Ever heard of “up-lit”? Sounds like a good idea to me.
October 14th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
So many fiction books and television series seem to be about crime and violence. Although I’m current reading the thriller “Prague Fatale” by Philip Kerr and recently watched the hit BBC series “Bodyguard”, I’m not generally attracted to such dark material.
Apparently, I’m not the only one which explains the growth in popularity of so-called “up-lit” or uplifting literature. A classic example of this is the best-selling novel “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman which I’ve reviewed here.
This week at the Frankfurt Book Fair, there was excitement about another example of “up-lit”: “The Love Story of Missy Carmichael” by Beth Morrey. You can read about this here.
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A review of the new version of “A Star Is Born”
October 12th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
It seems that each generation is destined to have its own version of this classic and painful cinematic tale of one star on the decline as another rises. In the original 1937 version, the actors were Frederic March and Janet Gaynor; then, in the 1954 remake, we had James Mason and Judy Garland; and, in the 1976 version (the only other one that I’ve seen), it was Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand.
In many ways, this fourth outing is Bradley Cooper’s movie: as well as filling one of the leading roles (famous country rocker Jackson Maine) with an especially gravelly voice, this is his assured directorial debut plus he co-wrote and co-produced as well as contributing musical material. And his singing is surprisingly powerful and persuasive.
But, of course, it is equally Lady Gaga’s success: as well as taking the other leading role (undiscovered singer Ally) in her first big-screen starring performance, she contributed many of the songs. We always knew that she was a sensational singer, but she is a revelation as an actress who, for most of the film, has none of the elaborate make-up and outlandish costumes with which we associate her public persona.
This is very much a film about the music with a good number of songs performed in full (and recorded live) and it is very much a movie to be seen in a cinema because the sound is fabulous and the electric concert scenes massively enhanced by a large screen. Some of the final sequences are hard to watch as Jack’s addiction to alcohol and drugs takes its inevitable toll, but this magnificent work manages to end on an uplifting note. A sure-fired Acadamy Award winner.
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A review of the new film “The Wife”
October 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is a quality film with outstanding acting but it won’t appeal to all because it is a character-driven, dialogue-rich work with no action sequences or special effects.
Indeed it could have been a play. In fact, it is adapted by Jane Anderson from the 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer and, together with the eponymous role being take by an actress, some will therefore regard it as a woman’s film but men should certainly view it as well.
Set in 1992 (so shots of Concorde), the story is set around the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to American novelist Jonathan Castleman who is accompanied to the ceremony in Stockholm by his ever-supportive wife Joan.
Jonathan Pryce and Glenn Close – two actors now in their 70s – give superb perfomances as the long-married couple, but it is Close – a six times Academy Award nominee – who provides a career-best showing. She expresses so many emotions so vividly just with a silent look.
There are flash-backs to the 1950s and 1960s when the couple are played by Harry Lloyd and Close’s real-life daughter Annie Starke.
Other important roles are the couple’s son (Max Irons) and a would-be biographer (Christian Slater) in a fine cast pulled together with style by Swedish director Bj0rn Runge making his English-language feature debut. The slow reveal leads to explosive revelations and serious consequences.
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Word of the day: myrmidon
October 9th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
It means “a person who executes without question or scruple a master’s commands”.
The word comes from classical mythology as the Myrmidons were one of the warlike people of ancient Thessaly who accompanied Achilles to the Trojan War.
I came across the word while reading “Prague Fatale” by Philip Kerr which is set in Nazi-occupied wartime Czechoslovakia.
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What is the religious composition of the US Supreme Court?
October 8th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
For weeks now, the world has watched while the United States Senate has held confirmation hearings for President Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. Sadly that nomination has now been confirmed and the court has a clear conservative majority that will impact its decisions for decade and guarantee Trump a long legacy.
Meanwhile a fascinating feature of the US Supreme Court is its religious composition. Five of the justices (including Kavanaugh) are Roman Catholic and three are Jewish. Neil Gorsuch was raised Roman Catholic but now attends an Episcopal Church.
You can learn more about the Supreme Court in my guide to the American political system here.
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A review of the new super-hero movie “Venom”
October 7th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This movie is far from being the best in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but it is not as bad as many critics have suggested. What makes it a little different is that, in other super-hero films, the same character so often has two persona (think Clark Kent and Superman or Tony Stark and Iron Man)), but this time we have an anti-hero with two characters in the same person as one-time investigative reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is possessed by a ‘symbiote” from outer space providing some comedic character clashes.
