Visions of light: a course on film technique and style
January 29th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I spent a day at the City Literary Institute attending a course by John Wischmeyer which examined film technique and style.
We began by watching the opening scene of “Jaws”, discussing it, and then watching it again to notice better all the techniques deployed by director Steven Spielberg. The rest of the course looked in more detail at the different elements of composing a film.
We considered the use of the camera for the long shot – such as the wounded soldiers in the railway station scene in “Gone With The Wind” – and the long take – such as the arrival of Sherif Ali in “Lawrence Of Arabia” [my review here].
Next we looked at the use of film scores, focusing especially on the scoring of Bernard Herman who did a lot of work with the director Alfred Hitchcock, including “Vertigo” [my review here]. Other cases of sound design included examination of clips from “A Clockwork Orange” [my review here], “Apocalypse Now” [my review here] and the recent film “Dunkirk” [my review here].
The next section of the course reviewed the role off the editor, known as “the invisible art” and arguably the least apparent to the viewer but the most important to the final look of the film. The typical film involves around 200 hours of material which has to be edited to something like two hours which could consist of some 5,000 shots. We viewed an interview with the brilliant editor Walter Murch.
Finally we considered the contribution of music to film. This is usually the last element of the work after the editing is done. Ennio Morricone and John Williams are particularly famous for their film scores.
A fascinating day that will enhance my appreciation of the movies.
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Flooding in Paris and drought in Cape Town
January 27th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
If I ever doubted the centrality of water to humankind (you could write a history of civilisation around the theme of water), the importance of H2O was underlined for me when I spent five years chairing the Customer Challenge Group for the regional company South East Water.
So I can’t help but noticing two current and contrasting news items: the flooding of the River Seine in Paris and the drought being suffered by the citizens in Cape Town (both cities which I’ve visited).
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Who will be the Democratic Party candidate in the presidential election of 2020?
January 27th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Donald Trump has only been in the White House for a year and we are still nine months away from the mid-term congressional elections in November. But already there is speculation about who the Democrats will field in 2020 to take back the Oval Office from the Republicans.
During his time as president, Trump has continued to tweet several times a day and to run election-style rallies, so he is in effect in permanent campaigning mode, but he may not survive in the office long enough to be able to seek a second term.
Meanwhile there is no obvious or clear challenger emerging on the Democrat side. For a few weeks, there was the notion that Oprah Winfrey might run for the office – as if we need another television celebrity in the West Wing – but she has now ruled this out.
Some of my American friends are excited about the idea of Bernie Sanders running again and there is recent news that he is considering another race. However, by the time of the election, he will be 79. There is talk about former Vice-President Joe Biden going for the top office. Yet he is only a year younger than Sanders and very much an establishment figure.
Among more than 30 names being talked about for the candidacy, there are two interesting women senators: Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris (Jamaican father/Indian mother). Then there is senator Cory Booker who is African-American. A ticket with a woman and a black candidate – say, Warren and Booker – would be something.
Of course, it’s far to soon to say – but it’s fun to speculate.
In the fictional world of television, Jed Bartlet of “The West Wing” was the president we had wanted Bill Clinton to be and currently Elizabeth McCord of “Madam Secretary” is being groomed to do what Hillary Clinton might have done.
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Think tank analysis highlights nursing staffing crisis facing UK
January 25th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Analysis from the International Longevity Centre – UK (ILC-UK) published today shows:
- Between September 2009 and September 2017, the number of nurses rose by 0.8%, while the numbers of people aged over-65 rose by 17.6% during roughly the same period.
- The number of nurses per 1,000 of the population has fallen considerably from its peak of 10.2 in 2005, to just under 8 in 2015. In contrast, other major economies such as the USA, Germany and France have all seen the number of nurses relative to the population rise.
- Between July and September 2017, over 34,000 nursing vacancies for full time jobs in England were posted (up 3,000 on the same time last year), amounting to almost 40% of overall vacancies (across the labour market as whole) advertised.
- An estimated 7% of nurses in the NHS are EU nationals, yet more and more are leaving the NHS. In 2016, only 12% of new nurses joining the NHS were from the EU. The year before this figure was 19%.
