A review of the new film “The Good Nurse”
November 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This Netflix film is not an easy watch because it is so dark, both literally (so many scenes are in shadow) and narratively (it concerns the deliberate killing of hospital patients by a nurse). The two American characters in the centre of this true life drama are played by Eddie Redmayne as the good nurse Charlie Cullen and Jessica Chastain as fellow nurse Amy, both of whom give fine performances with Chastain in particular demonstrating a palette of emotions.At the end, we are told that Charlie Cullen was convicted of 29 murders but is thought to have been responsible for around 400. On a smaller scale, it reminds me of a British case currently at trial of the nurse Lucy Letby who is accused of murdering babies in her care.
“The Good Nurse” raises difficult questions. Are some people evil or should we reserve the word for acts rather than persons? Cullen was really kind to his fellow nurse Amy and her children. Should we blame the perpetrator of the crime or the institutions for which they worked? A succession of hospitals that employed Cullen covered up their concerns to protect their legal liability and public reputation.
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A review of the book “Border Wars” by Klaus Dodds
November 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Ever since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, we have seen an increasing dominance of the notion of the nation state in geo-politics. If you look at a globe or an atlas, every patch of land on the planet is claimed by (at least) one nation with neat black lines defining who owns what.The problem is that mother Earth was not created to facilitate the tidy parcelling up of territory on political grounds. Mountains are not easily divided, rivers and lakes can change their shape and flow, and people of the same ethnicity or religion are often on different sides of the lines. Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London and writes perceptively on all the myriad problems thrown up by borders.
Even where borders are accepted and well-defined, there are often massive difficulties in enforcing those borders with a growing industry of guards, walls and surveillance. Think of USA/Mexico with its 2,000 mile border, UK/continental Europe with channel crossings almost daily, North and South Korea with its DMZ. Then there are underground aquifers with many hundreds being trans-boundary and every country wanting supplies of water.
But, in many cases, borders are not universally accepted. Sometimes the issues go back to colonial days or the Second World War; in other cases, the break-up of the Soviet Union has created a host of disputes. Think of North and South Cyprus, Morocco/Western Sahara, Russia/Georgia, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/West Bank, China/Taiwan, China/India, India/Pakistan, all the disputes in the South China Sea. Seven nations lay claim to parts of Antarctica and more may join them.
Whether existing borders are accepted or disputed, nature is changing borders. This has always been happening with changing river flows, land slips and erosion, but climate change will have dramatic impacts with melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and drying rivers, lakes and aquifers. Some low-lying island nations – such as Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Maldives – could simply disappear.
As if all these problems were not headache enough, Dodds looks at ‘border’ issues beyond land: the high seas (where right of passage and fishing are issues), the sea bed (where security of communication cables and mining of mineral resources are issues), the outer space enclosing our globe (where access to favourable positions and security of satellites are issues), and even the moon and the planets.
It is a fascinating book. Dodds examines each of the cases mentioned in this review and explains the issues very clearly, but he has no new ideas for how these problems can be addressed more peaceably beyond development of existing UN and global treaties and greater support for more open borders.
He writes: “The myths of exclusive sovereignty and the fixed border are dangerous. We need to cultivate a radically different view of borders that is alive to the complex realities of earthly change and the likely mass migration of people in an era of intensifying climate change and conflicts”. Some chance in the current geo-political climate.
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A review of a new film version of “All Quiet On The Western Front”
November 8th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I’ve not read the novel by Erich Maria Remarque (1929) or seen the Academy Award-winning film version (1930), but – following a recommendation from my brother – I was determined to see this new German-language adaptation on the big screen even though it is a Netflix production. I’m pleased that I did because the cinematography is wonderful and a cinema showing maximises the impact of this powerful work.The director Edward Berger and the cast – the focus is on young Felix Kammerer as the 17 year old soldier Paul Bäumer – are German, but the film was shot in the Czech Republic and most of the technical team were Czech. The depiction of the appalling life in the trenches and the terrifying attacks over ‘no man’s land’ are brilliantly done and I was particularly moved by details like the collection of ‘dog’s tags’ from the dead and the recycling of uniforms from the deceased.
Opening in the spring of 1917, the narrative concludes with the peace ‘negotiations’ of November 1918 – which was not in the novel but provides historic context – and underlines the hopeless position of the German politicians and the hardline posture of the French military. The film is a tough watch with considerable violence and brutality but it seems that every generation has to be reminded that war really is hell.
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Thought For The Week
November 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some other object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.”English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
If you would like to check out previous thoughts, you’ll find them all here.
