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IV Walter Lang, Desk Set (1957)
I want to see more Katharine Hepburn films, and Sofa Cinema threw this up, one of her pairings with Spencer Tracy. Intelligent Bunny Watson (Hepburn) runs the reference library of a broadcaster, and waits for a colleague to finally propose as he climbs the corporate ladder, whilst absent-minded Richard Sumner (Tracy) works in computers. Ah ha, I thought, it's going to be about replacing the librarian with the fifties version of Wikipedia. And I was right. Here Hepburn is manic rather than cutting, called upon to deliver long recitations such as Hiawatha and "A Visit from St nick". SF-ish and fun.
V Marc Forster, The Kite Runner (2007)
I confess I haven't read Khaled Hosseini's novel, but I should as I found this very moving, and probably the movie of the year. In California at the turn of the century new author Amir (Khalid Abdalla) gets a phone call calling him back to Afghanistan to pay ammends for childhood betrayals. Then the action flashes back to 1978, before the Russian invasion and we meet Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) - the son of his father's servant - who are champion kite fighters. In on-going scraps between them and older boys, Amir betrays Hassan, and the friendship, albeit sometimes tenuous, falls apart on Amir's part, although Hassan remains loyal. We follow Amir and his father out of the country to Pakistan and then America, but the past is not left behind so easily.
Forster has a thing about kites - unless I misremember Finding Neverland and here again coaxes stunning performances from his child actors in beautiful (largely Chinese?) locations, as the real Kabul is clearly not a place to film. I've seen his Stranger than Fiction (onna plane) and I guess I ought to catch up with Monsters Ball and Stay. Thoroughly recommended - although it does make you despair about the current state of Afghanistan; this is set post 9/11 but with an eye on it.
The cinema was pretty well full - with a much older average than usual. I guess the novel is a book club favourite?
VI David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises (2007)
Cronenberg directs someone else's script in London - odd. Follow the money? A young girl dies from wounds and is delivered of a baby - nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) attempts to get her Russian diary translated to track down her family, and ends up with Russian mobsters resident in London. Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) tries to warn her off, as he joins the mob himself.
A companion piece to A History of Violence - Viggo Mortensen is clearly Cronenberg's new Kurt Russell - and with some moments of violence. There are throats cut in a barber's shop and a graveyard, and a fight to the death in a sauna, but actually it's not as visceral as I was led to belive. Viggo Mortensen is again a man with a secret, oozing more greasy cool than he did in History, and the film lives or dies over whether you buy this secret. I think I did - but I don't think the old Cronenberg would have left us with the scenes of consolation. Fair enough, there is space for ambiguity of how Nikolai will behave with the mob in future, but the ending of History gave more mixed messages about the future of the family at its heart. Not vintage Cronenberg.
Totals: 6 [Cinema: 3; DVD: 3; TV: 0]
I want to see more Katharine Hepburn films, and Sofa Cinema threw this up, one of her pairings with Spencer Tracy. Intelligent Bunny Watson (Hepburn) runs the reference library of a broadcaster, and waits for a colleague to finally propose as he climbs the corporate ladder, whilst absent-minded Richard Sumner (Tracy) works in computers. Ah ha, I thought, it's going to be about replacing the librarian with the fifties version of Wikipedia. And I was right. Here Hepburn is manic rather than cutting, called upon to deliver long recitations such as Hiawatha and "A Visit from St nick". SF-ish and fun.
V Marc Forster, The Kite Runner (2007)
I confess I haven't read Khaled Hosseini's novel, but I should as I found this very moving, and probably the movie of the year. In California at the turn of the century new author Amir (Khalid Abdalla) gets a phone call calling him back to Afghanistan to pay ammends for childhood betrayals. Then the action flashes back to 1978, before the Russian invasion and we meet Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) - the son of his father's servant - who are champion kite fighters. In on-going scraps between them and older boys, Amir betrays Hassan, and the friendship, albeit sometimes tenuous, falls apart on Amir's part, although Hassan remains loyal. We follow Amir and his father out of the country to Pakistan and then America, but the past is not left behind so easily.
Forster has a thing about kites - unless I misremember Finding Neverland and here again coaxes stunning performances from his child actors in beautiful (largely Chinese?) locations, as the real Kabul is clearly not a place to film. I've seen his Stranger than Fiction (onna plane) and I guess I ought to catch up with Monsters Ball and Stay. Thoroughly recommended - although it does make you despair about the current state of Afghanistan; this is set post 9/11 but with an eye on it.
The cinema was pretty well full - with a much older average than usual. I guess the novel is a book club favourite?
VI David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises (2007)
Cronenberg directs someone else's script in London - odd. Follow the money? A young girl dies from wounds and is delivered of a baby - nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) attempts to get her Russian diary translated to track down her family, and ends up with Russian mobsters resident in London. Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) tries to warn her off, as he joins the mob himself.
A companion piece to A History of Violence - Viggo Mortensen is clearly Cronenberg's new Kurt Russell - and with some moments of violence. There are throats cut in a barber's shop and a graveyard, and a fight to the death in a sauna, but actually it's not as visceral as I was led to belive. Viggo Mortensen is again a man with a secret, oozing more greasy cool than he did in History, and the film lives or dies over whether you buy this secret. I think I did - but I don't think the old Cronenberg would have left us with the scenes of consolation. Fair enough, there is space for ambiguity of how Nikolai will behave with the mob in future, but the ending of History gave more mixed messages about the future of the family at its heart. Not vintage Cronenberg.
Totals: 6 [Cinema: 3; DVD: 3; TV: 0]
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