Further detail here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Ever heard of the cockleshell heroes?
January 24th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
In 1955, there was a British film called “The Cockleshell Heroes” which told the story of a daring British commando raid of 1942 when 10 men attempted to sink ships in the port of Bordeaux in German-occupied France. Six ships were damaged as a result of the mission, but only two of the 10 commandos survived.
I was seven at the time of the film’s release but I remember seeing it. In the intervening 60 or so years, I’ve had no occasion to think much about Operation Frankton – as it was called – but amazingly it came up in conversation today when I had lunch at a restaurant called “Tiles” in central London (sadly it is due to close down in a few days time).
It turned out that the middle-aged French waitress Nicole was from near Bordeaux and has an elderly father back in France who is an active member of a British/French society which commemorates the commando raid.
You can read a fascinating article about the cockleshell heroes here and you can find more detail on the operation here.
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A review of “The Couple Next Door” by Shari Lapena
January 24th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This novel by Canadian writer Lapena is a domestic suspense drama in the vein of “Gone Girl” and “The Girl On The Train” and indeed some have dubbed it “Gone Baby”. It has been a major best-seller but, in spite of a strong opening and a racy style, it is not as satisfactory as the other two works and sadly becomes weaker as the plotting unfolds.
Anne and Marco Conti are a couple in their early 30s living in upstate New York with seemingly a lot going for them: a six month old daughter Cora, Anne’s rich parents, Marco’s successful business, and friendly next door neighbours. But one night they suffer every parent’s worst nightmare: the abduction of their child.
Inspector Rasback suspects one or both of them and he find evidence to support these suspicions, but what parent would kill or kidnap their own child? Then again, as one character ruminates: “The whole world is built on lies and deceit”.
Written in the present tense, this is a dialogue-heavy tale; when the limited cast of rather wooden characters is not conversing with each other, they are ‘talking’ to themselves. So this is not great writing, but it is gripping enough at first before increasingly going downhill to a weak conclusion and an odd coda.
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A review of the new film “The Post”
January 23rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Steven Spielberg is one of the most commercially and critically successful directors in the history of Hollywood. Meryle Streep and Tom Hamks are among the very finest actors of their generation but, until now, have never appeared in the same movie. So a work which brings together these three titans of the screen has to be cinematic gold and so it proves to be.
The year is 1971, the Vietnam War continues to devour lives, and someone has leaked the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page study of American policy on the conflict commissioned by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The renowned “New York Times” accesses the Papers first but is blocked from further publication by the US Government headed by Richard Nixon. When a much smaller, more local newspaper, the “Washington Post”, gets its hands on the review, its owner Katherine ‘Kay’ Graham (Streep) has to decide whether to follow the urging of editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks) and risk the very existence of the paper by publication of the Pentagon’s secrets.
Every viewer will know what happened but Spielberg makes the story genuinely gripping, aided by superb performances by Streep and Hanks and a fine script by newcomer Liz Hannah and Josh Singer (who wrote “Spotlight”). The period is wonderfully created with all the smoking, drinking and misogyny and all the visions of old technology (dial phones, pay phones, chattering typewriters, vacuum tubes, and clunking hot metal type). But the film – which was produced quickly without special effects – is so topical for our times, in showing both the need for women to be recognised and respected and the requirement for the American media to stand up independently to a bullying president.
“The Post” is a companion piece to “All The President’s Men” (1976) since both films deal with the same newspaper and the same president. Indeed the final scene of the former is the first scene of the latter: the burglary at the Watergate offices. However, in 1976 nobody would have imagined that another American president would be so embroiled in nefarious activities and so hostile to the media. “The Post” is a wonderfully timely reminder that the price of freedom is indeed eternal vigilance.
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New Oxfam reports reveals that 82% of all of the growth in global wealth in the last year went to the top 1%
January 22nd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
“In 2016, annual share dividends from the parent company of fashion chain Zara to the world’s fourth-richest man, Amancio Ortega, were worth approximately €1.3bn. Stefan Persson, whose father founded H&M, is ranked 43 in the Forbes list of the richest people in the world, and received €658m in share dividends last year.
