Monthly culture, January 2024
Thursday, February 29th, 2024 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth04JAN24: The Ladykillers (Mackendrick, 1955) -- Internet Archive
I don't think I'd ever actually watched this all the way through, though I'm sure it was on the television on a Sunday afternoon at some point in my youth. I had as much fun with London location-spotting as with the excellent script. Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness were brilliant, as expected: supreme menace from Herbert Lom, and a very early cameo role from Frankie Howerd. Others watching found Mrs Wilberforce's decor very dated: it reminded me of visiting elder-generation relatives. I can only imagine she was pretty hard of hearing, mistaking a 1950s recording for anything live...
06JAN24: Wonka (King, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Not super-keen on Dahl's original, but this prequel with Timothee Chalamet as a youthful Willy Wonka (with piratical overtones) looked fun: and was, though (like most confectionery) it was over-sweet and didn't satisfy for long. Olivia Colman as wicked landlady, Calah Lane as Wonka's orphan assistant, Rowan Atkinson as corrupt cleric, and Hugh Grant as the sole Oompa-Loompa. I'm happy to report that there was a distinctly post-colonial element. At points it felt remarkably like Chocolat fanfic.
11JAN24: Vesper (Buozyte and Samper, 2022) -- Netflix
Vesper lives in the forest with her paralyzed father, and the drone via which he accompanies her on her wanderings. Her uncle Jonas lives nearby, running a king of orphanage and sending the children out to forage. This is a post-apocalyptic world, with the rich inhabiting citadels and sending single-harvest seeds out to the peasants. Vesper, a skilled biohacker, reckons she can alter the seeds: she has a garden full of unusual (and perhaps intelligent) plants. A Citadel ship crashes nearby and Vesper rescues the sole survivor: and everything changes.
I really liked this. Gloomy, well-paced and full of tension; medieval ambience with beautiful lighting; reminiscent of quite a few SF novels, and with a distinctly eco-warrior flavour.
18JAN24: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Miyazaki, 1984) -- Netflix
I'd never seen this either. It's beautiful, and I have no idea how I missed it at the time. (Possibly my film-poor upbringing had biased me against what I probably considered as 'cartoons'.) Again, a strong ecological message. Anyway: great, if prog-rockish, soundtrack, some elements reminiscent of Vesper (which was likely influenced by Nausicaa). Pleased that there was no romantic sub-plot.
19JAN24: Poor Things (Lanthimos, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Saw this on New Year's Eve, but I think I appreciated it more the second time around. Emma Stone is thoroughly awesome and often hilarious as Bella Baxter (body of a dead woman, mind of a baby, accelerated development). Great performances from Mark Ruffalo (though what *is* that accent) and Willem Dafoe. Splendidly steampunk aesthetic, including the clothes. I still find Bella's sexual exuberance a little unsettling -- she is, effectively, a child -- but she's very much in charge of her own behaviour. Her honesty is sometimes terrible, sometimes hilarious: she cannot and will not lie. Of the world: "I have adventured it and found nothing but sugar and violence. It is most charming." I read the novel many years ago at an impressionable age and only remember the dinner-table incident: I shall aim to reread.
22JAN24: Choral at Cadogan Season Launch
A short but delightful free concert (with free wine!) by the Tallis Scholars, plus an informal discussion between Peter Phillips (founder of the Tallis Scholars) and Radio 3 presenter Sean Rafferty. The music was lovely and helped to alleviate stress brought on by restaurant failure. (Apparently they'd had a boiler outage: but I did not know this when I turned up and found the place closed with no indication of when or if it would be open again.)
I don't think I'd ever actually watched this all the way through, though I'm sure it was on the television on a Sunday afternoon at some point in my youth. I had as much fun with London location-spotting as with the excellent script. Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness were brilliant, as expected: supreme menace from Herbert Lom, and a very early cameo role from Frankie Howerd. Others watching found Mrs Wilberforce's decor very dated: it reminded me of visiting elder-generation relatives. I can only imagine she was pretty hard of hearing, mistaking a 1950s recording for anything live...
06JAN24: Wonka (King, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Not super-keen on Dahl's original, but this prequel with Timothee Chalamet as a youthful Willy Wonka (with piratical overtones) looked fun: and was, though (like most confectionery) it was over-sweet and didn't satisfy for long. Olivia Colman as wicked landlady, Calah Lane as Wonka's orphan assistant, Rowan Atkinson as corrupt cleric, and Hugh Grant as the sole Oompa-Loompa. I'm happy to report that there was a distinctly post-colonial element. At points it felt remarkably like Chocolat fanfic.
11JAN24: Vesper (Buozyte and Samper, 2022) -- Netflix
Vesper lives in the forest with her paralyzed father, and the drone via which he accompanies her on her wanderings. Her uncle Jonas lives nearby, running a king of orphanage and sending the children out to forage. This is a post-apocalyptic world, with the rich inhabiting citadels and sending single-harvest seeds out to the peasants. Vesper, a skilled biohacker, reckons she can alter the seeds: she has a garden full of unusual (and perhaps intelligent) plants. A Citadel ship crashes nearby and Vesper rescues the sole survivor: and everything changes.
I really liked this. Gloomy, well-paced and full of tension; medieval ambience with beautiful lighting; reminiscent of quite a few SF novels, and with a distinctly eco-warrior flavour.
18JAN24: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Miyazaki, 1984) -- Netflix
I'd never seen this either. It's beautiful, and I have no idea how I missed it at the time. (Possibly my film-poor upbringing had biased me against what I probably considered as 'cartoons'.) Again, a strong ecological message. Anyway: great, if prog-rockish, soundtrack, some elements reminiscent of Vesper (which was likely influenced by Nausicaa). Pleased that there was no romantic sub-plot.
19JAN24: Poor Things (Lanthimos, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Saw this on New Year's Eve, but I think I appreciated it more the second time around. Emma Stone is thoroughly awesome and often hilarious as Bella Baxter (body of a dead woman, mind of a baby, accelerated development). Great performances from Mark Ruffalo (though what *is* that accent) and Willem Dafoe. Splendidly steampunk aesthetic, including the clothes. I still find Bella's sexual exuberance a little unsettling -- she is, effectively, a child -- but she's very much in charge of her own behaviour. Her honesty is sometimes terrible, sometimes hilarious: she cannot and will not lie. Of the world: "I have adventured it and found nothing but sugar and violence. It is most charming." I read the novel many years ago at an impressionable age and only remember the dinner-table incident: I shall aim to reread.
22JAN24: Choral at Cadogan Season Launch
A short but delightful free concert (with free wine!) by the Tallis Scholars, plus an informal discussion between Peter Phillips (founder of the Tallis Scholars) and Radio 3 presenter Sean Rafferty. The music was lovely and helped to alleviate stress brought on by restaurant failure. (Apparently they'd had a boiler outage: but I did not know this when I turned up and found the place closed with no indication of when or if it would be open again.)
