Monthly culture, December 2024
Friday, January 3rd, 2025 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth05DEC24: Carol (Haynes, 2015) – Netflix
Netflix didn't seem to have any decent queer romcoms in 2024, so I chose this instead. Blanchett brittle in the title role (and very much in Bacall mode), Rooney Mara as the younger love interest. Some splendidly Fifties shots -- ochre curtains and angular architecture; Hopperesque compositions -- and a joyous though understated final scene. Not fun in the way that Single all the Way or Happiest Season were fun, but definitely worth watching.
07DEC24: The Duchessof Malfi (Webster / Harris) – Trafalgar Theatre
Modernised and abridged version of Webster's original play. Jodie Whittaker ("I'm not going to stay indoors and wear beige") as the eponymous Duchess; Joel Fry as her hapless and fawning husband; Jude Owusu was a fabulous and fearsome Bosola, with his heart in the right place but his conscience purchased by the Duchess' evil brothers (Rory Fleck Byrne and Paul Ready); Matti Houghton as Cariola, the Duchess' maid, was splendid. The Cardinal's opening line is 'would you like to suck my cock?', which gives some idea of the tone. In the wrenching second half (Duchess in asylum, believing Antonio and their children have been murdered -- film of which is played repeatedly) it's sometimes hard to watch. I distracted myself by trying to remember the original timeline. Is it months or years? Then lycanthropy, cross-dressing, murder by Bible, and cutting the last third of the 'cover her face' line. Emotionally overwhelming, but I think I prefer the original text.
12DEC24: Emilia Perez (Audiard, 2024) – Netflix
my review from October
13DEC24: Navidad Nuestra – Temple Church
Festive music from Spain and Latin America: heavy on chants and percussion, glorious and strange. After this, we played 'escape the Temple after curfew', finally finding a local to follow to the only exit. Not as much of a hardship as it might have been, walking through alleys and squares full of Christmas lights and decorations.
14DEC24: The Tempest (Shakespeare) – Theatre Royal
Exotic import Sigourney Weaver, as Prospero, spoke in iambic pentameter: you could hear the ends of lines. This gender-switched production also switched the pronouns and titles (and some of the names: Gonzala?!), which made some lines scan oddly. Voices amplified and some overdone subsonics in the soundtrack. Prospero mostly just sat,master mistress of all she surveyed. Caliban (Forbes Masson) is fat, scarred and damaged: Ariel (Mason Alexander Park, of whom I am now very much a fan) plays the 'sprite' as an androgynous fallen angel, a majestic and terrifying presence, often airborne and almost always watching the foolish mortals. This was a rather stylised production, with several cuts. Ariel almost made up for Prospero.
19DEC24: Christmas Swing with Frank Dupree – Barbican
Gershwin, Bernstein, Tchaikovsky (with jazz percussion) and Kapustin's Piano Concerto 4, which I didn't know and which is very post-Rachmaninoff -- the composer is Ukrainian. Dupree played with passion and considerable gusto, and I came up with a theory about why I prefer to watch female pianists, and why Dupree sports a blue jacket rather than the more usual black. A laid-back, cheerful, festive performance that did much to balance a rather trying dinner beforehand. (Note to self: do not eat out in the City during Christmas lunch season.)
21DEC24: The Unthanks In Winter -- Cadogan HallA lovely way to celebrate the solstice: very little modern Christmas music, though there were a few traditional carols (Coventry, Cherry Tree). Beautiful and sometimes eerie music.
31DEC24: Napoleon: Un Petit Pantomime (Charles Court Opera) -- Jermyn Street Theatre
Tickets purchased after seeing Charles Court Opera's production of The Sorcerer back in June: this was considerably less highbrow, which is saying something :) also absolutely hilarious. Kudos to the guitarist who produced some excellent riffs during 'I'm King George the Third' (to the tune of 'I Want to Break Free') and 'Sailing Off to France' ('Dead Ringer for Love'). Deeply unserious, really well sung, and concluded (of course) with an Abba medley, including that song about history books on the shelf.
Netflix didn't seem to have any decent queer romcoms in 2024, so I chose this instead. Blanchett brittle in the title role (and very much in Bacall mode), Rooney Mara as the younger love interest. Some splendidly Fifties shots -- ochre curtains and angular architecture; Hopperesque compositions -- and a joyous though understated final scene. Not fun in the way that Single all the Way or Happiest Season were fun, but definitely worth watching.
07DEC24: The Duchess
Modernised and abridged version of Webster's original play. Jodie Whittaker ("I'm not going to stay indoors and wear beige") as the eponymous Duchess; Joel Fry as her hapless and fawning husband; Jude Owusu was a fabulous and fearsome Bosola, with his heart in the right place but his conscience purchased by the Duchess' evil brothers (Rory Fleck Byrne and Paul Ready); Matti Houghton as Cariola, the Duchess' maid, was splendid. The Cardinal's opening line is 'would you like to suck my cock?', which gives some idea of the tone. In the wrenching second half (Duchess in asylum, believing Antonio and their children have been murdered -- film of which is played repeatedly) it's sometimes hard to watch. I distracted myself by trying to remember the original timeline. Is it months or years? Then lycanthropy, cross-dressing, murder by Bible, and cutting the last third of the 'cover her face' line. Emotionally overwhelming, but I think I prefer the original text.
12DEC24: Emilia Perez (Audiard, 2024) – Netflix
my review from October
13DEC24: Navidad Nuestra – Temple Church
Festive music from Spain and Latin America: heavy on chants and percussion, glorious and strange. After this, we played 'escape the Temple after curfew', finally finding a local to follow to the only exit. Not as much of a hardship as it might have been, walking through alleys and squares full of Christmas lights and decorations.
14DEC24: The Tempest (Shakespeare) – Theatre Royal
Exotic import Sigourney Weaver, as Prospero, spoke in iambic pentameter: you could hear the ends of lines. This gender-switched production also switched the pronouns and titles (and some of the names: Gonzala?!), which made some lines scan oddly. Voices amplified and some overdone subsonics in the soundtrack. Prospero mostly just sat,
19DEC24: Christmas Swing with Frank Dupree – Barbican
Gershwin, Bernstein, Tchaikovsky (with jazz percussion) and Kapustin's Piano Concerto 4, which I didn't know and which is very post-Rachmaninoff -- the composer is Ukrainian. Dupree played with passion and considerable gusto, and I came up with a theory about why I prefer to watch female pianists, and why Dupree sports a blue jacket rather than the more usual black. A laid-back, cheerful, festive performance that did much to balance a rather trying dinner beforehand. (Note to self: do not eat out in the City during Christmas lunch season.)
21DEC24: The Unthanks In Winter -- Cadogan HallA lovely way to celebrate the solstice: very little modern Christmas music, though there were a few traditional carols (Coventry, Cherry Tree). Beautiful and sometimes eerie music.
31DEC24: Napoleon: Un Petit Pantomime (Charles Court Opera) -- Jermyn Street Theatre
Tickets purchased after seeing Charles Court Opera's production of The Sorcerer back in June: this was considerably less highbrow, which is saying something :) also absolutely hilarious. Kudos to the guitarist who produced some excellent riffs during 'I'm King George the Third' (to the tune of 'I Want to Break Free') and 'Sailing Off to France' ('Dead Ringer for Love'). Deeply unserious, really well sung, and concluded (of course) with an Abba medley, including that song about history books on the shelf.
