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Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Pix well viewed

We - RR, VR, grandson Ian - ate marvellously at the Severn and Wye Smokery, a fish restaurant overlooking the Severn, crowded to the gills and where it is impossible to book. I had gurnard for the first time but it won't be for the last. Ian recklessly proposed we watch the DVD of Shakespeare's rarely performed Henry VIII which I was dreading. But it was made real by super acting (Timothy West, John Stride, Claire Bloom) and I subsequently performed an act of public contrition.

We are also two-thirds through the Borderlines Film Festival.

Taxi Tehran. The director, Jafar Panahi, greatly restricted by the Iran regime, drives a taxi round the city, picking up customers and dropping them off. But what customers! In the words of one, now defunct, British Sunday newspaper: All human life is there. (See pic)

Ran. Kurosawa's take on Lear, over-long but thunderous in scope and emotion. One for the bucket.

Our Little Sister. Three self-dependent young sisters, living  unfettered in their grandmother's house in the crowded suburbs of Kamakura in Japan, welcome their half-sister to their brood and encourage her to grow up. Heartfelt and memorable.

Spotlight. Journalism vs. the Catholic church in Boston, Mass. Put together dispassionately; made me proud to have passed through the trade.

Ivan's Childhood. Twelve-year-old orphan fights his way into the Soviet Army at war with the Germans. A moving study in human fatalism by famed director Tarkovsky.

The Hateful Eight. Tarantino, beautifully scripted and with a fine range of characters, does his Western-in-winter bit that's as well constructed as The Importance of Being Earnest. For 75% that is. Then all becomes blood-boltered.
 
45 Years. Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling illustrate the nature of marriage. A must! Please!
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4 comments:

  1. Avus9 March 2016 at 09:05

    I have never even read Henry VIII, let alone seen it performed. On your recommendation I may treat myself to the DVD - the cast certainly tempts.

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  2. Sir Hugh9 March 2016 at 13:49

    I've just got through bloodthirsty Henry 6 1,2, and 3 and Richard 3, and then light relief, in chronological order, Comedy of Errors. On reading a summary I thought I would not be able to follow this fiendishly complicated story but the acting and the shear writing skill win the day, and unbelievably make the ridiculous plot believable.

    After the Kings saga, some are 4 hours long, I woke up one morning with the pulsing rhythm of the poetry going through my head.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sir Hugh9 March 2016 at 13:51

    More bloodthirsty to come next: Titus Andronicus.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Roderick Robinson10 March 2016 at 07:18

    Avus: You may find it difficult to pick up an individual DVD of Henry VIII. Ours is part of the complete boxed set created and transmitted by the BBC in the seventies which we saw on telly at the time. Once this cost about £150 (but worth it if seen in terms of hours-per-pennies), then it dropped to £110 which is when I bought it. More recently my brother, Sir Hugh, bought it for £60. Excellent quality, many front-line stars.

    Sir Hugh: Often it is hard to get started with individual plays when preceding events are summarised over the first 15 minutes or so. Troilus and Cressida (which I recently posted about) especially so. But soon familiarity is established. The boxed set is terrific value even at the price I paid.

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