Anju works sewing clothes in Bangladesh for export. She often works 12 hours a day, until late at night. She often has to skip meals because she has not earned enough money. She earns just over $900 dollars a year.
Last year saw the biggest increase in the number of billionaires in history, with one more billionaire every two days. There are now 2,043 dollar billionaires worldwide. Nine out of 10 are men. Billionaires also saw a huge increase in their wealth. This increase was enough to end extreme poverty seven times over. 82% of all of the growth in global wealth in the last year went to the top 1%, whereas the bottom 50% saw no increase at all.
Living wages and decent work for the world’s workers are fundamental to ending today’s inequality crisis. All over the world, our economy of the 1% is built on the backs of low paid workers, often women, who are paid poverty wages and denied basic
rights.”
This Oxfam paper – published to time with the gathering of the elites at Davos – looks at growing extreme wealth, and those who work but live in poverty. It explores why this is happening, and gives recommendations on how it can be fixed.
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A review of the new film “Darkest Hour”
January 21st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
“Darkest Hour”, an account of Winston Churchill’s premiership in the few weeks before the evacuation from Dunkirk in May 1940, can be seen as complementary to two other recent films: “Dunkirk” by director Christopher Nolan and “Churchill” with Brian Cox in the eponymous role. It may be a coincidence that all three works have appeared since the British people (narrowly) voted to leave the European Union, but each of them seems intended to remind us that historically this country has (sadly) always been insular both geographically and politically.
As cinema, “Darkest Hour”, directed by Joe Wright (“Atonement”) and scripted by Anthony McCarten (“The Theory Of Everything”), is an absolute treat. There are some very artful visual compositions and techniques but, above all, this film is made by its actors.
A barely recognisable Gary Oldman is simply brilliant as Churchill, conveying powerfully all the varied emotions for which this this complex (and controversial) character is known. This tour de force portrayal deserves all the awards which it will undoubtably win. But the support roles are also quality, notably Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI, Ronald Pickup and Stephen Dillane as the appeasers Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax respectively, and Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James as the women – wife Clementine and secretary Miss Layton respectively – who calm the volcano that is the new PM.
As history, however, “Darkest Hour” has some serious weaknesses, especially because of something that is not shown and something that is presented as pivotal to the glorious finale.
The missing element of the story is the recognition that Churchill was not alone in opposing a peace settlement with Hitler; his Labour ministers – led by Clement Attlee and Arthur Greenwood (who have tiny roles in this film) – were equally determined to fight on. The scene to which one has to take great exception shows Churchill using the London Underground and seeking the views of fellow travellers who conveniently are a cross section of the popuation but all back resistance to the Nazis. Not only did this incident never happen; it is quite frankly unthinkable and spoils what is otherwise an informative and gripping account of a huge turning point in British history.
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A review of the new film “All The Money In The World”
January 19th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is an oddity of a film for at least three reasons.
First, it tells an incredible story – except that it is true – of how the world’s richest man J Paul Getty refused to pay the ransom after his 16 year old grandson was kidnapped by the ‘Ndrangheta in Italy in 1973. Second, surprisingly it is directed by Ridley Scott who has previously been acclaimed for his science fiction movies (such as “Alien” and “Blade Runner”) and history blockbusters (like “Gladiator” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings”). Third, the work had to be substantially reshot when sexual harrassment allegations against Kevin Spacey led to his replacement by Christopher Plummer as the aged plutocrat.
It has to be said that the reshooting was seemless and 88 year old Plummer – much more age-appropriate anyway than Spacey – gives an excellent performance. Mark Wahlberg is assured as ever in the role of intermediary between Getty and the criminal gang. French actor Romain Duris is convincing as one of the kidnappers who goes by the name Cinquanta. But it is Michelle Williams as the kidnapped son’s mother who gives the most powerful and nuanced exposition of a cocktail of emotions.
Kidnapping is a particularly terrible crime and, as it happens, at the time I saw this film I was reading a novel about a fictional child kidnapping (“The Couple Next Door” by Shari Lapena) and great wealth is a mixed blessing (not that I have any personal experience of this) and Scott tells a compelling, if downbeat, story.
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