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Monthly culture, October 2024
03OCT24: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (Fabian, 2022) -- Netflix
Lesley Manville, Jason Isaacs, Isabelle Huppert: a Cinderella who's her own fairy godmother: the class divide in 1950s London (and Paris): the importance of kindness. This is something of a morality tale (the morals being 'stick to your own class', 'kindness is its own reward' and 'what you're looking for is right there at home') and sometimes overly sentimental (or twee) but Manville is splendid in the lead role.
16OCT24: The Last Dinner Party -- Eventim Apollo
A proper gig! With an all-female rock band! Whose songs I really like! A great night out, a fabulously-dressed audience and a lovely atmosphere.
18OCT24: Timestalker (Lowe, 2024) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Fun, lightweight film about Agnes (played by director Alice Lowe) who falls in love with a handsome gentleman (Aneurin Barnard) in the 1680s and encounters him, in different guises -- highwayman, preacher, pop star, stage magician) in each new life. Sadly, he's just not that into her… All the characters recur over the centuries: I was particularly taken by Meg (Tanya Roberts) who has some splendid comic timing with a dildo. Very enjoyable.
24OCT24: The Sapphires (Blair, 2012) -- Netflix
Random film club pick which turned out great: the Sapphires are an all-girl Australian First Nations singing group, and this is (in part) the story of their tour of Vietnam and their rise to success. The screenwriter is the son of one of the original Sapphires! Features Chris O'Dowd as a White Saviour. The first film I've seen where people are happy to be in Vietnam. Great soundtrack!
25OCT24: Emilia Pérez (Audiard, 2024) -- PictureHouse Central
Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez. Gascón plays Manitas, a Mexican drug lord who's transitioning; Gomez (apparently a popular singer) plays the woman who married Manitas and now believes he's dead -- but who is this surprise new 'aunt', Emilia, that the kids say smells like papa?; Saldana is Rita, the razor-sharp legal ace who becomes Emilia's fixer and friend. Also, it is a musical, featuring a lovely ensemble piece about vaginoplasty. Really excellent until the last scene, which was a 'kill your gays' copout.
We ventured to PictureHouse Central, just behind Piccadilly, for this, due to inconvenient local showings. Absolutely worth it, and not just for the film: the cinema is vast and labyrinthine, and retains much of the original 1930s Trocadero décor. And I took the 453 bus all the way home, listening to the soundtrack on Spotify.
26OCT24: Fidelio (Beethoven, 1805) -- Royal Opera House
One of my favourite operas: scored a cheap (bench) seat within 15 ft. of the singers on stage: wasn't entirely sure about switching from 18th-century prison in the first act to modern setting in second: still, glorious and uplifting and well-performed.
29OCT24: Macbeth (Shakespeare, 1606) -- Harold Pinter Theatre
Tennant as Macbeth, Cush Jumbo as his wife: binaural headphones for the soundscape, which was weirdly intimate and truly unsettling. The witches (here 'wayward sisters': never glimpses, only heard) were whispering behind me, or so said my ears: my impulse was to turn round and shush them! Headphones meant the actors could whisper and still be heard, and ambient sounds (the clatter of a dagger, the crunch of Malcolm's neck breaking) were loud and clear. There was also a live but unobtrusive folk band accompanying the action, behind a glass wall which formed part of the set. Minimalist black-and-white set: text surely cut (it lasted about 2 hours) but I didn't spot any lacunae. The Porter (Jatinder Singh Randhawa) who broke out into broad Glaswegian in his improvised scene ('that's the fourth wall I've broken this year') was great comic relief -- much needed amid the horrors of Lady Macduff's death and the slaughter of children. I'm still not sure I like the headphone audio but it was very effective.
Lesley Manville, Jason Isaacs, Isabelle Huppert: a Cinderella who's her own fairy godmother: the class divide in 1950s London (and Paris): the importance of kindness. This is something of a morality tale (the morals being 'stick to your own class', 'kindness is its own reward' and 'what you're looking for is right there at home') and sometimes overly sentimental (or twee) but Manville is splendid in the lead role.
16OCT24: The Last Dinner Party -- Eventim Apollo
A proper gig! With an all-female rock band! Whose songs I really like! A great night out, a fabulously-dressed audience and a lovely atmosphere.
18OCT24: Timestalker (Lowe, 2024) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Fun, lightweight film about Agnes (played by director Alice Lowe) who falls in love with a handsome gentleman (Aneurin Barnard) in the 1680s and encounters him, in different guises -- highwayman, preacher, pop star, stage magician) in each new life. Sadly, he's just not that into her… All the characters recur over the centuries: I was particularly taken by Meg (Tanya Roberts) who has some splendid comic timing with a dildo. Very enjoyable.
24OCT24: The Sapphires (Blair, 2012) -- Netflix
Random film club pick which turned out great: the Sapphires are an all-girl Australian First Nations singing group, and this is (in part) the story of their tour of Vietnam and their rise to success. The screenwriter is the son of one of the original Sapphires! Features Chris O'Dowd as a White Saviour. The first film I've seen where people are happy to be in Vietnam. Great soundtrack!
25OCT24: Emilia Pérez (Audiard, 2024) -- PictureHouse Central
Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez. Gascón plays Manitas, a Mexican drug lord who's transitioning; Gomez (apparently a popular singer) plays the woman who married Manitas and now believes he's dead -- but who is this surprise new 'aunt', Emilia, that the kids say smells like papa?; Saldana is Rita, the razor-sharp legal ace who becomes Emilia's fixer and friend. Also, it is a musical, featuring a lovely ensemble piece about vaginoplasty. Really excellent until the last scene, which was a 'kill your gays' copout.
We ventured to PictureHouse Central, just behind Piccadilly, for this, due to inconvenient local showings. Absolutely worth it, and not just for the film: the cinema is vast and labyrinthine, and retains much of the original 1930s Trocadero décor. And I took the 453 bus all the way home, listening to the soundtrack on Spotify.
26OCT24: Fidelio (Beethoven, 1805) -- Royal Opera House
One of my favourite operas: scored a cheap (bench) seat within 15 ft. of the singers on stage: wasn't entirely sure about switching from 18th-century prison in the first act to modern setting in second: still, glorious and uplifting and well-performed.
29OCT24: Macbeth (Shakespeare, 1606) -- Harold Pinter Theatre
Tennant as Macbeth, Cush Jumbo as his wife: binaural headphones for the soundscape, which was weirdly intimate and truly unsettling. The witches (here 'wayward sisters': never glimpses, only heard) were whispering behind me, or so said my ears: my impulse was to turn round and shush them! Headphones meant the actors could whisper and still be heard, and ambient sounds (the clatter of a dagger, the crunch of Malcolm's neck breaking) were loud and clear. There was also a live but unobtrusive folk band accompanying the action, behind a glass wall which formed part of the set. Minimalist black-and-white set: text surely cut (it lasted about 2 hours) but I didn't spot any lacunae. The Porter (Jatinder Singh Randhawa) who broke out into broad Glaswegian in his improvised scene ('that's the fourth wall I've broken this year') was great comic relief -- much needed amid the horrors of Lady Macduff's death and the slaughter of children. I'm still not sure I like the headphone audio but it was very effective.