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Monthly culture, April 2025
03APR25: Red Notice (Thurber, 2021) -- Netflix
Featuring Ritu Arya (Lena in Polite Society as an Interpol agent, tracking down art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds, playing himself): also involved are FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) and Booth's rival 'the Bishop' (Gal Gadot). Ridiculous plot, exotic locations (Rome, Siberia, Bali), Putin memes, Nazi hoards, daddy issues and a plethora of double-crosses. Reminiscent of 60s crime capers: splendid fun!
04APR25: 4 Authors @ Waterstones
Natasha Pulley, Claire Heywood, Laura Shepperson and Claire North discussing re-imaginings of classical myths in fiction. This was really interesting, especially Claire North talking about Penelope and Natasha Pulley talking about Dionysus, and how he doesn't appear in the Iliad... Claire North saying that a writer has to balance reverence for the text with writing for a modern audience, and Natasha Pulley disagreeing vehemently: "writers then were mucking around with the text". In the 'Song of Penelope' trilogy, CN only put in the goddesses because her publishers reminded her that they are a fantasy imprint: otherwise it would have been a straightforward historical geopolitical thriller. Pulley is a fan of Fludd and Small Gods; North, of Zelazny, Le Guin ('humanity, craft and skill') and Pratchett.
05APR25: The Score (Oliver Cotton) -- Theatre Royal, Haymarket
Set in 1747, a dramatisation of the meeting between JS Bach and Frederick the Great: they discuss music, war and faith. "These are not ordinary times." There's a wager that a group of musicians can come up with a melody that Frederick can challenge Bach's ability to fugue. (Is fugue a verb? It is now.) There's also a thread of absent fathers -- Bach himself for Carl Philip Emmanuel, Frederick the Great's dead father looming over him. Brian Cox as Johann Sebastian Bach, Nicole Ansari-Cox as his wife Anna, Stephen Hagan asPrinny Frederick the Great, and a special mention to Juliet Garricks as the maid Emilia, who was awesome. Also features Voltaire being very French. Good use of the circular stage.
09APR25: The Sixteen, Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich
This year's Choral Pilgrimage in the lovely setting of the ORNC Chapel: music included Hildegard of Bingen, Arvo Pärt (who I'm beginning to appreciate a lot more) and 'Orbits', a splendid new work for choir and solo violin by Anna Clyne.
10APR25: A Man Called Otto (Forster, 2022) -- Netflix
Otto (Tom Hanks) is a grumpy old man who has given up on life. New neighbour Marisol (Mariana Treviño) keeps disrupting his suicide plans and asking for his help. There is an excellent cat, themes of found family, trans and non-white characters. Hanks is brilliant: understated and quiet. His son's in the film too.
17-21APR25: Reconnect (Eastercon), Belfast
Interesting programme included 'Queer Eye for the Sci-Fi' ('prioritise authenticity of representation over authenticity of authorship' .. 'judged by the people you're trying to represent, not by you the author'); 'Lost in Translation' (Jeanette Ng on repetition and homophones in Chinese, not well translated, and on poetry where the poem is literally translated and then an English poet is brought in to poeticise it); 'Feminism and SFF' (Juliet McKenna saying that a lot of self-published novels are at the 'promising draft' stage, and that royalties are higher on ebooks); 'Portal Fantasy' (Sarah Rees Brennan 'when we go to them it's portal fantasy, when they come to us it's horror'); 'How Should We Write the Regency?' (mostly facts, some intriguing, about the Regency period). Was on a panel about 'Feminist Retellings' (retelling vs reversion - the latter changes POV and some of the story).
Saw old friends, though not as many as I'd have liked; saw programme, though not as much as I'd planned; found the hotel waaaaay too warm, and was quite unwell on the Sunday (presaging the vile lurgy I brought back with me). Didn't see much of Belfast.
28APR25: The Return (Pasolini, 2024) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
"How can men find a war but not find their way home?" Odysseus (whose name is not mentioned for quite a while) is washed up naked, sunburnt, scarred. Penelope's shuttle moves like a ship: her anger is subtly portrayed but pervasive. There's a real sense of how vulnerable she is. Binoche does a lot with her eyes. Laertes is sliding into dementia. The citadel? castle? (rather medieval looking) is full of light and shadows, and the suitors are running wild, fornicating in every corner of the palace, pursuing the peasants. (Except Antinous, who comes across as rather likeable and genuinely in love with Penelope -- who definitely cares for him.) Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) is loutish, not at all his father's steward: when it comes to the crunch, he kills the man Odysseus has spared. The crunch -- Odysseus' vengeance -- is brutal and bloody and efficient, a real change of pace. I am happy to report that the maids survive. Also, excellent costuming: everything looked as though it had been sewn together from smaller scraps, which feels credible. An astonishing and beautiful film, and I suspect I liked it much more than I'll like Christopher Nolan's version.
