Oscar winning performances!

After 4 weeks of noise, the five 'modern young women' have finally bowed out of Channels 5's Bad Habits, Holy Orders. This was certainly a case of 'Five go mad in Norfolk'.

The basic premise was that five girls, who between them managed to produce a rosta of millennial abandonment: partying hard, clubbing, drinking to oblivion, welded to their phones, self-obsessed, etc., were despatched to live with the Catholic Daughters of Divine Charity in Swaffham, Norfolk.

The aim was, that living a life they never knew existed, as they joined the nuns in their daily rituals, they might undertake a spiritual journey that would change their downward spiral (not that any of them considered that their usual daily habits were in any way downward). It wasn't hard to see that their initial reactions, not to mention the vast quantities of clothing, soft toys and shoes they brought with them, was unlikely to be a step in the right direction.

The series is worth watching on catch-up. The nuns and others they came into contact with deserved sainthood. One has to commend them for their steadfast belief that prayer would help these misfits and it was interesting to see how the girls reacted in their different ways to this complete change in surroundings, rules, habits and to the nuns themselves.

I have to confess to a large degree of skepticism. If they did change then it's champers all round. My personal view is that they played for the cameras to such a degree that some TV awards are in the offing for best actresses in starring roles.

Sadly Jonathan Creeked

After a long wait, aside from the odd special, Jonathan was back in a lacklustre episode that made me wonder why I was so keen to see it - perhaps it was just the thought of Sarah Alexander that kept my hopes alive.
A somewhat older Davies (sorry Alan it must be the effect of too much time with Stephen Fry) seemed to play a minor role to a host of crackpot characters that gave the whole episode a distinctly disjointed feel, despite the talents of writer David Renwick. Sadly I found the spoof Sherlock piece at the beginning only mildly amusing while the character (a criminology student home from uni) proved to be irritating through to the final Poirot style ending on stage at the theatre.
One saving grace is that we had a mix of everything from sex, stabbing and copious quantities of blood to a foul child, black comedy and robot vacuum cleaners. Let's hope episode two brings back the Jonathan Creek we've grown to enjoy.

Scarlett Johansson creeping around Glasgow

This is a film that takes over the senses from the very first frame. In fact Jonathan Glazer's film 'Under the Skin' does just that so you need to pay attention.
I've more analysis on this one, especially the soundtrack, which seemed to drive one or two of the audience to abandon their seats for the sunshine. From the outset we find a naked Ms Johansson stripping a dead girl and then dressing herself in the clothing before visiting a shopping centre to buy makeup and other clothing. She's helped aong the way by a guy on a high-powered motorcycle whose job appears to be cleaning up after Ms S whose sexual desires vary from faces to handss to bodies.
The fact that there was Scottish money in this production meant a hefty dose of Glaswegian accents - if they weren't then I apologise, but I understood more by translating the Italian subtitles than listening to the soundtrack. What is clear is that Ms S is up to no good and her inability to eat or drink without vomiting clearly says 'alien' in my book. It's only at the end that we see her true form.
The countryside is wild, wet and simply stunning. Coupled with the soundtrack that screeches and gnaws away at your very soul.
I'd be interested to hear how others interpret this film, unless they've read the book by Michael Faber, because two or three conversations I overheard made me think I'd been watching a different movie.

No 'Parkland', no 'Gravity', but did I miss much?

Sadly I didn't get chance to see Peter Landesman's 'Parkland' - a retelling of the assissination of JFK based on the book 'Four Days in November' . According to Variety's Peter Debruge I appear to have been spared a 'tacky' 92 minutes.

On a more positive note, the festival's opening movie 'Gravity', with George Clooney as a space shuttle pilot and Sandra Bullock as a biochemical engineer, seems to have hit the right note. The story covers the destruction of the shuttle leaving Clooney and Bullock floating around in the void with dwindling oxygen supplies, no contact with Earth and, therefore, no hope of rescue.

While being marooned with Clooney anywhere is the dream of countless women, I'll face deep space with Sandra Bullock anytime!

Despite the lateness of this piece, I'm just off to see Terry Gilliam's new fantasy adventure 'The Zero Theorem'.

'Miss Violence' really hits home

Greek director Alexandros Avranas treats this harrowing story to stunning effect, in my view. I'll publish a longer blog later, when I can rely on my internet connection lasting longer than 4 minutes, but for the time being lets give due credit to Avranas.
Thankfully devoid of the endlessly moving steadicam shots we seem to find everywhere these days, he resorts to almost no camera movement letting the actressess (in this case) move in and out of shot. I found this both refreshing and essential to the focus of the story. The young girls give an excellent performance remaining almost expressionless, even more so in close-up.
It doesn't take a psychologist to work out what's going on behind the doors of this oddly emotionless family - even when the daughter, who is celebrating (in a very muted way) her 11th birthday, calmly and quietly throws herself off the balcony to her death.
Back with more on this movie shortly.

Back at the Mostra

It's good to be back at the Mostra again but before I begin: lesson one.
Never try to use Blogger, it's a complete nightmare to get into. We have to see if this first blog ever reaches the screen let alone the internet.
So any changes since my last visit way back in 2010?
Well, the building programme hasn't finished. Some problems I didn't delve into but it's looking promising. The press office team, those at the sharp end dealing with people like me are, as usual excellent, though I did begin with a few moans that have never been resolved since I started coming to the Mostra. Getting into press conferences was my first gripe. The answer was to write more this year and then apply for a better pass next time. Strange as there's never been an issue with either quality or quantity in the past. The real problem is too many hangers-on in the industry are simply autograph hunters and should never be allowed into the press conference.
But, I'm here enjoying it and trying to get into see several offerings.
More to follow.

Back to the Blog

After a long and unforgiveable delay this blog is being refreshed and updated.
Some material has been removed and archived off line.
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