A review of the latest film version of “Little Women”
January 7th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
“Little Women” has now been made into a feature film as often as the number of daughters in the much-loved novel by Louisa May Alcott: by George Cukor in 1933, by Mervyn Le Roy in 1949, by Gillian Armstrong in 1994, and now by Greta Gerwig who wrote as well as directed.
Gerwig has assembled a fine, international cast for the mid 19th century American March girls: Irish Saoirse Ronan as the free-spirited author Jo (a representation of Alcott herself), British Florence Pugh and Emma Watson as the painter Amy and more traditional Meg respectively, and Australian Eliza Scanlen as the sickly Beth. A strong support cast includes Laura Dern, Chris Cooper and the legendary Meryl Streep.
For someone like me who has not read the novel, the non-linear timeline with repeated flash-backs can be confusing, but the whole thing is a sheer delight.
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So what exactly is 20/20 vision?
January 5th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
It’s 2020 and the new year has led to lots of media references to 20/20 vision. The implication is usually that such vision is perfect, but this is too simplistic. So what exactly is 20/20 vision?
The term 20/20 and similar fractions are visual acuity measurements. They also are called Snellen fractions, named after Herman Snellen, the Dutch ophthalmologist who developed this eyesight measurement system in 1862.
In the Snellen visual acuity system, the top number of the Snellen fraction is the viewing distance between the patient and the eye chart. In the United States, this distance typically is 20 feet; in the UK it is 6 metres (therefore 20/20 is equal to 6/6).
At this testing distance, the size of the letters on one of the smaller lines near the bottom of the eye chart has been standardised to correspond to “normal” visual acuity — this is the “20/20 (6/6)” line. If you can identify the letters on this line but none smaller, you have normal 20/20 (6/6) visual acuity.
The increasingly larger letter sizes on the lines on the Snellen chart above the 20/20 (6/6) line correspond to worse visual acuity measurements (20/25; 20/32; etc.); the lines with smaller letters below the 6/6 line on the chart correspond to visual acuity measurements that are even better than 20/20 vision (e.g. 20/16; 20/10).
On most Snellen charts, the smallest letters correspond to 20/10 visual acuity. If you have 20/10 visual acuity, your eyesight is twice as sharp as that of a person with normal (20/20) vision.
So it is quite possible to see better than 20/20. In fact, most people with young, healthy eyes are capable of identifying at least some of the letters on the 20/15 (6/5 in the UK) line or even smaller letters on the Snellen chart.
Now you know …
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What kind of country is Iran?
January 3rd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
For reasons which I don’t have to explain, the country of Iran is now in news headlines around the world. But what do you actually know about this powerful yet opaque nation?
There are two ways of looking at Iran.
First, we can look at the history and politics of this complex country. I have reviewed two useful books and you can read my reviews here.
I wrote:
“The system of government that Khomeini instituted and which is still in force today is known as velayat-e faqih which translates as ‘the regency of the theologian’. It is a stark contrast and contradiction to the historic position of the Islamic clergy which can be charaterised as ‘quietism’ – the belief that the world of the spiritual and the political should remain separate. A fundamental feature of the system of velayat-e faqih is a structure of power which runs parallel to the regular police and army, based around the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a body created by Khomeini and now involving a domestic security force called the Basij and a force supporting overseas’ operations called the Quds (Jerusalem), numbering in total some 125,000.”
Second. we can look at the people and places that make up this fascinating nation. I have visited the country and you can read my account here.
I concluded:
“We loved Iran. It delivered all that we wanted in terms of fascinating ancient sites and fabulous Islamic architecture without presenting any administrative or political difficulties. Above all, the people were so welcoming and friendly. The country has enormous potential as a tourist destination but, so long as it retains its current policies in relation to the development of nuclear weapons and the promotion of Middle Eastern terrorism, it will be the subject of international opprobrium and tourists will stay away. That would be a shame. The country has so much to offer and its people want you to go there.”
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A review of “The Irishman” – destined to be a classic movie
December 31st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Netflix, which funded this movie, has given us a classic. Most viewers will stream it at home and probably watch it over a couple of evenings, but I made a point of catching it at the cinema when of course I saw it one sitting (it runs to an incredible three and a half hours but does not feel like it).
Following “Goodfellas” and “Casino”, this is a return to the gangster genre by veteran film-maker Martin Scorsese who is now in his late 70s. The story is based on the Charles Brandt book “I Heard You Paint Houses”, which is Mafia euphemism for splattering the walls with blood, and the script is by Steven Zaillian, whose credits include writing “American Gangster”. All the main characters really did populate post-war America and a fair amount of factual detail is offered, but the central plot point – the murder of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa – is speculative and controversial.
To tell the tale, Scorsese has brought together a dream cast: Robert De Niro as the eponymous Philadelphia-born truck driver Frank Sheeran who becomes both a Mafia hit man and senior labour union operative; Joe Pesci as Mafia boss Russell Bufalino who is mentor to and protector of Sheeran; and Al Pacino – who has not worked with Scorsese before – as Hoffa, the union baron who thinks that he can defy the Mafia.