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A review of the new film “Triangle Of Sadness”
November 5th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The title is obscure if not downright confusing. It is a term referring to the area above the nose and between the eyebrows which is most prone to wrinkles. The title starts to make sense when the term is used very early in the story and becomes more relevant when it becomes apparent that the narrative is in three parts. In France, the film is actually titled “Without Filter” which is no more helpful.“Triangle Of Sadness” is the creation of Swedish writer and director Ruben Östlund and, although largely in English, it has a very international cast. The first part in the world of modelling has English Harris Dickinson and South African Charlbi Dean (who died just before the film came out) as a beautiful couple; the second segment on a luxury yacht has American Woody Harrelson as the ship’s drunken captain; the third section brings to the fore the ship’s toilet manager played by the Filipina Dolly de Leon; while other nationalities represented among the actors include Swedish, Danish, German and Croatian.
So, what is the film about? It is a black comedy and a biting satire which ridicules the wealthy and the privileged and reduces many of its characters to a state of utter helplessness as vomiting and diarrhoea lay them low. It is a work which has provoked mixed reactions. At the Cannes Film Festival, some walked out (presumably because of the spewing from various orifices), but it won a long standing ovation and the Palme d’Or.
I enjoyed it: it is never boring and often very funny. For me, it poses a fundamental question: how do we value people? by looks (part 1)? by money (part 2)? by skills (part 3)? Or should we value people equally as suggested by the Marxist philosophy seemingly supported by the inebriated and bombastic captain. But, while entertaining, the film has its faults: it is too long (almost two and a half hours), some of the jokes are too repetitive, and the messaging is overly blunt.
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Names of new babies in England and Wales
November 4th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Names change in popularity. According to the data compiled annually by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and published each September, the most popular names for children born in England & Wales during 2021 were as follows:| Position | Boys | Girls |
| 1 | Noah | Olivia |
| 2 | Oliver | Amelia |
| 3 | George | Isla |
| 4 | Arthur | Ava |
| 5 | Muhammad | Ivy |
| 6 | Leo | Freya |
| 7 | Harry | Lily |
| 8 | Oscar | Florence |
| 9 | Archie | Mia |
| 10 | Henry | Willow |
First of all, astonishingly the second most popular boys’ name and the most popular girls’ name are essentially the same (Oliver and Olivia) – what is technically known as cognates – and these names were actually top for their gender for the previous five years. Is this the case in any other nation?
Second, it is striking how traditional most of the names are for both boys and girls, although for the boys it is interesting that the familiar form of names rather than the original version is often preferred – Harry instead of Harold and Archie instead of Archibold.
Third, in the case of girls, six of the top 10 names end with the letter ‘a’ and six contain the letter ‘l’ (in three cases, twice).
On the other hand, the name John (my father’s name), which was the most popular boys’ name until the end of the Second World War and is still the most common male name in Britain for the population as a whole, is nowhere in the top 100 names in the 2021 listings, while David – which is the second most common name in Britain – slipped out of the top 50 of names chosen for baby boys born in 2004 and is still only 62.
Some boys’ names have almost fallen out of use – such as Leslie, Clifford, Norman, Gary.
Similarly Margaret – the most common female name in the population as a whole – does not even appear in the top 100 names chosen for girls these days, while Susan – the second most common name in Britain – is not even in the top 100 either.
Some girls’ names are almost of use – such as Glenda and Kerry.
These observations underline how much fashion shapes the popularity of different names. Fashion is a stronger influence with girls’ names than those of boys. So, for example, in the last decade or so Ivy has soared to number 5, while Elsie has jumped to 18. Arthur has surged into the top 10 boys’ names for the first time since the 1920s (it is now 4) and Ada has jumped into the girls’ top 100 for the first time in a century too (it is now 44), both perhaps inspired by characters in the BBC television drama “Peaky Blinders”.
It should be noted that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) produces its ranking of the popularity of names using the exact spelling of the name given at birth registration. If one combines the numbers for names with very similar spellings, a very different picture is revealed.
For boys, combining the occurrence of Mohammed, Muhammad, Mohammad & Muhammed plus eight other spellings of the names would put it in first place – a reflection of the changing ethnicity of the British population and the powerful trend for Muslim families to name their son after the Prophet. Similarly, if one combines the occurrence of Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Isobel, one would find the name top of the girls’ list and, if one took Lily and Lilly together, the name would come fourth, while Darcie, Darcey and Darcy would boost that name’s ranking.
Also it is interesting to note that names are becoming more diverse: less than half (45%) of babies had a name within the top 100 lists in 2021, down from two thirds (67%) in 1996.
For more information on naming practices click here.
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A review of the classic French comedy “Playtime” (1967)
November 4th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
A French comedy may seem an unlikely work for inclusion in a review of classic films, but “Playtime” is featured in the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” (when else could you see them?) and it was shown on a cinema course that I attended at London City’s Literary Institute.It was directed and co-written by Jacques Tati and in it Tati reprises his role as Monsieur Hulot (but only as one of many characters). The film took three years to shoot and cost a fortune to make because Tati insisted on building all the sets of buildings and roads over a huge site. In fact, the work was poorly received, took little money, and bankrupted Tati.
