There’s nobody in the world of cinema to compare to Clint Eastwood
August 4th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Regular visitors to this blog will know that I am a lifelong fan of cinema and see quite a lot of films, all of which I review on my website. There is probably nobody who has starred in and/or directed more of the movies that I’ve viewed over the last six decades than the legend that is Clint Eastwood who is now aged 87 and still working. I don’t share his politics, but I believe that he is an outstanding talent, especially as a director.
A new box set of 40 of his films has been issued by Warner Home Video and today’s “Guardian” newspaper marks the occasion with a feature by Joe Queenan which notes:
“Eastwood, with whom the public has had a love affair for the 59 years since he debuted as high chaparral stud muffin Rowdy Yates in the TV series ‘Rawhide’, has probably had the most amazing career in motion picture history. There are bigger stars and there are better directors, and there are other stars who have become accomplished film-makers, but none of them can touch Eastwood for the breadth and quality of his work, for his success at the box office, and for his ability to never go out of fashion.”
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the novel “Alone In Berlin” by Hans Fallada
August 3rd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This remarkable novel was first published in German in 1947 and I read an English translation by Michael Hofman published in 2009. It is a long work – almost 600 pages – but the translation is excellent, the narrative compelling, and the text is divided into 72 chapters, so that it is a compulsive read.
It tells the story of a couple in their early 50s, living in Berlin during the Nazi era, who choose an idiosyncratic but immensely dangerous method of protest by leaving anonymous handwritten postcards around the city attacking the regime and the war. Otto and Anna Quangel commence this campaign in 1940 when they learn of the death of their son. But how long can they survive undetected and what impact can such a protest really have?
The story is populated by a series of generally unsavoury characters, led by the Gestapo detective determined to track down the Quangels: “Inspector Escherich was firmly convinced that he would find a knot of secrecy and deceit in well-nigh every German home. Almost no one had a clear conscience.”
Fallada – drawing no doubt on his own experience – describes a claustrophic world in which: “The air was thick with betrayal. No one could trust anyone else.” And yet the prisoner Dr Reichhardt can assert: “We live not for ourselves, but for others. What we make of ourselves we make not for ourselves, but for others.”
Hans Fallada was the nom de plume of Rudolf Ditzen who took the name from two characters in Grimm fairey tales. He was a sad individual who suffered from alcoholism and morphine addiction. He remained in Germany throughout the Nazi period and had a a complicated relationship with the regime, neither an eager collaborator nor an active resistor.
Shortly after the war, Fallada was enouraged to write this novel by an official in the post-war Soviet military administration who drew his attention to the real-life story of Otto and Elise Hampel who left handwritten missives around Berlin between 1940-1942 before being detected and executed. Amazingly Fallada drafted his novel in around a month and then died before it could be published.
There are many similarities, but significant differences, between the story of the Quangels and the reality of the Hampels, some of the changes literary licence by Fallada and others the result of Fallada not being shown all the Gestapo files. The Quangels are portrayed in ultimately heroic terms whereas sadly the Hampels were more flawed characters.
“Alone In Berlin” has been made into a film starring Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
A review of last year’s film “Snowden”
August 2nd, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The eponymous Edward Snowden is, of course, the former CIA contractor who in 2013 revealed to the world the massive and unauthorised surveillance operations carried out by American (and British) intelligence services.
Documentary maker Laura Poitras was at the Hong Kong hotel when he passed on his information to the “Guardian” newspaper and this meeting was the centre-piece of her work “Citizenfour” (2014). In “Snowden” (2016), Poitras herself is one of the many real-life characters in Oliver Stone’s film which opens in that hotel room but constantly flashes back to show how Snowden learned these secrets and came to the decision that he had to expose them. The two works complement each other neatly.
The casting for the Stone movie is well-done. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Snowden and, as well as having a passing physical resemblance to his subject, portrays convincingly the nerdiness, intelligence, passion and anxiety of the mother of all whistleblowers.
Snowden’s partner Lindsay Mills, who barely appeared in “Citizenfour”, has a major role here and Shailene Woodley is excellent as the understanding and loyal girlfriend. Gay actor Zachary Quinto plays gay investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald. Other familiar faces include Nicolas Cage and – at least for UK viewers – British actors Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans and Joely Richardson.
Only occasionally does Stone become carried away with overly-dramatic visuals. For the most part, this is a balanced and informative narrative, with good use of location shooting and some high-tech sets, in a film that underlines both the immense threat to our civil liberties and the huge price to be paid for exposing that threat.
