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Monthly culture, February 2024
02FEB24: Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) -- Barbican
Joyce DiDonato and Andrew Staples as the two leads, with il Pomo d’Oro ensemble and choir: DiDonato has immense presence and an immense voice! The witches were great, too, especially the chief witch. Occasional pause for retuning period instruments: ebullient and vigorouos leading from the harpsichord by Maxim Emelyanychev. The first half was Carissimi's Jephte, which I don't think I'd heard before: I liked it very much (it reminded me of Biber), and thought Staples was stronger in this role than as Aeneas -- though his nameless daughter (sung by Carlotta Colombo) had more of a role.
03FEB24: Coalescence (Paul Cocksedge)-- Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College
Made from over 2,500 pieces of anthracite – the amount consumed by a single 200W light bulb in a year. The anthracite was suspended in a waterfall effect and glittered and shone beautifully. In a side room was 'Twenty Trees', a disc about a yard across made of anthracite blocks: 'if the sculpture was burned, it would take 20 trees an entire year to offset the carbon emissions produced'. Beautiful and thought-provoking -- the Painted Hall makes a great backdrop for this kind of art.
08FEB24: The Card Counter (Shrader, 2021) -- Netflix
'William Tell' (Oscar Isaac) has a shady past as an interrogator in the military: meets a young man, son of a former colleague, who wants to take down the civilian contractor who trained Tell and his dad: Tell wants to get Cirk out of the cycle of vengeance. I found this grim and despairing, and very detached, though the soundtrack by Robert Levon Been was good.
15FEB24: The Favourite (Lanthimos, 2018) -- Netflix
Rewatch for film group: initial review from 2019 is here. I have come to appreciate Emma Stone more since her role in this: Olivia Colman are, obviously, awesome; the gradual transformation of Abigail from heroine to villain is excellently paced.
16FEB24: The Taste of Things (Anh Hung Tran, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
A film about cooking. Slow cooking. Juliette Binoche is marvellous, and every scene is like a still life painting, and it's gentle and romantic and understated. French language, good subtitling. I found it restful rather than enjoyable.
21FEB24: Rhiannon Giddens -- Barbican
A voice like a river that carries you over the heavy bass and drums. Her lyrics look back on slavery, celebrate family ties (all too often severed by slavers). Great gig, in good company (John and Judith).
22FEB24: Filibus (Roncoroni, 1915) -- YouTube
An unexpected delight, featuring an artistocratic cross-dressing female airship pirate who masquerades as a detective and a nobleman in order to pull off an audacious heist. Monocles! Dip pens! Cries (from us) of 'it's behind you!' This was a film group pick by a member who heard about this film from a student. Excellent restoration, retaining the original colour washes (pink for dawn and dusk, sepia for day, blue for night), though there's some celluloid inflamation (says our resident expert). The music was taken from original silent-movie scores. 'Written by the future science fiction author Giovanni Bertinetti', says Wikipedia. Valeria Creti awesome and cute in the title role.
23FEB24: Legion: life in the Roman Army -- British Museum
There wasn't a huge amount that surprised me here, but it was nicely presented, and TK alerted me to the existence of an online guide (a.k.a. 'the large print edition') which made it possible to read the captions and descriptions without queuing up to peer at each one: I hope the BM do this for future exhibitions, as the slow shuffle past exhibits is not agreeable. I especially liked the Sarmation dragon standard (as featured in Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw. Perhaps slightly too many audio loops, overlapping at some points. And, as usual, too many people.
24FEB24: Wicked Little Letters (Sharrock, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
The setting is Littlehampton in the 1920s. National TreasureTM Olivia Colman stars as Edith Swan, who has been receiving obscene letters; Jessie Buckley plays Rose Gooding, her single-mother, Irish next-door neighbour, whom Edith accuses of writing the letters; Anjana Vasan plays Woman Police Constable Gladys Moss, who's brought in on cases involving women 'in case of hysteria and tears'. Timothy Spall is quietly threatening as Edith's father, with Gemma Jones as her mother.
This was hilarious, with dark undercurrents of class conflict, abusive family dynamics and sexism. Some raceblind casting, which worked very well; elderly ladies wielding unexpected social power, which is inspirational; some liberties with the truth (this is based on actual events in 1921-22) but nothing egregious.
29FEB24: Boudica: Queen of War (Johnson, 2023) -- Netflix
Rainy Roman Britain, where shaved armpits and tinted foundation appear to have become fashionable before their time. Olga Kurylenko is actually pretty good as the eponymous queen, and there are some interesting plot elements. And some other plot elements, too, like a magical sword that makes magical sword noises; some extremely early Saxons; 'Cambridge Forest' somewhere between Colchester and London; Nero committing suicide seven years early, and with this script who can blame him. This could have been a much better film if the script had beenbashed into shape rewrittten. 'This Boudica is all Torc,' noted one member of the film club.