One can understand why “Playtime’ failed with audiences. It is long (two and a half hours), it is slow (especially in the first half), there is no real plot, there is no identification with a particular character, and the minimal dialogue – in French, English and German – is in the background as noise rather than part of any narrative.
On the other hand, this oddity of a movie is a fascinating work for students of cinema. The style is special: long and wide shots in 70 mm, so that one needs to see it in a theatre for the full experience. Every scene has a visual or aural gag and there is so much going on that nobody could catch everything on first viewing. Although there are few laugh-out-loud scenes, the smile will rarely leave your face.
So, what is it about? Set largely in an airport and then a restaurant in a weird version of Paris, it is a gentle satire that pokes fun at the sterility and greyness of modernity and the the craziness of the (American) tourist. The overall effect is like one of those dreams in which nothing and nobody behaves like it should.
For many more reviews of classic films click here.
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Holiday in Chile (10): back to Santiago and home
October 30th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
On Friday, we took the first of three flights to get us back to London. The flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago involved some excitement even before we boarded as, for three of the group (including Silvia and me), seats were only eventually allocated at the boarding desk. None of we three sat together. The flight was almost three hours.
We now had almost exactly 24 hours back in Santiago before we took the other two flights home.
Just half an hour or so after checking in back at the San Francisco Hotel where we stayed before, seven of the 10 members of the group, plus our guide Valentina and her husband Mario, had a Last Supper. It was at an indigenously-themed restaurant called “Mak Te Mak Te” named after the god worshipped by Easter Islanders. The group members insisted on paying for the dinner of Valentina and Mario as partial thanks for her being such a wonderful guide.
Saturday morning saw different members of the group going in different directions on extensions or to home. Silvia and I had the morning to fill and, together with Andrea, we took the metro to visit the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Opened in 2010, this commemorates the victims of the coup of 1973 and the subsequent 17 years of totalitarian rule. Some 40,000 victims were subjected to torture and execution. Although most of the descriptions are in Spanish, one can download a very informative English-language app.
It seemed a respectful way to end a wonderful trip.
Our flight from Santiago to Sao Paolo was three and a quarter hours and the flight from Sao Paolo to London was another eleven and a quarter hours. Altogether we had done nine flights in two weeks. If that was not disorientating enough, since we had left the UK, there had been a dramatic change of Prime Minister and, on the day we left Brazil, there was the second and final round of voting for the next President. Turbulent times.
These two weeks in Chile have been very different from my earlier four weeks in Central Asia in September, but that is what travel is all about – lots of different experiences.
Above all, this holiday was different because, although we were only in one country rather than four, we experienced such extremes of temperature and climate: the dry heat of the Atacama Desert, the sunshine of Santiago, the temperate weather of the Lake District, and the strong, biting winds of Patagonia. This required the wearing of different clothing but we had prepared for that.
We had some fabulous experiences: flamingos on the salt flats of Atacama, sky gazing at San Pedro de Atacama, the boat ride on Lake Todos Los Santos, the awesome scenes in Torres del Paine national park, and the boat ride to the Grey Glacier.
I designated this ‘the year of travel’ to make up for two years of covid. Plus: who knows how many more years I have for this type of travel? So this year I have had three trips totalling 7 weeks and 8 countries. Home now for a while …
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Holiday in Chile (9): Punta Arenas
October 28th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The rest of Wednesday was free so we spent the afternoon relaxing in our hotel room and the evening having a meal in the hotel while the weather – in true Patagonian style – blew a gale and poured with rain. Indeed it rained ALL night.
Essentially our Chile holiday was over. For the next three days, we would be travelling home but, for the next two days, we would still be in Chile and there would still be things to see.
So, on Thursday, we left the Hotel Grey and travelled south-east to Punta Arenas where we had landed in Patagonia on Monday. We left the national park from a different point from that which we entered (Rio Serrano) and made two stops during the day.
First, w e returned to Hotel Costaustralis in Puerto Natales where we had spent one night on Monday. Most of the group did not realise that this was because I had accidentally left a jacket there, but the visit doubled up as a toilet stop. Since we were in town, it was still raining, and we had some time, we called into a cafe-cum-shop called “Nandu” for refreshment or retail therapy depending on the individual.
The second, longer, stop was at an estancio or ranch called Cerro Negro which translates as black hill. This sheep farm was established by a Croatian immigrant a couple of generations ago and now has 6,000 merino sheep for meat and wool. We had lunch of delicious roast lamb cooked over an open furnace and then called into the sheep shearing shed (it was too wet for actually shearing) and the first family home (all the original furnishing has been retained).