What takes the superb performances of these three leads to another level is the use of technology to de-age them so that they can represent their characters over a period of decades. Very quickly, the viewer simply takes this astonishing transformation for granted. But this is a very macho movie with only peripheral roles for women.
De Niro portrays Sheeran as emotionally stunted except when required by one of his bosses to eliminate the other; Pesci gives an understated performance as Bufalino but he makes the seemingly anodyne words “It is what it is” a chilling sentence of death; Pacino, who is known for his emotional tirades in various films, is well-cast as the mercurial Hoffa and it is interesting to compare his rendition with that of Jack Nicholson who was the Teamsters boss in “Hoffa” (a film which does not feature Sheeran at all).
The framing device for “The Irishman” is a revelatory exposition by Frank Sheeran in a Catholic care home in which we do not know to whom he is speaking (the viewer?) and in which he admits far more than he is prepared to tell the priest attending to his final days – a period of gangster’s life that we normally never see in this genre. But then Scorsese’s movie is so different in so many ways.
You can read my review of the film “Hoffa” here.
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A review of “Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker”
December 30th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Over 40 years after the “Star Wars” cinematic saga began, we have the ninth – and presumably last – episode in the three trilogies originally envisaged by George Lucas and I’ve enjoyed seeing each movie immediately it appeared on the big screen. The honour of closing the franchise goes to director and co-writer J J Abrams back from helming Episode VII.
Among the multitude of characters, this is essentially a story about Rey played by Daisy Ridley and, over the three films of the final trilogy, both the character and the actor have developed considerably so that she is now the eponymous Skywalker. She is well-balanced by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) with whom she has an ambiguous relationship.
However, this is a franchise where characters disappear but go on to reappear, where persons die but somehow return, and even where an actress (Carrie Fisher) can die but still have a role (unused footage from an earlier movie was fitted into the narrative).
It’s all immensely entertaining with lots of fight and battle sequences, some new developments (like stormtroopers that can fly), the occasional new personage (like the underused Zorii Bliss played by Keri Russell), and the tying up of many of the loose ends. But essentially this is a repeat of so many tropes and situations and the return of so many characters that, as with the previous episode, too much is going on and the whole thing runs rather too long (almost two and a half hours).
Also some of it – such as the role of a glass tetrahedron – doesn’t make much sense. Oh, if you don’t blink, at the very end you might catch the first lesbian kiss of the franchise.
You can read my reviews of all nine “Star Wars” films here.
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Where now for a devastatingly defeated Labour Party?
December 29th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
We have all given significant periods of our lives to the Labour movement, most recently as MPs and candidates in the general election. We have been horrified by the damage that Tory government austerity has wreaked in our communities, crippling our NHS, starving our struggling schools and transport networks, normalising street sleeping and failing to keep our streets safe. Yet sadly, when it came to polling day, Labour was led to its biggest defeat since 1935. We lost seats in every region and nation with a swing against us in every social class – with the biggest swing against us from the poorest people.
The scale of this defeat means that we have to look unflinchingly at what went wrong, way beyond a simple review, welcome as that might be. We need to be honest about why our outgoing leadership’s reflexive anti-western worldview was so unpopular and address the reasons.
We were rejected on doorsteps not just because of our woolly, changing position on Brexit, or in Scotland because of our weak commitment to the union, but because the very people we were supposed to be fighting for did not think the policies in our manifesto related to their lives. The focus on nationalisation and uncontrolled spending commitments meant people simply didn’t believe us. Sadly, this was particularly true with those most affected by the poverty and injustice that 10 years of Tory government has created.
Lastly, cronyism at the top of our party and repeated unwillingness to stand up to the stain of antisemitism were constantly relayed back to us on the doorstep, shaming the traditional values of our once great anti-racist party.
We are devastated that, across the country, we can no longer help our residents to whom we have devoted ourselves, still struggling under a Tory government. It is our duty to speak up now, so that our leadership candidates keep these people at the heart of their campaigns to lead our party.
The challenge for the eventual winner is immense. We need to win 150 seats in every corner of the country, gaining votes from a coalition of communities. Labour needs to be in government – and for that, fundamental change at the top of our party is required. Only this will help us recover from the catastrophic loss of 12 December.
Mary Creagh, former MP for Wakefield, Emma Reynolds, former MP for Wolverhampton North East, Anna Turley, former MP for Redcar, Dr Paul Williams, former MP for Stockton South, Gerard Killen, former MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Martin Whitfield, former MP for East Lothian, Mary Wimbury, Labour candidate for Wrexham, Sheila Gilmore, Labour candidate for Edinburgh East, Ashley Dalton, Labour candidate for Rochford and Southend East, Kate Watson, Labour candidate for Glasgow East, Phil Wilson, former MP for Sedgefield
This letter was published in today’s Observer” newspaper.
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A review of the novel “Prague Spring” by Simon Mawer
December 22nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
In some ways, Mawer is an unlikely fiction writer. He took a degree in Zoology at Oxford University and has worked as a biology teacher in Rome for most of his life and he only published his first novel at the comparatively late age of 41. I discovered him through his eighth novel, the wonderful “The Glass Room” which is largely set in what was then Czechoslovakia before and during the Second World War. I subsequently read his next two novels which feature the same leading character in the Second World War and early Cold War respectively: “The Girl Who Fell From The Sky” and “Tightrope”.