You can see the Wikipedia page on Edward Snowden here.
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What was happening in Britain and the world 50 years ago?
August 1st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
At this time of year, my professional commitments are light, so I sign up for a number of short courses at the City Lit further education college in central London. My fourth such course of this summer was delivered by a lecturer called Alison Appleby and it was titled “Fifty years ago today: the world in 1967”.
I was 19 in the summer of 1967 and it was about this time that I started my lifelong interest in politics and current affairs, so I remember the events of 1967 well. During the course, the lecturer pulled out selected topics and I was struck at how so often the events of 1967 resonated with events in 2017.
In Britain, in 1967 there was a Labour Government struggling with the economy and forced to devalue the pound by 14%. Today, one year after the Brexit referendum decision, the pound has effectively devalued as you will know if you’ve been abroad recently. British politicians saw the longer-term solution to our economic problems as membership of what was then called the Common Market. In 1967, we made the second application to the Market which was vetoed by de Gaulle who saw the UK as effectively a Trojan horse for the Americans. It took us three attempts to get into what we now call the European Union and, after four and a half decades of membership, we are now negotiating exit.
Still in Britain, 1967 was a time of progressive change with the enactment of the Sexual Offences Act, decriminalising most homosexual activity, and the Abortion Act, making it much easier for a pregnant woman to obtain a termination. Both pieces of legislation were promoted as a Private Members Bill – by Labour MP Leo Abse and Liberal MP David Steel respectively – but the then Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins provide the government time that enabled the Bills to reach the statute book. Today attitudes to homosexuality have been transformed with the availability of gay marriage (although there is still prejudice), while abortion rights remain terribly restricted in Northern Ireland.
Of course, there were lots of important developments worldwide in 1967.
In the USA, the first African- American (the Republican Edward Brooke) was elected to the US Senate and the first African-American (Thurgood Marshall) was nominated to the Supreme Court. Could we imagine then that in 2017 the first black President would complete eight years in the White House to be followed by the most bigoted occupant in living memory?
In 1967, the Vietnam War was escalating with American and South Vietnamese troops conducting the largest airborne operation of the conflict (Operation Junction City). Today America is still struggling against insurgencies in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Again in 1967, there was the Six Day War when Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan and Syria in a pre-emptive strike. Today, Israel remains in occupation of the West Bank and a solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict seems as far away as ever.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
How close are we to stopping Alzheimer’s?
July 31st, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This is the question posed at the head of a very short six-part feature currently on the BBC’s website here.
I was particularly interested in the section on the special role of sleep which states:
“New research by Professor Maiken Nedergaard at the University of Copenhagen suggests that regular, good quality sleep throughout life may powerfully prevent the accumulation of amyloid in the brain.”
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
A review of the new rom-com movie “The Big Sick”
July 30th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
This is a romantic comedy that follows the traditional rom-com narrative: boy meets girl, boy loses girl – well, you know the rest. But much else is a fresh approach to the genre.
Above all, the lead characters are not traditional fare. The family of stand-up comedian Kumail (played by stand-up Kumail Nanjiani) are Pakistani migrants to Chicago, while (white) Emily (Zoe Kazan) – as the title forewarns – has some health issues. The script, by Nanjiani and his wife Emily V Gordon, is based on their real-life experience together as underlined by some photographs at the beginning of the credits.
So this is an original twist on a very familiar genre and it works a treat. The characters are utterly believable and we root for them – not just the young couple but also her very different parents, ably portrayed by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter.
The humour is understated but sharp, not least in its observations on Muslim families and in a brief discussion about 9/11, and there is much inter-racial and inter-generational contrast in a world where everyone wants what’s for the best but often disagrees on what that is. In short, the film is a gem and highly recommended.
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The rise of populism: causes and consequences
July 28th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
At this time of year, my professional commitments are light, so I sign up for a number of short courses at the City Lit further education college in central London. My third such course of this summer was delivered by an American lecturer called Dale Mineshima-Lowe and it was titled “An introduction to populism: a view of America and Europe”.
This was an all-day course that was stimulating and engaging. It was new to the college’s programme and the lecturer was pleased with the involvement of the students.
What is populism? It is a reaction to and rebellion against established political parties and structures. It usually expresses the view that there are elites working against the interests of the common people and it is not rooted in any one part of the political spectrum.