Joyce DiDonato and Andrew Staples as the two leads, with il Pomo d’Oro ensemble and choir: DiDonato has immense presence and an immense voice! The witches were great, too, especially the chief witch. Occasional pause for retuning period instruments: ebullient and vigorouos leading from the harpsichord by Maxim Emelyanychev. The first half was Carissimi's Jephte, which I don't think I'd heard before: I liked it very much (it reminded me of Biber), and thought Staples was stronger in this role than as Aeneas -- though his nameless daughter (sung by Carlotta Colombo) had more of a role.
03FEB24: Coalescence (Paul Cocksedge)-- Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College
Made from over 2,500 pieces of anthracite – the amount consumed by a single 200W light bulb in a year. The anthracite was suspended in a waterfall effect and glittered and shone beautifully. In a side room was 'Twenty Trees', a disc about a yard across made of anthracite blocks: 'if the sculpture was burned, it would take 20 trees an entire year to offset the carbon emissions produced'. Beautiful and thought-provoking -- the Painted Hall makes a great backdrop for this kind of art.
08FEB24: The Card Counter (Shrader, 2021) -- Netflix
'William Tell' (Oscar Isaac) has a shady past as an interrogator in the military: meets a young man, son of a former colleague, who wants to take down the civilian contractor who trained Tell and his dad: Tell wants to get Cirk out of the cycle of vengeance. I found this grim and despairing, and very detached, though the soundtrack by Robert Levon Been was good.
15FEB24: The Favourite (Lanthimos, 2018) -- Netflix
Rewatch for film group: initial review from 2019 is here. I have come to appreciate Emma Stone more since her role in this: Olivia Colman are, obviously, awesome; the gradual transformation of Abigail from heroine to villain is excellently paced.
16FEB24: The Taste of Things (Anh Hung Tran, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
A film about cooking. Slow cooking. Juliette Binoche is marvellous, and every scene is like a still life painting, and it's gentle and romantic and understated. French language, good subtitling. I found it restful rather than enjoyable.
21FEB24: Rhiannon Giddens -- Barbican
A voice like a river that carries you over the heavy bass and drums. Her lyrics look back on slavery, celebrate family ties (all too often severed by slavers). Great gig, in good company (John and Judith).
22FEB24: Filibus (Roncoroni, 1915) -- YouTube
An unexpected delight, featuring an artistocratic cross-dressing female airship pirate who masquerades as a detective and a nobleman in order to pull off an audacious heist. Monocles! Dip pens! Cries (from us) of 'it's behind you!' This was a film group pick by a member who heard about this film from a student. Excellent restoration, retaining the original colour washes (pink for dawn and dusk, sepia for day, blue for night), though there's some celluloid inflamation (says our resident expert). The music was taken from original silent-movie scores. 'Written by the future science fiction author Giovanni Bertinetti', says Wikipedia. Valeria Creti awesome and cute in the title role.
23FEB24: Legion: life in the Roman Army -- British Museum
There wasn't a huge amount that surprised me here, but it was nicely presented, and TK alerted me to the existence of an online guide (a.k.a. 'the large print edition') which made it possible to read the captions and descriptions without queuing up to peer at each one: I hope the BM do this for future exhibitions, as the slow shuffle past exhibits is not agreeable. I especially liked the Sarmation dragon standard (as featured in Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw. Perhaps slightly too many audio loops, overlapping at some points. And, as usual, too many people.
24FEB24: Wicked Little Letters (Sharrock, 2023) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
The setting is Littlehampton in the 1920s. National TreasureTM Olivia Colman stars as Edith Swan, who has been receiving obscene letters; Jessie Buckley plays Rose Gooding, her single-mother, Irish next-door neighbour, whom Edith accuses of writing the letters; Anjana Vasan plays Woman Police Constable Gladys Moss, who's brought in on cases involving women 'in case of hysteria and tears'. Timothy Spall is quietly threatening as Edith's father, with Gemma Jones as her mother.
This was hilarious, with dark undercurrents of class conflict, abusive family dynamics and sexism. Some raceblind casting, which worked very well; elderly ladies wielding unexpected social power, which is inspirational; some liberties with the truth (this is based on actual events in 1921-22) but nothing egregious.
29FEB24: Boudica: Queen of War (Johnson, 2023) -- Netflix
Rainy Roman Britain, where shaved armpits and tinted foundation appear to have become fashionable before their time. Olga Kurylenko is actually pretty good as the eponymous queen, and there are some interesting plot elements. And some other plot elements, too, like a magical sword that makes magical sword noises; some extremely early Saxons; 'Cambridge Forest' somewhere between Colchester and London; Nero committing suicide seven years early, and with this script who can blame him. This could have been a much better film if the script had been
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And we should check out Wicked Little Letters.