Sadly the work takes too long to get going and the female characters are poorly rendered (with a terrible under-utilisation of the talented Michelle Williams as the love interest). At least, the evil genius – Riz Ahmed as Dr Carlton Drake – is quite effective and Venom himself – looking like a cousin of “Alien” – is suitably fierce-looking, but the “symbiote” itself looks like a cross between an oil slick and a kitchen mess.
However well or otherwise the film performs at the box office, we know that we’ve not seen the last of Venom because a clip early in credits introduces us to a forthcomong opponent played by Woody Harrelson. Oddly, at the very end of the interminable credits, there is a long clip from an altogeher different film – an animated version of a Spiderman – that is part of Sony’s bit of the MCU.
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Could one woman still block Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court?
October 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
“In the end, whether or not the supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed could come down to the vote of one senator: Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine.
Historically, she is popular with women. She attracts voters who are registered Democrats. She opposed Trump’s candidacy for president, saying that he could make the world “more dangerous”.
And she has vowed not to support a supreme court nominee who demonstrates hostility to Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the United States.
But on Kavanaugh, she has remained mostly silent and her intentions are still a mystery.”
More on this story here.
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A review of “The Shortest History Of Germany” by James Hawes
October 4th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
How could the almost 2,000 tiny statelets that came out of Europe’s Thirty Years War of 1618-1648 become a united nation for the first time in 1871 thanks to Otto von Bismarck before plunging the globe into two world wars which it lost before rising anew as the leader of the European Union and one of the largest and most successful economies in the world? This remarkable story is told in little over 200 pages with more than 100 maps and images in a clear and compelling narrative by British novelist James Hawes.
He divides his accessible work into four (unequal) parts: the first half-millennium (8 BC – 525 AD) when the Romans created the Germans (the term Germans was first used by Julius Caesar) and then the Germans took over Rome; the second half-millennium (526 AD – 983 AD) when the Germans restored Rome; the third half-millennium (983 AD – 1525 AD) which he calls “a battle for Germany”; and the fourth half-millennium (1525 AD – January 2018) which takes up two-thirds of the text.
One of the themes of the book is how, in spite of many, many territorial changes, the geographical idea of Germany has remained broadly constant over two millennia with the West Germany of 1949-1990 being extraordinarily similar to the Germani planned by Augustus Caesar around 1 AD, to East Francia at the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD, and to the Confederation of the Rhine in 1808.
Another – contrasting – theme is the continuing cleavage between the largely Catholic and industrious west and south on the one hand and the predominately Protestant and poorer north and the east on the other. He maps onto this division the voting for Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s and the voting for the extreme left and right in today’s united Germany.
Hawes insists that: “Since 100 AD, south/western Germany has belonged to Western Europe. It was only in 1525 that a new, essentially non-western Germany appeared on the scene: Prussia”. He argues that: “The brief Prussian/Nazi era of Germany history – 1866-1945 – must finally be seen for what it was: a terrible aberration”. At the end of his excellent history, writing of today’s nation, he opines that “This Germany is the sole hope for Europe”.
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Could this be what finally brings down Donald J Trump?
October 3rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
US president Donald Trump has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a mammoth “New York Times” investigation has found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s.
“The [New York state] tax department is reviewing the allegations in the NYT article and is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation,” the state taxation authority has told the “Washington Post”.
- You can read a very short account of the “NYT” story here.
- You can read 11 take-aways from the “NYT” piece here.
- And you can read the full “NYT” investigation here.
Remember Al Capone was brought down through his tax affairs …
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A review of the new Polish film “Cold War”
September 30th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is a most unusual but utterly engaging film. Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, it is largely in Polish (although the dialogue is quite sparse) and set mainly in Poland (but with sections in Berlin, Paris and Yugoslavia). It was shot in black and white and in an aspect ratio of 1.37 : 1 so it looks like the period in which it is set (1949 and beyond).
Loosely inspired by the lives of the director’s parents (and dedicated to them), it tells the tragic love story of urbane musician Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and the younger peasant girl with a special voice Zula (Joanna Kulig) and indeed music of different kinds – Polish folk music, jazz and even some rock – is as frequent and important as the dialogue, while the composition of the scenes is always captivating.
It will truly move you.
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