Populism can be Right-wing (as with Trumpism in the USA) or Left-wing (as with Syriza in Greece) or even Centrist (as with Macron in France). It does not represent a political ideology so much as political style.
What are the causes of or triggers for populist movements? Factors include:
- The economic recession of 2008 with unemployment and insecure employment plus declining real incomes and tough austerity measures
- Growing inequalities of income in societies with the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer while the middle-class is hollowed out
- Unprecedented numbers of migrants arriving in a country over a prolonged period causing worries about control, culture and identity
- A sense that the establishment has not been listening to the concerns of citizens but simply pushes its own agenda and interests
- A breakdown in the trust in established political parties and figures and a weaking of traditional ideological commitment to such parties
- The arrival of a charismatic leadership who offers a simplified vision of what needs to be done and demonises marginalised groups and political opponents
Our lecturer gave us a number of interesting articles on populism. In one of these, Professor Cas Mudde of the University of Georgia argues that: “populism is pro-democracy, i.e. popular sovereignty and majority rule, but anti-liberal democracy (democracy plus minority rights, pluralism, and rule of law)”. He suggests that: “Populists often ask the right questions, but provide the wrong answers”.
In an another article, Yascha Mounk – a lecturer on government at Harvard University – asserts that: “We’ve made real progress in understanding the nature of populism, moderate progress in analyzing its causes, and barely any progress in identifying its potential remedies”.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Why is there nothing as good as “Madam Secretary” about British politics?
July 26th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
OK, it’s not as superlative as “The West Wing”, my all-time favourite television series. But “Madam Secretary” is good television. Like “The West Wing”, it deals with political issues that have a real-life basis and it represents politicians as basically honourable and trying to to the right thing. And women both originated the series and fill the eponymous role (Barbara Hall and Tea Leoni respectively).
This evening, on Sky Living, the final episode (number 23) of the latest series (number 3) of “Madam Secretary” was broadcast. It dealt with the role of NATO in the face of a resurgent Russia attempting an invasion of Bulgaria. There have now been a total of 68 episodes and I’ve seen them all. I’m pleased that a fourth series has been commissioned and I look forward to it.
But why is there no British fictional series that treats politics seriously and politicians as basically decent?
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The films of British writer/director Christopher Nolan
July 26th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
At this time of year, my professional commitments are light, so I sign up for a number of short courses at the City Lit further education college in central London. My second such course of this summer was delivered by an American lecturer called Mary Wild. and it was titled “Christopher Nolan: dystopian dreams and hidden hopes”.
Wild explained that the protagonists in Nolan’s films are gripped by the search for definite answers which are often beyond reach. His characters are frequently morally ambiguous and driven by philosophical belief. Typically the plots are complex and the narrative is non-linear. Although he is regarded as an auteur, Nolan’s nine films have grossed more than $4.3B, so he a popular and commercial auteur and his latest work (Dunkirk”) will consolidate that reputation.
The three-hour course was focused on three Nolan films with a montage of clips from each:
- “Inception” (2010 – see my review here
- “The Dark Knight” (2008)- see my review here
- “Interstellar” (2014) — see my review here
Wild’s approach to film analysis is based deeply on psychoanalysis (“I’m a faithful follower of Freud”) so much of her material was heavy-going. I would have preferred a more cinematic examination of Nolan’s work.
For a list of Nolan’s films, see here.
For an “Observer” profile of Nolan, see here.
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Fifty years since the Six Day Arab-Israeli War of 1967
July 25th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
At this time of year, my professional commitments are light, so I sign up for a number of short courses at the City Lit further education college in central London. My first such course of this summer was delivered by Dr Noman Hanif – UK born of parents from Kashmir – and it was titled “The impact of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war on contemporary politics”.
In fact, we discussed the war very little and contemporary politics hardly at all because Dr Hanif became stuck in trying to explain the historical background to the conflict. We actually started with a reference to the expulsion of the Jews by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 135 and, by the time we reached 1967, we were two and a half hours into a three hour course.
Our lecturer posed the question: what is this war about? His answer was “The attempt to secularise a religiously rooted conflict”. In fact, he spent so much time arguing that essentially this is not a dispute capable of territorial solution and emphasising the fundamental religious position of Jews and Arabs respectively that, at the very end of the course, I asked: “Are you arguing that the Arab-Israeli problem is fundamentally insoluble?” He answered: “Yes”.
If you want a short background to the Arab-Israeli conflict, you can read my book review here.
If you want to know specifically about the Six Day War of 1967, the BBC has a useful account here.
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (1)