine. Nim's story is fraught with the presumptions of his keepers, particularly the notion that just by dressing him up and "raising" him as human, he'd automatically become more like us.
The other problem that Nim encounters is that many of his "benefactors" treat him as a pet. The guest keeper does use the discussion as a platform to highlight a petition to call for a government debate on primate keeping, strengthen the legislation on the control and monitoring of primates in pet ownership (Primates as Pets Petition). Their aim is not to ban ownership, which would drive the trade underground, but to better regulate and institute a proper regime of checks of owners and animal living conditions. In old regime, anyone could own wild animals as pets. The wild animal licensing laws stopped much pet ownership except strangely, smaller primates, which have the same problems of maltreatment. Most primates are social animals, removing them to a human context isolates them and psychologically impacts on them. The fundamental disconnect occurs when owners fail to understand all of the animal's requirements.
This problem is common to owners of standard pets. As a dog owner, and infrequent breeder, whose wife does assessments for a spaniel rescue, I'm used to vetting potential pet owners. This process may seem as intense as an adoption, but it is as important to determine whether they're prepared to take on the consequences of caring, keeping and training their animal throughout its life. When acting as a breeder, the conversation provides scrutiny in both directions. We wouldn't like to place puppies with people who aren't asking the right questions about the needs of their charges.
Many have well meaning but cavalier attitude towards pets, as toys, accessories, or as automatic companions with no inherent needs. For whatever love people may profess towards animals, however deeply felt, we're humans, and we just don't think things through. That cute puppy may be encouraged to jump up, sit on furniture or play tug of war with toys and leads, but when fully grown will suddenly be expected to desist from these behaviours; that sweet chimp approaching adulthood may casually kill other pets and chew half your face off and has the strength to easily maim or kill. That the trajectory of each lifecycle is known and predictable is either wilfully ignored, confounded by irresponsible ignorance or (in the case of photographers who defang chimps for a career in cute "family" photos) managed with intentional mutilation or euthanasia.
Back in the 1980s I had a friend who had looked forward to being a research scientist, had trained for it, and had his first job in a university medical research lab. In an adjacent lab studies were being done with primates, looking into the effect of collisions on the neck and spine. For these simulations chimps and orangutans were accelerated at walls and static objects at various angles and speeds. The injured apes were then diagnosed for how their musculature and vertebrae coped with these injuries. Just being in proximity to this extremity of ethical science made my friend rethink his choice of career. He spoke to me of the flawed grant system which encouraged studies to be proposed almost purely for the sake of generating grant money. Careers constructed around innovative methods of harm with the furthering of science an almost secondary consideration.
I myself am a queasy fencesitter about animal testing, particularly as a son of a Parkinson's sufferer. Mike Colbourne in his introduction was quite honest about diabetes and other conditions that he has that require treatments that most likely were tested on primates in the past, but he pointed out what he has seen of the sharp end, the ex-lab primates that have come to his care physically and mentally distraught. That testing could be used as a last resort only for arguably vital research when other methods are exhausted, is a door that may be left open.
We must remain mindful of our responsibility to the animals, whatever use we put them to. It is responsibility thought through, responsibility acted upon and responsibility seen through, not opposable thumbs, language, abstract thinking, nor other self congratulatory virtues that may truly elevate us amongst the animals, however closely related we may be.
All things to all people and nothing to everybody. A celebration of the warm and fuzzy, or perhaps the cold and indistinct. Lowered responsibilities and diminished expectations. If you haven't the vaguest..... I do! And that's all I will ever assert with certainty. I hope we're unclear about this......
Ex Pat 32 years +, conservation campaigner, film projectionist and critic, unfinished novelist, dog walker, improviser, and obscure database programmer.
"Some see Tolkien's achievement as a stunning work of imagination, but that is only the foreground of a complex subtext of middle class manners and working class aspirations." Leigh avers, although he is otherwise somewhat taciturn in discussing the direction of his film, preferring to focus on the process he uses with his actors. "This has been one of the toughest films to develop, we spent nearly four months wandering around in circles in a mire in Norfolk, just to come up with twenty pages for the shooting script."