Having left Hotel Grey towards 9 am, we arrived at our hotel in Punta Arenas (Cabo de Hornos) some time before 5 pm. The town sits on the edge of the Strait of Magellan and, at 53’ 10” latitude, it is one of the most southerly towns on the planet (Ushuaia in Argentina is a bit further south but less populated).
The majority of the group again followed a Valentina suggestion for dinner and she joined us. “La Luna” is a colourful restaurant with lots of decorations and posters and walls covered in notes from customers. The food was good too.
Next morning (Friday), at the end of the Earth (aka Punta Arenas), once we had had breakfast and packed, there was only a couple of hours before we were due to leave for the airport. Silvia and I were not going to let those two hours go to waste.
So – braving the cold and very gusty winds – we took in three sights: a plaque commenting the time in the town of the British 20th century explorer Robert Falcon Scott, a statue commemorating the role of the Spanish 16th century explorer Ferdinand Magellan, and the municipal cemetery with lots and lots of dramatic resting places some of which are the size of small homes.
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Holiday in Chile (8): Torres de Paine National Park
October 26th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
It was a fabulous day (Tuesday) as we spent our time travelling to and around Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. We knew that it would be cold in Patagonia, so I wore a thick shirt, a jumper and a padded jacket plus scarf, gloves and hat. In fact, it was not that cold today and not really windy, so we were quite comfortable and had great views of the terrain.
We set off from our hotel in Punta Natales at 9 am and reached our hotel in the national park about 4.30 pm, so we were on the road for some six and a half hours but, in that time, we made around 10 stops of different lengths.
The first major stop was at a tiny village called Ville Cerritos Castillo. For our group, this was an opportunity for coffee and toilets but the location is also a route to enter nearly Argentina, Next stop was to view the gorgeous Sarmiento Lake. Then we halted for our first view of a herd of guanacos, relations of the llamas and alpacas. From then on, we saw the guanaco everywhere and each time the British group of animal lovers would cry louder “Oh. Oooh, Aaaah” followed by semi-hysterical laughter.
About noon, we paused at a spot where there was a couple of shelters so that group members could partake of a packed lunch since there are no facilities whatsoever in the national park. The next stop was at Cascada Paine which is the watershed of the Serrano River and a truly impressive waterfall.
Only at this stage did we enter the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine proper. The word ‘Torres’ refers to the towers of rock – the granite peaks rise up to 2,800 metres (over 9,000 feet) – while ‘paine’ means blue in the indigenous language. The park covers 1,810 square metres (almost 20,00 sq ft), so there is a lot to see.
The park has several entrances and we entered at Laguna Amarga. We soon reached a special sight: the Salto Grande which is the waterfall of the Paine River with a particularly powerful flow. The area is noted for its sudden and strong winds, but members of the group set out for a walk along a rocky pathway. One by one members turned back until only three were left: Edwin, Silvia and me. However, the weather was becoming grim and eventually even the intrepid trio returned to the coach.
It was terrific day. Round every corner and over every hill, there was another wonderful view that cried out to be photographed. And there was so much more to see.
We stayed in the park for two nights at Hotel Grey overlooking Lake Grey which in turn is overlooked by snow-capped mountain peaks – a magnificent location (but with slow and intermittent WiFi because of the isolation and the weather).
Wednesday was another wonderful day as we spent the morning on an excursion titled Navigation To Grey Glacier. In the night, we had lashing rain and whistling wind. In the morning, it was dry and less windy but still overcast. So this time I wore a thick shirt, two jumpers and a padded jacket plus scarf, gloves and (when the wind allowed) a hat.
The term Grey Glacier is a bit of a misnomer: it is a glacier at the end of the Grey Lake which is indeed grey because of the sediment but the glacier itself is bright blue because of the absorption of light by the ice.
There was a walk of an half hour or so to the vessel and this walk was mainly over exposed flats where the wind tore into one’s body and whipped off my hat. Our vessel was a catamaran called “Grey III” which takes 98 passengers in its main cabin with bright orange life belts for each passenger which have to be worn when out on deck.
The trip was about two and a half hours in all. Most of the first hour was travelling out to the Grey Glacier front wall during which time we were given information about the glacier, offered an alcoholic sour drink, and viewed the imposing mountains and dramatic landscapes. The Grey Lake is 475 metres deep and 15 kms long.
The Grey Glacier is part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field which is 80% in Chile and 20% in Argentina. This ice field is the third largest block of ice on the planet after Antarctica and Greenland. It has 49 glaciers of which six are in the Torres de Paine National Park. The Grey Glacier front wall is over 25 metres high and it really is blue and the floating icebergs looked even bluer. To view such spectacles of nature so close is an awe-inspiring experience and the cold and the wind served to make this experience even more memorable.
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