Featuring Ritu Arya (Lena in Polite Society as an Interpol agent, tracking down art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds, playing himself): also involved are FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) and Booth's rival 'the Bishop' (Gal Gadot). Ridiculous plot, exotic locations (Rome, Siberia, Bali), Putin memes, Nazi hoards, daddy issues and a plethora of double-crosses. Reminiscent of 60s crime capers: splendid fun!
04APR25: 4 Authors @ Waterstones
Natasha Pulley, Claire Heywood, Laura Shepperson and Claire North discussing re-imaginings of classical myths in fiction. This was really interesting, especially Claire North talking about Penelope and Natasha Pulley talking about Dionysus, and how he doesn't appear in the Iliad... Claire North saying that a writer has to balance reverence for the text with writing for a modern audience, and Natasha Pulley disagreeing vehemently: "writers then were mucking around with the text". In the 'Song of Penelope' trilogy, CN only put in the goddesses because her publishers reminded her that they are a fantasy imprint: otherwise it would have been a straightforward historical geopolitical thriller. Pulley is a fan of Fludd and Small Gods; North, of Zelazny, Le Guin ('humanity, craft and skill') and Pratchett.
05APR25: The Score (Oliver Cotton) -- Theatre Royal, Haymarket
Set in 1747, a dramatisation of the meeting between JS Bach and Frederick the Great: they discuss music, war and faith. "These are not ordinary times." There's a wager that a group of musicians can come up with a melody that Frederick can challenge Bach's ability to fugue. (Is fugue a verb? It is now.) There's also a thread of absent fathers -- Bach himself for Carl Philip Emmanuel, Frederick the Great's dead father looming over him. Brian Cox as Johann Sebastian Bach, Nicole Ansari-Cox as his wife Anna, Stephen Hagan as
09APR25: The Sixteen, Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich
This year's Choral Pilgrimage in the lovely setting of the ORNC Chapel: music included Hildegard of Bingen, Arvo Pärt (who I'm beginning to appreciate a lot more) and 'Orbits', a splendid new work for choir and solo violin by Anna Clyne.
10APR25: A Man Called Otto (Forster, 2022) -- Netflix
Otto (Tom Hanks) is a grumpy old man who has given up on life. New neighbour Marisol (Mariana Treviño) keeps disrupting his suicide plans and asking for his help. There is an excellent cat, themes of found family, trans and non-white characters. Hanks is brilliant: understated and quiet. His son's in the film too.
17-21APR25: Reconnect (Eastercon), Belfast
Interesting programme included 'Queer Eye for the Sci-Fi' ('prioritise authenticity of representation over authenticity of authorship' .. 'judged by the people you're trying to represent, not by you the author'); 'Lost in Translation' (Jeanette Ng on repetition and homophones in Chinese, not well translated, and on poetry where the poem is literally translated and then an English poet is brought in to poeticise it); 'Feminism and SFF' (Juliet McKenna saying that a lot of self-published novels are at the 'promising draft' stage, and that royalties are higher on ebooks); 'Portal Fantasy' (Sarah Rees Brennan 'when we go to them it's portal fantasy, when they come to us it's horror'); 'How Should We Write the Regency?' (mostly facts, some intriguing, about the Regency period). Was on a panel about 'Feminist Retellings' (retelling vs reversion - the latter changes POV and some of the story).
Saw old friends, though not as many as I'd have liked; saw programme, though not as much as I'd planned; found the hotel waaaaay too warm, and was quite unwell on the Sunday (presaging the vile lurgy I brought back with me). Didn't see much of Belfast.
28APR25: The Return (Pasolini, 2024) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
"How can men find a war but not find their way home?" Odysseus (whose name is not mentioned for quite a while) is washed up naked, sunburnt, scarred. Penelope's shuttle moves like a ship: her anger is subtly portrayed but pervasive. There's a real sense of how vulnerable she is. Binoche does a lot with her eyes. Laertes is sliding into dementia. The citadel? castle? (rather medieval looking) is full of light and shadows, and the suitors are running wild, fornicating in every corner of the palace, pursuing the peasants. (Except Antinous, who comes across as rather likeable and genuinely in love with Penelope -- who definitely cares for him.) Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) is loutish, not at all his father's steward: when it comes to the crunch, he kills the man Odysseus has spared. The crunch -- Odysseus' vengeance -- is brutal and bloody and efficient, a real change of pace. I am happy to report that the maids survive. Also, excellent costuming: everything looked as though it had been sewn together from smaller scraps, which feels credible. An astonishing and beautiful film, and I suspect I liked it much more than I'll like Christopher Nolan's version.