Monthly culture: November 2021
Thursday, December 16th, 2021 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth02NOV21: Requiem + 2 (Mozart) - Goldsmiths Choral Union, Cadogan Hall
A real concert! With dinner and drinks beforehand! I enjoyed the music (Mozart's Requiem, plus Ave Verum and Vesperae Solemnes) and wasn't sitting super-close to anybody except my companion. Wasn't familiar with Vesperae and found the use of bass and trombone in place of percussion very effective.
05NOV21: Eternals (Chloe Zhao, 2021) - Greenwich Odeon
Enjoyable but not engaging. A nice rendition of Babylon 875 BC; echoes of Tony Stark (FX and music) in Phestos; charming cameo by Harry Styles; pretty Deviants (monsters), especially in antiquity; Angelina Jolie awesome as ever. I quite liked some of the characters but didn't especially care what happened to them, and I was not convinced by the central romance -- though Thena's probably-platonic relationship with Gilgamesh was heartwarming.
18NOV21: Falling for Figaro (Ben Lewin, 2020) - Netflix
Fluffy romcom with an excellent (operatic) soundtrack, and Joanna Lumley being mean to her pupils (Millie, a former fund manager who's quit job and boyfriend to train as an opera singer, and Max, who's never quite made the big time and is sullen and resentful). What's not to like? Fairly predictable plot, mostly credible performances (there were moments where I felt Hugh Skinner was phoning it in), and slightly twisty ending.
19NOV21: The French Despatch (Wes Anderson, 2021) - Greenwich PictureHouse
Sometimes surreal, sometimes sad, often deadpan and (of course) beautifully filmed. I loved the vignettes, the cutaway scenes, the tableaux vivants, the shifts from colour to black and white and back again, and even Tllda Swinton's unsettling MC, who seemed to be channelling Margaret Thatcher. Also, I want the 'Modern Physics' pinball machine.
25NOV21: 8 Remains (Juliane Block, 2018) - Netflix
Sort of empowering but really rather dark: a young woman is strangled by her lover and, on the verge (?) of death, revisits -- via a weird mirror-world -- key moments in her life, trying to mend events and escape the route that led to her fate. It doesn't help that she keeps encountering her murderous lover and other recurring characters. Great acting, interesting cinematography, some really distressing scenes: short but intense.
A real concert! With dinner and drinks beforehand! I enjoyed the music (Mozart's Requiem, plus Ave Verum and Vesperae Solemnes) and wasn't sitting super-close to anybody except my companion. Wasn't familiar with Vesperae and found the use of bass and trombone in place of percussion very effective.
05NOV21: Eternals (Chloe Zhao, 2021) - Greenwich Odeon
Enjoyable but not engaging. A nice rendition of Babylon 875 BC; echoes of Tony Stark (FX and music) in Phestos; charming cameo by Harry Styles; pretty Deviants (monsters), especially in antiquity; Angelina Jolie awesome as ever. I quite liked some of the characters but didn't especially care what happened to them, and I was not convinced by the central romance -- though Thena's probably-platonic relationship with Gilgamesh was heartwarming.
18NOV21: Falling for Figaro (Ben Lewin, 2020) - Netflix
Fluffy romcom with an excellent (operatic) soundtrack, and Joanna Lumley being mean to her pupils (Millie, a former fund manager who's quit job and boyfriend to train as an opera singer, and Max, who's never quite made the big time and is sullen and resentful). What's not to like? Fairly predictable plot, mostly credible performances (there were moments where I felt Hugh Skinner was phoning it in), and slightly twisty ending.
19NOV21: The French Despatch (Wes Anderson, 2021) - Greenwich PictureHouse
Sometimes surreal, sometimes sad, often deadpan and (of course) beautifully filmed. I loved the vignettes, the cutaway scenes, the tableaux vivants, the shifts from colour to black and white and back again, and even Tllda Swinton's unsettling MC, who seemed to be channelling Margaret Thatcher. Also, I want the 'Modern Physics' pinball machine.
25NOV21: 8 Remains (Juliane Block, 2018) - Netflix
Sort of empowering but really rather dark: a young woman is strangled by her lover and, on the verge (?) of death, revisits -- via a weird mirror-world -- key moments in her life, trying to mend events and escape the route that led to her fate. It doesn't help that she keeps encountering her murderous lover and other recurring characters. Great acting, interesting cinematography, some really distressing scenes: short but intense.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, December 28th, 2021 09:53 pm (UTC)