So “Prague Spring” is his tenth novel and I have learned to really enjoy his style. Like “The Glass Room”, his latest work is set in Czechsolvakia but in a different and very narrow period: the few weeks running up to the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968 and the occupation itself. Like “The Girl Who Fell From The Sky”, it has an abrupt and incomplete ending and so I hope that, as with “Tightrope”, we will have a sequel.
The narrative involves two couples with their stories only converging two-thirds of the way through the novel. James and Ellie are Oxford University students who decide to use the summer to hitchhike in Europe and, almost by accident, find themselves in the Czechoslovak capital at the fateful time, along the way developing a kind of relationship. Sam is a diplomat at the British Embassy in Prague and Lenka is a Czech student protestor and they quickly make an unlikely, but passionate, couple. Very soon after the four meet, all of their lives are shaken by the sudden occupation of the country.
Mawer was a student at Oxford at the time of the Warsaw Pact invasion and it will have made an impact on him as it did on me at the time (we are the same age). As he revealed in “The Glass Room” and as is again evident in “Prague Spring”, he has a deep knowledge of Czech history, country and language (I know a bit too having visited 28 times and studied the language) and I appreciated the manner in which he weaves so much knowledge and insight into a novel which is about relationships as well as history, politics and culture.
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How was your week? Did you have four scans, two samples, an ECG, a health questionnaire and a cognitive test all on the same day?
December 20th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
One day this week, I had no less than four scans. These were:
Brain MRI scan. This provides information about the structure and function of the brain; for example which parts of the brain are important for carrying out certain tasks and how different parts of the brain are connected.
Heart and body MRI scan. This provides information on the size of the heart chambers and blood vessels, and changes in the size of the heart as it beats. It also provides detailed information on the amount and distribution of fat in the body.
Neck artery ultrasound scan. This uses ultrasound (high-frequency sound waves) to produce images of the blood vessels on either side of the neck. These images help scientists study any narrowing of these major blood vessels.
Dual-Energy x-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scan. This uses low-energy X-rays to measure bone density throughout the body. Detailed pictures of the spine, hips and knees help scientists to study diseases like osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) and arthritis.
As well as these four scans, I had physical measures, physical tests, and an electrocardiogram (ECG), gave blood and urine, samples, completed a long questionnaire on health and lifestyle, and took a series of cognitive tests. The whole process took almost five hours.
What’s going on, I hear your say. Its all part of a huge, longitudinal health study called Biobank. I joined this study – which has around 500,000 participants – about 10 years ago and, for time to to time, I complete online questionnaires and take part in trials and tests. The imaging assessment study in which I participated this week will eventually encompass some 100,000 people.
It’s all voluntary, but UK Biobank is helping scientists from all the around the world to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases. The main sub study in which I am a participant is looking at the health risks associated with dementia.
I’m grateful for the health I have and pleased to be able to make a small contribution to giving others better life prospects.
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How many countries have a name beginning with ‘The’?
December 17th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Wikipedia tells us:
According to the CIA World Factbook, the United States Department of State, the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use, The Gambia is one of only two countries whose self-standing short name for official use should begin with the word “The”, the other being The Bahamas.
Habitually, the definite article is sometimes still used when addressing many other countries, including
Netherlands, Philippines, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, Comoros, Central African Republic, Seychelles, Maldives, Solomon Islands, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, Marshall Islands, United Kingdom, United States of America and Lebanon,
with varying degrees of accuracy.
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Revisiting the 1978 classic movie “The Deer Hunter”
December 15th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
There have been many American films about the Vietnam war and “The Deer Hunter” was one of the first and finest, being nominated for nine Academy Awards and winning five including Best Picture and Best Director (for Michael Cimino who originated the story). I saw it on its original release and revisited it on the big screen 40 years later. I had forgotten how long it is (just over three hours) but it remains a moving and shocking work.
The first hour or so is set in a Pennsylvannia steel town (although it was shot in eight different locations in Ohio) with a traditional Russian Orthodox wedding and rubustious reception, before jumping to the horrors of Vietnam (filming was in Thailand). We meet three steelworkers who have just been drafted: Mikey (Robert De Niro), the hunter of the title, Steven (John Savage), the husband of the marriage, and Nick (Christopher Walken) who has just proposed to Linda (Meryl Streep).
The film was immediately criticised for its repeated use of disturbing sequences of Russian roulette on the grounds that there is no evidence that such events actually occurred. However, like the deer hunt, the Russian roulette is a metaphor: the first of an experience of simplicity and nobility, the second an illustation of chance and brutality, both deployed twice in ways which contrast with each other and each use.
The cinematography by Oscar-nominated Vilmos Zsigmond is striking and the main title theme by John Williams is haunting which, with a strong storyline and fine acting across the board, makes for a truly memorable movie. Viewing it again four decades later, it is wonderful to see how Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep have carved out such long and illustrious acting careers.
Wondering what films to download for viewing over Christmas & New Year? You can read my reviews of almost 70 classic movies here.
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